Excerpt from The Journey That Never Was: a guide to hearing God's Voice regardless of one's faith, religion, or personal beliefs, by DavidPaul and Candace Doyle

What is Hearing God's Voice?

"God's Voice rings True in the world, through every Brother upon the earth."

Holy Spirit: "God's Voice is the Gift that God gave to each of His Children as they stepped into the world. Hearing God's Voice is your most natural ability and It serves you unconditionally. God's Voice has one purpose and that is to restore you to the Truth of who you are, and It will do that in whatever ways you seek.

"Because there are only two voices to listen to, it becomes very easy to know when you are hearing God and when you are not. The challenge comes when you are not hearing this Voice and you want to choose differently, as well as hearing this Voice and applying what It says to your life. You can use this Voice to help you learn how to recognize It, how to choose It, and how to live It."

Candace's Story Continued...

Candace: Six weeks after hearing the Holy Spirit in Muir Woods and deciding later that day to move to Hawaii, I landed on the Big Island. After settling into my new home overlooking Kealakekua Bay, I spent every morning swimming with the dolphins and would then go home and do my daily lesson from ACIM and meditate on the lanai for hours. I looked forward to the lessons and the ways that each one impacted my reality so deeply. My life was very sweet indeed.

While so much of the Course rang true to me, I did have one issue with it-the idea that one could not talk to God directly. The Course teaches that the Holy Spirit is the Voice for God, the go-between, the Translator, and that as long as we live in the world, we need the Holy Spirit to communicate with God. I didn't like this concept because I believed that I had been talking with God all my life. (Looking back on it now, I realize that all of my conversations with God were one-sided. I did all the talking. I felt God's Presence, and sensed that He was listening, but I never heard a response to any of my monologues.)

One day in late April, I was doing Course lesson 125, which was "In quiet I receive God's Word today." It starts like this: "Let this day be a day of stillness and of quiet listening. Your Father wills you hear His Word today. He calls to you from deep within your mind where He abides. Hear Him today. No peace is possible until His Word is heard around the world; until your mind, in quiet listening, accepts the message that the world must hear to usher in the quiet time of peace?. He has not waited until you return your mind to Him to give His Word to you. He has not hid Himself from you, while you have wandered off a little while from Him. He does not cherish the illusions which you hold about yourself?. Today He speaks to you. His Voice awaits your silence, for His Word can not be heard until your mind is quiet for a while and meaningless desires have been stilled. Await His Word in quiet."

So I did. And in the quiet of meditation I heard, "Surrender to the Holy Spirit." I was not one to surrender, especially if I did not understand who I was surrendering to, so in my mind, I said, "No." A few minutes later that Voice said, "Surrender to the Holy Spirit." Again I resisted. This continued for a while until finally, and I do not know why, I surrendered. I surrendered to the Holy Spirit as well as to the idea that I could not talk with God directly.

It was literally as if a valve had opened and water came rushing in, flooding the space. The Voice flooded my mind, and I heard the most beautiful and loving communication about myself that I had ever heard before, and I knew that everything I heard was true even though I had never thought those things about myself. I asked this Voice who It was, and It told me that It was the Holy Spirit, which was the Voice for God. It was "the Voice" in lesson 125 that would share with me the Word of God.

During this experience, the only thing I was aware of in the world was this Voice. There was nothing else. The lanai was gone. The ocean was gone. It was such a tremendous feeling; I felt full and loved and at peace, while also thinking that I might explode. It seemed that I had felt this feeling before, though I don't know when or where, but I knew I wanted more of it. And I knew that it was true.

Then the Voice guided me to think of my best friend, and as I did, all of this amazing communication came into my mind about her. We had been best friends for a number of years by then, and yet these were things I had never noticed or thought about her, and they were all incredibly loving and true. Hearing these things about her allowed me to see her differently, and for the first time, I had the experience of really loving her unconditionally. A little while later, my housemate came home and I had the thought of him, and again, all of this communication came into my mind about him. It was incredibly loving and very true, and I had never noticed those things about him or seen him in that light.

Whenever my thoughts drifted off to other things, the Voice pulled me back to It. I continued to hear this Voice throughout the day and continued to be amazed by all of the communication I received and all of the things I became aware of. It was as if I had a friend sitting in my mind talking to me, making loving observations wherever we went. And it felt so comfortable and natural, as though I had just reconnected with a long lost friend, without the sense of any time having passed between us.

Later that day, I called DavidPaul and told him about my morning. I said, "You will never believe what happened to me!" He said, "Yes, I will" and listened patiently to the whole story. He was very excited and could feel that it was true. He called me back a few days later and told me that he was going to have a friend call, and he wanted me to give her communication from the Holy Spirit! He had been guided, without realizing it, to push me to share this Voice with others.

