A New Way of Remembering

“Perhaps you consider this review to be unnecessary.  However we repeat it here given the forgetful nature of your minds–a feature that won’t last much longer.  You are at the threshold of remembering fully the truth of what you are and of sustaining that memory in a continuous way.”  Choose Only Love, “Echoes of Holiness,” bk. 1, 15:III

Choose Only Love continues this thread of thought/feeling in Book IV, “Wisdom,” and so the quotation conveys important points.   We are becoming forgetful, for a time, as our memories are healed.  The healing of memory is the purpose of the seven books of Choose Only Love.

As our thoughts fill with new understanding, the old survival needs are reduced and then eliminated.  We know what is true for us by revelation from God, not our admittedly flawed thought processes.

We discover that as we progress toward Awakening, transformation, that our mind, informed by our heart, clears–and we “float” in assurance that God, in revelation, will bring to mind all that is important or necessary.

We have more help now.  And we are freer.  We no longer need to struggle in our remembering.  We can rest assured that God is in the background, prompting us about everything we need to know.

God’s Gifts for Us Redeemed

“Thoughts from Heaven feel like light and breath; they are full of certainty, can never be forgotten, and they bring a great ‘amount’ of truth in the blink of an eye.”  Choose Only Love, Book 7, A Message from Sebastian, II.

Thoughts from Heaven are manna to our spirit.  When we enjoy a true revelation, the gist of it stays with us, never to be completely forgotten and often changing our lives in drastic ways.  “Light and breath,” Sebastian says.  We might ask, Can this type of revelation really happen to us?

Yes!  A resounding yes!  Revelation is always from God to us, and is more lasting than a miracle in our hearts.  Revelation is the way of the future, for those of us reading this far in Choose Only Love have, it is said in its pages (in different words), that we have traveled far along our pathway back to God, and He is able to get through to us quite remarkably.  Our struggles have been greatly reduced, and we are ready for revelation in our very being.  We live a peaceful life, marred only temporarily by those things that cause us regret.

Does this sound too good to be true?  It is truly not too good to be true.  God trusts us to keep His universes going through our expressions of being, our Love for all that is.  He could not gift us with all He would wish so long as we were recalcitrant.  But He can now.

And He does.

Join with Love in Stillness

“Simply join with love in stillness and wait for the revelation of God’s plan.  Because God is infinite and inexhaustible, revelation of Her can happen in every moment and forever. ”  Choose Only Love bk.4, 3:I

When we don’t know what to do next, there is a solution, but it does take patience, and many of us have patience in short supply.

We need simply to rest in stillness, awaiting God’s response. God is here called the feminine, because God is without gender, and Choose Only Love is emphasizing the helpful aspects of the feminine gender.

God will respond to us when we are in a quandary. He doesn’t mean to keep secrets from us. He means us well. And will respond, always and forever.

Revelation can come to anyone at any time, but getting quiet within seems to be a prerequisite most of the time. If trying to come to a decision, we are not alone; we have Help.

Let God speak to us in our quandaries.

Miracles & Revelation

“Revelation unites you directly with God.  Miracles unite you directly with your brother.  Neither emanates from consciousness, but both are experienced there.  Consciousness is the state that induces action, though it does not inspire it.  You are free to believe what you choose, and what you do attests to what you believe.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-1.II.1)

The first aspect of this quotation delineates revelation vs. miracles, and explains the difference in our unity with God, first, and then our unity with our brother.  God is responsible for revelation; we are not.  He communicates to us by revelation, including, sometimes, the experience of Awakening—Awakening that does not last.  He shows us the end, where we are headed.  And Jesus’s book, A Course in Miracles, gives us the means to get to that end of Awakening.  Revelation is not on the same level as miracles.  Under Jesus’s guidance, we perform miracles for our brother, and, in turn, our brother performs miracles for us.  They are, in that sense, reciprocal, unlike revelation.  Revelation always proceeds from God to us, never the other way around.

We are consciousness embodied.  We are alive in our minds, and we experience our projections from mind as perceptions of this world.  We experience revelation and miracles from this consciousness.  We are led to act in this world through what our consciousness says to do.  If we allow ourselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit, then our consciousness has a divine Master.  If we allow our consciousness to be guided by the ego, we have feet of clay.  There is no in between.

These ideas, above, are central to A Course in Miracles.  We have a learning task before us, for until we have the theological undergirding of the Course, we cannot master what it says.  Our mind will be trained as we do the Workbook lessons.  The more theoretical aspects of the Course are presented in this, the Text.  We likewise need to master that theory.  There is no other sure way of catching all the means that will lead us to the end of Awakening, the means to the end.

We must await revelation from God.  And we must await Jesus’s nod as to which miracles we are to perform for our brother.  We will get used to the fact that we are not in control anymore, as soon as we start on the road of relinquishing the ego.

Egoic Swings in Mind

“The best concrete example you could have of how the mind could have made the ego is a person who has a great propensity for revelation but can suddenly swing to its complete opposite. Such a person does have real knowledge at times, but when she throws it away it is as if she never had it. This willfulness is so apparent that you need only perceive it to see that it does happen. If it can occur that way in the present, why should you be surprised that it occurred that way in the past? All psychology rests on the principle of continuity of behavior. Surprise is a reasonable response to the unfamiliar, but hardly to something that occurs with such persistence.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-4.III.3:1-6)

Jesus is probably talking to Helen, because in the era of the sixties, the pronoun “he” was used for both male and female, and here he deliberately (we might think) uses the pronoun “she.” Helen was a woman of many moods, as we might be. Her oscillations required that Jesus support her often as the scribing unfolded. He was right there for her.

Helen had a propensity for revelation. All of us do (though some are more ready for it than others). Revelation gives us real knowledge, as opposed to simple perception. Our perceptions are often ego-related, but not our knowledge. Our knowledge comes from God, and it can come, reliably, only when we have placed ego either to one side, or eliminated it altogether.

We may be surprised by truth. But is this warranted? The truth is always right here with us, just often unrecognized. If we pray to be open to the truth, we are more likely to experience it in everyday occurrences. These are miracles. These are examples of God welling up from within to shower us with love.

Miracles & Revelation

“When the Sonship can return to its original form of communication with God by direct revelation, the need for miracles is over. The Holy Spirit mediates higher- to lower-order communication, keeping the direct channel from God to humanity open for revelation. Revelation is not reciprocal. It is always from God to you. This is because God and you are not equal. The miracle, on the other hand, is reciprocal because it always involves equality.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-1.46.20:3-8)

This quotation gets to some of the keys in the theology of A Course in Miracles. We are given the Holy Spirit as a Gift, because we are, unfortunately, not ready for direct communication from God; our fear is too great. We think that God doesn’t mean us well, because what we have done with our lives is so despicable that He could not forgive our deeds. Actually, we learn in ACIM that God never forgives because He has never accused; He doesn’t blame us for anything, seeing us as innocent children who haven’t known any better. God thus has never, ever, condemned us in any sense at all. We are His prodigal sons and daughters, whom He wants mightily to return to the fold.

