Are You Asking But Still Not Receiving? LL&L W Glenn Ambrose

It was said, knock and it will be opened...there's no maybe in there. So why isn't it working? What's the missing piece? In this episode I'll slow way down and walk you through the energy of the ask.

Episode released Monday, February 3rd, 2025.

Transcript

Welcome to Life Lessons and Laughter with your host, Glenn Ambrose. Hello, Everybody. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to Life Lessons and Laughter with yours truly. So, So today, I don't know, I think this is going to be a good one. I hope so. Um, Today I'm talking about, You know, When you seem to be asking and not receiving and, You know, There's, I'm actually probably going to do another podcast on this topic, But it kind of leads into it, It's, You know, Most of us that are on a spiritual path, We experience periods of time where there's a fair amount of suffering and struggle and frustration, Second guessing, Like it's all part of the journey. And, Um, You know, During those times, Of course, We think we're doing everything right, Otherwise we wouldn't be frustrated, Right? We would just do what we think we need to do. So it's, You know, During those times where the answer is usually some version of going deeper, Some version of coming back to basics, Something very simple, You know, That, That we're overlooking, Um, And, You know, Nobody thinks well when they're frustrated. So when you're in that frustration energy and you're going, I'm doing everything that I can. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. And like, When you're in that, It's, It's difficult to see through, Right? Because it's that, That energy that you're in is directing your thoughts. So this is why I think I did a podcast a little while ago. It's, It's, It's always set your energy first because nothing is good is going to come out of bad energy. It's just like, It's when we're in bad energy, When we're in negative energy, When we're, When we're oscillating on the pity pot or the, The, The poor me or the victim mentality, You know, It's, It's, You know, A lot of times we won't admit that that's what we're doing. You know, No, I'm not, I'm not in victim mentality. It's just, Nothing goes right for me. Well, Yeah, That's victim mentality. You know, We all go there sometimes. Um, It's just become a catchphrase. So everybody's defensive towards it. No, No, I'm not that. Um, But it's okay. You know, Really, We just need to be honest with ourselves. And that's a big part of what I'm talking about today, Because, You know, It's, It's the, You know, The title is, Are you asking, But not receiving? So of course, What led to that title is, Is, You know, What Jesus said, Ask, And it will be given to you seek and you will find knock and it will be open to you for everyone who asks receives and the one who seeks finds and to the one who knocks, It will be opened. So like that, That's pretty straightforward. You know, That's, It's, It's not, You have to jump through 32 hoops and then maybe if it's a Tuesday at noon and the sun shining, You know, Maybe it'll be open, It just says it's, You know, Knock and it will be opened ask and you will receive there, There is no, Maybe there's no, There's no hook. There's no, But if it's just straightforward, So if, If we're asking and not receiving, You know, So for what I'll probably use, Well, What I'll use for an example now, Possibly throughout the podcast is seeking help, You know, Seeking, Feeling that, That love and that support from God, That, That sense of safety, You know, That, I mean, To me, That's, You know, That's kind of, I don't look at spirituality is, Is what I can get on the outside, You know, Or necessarily even what I can get at all. Like I'm not on the spiritual path necessarily to have an easy life or to manifest financial abundance or to find the right partner or to like, There isn't a, You know, Of course I want all that stuff. I mean, But that's not, I'm not living spiritually. So I get that because that's manipulation energy and it never, It just doesn't work. And the funny part about that is, Is it's, It's, We do it sometimes without being aware that we're doing it. You know, We, We attempt to manipulate the laws, The spiritual laws to get what we want or to feel relief or to, To, To get that connection. And we don't even know that that's what we're doing. And this is part of the, A big problem with spirituality in today's society. And it's been like this for a long time, But we're just moving too fast. You know, I've said it a million times we're moving too fast and I'm moving a lot slower here in the mountains, Dominican Republic than most. And I still catch myself moving too fast. And this is, This is one, Like if you, If you go down that rabbit hole, This is where you land, Where if you're being totally honest with yourself and you slow way down, And these are things that are required for, For deep spiritual transformation, You need to do these things. And this I think is why, Or, Or one of the reasons why, Or how it can benefit you. If you do, You know, It's, We have to slow way down and we have to be completely honest with ourselves and, And look into