Spirit Helpers and Guides - Universal Spirituality

This article addresses the topic of spirit guidance and spirit communication — our spirit helpers and how they guide us. The subject is generally shied away from and even taboo in Christian circles, and often veiled in fear. I am starting my thought development from the Bible as a foundation – even though through the process of editing, compiling, selection of manuscripts, as well as translation, errors have been introduced into biblical texts. I am further drawing on more recent revelation referenced below the article.

Believers in God readily accept the idea that God is our provider, protector, guide, healer, and helper in various other ways, and the Bible substantiates this in many passages (for example: Psalm 48:14-17; 91:1-16; Heb. 13:6). When we are at crossroads, in danger, or at the end of our rope, we cry out to God for help and often see a clear-cut guidance or supernatural intervention by unseen spirit helpers.

The Bible also tells us that God uses his angels to minister to us – He doesn’t do all the work Himself (Psalm 34:7; 103:20). It is even implied that we are assigned a personal or guardian angel to help us, protect us, and guide us (Acts 12:11-15 alludes to “Peter’s angel”; and Psalm 91:11 refers to a “guardian angel”).

We are also told that God is the Father of spirits of all mankind (Heb. 12:23; Num. 16:22 and 27:16; Rev. 22:6) and the God of the living, not the dead (Luke 20:38). In addition, figuratively, or in a spiritual sense, we have access to the heavenly realms teeming with thousands of angels and spirits of perfected humans, as well as being the abode of God the Father and Jesus (Heb. 12:22-25).

We learn further that even though death is a compulsory part of life, we don’t remain dead – there is a “resurrection” and a “world (age) to come” that we enter (Matt. 12:32; 22:29-32). When the physical body dies, there is no resurrection of the physical body or another fleshly reincarnation. There is, however, a “resurrection” that is common to all. After death, all humans “rise” in a spiritual body that has been with them throughout their lives housing their soul, and enter the spirit world.

The resurrection at the moment of death, when the silver cord connecting the soul to the physical body is broken (Eccl. 12:6-7; “in the twinkling of an eye”, cf. 1 Cor. 15:51-52) has been occurring throughout human history and before the time of Jesus. The continuation of life in the spirit world has been understood by various people all around the globe. Some, being gifted with extra-sensory perception, have witnessed manifestations of this reality in encountering spirit appearances of those who had died and/or were sent to assist in need (2 Kings 6:12-17).

Jesus also alluded to the spirit world existence. The ultimate potential of all humans is to become (like) angels – there will be no marriage (or even sexuality, which is a physical function). Those fulfilling their high potential will be God’s children in the sense of sharing His divine substance and immortality (Matt. 22:29-32; Mark 12:26; Luke 20:34-38). This will happen through a process of a “new birth”, or being born again of spirit (John 3:3), which was new revelation that Jesus brought upon coming to earth.

Even though the ultimate human potential is to become God’s children by sharing in his divine substance and immortality, not all will achieve this. Some will only develop their natural human love through obedience to God’s commandments, and remain spirits of perfected humans at the sixth sphere of the spirit world. Without the Divine Love imparted by the Holy Spirit, which enables perfect and unconditional love transcending the law (Matt. 5:44-48), they will not qualify for the Celestial Heavens of God’s Kingdom as the Father’s children in a special kinship and oneness (Rom. 8:14-17; Gal. 4:4-7). However, no matter what state in the physical or spirit world they find themselves, all humans at all times are God’s children and his highest and most beloved creation, even if at present they may be sinners (Matt. 5:44-48; Luke 6:35-36).

When the first humans sinned, the potentiality of at-onement with God the Father, with its accompanying soul transformation and immortality through the Divine Love, was lost to them, and in that sense they died. Jesus brought the news and exemplified the fact in his life, that this potentiality has been restored. This in effect is the ultimate resurrection – resurrection to divinity and immortality – through the Divine Love, available from the Father upon heartfelt prayer, transforming the human soul into divine essence (see Titus 3:3-7).

So, closing the circle of reasoning in this article, mortals on earth have spirit helpers who were once human and are now continuing in the spirit world. This idea has been accepted by various religious traditions. For example, Catholics have always prayed for help to various saints, especially Mary, but also many others. Buddhists invoke spirit beings known as devas. Others refer to spirit guides and teachers.

