ACIM Daily Lesson 285. My holiness shines bright and clear today. 1. Today I wake with joy, expecting but the happy things of God to come to me.
My holiness shines bright and clear today.
Lesson 285
My holiness shines bright and clear today.
1. Today I wake with joy, expecting but the happy things of God to come to me. ²I ask but them to come, and realize my invitation will be answered by the thoughts to which it has been sent by me. ³And I will ask for only joyous things the instant I accept my holiness. ⁴For what would be the use of pain to me, what purpose would my suffering fulfill, and how would grief and loss avail me if insanity departs from me today, and I accept my holiness instead?
2. Father, my holiness is Yours. ²Let me rejoice in it, and through forgiveness be restored to sanity. ³Your Son is still as You created him. ⁴My holiness is part of me, and also part of You. ⁵And what can alter Holiness Itself?
We are always choosing holiness or guilt as our reality.
This is a very straightforward lesson. I am very holy. I expect only happy things of God to come to me today. I will accept these joyous things as I accept my holiness. It is not my ego personification that is holy. Myron isn’t holy. Who I am is holy because who I am is as God created me. Even so, my world is an accurate representation of what I believe about myself.
If the images I make of myself are not indicative of holiness, I need to heal my mind. Knowing I am holy, why would I accept pain and suffering instead? It follows that if I am accepting pain and suffering, I must be refusing to accept my holiness. Since Jesus has told us many times now that we are holy, what could be the reason we don’t accept him at his word?
The only reason for not accepting our holiness is the belief that we are guilty. Jesus has assured us often that we are as God created us and that we are innocent. There would seem to be no reason to believe we are guilty. The reason we feel guilty or think someone else is guilty is that we are listening to the ego. The ego is all about fear and guilt and will always judge everyone as guilty. Ego thoughts hurt us and keep us in hell. Fortunately, we know that we can elect to change all thoughts that hurt us. When we feel less than joyous, we know that we need to examine the thoughts in our minds.
Maybe we feel unworthy of holiness.
An example of this happened one morning. I woke up later than expected and realized that I would not be able to get done all I had planned to do before my calls started. I noticed a worry thought about this, and when I focused on it, my worry increased but along with it was guilt. My thought was that I should not have watched an extra episode of Chicago Med. I should have gone to bed earlier. I should have done more yesterday so that this work was already done.
Do you see how one thought leads to another if we choose an ego thought to focus on? Very quickly, I realized what had happened and changed each thought that was hurting me. I did not sin, and I decided I would not punish myself. If I kept up this kind of thinking, I would start to feel unworthy of holiness. I would believe I had forfeited holiness and wouldn’t believe it was mine. But holiness is not something that comes and goes or is affected by my behavior or my thoughts. It is what I am.
I lost my mind… for a moment.
For a few minutes this morning, I lost my mind. I believed I could be less than I was created. Since that could only be an illusion, I was able to change my mind about what I believed. I can change my mind about any illusion, but I cannot affect creation. I am Creation, and so I cannot change what I am. The only thing that can happen is that I block my awareness of Self as I turn my attention to the world or to an ego thought. But I remain holy no matter what nonsense I temporarily believe.
Regina’s Tips
You can receive clear answers from spiritual intuition if you ask questions that are focused on its purpose.
For example, instead of asking, “How can I make more money?” you might say, “I feel unsafe. How shall I look at this?” Other good questions are “What will you share with me about this?” and “What is it that I need to see in my mind?”
Instead of asking, “Should I stay in this relationship or leave?” try describing how you feel in the relationship, and then ask, “What guidance do you have for me?”
When you seek an answer from spiritual intuition, it is good to ask open-ended questions. Don’t attempt to lead spiritual intuition by putting a possible answer in your question. For example, don’t ask ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions.
Spiritual intuition is the inner teacher, so its answers have the focus of teaching and pointing toward truth.
My Thoughts
This is the part of Regina’s tips on the Holy Spirit that I found helpful. It is the way I ask questions, too. She also has more information, such as: “These questions are world-focused questions. Spiritual intuition has the function of awakening you from the world entirely. It cannot awaken you from the world and guide you in the world too. That would be confusing its purpose.”
I disagree with this, and I want to go into it a bit because of the confusion I hear about in the Course community. Here are some of the passages from the Course that guide my thinking.
In The Song of Prayer, Jesus says this: “You have been told to ask the Holy Spirit for the answer to any specific problem, and that you will receive a specific answer is such is your need. It also says this: There are decisions to make here, and they must be made whether they be illusions or not. You cannot be asked to accept answers which are beyond the level of need that you can recognize. Therefore, it is not the form of the question that matters, nor how it is asked. The form of the answer, if given by God, will suit your need as you see it.
