Discerning Your Spiritual Calling: Let There Be Light
Discovering your unique spiritual calling can be a daunting task. The general call of creation, building community, and caring for the environment and those around us provides some guidance on the path of discovery. However, discovering how your unique skills, talents, and abilities are manifested through a spiritual calling is overwhelming. This article will outline the first of a seven-step, meditational practice based upon the work of Eric Butterworth, a Unity Minister.
The book: The Creative Life: 7 Keys to Your Inner Genius, (Butterworth, 2003) approaches the Genesis creation account from a metaphysical perspective that helps you become a co-creator with God in defining your calling. According to Butterworth, each stage of the creation story provides guidance on how you can fulfill your purpose and create a life of meaning. This article applies the framework of Butterworth’s seven keys to the calling of Moses and provides a basic approach to meditational practices that can help you discover your spiritual calling.
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The Spiritual Call of Moses:
Moses is a familiar biblical story to most of us. Moses was a Hebrew, infant born into captivity in Egypt. The Egyptian pharaoh became concerned the Hebrew slave population was growing too great and demanded all Hebrew infants be drowned in the Nile River. Moses’s mother, fearing for his life, set Moses afloat on the banks of the river in a basket to save him. Pharoah’s daughter discovered Moses and adopted him into her family. Subsequently, Moses grew up as a member of Pharoah’s household.
The Egyptian slave owners treated the Hebrews in ways that were unjust. One day he witnessed an Egyptian officer beating one of the Hebrew slaves. Moses became so enraged he murdered the Egyptian. As a result, Moses feared for his life and fled into the wilderness where he remained as a shepherd until his encounter with a burning bush.
While shepherding his flock, Moses took his sheep into the wilderness to Mount Horeb. The Hebrews knew Mount Horeb as the mountain of God. Moses saw a burning bush from afar and when he noted the bush was not consumed, he went closer to investigate. When he arrived at the bush he encountered God, who called Moses’s name. In response, Moses declared, “Here I am”, affirming he was ready to hear God’s message.
The Light of Your Spiritual Calling:
Just as his experience of the burning bush enlightened Moses; a light of God sparks your creativity and spiritual calling. The light of your calling is God showing you how to use your unique skills, talents, and abilities through illumination and divine guidance (Butterworth, 2003). This is the initial illumination, where you see a way, you can make a difference in the world. You won’t have the full plan yet, or even details of your spiritual calling. Instead, this is your initiation into a calling; where you see the problem and are just understanding that you can provide relief and remedy.
Moses experienced this first level of illumination of his calling when he witnessed the suffering of the Hebrew people in slavery. Even before Moses encountered the burning bush, he intuitively saw the suffering of his fellow Hebrews. Stop for a moment and consider that Moses could have easily ignored their suffering. Moses could have lived in the comfort of Pharaoh’s household without even a concern for his fellow Hebrews. Yet even before he was called God at the burning bush, God placed within Moses an awareness of the need.
The light of your calling is God showing you how to use your unique skills, talents, and abilities through illumination and divine guidance
Your calling is likely to emerge much like Moses’s. You may intuitively know of a problem and desire to do something about it. The problem draws your soul in a way that you simply cannot ignore. Yet, you don't know what you're called to do. It is during this stage that you have not received the illumination of God. Butterworth (2003) notes your calling at this time is analogous to, “the earth was formless, empty, and darkness was over the surface of the earth.”
During the initial stage of your calling, you see a need and likely feel a deep compassion; but your ability to respond is “void and without form”. You aren’t sure what the next steps are; there is no plan of action. You simply see a need and feel compassion.
You must use caution at this stage of your calling. Often in your human weakness, you attempt to develop your own plan of action instead of seeking illumination. Moses saw a need and felt compassion for his fellow Hebrews; yet his response was not seeking God’s plan. Instead, he responded with his own plan that resulted in the murder of an Egyptian official. One must wonder how God would have used Moses’s position in Pharoah’s house to free the Hebrew slaves if Moses wouldn’t have acted without illumination. Therefore, it is so important to seek the initial illumination of God in your calling.
The Process of Illumination in Your Spiritual Calling:
Butterworth (2003) notes the first step to illumination of your spiritual calling is B’resheth Elohim; a returning to God as the universal source, principle, and conveyor of wisdom. Centering in God is analogous to the earth being dark and without form. It is during this period of your spiritual calling you may tempted to develop your own plan for fulfilling your call. You may look to competing lights of wisdom such as advice from friends, great teachers and gurus, and self-help books. These points of light can help, but they are not the divine spark needed to discover your calling. Your calling is within you and can only emerge from you.
Sitting and meditating in the B’resheth Elohim is sitting in silence, away from distractions, allowing the omnipresence of God to quietly stir your soul. Let’s be clear, God has not left you in your darkness or unilluminated state. In the creation story, while the earth is empty, dark, and formless; the Spirit of God is hovering over the waters.
Sometimes in the unilluminated state you cannot see God is sitting quietly with you in the darkness. God waits for your soul to become still enough to illuminate the path of your calling. Moses didn’t wait for the Spirit to illuminate his soul and it resulted in murder. It was only when Moses relinquished his own control and ego by going into the wilderness that it provided illumination. The spirit could finally say, "Let there be light".
