You Have to Ask the Right Questions

You have to ask the right questions to get the right answers—from God or from anyone else. And you can't get the right answers for questions you never ask.

The above is why my Master Spiritual Teacher, the Rev. Dr. Bernice Osman, always emphasized that asking God all the right questions—is as important as receiving all the right answers.

Praying for what you want in life is not surrender to God—unless what you want is to always do God's Will—and to always help others do God's Will as well.

But you can't do God's Will unless you know what it is—in each and every situation and relationship you encounter—which is why the Keys Teachings emphasize learning and doing daily Receivership.

Double Checking Down the Road is Highly Recommended

It is also why the Keys Teachings tells you that you can't just set and forget a long range goal that you receive to pursue. On the contrary, double checking down the road is always advisable because people do change their minds; and what was right before may not still be so right given the present circumstances.

For only God within you actually knows the bigger picture at all times. And only God knows when kindness is cruelty and cruelty is kindness at any given time; and relative to any given person you may encounter. And only God knows when people change their minds—which they sometimes do without warning.

So when it comes to prayer, only doing prayers received from God within you at the time—is actual surrender to God.

Only such prayers carry the full power of God behind them; because God can't score a goal for you, if you don't give God the ball, and let God call all the plays.

All of the above does not mean that you shouldn't pray for what you want. But when you do, it's better to add: "in accord with God's Will," because you may not realize that what you're praying for—is not really good for you at the time.

Your Mission is to Find and Stay on the Right Path

Only wanting and doing as directed by God within you keeps you on the right path to making all of your masteries, to rebalancing all of your karmic debts, and to improving all of your relationships, step-by-step-by step, over time.

Two are one when they only and always affect themselves and others in the exact same way. You are One with God within you when you allow yourself to be guided by God through Receivership, day after day, decision after decision.

Living your life as directed by God within through Receivership is the only way to amplify God's Power to Create working through you, day after day. Thus it is the only way to become and stay an Empowered Agent of God in the physical.

Since God helps all those who help themselves, and God wants you to ask so you may receive, God helps all those who ask—and especially helps when you ask the questions that God wants you to ask. That's why surrendering to God through Receivership is always the right and most powerfully beneficial answer.

God Enjoys All of Our Spiritual Masteries

My wonderful Spiritual Master Teacher, Bernice, always used to say that she wanted to be the creation that her Creator was pleased with. She was the first person that I ever met who actually saw God as a loving, caring parent-teacher.

Like any caring human parent and teacher, God wants to help us all become the best people we can be in every area of life. That's why God answers every call we make for Help and Guidance with specific, timely information. All that we have to do to receive it—is to stop, ask, and then just listen without fear or limitation.

And just as all involved human parents are greatly uplifted when they see their children do well, God smiles whenever we make our masteries in life; especially the spiritual masteries that can help us become God's Divine Agents on Earth.

The Most Important Free-Will Choice

No one likes to be told what to do all the time. Even those who happily trade independence for being taken care of—don't want all their daily life decisions made for them. We all tend to either aggressively or passively resist giving up control—unless it is absolutely necessary at a given time.

Anyone who has ever been totally controlled in life—by an overly strict parent, an unfair boss, a domineering spouse, etc., has very likely developed a strong conscious or unconscious resistance to taking orders in general.

The above is why most people would define the word freedom as the ability to make all your decisions yourself—whether that ability was created by gaining great wealth and power (your own or through another person); by automatic rebellion against authority; or by withdrawing into isolation on a mountain top.

Why Commitments Can Be So Hard to Make

The above is why many people find commitments so hard to make and/or keep. It feels like restriction and loss of freedom; as is often felt when a person is told that they should or have to do something—like get married; go on a diet; keep a schedule—and especially stop the habits that they may still be enjoying at times.

The above is also why it's easier to commit to applying a Spiritual Teaching that promises you more control of your life—than to one that requires you to let go of control in order to make progress—as the Keys Teachings will always do by reminding you to ask God for Guidance before making choices and decisions.

Fate or Free Will or Something Else?

Actually, it is hard to say that anyone on Earth is free—not because we are all controlled by fate—because no one lives in a vacuum. No one makes all their decisions completely on their own. Every choice is motivated by something. We're all products of nature + nurture + our past responses to our experiences.

