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5 Who assumes a power that he does not possess is deceiving himself. Yet to accept the power given him by God is but to acknowledge his Creator and accept His gifts. And His gifts have no limit. To ask the Holy Spirit to decide for you is simply to accept your true inheritance. Does this mean that you cannot say anything without consulting Him? No, indeed! That would hardly be practical, and it is the practical with which this course is most concerned. If you have made it a habit to ask for help when and where you can, you can be confident that wisdom will be given you when you need it. Prepare for this each morning, remember God when you can throughout the day, ask the Holy Spirit’s help when it is feasible to do so, and thank Him for His guidance at night. And your confidence will be well founded indeed.
This paragraph is a real treasure. First Jesus talks to us about the difference between the ego’s “gifts” and the true gifts of our Creator. The ego gave us the gift of belief in an unreliable power. We spend all of our life trying to learn to gain enough information, and experience using that information, that we can finally make good decisions.
Because the ego gave us the belief that we have power, we always think we will succeed, and often fool ourselves into believing we did succeed. If we become suspicious of the outcome, we quickly find someone to blame for it, so that we can bolster the belief we actually know something, that information is knowledge and manipulation of that information is wisdom.
All along we have true power at our disposal. God created us like Himself and nothing about our creation has changed, so we have the power of God. In order to use this power, we must acknowledge it, and we cannot acknowledge true power if we are holding onto the belief in its substitute.
The way to regain the use of the power that is in us, is to turn from the made up power of the ego, and ask the Holy Spirit to decide for us. This gives us access to knowledge and true power. It is ours and has always been ours, but we cut off access to it when we turned our back on it in favor of something else. The Holy Spirit is the memory of that power and knowledge, and our way back to it.
Do I have to ask the Holy Spirit every single time I make even the smallest decision for this plan to work? Jesus says no, that this would not be practical. Here is the way I have done it. At first I learned to notice when I was making decisions and I learned to realize that there were times when I really didn’t want to turn those decisions over to the Holy Spirit.
An example was when my son was sick. I thought I knew what should happen, even what I should pray for. I hated the thought of surrendering the whole thing. I was afraid to let go of my yearning for him to be well. Yeah, I know, that was pretty crazy. As if I could know better than God, what my son needed. As if God would ever want anything less than absolute joy for his child.
But that was the ego’s belief that it has knowledge and power. I gave it that belief and now I was now experiencing the consequences. The gift I found within this experience was that I now had the opportunity to see that it was an insane decision, and so choose differently. I chose differently through acknowledging the error by asking Holy Spirit to choose for me. I would never have gotten to that choice if I had not been willing to look at how much I didn’t want to do it.
Once I understood the mechanism the ego uses, and my reluctance to let go of my false power, it was just a matter of vigilance. I paid close attention to my thoughts and my choices. I gave all the willingness I had to allow my mind to be changed. It was all about practice and, honestly, it felt like work. A lot of work. But that was because I did not entirely want the change and so I was conflicted, which is always a painful state to be in.
But the work did pay off and I began to truly change my mind about the gifts I wanted to accept. I learned through contrast that the ego gives false gifts, and that God gives truly. I learned that I wanted the Holy Spirit to decide for me, as I began to realize that I lost nothing when I gave up the ego belief in personal decision-making. It had no value, and therefore its absence was not a sacrifice. The conflict began to fall away and the process became easier, and even joyful.
The result of this is that there is a true desire in my Heart for Holy Spirit to choose for me and so I don’t have to notice every little thing. The Holy Spirit answers the prayer of my Heart, and my Heart wants the gifts of God. My vigilance now is only to protect this desire. The ego self does not give up so easily and is always offering me its gifts.
This is why I begin and end my day in gratitude for God’s Love. It is why I think of God often during the day, and ask for healing often. This is the way I protect my desire. Evidently, I will have to always do this while I am living an experience of separation. It is a small thing, though, for the peace it has brought me.
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