When I began on my spiritual path nearly 5 years ago, I could have only hoped to stumble across the information I am about to share. The spiritual journey takes time, dedication, extreme fortitude, focus, and discernment. The greatest of these is discernment. What is discernment? It is about having the wisdom to do what is right or the percipience to distinguish the true motives of those around you.
- The Emotional Obstacles Of Waking Up
Along your spiritual journey, you are bound to encounter excessive frustrations from yourself, things not going as you planned, worrying about things that don’t really matter, etc. There are also many temptations and sins you will have to learn how to surpass as well.
One thing is for sure, I learned if there is anything you do not do on the spiritual path, it is worry. Worry is the most anti-self-realization feeling one can entertain on the path to individuation. It inhibits all of your growth and can tempt you into committing a multitude of sins. What is my definition of “sin”? To sin is to do that which you know to be wrong. As a wise sage once said, that which increases your awareness is a virtue, and that which decreases your awareness is vice.
- Spiritual Warfare
Many times I didn’t even know I was involved in “Spiritual Warfare” along my journey. All I knew was that it seemed like no matter what I did, evil forces were banding together to try to stop me from becoming the best version of myself. The better I was doing in life, the more I thought the people that I believed loved me would encourage me or support me even further. This was simply not the case. Like David Goggins says, some people don’t want to see you succeed. In this case, I found out that sometimes even our own flesh and blood don’t want us to succeed. Why? If you are on the narrow path, the spiritual path, the chances of you being involved in a traumatic household or environment is higher.
With everyone that I’ve done spiritual consultations with (dozens at this point), and all of the people I’ve met along the spiritual path during these past 5 years, about 90% of them have had some kind of traumatic upbringing. There has been only a few that have relatively good relationships with their family or friends. The truth is, people will start to fall like flies around when you get to a certain point on your journey, but this is nothing to fear. This is simply God making more room for the blessings you are about to receive.
- The Emergence Of Your Shadow
Anyone familiar with Carl Jung’s work as a psychologist is aware of the term “Shadow.” Shadow Work can be referred to as the work we do to develop our self-awareness of the parts of ourselves we sometimes wish to hide from ourselves. The deeper you go into uncovering the trauma of your past or acknowledging the thoughts we don’t necessarily want to acknowledge, the more the Shadow appears. Jung said that the Shadow reaches all the way to Hell, and I genuinely understand what he means by that. You see, the Shadow is among the most archaic, animal-like qualities of who we really are as human beings. We all have the capacity for violence, excessive lust, greed, wrath, etc. Some just don’t want to acknowledge it more than others. Jung believed that one does not repress the nature of the Shadow, but accept it. In that acceptance, you transcend the desires of the Shadow, but that does not mean you act on the desires of the Shadow. Your Shadow is something to respect, but not always something to listen to.
- Going Overboard On New Age Or False Spiritual Practices
At one time I was highly interested in the occult, tarot cards, witchcraft, twin flames, magic, and all that other shit that held no water. I tried to learn as much as I could about different religions and mythologies, but no matter where I turned I never had the sense that I had “found the truth.” I became convinced there was still something missing, but what was it? I knew I wasn’t God (even though some of these New Age practices try to convince you otherwise), yet I felt a God-Shaped Hole in my life. I started to become absolutely desperate for the truth and did some things that I once never would have ever considered doing in a million years.
- Searching Everywhere For Truth Except Jesus
Starving and thirsting for the truth yet unable to find it, I immediately began to simply not give a f*ck about anything. Then in December of 2021, I had gotten Covid-19 and was bedridden for a week. During that week I started doing more research about the Bible and what the life of Jesus was like. I had begun reading the Bible about 7 months earlier, and I found it to be very interesting but I was reading it more as if it were an artifact and not a living document of truth. By the beginning of January in 2022 I had a massive revelation where I had to walk away from a relationship I absolutely did not want to walk away from. It was, to this day, one of the hardest things I ever had to do.
When I got home that bitter cold January night I began to feel uplifted and low at the same time. It was as if I was coming back to life and being raised from the dead. I could barely breathe. Gasping for air and drinking water, I had the most profound experience of my life: my coming to Jesus moment. In an instant, I realized I looked everywhere for the truth except in the life of Jesus. Sobbing tears of joy I felt the deepest love from my Father in Heaven. Along this journey, I lost almost everything and seemed to gain nothing, but in that moment I could hear Jesus saying to me, “Trust the process. What you once lost will be gained a hundredfold.”
For two weeks I felt the most divine mercy and forgiveness I had ever felt in my life. “Finally,” I thought to myself, “this is what it means to KNOW the truth.” I have praised Jesus each day since then. He is — literally, metaphorically, symbolically, and psychologically — the way and the truth.