An introduction to religious and spiritual experience

Miracles
Many people are convinced that their prayers are answered in miraculous 
ways, often in an extreme situation. The following happened to a friend 
of mine many years ago: 
Barbara had lost her first son to leukaemia as a child, and when her 
second, Chris, raced across the road into the path of an oncoming car, 
she screamed, ‘Lord, not again.’ She saw the boy gathered up as the car 
screeched to a halt. Chris was standing at the roadside, while the driver 
was convinced that he was underneath the car. [005440]
Guidance
Some people are aware of a sense of being guided through life. Quakers, 
in particular live their lives open to such promptings.
Eileen Caddy, who co-founded the Findhorn Community in Scotland, 
which was a ‘guided’ venture, wrote,
I am firmly convinced that everyone can hear ‘the still small voice 
within’ if they want to badly enough. It is the beginning of a working 
relationship with God.
There are certain lessons that have to be learnt when one has chosen to 
listen to the voice within: discipline, faith and obedience.
She explains that one needs to make time to listen, then,
there is a great need for and belief. You can only gain faith by putting 
what you receive to the test and seeing how beautifully it works.
Then you need to obey.
I have lived by God’s voice over the years and I have proved that His 
words are not vain and empty words, that when they are followed to 
the letter, amazing things happen.
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This experience of guidance was triggered by doubt:
I wanted direction in my life as I had no idea what to do. I had work 
of various kinds, but was not sure what I really wanted to do with 
my life. Always full of doubt, I just said, ‘If you are there, DO some-
thing, please. You can have my life, I will go where you ask, but just 
show me what to do.’ Within two weeks, my entire life had changed, as 

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Religious and Spiritual Experience
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opportunities I had never dreamed possible came my way and my path 
was set out. . . . I followed the path, even though at times unsure of 
where I was headed, but I knew that it was somehow deeply right. 
Many things have happened as a direct consequence of that ‘handing 
over’ and I feel that the process continues. [005450]