Surround search terms with " " double quotes for exact matches e,g, "drops of healing rain"

You may notice that when we apply forgiveness, a big part of this is taking the projected blame off of other people. Recognizing that it's really you that you're blaming and then undoing that condemnation. This all seems to imply your brother is innocent and had nothing to do with your upset etc. And so we return within to our own mind and our own healing and then we think we're done.

Well, this has a tendency in and of itself to imply a kind of selfishness. If we stop there, if we forgive ourselves and then do nothing, we're really not completing the process. Forgiveness should bring love and love must be shared, given and extended.

Let's say that someone had come along and triggered you. They attacked you in some way. But then you did a forgiveness and remembered the secret of salvation and took responsibility and then undid your own self attack. Well, what of this other person?

This other person who played a role to help you heal, may nevertheless still be in a state of their own self attack. They triggered you by launching an attack of their own. And so in effect they are still sick, they still need healing, and they are now left on their own while you go off and do your forgiveness. Just because you feel better, they may not.

What needs to really happen is that once you have forgiven yourself, the forgiveness must extend to your brother and heal him. You are supposed to offer a miracle of healing to him as well as to yourself. In fact, if the forgiveness is NOT GIVEN to your brother as an act of HEALING, then the forgiveness is not complete.

"When I heal I am not healed alone."

"Forgiveness is not real UNLESS it has brought a healing to your brother and yourself."

Your brother may still be upset. They may be angry still. They may be confused. And so now it is your function to heal them. You offer healing to them through love and it's now your task to remind them of what you have reminded yourself of. The truth you've accepted in your own acceptance of atonement must be given and shared.

You might now approach the person and recognize how they are attacking themselves, how they are finding themselves guilty, why they are projecting their own self hurt. And you may shine your light and the love you have received and offer it to them as well. And perhaps now you will be in more of a position to uplift them and supply a lack that helps them to heal also.

Having been made stronger in the truth yourself, through your own healing, your function turns to your brother and to assisting him in healing his own attack. His mind must heal as well as yours.

Coming from love allows you to supply the lack. Coming from love, you temporarily have more and now are in a position to give to those who have less. Coming from love you are able now to not only forgive your brother but also heal him.

This completes the cycle. What seemed to begin with an externalized projection of sin, coupled with your brother playing the role of victimizer, should end with you healing and loving your brother. Being able to do this, to forgive him for him, to undo his sins, to heal his mind, is a privilege and a pleasure, which is bestowed you to bless him with, now that you are healed.

"It is the privilege of the forgiven to forgive."

So it doesn't just stop with your own forgiveness of yourself. It must be shared and given. You have to give love to have love. In fact you cannot accept atonement for yourself unless you are willing to share it, by recognizing that it applies to you AND to everyone. And now having been restored to YOUR right mindedness you also now recognize the lack of right mindedness in others and can offer it to them.

"I can only give the miracles I have received."

This is why, having accepted atonement for YOUR SELF, your proper purpose now is to give it to another.

"It is the sign that you have accepted the Atonement for yourself, and would therefore SHARE it."

"By accepting the Atonement for YOURSELF, you are deciding AGAINST the belief that you can BE alone"

"Atonement as a Lesson in Sharing.Atonement is for all, because it is the way to UNDO the belief that ANYTHING is for you ALONE."

"Refuse to accept anyone as WITHOUT the blessing of Atonement, and bring him INTO it by blessing him. Holiness MUST be shared, for therein lies everything"

"That is why you MUST share it, because it must be INCREASED in strength"

"To the Holy Spirit, it is the fundamental law of sharing, by which you give what you value in order to keep it in your OWN minds."

Atonement is not about you accepting something SOLELY for yourself. That is in fact SELFISH. Forgiveness returns you to a state that is SHARED by everyone, and in which giving is natural, and in which atonement becomes your natural profession.

"Atonement is the natural profession of the Children of God, because they have professed Me."

Part of that entails that you have to GIVE your brother what YOU want to accept into your mind. Therefore atonement and forgiveness have to be GIVEN AWAY in order to have them. And that means you have to heal your brother as well.

It is a mistake many make to think of atonement as something entirely personal and isolated. Especially since the course says your sole responsibility is to accept it for yourself. This only means that you have a responsibility, the emphasis is NOT on the "for yourself" part, as if to imply ONLY for yourself. That is a selfish interpretation.

