In Anne of Green Gables (usually considered a children’s book) the heroine knows what to do by seeing a flash of light—meaning “yes!” I write of such things in The Art of Intuition and also in A Book of Angels, but I want to empathize here that we all have the ability to discern with deep listening, “What am I to do next?” and “What do you have to tell me?”

I think the greatest hindrance to intuition (and telepathy, ESP, animal communication, etc.) is your own mind. Reason logic, critical analysis tells us intuition can’t be trusted. And this brings me to something I’ve only recently learned.

Believe, and all things are possible! We are admonished. It’s in the Bible. Everything is possible for one who believes, Jesus warns the man who wanted healing for his ailing child. (Mark 9:3) “I believe,” cries the poor father, and then in anguish, “Help thou my unbelief.”

It gets worse.

“Do you believe in me?” Christ asks Mary and Martha, just before raising their brother Lazarus from the dead. What an odd thing to ask. He’s standing right in front of them. But, “I believe!” trumpets Martha. Believes what? In some translations, she lays it out so heavily that we assume the early Church Fathers shoveled their dogma on top of the vague eye-witness reports: “I believe you are the Christ, the Messiah!”

I worry at the word like a terrier. What does believing that have anything to do with easing Martha’s grief at her brother’s death or her anger at Jesus for having stayed away when Lazarus was ill?

But recently I’ve come across some wondrous information.

When the Bible was translated from Greek into English under the reign of King James I, the Greek verb pisteuo, was translated as to believe or have faith or even in some cases, to be righteous. But in Greek pisteuo carries echoes of trust.

It makes a difference.

What if Jesus was asking not, “Do you believe in me,” but “Do you trust me?” It changes everything!

Everything is possible for one who trusts!

Trust, and all things are possible.

Belief is a matter of intellect, and the business of the brain is to analyze, worry, question, doubt. But trust comes from the heart, arising with the simplicity of a child.

“Throw your heart over the fence,” goes the horseman’s adage, “and the horse will follow.”

Trust, and the Universe will bring you your desires!

No sooner do I write this than Intellect and Reason intervene, reminding me of the suffering in this world. Surely those unhappy people trusted too, and look at wars, poverty, degradation, migrations, illness, death—loss piled on loss.

Do I understand this pretty world, the suffering, the purpose of life? No. Do I trust that a Guiding Hand is at my side? Yes, and here’s a by-product: when I trust, I’m happy. It’s that simple—I’m liberated from doubt, anger, fear, desire, hatred, self-dislike. And yet I’s as natural for the Mind to doubt as for a horse to run.

When in my doubting mind, it takes an act of will to trust. Then in my imagination, I turn myself over to Something Greater. I put my hand in His, because even if my mind is full of doubt, my heart knows Something “out there,” is loving me, is loving all of us. We aren’t promised that nothing bad will happen in our lives. We are promised that when it does, we’re not alone.

So what exactly do I trust? I trust in love, beauty, in the miracle of creativity and in the innate compassion of people, the indominable urge to kindness. I trust that the Universe is on my side, caring, guiding us with angels and intuition and flashes of light. I trust that in the words of St. Julian of Norwich, “All shall be well, and all shall be well. All manner of thing shall be well. “

Sophy Burnham

Author of A BOOK OF ANGELS, THE ECSTATIC JOURNEY, THE PATH OF PRAYER, THE ART OF INTUITION, FOR WRITERS ONLY, REVELATIONS, THE TREASURE OF MONTSEGUR