Everyone has seen himself and/or others automatically controlled at times by negative personality habits (anger, fear, martyrism, urgency, rigidity, need for attention, addiction); by authority figures (parents, experts, teachers, leaders); or by "one-size-fits-all" beliefs that weren't relevant or applicable at the time.

The Keys Teachings calls anything that can influence you more strongly than the Voice of God within you a lesser god. By the time most people even consider Spiritual Growth, they are greatly or completely controlled by all of the lesser god influences that have been within and around them up to that point in time.

That's why Keys teaches that the most important free-will choice that there is on this planet is whether you want to be inspired-protected-guided by the Voice of the One Greater God within; or motivated-limited-controlled by lesser gods.

Change My Life But Don't Tell Me What to Do 

Most people who pray want freedom from the negative experiences that they are praying about. They want God to give them more control, not less. They want God's help; but most aren't thinking of letting go of control at the time.

But the desire for freedom can become a lesser god if it becomes a resistance to asking God for guidance and direction; which is when it also becomes a block to hearing God's Voice within you (and the reason why most people can’t hear that Divine Inner Voice; and thus don’t believe that God talks to them at all).

Although most religions and spiritual teachings do preach surrender to God, most do not teach you how to do it—especially not in a way that can and does apply to every single choice and decision that must be made in a modern life. And every choice and decision does affect you, your present, and your future.

The great established religions inspire many to be as kind and positive as they can be in general—but their teachings all require obedience to "one-size-fits-all" laws—laws that were written long ago. And "one-size" does not fit all. We are all individual souls with a specific path to conscious mastery and karmic freedom.

How to Surrender to God

Surrender to God has little to do with accepting the specific teachings of any religion; and more to do with asking so that you may receive guidance from God within on how to live the most beneficial life possible on the planet, step-by-step—a life in which you care about others as much as you care about self.

But you can't take the karmically correct, most beneficial action, without using Receivership in the moment—because the best decision, and thus God's Will, always depends on the situation, the people you're dealing with, and the exact place and time in which it's all happening. Again, one-size-laws do NOT fit all.

You may be able to guess or intellectualize what you should do, but only God knows when kindness is cruelty and cruelty is kindness. Only God can tell you whether you should cut someone some slack or keep strict boundaries at the given time. The only real surrender is using Receivership to manage your life.

Thus the only real freedom is freedom from lesser god influences; which can only be created by always using Receivership to manage your life. "Thou Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me." There is no other way—modern or ancient.

Repetition is the Mother of Retention

All learning and re-learning takes repetition. Whether it's guitar playing, your role in a stage play, computer programming, hitting a baseball, telling a joke, or working on any personality habit that you want to change for the better in life.

You can never break an automatic response to any particular situation (trigger) without deciding on, learning, and then practicing, a better, more acceptable to you, and more doable, replacement response to that particular trigger.

With the right replacement choice, you just need a set schedule that you can keep, and a private place to do your practicing over time. Continue the practice for as long as it takes to make the changes permanent in all daily life situations.

Practice really does make perfect. And, it can be just as easy to create positive habits as negative ones—especially with God's Support from within in response to your Prayers and Receiverships. Remember—the only failure is giving up.

Preventive Medicine: If You Skip, You Slip

You can't be anxious and relaxed at the same time. You can't be stressed and peaceful at the same time. And relaxed and peaceful almost always handles everything and everyone better than anxious and stressed does.

Ask your significant other, your family, your friends, your employers, your employees, your co-workers, or your teammates, etc. They'll all tell you, of course, unless they're afraid of you.

If you're easily pulled from your positive center by outside events, your stress levels must be much higher than they should be; and thus they can negatively affect your health, your performance, and your relationships, over time.

If you just can't turn your mind off and relax—even when you're far away from those difficult situations and relationships—you have an even bigger challenge for your overall peace, health, and happiness over time.

But Modern Life Can Be Very Challenging

Modern life can certainly be quite challenging. That's why all actors rehearse, ballplayers practice, and candidates do dry runs of prepared speeches before they go out on stage—they are preparing to insure that they perform their best.

If you prepare yourself to handle your life better when you're home alone, and especially as directed by God within you, situations and relationships may still pressure and stress you at times—but they won't distress you—as well. 

