July 30, 2013

The Course tells us that healing is reparative, or restorative.  Healing restores the mind to its original whole way of thinking.  Healing returns our mind to the awareness of our right minded way of thinking.  I am reminded of the 23^rd Psalm where it talks about restoring our soul.  In that Psalm we are guided to lie down in green pastures and to walk by the still waters, restoring our souls.  How peaceful and comforting this sounds.  Indeed healing is a return to the awareness of our true being, whole, One with God, peaceful, and divine.

The separation occurred when we made an incorrect choice to see ourselves as separate from Source.  We are created with the ability to create, but we also can miss-create by choosing to use our creative power guided by our mind that sees us separated from Source.  Once we chose to make this separated thought system and thus remove ourselves from communication with Source, we were given the Holy Spirit to guide us in our choices and perceptions.  The Holy Spirit was placed within our minds as a reminder of who we really are. Spirit calls to us constantly, waiting for us to let go of our self made thought system and follow Spirit’s guidance.  Once we chose to believe the wrong-minded thought system we made up, it blocks the awareness of our true mind and thought system.  The Holy Spirit is the Voice for God, calling us and reminding us of who we really are.  It is our willingness to allow ourselves to hear this call that will bring us to the path of healing our mind and returning to the awareness of who we are.

The Holy Spirit is God’s response to the separation.  Once we perceived ourselves as separate and complete apart from God and thus incorrectly, God placed Sprit in our minds to guide us back to our true wholeness.  Spirit is joy.  And it reminds us of the joy within our being we have blocked from our awareness.  Joyousness is our natural state of being.  Joyousness comes from the awareness of the radiant joy and light within us.  Even as we chose a darkness that blocks our awareness of the divine light within, God begins calling us back using Spirit to call and remind us of our true nature.  Allow your mind to be quiet for a moment.  Lie down in that green pasture.  Contemplate the still waters.  Allow the Peace of God to well up within you.

Listen to Spirit’s guidance as It leads you in changing your thought system.  Miracle-mindedness allows the door of willingness to open just enough to let the call of Spirit in.  The Divine light of Oneness follows in its wake.  No more do we need to be overwhelmed by the worries and trials of the world, for Spirit guides us to the awareness of a right-minded world where correct perception flows through us as guided by Spirit.  It is possible to hear only that Voice that calls to us and no other.  The guidance of Spirit makes that possible.  And our lives even in this world of form revel in the joyousness of Heaven on earth.  Let it be so.

July 23, 2013

Healing – healing of the mind – is a thought by which two minds perceive their oneness and become glad – wholly joyous.  This gladness or joy calls to every part of Creation to rejoice with them and extends the Love of God to and through every speck of Creation.  This is true healing.  Healing is a shift in our thought system from separate individual thinking to thinking with the Mind of God.  Peace, Love, Light, and Joy come flowing out of all because it just can’t be contained.  It is our choice who we choose to be.  Do we choose to think and be according to the laws of Spirit, or do we choose to be separate?  It’s our choice, though one would wonder why we would want to be anything other than who we really are.  To Spirit, having and being are the same.  Oneness – or Wholeness – is our true state of being.

Thoughts are meant to be shared.  When we share a thought with another, we still have the whole thought, and another has the whole thought, too.  This is the concept of extending that increases Creation, for reality is the Mind of Source.  As we allow our minds to be healed, we join with each other in One-mindedness and with the One Mind.  So how do we get to this One-mindedness in our life in this world of form?  Everything appears so separate.  Everything seems so rigid and locked in to what we each think it is.  And we all think so differently about everything.

The narrator – teacher – of the Course tells us that they can bring us the Holy Spirit, but only at our own invitation.  We are created as extensions of God, like God in every way.  God honors our creative abilities and so honors our choice, no matter how separating it may be.  But the Teacher is always with us, waiting with Spirit for us to extend the invitation for guidance.  Being willing to change our thoughts, our perceptions, is the opening Spirit is waiting for.  Spirit knows us intimately and has always been within us watching and waiting for us to tire of the way of separation.  It may take more than tiring for us to be willing to change our thinking.  It may even take a catastrophe or a life changing event.  But when we are ready, Spirit will help us realize that we can see things differently.  Spirit will help us see peace instead of whatever we think we see.

Spirit will guide us to the thought system step by step in increments we can handle to build a new thought system.  Spirit will guide us to a thought system that perceives so close to reality that we are carried across the gap to rejoin the awareness of our Oneness with the One Mind.  And what joy we experience at that joining.  We are wholly joyous.  We always have been wholly joyous.  We simply blocked our awareness of our wholly joyous state of being.  And what joy we bring as we share that joy in its infinite abundance with each other.  Begin today.  Choose to be willing to perceive Oneness in yours and another’s minds.  This is the miracle we each are seeking. Be who you really are and be wholly joyous.

July 16, 2013

To heal is to make happy.  Healing is to change our thoughts about ourselves from separation to the recognition of who we really are, whole, divine, and happy.  To change our thoughts is to gladden.  Whether we change our thoughts about ourselves or another we are still moving our minds to happiness.  This isn’t a fleeting happiness, a happiness that is spurred by some experience or event outside of ourselves.  This is a happiness that comes from deep with our being.   It comes from tapping the true state of being that is who we are.  It taps the divine Oneness that is within us, that never goes away, that is always our true Self living in wholeness whether or not we are aware of it.  Pure joy is at the core of our being.  We are wholly joyful at all times for eternity.  If we don’t feel wholly joyous we must be blocking our awareness of our natural joy.

Feeling wholly joyous, we cannot help being wholehearted.  Total healing requires wholeheartedness.  We know that fear and love cannot coexist.  Love is real.  Fear is not real.  However, if there is nothing but fear there is nothing at all since fear does not exist!  Therefore there can be only love if we exist at all.  As long as we allow our minds to recognize fear we deny our wholeheartedness, for the mind is divided and therefore we cannot be aware of our wholly joyous nature.  It takes a lot of effort to keep up the pretense of a split mind and thus deny ourselves the awareness of our whole divine nature.  Hence we deny many opportunities to gladden ourselves and thus our brothers and sisters, too.

The joy of offering healing and happiness to ourselves or another is that it brings Oneness with it.  Healing the mind, which is the only real healing, makes us One.  It opens the awareness of our true Divine Oneness.  We are unified, we are in Unity, and we are One.  This awareness is our ultimate healing.  This is our wholehearted joyous state of being.  As we extend healing and forgiveness we extend the Love of wholeness with all of Creation.  We remember who we really are.  We re-member the unity of all the Source’s creations.  We bless each other and in turn are blessed by each other and Spirit.  How could we feel anything but gratitude; to each other and to the Creator?  The light of love and joy radiates from us as we allow the awareness of our wholeness rise in our mind.  We cannot help but love another as we love ourselves.  This love is dynamic and cannot help but be shared.

So say this prayer today with each thought and encounter.  Affirm this truth in anyone you encounter.  Let healing, happiness, and wholeness fill the world in which you place your trust.

“Let me know this one as I know myself.”

(ACIM T-5.in.3.8)