Sharing Our Authority with God

We have to learn to be flexible enough to relinquish authority at certain moments in our life and other times to exert authority. Certainly, we have our own realm of our personal life and affairs within which we are given authority. But regarding the greater work that’s drawing us, and that calls to us, we have to give over authority because we’re doing something with God. And you know, the basis of any meaningful relationship is what you can do together. This has nothing to do with romance and all the allurements that are attached to that; it’s really what you can do together.

So our relationship with Knowledge is based on what we can do together. Your relationship with God is based on what you can do together. God gives you authority over your affairs, yet God has authority over your direction. So the authority is shared, you see, at different levels. And this is very confusing for people because they think either they have to take charge of everything or they just give up all authority and let God guide them. And that’s not going to work. God doesn’t want to guide your life. God wants you in the driver’s seat. But God will be in the backseat whispering in your ear when you need a little direction or need to stop or turn or accelerate or slow down or maybe go get some fuel for your tank.

So we’re in a dynamic now that is not just our personal dynamic. We’re actually beginning to work in a relationship with a Higher Authority. And we can’t give our power over the High Authority. But we also can’t claim the power of the High Authority because we each have our own domains of responsibility.

So you are responsible for your thoughts and your actions and the consequences of your actions. But who you are and what sent you into the world and what you’re here to do, that’s part of something bigger. And so for this, you must learn to follow and have confidence that the journey has many steps, and certainly day to day, you won’t really understand the journey. Sometimes you’ll gain a vision of it or have a sight of it, and then you lose sight of it. It’s like the distant mountain out there and you see it at certain high points. And then, of course, you descend into the forest and you don’t see it anymore. And you journey a long time in that forest through valleys and over small hills and you don’t see the mountain and then all of a sudden, there it is again a little bit closer.

So you take the steps. And the steps are really important because the journey is what shapes and refines you. It’s almost like everything that isn’t you begins to fall away; either consciously you give it up or it just leaves you. And that sense of things leaving you is, I think, very important. But day to day, you know, we can’t put it all together and have it all make sense because we’re now working in concert with Higher Powers, and we only can see parts of it that are our parts, and not necessarily the bigger parts.

And sometimes you feel very strongly about where you’re going in life and sometimes you’re really confused. But you’re still going. So the New Message says if you keep taking the Steps, you get up the mountain. If you stop and try to control or understand, then you don’t make progress because you’re only going to see certain things in climbing a mountain that’s going to give you the panorama. In fact, you have to get pretty far up the mountain to really see the panorama, still down in the trees, still down in the forest. So there are days to take control; there are days to relinquish control, depending on what you’re focusing on. Certainly your personal daily affairs, that’s your responsibility. God is not going to manage your life or tell you what to buy at the store.

But the things that really matter in terms of your real destiny and who you choose to be with, the big decisions you make, that’s something that engages a Higher Power because that will affect your destiny. And the things that really will affect your destiny, that’s something you really have to call for help: “Please show me what I need to know about this situation.”

Now, some people want to know the next step, but you know, your next step may be six months away because your next step has to do with other people’s next step. It’s part of a Greater Coordination. This is why you can’t see the big picture because it’s no longer just you anymore. It’s you in a Greater Coordination. And you’re being prepared to be in that Coordination part of that because that’s your destiny. Your destiny isn’t here just to be fulfilled as an individual. What does that mean?

So there’s some days are diamonds and some days are stones. It’s actually a song with that title. So you keep moving forward and you remember: “My Teachers are with me. I must keep going forward.” And you will see things you have to give away and certain things will fall away and certain things you need to take on. And that way, you build that which must be built and you relinquish that that must be relinquished. It sounds simple but day-to-day it takes real confidence. You have to talk to yourself kind of the way that Steps talks to you; after a while, you have to start talking to yourself like that. The only way you can fail this is to quit. And even if you quit, at a certain point you can’t quit because at a certain point freedom is no choice. That’s mysterious. But someday it will make perfect sense to you.