"The Atonement is a lesson in sharing, which is given you because YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN HOW TO DO IT."

"Each one of you has a special part to play in the Atonement"

"Having been restored to your original state, you naturally become part of the Atonement yourself. You now share MY inability to tolerate the lack of love in yourself and in everyone else, and MUST join the GREAT CRUSADE to correct it. The slogan for this Crusade is "Listen, Learn, and DO." This means:

Listen to MY Voice, Learn to undo the error, and DO something to correct it.

The first two are not enough. The real members of MY party are ACTIVE workers."

Here are some of the miracle principles with particularly speak to the idea that a miracle is something that you receive from God, and GIVE TO another person. Remember giving and receiving are ONE.

3 - Miracles occur naturally as EXPRESSIONS of love.

8 - Miracles are healing because they SUPPLY a lack. (remember he who temporarily has more gives to he who temporarily has less)

16 - Miracles are teaching devices for demonstrating it is as blessed to GIVE as to receive.

18 - A miracle is a SERVICE. It is the maximal service you can render to ANOTHER.

19 - Miracles make MINDS (plural) one in God.

21 - Miracles are natural signs of forgiveness. Through miracles you accept God's forgiveness by EXTENDING IT TO OTHERS.

24 - Miracles enable you to HEAL THE SICK and RAISE THE DEAD because you made sickness and death. (the dead aren't going to be raising themselves, they need YOU, the un-dead, to perform the miracle!)

27 - A miracle is a universal blessing from God through me TO ALL MY BROTHERS.

35 - Miracles are EXPRESSIONS of love, but they may not always have observable effects.

40 - The miracle acknowledges EVERYONE AS YOUR BROTHER and mine.

45 - A miracle is never lost. It may TOUCH MANY PEOPLE you have not even met.

AS you can see, if you study the miracle principles it is CLEAR that a miracle is NOT just a shift in your own perception, OR just a healing in your own mind. It is something SHARED and EXPRESSED to others to help them. It's not all about your spiritual ego.

Now, you could loosely interpret most of these in a mindset of, well, this is only speaking of my 'perception' and 'seeking not to change the world' and all that... you could read into that if you want. You could say that your forgiveness just blesses people in a kind of passive way. But miracles are much more than this. This is what we have to wake up to. It's much more than just dealing with your own separate identity. It is about sharing God with others!

What is the title of the book?

"A Course in MIRACLES".

You'd think anyone who knows of Jesus would want to know how he performs miracles, right? He already demonstrated them and now he has given us a manual to learn how to do the same. Hello!

"The distinction has also been made here between "miracle-mindedness" as a STATE, and "miracle-doing" as its expression."

Note that there are TWO aspects to miracles. Most people seem to refer to miracles as getting into a certain state of mind, having shifted perception and ending up closer to the Holy Spirit. The mind becomes "miracle minded", aka right-minded.

But that is only the STATE of mind. That isn't what MIRACLES are.

Miracles are EXPRESSIONS FROM that state, which produces a DOING or PERFORMING of miracles. A WORKING of miracles.

You get into a state of miracle MINDEDNESS, so that you can be a miracle WORKER, who DOES/PERFORMS miracles.

"The former needs YOUR careful protection, because it is a state of miracle-READINESS. This is what the Bible means in the many references to "Hold yourself ready" and other similar injunctions."

"Readiness here means keep your perception right side up, (or valid), so you will ALWAYS be ready, willing, and able. These are the essentials for "listen, learn, and do." You must be

READY to listen

WILLING to learn

and ABLE to do"

When you are READY TO DO, you are then ABLE To do, and WILLING to do. And now you actually DO.

"Do his works."

This is where you EXPRESS a miracle, which is GIVEN to someone, which can energize them and give them LIFE, and raise them from death. This is where a miracle CAUSES a healing.

"Those who speak of "the miracle OF healing" are combining two orders of reality inappropriately. Healing is NOT a miracle. The Atonement, or the final miracle, is a REMEDY. It is purely a means, while any type of healing is a result."

"Miracles are NOT incompetition, and the number you can do is LIMITLESS."