Needless to say, I was terrified at the thought of sharing this Voice, but for some reason, I agreed to share the Holy Spirit with her. We set up a time for her to call when we would both be free for an hour, which was three days later. While I was meditating before she called, I was guided to say a prayer of intention for our time together. The prayer that came to me as I waited was, "May it be with your blessings, God, that these words that come through are Yours and only Yours. May they bring joy and light to those who hear them and wisdom and knowledge to those who don't. Amen."

When this woman called, we spoke for a few minutes and then I told her that I would connect with the Holy Spirit and begin the session. I was very afraid and certain that I would have nothing to share with her, but since she was already on the phone, I had to proceed.

I said the prayer that I had been given and then I asked the Holy Spirit if It was willing to come through me. I heard, "Of course, precious one." I prayed to get out of the way, and then I began to see the Words of the Holy Spirit in front of my closed eyes. I read the Words out loud as they slowly appeared in front of me. It was a bit tortuous and yet exciting at the same time. Forty minutes quickly passed and the woman on the other end of the line was very happy, validated, and filled with a sense of peace about her life and her situation.

When we hung up, I jumped up and down and danced around the room. I was so excited that I was able to share the Holy Spirit with her and so grateful to be able to hear Truth. One thing I noticed was that the Words I shared with her were also applicable to me. Even though her situation was different than mine, the message of Truth and the perspective of Peace worked in my life as well. The Words that I shared changed the way I saw the world and the people in it?.

What is Hearing God's Voice?

Candace: Holy Spirit, what does it mean to hear God's Voice?

Holy Spirit: "Hearing God's Voice can be hearing the wind blow by; it can be hearing music, hearing someone speak, hearing birds flying overhead; it can be a car horn or someone saying 'thank you' or 'I love you,' and it can be hearing specific Words that come from within your mind, within your own heart, that come from inside of you.

"The Holy Spirit is the Translator for God and acts as the Voice for God. The Holy Spirit communicates to you and through you using God's Voice, God's Mind, and your mind ? providing comfort, guidance, direction, and love when you ask for it. It is something that isn't really offered unless it is asked for. The Holy Spirit is within you at all times and yet cannot give you guidance, comfort, or direction unless you have sought it.

"You may not have consciously said, 'Holy Spirit, please guide and direct me,' but you have, on some level, invited that guidance or direction in, and then you will hear it. It could be what you might sense as intuition, an inner voice, some kind of a conscience, some way that you know to turn left instead of right, or to not go to this particular place at this time. You are receiving guidance whether you consciously asked for it or not.

"You can hear God's Voice at any time under any circumstance. For many people, they find it easier to hear God's Voice when it's quiet, perhaps sitting down in somewhat of a meditative or reflective state without a lot of distractions. And yet that might not be the time that you need to hear the Words the most. It may be that you are standing there with the world falling down around you and there is chaos, mayhem, and hysteria everywhere you look and you want to hear guidance and comfort and Truth. And, of course, there with the world crumbling down around you, you would want to go within and ask the Holy Spirit to join with you and communicate with you.

"As a daily practice it might be that you sit quietly, go within, and seek the Words without distraction so that you can be comfortable with what it is you are connecting with, how you are doing that, and the Voice that you hear, so that you know it is the Holy Spirit, and you know they are God's Words coming to you. You then have the opportunity to redevelop your faith and to reconnect with yourself and with God so that in a time of crisis you would have the confidence that what you are connecting with is, in fact, God's Voice.

"Say, for example, that the world is crumbling down around you. You might stand there and ask for Truth so that you can be reminded and reassured that there is no such thing as death. You might stand there asking for a perception of Truth that gives you peace as all of the chaos is carrying on around you, and you can know that you are, in fact, just watching an exciting movie and you need not be in fear. Or you might stand there with the world crumbling down around you and you might say, 'Holy Spirit, where do I run to be safe?' And you might be guided left or right or up or down to a safe physical place, as if there were such a thing.

"The Holy Spirit will join you where you are. The Holy Spirit will not say there is no such thing as 'safe' if that's what you are seeking, because the Holy Spirit will give you what you are seeking, which of course has nothing to do with deceiving you. If there is a 'safe' place for your body as the world is crumbling down around you, you will be guided to that place. And yet if you say, instead, 'I would rather have peace in this moment than fear,' the Holy Spirit will guide you to that as well. You may have the illusion that your fear is alleviated through the thought of a safe place to take cover, and yet that is temporary peace. Though if that's what you are seeking, that's what you will be given. That is one of the wonderful things about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will join with you where you are rather than expect you to be somewhere else.

"As you stand there seeking peace while the world is crumbling, in joining with God, in joining with the Holy Spirit, in seeking that which is Real, you will be delivered from your fear, delivered from your perceptions of fatality and destruction, and you will be brought into God's Arms, onto God's Lap and held and rocked and comforted. Your body may still be standing in all of the chaos and mayhem, and yet the body is what man made, not what God created. In Reality, it does not exist."

Hearing God Directly

Candace: Holy Spirit, is it possible to hear God directly?

