IA´s Journal

[IA56]

Your Function in the Atonement

When you accept a brother´s guiltlessness you will see the Atonement in him. For by proclaiming it in him you make it yours, and you will see what you sought. You will not see the symbol of your brother´s guiltlessness shining within him while you still believe it is not there. His guiltlessness is your Atonement. Grant it to him, and you will see the truth of what you have acknowledged. Yet truth is offered first to be received, even a sGod gave it first to His Son. The first in time means nothing, but the First in eternity is God the Father, Who is both First and One. Beyond the First thereis no other, for there is no order, no second or third, and nothing but the First. You who belong to the First Cause,created by Him like unto Himself and part of Him, are more than merely guiltless. The state of guiltlessness is only the condition in which what is not there has been removed from the disordered mind that thought it was. This state, and only this, must you attain, with God beside you. For until you do,you will still think that you are separate from Him. You can perhaps feel HisPresence next to you, but cannot know that you are one with Him. This cannot betaught. Learning applies only to the condition in which it happens of itself.When you have let all that obscured the truth in your most holy mind be undonefor you, and therefore stand in grace before your Father, He will give Himself toyou as He has always done. Giving Himself is all He knows, and so it is allknowledge. For what He knows not cannot be, and therefore cannot be given. Asknot to be forgiven, for this has already been accompliched. Ask, rather, tolearn how to forgive, and to restore what always was to your unforginving mind.Atonement becomes real and visible to those who use it. On earth this is youronly function, and you must learn that it is all you want to learn. You willfeel guilty till you learn this. For in the end, whatever form it takes, yourguilt arises from your failure to fulfill your function in God´s Mind with allof yours. Can you escape this guilt by failing to fulfill your function here?You need not understand creation to do what must be done before that knowledgewould be meaninful to you. God breaks no barriers; neither did He make them.When you release them they are gone. God will not fail, nor ever has inanything. Decide that God is right and you are wrong about yourself. He createdyou out of Himself, but still within Him. There cannot, therefore, be anyonewithout His Holiness, nor anyone unworthy of His perfect Love. Fail not in yourfunction of loving in a loveless placemade out of darkness and deceit, for thus are darkness and deceit undone. Failnot yourself, but instead offer to God and you His blamless Son. For this smallgift of appreciation for His Love, God will Himself exchange your gift for His.Before you make any decisions for yourself, remember that you have decidedagainst your function in Heaven, and then consider carefully whether you wantto make decisions here. Your function here is only to decide against decidingwhat you want, in recognitin that you do not know. How, then, can you decidewhat you shluld do? Leave all decisions to the Only Who speaks for God, andfor your function as He knows it. Sowill He teach you to remove the awful burden you have laid upon yourself byloving not the Son of God, and trying to teach him guilt instead of love. Giveup this frantic and insane attempt to cheats you of the joy of living with yourGod and Father, and of waking gladly to His Love and Holiness that jointogether as the truth in you, make you one with Him. When you have learned howto 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 carrieddown a quiet path in summer. Only your own volition seems to make decidinghard. The Holy Spirit will not delay in answering your evvery question what todo. He knows. And He will tell you, and then do it for you. You who are tired will find this ismore restful than sleep. For you can bring your guilt into sleeping, but notinto this. Unless you are guiltless you cannot know God, Whose Will is that youknow Him. Therefore, you must be guiltless. Yet if you do not accept thenecessary conditions for knowing Him, you have denied Him and do not recognizeHim, though He is all around you. He cannot be known without His Son, whoseguiltlessness is the condition for knowing Him. Accepting His Son as guilty isdenial of the Father so complete, that knowledge is swept away from recognitionin the very mind where God Himself has placed it. If you would but listen, and learn how impossible this is! Do not edowHim with attributes you understand. You made Him not, and anything youunderstand is not of Him. Your task is not to make reality. It is here withoutyour making, but not without you. You who have tried to throw yourself away andvalued God so little, hear me speak for Him and for yourself. You cannotunderstand how much your Father loves you, for there is no parallel in yourexperience of the world to help you understand it. There is nothing on earthwith which it can compare, and nothing you have ever felt apart from Himresembles it ever so faintly. You cannot even give a blessing in perfectgentleness. Would you know of One Who gives forever, and Who knows of nothingexcept giving? The children of Heaven live in the light of the blessing oftheir Father, because they know that they are sinless. The Atonement wasestablished as the means of restoring guiltlessness to minds that have deniedit, and thus denied Heaven to itself. Atonement teaches you the ture conditionof the Son of God. It does not teach you what you are, or what your Father is.The Holy Spirit, Who remembers this for you, merely teaches you how to removethe blocks that stand between you and what you know. His memory is yours. Ifyou remember what you have made, you are remembering nothing. Remembrance ofreality is in Him, and therefore in you. The guiltless and the guilty are totalincapable of understanding one another. Each perceives the other as likehimself, making both unable to communicate, because each sees the other unlikethe way he sees himself. God can communicate only to the Holy Spirit in yourmind, because only Hes hares the knowledge of what you are with God. And onlythe Holy Spirit can answer God for you, for only He knows what God is.Everything else that you have placed within your mind cannot exist, for what isnot in communication with the Mind of God has never been. Communicationwith God is life. Nothing without it isat all.

Love

[IA56]

