The Beginnings of a Way of Life! (Part 5)

Steps to the Spirit

In this episode, we shall be looking at the next list from the Oxford Group. This list has four items in it and is called 4 Spiritual Practices. They are as follows:

4 Spiritual Practices. (Expanded)
1¶. The sharing of our sins and temptations with another Christian.
Life given all to God and sharing as witness to help others still unchanged, to recognize and acknowledge their sins.

2¶. Surrender our life passed, present, and future, into God’s keeping and direction.
3. Restitution to all we have wronged, either directly or indirectly.
4. Listening to, accepting, relying on God’s Guidance and carrying it out in everything we do or say, great or small.

I believe that, once again, these things support how much of the recovery programs, twelve-step programs that we know today, have been influenced by the Oxford Group.

Of course, the first item is linked to steps four and five, and particularly step five in the 12 step program of today. As the program says, admitted to God ourselves another human being those things that we have considered to be wrong.

Item number three is, of course, directly related to steps number eight and nine in today’s 12 step program.

Item number two, for me, is one of the most important in this list because it refers to my favorite step, which is step number three. The act of surrender, for me and I believe, for all involved in the 12 step program is the most important aspect I need to accept the love of God and I should give it my full attention.

The fourth item, listening, is without a doubt my favorite item in this list. I believe this item is directly related to step number 11 in the 12 step program, sought through prayer and meditation… praying only for knowledge of God’s will for me. I believe with all of my heart, as I have written here and in my books, that my main connection to spirit and God is that of listening. Even the Buddha said something to the effect of not listening to tradition, hearsay, wise people, or even our teachers, but to go back to our rooms (or wherever) and look within to find our answers. Then, act on those things we have found to be true within ourselves. I firmly believe that with our allowance, willingness, and practice to learn to discern the sounds of our spirit from the sounds of our rationalization, we shall live in this world as God would direct us.