Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Learning the Holy Spirit’s Lessons in Love

If I accept that I am prisoner within a body, in a world in which all things that seem to live appear to die, then is my Father pris­oner with me. And this do I believe, when I maintain the laws the world obeys must I obey; the frailties and the sins which I perceive are real, and cannot be escaped. If I am bound in any way, I do not know my Father nor my Self. And I am lost to all reality. For truth [Love] is free, and what is bound is not a part of truth.

Father, I ask for nothing but the truth. I have had many foolish thoughts about myself and my creation, and have brought a dream of fear [lovelessness] into my mind. Today, I would not dream. I choose the way to You instead of madness and instead of fear. For truth is safe, and only love is sure. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 278, W-pII.278. See also ACIM Lesson 278 Insights.)

The body is an idol made by the ego as a substitute for the Self that God created as His Son. An idol by definition is not real. Belief in an idol seems to give it power but only in the mind of the believer. Only our belief in the body as our identity gives it power to seem to trap us in a limited space, disconnected from anything outside the body and unable to join with anything or anyone. This is the centerpiece of the ego’s scheme to maintain control of the mind that has given allegiance to it. It has no power of its own to trap or control the Son of God.

The key to unlock our self-made prison is to let go of our belief in its reality. We let go of our mistaken beliefs through forgiveness. False beliefs are dismissed the moment we learn they are untrue.

We have been given an inner Teacher Who’s singular mission in our mind is to teach us to sort truth from illusion. To free ourselves, we only need to accept His lessons. We do this with the practice of questioning all our perceptions in the world.

The ego tells you that this task is monumental and overwhelming, so don’t even try. But all we need to do is take one perception at a time to the Holy Spirit by pausing and focusing our attention on the center of peace within. In this peace, our mind is open to the Holy Spirit’s lessons in truth. With these lessons, we are able to recognize that what we saw from the perspective of separation was not true. We lay down that misperception, making way for the Light of Love to shine away its shadow.

Each time we learn one of these lessons, our mind is enlightened by the Light which is magnified around the world in every brother who is forever joined with us in truth. Each time we practice being willing to learn the Holy Spirit’s lesson, the next one is a little easier to welcome.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Seeing Our True Self Reflected in Our Brothers

[Your brother] is your savior from your specialness. He is in need of your acceptance of himself as part of you, as you for his. [You and your brother] are alike to God as God is to Himself. [God] is not special, for He would not keep one part of what He is unto Himself, not given to His Son but kept for Him alone. And it is this you fear, for if He is not special, then He willed His Son to be like Him, and your brother is like you. [Your brother is] not special, but possessed of everything, including you. Give him but what he has, remembering God gave Himself to you and your brother in equal love, that both might share the universe with Him Who chose that Love could never be divided, and kept separate from what It is and must forever be.

The key you threw away God gave your brother, whose holy hands would offer it to you when you were ready to accept His plan for your salvation in the place of yours. How could this readiness be reached save through the sight of all your misery, and the awareness that your plan has failed, and will forever fail to bring you peace and joy of any kind? Through this despair you travel now, yet it is but illusion of despair. The death of specialness is not your death, but your awaking into life eternal. You but emerge from an illusion of what you are to the acceptance of yourself as God created you. (A Course in Miracles, T-24.II.10;14. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

How do we bring healing and peace to the world? By choosing with the Holy Spirit to see that everyone is one with us in the Love of our one Self, united with our Creator. Conflict, fear, lack and loss are misperceptions that come from not recognizing our true Identity as Love. There can be no conflict with who is one with us. Where there is no conflict, peace abides. The eternal changelessness of Love, given by God to all equally, means lack and loss are impossible.

In every moment we have the opportunity to learn this important healing lesson. With the Holy Spirit’s help, we can learn to overlook the ego’s images of separation with the vision of our true Self. This vision will show us the certainty of changeless Love the ego tries to hide. As we accept this vision, we recognize our true Self reflected in our brother. Our brother becomes our savior when we accept his call for Love and answer it with Love. This answer comes from our true Self. When we offer It to our brother, we accept It for ourself. The misperception is healed and our mind is blessed as it accepts the peace of our true Self.

Today we dedicate to following the vision of our true Self to be a messenger of healing and Love to the world.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Accepting Our Life in God

There is no death, and we renounce it now in every form, for their salvation and our own as well. God made not death. Whatever form it takes must therefore be illusion. This the stand we take today. And it is given us to look past death, and see the life beyond.