The Circle of Atonement

The only part of your mind that has reality is the part that links you still with God. Would you have all of it transformed into a radiant message of God´s Love, to share with all the lonely ones who have denid Him?God makes this possible. Would you deny His yearning to be known? You yearn for Him, as He for you.This is forever changeless. Accept, then, the immutable.Leave the world of death behind, and return quietly to Heaven. There is nothing of value here, and everything of value there. Listen to the Holy Spirit, and God through Him. He speaks for you to you. There is no guilt in you, for God is blessed in His Son as the Son is blessed in Him. Everyone has a special part to play in the Atonement, but the message given to each on is always the same;God´s Son is guiltless. Each one teaches the message differently, and learns it differently. Yet until he teaches it and learns it, he will suffer the pain of dim awareness that his true function remains unfulfilled in him. The burden of guilt is heavy, but God would not have you bound by it. His plan for yourawaking is as perfect as yours is falible. You know not what you do, but He Whoknows is with you. His gentleness is yours, and all the love you share with GodHe holds in trust for you. He would teach you nothing except how to be happy.Blessed Son of a wholly blessing Father, joy was created for you. Who cancondemn whom god has blessed? There is nothing in the Mind of God that does notshare His shining innocence. Creation is the natural extension of perfectpurity. Your only calling here is to devote yourself, with active willingness,to the denial of guilt in all its forms. To accuse is not to understand. Thehappy learners of the Atonement becomethe teachers of the innocence that is the right of all that God created. Denythem not what is their due, for you will not withhold it form them alone. Theinheritance of the Kingdom is the right of God´s Son, given him in hiscreation. Do not try to steal it form him, or you will ask for guilt and willexperience it. Protect his purtity from every thought that would steal it away and keep it from hissight. Bring innocence to light, in answer to the call of the Atonement. Neverallow purity ro remain hidden, but shine away the heavy weils of guilt withinwhich the Son of God has hidden himself from his own sight. We are all joined in the Atonement here, and nothing elsecan unite us in the world. So will the world of separation slip away, and fulll communication be restored betweenthe Father and the Son. The miracle acknowledges the guiltlessness that musthave been denied to produce the need of healing. Do not withold this gladacknowledgment, for hope of happiness and release from suffering of every kind lie in it. Who is there butwishes to be free of pain? He may not yet have learned how to exchange guiltfor innocence, nor realize that only in this exchange can freedom from pain behis. Yet those who have failed to learn need teaching, not attack. To attackthose who have need of teaching is to fail to learn from them. Teachers ofinnocence, each in his own way, have joined together, taking their part in theunified curriculum of the Atonement. There is no unity of learning goals apartfrom this. There is no conflict in this curriculum, which has one aim howeverit is taught. Each effort make on its behalf is offered for the single purposeof release from gult, to the eternal glory of God and His creation. And everyteaching that points to this points straight to Heaven, and the peace of God.There is no pain, no trial, no fear that teaching this can fail to overcome.The power of God Himself supports this teaching, and guarantees its limitlessresults. Join your own efforts to the power that cannot fail and must result inpeace. No one can be untouched by teaching such as this. You will not seeyourself beyond the power of God if you teach only this. You will not be exemptfrom the effects of this most holy lesson, which seeks but to restore what isthe right of God´s creation. From everyone whom you accord release from guiltyou will inevitably learn your innocence. The circle of Atonement has no end.And you will find ever-increasing confidence in your safe inclusion in thecircle with everyone you bring withinits safety and its perfect peace. Peace, then, be unto everyone who becomes ateacher of peace. For peace is the acknowledgment of perfect purity, from which no one isexcluded. Within its holy circle is everyone whom God created as His Son. Joyis its unifying attribute, with no one left ouside to suffer guilt alone. Thepower of God draws everyone to its safe embrance of love and union. Standquietly within this circle, and attract all torutured minds to join with you inthe safetyu of its peace and holiness. Abide with me within it, as teachers ofAtonement, not of guilt. Blessed are you who teach with me. Our power comes notof us, but of our Father. In guiltlessness we know Him, as He knows usguiltless. I stand within the circle, calling you to peace. Teach peace withme, and stand with me on holy ground. Remember for everyone your Father´s powerthat He has given him. Believe not that you cannot teach His perfect peace.Stand not outside, but join with me within. Fail not God His Son as He createdhim, by teaching him his innocence. The crucifixion has no part in theAtonement. Only the resurrection became my part in it. That iss the symbol ofthe release from guilt by guiltlessness. Whom you perceive as guilty you wouldcrucify. Yet you restore guiltlessness to whomever you see as guiltless.Crucifixion is always the ego´s aim. It sees everyone as guilty, and by itscomdemnation it would kill. The Holy Spirit sees only gultlessness, and in Hisgentleness He would release from fear and re-estabilsh the reign of love. Thepower of love is in His gentleness, which os of God and therefore cannotcrucify nor suffer crucifixion. The temple you restore becomes your altar, forit was rebuilt through you. And everything you give to God is yours. Thus Hecreates, and thus must you restore. Each one you see you place within the holycircle of Atonement or leave outside, judging him fit for crucifixion or forredemtption. If you bring him into the circle of purity, you will rest therewith him. If you leave him without, you join him there. Judge not except inquietness which is not of you. Refuse to accept anyone as without the blessingof Atonement, and bring him into it by blessing him. Holiness must be shared,for therein lies everything that makes it holy. Come gladly to the holy circle,and look out here is what he seeks alone with you. Come, let us join him in theholy place of peace which is for all of us, united as one within the Cause ofpeace.

Love

[IA56]