things and contemplate, You know, I did a podcast on contemplation a little while ago. So it's when you, When you go in, Right. And you're going like, Okay, You know, My tried, I need to try to come up with some example, Something that, That I go in and I ask for, And I'm not receiving, You know, And a lot of times when we first go there, We are a little scattered, A little frustrated or overwhelmed. That's why we're going in there in the first place. You know, We probably should go there. We should do the deep dive more often, Even, You know, When things are good. Um, But oftentimes we do the deep dive when we're at our wits end or just struggling with something. So, So what I'm going to do is come up with an example and I'm going to try to guide you through how you can come to these realizations and, And, And experience like what I'm talking about. You know, I really want you guys to experience what I'm talking about here. Um, So first I have to have the example. So I think the example could be, Um, I need just asking to feel safe, You know, Like I'm going to, The reason I'm choosing that is because I want something simple. I want something that a lot of people can, Can relate to, But I want it deep enough to where it's not some pseudo surfacy question, Right? So we're going to go in and, And I'm going to ask you guys to do this with me. So just, You know, I'm going to ask you to close your eyes and just follow my voice and go within and, And, And just experience this with me, You know, Closing your eyes. It just, Um, It limits some of the distractions because of the, You know, We're just not seeing all the things around us or things aren't capturing our attention out of the corner of our eye. So it's just one of our senses that we're closing off to just kind of go within so we can, We can feel this. So, And don't do this if you're driving. I always laugh when I hear, When I hear people say that, Uh, You know, In meditations and stuff, It's like, You have, You, You have to say, Don't close your eyes if you're driving. But, Um, I actually have known people who have, Who have done it in different situations where they shouldn't have. So, So, Um, Yeah, As long as you're in a safe atmosphere, Um, Just close your eyes. And if you, And if you're not just do it with your eyes open, Man, No biggie. So, So just close your eyes and just take a couple of deep breaths and just with the intention of going within. So just take a big, Deep breath in. Breathe out. One more. And just put your attention on your heart. You can put your hands there to help bring your attention there. And the intention of this is to, To connect with God and to feel safe, To feel that sense of safety, That all encompassing that everything is okay. And that I am loved that I'm cared for and I'm supported and I'm safe, That type of energy, You know? So a lot of times when we're struggling, We'll go, God, Please. I just need to feel safe. I need to feel safe. I need to feel you. And if you're paying attention to my words right now, They're very shallow. There's no depth to my words. And I was, What I was trying to do is mimic what we do when we're anxious or frustrated or overwhelmed with that, That energy kind of owns us. We're like, Ah, God, Please help. Please help. Uh, I don't like the way this feels, You know, Like this is why I'm saying our energy, We need to slow down and go deeper and, And, And center ourselves before, Before we do this. So, You know, That's, That's one way of asking God, Please help help. And I don't know if you guys can feel this or not, But like, If you tune into the energy of what's being said there, The energy isn't expecting help. It's not expecting help. And you guys can open your eyes for a moment if you want. Um, I was like, I'm gonna explain something and then go back in. So it's, It's the surface. See, I need help. I'm doing everything I can. And it's like the energy of that is, Is more like the second sentence than the first sentence. I need help. I'm doing everything I can. It's more the I'm doing everything I can energy. So which the energy of that, Like, If, What does that mean? Right? Like, This is how you can tell the energy of something. Just keep asking follow-up questions. I'm doing everything I can. Okay. What do you mean? Well, I I'm doing everything that I can think of and I'm still not feeling the relief. I'm still suffering. Okay. So what does that mean? Well, That means I'm doing everything I can, But the other side, The spiritual side, The God side, Isn't helping me, It's not working like that's the energy of the statement. Because why else would you feel anxious? If what you were doing was working, You would feel calm. Right. You, You, You would feel peaceful. You would feel happy. Or if you knew that as you were asking for help, That help was definitely coming, Then you would either, You'd be more calm and you'd be more of a, In a hopeful energy, More of a, Oh, Isn't this wonderful that all I have to do is just to do is ask and, And, And I'll be receiving any second now that, Oh, I love doing this, Like, That's the attitude you would be in, That's the energy you would be in if you actually believed. And like, Maybe