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Manual for Teachers: 7. SHOULD HEALING BE REPEATED? P 5. 3-7-18

7. SHOULD HEALING BE REPEATED? P 5
5 The real basis for doubt about the outcome of any problem that has been given to God’s Teacher for resolution is always self-doubt. And that necessarily implies that trust has been placed in an illusory self, for only such a self can be doubted. This illusion can take many forms. Perhaps there is a fear of weakness and vulnerability. Perhaps there is a fear of failure and shame associated with a sense of inadequacy. Perhaps there is a guilty embarrassment stemming from false humility. The form of the mistake is not important. What is important is only the recognition of a mistake as a mistake.

Journal

Now Jesus explains the basis for doubt and he tells us it is self-doubt. Of course, he is talking about the ego-self since your true-self has no doubt. I can see why I sometimes doubt if I am using my ego mind to affect healing. The ego has no interest in healing and no ability to heal. The only thing it can offer is fear and doubt, and as a relief, distractions, such as magic potions to temporarily relieve the effects of the magical problem.

Jesus talks about the different ways doubt will manifest such as a sense of inadequacy or fear of failure. I have experienced both of these. There are other forms doubt takes, but as Jesus says, the form doesn’t matter. The only thing that does matter is that we recognize it is just a mistake. As it happens, I have an issue right now.

I got sick the other day with viral bronchitis. I looked at my mind and I saw the thoughts that caused this manifestation and I have changed my mind about them. I have remembered that the peace of God is everything I want and that I have no use for sickness. I also asked my friend and healer to pray with me about this.

I saw that I was noticing the symptoms and was tempted to doubt, but I also know the truth and I know I cannot trust the body’s senses to tell me the truth. So I am disregarding the body and placing my trust in what Jesus tells us. I have asked that my mind be healed of the beliefs that source sickness and I have brought my doubt to the light to be undone. I am in expectation of a speedy recovery.

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Study of Text: C 15, VI. The Holy Instant and the Laws of God, P 8. 3-6-18

VI. The Holy Instant and the Laws of God, P 8
8 In the holy instant God is remembered, and the language of communication with all your brothers is remembered with Him. For communication is remembered together, as is truth. There is no exclusion in the holy instant because the past is gone, and with it goes the whole basis for exclusion. Without its source exclusion vanishes. And this permits your Source, and that of all your brothers, to replace it in your awareness. God and the power of God will take Their rightful place in you, and you will experience the full communication of ideas with ideas. Through your ability to do this you will learn what you must be, for you will begin to understand what your Creator is, and what His creation is along with Him.

Journal

Jesus talks about the holy instant in two ways. In some instances, he refers to moments of clarity, of healing, of making another choice. In this instance, he is talking about the culmination of all those instances that bring us to the real world in which we remember God and remember who we are as one. He says that in this holy instant we will remember the language of communication with all our brothers. I wonder what it will be like to communicate without words getting in the way.

Another thing that will happen is that exclusion will no longer exist. As the Course says, love excludes no one. This is another way to express separation, I think. In separation, we exclude some brothers from our love. We do this deliberately and in carelessness. I would say that we do it all the time, dividing humanity into levels of feeling and concern.

We have a small group of people we love, family mostly, and maybe a few friends. We have more people we call friends and acquaintances whose well-being seems to impact us in some lesser way. Then there are people in our town who mean more to us than others outside that town, then state and then country. It seems proximity and relatable characteristics play a part in our decision to love, like, or care about others.

Another thing that matters to us as we choose the objects of our affection is our past experience with them. We learn to exclude certain people, either through past experience with them or personally, sometimes just past experience with people like them. We learn exclusion from things we were taught in the past about their gender identity or race or ethnicity. Sometimes we learn to judge them according to their status within the society. When we finally let go of the past, all of this judgment is gone because the basis for judgment is gone and we are free to know our union with each other.

There will come a time when all these groupings and levels and degrees of love will cease to exist. We will love everyone the same because we will discover that we are all the same. We will love everyone because we learned to love ourselves first. We are learning to do this now. Each time we ask the Holy Spirit how to see a brother differently and each time we bring a grievance to the light for healing we come closer to the ultimate holy instant in which we remember who we are and thus remember God.

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Manual for Teachers: 7. SHOULD HEALING BE REPEATED? P 4. 3-5-18

7. SHOULD HEALING BE REPEATED? P 4
4 One of the most difficult temptations to recognize is that to doubt a healing because of the appearance of continuing symptoms is a mistake in the form of lack of trust. As such it is an attack. Usually it seems to be just the opposite. It does appear unreasonable at first to be told that continued concern is attack. It has all the appearances of love. Yet love without trust is impossible, and doubt and trust cannot coexist. And hate must be the opposite of love, regardless of the form it takes. Doubt not the gift and it is impossible to doubt its result. This is the certainty that gives God’s teachers the power to be miracle workers, for they have put their trust in Him.

Journal
I bet that everyone has fallen into this ego trap. You pray for someone in all sincerity but nothing seems to happen. Then you pray again or you try to think of reasons it did not work. Maybe you think that it is the patient’s fault. He just doesn’t want to be healed and so it can’t be received. Maybe you even felt resentment that he doesn’t want healing.

