Together, We Light the Way

Click link to go to:
Together We Light the Way Index

Study of the Text, Chapter 7: IX.The Extension of the Kingdom, A Final Thought. 6-9-14

Chapter 7, Section IX: A final thought.

Reading this section of the Text has shifted me to another place in my mind. I have heard the ego voice this morning as it warned me to hurry or I would be late, but there is a calmness in my mind that answers this warning. How can I have anything to fear? I am the Son of God. I am under no laws but God’s. What is time to me?

What has Jesus told us that has made such a difference to me. Let me review this. He has said that only I can limit my creative power, but God wills to release it. I limit my power when I think it is bound by the ego laws I set up to make a separation story. God would have that power released so that I create as He creates. 

Even here, in this world of illusion, I am free to use my creative power with wild abandon! I can make a happy world instead of an ego limited world of suffering. He does not will that this be possible only when I am a better ego. He wills this for me now because He knows me as perfect and worthy in this moment. God would deny me nothing.

Jesus says that everything He created is given all His power. This means that I have been given all the power that is God. That is why I can make a happy dream as easily as I can make a painful dream. He gave me that power in my creation and that power remains as it was given, so it is available to me now. The power of God is in me because I am in God.

As I accept that all of this is true for all of my brothers as well, I can begin to use the power in the way God wills me to use it. It is only my desire that I be special that clouds my mind. This is why I deny every guilt thought that enters my mind. No matter what I perceive in my brother, I know he is not guilty. I cannot afford the sacrifice of seeing him as guilty because to do so is to deny the Kingdom to all of us.

Jesus says that the ego’s whole thought system blocks extension, and thus blocks my only function. I want to undo the ego so that my function can be fulfilled because I understand that fulfilling my function is my happiness. It is the way I know my Self and remember my creations and open my mind to full communication with my Creator. This is what I long for. So my prayer is always that the Holy Spirit heal my mind and undo what I have done.

Jesus says that a split mind cannot perceive its fullness, and needs the miracle of its wholeness to dawn upon it and heal it. My mind is split as long as I still value any part of the idea of separation. I willingly relinquish the self image I have made. I willingly relinquish the desire to be special. I relinquish the idea that I am separate from my brothers and from God.

I enthusiastically relinquish the belief in guilt, in pain, in suffering, and in the ridiculous notion of death. I relinquish the idea that I am something, anything, that God did not create. I see all these ego beliefs as nonsense and I see them as the source of all suffering.

“Holy Spirit, I open my heart and mind to You. Please correct my wrong-minded thinking and bring me back to sanity and to the Kingdom where I belong.”

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Study of the Text, Chapter 7: IX.The Extension of the Kingdom, Paragraph 7. 6-6-14

IX. The Extension of the Kingdom, Paragraph 7

7 Be confident that you have never lost your Identity and the extensions which maintain It in wholeness and peace. Miracles are an expression of this confidence. They are reflections of both your proper identification with your brothers, and of your awareness that your identification is maintained by extension. The miracle is a lesson in total perception. By including any part of totality in the lesson, you have included the whole.

It is easy to forget that my Identity is safe. I see evidence of separation all around me, and I see the ego acting out and I feel vulnerable and small. Who would think that this could be the Son of God? But I can be confident that my Identity remains safe and is never lost in spite of what I seem to be now. My extensions, that is, my creations, are safe as well. We are maintained in wholeness and peace.

Jesus reminds us that miracles are an expression of this confidence. Miracles are the natural result of our returning memory of our Identity. Some of the miracles I have performed have occurred on another level as a result of the healing of the mind, and I am not necessarily aware of them. But many miracles have occurred on this level, and while the miracle is always a healing of the mind, they often have visible effects. They occur as an expression of my confidence in my true Identity, but they also help build that confidence.

Another point that Jesus makes is that miracles are reflections of my proper identification with my brothers, which means that I know my brother and I are one. I know my brother and I share innocence. I know that I extend love to my brother rather than using him as a place to project guilt.

Jesus also says that the miracle is a reflection of my awareness that my identification is maintained by the extension of God’s Being, which is my only function. Obviously, I must remember who my brother is in order to do this, and I must let go of the ego thought system which blocks this extension.

This morning I did today’s lesson, Into His presence would I enter now. During this meditation what came to me were the faces of several people. It started with the face of a young man with whom I had a brief encounter yesterday. When I saw his face I realized there was something wrong, and that he was probably mentally deficient, but he was very friendly and pleasant to talk to. This morning when his face came into my mind, his true presence peaked out at me. This happened with several other people.

