Ep.069 Grace of God and Are You Lost Somewhere in Time? Understanding Acts of God: Spirituality w Mark Zaretti & Nik

Episode transcript:

[00:00:00]Mark: Hello, this is Mark from The Way Back Group and what we’re about to listen to is episode 69 from the Spiritual Live show series.

And look, every week we kind of answer your questions and this week is no exception. We’ve got Nik joining us who’s been on the show before. So it’s a kind of a more of an informal two people chatting about spiritual stuff kind of show, which is really nice. The main topic is the grace of God.

But Nik wanted to share something that he kind of got spiritually and that was to do with time and a kind of a trap, I guess, that’s been set for us to, you know, just one more way that perhaps we’re distracted from the truth, from ultimately that which is the source of all.

But it’s good. What’s lovely is when two people get together and talk.

And this certainly wasn’t scripted. We ended up looking at quite a few different topics. So we touched on things like Reiki and tai chi, miraculous interventions, sharing stories from our past where it seems as if the grace of God acted to help us. And we also, towards the end, touch on identity versus truth, which I think is something that anyone who is a spiritual person will face at some point, whether they realize it or not. And you know, myself being no exception. So there’s a lot to unpack and a lot to enjoy. And so I invite you to join me as we listen to episode 69.

And I’ll see you next week.

Foreign this is discussing spirituality with myself, Marc Soretti from the way back. And this is episode 69.

And I’ll just dive right in with this. So I’m joined tonight by Nik, who some of you may have seen before, but if you’ve not, then I’ll let Nik do a very quick 60 second intro. You have the floor. Nik, over to you.

[00:02:14]Nik: Thank you very much, Mark. So hi to those of you who I’ve seen before on here, and for those I haven’t, it’s very nice to meet you, albeit virtually.

[00:02:22]Mark: Yeah.

[00:02:22]Nik: Quick intro. So I’ve known Mark for quite a long time. Since. Yeah, since I’ve been about 10 or 11, something like that.

[00:02:29]Mark: Eight. Eight.

[00:02:31]Nik: Eight, was it? Of course, you’re (a friend of) my brother. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You were 11. Yeah, so a very long time.

And we’ve always kept in touch and been on spiritual journeys, our own spiritual journeys, and always had interesting topics to discuss. And for those that have seen some of the earlier shows, you know, that I’ve been on. Yeah, we’ve had some interesting topics and relevant topics for the time with talking about AI and things. So it’s great to be back. I’m looking forward to. I know a little bit about some of the things we’re going to talk about, but I’m looking forward to hearing the show and what Mark’s going to bring to us tonight.

[00:03:05]Mark: Yeah. And importantly, from a spiritual point of view, Nik’s someone that I’ve been working with and teaching for a very, very long time. And Nik’s had quite a bit of.

Of advanced forms of meditation. And so he’s got his own insights and experiences to draw on. And I think it’s always nice to get someone else in to give their perspective on things, especially when we’re talking about stuff that is a bit out there. And this kind of wasn’t planned, but about three or four days ago, Nik was chatting to me and he said, oh, something interesting’s happened. And I said, well, kind of had a bit of an insight and I thought this could be something that we’ll share on the live show. So I haven’t gone into it too much and actually I’m kind of getting ahead of myself. So if I jump back to the slides, then I’ll give you a hint at what we’re going to be talking about. So this is episode 69, 24th of July, 2025. And there’s some significance to that date as well. And I’ll touch on that in a moment. But let’s just see what we’re going to be looking at today.

So a bit of a simpler show than some of the previous shows.

We’re going to be following up on what we did last week. And don’t worry if you missed last week. Obviously you can go back and watch it or listen to on podcast. But we’re going to be doing part two, questions about God, because we didn’t actually answer everything on that. And we’re going to be looking at spiritual insights with Nik, which will be nice because I get to kind of sit back and let someone else do some of the work and then any other business. And what that really means is if anything we’re talking about brings up questions in. In the show, then if you’re in the chat, put question mark, question mark, question mark, and then your question. And we’ll address the questions at the end.

And those of you who are who know me and can direct message me on Telegram, for example, then you could also put questions. If you can’t get to the chat, you could put questions there as well. And I’ll See if I see them. And hello, millie2772 so a quick hello to everyone that’s in the chat there. So we’ve got Scottish bird, cue ball, marigold 0 milli2772 and I know there’s other people watching as well. And it’s great to have you all joining us. And it’s great to have you, Nik, as well. Thanks for agreeing to do this.

And we will get.

Yeah, we’ll get to that. But I just wanted to, let’s bring up this, this view here.

So I just wanted to share just a little acknowledgement. I won’t go into the specifics, but this is the anniversary today of someone who sadly passed away a year ago.

And they were very private, so I’m not going to name them or anything like that. But for those of you who knew them then, you have my compassion today as well.

And thank you for all the messages. People have been getting in touch. And I know that this person was extremely spiritual and touched the hearts and lives of many, many people. So for those of you that are also feeling maybe a little bit of sadness on this day, then I acknowledge that and remember that what we have shared in previous episodes is that death is not the end, that this life is but one of many. And we know that that person is up there probably watching right now and sending us all love. And so, you know, and if you’re watching this, you might not know who we’re referring to. It doesn’t matter.

Know that if there’s someone that you’ve also lost and that they, you know, that all good spiritual people, all good humans are in a good place and that that end of their life may not be the end of their journey, that there are many lives and for those that reach a certain point, then there is a process that we refer to as ascension, where someone who has died and reached a certain vibration of spirituality and closeness to God and Jesus may actually for of a better way. And we talked about this actually in the episode where we touched on reincarnation and incarnation, that you can escape that process and not have to reincarnate or not have to incarnate again.

And look, I’m talking about reincarnation. I’m talking about other things.

Anything I mention in the disk, in the description and the notes for the podcast, which will come out in a few days, then I’ll actually put links to all of these episodes and everything that I mentioned so that you can follow up on anything that you need to. So I just wanted to kind of dedicate this. I think you agree, Nik. Let’s dedicate this episode to that particular person and to their memory. And yeah, we’re not naming names, but if you wanted to say anything, Nik.

[00:07:54]Nik: Then if not, no, obviously I knew that person well as well and I share that compassion with you and with those who are listening. And the thing I was thinking when you said it was when you said, you know, some people might be feeling sad, my take on that person would be that they would definitely not want us to be feeling sad and maybe more to be celebrating who they were and who they were spiritually really and.

[00:08:20]Mark: What they were about. So, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Focus on the positives. Yeah.

So back to the slides so we can follow the thread of this show.

And so this is just a recap of what the main question was around last week. And as I said, it doesn’t matter if you missed last week, you can always go back. But this episode will stand on its own two feet. So I’ll recap the question Anon asks. I’ve had some lovely experiences recently discussing God and listening to people talk about God. The questions that come from these experiences or were or was, does God plan and does God lead both on an individual and an all of humanity scale? And I’ve put them in green because those two questions were answered last week.

But I follow on, there was more to their question. So the next bit they said is, my understanding is based on we have free will and all moments are an opportunity to move closer or further away from God. But if we ask sincerely, God can take action if it’s in line with goodness. And I’ve put that in red because that whole section we never really touched on. So that’s what we’re going to be looking at today.

And then the question carried on, is there then life plan as an individual? And we touched on that last week.

And then they go into talking about the Bible and examples of God leading people. And we discussed the story of Moses last week and prophecy that Jesus fulfilled, which is a reference to the 300 prophecies that Jesus fulfilled when he came. And then, please can you provide some clarity? And then they said a really nice thing which is God bless this show. God bless, bless you as you read this. And God bless everyone listening. So I kind of second that. God bless everyone who is listening today as well.

And so it’s that bit in red that we’re going to be tackling and I’ll just reread it. So my understanding is based on we have Free will and all moments are an opportunity to move closer or further away from God. But if we are sincerely, God can take action if it’s in line with goodness. So what that provokes really for me are the following questions kind of taking that long statement and breaking it into questions. So the first question would be, do we have free will?