When we experience revelation (if we recognize it as revelation), it is intensely personal and cannot actually be explained to another. We know what we have experienced, but nobody else would believe us. Miracles are our expressions of love, though, prompted originally by the love of God, and so there is a reciprocal relationship in these. When we feel led to express love, Jesus will arrange time and space to allow us to do so—but only if that expression of love, that miracle, is something that Jesus recognizes as needed and right. He gives us the cue, and we would do well to remember this. Misplaced miracles miss the mark.

When we are stressed, we need to turn to the Holy Spirit, if direct relationship to God still threatens. Later on, in A Course of Love (many believe a sequel to ACIM), we will see a direct approach to God Himself by inviting the Christ-Self from our depths, where God resides, to lead us.

Miracles are more useful now to us and to others. We would do well to ask internally what miracles are needed each and every day, what there is there for us to do.

Miracles & Revelation

“29. Miracles are a way of earning release from fear.

“Revelation induces a state in which fear has already been abolished. Miracles are thus a means, and revelations are an end. In this sense, they work together. Miracles do not depend on revelation. They induce it. You are quite capable of miracles already, even if you may be still too fearful for revelations. Revelation will occur after you engage at the visionary level in a process of denying fear.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-1.29.1-2)

When Jesus or the Holy Spirit prompts a miracle, we are expressing love to the person(s) receiving the miracle. This heals us as well as them. And it prepares the way for revelation, which is always from God.

Perhaps at this early place in A Course in Miracles, we are still fearful of God. This is the reason for the Holy Spirit as intermediary; we don’t cringe before Him. His loving Spirit gives us comfort. Eventually, though, we will want to approach God more directly. And this is what the sequel, A Course of Love, does for us. We are said to be in the time of Christ now, the time of Holy Spirit having passed.

There is a period of crossover, for many are just now learning that ACIM exists. And our Guide during its reading is the Holy Spirit, Who has not gone anywhere, but is right here to help us. He will help us to envision a denial of fear. He will pave the way for this more direct approach to God Himself, the Deity. God dwells deeply within all of us, and His way counsels a life of Love.

Miracles and revelations do work together. And we are so blessed in our daily lives that we can and do have both. The trick is to recognize these blessings when they occur.

Continue with Openness to Revelation

“Go forth not as completed works of art but as permeable energy, ever changing, ever creating, ever new. Go forth with openness for revelation to happen through you and through all you encounter. Go forth joyously on this adventure of discovery. Be ever new, ever one, ever the beloved.
. . .
“Beloved brothers and sisters, You are The Accomplished.” (ACOL, A.48, A.50)

Today’s quotation ends A Course of Love (and ends our two-year teaching unit). It is perhaps not a clear statement, for many of us don’t feel “accomplished,” and we still think that there is more we need to know to “be” accomplished. In the final pages of ACOL, Jesus is asking us to rest, rest in the knowledge that we have learned and discovered much, and that we need to call an end to constant and unrelenting seeking. We will never know what we have found until we cease restless seeking for something else, something outside of ourselves. No, this will never do. We live “who we are” in the depths of our being, in the Christ-Self who has newly come out to play. The Christ-Self is now available to us, and this is where we live out “who we are.”

We will still receive guidance in the form of revelation. We are not cut adrift. We have a solid friend in Jesus, though now he is going to see that we depend more on our inner depths than on anybody else, even him. The inner depths hold the secret to enhanced living; the inner depths guide us truly, guide us securely.

Be satisfied! This is another way of saying that we need to live who we are. Our restlessness needs to find a conclusion. And when we turn to the pages of A Course of Love now, we will read what seems familiar to us, for we have walked far upon the pathway back to God.

Jesus channeled A Course of Love for us to establish a new identity, shorn of the ego. Trust that this new identity is in place and now needs only elaboration. And we have the heartfelt tools to effect such an elaboration. Our transformation is assured.

Dear God,

Thank You for being with me as I embarked on this long and sometimes tedious journey through A Course of Love. Teaching/learning is over for all of us now; we are just discovering a new life through our intuitions, the intuitions of a soft heart.

Be with me as I decide that there is an end to seeking. Happiness is its own reward, and a constant seeking is not a happy place. We do the work of spirituality well when we do it joyously. There is no better way to spend a life.

Thank You for guiding me to this realization.

Amen.

Who We Are Comes Through in Revelation

“But you have thought about this desire to know who you are in one way or another all of your life without reaching the place of fulfillment you have sought. Even now, when you have learned all that you are in need of learning, the pattern, even of your wholeheartedness, remains one of thought. This pattern is what the new patterns of acceptance and discovery that we are beginning to lay out here are going to replace.” (ACOL, D:9.4)

How many of us have thought of trying to “learn who we are”—to know our identity, what makes us tick. This is the theme of most journals, and now that many journals are online in blogs, I have become especially aware of this need to know what we are on the part of all of us. This desire is especially prevalent during the teen years, but the desire to know who we are never really goes away. It is the great preoccupation of all who live in this world.

It is somewhat frustrating that Jesus does not simply lay out, in A Course of Love, how to know who we are. He implies that we will discover this, ultimately, through revelation from our God, from the part of God who dwells in us as the Christ-Self. Now that we have traveled far along the path back to God, we are in a position to know more, but this time not from learning, but from revelation through what Jesus calls discovery.

We have to accept what is going on around us in order to truly know where we fit in. This acceptance is akin to the forgiveness that A Course in Miracles championed, but the two concepts of acceptance and forgiveness are not identical. We are willing to let things be, or “let it be,” as the Beatles’ song portrayed so long ago. We are “willing to have it so,” as Eastern philosophy opines. We are here, enmeshed in living in this world, and it behooves us to go with the flow of life, not to buck it. To go with the flow of life, really to go with it, demands that we be accepting of what transpires.

This doesn’t mean that we want work to change negative things. But we do so from a point of power, of first accepting what we see, and then moving, ever gently, for change and even the creation of a new world, as Jesus asks of us. Our day will go better when we relax into our full Self, letting this entity motivate us for whatever change we think is needed. But first we accept all of who we are, and all of who our brothers and sisters are. If we don’t accept, we scale a high mountain with chances of falling off in mid-air.

