The attraction of guilt produces fear of love. For love would NEVER look on guilt at all. It is the NATURE of love to look upon ONLY the truth, for there it sees itself, with which it would unite in holy union and completion. As love must look past fear, so must fear see love not. For love contains the END of guilt, as surely as fear DEPENDS on it. Love is attracted ONLY to love. Overlooking guilt completely, IT SEES NO FEAR. Being wholly without attack, it COULD not be afraid.
Fear is attracted to what love sees NOT. And each believes that what the other looks upon does not exist. Fear looks on guilt with just the same devotion that love looks on itself. And each has messengers which they send forth, and which return to them with messages written in the language in which their going forth was asked. Love's messengers are gently sent, and return with messages of love and gentleness. The messengers of fear are harshly ordered to seek out guilt, and cherish every scrap of evil and sin that they can find, losing none of them on pain of death, and laying them respectfully before their lord and master.
Perception cannot obey two masters, each asking for messages of different things, in different languages. What fear would feed upon, love overlooks. What fear DEMANDS, love cannot even SEE. The fierce attraction that guilt holds for fear, is wholly absent from love's gentle perception. What love would look upon is meaningless to fear, and quite invisible. Relationships in this world are the result of how the world is seen. And this depends on which emotion was called on to send its messengers to look upon it, and return with word of what they saw.
Fear's messengers are trained through terror, and they tremble when their master calls upon them to serve him. For fear is merciless even to its friends. Its messengers steal guiltily away in hungry search of guilt, for they are kept cold and starving, and made very vicious by their master, who allows them to feast only upon what they return to him. No little shred of guilt escapes their hungry eyes. And in their savage search for sin, they pounce on any living thing they see, and carry it screaming to their master, to be devoured.
Send not these savage messengers into the world, to feast upon it, and to prey upon reality. For they will bring you word of bones and skin and flesh. They have been taught to seek for the corruptible, and to return with gorges filled with things decayed and rotted. To them, such things are beautiful, because they seem to allay their savage pangs of hunger. For they are frantic with the pain of fear, and would avert the punishment of him who sends them forth, by offering him what THEY hold dear.
The Holy Spirit has given you love's messengers, to send INSTEAD of those YOU trained through fear. THEY are as eager to return to you what they hold dear, as are the others. If you send THEM forth, they will see only the blameless and the beautiful, the gentle and the kind. They will be as careful to let no little act of charity, no tiny expression of forgiveness, no little breaths of love, escape their notice. And they will return, with all the happy things they found, to share them lovingly with you. Be not AFRAID of them. They offer you salvation. Theirs are the messages of SAFETY. For THEY see the world as kind.
If you send forth ONLY the messengers the Holy Spirit gave you, WANTING no messages but theirs, you will see fear no more. The world will be transformed before your sight, cleansed of all guilt, and softly brushed with beauty. The world contains no fear that YOU laid not upon it. And none you cannot ask love's messengers to REMOVE from it, and see it still. The Holy Spirit has given you HIS messengers, to send each other, and return to each with what love sees. They have been given to REPLACE the hungry dogs of fear you sent instead. And they go forth to signify the END of fear.
Love, too, would set a feast before you, on a table covered with a spotless cloth, set in a quiet garden, where no sound but singing and a softly joyous whispering is ever heard. This is a feast which honors your holy relationship, and at which everyone is welcomed as an honored guest. And in a holy instant grace is said by everyone together, as they join in gentleness before the table of communion. And I will join you there, as long ago I promised, and promise still. For in your new relationship am I made welcome, and where I am made welcome, there I AM.
I am made welcome in the state of grace, which means YOU HAVE AT LAST FORGIVEN ME. For I became the symbol of your sin, and so I had to die INSTEAD of you. To the ego, sin MEANS death, and so Atonement IS ACHIEVED THROUGH MURDER. Salvation is looked upon as a way by which the Son of God was killed, instead of YOU. Yet would I offer you my BODY, you whom I love, KNOWING its littleness? Or would I teach that bodies cannot keep us apart? Mine was of no greater value than yours; no better means for the COMMUNICATION of salvation, but NOT its Source.