Then are all moments an opportunity to move closer or further away from God?

If we ask sincerely, can God take action?

And I would add, and does God take action?

And then can God only act if it is in line with goodness?

Because there were quite a few assumptions, I guess, that were made in that statement.

And you know, that provokes questions. And so these are the questions that we’re going to be looking at today.

Over to you, Nik.

[00:11:20]Nik: So I’m remembering the questions because obviously I’m looking at the, the feed of the show, which is. Yeah, but so do we have free will?

I1, I 100% believe that we do have free will. I know there are people out there that would suggest that everything is planned and you’re just living something out that’s preordained. But I don’t believe that to be true. I feel we have free will.

[00:11:44]Mark: Okay. And I was teasing you when I said over tunic, but 10 out of 10 for just diving in, not panicking and starting to answer.

But yeah, you know, we’ve discussed some of these things and the free will is actually something that we talked about quite a lot in previous episodes. And this is lovely feature on the website where if you were to click on any of the episodes, there’s keywords underneath. So if you see the keyword free will, you click on it. You’ll see all the other episodes as well where we talked about free will. So we will kind of tackle these questions one at a time. And you know, I do value your input, Nik, but I wouldn’t be so mean as to throw you in at the deep end on these questions. I’m going to bring you in more on the bit that I’ve invited you to join us on to share your story.

But that’s fine.

[00:12:38]Nik: More than happy to contribute though.

[00:12:40]Mark: Mark. Yeah. Is there a whistling noise in the background?

[00:12:43]Nik: Yeah, you might want to mute. You might want to mute me for the minute. Someone’s car alarms going.

[00:12:47]Mark: Okay, yeah, I’ll just put you on, I’ll put your mute until that clears.

So let’s look at these questions then. So do we have free will? Yes, and we talked about that in previous episodes. And I’ll just give a quick Quick summary here that the whole spiritual growth premise is based on. I’ll put you back on now, Nik. The whole spiritual growth. Yeah. Premise is based on the fact that it’s through choice that we grow.

In other words, when we make a good choice, good being an indicator that it is godly, that is, what would God do or what would Jesus do? So when we make a good choice, then we experience the result of that good choice, and that enriches our soul and our soul becomes more good. And it’s almost like. And it has the memory of having made that good choice.

So without free will, there is no real choice.

So free will actually is like the bedrock of spirituality.

And to elaborate a little bit further, the choice that is there’s normally at least two things you could do and one will be a good choice and one will maybe be not so good is really fundamentally a choice presented by spirit versus a choice presented by your ego or by your habits or by your environment.

And it’s the one that your spirit presents to you that, that you won’t necessarily realize it’s coming from your spirit. But if you make the right choice, if you choose the right choice and act on it, then you’ve reacted positively to your spirit, your soul is enriched and you spiritually grow. So, yeah, absolutely, we have free will. And when I say we, I mean humans. So it’s different for animals and.

But it’s kind of like the free. The gift that humanity has. And people in kind of esoteric circles or even kind of the new age movement will talk about that this is a free will zone. And what they’re referring to is that it’s because humans are here that there is the expression of free will.

So, yeah, we can kind of put the first one to bed and say, yes, we absolutely do have free will.

The next question is, are all moments an opportunity to move closer or further away from God?

And very quickly, Nik, what’s your gut.

Gut feeling on that one there?

[00:15:23]Nik: I would say the overwhelming majority of things.

And the only reason I say that is there could be some kind of external interference that wasn’t put there to. I don’t know. I don’t. I’m just saying there could be examples where it’s. It, you know.

[00:15:42]Mark: Yeah.

[00:15:42]Nik: It’s forced upon you or something, or you haven’t got a chance to react and think in that way.

[00:15:47]Mark: Yeah. So it’s interesting. If you think about the free will element, then if you don’t have free will, then you don’t really have a choice.

So in moments where you don’t have free will, then there is no opportunity to move closer to God. But equally, there’s no opportunity to move further away. And so if you think about it, what are the kind of prerequisites to being able to demonstrate free will?

You need to be awake.

So actually, when you’re asleep, you aren’t subjected to the ability of free will. Now, people will. Someone smart might say, what if you’re lucid dreaming? It’s not really a sleep state. It’s another kind of state, you know, and we’ve talked. We’ve actually talked about what happens when you’re asleep. And that your higher self can wake you up if there’s a need. And then you may become more present. And therefore you could exercise free will even though you’re dreaming. But generally speaking, when you’re asleep, there’s no free will being expressed. And therefore you.

It’s not a moment where you can move closer to God or further away from God because you’re not making real choices.

You’re probably just reacting to your dreams or you’re completely out of it.

Same would be if you’re in a coma or if you were heavily drugged, sedated, knocked unconscious, any of these kinds of scenarios.

But then also if you’ve been interfered with, and we talk about, you know, someone being beside themselves, for example, in shock, that’s actually a reference to if you suffer trauma, then your soul and spirit might temporarily be dislodged from their normal place within you. And then they can’t really function. And so you can’t really function as a spiritual human being. And so you wouldn’t, again, in those moments be subjected to being able to necessarily exercise your free will because you haven’t got your spirit and soul guiding you in a classical, normal sense. So there are a number of scenarios. I don’t want to go too much into detail, but the reason why is it important?

I think that truth is true. Truth matters first and foremost. So it’s not true that all moments are an opportunity.

I would say all conscious choices are an opportunity to move closer or further away from God.

That’s probably more accurate.

And therefore all moments where we are present are an opportunity.

But if you’re not present because you’re distracted by habit or ego, then you are actually moving away from God.

So some of the moments a person might be experiencing, some of the moments that you might be experiencing, you’ve already made the wrong choice. And what springs to mind, I don’t know if you can relate to this, Nik, but what springs to mind, for example, is imagine you, there’s a computer game and you got, you’ve got, I don’t know, old school. You’ve got Doom 2 on your laptop and you decide, I’m just gonna load that up and play it for half an hour.

The, the actual decision point, the free will was whether you act on that impulse or reject it. You know, knowing spiritually that glorifying death and violence and demonic, you know, iconography is probably not a good thing.

Once you made that bad choice and you’re playing a computer game, you’re not likely to be in a state where you’d be receptive to any further guidance. So you’re already no longer able to grow spiritually while, you know, and probably for some time after playing the game because of the choices you made. So sometimes the choices you’ve made will knock you into a state where you’re no longer able to be spiritually receptive and therefore can’t grow. So it’s a lot of. It could just be self inflicted, you know. Did you used to play games, Nik, by the way?

[00:19:55]Nik: I did, I used to play Doom.

I’m that old.

[00:19:59]Mark: Yeah, yeah, well, it was, it was of its time. It was the, you know, Doom 2 deathmatch, you know.

[00:20:05]Nik: But it’s a good point though, Mark, and I don’t want to go too far off on a tangent, but. No, no, you think about the games market now, it’s worth billions. Obviously when you and I were playing, you know, Amstrad or Commodore 64 games, you know, they weren’t there wasn’t, it wasn’t quite a big thing. But now that’s such an addictive thing for kids and a massive distraction. And it, yeah. And it, like you say, if it takes, takes you out of that opportunity to, to be in state and to be making the correct choices, that’s quite troubling, really.

[00:20:34]Mark: Well, I think that there’s actually some court cases ongoing where parents or someone are suing computer games because they found that they’ve made them deliberately addictive and they’ve been targeting children with their advertising. But also I, I might get the facts wrong here, so I don’t want to, don’t hold me to it, but I believe it was Call of Duty.

When it was released, the latest version, it was the equivalent of something like 10 blockbuster movies in one week in terms of the revenue earned. So the film industry, sorry, computer game industry, is massive compared to say, Hollywood in terms of the amount of money. And you think Some of these computer games are probably 40, 50 quid, you know, an install and the rest now. Yeah, yeah. And then all the spin offs and the patches and everything. So, you know, yeah, it’s kind of like a modern day drug. And then, you know, Lord help us with the upcoming kind of virtual reality stuff where people are just going to immerse themselves in it more and more and more. So yeah, it’s well observed, Nik.