you are, Maybe you do truly believe, But you're not in the energy and you're not asking in a way that you do believe you're asking in the energy that this probably ain't going to work. Or this isn't working or that's the energy. And that is what we have to be careful of. That's the, That's the little, Little piece that, That people look right over. And, And it's even easier to look over when we're frustrated and overwhelmed because we're frustrated and overwhelmed. So this is why centering ourselves and getting our head straight before we ask. Like God, Jesus didn't say like, Do a drive by knocking and God will chase the car and give you, Give you what you want. Or, You know, Jesus in, In other things that Jesus said, He often talked about faith, You know, The faith of a little child, Little child just assumes that their, That their parent is going to care for them. They just assume it. That's the faith of a little child. You know, It's, It's this having that, That, That faith, We have to like, And like I said, You might have it, But you're just not embodying it at this particular time and then wondering why that doesn't work. And then if you do that multiple times, It's like what your brain does is it, It collects data. Okay. So every time you ask and you don't receive, It puts it, It remembers that it's a little data. Hey, Glenn asked and didn't receive Glenn asked and didn't receive. So the more we do it the wrong way, The more we're going to start believing that it actually doesn't work. No, I mean, It does work, But we're doing it the wrong way. We're not centered. We're moving too quickly where we're just, Just give me the result. I asked, Give me the result. It's like, Well, It's not based on just you asking. Like it's based on how you ask. It's based in the energy that you ask because like, You know, And this is, This is why this is so important. Spirituality is not intellectual, You know, And we've all been conditioned to learn intellectually. So it says, Oh, Well ask and you'll receive. Oh, Okay. Hey, Give, Where is it? Don't see it. See, Didn't work. I asked, Well, Yeah, But you didn't ask with any faith. You didn't ask expecting it to happen, Which has been said in, In other places. You know, It's like this isn't, You know, I know that this is really simple ask and it will be given to you. And it doesn't specify the energy. No, It doesn't, But it does specify the energy and other things that Jesus said. And it's not just Jesus, You know, I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm going off this, But I mean, This is every, Every spiritual teaching talks about this, You know, All of them do. I mean, Even, Even manifestation that doesn't have anything to do with religion or some people even do it without even having anything to do with spirituality. I mean, You can throw religion and spirituality right out the window and still manifest stuff. Sometimes it's not going to be consistent stuff because it's a spiritual law. And unless you actually understand it appropriately, Blah, Blah, Blah. But, But you can do it. But even in that, Like, Even if you're going completely scientific law of attraction, Creating new neural pathways in the brain by repeating and feeling like they even teach that you need to actually believe what you're saying and bring up the feeling of it. Like there's aspects of this that wherever it's taught the intention, The, The, The, The believing, The faith, Whatever you want to call it plays a part. Okay. So, So we have to be really clear. We can't, We, We can't be all frustrated and not expecting it to work and then wonder why it doesn't work. I mean, There's examples in regular life sometimes that I see that happening. You know, Anyway, So, So it's about slowing down and going within and asking heartfelt with, With the belief that it's actually going to happen. Okay. So, So we'll try it again. So, Um, Now this time I want to do it the right way now that we know what the wrong way looks like. So just take another deep breath. Close your eyes. Breathe out and start thinking now before you ask anything, We're asking for safety. What are we asking for safety? We're asking something that is omnipresent, Omnipowerful, Endless creativity. It's capable of creating a universe and everything in it and creating us and is based in love. We love our creations just innately and our creator loves us deeply. So we're asking that presence, That presence. The only thing that truly can make us feel deeply safe eternally, And it has the power to do that. We're asking that presence for safety, That essence for safety. And why wouldn't it? Why wouldn't it? If it was capable, Why wouldn't it? It would, It wants us to ask. It's God's good grace to give us the keys to the kingdom. He wants to. God wants us to ask because God wants to give. That's why giving feels so good for us. Anything innate within us is God given. So God wants to help us. God wants to love us. God wants us to feel safe. So knowing that, Knowing that, Then I ask God, Please, And thank you. I ask to feel your presence and to feel safe. In my heart, To feel your presence, To feel your love, To know that I'm loved and cared for, And that I'm