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

What would it be like to have the Christ in all of our Relationships? In fact, this primary Relationship we have with our higher Self is the starting point for all Holy Relationships. The result would have to be happiness, because God's will for us is "perfect happiness," and the function of all relationships is to "make happy." In this Sunday Talk the invocation of the Christ into all of our relationships is discussed. And we can make contact directly with this "Higher Self" we share. We decide to be guided by this Self, and the result would have to be pure joy. What is not joy is only there to forgive. The Christ will restore us to Joy. Amen.

The function of all of God's Relationships is "to make happy." The function of the special relationship of the ego is ultimately death. Is this a real choice? The Holy Relationship is aligned with God's will for us, which is "perfect happiness." The ego's relationships are always alert to "threat." There is no threat in the Holy Relationship. We look at two pictures here. The one gives us a special relationship of problems and delusions, and the Holy Relationship is our way out of this dilemma. The choice is ours to make. Why not decide now for the Holy Spirit's function to make us Happy?

Shadows of the past are brought forward and given reality. Yet, to forgive is to remember only loving thoughts you gave and received, and all else you are willing to forget. Can we ever think "guiltily" of another, or ourselves, and be happy? Keeping no records of wrongdoing from the past is to let go of our shadows from the past. The "shadow figures" are dark memories of unhappiness we are keeping alive. The ego wants to keep itself alive with these shadows. The "slaves of vengeance" remind us of our past grievances. We may feel "justified" to hold ourselves and others "accountable" for our mistakes that we have to "pay tribute" to correct. Correction requires no retribution. It merely requires we let go, and allow Truth to correct the error in total innocence. In this correction there are no shadows. The Holy Spirit dissolves our shadows when we bring these illusions to the light of truth.

The dreams we dream are but illusions of reality. In fact they are dreams and do not really exist. But to the degree we believe the dreams are "true," we will maintain the dreamworld and all of its pain and suffering. Truth cannot deal with errors we want to keep. "Order of difficulty" in receiving miracles is simply withholding some thoughts from the Truth, and because we believe part of our "dream" is also "true," we do not allow Truth to deal with these errors. When we awaken from dreams we see they were not real, and did not exist. Yet, it is we who must be willing to "wake up" and bring our illusions to the Truth. Without this thought reversal the dreams are maintained. They are held on an equal ground to the Truth. "Pain and Suffering" are seen on equal grounds of "Peace and Joy." When we accept pain and suffering are made up dreams by us, and the Truth of Peace and Joy are God created states of being, we take our fantasy to the Truth to be dissolved forever.

What would the Forgiven World look like? The perfection of this final step in this dimension is given in this Section. The Real World, in its loveliness, in here for us now. Can we bless this world with total forgiveness of everyone and everything? This is the step we must take. Complete Forgiveness is ushered in by the Holy Spirit when we are willing to go in this direction. Then the final step is God's--to take us into the Light of Heaven, even here on earth.

The Special Relationship prevents us from being in the present. The past, full of illusions of conditions that did not meet our expectations, is projected onto the Special Relationship and usually ends in "disappointment." This leads to upset, attack thoughts, and basically "vengeance," the opposite of the Peace of God. How can we end the illusion of the past and be in the truth of the present? We ask for the Holy Instant that liberates us from the illusions of the past, and our judgments of the present. Ask to join with the Holy Spirit in this instant of liberation. This instant is the awareness that God's Will for us NOW is only perfect happiness. Can we make this Happiness our only function to be and realize? The Gifts of God are in this present moment. The past is gone, and only Relationships founded on this present joy are real. AMEN.

Crossing over the "bridge" means to give up our Special Relationships and enter into the dimension of Holiness and Oneness of our Reality. The Real World is seen not in the destruction of the world, but in its translation into Heaven. We are holding out our special relationships to the Holy Spirit for cleansing. Our Unwillingness is strong, but the help of the Holy Spirit can "atone" for our unwillingness. The Willingness of the Holy Spirit aids us in crossing the Bridge to the Real World. We use the body only as a communication device to bring our Brothers across the bridge to Heaven with us. What a great mission we all have. The Miracles are offered by the Great Rays, but we have to have a "little willingness" to have a different perspective on our Reality.

The Special Relationship is the attempt to "kill God" (or in this case our Higher Self) in place of the Special Relationship. The Special Relationship is one in which we believe our "littleness" is "real," and we need someone else to fulfill us in ways we think we do not have. First we "deprive" ourself of our Grandeur, and make up an "altar of form" to replace the Content of our Divine Connection. Usually there is a "payoff," a neurotic benefit for maintaining the Special Relationship. The real completion, for which this Section V is to make clear, would say "no" to this "specialness" and take us across the "bridge” to our True Self, restoring our awareness of our God-Created Self-Identity. In this Self we have no “needs,” therefore the Special Relationship is seen as an illusion, having no real purpose at all.

What makes us complete? Are we complete within ourself or do we need another to "complete" us? The Special Love Relationship is a coverup for the Special Hate Relationship. Neither are real Love, and both are in the conflicts of guilt, fear, and anger. We wish to triumph over God, and God is simply the absence of conflict and the return of Joy. Do we really want to be happy, or do we want to be "right" and maintain our conflicts? We want to have our needs met by our partner, whom we try to dominate. This kind of completion is one of separation and specialness, whereas the Real Completion, like the Real Love, has no specialness. We are complete and Whole within ourselves, and in this Completion we have not projected "needs." All of our real Needs are met by our Creator. There is nothing to "get" from our partner, and only something we have from our Creation to Give. This is the real Choice for Completion.

The Special Love Relationship is used to hide the Special Hate Relationship. Both are illusions. We are asked to look at them and give them up. With the Help of the Holy Spirit we can cross the bridge to the Reality Love, in which there are no "Special Relationships." This is our inheritance from God, and the Christ in us can be our Guide to receive it.