A Voice

“[T]he soul in its maturity has ascended into union with the voice for God.  That is, it has ascended into the depth of its Self.  It has learned to stabilize itself in that internal silence.  It has, through time, experienced that process of transformation in which even the conscious mind is no longer thinking of itself, but is informed from the depth of the true Self, the depth of the soul, the voice for Love, God Herself, Christ Itself.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Lesson 23, Page 273)

There is a voice that we hear internally when we have walked far enough on the pathway back to God, the pathway to transformation and Awakening.  This is not an audible voice, but almost whispers that seem to emerge from our depths, where God is.  Choose Only Love talks of this voice in its sixth volume.  

This voice, a voice that we can adopt as guidance, is a form of Inner Wisdom.  We can dialogue with it, when we get quiet.  We can test it out, be sure that nothing will harm anyone–for if there is harm, this is not a voice from God.

We are not set adrift in this world to fend for ourselves.  Angels surround us, God loves us with a love greater than human minds and hearts can comprehend.

Let us be grateful that we are not left to our own devices, for the ego is such a device, and we have learned long ago that the ego does not mean us well.  The ego is madness, and now we would walk in surest sanity, listening to a voice that arises from our depths and from the heart and mind of God.

Silence

“Silence can be cultivated in a number of ways.  Initially, it will look like something you do through the body—to breathe deeply and rhythmically, to sit next to an ocean, to sit beneath a tree and become absorbed in the wind.  Or to merely practice the ancient art of remaining silent without speaking as you go through your daily events.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Lesson 22, Page 263)

We all need silence, but we live in a noisy world. We all talk a lot, too. Cultivating silence in our daily rounds may be easier than practicing meditation consistently, and being silent as we contemplate is, to my mind/heart, a recommended substitute.

When we are silent, we can listen to our innermost world; we can go within. There is richness there. As we know, God dwells within all Creation. And He will speak to us when we get quiet enough to hear. I don’t mean something audible, but a knowing that gives us guidance for our next step.

Just quieten down, outwardly and inwardly. After a hectic holiday season, perhaps we all could use some silence.

With the Holy Spirit

“Every obstacle that peace must flow across is surmounted in just the same way; the fear that raised it yields to the love beyond, and so the fear is gone.  And so it is with this.  The desire to get rid of peace and drive the Holy Spirit from you fades in the presence of the quiet recognition that you love Him.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-19.IV.D.5)

The obstacles to our peace are kept in place by our cooperation.  We would remove our cooperation from the equation, and then we will know love as we have never known it before.  We will no longer want to get rid of peace; we will know that we love our Guide, the Holy Spirit, and we will open ourselves, on a continuing basis, to His guidance.

This is the obvious way that A Course in Miracles is teaching us on almost every page.  Turn to the Holy Spirit, succumb to His guidance, and be healed.

We will be living in quiet now.  We will understand that guidance comes to us in quiet moments, normally, though sometimes the situation is urgent enough that the Holy Spirit gets through to us even when we are in turmoil.

We are in turmoil only when the ego has arisen in us.  We can turn aside just as easily as we welcomed the ego.  And turn aside we must, if we are to be saved from disaster.  We would not entertain disaster in any shape at all.  

We would know God’s peace today.  Let us pray for the establishment of a good mood, an uplifted mood, and in this mood, love comes in easily.

There Is No Room for the Tempest of Rough Seas

“There is no room for madness here, nor for the tempest of rough seas.  Here there is only life, peace, and creation.  Nothing will disturb your mind or heart anymore, since everything that afflicted your soul has been forgotten forever, erased from the memory of your heart in love.  Now there will only be expressions of being, extensions of love, and unlimited giving serving the cause and effect of love.  Choose Only Love, bk.7, 1:I.  Message from Jesus.

Here is a fantastic promise from Jesus.  By Book 7 of Choose Only Love, if we have taken all seven books to heart, we are ready to experiment continuous peace.  Choose Only Love has cocooned us with love, given us insights by doing so that take us home to God.  We are not going to fail now unless we abandon our faith.  And who among us would do so at this late date?

We did entertain a “tiny, mad idea” of separation from God, something we first learned from Jesus in A Course in Miracles.  But now “There is no room for madness,” and we have walked by the direction pointed out, back to God.

We may still have certain patterns of thought, called “egoic patterns” by A Course of Love, that will occasionally give us pause.  But even this is very, very rare now–if it happens at all.  We walk humbly before our God, sure of His promises, sure of His guidance, sure of His love.

Ordinary Moment Provides the Doorway

“My goodness, I don’t have to go anywhere.  It’s right here in front of me.  This ordinary moment provides the doorway to the transformation of consciousness itself.  All I have to do is bring a little willingness to it.  And guess what?  I have all power under Heaven and Earth to do just that!  Nobody can take it from me!  Nobody can change the freedom in which I live!  I am the one who can bring that little willingness to this moment and let the raindrops hit the window.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Chapter 21, Page 258)

This quotation is an imaginary conversation that we might have when we realize that all is well in our little world.  We can relax.  ALL that is asked of us is a little willingness to listen to guidance.  A “little.”  And this makes all the difference.

We are in charge of our little world, what we see and what we experience.  WE!  This sounds unbelievable, but there it is.  By the law of attraction, what we focus on materializes.  A quick thought will not make materialization happen, and of course this is good.  But that which we dwell upon becomes our lot in life.  What we focus upon over the long haul is the very stuff we will live through.

If we want to improve our lot in life, we simply have to raise our sights to God and listen to His Voice, the Holy Spirit.  We know that we don’t do well when we seek to walk through this world all alone.  But there is a Power within us that solves the whole problem.  Turn to that Power, and watch the chains of life experience transform into golden light.

The Holy Spirit Guides

“Truth has rushed to meet you since you called upon it.  If you knew Who walks beside you on the way that you have chosen, fear would be impossible.  You do not know because the journey into darkness has been long and cruel, and you have gone deep into it.  A little flicker of your eyelids, closed so long, has not yet been sufficient to give you confidence in yourself, so long despised.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-18.III.3)

The “Who” is the Holy Spirit; if it had been meant to be Jesus, then in A Course in Miracles the pronoun would not have been capitalized.  And God Himself is not called upon very much at all as long as we are lost in illusion.  God is said to have turned to the Holy Spirit, God’s Voice and the Universal Inspiration, to teach us how to find our way out of darkness.

We don’t understand the Holy Spirit, but we can come to experience Him, and in the experiencing we will find all the Love that we want.  He is our Guide, our way home to God, and He gently leads us by the hand and tells us what to do to make the journey, the “journey without distance,” (said elsewhere) that we need to take.

The last sentence, with a “little flicker of. . .eyelids,” is particularly poignant.  Jesus understands that we have walked deep into insanity, and finding our way back is going to be a problem to be overcome.  He is writing A Course in Miracles to give us the means to Awaken, and the more that we study it, the more simple the whole course becomes.  (Prior to intense study, ACIM seems complicated indeed.)

We have despised ourselves.  Our primary thought has been that we are not enough—not “good” enough, not strong enough, not pure enough.  We berate ourselves that we have disappointed God.  But God sees us as His children, and He does not berate us for mistakes made in innocence.  We are innocent of anything bad; mistakes made in illusion seem to have real effects, in our all-too-tangible world, but what is done in illusion is not really done at all.  So we can rest easy.  We forgive, but forgiveness is an illusion as well, but one that does not breed other illusions.  Thus it becomes our way home.  We forgive what has never happened in reality!  How easy is that?

Life Decisions

Sometimes I think library science as a career just fell in my lap. In this work I’m able to plan ahead and therefore have few deadline pressures. Yet my first ambition—journalism—would have been filled with those very deadlines which I dread most. 