safe. Oh, I know, I know I'm feeling it. Of course I'm feeling it. Why wouldn't I feel it? And breathe it in. Now, If for some reason you're not feeling it, Why? Because you're calmer now. So, And if your mind is racing, Just take another deep breath and relax. It's okay. You're safe right now. Even if you don't feel it, Everything's fine. Are you really expecting to feel it? Like when I was starting to say it, I wasn't, Like, I started feeling it before I even finished what I was saying, Because I knew I was going to feel it, Because it was nothing in the way blocking it. So, So I must open my eyes back up. And finish the podcast. So, You have to pay attention in there. Like if, You know, And if it is working, Pay attention, Because then you can kind of build a roadmap to what worked well. Contemplate it. Why did it work well? How did you ask? What was your intention? Were you expecting? And, And if it didn't work, You go, Okay, Was I expecting it to work? Not, Not intellectually. Oh, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, No, I get it. No, I get it. No, I know that's up here. That's in your head, In your deep, Energetically, In your heart, Inside your body. Did you actually expect it to happen? If you didn't, That's why it didn't happen. But don't worry. I mean, You can work through it. You know, Maybe, Maybe you've just gone through something difficult, Or like I said, You're frustrated. That's why you're doing this in the first place. And when those types of situations, Like they knock us around, You know, So we have to really center ourselves. And there's times in our lives, If we're getting knocked around a lot, Like we have to go back and find out what we truly believe, You know, Like, Like this times when I've had to do that before I could do this, Where I have to go back and go, You know what, Glenn, You're going inside and reaching for this, This expectation, Or this, This knowingness that God is there for you. And you're not feeling it, Because you don't really expect it to be there. So now I know that I, I know that I know, Right? Like, I've experienced God's presence too many times in my life to know to doubt it. Right? So I know that I know. However, My intellect can overpower that at times on a surface level and start controlling my thinking to a point where I didn't even know that I had gotten there. So if you if you know that there is a God, Like if you've developed some faith through experiences in your life already, And but you got to be honest with yourself. Am I feeling that now? Because if you're not, Then it's fine. But you need to get yourself there first before you can go in and ask. So you know, If you're there, Then you can just go in and ask if you know that there's a God, But you're not asking from the right place, Then you you got to do a little work there. If you haven't connected to God yet, And don't know if there is one or if you believe, Well, Then you need to work on that first. You know, And there's ways I'm not going to get into in this podcast, But but like, If you already know, Like, You know, One of the things that I do is I use my my wall of faith that I call it. You know, When I first woke up spiritually, I had huge spiritual awakenings. And I noticed that intellectually, There was a part of me that just wanted to dismiss them and move on with my life. Not dismiss them totally just just to just to be like, Oh, Wow, That was so cool. Yeah. Amazing. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Yay. And then move on with my life. And I was like, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Like, This seems too important just to kind of do that. Like, I want to, I want to, I really want to appreciate this. And I really want to feel the gratitude for this, And to take the energy that I just experienced and, And become familiar with it and contemplate it and understand it. You know, So so I would I would do that stuff. And then to me, It was like, You know, I saw myself building this, This wall of faith. And the big spiritual awakenings were like big cinder blocks in this wall. And the smaller ones were like bricks. And it was just like, In the beginning, Every time something would happen to me, I would like put another brick in the wall. Thank you, Pink Floyd. So, You know, And then when I was in a situation where I was scared or feeling overwhelmed, I would go lean on that wall and just start remembering all the different times that I asked and received all the different times that I had spiritual awakenings, All the different times that God did for me what I could not do for myself. You know, And then I once I just reminded myself of a bunch of those examples, Then I would look back at this problem that seemed too big. And I would go, Oh, Well, God's got it. If God did all these things, Why, Why? What would be the point? What would be the point of God getting me sober after 20 years of alcoholism? Spending my whole life around on a dime. Finding an amazing place for me to stay in Rhode Island until I could find a job and get an apartment near my son. And then and getting the job and finding the apartment. No, You know, Who rented me my apartment when I moved up to