But getting back on to the question then not all moments are. And sometimes we push ourselves into a state negativity where the option to be closer to God or to make choices that would move us closer to God is no longer there because we’re, we shut down effectively spiritually because we’re in the middle of killing things on a screen, you know, or watching a horror movie or you know, made a bad choice and we’re drunk or smoking something that’s messing with our awareness.

So yeah, all these things. But it’s not to pick holes in the original question.

It’s more to say that we are, you know, hopefully you, Nik, myself and you listening, watching us, that we’re seekers of truth.

And so there is power in the nuances and there is empowerment in understanding the subtler things. So hopefully what we’ve discussed so far makes sense.

This is where it gets really interesting. I’m gonna again, I’m going to put you on the spot a bit, Nik, with the next question. So if we ask sincerely, can God take action?

[00:22:51]Nik: So when you read is that the full question that was in red? But yeah, when you read that out, I was thinking, so it wasn’t, I didn’t think that if you asked God would necessarily intervene. My thinking went from hearing that was that potentially God would create the opportunity for you then to make the right decision or whatever it might be or go in another direction or whatever it is. So he’s not literally like acting upon you to do it. It’s. It’s giving you that opportunity to make that choice. That was what I was thinking. But then I also thought as the question went on, there might be an occasion where literally an intervention has to occur or you know, God determines that it should occur. So I think, yeah, I don’t know if that’s confused things, but that was my take on it.

[00:23:42]Mark: So yes or no then, if we ask sincerely, can God take action? If I push you on that?

[00:23:53]Nik: I honestly, when you say can take action, I honestly don’t know because that implies like moving something or you know, in our material world we live in here, that Taking action to me means actually pushing you, moving you, sending you in a direction. So from that point of view, I’m not sure.

[00:24:15]Mark: Yeah, yeah, I trust your instincts there. So let me kind of flesh it out a bit for all of us.

First of all, there’s a lot of validity in the word sincerely.

And you could say if we pray as well as ask, it’s kind of synonymous, but without sincerity. In other words, if it’s not from a place of coming from the heart, then whatever you’re asking or praying wouldn’t even reach God. That’s kind of useful to know.

And you could swap the word ask for pray because that’s kind of what it would be.

And prayer doesn’t have to be, you know, deep focus, hands together on your knees. It could just be as you’re walking along, just closing your eyes or even with your eyes open, just from the heart, you know, Dear God, please help me. That’s a prayer, you know. And so the first half is really focused on asking sincerely. Yeah, that is the right place to ask from. Can God take action? Well, this is what you were kind of alluding to, Nik.

And I think.

Let me just see if in the slides. I’ve got a bit of a hint. Yeah, I’m going to bring the slides back up because last week we looked at what one of the Bible verses. We used a Bible verse just as a point of reference, not. Not because it’s religion, but because it was interesting, because it’s. It belayed the qualities of God, demonstrated God’s qualities. And so on the screen now we’ve got those qualities that were identified in that particular verse or chapter and verse. So the source, as in God is the source of everything loving and merciful.

God is graceful. God is giving. God is goodness. God is timeless. God is immaterial. God is the creator.

So really what you’re talking about there, Nik, is the immateriality of God.

How could God act upon material matter or energy or form or thought if God doesn’t have an edge?

Because to act implies some form of movement, you know, whether it’s on a person or an object. You know, I think people maybe think, did God, I don’t know, move that.

Move me out the way of that car or something like that?

You know, that’s a classic. In fact, we were chatting about something earlier.

Have I struck a chord there?

[00:26:56]Nik: You have, and it sounds like we’ve kind of pushed that in deliberately, but we haven’t.

[00:27:01]Mark: Generally, I think I just stumbled. And then I remembered after I Think you were talking about it earlier.

[00:27:07]Nik: Do you want me to share that?

[00:27:08]Mark: Yeah, yeah.

Because you started telling me I was.

[00:27:10]Nik: Going to say it to you. Yeah. And then I said stop. Yeah, well, you said stop.

[00:27:13]Mark: Yeah.

[00:27:14]Nik: Okay. So with that in mind, when I was about seven, I think I had a very, very fortunate childhood, that I had an older brother and I had an older friend of the family. So I was like the young kid who just loved it having these older people around me all the time.

And we used to go out back in the day when you could go out for the day and your parents had no idea where you were or what you were.

And we thought it’d be great fun to do some laps around a railway bridge up in the Midlands where they didn’t have electric lines like we do down here, but they often. We have them above the trains. So we were doing this little.

On the edges of these bridge and then.

And then get back. Obviously a ridiculously stupid game.

And as the three of us were getting close to the end of the course, the other person, the responsible adult, who was probably about 16 at the time, looked up and saw a train, like an INTERCITY train, they were called Intercity125 because that’s exactly what he shouted, hurtling towards us. Probably not far off, 125 miles an hour, but probably a bit slower. And I was the last one in the group of three of us trying to get off this bridge. And I kind of was just like trying to move as fast as I could, but I looked up and I could see this train heading straight at me. And we all ran off the bridge. I ran in a different direction. They all ran past me, didn’t see me. And they got to the top of the bridge and they were like, where’s Nik?

[00:28:43]Mark: We’ve killed Nik.

[00:28:44]Nik: Like, you know, panicking and. Yeah, but I wasn’t. I was behind them by then. And then they turned around and they were sort of very thankful that I was still alive and that we were all still alive.

[00:28:54]Mark: But.

[00:28:55]Nik: And at the time, as a kid, it didn’t even bother me. And then you look back now and it obviously you just think, wow, how close would I have been? Or all of us would have been to death. And I do wonder whether or not there was some inter. Interaction or something happened or whatever that. That either made our friend look up and see the train or. Or me not be hit by it. But yeah, that was the story.

Okay, Silly boys playing on train lines.

[00:29:19]Mark: Yeah, going. But going back to that free will thing, I think the Bad decision was the one made earlier in the day to go and play on the bridge in the first place.

[00:29:27]Nik: Yeah.

[00:29:28]Mark: And there’s.

[00:29:28]Nik: In my defense, I was seven.

[00:29:30]Mark: But, you know, I mean, we could look into it and there’s probably layers of you being a good person may have been put into an environment by.

We talked about this, where, let’s just say, beings and things on scene can put ideas into people to lead them into bad situations. And so it could have been that the idea to play on the train tracks was put there by. By dark forces into one of the kids who was maybe a little bit more receptive to that side of things. And you would have gone along with it because you were the young, young buck in the group.

Did you feel like there was some kind of intervention? Because there’s no way you should have been able to make it off that bridge in time or something like that. Or was it just the fact that the person looked up in time to see the train?

[00:30:20]Nik: That might have been what it was. The person looked up. I don’t know.

[00:30:23]Mark: Yeah.

[00:30:24]Nik: Because the driver slammed his brakes on. But I tried to think what the thoughts that were going through that driver. That’s where I feel quite bad about that because obviously, you know, I probably.

[00:30:35]Mark: Never got over it. Yeah, yeah.

I’ve heard stories of people I knew, know very well who found themselves in the middle of a road and. And literally someone just pulled him out from traffic. And that was a good example of negativity. Putting someone into a situation and then something intervening.

When I’ve looked into it, it’s not God that’s intervened. Now, God’s intention might be that no harm should come to you, but we all know that good people come to harm and check out early from time to time.

So clearly there’s something else going on. But those. That.

That example I just gave, and I did look in, because you mentioned it and you didn’t give me the details of a trainer or anything earlier, but I thought, that’s interesting. I did look into it.

It’s not God.

We’ve talked about higher selves, so I will put you on the spot here, Nik. Very simply, what’s the higher self?

