Trusting Spirit Guides

Question: How can you be sure your Spirit Guides aren’t lying to you? How can you trust them?

Answer: The focus isn’t about trusting my Guides. It’s about trusting God and the Spirit’s leading.

I have started using the term Spirit Guide in a generic way to describe those entities who help guide and teach us in the spirit realm, as opposed to those individuals who guide and teach us in the physical. They can be called by different names, such as Teachers, Guides, Mentors, Masters, or Gurus, and include human entities, such as Jesus, or non-human, such as Angels. It can be easy to identify our guides in the physical (such as parents, teachers, mentors, coaches, various religious leaders, etc.), but we also have guides in the spiritual who fulfill the same role as those in the physical, but not all of us are aware of them or interact with them.

Spirit Guide is not a term that is very common in mainstream Christianity, and even then, it’s often given a negative connotation. Some who speak negatively about Spirit Guides have no personal experience; they are just parroting what someone else told them. But for others, they’ve experienced the negative side, and so I can understand their perspective.

Since the connotation for some is so negative, or at the least, one that warrants eye-rolls and dismissal, it’s not necessarily my favorite term to use, but until I find a better one, this is the one I’m using.

Prior to 2021, the perception I had of many of my personal experiences, including those with who I now call Guides, was skewed, perceived through an odd mixture of fear-based fundamentalism and charismatic superstition, as well as the negative experiences I’d had through deliverance ministry with a man who called himself a “life coach.” I was also heavily influenced by the perception that my late friend, Carolyn Hamlett, had had of her own experiences. She had come to the conclusion that the spiritual beings she’d been in contact with many years before (some who had claimed to be Ascended Masters, among other titles), were not of God, but were fallen angels meant to bring deception. And so for several years, that was one of the things she and I both warned others to avoid, saying that those types of Beings in the spirit realms were lying spirits that brought deception, and that there were no exceptions.

After several years of further contemplation and taking the time to process my own experiences, however, I have now reconsidered my previous stance and my personal beliefs have evolved quite a bit, but I still believe the warnings are something that should be considered overall. There’s danger in improperly engaging the spirit world, because there are deceptive spirits, human and non-human alike, who can harass and deceive, taking advantage of us for two main reasons: first, because of our foolishness or our ignorance; and second, because of our improper focus, which can be because of ignorance or foolishness.

So how do we know who we can trust?

The Spirit of God is our Guide—the ultimate Spirit Guide, you could say—leading us into truth, guiding us on the right path, teaching us, revealing to us what is hidden, giving wisdom, counsel, strength, understanding, freedom, the list goes on. Many Christian Scriptures speak to this, including Isaiah 11:2, Ezekiel 36:27, John 14:26; 15:26; 16:13, Galatians 5:18, 1 Corinthians 2:10, etc.

Sometimes we can hear or feel the Spirit personally speaking to us, or have insight as to how Spirit is leading us, and this is what we should always strive for. But the Spirit also uses circumstances in our life to guide and teach us, whether negative or positive. And the Spirit uses other people to help guide and teach us, as well, either directly or indirectly, such as through a sermon, a letter, a book, a conversation, an encounter, or something of the like. And the Spirit also uses intervention from the spirit world, such as Angels or other Spiritual Beings, to guide and teach us. In my own experiences, Spirit has also used interference from the spirit world (a negative experience, in other words) to facilitate an opportunity whereby I can learn and grow. This, too, is Spirit guiding me, and I’ve learned to trust that guidance, no matter whether the experience feels positive or negative. Feelings come and go; learning and growing is what matters.

God isn’t limited to any one method. There are many ways and avenues through which Spirit leads and guides us, and there is no “right way” or “wrong way” for the Spirit to work within us. But there may be a “right way” and “wrong way” for you personally. So if you don’t feel the Spirit of God is taking you down a particular path, then don’t investigate it. Simply keep to your path, and don’t worry about other paths.

On the other hand, if you choose to go down a path you realize later you shouldn’t have taken, don’t worry about that, either. Keep your focus on following and listening to the Spirit, and even the missteps you take will be used for your greater good, because that is God’s promise to us (see Romans 8:28-39).

When you follow the Spirit of God, you can’t go wrong, even when you do.

As a wise Swami friend once told me: “It’s all Spirit.”

I once asked Balthazar, one of my Spirit Guides, this question: “How can I trust you?”

“It’s not about trusting me,” he responded. “Trust God.”

It’s a matter of focus, something Carolyn and I repeatedly talked about and wrote about when she was alive, and it is a truth I still hold as fundamental. I have found that it is better to focus on God— relationship, communication, Divine Unity—and not on others, whether a guide in the physical or one in the spiritual. The Spirit will send helpers and messengers along our path both in the physical and in the spiritual, and some may stay for a short time, others may be more long term. But our focus should be upon the Sender, not upon the one who has been sent. Focus on the Giver, rather than the gift.

This is what any true spiritual Guide sent by God will tell you: trust God over and above all else; everyone else is just a helpful bonus.

And this is what any true spiritual Guide sent by God will teach you: to focus on learning to listen to and trust the voice of the Spirit for yourself, rather than depending upon them, the Guide, to do it for you.

This is building a good foundation.

I don’t trust God because I trust my Guides; rather, I trust my Guides because I have learned to trust God Who sent them. In the end, it’s all Spirit anyway, leading us Home.

My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If any one will do his will, he shall know with respect to the teaching, whether it is of God, or I speak of myself. He who speaks of himself, seeks his own glory; he who seeks the glory of him that sent him, he is true, and there is no unrighteousness in him.” Jesus (John 7:16-18)