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Study of the Text, Chapter 7: IV.Healing as the Recognition of Truth, Paragraph 4. 3-19-14

IV. Healing as the Recognition of Truth, Paragraph 4
4 All abilities should therefore be given over to the Holy Spirit, Who understands how to use them properly. He uses them only for healing, because He knows you only as whole. By healing you learn of wholeness, and by learning of wholeness you learn to remember God. You have forgotten Him, but the Holy Spirit understands that your forgetting must be translated into a way of remembering.

The way to be certain that our abilities are properly used is to give them to the Holy Spirit. He will then guide and direct their use. He will use them for healing and this healing will remind us of our wholeness. As we remember that we are whole and that we are one, we will remember God. What can any experience on earth give us that would be as meaningful as to remember God.

If you ask me who I am, I will tell you that I am God’s Son, His creation and the extension of Himself. I am in God and part of God. I am holy and I am whole. That is who I am. Those are more than words to me now, but they are not all there is to know. What I yearn for is to Know my Self. To remember my Self. I want to know, not who I am, but what I am. I want to remember God so that I can remember what I am.

What does it feel like to be our holy Self, Jesus? That is what I want to know and what I want to be. I want to be awakened to that. I gladly give all my abilities to Spirit and I ask that He guide me to use them in whatever way would be useful to us all. When I become distracted by the worldly attractions and imagine some other purpose for my abilities, I ask that my holy Self, gently shake me back awake.

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Study of the Text, Chapter 7: IV.Healing as the Recognition of Truth, Paragraph 3. 3-18-14

IV. Healing as the Recognition of Truth, Paragraph 3
3 The ego does not want to teach everyone all it has learned, because that would defeat its purpose. Therefore it does not really learn at all. The Holy Spirit teaches you to use what the ego has made, to teach the opposite of what the ego has “learned.” The kind of learning is as irrelevant as is the particular ability that was applied to the learning. All you need do is make the effort to learn, for the Holy Spirit has a unified goal for the effort. If different abilities are applied long enough to one goal, the abilities themselves become unified. This is because they are channelized in one direction, or in one way. Ultimately, then, they all contribute to one result, and by so doing, their similarity rather than their differences is emphasized.

I have an ability to write clearly. I use this ability to help us wake up. I have developed the ability to hear the Voice for God. I use that ability to help us wake up. I have the ability to speak effectively. I use that ability to help us wake up. I have the ability to teach, and I use that ability to help us wake up. If I was given the ability of clairvoyance I would use it to help us wake up.

All abilities that are given me are used for the same purpose, just as all circumstances in my life are used for that purpose. Spirit guides me to use all things for the same purpose and this consistency makes them all the same. All my gifts are simply the gift to help achieve the one purpose.

How does this differ from the way the ego uses abilities? The ego sees the abilities as a way to differentiate itself from others. If used by the ego maybe I would use the ability to write as a way to become famous, and the ability to speak as a way to make others smaller so I would seem bigger. Maybe I would use the ability to teach as a way to make a living and if I was clairvoyant, maybe I would use that to prove I was special.

The ego uses everything for different purposes. The gifts have different meanings according to the goal that is to be achieved, and different meanings depending on the person using the gift. The one thing they have in common is that the ego use of gifts always leads to separation and specialness. So no matter how successful the use of the gift, the result inevitably leads away from the Kingdom.

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Study of the Text, Chapter 7: IV.Healing as the Recognition of Truth, Paragraph 2. 3-17-14

IV. Healing as the Recognition of Truth, Paragraph 2

2 The Holy Spirit must work through you to teach you He is in you. This is an intermediary step toward the knowledge that you are in God because you are part of Him. The miracles the Holy Spirit inspires can have no order of difficulty, because every part of creation is of one order. This is God’s Will and yours. The laws of God establish this, and the Holy Spirit reminds you of it. When you heal, you are remembering the laws of God and forgetting the laws of the ego. I said before that forgetting is merely a way of remembering better. It is therefore not the opposite of remembering when it is properly perceived. Perceived improperly, it induces a perception of conflict with something else, as all incorrect perception does. Properly perceived, it can be used as a way out of conflict, as all proper perception can.

I remember when I joined a Unity church I was told that God is in me.  This was a new concept for me but I embraced it. Later when I began to study A Course in Miracles I decided that really, I must be in God. I felt that was true but couldn’t fully wrap my mind around it. That was because I still saw myself as a body and separate and as if all things are separate.

Slowly as I allowed my mind to be healed more and more, I realized there is no separation. Separation is just an illusion, a magic trick. Very realistic, but still just a trick. Then I could accept more completely that I am in God, as is all living things. I have no problem with this idea now. The shift that is occurring for me now is that the idea is moving from the head to the heart. It is becoming something more than a concept.