The Light of Communication

The journey that we undertake together is the exchange of dark for light, of ignorance for understanding. Nothing you understand is fearful. It is only in darkness and in ignorance that your perceive the frightening, and shrink away from it to further darkness. And yet it is only the hidden that can terrify, not for what it is, but for its hiddenness. The obscure is frightening because you do not understand its meaning. If you did,it would be clear and you would be not longer in the dark. Nothing has hidden value, for what is hidden cannot be shared, and so its value is unknown. The hidden is kept apart, but value always lies in joint appreciation. What is concealed cannot be loved, and so it must be feared. The quiet light in whichthe Holy Spirit dwells within you is merely perfect openness, in which nothing is hidden and therefore nothing is fearful. Attack will always yield to love ifit is brought to love, not hidden from it. There is no darkness that the light of love will not dispel, unless it is concealed from love´s beneficence. What is kept apart from love cannot share its healing power, because it has beenseparated off and kept in darkness.The sentinels of darkness watch over itcarfully, and you who made these guardians of illusion out of nothing and nowafraid of them. Would you continue to give imagined power to these strangeideas of safety? They are neither safe nor unsafe. They do nothing at all,being nothing at all. As guardians of darkness and of ignorance look to themonly for fear, for what they keep obscure is fearful. But let them go, and whatwas fearful will be so no longer. Without protection of obscurity only thelight of love remains, for only this has meaning and can live in light.Everything else must disappear. Death yields to life simply because destructionis not true. The light of guiltlessness shines guilt away because, when theyare brought together, the truth of one must make the falsity of its oppositeperfectly clear. Keep not guilt and guiltlessness apart, for your belief thatyou can havet hem both is meanigless. All you have done by keeping them apartis lose their meaning by confusing them with each other. And so you do notrealize that only one means anything. The other is wholly without sense of anykind. You have regarded the separation as a means for breaking yourcommunication with your Father. The Holy Spirit reinterprets it as a means ofre-establishing what was not broken, but has been made obscure. All things youmade have use to Him, for His most holy purpose. He knows you are not separatefrom God, but He perceives much in your mind that lets you think you are. Allthis and nothing else would He separate from you. The power of decision, whichyou made in place of the power of creation, He would teach you how to use onyour behalf. You who made it to crucify yourself must learn of Him how to apply it to the holy cause ofrestoration. You who speak in dark and devious symbols do not understand thelanguage you have made. It has no meaning, for its purpose is notcommunication, but rather the disruption of communication. If the purpose oflanguage is communcation, how can this tongue mean anything? Yet even thisstrange and twisted effort to communicate through not communicating holds enough of love to make it meaningful ifits interpreter is not its maker. You who made it are but expressing conflict,from which the Holy Spirit would release you. Leave what you would communicate toHim. He will interpret it to you with perfect clarity, for He knows with Whomyou are in perfect communication. You know not what you say, and so you knownot what is said to you. Yet your Interpreter perceives the meaning in youralien language. He will not attempt to communicate the meaningless. But He willseparate out all that has meaning, dropping off the rest and offering your truecommunication to those who would communicate as truly with you. You speak twolanguages at oncee, and this must lead to unintelligiblility. Yet if one meansnothing and the other everything, only that one is possible for purpose ofcommunication. The other but interfers with it. The Holy Spirit´s function isentirely communication. He therefore must remove whatever interfers withcommunication in order to restore it. Therefore, keep no source of interferencefrom His sight, for He will not attack your sentinels. But bring them to Himand let His gentleness teach you that, in the light, they are not fearful, andcannot serve to guard the dark door behind which nothing at all is carefullyconcealed. There are no hidden chambers in God´s temple. Its gates are openwide to greet His Son. No one can fail to come where God has called him, if heclose not the door himself upon his Father´s welcome.

Love

[IA56]

Sharing Perception with the Holy Spirit

What do you want? Light or darkness, knowledge or ignorace are yours, but not both. Opposites must be brought together, not kept apart.For their separation is only in your mind, and they are reconciled by union, as you are. In union, everything that is not real must disappear, for truth is union. As darkness disappears in light, so ignorance fades away when knowledge dawns. Perception is the medium by which ignorance is brought to knowledge. Yet the perception must be withoout deceit, for oterwise it becomes the Messenger of ignorance rather than a helper in the serch for truth. The search for truthis but the honest searching out of everything that interferes with truth. Truthis. It can neither be lost nor sought nor found. It is there, wherever you are,being within you. Yet it can be recognized or unrecognized, real or false to you. If you hide it, it becomes unreal to you because you hid it and surroundedit with fear. Under each cornestone of fear on which you have erected yourinsane system of belief, the truth lies hidden. Yet you cannot know this, forby hiding truth in fear, you see no reason to believe that the more you look atfear the less you see it, and the clearer what it conceals becomes. It is notpossible to convince the unknowing thatthey know. From their point of view it is not true. Yet it is true because Godknows it. There are clearly opposite viewpoints on what the ”unkonwing” are. ToGod, unknowing is impossible. It is therefore not a pont of view at all, butmerely a belief in something that does not exist. It is only the belief that the unkowning have, and by it they are wrongabout themselves. They have defined themselves as they were not created.Uncertainty brought to certainty does not retain any conviction ofreality. Our emphasis has been on bringingwhat is undesirable to the desirable; what you do not want to what you do. Youwill realize that salvation must come to you this way, if you consider whatdissociation is. Dissociation is a distorted process of thinking whereby twosystems of belief which cannot coexist are both maintained. If they are brought together,their joint acceptance becomes impossible. But if one is kept in darkness fromthe other, their separation seems to keep them both alive and equal in theirreality. Their joining thus becomes the source of fear, for if they meet,acceptance must be withdrewn form one of them. You cannot havet hem both, foreach denies the other. Apart, this fact is lost form sight, for each in aseparate palce can be endowed with firm belief. Bring them together, and thefact of their complete incompatiblility is instantly apparant. One will go,because the other is seen in the same place. Light cannot enter darkness when amind believes in darkness, and will notlet it go. Truth does not struggle against ignorance, and love does not attackfear. What needs no protection does not defend itself. Defense is of yourmaking. God knows it not. The Holy Spirit uses defenses on behalf of truth onlybecause you made them against it. His perception of them, according to Hispurpose, merely changes them into a call for what you ahve attacked with them.Defenses, like everything you made, must be gently turned to your own good, translatedby the Holy Spirit from means of self-destruction, to means of preservation andrelease. His task is mighty, but thepower of God is with Him. Therefore, to Himit is so easy that it was accomplished the instant it was given Him for you. Donot delay in your return to peace by wondering how He can fulfill what God hasgiven Him to do. Leave that to Him Who knows. You are not asked to do mightytasks yourself. You are merely asked to do the little He suggests you do,trusting Him only to the small extent of believing that, if He asks it, you cando it. You will see how easily all that He asks can be accomplished. The HolySpirit asks of you but this; bring to Him every secret you have locked awayfrom Him. Open every door to Him, and bid Him enter the darkness and lighten itaway. At your request He enters gladly. He brings the light to darkness of youmake the darkness open to Him. But what you hide He cannot look upon. He seesfor you, and unless you look with Him He cannot see. The vision of Christ isnot for Him alone, but for Him with you. Bring therefore, all your dark andsecret thoughts to Him, and look upon them with Him. He holds the light, andyou the darkness. They cannot coexist when both of you together look on them.His judgment must prevail, and He will give it to you as you join yourperception to His. Joining with Him in seeing is the way in which you learn toshare with Him the interpretation of perception that leads to knowledge. Youcannot see alone. Sharing perception with Him Whom God has given you teachesyou how to recognize what you see. It is the recognition that nothing you seemeans anything alone. Seeing with Him will show you that all meaning, includingyours, caomes not from double vision, but from the gentle fusing of everythinginto one meaning, one emotion and one purpose. God has one Purpose which He shares with you. The single vision which theHoly Spirit offers you will bring this oneness to your mind with clarity andbrightness so intense you could not wish, for all the world, not to accept whatGod would have you have. Behold your will, accepting it as His, with all HisLove as yours. All honor to you through Him, and through Him unto God.

