In the Old Testament story, when Isaac was called by God, he answered, “Hineni.” Translated from the Hebrew, hineni means, “Here I am, for you called me.”

In the Bible, the word hineni is used when God personally calls on someone to do something difficult and important. “Here I am,” Abraham responds to God’s call; “Here I am,” replies Moses. It’s such a simple statement and yet, it’s one of the most powerful things a human being can say. Here I am: ready, willing and able.

Ready, Willing and Able

This is how angels show up in our lives: ready, willing and able to help. Here I am, they tell us, through signs and synchronicity. Here I am, for you called me.

When they show up, we feel blessed, reassured—and seen; and that’s something everyone needs. The experience of God’s presence is bracing and affirming. It lets us know: you matter to me. That’s why the angels are willing to send sign after sign until we get the message. We are that important to God.

Our presence to ourselves can be just as powerful.

Though in the past, we’ve made promises to ourselves — to make healthier choices for our body; to show up at work on time; to always keep our word — and though we may have broken those promises, we can begin freshly, today, to show up for ourselves.

We can commit to support the choices we make toward better habits, better health, better relationships through our actions—and through conscious daily practice.

I am here: we tell ourselves. When we bring this presence to our relationship with God and the angels, we are saying: I am here.

This is a sacred practice — it’s showing up with intention to connect,with the expectation of miracles. That, in a nutshell, is faith.

The Light, Love, Life That Calls to You

The angels showed me: When you reach out to us, we always reach back.

Are there really angels? Of course. Can I prove this? Not yet — though the thousands of stories I’ve read build a strong case that something is going on. From my perspective, it seems as if angels are appearing more often, to more people than ever before. Is this true? How could we possibly know?

Still, there are some things we can measure—some things of which I am certain. When I ask for help, help comes and, in a kind of Divine alchemy, when I live as if the world is a sea of miracles, it becomes just that: My body heals, my relationships transform, opportunities present themselves, problems become gifts.

This will happen for you.

Once you have established connection with the chip of Divine light that glows at the center of your heart; once you have seen that the Divine is in everything; once you have peeked behind the curtain of your own astonishing beauty, even if you’ve only been able to do so for a moment…

… your life will never be the same.

For when you connect with the energy of the Divine, you open to a stream of signs, synchronicity and miracles. Your cares lighten, your problems ease. You begin to experience a kind of inner spaciousness, a feeling of quiet, restful alertness, and you may experience flashes of acute awareness, sensing the presence of who you are beyond form.

Chances are, you will notice this first while doing something that allows the chatter of your mind to quiet — something like driving or washing the dishes or sitting in the back yard and watching the sun set behind the house next door. This sudden momentary glimpse behind the curtain will intrigue and perhaps, move you, activating a sense of wonder and curiosity.

Cultivating this peaceful, mindful state of presence will increase your ability to see and to receive symbolic and intuitive guidance.

You can do this by walking out-of-doors, without cell phone or music player, simply holding yourself in a state of relaxed and expectant listening or by doing the exercises in this book. You might choose to take up a practice of meditation, yoga or tai chi or even, a meditative activity like knitting or listening to instrumental music.

One day, you may experience flow, the psycho-spiritual state in which you feel positive, energized, focused and alive. This flow state is available in all parts of your life but most people experience it first, through deep concentration while doing creative work or fully engaging in physical activity or through meditation.

You will seek out the people with whom you can be yourself and the places where people like you are gathering. This is a natural phase of spiritual unfolding, the search for the soul’s true community. As you connect with your true self, old interests will reemerge, and dreams that you once cherished—as a child or young adult—will bubble up to fill your life with new energy and new meaning. What joy you will feel as, one by one, you open the closets of your soul and reveal these once hidden selves—the creativity, talents and interests that were always there, were always you.

As Divine light streams into your life, people will notice.

“You look different,” they’ll say, and you’ll know just what they mean because you feel different—lighter, with more energy and enthusiasm. As you lose tolerance for stale or toxic relationships, mind-numbing activities and inane entertainments, they will fall easily away and more nourishing and empowering friendships and interests will bloom.

You will develop a mountaintop perspective.

One day, you will lift up from the story of your suffering, your entrapment, your diagnosis and see it through a higher, wider lens. You will see the other patterns — of family, community and culture — that are woven into your story, becoming increasingly aware of the collective story that affects everything and everyone in the world.

Sensing your part in this story, you’ll feel more responsible for the choices you make, for the way you treat others—even for the thoughts you think. You’ll become fascinated with your own story

— and you’ll begin to share it. This will help, and even guide others to examine their lives, their stories, more closely. When they do, you’ll offer support and partnership. You’ll give generously, from the heart, knowing that in a Divine universe, what you give is always returned to you, multiplied by Grace.

You will hurry less and put less pressure on yourself to ‘win’ some imaginary race to the top. Now you see that the race and the top are both illusions. You’ll experience less stress at work and at home and yet, strangely, you will have more. Money will show up when you need it. Opportunities will materialize out of thin air.