Rhode Island? I'm sure I've said this before, But it's funny. When I was drinking, I tried moving up to Rhode Island. I got an apartment. I was a mess drinking all the time. Ended up trying to get sober the first time. Ended up drinking again and literally just took a couple bags that I could carry, Left my car at the airport and hopped on a plane and flew back down to Florida with all like, And I called a couple of my friends. I said, Hey, If you want anything out of my apartment, Here's the address. My car is in the, My car is in the airport parking lot. I left the keys in the gas tank. Go nuts. So some friends drove down to Rhode Island from Massachusetts, Got my car. I think they took my car and went to my apartment and got some stuff. And they're like, I think they were telling a mutual friend of ours this, That they're like, I swear, Glenn must've just literally just walked out the door because I think there was a half a glass of milk on the counter. Like it was just, And that's how I left. So I left that apartment just with tons of crap in it and all this stuff, No notice, Nothing. And the same landlord rented me in an apartment like a year. Yeah, It was probably only like a year later. Same, Same landlord. I just left like all my stuff in there and bolted. And didn't pay my rent and they had no way of getting in touch with me. Like, You know, I just bolted and, Uh, And the same person rented to me again. Like, You know, I mean, It's all these miracles and then, And then, You know, My, My circumstances getting me, Uh, To live right down the street from my son within the first year. And see him five days a week, Which my ex didn't want me to see him like once a week for like, Yeah, It wasn't, I don't know. In the beginning it was something like once a week or once every two weeks or something for a couple hours in her parents' basement, I could see him. But then, But then she moved and needed a babysitter. So I worked my schedule around. So I was with my son five days a week, Which was exactly what I wanted. You know, I was saying that in Florida a year earlier. I was like, Oh yeah, I'm going to move up to Rhode Island. I'm going to be with my son. They're like, Oh, Every other weekend. I'm like, No, Like more on pretty much a daily basis. Like I'm going to be the father figure in his life. And they're like, How are you going to do that? No court's going to give you that. I was like, I don't know, But that's just, That's what I need to do. You know, Like I could just feel inside of me what I needed to do and I just did it. And I had no idea of how I was going to accomplish any of it. And it just kept falling into place over and over because I had blown open spiritually. And I just, I just expected it to, I just knew somewhere deep inside of me that it was going to happen. I didn't know how, Didn't know why, I just knew it was going to happen. And it did, You know, And then 20 years of being a father and starting a business and all that busy, Busy lifestyle in the United States, You know, I'll be honest, It knocked me around, You know, It was, It was a lot. And, Uh, I wasn't as spiritually connected at the end of it as I was at the beginning of it. I'll tell you that. And, And I worked on my spirituality daily and, And thank God I did. Um, You know, I learned a lot, Grew in certain ways and all that stuff, But my deep, Deep connection, Moving that quickly all the time, It suffered because of it, You know? But the reason I explained that is to give you guys some idea, You know, This is how, This is how I find my faith is, Is I look back on these things and I'm like, Man, Is just all these examples of, Of what happened for me that I couldn't, I couldn't fathom how they were going to, To come into place, But I, I just knew they would, You know, And it's about getting back to that, That knowingness, That, That just knowing this, You know? And so you got to look at, You know, Whatever your wall of faith is. And if you don't have one, Go build one, You know, Write a list from, From the, You know, Something started you on a spiritual path and something's kept you on it. So you must have some examples in your life of how this worked and, You know, Sometimes you can borrow other people's face, Faith to some degree, You know, It's because remember another thing that he said was the faith of a mustard seed. It doesn't have to be perfect. We're so judgmental and we overthink things so much that we put imaginary obstacles in our way. Like anybody can find this, Anybody can find this, You know? And if you're, You know, Back at that place where, Where you don't really have much faith, You're maybe you're new on a spiritual path and you're just freaking out trying to find it you know, How, You know, My first awakening was like that, You know, So, So you can start from there just so, You know, Like, Don't freak out. You might have to do a little bit more work, But I mean, It's so worth it. It'll change your life, But nobody like nobody just, Well, I mean, You know, A few people maybe, But as a general rule, Nobody that has faith just had it. They had to create it from nothing. Everybody did, You know, As a general rule, Everybody had to create