No one can die for anyone, and death does not atone for sin. But you can LIVE to show it is not REAL. The body DOES appear to be the symbol of sin, while you believe that it can get you what you want. While you believe that it can give you pleasure, you will ALSO believe that it can bring you pain. To think you could be satisfied and happy with so little, IS to hurt yourself. And to LIMIT the happiness that you would have, CALLS upon pain to fill your meager store, and make your lives complete. This IS completion, as the ego sees it. For guilt creeps in where happiness has been removed, and SUBSTITUTES for it.
Communion is another kind of completion, which goes beyond guilt BECAUSE it goes beyond the body. Communion comes with peace, and peace MUST transcend the body.
The "new beginning" now becomes the focus of the curriculum. The goal is clear, but now you need specific methods for attaining it. The speed by which it can be reached depends on only this; your willingness to practice every step. Each one will help a little, every time it is attempted. And, together, they will lead you both from dreams of judgment to forgiving dreams, and out of pain and fear. They are not new to you, but they are more ideas than rules of thought to you as yet. So now we need to practice them awhile, until they are the rules by which you live. We seek to make them habits now, so you will have them ready, and for ANY need.
Prayer is a way to true humility. But here again it rises up, slowly at first, and grows in strength and love and holiness. Let it but leave the ground where it begins to rise to God, and true humility will come at last to grace the mind that thought it was alone and stood against the world. Humility brings peace because it does not claim that you must rule the universe, nor judge all things as you would have them be. All little gods it gladly lays aside, not in resentment, but in honesty and recognition that they did not serve.
Illusions and humility have goals so far apart they cannot coexist, nor share a dwelling place. Where one has come the other disappears. The truly humble have no goal but God because they need no idols, and defense no longer has a purpose. Enemies are useless now, because humility does not oppose. It does not hide in shame because it is content with what it is, knowing creation is the Will of God. Its selflessness is Self, and this it sees in every meeting, where it gladly joins with every Son of God, whose purity it recognizes that it shares with him. Now prayer is lifted from the world of things, of bodies, and of gods of every kind, and you can rest in holiness at last. Humility has taught you how to understand your glory as God's Son, and recognize the arrogance of sin. A dream has veiled the face of Christ from you. Now can you look upon His sinlessness.
High has the ladder risen. You have come almost to Heaven. There is little more to learn before the journey is complete. Now you say to everyone who joins in prayer with you:
"I cannot go without you, for you are a part of me."
And so he is in truth. Now must you pray only for what you truly share with him. For you have understood he never left, and you, who seemed alone, are one with him.
The ladder ends with this, for learning is no longer needed. Now you stand before the gate of Heaven, and your brother stands beside you there. The lawns are deep and still, for here the place appointed for the time when you should come has waited long for you. Here will time end forever. At this gate eternity itself will join with you. Prayer has become what it was meant to be, for you have recognized the Christ in you.
The idea for today is a beginning step in dispelling the belief that your thoughts have no effect. Everything you see is the result of your thoughts. There is no exception to this fact. Thoughts are not big or little; powerful or weak. They are merely true or false. Those which are true create their own likeness. Those which are false make theirs.
There is no more self-contradictory concept than that of "idle thoughts." What gives rise to the perception of a whole world can hardly be called idle. Every thought you have contributes to truth or to illusion; either it extends the truth or it multiplies illusions. You can indeed multiply nothing, but you will not extend it by doing so.
In addition to never being idle, salvation requires that you recognize that every thought you have brings either peace or war; either love or fear. A neutral result is impossible because a neutral thought is impossible. There is such a temptation to dismiss fear thoughts as unimportant, trivial, and not worth bothering about that it is essential you recognize them all as equally destructive but equally unreal. We will practice this idea in many forms before you really understand it.
In applying the idea for today, search your mind for a minute or so, with eyes closed, and actively seek not to overlook any "little" thought which tends to elude the search. This is quite difficult until you get used to it. You will find that it is still hard for you not to make artificial distinctions. Every thought that occurs to you, regardless of the quality which you assign to it, is a suitable subject for applying today's idea.