Love

[IA56]

The Holy Meeting Place

In the darkness you have obscured the glory God gave you,and the power He bestowed upon His guiltless Son. All this lies hidden in every darkened place, shrouded in guilt and in the dark denial of innocence. Behind the dark doors your have closed lies nothing, because nothing can obscure the gift of God. It is the closing of the doors that interferes with recognition of the power of God that shines in you. Banish not power from your mind, but let all that would hide your glory be brought to the judgment of the Holy Spirit,and there undone. Whom He would save for glory is saved for it. He has promised the Father that through Him you would be released from littleness to glory. To what He promised God He is wholly faithful, for He shares with God the promise that was given Him to share with you. He shares it still, for you. Everything that promises otherwise, great or small, however much or little valued He will replace with the one promise given unto Him to lay upon the altar to your Father and His Son. No altar stands to God without His Son. And nothing broughtthere that is not equally worthy of both, but will be replaced by gifts whollyacceptable to Father and to Son. Can you offer guilt to God? You cannot, then,offer it to His Son. For they are not apart, and gifts to one are offered tothe other. You know not God because you know not this. And yet you do know Godand also this. All this is safe within you, where the Holy Spirit shines. Heshines not in division, but in the meeting place where God, united with HisSon, speaks to His Son through Him. Communication between what cannot bedivided cannot cease. The holy meeting place of the unseparated Father and HisSon lies in the Holy Spirit and in you. All interference in the communicationthat God Himself wills with His Son is quite impossible here. Unbroken anduniterrupted love flows comstantly between the Father and the Son, as bothwould have it be. And so it is. Let your mind wander not through darkenedcorridors, away from light´s center. You may choose to lead yourself astray,but you can be brought together only by the Guide appointed for you. He willsurely lead you to where God and His Son await your recongnition. They arejoined in giving you the gift of oneness, before which all separation vanishes.Unite with what you are. You cannot join with anything except reality. God´sglory and His Son´s belong to you in truth. They have no opposite, and nothing elsecan you bestow upon yourself. There is no substitute for truth. And truth willmake this plain to you as you are brought into the place where you must meetwith truth. And there you must be led, through gentle understanding which canlead you nowhere else. What God is, there are you. Such is the truth. Nothingcan change the knowledge, given you by God, into unkowingness. Everything Godcreated knows its Creator. For this is how creation is accomplished by theCreator and by His creations. In the holy meeting place are joined the Fatherand His creations, and the creations of His Son with Them together. There is one link that joins them alltogether, holding them in the oneness out of which creation happens. The linkwith which the Father joins Himself to those He gives the power to dreate cannever be dissolved. Heaven itself is union with all of creation, and with itsone Creator. And Heaven remains the Will of God for you. Lay no gifts otherthan this upon your altars, for nothing can coexist with it. Here your littleofferings are brought together with the gift of God, and only what is worthy ofthe Father will be accepted by the Son, for whom it is intended. To whom godgives Himself, He is given. Your little gifts will vanish on the altar, whereHe has placed His Own.

Love

[IA56]

The Reflection of Holiness

The Atonement does not make holy. You were created holy. It merely brings unholiness to holiness; or what you made to what you are.Bringing illusions to truth, or the ego to God, is the Holy Spirit´s only function.Keep not your making from your Father, for hiding it has cost you knowledge of Him and of yourself. The knowledge is safe, but where is your safety apart from it? The making of time to take the place of timlessness layin the decision to be not as you are. Thus truth was made past, and the present was dedicated to illusion. And the past, too, was changed and interposed between what always was and now. The past that you remember never was, and represents only the denial of what always was. Bringing the ego to God is but to bring error to truth, where it stands corrected because it is the opposite of what it meets. It is undone because the contradiction can no longer stand. How long can contradiction stand when its impossible nature is clearly reveled? What disappears in light is not attacked. It merely vanishes because it is not true.Different realities are meaningless, for reality must be one. It cannot changewith time or mood or chance. Its changelessness is what makes it real. This cannotbe undone. Undoing is for unreality. And this reality will do for you. Merelyby being what it is, does truth release you from everything that it is not.TheAtonement is so gentle you need but whisper to it, and all its power will rushto your assistance and support. You are not frail with God beside you. Yetwithout Him you are nothing. The Atonement offer you God. The gift that yourefused is held by Him in you. The Holy Spirit holds it there for you. God hasnot left His altar, through His worshippers placed other gods upon it. Thetemple still is holy, for the Presence thhat dwells within it is holiness. Inthe temple, holiness waits quietly for the return of them that love it. ThePresence knows they will return to purity and to grace. The graciousness offGod will take them gently in, and cover all their sense of pain and loss withthe immortal assurance of their Father´s Love. There, fear of death will bereplaced with joy of life. For God is Life, and they abide in Life. ThePresence of holiness lives in everything that lives, for holiness created life,and leaves not what it created holy as itself. In this world you can become aspotless mirror, in which the holiness of your Creator shines forth from you toall around you. You can redlcet Heaven here. Yet no reflections of the imagesof other gods must dim the mirror that would hold God´s reflection in it. Earthcan reflect Heaven or hell; God or the ego. You need but leave the mirror cleanand clear of the images of hidden darkness you have drawn upon it. God willshine upon it of Himself. Only the clear reflection of Himself can be perceivedupon it. Reflections are seem in light. In darkness they are obscure, and theirmeaning seems to lie only in shifting interpretations, rather than inthemselves. The reflection of God needs no interpretation. It is clear. Cleanbut the mirror, and the message thatshines forth from what the mirror holds out for everyone to see, no one canfail to understand. It is the message that the Holy Spirit is holding to themirror that is in him. He recognizes it because he has been taught his need forit, but knows not where to look to find it. Let him, then, see it in you andshare it with you. Could you but realize for a single instant the power ofhealing that the reflection of God, shining in you, can bring to all the world,you could not wait to make the mirror of your mind clean to receive the imageof the holiness that heals the world. The image of holiness that shines in yourmind is not obscure, and will not change. Its meaning to those who look upon itis not obscure, for everyone perceives it as the same. All bring theirdifferent problems to its healing light, and all their problems find buthealing there. The response of holiness to any form of error is always thesame. There is no contradiction in what holiness calls forth. Its one responsein healing, without regard for what is brought to it. Those who have learned tooffer only healing, because of the reflection of holiness in them, are ready atlast for Heaven. There, holiness is not a reflection, but rather the actualcondition of what was but reflected to them here. God is no image, and Hiscreations, are part or Him, hold Him in them in truth. They do not merely reflect truth, for they are truth.