If a situation that stresses you also distresses you—if it immobilizes you instead of mobilizing you—if it upsets you and gets you worrying rather than planning and doing—you have a bigger problem than the one you started out with.

Distress can send you into the kinds of attitudes and behaviors that can be hurtful to you and others—socially, professionally, and karmically, over time.

It can also send your body into various stress-related conditions that are no fun to go through; and that are not easily recovered from over time as well.

Preventive Medicine is Scheduled & Consistently Kept

All the above is why the Keys Teachings recommend regularly scheduled and consistently kept sessions that are between you, yourself and God—with or without a Spiritual Teacher.

Those sessions should be focused on Stress Relief, Practical Guidance, and Spiritual Growth—all of which God within you can certainly help you with through Receivership—especially over time.

Anyone who wants to be at their best as often as possible must work at it as often as possible. It is always better to prevent negative incidents and actions before they happen—than to try to fix the fallout afterwards—especially when you've been known to lose control and act negatively even once in a while.

Why You Should Remember to Ask God to Take Charge?

When you ask God to take charge of you, and to show (or tell) you what to do before you speak or act, you create your best chance of not only doing all that you do in the karmically correct way, but with the right words and tone as well.

And you are asking God to take charge of you every time you do a Surrender Meditation; every time you declare your desire for God's Will to be done; every time you ask God to free you from any and all lesser god influences; and the most effectively—every time you do and follow your Receivership.

Surrender Meditation, in particular, is the time when all of your prayers can best be answered—because it is the time when you are most completely letting go of control of your mind, body, and spirit, and thus are voluntarily giving God complete access to do as God wants therein.

Old Habits Die Hard and Often Long to Return

The longer and more consistently that you have been doing your "preventive medicine," the stronger your protection against relapse will become and stay over time.

The realization that it takes consistent work to prevent relapse of a person's worst habits is why Alcoholics Anonymous has all of their adherents continue to affirm that they are and will always be alcoholics—so that they never allow themselves to rest on their laurels.

And it is likely why the Bible writers so strongly put forth the idea that all humans are sinners (meaning that they all have the capacity to fall back into negative behaviors if they are not consistently aware and careful over time).

All the above correlates with the Sabbath principle where people are advised to take the day off from work in order to feel able to take the time to consult with God within them through prayer and contemplation.

Sabbath adherents are supposed to do the above in order to be able to review the past week and learn from all that occurred in preparation for doing better next week (ideally through changes suggested by their Receivership).

God Wants to be Our Loving Parent and Teacher

The Keys teaches that God wants to be our Loving Parent and Spiritual Teacher. Thus God wants to help us all become and stay the happiest, the healthiest, the most positive, and the most karmically correct people we can be, forevermore.

That is why God wants us all to spend some time every day in contemplation through Receivership—so that God can help us all learn and grow, serve and work, and socialize, enjoy, and experience pleasure, in the best ways possible.

God's Direction is God's Protection. And God's Guidance provides the ultimate form of Preventive Medicine because it addresses all aspects of life on Earth, spiritual, material, and practical.

Spending time each day improving the clarity of your connection to God within you (Receivership) is the most valuable tithing to yourself, to your loved ones, to God, and to the Universe, that you can do on Earth with your time.

How You Respond Shows Who You Are Now

To avoid repeating the negative past, just ask God to help you create a better future, step by step by step, through Receivership... in response to all specific situations... in response to all relationships... and in response to life in general.

Is it God or a lesser god?

The Keys Teachings believe that prophecy (hearing God's voice from within), which it calls Receivership, is not reserved for a chosen few. The Keys teaches that Receivership is for all those who ask and expect God to answer verbally.

But most people have spent their entire lives believing that God is too busy, or that they are too insignificant, for God to talk to them directly about their daily choices and decisions—so they never actually ask for specific, verbal guidance.

They may pray for their lives to change for the better, but they will practically never ask for specific, step-by-step guidance to help make it happen.

Most of those who do ask and expect an answer from God, don't expect it to come verbally. So they just look for a significant sign or feeling that they can interpret as God's Guidance; and then they follow it and hope for the best.

The Keys Teachings believe that God does take an active interest in our daily lives—because God wants to help us become and stay the best companions we can be for each other, and for God.

And the only way to do that is to offer specific, verbal guidance to all those who ask for it. That's why the Keys emphasizes learning and doing Receivership.