In the practice periods, first repeat the idea, and then as each one crosses your mind, hold it in awareness while you tell yourself:
"This thought about ____ is not a neutral thought."
"That thought about ____ is not a neutral thought."
As usual, use today's idea whenever you are aware of a particular thought which arouses uneasiness. The following form is suggested for this purpose:
"This thought about ____ is not a neutral thought, because I have no neutral thoughts."
Four or five practice periods are recommended, if you find them relatively effortless. If strain is experienced, three will be enough. The length of the exercise period should also be reduced if there is discomfort.
The Holy Spirit can use ALL that you give to Him for your salvation. But He CANNOT use what you withhold. For He can NOT take it from you, WITHOUT your willingness. For, if He did, you would believe He wrested it from you AGAINST your will. And so you would not learn it IS your will to be without it. You need not give it to Him WHOLLY willingly, for if you could, you had no need for Him. But this He needs; that you PREFER He take it, than that you keep it for yourself alone, and recognize that what brings loss to no-one YOU WOULD NOT KNOW. This much is necessary to add to the idea no-one CAN lose for you to gain. And nothing more.
Here is the ONLY principle salvation needs. Nor is it necessary that your faith in it be strong, unswerving, and without attack from all beliefs opposed to it. You HAVE no fixed allegiance. But remember salvation is not needed by the saved. You are NOT called upon to do what one divided still against himself WOULD find impossible. Have little faith that wisdom COULD be found in such a state of mind. But be you thankful that only little faith is ASKED of you. What BUT a little faith remains to those who still believe in sin? What COULD they know of Heaven and the justice of the saved?
There is a kind of justice in salvation of which the world knows nothing. To the world, justice and VENGEANCE are the same, for sinners see justice ONLY as their punishment, perhaps sustained by someone ELSE, but NOT escaped. The laws of sin DEMAND a victim. WHO it may be makes little difference. But death MUST be the cost and MUST be paid. This is NOT justice, but insanity. Yet how could justice BE defined WITHOUT insanity, where love means hate, and death is seen as victory and triumph over eternity and timelessness and life?
You who know not of justice still can ask, and learn the answer. Justice looks on all in the same way. It is NOT just that one should lack for what another has. For that is vengeance, in WHATEVER form it takes. Justice demands NO sacrifice, for ANY sacrifice is made that sin MAY BE PRESERVED and KEPT. It is a payment offered for the cost of sin, BUT NOT THE TOTAL COST. The rest is taken from another, to be laid beside your LITTLE payment, to "atone" for all that you would keep and NOT give up. So is the victim seen as PARTLY you, with someone ELSE by far the greater part. And in the TOTAL cost, the greater his, the less is yours. And justice, being blind, is satisfied by being paid, it matters not by whom.
Can this BE justice? God knows not of this. But justice DOES He know, and knows it well. For He is wholly fair to everyone. Vengeance is alien to His Mind BECAUSE He knows of justice. To be just is to be fair, AND NOT be vengeful. Fairness AND vengeance are impossible, for each one contradicts the other, and denies that it is real. It is impossible for you to SHARE the Holy Spirit's justice, with a mind that can conceive of specialness at all. Yet how could HE be just, if He condemns a sinner for the crimes he did not do, but THINKS he did? And where would justice be if He demanded of the ones obsessed with the idea of punishment that they lay it aside, unaided, and perceive it is not true?
It is extremely hard for those who still believe sin meaningful to understand the Holy Spirit's justice. They believe He shares their OWN confusion, and can NOT avoid the vengeance that their own belief in justice MUST entail. And so they fear the Holy Spirit, and perceive the wrath of God in Him. They are unjust indeed to Him. Nor can they trust Him NOT to strike them dead with lightening bolts torn from the fires of Heaven by God's Own angry hand. They DO believe that Heaven is hell, and ARE afraid of love. And deep suspicion and the chill of fear come over them when they are told that they have NEVER sinned. Their world DEPENDS on sin's stability. And they perceive the "threat" of what God KNOWS as justice to be more destructive to themselves and to their world than vengeance, which they understand and love.