Love

[IA56]

The Equality of Miracle

When no perception stands between God and His creations, orbetween His children and their own, the knowledge of creation must continue forever. The reflections you accept into the mirror of your mind in time butbring eternity nearer of father. But eternity itself is beyond all time. Reach out of time and touch it, with the help of its reflection in you. And you will turn from time to holiness, as surely as the reflection of holiness calls everyone to lay all guilt asaide. Reflect the peace of Heaven here, and bring this World to Heaven. For reflection of truth draws everyone to truth, and as they enter into it they leave all reflections behind. In Heaven reality is shared and not reflected. By sharing its reflections here, its truth becomes the only perception the Son of God accetps. And thus, rememberance of his Father Dawns on him, and he can no longer be satisfied with anything but his own reality.You on earth have no conception of limitlessness, for the world you seem tolive in is a world of limits. In this world, it is not true that anythingwithout order of difficulty can occur. The mireacle, therefore, has a uniquefunction, and is motivated by a unique Teacher Who brings the laws of anotherworld to this one. The miracle is the one thing you can do that transcendsorder, being based not on differences but on equality. Miracles are not incompetition, and the number of them that you can do is limitless. They can besimultaneous and legion. This is not difficult to understand, oncy you conceiveof them as possible at all. What is more difficult to grasp is the lack oforder of difficulty that stamps the miracle as something that must come fromelsewhere, not from here. From the world´s viewpoint, this is impossible.Perhaps you have been aware of lack of competiotion among your thoughts, whicheven though they may conflict, can occur together and in great unsed numbers.You may indeed be so used to this that it causes you little surprise. Yet youare also used to to classifying some of your thoughts as more important, largeror better, wiser, or more productive and valuable than others. This is true ofthe thoughts that cross the mind of those who think they live apart. For someare reflectionss of Heaven, while others are motivated by the ego, which butseems to think. The result is a weaving, changing pattern that never rests andis never still. It shifts unceasingly across the mirror of your mind, and thereflections of Heaven last but a moment and grow dim, as darkness blots themout. Where there was light, darkness removes it in an instant, and alternatingpatterns of light and darkness sweep constantly across my mind. The littlesanity that still remains is held together by a sense of order that youestablish. Yet the very fact that you can do this, and bring any order intochaos shows you that you are not an ego, and that more than an ego must be inyou. For the ego is chaos, and if it were all of you, no order at all would bepossible. Yet though the order you impose upon your mind limits the ego, italso limits you. To order is to judge, and to arrange by judgment. It wiillseem difficult for you to learn that you have no basis at all for ordering yourthoughts. This lesson the Holy Spirit teaches by giving you the shiningexamples of miracles to show you that your way of ordering is wrong, but that abetter way is offered you. The miracle offers exactly the same response toevery call for help. It does not judge the call. It merely recognizes what itis, and answers accordingly. It does not consider which call is louder orgreater or more important. You may wonder how you who are still bound tojudgment can be asked to do that whichrequires no judgment of your own. The answer is very simple. The power of God,and not of you, engenders miracles. The miracle itself is but the witness thtyou have the power of God in you. That is the reason why the miracle gives equal blessing to all who shares in it, andthat is also why eveyone shares in it. The power of God is limitless. And beingalways maximal, it offers everything to every call from anyone. There is noorder of difficulty here. A call for help is given help. The only judgmentinvolved is the Holy Spirit´s one division into two categories; one of love,and the other call for love. You cannot safely make this division, for you aremuch too confused either to recognize love, or to believe that everything elseis nothing but a call for love. You are too bound to form, and not to content.What you consider content is not content at all. It is merely form, and nothingelse. For you do not respond to what a brother really offers you, but only tothe particular perception of his offering by which the ego judges it. The egois incapapble of understanding content, and is totally unconcerned with it. Tothe ego, if the form is acceptable the content must be. Otherwise it willattack the form. If you beleive you understand something of the ”dynamics” ofthe ego, let me assure you that you understand nothing of it. For of yourselfyou could not undertand it. The study of the ego is not the study of the mind.In fact, the ego enjoys studying itself, and thoroghly apporves theundertakings of students who would ”analyze” it, thus approving its importance.Yet they but study form with meaningless content. For their teacher issensless, though careful to conceal this fact behind impressive sounding words,but which lack any consistent sense when they are put together. This ischaracteristic of the ego´s judgments. Separately, they seem to hold, but putthem together and the system of thought that arises from joining them isincoherent and utterly chaotic. For form is not enough the meaning, and theunderlying lack of content makes a cohesive system impossible. Separationtherefore remains the ego´s chosen condition. For no one alone can judge theego truly. Yet when two or more join together in searching for truth, the egocan no longer defend its lack of content. The lack of union tells them it isnot true. It is impossible to remember God in secret and alone. For rememberingHim means you are not alone, and are willing to remember it. Take no thoughtfor yourself, for no thought you hold is for yourself. If you would rememberyour Father, let the Holy Spirit order your thoughts and give only the answerwith which He answers you. Everyone seeks for love as you do, but knows it notunless he joins with you in seeking it. If you undertake the search together,you bring with you a light so powerful that what you see is given meaning. Thelonely journey fails because it has excluded what it would find. As Godcommunicates to the Holy Spirit in you, so does the Holy Spirit translate Hiscommunications through you, so you can understand them. God has no secretcommunications, for everything of Him is perfectly open and freely accessibleto all, being for all. Nothing lives in secret, and what you would hide fromthe Holy Spirit is nothing. Every interpretatin you would lay upon a brother issenseless. Let the Holy Spirit show to you, and teach you both his love and itscall for love. Neither his mind nor yours hold more than these two orders ofthought. The miracle is the recognition that this is true. Where there is love,your brother must give it to you because of what it is. But where there is acall for love, you must give it because of what you are. Earlier I said thiscourse will teach you how to remember what you are, restoring to you yourIdentity. We have already learned that this Identity is shared. The miraclebecomes the means of sharing It. By supplying your Identity wherever It is notrecognized, you will recognize it. And God Himself, Who wills to be with HisSon forever, will bless each recognition of His Son with all the Love He holdsfor him. Nor will the power of all His Love be absent from any miracle youoffer to His Son. How, then, can there be any order of difficulty among them?

