Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Claiming the Peace of Heaven

There is a sense of peace [in Heaven] so deep that no dream in this world has ever brought even a dim imagining of what it is.

Nothing in this world can give this peace, for nothing in this world is wholly shared. Perfect perception can merely show you what is capable of being wholly shared. It can also show you the results of sharing, while you still remember the results of not sharing. The Holy Spirit points quietly to the contrast, knowing that you will finally let Him judge the difference for you, allowing Him to demonstrate which must be true. He has perfect faith in your final judgment, because He knows that He will make it for you. To doubt this would be to doubt that His mission will be fulfilled. How is this possible, when His mission is of God?

You whose mind is darkened by doubt and guilt, remember this: God gave the Holy Spirit to you, and gave Him the mission to remove all doubt and every trace of guilt that His dear Son has laid upon himself. It is impossible that this mission fail. Nothing can prevent what God would have accomplished from accomplishment. Whatever your reactions to the Holy Spirit’s Voice may be, whatever voice you choose to listen to, whatever strange thoughts may occur to you, God’s Will is done. You will find the peace in which He has established you, because He does not change His Mind. He is invariable as the peace in which you dwell, and of which the Holy Spirit reminds you. (A Course in Miracles, T-13.XI.3:13-5:6. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

All the conflict we perceive in the world comes from valuing an illusion rather than the reality of God’s Love. God’s Love is one and doesn’t change. Its changelessness makes Love a safe refuge that we can return to the instant we give up valuing the images of the world.

We believe the world is real because we value what it seems to offer us. God gave us the means to recognize our mistaken values and beliefs. The Holy Spirit’s mission is to teach us to recognize what is real and what is not real. As we learn what is unreal from Him, we freely let it go. No one keeps what they perceive has no value.

Each time we lay down an image we no longer value, we take a step closer to the gate of Heaven. We claim the peace of Heaven as we disown the conflict of the ego. Today we ask the Holy Spirit to be in our mind and teach us the difference between the unreal and the Real, for we would return to the peace of Heaven.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Claiming Love as Ours

Beyond all idols is the Thought God holds of you. Completely unaffected by the turmoil and the terror of the world, the dreams of birth and death that here are dreamed, the myriad of forms that fear can take; quite undisturbed, the Thought God holds of you remains exactly as it always was. Surrounded by a stillness so complete no sound of battle comes remotely near, it rests in certainty and perfect peace. Here is your one reality kept safe, completely unaware of all the world that worships idols, and that knows not God. In perfect sureness of its changelessness and of its rest in its eternal home, the Thought God holds of you has never left the Mind of its Creator Whom [the Thought] knows, [just] as its Creator knows that it is there.

Where could the Thought God holds of you exist but where you are? Is your reality a thing apart from you, and in a world which your reality knows nothing of? Outside you there is no eternal sky, no changeless star and no reality. The mind of Heaven’s Son in Heaven is, for there the Mind of Father and of Son joined in creation which can have no end. You have not two realities, but one. Nor can you be aware of more than one. An idol or the Thought God holds of you is your reality. Forget not, then, that idols must keep hidden what you are, not from the Mind of God, but from your own [mind]. The star shines still; the sky has never changed. But you, the holy Son of God Himself, are unaware of your reality. (A Course in Miracles, T-30.III.10-11. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

The truth of what we are is Love because only Love is real. Love is our Home, our natural state. Because Love is one and undivisable, all Love is ours. Lack of Love is impossible except in dreams that deny our unity with our Source.

The ego was spawned by the wish to claim a little part of Love for ourselves alone. This is impossible because Love does not change; It cannot be divided. While we dream of being separate and alone, we feel lack of Love because the dream hides Love’s Presence.

But Love remains there, ready to be claimed the moment we are willing to give up the wish for specialness. All the forms in the world portray the wish for specialness manifested as differences. They are barriers to the awareness of Love’s Presence. We let go of these barriers by letting the Holy Spirit show us that these barriers have no substance. They have no effect on the changeless presence of Love.

As we are willing to accept the Holy Spirit’s loving lessons, we learn to see past the forms of the world and join with the Love that is everywhere, in everything. It is this practice that is what time is for. It is how we waken from the dream to the awareness that we are at Home in Love eternally.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Classroom to Learn Forgiveness

Forsake not now your brother. For you who are the same will not decide alone nor differently. Either you give each other life or death; either you are each other’s savior or his judge, offering him sanctuary or condemnation. This course will be believed entirely or not at all. For it is wholly true or wholly false, and cannot be but partially believed. And you will either escape from misery entirely or not at all. Reason will tell you that there is no middle ground where you can pause uncertainly, waiting to choose between the joy of Heaven and the misery of hell. Until you choose Heaven, you are in hell and misery.

