Together, We Light the Way

Click link to go to:
Previous Article • Next Article
Together We Light the Way Index

Study of the Text, Chapter 9, II. The Answer to Prayer, P 8. 1-6-15

II. The Answer to Prayer, P 8
8 Believe in your brothers because I believe in you, and you will learn that my belief in you is justified. Believe in me by believing in them, for the sake of what God gave them. They will answer you if you learn to ask only truth of them. Do not ask for blessings without blessing them, for only in this way can you learn how blessed you are. By following this way you are seeking the truth in you. This is not going beyond yourself but toward yourself. Hear only God’s Answer in His Sons, and you are answered.

Very simply, we are one Self appearing as many. This is a strange idea to us because we have chosen to experience separation and to do so with complete immersion. In other words, for the sake of the experience, we have chosen to forget the truth.  Luckily, understanding is not needed. However, acceptance is.

For the first time in all the years that I have studied the Course, I can say that I am Christ and that each of you are part of this same Christ Mind without my imagination picturing a whole bunch of us sitting around together in an some immense space. I can say it without automatically, trying to make it fit a definition in line with the separation idea. I can say that we are one and I can accept it fully as a concept. I am still working on making it my experience.

The way I do that is twofold. First I spend a lot of time remembering the truth, thinking about it, sitting in it, letting it flow over and through me. Second, I am vigilant to notice when I obviously don’t accept the truth of our oneness. I have been off work since Christmas Eve and am going back today. I will be with my coworkers all day long, interacting and possibly reacting. I will start the day sitting in a meeting, discussing what has been done while I was gone, and already I notice that I am expecting to discover that some things were not done.

Sitting here writing with Spirit about believing in my brother and asking them for their blessing, and I am preparing myself to doubt them and to attack them. The reality is that the people I am already judging are me. I attack the images I have made of them, and it is an attack on myself. Through this attack on this part of my self, I teach myself that I am untrustworthy. In attacking them, I attack myself and Jesus, too, because Jesus and I are the same mind, as are they.

This doesn’t make sense and I want to stop doing this. I can’t accomplish my goal of blessing rather than attacking by making myself feel guilty that I attack. I can’t change anything by projecting the blame outside myself. I can’t change anything by trying to change my behavior, pretending to love on the outside, while hating on the inside. I can’t change anything by using the ego will to think and act differently.

What I can do is be grateful that my willingness has invited the Holy Spirit to show me the thoughts in my mind that need to be healed. He and I look together at the desire to separate through defense and attack, and I talk to Him about it. I tell Him my feelings and how afraid I am that I will never overcome this, and how overwhelming it all seems to me.

As I give Him all these words, He continues to know me for what I am, as God created me. He never doubts me or judges me. He only knows what must be true forever, for it is the Will of God. The only thing He hears from me is the truth. I must seem like a little child to Him, talking nonsense words, lost in my fantasy play. If a little child told you about being a super hero and flying across the sky; if he expressed to you his fear of the villain who was close to catching him, would you get confused and begin to believe his story?

When you looked across at him would you start to see and believe in the persona of his imagination? Would you try to help him figure out how to get himself out of the imagined problem with the villain? Or would you ease him back into the safety of reality, reminding him of who he is, maybe offering him some cookies and milk, gently bringing him back into himself? It makes me giggle when I think of it this way. “Holy Spirit, do I seem like the little child lost in my fantasy of being separate from my Creator, at war with the aspects of my self that I dream are separate from me?”

The Holy Spirit will gently bring me back to reality as soon as I ask Him to do so. I do this slowly a step at a time until I am fully convinced I can trust the Holy Spirit. I do it a step at a time because I must. But I do it. I do it through the Holy Spirit. I extricate myself from the separation story simply by giving my permission for it to be done.

It is such a miracle, this. I can be completely lost in my fear and guilt, ask the Holy Spirit to remove these thoughts from my mind, and on a dime it all turns around. I don’t accomplish this by thinking it through, or with any form of logic. I don’t let myself be talked out of it. I just desire to be at peace, let go of the thoughts and they are removed for me. I go directly from anxiety to peace, just like that! Each time I am amazed all over again.

“Today, Holy Spirit, sit with me in the meeting. Show me the Christ that sits across the table from me. Help me to hear only the truth of our being no matter what is said. Help me to know myself through knowing my brother.”

© 2015, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

<< Back to main page of Together, We Light the Way

Has this page been helpful to you?
Your contribution to support this site is greatly appreciated. To make a tax deductible contribution with a credit/debit card, click here.
Click here to donate from your PayPal account.
Or send a check to Pathways of Light, 12530 Lions Chase Court, Huntley, IL 60142.