What benign destiny altered my life plan for the better?  I can claim no credit for this, because I gave up on the idea of journalism and opted for library science for all the wrong reasons.

–

Many of our life decisions—as we “remember” them—may be based on myth.  The “reasons why” that I’ve told myself may have had no basis in fact.  We construct a fiction in retrospect that sounds more rational than the decision was at the time.  Or am I just more of a mythmaker than the average person?

–

Individuals sometimes “fight all the way” decisions that are providential.  This learned from reading anecdotal accounts of heavenly guidance. 

Our Journey

“If you were to continue your reading, you would find many examples of the very odd, disturbing, and inexplicable signs that reveal The New.  Why?  Because each must discover for themselves, take the journey into the realm beyond what has been known, encountering the unknown in intimacy.”  Mirari

The tone of these words, believed to be from Mary of Nazareth, are comforting and enticing. Who does not want to take a journey into something better, which The New promises?

We also want intimacy with our God, our brothers and sisters, our own soul. Intimacy invites God’s Love, and we are comforted in intimacy as in little else.

We have to take our journey alone, though we do have lots of helpers, seen and unseen. Each of us, at base, is alone with our God. This does not have to be disturbing, because God’s support is always and forever present–even when we are in a dark night of the soul and don’t feel anything from Him.

Ask to take the right steps on our journey, the guided steps. When we walk a straight pathway back to God, we make a decision to follow His guidance.

And then our journey takes us Home quickly, to a Heaven on earth indeed.

Dreams

“Dreams have often been the silent couriers of The New.”  Mirari

We know from the Bible that many people over long years have put credence in their dreams, their nighttime dreams, believing that they are encouragement, warnings, and the like, from God Himself. Since God is within, and our conscious mind is stilled, we too can see that a divinity is at work in our dreams. We would do well to heed the ones that we remember. And we might keep a record if a dream seems particularly illustrative.

Here Mary of Nazareth is talking of “The New,” which means the new world we will inhabit as the second coming of Christ takes hold. We have a role to play in the creation of this New. We must ask what that role is, for we do not know. We will be told, internally, all that we need to know of that role as events, inner and outer, unfold. We can be sure that God is not keeping secrets from us. A Course in Miracles says this.

Dreams are “silent,” but our own purpose may be to speak out when the time is right.

We have a bonanza of good things coming when we listen to our dreams. They are a potent help from Heaven itself.

Knowings

“Knowings that sometimes are fleeting—coming in a moment without thought—and that at other times are of a long-range nature, a knowing of the way that is unfolding in time.

“Every ‘knowing’ is God-given, so there is no need to distinguish from ‘where’ knowings come, but the ways in which they come are many and varied as they encompass the whole of life.”  Mirari

“Knowings” are a way that God reaches us. Previously, we may have relied on feelings to sense God’s guidance. But if we have been faithful, His presence is more certain in us now, and we don’t need the filter of feelings to know what He is saying to us. We just know.

Both A Course of Love and Choose Only Love allude to this matter of knowing, and Mirari is right in line with this new thought. Of course, we must be careful to ascertain if our knowing is accurate. An important test is the question of harm. If what we think we ought to do might harm another person, then we are thinking and perhaps feeling, too, awry. What God gives us as a knowing is always totally benign.

Seek to move into knowing today. We can know even when our feelings are overwrought and we therefore cannot seem to find God near.

Knowing is direct. And it is a new revelation.

Knowing

“I did not know to what extent Jesus was aware of who he was as he grew, and I knew it was not for me to tell him.  No one ‘told’ me this, but I knew, just as you know, without being told, of certain essential things.”  Mirari

If we can believe, we see that Mari (who received Mirari) and Mary (mother of Jesus) talked very intimately about Mary’s relationship to Jesus. In this revealing statement, near the beginning of Mirari, we see that Mary was very circumspect with her son. She knew he was the fulfillment of Scripture, but when did he know this? She let events unfold that would tell him; she did not mold her son to be what he perhaps he could not yet conceive of.

The words about a “knowing” are instructive, for knowing is how we come to understand guidance in A Course of Love. Early on, with the Holy Spirit, we let our guidance come by way, often, of feelings about what to do or say. But this way of perceiving guidance is overtaken by just “knowing” when the Christ-Self takes over our lives. Here we move easily through our days, sure of ourselves, sure of God. And Mirari and Mary’s words seem to be in the spirit of A Course of Love.

Guidance has long been a theme song of mine in my writing, for I seek to go God’s way, and His guidance is the way to do so. When certain of how to respond to a given situation, we are probably calling on guidance to help us.

Guidance, through knowing, helps us immensely in daily life.

It is our way back Home.

To Be Free of Fear & in Perfect Peace

“You have one test, as sure as God, by which to recognize if what you learned is true.  If you are wholly free of fear of any kind, and if all those who meet or even think of you share in your perfect peace, then you can be sure that you have learned God’s lesson, and not your own.”  (A Course in Miracles FIP ed., T-14.XI.5)

This quotation comes early in the Text, and this is perhaps surprising, because it gives us a secret by which we can know if we are assimilating the message of A Course in Miracles.  We are, though, at this juncture perhaps unable to affirm that pass this test.

Are we free of fear?  Do others think of us with peace only? 

This is a hard test.  Even those who have been on the pathway to Awakening for a long time may not feel sure about their freedom from fear, or their choice to spread only peace.

How might we do these things?  How might we be free of fear and embodying peace always?

There are no easy answers.  A Course in Miracles in its entirety is seeking to bring us to this end.  But we can begin.  And we begin with study of ACIM.  We commune with God.  We listen to the Holy Spirit, Whose guidance will take us home to God surely.  We walk alongside Jesus, in imagination holding his hand.  This is the Holy Trinity, and in this we build on what we learned from the New Testament.  ACIM now seeks to take us where we are in our progress as human beings in this Twenty-First Century.  We have somewhat different needs in our salvation than people years ago had.  We have become changed people.  And we now know what the ego is, and we realize that its ways are not best for us.  If we are spiritually smart, we will reach for forgiveness of our brother as our pathway.  This is the means that A Course in Miracles is using to take us to God.  This is our salvation, our access to Awakening.

Speak to God today in your effort to move closer to Him in daily life.  Follow guidance for the best pathway in everything.

Quiet Path in Summer

“When you have learned how to decide with God, all decisions become as easy and as right as breathing.  There is no effort, and you will be led as gently as if you were being carried down a quiet path in summer.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-14.IV.6)

When we “decide with God,” we are no longer rebelling against him.  Our adolescent rebellion is over, and it simply means that we must remove the scraps of fear from our minds as we find our way back to Him. 

Fear is a big problem for us, and we cannot imagine a “quiet path in summer” when we are overwrought with the ravages of fear.

Simply choose again.  We can do that, you know.  Anytime our days start in error, we can choose to begin the day over.  It is better, of course, to start the day right, because to do so saves time, and time is wearing on us.  The world is very weary now, caught in its madness with illusions of fear.  This lamentable state of affairs we have made for our world, and yet we don’t know how to get out of it.

The Holy Spirit does know how to lead us safely away from the fears, suffering, and pain that we have made.  Ask Him today for His guidance in finding that quiet path in summer.  We will not be disappointed with His Answer.

Would it not be wonderful to feel that our decisions are easily made?  Such is the way when our days develop flow from calling on the Holy Spirit for every detail.  Jesus does say that it is not wise to become preoccupied with every detail of our lives, that the right mind slant developed in the morning will see us through the day.  But we can turn to the Holy Spirit without tangling ourselves up with our decisions about what to do.  We can listen and learn, as the Holy Spirit whispers in our ears with inner words and intuitions.

There is no better way to live.  Turn the nighttime sleeping over to Him, and see if tomorrow doesn’t bring a hint of a quiet path in summer.

