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How to Have a Conversation With God
During my first careers as teacher, recruiter and consultant, if someone had said, "You're going to write a spiritual book," I’d have burst out laughing. Little did I know that my invitation from Spirit was coming. It came in the form of a brutal divorce.
During my first careers as teacher, recruiter and consultant, if someone had said, “You’re going to write a spiritual book,” I’d have burst out laughing. Little did I know that my invitation from Spirit was coming. It came in the form of a brutal divorce.
One morning, out of sheer desperation, I scribbled “Dear God,” across the top of a journal page. As I made the comma, a torrent of angry, frightened words piled up inside my pen. My story poured itself onto page after page. Venting felt good, so the next day, I wrote another diatribe to “Dear God.” After several days of barking at God, I wrote a question—a question I didn’t even know was inside me: “How did this happen? What have I been unwilling to see?” With these questions my monologue ended and a divine dialogue began.
For three years, I wrote to Dear God every day. I noticed something. If I asked for guidance, guidance came. If I asked for insight, insight came. When I asked for comfort, I was comforted. When I asked for protection, my son and I were safe. When I needed financial help, it came. I talked with Dear God about everything in my life—big and small.
Does that sound miraculous? It is. It’s miraculous how soul writing activates the Voice of Spirit. But it’s a miracle you can do. Here’s how.
Soul Writing
Set your intention to connect with Spirit. Write by hand. (The computer keeps you in conscious mind and you want to get out of your stress-filled conscious mind.) Write directly to Spirit using your favorite name. Speak from the heart. Write fast. Writing fast gets you out of the way so Spirit can break through. Ask questions. Open-ended questions are the magic that activates the Voice. As your conversation for the day ends, say thank you. Be grateful for the experience.
New soul writers always ask me: Am I talking to God or to myself? Eyebrows sometimes scrunch when they hear my answer: The Voice is that which is inside you that is greater than you. But, they press, is that Spirit? Yes, I smile, it’s Spirit. It is the limitless source of wisdom, creativity, guidance and grace. But, please understand, it is also you. The Voice is Spirit in you.
That answer provokes my favorite question: How will I recognize the Voice? I love this question because it gives me the opportunity to watch people’s faces as they hear the sweet sound of the Voice, perhaps for the first time.
I recognize the Voice on my own pages when a new thought, idea or question I haven’t considered tumbles out or when the pen gleefully flies over the paper. Other soul writers see shifts in their handwriting, feel tingles in their hands or a sensation of warmth in their heart. But we all agree on one thing: The Voice is unmistakable because it speaks its own language—the language of unconditional love.
Let me give you one example. Jody, a 36-year-old woman in Florida, was with her mother every day of a nine-year struggle with cancer. Jody said they were more than mother and daughter; they were best friends and soul mates. When her mother died, Jody felt lost. She came to my workshop hoping to find some peace. In her very first 10-minute writing experience, the Voice burst through her confusion and tears to say in distinctive capital letters, “I AM UNBREAKABLY YOURS.” After everyone left, Jody showed me the page. In tears, she said, “This is the Voice, isn’t it?” “Oh yes,” I sighed, “this is the unmistakable sound of the Voice of Love.”
Would you like to hear that sweet Voice of Love? Pick up a pen and say, “I’m here.” The Voice will find you. “Hello beloved,” it will say. Welcome to the conversation that never ends—it just goes deeper and deeper to your whole, authentic, holy self. “I’m so glad you’re here. Let’s talk.”
Janet Conner is the author of Writing Down Your Soul, a transformative book about the power and practice of deep soul writing. Janet leads retreats and workshops around the United States. To learn more, visit www.writingdownyoursoul.com.
Comments
Janet is amazing
Just want to share how amazing Janet and her book are. If you have not read it, give yourself a treat this Christmas season and begin your own personal conversation with God or the voice! It changed my life.
Janet Conner on Unity.FM
On March 22, Janet was a guest on the Unity.FM program "Universe Responding" with Valleri Crabtree. To listen to a podcast of the interview, go to: http://www.unity.fm/program/UniverseResponding
Life
I am a very quiet and shy person, always have been, it's not a quality that I like, because people take my shyness for being standoffish. I do better expressing my feelings by writing, there are times I get depressed, I call it being in the funk, I don't want to talk to anyone and I don't want to pray.. this only gets worse, being away from God.. so I started writing my prayers and I pray that God will accept a written pray as He does a spoken prayer, it still comes from the heart.