[00:31:39]Nik: The accumulation of all of the, you know, the bigger me. I like to think of it as not. Not the Nik here. The bigger, bigger me. That’s had various incarnations.

[00:31:49]Mark: Yeah. So. And that would include your soul and your spirit, wouldn’t it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I just. It’s quite nice to hear someone else describe it in it and see See how people map it out and relate to it. But your higher self isn’t the physical body, and it’s not the physical brain, and it’s not the ego. So it’s all the good stuff. I’m not saying the brain and the body are the bad stuff, but it’s the soul, the spirit, the aura, the positive energy and all these things, and the cumulated experience and wisdom of many, many lifetimes.

And when people quite often go, oh, I think God or an angel or something just intervened, it was actually their higher self.

Mostly it’ll be their higher self that, you know, when, like, maybe you just look in the right direction to see something at the last minute so that you don’t get hit by a bus stepping out into a road or. Or you just have a sense. I mean, I think you had this once where you just had the sense to duck and then someone run up behind you and. Yeah, yeah, I think you actually. Did you talk about it in one of the live shows.

[00:32:48]Nik: I think we did. Yeah.

[00:32:49]Mark: Yeah. Okay. So someone was going to mug you or something from behind, and you just out of nowhere thought, duck, and the guy just flew over the top of you.

[00:32:57]Nik: Flew over the top of me?

[00:32:57]Mark: Yeah. Yes. That would be a really good example of your high taking the reins to keep you safe.

And I’ve had my own examples where, let’s just say a freak gust of wind blew my motorbike across the road into a traffic island at high speed and sent the bike high in the air. And when it landed in very, very treacherous conditions, there’s no way that I should have stayed on the bike and the bike should have stayed upright, but it did. I remember not even trying to do the handlebars and just kind of almost like, you know, there’s that song, Jesus, take the. Jesus, take the wheel. It’s a bit like that. But I didn’t think, jesus, take the wheel. It was just that knowing that kind of like, I’m not. I’m not in control here. And I wasn’t even trying to, you know, manage the handlebars.

It was called a tank slapper, where the handlebars are slapping the tank and the bike stayed upright and I came out of it and then regained control of the bike. And if I’d fallen, I would have been run over by a lorry that was behind me. And I just remember being quite shaken.

But looking back years later, once I started doing the show and we started talking about these kind of topics, I remembered it and I looked into it, and that sure enough was my higher self going, right, I’m stepping in at this point, I’m intervening. And I think these are the kinds of things that people would mistaken for God taking action.

And that leads on to my point, which is to act, you need a body. I don’t mean a physical body, because, for example, there are good things up there, the metaphoric up there, that can act, but they generally don’t because of free will. They don’t like to interfere in people’s free will. So generally, anything on higher dimensions that’s interacting with people without being invited or without respecting free will would never be good, even if what it appears to be doing is good.

You know, that’s one of the clues is are they respecting free will? Which also means your right to make mistakes. But occasionally your higher self will step in if it’s needed to protect you from wrongdoing.

So in your case, it was probably one of those people in your group was being led by darker forces to take you all into a dangerous situation, which is why it was okay for your higher self to then step in, or maybe one of the other higher selves to step in and alert you all that a chain was coming in the same way. That, and I got, oh God, yeah, go.

[00:35:26]Nik: I guess on that point I was just thinking it then. I mean, it obviously probably sounds obvious to people listening, but the higher self being part of you, or you being part of the high self, then it would sound to me that it’s acceptable for that to occur, I. E. Yourself saving yourself.

[00:35:43]Mark: Yeah, but when, when, when we’re incarnate down here in a physical body, then the deal is that the brain is the part that’s making the choices.

So the higher self presents the good choice.

And then the brain, through habit, ego, other things, can present any choices it wants. And ultimately it’s the brain that has to decide, because otherwise your higher self could just go, well, I’ll do everything.

I’ll guarantee you to make the right choices. And then you don’t have free will.

So it wants the learning experience. It wants you as a physical person to go, I want to do the right thing. And then it can experience through your physicality, the manifestation of having done the right thing and what that feels like, what the outcome is.

[00:36:35]Nik: But I guess it wants you to survive as well, so that, like you say, it might intervene in a. In a certain situation.

[00:36:41]Mark: Yeah, but even then, remember that the highest for the higher self, it’s just one day at school. And if you don’t survive, it’s not the end of the world. It’s just, oh, well, better luck next time.

So it’s not frivolous. It doesn’t want you to fail and die, but it will. It will allow your mistakes and your choices to lead to your demise.

I think it will intervene if the reason why you’re in that situation was because of nefarious external forces. That’s what I was trying to say. But yeah, I mean, it’s fascinating. Hopefully it’s fascinating for everyone else. But it’s good to actually have you here, Nik. So we bounce stuff off each other and explore these things a bit deeper. So going back to the questions, and so if we are sincerely, can God take action?

The true spiritual answer is no.

To act requires form, requires engagement with time. Because there is a time before the action, during the action, and after the action.

And God is timeless.

God is immaterial. It’s another way of saying God is formless. I don’t just mean physical material on any dimension.

So if we ask sincerely, can God take action? Now, here’s the paradox. God can do anything.

So theoretically, yes, God can take action, which is why I put in question number four, does God take action?

And that’s very interesting.

No.

So even though, because there is nothing God can’t do, so you can’t say God can’t take action, but God does not take action because it’s not God’s nature, because God is timeless, totally accepting, immaterial, you know, immaterial, etc. But also there is loving and merciful. So there are.

Paradoxically. It’s not paradoxically. There are exceptions.

And probably the most famous, at the most famous act of God. I’ll give you a moment, Nik, to see if you can figure it out, the one that everyone’s probably heard of, but people haven’t made the join the dots up.

The most famous act of God was to bring about Jesus.

[00:38:54]Nik: I was going to say, was it entering Jesus into the womb of.

[00:38:59]Mark: Yeah, yeah, to create Jesus, which was God taking on form.

So that’s a good example of God acting.

And the paradox or the irony is that God is Jesus.

So I was gonna say it’s almost.

[00:39:16]Nik: Like the higher self example of yeah, yeah.

[00:39:21]Mark: And when Jesus did miracles, then God was acting because God at that point had a body, had a form, was located in space within this kind of going back to one of the episodes where we talked about space, time continuum. In other words, God had entered into the illusion of duality. God had entered into Maya, which means illusion. God had entered into creation in the form of Jesus, who was God. And so with form, God could act. And so Jesus acted when Jesus did miracles. When Jesus demonstrated grace, he was acting. Now, to answer three and four, God doesn’t act. It’s not God’s nature. Jesus as God acted.

And Jesus to this day can act because Jesus is still around. He just doesn’t have a physical form.

What we would think of as acting is actually what I talked about as grace. So if God does it, then it’s from outside reality, it’s from outside creation, and it’s an act of grace.

The grace is creation being changed by the will of God, but it’s not an action. This is what I’m trying to explain it.

The will of God or the intention of God provoking grace to allow change within creation without it being touched.

And we kind of talked about what grace was in the last week. You know, we had a nice analogy of moving a penny out of a cup that was filled half with oil and half with water without disturbing the oil or the water.

You know, that would be an example of grace, not magic, you know, because there’s no such thing as good magic. But so what grace kind of means is a miracle of God in which something of reality is changed without disturbing the flow of time, space, matter and energy.

You know. Does that make sense to you, Nik? Can you put it in a different way?

[00:41:27]Nik: Well, no, I think the oil and water and coin analogy works quite well.

[00:41:33]Mark: Right.

So God doesn’t act, but God can be graceful.

God as Jesus acts because God as Jesus has form.

So that’s why also people pray to Jesus.

Now, can God only act if it is in line with goodness?

This again is that this is why I kind of encourage us to think about the nature of God. And that’s why I put that aid memoir on the screen. So source, timeless, immaterial, loving and merciful. Graceful, giving, creator goodness. And that’s by no means definitive. There’s many more adjectives that we could use, but you could also include totally accepting, totally neutral, observing, untouched on, moving, etc.