Love

[IA56]

The Test of Truth

Yet the essential thing is learning that you do not know.Knowledge is power, and all power is of God. You who have tried to keep Power for yourself have ”lost” it. You still have the power, but you have interposed so much between it and your awareness of it that you cannnot use it. Everything you have taught yourself has made your power more and more obscure to you. You know not what it is, nor where. You have made a semblance of power and a show of strength so pitiful that it must fail you. For power is not a seeming strength, and truth is beyond semlbance of any kind. Yet all that stands between you and the Power of God in you is but your learning of the false, and of your attempts to undo the true. Be willing, then, for all of it to be undone, and be glad that you are not bound to it forever.For you have taught yourself how to imprison the Son of God, a lesson so unthinkable that only the insane, in deepest sleep,could even dream of it. Can God learn how not to be God? And can His Son, given all power by Him, learn to be powerless? What have you taught yourself that youcan possibly prefer to keep, in place of what you have and what you are? Atonement teaches youhow to escape forever from everything that you have taught yourself in thepast, by showing you only what you are now. Learning has been accomplishedbefore its effect are mainifest. Learning is therefore in the past, but itsinfluence determines the present by giving it whatever meaning it holds foryou. Your learning gives the present no meaning at all. Nothing you have evedrlearned can help you understand the present, or teach you how to undo the past.Your past is what you have taught yourself. Let it all go. Do not attempt tounderstand any event or anything or anyone in its ”light,” for the darkness inwhich you try to see can only obscure. Put no confidence at all in darkness toilluminate your understanding, for if you do you contradict the light, andthereby think you see the darkness. Yet darkness cannot be seen, for it isnothing more than a condition in which seeing becomes impossible. You who have not yet brought all of thedarkness you have taught yourself into the light in you, can hardly judge thetruth and value of this course. Yet God did not abondon you. And so you haveanother lesson sent from Him, already learned for every child of light by Himto Whom God gave it. This lesson shines with God´s glory, for in it lies Hispower, which He shares so gladly with His Son. Learn of His happiness, which is yours. But to accomplish this, all yourdark lesson must be brought willingly to truth, and joyously laid down by handsopen to receive, not closed to take. Every dark lesson that you bring to HimWho teaches light He will accept from you, because you do not want it. And Hewill gladly exchange each one for the bright lesson . He has learned for you.Never believe that any lesson you have learned apart from Him means anything.You have one test, as sure as God, by which to recognize if what you learned istrue. If you are wholly free of fear of any kind, and if all those who meet orevent hink of you share in your perfect peace, then you can be sure that youhave learned God´s lesson, and not your own. Unless all this is true, there aredark lessons in your mind that hurt and hinder you, and evderyone around you.The absence of perfect peace means but one thing: You think you do not will forGod´s Son what his Father wills for him. Every dark lesson teaches this, in oneform or another. And each bright lesson will which the Holy Spirit will replacethe dark ones you do not accept, teaches you that you will with the Father andHis Son. Do not be concerned about how you can learn a lesson so completelydifferent from everything that you have taught yourself. How would you know?Your part is very simple. You need only recognize that everything you learnedyou do not want. Ask to be taught, and do not use your experiences to confirmwhat you have learned. When your peace is threatened or disturbed in any way,say to yourself,

”I do not know what anything, including this, means.
And so I do not know how to respond to it.
And I will not use my own past learning as the light toguide me now.”

By this refusal to attempt to teach yourself what you do notknow, the Guide Whom God has given you will speak to you. He will take Hisrightful place in your awareness the instant you abondon it, and offer it toHim. You cannot be your guide to miracles, for it is you who made themnecessary. And because you did, the means on which you can depend for miracleshas been provided for you. God´s Son can make no needs His Father will notmeet, if he but turn to Him ever so little. Yet He cannot compel His Son toturn to Him and remain Himself. It is impossible that God lose His Identity,for if Hed id, you would lose yours. And being yours He cannot change Himself,for your Identity is changeless. The miracle acknowledges His changelessness byseeing His Son as he always was, and not as he would make himself. The miraclebrings the effects that only guitlessness can bering, and thus establshes thefact that guiltlessness must be. How can you, so firmly bound to guilt andcommitted so to remain, establish for yourself your guiltlessness? That isimposible. But bbe sure that you are willing to acknowledge that it isimpossbile. It is only because you think that you can run some little part, ordeal with certain aspects of your little alone, that the guidance of the HolySpirit is limited. Thus would you make Him undependable, and use this fanciedundependability as an excuse for keeping certain dark lessons form Him. And byso limiting the guidance that you would accept, you are unable to depend onmiracles to answer all your problems for you. Do you think that what the HolySpirit would have you give He would withold from you? You have no problems thatHe cannot solve by offering you a miracle. Miracles are for you. And every fearof pain or trial you have has been undone. He has brought all of them to light,having accepted them instead of you, and recgonized they never were. There areno dark lessons He has not already lightened for you. The lessons you wouldteach yourself He has corrected already. They do no exist in His Mind at all.For the part binds Him not, and therefore binds not you. He does not see timeas you do. And each miracle He offers you correct your use of time, and makesit His. He Who has feed you from the past would teach you are free of it. Hewould but have you accept His accomplishements as yours, because He did themfor you. And because Hed id, they areyours. He has made you free of what you made. You can deny Him, but you cannotcall on Him in vain. He always gives His gifts in place of yours. He wouldestablish His bright teaching so firmly in your mind, that no dark lesson ofguilt can abide in what He has established ad holy by His Presence. Thank Godthat He is there and works through you. And all His works are yours. He offersyou a miracle with every one you let Him do through you. God´s Son will alwaysbe indivisible. As we are held as one in God, so do we learn as one in Him.God´s Teacher is as like to His Creator as is His Son. Listen in silence, anddo not raise your voice against Him. For He teaches the miracle of oneness, andbefore His lesson division disappears. Teach like Him here, and you willremember that you have always created like your Father. The miracle of creationhas never ceased, having the holy stamp of immortality upon it. This is theWill fo God for all creation, and all creation joins in willing this. Those whoremember always that they know nothing, and who have become willing to learneverything, will learn it. But whenever they trust themselves, they will notlearn. They have destroyed their motivation for learning by thinking theyalready know. Think not you understand anything until you pass the test ofperfect peace, for peace and understanding go together and never can be foundalone. Each brings the other with it, for it is the law of God they be notseparate. They are cause and effect, each to the other, so where one is absentthe other cannot be. Only those who recognize they cannot know unless theeffects of understanding are with them, can really learn at all. For this itmust be peace they want, and nothing else. Whenever you think you know, peacewill depart from you, because you have abandoned the Teacher of peace. Wheneveryou fully realize that you know not, peace will return, for you will haveinvited Him to do so by abandoning the ego on behalf of Him. Call not upon theego for anyting; it is only this that you need do. The Holy Spirit will, ofHimself, fill every mind that so makes room for Him. If you want peace you mustabandon the teacher of attack. The Teacher of peace will never abandon you. Youcan desert Him but He will never reciprocate, for His faith in you is Hisunderstanding. It is as firm as is His faith in His creator, and He knows thatfaith in His Creator must encompass faith in His creation. In this consistencylies His holiness which He cannot abandon, for it is not His will to do so.With your perfection ever in His sight, He gives the gift of peace to everyonewho perceives the need for peace, and who would have it. Make way for peace,and it will come. For understanding is in you, and from it peace must come. Thepower of God, from which they both arise, is yours as surely as it is His. Youthink you know Him not, only because, alone, it is impossible to know Him. Yetsee the mighty works tht He will do through you, and you must be convinced youdid them through Him. It is impossible to deny the Source of effects sopowerful they could not be of you. Leave room for Him, and you will findyourself so filled with power that nothing will prevail against your peace. Andthis will be the test by which you recognize that you have understood.