I recently watched Avatar again and this experience reminded me of my favorite line in that movie: “I see you.” In the meditation this morning each person showed me his real self. It was a remarkable experience and brought me to tears and laughter. I prayed that I would be able to maintain that vision throughout the day. This experience was a miracle because it changed forever the way I will see my brother. It was not just the words I learned from the Course, but it was the direct experience of those words.

Now I will probably see the effects of that change in my life. Those effects are the visible miracle. I don’t know how that will appear, but I am certain it will. Already I feel a lightness and joy as well as an expansive confidence that I did not feel when I woke up this morning. I was open to this miracle because I was willing to see differently. I was willing to see my brother differently and I was willing to extend God’s Being as well as I could. I look forward to continuing this extension as I am guided.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Study of the Text, Chapter 7: IX.The Extension of the Kingdom, Paragraph 6. 6-5-14

IX. The Extension of the Kingdom, Paragraph 6

6 You have not failed to increase the inheritance of the Sons of God, and thus have not failed to secure it for yourself. Since it was the Will of God to give it to you, He gave it forever. Since it was His Will that you have it forever, He gave you the means for keeping it. And you have done so. Disobeying God’s Will is meaningful only to the insane. In truth it is impossible. Your Self-fullness is as boundless as God’s. Like His, It extends forever and in perfect peace. Its radiance is so intense that It creates in perfect joy, and only the whole can be born of Its wholeness.

What a beautiful thing to read this morning. Today’s Lesson (156) assures me that I walk with God in perfect holiness. It reminds me that thoughts leave not their source and so as a Thought of God, I remain in God. And now as I read today’s paragraph, I am further assured that it is not possible that I disobey God’s Will. What He has given me is given forever, and I cannot lose it.

As I read this paragraph and take in what it says to me, I am overjoyed. My Self-fullness is as boundless as God’s, and it extends forever and in perfect peace. This is the truth, not the ego small self that I made to take the place of my Self-fullness. I intend to place my focus on the truth today. When I notice that my thoughts are wandering into ego again, I will remember my holiness and place my awareness on the truth instead.

I wonder if this is how we wake up? Do we simply choose to place our awareness on the truth each time we notice that we are focused on ego? After all, nothing is happening when we think our ego thoughts and watch our ego stories. The only thing that is actually happening is happening in God, where I am creating in perfect joy. If I keep shifting my attention back to reality, surely I will soon decide to remain there.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Study of the Text, Chapter 7: IX.The Extension of the Kingdom, Paragraph 5. 6-4-14

IX. The Extension of the Kingdom, Paragraph 5
5 Your creations are protected for you because the Holy Spirit Who is in your mind, knows of them and can bring them into your awareness whenever you will let Him. They are there as part of your own being, because your fulfilment includes them. The creations of every Son of God are yours, since every creation belongs to everyone, being created for the Sonship as a whole.

My creations are protected for me and always will be. They are part of my being, just as I am part of God’s Being. Every creation of every Son of God is mine as well because they were created for the Sonship as a whole. This is fairly amazing for me to even think of, but I can accept it as being part of the Self I don’t fully remember yet. I am most certainly the Son of God. I am whole and perfect and like my Father.

I accept all of this as being true even though I am not having the full experience of it yet, and I accept that someday I will not just believe it is true, but I will know it is true. I accept that I will feel like the Son of God when the ego is fully undone. All of this seems like something that is going to happen in the future. Even though I am told that it is happening right now, it feels like something that is coming but is not here yet.

The part that just blows me away is that the Holy Spirit knows of them and can bring them into my awareness whenever I will let Him. Whenever I will let him! Holy Spirit, I just don’t know what to think about this. Can this mean that You can do this for me right now? Can I know of my creations simply because I want to? Do I have to be fully and permanently awake for this to happen?

What has happened as I write this is that I feel afraid. I am afraid that nothing will happen if I say yes, and maybe it is better to not know for certain that the answer is no. Truthfully, I don’t believe anything will happen which probably guarantees nothing will happen. If nothing happens then does that mean the truth is not true, or as I suspect, that I am unworthy of the truth?

Well, I see the fear and the doubt and I know that is the ego. I am not the ego and I want to know what it feels like to remember my creations. I want that awareness in my mind. “Holy Spirit, thank You for helping me to see this fear in my mind. I do want this, and I ask You to heal the part of my mind that is uncertain and afraid.”

