Miracles News
October-December, 2023
Freedom or Bondage
“You must choose between total freedom and total bondage…” (T-15.X.9:3)
Jesus says the truth shall make you free. What is this truth? It is simple and almost nobody wants to believe it. It is this: You are innocent, totally without guilt, and so is everybody else. The reason you don’t want to believe this is because you are unaware you harbor this idea of sin and guilt.
Jesus says it is unconscious until the Holy Spirit reveals it. You may not believe that you are guilty, or maybe you do, but you believe that someone else is guilty.
The world you see was made by you on purpose as a place to prove that what God says is wrong. He says guilt does not exist and all are innocent. You are imagining a world you want to be real. If you do not think you feel this way, it is because you are unable currently to see beyond the devices of the ego.
Forgiveness is much misunderstood by the world. In fact, it is not understood at all. Real forgiveness has nothing to do with the fictitious world. It’s a process in your mind where you reverse your faulty thinking.
Forgiveness is practicing the belief that you are as God created you — innocent. This also means deciding to let go of the idea of guilt in anyone else. And there are no exceptions. Never forget you desperately want that other person to be innocent. Either guilt exists or it does not. And if they are guilty, so are you. “One illusion cherished and defended against the truth makes all truth meaningless, and all illusions real.” (T-22.II.4:4)
The belief in guilt is literally a prison where you choose to suffer and the only one who continues to perpetuate it is you. Nobody ever did anything to you. “The secret of salvation is but this: That you are doing this unto yourself.” (T-27.VIII.10:1)
Once you recognize that the thought of guilt cherished makes you suffer, you can decide to let it go. The only reason you do not want to be happy and innocent is because you really want this separated individual existence you call the ego body.
There is no compromise. If the ego body you made is real, then the Self you Are as God created you is not real. This is what the quote at the beginning of this article means. You cannot be a little bit in hell, and believing in guilt puts you in hell.
Lesson 199.1:1 states, “Freedom must be impossible as long as you perceive a body as yourself.” The face you see in the mirror, is it you?
We find freedom as we learn to look beyond the body to the reality of a spirit or mind. The body is then seen only as being in a classroom, learning lessons.
As long as you want to keep the belief in guilt you will continue to make up scenarios in a world you see, thinking you need to suffer and be unfairly treated.
“As you prepare to make a choice that will result in different outcomes, there is first one thing that must be overlearned. It must become a habit of response so typical of everything you do that it becomes your first response to all temptation, and to every situation that occurs. Learn this, and learn it well, for it is here delay of happiness is shortened by a span of time you cannot realize. You never hate your brother for his sins, but only for your own. Whatever forms his sins appear to take, it but obscures the fact that you believe them to be yours, and therefore meriting a “just” attack.” (T-31.III.1:2-6)
It takes a willingness to look at your present belief system with the Holy Spirit for change to occur. It is a revelation given to you that what you are believing is false. There is no sin or guilt, and you will literally see the world from a different perspective once you come to believe that. The world will no longer be used to prove God wrong and where you saw guilt before you will see only calls for love.
A Course in Miracles tells us the world will literally disappear once our minds are completely healed. There will be no purpose for it because the belief in sin and guilt and separation are not there. It is a comforting idea that my mistaken thoughts are not facts.
Rev. Joyce Peebles, OMC is a Pathways of Light minister. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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