"You can do ANYTHING I ask. I have asked you to perform miracles, and have made it VERY clear that these are NATURAL, CORRECTIVE, HEALING, and UNIVERSAL. There is nothing good they cannot do."

"Miracles are expressions of love." "Miracles supply a lack."

"The miracle is an expression of an inner awareness of Christ and acceptance of his Atonement."

Just so we're clear then, your have a mental state which can be either miracle-mindedness, or anti-miraculous (egoic etc). Blocks to love, and fear, prevent you being in a miracle-minded state. Once you are IN a miracle minded state, and given that mind must project and GIVE what it has, MIRACLES (plural) now EXPRESS FROM that state, and are gifts of life which you GIVE TO OTHERS.

"Miracles are a universal blessing from God through me to all my brothers." "Miracles are GIVEN by those who temporarily have more to those who temporarily have less."

When people talk of shifts in perception they are mainly talking about PURIFICATION, and not miracles. And if they are talking about miracles, they are talking mainly about receiving healing or possibly receiving a miracle. But a miracle expresses FROM a loving state of mind, and you have to be IN that state of mind FIRST in order to PERFORM them.

"He MUST work a miracle on behalf of himself here (See the point about miracles as a perception corrector) before he can effect miracles as creative energizers, which they are."

You need the use of miracles for yourself to get YOUR mind into a state of miracle mindedness. You MIGHT call that perceptual shifts. But then once your mind is the right-way up (right minded), you are now able to GIVE what you have. "I can only give the miracles I have received." And now you can use miracle WORKING to PERFORM miracles for others, energizing them and resurrecting them.

So a miracle is not a shift in perception. That's just the RESULT of healing, when a miracle is APPLIED. Healing is an EFFECT of a miracle. When you have become healed, you can now be an instrument for healing and give healing to others, APPLYING what you have. This can in turn "shift their perception" as an EFFECT of their mind being healed.

In ACIM circles there is a ton of emphasis on people trying to get into the STATE of miracle mindedness, not recognizing it as CAUSAL POWER, and nowhere near enough emphasis on EXPRESSING from that state as a MIRACLE WORKER. But you can't have one half without the other. All loving people are miraculous and can GIVE LIFE to others.

"Those who are healed (miracle minded) become instruments of healing (can perform miracles for others)."

"It is the privilege of the forgiven (miracle minded) to forgive (undo the unforgiveness in others)."

"By denying his mind any destructive potential, and reinstating its purely constructive powers, he has placed himself in a position where he can undo the levelconfusion of others."

"The task of the miracle-worker thus becomes to DENY THE DENIAL OF TRUTH. The sick must heal THEMSELVES, for the truth is IN them. But, having OBSCURED it, the light in ANOTHER mind must shine into theirs, because that light IS theirs."

"The power of one mind CAN shine into another, because all the lamps of God were lit by the same spark. It is everywhere, and it is eternal."

The difficult thing about prayer/faith, in terms of working miracles, is being able to 'believe' with as much certainty as God, that healing miracles are possible. This isn't just a belief in the idea of it, it means a 'faith' or a 'knowing', a sense of certainty and confidence, that God CAN heal and that he WILL heal, given the chance.

So if my own ability to accept and align with that truth is still weak, and I am not confident in this way, and I am still afraid to take the risk of immediate miracles, and if I'm still believing my own ego that I need to do something, or if I'm not convinced that Holy Spirit knows what he's doing (lol).... then these become blocks to love, and therefore blocks to miracles.

It's our task to learn to ditch listening to the ego and listen to God. To become convinced of and open minded about what he is capable of. Our task is also to remember love, to be willing to love, and to be open to extending love. There aren't any miracles without love. And so that means there's going to have to be personal growth, personal healing, and personal development in letting go of everything that opposes the miracle.

Here are some of the more pertinent Miracle Principles, which speak to the need to be coming from a rather 'high' place, aligned with God, open to love, following a period of "purification", dependent on our progress in forgiveness, free of fear, aligned with Holy Spirit, in a "miraculous state of mind". ...

3 - Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love.

7 - Miracles are everyone's right, but purification is necessary first.

11: Prayer is the medium of miracles.

14 - Miracles bear witness to truth.

19 - Miracles make minds one in God.

