January 29, 2013

The last judgment probably brings up some very disturbing and fearful thoughts for many of us raised in a conservative or traditional Christian tradition.  As with other concepts we have been raised with and perhaps believed, the Course gives us a new definition of the last judgment.  The Course has taught us that God is Love and nothing else.  It has also taught us that we are God’s creations, are extensions of God, and carry all the characteristics of God within us because God creates like God.  We are therefore inseparable from God and also perfect as God is.  God’s Will is to create like God.  And since we are extensions of God, we have the ability to create as God does.  It is our Will to create perfectly as God does.  But, God gave us free choice and free will.  We are free to choose to co-create with God, or to exercise our creative power to make separately from God on our own.

Our creative ability rests in our mind and is a matter of will.  It follows that any creation made in our separated mind is real to our own mind, but not real in the Mind of God.  If we have made alone, we have not co-created with the Mind of God.  Understanding the distinction of how we make or create is essential in understanding the last judgment.  In the Mind of God there is no judgment or any need for judgment.  The Course tells us that God has no need of judgment.  All God’s creations and all creations of the Mind of God are holy and perfect.  Judgment was brought into being after separation as one of many learning devices built into the plan for our return to the awareness of who we really are.  And judgment works hand in hand with miracles to shorten the time that journey takes.  We must free ourselves from the fear of judgment so we can emerge from the conflict in our minds and bring peace to other minds.

Judgment is more about sorting true from false, real from illusion, and right-minded thinking from wrong-minded thinking.  Judgment is done in partnership with and under the guidance of Spirit.  We are so attached to our thoughts and ideas made by our separated mind that we believe they are real and true without discrimination.  Though many of our creations may have been co-created with our mind and the Mind of God, we don’t understand how to see the difference.  Judgment may be seen as a process of right evaluation.  Thus we determine what is worthy and what is not with the guidance of Spirit.  Sprit guides our mind to look with love on all we have created and see its worthiness.  At the same time, our guided mind will release all it made up and those miscreated thoughts will no longer exist.

The time we choose to begin this “last judgment” for ourselves is our choice. We must be willing to allow Spirit to guide us in this process.  We cannot do it with our separated mind, for it lacks the practice to join with the Mind of God.  Spirit guides our joining with the Mind of God until we accept it fully.  This process of right evaluation will gradually open the shutters we have closed around the light we truly are.  The light of Spirit will flood our minds and open our Spirit eyes and ears to the awareness of who we really are.  As more and more of us move on this path, whatever form it takes, we will see the world we perceive shift to reflect the love and peace of God and the real world.  Take the first step and let yourself be guided into freedom.

January 22, 2013

One of the biggest mistakes we make is underestimating the power of our minds and the power of our thoughts.  There is no greater power than the power of our thoughts.  The thoughts we think and believe can and do significantly create the world we see.  The world we see is determined by how we perceive everything we see and experience.  And our perceptions are colored by what we think and believe about every thought about every experience we have ever had.  It’s no wonder that each one sees a different world even though we are all looking at, living in, and experiencing the same world!  This causes great confusion as we make our journey through life.

This confusion, this multitude of different worlds we seem to see, is caused by a fundamental confusion between cause and effect.  We have turned cause and effect on its ear in our attempt to understand what we think, and consequently dig ourselves deeper into confusion.    The Course tells us that God is Cause and we, the “Sonship”, are Effect.  We are the Thought of God, created in the Mind of God and are like God because we are One with God.  This is the perfect order that is Love.  But we have misperceived who we are and thought ourselves separate from God, thus miscreating with thoughts that come from the split mind, a state of mind separate from God.  We have miscreated or misperceived from a state of separation from God rather than Oneness with God.  Thus we have perceived that the cause of our separation is our experiences in this world rather than our beliefs about who we are.  This huge confusion of who we are and what the world is are a result of our basic confusion between cause and effect.

Cause and effect are demonstrated in how we perceive the world by whether we experience love or fear.  If we perceive from a state of Oneness with God, we will experience Love since that is God’s intention.  God created a world of Love, and Love only.  If we experience anything other than love, such as fear, we are perceiving from a state of separation from God.

The gift the Course gives us is a path to return our thinking to its natural state, the Mind of God.  It is a structured process of learning how our mind works, learning the mistakes we have made in our thought process, and teaching us to rely on the guidance of Spirit to correct our perception step by step as we return to the awareness of who we really are.  Miracles are the changes in our thinking that correct our thinking.  The world we see and experience has been given to us to learn to change our perception.  We’re never on our own in this journey, for Spirit walks with us to guide us if we will allow Spirit’s guidance and be willing to follow that guidance.

