Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

Tweet

Subscribe

View all articles • Article index

The Holy Spirit’s Lessons in Life

The Holy Spirit’s use of memory is quite apart from time. He does not seek to use it as a means to keep the past, but rather as a way to let it go.

Only the past is held in memory as you make use of it, and so it is a way to hold the past against the now.

Remember nothing that you taught yourself, for you were badly taught. And who would keep a senseless lesson in his mind, when he can learn and can preserve a better one? When ancient memories of hate appear, remember that their cause is gone. …And see, instead, the new effects of cause accepted now, with consequences here. They will surprise you with their loveliness. The ancient new ideas they bring will be the happy consequences of a Cause so ancient that It far exceeds the span of memory which your perception sees.

This is the Cause the Holy Spirit has remembered for you, when you would forget. …It has never changed, because there never was a time in which He did not keep It safely in your mind. (A Course in Miracles, T-28.I.5:1-2;6:7;7:1-3,7-9;8:1,3. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

The ego uses memory to hold illusions of the past in our mind. These illusions are used as the basis to interpret what we perceive in the present. This insures the ego’s continuity by keeping the choice for separation active. Separation would instantly disappear if the present weren’t covered over by the ego’s images of separation.

Beyond the past, which the ego hangs on to, is the memory of our Creation in the timelessness of eternal Love. It is this memory the Holy Spirit holds in our mind, insuring that we can never lose our eternal connection with our Cause. This is literally our lifeline, for it is the link to the Source of Life. This Life is not of the body. It is the Life that is changeless Love, continually extending Itself with Its joy and peace.

The Holy Spirit’s mission is to help us remember this ancient memory of our changelessness Reality. Our willingness to bring all our perceptions to Him for His reinterpretation welcomes His lessons in Life to replace the ego’s lessons of death.

We choose to welcome the Holy Spirit’s interpretations today.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Answering Heaven’s Call

Come home. …This world is not where you belong. You are a stranger here. But it is given you to find the means whereby the world no longer seems to be a prison house or jail for anyone.

Peace is the bridge that everyone will cross, to leave this world behind. But peace begins within the world perceived as differ­ent, and leading from this fresh perception to the gate of Heaven and the way beyond. Peace is the answer to conflicting goals, to senseless journeys, frantic, vain pursuits, and meaningless endeavors. Now the way is easy, sloping gently toward the bridge where freedom lies within the peace of God.

The peace of God is ours, and only this will we accept and want. Peace be to us today. For we have found a simple, happy way to leave the world of ambiguity, and to replace our shifting goals and solitary dreams with single purpose and companionship. For peace is union, if it be of God. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 200, W-pI.200.4:1,3-5;8;11:3-6. See also ACIM Lesson 200 Insights.)

To understand something is to know its true meaning. The images of the world cannot be understood because they are illusions with no meaning of their own. We make the images seem real by assigning meaning to them, but an assigned meaning can never be true. The world is chaotic because everyone assigns their own meaning to the world. Thankfully, this is not our true Home.

The Course tells us that peace and understanding come together and are never found alone. This is why peace is the bridge that leads us to the door of our true Home in Heaven, where all true meaning is. Only Love is real so all true meaning is Love.

When we quiet our minds and let ourselves rest in peace, the meaningless world fades so that we can see the eternal presence of Love. This Love calls to us, reminding us that we share the Will of Love. Our only function is to be Love by extending Love. This is Heaven, our Home.

Today let us join together to answer Heaven’s call by letting the Holy Spirit help us see with Christ’s vision the Love that is everywhere.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Forgiving Our Self Deception

The major difficulty that you find in genuine forgiveness on your part is that you still believe you must forgive the truth, and not illusions.

It is sin’s unreality that makes forgiveness natural and wholly sane, a deep relief to those who offer it; a quiet blessing where it is received. It does not countenance illusions, but collects them lightly, with a little laugh, and gently lays them at the feet of truth. And there they disappear entirely.

Forgiveness is the only thing that stands for truth in the illusions of the world. It sees [illusions’] nothingness, and looks straight through the thousand forms in which they may appear. It looks on lies, but it is not deceived.

