Fully Claiming Our Birthright

“God forsakes no people, but people forsake God when they give away their power and claim not their birthright. Your birthright is simply the right to be who you are, and there is nothing in the world that has the power to take this right from you. The only way you lose it is by giving it away. And this you do.” (ACOL, C:16.23)

Being who we are is a hallmark of A Course of Love, especially in the ending chapters of the book. But we are early in the book at this point, and we find the same theme. What does it mean to “be who we are”?

We are not, rightly, a self divided against itself, a self lost in separation from God. How can we enjoy any good sense of power if we are divided against ourselves? This is a prescription for failure, and it is failure that we have known, with interludes of supposed “success,” for eons. We need to be whole beings, united with our real Self from deep within, and in communion with our Creator—something that is only natural to our being.

We give away our birthright, the right to be who we are, when we don’t assume our full stature as created beings of God, Christ-conscious beings (as the next step in evolution). Our awareness is stunted by the ego, a made-up belief about ourselves. And this ego, which we prize so highly, has almost taken on a life of its own. It is artificial, but it thinks itself the only real part of us. What a misrepresentation! In A Course of Love we learn just what a misrepresentation the ego has become to us.

We must adopt the most natural outgrowth of our evolving nature, and that is Awakening, or Christ-consciousness. We cannot move into this fullness as long as we let the ego rule our thoughts and desires. We are stuck, and we are powerless in such a situation. And Jesus, in ACOL, is doing his best to lead us out of this quandary.

Be determined today to make a new start in this world. We can abide in heaven, even in this world, and when we assume our natural condition, we will abide in heaven, for our perceptions will have become cleansed, and we will have knowledge that God has heretofore veiled from us, because we have been ignorant about how to live.

Life will take care of its own. If we don’t make a shift to a better worldview, we will likely go down in flames, at least metaphorical flames. This we don’t want; this, none of us wants.

Let our new start draw in our brothers and sisters also, for a solitary drive to inhabit the Christ Self will not offer the sharing that is in our nature. We are One with others also, one with them and one with God. And this unity is what will save us.

Prayer

Dear Father/Mother,

I would be free of neurosis today. I would seek to inhabit my real Self, the Christ who is deep within me. And I would share this good news with others, my brothers and sisters. We never know when what we do or say will make a difference for some one other.

Help me today and every day. I need to know that my prayers are heard, that You are there. And I do know this. I sense Your love in my daily life. Thank You for this.

Be with all of us as we make our way in an often troubled world. When we awaken to Your truths, our way will smooth, and then we can be free of neurosis forever.

Thank You.

Amen.

Our Natural State Is Miracle-Readiness

“As was said within A Course of Love, time is but a measurement of the ‘time’ it takes for learning to occur. As this notion of time dissolves, the state of miracle-readiness becomes your natural state. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Nature of Unity and Its Recognition, 4.18)”

Affirmation: “I ask for miracle-readiness today.”

Reflections:

1 – What We Are Headed

Would it not be wonderful to know that we are living in miracle-readiness all the time? That this is our natural state of being? Well, this is where we are headed now in A Course of Love. We do not choose the miracles we will perform, though. Jesus directs us, because consciously selected miracles are apt to be misguided (from A Course in Miracles). We can rest, knowing that one who has transcended all barriers is right beside us, guiding us. We do not try to understand how this can be so. We just try a bit to follow, and then the results of the following are evidential to us. We will know who leads us.

2 – Jesus

The Christ Self will ultimately lead us to miracles. Jesus does not want to make all decisions for us, a statement that he imparted to the scribe Mari sometime after A Course of Love was channeled. Later on, in the Dialogues, Jesus resigns as our teacher, and becomes simply our companion. And so there will be shifts in what we perceive as this change is happening.

3 – Natural

“Natural” is a good word. What is natural to us is our birthright. And listening from within will give us the guidance that we need, when we are in a calm and tranquil, contemplative, state of mind. The guidance may and often does turn us aside from the pathway that we were barging ahead upon. We need to be able, as I have said before, of “turning on a dime.” And remember that harm will never come if we have heard correctly.

4 – “Shabby Self-Perception”

We may sometimes be embarrassed by what we are called to do. But Jesus in A Course in Miracles says that this perception is coming from a shabby self-perception. There is no reason to be embarrassed. We are following the pathway that will lead us Home, and sooner rather than later.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I think, when I read what Jesus is saying in the passage for today, that I am not worthy of such exalted characterizations. I realize that I do not have to be worthy, because this sort of thinking is just of the ego. But I think that I do need to be ready for Jesus’s encouragement to take hold. I need to know that miracle-readiness is not something for me to effect, but something that happens to me from a Higher Power from within–You.

I would stand in miracle-readiness as much as I can, but I ask You to understand if I fall down. I will always only fall down if I decide, ever, to depend on myself. My Christ Self is united with You, and I am asked to listen to this Self which I seem not to know well enough. But You will help. You will guide. As You have always. I have just been too obtuse to recognize.

Be with me today as I seek to unite my own will with Yours. Always I have only wanted what You want for me, but I have not always known this. Now I intellectually know this, and I ask You to lead me to emotionally know this as well. Be with my brothers and sisters, and guide our steps in this sometimes difficult world.

Thank You.

Amen