So do they think the LOSS of sin a curse. And flee the blessing of the Holy Spirit as if He were a messenger from hell, sent from above in treachery and guile, to work God's vengeance on them in the guise of a deliverer and friend. What COULD He be to them except a devil dressed to deceive, within an angel's cloak? And what escape has He for them, except a door to hell that SEEMS to look like Heaven's gate? Yet justice cannot punish those who ask for punishment, but have a Judge Who knows that they are wholly innocent in truth. In justice He is BOUND to set them free, and GIVE them all the honor they deserve, and have denied themselves because they are NOT fair, and CANNOT understand that they ARE innocent.
Love is NOT understandable to sinners. BECAUSE they think that justice is SPLIT OFF from love, and stands for something else. And thus is love perceived as weak and vengeance strong. For love has LOST when judgment left its side, and is too weak to SAVE from punishment. But vengeance WITHOUT love has GAINED in strength by being separate and apart from love. And what BUT vengeance now can help and save, while love stands feebly by, with helpless hands, bereft of justice and vitality, and powerless to save? What can Love ask of you who think that all of this is true? Could He, in justice AND in love believe in your confusion you HAVE much to give?
You are NOT asked to trust Him far. No further than what you SEE He offers you, and what you recognize you COULD not give yourself. In God's Own justice does He recognize all you deserve, but understands as well that you can NOT accept it for yourself. It is His Special Function to hold out to you the gifts the innocent DESERVE. And every one that you accept brings joy to Him AS WELL as you. He knows that Heaven is richer made by each one you accept. And God rejoices as His Son receives what loving justice KNOWS to be his due. For love and justice are NOT different. BECAUSE they are the same, does mercy stand at God's right Hand, and GIVE the Son of God the power to forgive HIMSELF of sin.
To him who merits EVERYTHING, how can it be that ANYTHING is kept FROM him? For that would be injustice, and unfair indeed to all the holiness that IS in him, however much he recognize it not. God knows of NO injustice. He would not allow His Son be judged by those who seek his death, and COULD not see his worth at all. What honest witnesses could THEY call forth, to speak on his behalf? And who would come to plead FOR him, and not AGAINST his life? No justice would be given him by you. Yet God ensured that justice WOULD be done unto the Son He loves, and would protect from ALL unfairness you might seek to offer, believing vengeance IS his proper due.
As specialness cares not who pays the cost of sin, so it BE paid, the Holy Spirit heeds not who looks on innocence at last, provided it IS seen and recognized. For just ONE witness is enough, if he sees truly. Simple justice asks no more. Of each one does the Holy Spirit ask if he will be that one, so justice may return to love, and there be satisfied. Each special function He allots is but for this; that each one learn that love and justice are NOT separate. And both are strengthened by their union with each other. Without love is justice prejudiced and weak. And love WITHOUT justice is impossible. For love is fair, and cannot chasten without cause. What cause can BE to warrant an attack upon the innocent? In justice, then, does love correct mistakes, but NOT in vengeance. For that would be unjust to innocence.
You can be perfect witness to the power of love AND justice, if you understand it is impossible the Son of God COULD merit vengeance. You need NOT perceive, in every circumstance, that this is true. Nor need you look to your experience WITHIN the world, which is but shadows of all that is REALLY happening within yourself. The understanding that you need comes NOT of you, but from a larger Self, so great and holy that He COULD not doubt His innocence. Your special function is a call to Him, that He may smile on you whose sinlessness He shares. HIS understanding will be YOURS. And so the Holy Spirit's Special Function has been fulfilled. God's Son has found a witness unto his sinlessness, and NOT his sin. How LITTLE need you give the Holy Spirit, that simple justice may be given YOU.
Without impartiality there IS no justice. How CAN specialness be just? Judge not because you cannot, NOT because you are a miserable sinner too. How can the special REALLY understand that justice is the same for everyone? To take from one to give another MUST be an injustice to them both, since they are equal in the Holy Spirit's sight. Their Father gave the SAME inheritance to both. Who would have more OR less is not aware that he has everything. He is no judge of what MUST be another's due, because he thinks HE is deprived. And so MUST he be envious, and try to TAKE AWAY from whom he judges. He is NOT impartial, and CANNOT fairly see another's rights BECAUSE his own have been obscured to him.