Or maybe you feel afraid that you are the one who is not worthy an answer. Or worst of all, maybe the truth is not true. Maybe God is judging you or him or the situation and pain and suffering is His answer. After all, how about Job, who God seemed to test beyond all reason? Or maybe there is not a God at all and you are praying desperately to thin air.

Mostly, what I used to experience was an unacknowledged fear when my prayer did not seem to have effects. And continuing to pray in the hopes of finally doing it right or to finally convincing God would seem like the only thing to do if I loved this person I was praying for. It has taken me a long time to understand the true nature of prayer.

Now when I pray, I understand what faith really is. I understand that I can trust prayer and the Answer to prayer. I don’t always know why the appearance does not change when the prayer is offered, but I know the prayer has been answered and that I don’t need to understand how or when it will unfold.

I am asking that the mind of the patient be healed along with mine. How that manifests in the world is not for me to decide. I don’t really know what is needed, or what outcome is best for the awakening mind. The timing is not for me to decide either. My only part is to ask for healing, to trust that my prayer is answered, and to trust my brother that he will accept it, as he is ready to do so and that his timing is perfect.

This total trust is love, not the fear and doubt and confusion I used to experience. My fear and doubt led to repeated pleading prayers, which are not actually prayers at all. I have learned to trust my brother and I have learned to trust God. When my trust does waver, I know that it is now time to ask for healing of my own mind.

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Study of Text: C 15, VI. The Holy Instant and the Laws of God, P 7. 3-2-18

VI. The Holy Instant and the Laws of God, P 7
7 It is through us that peace will come. Join me in the idea of peace, for in ideas minds can communicate. If you would give yourself as your Father gives His Self, you will learn to understand Selfhood. And therein is love’s meaning understood. But remember that understanding is of the mind, and only of the mind. Knowledge is therefore of the mind, and its conditions are in the mind with it. If you were not an idea, and nothing but an idea, you could not be in full communication with all that ever was. Yet as long as you prefer to be something else, or would attempt to be nothing else and something else together, you will not remember the language of communication, which you know perfectly.

Journal

We think we are communicating when we talk to each other, but Jesus is explaining to us that this is not communication. Communication is of the mind; it is ideas in the mind, shared within the mind. This is hard to grasp while we are confused about our very nature. While I think I am a body, I can only use words to try to communicate and that is not very effective.

Words have different meanings to different people and even to oneself at different times and under different circumstances. They differ according to culture as well. We use words to convey what we think of as truth but we also use them to convey what we want others to believe rather than what is actually true. Words are very unreliable.

Eventually, everyone begins to accept that they are not just a body. They begin to see themselves as body and spirit, or maybe body, mind, and spirit. This is a step forward but is not the truth, so communication remains imperfect. There are still misunderstandings and the sense of union that comes from true sharing is fleeting and easily disrupted through miscommunication.

What we are is an idea in the Mind of God. At first, I didn’t understand this at all. I was too immersed in the idea of form. I felt like I was the image I had made of myself rather than the maker of the image. How could a body be an idea? The body seemed so substantial, so real. And yet, I am beginning to understand that form is the illusion and ideas are the substantial reality.

With this understanding, I am able to more often choose peace, whereas before, I didn’t know peace was a choice. I thought I was peaceful when the images I made were peaceful. I thought I taught peace when I talked about peace or spoke in a peaceful manner. Now I see differently. If I notice that I am not at peace I remember what I am, and in making that choice I become aware of peace. My awareness of peace is communicated and ripples throughout the mind where it is shared with all. This is communication.

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Manual for Teachers: 7. SHOULD HEALING BE REPEATED? P 3. 3-1-18

7. SHOULD HEALING BE REPEATED? P 3
3 It is in this that the teacher of God must trust. This is what is really meant by the statement that the one responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the Atonement for himself. The teacher of God is a miracle worker because he gives the gifts he has received. Yet he must first accept them. He need do no more, nor is there more that he could do. By accepting healing he can give it. If he doubts this, let him remember Who gave the gift and Who received it. Thus is his doubt corrected. He thought the gifts of God could be withdrawn. That was a mistake, but hardly one to stay with. And so the teacher of God can only recognize it for what it is, and let it be corrected for him.

Journal
The teachers of God give only what they have accepted for themselves. That is why our only function in this world is to accept the Atonement for ourselves. Having done this we just naturally give what has been given us and we become miracle workers. We heal because we have been healed.

There will be times when we might slip back into ego thinking and that’s OK. We simply ask for correction and accept it, just as we have learned to do. When we doubt our ability to heal something or someone or we doubt that it can be healed, this is just another slip into ego. Believing that we must repeat healing is also a slip into ego. The solution remains the same; we accept the Atonement in this situation.

What I have noticed is that when someone asks for prayers for something that is still an issue for me, I feel doubt, and I may want to offer warnings or ways to fix the situation in a worldly way. For instance, I used to feel confused about relationships and if someone asked for help in that area I would suggest another person they could talk to.