20 - Miracles reawaken the awareness that the spirit, not the body, is the altar of truth.

21 - Miracles are natural signs of forgiveness. Through miracles you accept God's forgiveness by extending it to others.

25 - Miracles are part of an interlocking chain of forgiveness which, when completed, is the Atonement.

26 - Miracles represent freedom from fear. Atoning means undoing - undoing fear is an essential part of the miracle.

27 - A miracle is a universal blessing from God through me to all my brothers.

28 - Miracles are a way of earning release from fear.

36 - Miracles are examples of right thinking.

38 - The Holy Spirit is the mechanism of miracles.

40 - The miracle acknowledges everyone as your brother and mine.

43 - Miracles arise from a miraculous state of mind, or a state of miracle-readiness.

44 - The miracle is an expression of an inner awareness of Christ and the acceptance of His Atonement.

If you make problems real, your prayer is "I want this problem", and so it is given you. Your prayer is answered. Even if in words it seems your prayer is "I do not want this problem", your actual prayer is that you do.

When your prayer is sincerely not focusing on "I have this real problem" and is instead truly acknowledging the perfection of God, God's perfection will be what you are asking for, and God's perfection will be what you are given.

This is what the whole "Song of Prayer" pamphlet for ACIM is about. It's telling us to sing a higher song. To express the basic prayer "this is what's true for me", which is more of an expression of affirmation or acknowledgement, than it is a question. And that's because there are no real questions, only assertions.

So whatever you are asserting, that is what you are expressing as what you want and believe in, and that is what you will get.

So if you assert and acknowledge the truth of God and the presence of divine health and perfection and happiness, that is what God will happily share with you, and will move mountains that you would have it to extend to others.

God does not fail to "answer prayers". It is YOU who decides what you will give to yourself. God is ALWAYS providing the fullest love, and when your prayer is actually saying "I don't really want love" God is honoring that, to honor your free will.

This is the true meaning of "God helps those who help themselves." - you must be willing to be PART OF the atonement, to be the GIVER of the miracle that you would receive, to position yourself seeing things with God's eyes, not through the ego's eyes. To acknowledge and be grateful for the abundance of God's blessing. If you are not willing to participate in the extending of love, how can you receive it?

God is always fully giving. Fully giving is creation. It is sharing. It is how God created souls and made each of them complete and full in and of themselves, endowed with completely free will, because they are given fully as expressions of unconditional love and freedom.

If prayers seem broken or not heard, you are not asking for what you think you are asking for, and so you are in fact receiving more of what you are actually asking for, and thinking it is not what you asked for. Ego must be let go and out of the way in order to "accurately" pray and have your receiving line up with your expressing.

The "one mind" or "one mindedness" is the mind of the soul in total union with all of creation.

The "right mind" or "right mindedness" is the same as miracle mindedness, the Holy Spirit's mind of atonement, a state of true perception, and the end of the dream.

The "wrong mind" or "wrong mindedness" is the same as false perception or various states of denial within perception.

HOWEVER, at times Jesus has referred to you having a right mind BEFORE the separation. e.g. "You who prefer specialness to sanity could not obtain it in your right minds. You were at peace until you asked for special favor." This suggests you and others (souls in heaven) had "right minds" prior to the separation idea. If being right-minded is being sane, it means you were sane before the separation, and right-mindedness as in atonement is a reflection of that.

It seems the right mind "ends" when one mindedness takes over but you cannot become LESS right-minded when this happens, so one-mindedness includes right mindedness.

"The term "salvation" does NOT apply to the Soul, which is not in danger and does not need to be salvaged. Salvation is nothing more that "right-mindedness" which is NOT the one-mindedness of the Soul, but which must be accomplished before one-mindedness can be restored. Right-mindedness dictates the next step automatically, because right perception is uniformly without attack, so that wrong-mindedness is obliterated. The ego cannot survive without judgment, and is laid aside accordingly. The mind then has only ONE direction in which it can move."

"The Holy Spirit is nothing more than your own right mind. He was also mine. The Bible says, "May the mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus," and uses this as a BLESSING. It is the blessing of miracle-mindedness. It asks that you may think as I thought, joining with me in Christ-thinking."

"A major step in the Atonement plan is to undo error at ALL levels. Illness, which is really "not Right Mindedness", is the result of level confusion in the sense that it always entails the misbelief that what is amiss in one level can adversely affect another."

