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Study of Text, C 14: III. The Decision for Guiltlessness, P 13. 3-15-17

III. The Decision for Guiltlessness, P 13
13 The One Who knows the plan of God that God would have you follow can teach you what it is. Only His wisdom is capable of guiding you to follow it. Every decision you undertake alone but signifies that you would define what salvation is, and what you would be saved from. The Holy Spirit knows that all salvation is escape from guilt. You have no other “enemy,” and against this strange distortion of the purity of the Son of God the Holy Spirit is your only Friend. He is the strong protector of the innocence that sets you free. And it is His decision to undo everything that would obscure your innocence from your unclouded mind.

Journal
Here is what stood out for me. God has a plan to guide me Home and He gave that plan to the Holy Spirit. It is the only plan that will work and only the Holy Spirit has the wisdom capable of guiding me to follow it. When I try to make decisions on my own, I am choosing my own plan for salvation and taking myself out of God’s perfect plan. The Holy Spirit does not try to overcome my stubbornness but only waits patiently for me to change my mind.

For most of my life I didn’t understand what I was trying to save myself from, but now I see that the only thing I must be saved from is guilt. Guilt is my only enemy and the Holy Spirit is my only Friend. As I practice making all decisions with the Holy Spirit rather than ego, I will be set free from my belief in guilt and I will know my innocence. Simply put, guilt has obscured the truth of my innocence and God has given the Holy Spirit a plan to free me. I am accepting that plan as I make my decisions with Holy Spirit rather than ego. That is all that is going on here.

Yesterday an old fear came up in my mind. I could see the obscuring impressions of guilt all around it, making it feel real and threatening. I worked with it but I could tell that I was merely putting it away for the night rather than releasing it entirely. I woke up this morning from strange and vaguely disturbing dreams, and I know that this is because I made a decision with ego to keep my old fear.

Suddenly the dream remnants from last night start to make sense in a symbolic way. There was a child who has a terrible injury on his back. I know we must call an ambulance but all sorts of stuff is happening instead and all around him as he lays there. I periodically realize I am ignoring the main problem and think again I have to do something about the injured child. I never do. I try to fix every other problem around him, but I don’t fix the main problem, the real problem. That is the story of me and this fear I have been walking around, thinking I must do something about, but working on everything else, anything else, ignoring the cause of my only real problem.

The lesson from this morning reminds me there is no will but God’s and so it must be that my will is the same as God’s Will. It cannot be that fear and guilt are God’s Will so the fear and guilt I feel must be something I made up, something that happened because I chose to believe in another will. Believing in another will makes it real in my dream, but not in reality. This means that I can break free of it when I decide to. I must be choosing to suffer. I am ready to stop tying to fix the world around my problem and allow Holy Spirit to correct this fear and guilt belief in my mind. Holy Spirit help me now as I decide with You rather than ego.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of Text, C 14: III. The Decision for Guiltlessness, P 12. 3-14-17

III. The Decision for Guiltlessness, P 12
12 Would you deny the truth of God’s decision, and place your pitiful appraisal of yourself in place of His calm and unswerving value of His Son? Nothing can shake God’s conviction of the perfect purity of everything that He created, for it is wholly pure. Do not decide against it, for being of Him it must be true. Peace abides in every mind that quietly accepts the plan God set for its Atonement, relinquishing its own. You know not of salvation, for you do not understand it. Make no decisions about what it is or where it lies, but ask the Holy Spirit everything, and leave all decisions to His gentle counsel.

Journal
I am the only thing standing between salvation and me. God knows who I am and knows my perfection. He doesn’t judge me and He is not disappointed in me. Jesus put the Atonement plan in action and is in charge of it. He is helping me in many ways, always holding my hand as I navigate the darkened mind of ego. God’s Holy Spirit is in my mind guiding and directing me every step of the way. I cannot fail.

The only thing that is required of me is my desire for salvation and my willingness to release everything that blocks my awareness of loves presence in my mind. I am getting better at this, more willing, and my motivation grows stronger as I do my part and experience the happy effects of having done so. The ego mind has been my go-to guy for longer than I can know, so I still hear that cranky little voice, but I am more likely to dismiss it now.

Yesterday while I was brushing my teeth I remembered that I have a dental appointment. I started thinking about my dentist and wondering if I should find another one. Before I could even finish brushing my teeth I had built a case against him. Suddenly I noticed what I was doing and realized I had attacked him. I realized that I had a grievance against him and that grievance was standing between my salvation and me. I talked to Holy Spirit about it and I released it to Him.

