Many scientific breakthroughs have occurred just that way, such as penicillin and the nicotine patch. God uses everything and everyone to communicate with us. Truth will resonate in your heart and in every cell of your body. Simple mental understanding is not truth. We should use the heart as our compass.
Freedom is the ability to make choices.
Don't beat yourself up about the choices you have made in the past, choose again. Make more creative choices. The fact that a desire or dream you have has not materialized does not mean it has been denied, just postponed. Most of us were taught things we have to unlearn. We were taught that the spiritual path is about sacrifice, suffering, submission and poverty.