"We said in a previous section that the miracle is an expression of miracle-Mindedness. Miracle-Mindedness merely means Right-Mindedness in the sense that we are now using it. Right-Mindedness neither exalts nor depreciates the mind of the miracle worker nor of the miracle receiver. However, as a creative act, the miracle need not await the Right-Mindedness of the receiver. In fact, its purpose is to restore him TO his Right Mind. But it is essential that the miracle worker be in his Right Mind, or he will be unable to reestablish Right-Mindedness in someone else. "

"In this sense, when their behavior is unstable, they are obviously disagreeing with God's idea of the Creation. This is a fundamental right of man, although not one he would care to exercise if he were in his Right Mind."

"Biblical quotation relates to the healing of a devil-possessed man, in which the sufferer was subsequently found healed, in his right mind, and sitting at feet of Jesus."

"He is invariable as the peace in which you dwell, and of which the Holy Spirit, that which is nothing more than your right Mind, reminds you."

"The ego, which is not real, attempts to persuade the mind, which IS real, that it IS its own learning device, and that the learning device is more real than IT is. No-one in his right mind could POSSIBLY believe this, and no-one in his right mind DOES believe it. "

"Innocent (or true) perception means that you NEVER misperceive, and ALWAYS see truly. More simply, this means that you never see what does not exist in reality. Whenever you lack confidence in what someone else will do, you are attesting to your belief that he is not in his Right Mind. This is hardly a miracle-based frame of reference. It also has the disastrous effect of denying (incorrect use) the essentially creative power of the miracle. The miracle perceives everything AS IT IS. If nothing but the truth exists (and this is really redundant in statement, because what is not true CANNOT exist) Right-Minded seeing cannot see ANYTHING BUT perfection. We have said many times that ONLY what God creates, or what man creates with the same will, has any real existence. This, then, is all that the innocent can see. They do not suffer from the delusions of the Separated ones."

"The world, in its original connotation, included both the proper creation of man by God, AND the proper creation by man in his Right Mind. The latter required the endowment of man by God with free will, because all loving creation is freely given. Nothing in either of these statements implies any sort of level involvement, or, in fact, anything except one continuous line of creation, in which all aspects are of the same order. "

"Only One-Mindedness is without confusion. A separate, or divided, mind MUST be confused. A divided mind is uncertain by definition. It HAS to be in conflict because it is out of accord with itself. "

"The Holy Spirit is the mind of the Atonement. It represents a state of mind that comes close enough to one-mindedness that transfer is at last possible. As you well know, transfer depends on common elements in the old learning and the new situation to which it is transferred. Perception is not knowledge, but it can be TRANSFERRED to knowledge, or CROSS OVER into it. It might even be more helpful here to use the literal meaning "carried over," for the last step is taken by God. "

"Punishment as a concept is in total opposition to Right-Mindedness. The aim of the Final Judgment is to RESTORE Right-Mindedness TO man. "

"This is what his own Right-Mindedness cannot but dictate. The purpose of time is solely to "give him time" to achieve this judgment. It is his own perfect judgment of his own creation. When everything that he retains is lovable, there is no reason for any fear to remain in him. This IS his part in the Atonement. "

"NEVER confuse right-with wrong-mindedness. Responding to ANY form of miscreation with anything EXCEPT a DESIRE TO HEAL (or a miracle) is an expression of this confusion. "

"Only Right-Mindedness CAN create in a way that has any real effect."

"True denial is a very powerful protective device. You can and should deny any belief that error can hurt you. This kind of denial is NOT a concealment device, but a correction device. The "Right Mind" of the mentally healthy DEPENDS on it. "

"You who prefer specialness to sanity could not obtain it in your right minds. You were at peace until you asked for special favor. And God did not give it. For the request was alien to Him, and you could not ask this of a Father who truly loved His Son. Therefore, you made of Him an UNloving father, demanding of Him what only such a father COULD give. And the peace of God's Son was shattered, for he no longer understood his Father. He feared what he had made, but still more did he fear his REAL father, having attacked his glorious equality WITH Him. "

There is a theme in the miracle principles. Many of them speak of the fact that you as a miracle worker are in a position of greater supply than others. You are DIFFERENT to them. They are lacking something you have and are in need of healing. And it is now your role to GIVE to them, or supply, that which they lack, for them, so that they will be lifted up to a healed state. This means that miracles are a way to HEAL OTHERS. To be truly helpful. To actually CAUSE effects in them whereby they CHANGE, are transformed, and BECOME healed. In mind AND body.

