Note: If desired, watch all of Acts 21 from the Visual Bible movie, Acts.

Today’s reading says:

Whenever you are tempted to do anything, question whether it is temptation or prompt. Temptation comes from fear, the ego, and the desire for self-will. A prompt is given by the Holy Spirit through your willingness to listen to Him.

As mentioned yesterday, you are already following spiritual intuition when you use inquiry to discover the author of your thoughts. That is discernment.

On Day 127, I told a story about an experience I had with a specific spiritual teacher. In that experience, I made the decision to leave that teacher, because he wanted me to follow him instead of following my own intuition.

Let’s look at two possible scenarios regarding that story in order to see how root cause inquiry can help us determine the authority of an idea.

Possibility #1:

Let’s imagine I am in relationship with a teacher. He has told me that what I think is my intuition is actually ego, and he wants me to disregard my intuition and follow him without questioning him. When I hear that, I think, “I need to leave.”

I take that thought into root cause inquiry to discover the motivation. I ask:

Why do I want to leave this teacher?

Am I afraid of what will happen if I stay?  – Yes.

What am I afraid of? – I am afraid of having to give up everything that is important to me.

Does that mean I am trying to protect myself? – Yes, I feel I have to protect myself. I feel at risk.

Is the desire to protect myself ego or Spirit? – It is ego.

So, who is the author of this idea? – Ego.

So, what am I going to do? – For now, I will stay. I will stay and continue to inquire into my thoughts and motivations so I can get clarity on my authority from moment-to-moment.

Possibility #2:

Again, let’s imagine I am in relationship with a teacher. He has told me that what I think is my intuition is actually ego, and he wants me to disregard my intuition and follow him without questioning him. When I hear that, I think, “I need to leave.”

I take that thought into root cause inquiry to discover the motivation. I ask:

Why do I want to leave this teacher?

Am I afraid of what will happen if I stay?  – No.

Do I feel I need to leave to protect myself from something? – No.

Do I feel that I need to trust this feeling to leave? – Yes.

Do I know what will happen if I leave? – No, it is totally unknown.

Am I trying to avoid or escape anything? – No, I don’t feel like that is the case. It just doesn’t feel right for me to stay anymore. It is time to go.

Do I feel that I need to take this step and trust the unknown. – Yes, I need to take this step and trust the unknown.

Does this willingness to trust come from ego or spiritual intuition? – The ego is fear, guilt and defense. This willingness to trust the unknown feels like spiritual intuition.

So, what am I going to do? – I will take this step, leave this teacher, and stay carefully tuned in to guidance.

In phase two, it isn’t the action that’s important. It is the motivation. In Possibility #1, the motivation to leave was ego. In Possibility #2, leaving was the guidance that came from spiritual intuition.

We can’t look at the action and determine if it’s ego or intuition. We have to look deeper and discover the motivation.

Important note: This form of root cause inquiry is always about my motivation. It is never about the storyline in the world. For example, in the possibilities above, there aren’t any questions about whether the teacher is genuine or not. To try and determine that as the basis of my decision would be looking out instead of in. If I look out instead of in, ego (judgment and thinking) will be the authority that guides me.

If you’d like to review the reasoning of ego and the right-reason of Holy Spirit, read NTI Acts 19 from (v23-41) through the end.

Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.

Note: If desired, watch all of Acts 20 from the Visual Bible movie, Acts.

Today, we will begin reading about the second phase of the spiritual path, which is purification. NTI calls it “letting go.” During phase two, we let go of the ego as our authority. We do that by embracing spiritual intuition as our authority.

It’s important to remember that the human always follows an authority. The human is authored, and it has an author-ity. The human believes it is an independent being, but that isn’t true. The sense that ideas are “my thoughts” is ego. Ego is the sense of an independent and separate self.

When we look at thoughts to determine their authority, we are already following the authority of spiritual intuition. Spiritual intuition guides us to discern authority and make a conscious choice. Ego simply believes “I am me” and “I am my own authority.”

Discernment is a key aspect of phase two. You cannot let go of ego without recognizing ego as ego first.

The greatest challenge in phase two is that our beliefs and the beliefs of most other humans come from living under ego’s authority. Because most humans are under ego’s authority, the world appears to live by ego’s laws. However, the world does not live by ego’s laws. The world is a reflection of how we use attention.