You have the right to all the universe; to perfect peace, complete deliverance from ALL effects of sin, and to the life eternal, joyous, and complete in EVERY way, as God appointed for His holy Son. This is the ONLY justice Heaven knows, and all the Holy Spirit brings to earth. Your special function shows you nothing else BUT perfect justice CAN prevail for you. And you ARE safe from vengeance in ALL forms. The world deceives, but it can NOT replace God's justice with a version of its own. For only love IS just, and CAN perceive what justice must accord the Son of God. Let love decide, and never fear that you, in your unfairness, will deprive yourself of what GOD's justice has allotted you.
Never forget the world the sightless "see" MUST be imagined. And what it REALLY looks like IS unknown to them. They must infer what COULD be seen, from evidence forever indirect, and RECONSTRUCT their inferences as they stumble and fall because of what they did NOT recognize, or walk unharmed through open doorways that they THOUGHT were closed. And so it is with you. You do NOT see. Your cues for inference are wrong, and so you stumble and fall down upon the stones you did not recognize. But fail to be aware you CAN go through the doors you THOUGHT were closed, but which stand open before unseeing eyes, waiting to WELCOME you.
How foolish it is to attempt to judge what could be seen instead. It is not necessary to IMAGINE what the world must look like. It must be SEEN, before you recognize it for what it is. You can be SHOWN which doors are open, and you can SEE where safety lies. And which way leads to darkness; which to light. Judgment will ALWAYS give you false directions. But vision SHOWS you where to go. Why should you guess? There is no NEED to learn through pain. And gentle lessons are acquired joyously, and are remembered gladly. What gives you happiness you WANT to learn. and NOT forget.
It is not this you would deny. YOUR question is whether the means by which this course is learned WILL bring the joy it promises. If you BELIEVED it would, the LEARNING of it would be NO problem. You are not happy learners yet, because you still remain uncertain that vision gives you MORE than judgment does, and you HAVE learned that both you CANNOT have. The blind become ACCUSTOMED to their world by their adjustments TO it. They think they know their way about in it. They learned it not through joyous lessons, but through the stern necessity of limits they believed they could not overcome. And, STILL believing this, they hold those lessons dear, and cling to them BECAUSE they cannot see.
They do not understand the lessons KEEP them blind. This they do NOT believe. And so they keep the world they learned to "see" in their imagination, believing that their choice is that, or nothing. They hate the world they learned through pain. And everything they think is in it, serves to remind them that THEY are incomplete and bitterly deprived. Thus they DEFINE their life and where they live it, ADJUSTING to it as they think they must, afraid to lose the little that they have. And so it is with all who see the body as all they have, and all their brothers have. They try to reach each other, and they fail. And fail again. And they ADJUST to loneliness, believing that to KEEP the body is to SAVE the little that they have.
Listen, and try to think if you remember what we will speak of now. Listen, -- perhaps you catch a hint of an ancient state not quite forgotten; dim, perhaps, and yet not altogether unfamiliar. Like a song whose name is long forgotten, and the circumstances in which you heard completely unremembered. Not the whole song has stayed with you, but just a little wisp of melody, attached not to a person or a place, or anything particular. But you remember, from just this little part, how lovely was the song, how wonderful the setting where you heard it, and how you loved those who were there, and listened with you.
The notes are nothing; yet you have kept them with you, not for themselves, but as a soft reminder of what would make you weep, if you remembered how dear it was to you. You COULD remember, yet you are afraid, believing you would lose the world you learned since then. And yet you know that nothing in the world you learned is half so dear as this. Listen, and see if you remember an ancient song you knew so long ago, and held more dear than any melody you taught yourself to cherish since. Beyond the body, beyond the sun and stars, past EVERYTHING you see and yet somehow familiar, is an arc of golden light that stretches, as you look, into a great and shining circle. And all the circle fills with light before your eyes.