You will begin to experience yourself as part of a flowing, living universe..

Your life, once fragmented and compartmentalized, will pull into wholeness. For your life is not just a series of unrelated events; it is one story, one gesture. You will become curious about that gesture, wondering, what is the deeper purpose for my life? What am I here to accomplish? As you ask these questions, answers will come.

This is how it is in the Sea of Miracles — a sacred story, a sacred world in which all things are sacred — including you.

Today, as I sit to write this, one image keeps returning to my mind: the vision of one person rising from a chair. I see this image again and again: one person, standing; one person, rising up. The vision arrives, as visions often do, with a download of understanding. I understand that I am being shown this vision to illustrate the wave of change, the global awakening that is sweeping the world one per- son, one ‘rising’ at a time.

The person in this vision is you. (It’s also me—and everyone we know.)

You see, I believe that the angels are here for a reason: You. You asked. You called. You want more.

You are not alone in this. People all over the world are praying for hope, for help, for intervention; for the healing of our planet, our bodies and our broken hearts. In every language, we are calling out to every deity: Please.

In response, there is this rising — a rising so powerful and so huge that it is shaking our very institutions to the core—crumbling walls and even, governments. At the same time, breakthroughs in technology, medicine and science are transforming the ways in which we live, communicate and congregate. All part of the rising — the most astonishing example is our rapid evolution into a globally interconnected world.

On a more personal level, my clients tell me, “I feel so unsettled. As if there’s something I’m supposed to be doing. But I can’t figure out what it is?” They are having powerful dreams, they tell me. They feel as if they are swelling from the inside out, bursting with energy and an urgency they can’t explain and can’t understand how to use. And of course, this is what happens when we pray for change: change comes — but it rarely comes in the ways that we expect.

When we ask: please guide me to health, we are guided to: eat healthier food, give up caffeine, and exercise. When we pray for an end to the arguing in our marriage we find a ballerina magnet in the mud. We look outside for rescue and we are returned, endlessly, patiently to ourselves.

Which brings us to the secret that all masters know: when we pray for change the Divine changes us. It’s the simplest truth of all, the cornerstone of all spiritual teaching: to bring the Divine to Earth, you must bring it here yourself. To live in a Sea of Miracles, you must create it and let it shine into the world, through you.

When you do, you will discover that the whole world is a miracle — designed to support, nourish and love you into the fullest expression of who you really are.

This love is in the rain falling from the sky, gathering into puddles and ponds — and asking nothing but that you hold out your cup. This love is in the air that you breathe, the sun that warms your skin, the food on your plate. Are you hungry? Here’s a plum, a purple valentine. You don’t have to believe in God to enjoy its color, its scent and its sweetness. It’s a gift — and it’s all for you. This glass of water, glistening and clear; this plum with its magic seed at its center — a seed that could, if you simply planted it, yield a tree!

This is a miracle! Every time you sit down at the table. A gift: the light that illuminates this page, your incredible body with its marvelous senses; your mind with its ability to question, your heart with its wisdom and vast capacity to love.

You are a miracle—you and me, and everyone we know—and the rising energy that we feel is the answer to our prayers.

Did you get that? This rising that you feel is the answer to your prayers.

How do I know? I have lived it. I have seen it. I am a witness for the angels—and the rising of the gifts that they inspire: Peace, Wholeness, and a love so sweet and a light so bright that it burns through any darkness.

The rising in the world is wiser and wider than a faltering economy; it’s a peace with roots so deep that no terrorist could ever shake them. It’s the rising of a response from an interconnected All That Is which, whether you call it God, Collective Consciousness, The Uni- verse or Baba (or any other name) is not going anywhere—a force that loves you so fully and so fiercely that it will settle for nothing less than the fullest expression of who you are.

So, what are you, really? What is this fullness that is pushing to express itself through you, through me? Nothing less than the light, love and life energy of the Divine itself!

So while I can’t prove that the angels are showing up more openly and more often than ever before, I have never been more certain of anything. To me, the angels’ presence is a call to action, a call that we called into form. I believe the angels are here to help us live in a new way — and to create a new world — because we asked them to.

I look out into this time of terrorists, tidal waves and social upheaval and I ask for help. How can we live with- out driving ourselves crazy with fear? How can we tap into the deep and ancient wisdom of the world? I ask and I ask — and each time, I get the same answer: Turn toward the light. Choose toward love. In this way, you will create a new pattern and the energy of the world will flow to fill it.

I don’t ask you to believe in angels. I don’t need you to change anything about the way that you think or perceive the world at all. All I ask is that you take one simple step, and make this one request: Quiet your mind, take a deep breath and, with a willing and open heart, say: Show me.

In this way, you’ve invited the angels into a sacred conversation that can (and will) change your life. And that will change the world.

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This post is an excerpt from my book, Sea of Miracles.

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