Miracles are not the same thing as the state of miracle mindedness. They arise FROM that state and EXPRESS outward to others.

"Miracles ARISE FROM a miraculous state of mind, or a state of miracle-readiness."

"Miracles are an EXPRESSION of love."

They are miracle impulses, sparks of life, divine broadcasts, thought creations, ("miracles are thought creations" "miracles are a spark of life") which EMIT from the mind, travel through you from the holy spirit, to your brother's mind, where they are received. This entails a GIVER and a RECEIVER. They CAUSE HEALING IN OTHERS. In your brother. Because he has placed himself in a position where he is blocking his own healing and so NEEDS the light in you to shine into his mind to heal it, for him. Just as if someone is disabled, you HELP THEM to cross the road.

Having placed himself in a state of sickness, your brother is in a position to NEED HELP. He is not willing to correct the error himself, even though he made it, and even though his mind could heal itself. So now your function is to perform a miracle of healing FOR HIM, as a SERVICE that you provide to help him.

"Miracles are a universal BLESSING from God through me to all my brothers."

A miracle is an intercession. You INTERVENE on his behalf and do FOR him what he is not currently able/willing to do. You CAN do this because your mind has a light in it which is compatible with his mind and is able to shine INTO HIS MIND to enlighten it. The light in you can shine away HIS darkness. Your mind can HEAL another mind. This is not magic, it is miraculous. The love in you can RESURRECT your brother from death!

"Miracles are healing because they ***supply a lack***; they are performed ***by those who temporarily have more FOR THOSE WHO TEMPORARILY HAVE LESS***."

"Miracles are a kind of exchange. Like all expressions of love, which are always miraculous in the true sense, the exchange reverses the physical laws. They bring ***more love both to the giver AND THE RECEIVER***."

"Miracles are teaching devices for demonstrating it is as blessed to give as to receive. They simultaneously ***increase the strength of the giver and SUPPLY STRENGTH TO THE RECEIVER***."

"The miracle, on the other hand, is an ***ENERGIZER***. It always strengthens, and never depletes. It DOES ***induce peace***, and by establishing tranquillity it enables both giver ***AND RECEIVER*** to enter into a state of Grace. Here his miracle-mindedness, is restored."

"A miracle is a ***SERVICE***. It is the maximal service you can ***render to ANOTHER***. It is a way of loving your neighbor as yourself. You recognize your own and your neighbor's worth simultaneously."

"Miracles are natural signs of forgiveness. Through miracles you accept God's forgiveness by ***extending it to OTHERS.***"

"Miracles enable you to ***heal the SICK and raise the DEAD*** because you made sickness and death yourself, and ***can therefore ABOLISH both***. You are a miracle, capable of creating in the likeness of your Creator."

"A miracle is a universal ***blessing*** from God through me ***to all my BROTHERS***. It is the privilege of the forgiven to forgive."

"I inspire all miracles, ***which are really INTERCESSIONS***. They ***intercede*** for your holiness"

"A miracle is a ***CORRECTION*** introduced into false thinking by me. It acts as a catalyst, breaking up erroneous perception and reorganizing it properly."

"The miracle ***DISSOLVES error*** because the Holy Spirit identifies error as false or unreal. This is the same as saying that by perceiving light, ***darkness automatically DISAPPEARS***."

"A major contribution of miracles is their ***strength in RELEASING you*** from your false sense of isolation, deprivation and lack."

"A miracle is never lost. It may touch ***MANY PEOPLE*** you have not even met, and produce undreamed of changes in situations of which you are not even aware."

"Miracles are merely the translation of denial into truth. If to love oneself is to HEAL oneself, those who are sick do NOT love themselves. Therefore, they are asking for the love that would heal them, but which they are DENYING TO THEMSELVES. If they knew the truth about themselves, they could not be sick. The task of the miracle-worker thus becomes to DENY THE DENIAL OF TRUTH The sick must heal THEMSELVES, for the truth is IN them. But, having OBSCURED it, ***the light in ANOTHER mind must shine into theirs***, because that light IS theirs."