This morning I thought about a loved one and I became worried about him. I wondered if it was too early for me to call him and see if he was ok. I realized immediately that this is an attack. I was assuming that because he has made bad choices in the past that he might do it again. I was seeing him as vulnerable and weak and needing my help. What is that but an attack on God’s Son?

Because of fear I have had trouble letting this one go, but this morning I quickly went to Holy Spirit to show Him what I was thinking and how dark the world is when I do this. I sought His wise and gentle counsel. I was reminded that it feels hard to relinquish these untrue thoughts only when I tried to do it alone.

I remembered that I am not alone, that it is not the ego’s strength that I am depending on but the strength of God in me. I remembered that it is God’s Mind in which I think. I remembered that there is nothing my holiness cannot do. I felt the darkness leave me and the light brightened my world through my willingness to forgive. This really is not hard to do.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of Text, C 14: III. The Decision for Guiltlessness, P 11. 3-13-17

III. The Decision for Guiltlessness, P 11
11 It will never happen that you must make decisions for yourself. You are not bereft of help, and Help that knows the answer. Would you be content with little, which is all that you alone can offer yourself, when He Who gives you everything will simply offer it to you? He will never ask what you have done to make you worthy of the gift of God. Ask it not therefore of yourself. Instead, accept His answer, for He knows that you are worthy of everything God wills for you. Do not try to escape the gift of God He so freely and so gladly offers you. He offers you but what God gave Him for you. You need not decide whether or not you are deserving of it. God knows you are.

Journal
There was a time when I thought there were some decisions I should make on my own, like I was being lazy if I asked for help with every little decision. I would turn to God when I was backed into a corner; otherwise I did it on my own. There was a time, actually until fairly recently, when I thought that I could make decisions on my own, as if I could make them with God or with ego or just by myself. Now that seems ridiculous. Did I think there was a “me” separate from both ego and God?

I hope never to ask the ego for help in making decisions again. I have real Help. I have God’s Holy Spirit in my mind and I have complete access to that Divine Help. Why on earth would I not take it? Why would I ask the ego mind what to do next? When has it ever been in my best interest to consult with ego? When I use the ego mind to do my thinking it can only be because I still value the idea of an identity separate from God.

I am certain that is not a good idea, and yet, here I am in a body, behaving like a body is what I am rather than an image I am using to represent a separation idea. How do I know that I am identifying with this body image as if it was really who I am? I worry about the world. I know I am not supposed to so I don’t let myself dwell on it, but when I hear something disturbing I feel my stomach clench. Then I push it away. When I am firmly anchored in the truth, I pull it back up and look at it with Holy Spirit, and release it to Him. Otherwise I just let it go back into the dark until the next time.

Another way I see I am attacked to my separate identity is when I hear that someone I know is sick and I have that automatic response of wanting to stay away for awhile so I don’t catch it. I feel guilty for not wanting to be a help, and guilty for believing in “catching” sickness when I have learned that sickness is in my mind and then projected onto the body, so I don’t catch it, I decide on it. Oops, I must have joined with ego in that decision. Again, I will probably use this opportunity to let go of more belief that there is value in that separation idea, but maybe not. Maybe I will try to push it down out of sight, and if I do, like a balloon it will push its way back up and I will have to deal with it again.

There are other ways I identify with the illusion and it is never an accident. I identify with what I want. But I am not guilty for that, and each time I notice I am doing it, I have another chance to loosen that idea so that I will one day (soon?) be through with it. Today I will make no decisions on my own, that is, with ego. Today, Holy Spirit, I want your help in all decisions. Today I want no truck with ego at all. When ego tries to slip an idea past me, this is what I will remember:  God is the Mind in which I think. The next time I feel hopelessly entangled with ego, I will remember that God is the strength in which I trust.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of Text, C 14: III. The Decision for Guiltlessness, P 10. 3-9-17

III. The Decision for Guiltlessness, P 10
10 Those who accept the Atonement are invulnerable. But those who believe they are guilty will respond to guilt, because they think it is salvation, and will not refuse to see it and side with it. They believe that increasing guilt is self-protection. And they will fail to understand the simple fact that what they do not want must hurt them. All this arises because they do not believe that what they want is good. Yet will was given them because it is holy, and will bring to them all that they need, coming as naturally as peace that knows no limits. There is nothing their will fails to provide that offers them anything of value. Yet because they do not understand their will, the Holy Spirit quietly understands it for them, and gives them what they want without effort, strain, or the impossible burden of deciding what they want and need alone.

Journal
When we have accepted the Atonement we will know we are invulnerable. The reason we fail to know this now is that we are attracted to guilt. We believe in guilt and we believe it is our salvation. After all this time of working with the Course I notice that there is still the belief in my mind that guilt has some value and so I don’t give it up altogether.