And so the nature of God is good.

So God by nature wouldn’t do something that is not good, but by nature, because God is totally accepting and neutral would allow wrongdoing.

And if you think about it, the first question, do we have free will? Yes.

And this is kind of like the harsh reality check spiritual thing. So, you know, we’ve all been there. Every single time you’ve used your free will to do the wrong thing, you have gone against God. And God has allowed it in neutrality because the gift of free will necessitates that you can make the wrong choice as well as the right choice.

So if God were judgmental and not neutral, then every time we make the wrong choice, God would be going, oh, look at them, you know, so clearly God is far greater than that because God’s love for you, for us, is unconditional. Which means despite making mistakes, despite going in the wrong direction, despite doing wrong, God loves you. He doesn’t put a condition on his love. He doesn’t say, I will only love them if they only do good.

Now the question is, can God only act if it is in line with goodness? God’s nature is good, therefore God’s grace would be good. I’m using the word grace because God doesn’t directly act, with a few caveats where God, for example, created Jesus.

But you can’t say that God can only act if it is in line with goodness, because you would be imposing a limit on God and God is limitless.

So in theory, God could act in any direction, but by nature, God is good and therefore would only act in goodness. And a really good way of understanding this has just come to me. So let me flesh this out in real time.

Your journey. I’m talking. I’ll use you, Nik, but I’m talking to everyone. So your journey is to practice the art of being in tune with your spirit so that you are receiving the guidance of your spirit, which is ultimately guidance of God, so that your free will always makes the right choice.

So if you took your spiritual potential to its absolute fullest, then you would be godly because you would only ever make the right choice.

And since God, since there can be nothing greater than God, God would already be there.

So God would be demonstrating what it is to be totally aligned with God, which is obvious saying it now. But if you were to personify God and say, right. So if God was on a spiritual journey, he’d already be there. Which means his potential is he could make a mistake and do the wrong thing and therefore do wrong doing. But he wouldn’t because he’s 100% aligned with his spirit and therefore 100% of the time is present.

100% of the time is neutral. 100% of the time is demonstrating all of the virtues, and 100% of the time would therefore always get it right.

So it’s not that God can’t do something, it’s that God is always doing the right thing. That’s how I would look at that. And answer the fifth question, which is so there are no limits on God.

So it’s not as in, God can only act if it is in line with goodness. God is goodness, therefore all of God’s actions would be good.

So I know hopefully the person that originally asked these questions will see this and hopefully it’s answered their questions. And if not, I encourage them to get back in touch and ask more questions or let me know where if you need more fleshing out of anything. But equally for all of you in the chat as well. And I can see that there’s some questions coming in, so we will get to them at the end. But I just wanted to address that because that came up last week and I just felt like it needed a bit more than just a footnote at the end of the podcast. It’s quite a very important part of understanding our spiritual journey and the gift that we’ve been given, which is free will. But now, Nik, I’m going to give you the floor because we’re going to get onto what you wanted to share. And just quick caveat. You told me the headline and at that point I said, right, don’t tell me anything more. I want to hear it on the live show. So this is as new for me as it is for the people listening over you.

[00:47:04]Nik: Yeah, okay. And I said that I wouldn’t pull up the document because I took a note of it, but when you’re online and talking on something like this, you can sometimes forget. So I pulled it up, but I’m only going to pull out the key things. So a few nights ago, probably, perhaps it was the 21st of July. So yeah, it was only a few, few nights ago I had been awoken in the night and I was back in bed, nice and relaxed, but I hadn’t quite gone back to sleep and I was just lying there quite relaxed. 100 was awake and, but quite neutral and still. And I’ve put in my notes here, information, pass it. These are my own words. Information passively came to me or I received information passively.

And what it was about was how humanity is being deliberately manipulated and deceived and particularly in regards to time.

So and then the next thoughts were that from a young age we are under extreme and I put undue pressure, but we’re under a lot of pressure and it’s asserted on all of humanity very early on to make us really kind of realize the importance of time and to think of time linearly.

And I guess a number of years ago I thought about this when I.

[00:48:26]Mark: Was always thinking, why do we always.

[00:48:27]Nik: Have to wear a watch? Why do we always have to know what the time is? And why do we always have to know what the date is? So it was kind of along those lines. But the information, like I say, came very passively. There wasn’t any forced nature to it. It was almost as if I was a witness to this information.

[00:48:43]Mark: But in the.

[00:48:44]Nik: In the information that was there, to me, it said it also extended to the Bible, whereby. The Bible is a story, it’s a linear story, but we’re placed somewhere in that story. We don’t quite know where. Obviously, we know some of the things that have come to pass, but we don’t quite know where the end is. So we’re always a bit like, oh, are we in Revelations now? If I was to choose a book of the Bible, where are we, you know, when’s the end time? And. And it’s. Anyway, so that was. That was in there. And then the other part was it. The information reverted to more of my personal situation, and it was how.

It wasn’t as important as I felt it was, you know, at the time. It wasn’t as important to always think about setting goals, you know, both for my business and for my life and always, you know, striving to hit those goals and those objectives and always. But always looking in the future. It was. The message was like, all of that planning and it’s trying to achieve, you never quite get there. It’s a bit like tomorrow, tomorrow never comes. You’re always looking ahead to the next thing. And even if you did get close to the goals, you’d make a new goal and you push yourself further.

And the information was that this was giving. It was an exercise in false hope. And it was creating stress and anxiety and fear sometimes, but most importantly was not bringing me closer to the important things in my life, which was joy, enjoyment of my life, enjoyment of being closer to those I love, my, you know, family and friends, and also being closer to God and Jesus.

So. So that was that part, and then we could talk about that, but then another part. And. And this is why I reached out to Mark, because I wanted to find out whether or not this information was being given to me deliberately or if it was interference or what it was. Because what then happened was there was almost like. I felt like there was a small battle going on in my head, which I now understand a little bit more about, but there’s a battle going on in my head because then it was like, actually, no, Nik, it’s very important that you make goals. You’ve got a family, you need to be thinking about the future. You need to be doing this. So there was kind of this like, it was, it was a minor stressful situation then. So it wasn’t like the passive bit. That was quite nice and relaxed. Then there was this kind of little battle. But yeah, that was the main thing. The main thing was that humanity is being deliberately forced to always think away from the now rather than just being and, and, and therefore being closer to God or having at least having the opportunities to, to enjoy the moment and be. And therefore be closer to God.

[00:51:23]Mark: That’s as succinct as it gets, Mark.

That’s great. And you, you told me that basics. So it’s really nice to hear it all fleshed out.

And I mean, I’ll fill in my side of the story because you then contacted me and said, I had this really quite profound information, Mark.

And I think you use the phrase interference or something.

[00:51:49]Nik: I thought it might have been, yeah. Especially when you battle.

[00:51:52]Mark: Yeah. Let me just explain to people who are probably wondering what Nik means by that.

There’s an episode, I can’t remember episode 53 or 54 around about there where I talk about don’t fall on your own sword. And in that I talk about, look on, on higher dimensions, not everything up there is good. There’s also things that are trying to trip you up and get between you and your relationship with truth and God and all of these good things.

And if you’re new to the show and you think, why does he keep talking about God and Jesus?

We are not religious. We’re talking spiritually about.

Just think about it like the greatest good, the absolute and then the embodiment of that in form.

But getting back to what you said, so when you said, was it interference, you were.

I’m paraphrasing here, but what you were saying is did that come from a good source or did that come from something that’s trying to give me something that sounds like the truth but is actually also misleading in some way. And a lot of people who do channeling work or mediumship, and again, I make no apologies for having already talked about this in the past, could be falling for that kind of thing where they get in touch with some kind of intelligence that’s non physical and it tells them a lot of stuff that’s plausible and even a lot of it is kind of truthful.

