This recording features the Sunday Talk portion of the service. For the full service watch here.
Turning Within: Trusting The Voice Inside – Rev. Roderick Norton
DESCRIPTION
Are you listening and are you trusting? There is a voice within each of us that guides, comforts, and empowers us. This voice is the divine presence and it is always speaking, waiting for us to listen and trust. Through stillness, faith, and spiritual practice, we learn to rely on this voice of Truth that leads us to freedom, clarity, and fulfillment.
SUMMARY
In this talk, Rev. Rod Norton encourages the congregation to trust the divine presence within themselves and listen to the “still small voice” that guides them, rather than conforming to external expectations or beliefs. He emphasizes the importance of being still, becoming acquainted with one’s inner voice, and aligning with one’s true, authentic self. Rev. Norton reminds the audience that the answers they seek are not outside themselves, but within, in the divine presence that is closer than their own breath. He encourages them to have a dialogue with this inner wisdom, rather than a monologue, and to express the unique individuality that God has created them to express transformation through embodying one’s true spiritual self.
TRANSCRIPTION
This transcription was auto-generated, please excuse typos, errors and omissions.
Rev. Rod Norton:
Let’s say thanks to this fabulous music team one more time. Thank God they are simply amazing and you are amazing and I’m thinking right now that Cityside just want me to sign over my checkbook and everything to you because you guys have been saying so many nice things about me this morning. I think you guys might have me. Yeah, it’s a beautiful day. It’s so warm outside and I love the heat, but on Friday I turned my AC on for the first time and it wasn’t working for me,
But my place was still okay for me, but I also also have a little dog and so on Friday, so yesterday a couple of people were calling checking up on the dog and whatnot, and a friend of mine said, I’m coming by to get the dog so he can be in some air. They came and picked up the dog and later on I talked to my friend. I’m like, how’s the dog doing? The dog’s doing well. I’m like, y’all didn’t even check up on me, see if I needed a place to go or anything. He’s like, everyone’s concerned about the dog, what about me?
But it’s all good. It’s all good. It’s all good. One of the things that I’ve heard this morning and from the time I walked in the door up until the time I got up here, and I truly love this about Cityside is that you guys really talk about love and not only do you talk about love, but you express love. You express love, and for me that is just so important to be able to walk the walk and talk the talk, and I just thank you guys for being the type of spiritual community that you are. Keep on expressing love because right now the world really needs this expression of love, so you are in your right place doing the right thing and just continue doing that. Your thing for this month is in living color. As you celebrate diversity and inclusion this month as part of the celebration of pride month, part of your theme description for the month says, we are invited to cast away the consciousness of exclusion and celebrate unity, diversity, and the spiritual truth that each of us is a unique and perfect expression of the one I want to open up this morning with a series of affirmations.
I’m going to say the affirmations first, then I want you to say them with me. Okay?
The first one is: I trust the voice of God within me. Please repeat after me.
I trust the voice of God within me.
The second one is: I listen in stillness… I listen in stillness…
and act … and act… with divine confidence…with divine confidence.
The third affirmation is: I am guided, I’m guided,
I am centered. I’m centered.
I am one with the infinite. I’m one can infinite.
So I want to speak this morning on turning within and trusting the voice inside, trusting the voice inside. This is actually one of my favorite topics to talk about and it’s also one of my favorite things to actually practice because I truly believe that as we get more and more into turning within and trusting the voice within us is really the secret to us living a healthy, happy, and prosperous life and it really brings about success and freedom for each of us. Success in doing what you have been called to do here and freedom from other people’s opinions and beliefs, trusting the voice within sets you up to be okay with whoever or whomever it is that God called you to be. And it breaks chains to other people’s beliefs. Do you know that sometimes we are tied to other people’s beliefs so it breaks change.
Change to other people’s beliefs that will stop you from being the individualized expression that God needs you to be and needs you to express. Scripture says in Romans 12, two, it says, do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Transformation takes place when you begin to allow yourself to be guided by spirit, and this is one of the things that happens as we turn within, as we begin to listen to the voice within us, is that we begin the process of transformation because now we are beginning to open ourselves up so that the voice within us can guide us so that the voice that’s in us can begin to order our steps so that the voice within us and not the so-called pattern of the world or other people’s opinions or beliefs because sometimes we do conform to the pattern of the world.
