1-10-13
IV. Healing as Release from Fear
1 Our emphasis is now on healing. The miracle is the means, the Atonement is the principle, and healing is the result. To speak of “a miracle of healing” is to combine two orders of reality inappropriately. Healing is not a miracle. The Atonement, or the final miracle, is a remedy and any type of healing is a result. The kind of error to which Atonement is applied is irrelevant. All healing is essentially the release from fear. To undertake this you cannot be fearful yourself. You do not understand healing because of your own fear.
The sentence that really pops out for me is, “All healing is essentially the release from fear.” What this means to me is this. If I have a cold, I am healed as I let go of fear. If I don’t have enough money, I am healed as I release fear. If my relationship is in trouble, or if I lack the relationship I think I need, I am healed as I release fear. If I am emotionally or mentally disturbed, I am healed as I release fear. If I grieve, I am healed as I let go of fear.
It is no different if I am directing my prayers toward myself or someone else. If my child is sick, my friend in trouble, or the world is going to hell in a hand basket, I am healed as I release fear. And as I am healed, I heal. Nothing is required of me to be a healing force, other than a healed mind, and the mind is healed as fear is released.
The ego would have me get into the story and find a solution, or to pray for the solution that the story seems to demand, but healing is forgiveness, the recognition that there is nothing to forgive, and healing occurs naturally when the mind is healed of fear. So the story is irrelevant to the healing.
I heal as I release fear. I cannot effectively pray for you if I am in fear because I don’t understand healing. In that moment of fear I am confused and don’t know what I ask. Sometimes I am asked to pray for someone else and I notice that I cannot do so because every time I think of their problem, I realize it is my problem, too. I believe in their problem because it has a place in my mind. If I believe in their problem how can I pray for their release?
If my fear is triggered by someone else’s problem, here is what I do. I acknowledge the fear. I give the Holy Spirit all the willingness I have to release that fear and ask for His help. I rest in the certainty that healing always occurs to the degree I am willing to accept it. I repeat as needed, however many times that is. Each time I repeat, I become more willing to allow healing. When my fear has been released, I know that the “other” has been healed as well, and my certainty is my prayer.
One of the things I have noticed is that when I acknowledge the fear in my own mind and give my willingness to be healed, the ego offers me guilt for having the fear to begin with. I start the day off rejoicing in my sinless mind, and then as soon as I am tempted by fear I pick it up. The ego voice says something like this. I don’t deserve healing. It is hopeless. The ego then offers me many scenarios to prove I have so much to fear. This is the ego’s job. It is a fear monger and it writes stories, endlessly it writes stories.
Now I have a choice. I can fall into this old trap and follow the stories in my mind and get deeper and deeper into fear and guilt. Or I can acknowledge the guilt and fear in my mind once again, and again, ask for help in releasing them. Jesus has said he will not take our fear from us, but he will strengthen us as we let them go. I accept that fear and guilt have deep roots in my mind and that it may take patient repetition to achieve my release from its grip.
Another thing I have noticed is that this can be a simple, matter of fact process, or it can be frustrating and painful. The thing that decides which way it goes for me is judgment. If I judge myself for what I find in my mind, or if I judge myself for how long it takes to let it go, then I will suffer. If I notice the temptation to judge and immediately realize that this is just another ego deception and ignore it, then the process of forgiveness and healing goes rather more quickly and without so much discomfort. A prayer I often use is, “I acknowledge my thoughts without judgment.”
And here is another thing I have noticed. The longer I practice this, the easier it is and the shorter my forays into fear. But if I follow a fear story, there will always be another and another and another. Very quickly I will have lost sight of my objective and will be lost in the stories. So if I catch the story quickly and nip it in the bud, the process goes much faster and without the suffering that has been a part of it in the past.
Jesus, my brother, you understand temptation because you experienced it in your own mind. You also know that it can be let go because you did it. I think of you standing on the hill and the ego offering you the world. I know that feeling, too. The ego offers me the world I made and the price is fear and guilt. Just accept it’s stories of fear and guilt and I can keep my illusory world and go on believing in it. Please today, Brother, lend me your strength and help me as I, like you, make my choice. Thank you.
© Copyright 2013, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.
Has this page been helpful to you?
Your contribution in support of this site is greatly appreciated. To make a tax deductible contribution or become a member online, go to http://www.pathwaysoflight.org/polshop/home.php?cat=254.
Or send a check or money order to Pathways of Light, 6 Oak Court, Ormond Beach, FL 32174-2623 (USD only, please) Thank you for your support.