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

The Speaker discusses Section IX of Chapter 26—For They Have Come. Who are they? They are the people we have had grievances toward and judgments about from our past. They come forward now, for us to behold their innocence and glory.

Without them we cannot go through the gates of Heaven. We cannot enter our own glory without bringing them with us. But They have come to us for this one last release. Will we drop our attack toward our true Self? can we see the Christ in our brothers and sisters?

The Speaker tells of his own sister and the daily work of sending blessing to her to let go of his past grievances. This is the Holiest Ground where innocence and peace is allowing the grass and flowers of inner Joy to grow. This is the Greatest Gift we have been given in this life time. The miracles are contained in these Holy Relationships—"For They Have Come.

The fact is, the “future” never arrives, and we maintain our “problems” because the ANSWER is in the Present, not in the “future.” We think we cannot have full release until we are able to line up the conditions just right. We still need to "pay off” something, with a kind of “retribution,” for the mistakes we made in the past. Therefore, we do not see ourselves as deserving of JOY right now.  Why do we think it takes time to reap the benefits from complete and total forgiveness? What is the reason we think our release from all our "problems" is sometime in the future, but not NOW? The "problems" give us misery that we seem to think is our “just due" for the mistakes we have made. We must still "pay our debt of guilt" in the form of current suffering. 

We see "salvation" is in the future, not in the present. We do not trust forgiveness to give us full release NOW. 

Complete Forgiveness, which is the Atonement, offers total release from suffering and loss NOW. Salvation is immediate. There is no loss and no need for suffering when we accept Salvation as our only function here. This Salvation removes the separation between us and our brother. This brings us JOY in this present moment, in the Happiness of divine joining. 

THIS IS A LONG PODCAST about the Laws of Healing. Markus Ray goes through these facts in this Section VII of Chapter 26. We must undo the notion of "sin" which implies "guilt," which demands "punishment" in the form of sickness. "Sin," in its most extreme case, is forever uncorrectable.

Our Original Innocence is our Reality. This is the awareness that restores our mind to sanity, and thus is the only true Law of Healing that we must embrace. Even though we made mistakes, we are still completely Innocent. Illusions have no real effects, even though our various symptoms of "sickness" seem so real. Even "death" is an illusion that the notion of "sin" has made up as an "inevitable result."

When are we willing to let go of our illusion of separation? Forgiveness is the only means by which we can rejoin what has never been separated in Truth. We are the Holy Sons and Daughters of God. This Reality brings with it the perfect health of Heaven that is God's Will for us. We JOIN each other in this "wish" that is in alignment with the Will of God—which is perfect happiness for us.

Who is our Friend? The appointed Friend is the Christ that God has given us to look upon our true Self. He is the Self we share, who never forgot his Holy Relationship with His Creator. He never fell out of His state of Divine Inner Joy. 

This “Appointed Friend" is always here for us, but we seem to be endlessly distracted in the workings of the world, in which we are pursuing some kind of "nirvana" to replace this Friend. Can we drop all of that futile seeking that has brought us sorrow and disappointment in the end, instead of Divine Joy? 

Can we accept the fact that the Christ is here for us? NOW. In the actions that did bring us Pure Joy, He was fully there. We make room to receive Him on the Throne of his Holy Home. In so doing we prepare a seat for ourselves in the Heaven of our present happiness that requires no more “pursuit." Our Present Happiness is our inheritance of accepting this “Appointed Friend" in our life. We give the Christ attention as the main pillar in our one and only Holy Relationship. This is transferable, then, to every Relationship we will ever have, or hope to have. 

Time is but an illusion, a "sleight of hand," that fools us into thinking that what is long gone is still here now. The dream of the hell of death was such an illusion, long ago corrected, that we scarcely remember that there is no death, and the Son of God, which is our only Identity, is immortal and free. 

This Section V in Chapter 26, "The Little Hindrance," discusses this very mistake we made to bring the past into the present, and our "forgetting" that God gave us an Answer to this one mistake the instant we made it. We are actually in this present Heaven even though we expend a lot of energy to deny it. 

The Miracles always take us in the direction of Liberation from the "hell" we made up, Liberation from “death,” which is not actually here, even though we have made up a "demonstration" to "prove" hell's "reality." We can stop these projections in the Present Grace of Heaven Now. Time is but an illusion to waste, by maintaining the "separation" that never really occurred. Can we wake up into the Present? Now is this decision to be made, once and for all. We claim our Immortality now. 

