Individual Spiritual Discernment: Receiving, Testing and Implementing Leadings from a Higher Power

By Jerry Knutson. Pendle Hill Pamphlets (number 443), 2017. 31 pages. $7/pamphlet.

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Pendle Hill pamphlets are by nature short, and this pamphlet neatly divides up an important topic into headings that touch on important questions that Quakers ask when we feel led. Is it from ourselves, or from God? Will it require us to do things we currently think we do not want to do? How can we test a leading? Jerry Knutson offers guidance on these aspects of being led, and he does so in simple language that stays close to the topic. It is important not to be carried away by emotion during discernment; this is not to say emotion has no place, but to clarify how discernment really works. I liked the line, “I am not in agreement with the statement ‘Follow your bliss.’” Indeed, a requirement can feel heavy; Knutson’s pamphlet has many tools to work with so that the yoke becomes light.

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