How Our Spirit Helpers Guide Us

Whether we are conscious of them or not, we all have spirit helpers that assist and guide us. This is especially true for those who are on a spiritual path. Guidance occurs through thought impressions, impulses, “inner voice”, and inspiration, as well as events and circumstances. We may feel a repeated impulse to do something, such as phoning a friend; an article idea or a poem might come into our mind ready to be written down; or we may receive a flash of insight to solve a problem that alluded solution for a long time. Not all thoughts come from beyond, but can be generated by our own mind. However, becoming suddenly aware of something we didn’t know before may well originate from the world of spirit.

In all cases, there is always the need to evaluate thoughts, no matter what their origin, and especially carefully consider whether or not to act upon them. While we have a large number of spirit helpers, not all spirits have our best interest in mind. The Bible exhorts to test the spirits to determine whether or not they are from God (1 John 4:1-2). In addition, we need to pray for protection from lower spirits.

The Bible also mentions the Holy Spirit, referred to as Counsellor or, in other translations, Comforter as well as the “Spirit of truth”. It is stated that this spirit will teach, remind Jesus’ disciples of his teachings, and continue to lead into truth (John 14:16-17, 26; 15:26; 16:13). The Holy Spirit is the instrument that brings the Divine Love into longing souls. It is only through the work of the Holy Spirit that spiritual understanding is possible (1 Cor. 2:9-14).

Some feel that the Holy Spirit is separate from the Spirit of truth, which they believe is a guiding spirit working on the soul and helping each person discern truth and error. I prefer the view that the Spirit of truth is a part of the Holy Spirit which imparts the Divine Love to a soul desiring to receive it. As more and more Divine Love comes into and transforms the soul, spiritual perceptions sharpen and awareness of truth increases. Our perception of truth evolves as our soul evolves and comes into greater harmony and oneness with God. Understanding of truth is never complete for all eternity – there will always be room for learning and growth for the children of God.

It is important to remain at a high level of spirituality and close to God in order to stay tuned to the right guidance. This is achieved through constant and continuous attitude of prayer (1 Thess. 5:17) or “practicing the presence of God” to borrow a favourite expression of Brother Lawrence, whose life and counsel exemplified this. Prayer elevates our spirituality, while pride, arrogance, fear, anger, bitterness, hate, envy, and negativity in general open the soul’s doors to evil influences. Every time we feel negativity, we lower our defences, our spiritual “antivirus program” is compromised, and we may fall victim to the influence of beings, with whom we don’t want to be in contact with. So ultimately, it is a matter of our free will and being tuned to our highly advanced spirit helpers and guides whose work is to try to ensure that their charges’ spirituality stays at a high level.

Just as humans see only a tiny part of the light spectrum, while an enormous part on each side of that infinitesimal visible range exists and is unseen by us, there is a large unseen spirit world that only a few have glimpsed. The rest of us can become more aware of it by elevating our consciousness and being increasingly mindful of what is happening in our lives. We can become more attuned to the syncronicities of each day, helpful thoughts entering our mind about something we had been wondering about, or insights about dealing with a specific problem. Sometimes we witness dramatic protection when a car crash seemed inevitable but didn’t happen, or when in a nasty fall, no bones were broken and we didn’t even feel soreness.

Much of life really is a matter of mindfulness and perception. We can walk through life without seeing, or we can, at the soul level, desire God’s Love and truth. As we pray for this in response to that desire, we’ll grow in the Divine Love and become more and more attuned to God. Our soul perceptions will become sharper, our inner eyes will open, and our awareness of our unseen spirit helpers will grow. We will then begin to perceive their action all around us.

References in addition to the Bible:
True Gospel Revealed Anew by Jesus (Vol. 1-4)

For a helpful article about connecting with spirit guides, click here.

Another good article on spirit guidance can be found here.

A real-life story, Guided to Encourage gives an example of how guidance can occur.

Here is another related and helpful article: Making Decisions Based on Divine Guidance.

A small book, Discerning Truth and Divine Guidance, can be downloaded as a PDF.

Photo: Dimitar Tzankov