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Study of Text, C 14: III. The Decision for Guiltlessness, P 17. 3-22-17

III. The Decision for Guiltlessness, P 17
17 How gracious it is to decide all things through Him Whose equal Love is given equally to all alike! He leaves you no one outside you. And so He gives you what is yours, because your Father would have you share it with Him. In everything be led by Him, and do not reconsider. Trust Him to answer quickly, surely, and with Love for everyone who will be touched in any way by the decision. And everyone will be. Would you take unto yourself the sole responsibility for deciding what can bring only good to everyone? Would you know this?

Journal
I was thinking last night about someone I love who seems to have taken the hard road to Awakening. He is so lost that he doesn’t even know he is traveling that road, and it is a painful path for him. I was talking to Jesus about it, asking Him what my part is in this. My life is not at random so this person is part of it for a reason. What is that reason?

Am I supposed to play an active part? Am I supposed to intercede or say words, or just silently know the truth? It can be confusing sometimes. In Helen’s notes from Jesus he talked about miracles and how her desire to be her brother’s keeper had made her miracle ready, and thus she was able to perform a miracle that touched many. So maybe that is my part, to be my brother’s keeper. Or maybe not.

I didn’t feel like I was getting an answer right away, so I had the thought to share my confusion with a fellow teacher, which I did. Perhaps I will hear from him today. I had asked, and in some way, from Jesus directly into my mind, or from someone else, I knew I would receive an answer. So I let it go and decided to do some work on my website.

In the process, I “accidentally” pulled up yesterday’s writing from this journal. The first thing I read was this. “Say to the Holy Spirit only, “Decide for me,” and it is done.” Ok. Of course. I immediately asked the Holy Spirit to decide for me what needs to be done in this situation. This is something simple I can do and something I have experienced many times, and so know without doubt that I can trust it.

This morning’s reading is further encouragement. I am told to be led by Him in everything, and instructed not to reconsider. Again, this is something I can do. I can step back and let myself act only on guidance. Just a short time ago fear would have prevented this, but through vigilance and willingness that fear has abated. Now I am prepared to listen and to do as directed.

To do anything else is to doubt God’s intentions. Could a God of Love want anything but happiness for His children? Could an all knowing God be wrong about how to achieve this? His Voice will tell me what I could not possibly know for myself. Why have I ever even considered taking on the intolerable burden of deciding what is best for this one I love?

My concern of last night was simply fear trying to reassert itself in my mind. It was like I was reconsidering my decision to be done with fear about this situation. It was the ego mind offering its advice and proposing solutions. As always, I was free to ask the ego to help me decide, or to turn in God’s direction and receive His quiet and certain help.

I am so glad I have made a habit of choosing the Holy Spirit as my partner in decision-making. I have proven over and over that the ego is not good at this, and that the Holy Spirit makes impeccable decisions. I feel peaceful in my decision this morning. I am still looking forward to hearing from my friend. I am certain he will have a helpful message from Jesus for me.

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Study of Text, C 14: III. The Decision for Guiltlessness, P 16. 3-21-17

III. The Decision for Guiltlessness, P 16
16 Say to the Holy Spirit only, “Decide for me,” and it is done. For His decisions are reflections of what God knows about you, and in this light, error of any kind becomes impossible. Why would you struggle so frantically to anticipate all you cannot know, when all knowledge lies behind every decision the Holy Spirit makes for you? Learn of His wisdom and His Love, and teach His answer to everyone who struggles in the dark. For you decide for them and for yourself.

Journal
I am making this the way I live my life. I ask the Holy Spirit to decide for me in every instance. It started with my study of The Rules for Decision in Chapter 30, and this practice of asking the Holy Spirit to decide for me has grown until it encompasses my entire life. “Decide for me” is my daily prayer. “Decide everything for me, Holy Spirit.”

In Chapter 4, Section I, Jesus says this: “I can be entrusted with your body and your ego only because this enables you not to be concerned with them, and lets me teach you their unimportance.” When I say to the Holy Spirit, decide for me and trust that it is done, this is another way that I give over the body and the ego. It is a way to entrust my life to One Who Knows my best interests, and Who knows the right decision.

There is absolutely nothing in my life, in my past or present moment, that would lead me to believe that I can make decisions on my own and live a happy life. The ego mind is so limited that this is not possible. I, as ego, cannot know what is best for everyone who is affected by my decisions now and in the future. It is crazy to try to anticipate all that is needed in order to make a decision when the Holy Spirit has all knowledge at His disposal, and will make the decision for me if I ask.

In the last sentence of this paragraph, Jesus reminds us that in our decisions we decide not just for ourselves, but for all. Each decision affects our little personal story, and it affects the entire world we made up, and it affects the whole Sonship in its awakening process. I don’t just ask the Holy Spirit to decide for me because I want a life of ease and of peace, but because I want to awaken from the dream and to my real life. I want this for the entire Sonship because I am part of that Sonship, and we must awaken together.

