GOD: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY - THE PODCAST
JLM - Narrator (Jerry L. Martin) - voiced by Scott Langdon
Jerry - Jerry Martin - voiced by Scott Langdon
Abigail - Jerry's wife - voiced by Abigail Rosenthal
GOD - The Voice of God - voiced by Jerry L. Martin, who heard the voice
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EPISODE TWELVE: Where I encounter another author who claims to have conversations with God
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JLM
The brash display at the front of the bookstore announced "Conversations with God"--the first of three volumes in which God tells all...to somebody else. I thought I was the one anointed to carry God's message. "What's going on here?" I thought.
Before my own experience, I would not have thought for a minute that the author, Neale Donald Walsch, actually heard from God. But, if God spoke to me, he could surely speak to anyone he pleased. In fact, I had been told he communicates with people all the time. Walsch, too, reports God as saying, "I talk to everyone. All the time. The question is not to whom do I talk, but who listens." Just what I had been told.
Had God appointed two messengers? With different messages? Or was this guy not on the up-and-up? I have to admit, I was skeptical. My own prayers were herky-jerky and the voice I heard spoke in my own casual vernacular. Walsch's conversations are reported in polished prose. That looked rigged.
Nor was I impressed with what Walsch reports having been told. It sounded like pop Buddhism--feel-good stuff that sells books but is unlikely to be God's authentic word.
JERRY
Isn't Walsch just a charlatan, Lord?
GOD
He got most of it right.
JERRY
Got most of it right? But, Lord, some of what Walsch reports contradicts what you have told me.
GOD
They probably are not contradictions, but merely appear to be. Of course, you are both fallible receptors.
JERRY
Walsch reports you as saying that "you can do whatever you believe you can." That's just silly.
GOD
Give me an example.
JERRY
There's a woman I know, who has clear goals, strong convictions, and great force of will, and yet often fails.
GOD
No. Give me an instance from your own life.
JERRY
Just winning a tennis game, for example.
GOD
Give me a break. A.) You always have mixed thoughts in those situations and B.) I said you can't alter physical laws.
If you completely wanted to win at tennis and believed you could, you would practice, exercise, and so forth. When I say you can do anything, I don't mean that you don't have to take the necessary steps. Napoleon was charismatic, but he still had to train troops, plan logistics, and so on. Stop being simpleminded. You are fixating on a single meaning of "you can do anything" and trying to rebut it. Instead, think about what meaning could be true. It certainly does not mean wish fulfillment. Think about it.
JERRY
Walsch reports you as saying, "God will grant whatever is asked, without fail." Whatever is asked!
GOD
The trick is in *ask.* Not everything you *want* has been *asked* in the right way, with fulsomeness of soul.
JERRY
But then the statement is completely misleading. It depends on a verbal sleight of hand.
GOD
Not so. Some might be confused by it, but it is a way of focusing attention on the right way to ask, to believe and feel fully, and to motivate this change in people. But it is not a lie, not even a Noble Lie. It is the direct truth. When you come into the fullness of being, of partnership with God, everything you truly seek will be granted. That may seem like a bait and switch, but that is not the way you will see it when you get there. You will see that this is indeed what you really wanted all along.
JERRY
But it seems misleading since it suggests that you can win the lottery by wishing for it.
GOD
But don't you see? That's not what your soul wants. If it did, per impossibile, it would win it. But, it doesn't, because your soul has no true desire for such things.
JERRY
But, Lord, don't you see how misleading that statement is? It certainly will be read as wish-fulfillment.
GOD
Then it's a mistake. That is not what I meant. People want God's will to conform to theirs. Others try to conform their will to God's. But, at root, the two are the same. The goal is to get to the point that you surface your true will, which will coincide with God's. Remember that I want what is good for you. I do not have some arbitrary plan and then demand obedience to it. I want nothing other than you're fulfillment. That is what you want, too.
You will develop more and have a greater impact for good if you will trust in me and believe in yourself--not in your ego, your will, but in your spirit and your destiny.
JERRY
Destiny?
GOD
Yes, there is a goal for you, for each person--an individual path of evolution--that I want to help you along. Believing that you can progress and trust in me to help you is very helpful in achieving that goal.
JERRY
Walsch reports that everyone will achieve union eventually, through many lives.
GOD
That is true, but that does not mean that it is automatic. Everyone will succeed because everyone will eventually do the right thing. In a sense, it doesn't matter who gets there first--there is no prize for speed--all lives are equally valuable. But it matters to the individual, and to the amount of earthly suffering he or she will experience.
JERRY
Walsch says God has "no preference" with regard to "how you live your life."
GOD
Wrong. I want you to become your best self. What is true is that I accept your need to do whatever you do and to take many lives to achieve fulfillment.
JLM
Many lives? That sounded like reincarnation, in which I had zero interest, so I didn't ask about it. I don't think I took it seriously.
I didn't pray about Walsch after that. Whatever God was or wasn't doing with him was between him and God.
(The End)