Love

[IA56]

THE HOLY INSTANT
The Two Uses of Time

Can you imagine what it means to have no cares, no worries,no anxieties, but merely to be perfectly calm and quiet all the time? Yet that is what time is for; to learn just that and nothing more. God´s Teacher cannot be satisfied with His teaching until it constitutes all your learning. He has not fulfilled His teaching function until you have become such a consistent learner that you learn only of Him. When this has happened, you will no longer need a teacher of time on which to learn. One source of perceived discouragement from which you may suffer is your belief taht this takes time,and that the results of the Holy Spirit´s teaching are far in the future. This is not so. For the Holy Spirit uses time in His Own way, and is not bound by it. And all the waste that time seems to bring with it is due but to your identification with the ego, which uses time to support its belief indestruction. The ego, like the Holy Spirit, uses time to convice you of the inevitablilityof the goal and end the teaching. To the ego the goal is death, which is itsend. But to the Holy Spirit the goal is life, which has no end. The ego is anally of time, but not a friend. For it is as mistrustful of death as it is oflife, and what it wants for you it cannot tolerate. The ego wants you dead, butnot itself. The outocme of its strange religion must therefore be theconviction that it can pursue you beyond the grave. And out of itsunwillingness four you to find peace even in death, it offers you immortalityin hell. It speaks to you of Heaven, but assures you that Heaven is not foryou. How can the guilty hope for Heaven? The belief in hell is inescapable tothose who identify with the ego. Their nightmares and their fears are all associatedwith it. The ego teaches that hell is in the future, for this is what all itsteaching is directed so. Hell is its goal. For although the ego aims at deathand dissolution as an end, it does not believe it. The goal of death, which itcraves for you, leaves it unsatisfied. No one who follows the ego´s teaching iswithout the fear of death. Yet if death were thought merely as an end to pain,would it be feared? We have seen this strange paradox in the ego´s thoughtsystem before, but never so clearly as here. For the ego must seem to keep fearfrom you to hold your allegiance. Yet itmust engender fear in order to maintain itself. Again the ego tries, and alltoo frequently succeeds, in doing both,by using dissociation for holding its contradictory aims together so that theyseem to be reconciled. The ego teaches thus: Death is the end as far as hope ofHeaven goes. Yet because you and the ego cannot be separrated, and because itcannot conceive of its own death, it will pursue you still, because guilt iseternal. Such is the ego´s version of immortality. And it iss this the ego´sversion of time supports. The egoteaches that Heaven is here and now because the future is hell. Even when itattacks so savagely that it tries to take the life of someone who thinks it isthe only voice, it speaks of hell even to him. For it tells him hell is here aswell, and bids him leap from hell into oblivion. The only time the ego allowsanyone to look upon with equanimity is the past. And even there, its only valueis that it is no more. He bleak and despairing is the ego´s use of time! And howterrifying! For underneath its fanatical insistence that the past and future bethe same is hidden a far more insidious threat to peace. The ego does notadvertise its final threat, for it would have its worshippers still believethat it can offer the mescape. But the belief in guilt must lead to the beliefin hell, and always does. The only way in which the ego allows the fear of hellto be expereinced is to bring hell here, but always as a foretaste of thefuture. For no one who considers himself as deservving of hell can believe thatpunishment will end in peace. The Holy Spirit teaches thus: There is no hell.Hell is only what the ego has made of the present. The belief in hell is whatprevents you from understanding the present, because you are afraid of it. TheHoly Spirit leads as steadily to Heaven as the eego drives to hell. For theHoly Spirit, Who knows only the present, uses it to undo the fear by which theego would make the present useless. There is no escape from fear in the ego´suse of time. For time, according to its teaching, is nothing but a teachingdevice for compounding guilt until it becomes all-encompassing, demandingvengeance forever. The Holy Spirit would undo all of this now. Fear is not offthe present, but only of the past and future, which do not exist. There is nofear in the present when each instant stands clear and separated from the past,without its shadow reaching out into the future. Each instant is a clean,untarnished birht, in which the Son of God emerges from the past into thepresent. And the present extends forever. It is so beautiful and so clean andfree of guilt that nothing but happiness is there. No darkness is rememberd,and immortality and joy are now. This lesson takes no time. For what is timewithout a past and future? It has taken time to misguide you so completely, butit takes no time at all to be what you are. Begin to practice the Holy Spirit´suse of time as a teaching aid to happiness and peace. Take this very instant,now, and think of it as all there is of time. Nothing can reach you here out ofthe past, and it is here that you are completely absolved, completely free andwholly without comdemnation. From this holy instant wherein holiness was bornagain you will go forth in time without fear, and with no sense of change with time. Time is inconceivablewithout change, yet holiness does not change. Learn from this instant more thanmerely that hell does not exist. In this redeeming instant lies Heaven. AndHeaven will not change, for the birth into the holy present is salvation fromchange. Change is an illusion, taught bythose who cannot see themselves as guiltless. There is no change in Heavenbecause there is no change in God. In the holy instant, in which you seeyourself as bright with freedom, you will remember God. For remembering Him isto remember freedom. If you are tempted to be disprited by thinking how long itwould take to change your mind so completely, ask yourself, ”How long is aninstant?” Could you not give so short a time to the Holy Spirit for yoursalvation? He asks no more, for He has no need of more. It takes far longer toteach you to be willing to give Him this than for Him to use this tiny instantof offer you the whole of Heaven. In exchange for this instant. Hes tands readyto give you the remembrance of eternity. You will never give this holy instantto the Holy Spirit on behalf of your release while you are unwilling to give itto your brothers on behalf of theirs. For the instant of holiness is shared,and cannot be yours alone. Remember, then, when you are tempted to attack abrother, that his instant of release is yours. Miracles are the instants ofrelease you offer, and will receive. They attest to your willingness to bereleased, and to offer time to the Holy Spirit for His use of it. How long isan instant? It is as short for your brother as it is for you. Practice givingthis blessed instant of freedom to all who are enslaved by time, and thus maketime their friend of them. The Holy Spirit gives their blessed instant toyour through your giving it. As you giveit, He offers it to you. Be not unwilling to give what you would receive ofHim, for you join with Him in giving. In the crystal cleanness of the releaseyou give is your instantaneous escape from guilt. You must be holy if you offerholiness. How long is an instant? As long as it takes to re-establish perfectsanity, perfect peace and perfect love for everyone, for God and for yourself.As long as it takes to remember immortality, and your immortal creations whoshare it with you. As long as it takes to exchange hell for Heaven. Long enoughto transcend all of the ego´s making, and ascend unto your Father. Time is yourfriend, if you leavve it to the Holy Spirit to use. He needs but very little torestore God´s whole power for you. He Who trancends time for you understandswhat time is for. Holiness lies not in time, but in eternity. There never wasan instant in which God´s Son could lose his purity. His changeless state isbeyond time, for his purity remains forever beyond attack and withoutvariability. Time stands still in his holiness, and changes not. And so it isno longer tim at all. For caught in the single instant of the eternal sanctityof God´s creation, it is transformed into forever. Give the eternal instant,that eternity may remembered for you, in that shining instant of perfectrelease. Offer the miracle of the holy instant through the Holy Spirit, andleave His giving it to you to Him.

