Friendship with God: An Uncommon Dialogue

by Neale Donald Walsch

Book Overview

Neale Donald Walsch has changed the way millions of Americans think about God. His Conversations with God series, book 1, book 2, and book 3, have all been New York Times bestsellers--book 1 for over two years. The essence of Neale Donald Walsch's message lies at the heart of faith--the sacred place in every person, where he stands alone with his God. Walsch urges each of us to forge our own unique relationship with God, a God who is everywhere and...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399145419
• ISBN13: 9780399145414
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group
• Length: 437 Pages
• Weight: 1.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.0" x 8.6"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Disturbing, thought-provoking, & very inspiring

It is interesting to me in reading all of these reviews that many of the people writing them are doing exactly what "religions" and "demonimations" do in the name of "truth"--condeming and judging one another. The people who hate the books are "narrow-minded" fundamentalists, and the people who love them are godless "New-Agers." Surely the "contention" between people in these reviews must be disturbing to Neale, considering the fact that one of the basic premises of his books is the fact that there is no one true path but many ways to God, whether we choose to embrace fear in reaching God, or we choose freedom and love. I personally relate to everything everyone has written in these reviews, having been at each place at different points in my life. Ten years ago, as a fundamentalist Christian, having never studied anything except the Bible and the teachings of one or two mainline demoninations, I would have been completely unable to "receive" what Neale had to offer and would have, myself, condemed him as being an "Apostle" of Satan. In the fundamentalist churches, I was warned and taught to fear and hate the "Charismatics" who are too attuned to the "spirit" and are definitely receiving their information from Satan. Eventually, I embraced the Charismatic Church, where I was taught to be deathly afraid of Shirley MacClaine and any of her "New Age" mumbo jumbo, unless, of course, I wanted to end up in the fiery pits alongside her. However, having a searching heart and a desire for truth all my life and also a rather rebellious spirit, I sneaked a peek at her "forbidden" novels and found her to be fascinating and a woman with a sincere and honest desire to discover true meaning in life. This led to an earnest study of all world religons, and I realized what a "little" world I had lived in before and what a "fear" I had of opening my mind and letting go of my "self-hatred" and my "need" to be punished by an angry God. Bottom line--there is some truth and some error in every religion. I think the "Conversations" and "Friendship" books are wonderful, but I don't accept every word as being straight from God's mouth. Neale freely admits that he is a "filter" the same as were the writers of the Bible and the Talmud and every other Holy Book in history. The secret is in doing exactly what Neale has written about in these books--going to God and letting Him reveal His truth to you. God will not deny anyone who has a true desire to know, but that desire has to come with a willingness to admit that maybe you don't possess all the "truth" coming in and a willingness to "hear" truth that may not agree with what you have been taught all your life. God cannot reveal anything to someone who already has his mind made up!

Let Synchronicity Guide You

One of the things I have notice about divinely inspired information is an extraordinary command of the language, and an ability to say a great deal with few words. You will find that within this book.You know... there are no accidents... It is not an accident that you are reading these words. It may have different meaning relative to you, but it is no accident.There is no doubt in my mind that FWG is from a divine source. And even if it is not, I don't care... I'll take brilliance and genius wherever I can get it.There may be those of you who doubt whether these could actually be the words of God, and I have no quarrel with that. A valuable addage is "Know a tree by it's fruits" And the fruits of this book are Love, and Understanding, and Happines, and Connection... And that's good enough for me.If you only read one book this year, this is the one.Frank B.

Magnificent!

I thought that these books were inspired, now I KNOW! This latest book came at exactly the right moment. After reading the first 3 books, I at first felt exhilerated, then deflated, as they seemed to bring into my awareness the state of unconciousness that I could now see/feel the the world living in, and then I "found" Friendship with God, and that all changed. It resolved the last of my mind's questions, and helped to provide more practical ways of applying the concepts to my life. I read this one(the first time around ) in two days, and if you thought your life changed after the first three books, wait 'till you read this one. We can no longer hide from the truth, we will all re-member it some"time"ÿ. After finishing the first books, I bought/read about 30 books, looking for the "right" way for me to achieve the awarness I was looking for, and I finally found my answer here! The search is over, let the experience be ours together. I would have to say that I strongly recommend this book!