But then there’ll be subtle deceptions in there as well to take them away from the truth. So the best way to deceive people is actually to give them, say, 80% truth, but 20% deception. And then that 20% can really be the seed that grows and becomes a bigger deception and a bigger deception.

I think it was good wisdom to say, okay, sounds plausible, sounds good. But I want to make sure that this is legitimate and not some kind of deception sandwich, you know, embedded within truth. I think that’s fair.

That’s when you got in touch with me and I. I did the work I do and was able to find out where the information came from and that it was all legitimate.

And I think the first caveat I need to put in is that we’re both spiritual people, Nik. And, you know, hopefully people listening to the show are themselves spiritually interested or maybe just starting out on their journey. So I want to make it clear that the goal of being spiritual isn’t to be receiving information.

What Nik experienced was unusual and can happen, but shouldn’t be the goal of someone’s spiritual endeavors. It happened because Nik happened to be in a very neutral state, having woken up in the night. He was very present, and in effect, he was therefore receptive and was the path of least resistance for that information to come through to himself. And the person or the benevolent intelligence behind it was or is something that. It was already known to myself and. And has a connection with Nik. Which is why you kind of went, ah, Nik’s online, right? Let’s send him a. Let’s send him a message, metaphorically speaking, because it knew that what Nik would share with me, and then that’s a way of getting it out to a wider group and audience.

So there was some synchronicity.

And this actually goes back to the questions that were just being asked about, does God act?

It took me a while, and I kind of looked into it because that. That reached out to you didn’t know that it was given the idea to do so from something higher up, which ultimately came from God. So this is a really good example of how if God has an intention, which is really the level at which God operates, you know, just like a will, a directional intention, like for more goodness or for truth to come out, whatever, then the minutiae detail of how that unfolds isn’t really managed. The intention sets up a direction for creation, and then the path of least resistance, it’s like lightning doesn’t plan its route. It just finds the path of least resistance between the cloud and the ground.

And so the. The path of least resistance, in that case, Was that particular person who’s on higher dimensions, who’s what we kind of refer to as an ascended human, having reached a high level of spirituality and therefore no longer needing to come back and live any more lifetimes, reaching out to Nik, who’s a very spiritual person down here. So you can see, like, the connection. So at the top we’ve got, you know, the will of God. And then. Right, well, who’s close to that? This. This ascended human. Okay, and who’s close to them? Okay, well, this person on the third dimension, who there’s already a familial connection and, you know, and then that person can get the information to Mark, who can talk about it in the live show. And that’ll get the information to more people so that you can see how the path of least resistance allows for the flow of truth.

And so the intention at the top would just simply be that truth be known.

And we’re down here at the receiving and going, wow, it’s phenomenal, you know, and which it is.

But it’s actually a really nice example of does God take action? Well, you could stand at the bottom at the receiving end of truth and go, yes, you can follow the thread back up.

But it wasn’t anything more than a simple intention at the top that cascades into synchronicities, movement, and ultimately the revelation of information.

Now, I’d like to and do chip in Nik, but I’d like to kind of spiritually frame what you were sharing, because it is stuff we’ve kind of talked about, but not in the way you talked about it.

One of the episodes, I think when I was in the Alps, someone asked a question which was, what is state and how do we get more into it? Or words that affect. And one of the tenets of spiritual state is being present, as in. In the now.

And I know, like Eckhart Tolle and people like that, the power of now. And it’s quite a. Quite a big meme, if you like. But I really don’t think that people necessarily understand the bigger picture, that which you’ve kind of described. And we’ll get more into.

So spiritually, if you’re present, then there is only really now, and it doesn’t mean everything else melts away.

But remember, to exercise your free will, you need to be present because you need to be aware of the choices that are actually right now rather than something that’s in the future, if that makes sense. You can’t preempt free will. You can’t be going tomorrow. I will make that good choice.

The choice isn’t there to be made yet because your spirit will only guide you in the moment.

So another way of understanding this is our spirit. Each of us good humans, we’ve got a spirit, is giving us real time guidance, not. Look, Mark, tomorrow you’re going to have this opportunity and I want you to. No, it doesn’t work like that. It’s like right now. Right now.

And so it would make sense if something wanted to come between us and, and ultimately God, goodness, the source, whatever, however you comfortable referring to it, that it would try and distract you from your spirit.

And what, what you were given was true. It is a deliberate orchestration by nefarious forces, including down here on the third dimension, to make us obsessed with goals and achievement in time.

So if you think about our education is you’re going to study for a few years and then you’ve got these exams looming in the future. So everything starts to be about the future, these exams. And then as soon as you’ve kind of jumped that hurdle or made that, you know, reach that marker. Oh, hang on a second. Now you’ve got A levels. Oh, now you’ve got university, all right, and now you got your job, now you’ve got your, your performance review, now you got your promotional round, now you’ve got your Christmas bonus, now you’ve got your holiday. It’s always something in the future that you’re always planning for, striving for, working for. Oh, well, you’ve got to think about your pension and your retirement. Now.

You were right. You’ve got family to worry about. You’ve got obligations and responsibilities.

So there is an element of being down here that necessitates future planning.

But the entire system down here is being rigged to create that environment.

The fact that we have to work, the fact that we need a pension, the fact that, you know, we pay taxes, the fact that one, you know, whatever it is, none of that’s natural.

It’s not necessarily the way it’s meant to be. There’s some massive statistic like there’s enough land in Texas for every person on the planet to have an acre or something like that. I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, another one was that you can fit the entire world population into Loch Ness four times over or something like that, which kind of puts things into perspective because we’re constantly being told how limited the resources are. There’s not enough land, we’re all going to be standing on each other’s shoulders soon. No, there’s Massive amounts of resources and massive amounts of natural abundance.

But we’ve been put into an artificial situation in which those, you know, the ruling elite who control the financial systems and the tax systems and the political systems and the education systems and that create all this artificial pressure so that we’re always thinking and obsessed about time. And then literally just, you know, clock on every wall, you know, everything’s regimented. It never used to be that even 200 years ago, it wasn’t. The Industrial Revolution set up the idea of working from 9 till 5 and all of these things, you know, even down to when we eat. So you’re totally right. And the information you’ve been given is totally right, that there are forces that are compelling us to be obsessed about time.

And clearly the fact that you got that message suggests that it’s important that people remember the truth.

[01:02:53]Nik: Was the linear part of relevance.

[01:02:57]Mark: Yeah, it’s all relevant. No, I mean, so you’ve meditated on light and sound, energy, and you sat in stillness that when you’re in it, there’s no you.

So was there any time?

[01:03:12]Nik: No, there was no time?

[01:03:13]Mark: No, there was only the awareness of time when you came back, you know, so from that state, which is far greater.

Time’s a joke, really.

[01:03:26]Nik: Oh, and I wanted to, funnily enough, I messaged you, I’d say that I’d had a little nap, but when I woke from that, the, the, the, the real, like, feeling of that dream I had in that, that went on for hours and hours and hours. And it was 15 minutes or 12 minutes or whatever nap. Which again is, I guess, is more proof, therefore, that, you know, time is not as we really perceive it, because it was as real as anything that dream. And it was two hours or however long it was, but the actual time was whatever.

[01:03:58]Mark: Well, there is an element of when you’re dreaming, you’re not operating from your physical body, you’re operating from a subtler body. And that subtle body is at a different vibration, and that vibration moves quicker so you can fit more experience.

So it’s like you’re running, you know, you’re watching a video back at four speed, so you can fit four times as much into the same period of physical time. So there’s that going on as well.

So it’s not totally an illusion. But from God’s perspective, always take things to the absolute. From God’s perspective, there is no such thing as time. The beginning, the middle and the end is all within God.

