Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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The Holy Spirit’s Happy Lessons

I follow in the way appointed me.

I have a special place to fill; a role for me alone. Salvation waits until I take this part as what I choose to do. Until I make this choice, I am the slave of time and human destiny. But when I willingly and gladly go the way my Father’s plan appointed me to go, then will I recognize salvation is already here, already given all my brothers and already mine as well.

Father, Your way is what I choose today. Where it would lead me do I choose to go; what it would have me do I choose to do. Your way is certain, and the end secure. The memory of You awaits me there. And all my sorrows end in Your embrace, which You have promised to Your Son, who thought mistakenly that he had wandered from the sure protection of Your loving Arms. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 317, W-pII.317. See also ACIM Lesson 317 Insights.)

God’s Will for us is perfect happiness. His plan for us leads us to accept the perfect happiness that has already been given us. In every moment we choose between God’s plan for our happiness or the ego’s plan that denies our happiness and the presence of Love.

The ego is afraid of God’s plan because if we accept it, it would be the end of the ego. So the ego offers us all kinds of trinkets and schemes as substitutes for God’s Love. Sometimes they give us temporary satisfaction, but they are soon recognized as empty and unfulfilling.

Our special function is to forgive or let go of the beliefs we have accepted as true in place of the oneness of God’s Love. Every moment of every day is a learning opportunity. If we follow the Holy Spirit’s lessons, we will learn to recognize the ego’s empty and meaningless substitutes for Love and pass them by. We will learn that we remain Love’s extension and nothing else. We will learn that we do not need to seek for Love because we already are Love. This is God’s plan for each of us — a progression of lessons that lead us to the perfect happiness God wills for us.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Accepting the Holy Spirit’s Miracle

Can you imagine what it means to have no cares, no worries, no anxieties, but merely to be perfectly calm and quiet all the time? Yet that is what time is for; to learn just that and nothing more. God’s Teacher cannot be satisfied with His teaching until it constitutes all your learning. He has not fulfilled His teaching function until you have become such a consistent learner that you learn only of Him. When this has happened, you will no longer need a teacher or time in which to learn.

Time is your friend, if you leave it to the Holy Spirit to use. He needs but very little to restore God’s whole power to you. He Who transcends time for you understands what time is for. Holiness lies not in time, but in eternity. There never was an instant in which God’s Son could lose his purity. His [Son’s] changeless state is beyond time, for his purity remains forever beyond attack and without variability. Time stands still in his holiness, and changes not. And so it is no longer time at all. For caught in the single instant of the eternal sanctity of God’s creation, [time] is transformed into forever. Give the eternal instant, that eternity may be remembered for you, in that shining instant of perfect release. Offer the miracle of the holy instant through the Holy Spirit, and leave His giving [the miracle] to you to Him. (A Course in Miracles, T-15.I.1;15. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

Think of someone who offends, frightens or angers you. Bring the image you hold of him — his form, behavior and words — to the Holy Spirit. Allow yourself to feel His strength and peace. Be with Him and let Him show you the truth beyond your perception of this person. Allow yourself time to let in the Holy Spirit’s vision.…

As you join with the Holy Spirit, your fear will fade and peace will deepen.… You will feel more and more at one with the Love that is the truth in this brother.… As you let time stand still in the Holy Spirit’s presence, the fear is released and you remember the reality of changeless Love. You have accepted the Holy Spirit’s miracle.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Recognizing Our Mighty Companions

Fear of the Will of God is one of the strangest beliefs the human mind has ever made. It could not possibly have occurred unless the mind were already profoundly split, making it possible for it to be afraid of what it really is. Reality cannot “threaten” anything except illusions, since reality can only uphold truth. The very fact that the Will of God, which is what you are, is perceived as fearful, demonstrates that you are afraid of what you are. It is not, then, the Will of God of which you are afraid, but [your will].

Your will is not the ego’s, and that is why the ego is against you. What seems to be the fear of God is really the fear of your own reality.

[The Holy Spirit] has the power to look into what you have hidden and recognize the Will of God there. His recognition of this Will can make it real to you because He is in your mind, and therefore [the Holy Spirit] is your reality. If, then, His perception of your mind brings its reality to you, He is helping you to remember what you are. The only source of fear in this process is what you think you will lose. Yet it is only what the Holy Spirit sees that you can possibly have.