Prayer

Be with me today as I seek to accept any and all difficulties, even when those difficulties are longstanding. Grant me the understanding to know how to find the cure of anything that ails me. I wish for a good energy level, though low energy has plagued me for years. I do get things done, though, and for that right amount of energy I thank You. All of us have all the energy that we need to accomplish the things that are ours to accomplish.

Motivate me to move away from simple laziness. All of us have it to one extent or another. And I would be finished with the lack of motivation that wastes time and gives me a guilt feeling.

Amen.

Discover through Revelation from God Himself

“Imagine this first as a place where no learning is needed. Ah, you might say now, this you have heard before. This idea of no longer needing to learn has intrigued you since it was first mentioned, and yet it seems too impossible, too “good” to be true. You are too used to thinking of yourself as a learning being to truly experience the freedom of not being bound by this constraint. In all of your life, you can think of no ability you have not achieved through learning. And yet most of you have “discovered” some¬thing that comes easily to you, something you might have said or been told you have a natural talent or ability to do. These things some of you have practiced or studied to take advantage of your natural ability and in doing so may have found a continued ability to learn faster or achieve more in this area than those who are not seen as having a “natural ability” of this partic-ular kind. But because you are prone to comparison, many of you have been discouraged by not being able to be the “best” despite your natural talent or ability, and have given up “working hard” to be the best. Others who have achieved the highest possible acclaim for their talents find this acclaim unfulfilling once it is achieved.” (ACOL, D:8.2)

It is difficult truly to imagine what Jesus is saying in the Dialogues of A Course of Love when he tells us that the time of learning is over. I think he means our learning about spiritual matters, the way to salvation, the way to Awakening or Christ-consciousness. I think it unlikely that he is saying the our young people don’t need schooling; surely he isn’t saying that. He is talking to us who have read this far in ACOL, first learning about ultimate salvation from what he has told us, and now “discovering” through revelation from God Himself. Discovery is the hallmark now in our desire to reach a greater depth in our spirituality.

We all have natural abilities that were not found through learning. These natural abilities may have been honed through learning and study, but the ability came to us originally as a gift from within. We ought never, anymore, to compare our achievements with those of others; this is competition, and it is an old way of thinking. We will each excel where we are the most talented, and innate talent is a gift from God. We need ask for the best that we are personally able to achieve. We need not to become discouraged because another seems to do something better than do we. There is always something that we can do better than anybody else, if only to be the particular person that a significant other can best receive love from. And this is not such a bad example, for is not the giving and receiving of love our greatest gift on this earth?

So: Let us go on to discover what we are to do with the rest of our lives. Let us turn within for the guidance that will direct us with direct revelation from the part of God Whom we are, the Christ-Self. This Self, we can imagine, is eager to share with our little self, and if we only listen, we will accomplish far more than would 1,000 years of learning.

Prayer

I would reach out to You today in a way that I have not done heretofore. I would be totally surrendered to Your grace, totally sure that Your way is best for me, totally at peace in sensing the depth of Your love for me. Thank You for giving me so often that sense of warmth that steels over me, comforting me that all is well.

Be with me as I seek to discover any and all future directions for my life. Let me be flexible and pliable in Your hands, ready to turn on a dime when You prompt a certain direction.

Thank You for always being here for me. You never lose track of me; help me never to lose track of You.

Amen.

Divine Revelation

“Learning, dear brothers and sisters, does come to an end, and that end is fast approaching. Coming to know through learning will be of the past as soon as Christ-consciousness is sustainable and you begin to come to know through constant revelation of what is. True learning has had only one purpose—the purpose of returning you to awareness of your true identity. Be done with learning now as you accept who you truly are.” (ACOL, T4:8.17)

I think Jesus makes the startling assertion that we should be through with learning because he is very desirous for us to just stop seeking for more and more spiritual guidance that is outside of ourselves. Our proper orientation in this time of Christ is within, to listen to the Self who is aligned with the Divine, God Himself, deep within the central core of our being. We have sought from the learned wisdom of the ages for so long that we are more or less trapped in a continuation of that pattern. That was the pattern for the time of the ego, but, as Jesus says, if we have come this far in A Course of Love, we have given up the ego as a bad idea, a motivator that failed to motivate, a savior that failed to save. We were never safe in the arms of the ego, but that was what our insanity told us—regardless of all evidence to the contrary. We are safe only in the arms of God, our Creator and Sustainer.

Learning is pushed aside in favor of revelation of the Divine from deep within us. Revelation of what is, not prescience about what the future will bring. We live in a consolidation of probable realities, and so no prognostication can always be accurate. This is why psychics often fail; we move into a new probable reality. (Much about probable realities can be found in Jane Roberts’s Seth transmissions.) Jesus also makes clear in ACOL that his words to us will not be predictive, that it is probable, but not for sure, that we will make the right decision for God, present and future time. It is probable, but not guaranteed. Our free will may delay what is an inevitable return to God.

Doesn’t it sound good to hear that divine revelation will be our way to know in the future, and maybe even in the present? To know what God is saying to us will take some times of meditation, prayer, and contemplation. If we don’t get still, the message will just fly over our heads. And never enter our mind and heart at all.

Be willing today to listen to God’s guidance, our deeper Self’s guidance. Ask, in fact, that this deeper Self make our decisions FOR us. That way we will know, if we are listening carefully, that our choices will be right not only for ourselves but also for all others. Life is a win-win, as Marianne Williamson says, when we are aligned with God.

If in doubt about anything that seems to require that a decision needs to be made, turn it over to a Higher Power. Then get still and take time to listen. We may have to be patient, because what we might need to hear can come only after certain changes have been wrought in us. It is said that God says, “Yes. No. Wait.” And we need to develop the patience to wait, for divine timing is not the same as ours. This lifetime we are in is a mere eye blink in eternity. Go with the flow, and don’t fault God if He asks us to delay a bit before we can see what He is working out.

Prayer

I have a question on my mind today. I have re-surrendered to You, asking for an answer. What I am hearing is not what I, right now, want to hear. But I have asked You to guide me to want for myself what You want for me. That is the great paradox. I create my reality, but I surrender to You, knowing that my real will and Yours is always and only the same.

Be with me throughout this peaceful and mostly leisurely day. When I am quiet and still, I can hear better, and I hope for an assurance about this question sooner rather than later. Change me so that I am ready to hear Your answer.

Amen.

God Talks through Revelation

“Revelation is a proper description of the mode by which the art of thought teaches and helps you learns. It is not through study, effort, or re-interpretation but through revelation.

“Revelation is direct communication with God in the sense that it is direct communication from a Self you have known not, the Self that is one with the Creator.” (ACOL, T1:4.23 – 4.24)

Perhaps most of us have not believed that revelation from God would happen to us very often, if at all. We imagine that we are not “good” enough.