The first step of your spiritual calling is not activity; it is not desperately seeking answers from spiritual teachers and gurus. Instead, it is sitting quietly in the solitude and wilderness of your soul. When you quit projecting your own plans and ego on the problem; then God illuminates the call. Just as Moses traveled into the wilderness; you will discover your calling only by getting away from distractions. Jesus expressed this in Matthew 6:6 (NIV, 2002) when he said, “but when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
The first step of your spiritual calling is not activity; it is not desperately seeking answers from spiritual teachers and gurus. Instead, it is sitting quietly in the solitude and wilderness of your soul.
When we become quiet and pray in our inner solitude; God expresses his Divine mind through us. Butterworth (2003) describes discovering your calling as Ex Nihilo, or out of nothingness. When you set aside your agenda, ego, and personal desires; then your spiritual call is revealed to you.
Sitting in silence and allowing God to illuminate your calling out of nothingness requires a deeper understanding of God according to Butterworth. Butterworth (2003) notes you must stop looking for the God outside of yourself, a God that lives out there somewhere. Instead, start looking for a God that lives and has breath through you. Your spiritual calling isn’t discovered outside yourself; it emerges from you. For this reason, your spiritual call is never alien to you. The idea of your calling has visited your consciousness many times in many forms. It is only through centering on God in meditation that the pattern of calling becomes illuminated.
Conclusion:
This is the first stage of discovering your calling and there are six more stages coming in future articles. Illumination is not the full plan and direction of your spiritual call; it is simply the introduction to your call. Like Moses you are simply called to go out into the metaphorical wilderness to the Mountain of God and quietly wait for your inner burning bush.
At this stage, you simply see a problem. It becomes necessary for you to set aside your ego and your own plans and allow space and solitude to illuminate your spiritual call. Your spiritual call is not filled with ego-based activity, but quiet meditation in inner solitude; patiently waiting for the light to emerge from within you.
Reflection Questions in Discovering Your Spiritual Call:
What needs or problems in your town, culture, or world do you repeatedly feel drawn to? You may want to do something; you just don’t know what to do yet.
Where have you been seeking illumination of your spiritual calling through other points of light instead of allowing God to speak to you in the silence? You may be prematurely making plans without full illumination, or you may look to the teachings of others (e.g., spiritual gurus or advice from friends) instead of allowing your spiritual call to emerge from within you.
In what ways do you need to adjust your view of God from being a presence outside you, to a God that shares consciousness with you? How will this change your view of God and impact your understanding of your spiritual call?
What spiritual practices do you need to incorporate to sit silently in solitude (away from distractions) to allow the Spirit to guide you to your spiritual call? Some ideals include a daily period of silence and meditation. You may also take a personal spiritual retreat to center yourself.
A Meditation Practice for Discovering Your Spiritual Calling:
Step 1: Opening Prayer
Begin by praying; acknowledging that God lives in you and your calling is not something outside of you. Your spiritual call is already easily knowable through God’s presence in your life. Remember, in God and through God, you have your being. You are united with God in spirit. God is not something "out there" for you to discover. God lives in you, as does your calling.
Step 2: Breathing
Begin by taking about five minutes of slowly breathing in and out. It may also be helpful to inhale and exhale to the count of six seconds. While breathing in imagine the light of God, infilling your body… slowly taking deeper longer breaths. When breathing out imagine releasing your plans, activities, and personal agendas you have had for your spiritual calling.
Step 3: Ex Nihilo
Continue breathing quietly until you experience a state of calm. When your mind’s chatter about your spiritual call is silenced, you will know you have reached a state of Ex Nihilo. You are no longer making plans, imagining a future, or actively trying to discover a spiritual truth. You simply sit quietly and wait. It may be beneficial to sit in this inner solitude for a few minutes.
Step 4: Experiencing Illumination:
After sitting quietly for five more minutes, simply imagine a point of light coming from a distance within you. As it comes closer, it slowly gets bigger and bigger, until it fully illuminates the inside of you. You don't need a message about your calling at this point in your meditation. You are simply acknowledging the light of God within you and an openness to experiencing your calling. In fact, your spiritual calling may not even come to you during your meditation practice; your practice simply plants the seed for you to be receptive and open to your spiritual calling.
Step 5: Sit quietly returning to your breath:
Return to inhaling and exhaling for five minutes. Contemplate the phrase “God in” with each inhalation and “Ego Out” with each exhalation. When you are ready, simply say a prayer of thanks to God for revealing your calling and return to your day. Again, you may not even experience a call during this meditation; it is simply the seed to open your heart to discovering your spiritual calling.
By: Heath B. Walters, Ph.D.
Copyright December 05th, 2022, Heath B. Walters DBA Spiritual Life Resources, All Rights Reserved
Reference
Butterworth, E. (2003). The Creative Life: 7 Keys to Your Inner Genius. Tarcher-Perigee.
Unity Worldwide Ministries (N.D.) About Eric Butterworth. The Butterworth Collection. Retrieved December 5th, 2022, from: https://www.ericbutterworth.com/about.
Zondervan NIV Study Bible (2002). (K. L Barker. Ed; Full Revised Edition). Zondervan.