There is no difference between your will and God’s.

Reality is the only safety. Your will is your salvation because it is the same as God’s. The separation is nothing more than the belief that [your will] is different [than God’s].

God is Love and you do want Him. This is your will. Ask for this and you will be answered, because you will be asking only for what belongs to you. (A Course in Miracles, T-9.I.1:1-2:2;4:2-6;5:3;7:7-9:9:7-9. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

Everyone in this world is searching for Love because this world is a dream of denying Love. This denial separates us from the Love of God That is our Home. It denies our true Will, which we share with God.

The Holy Spirit, our true Self, has not forgotten that our Will is God’s Will. His Love is ours, now and forever. To find the Love we seek, we need only rely on the guidance of the Holy Spirit in all our thinking and perceptions.

If we habitually ask the Holy Spirit to guide our thoughts and perceptions, we will be shown the changeless Love that lies beyond all appearances in the world. We will learn that we already have the Love we have been seeking. We will find peace because thoughts of lack, limitation and separation fade from our mind. Our brothers cease to be adversaries, for they are recognized as our mighty Companions in the oneness of God’s Love.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Letting Dreams of Fear Fade Away

God is the Alternate to dreams of fear. Who shares in [dreams of fear] can never share in Him. But who withdraws his mind from sharing [dreams] is sharing Him. There is no other choice. Except you share it, nothing can exist. And you exist because God shared His Will with you, that His creation might create.

It is the sharing of the evil dreams of hate and malice, bitterness and death, of sin and suffering and pain and loss, that makes them real. Unshared, they are perceived as meaningless. The fear is gone from [dreams] because you did not give them your support. Where fear has gone there love must come, because there are but these alternatives. Where one appears, the other disappears. And which you share becomes the only one you have. You have the one that you accept, because it is the only one you wish to have.

You share no evil dreams if you forgive the dreamer, and perceive that he is not the dream he made. And so he cannot be a part of [your dream], from which you both are free. Forgiveness separates the dreamer from the evil dream, and thus releases him.… There is no compromise. You are your Self or an illusion. What can be between illusion and the truth? A middle ground, where you can be a thing that is not you, must be a dream and cannot be the truth. (A Course in Miracles, T-28. V.1:6-3:3;3:8-11. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

Conflict appears to be everywhere in the dream of being separate and alone. That is why it is a dream of fear. It excludes the oneness of Love, which cannot conflict with Itself. In the dream, conflict is everywhere: in relationships, politics, cultures, countries and even within our thoughts.

As we learn to forgive the dreamer of these dreams, our brothers or ourselves, we learn to disconnect the dreamer from the dreams we made. This is like releasing the tether that keeps a balloon from floating free. The truth in us is free to be everywhere, always. But when we perceive ourselves as in the dream we made, we are bound to the world of separation and we cannot see beyond it.

As always, we have a Helper Who will bring us the vision we need to see beyond the dream and recognize that the truth in the dreamer is God’s Creation — Love and nothing else. Today we ask the Holy Spirit to help us see as He sees — to look past the dreams of conflict, and peace will fill our hearts as dreams of fear fade away.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Accepting Holy Spirit’s Loving Correction

If you point out the errors of your brother’s ego you must be seeing through yours, because the Holy Spirit does not perceive his errors. This must be true, since there is no communication between the ego and the Holy Spirit. The ego makes no sense, and the Holy Spirit does not attempt to understand anything that arises from it. Since He does not understand it, He does not judge it, knowing that nothing the ego makes means anything.

When you react at all to errors, you are not listening to the Holy Spirit. He has merely disregarded them, and if you attend to them you are not hearing Him. If you do not hear Him, you are listening to your ego and making as little sense as the brother whose errors you perceive. This cannot be correction. Yet it is more than merely a lack of correction for him. It is the giving up of correction in yourself.

When a brother behaves insanely, you can heal him only by perceiving the sanity [Son of God] in him.

To perceive errors in anyone, and to react to them as if they were real, is to make them real to you.

Your brother’s errors are not of him, any more than yours are of you. Accept his errors as real, and you have attacked yourself. If you would find your way and keep it, see only truth [the Son of God] beside you for you walk together. The Holy Spirit in you forgives all things in you and in your brother. His errors are forgiven with yours. (A Course in Miracles, T-9.III.3:1-5:1;6:7;7:1-5. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

If the Holy Spirit doesn’t understand the ego, it must certainly be a waste of time for us to try to understand it. Insanity makes no sense, and the ego is insane, being the denial of all that is Real. While we identify with the ego, we will see the ego thought system acted out everywhere.