But goodness is not the criteria. Once we have reached this far in A Course of Love, we are ready, for we are opening ourselves to the Self, deep within, who is at one with the Creator, God. We will know by revelation now. And we won’t learn what we know by analysis. Jesus says not by “study, effort, or re-interpretation.” We will know in an immediate sense, a knowing that comes from within and carries a certainty that our previous understanding has lacked.

What a blessing this is! We will actually know things, not perceive them. And this knowing carries its own assurance that we are on the right track. Part intuition, part immediate certainty, this knowing is all-encompassing of our immediate situation. We recognize, though sometimes we will not be able to act immediately. And the extent to which we cannot act on what we know if in all likelihood the extent to which the egoic mind still holds sway.

We don’t want the egoic mind to hold sway, of course. And how do we stop something so deeply embedded in us? We search for peace of mind and heart, knowing that we are definitely asking in God’s Will. When we have read this far, we have been willing to give up the egoic mind, and it is only our cooperation that has kept it in place. Now, without our cooperation, it will fade away, for we will gently turn from it to something much better—revelation brought about by wholeheartedness, the fusion of mind and heart that is a major theme of A Course of Love.

Let us ask for revelation today. Revelation can show us Christ-consciousness, first in glimpses, and then more and more as a part of our everyday life. Then will come that glorious moment when we know that we have crossed the bridge into Awakening.

And nothing will ever be the same again. Nothing the same, everything much better.

Dear Father/Mother,

Be with me today as I seek to go peacefully about my world. I have some appointments, some busyness that will call to me today. But you will go with me. And so nothing that seems to happen to me in this world has to be seen as real—except the love that I will encounter.

And I ask to see that love today.

Thank You.

Amen.

Leave Past Learning in Favor of God’s Revelation

“So how, you might ask, do you quit now, doing what you have so long done? (Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 10.3)”

1 – Learning

This quotation is about quitting learning. We right now know no other way, but Jesus is recommending in A Course of Love that we quit learning in the traditional sense, and learn through observation of life. In other words, we don’t keep seeking treatises on our religion. We stand firm on what he has been telling us. We learn through revelation from God, the very best way to learn that there is.

2 – Control

Of course, we can’t control what will come through, and this lack of control, to control freaks such as we have been, may be disconcerting. Relax into God’s love, and we will know the right things to say, do, and even what to think. We are not left to our own devices, unless we so will it, and if we so will it, we are asking for the return of the egoic state of consciousness. We don’t want to have this return happen.

3 – God’s Revelation

“Learning has had to do with what is perceived. No longer learning has to do with what is revealed. Learning has had to do with what is unknown. No longer learning has to do with what is and can only be known through revelation. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 10.11)”

4 – Revelation from God

Revelation is only from God (an ACIM tenet). This passage suggests that we have now been made ready to receive God’s revelations, and that we do so by leaving behind our search through learning (unless we choose to continue learning, which is also alright, according to Jesus in ACOL).

5 – The Role of Learning

Many of us enjoy learning and therefore will not readily leave it behind. Teaching and learning are two of the ways that we reach our brothers and sisters. So there are no hard and fast rules in salvation.
6 – Teaching and Learning

Jesus does indicate elsewhere that those who leave learning behind will go on to create. Actually teaching is a form of creation, and so the “teaching and learning” that ACIM describes is not far from the truth. We are reaching our brothers and sisters when we do teach (and learn), and we are also creating a new world through Jesus’s blessing.

7 – Learning through Revelation

Learning through revelation is the easiest and simplest way to learn. It is effortless, and as long as we are open to God, this type of revelation, once we are ready, will come. We do not have to reach for it. But only God can decide when we are ready for revelation. Revelation is only from God to us, never the reverse.
8 – Expression

“Expression of the Self of love in form is not something that can be learned. It is something that can only be lived. This is the time of the fulfillment of the lesson of the birds of the air who neither sow nor reap but sing a song of gladness. (Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 10.12)”
9 – Self of Love

We cannot study how to “be” in the Self of love. We cannot study how to express love, for love is beyond what can be taught. We wait until we are told what to do, and then we do it.

10 – A Simple Task

It is just that simple.

11 – Leave Learning Behind

“Those of you willing to leave learning behind will create the new. This will not happen through learning but through sharing. (Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 10.14)”

12 – Love Is Shared

Love is best shared; in fact, love can only be shared. We would like to create the new, as Jesus is encouraging us to do. But we don’t yet know how. And only a little time will solve that lack of knowing.

13 – God

Let God speak to us. He will reveal how and why sharing in love is so important. And he will detail what to do.
14 – Co-creators

“When you build upon what you can learn you build upon the past and create not the future but an extension of the past. You who are called to leave learning behind are called to return to your union and relationship with God wherein you are creators along with God. (Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 10.14)”

15 – A Sharp Break

Jesus seems to be asking for a sharp break with the past, because building upon the learning of the past only makes what we have always known—egoic pathways—and these will never create a new world.

16 – A Scary Thought

It is scary to think of disengaging from the past, for the past is all that we have known. Previously, learning from the past is what led us into the future. We thought that we would come to understand, and not repeat mistakes, if we learned from what we had been through.

17 – A New Future

We were wrong. The past has taught us badly. And only a sharp break from the past will lead us into a new future. Most of us would welcome a new future, a time of sharing with others under the umbrella of God’s love, under His revelation.

18 – Revelation

Let us ask for revelation today. As the day proceeds, see if we don’t feel a little freer, a little happier, a little more at peace.

19 – Today

This will be God’s revelation to us.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I stand ready to receive Your revelation today. May I hold myself in readiness. May the revelation that You wish to bring me come.

Thank You for being there for me, as always. I have not always known that You are there, emotionally, but intellectually I have always known. Help me to “feel” Your presence today.

I ask now to be happier each day, each happier than the one before. This will be because I choose to leave my interest in past learning. I will wait for Your revelation about what I am to say and do. This will free me to love extravagantly. And you would have me love very, very deeply.

Amen.

Move Out of Becoming Who You Are to Being Who You Are

“But now the time is upon you to leave learned works behind in favor of observation, vision and revelation. Now is the time to leave behind study for imagining, envisioning, and desire. Now is the time to move out of the time of becoming who you are to the time of being who you are. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 9.4)”

1 – Trilogies of Words

Jesus often uses in A Course of Love a trilogy of words that describe what he is trying to get us to do. Here, in this quotation, he uses a couple of trilogies: (1) observation, vision, revelation; and (2) imagining, envisioning, desire. We do need to delve deeply in ACOL to know what Jesus means by these terms, but a superficial reading will still get us some enlightenment.