And the goal of being spiritual is to try our best to live according to truth. The only truth is God. In other words, the state that our highest state, our spiritual state, is one of being present in the moment and not obsessed with the future or dwelling in the past. And you know, people who are obsessed with the future are anxious and people who are dwelling in the past are depressed because it’s actually unhealthy to be. I mean, that’s a sweeping generalization. But generally depression is when someone is living in the past, something, some trauma or something they can’t let go of. And I’m not negating it or belitting it, but I’m actually offering a way of understanding how to get out of it, is that they need to be in the present.

And that’s why distraction is quite good for that kind of state. And then people who are high level anxiety are over worrying about the future.

What if, what if, what if? Which is fear, fear, fear, which is ego, ego, ego.

So in the present there’s no ego. Ego belongs either in the past. Poor me, poor me, this happened to me. Or worry, worry, worry, fear, fear, fear, this might happen to me.

And so the spiritual state is the one where you’re present. And so the more people practice being present, the more they could potentially be receptive to their spirit, which goes back to free will. Therefore, if you’re receptive to your spirit, you’re more receptive to the guidance of your spirit. And therefore you can exercise your free will to become more spiritual. And then it’s like a positive feedback because then you find it easier to be present in the moment.

But I would encourage people, I’m gonna, I’m gonna, in the podcast, I’m gonna put a, like a timer stamp on it so that they can listen back to what you shared. Because there’s a lot to it and I don’t think we’ve really scratched the surface of it. So there might be questions, hopefully from you watching or listening, that if you want us to go a bit more into some of the stuff Nik picked up on. But one, one thing.

What did you say about you had a battle?

[01:06:50]Nik: Yeah, it was telling me that it is important, you know, you’ve got a family and you need to be planning. Yes, it was a battle.

[01:07:00]Mark: Yes.

[01:07:00]Nik: Which I think I understand a bit now.

[01:07:02]Mark: Yeah, because yeah, we talked, we talked about that.

That basically what was happening was as you were, as you were observing from neutrality, the information that you were receiving, your mark, your, your brain kind of got excited and, oh, this is going on.

And then started to offer its opinions.

So you were able to have that transmission of wisdom because you were neutral and present, that is in a spiritual state.

Then your brain got involved and started to present fear in the form of but you need this and you need that and what about this? And if you don’t pay attention to time and that, then you know, in other words, fear, limits, it always creates obstacles. And I think you described it, I don’t know if you, in what you said earlier, but certainly when you first told me that that didn’t feel too good. When there was that battle going on and that was the friction between the spiritual part of you that was just being present and accepting and receiving wisdom and the lower self seated in ego at the time going, no, but, but it’s important and we’ve got all these responsibilities, in other words, trying to justify limits, trying to justify staying small, trying to justify the opposite of the wisdom.

And so the battle wasn’t negative influences, it was simply from within the negativity from within.

And I’m not judging because we’ve all got that.

And the more we can spot it, then we can go, okay, where is this coming from?

And on the matter of worrying about the future, this really speaks to the matter of faith.

And I don’t mean some kind of bible bashing religious faith. I mean the creation is abundant and if we are in a state of worry, we are in a state of negativity. But if we are in a state of faith, then we’re in a state of positivity because the future is coming your way, coming to you whether you like it or not.

And the only thing you’re really in control of is how you respond. And the best state to respond from is a spiritual state. Would you agree, Nik? I would 100% agree, yeah.

So I think that what you shared is brilliant and there’s so much more we could discuss on it. I’m just mindful of time.

If you can stick with me for a bit, that’d be great, Nik, but I do appreciate that you are a family man. And there’s the irony of it because we’re talking about time and you know, if you do need to go, then that’s fine, but if you can stay with me till the end, that’ll be great as well.

[01:09:56]Nik: You can hang on for the time being.

[01:09:59]Mark: So what I thought what we’ll do this. We didn’t over plan this show so it’s nice just to be able to kind of take things as they come.

There’s a few questions in the chat and so I think we’ll tackle them and see if anything else comes up while we’re tackling these questions. So have you got the chat in front of you, Nik?

[01:10:22]Nik: I have, yeah.

[01:10:24]Mark: Do you want to start with.

[01:10:25]Nik: Quite intrigued by the questions as well.

[01:10:26]Mark: Yeah. Do you want to read Millie’s one then? The first one she asked?

[01:10:30]Nik: Yes. So the first question Millie asked was, how do we know that we’ve made the right choice? Brackets, guided from the spirit.

[01:10:39]Mark: What do you reckon to that?

[01:10:43]Nik: Well, I guess a friction thing would be, you know, if you’ve made the wrong choice, you might have some friction. That is, you might stub your toe or you might bang your head or you might feel a bit unwell. That would be, yeah.

[01:10:57]Mark: So you’re referring to feedback where you’ve ignored guidance or you’ve been thinking negatively for a while and therefore you start to manifest visceral feedback because you’re only paying attention to the physical. So it comes out in the physical.

But I guess, yeah, if you are habitually ignoring something, then it will manifest that way. But in the first instance it might not.

You know, that’s kind of a last ditch attempt to get your attention.

So, you know, what I would say is you’re not.

How do we know we’ve made the right choice?

How does a leaf know it’s pointing at the sun because it grows?

You know, it doesn’t have to get the validation that that choice you made to point your leaf in that direction, you know, was the right choice if it points its leaf because, you know, plants move around and phototrophism is the name. And obviously plants don’t have free will. But metaphorically speaking, if we make the right choice, we grow.

And it’s a bit like watching your hair grow. You’re not going to notice it, but one day you’ll look back and go, I’ve really changed.

So the higher self doesn’t need to give you validation every time you make the right choice.

The validation is that you become more like your higher self and your higher self grows because of it as well.

But over time you’ll realize that you’re changing because making the wrong choice or thinking negativity, thinking negatively will decrease.

So if you find yourself reacting naturally, more positive to situations where you used to be perhaps not so good at reacting to or engaging with, then there’s your feedback that something’s changed for the better, which means you must have made the right choice.

But I think if people are looking for kind of like a little tick.

[01:13:02]Nik: Or a little ding.

[01:13:04]Mark: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Then I, yeah, I would say, what is it that needs a validation?

Which probably comes down to insecurity, which comes down to ego.

So when you, when you’re going the right way down the river, going with the current, it’s effortless and easy, but there isn’t really any sensation other than it’s easy. If everything’s generally smooth in life, then either you’re asleep, metaphorically, and the devil has full control over you, or you’re doing things right.

There’s your kind of feedback, but on a choice by choice basis.

There is no pat on the back or little icon that appears or ping sound or anything like that. You know, the feedback is. You grow.

Next question from Millie. Was God created humanity? Is this not acting? That’s a well observed question.

I said there were a few rare examples of God acting.

Now remember, one of the things about the nature of God is to create.

So was it an act or the fulfillment of the nature?

In other words, did God create humanity or did he simply intend humanity? And it came about.

I’m going to be artfully vague here because this is a massive subject that spans the four books that I’m writing about the history of humanity and how we came about and how it relates to God and everything. And there is no way, you know, I could spend the next 20 live shows. I probably still wouldn’t do it justice. That’s why I’ve had to write these books. So the story of humanity is kind of what these books are about in relation to God and stuff like that.

But yeah, very well observed question, because as I hinted at, there were a number of exceptions where God seemingly acted. And this is where the words maybe don’t do it justice, but acting is probably about the closest word to a direct intention by God deliberately being manifested by God through the creator aspect of God’s nature.

And then username. What? Do you want to read that one out, Nik?

[01:15:37]Nik: I can do. So regarding grace, can you give us a person centered example in addition to the coin, water, oil example?

[01:15:48]Mark: Short answer.

Yeah. So when Jesus, was it a shriveled hand, one of the people that Jesus healed?

That was a very visceral example of by the grace of God, but it was done through Jesus as God in form.

So it was kind of an act of grace, if that makes sense.

It’s very difficult. It’s easy to say that was an act of grace.

I think we did an episode early on on the number 22 and a guy who was saved from the Manchester arena bombing and he was Right on the edge of it. And there were. It was miraculous how he survived. And even down to he swallowed at the right moment so that he redirected a bullet into his stomach rather than through his neck and things like this.