God and Neale do it again

I know there are many skeptics who don't believe God is speaking to us through Neale. As both Neale and God say in the first 3 books, if you don't believe it then that's ok, but at least read with an open mind, apply the principles to your life and experience a greater spiritual awareness. That is what I have done and it has had a profound impact on my life. Friendship with God is without a doubt Neale's finest work so far. It pulls together for the reader, many of the concepts explained in the CWG trilogy at a level that makes them practical to every day life. Additionally, it is very helpful (in my humble opinion), the hear about Neale's life, how he has evolved to where he is today, and how the "divine coincidences" played such a key role in getting him there. I believe if all of us take the time to think about similar coincidences in our lives that at least got us to the point of picking up the book and reading it, we will not be able to deny there is a true reason as to why we find ourselves here at this time. That in my view is what has helped me apply much of the teaching in this book to my life. If you read other books ie. Manifest your Destiny by Wayne Dyer, Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukav and others it is clear (at least it is to me) that we are being taught a different way to "view" God in our lives. This view of a truly loving and nonjudgmental God differs greatly from many of the teachings the christian churches. I for one find this view very refreshing and can accept this as the real view for me. Again, I believe this book and others is simply showing us the way. And I thank Neale for taking what I believe was a risk to bring these teachings to us.

God talking or not-- why bother ask?

It is strange to see people still tripping over the idea of whether it is really God writing these books or not.In my perspective it is a meaningless distinction. By the series own definition God is All That Is- everything which exists, both seen and unseen and neither. By this logic, it is God talking whether Neale is getting answers from a bird at his window, making it up himself, is chatting with his next door neighbour, or the messages are really coming from a source which would be equivalent to God for us.The bottom line is that *any* source of information, however he received it, could be said to be God. So in the context of the books themselves, it is a non-issue.Truly though, can the question be answered in any meaningful way? I don't think so because it just boils down to one person's opinion vs another's with no way of ever proving it objectively one way or the other. The question will have no satisfying answer, so why bother ask it?For me the question is not "Is this God speaking?" but "How high is the quality of the information?" and "Is this useful?"Personally I have found these books to be tremendously helpful in my life and I feel that if it is taken to heart it has the potential to not only transform ones life but enhance the lives of everyone on the planet beyond what most people can imagine. So for me the answer is "Yes, it is definitely useful."A more subjective opinion is the quality of the info and how high its source is. My personal criteria for how "high" a source is how loving it is, how useful, how consistent, wise, open, honest, how much it resonates with my inner knowing, and how much sense it makes (there may be more but that's all I can think of at the moment).From my reading of all the books in this series and other metaphysical/spiritual literature, this is in the top 3 for me- one of the 3 highest external sources of wisdom I've encountered anywhere.Lets quit with the God-issue already =) Its been beaten to death. If you think the material isn't useful or doesn't come from a high source then say why. Be specific. This would be far more helpful to people deciding whether or not to buy the book than just saying "It is/ain't God."Now, as for this book- I loved it. For me it was the "missing link" from the other books- the one weak link I found with the previous books was that as they weren't practical enough. I just didn't know how to apply some of the broader concepts to my life.Unlike the other books which focused on questions of the nature of life and the universe, Friendship with God primarily focuses on cultivating a personal spiritual path.Some of highlights of the book: It (finally) goes into the 5 attitudes mentioned in the first book (joyful, loving, accepting, blessing, and grateful), explores further the "triangular code" from the second book (awareness, honesty, responsibility), 7 steps for a friendship with God, meditation, 3 "love-enders" (neediness, ex