Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Replacing Hate and Fear with Love

There is no time, no place, no state where God is absent. There is nothing to be feared. There is no way in which a gap could be conceived of in the Wholeness that is His. The compromise the least and littlest gap would represent in His eternal love is quite impossible. For [a gap] would mean His Love could harbor just a hint of hate, His gentleness turn sometimes to attack, and His eternal patience sometimes fail. All this do you believe, when you perceive a gap between your brother and yourself.

The gap between you and your brother is not one of space between two separate bodies. And this but seems to be dividing off your separate minds.

There is a wariness that is aroused by learning that the body is not real. And there are overtones of seeming fear around the happy message, “God is Love.”

Yet all that happens when the gap is gone is peace eternal. Nothing more than that, and nothing less. Without the fear of God, what could induce you to abandon Him? What toys or trinkets in the gap could serve to hold you back an instant from His Love? Would you allow the body to say “no” to Heaven’s calling, were you not afraid to find a loss of self in finding God? Yet can your self be lost by being found? (A Course in Miracles, T-29.I.1:1-6;4:1-2;8:6-9:5. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

Separation, especially a mind with private thoughts it shares with no one, is essential to the ego. The body was made by the ego as a shield to protect the private mind. In the ego’s dream, bodies can meet while still protecting the private thoughts of separate minds.

The free flow of Love within the unity of Love’s oneness shared with all that is seems to be blocked by the body. The body seems to firmly protect belief in the gap that separates us one from another and from God. Our allegiance to the ego and the body sacrifices the eternal Love that is God’s gift to His Creation. In this dream Love is replaced by hate and fear. Yet this dream has no effect on our true Self, Which remains eternally linked with changeless Love.

Our identification with a separate identity makes us afraid of accepting Love wholeheartedly. The ego tells us this would be a sacrifice. In truth it is the ego that demands sacrifice of our true Identity. It demands sacrifice of Love. When we accept that we are Love and nothing else, the idea of sacrifice is dispelled. Our brother becomes our dearest Friend, for we share one Self, united in God’s Love.

Today we ask the Holy Spirit’s help to overlook the ego’s interference with the changeless flow of Love and remember the one Mind we share in God.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Christ in You Sees Only Truth

The Christ in you is very still. He looks on what He loves, and knows it as Himself. And thus does He rejoice at what He sees, because He knows that it is one with Him and with His Father. Specialness, too, takes joy in what it sees, although it is not true. Yet what you seek for is a source of joy as you conceive it. What you wish is true for you. Nor is it possible that you can wish for something and lack faith that it is so. Wishing makes real, as surely as does will create. The power of a wish upholds illusions as strongly as does love extend itself. Except that one deludes; the other heals.

There is no dream of specialness, however hidden or disguised the form, however lovely it may seem to be, however much it delicately offers the hope of peace and the escape from pain, in which you suffer not your condemnation. In dreams effect and cause are interchanged, for here the maker of the dream believes that what he made is happening to him.

Where could your peace arise but from forgiveness? The Christ in you looks only on the truth, and sees no condemnation that could need forgiveness. He is at peace because He sees no sin. Identify with Him, and what has He that you have not? He is your eyes, your ears, your hands, your feet. How gentle are the sights He sees, the sounds He hears. How beautiful His hand that holds His brother’s, and how lovingly He walks beside him, showing him what can be seen and heard, and where he will see nothing and there is no sound to hear. (A Course in Miracles, T-24.V.1:1-2:2;3. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

What do I really want? We answer this question in every moment. If we want a special identity, different from anyone else, we will seem to have it, but only in dreams. Only the oneness of Love is real. Love gives equally to all. When we choose specialness, we blind ourselves to Love’s oneness. Separation and oneness cannot co-exist.

The dream of specialness is fraught with conflict because it is maintained through condemnation. Seeing anyone or anything as different condemns them to the dream of lovelessness along with ourselves. We cannot find peace in this dream.

Peace comes through forgiving the wish for specialness. Forgiveness opens our mind to the vision of Christ, our true Self. He is the Self that remembers our unbreakable unity with our Creator. This Self sees everyone as one with us. There is no conflict nor condemnation in Love.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Following Holy Spirit Is the Key to Peace

To follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance is to let yourself be absolved of guilt. It is the essence of the Atonement. It is the core of the curriculum. The imagined usurping of functions not your own is the basis of fear.