The edges of the circle disappear, and what is in it no longer is contained at all. The light expands and covers everything, extending to infinity, forever shining, and with no break or limit anywhere. Within it, EVERYTHING is joined in perfect continuity. Nor is it possible to imagine that anything COULD be outside. For there IS nowhere that this light is not. This is the vision of the Son of God, whom you know well. Here is the sight of him who knows his Father. Here is the memory of what you ARE; a PART of this, with ALL of it within you, and JOINED to all of it as surely as all is joined to you.
ACCEPT the vision that can show you this, and NOT the body. You KNOW the ancient song, and know it well. Nothing will ever be as dear to you as is this ancient hymn of love the Son of God sings to his Father still. And now the blind can see, for that same song they sing in honor of their Creator, gives praise to them as well. The blindness that they made will not withstand the memory of this song. And they will look upon the vision of the Son of God, remembering who he is they sing of. What is a miracle, but this remembering? And who is there in whom this memory lies not? The light in one, awakens it in all. And, when you see it in each other, you ARE remembering for everyone.
Today is a day of special dedication. We take a stand on but one side today. We side with the truth and let illusions go. We will not vacillate between the two, but take a firm position with the One. We dedicate ourselves to truth today, and to salvation as God planned it be. We will not argue it is something else, we will not seek for it where it is not. In gladness we accept it as it is, and take the part assigned to us by God.
How happy to be certain! All our doubts we lay aside today, and take our stand with certainty of purpose, and with thanks that doubt is gone and surety has come. We have a mighty purpose to fulfill, and have been given everything we need with which to reach the goal. Not one mistake stands in our way. For we have been absolved of errors. All our sins are washed away by realizing that they were but mistakes.
The guiltless have no fear, for they are safe and recognize their safety. They do not appeal to magic, nor invent escapes from fancied threats without reality. They rest in quiet certainty that they will do what it is given them to do. They do not doubt their own ability, because they know their function will be filled completely, in the perfect time and place. They took the stand which we will take today, that we may share their certainty, and thus increase it by accepting it ourselves.
They will be with us; all who took the stand we take today will gladly offer us all that they learned and every gain they made. Those still uncertain, too, will join with us, and borrowing our certainty, will make it stronger still. While those as yet unborn will hear the call we heard, and answer it, when they have come to make their choice again. We do not choose but for ourselves today.
Is it not worth five minutes of your time each hour to be able to accept the happiness which God has given you? Is it not worth five minutes hourly to recognize your special function here? Is not five minutes of the hour but a small request in terms of a reward so great it has no measure? You have made a thousand losing bargains at the least.
Here is an offer guaranteeing you your full release from pain of every kind, and joy the world does not contain. You can exchange a little of your time for peace of mind and certainty of purpose, with the promise of complete success. And since time has no meaning, you are being asked for nothing in return for everything. Here is a bargain which you cannot lose. And what you gain is limitless indeed!
Each hour today give Him your tiny gift of but five minutes. He will give the words you use in practicing today's idea the deep conviction and the certainty you lack. His words will join with yours, and make each repetition of today's idea a total dedication, made in faith as perfect and as sure as His in you. His confidence in you will bring the light to all the words you say, and you will go beyond their sound to what they really mean.
Today you practice with Him, as you say:
"I will accept my part in God's plan for salvation."
In each five minutes that you spend with Him, He will accept your words and give them back to you all bright with faith and confidence so strong and steady they will light the world with hope and gladness. Do not lose one chance to be the glad receiver of His gifts, that you may give them to the world today.
Give Him the words, and He will do the rest. He will enable you to understand your special function. He will open up the way to happiness, and peace and trust will be His gifts, His answer to your words. He will respond with all His faith and joy and certainty that what you say is true. And you will have conviction then of Him Who knows the function that you have on earth as well as Heaven. He will be with you each practice period you share with Him, exchanging every instant of the time you offer Him for timelessness and peace.
Throughout the hour let your time be spent in happy preparation for the next five minutes you will spend again with Him. Repeat today's idea while you wait for the glad time to come to you again. Repeat it often, and do not forget each time you do so, you have let your mind be readied for the happy time to come.
And when the hour is gone, and He is there once more to spend a little time with you be thankful, and lay down all earthly tasks, all little thoughts and limited ideas, and spend a happy time again with Him. Tell Him once more that you accept the part which He would have you take, and help you fill, and He will make you sure you want this choice, which He has made with you, and you with Him.
