70 Whenever you deny a blessing to a brother,
you will feel deprived. This is because denial is as total as love. It is as impossible to deny part of the Sonship as it is to love it in part. Nor is it possible to love it totally
at times. You cannot be
totally committed
sometimes. Remember a very early lesson—"Never underestimate the power of denial." It has no power in itself, but you can give it the power of
your mind, whose power is without limit of any kind. If you use it to deny reality, reality
is gone for you.
Reality cannot be partly appreciated. That is why denying any part of it means you have lost awareness of
all of it.
71 That is the negative side of the law as it operates in this world. Yet denial is a defense, and so it is as capable of being used positively as it is of being used destructively. Used negatively it
will be destructive because it will be used for attack, but in the service of the Holy Spirit, [the law becomes as beneficent as all of the laws of God. Stated positively,] the law requires you to recognize only
part of reality to appreciate
all of it. Mind is too powerful to be subject to exclusion. You will
never be able to exclude yourself from what you project.
72 When a brother acts insanely, he is offering you an opportunity to bless him. His need is
yours. You
need the blessing you can offer him. There is no way for you to have it
except by giving it. This is the law of God, and it has
no exceptions. What you deny you
lack, not because it
is lacking, but because you have denied it in another and are therefore not aware of it in
you. Every response you make is determined by what you
think you are, and what you
want to be
is what you think you are. Therefore, what you want to be determines every response you make.
73 You do not need God's blessing since that you have forever, but you
do need
yours. The picture you see of yourselves is deprived, unloving, and very vulnerable. You
cannot love this. Yet you can very easily escape from it or, better, leave it behind. You are not
there, and that is not
you. Do not see this picture in anyone, or you have accepted it
as you.
All illusions about the Sonship are dispelled together, as they were
made together. Teach no one that he is what
you would
not want to be. Your brother is the mirror in which you will see the image of yourself as long as perception lasts. And perception
will last until the Sonship knows itself as whole.
74 You made perception, and it must last as long as you
want it. Illusions are investments. They will last as long as you value them. Values are relative, but they are powerful because they are mental judgments. The only way to dispel illusions is to withdraw
all investment from them, and they will have no life for you because you have put them
out of your mind. While you include them
in it, you are
giving life to them, except there is nothing there to receive your gift.
75 The gift of life
is yours to give because it was given
you. You are unaware of your gift
because you do not give it. You cannot make nothing live since it cannot
be enlivened. Therefore, you are not extending the gift you both have and are, and so you do not know your being.
All confusion comes from not extending life, since that is
not the Will of your Creator. You can do nothing apart from Him, and you
do do nothing apart from Him. Keep His way to remember yourselves and teach His way, lest you forget yourselves. Give only honor to the Sons of the living God and count yourselves among them gladly.
76
Only honor is a fitting gift for those whom God Himself created worthy of honor and whom He honors. Give them the appreciation which God accords them always because they are His beloved Sons in whom He is well pleased. You cannot
be apart from them because you are not apart from Him. Rest in His love and protect your rest by loving. But love
everything He created of which you are a part, or you cannot learn of His peace and accept His gift for
yourself and
as yourself. You cannot know your own perfection until you have honored all those who were created
like you.
77 One Child of God is the
only teacher sufficiently worthy to teach another. One Teacher is in all your minds, and He teaches the same lesson to all. He always teaches you the inestimable worth of
every Son of God, teaching it with infinite patience born of the infinite love for which He speaks. Every attack is a call for His patience, since
only His patience can translate attack into blessing. Those who attack do not
know they are blessed. They attack because they believe they are
deprived. Give therefore of
your abundance and teach your brothers
theirs. Do not share their delusions of scarcity, or you will perceive
yourself as lacking.
78 Attack could never promote attack unless you perceived it as a means of depriving you of something you
want. Yet you cannot
lose anything unless
you did not value it and therefore did not
want it. This makes you feel
deprived of it, and by projecting your own rejection, you believe that others are taking it
from you. One
must be fearful if he believes that his brother is attacking him to tear the Kingdom of Heaven from him. This is the ultimate basis for
all of the ego's projection.
79 Being the part of your mind which does not believe it is responsible for
itself and being without allegiance to God, the ego is incapable of trust. Projecting its insane belief that
you have been treacherous to
your Creator, it believes that your brothers, who are as incapable of this as
you are, are out to take God
from you. Whenever a brother attacks another, this
is what he believes. Projection
always sees your will in others. If you will to separate yourself from God, that
is what you will think others are doing
to you.
80 You
are the Will of God. Do not accept anything else
as your will, or you are denying what you are. Deny this and you
will attack, believing you have
been attacked. But see the love of God in you, and you will see it everywhere because it
is everywhere. See His abundance in everyone, and you will know that you are in Him
with them. They are part of you, as you are part of God.
You are as lonely without understanding this as God Himself is lonely when His Sons do not know Him. The peace of God
is understanding this. There is only one way
out of the world's thinking, just as there was only one way
into it. Understand totally by understanding
totality.
81 Perceive
any part of the ego's thought system as wholly insane, wholly delusional, and wholly undesirable, and you have correctly evaluated
all of it. This correction enables you to perceive
any part of creation as wholly real, wholly perfect, and
wholly desirable. Wanting this
only, you will
have this only, and giving this only you will
be only this. The gifts you offer to the ego are
always experienced as sacrifices, but the gifts you offer to the Kingdom are gifts to
you. They will always be treasured by God because they belong to His beloved Sons who belong to Him. All power and glory are yours
because the Kingdom is His.