The strength of [true] pardon is its honesty, which is so uncorrupted that it sees illusions as illusions, not as truth. It is because of this that it becomes the undeceiver in the face of lies; the great re­storer of the simple truth. By its ability to overlook what is not there, [forgiveness] opens up the way to truth, which has been blocked by dreams of guilt. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 134, W-pI.134.3:1;6:1-7:3;8:1-3. See also ACIM Lesson 134 Insights.)

Every day in the dream we are tempted to believe that what our body’s eyes show us is true and real. This belief makes true forgiveness impossible. While we hang on to this belief, it seems that forgiveness cannot be justified. We believe what we perceive really happened. This belief that must be undone to truly forgive. We must stop deceiving ourselves into believing illusions are real.

We are so identified with our individuality in the world — being separate and alone — that it seems accepting this is an illusion would mean the complete elimination of our identity. In fact it would be the elimination of the false identity sold to us by the ego.

But this elimination would reveal the glory of God’s Creation, His Son, Who shares all the attributes of his Creator. It would restore us from believing we nothing to accepting our true Self, the Son of God. There is no greater gift we can give ourselves than to let the Holy Spirit help us let go of our self-deception and remember that we remain Love, at one with all Love eternally.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

How to Replace Guilt with Happiness

My present happiness is all I see.

Unless I look upon what is not there, my present happiness is all I see. Eyes that begin to open see at last. And I would have Christ’s vision come to me this very day. What I perceive with­out God’s Own Correction for the sight I made is frightening and painful to behold. Yet I would not allow my mind to be deceived by the belief the dream I made is real an instant longer. This the day I seek my present happiness, and look on nothing else except the thing I seek.

With this resolve I come to You, and ask Your strength to hold me up today, while I but seek to do Your Will. You cannot fail to hear me, Father. What I ask have You already given me. And I am sure that I will see my happiness today. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 290, W-pII.290. See also ACIM Lesson 290 Insights.)

Christ’s vision sees only innocence because it sees only Love. Love is eternal and ever present in the now moment. While we hold on to thoughts and beliefs from the past, our awareness of Love in the now moment is blocked.

The body and its eyes only seem to exist in the ego’s dream. The body’s eyes can only show us illusions. While we believe these illusions are real, Christ’s vision of Love is blocked. This is why forgiveness is the means to free ourselves from our dependence upon what the body sees. Forgiveness opens our mind to see past the illusions to the eternal presence of Love.

We were created as Love and nothing else. Our true Self remains at Home in God’s Love, living in His joy and peace. This is His Will for us. We do His Will by extending the Love He gave us. We know we have the Love He gave us by extending It. This is our purpose. It is how we experience our present happiness today and every day.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Finding God’s Love Within

Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned about the world; all images you hold about yourself. Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought it judges worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashamed. Hold onto nothing.

Is it not He Who knows the way to you? You need not know the way to Him. Your part is simply to allow all obstacles that you have interposed between the Son and God the Father to be quietly removed forever. God will do His part in joyful and immediate response. Ask and receive. But do not make demands, nor point the road to God by which He should appear to you. The way to reach Him is merely to let Him be. For in that way is your reality proclaimed as well.

And so today we do not choose the way in which we go to Him. But we do choose to let Him come. And with this choice we rest. And in our quiet hearts and open minds, His Love will blaze its pathway of itself. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 189, W-pI.189.7:1-3;8:1-9:4. See also ACIM Lesson 189 Insights.)

The ego is the wish to usurp the Will of God and control its own domain. It is a control freak. It tries to tell us what we need to do to be happy and at peace. But the ego does not know what brings true happiness and peace.

To remember God’s gifts of joy and peace, we need to set aside the attempts of the ego to stay in control. We simply need to let go and let God. We have such a strong habit of trying to do everything by ourselves, separate from God, that it takes vigilance to set aside all thoughts of trying to do what it takes to remember our true Self. The ego is insulted by how little is required of it.