Sometimes we do conform to other people’s beliefs and other people’s opinions, but are those things in alignment with the voice within us? Are those things aligned in alignment with the divine presence within us? Because sometimes we find ourselves in conflict. Have you ever found yourself in conflict because the voice inside of you, which we call the divine presence, I’m going to get to even more. Sometimes the voice inside of us is telling us one thing, but other folks are telling us something else and we find ourselves in conflict and sometimes things just don’t feel right. Have you ever been in a situation or have you ever just been in a place where this just doesn’t feel right, this just doesn’t feel right, and we have to ask ourselves sometimes, should I be doing this? Should I really be doing this or should I be saying this or should I be expressing this or am I just simply conforming to the pattern of the world when something inside of me is saying, you need to go this way, but everyone else is pulling me this way when something inside of me is saying that you ought to be expressing universal love.
And then something outside of me is saying, oh, you should only be loving this particular area or this particular group or this particular thing. Have you ever had that kind of conflict where it just doesn’t feel right inside of me? I know sometimes, sometimes it happens. Sometimes that happens in churches where you’re sitting in a church Sunday after Sunday and year after year and you sit there because this is where mama brought you. This is where grandma brought you or this is the family church. And so you feel like you are tied that you need to stay there even though that which is being expressed is something that’s not really resonating with your soul. It’s something inside of you simply saying that to be saying that there’s something bigger, there’s something greater, there’s something different.
There’s another way you can believe. There’s another way you can think about this thing. No two people, no two people are alike, so therefore can ever express alike. We all have one thing in common though, and that is the divine presence and it expresses through each of us and speaks to each of us. I have learned that you must become acquainted with this voice because it actually sounds different to each of us, but it’s the same voice. But I’ve learned personally that you need to become acquainted with this voice. How it sounds to me will be different than how it sounds to you. So don’t judge the voice. Don’t judge your voice by the sound of my voice and let me not judge my voice by the sound of your voice because as I have learned to become still and have learned to become quiet, I have, I’ve been able to hear the voice for myself and been able to say, okay, this is the way the divine presence speaks to me. And sometimes I don’t hear it the way I need to hear it until I really become still and quiet. And a lot of times it happens late, late, late at night and I’m like, why do you have to speak to me so late at night?
You’ve had all day to speak to me. You had most of the evening to speak to me, but you want to show up at 10 o’clock at night and speak to me. But the truth of the matter is that the divine presence is always speaking to us. It’s just a matter of am I in tune with it? Am I listening to it or do I get so busy with my day that I just simply tune it out and it knows that later on in the evening when things are really quiet in my home, it could then really get through to me and I find myself many nights staying up to like 2, 3, 4 in the morning and I’m like, okay, God, okay, divine presence. I need to go to bed. I need to get up in like two hours now. And divine presence I think says, whether you listened to me earlier, we wouldn’t be going through this right now, but I say this because it’s just a matter of really becoming acquainted with the voice within you, the divine presence within you, because it’s always there and it’s always communicating with you.
Scriptures in Psalms 46 it says, be still and know that I am God, be still and know that I am the presence. Be still and know that I am the one power. Be still and know that I am your guide. Be still and know that I will order your steps, be still and know. See, I’m adding stuff to it, but I just want you to understand what this particular scripture is really all about. What it says, beast doesn know that I am God. I am that source. I am that presence that is with you at all times, but in order to really know me, you have to be still sometimes so you can feel me earn. Holmes says in the book, he says, there is a divine presence at the center of your being and it is perfect. I thought about that and I began to meditate on that. Reverend Amy, it says, he says there, there’s a divine presence at the center of your being. I made it personal. There’s a divine presence at the center of my being and it is perfect. So there is a divine presence at the center of my being and it is perfect.
So if there is a divine presence at the center of my being and it is perfect and I was created to express it, if I tune myself into this divine presence and listen to what it has to tell me and where it is trying to guide me, and if I open myself up to its expression, then that which I say that which I do and that which I am will also be a reflection or an out-picturing of this divine presence that which is within me, which is perfect, but you’ll get this. You have to trust though it is perfection, this a divine presence that’s within me and it is perfect, but I have a job to tune into that presence and to trust this presence and to trust the perfection of this presence. So as I tune in to this presence and allow it to guide me, sometimes we question ourselves. We should I really be going here? Should I really be even though, even though I feel inside of me that I should be headed that way? Divine presence is pulling me that way. I sometimes question it, don’t I?