I keep it locked away for the most part, but every so often it escapes its confines and I see that I am angry or fearful and I know that I have been harboring guilt. Guilt likes to disguise itself as something else. I know someone who is self-destructive and I decide to point out his problems. I do this in the name of love, but really, I am just telling him how guilty he is, and at the same time, I am convincing myself that guilt is real and that I am guilty.

You see, what we teach we learn. Giving is the way we receive, and I sometimes give what I will regret receiving. So I look at it again and consider its value to me, and I realize that it is not helping me as I thought it was and it is not helping the other person either. Then I give it to the Holy Spirit. I show Him the thoughts I have about guilt. I show Him my fear and anger. Then I ask Him to purify my mind. Each time this happens I feel freer and happier and the next time I notice the idea of guilt it is easier to release it.

I have a powerful will that can undo the false beliefs that I told myself were true, but that will has been imprisoned by those very beliefs. That doesn’t mean I am lost. I have a Guide and He is a Healer and my Helper. I don’t remember how my will works but He does. He waits patiently for me to realize that guilt is hurting me and I don’t want it anymore. Then He gives me freedom from the belief in guilt. He gives me what I want, and I am able receive it without effort, strain, or the impossible burden of deciding on my own what it is that I want and need.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of Text, C 14: III. The Decision for Guiltlessness, P 9. 3-8-17

III. The Decision for Guiltlessness, P 9
9 Whenever you choose to make decisions for yourself you are thinking destructively, and the decision will be wrong. It will hurt you because of the concept of decision that led to it. It is not true that you can make decisions by yourself or for yourself alone. No thought of God’s Son can be separate or isolated in its effects. Every decision is made for the whole Sonship, directed in and out, and influencing a constellation larger than anything you ever dreamed of.

Journal

The reason we should not try to make decisions for ourselves alone is because the concept of alone is erroneous. We never decide for ourselves alone. Every decision is made for the whole Sonship. Every decision any of us makes influences all of us. This morning I made a decision that I know was guided by One Who understands this and Who knows the decision that will influence the Son toward awakening.

I was trying to do this morning’s lesson and could not focus even for a few moments. The lesson says Love created me like Itself. I tried a couple of the suggestions. I said that Love created me safe, but it felt like empty words in my mouth. I don’t feel safe. I thought of some things that feel dangerous to me. I sat with this for awhile and asked Holy Spirit to help me.

I thought of my feelings the last couple of days and I let the Holy Spirit lead me through my thoughts and feelings to get to the core of the problem. I saw that I didn’t trust the truth to be true. As soon as I realized this I felt better. That is an old story the ego drags out when I am getting too close to the truth. I asked the Holy Spirit to heal my mind of that belief.

The Holy Spirit took me further into my thoughts and I realized that the reason I have been feeling unsafe is that I have been very focused on the stories in my life. With that kind of focus it becomes harder to disregard what the body’s eyes show me and to disregard the feelings that are triggered by these sights.

Then I was led to an insight that helped me. I realized that I have become almost obsessive about checking news updates on my phone. There is a phone app that allows me to do this easily and I started using it. With all the political upheaval we are experiencing right now, I was falling into the habit of looking at it every time I was not actively doing something else.

Then I noticed last night I was reading a news update while I was actually watching a show on TV. That is way too much ego input! I use the Lessons and what I read in the Text in the mornings as a way to keep my mind focused on the truth, but now I was using the news for the opposite purpose. It was the ego mind’s way of keeping me focused on the illusion.

I thought about how I was going to have to be hyper-vigilant for awhile as I broke myself of this habit. I knew it would be hard because the ego mind really believes it needs to know these things about its stories. It thinks it needs these “facts” so that it can make decisions for itself, decisions for Myron.

The Holy Spirit answered my concern right away. It said to delete the app from my phone. I could feel the ego trying to object to that but I had asked for help, so I accepted that help and immediately deleted the app. Keeping close tabs on the news was a decision I made for Myron, and as Jesus says, a decision made for me alone is flawed before it is even conceptualized, and will be wrong for that reason.

How could I, on my own, know what is the best thing for the whole Sonship? How could I know how it will affect even me, much less everyone else? There is another reason this does not work. I never really make decisions on my own. The decision to give so much attention to the world was made with ego. The decision to make a clean break from that was made with the Holy Spirit.

That is the only way decisions are made, that is, in union, and the only choices I have are these two. I decide with ego or I decide with Holy Spirit. And whichever I choose is going to influence the whole Sonship. This is a huge responsibility, and I take it as seriously as I should. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for your help this morning.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

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