Who assumes a power that he does not possess is deceiving himself. Yet to accept the power given him by God is but to acknowledge his Creator and accept His gifts. And His gifts have no limit. To ask the Holy Spirit to decide for you is simply to accept your true inheritance. Does this mean that you cannot say anything without consulting Him? No, indeed! That would hardly be practical, and it is the practical with which this course is most concerned. If you have made it a habit to ask for help when and where you can, you can be confident that wisdom will be given you when you need it. Prepare for this each morning, remember God when you can throughout the day, ask the Holy Spirit’s help when it is feasible to do so, and thank Him for His guidance at night. And your confidence will be well founded indeed. (A Course in Miracles, M-29.3:3-6;5)

The key to peace is to let the Holy Spirit decide everything for us. Deciding anything based on the belief in being an individual, separate identity guarantees guilt. The ego’s goal is to deny the oneness of our true Self. This is an attack on our reality making guilt inevitable. Without accepting the help of the Holy Spirit, we would be stuck in the hell of attack and defend, guilt and punishment.

God answered the mistaken belief in separation with the Holy Spirit, Whose function is to decide everything on behalf of the true Self we all are. The ego defends against this choice to follow because it perceives it as a threat to its existence. On this it is correct, for the ego’s existence depends upon our continuing belief in the seeming reality of separation.

The practice of asking the Holy Spirit to guide us throughout the day undoes our mistaken belief. As our belief in separation weakens, the ego’s seeming strength fades. When we choose the Holy Spirit as our Guide, we choose to extend Love. We choose to return to our awareness of our one Self, the Son of God. We let go of all limits on Love’s expression through us when we relinquish making decisions on our own. This is how we accept our inheritance of all of God’s Love, peace and joy.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Reversing Our Belief in Separation

Faith and belief and vision are the means by which the goal of holiness is reached. Through them the Holy Spirit leads you to the real world, and away from all illusions where your faith was laid.

The Holy Spirit has a use for all the means for sin [separation] by which you sought to find it. But as He uses [the means] they lead away from sin, because His purpose lies in the opposite direction. He sees the means you use, but not the purpose for which you made them. He would not take them from you, for He sees their value as a means for what He wills for you. You made perception that you might choose among your brothers, and seek for sin with them. The Holy Spirit sees perception as a means to teach you that the vision of a holy relationship is all you want to see. Then will you give your faith to holiness, desiring and believing in it because of your desire.

Faith and belief become attached to vision, as all the means that once served sin are redirected now toward holiness. (A Course in Miracles, T-21.III.4:1-2;6:1-7:1. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

The ego wants to see only separation because it confirms the belief that separation is real. This belief must be undone if we are to remember the truth that we are unified in Love’s oneness. Our belief in the reality of separation (sin) maintains the sight of bodies and the world we see. But beliefs are reversible. It is this that makes it possible for us to forgive and return to the holiness of Love. When we choose the Holy Spirit as our Guide, we are choosing to accept His vision of our holiness, our oneness in Love’s innocence.

The Holy Spirit uses His vision to help us reverse our mistaken belief in separation. His shows us that only Love is real. Asking for help affirms our faith that the Holy Spirit can help us forgive. His vision shows us justification for forgiveness by helping us see the Love beyond the images of separation. As we have more and more experiences of seeing past the ego’s world to the real world of forgiveness, our belief is reversed. We come to recognize the Love we are and join with that Love in everyone. We accept the Holy Spirit’s gift of God’s Love. It is this acceptance that brings us Home.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Accepting the Light of Love Within

Why wait for Heaven? Those who seek the light are merely covering their eyes. The light is in them now. Enlightenment is but a recognition, not a change at all. Light is not of the world, yet you who bear the light in you are alien here as well. The light came with you from your native home, and stayed with you because it is your own. It is the only thing you bring with you from Him Who is your Source. It shines in you because it lights your home, and leads you back to where it came from and you are at home.

The peace of God is shining in you now, and from your heart extends around the world. It pauses to caress each living thing, and leaves a blessing with it that remains forever and forever.

The peace of God can never be contained. Who recognizes [peace] within himself must give it. And the means for giving it are in his understanding.

Sit quietly and close your eyes. The light within you is sufficient. [This Light] alone has power to give the gift of sight to you. Exclude the outer world, and let your thoughts fly to the peace within. They know the way. For honest thoughts, untainted by the dream of worldly things outside yourself, become the holy messengers of God Himself. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 188, W-pI.188.1;3:1-2;5:1-3;6. See also ACIM Lesson 188 Insights.)