Every illusion brought to its forgiveness is gently overlooked and disappears. For at its center Christ has been reborn, to light His home with vision that overlooks the world. Would you not have this holy home be yours as well? No misery is here, but only joy.

All you need do to dwell in quiet here with Christ is share His vision. Quickly and gladly is His vision given anyone who is but willing to see his brother sinless. (A Course in Miracles, T-22.II.7;12:7-13:2. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

Unhappiness comes from believing in being separate from Love, our Source. Happiness is an attribute of Love and cannot be experienced without Love’s oneness. We need to learn to see the truth of Love in everyone if we are to know that we are one with all Love. Love makes no exclusions. Any judgment comes from a belief in differences. It is an attempt to exclude some part from Love. Judgment makes happiness impossible because it inherently brings guilt with it.

The holy relationship, which is dedicated to letting go of judgments and perception of differences and accepting the vision of Love, is the classroom for lessons in forgiveness. The shared dedication provides an opportunity to learn that condemnation blocks Love and guarantees unhappiness.

As we let the Holy Spirit help us see past our judgments to the changeless truth of Love, we let go of the illusion of differences. Unhappiness fades as the veil of illusions is let go, revealing the truth of our joyous Home in Love.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Releasing Conflict and Accepting Peace

Knowledge is not the motivation for learning this course. Peace is. [Peace] is the prerequisite for knowledge only because those who are in conflict are not peaceful, and peace is the condition of knowledge because it is the condition of the Kingdom. Knowledge can be restored only when you meet its conditions.

The distractions of the ego may seem to interfere with your learning, but the ego has no power to distract you unless you give it the power to do so. The ego’s voice is an hallucination. You cannot expect it to say “I am not real.” Yet you are not asked to dispel your hallucinations alone. You are merely asked to evaluate them in terms of their results to you. If you do not want them on the basis of loss of peace, they will be removed from your mind for you.

“Every response to the ego is a call to war [conflict], and war does deprive you of peace. Yet in this war there is no opponent. This is the reinterpretation of reality that you must make to secure peace, and the only one you need ever make. Those whom you perceive as opponents are part of your peace, which you are giving up by attacking them. How can you have what you give up? You share to have, but you do not give it up yourself. …When you give up peace, you are excluding yourself from [peace]. (A Course in Miracles, T.8.I.1:1-4;2;3:1-4,7. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

Someone who is hallucinating reacts to it because he believes it is real. If he believes he is being attacked, we will defend against the perceived attack. The hallucination is dispelled by letting go of the belief in its reality, not by trying to change the illusion into another less threatening form.

The ego, the source of the illusion of conflict, cannot help us change our belief that its illusions are real. We must accept the help of our the inner Teacher Who knows what reality is.

Every moment of every day offers an opportunity to learn to recognize illusions and see past them to the reality of Love’s Oneness. A perceived opponent is recognized as part of our peace if we allow the Holy Spirit to show us the eternal Love that is always present beyond the appearance of form. Because only Love is real, the appearance of conflicting forms cannot be real. It is in the recognition of our oneness with all that is that we find peace.

Today we practice asking to receive Holy Spirit’s vision in place of our perceptions in the world.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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God’s Loving Promise

Salvation is a promise, made by God, that you would find your way to Him at last. It cannot but be kept. It guarantees that time will have an end, and all the thoughts that have been born in time will end as well. God’s Word is given every mind which thinks that it has separate thoughts, and will replace these thoughts of conflict with the Thought of peace.

The Thought of peace was given to God’s Son the instant that his mind had thought of war. There was no need for such a Thought before, for peace was given without opposite, and merely was. But when the mind is split there is a need of healing. So the Thought that has the power to heal the split became a part of every fragment of the mind that still was one, but failed to recognize its oneness. Now it did not know itself, and thought its own Identity was lost.

Salvation is undoing in the sense that it does nothing, failing to support the world of dreams and malice. Thus it lets illusions go. By not supporting them, it merely lets them quietly go down to dust. (A Course in Miracles Workbook, Part II.2, W-pII.2.1:1-3:3. See also ACIM Lesson Insights, Part II.2.)

God has made a promise that will never be broken because He does not change His Mind. Because God does not change, we who are His Sons do not change.

