There’s a huge difference in a question asked in sincerity and a question asked with a motive.  The first wants your honest input.  The second has an agenda to change your mind.

I’ve been on the receiving end of both types of questions and been the perpetrator of both.  It is common strategy throughout most religions.  Something I learned unwittingly.  But recently I’ve become keenly aware that I want nothing to do with the agenda-type.  It requires a mind of premeditated manipulation.  It has nothing of Grace and Love to share.  It’s like a closed box where no Light can shine inside.  Nothing Lives there.  It’s a stagnant pond without breath.  And I reject it now with prejudice.

My new-found prejudice developed so intensely that I experienced anger at the slightest rearing of ‘agenda’s’ head, even when it presented as innocent ignorance.  My reactions were severely impatient, or even disgusted.

So I went to Father asking “why do I react so negatively to agenda-type questions?”  Immediately I saw the word “lie”.  It resonated truly in my heart.  The agenda-type question is a ‘lie’ because it isn’t honest.  The question is not meant to hear my answer.  It’s a staging inquiry to open my heart so I’m vulnerable to intrusion.

Questions about Faith open my heart to the deepest of my relationships – the one with my God.  But an agenda-type question takes advantage of that opening and roots around in my heart, picking and tossing my treasures about, making me confused and vulnerable to suggestion; the suggestion is the true agenda.  The agenda wants me to abandon one of my treasures in favor of something treasured by someone else – which is often not a treasure to me.  Afterward, the struggle to retrieve my treasure is lengthy and messed up with feelings of violation.

Father never guided me to Truth using this method.  His way to Truth is Loving; accepting of me exactly the way I am.  If I am to do as I see Him doing, then this is not a model worthy of choice.  Therefore I change my mind.  By the way – I am free to experience questions internally and externally.  Father’s plan for me was that I achieve Understanding but He didn’t use a ‘lie’ to teach me.  He let me experience, and gently understand and then choose.

It’s the same process for everyone.  Therefore I can’t be angry with someone  walking the same path I walked.  Nor will I intrude on their path (attempting to use that method again).  When they achieve the sincerity of their question, they will come forward.

Meantime, I will hear Father.  That may mean walking away from a question with a smile; choosing Peace.  Sending them Love to Grow while they walk their path.