Love Moves Us

“When the mind is surrendered, you could say that body walks as an empty shell and is merely waiting to be informed by the Love of God.  When the Love of God does not inform you or ask you to move and take action, then simply rest and do nothing.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Chapter 19, Page 232)

A totally surrendered Self waits to hear the impression from God as to its next step. This is the ideal state of being. Not many of us reach it all the time, but when we do, we can recognize that this is the best way to live. We move like the wind, not sure of where we will alight next. We listen to how to place our step. We don’t make decisions in a vacuum, without input from the Almighty. And this Almighty, God Himself, moves us by the means of Love in our depths.

Being Channels

“Remember that all are channels.  Everyone channels what they want or what they ‘must’ because of the divine plan for each soul—a plan created as a perfect expression of a pact of love between Father and child, between Creator and created.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 10:II

When we listen to our Inner Wisdom, which many call the Holy Spirit and that A Course of Love calls the Christ-Self, we are reaching toward a Self who partakes of God. Thus we become channels for what we wish to say. We are receiving from a Power higher than ourselves–when we tune in well.

Our personal, or “little” self can only know real truth when we seek knowledge beyond what this world can give us.

When we pray, we know that we receive guidance.

It is no different when we seek to share what God is putting into our hearts. Of course, we may get it wrong, because we are finite beings. All we can do is try to be a clear mirror for what God would say to us, and what we would seek to share.

In everyday life we are channels as well. When we sense that we are saying something that is beyond our puny little thoughts, we are channeling.

And all of us have had that experience, not once, but often.

Guidance

“Only your mind can produce fear.  It does so whenever it is conflicted in what it wants, producing inevitable strain because wanting and doing are discordant.  This can be corrected only by accepting a unified goal.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-2.VI.6)

We know that we experience fear, but we may not have blamed our own conflicted minds.  We may have tried to sense that something outside of ourselves is causing our anguish.

It is not so.  The conflict is all internal.  We want to do something, but we think that we ought to do something else.  This produces the strain.  It can often be a counterpoint to following guidance.  We often want to do things that are not in our best interests, and guidance will show us something different when confronted by such a confused state of mind.  We listen to our “ought’s,” if we are smart, and in the ought’s we learn what guidance is really saying.  At this point in reading A Course in Miracles, we can assume that Jesus’s wishes and our guidance are identical.

How can he know so much?  We cannot answer this question.  But he does not lead us astray in ACIM.  He knows fully what we are about in this world.  His entity is far above our limited, finite minds.

We need a unified goal, and this we get when we realize that God’s will and our own, real, will, are actually identical.  Later on, when we are considering the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we will learn that He chooses for us.  We don’t know rightly what to say or to do, but He does.  And when we get into the flow of following Him, we experience a flow to our days that assures us that all is well.  With this flow, we learn anew that Jesus, as well as the Holy Spirit, both know what is best for us.  Our lives go better when we are in the flow of following such guidance. 

We can do no better.  When we follow guidance consistently, our experience will prove to us that doing so is expedient.  At first we may balk, but we come to know that a unified goal, seen in flow, is what changes what we want and what we ought to do into the same.

Ask! The Only Thing to Do if Uncertain

“Before you choose to do anything, ask me if your choice is in accord with mine.  If you are sure that it I, there will be no fear.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-2.VI.4)

Of course!  Here Jesus is speaking before he has introduced us sufficiently to the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  He wants us to imagine asking him if any given action is in accord with wishes that he would have.  Is the action loving?  Is it kind?  Is it free of attack?  Questions such as these will put us on the right track.

By what right does Jesus ask us to consider his wishes in regard to any action we take?  He is in charge of the Sonship, and he is attuned to the miracle-mindedness and the revelation-readiness of all of us.  He is our leader, our teacher, our guide.  And so it is not foreign to consider his wishes when we want to make good decisions.

What a lovely way to rid ourselves of fear!  We need only be sure that our choices are in accord with what Jesus would want.  Can we be assured of ridding ourselves of fear if we do this?  Jesus says so, and his word is enough for me, for I believe that he did indeed channel A Course in Miracles.  And I do believe that he is in charge of the Sonship.  So my course is clear:  I will ask, internally, what I think Jesus would do, and I will take this guidance as my own.

Many people in traditional Christian faith have recommended that individuals ask, “What would Jesus do?,” when confronted with any dilemma.  The words of A Course in Miracles here suggest something very similar.  It is words like this that puts ACIM in direct lineage from the Bible.

Never fear that Jesus will give us something more to worry about, if we get the indication that what we are about to do is out of line with what Jesus would wish.   He is a gentle teacher, and he always means us well.  He will not to anything to raise our anxiety level, and therefore our fear (and our worry). 

So ask when confronted with dilemmas.  Imagine what Jesus would say.  And we will be well-guided.  Depend on it.

Completed Pathway

“You who receive these words now, remember that you are among the one hundred and forty-four thousand that God chose to be elevated by this means to the highest peaks of holiness.  You have already completed your path to the knowledge of who you really are.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 9:II

This word from Choose Only Love comes from Mary of Nazareth.  Here, she says something very startling, that those of us reading and receiving these words are among the 144,000 people identified in the Bible as being singled out for particular consideration.

I don’t think the number 144,000 is exact.  I think it is a generic number for those of us who are following the guidance we are receiving from God, seeking to do His will, trying to live a good life under this guidance.  There likely might be many more than 144,000 as we all begin to walk the pathway home.

Ask what God wants us to do.  If we have been given any particular consideration, we need to find out what to say and do next.  Those to whom much is given, much is required—as we know.  Most importantly, we don’t want to slip into egoic attitudes, for these would nullify any good works that we might do.

Have we actually completed our path to the knowledge of “who we really are”?  We must ask this question of ourselves, ask if Mary is right about us. 

And walk in humbleness, in humility.  We have much to do to save the world, and we ourselves must not lose our way. 

Balancing in a New World

“Making the heart of Mother love, that natural duad to the Father love that has reigned, brings the rising of the feminine and the balancing, at long last, of the masculine.”  Mirari

This quotation concisely summarizes what Mirari is about.  Mary of Nazareth is writing primarily to women in Mirari, but here she uses an important word that might be overlooked in the call for female presence in this world.  The word is “balancing.”

Mary is not trying to exclude men.  She stresses the feminine so much because she is attempting to corral women into greater solidarity and greater activity in our world.  But she, of all people, with her close relationship to her soulmate, Jesus, knows that our world needs men and their contribution ever so much.  Men have dominated, sometimes harshly, for many long years, and her “balancing” is seeking to end this imbalance between the genders.

Ask what our task is to be.  Ask, whether we are men or women.  We need guidance in creating a new world—and we know that a new world was the call of Jesus in A Course of Love.  Mary echoes this desire in her manifesto, Mirari.  She is doing her part to join in the groundswell of change that Jesus is heralding.  She too is so heralding. Wait for God to speak to us, God to reveal our part.  Then act from the whispers in our mind and the calling of our heart.

Sacred Path

“My sons and daughters, the path of each one has been ordained by God and is sacred.  He and the soul know.  Rest in this certainty and release any attempt to understand in a world way.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 9:II

This very comforting passage from Book 3 of Choose Only Love is emblematic of the entire series, out now in five books, and eventually to be seven.  Here we read that we walk a sure path ordained by God.  We don’t have to be uncertain that we are walking in the right way if we stay close to Him, enjoying His presence in our daily walk.

We need comfort in this sometimes difficult world.  And here we have it.  Let us be glad on any day, whether the sun seems to shine upon us or not.  We can’t understand what happens in a “world way,” which I think means that we are trying to understand godly, divine, things with the worldview of our human walk on Earth.  The world’s take on what happens to us is very different from God’s.  If we are to have happiness even in the midst of the tragedies of our world, we must look higher, to Divinity.  Or deeper, which is what we are actually doing, for God is within, and our attempts to reach Him will not dissolve into nothingness.  We will have an Ally in Him.   And this relationship will succeed when nothing else has in the past, or ever could in the future. 

