THE GIFTS OF GOD — Sondra Ray and Markus Ray on A Course in Miracles

Only God's Plan for Salvation will work. And this Plan says YOU are in charge of letting go of your grievances, and you are responsible for how you see things. Nothing outside of yourself is the Source of your salvation. God and the Forces of Divine Life are within you, and these forces are what give you the plan for salvation. You can ask this Source, "What would you have me do? Where would you have me go; What would you have me say and to whom?" This is God's plan that will work to bring you happiness.

It is from our own mind that Liberation will come. This Lessons helps us achieve it.

My grievances block the Light in my awareness. I do not see the Light when I am focused on my grievances that I think have good cause. When we are willing to give up our grievances, we are helped by the Divine Forces to join our will with God's will of peace and joy. Gratitude revelas the Light; grievancess hide this Light. We will never have peace as long as we hold grievances. We can look at our grievances and be willing to see things differently. We can embrace gratitude and this is the antidote to grievances.

Can we rise above our grievances? When we are holding grievances we let the ego rule and condemn the body to death. We then project grievances onto "god" and see a disapproving force that condemns us as well. Hate holds grievances. Love does not. Love created us like itself, free of all grievances. The Gifts of God are noticed mostly in the absence of grievances. Free of all guilt, forgiveness dissolves these errors in our perception. Christ's Vision without grievances is awaiting our acceptance.

Love created us to be Love. And this is an unconditional acceptance of who we are as God Created us. God, Being Love, is What created us. We use those attributes of Love that show us the truth of who we are. Innocence created us Innocent. Goodness created us Good. Perfection created us Perfect. We Are as God created us. The Voice of God, the Truth, gives us the quality that we are.

Do we see our reason for being as perfect happiness? And furthermore, we are already given happiness and it is already ours. There are no external conditions that must be met in the future for us to realize this happiness. We have what we need now to have this awareness of happiness. But our unwillingness to accept this is very strong. The ego does battle to convince us we are not happy and we have to "do something" to achieve this happiness. The ego will keep us away from accepting our Divine Happiness. Can we listen to the Voice of the Holy Spirit that speaks to us of our current happiness that is already here, in us?

What is our main function in life? God gives us a function through forgiveness, letting go, being this light of forgiveness. This is our "only function" according to God's plan for us. What is in our "first place?" Do we have other goals that we deem "more important?" Our only function is attaining the GIFTS OF GOD through the acceptance and practice of our function that God gave to us. Our only real function is the one God gave to us—forgiveness of ourselves and the world, which brings the Light to us.

Forgiveness is our only function here. Will we deny this function, and have a different purpose for being here? Forgiveness will produce Absolute Happiness. Do we believe this? Will we Forgive and be happy? This is the only job we have here. Happiness has this means of Forgiveness to be realized. Fogiveness, Happiness, and fulfilling our function here all go together. This is the Light we have come here to express.

You are the Light. You are the Light by virture of giving forgiveness. You bring the peace to all minds by giving YOUR forgiveness. You receive the forgiveness and give the forgiveness simultaneously. To give and to receive are one in truth. Will we take up this holy function? We are the means for the "salvation of the world." Can we receive this holy function? We have to give in order to receive. Bring to mind the people with whom we have judged and have “attack thoughts" toward. Can we apply the Lesson to these Minds as well? There cannot be exclusions in our application in order for it to be in full force. We let forgiveness rest on ALL THINGS, ALL PEOPLE, ALL ASPECTS OF OUR LIFE.

What is this "LIGHT OF THE WORLD" that we are? It says, "Forgiveness is my function as the light of the world." And now it seems like war is escalating in this world of nationalistic interests. Power is being exerted in aggressive actions of attack. We are asked to make contact with a different Power--one of the LIGHT. One of FORGIVENESS. One of Absolute PEACE. Peace is not had through war. War never restores peace, it merely gives a "winner" and a "loser" who then go on to battle again at a later date with a new enemy. Are we committed to being the Light? Are we committed to fulfilling our function of true and complete forgiveness? We are being tested as Students of ACIM in application of these two lessons.