An example we use sometimes you could be driving down the expressway. Another name is something told me that I should get in the local lanes and not the express lanes, but I decided to stay in the express lane and just a half a mile up everything comes to a standstill and I’m not moving nowhere, but I look to my right in the local lanes and I’m sitting, all the traffic just simply flow by. But that’s something inside of me told me what to do to get over and flow that way in the local lanes. But my ego says that I’m going to stay right here because I don’t necessarily trust or get the, or maybe I have not become acquainted with that divine presence that’s within me that was telling me to travel in that lane and to get out of this lane. So we have to bring ourselves to the point where we trust the perfection of the divine presence within us.
We live in a world filled without a noise, a lot of media, a lot of opinions, a lot of demands, a lot of distractions. Everyone wants to tell you what to do, how you should do it, how you should feel, and what you should be. It can become very confusing at times, especially if you’re not comfortable with your current form of expression because you are not expressing your authentic self and everyone’s pulling at you, but you’re not expressing your authentic self, but you’re expressing a copy of what someone else has expressed how you should be expressing. But the real guidance we seek does not come from outside. The real guidance we seek does not come from your parents. The real guidance that you seek does not come from your spouse, your partner, your significant others. The real guidance that you seek is really the still small voice within the voice of the divine presence, the voice of God, the inner wisdom that speaks to us.
It doesn’t shout to us, but it speaks to us and it speaks to us in the stillness. So when we turn within, it’s not escaping the outer world. When you turn within, it’s really just simply aligning yourself with the inner world. It’s really just to be aligning yourself with the divine presence which is seeking to express through you. So trusting the voice inside is not arrogance, but it’s an awakening. It’s not arrogance, but it’s an awakening. As I awaken to that presence that’s within me, I feel myself feel with not just the presence, but also feel myself filled with the power of the presence.
Holmes says, God is not a person but a presence. He says, God is not an individual but a universal spirit. Ernest Holmes reminds us that the presence is not far off waiting in the clouds. It is within you closer than your breath. This voice is not foreign. It is your truest self. So this presence that we’re talking about, this inner voice is not something that’s outside of you, but this inner voice is something that’s in you, this voice, this presence. It is within you closer than your breath is not formed, but this presence is your truest self. It is who I truly am. It is presence just simply this divine presence, just simply saying to my outer self that I’ll need you to align yourself with your true self. I need you to align yourself with your real self. I need you to align yourself with me. The one power, the one presence.
So often we look and we seek answers where we seek answers outside, but Spirit just patiently waits and just says, I’m here. I’m here. Stop looking outside. Stop looking for, stop looking for somebody else. Put that phone down. I’m here if you want some real answers, if you want some perfect answers, if you really want to see yourself get out of that situation, or if you really want to see yourself expressing from that desire that you have inside of you, if you really want to see that, then stop searching. Stop asking, but be still and turn within and I will give you the guidance that you need. I will give you the answers that you need. I will give you the expression that you need.
I will even do this also wrap you up in my love until you get to the point where you realize that you are already one with that love. It’s always here. Get this and you have always heard the voice. You might not have always been familiar with the voice. You might not always been able to identify the voice, but you’ve heard the voice. And I think one of the wonderful things about this spiritual community is this spiritual community helps you to understand the voice so that you’ll no longer go around thinking that it is something outside of you or it is just this fantasy thing, or these are just simply voices in your mind. The spiritual community helps you to understand the voice that the voice is within you, that there’s a divine presence within you, and that is your highest calling that voice.
So you’ve always heard it, but the difference is now is that you are able to identify it, and now since you’re able to identify it, you’re able to be more obedient to it and you no longer have to just simply stand in the box that either you drew for yourself or that someone else drew for you saying that this is the way you should be. This is the way you need to conform, or this is who you should love. Once you begin to identify and understand the voice for yourself, you’ll become more confident, you’ll feel more empowered because now, now you’re listening to your authentic self. And not only are you listening to your authentic self, but guess what? You now feel empowered to express your authentic self.