MARKUS RAY gives a commentary on Section IV of Chapter 26: WHERE SIN HAS LEFT. What is there to forgive when we see that there is nothing to forgive in the awakened Self? But until we awaken into that Self of Christ Consciousness, there are a lot of errors in our belifs in "sin" that need to be undone. Forgiveness has a mighty role in this "undoing." 

Illusions seem real until they are understood as merely a mirage, a figment of the imagination that we projected onto the life stream. Such as "guilt." What if there was no such a thing? Mistakes are innocent. Correction is just. Sinlessness is a fact. Guilt does not exist in Reality. 

Where sin has left there is only the Altar to Truth. At this Altar before the Gate of Heaven, the Joy of Creation sits waiting for us to raise our voice in the song of Creation of all the Universe. We have something to give "where sin has left.” We have a song to sing in this Joyous Chorus. 

In this Borderland of thought and perception, the closest meeting we can have with the Truth is to see that thought cannot "know" it, and that we can forgive ourselves for this shortcoming. We live in a world of "separation," and this is why yogis for millenniums have given attention to "joining" with the Truth.

What we need to "do" for this to happen is to see that thought is a limitation imposed on our being, and perception always falls short of Knowledge. We can get close to the door to Heaven in this "borderland" of thought, and sit at the Altar to Truth, just outside of Heaven's Gate, but to enter into Heaven we would have to leave all perception behind. (Therefore the body as well).

We are not asked to do this now, as students of ACIM. We are asked, though, to perceive a "forgiven world" in which we bring our thought to silence. This is our work to do. This is the "decision for Heaven" that will move our minds closer to this final absorption into the Heavenly State of Being. Meanwhile, "Forgiveness is our function as the Light of the world."

The "problems" that we experience seem many, but there is one correction for all of them. The Holy Spirit is the "solver" of all problems. The various aspects of our problem, in many forms, make it seem like our "problems" are many. The one problems is our imagined "separation" from the Divine Connection that has no "problem."

There are no "special" problems or "harder" problems. The Answer is our Union with our Creator. The Holy Spirit releases us from every problem we think we have. There is no one who must "sacrifice" or "lose" in order for us to gain. There is not loss to anyone in the Divine Mind.

Who are we asking to make a "sacrifice?" Are we asking ourselves to "sacrifice" our own happiness because of some guilt we project onto ourselves or others? We have no "problems" even though we think we do. We are sinless and Innocent, therefore no "sacrifice" is ever asked of anyone. The age of "sacrifice" is over. Our innocence is the One Correction.

MARKUS RAY begins Chapter 26 in the Text of ACIM. This Chapter, called "THE TRANSITION," starts with Section I, "The 'sacrifice' of oneness." There is a total lack of joining in the world we made up.

We maintain our ego based self by identifying with our body. This body separates us from other bodies. All of us are caught in the separateness of a limited and divided view of our self. We seek for Oneness, and we would like to have Christ's Vision of Union. This is our highest aspiration.

Yet, we have to transcend our way of perceiving separation. There is no "sacrifice" in the Oneness of our holiness. We see this wholeness in our brothers, and look past the "examples of separation" we perceived in separated "bodies." We witness to the Truth now. We choose to see what is already there—the Reality of our Oneness as God created us.

Markus and Sondra discuss two Key Lessons from Part II in the Workbook, from the section called "The Second Coming." "There is a peace that Christ bestows on us." This is Lesson #305. Do we want it? Are we open to awaken to what is already ours? The Peace of the Christ is already given us, but have we accepted it? We already have the Peace, but are we with it?

The second Lesson, #306, is, "The gift of Christ is all I seek today." Do we have this one-mindedness? Do we want the peace and the Gift of Christ above all else that we think we want? What but Christ's vision do we really want? Have we realized this gift in ourselves?

We have to decide today to forget the world we made, and go past our fear and conflict toward our present Reality. We are redeemed to be released from all our problems, sickness, dysfunctions, projections, mistakes, illusions, etc. If we decide to be.

Do we give reality to illusions? FDR said, "Fear is illusion. If you use the same energy to be confident, wonderful things happen." He proved miracles are our right, when we are determined not to succumb to fear. Miracles are ours when we accept the Gift of Christ that He bestows on us. This is like Heaven in our very midst. We forgive and silence all the fears and judgments that keep our minds in conflict and self imposed hell. We accept this great GIFT OF CHRIST today.