A Course in Miracles Text Made Simple

Tell a Friend about this article.

Print this page
FirefoxFirefox, Safari or Opera browsers recommended to print these pages.

Click link to go to:
Previous Section • Next Section • Chapter Index

Chapter 7: The Gifts of the Kingdom

Section IV: Healing as the Recognition of Truth

Read ACIM Chapter 7, Section IV (pages 117-119)

What does the Voice for God remind us of?

Healing is awakening to the truth. In the Kingdom healing is unnecessary because there is total knowing of our oneness in Love. But in the dream of separation, we are unaware of this oneness and so we need the inspiration from the Voice for God to remind us of the truth. The Voice for God reminds us of His laws, which are that only Love is real; Love is changeless and eternal. As we accept the truth, our minds are healed. We let go of belief in separation and awaken to the Love that we are.

In the dream we believe we live in a world of perception. Everything we perceive seems to be external to us. We think that to see ourselves we need to look in a mirror. Miracles are changes in perception, bringing us to true perception, which reflects the truth. As we accept the inspired perception of the Holy Spirit, we see the world differently. Because nothing changed but the thoughts in our mind, the new perception shows us that the healing must be in our mind. Since the healing came from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and could not have come from our conflicted mind, it demonstrates that the Holy Spirit is indeed in us.

The Holy Spirit reminds us of God’s laws. “When you heal, you are remembering the laws of God and forgetting the laws of the ego.” (2:6) The Holy Spirit helps us remember our oneness in God. He uses all our abilities to unify and to heal. As our mind is healed, our belief in differences falls away because the truth is the Sonship is one.

What does the ego teach us to forget?

The ego made the ability to forget, which is a mechanism for dissociating from the truth. The ego’s laws require that we believe in separation and forget God’s laws of oneness. Thus the ego’s use of forgetting “induces a perception of conflict with something else, as all incorrect perception does.” (2:9) In the Holy Spirit’s hands, the ability to forget is used to forget the ego’s laws so we can heal by remembering the truth. “The Holy Spirit teaches you to use what the ego has made [to forget the truth], to teach the opposite of what the ego has ‘learned.’” (3:3) The Holy Spirit has a unified goal to return our minds to remembering the truth that the Sonship is one.

The ego entices us to forget God’s will by offering us the “gift” of an independent will. To be independent, we must believe we are separate from God and alone. Jesus reminds us that this is not a gift we want. It can only bring us pain, sorrow and belief in death. On the other hand, God gives us the gift of Himself, which is the gift of Love. “God has given you a gift that you both have and are. When you do not use [God’s gift of Himself], you forget that you have it. By not remembering it you do not know what you are.” (6:6-8)

So in essence, the ego teaches us to forget what we are and the Holy Spirit teaches us to remember what we are by forgetting what we are not. God has given us all of Himself, and by choosing the ego, we have rejected God’s gift. The Holy Spirit is helping us to accept God’s gift, which is helping us remember our true Identity as part of God.

Why does the ego bring with it a sense of danger?

Accepting the ego’s gift of an individual will brings with it a sense of danger because it now seems possible that we could have a will that opposes God’s Will. Believing this induces fear because it is the idea of conflict. The ego is literally a fearful thought. The ego’s stories are full of danger. Fear is a signal that we are believing in a false idea of what we are. It is this false idea that must be undone. As we learn to let go of believing that the fearful stories have reality, our sense of fear dissipates.

When does the Holy Spirit come into our awareness?

It is through inviting the Holy Spirit’s correction of our fearful thoughts that all healing of fear can occur. The Holy Spirit comes into our awareness whenever It is invited. Through our willingness, the Holy Spirit heals all our fearful thoughts by helping us let go of the idea that we have a will different from God’s Will. The Holy Spirit heals our minds by reminding us of the truth.

© 2004-2010, Pathways of Light. http://pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a Friend about this article.

Print this page
Firefox, Safari or Opera browsers recommended to print these pages.

Click link to go to:
Previous Section • Next Section • Chapter Index