We have within us all we need to accomplish this journey.  Being willing to listen to and follow Spirit’s guidance will bring about the miracles we seek and share to return all of us to the awareness of the Divine Self we really are.  Take the first step even if that’s the only one you can see right now.  Spirit will show the next step when you need it.

January 15, 2013

All fear is produced at the level of our minds.  And, we think our fear thoughts when our minds are in conflict between what we want and what we do.  The mind can only be in conflict when it is split.  Our minds can only be split when we are thinking in a state separate from God or Spirit.  We are responsible for our fear thoughts, for they originate from the thoughts of our separated mind.  We always have a choice no matter what we are facing or in the midst of.  It is the choice of how we think.  How and what we think is reflected in our lives in some way, but it always boils down to whether we are experiencing peace or something other than peace.

We have become so accustomed to thinking with a split mind, a mind separated from Spirit, that it seems automatic to us and we aren’t even aware that what we want and what we do are in conflict.  The “what we want” is embedded in our right-mindedness and is a part of our higher self, the Mind of God, or Oneness.  We have become so unaware of our true nature that we think and therefore act from the separated mind, the mind we made up by thinking we are not One with God, that we are not who we really are.  We have had so much practice thinking in this separated manner that we think it’s the only way we can think and therefore must be right.  Our “want” from our higher mind is to be in communication with Spirit and thinking with the Mind of God.  But our “doing” is coming from the thoughts of our separated mind, which is in the habit of ignoring and discounting the higher thoughts from our real mind, the Mind of God.  It is important to understand these two levels of thinking; the separated mind and the higher mind, the Mind of God tp begin letting go of fear.

The correction we need to make is the correction of how we think.  We cannot make any real changes at the level of doing because doing so doesn’t make changes at the level at which we are thinking.  So, we therefore must make the correction at the level of tour minds.  Once we are willing to make a change at the level of our minds, and we are willing to change from thinking with the separated mind to thinking with the right mind or the Mind of God we become available to Spirit and can rely on Spirit’s help.  Spirit is there within us to guide us in thinking more correctly.  Before we do anything, we have the opportunity to stop a moment and ask Spirit for guidance in whatever we are about to do.  We can also use the feeling of fear, when we become aware that we are experiencing it, to think, “Wait a minute.  My mind is in conflict, so I must be thinking from separation.”  Then we can take a moment, step back, and ask Sprit for guidance in whatever situation we are in.

The Course first teaches us how we are thinking from a separated or split state of mind and that we have thus misperceived all we think we see.  It then teaches us how to change our thinking to align with and come from the One Mind of God which we all share in its entirety.  Inner peace, already within us, comes to our awareness as we allow Sprit to guide us in making this simple shift in our thinking.  Let it be so.

January 8, 2013

The last bit of Section V, Titled Special Principles of Miracle Workers is a powerful section.  It restates some of the principles in Chapter 1 and concludes with a passage known as the Miracle Worker’s Prayer.  If we lived our lives from just this little bit of text, we would surely be in constant communication with our Source, God, and would be in a state of mind that would constantly and consistently guide us in living the life we are meant to live.  We would be fully present in the present moment and seeing ad hearing with our higher or spiritual senses.  This prayer is one of my favorite passages from the Course and is certainly worth committing to memory.

Miracle Worker’s Prayer

“I am here only to be truly helpful.

I am here to represent the One who sent me.

I do not have to worry about what to say or what to do because the One who sent me will direct me.

I am content to be wherever the One wishes knowing that the One goes there with me.

I will be healed as I let the One teach me to heal.”

ACIM T-2.V.A.18.2-6    Words inclusified by Rev. Denis Moore

If we remembered that our purpose is only to be TRULY helpful and that we represent our Source, God or Spirit, in all we do and say, how would we conduct ourselves?  How would we speak and act as we considered that we are speaking and acting on behalf of God and Spirit?  Are we willing to listen to the direction of the Holy Spirit, the Voce for God, as we speak and do in this world?  If we are questioning what Spirit is directing us to say or do, it’s time we hone our spiritual eyes and ears and let Spirit show and tell us.  Letting go of our attachment to our ego or split mind is the beginning of awakening to our spiritual sight and hearing.