This is very, very important to remember in phase two, so I will repeat it again:

The world appears to operate according to specific rules, because people believe those rules. The world does not exist, meaning it has no power or authority of its own. It is a reflection of what we believe and give attention to.

For this reason, we are perfectly safe when we receive intuitive guidance that goes against the rules of the world. By trusting intuition, and by letting go of any obstacles that stand in the way of that trust, we learn that our experience in the world can be written by another author-ity. That’s how we learn that the world is not real. That’s how we awaken to consciousness as what we are and what everything is.

In order to intuit guidance, it is important that you are not attached to any desire or specific outcome. For example, one who hates to work may imagine guidance to quit her job. However, if she pauses to do root cause inquiry before quitting, she will discover the underlying motivation and realize that ego is the author of that idea and will be the author of the script that follows, if she takes that step.

That shows why pausing and asking ‘why’ is very important in phase two. It also shows why it’s important to let go of all of your individual desires. If you let go of everything except your spiritual aspiration, you can trust that your guidance is pure. If you have mixed desires, your guidance will have mixed authorities. However, a commitment to root cause inquiry to discover underlying motivations will help you to sort that out.

Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.

One key difference between phase one of the spiritual path (the search) and phase two (purification) is that in phase one, although you are guided by spiritual intuition, you may not recognize it yet. In phase one, you are typically identified with the ego as yourself, and you may not recognize it as the ego at all. It is simply “me” and “my thoughts.”

In order to move from phase one to phase two, you need to recognize the difference between ego and spiritual intuition. You also need the clarity to decide that you don’t want ego as your authority anymore. (Reference Days 119 & 120.)

Why is that necessary?

Because phase two is purifying one’s self of ego (the false), and that can’t happen without recognizing ego as ego and choosing to let it go.

Today’s reading does a good job of teaching the difference between ego’s authority and authority that comes from spiritual intuition. Here are a few examples based on the reading:

Examples of reasoning that comes from ego as authority:

You feel stress at work as you attempt to complete a project with an impending deadline. You are afraid of your boss’ reaction if the project isn’t completed on time. (Fear of attack, driven by a sense of unworthiness)

You want to be alone, and a friend asks you out to lunch. You do not want to go, but you are afraid your friend will get upset or think badly of you, so you accept the invitation anyway. (Fear, driven by a sense of guilt)

You are invited to speak at a gathering of a local organization that shares an interest with you. You are terrified that if you get up in front of the group, they will discover you do not know as much about the topic of interest as they do. You turn down the invitation to speak. (Fear of attack, driven by a sense of unworthiness)

Examples of reasoning that comes from spiritual intuition as authority:

You are working on a project at work, and there are some challenges with it that you do not know how to resolve. You aren’t sure the project will be completed on time. You work with others to try to resolve the obstacles while feeling curious about what will happen. (Peace, acceptance, purpose of One)

You want to be alone, and a friend asks you out to lunch. You notice there is no attraction to going to lunch, and there is a strong attraction to being alone. You politely turn down your friend’s invitation. (An action of now taken in faith and trust)

You are invited to speak at a gathering of a local organization that shares an interest with you. You have no idea what you will say when the time comes, but you feel the invitation must be in the best interest of the whole. You accept the invitation and trust that what to say will be given. (Purpose of One, trusting your worth and the Hands you are in)

As you read the characteristics of the ego and the characteristics of the Holy Spirit in today’s reading, pause and look at specific examples from your own experience. It might be helpful to write the characteristics along with some examples in your journal.

Today’s reading also encourages us to discover what drives us by asking why. In other words, it asks us to practice root cause inquiry. Through root cause inquiry, we discover the underlying motivation and authority.

Previously, you learned to use root cause inquiry to uncover the cause of an upset. A different form of root cause inquiry can be used to discover underlying motivations. For example:

Why am I still attending AA meetings?

Am I afraid that I will drink again if I quit going?

Am I afraid of what others in the group will think of me if I quit going?

Am I afraid of what they will say behind my back?

Do I enjoy the meetings?

Do I enjoy being a sponsor?

Do I feel guilty about letting go of sponsoring others?

Etcetera.

By taking the time to look at why we do (or don’t do) things, we can discover when we are driven by ego and when we are guided by intuition. Once that discovery is made, as today’s reading says:

Then you can make your choice as you choose, knowing what it is that you do.

In other words, then we have clarity regarding the underlying motivation and authority, and we can choose what we want knowing which authority we are choosing.

Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.