As we let go of our ideas for how to find the Love of God, we open the door to receive His Love. In that opening we accept the Love that has always been there, hidden only by the ego’s substitutes for Love. We no longer choose to accept substitutes. We want the real thing. We want the Light of Love to shine upon the world. We want to see the forgiven world that disregards the ego’s illusions and sees with the eyes of Christ.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Transforming Our Relationships to Be Holy

God established His relationship with you to make you happy, and nothing you do that does not share His purpose can be real. The purpose God ascribed to anything is its only function. Because of His reason for creating His relationship with you, the function of relationships became forever “to make happy.” And nothing else. To fulfill this function [to make happy] you relate to your creations as God to His. For nothing God created is apart from happiness, and nothing God created but would extend happiness as its Creator did. Whatever does not fulfill this function cannot be real.

In this world it is impossible to create. Yet it is possible to make happy. I have said repeatedly that the Holy Spirit would not deprive you of your special relationships, but would transform them. And all that is meant by that is that He will restore to them the function given them by God. The function you have given them is clearly not to make happy. But the holy relationship shares God’s purpose, rather than aiming to make a substitute for it. Every special relationship you have made is a substitute for God’s Will, and glorifies yours instead of His because of the illusion that they are different. (A Course in Miracles, T-17.IV.1-2. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

It is helpful to remember that only Love creates and only like Itself. Because Love is one, Love’s creations remain united with It. The unified relationship of Love with Its creations is the holy relationship. The purpose of the holy relationship is to maintain and extend Love’s oneness.

The ego cannot create because it is the denial of Love, the sole Source of Creation. The most the ego can do is to make substitute illusions that offer temporary pleasure. But these illusions are devoid of Love and cannot offer the happiness that comes with accepting God’s gift of Love. If we believe the illusions are real, we are blind to the reality of Love. Since the purpose of Creation is to make happy by extending Love, the ego’s special relationships are transformed when we accept Love’s purpose to extend Its happiness instead of the ego’s purpose to multiply loveless illusions of separation.

Today we join with the Holy Spirit to offer only Love in our relationships. With His help, our relationships will be transformed into holy relationships.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Learning to Be a Teacher of God

The centrality of open-mindedness, perhaps the last of the attributes the teacher of God acquires, is easily understood when its relation to forgiveness is recognized. Open-mindedness comes with lack of judgment. As judgment shuts the mind against God’s Teacher, so open-mindedness invites Him to come in. As condemnation judges the Son of God as evil, so open-mindedness permits him to be judged by the Voice for God on His behalf. As the projection of guilt upon him would send him to hell, so open-mindedness lets Christ’s image be extended to him. Only the open-minded can be at peace, for they alone see reason for it.

How do the open-minded forgive? They have let go all things that would prevent forgiveness. …Forgiveness is the final goal of the curriculum. It paves the way for what goes far beyond all learning. The curriculum makes no effort to exceed its legitimate goal. Forgiveness is its single aim, at which all learning ultimately converges. It is indeed enough.

It is the function of God’s teachers to bring true learning to the world. Properly speaking it is unlearning that they bring, for that is “true learning” in the world. It is given to the teachers of God to bring the glad tidings of complete forgiveness to the world. Blessed indeed are they, for they are the bringers of salvation.” (A Course in Miracles, M-4.X.1;2:1-2,9-12;3:6-9)

Whenever we judge, our mind is closed against the Voice of Love. We are blind to seeing that only Love is real. We have learned the “ability” to judge, a construct of the ego made to maintain separation. This ability is unlearned through forgiveness.

It is helpful to remind ourselves often throughout the day, everyday, that on our own we do not know what anything means. This practice opens our mind to the Holy Spirit with willingness to accept the meaning He offers in place of our misperceptions.

The Holy Spirit knows that Love is the Source of all meaning. As we practice letting the Holy Spirit teach us His lessons in forgiveness, we serve as a teacher of God. We demonstrate that we have unlearned the ego’s lessons in division and accepted the Holy Spirit’s lessons in the unity of Love. As we hold our minds open to the Holy Spirit’s guidance, we move forward on the journey of awakening to Love.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Page 299 of 846 pages ‹ First  < 297 298 299 300 301 >  Last ›

<< Back to main page of Daily Inspiration.

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.