Just as I had to ease into the concept, I have had to ease into the actuality of it. The way this is done for me is that I experience God moving through me. I ask for clarity and it comes through me. I ask for words to explain this clarity and they are given to me. I ask for the perfect way to help someone and the help comes through me. This is an intermediary step toward the knowledge that I am in God because I am part of Him.

As I feel that I am part of God, I naturally let go of the idea that there is an order of difficulty in miracles. I forget the rules of the world which dictate that everything is ordered by size and position, by difficulty and ease. That law used to be so self evident to me, and now it is an artifact, a relic of a belief left behind through no effort on my part, just as a natural progression as I open more and more to the truth.

In the world, forgetting is the opposite of remembering. But the Holy Spirit uses it differently. I must set aside what I now believe so I can make room for the truth. I forget the laws of the world so that I can fully remember the laws of God.

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Study of the Text, Chapter 7: IV.Healing as the Recognition of Truth, Paragraph 1. 3-14-14

IV. Healing as the Recognition of Truth
1 Truth can only be recognized and need only be recognized. Inspiration is of the Holy Spirit, and certainty is of God according to His laws. Both, therefore, come from the same Source, since inspiration comes from the Voice for God and certainty comes from the laws of God. Healing does not come directly from God, Who knows His creations as perfectly whole. Yet healing is still of God, because it proceeds from His Voice and from His laws. It is their result, in a state of mind that does not know Him. The state is unknown to Him and therefore does not exist, but those who sleep are unaware. Because they are unaware, they do not know.

Well this is certainly good news. Basically, Jesus is telling us that nothing is wrong. The problem is, we are unaware that nothing is wrong, and so we still act as if it is wrong. We are in God, a part of Him, and so what we think of as our life could never be happening in truth, only in dreams. We can imagine a life of pain and suffering, but can pain and suffering be in God? Of course not. So it cannot be happening to us because we are in God.

When we began to imagine life outside reality, God placed the Truth in our mind so that we could not become lost in our dreams. Now that we are ready to wake up from the dream of separation, the Truth (Holy Spirit) has been activated. We wake up because we want to wake up, and the Holy Spirit is our Guide through the process of waking.

Exactly how this happens varies with each of us. The Holy Spirit knows the path our soul is to take and arranges each moment of our lives according to that path and in perfect timing. We really don’t have to worry about any of that. We need only notice what is happening in our lives and our minds with a desire to become aware of our true selves. The healing is done of God through His Voice.

This is very exciting, isn’t it? If we thought it would be interesting to experience an illusory existence, it is even more thrilling to watch the Truth unfold as we return our awareness to God.

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Study of the Text, Chapter 7: III.The Reality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 5. 3-12-14

III. The Reality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 5
5 God has lit your mind Himself, and keeps your mind lit by His Light because His Light is what your mind is. This is totally beyond question, and when you question it you are answered. The Answer merely undoes the question by establishing the fact that to question reality is to question meaninglessly. That is why the Holy Spirit never questions. His sole function is to undo the questionable and thus lead to certainty. The certain are perfectly calm, because they are not in doubt. They do not raise questions, because nothing questionable enters their minds. This holds them in perfect serenity, because this is what they share, knowing what they are.

Everything about the ego mind is the opposite of reality. In the ego mind we question everything. Nothing is absolute. Everything is unstable, doubtful, and uncertain. The more “advanced” science becomes the less we actually know and with each advancement we feel the sand shift beneath our feet as we wake up to discover what we were told yesterday is not longer true today. We seem to get smaller and more insignificant as we discover the vastness of the universe.

But there is in our mind a Light. We never lose that Light because it was placed there by God and so it is what we are. In this Light there is Knowledge that is certain and unchanging. Here questioning is unheard of because there is nothing to question. Here we have no doubts and so we have no fears. In the Light, doubt and fear are unknown. In the Light we are the vastness in which the universes exist.

What incredibly powerful beings we are that we can block from our awareness the brilliant Light that we are, and block it so completely that we must be taught what is already known. And so like not very bright students we muck around in our classroom, our eyes tightly closed against the obvious, pretending we have questions that need answers. The Holy Spirit answers us with the truth: There are no answers because there are no questions.

We will not be taught to make sense of the nonsensical. We will simply be led out of our delusions into Reality. In the end, the only thing that happens is that we open our eyes (metaphorically speaking) to what is right here. We spend all our time learning that there is nothing to learn. We already are what we seek. Sometimes I giggle when I think about this. Imagine how we will laugh when the truth finally dawns on our mind.

