" I am spirit." This statement is totally uncompromising. It flatly states the truth of who we are, not a body, not a personality, none of the self-concepts we hold, only spirit. That is what I am. That is the truth about me. And when this Lesson says that just practicing this truth will bring my mind " from conflict to the quiet fields of peace," (W.97.1.4) it becomes very compelling. Who of us is not motivated to find such quiet fields of peace? Who of us is not motivated to release the constant conflict of competing ego goals and the pain and uncertainty of our lives? We are only spirit. We are not a body/mind so often heard in the world today in new age circles. We can't be both because these are two different orders of reality completely irreconcilable.
 

Any worry, annoyance, expectation, or anxiety we have is a temptation to believe that we are other than spirit. Each such thought and feeling provides us an opportunity to ask for help and receive the miracle. The miracle is outside of time and space and reflects the love that is in our right minds, but to receive it, we must be willing to see that we have been wrong about ourselves. Now there is a willingness to surrender our mistaken perceptions to the truth so that the Holy Spirit can reinterpret them for us.

This process requires our agreement to reach out for His help. His help will not be imposed on us. The love of our elder brother Jesus, waits patiently for our decision to bring our darkness to the light. He loves us too much to impose himself on us. He reminds us that we made the fear and that it is up to us as to when we are ready and willing to bring it to the light. Our will is as strong as his. It is up to us when we choose to give up our own way and ask for his help. Only then can the miracle show up. Only when we make space for it can grace be brought to every problem we think we have. The light has come, but we will stay in darkness until we accept responsibility for our part and ask for help to release the blocks that we hold up before the light. These blocks are all of our misperceptions of ourselves for which we blame others.

There is no conflict in spirit. There are not two selves in conflict. Spirit is One. It is the memory that is in the mind and comes forth through forgiveness. The miracle shows up when our dark thoughts are brought to awareness. We have resistance to this healing because we still defend our point of view. It takes discipline and willingness to admit that we are wrong about everything. We resist this idea because we still value our specialness and individuality.

Why do I experience myself as a body, a personality and a self-concept with needs, lacks, and problems, if this is all a dream and not who I am? It is part of this split mind. We identify with the part of the mind that seemed to separate from God. Yet Jesus reminds us that there can be no split from our Father. " We state again the truth about your Self, the holy Son of God Who rests in you, whose mind has been restored to sanity. You are the spirit lovingly endowed with all your Father's Love and peace and joy." (W.97.2.1-2) If we have not split off from our true reality as spirit, we must have left the part of the mind that knows itself. We wandered off into this far country where we feel lost, alone and separate, but this is no more real than if I am having a dream that I have turned myself into someone that I am not. In this dream, I seem to have taken on this character that seems to be my identity. Yes, it all seems very real, but it is just my thoughts that I have come to believe as the truth. What if all of my beliefs about myself were just made up? What if I gave up all those beliefs and were willing to see everything from a different perspective, from the perspective of the Holy Spirit?
 

I can only do that if I stop expending my energy on denying the truth. I deny the truth each time I see anyone responsible for taking from me my joy and peace. No one can take our peace away from us unless we willingly give them that power. In other words, it is my choice to throw away my peace. The ego wants to blame because that way someone is guilty for our pain and that allows us to wear the face of innocence and not be responsible for our own guilt. We thus buy this false innocence at their expense. It is a projection of our own guilt onto others. We prefer to see it in them rather than in ourselves, but what the ego has not told us is that this is precisely how we keep the cycle of guilt going and thus we keep ourselves bound to the prison of our condition.

The Lesson makes it very clear that this is a world of misery and suffering, and surely we can attest to that from our own experience. We do live in a state of panic and underlying anxiety and lack all of the time. Yes, it seems there are periods of respite, when we can distract ourselves and find our friends, allies and special love partners to guard us against this, but the panic and anxiety quickly returns in our nightmares, our sadness, our sickness and our aloneness. Yet we have been given an answer that heals this state of mind. The miracle is available to us when we are ready to do the work. However we are very stubborn and resistant. We expend a lot of energy in denying the truth. Why? Because our existence as a separate individual self depends on it.