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Study of the Text, Chapter 7: IX.The Extension of the Kingdom, Paragraph 4. 6-2-14

IX. The Extension of the Kingdom, Paragraph 4

4 The Kingdom is forever extending because it is in the Mind of God. You do not know your joy because you do not know your own Self-fullness. Exclude any part of the Kingdom from yourself and you are not whole. A split mind cannot perceive its fullness, and needs the miracle of its wholeness to dawn upon it and heal it. This reawakens the wholeness in it, and restores it to the Kingdom because of its acceptance of wholeness. The full appreciation of the mind’s Self-fullness makes selfishness impossible and extension inevitable. That is why there is perfect peace in the Kingdom. Spirit is fulfilling its function, and only complete fulfillment is peace.

This sentence stands out for me. “Exclude any part of the Kingdom from yourself and you are not whole.” First, I understand that it is the memory of my wholeness that restores me to the Kingdom. The emphasis I want to focus on is that I cannot exclude any part of the Kingdom from myself if I want to know my wholeness. I suppose that should be obvious. If I exclude, then I am not whole. And yet, I notice myself doing this.

As I was sitting here this morning getting ready to read today’s paragraph, I noticed a thought in my mind. It was a thought of exclusion. Someone I know and don’t want as part of my life, part of my self. I don’t have really strong feelings about this person, and in fact seldom think about him. But when I do, my thoughts are thoughts of exclusion.

So I am sitting here getting ready to join Spirit in my morning reading and this thought flits across my mind. This man is not like me. Just at that moment, I glanced to my right and this is where I keep my reminder board. It has a picture of my oldest child, a card from my youngest, and many little notes, helpful ideas, things I want to remember. The note that caught my attention says, “You cannot enter God’s presence if you attack His Son.”

Well, ok. I see my problem. I want to return my full mind to the Kingdom. I want to enter the presence of God. More than anything, this is what I want. Well, mostly more than anything. Would I have to like this man who crossed my mind? Would I have to acknowledge him as part of my Self? Would I have to give up my attack on him? It would seem so.

I started out by saying that I don’t have extreme feelings about him. I don’t hate him; I just don’t want to spend time with him. At one time when I was still trying to negotiate with God to let me in Heaven with some of my more favored sins intact, I would have argued the point. Here are some of the arguments I would have used. I would have said that I am not really attacking him; I just happened to “discern” that he is a jerk. Or, I can love him without liking him. Here is an early favorite; I would reason that I could love everyone else except him. I would leave out just this one person.

In the ego there is always room for compromise. That is what the ego is all about. It varies with the circumstances. It shifts according to mood and perceived needs. It is completely undependable and totally unstable, but it allows me to hold grievances and to exclude anyone who does not meet my expectations. I used to think this was a fair exchange and one that I valued. Fortunately, I have come to my senses.

Truth is uncompromising. It is also completely stable and dependable. It is eternal. It is love and joy and perfect peace. It is my inheritance, my birth rite, mine for the asking. But it is also whole. That means nothing is absent from it. There is nothing outside it. That one man, that irritating person who is not what I think he should be, is part of the Kingdom or the Kingdom is not what It is. I can have the Kingdom, or I can have my grievance. I cannot have both because I cannot enter God’s presence if I attack His Son.

I could talk about this man and I could list his faults and I could try to convince you that we don’t want him in our Kingdom. But honestly, I can’t remember who it was I thought of this morning. I can’t remember him or his sins. It just passed through my mind for a brief bit of time, just long enough to remind me that I still hold the belief that grievances have some value for me. I willingly, and enthusiastically relinquish the belief that my petty grievances, or even my major grievances, are valuable to me in any way.

There is only one way to approach God, and that is hand in hand. No one stands alone or at the back. We are one whole Self and to know Self I must know my wholeness. I am grateful for this moment of recognized insanity. It gave me the opportunity to change my mind. When I stop trying to push my brother away, the Holy Spirit shows me his beauty and his perfection and it is mirrored back to me and I see my Self.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Page 3 of 3 pages  < 1 2 3

<< Back to main page of Together, We Light the Way

Has this page been helpful to you?
Your contribution to support this site is greatly appreciated. To make a tax deductible contribution with a credit/debit card, click here.
Click here to donate from your PayPal account.
Or send a check to Pathways of Light, 12530 Lions Chase Court, Huntley, IL 60142.