While we perceive a world of form, we believe we have changed the oneness of God’s Son into separate, disconnected parts. Only our support of this belief makes it seem to be true. The path of return to our true Identity in God’s oneness is to simply stop supporting the false idea of separation.

This simple step does not seem easy because we believe if we lost our identity as a separate inividual, we would cease to exist. Yet this illusion of a separate identity has never existed in truth. When we let go of our insistence on keeping this illusion of a separate identity, our true Identity united with God in His Love would be revealed. We would lose nothing to gain everything. God guaranteed our return to our true Self by giving us the Holy Spirit to provide a bridge from our world of illusion to God’s Universe of Love. Here we are at Home, happily dwelling in God’s peace.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Serving as a Messenger of Love

Only the Word of God has any meaning, because it symbolizes that which has no human symbols at all. The Holy Spirit alone understands what this Word stands for. And this, too, is enough.

Is the teacher of God, then, to avoid the use of words in his teaching? No, indeed! There are many who must be reached through words, being as yet unable to hear in silence. The teacher of God must, however, learn to use words in a new way. Gradually, he learns how to let his words be chosen for him by ceasing to decide for himself what he will say. This process is merely a special case of the lesson in the workbook that says, “I will step back and let Him lead the way.” (ACIM, W-pI.155) The teacher of God accepts the words which are offered him, and gives as he receives. He does not control the direction of his speaking. He listens and hears and speaks.

Judge not the words that come to you, but offer them in confidence. They are far wiser than your own. God’s teachers have God’s Word behind their symbols. And He Himself gives to the words they use the power of His Spirit, raising them from meaningless symbols to the Call of Heaven itself. (A Course in Miracles (ACIM), M-21.3:10-4:9;5:6-9)

The Word of God is His Voice (M-21.3). It is the Voice of Love. A teacher of God teaches only Love. When we let the Holy Spirit direct what we do, say and to whom, we serve as God’s teacher of Love. If we follow the ego’s dictates, we teach fear and reinforce our belief in the “reality” of a fearful world.

To be a teacher of God, we must not decide anything on our own. We have to be willing to step back from our ego-based reactions to perceived circumstances and ask for the Holy Spirit’s help to see through the eyes of Love.

If there are words to be said, we will be given words that reinforce Love and dispel fear. This gift comes from the Holy Spirit’s vision, which sees far beyond the limited scope of the world we see. As we follow His lead, our words bring healing to the world, including ourselves. This is how we teach the Love we need to learn we are. We serve as God’s messengers of Love.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Saying “Yes” to God’s Will for Us

There is no question but one you should ever ask of yourself;—“Do I want to know my Father’s Will for me?” …Our function is to work together, because apart from each other we cannot function at all. The whole power of God’s Son lies in all of us, but not in any of us alone. God would not have us be alone because He does not will to be alone. That is why He created His Son, and gave him the power to create with Him.

We cannot be separated. Whom God has joined cannot be separated, and God has joined all His Sons with Himself. Can you be separated from your life and your being? The journey to God is merely the reawakening of the knowledge of where you are always, and what you are forever. It is a journey without distance to a goal that has never changed. Truth can only be experienced. It cannot be described and it cannot be explained. I can make you aware of the conditions of truth, but the experience is of God. Together we can meet its conditions, but truth will dawn upon you of itself. (A Course in Miracles, T-8.VI.8:1,4-7;9:3-11. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

The ego is totally opposed to God’s Will. When we identify with the ego and belief in separation, we do not want to know God’s Will for us. We are choosing fear and hate instead of peace and Love.

This choice does not make reality but it does make an illusion of being separate, alone and disconnected from God’s changeless Love. This disconnection makes us feel powerless, lonely and unworthy because the Source of Love, strength and value is in our unity with our Creator.

When we choose to accept God’s Will for us, we choose to be happy, because God’s Will for us is perfect happiness. We choose to be strong and invulnerable because we accept God’s gift of all His strength. We know our value is of God and cannot be diminished.

The journey to accepting God’s Will for us is the process of letting go of the ego’s beliefs. We do this with the help of the Holy Spirit, Who recognizes what we believe, but does not join with us in our mistaken beliefs. If we are willing to let the Holy Spirit be our Guide, He will lead us to replace our mistaken beliefs with His vision of our true Holiness and our unity with God. He leads us to the acceptance of our true Self, which God created one with Him.

Today let us join with the Holy Spirit and say, “Yes” to God’s Will for us.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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