"The miracle is the ***act*** of a Son of God who has laid aside all false gods, and who calls on his brothers to do likewise. It is an act of faith, because it is the recognition that his brother CAN do it. It is a call to the Holy Spirit in his mind, a call to Him which is strengthened by this joining. Because the miracle-worker has heard Him, he ***strengthens*** His Voice in a sick brother by weakening his belief in sickness, which he does NOT share. ***The power of one mind CAN shine into another***, because all the lamps of God were lit by the same spark. It is everywhere, and it is eternal."

"Our brothers are forgetful. ***That is why they need*** your remembrance of me and of Him Who created me. Through this remembrance, ***you can change their minds about themselves***, as I can change yours. ***Your mind is so powerful a light that you can look into theirs and enlighten them***, as I can enlighten yours."

This is not a violation of the person's free will. If they are willing to be helped, a little willingness is all that is required to invite the holy spirit to move and act and heal. It is our role as MIRACLE WORKERS, to GIVE healing to others who need it. We are in a position to do so because of our greater strength, and the Holy Spirit is EAGER to bring as much healing as possible as soon as possible.

"Your function on Earth is healing."

"You share the Holy Spirit's function on earth."

"Do his works."

"You will see miracles through your hands through me."

"If I live in you, you ARE awake. But YOU must see the works I do through you, or you will not perceive that I have done them unto YOU. Do not set limits on what you believe I can do THROUGH you, or you will not accept what I can do FOR you."

"Thank God that He is there, and works through you. And all His works are yours. He offers YOU a miracle, with every one you LET Him do through you."

"The truly helpful are God's miracle-workers, whom I direct until we are all united in the joy of the kingdom. I will direct you to wherever you can be truly helpful, and to whoever can follow my guidance through you."

This might sound selfish, but most of the course is about you and what you are doing to yourself. It’s you who have attacked yourself. It’s you who needs healing. It’s you who needs to take responsibility for accepting atonement for yourself.

It’s you who’s been hurting yourself and choosing suffering. It’s you who has the free will. It’s you who have chosen away from God and needs to choose Heaven. It’s you who believes you are unworthy and needs love. It’s you who have condemned yourself with sin. So it’s really you that needs the help.

It’s not primarily about you saving the world or fixing others. You are not strong enough TO help others until you have undergone some healing. This is the main theme. Your self.

It’s only as a result of your own inner transformation that you attain a position of authority, power, miraculousness, love and wisdom, to be able to then bestow healing and help onto others in blessing. Only love can be shared with others. If you don’t have the love, you can’t give it. You’ve got to be bolstered, healed, recovered, saved. Shaped into someone who does have access to love and who can be helpful.

Giving and receiving become more unified as you yourself open up to receive love. You can only give the miracles you have received. You’re no use to anyone if you are no use to yourself. You have to take your power back. You have to become stronger in the truth. To allow more of your light to shine.

It’s not selfish to work on yourself. Gradually you’ll open up to sharing what you’re learning. You can’t see God in everything if your own mind is not aware of God within it. You look within first then look without. Trying to put everyone else first in denial of you receiving, is sacrifice. It’s like you are a battery, you have to become charged up before you can overflow your power onto others. Or as the analogy goes, if your own cup is half full, it hasn’t enough to overflow to others.

This doesn’t entail doing everything on your own, or being self reliant, and not opening up to trust and depend on spirit. You do need to develop trust in Him. But realize most of your ascent to the atonement is to do with SELF healing. And only after a certain amount of healing is accomplished within you do you become able to exhibit signs of miraculousness. As Jesus says, miracles are everyone’s right, but purification (of yourself) is NECESSARY first.

Go to God. Get the love. Give the love.

It can be very important for your life to totally fail sometimes. It's good for the ego to totally fuck up.

It is important that you come to realize that what you've been trying to do DOES NOT WORK.

You will initially feel like this is absolutely the worst case scenario, where everything is falling apart and going to shit, and nothing is working how it's supposed to.

BUT...

This is very important.

It means you will come face to face with the fact that your ego method of dealing with things is completely flawed. And, there is an extremely powerful (yet painful) potential in that.

