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

Who speaks through us? The voice of Love or the voice of fear? We have a decision to make and this requires we silence our thought, in order to make contact with a Voice beyond our projections. The Holy Spirit is here for us, but we have to be Present to meet this Voice. The Voice of the Holy Spirit is for the salvation of our world, yet we have to be listening to it, and allowing it to be spoken through us. Can we do it? We would have to get over our resistance. We would have to rise above our "unwillingness."

Who looks through us? Who is the Self we share called the Christ? What would Christ see? Can we look on a forgiven world and thus redeem our brothers and ourselves? This is what is asked of us today. Can we let forgiveness rest upon all things, and thus join the Christ in redeeming the world and ourselves simultaneously? It is a challenge worth considering. 

This Lesson #294 tells us the proper perspective of the body. We all have one. It is not the Self, nor should we confuse it for our Self. It is, rightly seen, a "neutral thing" to be used in service to the Self. It is a communication device to communicate the Truth. The Truth is I am Love and you are Love and we are not separate from Love.  Shared, our interests become one. This is the proper use of the body—to end the imagined separation and correct our minds to be restored back to their original Wholeness with Creation.

Gratitude for the beauty of everything in the present is what gets us out of fear. Fear is in the past or the future, in time. But love is timeless. Its effects are always observable. We can be in love or fear. The decision is ours.  To which will we give our attention? The answer is only one Thought away. 

God gives a guarantee in this Lesson that "a happy outcome to all things is sure." But we cannot have an "alien will." We cannot maintain grievances, attack thoughts, judgments, and low opinions of ourselves and others. Forgiveness is the doorway to this happy place. Can we trust that God will do the work required to restore relationships to a "happy outcome," when we do you part in complete forgiveness? It is a good test. Can we drop our agenda in order for God's plan for salvation to take shape? This will give us the happy outcome that is sure. 

The real world is one of stillness and of peace. It is one in which we have forgiven the world completely, and God's final step to engulf our minds is at hand. Have we made our forgiveness complete? Are we still holding grievances and judgments? These are the challenges to bringing this Lesson #291 into application. The Prayer is particularly poignant: "Let my forgiveness be complete and the memory of You return to me." Perhaps today is the day God will take His final step toward us and our Divine memory will be fully restored.

"My present happiness is all I see." Is this what we are seeing? Are we awakening into the Joy that our Creator holds out to us? Or are we focused on our witnesses to "pain and suffering." Are we willing to see that we manufacture our own unhappiness? Are we willing to take 100% responsibility for how we feel and elect to change the thoughts that hurt us and make us unhappy? We must be willing to change our mind if we want to step into this pureness of Joy. Are we willing to let in the Love that surrounds us always? We have to cooperate with the Holy Spirit to dissolve our errors and get us in touch with the perfect happiness that God created us to be. 

How can we let go of the past and be free? The forgiven world is here for us to see when we completely let go. Can we let go? Can we let go completely? We need the help of a Higher Power to do that. What are we hanging on to that prevents this holy vision of a forgiven world to come to us? Love holds no grievances, and all grievances are in the past. We replay the past in the present and form our own familiar hell. With this Lesson we can stop this tendency.  

Can we forget our brother's past in the very moment we are tempted to judge and dismiss him? This is the ultimate test as students of A Course in Miracles we will be asked to pas through. Often we flunk. But there will be a time, with practice, in which we will not flunk. We will forget our brother's past and our own simultaneously. This will be a day of rejoicing. Why not today!

To what do we give our day as our main goal? The lesson asks us to devote our goal to our Father.  It asks us 5 important questions: 

Heaven, Perfect Happiness, Peace of God, True Identity, and Absolute Love. These are the attributes of the Father, to which we give our attention today. What better goal could we have?