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

SONDRA and MARKUS comment on the last section in Chapter 25 of A Course in Miracles: The Justice of Heaven is an awareness of our total innocence. There is no difference between the spiritual and "physical" world when we see God's Justice bestows peace and innocence on all dimensions. In this view of Justice, Heaven is bestowed upon this dimension of the physical in which we inhabit. Pain is impossible as a "punishment" for guilt that is not really there.

There is a "winning," a release of the sorrow of "loss" whne we accept the resolution of the Holy Spirit who sets up a state of being in with no one loses, and no one experiences "pain" of any kind. There are no players in our "drama" that we want to "pay" for their mistakes. Everyone is innocent, no matter what mistakes they made. This includes the mistakes we perceive that others "did to us," and as well the mistakes we made that attacked ourselves.

The Holy Spirit's justice is to restore the Heaven in us that would make certain the Innocence in our essence that can in turn bring Peace, Joy and Happiness to our every day experience—all of the time.

MARKUS & SONDRA discuss Lesson #183 in the ACIM Workbook: "I call upon God's Name and on my own." What exactly is the call we make upon "God's name?" The Name of God is whole and complete. Ultimately it is the Oneness we all seek, the unification we are assembling in our life, the truth of peace that blankets every atom in creation. God's name encompasses Everything, without exception. Only that Name is capable of extending Its Will.

How do we call upon this Name? In the Eastern tradition we recite mantras, which are God's Name. "Om Namah Shivay" is one of these important utterances that acknowledges the quality of God that destroys our ignorance. Ultimately we are to see God in everything, so that the name of Everything in creation stems forth from God's One Name. This name could be Silence; this Name could be All There Is; this name could be "I AM." We can tap into this Power of Creation, when we "call upon God's name," which is also our own.

In this completion of Section VIII of Chapter 25, Justice is Returned to Love. Sin and Justice cannot truly go together. The ego's version is that you are guilty, and you deserve punishment, and this vengeance is justice. This false "justice"also projects "the wrath of God" onto our Creator, making God some entity to be feared and rejected.

We are addicted to the "hell" we made up. We are "comfortable" being uncomfortable, and we look at the Holy Spirit as the "devil" that would liberate us from the "hell" we made up. We think our "autonomous freedom" is in keeping our guilt, fear, and anger. These are bound and tied to our ego's ultimate despair.

Love is perceived as "weak," because guilt and punishment go together, and vengeance is seen as "strong." Justice and Love actually go together, and Love never condemns. We are sinless, no matter what "mistakes" we have made in our past. We need the Help of the Holy Spirit to show us our innocence in the midst of the ego's "self degradation." Love and Justice are not different. Forgiveness is the strength that relieves us of guilt.

What is real Justice? Certainly it is not "vengeful." The Justice of the Holy Spirit is always to see the truth of our God Created Self, Who is sinless. The "false justice" of the ego's thought system is to project guilt onto us and others, then demand the "vengeance of punishment." This is the "justice" of the world that is not difficult to see.

We have a choice which thought system we are to use. Returning "justice" to Love simply means that we are using the Holy Spirit's version of Justice, which is always premised on Forgiveness. Forgiveness is always just, no matter how outrageous the mistake. Correction of error then becomes the primary action of the Holy Spirit—not the "punishment for sins."

This is not always easy in a world based on making "sin" real, and dishing out "punishments" to "pay off" these "sins." This is a vengeful world indeed. The Gracious world of forgiveness is the purpose of the Holy Spirit to restore to us. This would be truly returning Justice into the arms of Love, in which all of our "errors" are absolved, and we can stand in the dignity of Who we are as God created us.

There is only one problem in life we will ever have to solve. This is our "imagined separation" we think we have from our Source, from God, from the Universal Life Force. We think there is "death" in the midst of the truth of Eternal Life. I imagine an "alternative" to the Absolute Truth. LOVE has no opposite in truth, but we have projected all kinds of conflict and hate in a Universe that is Only Love. 

In Truth and Beauty there are no "problems." This is the Heaven State in which we are created. This END of "separation" is the true UNION with the Universal Life Force, our Source, and our full realization of this fact.  Only in our "projection of thought" could we "dream up" a "hell” of “separation,” full of “problems." When we bring our "thought" to an end, we make contact with a state of consciousness free of all "problems."

We extend the Will of our Creator when we act from the place of Pure Joy. This is “pure Consciousness”— “Sat, Chit, Ananda.” Then, the Action we do in Life coming from this Pure Consciousness would have to yield results of Pure Joy. There is nothing but Grace in this emanation from Truth. There is tremendous productivity and satisfaction in this State of Being free of all "problems." Our Actions produce Love, Peace and Joy—free of all projections of pain and suffering. Let us recognize our "problem” (of separation) has been solved. We are ONE with LOVE, and embrace a State of Being free of all problems of conflict and sorrow. 

