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

What do we fear? Why do we fear? We have "meaningless thought" we are told early on in the Workbook of ACIM. This "meaningless thought" is showing us a "meaningless world," which engenders fear. Fear involves conflict between an illusion we are pursuing and an illusion of not achieving that pursuit. There is some perfect happiness that is here now for us to accept, and this requires no achievement on our part to have it. It is our inheritance now. There is no conflict in this Reality of Peace. There is no illusion in the Reality of God's Love. This is our true Identity—"Love, which created me, is what I am." Love has no fear or conflict. We are present in this awareness of our Divine Identity. Thought is stopped. We think with the Mind of God, which holds only Thoughts of Love. Can we do this? This is the miracle in action.

Have you ever spent your day immersed in the Glory of your Creator? What would your day look like being aware of your Glory? There is great Beauty and Silence in this Glory. Perfect happiness is held out for us to claim. "The glory of my Father is my own." Can we "own" this glory as already ours? How would we be changed? The Beauty of existence is everywhere, even in the seeming clutter that accumulates around us as the debris of our incomplete actions. We let in the Glory of God's perfect happiness surround us and envelop us in our day, in our comings and goings. Notice how you feel differently while focusing on your Glory. Let us embrace our own majesty. Let us acknowledge our Self as God created us. Let us have Faith that we can achieve perfect happiness and "enter the miracle zone" of God's Will for us—the Divine Mother's Grace surrounds us in our every thought, word, deed and action in this glorious state of Divine Awareness.

The world is a mighty big place. Right now in present time this represents 8.31 Billion People. Salvation of all those folks depends on me. What do we mean by "salvation?" The liberation from all negativity and suffering would be salvation. The release of "guilt" and the "embrace " of our innocence could be "salvation." This lesson says we are responsible for this—for the whole world of 8.31 billion people. What would this require on our part? Maybe we have evolved up the ladder of our own holiness, and we have risen up on the scale of our enlightenment. How do we see and treat people who have not evolved as high? They are evolving too. And can we release everyone from our judgments? People evolve at their own rate, and they have free will to be where they are. We are responsible NOT to judge anyone, but we are responsible to accept everyone where they are on the scale of enlightenment. We are liberated in our embrace of the wholeness of this world of "being" a human being. All 8.31 Billion of us.

I have a Mind. This is my "command center" of my life. I rule this Mind, having full dominion over it. I think the thoughts I choose, and fill my mind with these thoughts. And my Life is governed by these thoughts. They determine my words I use, the deeds I perform, and the actions I take. I rule this Mind of mine, and I can decide to connect it with the Mind of my Creator, or not. The Mind of my Creator would only lead me to more Love, Peace and Joy. If I am going in a direction other than that, running into problems, experiencing pain and suffering, then I am "ruling my mind" without the Higher Guidance of my Creator. I can restore my Mind to listening to the Holy Spirit, Who can lead me out of my problems into a Heavenly State of Being, free of all "problems." But I must make this conversion with my own free will. It is an action I take to allow my Mind to be guided by a Higher Force of Love.

There is a Life Force that is merciful and conducive to helping us solve every "problem" that comes across our path in life. This Life Force is benevolent to our needs, and gladly meets them. This could be a solution to any problem we are having. The Lesson says, "God in His/Her mercy, wills that I be saved [from this problem]." We do not need to now "how" to solve the problem. Our job is to invoke the Holy Spirit's help, and give that Life Force the faith that it can give the solution. Then we have to be willing to let go of our "needs" that made the problem up in the first place. We have to drop our own negative thoughts that are attached to the problem. We let go of our "case." We may need to look at our "fear, guilt, or anger" that made this problem up in the first place. We do an assessment of our negative thoughts and forgive them. We let go. We are open to a solution that is not of our own making. We accept the Mercy of God that saves us from all "problems." We can rejoice in this heavenly state that is being given us. 

Can we accept that we are the Sons and Daughters of God? Are we accepting the grandeur of our Being? We are timeless Beings Who are perfect already in the Reality of NOW. We awaken from the dream in which we forgot our true Identity. We desire to know who we really are as God created us. We are the Sons and Daughters of a Holy God the Father/Mother/Child as ONE. This is the real trinity that we never left. We have always been our True Self, we had merely forgotten it. We have misplaced our True Self, which was always there. Today we are awakened to our True Self as we seek and find the Peace of God. We are paying attention to our True Self. This is the right use of our Mind—to restore our awareness of our holiness and Divine Nature in Truth. Amen.

Lesson #233 is "I GIVE MY LIFE TO GOD TO GUIDE TODAY." Can we do that? Mostly we think we are the main managers of our life, and the "solvers of our problems." Do we ever rely on the Holy Spirit to manage our life? This is what this Lesson is getting us to see. This would require Faith on our part. Could this be the MAIN PROBLEM? We do not possess the Faith that could solve all of our problems spiritually. We are in a crisis of Faith. We do not have to "know” what the conditions of the solution are. There is no problem in any situation the Holy Spirit cannot solve. This is the joining of the problem of "separation,” with the solution—giving our life to the Holy Spirit to guide and protect us.

Can we remember the present? Can we erase the painful memories of the past? Can we let go of all memories of fear, guilt and anger? MEMORY is a skill we can remember NOW. In the present, God is. Innocence is in the present. We are absolved of all past mistakes. We can remember God in this present instant, in all His glory. Time is transcended. We let go of the past hurts, all of the accumulation of "hurts" from the past. Can we let go? Can we drop the memories of past hurts? Use our memories to recall only Loving Thoughts that are true. Let everything else go. "Be in my Mind, my Father, through the day." This is a beautiful request. God is available to us, all of the time in the present, in every minute.

"Today would I seek and find the peace of God." We have to be willing to make a change, and do something differently. The old patterns of behavior kept us stuck in "non-peace." In order to have something different, in this case peace, we have to change our behaviors, obviously. Can we move in the direction of peace, and be willing to change? Can we accept the peace, which is something very different than what we have grown accustomed to? We are being asked to take an action. Are we willing?

Love which created me is what I am. We do not too often Identify ourselves directly with the unconditional Force of Love in the Universe. It's somehow too big for us. But what if we could for a instant see that Love as our one and only Source Energy? We would have a lot more Self-Esteem. We would probably float into NIrvana beyond our wildest dreams. The best we seem to be able to muster is a kind of contriband of our soul's more superficial desires. Or we survive in the patterns set for ourselves. What is this Absolute version of Love that is our true Identity? Let's ponder this version of ourself today.