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%DIVINE HOLY SACRED WORD REVELATION COMMAND MYSTERY+961216
 %TRANSCENDENT CALLING VOCATION MISSION VOICE ANGEL 961216

     How are we to recognize an authentic call from God?

     People  often  regard  mysterious  apparitions  which
transcend  human understanding as likely to be calls  from
God---just because they  are  mysterious  and beyond human
understanding.   After all---that which is holy,   sacred,
numinous and divine is bound to transcend human reason and
logic.

     By  the  above  logic  it would  seem  reasonable  to
believe that the more mysterious, strange, unfamiliar, and
beyond human understanding  an  apparition is to  us---the
more likely it is to be authentically of God.    Similarly
those people who say that  they have  been visited by such
apparitions  would reasonably be regarded as most  blessed
and holy; and so most worthy of trust and support.

     This leaves us with a serious problem.  The suggested
criteria will lead us to trust crazy people more than sane
people.   The suggested criteria offers no way to tell the
difference  between  crazy and/or collusive people who are
out  of  touch with reality,  on the one hand;   and  true
people  of   integrity  who  transcend  the  crazy  and/or
collusive  aspects of our imperfect world,  on  the  other
hand.

     It  is clear that we cannot identify authentic  calls
from  God by how mysterious and beyond human understanding
they are.    That fact that a "call"   does not make sense
in  human terms,  is no proof that it is a call from  God.
Even  if  some  calls  from God might not make  sense   in
human  terms,  it does not follow that all calls which  do
not make sense in  human  terms are thereby to be regarded
as  calls  from  God.    Just because all whole dogs  have
four legs, it does  not follow that all animals which have
four  legs are dogs.    If  you accept  such  logic---then
beware of  "dogs"  which weigh hundreds of pounds,  have a
lot  of long golden hair  about  the head,   and roar very
loudly---but  never bark.

     Often  people  who claim to have received calls  from
God behave in ways which  reveal  their preoccupation with
issues of conformity and control.  Such preoccupations are
inconsistent   with  the  focus  of  the  God   of   Love,
Reconciliation, Healing and Liberation.

     When  the God of Love,  Reconciliation,  Healing  and
Liberation calls---the calls do not focus upon conformity,
controls, and coercion.  The calls may seem mysterious and
senseless to people who are trapped  in  playing collusive
games of  mutual  self deception---for the  calls are  are
calls  to enjoy true security  known  as the freedom to be
safely vulnerable in open and honest relationships.  God's
calls  ask  for  the violation  of  all the tacit rules of
colluders'  games of mutual self deception---which conceal
and defend systematic patterns of dishonesty.   Such calls
from God are terrifying!  To colluders they make no sense.
Not making sense is not, however,  the essential attribute
of true calls from God.

     True  calls from God lead people to seek personal and
communal integrity in union with the God of integrity; God
is one, integral.  God is not fractional or fractious. God
is the God of Peace,  not of War.  God is the God of Love,
Healing,   Reconciliation and Integration;  not  of  hate,
disease, alienation, and disintegration.

     When  we are tempted to treat a mysterious call as  a
call from God just because it "transcends"  our provincial
reasoning---we need to think very carefully about  whether
the  call is characterized by integrity,  coherence,   and
love.
                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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