ACIM Chapter 11. I. The Gifts of Fatherhood, P 10, 11

ACIM Chapter 11. I. The Gifts of Fatherhood, P 10, 11

 The Gifts of Fatherhood, P 10

10 You cannot be happy unless you do what you will truly, and you cannot change this because it is immutable. It is immutable by God’s Will and yours, for otherwise His Will would not be extended. You are afraid to know God’s Will, because you believe it is not yours. This belief is your whole sickness and your whole fear. Every symptom of sickness and fear arises here, because this is the belief that makes you want not to know. Believing this you hide in darkness, denying that the light is in you.

I can be happy only if I accept that my true will is the same as God’s Will. Denial of this is what causes all sickness, all fear , and all suffering. Let me be specific here. Denial of my true will is where cancer, strokes, and heart attacks come from. It is where sick relationships, poverty, and all forms of unkindness come from. All of these things are simply projections of images we make to express the beliefs in our mind, and the belief behind all beliefs is that we have a will separate from and different from God’s Will.

The healing of all forms of suffering is in accepting God as our creator and ourselves as an extension of all He is. It comes from accepting that we have only one true will and that it is the Will of God. It heals all things because it is not God’s Will that suffering exists in any form, and so suffering cannot exist.

Suffering seems to exist because we insist on believing in a will that is not God’s Will.

In so doing, we are denying our Self and thus terrifying ourselves. We can continue to do this as long as we can stand it, but it is entirely unnecessary that we do so. It is true that nothing is real in the world and that nothing is actually happening. But as long as we believe in the world, suffering will be real to us. All suffering falls away as we withdraw our belief in it, and we do that by withdrawing our belief in a will that allows suffering.

I. The Gifts of Fatherhood, P 11

11 You are asked to trust the Holy Spirit only because He speaks for you. He is the Voice for God, but never forget that God did not will to be alone. He shares His Will with you; He does not thrust it upon you. Always remember that what He gives He keeps, so that nothing He gives can contradict Him. You who share His life must share it to know it, for sharing is knowing. Blessed are you who learn that to hear the Will of your Father is to know your own. For it is your will to be like Him, Whose Will it is that it be so. God’s Will is that His Son be one, and united with Him in His Oneness. That is why healing is the beginning of the recognition that your will is His.

God shares His Will with me; he does not thrust it upon me. What a different vision of God we are given than is the one we typically learn about in traditional religion. This is a God of peace and joy, a God of sharing. I want to know the Will of God because I want to know this God of Love. And I want to know my own will and my own Self. If I share the Will of God, then knowing my true will is the same as knowing God, and knowing the Will of God will teach me what I am.

In order for me to know God’s Will and thus my own will, I must be willing to let go of the ego will that I made to take its place.

This is not hard, but it can seem challenging if we prefer the ego. For instance, if I am holding a grievance against someone I believe wronged me, I will have to forgive that idea and accept God’s Will, which is always love. I can justify my insistence that he is guilty, or I can disregard his ego actions or words and love him anyway. This brings me closer to the will I share with God.

What I have noticed as I have done this repeatedly is that forgiveness brings me happiness and peace. I hardly ever resist forgiveness in favor of being right. When I do so, the loss of peace is so jarring that I notice right away and choose again. It has taken repetition to make this my habitual choice, and I am glad to have done it.

I have been given the way back to God. The Holy Spirit was placed in my mind for that purpose. His function is to speak God’s Word to me, to guide me, to comfort me, and to heal my mind. All that is needed from me is that I desire to have this. Nothing is thrust upon me, not even my happiness.

Lesson 233

This day, I pray for guidance, and I pray for the Word of God to be given me. I open my heart and my mind to this. Lesson says 233 says this:

I give my life to God to guide today.

Father, I give You all my thoughts today. I would have none of mine. In place of them, give me Your Own. I give You all my acts as well, that I may do Your Will instead of seeking goals which cannot be obtained, and wasting time in vain imaginings. Today I come to You. I will step back and merely follow You. Be You the Guide, and I the follower who questions not the wisdom of the Infinite, nor Love whose tenderness I cannot comprehend, but which is yet Your perfect gift to me.

Today we have one Guide to lead us on. And as we walk together, we will give this day to Him with no reserve at all. This is His day. And so it is a day of countless gifts and mercies unto us.

What a perfect lesson this is for me today. I give my thoughts to Him, and I accept His perfect gift to me. This is His day, and it is a day of countless gifts and mercies. Thank you, God. I love you, God.

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