2 – Revelation / Envisioning

We are not to “learn”; we are to “observe,” and this observation will grant us true vision and insights from revelation from God. Revelation from God will become commonplace in our lives as we walk further along the pathway. We will create true reality by imagining what we would like to have, and we envision this new place, fueled by our desire for something better and different.

3 – “Be”

We need to stop seeking to “become” something more, but simply to fall into our occupied place of “being.” We can “be,” and in this being will come our greatest achievements. They will be great because these achievements are not ego-inspired. We have to stop and think, because “achievement” has normally, for us, been egoic. But there are still things for us to do, though we need “do nothing.” This realization comes to us when we reach enlightenment. We know from our depths that God is not requiring things of us; he simply wants us to rest in His Love.

4 – Salvation

But we will want to do certain things to bring salvation into this world. Yet we are specifically told, and repeatedly, that in A Course of Love we are not called to proselytize. We simply show what we are like, and in the showing do we draw others to ourselves.

5 – Witnessing

This is the best form of witnessing.

6 – Learning

We are constantly encouraged in A Course of Love to leave learning behind. We have sought our way through much reading, frequently. There must come an end to all this seeking, and to realize that we do know. We can still learn, if that is our choice, but most of the time we are bade to let the inner knowing from Christ-consciousness be our guide. We do not always, in this time, pause to reconsider; we do not have so much trouble making decisions. We just move with the knowing that what we imagine, envision, and desire is the right pathway.

7 – A Caveat

There is a caveat to all of this. Many times we may think that we have gone farther along the pathway than we actually have. Then the ego has a field day. The ego can lead us astray when we think that it has actually withered away. The ego is very wily, and it will not easily give up its grip upon us. After all, we have had eons of conditioning. So proceed cautiously. We must be sure that the imagining that we are doing is truly Christ-centered, and not our own little selves that would lead us astray.

8 – Studying?

Imagining and envisioning are much more effortless ways of living than is intense studying. What a relief to know that we do not have to continue seeking, that the Answers have been given us! We can rest in God’s love, and we can live, comfortably and safely, in His arms.
9 – Seeking

I personally believe that A Course of Love was given to us by Jesus to let us know that there is an end to the seeking that our ego would have us continue to take: “seek but do not find” (an ACIM tenet). Let us pray today to have the ego wither away, to be replaced with the knowing that Christ-consciousness affords for us. May we thank God for this new day in our experience.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

There is an Answer to all the problems that we think that we perceive. Actually we have no problems, in Christ’s love, but we often don’t recognize this. May we recognize this today, as we leave behind the time of learning and move into the time of being.

Thank You for always being there for me in all the days of my life. I have not always recognized that You have been there, but I do so recognize it today, My heartfelt gratitude goes out to You.

Be with us today. Help us to have, as always, good days. This request cannot be granted as long as we are overwrought. We need calm, and calm will come when we fulfill the requirements for bringing it to ourselves. I do this by remembering You. Help me to walk through this day in Your shadow.

Amen.

True Vision Is Seeing with the Expectation of Revelation

“. . .[T]rue vision is seeing relationship and union. It is the opposite of seeing with the eyes and the attitude of separation. It is seeing with an expectation first and foremost of revelation. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 2.32)”

1 – ACIM

In A Course in Miracles, Jesus assures us that true vision does not have anything to do with the vision that our eyes have, or the world that our eyes behold. True vision sees beyond the illusion that is this world. It is an internal concept that one can enjoy when he or she has left behind the belief in separation from God as well as separation from our brothers and sisters.

2 – ACOL

A Course of Love, as we have repeatedly described, is based in large part on this theme of relationship and union (often called “unity and relationship”). The words are repeated so often that perhaps we lose sight of their true meaning, but a simple return to what the words themselves mean can set our minds and hearts at rest. We are in relationship to the All, which includes our brothers and sisters as well as God, but this All is actually One (i.e., unity). This easy definition will go a long way toward helping us to understand that Jesus is not asking us to believe or to live the impossible. We can live in unity and relationship, and indeed we will want to do so. Only in that way can we come to know the fullest meaning of salvation, the fullest extent of Awakening to Christ-consciousness.

3 – Perception

We all too often depend on our perception to determine our reactions in this world. This is discussed at length in A Course in Miracles. But we are also told in ACIM that projection makes perception. And who would want to live a projection from ourselves that shows us an evil and suffering world? We will not be blind to suffering when we move beyond seeing in this way, but we will see the larger picture–almost miraculously–and in no way will be tempted to blame our God for this state of affairs. Just as Jesus promises, we can know “pure joy” and “limitless release” on a daily basis. These two phrases can be the way that we view this world, as Jesus has bade us to do constantly. Only then will we know the peace that is held out to us in both ACIM and ACOL.

4 – Revelation

We want revelation to review the end to us, and this glimpse does frequently come when we study A Course in Miracles. Jesus indicates that revelation will occasionally reveal the end to us, but to get there the means are needed—and those means are being carefully explained in ACIM. Revelation is intensely personal and cannot be meaningfully communicated. The revelation cannot be “proved” to anybody (nor would we want to do so). God uses our inner sight to appeal to that which we can understand, said in a way that only we could understand.

5 – Visions

Visions (hallucinations) are miracles, not revelation, because visions are perceptual. Knowledge is revelation. This distinction between perception and knowledge is given repeatedly in A Course in Miracles. Our Guide, the Holy Spirit, and God Himself give knowledge, for knowledge is only of God.

6 – Ask of the Holy Spirit / Christ Self

What would we like to know that we don’t? Ask questions of the Holy Spirit, and He will answer. He will never leave us bereft. We have a Guide Who does not fail. In this era, we are bade to ask questions of the inner Christ Self. So there is a progression between A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love.

7 – Magic

Our own attempts at magic are pitiful in comparison to the knowledge that we will get by asking of the right Source. We put our faith in pills, incantations, affirmations—and some of these are good, at least some of the time. But we don’t get the full benefit of God’s grace until we put our faith in Him and Him alone—and His Communicator, the Holy Spirit.

8 – Our Lives Smooth Out

Then our lives smooth out, and all goes quite a bit better. Maybe, first, just a little bit better, but this little bit expands as our dedication increases. And when we do the Workbook lessons of A Course in Miracles, our minds change to accommodate the knowledge that God wills for all of us.

9 – Personal Interpretation

I see the Bible, A Course in Miracles, and A Course of Love, as progressions to match our culture of the time. God’s revelation in the Christian orientation is one way that we find our way home. Jesus is the leader whom we have chosen. There are other ways for people not receptive to Jesus, but his way is our chosen way, and in this we can rest secure. We will find our way home, and soon. In ACIM and ACOL Jesus is leading us, step by step, to Awakening to Christ-consciousness. In the latter part of ACOL, we see this as the elevated Self of form, the form that we occupy in this physical world. And we need to sustain this form, a feat that Jesus declares has never been achieved in this world.