In the present, listening to guidance from God, we are safe—safe in this world, sure of our footing, certain that we have a Father Who walks with us.

One with God

“Meditate with serene joy on the fact that you are one with God:  that you are that of God which extended in form to be able to know yourself.  You are God in God, literally.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 11:II

Life is formed from the inside out, with God directing every move whenever we will let Him.  We get nudges just all the time, and it is only when we resist that our life falls on rocks.  God is living through us, though we are endowed with a mind that is finite, and so we can only intuit Him in His fullness.

This must be the only way that God could enjoy His reality, His existence in untold universes and beyond form as well.  We have been told in numerous spiritual works that God is at play in the universe, that He is experiencing bliss as He looks upon us—and even when we fall short.  When we fall short, God knows that it is a temporary failing, because He knows what the end result will be—union with Him, bliss for all creations, us among them.

Say a prayer of thankfulness today for the Intelligence that created this way of experiencing His totality.

Love & Miracles

“Since that part of God that dwells in you is as powerful as God Himself in its totality, then certainly you can do miracles by invoking the divine aspect of yourself or getting events to be harmoniously oriented in love.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 11:II

What does this mean? It does not mean that we are as powerful as God. The divine aspect of us “in its totality” is what we are talking about. And with this divine aspect we can work miracles that are prompted. We don’t work miracles that we think are well-advised, for this is the one way to get ourselves and others into trouble. We wait for guidance, and then, almost without knowing, we are in a miracle-minded state. From there it is easy to bring about the miracles that we are asked to perform.

If our lives are flowing in the harmony of love, we are right where we ought to be. We are living joyously. We are in tune with the Infinite, God Himself. If we are depressed in spirit, our good deeds will be tainted, for we will bring our suffering into them. If we want to live well, doing good for others while we ourselves are listening to guidance, we need to remain centered in wellness. This is not so hard to do when we are living with the thought of love in our mind and heart.

Love will transform us so that miracles will light not only our path, but those in our circle of family, friends, acquaintances–and even the larger world.

Lift our eyes to the heavens. We will be lifted up at the same time.

God’s Help

“When you ask God to help you with this or that, you are consciously joining the part of you that is divine.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 11:II

I ask God for help just a lot. And this quotation says that I am joining with Him, with His divinity that is deep within me.

Most of us don’t recognize that we are joining with a part of our Self when we join with God. But He is not separate from us. He is everywhere, and He is within all of us. We are One with Him and all others, all that has been created. The universes are One.

It is OK to beseech Heaven with requests for help. We have finite minds and hearts that are only now just coming into loving in a big way. We don’t know it all. God will gift us with intuitive thoughts from the silence in which He dwells. And He will warm our hearts while informing our minds. We will be much better off.

Don’t feel that we have to go it alone. The God Who dwells within us knows all, sees all, and can let us know the right way to proceed. His love for us does all this for us.

God’s Plan

“You have not entered the physical plane after My incarnation by chance.  It is part of God’s plan.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 8:III

There are no accidents in life, no chance meetings, no happening that “just” happened to come about.  We are living at the right time for us, the time following Jesus’ incarnation. We are living a plan, a plan that we intuited from God, and then set up as our contract for our life.  We put bad things in our contracts as a way of growing, a growing to perfection.

We know from A Course in Miracles that it is not necessary to learn through pain.  Jesus said in ACIM that learning through rewards is more lasting.  Unfortunately, many of us are just learning this, discovering this.  And so we are caught in bad things happening to good people.

We can change on a dime.  We can soften the hard parts of our contract with life.  When we turn to God in our daily lives, He comforts and soothes us.  Always with us, living through us, He would not have us turn the pain in our contracts into suffering.

Make a decision today to live above the fray.  If we lighten up about life, life lightens up for us as well.  We are caught in a drama, in a series of dramas, but we don’t have to buy into the chaos.

Know that every prayer to God is heard. 

And with this knowledge, the fray will recede in our minds and hearts, hopefully never to return. We just must remember to do our part, a part we discover when we ask for guidance on a frequent basis.

Peace

“You cannot stop being who you are, although you can live in a way contrary to it in your mind and heart.  Thus you cannot ever lose your holiness, because your Source goes wherever you go.  You cannot lose your peace of mind because God goes with you wherever you go.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 8:III

We have peace of mind, because God grants it to us—but we may be oblivious to that peace.  We need to follow our guidance to let peace blossom in us.  If we forge ahead when our guidance is to wait, then we need to revisit intuition.

Being Unique

“There are things you can do that I can never do, nor Mary.  Those are what make you unique. . . .”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 8:III

We all still strive for a particular place in God’s world.  Here we are seeing from Jesus that we have a contribution to make—one that only we ourselves can make.  Being unique does not have to be striven for by the ego; being unique can be an affirmation of our worth, our egoless worth.

Try to find out today what your contribution, as a unique child of God, is or has been—plus what it will be in the future.  To access intuition about this important factor in our lives, we need to get quiet.  We need to relax totally, take worries and fretting off our minds, and ask our heart to inform us of our way.  When we get a thought in this relaxed state, we need to follow it.  We may have the idea to read something, or we may have an idea of a prayer we need to pray.  Nothing genuine in this practice will harm anyone, including ourselves.

Everyone is different, and our guidance will come to us individually in different ways at different times.  Invite the insertion of the divine in our lives.

God will not tarry, for we have given our permission to Him to enlighten us with His insight about us.

Getting Answers from God

“When you feel worried, sit down, relax, take a deep breath, connect with the desire, and wait for the answer.  The answer to desire will be given in due time and in perfect form.  Someone will knock on the door and bring you the solution, or a situation will be unlocked, or a successful idea will come, or simply the problem will be otherwise resolved.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 3:I

Jesus is very sure about this advice, but how many of us, when overwrought, are inclined to sit still and let God handle the worry?  If we move in this manner, our worries will dissolve, and solution will be found.  A Course in Miracles says that the solution is always WITH the problem.  Often when we think we have a long-held problem, we are seeking a solution before its time, or, in other words, fretting needlessly about something that is not here yet.

Listen to Jesus in this quotation.  Do it now, if you can, for I am sure that all of us have problems that cry out for solutions, and solutions that have seemed obscure.  See if it is time for a solution, if indeed anything at all needs to be done NOW.  Often we are simply borrowing trouble.

Sitting still and listening, in the silence, for God’s Answer, is advice that is “right on” and perfectly suited for most of us.

Try it today.  Try it now.

Experiencing Angels

“Here is where you find what has been called in your language the hierarchy of angelic beings, of angelic worlds.  They are points of light, just like you, but not in the experience of time, nor in the condensation that you would call physical bodies—not even the lower astral bodies.  Still, this multidimensionality of creativity is a radiant dance with just a tinge of a sense of separation, or ‘otherness,’ or fear.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Chapter 16, Page 193)

Angels are all around us and all there to help us. Here Jayem, channeling Jesus, tells us a little more about angels: “points of light,” but with just a tinge of “otherness,” or fear. This is news to us, for we had previously imagined angels to be all light. It may help them to help us if they understand fear to a little extent–but they certainly have not entered into fear as much as we have.

It is often believed that we each have a guardian angel or angels. I sometimes wonder how they must feel when we ignore them. Ask today to tune into our angels. They will be amazed that they have been noticed, but, I think, oh, so happy.

We all on this plane of earth need much help. It is only when we seek to go it alone that we get into trouble. Here, with angels, is another avenue of help, sanctioned by God. Angels, after all, heralded the birth of Jesus to shepherds. And we have just passed through this time of Christmas once again. Don’t let the spirit of Christmas leave. Keep tuning into the glory that is ours to experience.

