A Voice in the NIght

This story by Patricia Joseph-Lyle of Detroit, Michigan, from the August 2014 issue of Guideposts called to mind this earlier Guideposts story about the urgent need to listen to your inner voice at all costs. That’s not an exaggeration. Fail to heed that voice and it could cost you everything you hold dear.

A VOICE IN THE NIGHT
Something was telling her to call her younger sister at 3 a.m., but she had no idea why. What would she tell her sibling?

Call Karyn. Those words startled me from a sound sleep. I sat straight up, rubbed my eyes and looked at the clock: just after three in the morning.



My younger sister Karyn was a senior at Eastern Michigan University and was used to pulling long hours studying in her tiny on-campus apartment… but she had to be asleep by now.

My alarm wasn’t set to go off for another two and a half hours. There was so much to do tomorrow.

Get my two little girls to school, work a 10-hour day at the office, take the girls to violin and piano practice, cook dinner, check homework and iron school uniforms.

I needed every hour of rest I could get.

I’ll call her in the morning, I thought. I lay back down and closed my eyes.

Call her, Pattie. A voice

A Rope of Hope

I can relate to stories like this. So many times I’ve felt guided to do some minor thing I ordinarily wouldn’t have done. I’ve learned to follow my intuition without questioning it because trying to make sense of it at the time is impossible. You just have to trust that everything will unfold (or, in this case, uncoil) in its own way in its own time.

This story was written by Sandi Sebak Bean of Bottineau, North Dakota, and featured in a Guideposts e-letter. Click here to sign up for Guideposts‘ free Mysterious Ways newsletter. You’ll also be able to download a free e-book, Mysterious Ways: 9 Inspiring Stories That Show Evidence of God’s Love and God’s Grace.

A ROPE OF HOPE
There was something in our church craft cabinet . . . something I’d never seen in there before

I walked over to our church’s craft cabinet, hoping to find some project ideas for kids. In just a few days my husband, Daniel, and I would be taking a mission trip to help the Crow Creek Reservation in South Dakota build a new church and we’d need some fun things to do with the families.

I’d barely opened the door when a long piece of thick rope

ATM: A Tree-mendous Miracle!

This story by John Cassidy of Centereach, New York, is a perfect example of an unexplainable glitch suddenly making sense. I’ve experienced a number of similar technical mishaps that made no sense whatsoever . . . until suddenly they did. My experiences may not have been life and death, but the reasons were just as stark and obvious. This story appeared in the July 2012 issue of  Guideposts.

A DRIVE-THROUGH MIRACLE
A seemingly uncooperative bank machine turns out to be an angelic ATM

The bank I frequent has a drive-through ATM, which is convenient because it saves me from having to get out and wait in a long teller line inside.

For years, I’ve followed the same routine: I pull up to the machine, make my deposits or withdrawals, then drive over and park in a spot about 50 feet away, underneath a big old stately shade tree, while I tuck my money in my wallet and put away my receipts. Quick and easy.

One windy summer morning I had a lot of errands to run and was low on cash. So I drove over to my bank, waited patiently behind another car, then pulled up to the ATM. I put the car in park and slipped my card into the slot as usual. But the machine immediately spat it back out. “Cannot

Do What You Must, Then Listen and Trust

Last night, I was one of many volunteers at a church function at the Encinitas Community Center. Since I don’t have a car and the event was 2.7 miles from where I live, I asked three people if I could catch a ride with them. For various reasons, none of those options worked out.

Here’s where intuitive guidance came into play. I had a strong sense that I wasn’t supposed to put any more work into finding a ride, that if a ride was to be forthcoming it would come to me. I felt completely at peace with that guidance and made plans to walk to the event instead.

After working out the time and details of my walk, I went to my weekly volunteering shift at SRF Books & Gifts. Less than an hour before I was planning to leave to get ready, I ducked into the break room to have a quick snack. Deb, another volunteer was sitting at the break table. She casually asked, “Are you

Your Intuition Is Smarter Than You Are

John, Nicole and Jonah Manley (photo by Mindy Gough)

My friend, John Manley, a fellow member of Self-Realization Fellowship, told me a powerful story about the importance of listening to your intuition. It gave me chills as he was telling it to me.