Accepting that we are always in the perfect place at the perfect time in the perfect situation to learn, see, hear, and/or do frees us from the ego’s doubt and limitation that we so tightly hang on to.  Our Source IS always with us.  Spirit is always within us ready to guide us waiting for us to awaken just a little to the still quiet voice of Spirit within us.  And the passage concludes that we will each be healed as we allow ourselves to listen to the Spirit within us that guides us, teaches us, loves us, and awakens the awareness of peace within us.  We never stop learning in this world.  We never stop teaching in this world.  When we find ourselves in a difficult situation, or one in which we would rather not be we can begin the prayer, “I am here only to be truly helpful.”  Just this one thought is capable of shifting our whole state of mind and freeing us from the limitations of our limited thinking.  We know, then, that we are not alone and that Source is walking with us and guiding us, for we are now in communication with our Source.  Let it be so.

December 18, 2012

We are in a season that revolves around the idea of lights.  Seasonally we are in the darkest part of the year, winter.  And in the hours and days following the Sandy HookSchool shootings and feeling we were in darkness, many of us attended candlelight vigils to reach for even just a little comforting light.  We naturally look for ways to light up the darkness in which we find ourselves.  The principles of miracle workers give us guidance so we are prepared to be a light for others who find themselves in darkness.  Understanding these principles helps us to be present for others who are having difficulty finding their way.  And just perhaps we can allow them to see the light already within them, even in their moment of darkness.

The miracle worker is not so much performing great acts, fantastic deeds, or dramatically changing the world we live in.  A miracle worker is more that solid rock, that light shining in the darkness, that one who will love us unconditionally and without judgment as we travel along our journey.  They understand who we really are, even if we have lost sight of our own true self.  The miracle worker really doesn’t need to do a whole lot.  They are asked to hold the correct vision that Spirit guides us in.  They are asked to extend the love of God to others.  They are asked to look beyond the appearances of what we and others see.  They are asked to let Spirit and God work through their actions and the actions of others.  They are asked to be the light of the world and to let that Divine light within shine brightly as a guide to others.  Who are the miracle workers?  We all are!

This section concludes with one of my favorite passages called the Miracle Workers’ Prayer.  It says:

“I am here only to be truly helpful.

I am here to represent the One who sent me.

I do not have to worry about what to say or what to do because the One who sent me will direct me.

I am content to be wherever the One wishes knowing that the One goes there with me.

I will be healed as I let the One teach me to heal.”

ACIM T-2.V.A.18.2-6

As we move through the Christmas season, we remember that this is a season for joy, for peace, and for love.  It is a time we can let go of all the “stuff” that seems to get in the way of our Divine light and its shining presence.  Letting ourselves be in a gentle place of miracle-mindedness will make a huge difference in the ones we encounter this season.  As the Miracle Workers’ Prayer says, We are here only to be truly helpful.  Let your Divine light gently shine on all you are with this season.  This will surely be a season of peace, love, and joy.  I wish you all a season of abundant peace, love, and joy.

December 11, 2012

We continue to look at learning, miracles, and healing.  Since we have adopted the mind set of separation, our error is at the level of our mind, at the level of our thinking.  This is a very important idea to remember.  All learning, correction, and healing we need is at the level of the mind, our thinking, not the physical.  Correction needs to happen at the level it has occurred.  Any attempt to correct at any other level will be at best temporary and ultimately unsuccessful.  Our efforts will be much more productive and successful when directed to the level of the mind where the error occurred in the first place. Anything on the physical level may be used as a learning device, but there can be no error or correction of error at the physical level.

The mind is connected to the spiritual level.  Our right mind is one with Spirit and communicates with Spirit.  Our wrong mind is made up from the idea that we are separate and therefore is not real and cannot communicate with Spirit.  Right-mindedness is always with us.  We cannot change or destroy it.  And it always remains with us waiting for us to recognize that it is there within us.

Only the mind is capable of illumination.  Illumination comes from Spirit which is already illuminated.  All our mind needs to be illuminated with the light of God is the recognition that it is One with Spirit.  This is where correction and healing occur.  Miracles are the change in our thoughts and perception, that shift our thoughts to the awareness of this illumination within us.  Though the body itself cannot be illuminated, it can receive and reflect illumination from the mind and reflect that illumination into the world.  The body is easily brought into alignment with the healed mind when we learn to look beyond it toward the light.  The Course always asks us to look beyond the appearance of everything physical, temporary, and therefore not real to the Light beyond its appearance.  Miracles are the shifts in our perception that allow us to see beyond the appearance of anything we think we see.

The illumination of Spirit is there just beyond waiting for us to recognize it.  Our sight is reborn, born anew.  We once were blind, but now we see!  Release yourself from the captivity of seeing only appearances and let your spiritual vision show you what’s beyond appearance.  You will recognize the Mind of God and your Oneness with it and rejoice in the freedom to be who you really are in every circumstance you encounter in this world.  All error is corrected in the light of Oneness.  Let it be so, and let yourself be free to be.