Prepare you NOW for the undoing of what never was. If you already UNDERSTOOD the difference between truth and illusion, Atonement would HAVE no meaning. The holy instant, your holy relationship, the Holy Spirit's teaching, and all the means by which salvation is accomplished, would have no purpose. For they are all but ASPECTS of the plan to change your dreams of fear to happy dreams, from which you waken easily to knowledge. Put yourself NOT in charge of this, for you can NOT distinguish between advance and retreat. Some of your greatest advances YOU have judged as failures, and some of your deepest retreats YOU have evaluated as success.
Never approach the holy instant AFTER you have tried to remove all fear and hatred from your mind. That is ITS function. Never attempt to OVERLOOK your guilt BEFORE you ask the Holy Spirit's help. That is HIS function. Your part is only to offer Him a LITTLE willingness to LET Him remove all fear and hatred, and to BE forgiven. On your little faith, joined with HIS understanding, HE will build your part in the Atonement, and MAKE SURE that you fulfill it easily. And WITH Him, YOU will build a ladder planted in the solid rock of faith, and rising even to Heaven. Nor will you use it to ascend to Heaven alone.
Through your holy relationship, reborn and blessed in every holy instant which you did NOT arrange, thousands will rise to Heaven WITH you. Can YOU plan for THIS? Or could you PREPARE yourselves for such a function? Yet it IS possible, because God wills it. Nor will He change His Mind about it. The means and purpose BOTH belong to Him. You have accepted one; the other will be provided. A purpose such as this, WITHOUT the means, IS inconceivable. HE will provide the means to ANYONE who SHARES His purpose.
HAPPY DREAMS COME TRUE. NOT because they are dreams, but only because they are HAPPY. And so they MUST be loving. Their message is, "Thy Will be done," and NOT, "I want it otherwise." The alignment of means and purpose is an undertaking IMPOSSIBLE for you to understand. You do not even realize you HAVE accepted the Holy Spirit's purpose as your own. And you would merely bring UNholy means to its accomplishment. The little faith it needed to change the purpose is all that is required to RECEIVE the means and USE them.
It is no dream to love your brother as yourself. Nor is your holy relationship a dream. All that remains of dreams within it is that it is still a SPECIAL relationship. Yet it is VERY useful to the Holy Spirit, Who has a special FUNCTION here. It will become the HAPPY dream through which He can spread joy to thousands on thousands who believe that love is fear, NOT happiness. Let Him fulfill the function that He GAVE to your relationship by ACCEPTING it FOR you. And NOTHING will be wanting that would make of it what HE would have it be.
When you feel the holiness of your relationship is threatened by ANYTHING, stop instantly and offer the Holy Spirit your willingness, IN SPITE of fear, to let Him exchange this instant for the holy one which YOU would rather have. He will NEVER fail in this. But forget not that your relationship IS ONE, and so it MUST be that whatever threatens the peace of one is an equal threat to the other. The power of joining, AND ITS BLESSING, lies in the fact that it is now impossible for either of you to experience fear alone, or to attempt to DEAL with it alone. Never believe that this is necessary, or even possible.
But, just as THIS is impossible, so is it equally impossible that the holy instant come to either of you WITHOUT the other. And it WILL come to both at the REQUEST of either. Whichever is saner at the time when threat is perceived, should remember how deep is his indebtedness to the other, and how much gratitude is due him. AND BE GLAD that he can pay his debt, by bringing happiness to both. Let him remember this, and say:
"I desire this holy instant for myself
That I may SHARE it with my brother, whom I love.
It is not possible that I can have it WITHOUT him, nor he
without me.
Yet it is WHOLLY possible for us to SHARE it NOW.
And so I choose THIS instant as the one to offer to the Holy
Spirit, that His blessing may descend on us, and
keep us BOTH in peace."
If sickness is separation, the will to heal and BE HEALED is the first step toward RECOGNIZING WHAT YOU TRULY WANT. Every ATTACK is a step AWAY from this, and every healing thought brings it closer. The Son of God HAS both Father and Son because he IS both Father and Son.