Only when you can fully ADMIT to yourself that your ego behavior is flawed - such as an attitude of trying to fix and save everyone - believing you are the source of everything - thinking you have authority and control over your life - believing you are in charge of your existence - when these FAIL you STOP BELIEVING that these approaches work.

You surrender them. Possibly on your knees. In tears.

And it seems right then that you are absolutely at your worst, BUT, you are mere millimeters away from something truly marvelous.

Because, when you DROP the ego tools that you have come to realize do not work, you surrender trying to do this all yourself, you withdraw all of your conviction and value and faith from these broken lifestyles, and this puts you in a position for SOMETHING ELSE.

And guess what... that something else is then ready to come flooding in. If you've seen clearly that trying to fix everyone is fundamentally totally flawed because it just makes the situation WORSE, then.... naturally... the opposite must be true. Stopping fixing must HELP.

But it's more than this. Ultimately it means, you are coming face to face with your authority problem over God, the power you think you have over your life, and you are FORCED to surrender it.

You think this is terrible, like your life is destroyed. But then you realize... wait a minute.... there is another option open to me. What if I let God be the authority? Wait a minute.. what if God has the power I've been trying to have and I can share it with Him? Wait a minute... what if I can actually be happy if I stop trying to do this myself and I instead align with His will? .... all these popcorn insights start to fire off as you suddenly realize that your ego strategy was actually a CLOSED DOOR which was shutting out the EASE of being with God, making your life difficult and driving you nuts.

So now you rip the door off its hinges, the light floods in, you suddenly realize THERE IS A BETTER WAY, and hey presto, suddenly you find real relief and your will has become aligned with God's will. And now you can actually enjoy the journey of returning to God and heading in the direction of union with God, rather than always trying to run the other way. Yay!

So your life fails... its a blessing in disguise. Looks awful, feels crap, you don't want it, but you don't realize what it's leading to. It NEEDS to fail, so you can be set free.

Sometimes things go terribly, terribly wrong. And this wrongness compels you to seek and try to find answers as to why it went wrong. And if the thing is really, really wrong, you will not be able to find answers. And you'll keep looking and looking and completely FAIL to come up with a wholly satisfying truth.

And eventually with enough failure, not for want or trying, you will perhaps start to realize that you are not finding truth because THERE IS NO TRUTH in this illusory problem, and this problem is not REAL.

Failure therefore can lead you to awakening, and can be a blessing, because it shows you very very clearly how utterly ridiculous the ego is, how obviously un-God like the world is, how completely opposite to God this experience is, and that therefore this CANNOT be what God wills.

This then gives you a powerful contrast, in which on the one hand you have a sucky life filled with disaster which seems to beg you to die, and on the other hand, there is God, who is pure love, who could not possibly have wanted this for you.

One of them must be true. They cannot both be true. So which is it going to be? Is your world of failure and loss and tragedy and despair and wrongfulness the truth, meaning that love is false? Or is love the truth? And if love is the truth, what does that say about all of this failure and fault? Either bad stuff means there is no God or that God doesn't give a shit, OR, it means it CANNOT BE REAL *because* God is loving.

So when shit happens and things go wrong it can be a very painful experience BUT it can also lead you so much failure and impossibility that it starts to become clear to you that it CAN'T be really happening.

When horrible things happen and people say "I can't believe this is happening"... indeed... it is a dream, and it is not happening. But then people quickly forget just how UNREAL the problem is and start to take it seriously, as though this "reality" of the problem overtakes their initial KNOWING that this cannot be reality. We need to keep in touch with that.

This world is not real and everything that happens here is driven by the ego. It is not made by God. And it is not really happening.

The answer isn't to the question "why is this happening" or "what caused this".... to which there is no satisfying answer (similarly, why did the tiny mad idea happen - no answer).... but simply that the REAL ANSWER is the UNDOING of the question, which is the Holy Spirit, which is God's answer to the ILLUSION that anything has gone wrong at all.

Nothing has gone wrong because God is the truth. And this truth is the source of miracles.

A Course in Miracles - Urtext material - reproduced with permission from the Foundation for Inner Peace (acim.org), and the Foundation for A Course in Miracles (facim.org).
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