And let the love of angels surround us.

A further note: Sebastian Blaksley is a gifted man whose channeled writings, called Choose Only Love, include encounters with angels, beings that he can see. I recommend Choose Only Love, four volumes of seven which have currently been published by Take Heart Publications and are available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and DeVorss Publications.

Seek First the Kingdom

“And by using time wisely, I cultivated over time, the willingness and the ability to seek first the Kingdom, even to the point where I was doing it prior to every word spoken, every gesture made with the body. . . .”  (“The Way of Transformation,” WOM, Chapter 14, Page 176)

If we could only be like Jesus in this—to seek the Kingdom prior to everything that we do!  We can only try, and when we succeed, we will be blessed beyond description.

How exactly would we do this?  It can only come by staying in close contact with our inner Being, where God dwells.  This part of us is accessed by intuition, listening to the Divine as it presents itself to us.  Our insight will grow the more that we turn to the Inner on as much of a constant basis as we can possibly manage.

Listen for the silent whispers of how to proceed in our day.  We don’t “hear” anything, but we do know, and this knowing is profound.

Don’t forget God today.  He is our Helper, our Guide, our guidance.  And the quicker that we turn to Him before we take action, the more our very actions will bless us.

Guidance

“Abandon the compulsion of the thinking mind.  I am asking you to stop looking for meaning in things.”  COL bk.2, 20:II

We analyze everything!  And here, in a message attributed to Mary, we are asked just to stop this, the compulsion of the thinking mind.  A Course of Love, received from Jesus, asks us to listen to our heart, which is actually the center of our being. 

When we look for meaning in everything, analyzing, we are often in the egoic mind.  How much sense do you think the ego is really making?  None!  We analyze wrongly, but then we act on what we “receive” from our mind, and we think that we are so right!  We are misinformed.  We cannot know much that we think we have figured out.

I used to analyze just all the time.  It earned me good marks on the analytical part of the Graduate Record Examination, but it was a poor way to navigate in life.  We need the guidance of the Holy Spirit (A Course in Miracles) or the Christ-Mind (A Course of Love).  The Way of Mastery echoes a similar theme, that the mind is meant to be a very “stupid servant.”  And we so prize our good intelligence!

There is an easier way to live.  And these received writings all point in the same direction.  Give up trying to make our own decisions about where to go, what to do, what to say.  Refer those decisions to a Higher Power.

And watch life ease out, never to give us many of the same problems again.  Now we are truly being “intelligent,” referring questions to a higher authority.

Whispers of Guidance

“But there were other voices that spoke to me and called me, that would come often in the night. As I developed my ability to discern these other realities, these other dimensions, by shifting my attention from the world of the body to the world of inner vision, often they would come in the night and stand beside my bed. I came to know who they were. I came to recognize the masters and teachers of a very ancient lineage of which I was a part. They would come and whisper to me:

“‘Forget not the purpose for which you are sent forth from the Mind of God, for through you there shall be birthed the beginning of an ancient remembrance. And your life shall become that which demonstrates to many the truth that only Love is real.’” (“The Way of the Heart,” WOM, Lesson 10, Page 122)

Jayem channeled “live,” in that his mind receded, remembering nothing, as Jesus channeled through him. Knowing how the channeling happened can let us in on the validity of what The Way of Mastery is really saying. And here Jesus gives insight into his development as the savior that he is.

We too can invite the presence of the Other Side when we lie in bed, waiting to go to sleep, or when we awaken in the night. Whispers of words will come to us, locutions. This does not have to be startling; it can be the warmest reassurance.

The way of Jesus was well-prepared for generations before his arrival; he makes this point in nearby passages. He was remembering what he had prepared to do: Show a way of love that would be totally defenseless and able to be felt in the direst circumstances.

If we follow the way of Jesus, our own way will be lit by love as well.

Sit Lightly in the Saddle of Life

“Therefore, indeed, beloved friends, look at all that is around you, and decide what value it holds for you. Will you see it as something that you must have in your existence? Or will you choose to see it as something you have playfully drawn to yourself; you appreciate it and it can be gone tomorrow and your peace will not be disturbed? Which way will you view the world?” (“The Way of the Heart,” WOM, Lesson 9, Page 117)

This quotation is saying that we must step lightly in this world, lightly with a sense of play. Our abject seriousness, we know, is of the ego. The awakened individual walks easily through this world, enjoying what presents itself without forming tight bonds that will entangle.

We love, sure, but we know that Love is of God in the end. And so we hold our loved ones loosely in our arms.

When we want to live aright, we must only consult our guidance. We don’t judge the events that occur in our world, and we don’t fear those events either. Both judgment and fear keep us from enlightenment; these are the two prohibitions that Jesus makes so plain to us. When we listen to guidance, listen aright, we walk smoothly, our feet tripping on no stones. We enjoy our days in this world, even when events turn bad for a time. We know that the events that we rue are there for a purpose, and we discover what that purpose is, and we are the better for this discovery.

Walk lightly in this world, and with a playful spirit. The right attitude will take us far. The wrong attitude just drags us down.

We can live better, and sitting in the saddle of life lightly is the best way to ride along our pathway back to God.

“I See that It’s Safe to Choose Again”

“When you give another the truth—perhaps even without saying a word—because all minds are joined, they recognize what has been offered and say to themselves. . . ‘I see that it’s safe to choose again.’ That is when miracles occur.” (“The Way of the Heart,” WOM, Lesson 7, Page 86)

We want miracles. If in difficulty, we can turn aside from this difficulty immediately just by saying, “I want a miracle.” We can’t choose the time nor the place of the miracle, but we will be answered. Miracles abound when we are open to them.

When we allow guidance in this manner of miracles, we see how we can help our brothers and sisters. They will know safety in their midst, when we have turned to the Holy Spirit or Jesus in telling us which miracles to promote. We are not meant to be alone in this world, a solitary, self-sufficient individual who often feels lonely and discontented in our aloneness. We are meant to be one with others. And this fosters a cooperation that will give us joy.

Choose today to be one with our brothers and sisters. They will see the difference. We will see the difference.

We fancy that even angels smile when we have made this choice.

A Gentle Voice

“Peace then, be with you always. Let peace pervade your being at all times. Know that you are safe in the Love of God that arises from that great Source of mystery and would move through you with every breath you breathe and every word you speak, until you hear only that impetus of guidance that wells up from the depth of your being as a gentle voice that you trust completely. And you will know the freedom that you seek.” (“The Way of the Heart,” WOM, Lesson 5, Page 69)

We are always needing guidance, and especially when we think that we are on the right pathway. We fool ourselves, and we think that we can do it ourselves now.

This is never true. We always need the guidance of the Holy Spirit, or the Christ Self. We are never so smart that we can forge our own way through the thicket that surrounds us. For in this world, there are many temptations, many erroneous ideas that will ensnare us.

Ask today. Just ask.

And the Way will unfold for us, bounteously.

Following the Spirit

From my “ponder” series. . .

I don’t know when I encountered the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It must have been a quiet experience. I do know that when I was working as a media coordinator in the public schools in North Carolina, I went about my duties in the library with one ear tuned to what I was feeling. The Holy Spirit talked to me through my feelings. Sometimes it seemed that I was even prompting to turn left or right at a given time, not sure what I would see when I turned.

It was all a bit unnerving. My preacher had previously told me that Holy Spirit doesn’t tell you whether to turn left or right at a stop light, but my experience was different. To me, guidance spoke in particular ways in my everyday life.
Things went along well when I tuned in. The “feelings” were somewhat different from what I would term “intuition.” Intuition can be a “knowing,” and the nudges I got were not a knowing, because I didn’t understand what would transpire when I made a move in the direction prompted.