We are not both spirit and body nor are we love and hate. They can't be woven together into a semblance of unity. When we remind ourselves of this truth and willingly bring our judgments to the light as often and as sincerely as we can, we will experience the love, joy and peace that is our inheritance. There is a place in us all where the Holy Son of God rests, (W.97.2.1) and where we are restored to sanity. Our reality is only spirit. We are lovingly endowed with all of our Father's Love and peace and joy. It feels so absolutely delicious today to really take that in. We can step aside from whatever storms are brewing in our lives and, just for a moment, take in the joy of this truth. It is truly a beautiful and uplifting thought for today. I love it. I feel the gratitude that comes from these moments of respite from the world. Yes, we do have things to attend to in the world, but we can address them with peace and trust that comes with the miracle rather than relying on our puny, limited resources. When fear has been brought to love then it is dissolved and truth can reign. Our only function here is to bring awareness to our dark thoughts, and with willingness, let them go.

This world is not our reality. It is just a temporary experience, which can be used by the Holy Spirit for our healing, if we allow Him to work with us and teach us how to forgive. Imagine how the world would look to us, if we recognized that we are here only to bring love and blessings to it in every moment? Imagine how it would look, if everyone we encounter today is recognized to be there for us to be reminded of our holiness and theirs. Even those who irritate and upset us are helping us to bring to the fore our unhealed minds. We are only here to bless. In releasing grievances, we know that nothing has happened because we truly can't suffer any loss or pain. It is impossible, if our reality is only spirit.

We have been lost in this dream for a long, long time, but now we are listening to the Holy Spirit and allowing His loving presence to use everything we have made for our awakening. We work with Him today by being reminded of the truth that we are nothing but spirit. When we are tempted to get upset, we ask for help to look at every situation from above the battleground, outside of time and space, where we step aside from the ego. We ask for help to see that we have been wrong about the identity that we have made. Each time we do the practice, " awareness is brought a little nearer at least; sometimes a thousand years or more are saved." (W.97.3.2) What this suggests to me is that we apparently have been at this for a long, long time. This need not be a discouraging thought, because we can also wake up at any moment. It is a matter of our own willingness. Jesus continually tells us that we should be completely unconcerned about time. After all, time is just an illusion as well, but time is to be used for our benefit. That is its purpose when given to the Holy Spirit for our awakening. If there truly is no chronological time, we can look at our practice periods as simply speeding up our awakening.

This Lesson says that even the few minutes we give to this practice are multiplied over and over. We have no idea of the miracles that spring forth from our minds to bring salvation to the world as we do this practice . " He will offer all His strength to every little effort that you make." (W.97.4.3) It seems that so little is being asked of us for so much. Yet it is for our own healing and awakening. We give this gift to ourselves and to the world. What to us seems a tiny expression of forgiveness in our practice period has a very big impact, the reason being that there is just one mind and as our mind is brought to peace, so is the One Mind of the Sonship.

" You are the spirit in whose mind abides the miracle in which all time stands still; the miracle in which a minute spent in using these ideas becomes a time that has no limit and has no end." (W.97.4.1) When we bring our judgments and grievances to awareness and ask the Holy Spirit for help in letting them go, we choose the miracle, and this choice is made outside of the dream. It is a moment of timelessness with the effect of this release felt in time.

Can you imagine the power there is in our practice that He will carry our healed thoughts " around this aching world where pain and misery appear to rule." (W.97.5.1) Just think of the contribution that we can make to the Sonship by giving five minutes to Him from every hour, using this time to release the blocks by asking for help of the Holy Spirit. So many people look for ways that they can contribute to the world yet feel hopeless in their efforts to make a difference. Yet here we are told that our practice can be offered as healing to every " open mind that will accept the healing gifts." (W.97.5.2) Our contribution is simply to do our own healing work, and when these gifts are accepted by anyone anywhere, they are increased in their healing power.