December 4, 2012

This section begins with the statement – none of our errors are meaningful because the miscreations of the mind do not really exist.  If none of our errors or miscreations really exists, there is nothing to fear.  If there is nothing to fear, we are no longer held captive by our fears, mistakes, errors, or miscreations.  We are free.  We are unlimited.  We are in the midst of God’s love, peace, joy, and abundance.  We are “protected” by the recognition that we cannot be harmed.  This is correction at the level of our confusion.  Any correction we need comes at the thought level, no other level.  This is the correction that prepares us for our function in this world.

Our function in this world of form is to be miracle workers.  Yes, that’s right, miracle workers.  Sound daunting?  Probably, but that’s our function.  However, we don not perform miracles on our own.  We are never asked to do anything “on our own”.  The Course tells us miracles are expressions of miracle mindedness, and miracle mindedness is right-mindedness!  The miracle is the shift in thought that moves us from wrong-mindedness to right-mindedness.  It is the movement from the idea that we are separate to the idea that we are One, that we are joined, that we are in unity.  This is the Atonement – At-One-ment.  The recognition of our Oneness is our healing.  This realization of our Oneness transforms how we see ad perceive the world, ourselves, and each other.

This shift in awareness dissolves all fear, releases all guilt, and frees all restraints that we may have been limiting us in our thoughts.  The light of Spirit that is within us comes rushing up to shine brightly from the Divine Presence within us.  Nothing unreal can remain in that divine light.  Any error in perception simply fades away in the light of Truth.  To share our function as a miracle worker simply requires that we accept the Atonement for ourselves.  Simply release all the mistaken thoughts we carry with us to the light of Spirit within us.  Jesus said, “My load is easy and my burden is light.”  We’re carrying much more than Jesus ever intended.  The Course asks us to release the burden of our misperceived ideas and carry with all of Creation the light already within us and let it shine forth.

From this awareness the miracle is expressed through our soft eyes of Spirit, through the soothing voice of Spirit, and through the warm touch of unconditional love.  Accept the Atonement for yourself.  And let your true function express the perfect miracle to another.  Spirit will guide you every step of the way.  And you will walk together into the light that shines from within both of you.  Let it be so.

November 27, 2012

This week we will be talking about healing and what healing really is.  I think healing is one of the most misunderstood concepts in spirituality.  The Course tells us that miracles are the means, the Atonement is the principle, and healing is the result.  It goes on to clarify that healing is not a miracle, healing is a result of miracles.  The Course tells us there is no such thing as a miraculous healing!  We must remember that a miracle is a change in our thoughts to a more correct way of thinking.  Healing is moving, as a result of a change in thought in alignment with the principle of Atonement, into a state of Grace, a state of Oneness with God and all of creation.

We have mistakenly thought that spiritual healing is a physical healing.  We spiritual beings living from the mistaken idea that we are physical human beings want to focus on the physical world, the world of illusion, the temporal world and make it all that reality is.  The physical world has a purpose as a learning device that is used to teach us who we really are.  It is used to teach us what is real and what is made up and to help us choose reality in the place of non-reality.  We discussed last week that the body merely houses the altar of our Divine reality within us.  The body is weak and can be destroyed, but our Divine Presence cannot be hurt in any way.  We are One with God.  Everything God is, we are and are One with, impervious to anyone or anything that would harm or damage us. This is our strength.  This is our reality.  But somehow we have lost touch with it and forgotten it whether to a lesser or greater degree.

The miracle, guided by spirit, is the opening of a little willingness of our mind to think we might be something other than the flesh and blood human being we appear to be.  We can be just a little willing to think that all the ideas we hold so dear about our identity may just be mistaken.  We might somehow be something infinitely greater than our split mind can fathom at the moment.  We plant, within our consciousness, the seeds of the desire of awareness of who we really are.  We allow Spirit to guide our decisions, to guide our sight, and guide our hearing.  The allowance of this shift of perception propels us into the miracle Spirit holds for us, bringing a glimpse of the Oneness that is our natural state of being.

Arriving at the full awareness of who we really are and resting in that infinite peace, love, and joy is the healing Spirit has waiting for our acceptance.  As we arrive in the awareness of that Divine healing, some change may or may not appear in our physical life.  A physical healing might occur.  Or it might not because that physical condition may be a learning device for another one who is on their path to remembering who they really are.  Refrain from letting any appearance of anything get in the way of our spiritual vision, that sight which God gave us at our creation.  Real healing is of the mind and sprit, not anywhere in the physical world.  However, that healing of the mind and spirit will certainly transform the appearance of the world as we see it with our spirit eyes.  Forgive, release all attachment, and let Spirit guide every decision and thought in you life.  The peace, love and joy of God are within you waiting to be released to shine brightly.  Be the light that you already are.