My Unconscious mind, where I think the Holy Spirit resides, must have been very close to the surface during that early period of learning how to listen. And the listening continued for long years, culminating now in a sense of knowing. I don’t get those indications of whether to turn right or left.

Is something missing, or am I just following guidance another way?

Allow God’s Gentle Direction

You come to see that you cannot think a thought without disturbing the farthest of stars. (“The Way of the Heart,” WOM, Lesson 5, Page 63)

Our thoughts contain worlds, and influence worlds. We have not believed this truth, not because it is so unbelievable, but because we feared the ramifications. If we know this, ought not we to do something major with our lives? Ought we to realize that we can affect the very course of history?

We are not powerless, but very powerful. And as bits of foam on the tips of waves in the ocean which is God, we will grow in grace as we realize how powerful we really are. When we allow God’s direction to manifest in our lives, we will accomplish much that would have seemed impossible previously. Of course, we won’t know how strong our influence really is, and perhaps this is wise, for the ego might try to win back our allegiance by guile. The ego is very cunning, and its patterns are still a part of our mind. The farther away we can run from these patterns of the ego, the better off we will be. And the greater our influence really will turn out to be.

Ask for guidance, for we do not want to harm anybody with our thoughts and feelings. We don’t want to adversely affect anything, and if we allow God’s gentle direction, we will not cause ripples in the ocean that is our home in God. We will know His magnitude, and this magnitude will erase the cunning of the ego in its false majesty.

Guidance

What do I truly want? What is it in my heart that keeps calling to me, keeps compelling me? (“The Way of the Heart,” WOM, Lesson 4, Page 50 – 51)

When we ask the Almighty to give us guidance about what we truly want, we are asking Him to give us what is the will of God. He wants us to know how to proceed; He doesn’t wish for us to stay in the dark. We will start knowing, much better, when we take the time to ask for divine influence.

We may simply “be,” in love, with all other creatures of God. A Course of Love talks of the way of Mary, of being; and the way of Jesus, of doing. And ACOL says that all of us will eventually follow the way of Mary. This means that putting our arms around our loved ones, and just simply giving them love is a gift of the greatest magnitude. It is being par excellence.

What does matter is how we accept ourselves, warts and all. We are not perfect, and it will take Jesus to correct the mistakes in our soul’s path that we have been unable to correct. (This is indicated in both A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love.) This correction, because Jesus is gentle, will be gentle and nothing to fear. Jesus can give us much help along the way, as we seek to walk a better path. And the Holy Spirit/Christ Self do their part as well.

We are not left dangling.

What We Decree, Is

Remember that what you decree is, and the thought you hold in the mind will be reflected through the nature of your experience. (“The Way of the Heart,” WOM, Lesson 4, Page 47)

The sentiment in the quotation is an affirmation of the law of attraction: What we decree, is. This truth lets us realize that we have to watch our thoughts, even getting out of bed in the morning. The way in which we begin our day will decide whether the day will go well or ill. Of course, we can always start the day over, as A Course in Miracles tells us. But wasting time is not to be desired (something also ACIM says).

Answer honestly, first thing in the morning, about what we want. This will put us in the right relationship to God, Who can then lead us gently to purify our thoughts.

Ask what is best that we want.

And then be assured of an Answer.

Nothing to Fear in Guided Desire

You have learned, therefore, to fear desire because that fear is the effect of fearing yourself, and that is what cripples you. (“The Way of the Heart,” WOM, Lesson 4, Page 46)

Our fears have done us in, mostly just fearing ourselves.

Now is the time to change, to alter trajectory to a new and glorious word. There is nothing to fear in desire, IF it is informed by following guidance. If we think we are not looking to guidance, then we are just falling back on asking the ego what to do. And the ego will always lead us wrongly.

We are right in loving ourselves. The lack of self-love also means that we don’t love God in the way that we ought, for if we cannot love ourselves, then we also think (wrongly) that our love for God is something too elusive to join in faith.

If love of God does seem elusive, then look to what in our lives we do love. One woman, in a story told my Norman Vincent Peale, said that she knew that she loved her little nephew. And Norman said to her that this was where her mission lay. In loving the nephew, she would come to see from whence all Love comes, the very Godhead Itself.

We have not trusted ourselves to know where to turn and what to do, and this psychological disturbance has caused much inner turmoil.

Make the decision today to reach that which is higher and more all-encompassing than our little egoic self; make the decision for God.

STRUGGLE NOT

Note: This article was published in Miracles magazine, January – February 2019 issue (Jon Mundy, publisher).

by Celia Hales

“Out of His lack of conflict comes your peace. And from His purpose comes the means for effortless accomplishment and rest.” (A Course in Miracles, COA ed., T-VI.13:7)

“All that you retain is a belief in effort and a struggle to be good and to do good, a belief that clearly demonstrates that you have rejected who you are.” (A Course of Love, C:P.13)

When we launch into self-help mode, struggling to be better than we really are, then we are on the wrong track. Nobody, by effort, can effect great change. This is the ego’s plan, and it is a bad plan. The ego would have us fail continually, until we give up, turn against God, and decide that nothing we can ever do will make any difference anyway.

The quotation above from A Course in Miracles points out a better way. We know “effortless” accomplishment when we are depending on the Holy Spirit to rule our days. And we know the same when we follow the Christ Self, as A Course of Love would have us do in this time of Christ.

How might this effortless accomplishment come about? I think that quiet contemplation is the real way of change, effortless change. When we turn inward, we are merging with our Maker, for we are made of God-stuff. When we turn inward, calmly, we often intuit that things are not as bad as we thought when we judged ourselves as guilty. Our true innocence leads to self-acceptance, and this self-acceptance is being who we really are, something that A Course of Love champions.

Of course, we have not been perfect in our lives. We may have hurt ourselves and other people; we may have been guilty of violent acts. The Answer (which we all know) is forgiveness borne of the certainty that rescue is available. As faulty as our behavior may have been, we acted as well as we could, given our level of understanding at the time. And this is true for everyone.

Now we know better, for A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love both show us the way to a life of being who we really are, innocent children of God, no longer in a struggle to change by force of personal will. We listen to guidance, and in restful listening, let the Holy Spirit or the Christ Self take over. And thereby does change become effortless.

Turning toward Home

“Therefore, when you awaken in each of your mornings, look around. Who is that person sleeping next to you? They are your perfect companion. They are a messenger from God. For just behind your experiences, there is something deeper taking place. Because your mind is resting right next to the Mind of God, when you first say as a soul, ‘I want to awaken, I want to go home,’ the Father answered your prayer and began to send the thought through your Spirit and through your soul to your conscious mind:

“I know how to direct you home. Give up this career and start that one. Move from this location to that location.

“You began to feel all manner of impulses. You began to read different books. You began to do different things. You met someone and fell in love. All by accident? Hardly! (“The Way of the Heart,” WOM, Chapter 3, Page 31)

Our way back to God, back home, is calculated with no accidents of salvation. There are no accidents at all! This may be hard to accept, especially if we have had hard times, but the fact is that our souls have planned our contract with this world. Everything has had a reason, part of the plan, though we will never understand it all this side of the veil of death.

When we receive promptings of where to go and what to do, what to say, even what to think, we are receiving promptings of the Holy Spirit or the Christ-Self. As soon as we indicated that we were ready to turn toward home, God answered. And this Answer was beyond anything that we could imagine, in most cases, better than anything we could imagine.

If the day seems grim, just be patient. God does not intend us to suffer. The way back is clearer without pain. We learn better without pain, but through blessings.

This way is without the lamentable happenings that have given us grief. This new way will save us for a happy today and tomorrow, one that we could not imagine in our most wondrous imaginings.