What an amazing thought! And yet one that seems inconceivable, that my small contribution, through my commitment to my own awakening, can bring such power to the healing of the world. What am I saying when I find more important things to do than to give my five minutes each hour? That I don't believe this? That my specialness and individuality takes priority? That I am fearful and resistant to the truth? But becoming aware of our resistance, of our priorities in this world, of our idols, can all be helpful in our forgiveness practice. Everything we have made can be used to give over to truth. Each practice of this Lesson is like the firefly who offers a tiny gleam but through the Holy Spirit, that gleam is given the radiance of the sun and with its steady brilliance and leads us out of darkness. " Nor will you be able to forget the way again," (W.97.6.3) once you have experienced this radiant light.

Love and blessings, Sarah

TEXT

⁹⁰ Fear of the Will of God is one of the strangest beliefs that the human mind has ever made. This could not possibly have occurred unless the mind were already profoundly split, making it possible for the mind to be afraid of what it really is. It is apparent that reality cannot "threaten" anything except illusions, since reality can only uphold truth. The very fact that the Will of God, which is what you are, is perceived as fearful to you demonstrates that you are afraid of what you are. It is not, then, the Will of God of which you are afraid, but yours. Your will is not the ego's, and that is why the ego is against you. What seems to be the fear of God is really only the fear of your own reality.

 

⁹¹ It is impossible to learn anything consistently in a state of panic. If the purpose of this course is to learn what you are and if you have already decided that what you are is fearful, then it must follow that you will not learn this course. Yet you might remember that the reason for the course is that you do not know who you are. If you do not know your reality, how would you know whether it is fearful or not? 

 

⁹² The association of truth and fear, which would be highly artificial at most, is particularly inappropriate in the minds of those who do not know what truth is. All that this kind of association means is that you are arbitrarily endowing something quite beyond your awareness with something you do not want. It is evident, then, that you are judging something of which you are totally unaware. You have set this strange situation up so that it is completely impossible to escape from it without a Guide who does know what your reality is. The purpose of this Guide is merely to remind you of what you want. He is not attempting to force an alien will upon you. He is merely making every possible effort, within the limits you impose on Him, to re-establish your own will in your consciousness.

 

⁹³ You have imprisoned your will in your unconscious, where it remains available but cannot help you. When we said that the Holy Spirit's function is to sort out the true from the false in your unconscious, we meant that He has the power to look into what you have hidden and perceive the Will of God there. His perception of this Will can make it real to you because He is in your mind and therefore He is your reality. If, then, His perception of your mind brings its reality to you, He is teaching you what you are.

 

⁹⁴ The only source of fear in this whole process can only be what you think you lose. Yet it is only what the Holy Spirit sees that you can possibly have. We have emphasized many times that the Holy Spirit will never call upon you to sacrifice anything. But if you ask the sacrifice of reality of yourself, the Holy Spirit must remind you that this is not God's Will because it is not yours. There is no difference between your will and God's. If you did not have split minds, you would recognize that willing is salvation because it is communication. It is impossible to communicate in alien tongues. You and your Creator can communicate through creation because that, and only that, is your joint Will.

 

⁹⁵ Divided wills do not communicate because they speak for different things to the same mind. This loses the ability to communicate simply because confused communication does not mean anything. A message cannot be said to be communicated unless it makes sense. How sensible can your messages be when you ask for what you do not want? Yet as long as you are afraid of your will, this is precisely what you will ask for. You may insist that the Holy Spirit does not answer you, but it might be wiser to consider the kind of asker you are.

 

⁹⁶ You do not ask only for what you want. This is solely because you are afraid you might receive it, and you would. That is really why you persist in asking the teacher who could not possibly teach you your will. Of him you can never learn it, and this gives you the illusion of safety. Yet you cannot be safe from truth but only in it. Reality is the only safety. Your will is your salvation because it is the same as God's. The separation is nothing more than the belief that it is different.

