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 9, Section I (pages 160-163)
The whole goal of the Course is to return us to the awareness of what we really are. In this section we are encouraged to let the Holy Spirit in our minds sort out the true from the false and return us to the awareness that we are God’s Will. Because we are God’s Will and are afraid of the Will of God, we are afraid of what we are. “What seems to be the fear of God is really the fear of your own reality.” (2:2)
When we realize that God’s Will is only to extend Love, it seems insane that we would be afraid of His Will. It is insane. This fear comes from the ego’s projection on God that portrays Him as demanding sacrifice. Since the ego is the idea of sacrifice, it will naturally project this intent on everything it perceives. So it is not really the Will of God that we are afraid of. It is the ego’s projection of its own image on God that frightens us. Since we identify ourselves with the ego, what we are really afraid of is the ego’s idea of what God’s Will is.
In truth, there is really only one Will and that is God’s Will to extend Love. The ego is afraid of Love because Love is always given equally to all, which is the end of the specialness that the ego wants. Thus it perceives God as demanding sacrifice of the specialness of a separate identity. In truth the only “sacrifice” is our loss of awareness of the unified Love that we are which comes with identifying with the ego and its thought system of separation.
So the ‘fear of God’ really means the fear of loss of the separate identity we think we have made for ourselves. Fear of God means fear of accepting Reality as it really is. Fear of God is the same as fear of oneness. We hide from our oneness and our Reality as part of God because we have chosen the false wishes of the ego. These wishes are alien to our real will, which we share with God. By choosing the ego we have pushed our real Will out of our awareness. We have it hidden it very well from ourselves and now we need the help of the Holy Spirit to find what we have hidden. The Holy Spirit is always there in our mind because we still are as God created us. We still are the Spirit of Wholeness, which is what the Holy Spirit is. The real reason we do not hear the Holy Spirit is because we are still afraid to remember that “He is your reality.” (4:3)
“You may insist that the Holy Spirit does not answer you, but it might be wiser to consider the kind of questioner you are. You do not ask only for what you want. This is because you are afraid you might receive it and you would.” (7:1-3) As long as we continue to ask the ego what we are, we will believe we are a separate entity, different from our brothers and different from God. We will think that we are autonomous and that our will is different from God’s Will. We will think that it is our job to make decisions on our own. We will think that the ego’s answers are what makes us safe and that we would have to sacrifice this autonomy to accept God’s Will. “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.” (8:2)
Believing we are disconnected from our Source is literally a fearful idea because it is the idea of being without Love. In our right mind we would never ask for this. It is only the wish to be as we are not, the wish for specialness, that gives value to the idea of separating from Love, our Source. We do not really want specialness because specialness is the denial of Love, which is given equally to all. “Any attempt to deny what is must be fearful, and if the attempt is strong it will induce panic. Willing against reality, though impossible, can be made into a very persistent goal even though you do not want it.” (12:1-2)
It is very helpful to realize what a crazy idea it is to devote our mind to what we do not want! When we hide Reality from our awareness, we are hiding all that is truly ours and fear is inevitable. We are being guided in this section to accept Reality as it is and let the Holy Spirit show us what we have hidden from our awareness. The Holy Spirit will show us that we only truly want Love, because That is what we are.
It is encouraging to learn that everyone returns to the awareness of their true Identity. Eventually we all let go of choosing with the ego’s false ideas of autonomy. Eventually we all come to realize that it is just a fearful thought which could never be true. We will all open to the Holy Spirit Which still resides in our minds. As we do this, we are reminded of our true will. We are reminded of our true Identity. We let go of the illusion of a separate will and accept that our will and God’s Will are one. Distorting reality becomes an empty wish that we recognize has just brought us fear, anxiety and depression.
Accepting the truth of our oneness becomes our only goal. Accepting the Holy Spirit’s help becomes the means of this return to our acceptance of reality. We find where our true safety lies. We welcome what has been forever ours and what we welcome, we receive. We replace our devotion to the ego with our devotion to hearing the Holy Spirit’s answer. The Holy Spirit’s answer returns us to an awareness of our oneness in God. The Holy Spirit awakens us from the dream of separation. The Holy Spirit brings the awareness that only Love is real.
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