You Don't Need to Be Intuitive to Develop Receivership

The Keys Teachings believe that even those who were not born "psychic" or "intuitive" can develop accurate Receivership from God within them. They just have to find the right guidance, and then work at it, consistently and patiently.

And they also have to identify, and work to master, all that can get in the way of their ability to consciously and verbally perceive God's Voice from within them.

The Keys Teachings call anything that can influence you above and before the Voice of God within you—a lesser god. Lesser gods limit, alter, and even block what you can and do perceive in life.

And they can do the same to whatever you think you have received from the One Greater God at a given time as well.

The Common (and Less Common) Lesser Gods of Earth Life

One example of the power of a lesser god is that an oversensitive person will likely see correction as hurtful and critical; while someone less sensitive might see the same words, delivered in the same way, as constructive and realistic.

Perception is always altered by pre-programmings—and lesser gods are the ultimate pre-programmings. They are the influences that become your habits.

The most common lesser gods of Earth life include your automatic fears, needs, beliefs, and behaviors; and all the authority figures you tend to automatically defer to and/or follow (parent, teacher, spouse, ancient religious writings). 

They include all the people and things you can't live without (your addictions); and all the people and things you can't stand to be around (your aversions).

And for some people their lesser gods may include the discarnate personalities (earthbound spirits) who are within or around them; and thus able to influence them in various ways as well.

Note: Stress and all of your stressors are lesser gods—because the automatic stress reactions they trigger can all too often change how you act and behave in all kinds of situations and relationships—and most often not for the better.

All Lesser Gods Have Voices

Were you listening to the Voice of God, the voice of fear, the words of your abusively critical parent, or the selfish projections of a discarnate personality with its own agenda, when you decided to skip that job interview yesterday?

It is important to be able to recognize, identify, and disempower all lesser god influences right when they pop up and try to take over—because you cannot do God's Will, and thus the right thing for yourself and others, if you don't know if and when you are being influenced by a lesser god at a given time.

The ability to have Crystal Clear Receivership, and thus be able to hear God's Voice exactly as projected, can only be developed over time by mastering (and thus quieting) all the lesser god voices that have ever controlled you in this life.

Note: If the inner voice you hear is negative, fearful, angry, abusive, or violent, or if it ever tells you to hurt anyone for any reason, it is NOT God.

The Surrender Antidote to Lesser God Influence

All lesser god habits are strengthened each time you give in to their influence. Thus, those same habits can be disempowered, layer by layer, by resisting their influence—and by going to God first in all of the particular situations that have ever triggered those lesser god habits in the past.

That's why the Keys teaches that consistency of surrender is your antidote to lesser god influence. And using Receivership to run your life is a very tangible act of spiritual and material world surrender.

It demonstrates a sincere desire to do God's Will, and thus serve God and all life, before all else; which certainly does get God's attention, and God's Help.

Every time you use Receivership, you strengthen the habit of going to God first before allowing lesser gods to take over; and you also improve the accuracy of your Receivership itself—because doing a Receivership is the most powerful way of asking God to take charge of you.

All the above is why it is as important to know when you are NOT hearing God's Voice—as it is to know when you are. Otherwise, you may very well be serving a lesser god without realizing it.

Developing Crystal Clear Receivership

Many beginning Keys students worry about getting Receivership wrong and thereby hurting themselves and others, materially and karmically, by using it. This often causes them to avoid trying the process—even if they believe in it.

But since the only way to develop Crystal Clear Receivership is to use it in daily life—avoidance is not the answer. Getting trained and monitored by someone who already has and lives by it, and who helps others develop it, is that answer.

Receivership has a learning curve; as does mastering your lesser gods. God knows that. So every sincere spiritual student should approach learning and doing Receivership without self-consciousness or fear of making a mistake.

If you act on what you believe is God's Word, but later find that you received incorrectly, you won't create karmic debt by doing so—as long as you have been and continue to show a sincere desire to surrender control to God in all things.

You show a sincere desire to get it right by asking God to take charge of you; to remove all lesser god influences from you in general; and to show you what you should do, and how and when to do it, throughout your daily life, over time. 

Note: Having someone farther along to check and monitor your Receivership is beneficial; and it can speed up your development—as long as that teacher keeps reminding you that going to God for guidance through Receivership is the goal.