Finding God is a development process that becomes ever closer and more intense over various stages.

Level 1: Faith | Grace

The first stage a person must take is a certain basic faith and the realisation of grace - the understanding that God really exists.

How can you reach this level?

Quite simply, you talk to God, ask Him for a sign and invite Him into your life.

If you have the grace not to be too closed or inwardly separated, a great grace becomes tangible - and you realise that there is much more than you can imagine.

Feelings arise that you would never have experienced without drugs. You feel like you're floating on clouds, the sky is full of violins - you could dance through life.

Stronger than human infatuation - a true, merciful happiness.

Stage 2: Probation | Change

You instinctively feel more afterwards - because God makes you more empathetic. You feel yourself better and start to work on yourself. You become aware of the forces within you. Everyone has good and evil within them - that's part of being human. As soon as God comes into your life, you can distinguish between the two.

Now comes the probation. Of course, you only want to live in the good and avoid the bad. But the task is to develop the good and transform the bad.

This should be done with caution. Such strong forces can be released that some people want to change their whole life in one fell swoop. The people around them are often irritated - or the changes are so extreme that the balance is lost and you fall back from level 2 into a life of disbelief.

In this phase, it is important to remain calm and discuss everything with God. You should check which spirit is really at work and only endeavour to make good, well thought-out changes. Ideas need to be thought through. Important decisions should only be made when you are 100 % sure that the working spirit is actually the Holy Spirit.

You have to learn how to do this. What is the best way to learn it? By engaging with content that comes from the source of God: lots of prayer to Jesus - preferably daily - daily Bible reading (even if it is difficult at first), and staying in the Spirit of God as much as possible. It can also be helpful to join a church or Christian professional. In this way, you can reach the next level and your closeness to God will become deeper and deeper. What seems like a struggle at first slowly becomes peace and fulfilment.

Level 3: Gratitude

When you have gone through the biggest changes, are stable in your thinking and praying and feel stable inside, cultivate gratitude every day. Thank God or Jesus for everything - every day. This is one of the greatest powers I know. The first thing you say when you wake up is: "God, I thank you that I can experience a new day with you."

Gratitude is a weapon. I suspect this is because it triggers so many positive things - and that has a very healing effect. The opposite - complaining - makes people poor and inner beggars if they are not mindful of it.

A grateful person is a good person. His inner strength is in balance. He may not yet be an angel, but he remains more easily in the good. At this level, peace becomes more sustainable, more frequent and more beautiful.

But the task remains: to learn to deal with our own feelings - without manipulating them by means, habits or substitute actions.

Life means facing up to being human - and moulding a soul with God that can one day enter a place where there is no longer duality, but perfect peace.

God needs our lives to assess us - and He helps us to reach Him in the best possible way. We just have to stay close to Him.

Level 4: Trust

The most important step - but it takes time. Anyone who can blindly trust in God has made it. Such a person no longer worries, is completely there for his fellow human beings and becomes a visible light in the world. He impresses with his charisma.

At this level, God gives us everything we need - as long as it does not harm us and cannot be abused by our weaknesses.

Those were the four stages - perhaps a simple and brief description, but that's exactly how I perceive them. I'm still here for a few more days - maybe I'll discover more stages. But these four have clearly shown themselves in my life and I am endeavouring to keep growing at level 4.

Thank you for everything, God Father - Son & Holy Spirit. Our triune God, creator of this wonderfully crazy world.