Our Father, bless our eyes today. We are Your messengers, and we would look upon the glorious reflection of Your Love which shines in everything. We live and move in You alone. We are not separate from Your eternal life. There is no death, for death is not Your Will. And we abide where You have placed us, in the life we share with You and with all living things, to be like You and part of You forever. We accept Your Thoughts as ours, and our will is one with Yours eternally. Amen. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 163, W-pI.163.8:5-9:8. See also ACIM Lesson 163 Insights.)

The “certainty of death” is the ego’s chief defense against God. Our belief in death denies the Life God has given us by His Will that we remain eternally united with Him. God is Life. His changeless Love He has given us to keep us eternally safe in Him.

Every day the world gives us images that seem to make death real. Yet we have been given the means to awaken from this deadly dream. The Holy Spirit calls us unceasingly to remember that we are changeless Love and nothing else. He offers us the vision that sees past the shadows of death to the Light of Love that we are, along with everyone. Every time we choose the Holy Spirit’s perception instead of the ego’s, we choose Life in place of death. We choose Love and peace over hate and fear.

Today we choose to rest in God by giving priority to Love’s vision instead of the ego’s fear. Let us rest together in Him and bring Love’s messages to the world.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Bringing Love to a Loveless World

Salvation of the world depends on me.

Let us not fight our function. We did not establish it. It is not our idea. The means are given us by which it will be perfectly accomplished. All that we are asked to do is to accept our part in genuine humility, and not deny with self-deceiving arrogance that we are worthy. What is given us to do, we have the strength to do. Our minds are suited perfectly to take the part assigned to us by One Who knows us well.

All false humility we lay aside today, that we may listen to God’s Voice reveal to us what He would have us do. We do not doubt our adequacy for the function He will offer us. We will be certain only that He knows our strengths, our wisdom and our holiness. And if He deems us worthy, so we are. It is but arro­gance that judges otherwise.

Do as God’s Voice directs. And if It asks a thing of you which seems impossible, remember Who it is that asks, and who would make denial. Then consider this; which is more likely to be right? The Voice that speaks for the Creator of all things, Who knows all things exactly as they are, or a distorted image of your­self, confused, bewildered, inconsistent and unsure of every­thing? Let not its voice direct you. Hear instead a certain Voice, which tells you of a function given you by your Creator Who remembers you, and urges that you now remember Him.

He has Thoughts which answer every need His Son perceives, although He sees them not. For Love must give, and what is given in His Name takes on the form most useful in a world of form. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 186, W-pI.186.2;4;12;13:4-5. See also ACIM Lesson 186 Insights.)

The Holy Spirit is the Voice for Love. It speaks to us unceasingly of the Love we are. The Holy Spirit cannot see what we perceive as needs — lack, loss, illness, loneliness, guilt and protection from harm. But as the bridge between the Love of our true Self and the false image we believe we are, the Holy Spirit answers our need in forms we can accept to heal our misperceptions. His answers are always expressions of Love.

While we believe in the ego’s loveless world, we need to practice stepping back from this world to the quiet place within, which is our true Self. In this place we hear the Voice that teaches us to see the certainty of Love beyond the ephemeral images that seem to change with every whim. As we accept His lessons and demonstrate them, we bring salvation to the world.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Seeing the World with Love’s Vision

The idea for today [I have no neutral thoughts] is a beginning step in dispelling the belief that your thoughts have no effect. Everything you see is the result of your thoughts. There is no exception to this fact. Thoughts are not big or little; powerful or weak. They are merely true or false. Those that are true create their own likeness. Those that are false make theirs.

There is no more self-contradictory concept than that of “idle thoughts.” What gives rise to the perception of a whole world can hardly be called idle. Every thought you have contributes to truth or to illusion; either it extends the truth or it multiplies illusions. You can indeed multiply nothing, but you will not extend it by doing so.

Besides your recognizing that thoughts are never idle, salva­tion requires that you also recognize that every thought you have brings either peace or war; either love or fear. A neutral result is impossible because a neutral thought is impossible. There is such a temptation to dismiss fear thoughts as unimportant, trivial and not worth bothering about that it is essential you rec­ognize them all as equally destructive, but equally unreal. We will practice this idea in many forms before you really under­stand it. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 16, W-pI.16.1-3. See also ACIM Lesson 16 Insights.)