November 20, 2012

At this time of Thanksgiving, I am so grateful to know that we cannot defile our holiness.  We cannot do anything to change who we really are.  We cannot think anything that can touch our inherent Divinity which we were created as.  All we are capable of in our effort to separate from God and the awareness of who we really are is to hide our wholeness from our consciousness.  And even for this, God has given us a remedy, a way to return, a way to remember who we really are and return to that awareness whenever we choose to do so.  Many of us wait until we are hopelessly frustrated and cannot see a way our of our self-created perception of our world and life.  We may even reach the crash and burn state of thinking where we cannot even make up any perception that works for us.

When we are ready to allow our perception to change, God has the Atonement waiting for us.  It’s already within us, the answer to all the problems we think we have.  The Atonement lies deep within us at the altar of our being waiting to ride the light that will shine forth if we will just let it shine.  We’ve expended a great deal f effort to keep the lamp of our soul closed.  It wants to open and illuminate our lives, but we continue to hold it closed.  Our true essence is a light and love that cannot be extinguished.  Bit it is our task to let it shine, to remove the shutters and shades that keep it locked inside our bodies trying to prevent it form being seen.

Our true will is to be in the full awareness and peace of who we really are.  Yet, we continue to suppress our true will and keep the truth hidden.  We expend great effort to achieve this result.  But there will come a time that this effort is intolerable.  Eventually each of us will come to a conclusion where we realize bit by bit there must be a better way.  This is the turning point that ultimately leads to the reawakening of spiritual vision, that vision that is and always has been within us, just unrecognized and unused.  As spiritual sight awakens within us physical appearances become less and less important.  We experience the miracles within us and our perception changes to raise the appearance of our would to a higher level.

The light of the Atonement illuminates the altar within and lets its light shine from deep within us.  We see ourselves, each other, God, and the world in a different light.  We see everything with spiritual sight.  We now perceive all of Creation differently.  We become aware of the divine purpose of every little thing in our experience.  We begin to see how we are all One in this grand Presence of the One.  Learn to look upon the world as a means of healing the separation.  Sprit will guide our sight if we are willing.  The Atonement is our guarantee from God that we will ultimately succeed.  Be willing to succeed and we will be successful.  Let it be so.

November 13, 2012

We have the ability and power to do whatever Spirit asks of us.  We are God’s creations and thus are One with God.  All God is we are.  The miracles we are asked to perform are natural to God’s creations.  So what’s the hitch?  Why do we doubt?  Why are we afraid?  We are all God created us to be!  But we do doubt who we are and we fear to even try to be what God created us to be.  We have spent a lifetime building the idea and belief that we are separate from God and denying the reality of our Divine Self, who we really are.  What went wrong along the way?  We simply made a mistake.  We simply thought incorrectly.  No worry, there’s a fix.  There’s a way back.

Being in the midst and awareness of miracle mindedness takes a commitment of our belief in our true nature.  We must believe that we are One with God.  We must believe that we are One with each other, that we are all as we are created.  It’s a tall order as we embark on this journey back to the awareness of who we really are.  This journey without distance we have set our mind on.  The journey doesn’t even require we totally believe before we begin.  Spirit asks we be just a little willing to believe we are who we really are.  This will get us started.  Be willing to learn the lessons Spirit places in our path.  Each lesson has a core of love in it.  Each lesson has good in it if we will just let Spirit reveal it to us.

We tend to want to defend ourselves from many things and from many ideas that we think can harm us.  In reality we cannot be harmed.  Nothing harmful can befall us.  What appears to be harmful is merely an illusion, a mistaken thought.  However, while we are in this mindset of separation for this temporary time on our journey, we have the one useful defense thought at our disposal.  This is the Atonement.  The Atonement is the idea that we are all One and One with God.  “At-One-ment.”  This idea is actually a Truth, but for now it is an idea we can carry with us on this journey.

We can begin to entertain the idea that we are One with God, and that this is our natural state of being.  As we begin to place our faith in and believe this idea, we will feel the Presence of God welling up in us.  We will begin experiencing the peace, love, and joy of God deep within us.  We will begin to realize it has always been there, merely suppressed, hidden, and forgotten.  We have learned to be in denial of who we really are.  But, the Atonement is the only useful use of denial, the denial of separation.  Let the light of Spirit shine from deep within and let it shine away the doubts and fears that have accumulated over the course of our journey to this point.  God has a plan for us to return to the joy and peace of the awareness of who we really are.  This is our destiny.  This is our Divinity.  Let it be so.