Michael B. Beckwith: Living in the Presence

“The heart's desire and God's will are exactly the same thing.”- Michael Beckwith

Along the course of my interviews, it came to me that Reverend Michael Bernard Beckwith would be a great person to profile. He is a New Thought minister, author, popular podcast host, and director of the Agape International Spiritual Center in Beverly Hills, California. He leads Sunday worship services in-person and online to thousands on the path to reaching their highest potential. He is known to many simply as “The Rev.” I was hoping that talking to him would give credence to the importance of following our inner guidance.

Because of his busy schedule, it took over a year to lock in a phone interview with him. The day my appointment finally arrived I was nervous. Would I be able to put into words the questions I hoped to have answered? I said a prayer and called his number. When Michael answered the phone, I was immediately put at ease by his kindness. I dove right in and explained that I was talking to creatives to learn if coming from their center is what made their careers happen. I admitted I had struggled with my life’s work for years. That could be because the dream I was trying to materialize originated more in my mind than in the heart of God. Michael agreed and told me that you can’t manifest your destiny with your figuring-out mind.

“I put it like this,” he said. “We all have a calling. We all have a “meant to be,” that should transcend our “should be.” The “should be” comes from external authority figures, the society in which we live, the status quo, our parents, education, and religion. They tell you what you should be, but your soul, your spirit tells you what you're meant to be. Each of us are here to represent the Presence in a way that only they can. It's beyond a job. It's beyond a career. It's our soul calling. I think it's a gift when one's career and calling are the same thing, but oftentimes it's not.”

Wise words from a man who, before it was legalized, sold cannabis, to fund his college tuition. But Michael turned his back on that lifestyle after having a lucid dream in his twenties. “In it two men held me down while another plunged a knife in my heart. The pain was excruciating. I died in my dream, and when I woke up I was different. I never could get back into the box of drug dealer again.” 

From the time Michael was a child through his teenage years, he had several spiritual experiences, but he would always force his way back into being who others expected him to be. After his dream experience he felt compelled to follow a higher calling. “I was out of the box and I couldn't lie about the fact that we're surrounded by a Presence. People have called it many names, but it's love, beauty, and intelligence, and it's alive.”

The next step for Michael was to stop selling drugs. He shocked his supplier when he went to pick up more cannabis, and told him this was his last drug deal. He couldn’t understand why Michael would leave such a lucrative business. The only way he could explain it was that being a drug dealer is not what he wanted to do with his life. It was not his destiny. 

On the fateful day of his last deal he was arrested. Michael remembers sitting in the living room where the exchange took place and beginning to feel uneasy. He knew he had to leave right then. He got in his car, and as he was driving away was pulled over by the police. He had no drugs in his possession. They brought him back to the house where the marijuana was, and asked if it was his. Michael denied it. 

“Anyway, long story short, I was arrested.The inner voice told me that I was going to walk away scot-free. People around me thought that I was crazy, that I had lost my mind, that I was freaked out on Jesus, but I trusted the voice of my soul.”

When they went to court Michael had no interest in his case because he had a deep knowing the charges wouldn’t stick. He passed the time by reading meditation books. One of his attorneys put a motorcycle policeman on the stand for questioning. He asked him why they'd gone to the house. The policeman said an informant told them there was a big drug deal going on. So they obtained a search warrant, walked in during the transaction, and arrested Michael. It was all a fabrication and the lawyer knew it. He stood up and said:

“Excuse me, that's hearsay evidence. We demand that the informant come and stand before the accused, and we ask that the case be solved out of court.” The judge gave the prosecutors three days to bring in the informant. After three days the prosecutor appeared before the judge and told him that the informant was afraid for his life and refused to come. 

The judge said, "Mr. Beckwith, I have no other recourse, but to set you free. I hope, I never see you in this courtroom again." 

Michael said, “'You never will.’ I left totally free, no record, nothing. Just as the inner voice had told me. As I walked home, the wind was blowing fiercely. My neighbor’s weather vane was pointing in the direction of the wind. I said to the Presence, ‘If this means what I think it means I want that weather vane to point in my direction,’ Before I could get the words out, the weather vane went against the wind, and pointed right at me. I cried and turned my life over to God. Never looked back. I simply pursued my conscious connection with a Presence that was more real to me than the chair I'm sitting on.”

After that, one by one, people began coming to Michael for spiritual help. He was able to guide them, and help them to heal. That pointed him in the direction of a career as a spiritual therapist. When he finished his education at a school of ministry, he answered the call to start the Agape International Spiritual Center. 

“Each step of the way on my journey I was called to give up resistance and surrender to something higher. Everyone is here to light up the world. We all have different ways of doing that. Everyone has to find their particular gifted area and do it in the spirit of excellence. Some may be great teachers who light up their classrooms. Others may be great healers who light up the halls of medicine. You may not end up being known, or celebrated, but moment by moment, answering the call from within, you will leave the world a better place.”

According to Michael, trying to force your dreams into being slows down the process. Doing what feels right in your heart, one moment at a time, allows your purpose to unfold. When you sincerely do that, the Universe opens up for you. Opportunities occur for you. Your purpose gets clearer and clearer. Shining your light and living in the Presence are one and the same.

Michael says that the voice of his soul comes to him during mediation, while he sleeps or sometimes as an intuitive hit. “It's like an insight. Suddenly I know something, that I didn't know before. I didn't reason it out. I just know it. I accept that what has come to me is true. That it's going to happen, or whatever the case may be.”

After my conversation with The Rev, I could see that I had been making my life a lot harder than it needed to be. Instead of chasing a career path, I should pay attention to the still, small, voice within. Following it is the most direct way for one’s life’s purpose to unfold. Although he is an intelligent man, Michael didn’t get to were he is today through brain power. He arrived by relying on the wisdom within. We are all gifted with an inner light. It burns brighter than any teacher, religious dogma, or AI. Follow that light. It will never lead you astray.

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Text and artwork © Sue Shanahan