To gain the most from A Course in Miracles Text Made Simple, we recommend that
you read the corresponding chapter and section in the Text of the Second or
Third Edition of A Course in Miracles published by the Foundation for Inner Peace.
Read ACIM Chapter 7, Section IX (pages 132-133)
There are some key principles of the Course to be kept in mind to understand this section. First, God is Love and nothing else. Second, creation is the extension of Love; to create is to extend Love, which is to extend God. As it says in the Clarification of Terms (1. Mind - Spirit), Spirit is the Thought of God and thus Spirit is the Son of God. Since God is Love, His Thoughts are Thoughts of Love, so Spirit is Love. There is no duality in Love, there is only oneness.
The Self we are that God created also must be Love and nothing else. Love, by Its nature, forever extends Love and is thus always creating. Since we are Love, we are always creating; we are always extending the Love that we are. When we believe in the ego and accept its thought system of limitation and separation, we are unaware of our continuous extension of Love. Though this extension of Love is unaffected by our unawareness, we cannot experience the joy and fulfillment of Love while we align ourselves with the ego. It is this insane allegiance that must be undone. By the grace of God, we have the Holy Spirit to lead us out of our mistaken identification with the ego and back to full awareness of our Being in Love.
The Kingdom of Love is always extending because that is what Love is and what Love does. Because we are part of the Kingdom, that is what we are and do. When we accept our Self we are accepting wholeness, oneness. We know there is no duality. We remember that individual selves could never be real. This is accepting the miracle. “Be confident that you have never lost your Identity and the extensions which maintain It in wholeness and peace. Miracles are an expression of this confidence.” (7:1-2)
As we let go of selfishness (thinking of ourself alone) and open to Self-fullness, we open to Its joy, peace and deep fulfillment. Love overflows and cannot be contained. This is what we were created for and this is what we are. This is the extension of Love’s Being and is our only function. This Self-fullness must include all our brothers to be Itself. In Love’s wholeness, every brother’s extension of Love is our extension of Love because we are one. “The creations of every Son of God are yours, since every creation belongs to everyone, being created for the Sonship as a whole.” (5:3) Love is always all inclusive. As miracle workers, we are learning this and are letting the miracle of Holy Spirit’s correction of our perception return us to our one and only vocation that has any meaning.
This is the one lesson that we are learning as we awaken to the totality of the Kingdom and Its constant extension. Love is one and forever extending. All is included in this Love. It is all there is and all there ever will be. As we let go of blocking Love’s extension, we are letting go of the ego, which is the idea of trying to hold a little for itself alone. The ego is selfishness and Love is Self-fullness. Simply put, the return Home is letting go of selfishness and accepting Self-fullness. Accepting Self-fullness is accepting oneness and accepting God, which is accepting Love as It is.
To know Love, we must extend It. “Being must be extended. That is how it retains the knowledge of itself.” (2:6-7) The joy we experience with Love motivates us to extend It, for It cannot be contained. What is of Love shares Love’s Being and we are Love.
When we withhold Love, we block ourselves from the awareness of Love. When we block ourselves from the awareness of Love, we lose awareness of our Identity as Love. If we want to be happy, we need to extend Love. Nothing else will satisfy because nothing else is real. Everything else is an empty shell.
Extending Love displaces the ego. It is the opposite of selfishness. Selfishness is trying to keep love for ourselves alone. Extending Love is giving it away in order to recognize that it is ours. As we fully realize that extending Love is our only function, we come into the true happiness that is eternally ours. We come back to our Self. What was lost is found. The prodigal son returns home to what is eternally his. Being a miracle worker is extending Love. When we are being Love, we do not wish to contain Love but to extend it.
When we practice focusing on being Love as we go through our day, we will clearly see all the thoughts that are blocking the extension of Love and let them go. Being Love becomes our only function. We know that this is what makes us happy and we know we would not want to stop doing what brings us happiness.
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