But first, a little background on John, who is an author of metaphysical speculative fiction. About a decade ago, he had been living in an SRF ashram in California for a couple of years. Determining that the monastic life was not his path, he moved back to his hometown of Toronto. He stayed there for two months before heading off to Italy for two years to study art. Every week, he attended an SRF meditation group in Toronto. On the day of a special commemoration service for Babaji, the first in the SRF line of gurus, he got off the subway and headed toward the center. Here’s what happened next, in his own words:

I saw a woman ahead of me and thought, Oh, I know her. I’ve seen her at the meditation group. So I came up to her and said, “Are you going to the Babaji ceremony?” She said, “The what?” She had never heard of Babaji. I said, “Oh, sorry, I thought you belonged to the meditation group I go to.” She said, “What meditation group is this?” I said, “Oh, it’s nothing.” She said, “No, I want to know about it.” So I told her about it as we were walking. As we neared the center, I pointed it out and said, “This is where it is. Sunday mornings they have a service if you ever want to come by.” I said goodbye and went in for the Babaji ceremony. She continued on her way to work.

Two years later, when I got back from Italy, I came to the center and there she was. Her name was Nicole. She had taken initiation and was a full-fledged member. She told me that after she had met me, she was very interested in what SRF was all about. Soon after, at a doctor’s appointment, her doctor said, “I have this book I think you’d like to read.” It was Autobiography of a Yogi. She thought, Something’s going on here. A few weeks later she

What Could More Aptly Fit Your Needs?

If you are dissatisfied with any aspect of your life, look within. Why? Three reasons. First, you are being divinely guided in every moment with infinite wisdom and deep love. Second, you are not separate from God. Third, your thoughts create your reality.

Accept whatever comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny, for what could more aptly fit your needs?
Marcus Aurelius

Blend those three concepts together, and the inescapable conclusion is

“Get the Baby!”

This story on Guideposts.org by Jan Holte of St. Peter, Minnesota, is the perfect reminder to always listen to your inner voice. Don’t argue with it. Don’t rationalize it away. Follow it or pay the consequences.

“GET THE BABY!”
I heard a voice, strong and clear. Was it evidence of God’s love?

I settled down on the living room couch, cradling my three-week-old daughter, Debbie, in my arms. One look at her sweet, innocent face and my heart swelled with thankfulness. I thought back to the doctor’s words to my husband, John, and me just 14 months before she was born: “I’m sorry to tell you, but you have about a one-in-a-million chance of conceiving a child,” he’d said. Debbie was truly our miracle baby.

I strapped Debbie in her infant seat and placed her next to John on the couch. She smiled as her bright eyes followed the patterns of dappled sunlight that filtered through the window. “You stay here and keep Daddy company,” I said. “I’m going to make us all some lunch.”

As soon as I reached the kitchen, just a few steps away, I heard a

The Corner That Lies Around the Corner

The magnitude and magnificence of divine guidance is too vast for us to grasp. No matter; life does not depend on human understanding for it to unfold in wisdom.

When we look ahead, we see only chaos. When we look behind, we see only order.
Caroline Myss

You cannot see around the corner that lies around the corner that

The Whisper Which Is Heard By You Alone

Intuition is the wellspring of creative inspiration. Every artistic achievement originated with the same creative impulse that produced all of existence.

To the artist is sometimes granted a sudden, transient insight which serves in this matter for experience. A flash, and where previously the brain held a dead fact, the soul grasps a living truth! At moments we are all artists.
Arnold Bennett

Encourage this creative impulse to take root inside you, allow it to

Acting in Concert With God

Check in with your inner voice for confirmation before making an important decision or tackling a challenge. It is your channel to divine wisdom.

You know nothing till intuition agrees.
Richard Bach

Listen to your conscience and you realize that there is a fine line between your actions and God’s actions. Listen more deeply, and you

Pointing the Way

Your conscience flows from and is an expression of your intuition, which in turn flows from and is an expression of divine consciousness.

Intuition is a spiritual faculty and does not explain, but simply points the way.
Florence Scovel Shinn

Intuition is pure truth, pure knowing. It is Truth with a capital T. It

The Chance of a Lifetime

When you honor your divine guidance and surrender to it, every moment becomes a gift.

The Master gives himself up to whatever the moment brings.
Lao Tzu

No matter what encounters and situations you are presented with, you are grateful for the opportunity to further define who you are and whom you choose to be.

Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to