Stillness · “Stillness Reveals”
Meditating on the God in You
Turn within in stillness to commune with God as the indwelling presence — ‘the God in you’ — recognizing your own life as that presence and resting in it as the ground from which transformation flows.
Be still and go within. Recognize God as the indwelling presence — your own deepest life (“life is consciousness”). Love the God in you; let fear and self-condemnation soften. Commune, don’t perform; rest in that union as the ground of change. Close in gratitude and carry the presence into the day. A support for peace and self-worth — never a replacement for real care.
What it is
Where her affirmative prayer speaks, Barbara King’s meditation listens and rests. Her teaching holds that “God is an indwelling spirit within every person” and that “life is consciousness” — so the place to meet God is not above or outside but within, as one’s own deepest life.
King put it plainly: “when you’re loving you, you’re loving God in you.” This practice is the still, receptive turn within to commune with that indwelling presence — “the God in you” — recognizing your own being as the place where God already dwells, and resting there as the ground from which any real transformation grows.
Hillside expressed this institutionally too, opening “A Quiet Place,” a meditation and prayer centre, and offering classes in meditation alongside its prosperity teaching.
The Method
Faithfully described from King’s Hillside teaching and Transform Your Life (short quotes only; the structure is an attributed paraphrase):
- Be still and go within. Settle the body, soften the breath, and withdraw attention from outer noise. King’s “Quiet Place” names the posture: a deliberate inner stillness.
- Recognize the indwelling presence. Affirm gently that God is “an indwelling spirit within” you — not a distant deity but the very life and intelligence you are. “Life is consciousness”; meet it as your own awareness.
- Love the God in you. Turn toward yourself with the same reverence — “when you’re loving you, you’re loving God in you.” Let self-condemnation and fear give way to acceptance of the presence within.
- Commune, don’t perform. Simply be with the indwelling presence. This is communion, not effort — receptive resting rather than straining to feel something.
- Rest in it as the ground of change. From this realized union, allow a sense of wholeness, supply, and guidance to arise. Transformation, for King, proceeds from consciousness, so the inner meeting comes first.
- Carry the presence out. Close in gratitude and bring the remembered sense of “the God in you” into the day, treating others as carrying the same indwelling presence. (Sourcing note: quoted phrases are from summaries of King’s teaching and her published work; full text is not reproduced.)
Source & Lineage
Barbara Lewis King (1930-2020) founded Hillside International Truth Center in Atlanta and led it for nearly fifty years. Introduced to Unity teaching during a recovery from illness and trained under Rev.
Johnnie Colemon, she taught a Black New Thought rooted in Unity and the Emma Curtis Hopkins lineage, in which the “Christ in you” / indwelling God is realized rather than petitioned.
Her meditative emphasis is reflected in Hillside’s “A Quiet Place” centre and meditation classes, and her teaching that “life is consciousness.”
The Traditions' versions
“Turn within and rest in the indwelling divine” is shared across New Thought and the contemplative traditions; the files differ in framing:
- Realizing the Indwelling Life (Myrtle Fillmore) — Unity’s receptive turn to the “Christ in you” as the life of the body; King’s near-identical root, framed as “the God in you” and self-love.
- Realization of the Immanent Spirit (Dresser) — early New Thought interior realization.
- Going Into the Silence — the generic New Thought stillness practice King’s “Quiet Place” expresses.
- Johnnie Colemon’s meditation — King’s direct teacher in Black New Thought (being added in parallel).
Common refinements
Straining to “feel God.” This is communion, not performance. Relax; recognize a presence already there rather than manufacturing an experience.
- Skipping the self-acceptance. King ties the practice to loving yourself; meeting the indwelling presence while in self-contempt fights itself.
- Mistaking calm for cure. A felt sense of peace or wholeness is not evidence that a real problem has resolved.
- Spiritual bypass. “God is within and all is well” must not be used to avoid a genuine diagnosis, grief, or hard situation.