How can I tell the difference between “Divine Inspiration” and “My Ego”?

Discerning the voice of your internal guidance system.

by Dr. Janeen J. Detrick

Basically, the answer is so simple; SO simple!

Ego is exterior motivation: Edging God Out!  INSPIRATION means “in” and “Spirit”. Spirit means breath. That which comes from within and gives you the breath of life!  That is divine inspiration!

If it depresses you, it didn’t come from God. If it makes you judge someone else as being “bad”, it doesn’t come from God, because God loves us all and sees everybody’s perspective! If it makes you feel fear, it didn’t come from God! Now, Please understand that when you first get the inspiration, it comes with a little burst of excitement. A thought that “Wouldn’t that be great if it were that way!  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if it worked out like that!” But then, if a feeling of fear wells up inside you, as an afterthought, THAT is just the parameters of your current comfort zone yelling at you!  DO IT!  DO exactly what your comfort zone wants you to avoid! That kind of fear is only imaginary fear, not based in any facts. It points out to you where your courage zone is! Listen to that initial feeling of excitement that wells up within you as you ponder the idea, the direction. Don’t dismiss it just because you can’t imagine how it could possibly come true!  Figuring that out is NOT your job! Handling the details is the job of the universe; Not yours! You just hold in your awareness that which you want, with joyful expectation, and the details will come to you!

Now, let me explain how it feels when you are doing “due diligence” to check out an investment opportunity; The divine can inspire you NOT to do it, but it feels different than “foreboding”; If the divine is saying NOT to do it, you will feel happy and good and edified that some other investment will come along!  This is NOT your only chance to make a lot of money! So, a “No” answer from the divine even comes with a little burst of positive energy on it!

Ego makes you think that something or someone is Bad or WRONG.
From a divine perspective, which football team should win? Both sides are praying to win! Which person’s perspective is the right one? Right; Wrong; Good and Bad; All those words and perspectives come from ego; Our limited perspective causes us to think that our way is the best or right way. From a divine perspective, there is only, “Does it serve you or doesn’t it serve you?”

When what other people think you should do is so loud you can’t hear that inner voice, then THAT is ego!  Exterior motivation, edging god out!  Inspiration is “IN SPIRIT”.
That which the tribal energies in which you were raised (religion, group, family) “forces” you to do a certain thing a certain way, even if you don’t really want it that way, indicating that it isn’t really the divinity raising up within YOU motivating you to do that certain thing. Another example of “exterior motivation” is “keeping up with the Joneses”. Now, if someone gives you an idea, and it sparks an excitement within you, then THAT can be divine inspiration!  The divine just used that person to point it out to you; It still had to raise up within you to inspire you! It may also come through a website that you stumbled into, or a business opportunity you were presented. But no matter what the source was, it INSPIRES YOU, and you don’t have to work at getting inspired by it, it just does! It wells up within you and makes you feel happy to think of it! Also, remember that knowledge of the truth sets you FREE; It does NOT tie your gut up in knots! It does not make you think the end is near. It does NOT make you judge someone else. It does NOT cause you anxiety; It gives you LIFE! It’s edifying!  Anything that causes anxiety cannot come from GOD!

When I went to Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri, I learned something very helpful to me in understanding how to recognize when God is talking to us.  In Hebrew, the word in the Old Testament that is translated “voice of God”, is the word “paga”. Paga means, “an accidental intersection with your own thoughts.”  Now think about that; An accidental intersection with your own thoughts, is GOD talking to you!  It’s probably happened to you many many many times, hasn’t it?  You are thinking about something else, then all of a sudden, as if out of the blue, a life giving, energizing thought pops into your head: “Oh!”….It often takes your breath away….”That’s cool!” You think about the thought that popped into your head.  Whatever it was, even if you do not understand why you were given that prompting, DO IT! THAT was God talking to you; It was INSPIRATION!”

You are likely hearing from God all the time. You just didn’t know it was him!

There you go, Friends.  Follow your enthusiasms because the etymology of the word “enthusiasm” means  En (within) Theos (God); GOD WITHIN!

Follow your enthusiasms!

1. First of all, it’s not “YOUR EGO”!  That is NOT who you really are, and secondly, it is NOT YOURS, it is a collective consciousness of strings of energy floating around in the shared mind field, and you brain just happened to pick up on the thought!
2. What you want is what you want because the divine put it into your heart so that you would want it, because that is exactly what your divine inheritance is! YOUR WILL IS GOD’S WILL!
3. The voice of the divine makes your bosom swell with a tiny little burst of energy that says, “YES!  Oh, I would love that if that happened!” God Energy is YES ENERGY!” God says YES by giving you a burst of energy on the issue!  YES ENERGY!
4. How god says no is by wiping it from your mind…NOT causing it to swell in your heart and mind.  God does NOT guide through giving you a bad feeling to steer you away!  “He” does NOT do that! “He” does NOT guide through bad feelings!  THAT’s how the ego/devil guides! NEVER FOLLOW BAD FEELINGS!  How god says no is by making you forget all about it, or just don’t have any energy on the thing at all!  A “stupor of thought”…Nothing. Nada!  “I don’t know…I’m not sure.  I don’t know”…THAT IS HOW GOD SAYS NO!
5. If you LIKE it…the thought impulse is YOU!  If you don’t like it, the thought is NOT you! If you don’t like it, or don’t know…as in undecided…then, it’s a NOT from god!
6. God never guides through FEAR!  That is how the ego/devil guides!  NEVER FOLLOW FEAR, or take any steps toward or away from something, out of fear!  God does NOT guide through fear; The ego/devil does!  Stop following the devil!

Isn’t it great to finally know this??