Humble Asking Always Gets an Answer

“If you ask me for guidance, you have signified your willingness to give over your own control, at least to some extent. Your frequent failure to ask at all indicates that at such times you are not willing to go even that far. Failure to ask for guidance is a sign of fear. But when you at least ask, you are acting on a cooperative thought, even though it may not lack ambivalence. You are therefore entitled to a specific answer, but unless you follow it without judging it, you will become defensive about the next steps you will take.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-4.IX.4:1-5)

Jesus is available to us for guidance. As our elder brother, his advice is sounder than our own. It would be wise to ask.
Later on in A Course in Miracles, Jesus does not so much ask us to turn to him as to turn to the Holy Spirit. He knows that we ask of the ego, or we ask of Higher Guidance—whatever we do. While we may not be aware of these mental gyrations, they are nevertheless much a part of ourselves. We don’t make decisions just in our own superficial mind. Guidance is very real, but guidance of the ego is always wrongheaded and disastrous.

We will get specific answers, and these specific answers may very well come as the next quiet thought in our minds. Practical advice is always given. The Holy Spirit can be very practical, giving advice for the most mundane matters. The only criteria is that these matters are important to us. Humble asking always gets an answer. The solution is always found with the problem, as soon as the problem is articulated, even silently.

If we think we have decided what we want to do, and then ask, we have turned the tables on the Holy Spirit. We may not like what we hear, for the initial decision has, in all likelihood, be made in conjunction with the ego. ACIM says that the ego always answers first.

We don’t have to listen to the ego. It certainly would be wise not to do so, but simply to turn the matter over to spirit. The answer comes quickly.

Guidance

“A giant step forward in your case would be to insist on a collaborative venture. This does not go against the true spirit of meditation at all. It is inherent in it. Meditation is a collaborative venture with God. It cannot be undertaken successfully by those who disengage themselves from the Sonship, because they are disengaging themselves from me. God will come to you only as you will give Him to your brothers. Learn first of them, and you will be ready to hear God as you hear them. That is because the function of love is one.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-4.VIII.21:1-8)

Do we really believe that we can hear God? We hear him in silence, not in words. Our intuitive sense carries the day. It is true that from brothers and sisters on the Other Side, we can hear what are called “locutions,” words impressed on our mind when we are quiet and receptive. We do not necessarily hear anything audible at all, but the impression of a locution does seem very powerful, when it comes. God’s silence, also, speaks volumes. We can know what God is wanting of us, and that may be only an expression of Love. He does not always expect us to work for Him; the pleasure of His company is all that He sometimes asks us to receive.

In meditation, specifically insight meditation, the focus is not only a specific mantra, but on phrases that filter through the mind. Our mind speaks to us, and sometimes this impression seems a little beyond us, as though a Higher Power were speaking to us. Feelings work, too. And feelings are primarily how the Holy Spirit speaks to us. When we are on the right beam, we comprehend that we are, and nobody else can tell us we are wrong. We do need to test out our discernment, though, as anything that might be harmful to another is definitely not coming from the Holy Spirit.

Jesus wants us to engage with him. He is able, as spirit, to live anywhere and everywhere. His consciousness can engage with myriads of human beings are one time. If this seems farfetched, let us simply listen to his words. I think that they will allow for no other interpretation.

A short period of meditation, or, at best, two such periods, will calm us and take us to the Heaven that exists in our minds. We may not stay there, but the visit is so very therapeutic.

Jesus’ Instructive Guidance

“If you will think over your life, you will see how carefully the preparations were made. I am in charge of the Second Coming, as I already told you, and my judgment, which is used only for its protection, cannot be wrong because it never attacks. Yours is so distorted that you believe that I was mistaken in choosing you. I assure you this is a mistake of your own ego. Do not mistake it for humility. Your ego is trying to convince you that it is real and I am not, because if I am real, I am no more real than you are. That knowledge, and I assure you that it is knowledge, means that Christ has come into your mind and healed it.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-4.VI.15:1-7)

It is likely that Jesus was speaking to Helen here, asking her to think over her life and realize how prepared she was made for the task of scribing. There were many things that she needed to have in her mind, and her upbringing assured that this happened. In channeling, Jesus must draw on the words that are already in a scribe’s mind, being limited to using words that are already known. This doesn’t mean that the ideas are in the scribe’s mind, just the words, for nobody who has taken A Course in Miracles seriously, and knew Helen, thought that she could have made all this up. She had a fine mind, of course, but she did not have the genius of Jesus.

Jesus is on a par with us, in that both he and we are real. The ego disputes this, but we all know by now that the ego is insanity itself. Jesus has walked the whole pathway back to God, and now is guiding our footsteps. His work with channeling is just one aspect of the careful instructive guidance that he gives to us all.

Listen to Our Internal Guidance

“The task of facilitators of such meetings of open hearts is to direct the reader away from ego mind and back to wholeheartedness or Christ-mind. “How do you feel?” is a more appropriate question than, “What do you think?” The sharing of experience is more appropriate than the sharing of interpretation. The sharing of process is more appropriate than the sharing of outcome. Facilitators will keep readers from attempting one correct inter¬pretation, as the only correct interpretation is that which comes from each
reader’s own internal guidance system. Group attendees will find themselves feeling less competitive or interested in asserting their beliefs as it becomes clear to them that unlike in other learning situations, there is no correct answer or specific set of beliefs to be adopted. The student begins to move beyond the need for shared belief to personal conviction and authority.” (ACOL, A.15)

Again Jesus is talking to groups who are discussing A Course of Love. We are to dwell on our feelings, not out thoughts. We are to dwell on what the heart says, not the mind. There is no one “correct” interpretation; we must listen to our heart to know what ACOL is saying to us personally.

We move into a cooperative stance with ACOL as our guide. No longer competitive, we simply see each other as equals. If there are individuals in our group who have not let go of the ego, we need to be very certain that we don’t fall into judgment of them. If we fall into judgment, we will be taking a step backward, and we will be threatened with forming a new ego to replace our old one.

This will never do. If we are to change or create a world, we must stand firm in what we know, and that means the miracle-mindedness that is the art of thought. Thinking as we have previously known it has fallen away. We wait to be told what miracles to perform, for guidance is sure. If we aren’t certain, we wait.

Sometimes our guidance comes only at the point of action, and we are held in limbo until then. This is not God playing with us, but only our own reluctance to know fully until it is time to act. We keep our minds from getting cluttered when we don’t try to figure things out in advance.

We are meant to depend on our Self, the Christ-Self who draws on God Himself. We are not meant to depend on what other people say. Our internal guidance system is the best available. Let’s use it.

Dear God,

I say often that I need to depend on guidance. Do I do it all the time? No. But I try. And that is the saving grace for me, the saving grace that You give me. Thank You.

May I look to others with a cooperative mind slant. My heart will tell me what to say and do, even what to think. And the thoughts will be miracle-ready.

Thank You.

Amen.

Ask for Divine Advice

“Only in my relationship to you am I God. Only in your relationship to me are you who you are in truth.” (ACOL, D:Day40.15)

Jesus is speaking in a metaphorical sense here. He is not saying that he is the Godhead. He is one of us, but he has advanced farther along, and so he can lead us. He is speaking from a personal relationship to us, something that he advocates throughout the ending portions of the Dialogues of A Course of Love. He is very desirous of a personal relationship with us, saying that he can do more for us if we will so accept him.

As inheritors of the Christian faith, we can accept his offer easily and peacefully. He is not speaking to those of other faiths; he knows that other religions have value. So he is not the “only” way to God. But, for us, as Christians, he is the best way. He is our leader.