If we perceive our interests as different from anyone’s, we are misperceiving. This misperception starts with identifying with a body which separates us from “others.” This false identity must then perceive an outside world that is also false. The result of this misperception is a recurring experience of conflict, fear and guilt. All this comes from believing separation is real.

Our true Self knows that we are Love and nothing else. It knows only Itself, but this Self is all inclusive. There is no other self that can conflict with our true Self. Our Self remains eternally at peace, in need of nothing. It sees only the extension of the Love It is, for That is all of Reality.

The way to let go of perceiving a world of war and loss is to choose to see with the vision of Love. We make this choice by being willing to question the meaning of everything we see with the body’s eyes and open to the Holy Spirit’s meaning. He sees only Love or a call for Love, which He answers with Love.

This practice is our vocation in this world. It is how we heal our mind of fear and guilt and bring the healing Light of Love to the world.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Choice to Be Love

The acceptance of sickness as a decision of the mind, for a purpose for which it would use the body, is the basis of healing.

What is the single requisite for this shift in perception? It is simply this; the recognition that sickness is of the mind, and has nothing to do with the body. What does this recognition “cost”? It costs the whole world you see, for the world will never again appear to rule the mind. For with this recognition is responsibility placed where it belongs; not with the world, but on him who looks on the world and sees it as it is not. He looks on what he chooses to see. No more and no less. The world does nothing to him. He only thought it did. Nor does he do anything to the world, because he was mistaken about what it is. Herein is the release from guilt and sickness both, for they are one. Yet to accept this release, the insignificance of the body must be an acceptable idea.

With this idea is pain forever gone. But with this idea goes also all confusion about creation. Does not this follow of necessity? Place cause and effect in their true sequence in one respect, and the learning will generalize and transform the world. The transfer value of one true idea has no end or limit. The final outcome of this lesson is the remembrance of God.” A Course in Miracles, (A Course in Miracles, M-5.II.2:1;3;4:1-6)

It doesn’t seem that we choose to see a world of disasters, conflict and death. This perception starts with believing we are a body. The body is an instrument of the ego, made to be blind to Love and see only images of separation. As long as we identify with the body, we will believe what we are seeing is real. We are choosing to accept a way of seeing that denies reality. We are responsible for this choice and the world we see is the effect of it. But the fact that it is a choice means there is another option.

This option is to choose to see with the vision of our true Self — to see with Love’s vision. Love sees no differences, no conflict, no loss. It sees only the eternal extension of Itself. When we choose this vision in our mind, we see Love’s reflection everywhere, because Love is everywhere.

As we practice choosing Love as our Guide, the importance of what the body sees and seems to do diminishes. We increasingly accept the fact that we are not a body. We are free to be the Love that is our true Nature. In every moment we are free to choose to accept that we are Love and nothing else as Love’s Creation.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Being a Teacher of God

A teacher of God is anyone who chooses to be one. His qualifications consist solely in this; somehow, somewhere he has made a deliberate choice in which he did not see his interests as apart from someone else’s. Once he has done that, his road is established and his direction is sure. A light has entered the darkness. It may be a single light, but that is enough. He has entered an agreement with God even if he does not yet believe in Him. He has become a bringer of salvation. He has become a teacher of God.

There is a course for every teacher of God. The form of the course varies greatly. So do the particular teaching aids involved. But the content of the course never changes. Its central theme is always, “God’s Son is guiltless, and in his innocence is his salvation.” It can be taught by actions or thoughts; in words or soundlessly; in any language or in no language; in any place or time or manner. It does not matter who the teacher was before he heard the Call. He has become a savior by his answering. He has seen someone else as himself. He has therefore found his own salvation and the salvation of the world. In his rebirth is the world reborn. (A Course in Miracles, M-1.1;3)

Our true Self, the one Son of God, is the Self we share with every brother. It unites us in the oneness of Love. This is our Reality and our birthright. We can never lose this Love because it is God’s Will that It be ours, forever and ever.

Our only meaningful purpose in the world is to awaken to the Love we are. As we awaken to this Love, we see It reflected back to us from our brothers. We respond to our brothers from this place of Love, either by joining with the Love he is or answering his call for Love with Love. With this practice, we serve as teachers of God.

In every moment of every day we have the opportunity to be God’s teacher by letting Love guide our thoughts, words and actions. With this practice we bring Light to the darkness in the world and help to dispel the guilt and fear in our brothers and ourselves.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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