There is a "rock" upon which the whole foundation of our liberation from pain and suffering is based: "There is no sin." Eternal Innocence is the nature of our Self. No matter what "mistakes" we may have made in the past, they are all correctable. We are eternally innocent regardless of our errors. It is our responsibility to look on these errors and forgive them, correct them with the help of the Holy Spirit ("Christ's Vision"). But in no way do our errors mean that we are damned to a hell of "immutable sin. 

"The Rock of Salvation" is our ETERNAL INNOCENCE. And we take up the special function within this world we "made up" to bring this truth into the light. This will include all the people and situations that are unique to us. We have a role of transmuting the "hell" we made up into the Heaven God created. This is our job. No one else can do it for us. What better work do we have to do, within this "context" of the world we "made up?" Heaven is the decision we must make, along with the Christ, to restore our minds to sanity.

Our Special Function is to Forgive. This function could be applied to a very specific Relationship with one who is "plugging you in" the most. There is a Blessing in this action. The miracle is in the transmutation of our "special judgments" into the "special love" of Forgiveness that overlooks all errors and disappointments. This is a Home of blessing, joy, perfection, and the transformation of the world of duality into the Reality of a Forgiven World. 

We can transmute this "place" that is "not our home" to a place that easily reflects the loveliness salvation holds out for us. We apply this Lesson to the brother whom we judged before in the shadows of our discontent, to the "special function" of being liberated from all of that "stuff." This is the holy ground on which the "specialness" is transmuted into the perfection of Heaven on Earth. Our forgiven brother is the key, the doorway through which we go with him takes us directly to our Heaven of Peace and Joy. 

We can see our brother's "sinlessness" or his guilt that we project onto him, most likely the "guilt" we have unresolved or unforgiven in ourselves. Forgiveness is the key to happiness, says Lesson #121. But are we trusting that forgiveness has this much power? Many think it "weakness" to forgive, to let someone "off the hook" for mistakes that call out for "punishment." The State of Sinlessness is a Reality the ego cannot see. The ego sees vengeance as the natural "pay back" for errors that are uncorrectable.

Can we bring all guilt to an end? Can we see all errors as correctable? Can we be in a state of sinlessness all of the time, and include our brothers in this total and holy vision? We have a responsibility for sight that is correct, not erroneous in our projections of guilt and punishment. The Gifts of God absolve us of "sin." There is no "sin." There are only mistakes that have no real consequences, and we would step into this absolution today, without delay. We accept ourselves as God Created us, not as the ego has made us up to be, with the lingering effects of eons of unforgiveness.

What is this LIGHT YOU BRING? Self Identity is the only thing we need to "know." There is a TRUTH that we need to make contact with in order to be awakened. My "Self" is the "ruler of the universe." This would be the Son of God. The Son has only the Thoughts of God in his/her mind. A Voice that emanate the Thoughts of God, would be one that is free of all falseness. LIFE is true, and Life is Immortal; I am in need of nothing but this Truth; this Truth would make me immortal as well. 

The nature of our ego is conflict, dissatisfactions, guilt, fear, anger, doubt. It is the epitome of the “False.” Perfect Peace is not of the ego. The Son of God has no ego. He spends a day in perfect peace because the nature of God is Peace and Joy. The Son of God would be in a state of perfect Peace. 

When we accept we are the Son of God, then we have all the qualities of God. Everything we extend is from God, because we are of God, in the mind of God. All of our "personal lies" are lies. The ego makes a voice that is not God's Voice. The ego has not been silenced. It continues to project the UNREAL. Are we ready now to silence the ego?

The ego is in a constant mess of "sin." Sin is unreal, an "untruth" that has elevated itself to the level of "truth." This is a parody of "truth," being false in every way. 

When we accept Who we are as God Created us, We bring THE LIGHT that we are. We bring the Truth of Love, Peace and Joy. We have absolutely NO CONFLICT in us. This is the Source of our True Identity. Holy are we. Our Source created us sinless, along with our Brothers. Who can say, "I AM THE HOLY SON OF GOD HIMSELF?" Until we do, we deny our real Self for the false self of death. Should this decision be "hard?” The “ego” that ends in death, or the True Self that resurrects into Immortal Life. 

We have a choice in what we perceive. What we want to perceive precedes what we perceive. Therefore, we decide the world we want. If we value "guilt," we would justify a world of attack and punishment. We are in the "driver's seat" here. The other option is a "Forgiven World" of Christ's Vision. The separated world or the Unified World of Oneness are the two worlds we can see. Will we see the "corrected. world," or the ego's world of attack and our justifications for our attacks?

These are the only two choices we have possible for us. We will choose. "Not Choosing" one is to choose the other by "default." What if PEACE is our "default mode." We would need Christ's Vision to see this. It has to be "Above all else" that we want this. Our Priority is what we need to place on the choice we make. This determines our Perception.