To unite having and being is only to unite your will with His, for He wills you HIMSELF. And you will yourself to HIM, because in your perfect understanding of Him, you KNOW there IS but One Will. But when you attack ANY part of God and His Kingdom, your understanding is NOT perfect, and what YOU will is therefore lost to you.
Healing thus becomes A LESSON IN UNDERSTANDING, and the more you practice it, the better teacher AND LEARNER you become. If you have DENIED truth, what better witnesses to its reality could you have, than those who have been healed BY it? But be sure to count yourself among them, for in your willingness to JOIN them is YOUR healing accomplished.
Every miracle which you accomplish speaks to you of the Fatherhood of God. Every healing thought which you ACCEPT, either FROM your brother or in your OWN mind, teaches you that you are God's Son. But in every hurtful thought you hold, wherever you perceive it, lies the denial of God's Fatherhood and your Sonship. And denial IS as total as love. You cannot deny PART of yourself, simply because the remainder will seem to be unintegrated, and therefore without meaning. And being without meaning TO YOU, you will not understand it. To deny meaning MUST be to fail to understand.
You can only heal yourself, for only God's Son NEEDS healing. He needs it because he does not understand himself, and therefore knows not what he does. Having forgotten his will, he does not know what he WANTS. Healing is a sign that HE WANTS TO MAKE WHOLE. And this willingness opens his OWN ears to the Voice of the Holy Spirit, Whose message IS wholeness. He will enable you to go far beyond the healing YOU would undertake, for beside your small willingness to make whole He will lay His Own COMPLETE Will and make YOURS whole. What can the Son of God NOT accomplish with the Fatherhood of God in him?
And yet the invitation must come from you, for you have surely learned that whom you invite as your guest WILL abide with you. The Holy Spirit cannot speak to an unwelcoming host, BECAUSE HE WILL NOT BE HEARD. The Eternal Guest remains, but His Voice grows faint in alien company. He needs your protection, but only because your care is a sign that you WANT Him. Think like Him ever so slightly, and the little spark becomes a blazing light that fills your mind so that He becomes your only Guest.
Whenever you ask the ego to enter, you lessen His welcome. HE will remain, but YOU have allied yourself AGAINST Him. Whatever journey you choose to take, He will go with you, waiting. You can safely trust His patience, for He CANNOT leave a part of God. But you will far more than patience. You will never rest until you know your function AND FULFILL IT, for only in this can your will and your Father's be wholly joined. To HAVE Him is to be LIKE Him, and He has GIVEN Himself to you.
You who have God MUST be as God, for HIS function became YOURS with His gift. Invite this knowledge back into your minds, and let nothing that will obscure it enter. The Guest whom God sent you will teach you how to do this, if you but recognize the little spark, and are WILLING TO LET IT GROW. YOUR willingness need not be perfect, because His IS. If you will merely offer Him a little place, He will lighten it so much, that you will gladly extend it. And by THIS extending, you will begin to remember Creation.
Would you be hostage to the ego or host to God? You will accept only whom YOU invite. You are free to determine who shall be your guest, and how long he shall remain with you. But this is not REAL freedom, for it depends on how you see it. For the Holy Spirit is THERE, although He cannot help you without your invitation, and the ego is nothing, whether you invite it in or not. Real freedom depends on welcoming REALITY, and of your guests only He IS real. Know, then, Who abides with you, merely by recognizing WHAT IS ALREADY THERE, and do not be satisfied with imaginary comforters, for the Comforter of God is in you.
"Father, Your Son is perfect. When he thinks that he is hurt in any way, it is because he has forgotten who he is, and that he is as You created him. Your Thoughts can only bring me happiness. If ever I am sad or hurt or ill, I have forgotten what You think, and put my little, meaningless ideas in place of where Your Thoughts belong, and where They are. I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts. The Thoughts I think with You can only bless. The Thoughts I think with You alone are true."
I will not hurt myself today. For I am far beyond all pain. My Father placed me safe in Heaven, watching over me. And I would not attack the Son He loves, for what He loves is mine to love as well.