10 – Time of Christ

Times are different now. We are living in the time of Christ, and light floods our planet. We will find our way home, and soon.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

You would have me to experience true vision–the revelation of a new world that only You can bring to me. In revelation, You reach down to me, and You bless me. I ask for this blessing today.

Be with me as I go about our sometimes woeful world. May I keep my head in the clouds, but my feet on the ground, grounded in You.

Amen.

Ceasing to Learn in the Old Way

1 – Learning

“Learning is not meant to last. This is why even this course work comes to an end. It comes to an end here and now as we move past study and learning to observation, vision, and revelation. (A Course of Love: Treatise on the New, 9.1)”

2 – Controversial

This first quotation from Treatise on the New is startling in its implications, and well it is meant to be. To say, “Learning is not meant to last,” is a controversial assertion. If we believe that it is Jesus who says it, we will think twice before dismissing whatever might be meant. The whole Treatise on the New seeks to explain what awaits us as the old ways of learning fall away from us.

As readers, we have been seekers, probably all of our lives. We have longed to know of the hidden things of heaven and earth. Surely many who preceded our time in this world were also seekers. It is our blessing to have more words of reassurance upon which to draw, words from these more recent readings. Many of us do view both A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love as channeled writings of Jesus.

3 – Relentless Seeking

Are we to keep seeking through our reading, and through other means, relentlessly? Is there a place where we will rest easy, that we are justified?

4 – Transformation

A Course in Love indicates that there is a time when learning, as such, ought to cease. Or perhaps to be transformed into another means of coming to know. It does take a a bit of “learning” to understand what is meant by “observation, vision, and revelation.”

5 – Observation

“Observation” is akin to noticing what surrounds us, even in this sometimes misguided world. “Vision” and “revelation” are familiar words from A Course in Miracles also. Vision gives us the means to see, and it is viewed in ACIM as a gift of the Holy Spirit. Revelation is viewed in ACIM as a gift of God, and proceeds from God to us (never the reverse). A significant passage from ACIM indicates that revelation may occasionally reveal the end to us, but to get there the means are needed.

6 – Welcome News

It ought to be welcome news to us that there comes a time to end learning in the old way. We do still learn, of course, but the new way is effortless—mainly through observation of what surrounds us in this world. And, if we have been following Jesus, what surrounds us will have been transformed. We may see suffering and pain, but it won’t affect us in the same way that it used to. We will simply categorize all suffering and pain as unreal. It is not of God, and so it is unreal, a manifestation of illusion in a world of dreams, a world of unreality.

7 – Hard

Learning in the old way has always been hard, even when we were enjoying what we were coming to know. It takes work, intense concentration, and it tires us out.

8 – New World

Jesus would have us learn from him now that in the new world, we won’t be so overcome with fatigue from being faced with an impossible learning situation. Such learning situation are essentially disheartening, and very depressing. The new way of observation will mean that we learn effortlessly, and this is something with which all of us can look forward to experiencing.

9 – Time of Christ

ACIM is meant to be those means for the time of the Holy Spirit. A Course of Love, meant for the time of Christ, takes us a step farther along.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

As I reach forth to understand what living in the time of Christ really means, may I be reassured that You are always there. This time is what many generations have waited to find.

Be with all of us as we embark on a consideration of the Treatise on the New. Give us understanding that comes not from fretful learning, but from the vision that comes to us effortlessly.

Thank You for my life during this time.

Thank You that I can be reassured that my life does not have to be a constant seeking, that there is an end point, a point of arrival. Help me to know what this means as my pathway ahead unfolds.

Amen.

Healing is of God. Revelation May Occasionally Reveal the End to You, but to Reach It the Means Are Needed.

“Healing is of God in the end. The means are being carefully explained to you. Revelation may occasionally reveal the end to you, but to reach it the means are needed. (T16)”

Affirmation: “Revelation may occasionally reveal the end”

Reflections:

1 – Revelation

We may know revelation, the revelation of Awakening, several times before it is permanent. These are but glimpses of what will await us when the elevated Self of form (from A Course of Love) is sustained, something that has not reached our world very often yet. Revelation does show us the end, though, and these glimpses happen to many of us. They are called, in Eastern terminology, “satori.” We can see glimpses of Awakening in our brothers and sisters, for this is far more common than is the sustaining of Awakening, or the elevated Self of form. To have known Awakening, even briefly, is a very wonderful blessing; it shows us what is possible. We really do live in the present, and we live without anxiety in the present. It is a time of great joy and freedom from fear.

2 – Means to Awakening

The “means,” in this passage, are found in A Course in Miracles. When we follow the way pointed out in its lovely writing, we will ultimately know the end of the Awakening that does not leave us. Jesus, as the one doing the channeling, is carefully pointing out, in ACIM, what needs to happen for Awakening to occur. For God to reach down and lift us up.

3 – Personal Experience

I have known two glimpses of Awakening–both long ago. One was for three months, a summer; and the other, right after I discovered A Course in Miracles, lasted six months. I did not sustain these satori, these glimpses. Now I have moments of sensing a Oneness with God, and I have hope that these will be sustained. I do know that the understanding that came to me in the glimpses of long ago have stayed with me. I was filled with joy, totally without worry and anxiety, and enjoyed living in the moment. I was very satisfied with life in general, and though my circumstances were mostly favorable, it was my attitude that colored everything. Glimpses of Awakening are gifts to be treasured. I can only believe that a sustaining of Awakening would bring a continual happiness, but I would be conscious, I think, of making a contribution to this world at the same time that I was reveling in my joy.

4 – Individual Who Is Awakened

I know one individual who has sustained Awakening, or enlightenment, or Christ-consciousness for more than 30 years. She is a modest individual who has many friends, thinks well of others, but does not push herself forward in any way. She speaks softly to others of her experience, which was begun as three crisis days of pain when she was 42; she is 75 now, and is seeking to publish a 350-page book of her experience and the sources in history that have explained to her what happened so long ago.

5 – Preconditions

My friend is certain that everybody can have what she has. She believes that people have aborted their own transformation by putting preconditions on God, something that she admits that she did not do. She opened herself up to God in total surrender. And as a result the world was restored to her in glory.

6 – From God to Us

It is comforting to know that we are, at any time, subject to revelation. This is not quite the same as miracles, which are perceptual and therefore do not last (from ACIM). We cannot easily explain revelation, as it sounds truthful only to ourselves, being intensely personal–from God to us, always. He knows us as nobody in this world can. An inner awareness of God will go a long way toward recognizing that He and we are not separate at all.