Light is another word for God’s Love. Peace is an attribute of Love. Peace is absent where the Light of Love is denied. Our honest thoughts accept the truth that only Love is real.

What the body’s eyes seem to see denies the truth. The body can only see images of separation, which deny the truth of Love’s oneness. Where there is not Love, there is no Light. But we are told that the Light of God is shining in us now and forever.

It is with this Light within that we see the peace of God everywhere. We see only Love everywhere. Any other appearance fades away in the brilliance of Love’s Light. As we recognize this Light within, we automatically become part of Love’s extension. We become channels of God’s blessing to everyone, everywhere and feel Its blessing ourselves.

When we allow ourselves to see the Light of Love within, we easily forgive the mistaken beliefs that hid the Light from our awareness. We join with the Holy Spirit’s loving vision to bring Love’s healing blessing to the world.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Awakening to Our Resurrection in Love

The resurrection is the complete triumph of Christ over the ego, not by attack but by transcendence. For Christ does rise above the ego and all its works, and ascends to the Father and His Kingdom.

Would you join in the resurrection or the crucifixion? Would you condemn your brothers or free them? Would you transcend your prison and ascend to the Father? These questions are all the same, and are answered together. There has been much confusion about what perception means, because the word is used both for awareness and for the interpretation of awareness. Yet you cannot be aware without interpretation, for what you perceive is your interpretation.

I am leading you to a new kind of experience that you will become less and less willing to deny. Learning of Christ is easy, for to perceive with Him involves no strain at all. His perceptions are your natural awareness, and it is only the distortions you [ego] introduce that tire you. Let the Christ in you interpret for you, and do not try to limit what you see by narrow little beliefs that are unworthy of God’s Son. For until Christ comes into His Own, the Son of God will see himself as Fatherless.

I am your resurrection and your life. You live in me because you live in God. And everyone lives in you, as you live in everyone. Can you, then, perceive unworthiness in a brother and not perceive it in yourself? (A Course in Miracles, T-11.VI.1:6-2:6;3:6-4:4. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

We ascend to the Father by identifying with Christ in us. Christ is the part of our mind that knows its unbreakable unity with our Creator, with Love.

We transcend the world of separation by accepting our oneness in Love. We don’t go anywhere; we only accept the unity of Love, which has always been here and now. Christ in us comes to Its own by recognizing only Love is real. Love is our own. Nothing else exists in truth.

The resurrection represents our awakening to our changeless reality in Love’s oneness. It is the release from our mistaken belief in separation and lack of Love through forgiveness. As we forgive or let go of false beliefs, our innate awareness that we are one in Love returns. We see the Love in our brother and know It in ourselves. When we have let go of all mistaken beliefs and accepted only Love in our minds, we have “ascended to Heaven.” We have returned to our Home in God.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Holy Path That Leads Us Home

Illusion can but seem to hold in chains the holy Son of God. It is but from illusions he is saved. As [illustions] step back, he finds himself again.

Walk safely now, yet carefully, because this path is new to you. And you may find that you are tempted still to walk ahead of truth, and let illusions be your guide. Your holy brothers have been given you, to follow in your footsteps as you walk with certainty of purpose to the truth. [Truth] goes before you now, that [your brothers] may see something with which they can identify; something they understand to lead the way.

Step back in faith and let truth lead the way. You know not where you go. But One Who knows goes with you. Let Him lead you with the rest.

We walk to God. Pause and reflect on this. Could any way be holier, or more deserving of your effort, of your love and of your full intent? What way could give you more than everything, or offer less and still content the holy Son of God? We walk to God. The truth that walks before us now is one with Him, and leads us to where He has always been. What way but this could be a path that you would choose instead? (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 155, W-pI.155.8:5-9:4;10:3-6;12. See also ACIM Lesson 155 Insights.)

Each time we step back from our perception of the world and accept the Holy Spirit’s true perception in its place, we lead the way for our brothers on the path to truth. In that moment we serve as a teacher of God by our demonstration of following truth instead of illusions. The practice of stepping back and letting Holy Spirit lead the way is the way we let go of the ego’s chains of limitation and separation.

To free ourselves, we need to be diligent with this practice. The appearances we see with the body’s eyes tempt us to believe that separation is real. This belief blinds us to the truth. The more we step back and let Him lead the way, the more we serve as a Light to others who seek their freedom to be the Love they were created to be, along with us. This is the holy path that leads us to the full remembrance that we are God’s Son, at one with Him eternally, safe in the changelessness of Love.

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