Ever since I'd left my job as a television news photographer in Florida and had moved up to Tennessee, I'd been terribly homesick. My new job at a production company in Nashville was very different—very difficult. I was having trouble finding new friends and feeling at home. I decided Tennessee just wasn't my cup of tea. I missed everything about Florida. All I wanted was a way to go back .

I had been praying for a happier work– and life–situation, so when I was told there was an opening back at my previous workplace in Jacksonville, I called my former supervisor. He told me that one of the photographers had to take sick leave because of a back problem. They were all quite certain he wasn't returning, he said. The opening was for a temporary full–time position, which would become permanent. I accepted it. I could hardly believe it—I was going home!

It was my day off, but for some reason I had no desire to contact my current employer and resign. I felt anxious, unsettled, keyed up. I went for a long walk in a nearby park.

As I walked, I realized something just didn't feel right. So I started praying about this decision. Whenever I've asked God to lead me in the right direction (or even when I haven't), He has never failed me. One of my greatest desires has always been to be right with God—to be obedient to Him, to obey His laws and all His commandments. To have a pure heart. I've found that this puts me in line with His will, which is always good.

Well, I walked and prayed, but I still didn't feel calm inside. So I finally asked, "God, please send me an angel to tell me what to do." (I think of angels as "God's thoughts passing to man" and as "spiritual intuitions," which is the way they're described in Science and Health, p. 581). These angels are constantly communicating with us. And we can be fully aware of them. Guided by them. Defended and comforted by them.

I went back to my apartment, lay on the floor, and closed my eyes. And a message so clear it was almost a voice said to me, "Don't go back to Jacksonville. Don't take this job." I agreed to follow that guidance right then—and as soon as I did, the anxiety just left, and I felt a great stillness and calm.

The next morning I called my former supervisor at home and told him I'd had second thoughts. He graciously accepted my decision.

Six months later, I learned that the photographer who had taken sick leave had returned to his position. Had I taken that temporary job, I would have quickly been out of work. Boy, was that a right decision. What intuition!

Sometimes intuition is referred to as the "sixth sense." But, while the other five senses—sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell—are considered to be material senses, intuition is a spiritual sense. It refers to our ability to hear what God is telling us, to feel His presence and power, to be aware of what we need to know, because of our unity with Him.

How can you cultivate this intuition? I find it helpful to study the Christian Science Bible Lesson from the Christian Science Quarterly every morning in an effort to start my day by turning my thoughts to God's power and goodness. And I've also found it's important to be honest and upright, to follow my highest sense of what is right.

I like to think of my consciousness as a window, open to the light pouring out from God, the one Mind. The cleaner and clearer my window, the brighter and more focused are the rays that come through. That makes me a transparency for God's ideas. These ideas don't come from the brain, or human mind. They originate in Spirit—they come from God—so we have immediate access to them. No one can ever be separated from these good ideas for an instant, because God made us constantly aware of His voice. So it follows, we are never separated from feeling and knowing what the right solutions are—the decisions and directions in any situation.

A couple of years ago, I helped my mom move to Nashville from St. Louis. She had purchased a condo close by, and I was responsible for the closing of the sale and preparing the condo for her move. After the former owners had moved out, I noticed an infestation of insects. The exterminator determined they were swarming termites, and he treated the condo for that. End of problem, right? Wrong. More termites. The exterminator just couldn't figure out where they were coming from.

I was concerned—and afraid. But as I prayed for God's help about what to do, my fear lessened. While I was taking a shower, it occurred to me that somehow the termites were following the plumbing from the outside wall into the kitchen. This idea appeared to me visually in thought, in the form of a diagram.

The next time I met the exterminator at my mom's condo, I told him about my hunch about where the termites might be coming from. He located the opening outside the kitchen (something called a trap), and sure enough, the problem was solved.

So in big things and in small things, God loves you and me. He will never fail to guide us and inform us with absolute precision when we wholeheartedly trust Him—and are willing to follow the intuitions He gives us. We can rely on them completely.

In case you were wondering, I worked successfully at the Nashville production company for several years. There were some challenges toward the end of that time, but I was hired at a local television station. And I'm still there. (What a tremendous rescue that was! Actually, a few months after I changed jobs the production company went out of business. But that's a whole different article.) And I feel very much at home now in Tennessee. My current work situation hasn't always been easy, but it has been full of learning and accomplishment, with God's angels still guiding me every day, every step of the way.