The lesson we need to learn is to offer all our perceptions to the Holy Spirit for His correction. On our own we cannot correct ourselves. But He will help us overlook the insanity and show us the Son of God that is in everyone, including ourselves. This is the gift of forgiveness the Holy Spirit holds out to us. As we learn to overlook the ego, we remember that we are Love as Love created us. We return to the peace and joy of God.

Today we welcome the Holy Spirit’s correction of our perceptions, for we want to remember Love.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Returning to the Heart of Love

What waits in perfect certainty beyond salvation is not our concern. For you have barely started to allow your first, uncertain steps to be directed up the ladder separation led you down. The miracle alone is your concern at present. Here is where we must begin. And having started, will the way be made serene and simple in the rising up to waking and the ending of the dream. When you accept a miracle, you do not add your dream of fear to one that is already being dreamed. Without support, the dream will fade away without effects. For it is your support that strengthens it.

God builds the bridge, but only in the space left clean and vacant by the miracle. The seeds of sickness and the shame of guilt He cannot bridge, for He can not destroy the alien will that He created not. Let its effects be gone and clutch them not with eager hands, to keep them for yourself. The miracle will brush them all aside, and thus make room for Him Who wills to come and bridge His Son’s returning to Himself.

Be not afraid, my child, but let your world be gently lit by miracles. And where the little gap was seen to stand between you and your brother, join him there. And so sickness will now be seen without a cause. The dream of healing in forgiveness lies, and gently shows you that you never sinned. The miracle would leave no proof of guilt to bring you witness to what never was. (A Course in Miracles, T-28.III.1;6;8:1-5. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

True forgiveness is like opening the shutters and doors to a room that is enclosed off from the light. The light easily dissipates the darkness, for there is no resistance. Darkness has no substance to resist the light. Only the walls, shutters and doors of separation we have made in our minds seem to contain the darkness. Forgiveness removes the barriers to the Light of Love. 

The thought system of separation that built the barriers to Love cannot provide the means to remove the barriers. But the Mind of Love is not limited by the mistaken belief in separation. It is to the Voice of Love that we must turn for help to see through the appearances that seem to make separation real. As we practice letting Love shine Its Light on all our perceptions, the barriers we have made fade into the nothingness from which they came. And we are welcomed back into the Heart of Love we never truly left.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Welcoming the Holy Spirit’s Gifts of Love

Anything in this world that you believe is good and valuable and worth striving for can hurt you, and will do so. Not because it has the power to hurt, but just because you have denied it is but an illusion, and made it real. And it is real to you. It is not nothing. And through its perceived reality has entered all the world of sick illusions. All belief in sin, in power of attack, in hurt and harm, in sacrifice and death, has come to you. For no one can make one illusion real, and still escape the rest. For who can choose to keep the ones that he prefers, and find the safety that the truth alone can give? Who can believe illusions are the same, and still maintain that even one is best?

Who dwells with shadows is alone indeed, and loneliness is not the Will of God. Would you allow one shadow to usurp the throne that God appointed for your Friend, if you but realized its emptiness has left yours empty and unoccupied? Make no illusion friend, for if you do, it can but take the place of Him Whom God has called your Friend. And it is He Who is your only Friend in truth. He brings you gifts that are not of this world, and only He to Whom they have been given can make sure that you receive them. He will place them on your throne, when you make room for Him on His. (A Course in Miracles, T-26.VI.1,3. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

We have a Friend Who offers us everything we really want: changless Love, indescribable peace and joy without limit. This Friend knows only truth and offers only truth. When we choose to value anything the world seems to offer, we are denying the truth. We are giving value to the valueless, making it seem real. This blinds us to the truth that is offered us in every instant.

We claim the gifts our Friend offers by being willing to question the value of everything we perceive in the world. We must follow this questioning with willingness to receive the vision of our Friend. His vision will show us the truth of Love that is everywhere to be seen. The certainty of this Love will bring us peace. And joining in this Love will bring us joy.

Today we welcome the Holy Spirit’s gifts.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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