My mother passed away when I was just 25 yrs old, I had just given birth to her 2nd grand daughter, she never did get to see her, my mother was the closet person to me, I thought I was going to loose my mind. At that time I had not attended church, didn't understand the Bible. I was on my own. It wasn't until I had my third child, a son, I was told I would never be able to have any more children, but God had other plans for me, that man cannot control. They were all a huge blessing to me, I knew in my heart that I was responsible to teach them about God, but how do you do that when you don't know anything your selve. I was lead to a non denominational church, have been there ever since. But have you ever been in a room full of people but you feel like your still all alone.. just watching the world around you as if you were people watching as their lives went on.. you hear about their weekends and family gatherings. My children are all grown and have families of their own, too busy to see me, I have come to a point in my life, I'm not going to beg them to visit me, I feel they are no longer proud of me because of disability I inheritated, I'm no longer able to do all those fun things we did when they were coming up, I'm not able to work and they have no clue the amount of pain I suffer on a daily basis.. So, writing.. is the closest thing I have to express the deep things of my life. It saves me from sounding like I'm having a pity party.. No one wants you when your down and out... They are there for the good times. But, if your no longer able to do the things your friends know you for, even they disappear. I have God's Word, I have Unity's family, so thankful for their prayers. I had a aunt, well she adopted me as her niece, when my mother passed away, she got me started with the Daily Word, it's been apart of my life now for 30 yrs.
I feel Silent Unity has a direct line to God, it's amazing how my prayers are answered. Now I have this blog and I hope that I can encourage someone along the way..
May God bless each of you, keep you strong, keep silent long enough to hear the Holy Spirit, lead, guide and direct you on the right path.
Jewels
your funk, my funk
Jewels, You just told my story. But now I feel pretty much happy at 56. Remember Jesus came to your house one day, maybe you didn't recognize Him. He left something there. If you had only known, perhaps, you would have taken the best care possible of it. Well, it is NOT too late. He left a container for a bit of his Spirit--your body. I think you have realized by now He lives in your heart. No matter what, whereever you go, He is with you. Not saying He may be busy with something and you may not always feel His presence. But He needs you consciously as much as you need Him unconsciously. This lesson him me like a ton of bricks (I am big, literally. I am trying to undo 56 years of unconscious bodily abuse. Unconscious I say because of the funk I allowed my mind to keep me in so I wouldn't have to live in this moment. Wish we could get together and talk. I hope this helps; and angel I met in an airport shared the 'gift' with me.
God loves you and so do I, CC
these words
They couldn't come at a better time for me.I've been struggling with depression, isolation, loneliness and poor finances. I know in my heart to talk to God, someway somehow,and I know it should just come so easily, but I just get so muddled in my head trying to process it. Perhaps writing down in a journal with this approach will help get me "unstuck"
I look forward to trying this approach...thanks for your wonderuful words..
Carla, British Columbia, Canada
A letter from a reader
Today I was blessed to receive this letter from Gladys in California. She gave me permission to post the letter here in response to Janet Conner's article. Thank you, Gladys, for allowing me to share your letter. With peace and love, Laura
Dear DAILY WORD Publishers:
I am inspired to share my story after reading Janet Conner’s article “How to have a conversion with God,” published in your March /April edition of Daily Word.
I was introduced to Daily Word by an elderly couple that I was caring for in a retirement home in 1990. Like Ms. Conner, I was struggling through a divorce and abandonment, (my husband of 22 years had left me and my four children, for a younger woman). Three months earlier my 14 year old daughter had slumped in my living room after dinner, and had died of “heart block” before help could come. My two older children had just started junior college and my youngest was in High school. In my effort to escape pain, I went back to school to do a graduate program. Finances were tight and I had to take a student job caring for an elderly couple. He was kind to me but his wife was afraid that I would steal all of her belongings due to her past experience with Care Givers. She watched every movement of mine and actually searched my school bag before I left the apartment at the end of my shift.
I cried in my lonely hours, and being a 1st generation immigrant, I had no friend nor relatives residing in the U.S. One morning, as I was cleaning after my employers, I picked up a copy of Daily Word and read. These words stuck to my head, “LET GO AND LET GOD”. The Lady eyed me with suspicion and I dropped the magazine immediately. I repeated my action the following day and the message was “BE STILL AND LISTEN TO THE STILL SMALL VOICE”. I continued to “steal” time to read each day’s message until my male employer offered to order my own subscription for me. I have not missed any edition of “Daily Word” ever since.
I love to write as a hobby, and my “Soul Writing” also began with a “Dear God “ daily journal, (started on June 10. 1998 after I turned 50). My first entry on that day was:
“GOD, YOU HAVE BEEN MY MASTER, PROVIDER, CONFIDANT COMFORTER, COMPANION, MOTHER, FATHER, ADVOCATE, AND FRIEND. MASTER, CONTINUE TO SPEAK TO ME AND I WILL CONTINUE TO LISTEN AND OBEY”
As of date I have six volumes of “Dear God” prayer journals.
Thanks to DAILY WORD, I am a survivor and a living testimony of peace with God’s WORDS.
THANK YOU DAILY WORD!!! Gladys, California.