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Study of Text, C 14: III. The Decision for Guiltlessness, P 15. 3-20-17

III. The Decision for Guiltlessness, P 15
15 Seek not to appraise the worth of God’s Son whom He created holy, for to do so is to evaluate his Father and judge against Him. And you will feel guilty for this imagined crime, which no one in this world or Heaven could possibly commit. The Holy Spirit teaches only that the “sin” of self-replacement on the throne of God is not a source of guilt. What cannot happen can have no effects to fear. Be quiet in your faith in Him Who loves you, and would lead you out of insanity. Madness may be your choice, but not your reality. Never forget the Love of God, Who has remembered you. For it is quite impossible that He could ever let His Son drop from the loving Mind wherein he was created, and where his abode was fixed in perfect peace forever.

Journal
I experienced a grievance this weekend and since that hasn’t happened for awhile now it was especially uncomfortable. This paragraph explains why it felt bad. A grievance against someone is a grievance against God. I evaluated this young woman and judged against her and in so doing I was judging against her Creator.

“Gosh, God, You didn’t do a very good job with this one. Better luck next time. Check out my list of judgments so that you will know what needs correction in your next attempt.” Jeez. No, I didn’t say this, or even think it to myself. I hid it from myself, and I pretended nothing happened but it did. Whether I used these words or not, this is what a judgment against a creation of God means. No wonder we struggle under the burden of perceived guilt.

Fortunately, Jesus gave us these nifty lessons to help us undo this kind of thinking. The next day the perfect lesson came up for me to use. Imagine that! You would think that everything is in my own best interests and that my life is not at random. Maybe even that it is perfectly planned by One Who knows exactly what I need.

Here is the good news. “The Holy Spirit teaches only that the “sin” of self-replacement on the throne of God is not a source of guilt.”  I am assured that I am not guilty for this lapse into ego thinking.  I am not guilty for deciding on my own what God’s creation means. And the reason I am not guilty is that nothing happened in reality, only in the illusory world. “What cannot happen can have no effects to fear.”

So I can relax. I can rest in God knowing that I am innocent, as is this young woman. We are innocent because that is the way we were created. I can feel guilty if that is my choice. I can even believe that guilt is real and that judgment is justified, but I can’t make it true. There is nothing I can imagine doing or believing that would remove me from the Mind of God.

Thank you, God. I love You, God.

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Study of Text, C 14: III. The Decision for Guiltlessness, P 14. 3-16-17

III. The Decision for Guiltlessness, P 14
14 Let Him, therefore, be the only Guide that you would follow to salvation. He knows the way, and leads you gladly on it. With Him you will not fail to learn that what God wills for you is your will. Without His guidance you will think you know alone, and will decide against your peace as surely as you decided that salvation lay in you alone. Salvation is of Him to Whom God gave it for you. He has not forgotten it. Forget Him not and He will make every decision for you, for your salvation and the peace of God in you.

Journal
Even though Jesus is telling us over and over that we can let the Holy Spirit decide for us, I am just now realizing how literal this is. In fact, it is not just an offer; it is necessary. To awaken I must stop trying to be alone in my decisions. I can’t anyway. In The Rules for Decision section in Chapter 30, Jesus explains that we cannot make decisions on our own. We either make them with the ego or with the Holy Spirit.

So if I make them with the Holy Spirit that means I am joining with Him in the decision process. I surrender the desire to make the decision and I ask Him to do it for me. My part is the surrender; His part is to make the decision. I wonder if others feel, too, a little a little resistance to that idea, a little uneasiness. I think that is the ego mind that prides itself in its decision-making prerogative. It doesn’t make very good decisions, but by golly, it jealously guards the right to make them.

The ego mind wants to keep that right. It wants to decide on its own. The thought of losing that “right” is frightening to the ego. It feels like a sacrifice to the ego mind to let go of the decision-making process. It feels like this is a loss of self, and it is. The loss is only to the ego, though, not to me. As I have let go of the self, my holy Self as risen in my consciousness and with it has come happiness and peace.

In other words, the light has come. When I turn to the light, there are no dark thoughts. When I return my attention to the darkness, there is no light. Somehow I have often allowed the ego mind to convince me the darkness is my friend. This is what comes of asking the ego to decide for me. The ego loves the dark because it hides its insane thought system in the dark.

Light would expose the ego’s insanity, and then who would want it? Light would show the Holy Spirit’s benign intentions. Darkness hides the ego’s tyranny under the false mask of self-determination. In the light we see the Holy Spirit’s kind helpfulness waiting patiently for our permission to act on our behalf.

Jesus says to forget not the Holy Spirit and He will make every decision for me. So today I will remember the Holy Spirit. I will invite Him to make all decisions for me. What a simple and joyful experience life will be as I make this my default setting. I am going to trust this and I am going to test it. I surrender completely and if I am tempted to return to the ego’s dark help, I will choose again until I cannot imagine deciding otherwise.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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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.

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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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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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