Holy Spirit: "If one had no more barriers to Truth within them, they could hear God directly. That is a very big IF. When one no longer hears the ego and only hears the Holy Spirit, that is when the door becomes open to connect with God directly. At this point, with the ego so prevalent in the mind of God's Child, there needs to be a Translator, one who understands the ego and one who understands God, and the Holy Spirit fulfills this function perfectly.

"There are no barriers to Truth within the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit can hear God directly. While those in the world have barriers to Truth, which are simply thoughts and beliefs, it is not possible to hear God directly. When one thinks they are hearing God, they are in fact hearing God's Voice and that is in effect the same as hearing God. It is just not hearing God directly. God is speaking to you and God is communicating with you through the Holy Spirit, so yes, you are hearing God and God is talking to you personally, and this is done through the Translator. Once those barriers are gone, the Translator will still exist, and yet It will no longer have that purpose. You will join with God directly."

The Evolution of Truth

DavidPaul: We believe that anyone can hear God's Voice, regardless of their state of mind or personal beliefs. For us, the longer we've been hearing this Voice, the more Truth we seem to receive. At the same time, the person who brought through A Course in Miracles seems to have brought through only Truth, with no previous experience of hearing Jesus's voice within her. Wanting to better understand why this is so, we asked the Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit: "For the most part, when someone asks a question, they are looking for an answer that they can actually understand, an answer that makes sense to them, that they can take in and do something with. If someone asks you what 2 + 2 is and you answer with anything other than 4, you are most likely giving too much information, complicating the matter, and talking above where the person is. They have not asked, 'What is the meaning of 2 + 2?' They have not asked why 2 + 2 equals a particular number or anything else. They have just asked, 'What is 2 + 2?'

"When you ask a question of God or the Holy Spirit or Jesus, to present an answer other than what you have asked would not be of Truth. If you ask, 'What is the meaning of life?' or 'Why am I here?' there are at least six billion answers to those questions. The answer could be one thing on Monday and something different on Tuesday and something different next year because what you are asking for will be given to you and what you are truly asking at any given time can change.

"When you ask the Holy Spirit a question, you will get Truth every time. You will get as much Truth as you are truly asking for. You will get as much Truth as you can understand, take in, absorb, make sense of, work with, utilize, and apply, and no more. What would be the point of receiving more? It would be wasted and it would perhaps confuse any other Truth that might have otherwise been understood.

"If you were to say to the Holy Spirit, 'I want to receive communication that is above where I am right now. I want to receive the highest Truth,' you would not know if you were receiving the highest truth because you would not be able to understand the Truth in the message. When Jesus was delivering the Sermon on the Mount, so much Truth was shared on that day, and everyone heard something a little different depending on where they were. So the highest Truth might be told, and you will take from it what you can and nothing more. You cannot take more from it than you can understand. You may be given the highest Truth every time you connect with the Holy Spirit and what you can take from that is as much as you can understand in that moment.

"In looking at the person who brought through ACIM, which is an incredible piece of Truth, and yet perhaps in your understanding is beyond where the scribe's evolution was, in this case, she had a purpose. She had an agreement with Jesus and an understanding that she would perform a service and do a job. Her agreement was to take dictation for Jesus, and yet little by little, she absorbed.

"Each person has their own mission and purpose in the world that is just for them. And whatever they do for them, in Truth, benefits the Sonship. It has no other choice. So, if this person who brought through ACIM fulfills her function, she does that for you, not because you now have a book to read but because when another fulfills their true function, they do it for all.

"You can give thanks to that person and to the countless others who today are able to look upon another and see them without judgment, to see them with love and acceptance, to see them as a Child of God, as their Brother. You can give thanks for that person who puts the effort and the intention and the desire into looking upon another with eyes of Truth. At the end of every day, you can give thanks for all of the people who saw the world, not through the body's eyes, but through God's Eyes. You can give thanks for all of the people who chose not to judge but to love instead. You can give thanks for every person who saw Love where there was hatred, or Peace where there was pain, for every person who chose Joy over suffering, for everyone who chose to see the Truth today over the illusion of the world, and for each one who was not tricked by the ego or deceived by that part of their mind but chose Reality instead. You can give thanks for everyone who chose differently today, who did so on your behalf. No greater gift could they give you."

Inspired by A Course in Miracles, DavidPaul and Candace Doyle have been hearing and sharing the Voice of the Holy Spirit as a distinct and conversational Voice for over eleven years. Their dream is to promote a way of thinking, perceiving, and living the Truth of who and what we are by sharing the Voice of the Holy Spirit and supporting others in hearing this Voice within them.

DavidPaul and Candace are the authors of The Journey That Never Was: a guide to hearing God's Voice regardless of one's faith, religion, or personal beliefs. In it, they weave their personal experiences of hearing this Voice with step-by-step exercises and communication from the Holy Spirit to help all people hear God's Voice with the specificity and clarity they truly long for.

To learn more about The Journey That Never Was, visit http://www.rightmindedness.com