 

⁹⁷ No mind can believe that its will is stronger than God's. If, then, a mind believes that its will is different from His, it can only decide either that there is no God or that God's Will is fearful. The former accounts for the atheist and the latter for the martyr. Martyrdom takes many forms, the category including all doctrines which hold that God demands sacrifices of any kind. Either basic type of insane decision will induce panic, because the atheist believes he is alone, and the martyr believes that God is crucifying him. Both really fear abandonment and retaliation, but the atheist is more reactive against abandonment and the martyr against retaliation.

 

⁹⁸ The atheist maintains that God has left him, but he does not care. He will, however, become very fearful and hence very angry if anyone suggests that God has not left him. The martyr, on the other hand, is more aware of guilt and, believing that punishment is inevitable, attempts to teach himself to like it. The truth is, very simply, that no one wants either abandonment or retaliation. Many people seek both, but it is still true that they do not want them. Can you ask the Holy Spirit for "gifts" such as these and actually expect to receive them? He cannot make you want something you do not want. When you ask the Universal Giver for what you do not want, you are asking for what cannot be given because it was never created. It was never created because it was never your will for you.

 

⁹⁹ Ultimately everyone must remember the Will of God because ultimately everyone must recognize himself. This recognition is the recognition that his will and God's are one. In the presence of truth, there are no unbelievers and no sacrifices. In the security of reality, fear is totally meaningless. To deny what is can only seem to be fearful. Fear cannot be real without a cause, and God is the only Cause. God is Love, and you do want Him. This is your will. Ask for this and you will be answered because you will be asking only for what belongs to you.

 

¹⁰⁰ When you ask the Holy Spirit for what would hurt you, He cannot answer because nothing can hurt you and so you are asking for nothing. Any desire which stems from the ego is a desire for nothing and to ask for it is not a request. It is merely a denial in the form of a request. The Holy Spirit is not concerned with form at all, being aware only of meaning. The ego cannot ask the Holy Spirit for anything because there is complete communication failure between them. Yet you can ask for everything of the Holy Spirit because your requests are real, being of your will. Would the Holy Spirit deny the Will of God? And could He fail to recognize it in His Sons? 

 

¹⁰¹ The energy which you withdraw from creation you expend on fear. This is not because your energy is limited but because you have limited it. You do not recognize the enormous waste of energy which you expend in denying truth. What would you say of someone who persisted in attempting the impossible, believing that to achieve it is success? The belief that you must have the impossible in order to be happy is totally at variance with the principle of creation. God could not will that happiness depended on what you could never have.

 

¹⁰² The fact that God is love does not require belief, but it does require acceptance. It is indeed possible for you to deny facts, although it is impossible for you to change them. If you hold your hands over your eyes, you will not see, because you are interfering with the laws of seeing. If you deny love, you will not know it, because your cooperation is the law of its being. You cannot change laws you did not make, and the laws of happiness were created for you, not by you.

 

¹⁰³ Attempts of any kind to deny what is are fearful, and if they are strong, they will induce panic. Willing against reality, though impossible, can be made into a very persistent goal, even though you do not want it. But consider the result of this strange decision. You are devoting your mind to what you do not want. How real can this devotion be? If you do not want it, it was never created. If it was never created, it is nothing. Can you really devote yourself to nothing? 

 

¹⁰⁴ God in His devotion to you created you devoted to everything and gave you what you are devoted to. Otherwise, you would not have been created perfect. Reality is everything, and therefore you have everything because you are real. You cannot make the unreal, because the absence of reality is fearful, and fear cannot be created. As long as you believe that fear is possible, you will not create. Opposing orders of reality make reality meaningless, and reality is meaning.

 

¹⁰⁵ Remember, then, that God's Will is already possible and nothing else will ever be. This is the simple acceptance of reality because only this is real. You cannot distort reality and know what it is. And if you do distort reality, you will experience anxiety, depression, and ultimately panic, because you are trying to make yourself unreal. When you feel these things, do not try to look beyond yourself for truth, for truth can only be within you. Say, therefore,

 

¹⁰⁶ Christ is in me and where He is God must be,
     for Christ is part of Him.

 

 

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