Prayer:

Dear Father,

Thank you for the times in my life that revelation has revealed Awakening to me. It was not sustained, but that it happened at all is grounds for hope that one day Awakening will be permanent.

May all of us know this great joy of experiencing Awakening. A Course in Miracles explains the healing that leads us to it.

Be with all of us today. Help us to have respect for others, respect and compassion. May we recognize when our brothers and sisters are in distress that rests on error, and thus calls for help. Most walk a difficult pathway in this world, but this does not have to be. Through love and gratitude, we can effect a better life for ourselves. May all of us do so today.

Amen.

Miracles

“Ask me which miracles you should perform. This spares you needless effort, because you will be acting under direct communication. The impersonal nature of the miracles is an essential ingredient, because it enables me to direct its application, and under my guidance miracles lead to the highly personal experience of revelation. A guide does not control but he does direct, leaving it up to you to follow. (T-1.III.4)”

Affirmation: “I will ask what miracles to perform today.”

Reflections:

1 – Selecting Miracles to Perform

This passage for today is a return to A Course in Miracles, and we will focus on ACIM for the next several days. In this early passage in the Text, Jesus is asserting his authority as our guide. He tells us that we ought simply to ask (internally) what miracles we ought to perform, and we will be told. Elsewhere we are told that consciously selected miracles are apt to be misguided, and so it is necessary to follow his guidance. Then, we are also told, we will be led into experiences of revelation.

2 – Revelation

Others will not understand our experiences of revelation, should we try to describe these experiences. They are very personal to us, in the same way that dream symbols are frequently unique to ourselves (at least according to Jung). But this is not solely an illusion, as dreams as seen to be in ACIM. The miracle still is of perception, and thus of the personal self, and because it is of perception, the miracle will not last (an ACIM tenet).

3 – Perception vs. Knowledge

But revelation is never defined as being of perception, though whether or not it is might be open to question (an interpretation, not stated in ACIM). Revelation reveals the end to us, the end that I believe A Course of Love spells out. We are heading beyond the personal or “little” self (ruled by the ego), and toward the Self/Christ, within, who will guide us once we are awakened (living in Christ-consciousness). Revelation, being intensely personal, could not be described adequately, even if we tried. Visions or hallucinations may be seen as miracles, and they too do not last, for they are perceptual.

4 – Unrecognized Miracles

Most miracles will, at first, not be recognized as such (an interpretation, not stated in ACIM). Others may benefit from miracles that we do about which we have been totally unaware. We will just sense that there is a right action that we ought to take, we will take it, and others will benefit. We ourselves will benefit as well. And, later on, we will look back and proclaim, “That was a miracle!”

5 – Salvation

The way of salvation is indeed miraculous.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I ask You and Jesus what miracles to perform today. May I follow guidance always, never trying to do my personal will alone–for this would be misguided all too often. I would love the ones whom I see, with whom I make contact.

Thank You for this interlude of peace. May the peace extend to other times, other places. I am aware of feeling intensely grateful for my many blessings. You have been extraordinarily gentle with me as I have walked through this lifetime. May my future smooth out even more. I have need for harmony and joy as I walk ahead. May these blessings come to me, as well as to others whom I encounter.

Thank You for leading me to understand more fully about miracles. I would work miracles today, those that You and Jesus indicate, and I would do so in a joyous spirit. I have the intuition that indeed this prayer will be answered, and answered today.

Amen.

Revelation

“Revelation is a proper description of the mode by which the art of thought teaches and helps you learn.  It is not through study, effort, or re-interpretation but through revelation.  (The Treatises of A Course of Love:  Treatise on the Art of Thought, 4.23)”

Affirmation:  “Revelation is now how I will learn.”

Reflections:

1 – Now Ready

This passage for today is a sea change from previous passages cited from A Course of Love, because the passage indicates that we are now ready for revelation.  And the implication is that this revelation will be constant and ongoing.  What a blessing!

2 – Do We Recognize Revelation?

Perhaps we will not be aware of all the times that revelation comes to us.  Perhaps revelation has already come many times and often in recent weeks and months, as we study A Course of Love, and we did not recognize revelation for what it was.  This is my interpretation, that we just didn’t recognize the times that God has spoken to us, has revealed to us that which we needed to learn.

3 – Observation

We do know that no longer do we learn through intense study, but through observation–an observation that is more of the abstract mind than the concrete (an interpretation, not stated in ACOL).  Now we find that it is not just our personal self that observes, but the Self/Christ within that senses revelation and therefore is guided about what to say or do next.  Our minds and hearts are guided.  We know beyond doubt that we are not alone.  And it is our Self/Christ that has risen to the forefront in our very being.

4 – Do Not Analyze

This passage also says a great deal about what Jesus means by the “art” of thought, the title of this treatise.  We are no longer to analyze, but to receive, and then, in turn, to give.  We receive from the Self/Christ within, a Self that is in intimate contact with our God within, and then we know how to respond.  And our response is very, very important.  We don’t take responsibility for our brothers and sisters, for that is their role for themselves, but we do respond to their needs whenever appropriate.

5 – ACIM

In A Course in Miracles, we learned that revelation would occasionally show us the end, but to get there the means were needed.  And the means were being explaining in ACIM.  (Paraphrases from ACIM, the Text.)  Now we are encouraged to accept that revelation will be much more of a constant in our lives.  The passage does not say, and does not even imply, that we need to be enlightened before we can receive from revelation.  The books in the trilogy of A Course in Love are to be read in sequence, and it is not until the last half of the third book that we go to the mountaintop (metaphorically) with Jesus, and there become the elevated Self of form (assumingly reaching Christ-consciousness).  The Treatise of the Art of Thought is the first of four treatises in the second book in the sequence.  So we are not at Christ-consciousness when revelation begins to speak to us in an ever-more constant way.

6 – Revelation Now More Constant

We learn that revelation is more constant today, from this passage.  May we learn in this new way, and may we thank God for the new means of learning.  We will make great strides, if our heart is right, from  now on.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I learn how to distinguish revelation from something else.  It seems akin to intuition, but perhaps You need to teach me further.

May I be open to revelation today.  May I learn this new way of knowing, in the depths of my being, in my Self.

Amen.

Revelation May Reveal the End

“Healing is of God in the end.  The means are being carefully explained to you.  Revelation may occasionally reveal the end to you, but to reach it the means are needed.  (T16)”

Affirmation:  “Revelation may occasionally reveal the end”

 

Reflections:

1 – Awakening

We may know revelation, the revelation of Awakening, several times before it is permanent.  This is not a Course concept, but one that we can observe in our brothers and ourselves.  To have known Awakening, even briefly, is a very wonderful blessing; it shows us what is possible.  We really do live in the present, and we live without anxiety in the present.  It is a time of great joy and freedom from fear.