As I accepted the Atonement in my relationships and they healed, I became clear in that area and now I don’t hesitate to work with someone on theirs. If they trigger something in me, I feel it and I step back to receive healing myself. Generally, this doesn’t take very long at all because of the healing I have already received.

Now when this happens, I am very grateful to see what I need to heal in my own mind. The last time it happened, I felt some general discomfort as the person was talking to me about her issues, so I asked the Holy Spirit to show me what I needed to see. I had a quick memory of a time when something similar happened to me and had never been forgiven. I forgave it and then I was ready to offer the healing I had accepted for myself.

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Study of Text: C 15, VI. The Holy Instant and the Laws of God, P 6. 2-28-18

VI. The Holy Instant and the Laws of God, P 6
6 In the holy instant nothing happens that has not always been. Only the veil that has been drawn across reality is lifted. Nothing has changed. Yet the awareness of changelessness comes swiftly as the veil of time is pushed aside. No one who has not yet experienced the lifting of the veil, and felt himself drawn irresistibly into the light behind it, can have faith in love without fear. Yet the Holy Spirit gives you this faith, because He offered it to me and I accepted it. Fear not the holy instant will be denied you, for I denied it not. And through me the Holy Spirit gives it unto you, as you will give it. Let no need you perceive obscure your need of this. For in the holy instant you will recognize the only need the Sons of God share equally, and by this recognition you will join with me in offering what is needed.

Journal

Once again, I am so grateful to my Brother for leading the way. It is because he accepted the Atonement that it is mine to accept. The awareness of reality is ours because he lifted the veil first. I think of people who have lifted the veil since then, especially the ones who are living now and are people I can relate to, and it gives me hope.

I want this very much. Jesus says that I can have it. He says it will not be denied me because he did not deny it. He says, “Let no need you perceive obscure your need of this.” I wonder what need I think is so important that I let it obscure the need for the holy instant?  I have a lot of little needs that float in and out of my consciousness, things like losing weight, but I don’t think that is it.

I think these obscuring needs must be grievances and judgments. I checked my bank balance just a few minutes ago and noticed the bank clerk deposited my money into my checking even though I asked her to put it in my savings, and for just a moment I felt annoyed with her. Lesson 21 says that annoyance is nothing but a veil drawn over intense fury. Jeez! That’s crazy.

But it is an example, I think, of the value I place on grievances. It seems that I am resisting the holy instant so that I can be furious at a nice lady for a simple error. I did, however, catch it quickly and I changed my mind just as quickly, so there is that. I would be discouraged with myself except that Jesus reassures me that I will have the holy instant and he also reminds me that it has gone nowhere. It may be obscured, but it has not ceased to exist.

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Study of Text: C 15, VI. The Holy Instant and the Laws of God, P 5. 2-22-18

VI. The Holy Instant and the Laws of God, P 5
5 In the world of scarcity, love has no meaning and peace is impossible. For gain and loss are both accepted, and so no one is aware that perfect love is in him. In the holy instant you recognize the idea of love in you, and unite this idea with the Mind that thought it, and could not relinquish it. By holding it within itself, there is no loss. The holy instant thus becomes a lesson in how to hold all of your brothers in your mind, experiencing not loss but completion. From this it follows you can only give. And this is love, for this alone is natural under the laws of God. In the holy instant the laws of God prevail, and only they have meaning. The laws of this world cease to hold any meaning at all. When the Son of God accepts the laws of God as what he gladly wills, it is impossible that he be bound, or limited in any way. In that instant he is as free as God would have him be. For the instant he refuses to be bound, he is not bound.

Journal

This world is a world of scarcity and without love. But we are not of this world and we are not meant to accept this as reality. The only way to be love in this world is to know that you are one with all. Without the idea of separation being true, you know your brother when you meet him. You know who he is and you know that you are one with each other. You know you are meeting yourself in another disguise. If you are one with all there is, how could there be scarcity? You have everything and you are everything and so you give freely without limit or concern.

You are like God in every way and God gives and gives and gives. He gave all of Himself to you in your creation, and your creation is endless. It is happening now and now you are receiving God and this is what sustains you. Because you are like God, it is your deepest desire to give as He gives and when you don’t you suffer. That little ego thought that is scarcity and that still exists in your vast and holy mind cannot be real because it is not part of your creation. There is no place in God for scarcity and so none in you.

Miserly giving does not come from your created mind. It comes from that tiny thought of separation on which you still place your attention. Remember to laugh at that thought and it will fade away into nothingness in an instant. Nothing can bind you to poverty of love except your desire to be a personal self with a will apart from your true will in God. Your memory will return and with it your joy and the peace of God.

Jesus came to remind you that you are abundant and if you listen and accept his gift, that abundance will translate into an abundant world before it disappears. You will dream a happy dream before you awaken from the dream. You will assist him in waking your brothers. How you will laugh when you see past the body and realize it is only your Self you meet. How funny this ego thought will seem to you when you realize there is nothing to take because it is already yours. And how peaceful you will be when there is no one to compete with and nothing to win or lose, and there is just the endless joy of giving.

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