One of my favorite, favorite prophets in the Bible is Samuel, and one of the reasons I like Samuel is this Samuel’s a little kid. He lived with Eli, and Eli was like a high priest and his mentor and Samuel one night heard the voice and he got up out of his bed and he went to Eli and said, did you call me? And Eli said, no, I didn’t call you. He said, go back to bed my child. And then he got up a second time and went to Eli and said, did you call me? Eli said, no, I did not call you. And then he got up a third time and went to Eli and said, did you call me? He said, I did not call you. He said, but Eli said, next time you hear the voice say, here I am. He went back to bed. He heard the voice and he answered, here I am. Here I am. For Eli directed Samuel to the voice within him and directed Samuel so that Samuel could understand that the voice was never anything outside of him, but the voice of spirit. The voice of God, that the voice of that divine presence was speaking to him, getting his attention because he had something to say.
And because the divine presence was looking to use Samuel in the way that Samuel was meant to be used, get this, each of us are meant to be used in a special and particular way away. Connie cannot compare herself to Amy, and Amy cannot compare herself to Connie because Connie’s here for one reason. Amy’s here for another reason. And no matter what Connie tells Amy as far as her reasoning for being here, no matter what Reverend Amy tells Connie for her reasoning for being here, it is ultimately up to Amy and up to Connie to listen to the divine presence within themselves and say, here I am. Why am I here? What do you need me to do? What is mine to do today? Spirit, I’m listening. It is important for us to be able to turn within and just ask Spirit. Ask the divine presence, Reverend John, what is mine to do today? What do you need me to do today and get this? Get this. I tell some of my people this all the time. Stop trying to have a monologue with God. See, a monologue is you’re the only one doing the talking.
Why not? If you’re going to have a monologue, let the monologue be on the divine presence side and not your side. Just sit and allow the divine President just sit and allow spirit to talk to you, and that’s fine. Or if you or have a dialogue, allow spirit to speak to you, and it’s okay to speak back to spirit and say, and then simply and say, what is mine to do today? I might need more clarity. Help me with more clarity and you can have a dialogue, but don’t have a monologue with you. Leading. Ernest Psalm says, the answer to every problem lies within man’s own mind.
An affirmation I picked up years ago and I keep on my computer at home says, my spirit is omniscient and it informs my mind, and I picked up, actually, I picked it up from a unity publication some years back, and I love that particular affirmation and it always comes back to me. My spirit is omni and it informs my mind. The voice inside of me knows everything and it informs me on what I need to do. The spirit inside of me knows everything, and it informs me. It informs my mind on what it is that I need to do.
Trust, trust, know that you’re not in this alone even if you don’t. See, we’re here on a Sunday morning and this is a beautiful collective consciousness. You got beautiful people around you here to support your spiritual growth, but know that even once you leave here and you go back home or go back wherever you’re going, know that you are never alone, that there is a presence within you that is always seeking to support you. God is always seeking to support you, and God is never looking to bring you down. Any levels is always looking to elevate you up to some higher levels. Just trust the divine presence. Trust the divine presence. Trust the divine presence. There is nothing that you are going through or ever will go through that there’s not an answer for.
Even if you don’t like what the doctor says or the bankers might have to say, or your best friends might have to say, you might go to people and they don’t have answers for you, and that’s okay because you shouldn’t go to them anyway first unless you went to God first, because the divine presence within me knows everything, knows who I need to go and talk to, know where I need to be, know who I need to show up as, knows who is for my highest good. Y’all good? Let’s do this. Let’s turn within right now. As we close with prayer, just softly close your eyes and know that all is well right here and right now. Know that you are supported in this journey called in life. Know that you are supported in what you’re trying to do and that which spirit is trying to express through you. Don’t worry about if you have the answers for the answers, have you and is within you and will express through you
When it needs to be expressed.
We give thanks right now for this divine presence. We give thanks for the still small voice within us that continues to speak through us, that continues to lead and guide us, that continues to tell us individually. I got your back. I got your back, and I’ll order your steps. Just listen, trust and obey, and I will not leave you, nor will I forsake you. Don’t look for me in the winds, don’t look for me in the rocks, but look for me within it. Doesn’t need to shout to you. Just let it speak to you. Sweet, sweet spirit. We are becoming more and more acquainted with your voice right now. We’re becoming more and more acquainted with how you live, breathe, and we’re becoming more and more acquainted. Keep on working with us. We give thanks. Keep on supporting us because that’s your nature. We give thanks. We’re open and receptive to be the perfect individualized expressions that you have created us to be,
And we give thanks and we give thanks, and we give thanks for this perfect expression as it expresses through us. And so it is. Amen. God bless.
Thank you, Rev. Rod.