Love

[IA56]

The End of Doubt

The Atonement is in time, but not of time. Being in you, it is eternal. What holds rememberance of God cannot be bound by time. No more are you. For unless God is bound, you cannot be. An instant offered to the Holy Spirit is offered to God on your behalf, and in that instant you will awaken gently in Him. In the blessed instant you will let go all your past learning, and the Holy Spirit will quickly offer you the whole lesson of peace. What can take time, when all the obstacles to learning it have been removed? Truth is so far beyond time that all of it happens at once. For as it was created one, so its oneness depends not on time at all. Do not be concerned with time, and fear not the instant of holiness that will remove all fear. For the instant of peace is eternal because it is without fear. For the instant of peace is eternal because it is without fear. It will come, being the lesson God gives you, through the Teacher He has appointed to translate time into eternity. Blessed is God´s Teacher, Whose joy it is to teach God´s holy Son his holiness. His joy is not contained in time.His teaching is for you because His joy is yours. Through Him you stand before God´s altar, where He gently translates hellinto Heaven. For it is only in Heaven that God would have you be. How long canit take to be where God would have you? For you are where you have forever beenand will forever be. All that you have, you have forever. The blesssed instant reaches out to encompass time, as Godextends Himself to encompass you. You who have spent days, hours and even yearsin chaining your brothers to your ego in an attempt to support it and upholdits weakness, do not perceive the Source of strength. In this holy instant youwill unchain all your brothers, and refuse to support either their weakness oryour own. You do not realize how much you have misused your brothers by seeingthem as sources of ego support. As a reslult, they witness to the ego in yourperception, and seen to provide reasons for not letting it go. Yet there arefar stronger and much more compelling witnesses for the Holy Spirit. And theysupport His strength. It is, therefore, your choice wheter you support the egoor the Holy Spirit in you. And you will recognize which you have chosen bytheir reactions. A Son of god who has released through the Holy Spirit in a brother is alwaysrecognized. He cannot be denied. If you remain uncertain, it is only because youhave not given complete release. And because of this, you have not given a single instant completely to theHoly Spirit. For when you have, you will be sure you have. You will be surebecause the witness to Him will speak so clearly of Him that you will hear and understand.You will doubt until you hear one witness whom you have wholly released throughthe Holy Spirit. And then you will doubt no more. The holy instant has not yethappened to you. Yet it will, andd you will recognize it with perfectcertainty. No gift of God is recognized in any other way. You can practice themechanics of the holy instant, and will learn much from doing so. Yet itsshining and glittering brilliance, which will literally blind you to this worldby its own vision, andd cannot supply. And here it is, all in this instant,complete, accomplished and given wholly. Start now to practice your little partin separating out the holy instant. You will receive very specific instructionsas you go along. To learn to separate out this single second, and to experienceit as timless, is to begin to experience yourself as not separate. Fear notthat you will not be given helo in this. God´s Teacher and His lesson willsupport your strength. It is only your weakness that will depart from you inthis practice, for it is the practice of the power of God in you. Use it butfor one instant, and you will never deny it again. Who can deny the Presence ofwhat the universe bows to, in appreciation and gladness? Before the recognitionof the universe that witnesses to It, your doubt must disappear.

Love