faith out of nothing. Like I said, There are a few exceptions to the rule, But as a general rule, Basically everybody had to create faith out of nothing. So you're in good company because everybody else had to do it too. I needed to do it. I didn't have some belief in God. Come on, Man, There's no way there's, You know, And faith in a God that it was going to help me. That was the only thing I had faith in when I was drinking. Like, I didn't know if there was a God or if there wasn't a God, But I knew that if there was one, It hated me and it sure as heck wasn't going to help me. That was what I had faith in when I started this. So when, When I, My first spiritual awakening was, Was a real frustrating phone call that, You know, It was just another argument and fight and I couldn't take it anymore. And I was at the end of my rope and I just went, Okay, God, Like you're like, I can't do this anymore. I can't do it anymore. Like I can't continue having these phone conversations that go nowhere and I just get screamed at and it's just, I can't do it. So you're supposed to be there. You're supposed to just, I'm supposed to hand stuff over to you. So if you're there here, You, You take it. And I didn't, Like, I wasn't capable of having the expectation. God will meet us where we are. I didn't, I wasn't capable of, Of like having some wall of faith or I wasn't capable of, Of, You know, Knowing that God, I, It was just sheer desperation. You know, That's G O D gift of desperation. So it was just a sheer desperation of like, I can't, I sincerely believe that I can't do this anymore. So here you take it. And this calm just came over me and it just went from my head right down through my entire body, Through my legs, Down through my feet. And I just, I was standing in front of my bed and I fell back on my bed and I was at complete peace, You know, Like, And it was like in three to five seconds or something. It just went through my whole body and I was like, Oh my God, What just happened? Like something just, Something just changed everything. Like everything is fine. I couldn't believe it, You know? So my point is, Is, Is this what, You know, If, If that's where you are, You can still get to where you need to be. Okay. But if you have that wall of faith, You need to connect to that. You need to be, You know, Think about, Think about, And I'm going to wrap up with this. Think about what I was saying, Like, Uh, As far as the expecting it to happen. Okay. You know, I'm, I'm talking to everybody that, That, That is capable of that. So, So if you can get yourself to a place where you're capable of knowing that God is there for you and you start asking for something, Don't, It would be, It would be exciting, Right? You would start feeling excitement before the words even finished leaving your mouth. Like, Like I'm, I'm trying to think about a real life example. So like, Let's say you're buying your dream car, Right? And you're at the dealership and you have it all picked out and you have all the things you ever wanted on this vehicle. And it's your dream car. And you have five of them right in front of you that are all different colors. And you know, They have everything that you want on them. And all you have to do is ask and it's yours. And you're starting to ask, Right? Like all the work's been done. You already got the financing, The, The, The cars have it. They're right in front of you, All four cars. So you don't have to worry about if they have to order it for you. They're like, It's all, It's said and done basically. Right. And you're sitting there and you go, Can I have the blue one? And you're so freaking excited because you know, The answer is yes. You can't even get it out. You start getting excited before you even get the question out. Can I have the blue one? Yes. This is freaking awesome. That's what I'm talking about. That's expectation. That's knowing that it's going to work. When I got myself into the right space, That's what I was feeling. Oh God, Can you, I didn't even finish the sentence yet. And the joy was just flowing because I knew it was a yes. Of course it's a yes. How could it be a no? It can't. My intention is pure. My heart's pure. It's of course it is. I'm not trying to manipulate anything. It's, It's just love. It's, It's an all pop. Why, Why would something all powerful not give me something? That's just going to enhance my experience here on earth and allow me to help other people. Why, Why? Of course, Of course it's a yes. You know, So also be careful what you ask because you just might get it. And, You know, It has to be in alignment with, With love really. You know, And if you're thinking about using this to get a Lamborghini in your driveway, Oh, I hope it doesn't work. Oh, That's just such a foolish, Foolish thing to ask for. In my opinion, It just doesn't have the right energy, You know, Material stuff like that. There's so much more we could do with our experiences and our love on this planet. So hopefully that was helpful. Dive in, Give it a shot and let me know if I can be of service, My friends. All right, I'm going to wrap it up. Yeah, I think I'll do it. And there we go. All right. Peace, Everybody.