Accept Jesus’ offer to guide us day by day, even hour by hour and minute by minute. We can take pen to paper, or go to a computer and type—just to see where it leads. If we quiet down and ask for advice as to how to live our lives, we will receive it. Jesus has assured us in A Course in Miracles that he will come to each of us upon a “single, unequivocal call.” I accept him at his word about this. I have first-hand knowledge of his guidance.

The best way that we can live is to ask for advice, ask for guidance. We are not smart enough to live life independently; we are not intended to so live. We are placed in this world with others for a reason. Our egoic, independent natures were all a mistake. Let us take a better route through this world now, a route holding hands with our brothers and sisters.

Dear God,

I would ask for guidance today, as I do every day. I can’t live without your advice about how to live. Thank You for always, always and forever, being here for me.

Amen.

Self-guidance

“Self-guidance is the propulsion, the fuel, for the One Self to know itself. You are ready to be so known.” (ACOL, D:Day26.8)

Have not we often heard the admonition, “Know Thyself”? This is indeed good advice, but prior to now, in our journey with A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love, knowing ourselves has not really been an option. When we were ego-bound, we were lost in confusion and in dramatic highs and lows. This makes sense, because the ego is abject insanity.

But now, finally, we can know ourselves. We will be getting our guidance from the newly known Self who has emerged from our depths. We will listen, quietly, to promptings that are gentle and easy. This self-guidance is new to us, or so we think. The Holy Spirit and His guidance seemed, sometimes, to be outside of ourselves, a prompting from somewhere else (though it really wasn’t, because the Holy Spirit dwells deep within with God).

We are ready to know our Self. We have journeyed long and hard for this moment. Let us take advantage of it.

When we follow the gentle promptings of the Self, we see circumstances play out that solidify, in our minds and hearts, what we ourselves are all about. We are living out the Self in the outside world. And the inner has created the outer. We are living the truth for the first time.

We are coming home.

Dear God,

I would listen to the guidance that comes from my depths today. This is my Self, speaking to me. It is a welcome change in the way in which I receive promptings of what to say, do, and even think. It is the way of the future, the gentle way of the future. If the promptings seem hard to read, it is because I am not quiet enough.

Help me to keep a quiet interior today.

Thank You.

Amen.

Quiet Guidance

“Your self-guidance can be thought of as an internal compass. It will not necessarily know the answers as each answer is sought, but if paid attention to, it will show you the way to knowing.

“This alchemical transition, this passing of the unknown into the known, this moment when the unknown becomes the known within the Self, is the birth of creation. It is the culmination of all that has come before, the All of Everything realized in a single heartbeat, a single instant of knowing. This is the One Self knowing itself. This is not knowing that comes with a great ah ha, but knowing that comes with the awe of reverence. Creator and created are one and the homecoming experienced is that of union.” (ACOL, D:Day26.6 – Day26.7)

This explains the new way of receiving guidance! A very important topic indeed, considering how stressed was the Holy Spirit in A Course in Miracles. Now we have moved farther along our pathway, and we are being shown a new way of guidance, a way that Jesus explains in A Course of Love. The age of the Holy Spirit has passed, and we are now in the age of Christ, and so the instructions differ.

We are now to listen to the Self who lives within, and draws on a direct relationship with God, Who also dwells within. The Self and God are the same in spirit, though God is the Unlimited, and so omniscient. Our Christ-Self is still limited, but glimpses of a greater knowing do break through. Our Christ-Self is not, of course, omniscient. But the guidance that comes draws on the omniscient, and so is true, very true.

We are being shown knowing as opposed to perception. Our perception has been cleansed so completely that it has led the way straight through to knowledge. And knowledge is of God. Perception, on the other hand, started out being of the ego, and so needed to be purified before it could lead to knowing.

Guidance now is very, very quiet—with the awe of reverence. This is a tricky transition, for many of us have depended upon intuition and “feelings” from the Holy Spirit that will be absent now. There is just a very still knowing that emerges from our most quiet moments. We don’t think in any bombastic way anymore; we are being guided very gently to an understanding that is meant for us alone.

Dear God,

I was one who was confused by the lack of intuitive feelings, on which I had come to depend. Now I know that the next right step comes from a very silent, inner knowing that doesn’t make itself known loudly. I listen to my heart, in other words. And my heart is very still in my best moments, when my next right step comes through.

Thank You for this new understanding, the new understanding for this age of Christ. It is a simple reliance upon the Self who has now emerged from my depths. I thank You for this emergence.

Amen.

Turning Within for Advice

“The first transition, as you have probably already realized, is about a letting-go of any of the ideas that you may still have that an outside source exists. There is no such thing as an outside source. There are no outside sources of wisdom, guidance, or even information.” (ACOL, D:Day21.1)

Jesus’s assertion in the passage for today is very startling, but also very empowering. We have only ourselves—and our God—to consult for true advice. Depending on other sources has never been very satisfactory, for another’s answer was never certain to be ours. And now we know that we are living in the right time, the time of Christ, and living with the right demeanor, Christ-consciousness, to turn to our Self for the Answer. And our Self includes God.

So: No outside sources at all are to sway us. We will have to be diligent, for many of us have relied on others to show the way. Of course, we can still get advice, but we are certainly not to follow that advice unless it resonates with something deep within ourselves.

This is very freeing. This will work. Take a moment now to ask about anything and everything that have been bothering us. Just ask. We will receive an Answer, and from the only Source Who counts—the Self Whom we are deep within.

Dear God,

I would start depending on my Self for the answers of how to live my life. Of course, I have already done this to a degree, but now I would make a radical departure from my previous life, and listen to the guidance that comes naturally from my inner Christ-Self. The only One Who matters.

Be with me as I make this adjustment. Be with me always.

Amen.

Listen to Guidance of the Heart

“The condition of want, like all conditions of learning, ended with the end of learning. The condition of want was a learning device—not one of divine design, but one of the thought system of the ego. It was a trick to keep you constantly striving for more, a trick to guarantee the survival of the ego-self, a trick that provided the small rewards of time-bound evolution, the small rewards that would keep you assured of progress through effort, and just as assured of ruin through lack of effort.” (ACOL, D:Day3.28)

Here the word “want” is a lack that is actually a need, not a desire. And we learn elsewhere that our needs are met at the point that they are recognized, by us, as needs. We ask for help in meeting our need, and it comes—immediately. The solution is always right with the problem.

We may not believe this. But think back. Have we ever really had a need that wasn’t answered in some way? It might not have been answered in the way that we preferred, but an answer did come, and invariably. Now we are living in a new time, and the effort that we put into answering our needs must be dropped. We don’t get our needs met through effortful living any longer, for effortful living was a ploy of the ego so that its survival was certain.

We have, by now, at this point in reading A Course of Love and taking it unto our heart and mind, left the ego behind in the dust. We may, of course, still keep a “pattern” of the ego that seems to make sense for a time. But if we think carefully, we will know that we don’t do things for the egotistical payoff any longer. This dynamic has simply lost its value to us. And we are much better off as a result.

We are asked to make progress today through listening to our heart’s guidance, not through laborious effort that might or might not pay off. We are assured of making progress when we listen to the ideas that drop into our mind from listening to our heart, from listening to our Self. This Self is the Oversoul, of which we all are a part. Guidance is particular to each of us, but we draw on the same Source. We draw on God Himself, Who leads and directs from the center of our being. And His way is always sure.

Dear God,

Help me to remember to be gentle with myself today. If I feel like resting, let me do so without guilt. If I feel sleep, let me take a nap without guilt. I would displace guilt from my mind and heart at every point that it would try to enter. I don’t have to produce always. Living is its own reward.

May I be there for my brothers and sisters in need. Sometimes you use me to answer a need. That is not a burden, but it is a responsibility, and it calls for careful listening to my heart about the right thing to do and say. Help me to follow You in any matters that confront me. Help me to love with a generous heart, especially when my brother or sister is feeling weak and troubled.

Amen.