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

The Presence of the Christ is here for us. How do we make contact with this important part of our own consciousness? This Lesson #157 is a kind of Invocation to the Christ to enter into our consciousness and Join us there.

He has already been present; but we have been absent. His words of A Course in Miracles are for us to use, but we must make the committment to use them.

Today we enter into His Presence and receive the Gifts of God. He wants us to have peace and eternal Life. Pure Joy is His will for us in all of our thoughts, words, deeds and actions.

We make a secret "vow" to forget the fact that it is the mind that rules the body. The body does not "think." But is does store memory of what the mind "thinks." 

Will it respond to guilt, fear, or anger? All sickness that the body appears to act out with pain or suffering begins with the sickness in the mind. Thoughts are "off," but the mind took a vow to transfer "responsibility" over to the body. 

This is a mistake the miracle needs to correct. Real healing begins and ends in the mind. The body is simply a "print out" of this process of inner correction. 

The "secret vows" to keep this miracle hidden are ending now. We can see that God's Will for us is perfect happiness, and this corrects our mind from all notions of sin, guilt, anger and fear. We are free to allow ourselves to "Be as God created us" now. This sets us in the fields of heaven in which our minds are free to be at peace. And our body can now be released as well. AMEN

Why do we feel unsafe? What would make us feel safe? We have an opportunity to call upon the miracles to undo our fear.

We are in danger nowhere in the world. Do we believe that? Are we fearful in the feelings of danger and threat? We can believe we will be calm in the face of adversity, but usually we are activated and feeling unsafe and fearful.

God keeps us safe. We are among the ministers of God, and the Energy of Creation protects us in our Mission of Divine Service.

"Your peace goes with me Father, it sheds its light on everyone I meet." God will send us the people we are to save. We recognize our Self in them, and give them peace and miracles as we have been given them to extend to others.

In the giving we realize the receiving. We give the miracle of Divine Safety, and receive it too. AMEN.

Are we prepared for Grace? What is the prerequisite to receive Grace? We first have to come to an inner silence in which we have let go of the ego's thought system.

"Grace is the acceptance of the Love of God in world of seeming hate and fear."

The goal of the Course is to give us miracles that undo our blocks to receiving the Grace. Grace, like Love, is from our Source. Miracles make our MInds clear enough to recive the Grace.

We clear our minds enough of attack thoughts, grievances, anger, fear, guilt, judgments, etc. in order to receive and live by Grace.

DO we ask God what are we to do? Do we ever make decicions independent of our ego? What would that look like?

We have to let go of our plan in order to receive a new plan that is divinely directed.

The problem is we can deceive ourselves in thinking the ego's plan is a pretending of "God's Plan." We do not drop our plan long enough to receive Higher Guidance.

This Lesson #71, "Only God's plan for salvation will work," there are three important questions we must ask of God to give us directions:

1. Where would you have me go?
2. What would you have me do?
3. What would you have me say and to whom?

Can we surrender to a Higher Truth that may feel like facing the Unknown, and trusting we DO NOT KNOW now, but will be told. We can hear the Voice for God tell us what to do—and have a Plan Greater than Ourselves.

What do we think with God? Are the thoughts of anger, guilt and fear thoughts we think with God? Obviously not. There is only Peace and Joy in that Mind.

We have to practice holding our mind in that Mind of God. The "brain" is the computer of memory. But the Program of our Divine Connection takes those thoughts we think with God, ones of Love and Peace and Joy, and forms our Mind.

"My Mind holds only what I think with God." This is a Fact.

Today there are two review thoughts we think with God: "Forgiveness is the key to happiness, " and "Forgiveness offers everything I want."

What do we have to lose except the conflicting thoughts we are NOT thinking with God. Amen.

W are asking our brothers and sisters to give us their blessing. We use Christ's vision to see our own "sinlessness" and see the "sinlessness" of our brothers.

We ask all those we encounter for their blessing. We will receive it to the degree we give the blessing. We see the totality in the Mind of God which contains all minds. Not only is our mind joined in this Holy Mind, but our brothers' minds as well are part of this One Mind.

We use the body as a "separation device" instead of a "communication device." The Body has no meaning essentially, but it can be used to communicate a blessing, which joins us in the Essence of our Self of Love.

Can we transcend the fear and hate that starts in the mind and undo it. The blessing / prayer we can extend:

"Give me your blessing, holy Son of God.

I behold you with the eyes of Christ

And see my perfect sinlessness in you."

I WALK WITH GOD 

We are as God created us. We are the Light of Holiness as God is That, and we were created by that Light of Holiness. 

We did not leave our Source. We walk with God in our Perfect Holiness. 

We are alive and He is Life. We share that Life. Nothing can be apart from Life and Live. 

Life, Love, Truth, God, and our Identity in Holiness are all ONE. 

The Decision for Atonement is to accept ourselves as God created us to be. We put our foot down and make this decision for heaven. 

We have certainty of our Identity. Atonement is the end of confusion. We are certain of our innocence and our joyful nature. We are fully alive in our Awareness of our Self-Identity. 

We give up all the self-deceptions of the ego. We let forgiveness rest upon all things and hold nothing outside the all pervasive nature of Atonement. We accept Atonement, and we do not avoid it. 

We no longer want to become something that we are not. We see simply we already are as God created us to be. This is already in us. And we are aware of this. We accept the Atonement for ourselves. 

There are two imprtant lines in this Lesson #93 that are essential for us to realize:

"Light and joy and peace abide in me."

"My sinlessness is guaranteed by God."

Can we accept thses statements as our truth? This would put our entire life in a state of inne Peace and Joy. Byt the fact is we reject this truth for lesser conditions of conflict, guilt and anger.

We have obviously made mistakes from our "ego self." But our ego sef is not our real Self. The Self God created never made these mistakes. But we have not been in so much awareness of this Higher Self.

We can leave behind our "ego self." In this liberation we are freed from the consequences of the ego. We can then say these lines as our TRUTH:

"Light and joy and peace abide in me."

"My sinlessness is guaranteed by God."