2 – The Means to Awakening

The “means,” in this passage, are found in A Course in Miracles.  When we follow the way pointed out in its lovely writing, we will ultimately know the end of the Awakening that does not leave us.

3 – Personal Experience

I once lived in a state of mystic awareness for a little more than six months.  I knew a love for others that was all-encompassing, even toward people who were heretofore strangers to me.  I did not feel any fear (that I can recall) in the entire period of months, and anxiety had previously dogged my steps for many years.  I followed guidance as I perceived it, and, as ACIM warns, this sometimes led me into situations that were extremely embarrassing to me.  (ACIM, in the Manual, says that my embarrassment was borne of a “shabby self-image,” and thus not worthy of even the feeling of embarrassment.  The shabby self-image is best dropped.)  I did feel calmly joyous nearly all the time.  I  liked to sit as I waited for someone, secure in the certainty that the encounter I was about to have would be alright.  I was not nervous ahead of time in regard to any anticipated experience.

4 – A Return Soon?

Obviously, I would like for such awakened feelings to return.  They sometimes do, fleetingly.  I wait patiently (as possible) for the Awakening of which all long-time students of A Course in Miracles clamor.  But patience must be the watchword, even as we avoid the judgment of ourselves and  our brothers and sisters that will make impossible the boon of Awakening.  If we judge not, we are told in ACIM, we will awaken.  How hard a dictate to practice, even when we have learned a good bit about the ego’s wily ways.

4 – Revelation from God

It is comforting to know that we are, at any time, subject to revelation.  This is not quite the same as miracles.  We cannot easily explain revelation, as it sounds truthful only to ourselves, being intensely personal–from God to us, always.  He knows us as nobody in this world can.  An inner awareness of God will go a long way toward recognizing that He and we are not separate at all.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Thank you for the times in my life that revelation has revealed Awakening to me.  It was not sustained, but that it happened at all is grounds for hope that one day Awakening will be permanent.

May all of us know this great joy of experiencing Awakening.  A Course in Miracles explains the healing that leads us to it.

Amen.

Miracles Lead to Revelation

“The impersonal nature of the miracle is an essential ingredient, because it enables me to direct its application, and under my guidance miracles lead to the highly personal experience of revelation.  (T9)”

Affirmation:  “I invite revelation today.”

Reflections:

1 – Jesus’s Guidance

Miracles lead to revelation under Jesus’s guidance.  How liberating!  Revelation is considered to be, by A Course in Miracles, unspeakable, as it is highly personal and therefore meaningful only to us at the time that we receive it.  We do not try to “prove” anything by sharing our revelations.  Their meaning, being so personal, is not able to be conveyed to anybody else.   Revelation is not perceptual; miracles are, and therefore they do not last (nothing that is perceptual lasts–a Text tenet).

2 – We May Misread “Revelation”

We may sometimes misread revelation, though, thinking that we have received a message from God that is only our own thinking.  This experience need not occur if we stay close to the precepts of A Course in Miracles.  Test out the experience, if this seems feasible.  We know that our own self-will can misdirect us.  We would not want to make mistakes in a matter of such importance.  We must ask for guidance of the Holy Spirit in such matters, most especially when revelation is new to us.

3 – How to Awaken

The means to Awakening are being given to us in A Course in Miracles.  Revelation may occasionally occur, but to get to Awakening on a sustained basis, we must understand the means.  This is learning that ACIM recommends.  But it is not effortful or tedious; it is the greatest joy to learn through the prompting of divine guidance.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I know that I have had many miracles in my life.  Sometimes they seem to happen daily.  And I have had a few times that I appeared to receive revelation.  I question this, because I do not want to allow my ego to imagine what did not happen.  But there were one or two periods in my life that seemed a foreshadowing of what Awakening could be like.  And I thank You for this foretaste.

Be with me as I seek to walk a smooth pathway today.  Right now there is much stress in my life, as there is in the lives of many people in our world.  Be with all of us, and may we feel Your presence.  May miracles come, as promised, and may we have a foretaste of a new day through the revelatory moments that You deem for us.

Amen.

Miracles and Revelation

“The Holy Spirit is the highest communication medium.  Miracles do not involve this type of communication, because they are temporary communication devices.  When you return to your original form of communication with God by direct revelation, the need for miracles is over.  (T6)”

Affirmation:  “May the Holy Spirit be with me today.”

Reflections:

1 – Turning to the Holy Spirit

Here is the reason that we are to turn to the Holy Spirit for guidance.  He is the “highest” communication medium.  When we turn to Him, it even seems that miracles are not as necessary or important to our daily life.  We have gone to the highest when we listen to the Holy Spirit.

2 – Christ-Consciousness

Only in the next step, Christ-consciousness, do we move beyond the Holy Spirit and His time, and into the time of Christ (a tenet of A Course of Love).  This is the state after Awakening, and there has been no general movement in our world toward Awakening for everyone.

3 – A View from Eckhart Tolle

Eckhart Tolle addressed this point in a CD entitled, “Even the Sun Will Die.”  He is an awakened individual (author of The Power of Now and A New Earth) who is now a teacher without to a specific religion.  But he does quote from A Course in Miracles in his writings.  He believes that the Awakening is coming for more and more individuals, and he notes that he hears from many who have experienced Awakening.  They turn to Eckhart when they cannot understand their own experiences.

4 – Miracles

Miracles, a different type of communication, do show us the way when our understanding is limited.  We will be buoyed by miracles in a way that we miss if we try to depend upon ourselves alone.  We always make mistakes.  With miracles, a way is shown that will lead down the pathway of truth.

5 – Direct Revelation from God

Finally, we see direct revelation from God.  It is likely that ACIM is here speaking of the Awakening, though elsewhere Jesus speaks of occasional revelation that reveals the end (T16).

6 – This ACIM Passage One of the Best

Nowhere are there greater promises in A Course in Miracles than in this brief passage, quoted above.  It reveals the pathway from Holy Spirit to miracles to direct revelation.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would welcome Your involvement to bring me closer to Awakening.  I have long intuited the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and in recent times I have felt a inner assurance that may (or may not) be evidence of the Christ-consciousness that comes intermittently.  I would sustain the Self of form, the Christ-consciousness.  But You must show me how.  I turn to You in humble request today that I might use all that You grant to me in the service of Your cause for our world.

Be with me when I am tired today, when I do not feel Your presence.  And help me to relax into Your guiding care.  I trust You completely to lead me home, not through death, but through making everythin in this world fresh and clean.

Thank You for guiding me through another day.

Amen.