In the Text, it says this:
4 It is only because you think that you can run some little part, or deal with certain aspects of your life alone, that the guidance of the Holy Spirit is limited. 5 Thus would you make Him undependable, and use this fancied undependability as an excuse for keeping certain dark lessons from Him. 6 And by so limiting the guidance that you would accept, you are unable to depend on miracles to answer all your problems for you.
And in Chapter 13: T-13.VII.12. it says this.
Only the Holy Spirit knows what you need. 2 For He will give you all things that do not block the way to light. 3 And what else could you need? 4 In time, He gives you all the things that you need have, and will renew them as long as you have need of them. 5 He will take nothing from you as long as you have any need of it. 6 And yet He knows that everything you need is temporary, and will but last until you step aside from all your needs and realize that all of them have been fulfilled. 7 Therefore He has no investment in the things that He supplies, except to make certain that you will not use them on behalf of lingering in time. 8 He knows that you are not at home there, and He wills no delay to wait upon your joyous homecoming.
T-13.VII.13. Leave, then, your needs to Him. 2 He will supply them with no emphasis at all upon them. 3 What comes to you of Him comes safely, for He will ensure it never can become a dark spot, hidden in your mind and kept to hurt you. 4 Under His guidance you will travel light and journey lightly, for His sight is ever on the journey’s end, which is His goal.
Now having said this, I do understand Regina’s point.
While, as an example, I would not ask God for more money, I do talk to Him about my problems, knowing I will be guided in the best way possible. I will be guided in a way that answers my needs and simultaneously teaches me I have no needs. He always meets me where I am, and His answer also takes me further along.
For instance, I used to be afraid of not having enough money. I worried about it all the time. I would pray to win the lottery so that I would not have this fear anymore. God answered my prayer as money always showed up when I needed it but winning the lottery was a misguided prayer. It was telling God how to do His job. It was like I was putting a prayer in the Divine Vending Machine and expecting the winning number to come out. Ha ha. It was praying as a spiritual child would pray.
Actually, I am happy I never received that answer because those years of feeling impoverished gave me the opportunity to learn lessons in abundance. I saw that no matter how much more money I made, I always felt poor. Looking back on it, I can’t believe it took me so long to realize that. Now, even though I have little money, I never feel poor. I always trust that what is needed will show up, and it does, sometimes in the most miraculous ways. The healing of my mind was the lottery I won, and I am grateful that is so.
In the same way, I don’t ask God to heal my body. I ask Him to heal my mind of the beliefs that caused sickness to show up in the body. I don’t ask Him to make my child treat me differently, love me more or respect me. Instead, I ask Him what He wants to teach me about relationships.
So, I actually do exactly what Regina said.
I tell Him how I feel and what I am thinking, and I ask Him for correction, knowing that if I feel a lack, it must be that I have placed my focus on ego thoughts of lack. If something seems wrong in my life, I turn that over to Him in absolute trust that His Will is my will and that is all I want. I do expect to be led in my life as long as I keep my mind open and receptive to higher guidance. I often stop and ask what it is that I should do now, and I listen to the answer, and I do that.
Here is another way I see this, and it is where she and I differ.
My mind is split. I use one part of my mind to operate the ego thought system. The other part is my holy mind or my right mind, where the Holy Spirit resides. I make it a habit to always think with my right mind rather than my ego mind. That only makes sense. Why would I make a habit of going to my ego mind when that is the habit I am trying to break?
For instance, I am always misplacing my keys. I will look for a while and then get tired of looking and ask the Holy Spirit where they are and go right to them. This is using the right mind. I feel uncertain about whether I should spend money on a certain thing, and I ask the Holy Spirit for guidance. I am just using my right mind for this as I make the habit of not using the ego mind for anything.
Am I thinking about this wrong? I don’t know. I just know that it is a happy way to live. Also, doing it this way works all the time, whereas those times when I operate from my ego mind, it sometimes works and sometimes does not. I have learned to do what helps without needing to understand fully or needing to take it apart and make sense of it. Also, I have discovered that there are many paths to the same destination, so while this works for me, doing it differently will work as well as long as we are clear as to our goal.
In 2011, the Holy Spirit gave me a little advice.
What can I do to more quickly experience my holiness?
Holy Spirit: Let go of self-will by asking for my guidance in all things. Be mindful of ego beliefs held in the mind and offer them for correction. Doing these things will remove the blocks that keep your holiness from your awareness. Do these things more effectively through nurturing your willingness and through giving Me moments of silence. As you quiet your mind of the ego chatter, I will fill it with truth. I will remind you of your deepest desire, which is to know God. That desire will compel you to the vigilance that is still necessary at this time.
Contemplation 2025
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