And there was all these synchronicities about the number 22.

But that was kind of a demonstration of grace.

It was God’s intention that this guy would survive.

You know, we talked about Donald Trump being shot and turning his head at the right moment.

And again, that doesn’t. I’m in no way endorsing Donald Trump, but there are always bigger pictures at play. And that was kind of an example of the will of God or the intention of God doesn’t mean, oh, Donald Trump special. And that must be said. It’s just simply that for the bigger picture to play out, then that particular thing needs to unfold in a particular way.

So these are examples of grace, I’m tempted to say, when people are miraculously healed, but that’s more likely that they’re a good person who’s prayed to Jesus and Jesus has acted.

And so that’s the grace of God through the will of Jesus. In other words, Jesus has heard their prayer enacted because Jesus is the healer.

And all healing ultimately comes from the source, you know, so even when someone down here does healing, there’s actually two types of healing. And I’m kind of getting a bit off piste here, but there’s illicit healing, I. E. You can fix things on the third dimension using energy from higher dimensions or even using symbology and magic, but that’s not really healing. That’s just interfering with matter.

And so a good example of that, although it’s extremely well intentioned, is Reiki. Anything where there are symbols and energies is actually a form of magic. And it isn’t actually healing in the sense that it comes from God as the manifestation of love with intention.

Rather, that’s manipulating the physical realm through the application of symbology and magic. So, in other words, the people doing the Reiki down here don’t necessarily realize that what they’re invoking are principalities and energies not of the highest order, but on a slightly higher dimension. And the original Reiki was supposed to be kept a secret because it was only for.

Meant to be used on people who were aligned with these principalities on higher dimensions. In other words, it was a cliquey thing to aid their agents on the third dimension to heal them when needed.

Massive tangent. And I’m sure that’s going to stir the hornet’s nest a Little bit in terms of Reiki people. But I’ve done a lot of work with a number of Reiki masters who, once I’ve revealed spiritual light and sound energy to them and taught them higher forms of energy work, they’ve all stopped being Reiki masters because they’ve realized the limits of it.

So, you know, if people want the truth, then sometimes that means realizing that there are certain things, although they may seem good, are just a limit. It’s the same example of, you know, just going, might as well, we’re off peace now, so we might as well carry on. But I used to teach crystal meditation. I don’t anymore because once I realized the limits of crystals, I decided that it would no longer be congruent or with the higher truth that I’m now aware of to carry on working with crystals as same with mandalas and mantras and a whole load of other stuff that I used to teach. And mindfulness is another example that the journey to truth is a journey of shedding as well as learning. In other words, if you’re going to learn the truth and discover the higher truth, then sometimes that means that stuff that got you to that point is something you, you have to let go of to go further.

And it’s either truth first or it’s identity first.

So I was very interested in Reiki. I was also trained as an alternative therapist. And I put a lot of things to one side when I discovered much higher forms of healing and much higher forms, forms of truth, basically, and realized that these things, though they may have been well intentioned by the mass majority of people who use them, are not working for the highest, from the highest, with the highest, if that makes sense. So, you know, you have to ask yourself the question, do I value the truth or do I value the identities that I’ve picked up in this particular lifetime?

And you know, that that also goes for people that practice things like magic or even, even, you know, it’s like I used to. I trained as an NLP guy and I practice a bit of hypnotherapy. But the more you understand about free will, I would, I would be very careful about that side of things as well now. So, you know, it’s a, it’s a journey as much of as letting go as it is of, of learning and growing. You know, I don’t know if you’ve had any experience of that, Nik, in terms of.

[01:21:51]Nik: Well, certainly with Tai Chi, things like that.

[01:21:53]Mark: Oh, yeah, yeah, I used to do that. Yeah, yeah.

[01:21:56]Nik: Did I realize its limits and you know where it was coming from.

[01:21:59]Mark: From. Yeah. The energy wasn’t as good as it maybe seemed, but had benefits down here, you know, and that’s the thing, some of these things that ultimately aren’t good do have short term gains.

[01:22:11]Nik: Well, I remember telling you that for anyone that does do it, I will give a real experience of my own. And that was whereby I would say, oh, I, oh, Mark, you know, you should see this. I’ll take a video. I can like stand there and this seems like this energy is flowing through me and I’m like, my body’s moving, moving into all these positions and I feel great afterwards. And really stretched and released. But then I was like. But I always was bit doubtful of it and I, that’s why I raised it with you. I was like, I don’t quite know what’s going on there and who’s controlling me, bending and moving in all these shapes.

[01:22:39]Mark: It’s. When you said that you weren’t, you were getting pulled into positions, you weren’t in control.

[01:22:45]Nik: Yeah, you know.

[01:22:45]Mark: Yeah, yeah, yeah, there’s a clue.

Exactly.

[01:22:50]Nik: So don’t do that.

[01:22:52]Mark: But thank you, millie2772 and username. What in the chat for your questions.

Look, it’s been quite an interesting show and a bit more chilled out as ever. There was a bit of a technical glitch with the intro video but hey, you’ve all seen it before so it doesn’t really matter. But I just wanted to say let’s get you up there, Nik.

So I just want to say thank you Nik, for giving me your time and for sharing what was also quite a personal experience and hopefully people have found it of value.

And if you guys listening, watching, want to ask any more questions, I’m sure Nik would be glad. Well, I don’t know if he’d be glad. Nik, I’m putting words into your mouth, but I could try and ask him to come back on the show and, but also anything else that’s come up from this show, feel free to get in touch, you know, in the usual ways. But I’ll let you.

[01:23:58]Nik: Know. Yeah, thank you, Mark. Yeah, no, thank you. Thank you for inviting me on again. I do really actually quite enjoy coming on here and, and having that chance to speak with you and to others.

[01:24:08]Mark: It’s not scary the full time, is it?

[01:24:10]Nik: Not so scary, no, no, but it’s, it’s, it’s good and I’ve enjoyed the experience again. So thank you everyone for listening and sticking with us as ever.

[01:24:18]Mark: I’ll close then by saying keep making. You know, every week we talk about free will and so exercise your free will, keep making good choices and wherever you are, God bless you and we will see you next week. Week. And it’s goodbye from me.

[01:24:37]Nik: And it’s goodbye from him.

[01:24:40]Mark: See you. Bye.

Thank you for being awesome and joining me for this episode. I’m truly grateful. As a spiritual person. I hope it’s inspiring to realize that you’re not alone and that more and more like minded people just like you are enjoying this live show. This means that you’re part of a growing and awakening community and together we’re all finding the way back to God. Going deeper than just ideas and beliefs to experience firsthand real spiritual awakening. This is a journey of the heart, not the head.

So take this moment to just become a little bit stiller, more present, more neutral.

Now notice what you notice when I ask you this question.

What in this particular episode has been most useful?

Now who in your life at this particular time would benefit the most from knowing this too? Maybe it’s one person, or maybe it’s more than one, but because sharing is caring, it’s really nice to know that you can actually share this show with them and therefore help them.

This show is completely free to enjoy and benefit from. Now. Speaking of free stuff, if you’d like other useful, helpful spiritual resources, then head on over to thewaybackgroup.org there you’ll find all kinds of fruit, free resources, articles, eBooks, MP3s, guided meditations, and a whole load of other stuff that’s completely free and waiting for you to discover it. So that’s all for this episode, but your journey. And my journey continues.

And so I look forward to having you join me next week for more revelation and exploration into spiritual things. And together, let’s make more sense of life, not just for us, but for our loved ones so that we can help them too.

So remember to subscribe and hit the notifications so that you don’t miss out.

Who knows what we’ll be discussing next week and the next question or topic might even be yours. Perhaps there’s a reason you’ve been guided to this show.

So God bless you. And remember, real change starts when we put into practice what we’re learning so that we go from thinking and doing to finally being.

So take what you’ve learned today and keep on being the best version of you.

God bless.