If you pick just one spiritual truth that resonates deep within you and live it constantly and with every ounce of your being, it will change your world forever. But that is not how I started my first attempt at a spiritual life. However, 28 years later. I landed on one spiritual truth that carried me, like Columbus, to a new world.

The mistake I made when I first attempted to live a spiritual life was trying to swallow the whole thing. I had perpetual indigestion as many of the beliefs of the church of my youth just would not go down my throat. Years later when I went to “orientation” to consider joining another church, some of those same beliefs that gave me indigestion earlier were right back again sticking in my throat.

To try to force any belief down your throat when it violates your good judgment or conscience, is a sin against your own soul. I believe it was Ingersoll who said anything that shocks the mind and soul of a child cannot be true.

Some people don’t ever try to accept the litany of beliefs their church broadcasts. They just noisily gargle them so people will think they are swallowing. Others swallow them but in their moments of highest fidelity to their own minds, they stick their fingers down their throats and regurgitate them — usually after the revival is over.

The way to ascertain spiritual truths for yourself is to munch, meditate and experiment. Munch on them with your mind and see if they ring true. God gave us a brain to use as a hat rack but it’s OK to think with it, too.

Munch on them with your soul, too. See how they taste to your deepest being. The taste buds in you soul are very sacred things.

Now experiment with them. Find a situation in your life to test them on. To test the deep truth Jesus taught about turning the other cheek, be willing to feel a little pain just to see if forgiveness and love really work. The smack will smart but when you realize you are testing a Jesus truth, it will ease the pain.

I proved this truth for myself when I took a couple of slaps from a man who seemed determined to be my political enemy. I asked God to help me love him until he could see that love was the best thing for both of us. Over the next few weeks after that prayer, I started seeing the good in him. We made peace. We accomplished great things together.

That truth went through my lips, down my throat, into my digestive tract, and settled forever into my soul. I know exactly what Jesus was talking about and I know it works.

When I was embarking on a great challenge and adventure I asked God to make His presence so real to me that I would feel it, know it, and learn to trust in it in times of great stress. The message I got was, “Be still and know.” Every time I needed to feel the Presence, I would get very still until I knew. Sometimes the presence of the Lord would be so real to me that I felt he was in the passenger seat of my car.

We are told to “taste the Lord.” Experiment with His teachings. Each time one becomes Truth to you, you know it for yourself. As John Hartford’s “Gentle on My Mind” reveals, you will know you are “not shackled by forgotten words and bonds and the ink stains that have dried upon some line” but that your own body, mind and soul have been gentled by an eternal truth. Your personal creed becomes not a thing on paper or something to noisily gargle but the very marrow of your spiritual bones.

Yes, just one truth like this can change your world forever.

Dalton Roberts writes for IPS features. Read more at <www.daltonroberts.com>.