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Study of the Text, Chapter 7: III.The Reality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 4. 3-11-14

III. The Reality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 4

4 To be in the Kingdom is merely to focus your full attention on it. As long as you believe you can attend to what is not true, you are accepting conflict as your choice. Is it really a choice? It seems to be, but seeming and reality are hardly the same. You who are the Kingdom are not concerned with seeming. Reality is yours because you are reality. This is how having and being are ultimately reconciled, not in the Kingdom, but in your mind. The altar there is the only reality. The altar is perfectly clear in thought, because it is a reflection of perfect Thought. Your right mind sees only brothers, because it sees only in its own light.

I am convinced that I am meant to be only in the Kingdom and so to stay there the only thing I need to do is to focus my full attention on it. I used to think this was hard. By used to, I mean last week. I have made the most amazing discovery. It is not hard to stay in the Kingdom once you realize you can do this and decide you want to do it.

Yesterday I discovered someone at work made a mistake that caused me some trouble with a customer. For a moment I left Heaven and put myself back in hell as I followed that thought. Then I realized what I had done. I believed the thought that he should not have done that. I believed the thought that this separate person was guilty and that his guilt hurt me and made me upset. And just like that I was in hell.

Luckily, we make our own hell and it is in our mind right where God placed the Solution. I rested in the Solution and felt the peace of God fill me with joy and love and the truth. I realized that nothing happened. There is only innocence. I am one with my brother whom I love. I am in Heaven. I stay in Heaven as long as I want to. All that I need to do is to bring my focus back to Heaven.

Oh my God, I can’t believe it is that simple and that I managed to avoid understanding what Jesus has been telling us for so long. The ego mind wants my attention and warns me that this is all fine and good because it has not been tested by anything really serious. This is a thought I can follow if I start to miss hell. Hahaha.

There is only this moment and in this moment I choose to give my full attention to the Kingdom. What could be easier than that? I focus fully on the Kingdom this moment. In this moment I am in complete joy. If I start to think about what could happen in the next moment or what happened in a past moment, if I start to follow the ego thoughts, I throw myself out of Heaven, just like that!

But I understand now that I did it to myself. No one is forcing me out, pushing me through the door and into the ego storm. Knowing that I am solely responsible and that I have full control over what I think, I see that as Jesus says in today’s lesson, my salvation comes from me. In this moment I am in Heaven. And in this moment. In this moment. . .

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text, Chapter 7: III.The Reality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 3. 3-10-14

III. The Reality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 3

3 I said before that the ego’s friend is not part of you, because the ego perceives itself at war and therefore in need of allies. You who are not at war must look for brothers and recognize all whom you see as brothers, because only equals are at peace. Because God’s equal Sons have everything, they cannot compete. Yet if they perceive any of their brothers as anything other than their perfect equals, the idea of competition has entered their minds. Do not underestimate your need to be vigilant against this idea, because all your conflicts come from it. It is the belief that conflicting interests are possible, and therefore you have accepted the impossible as true. Is that different from saying you perceive yourself as unreal?

We are told to be vigilant against the idea of competition, and that all our conflicts come from it. I’m happy to be vigilant for these thoughts because I know they are not true. I am one with every living thing. Because all are one, all are equal. Because we are all equal, we have no reason or desire to compete. What would we compete for? Equal brothers have all there is to have.

To feel a sense of competition is to feel separate. It is only in being separate from each other that we could conceive of the idea of being or having less than another. This, I think, is the reason I need to be vigilant for these beliefs that I am in competition. They indicate that I have fallen back into the belief that I am something I am not, or as Jesus puts it here in this paragraph, I perceive myself as unreal.

My peace of mind is dependent on realizing that we are equal Sons of God, that there is no lack in the Kingdom and therefore no need to strive. And certainly, there is no need to compete for anything. Only in the illusion of separation is there any possibility that one brother could have and another could lack. Of course in the illusion we don’t recognize our brotherhood.

As long as I believe in the separation idea, and support it through competition, I will continue to believe that this is where I am and that the illusion is real. To be in the Kingdom I must turn my attention from the illusion. I must walk away from it and choose to see the alternative. I cannot live in both the illusion and the Kingdom at the same time. Through being vigilant for belief in competition, I am alert to opportunities to turn from the illusion and toward God.

Here is a competitive thought my vigilance has shown me. 

I am a heck of a good sales person. The implication in my mind is that others are not so good at this and that makes me the winner. Of course, this thought comes with its opposite and that is the fear that I am not good enough, that someone else is a better sales person. This person could take my job, or if he works for someone else, could take my customer.

With this idea of a good sales person in place, I now have something to defend and so I must have an attack plan in case someone threatens my position as good sales person. I no longer have brothers, but competitors. We have conflicting interests. We are at war and there is no peace in war. I have left the Kingdom so that I can be a winner in hell. Maybe I better rethink this.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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