ACIM Chapter 11. VI. Waking to Redemption P 8-10

VI. Waking to Redemption, P 8

⁸ You have nailed yourself to a cross, and placed a crown of thorns upon your own head. Yet you cannot crucify God’s Son, for the Will of God cannot die. His Son has been redeemed from his own crucifixion, and you cannot assign to death whom God has given eternal life. The dream of crucifixion still lies heavy on your eyes, but what you see in dreams is not reality. While you perceive the Son of God as crucified, you are asleep. And as long as you believe that you can crucify him, you are only having nightmares. You who are beginning to wake are still aware of dreams, and have not yet forgotten them. The forgetting of dreams and the awareness of Christ come with the awakening of others to share your redemption.

I’m dreaming of crucifixion. That’s all that is happening: a bad dream, a nightmare, but still, just a dream. I cannot crucify or be crucified except in a dream. The Son of God cannot be crucified because that is not God’s Will. I am safe, as are all my brothers, but as long as I judge and hold onto my grievances, as long as I place value in the separate self and believe it is me, I will suffer for my beliefs.

We are beginning to wake up.

So we are beginning to recognize that there is no value in our grievances, and we are learning to forgive them. We are still aware of our dreams and most of us still become confused about what they mean. We ask the ego for an interpretation and believe what we hear. But and this is the difference between being completely asleep and waking up, we notice how miserable it is to hold the grievance and how peaceful it is to let them go. So, we ask again, this time directing our inquiry to the Holy Spirit.

This is our work right now: to become aware of the voice we are listening to and to choose differently when we are not at peace. This is how we end the dream of crucifixion. When it is time, we will be awake from all dreams and forget they ever existed. This occurs as our brothers awaken with us. Together, we are redeemed.

My prayer for today is from The End of Death, by Nouk Sanchez

Holy Spirit, please help me to forgive myself for using my body to attack myself and to separate from your Love as my Holy Self.

If this prayer speaks to you, please feel free to exchange “body” with any other word, person, or situation that is being used to deny your Holy Self.

VI. Waking to Redemption, P 9

⁹ You will awaken to your own call, for the Call to awake is within you. If I live in you, you are awake. Yet 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. Yet it is done already, and unless you give all that you have received you will not know that your Redeemer liveth, and that you have awakened with him. Redemption is recognized only by sharing it.

I say that I am ready to awaken, but what that really means is that I am ready to know that I am awake because, as Jesus says here, if he lives in me, I am awake. And he does live in me. How do I come to know that I am awake? Jesus says that I must see the works he does through me, and I must give as I have received. This is something I have been thinking about since I woke up this morning.

I have noticed that I am happiest when I am living the Course, and when I am teaching it in a more formal setting. Both of these times I am joyful and peaceful. For instance, when there is drama going on and I am the observer rather than the participant. When I am the peaceful presence, my heart is filled with joy in spite of the chaos around me.

There are so many opportunities to teach what I want to learn.

I was thinking this morning that when I am facilitating a student, teaching a class, or presenting a workshop, I am what I teach. In that moment, what I teach is redemption in some form. So, in that moment, I am experiencing redemption because I am sharing it. That is why I feel so peaceful and joyful when I do this work.

When I first began to reach out to others, allowing what I was being taught to come through me, it was surprising. I discovered that I was being taught as I taught. It was a little unsettling, this not knowing until it came through me. I was used to being prepared and feeling confident through my own efforts.

This was different and I was always afraid it would abandon me and leave me standing there with nothing to say. This fear was my weak sense of worthiness speaking to me and robbed me of a lot of the joy I could have experienced. Jesus has taught me to trust him, and in so doing, I have learned to trust myself as well.

Now, when I open to that teaching that teaches, I feel confident in the Teacher, rather than myself. I am not worrying about myself so I experience the joy of the moment fully, and I am at peace. The earlier experiences were helpful for both those who listened and for me, but now it is better. I stay aware of the voice I am listening to so that the ego does not take over. But because it is not about me and because my willingness is strong, there is more clarity and less conflicted thinking. Therefore, there is more joy.

10 VI. Waking to Redemption, P 10

¹⁰ God’s Son is saved. Bring only this awareness to the Sonship, and you will have a part in the redemption as valuable as mine. For your part must be like mine if you learn it of me. If you believe that yours is limited, you are limiting mine. There is no order of difficulty in miracles because all of God’s Sons are of equal value, and their equality is their oneness. The whole power of God is in every part of Him, and nothing contradictory to His Will is either great or small. What does not exist has no size and no measure. To God all things are possible. And to Christ it is given to be like the Father.

Here are the words that stood out to me: “The whole power of God is in every part of Him….” I am created by God and so part of Him. This means that the whole power of God is in me. This is the reason I can have an experience unlike God and that experience be so elaborate and consistent that I am able to believe in it, which, of course, was the point in having it.

It is also the reason that I can awaken from the experience at any time. I have the whole power of God in me. That has not and could not change. All the times I have thought that it was just too hard to change my mind I was just kidding myself. It was all part of the story of “unlike God.” I remember when it finally occurred to me that the Course was for more than having a nicer life, and, instead, I began to ask for release from this life.

Now I ask that my mind be healed instead of that some perceived need be met.

Getting things, it turned out, was a cinch. Changing my mind, however, seemed nearly impossible. I can remember my frustration as I would ask God, “Why does it always have to be so hard!” I couldn’t understand why He didn’t just shake me awake. Why couldn’t He make this easier?

Now I see that for God to do this for me, He would have to believe that I was not powerful enough to do it myself. If He believed that, it would be true. If it were true that I did not have all the power of God, then I would not be His Son. I would not be part of Him. I cannot be less than God and still be His creation, because God creates through extension.

At times I still wish that it was easier, but now I understand it is only my own resistance that makes it seem hard. That is why I choose surrender every chance I get. I surrender the separate self for my true identity as God’s Son. And I have discovered that this is a sweet surrender with no loss and no sacrifice. I am learning to love surrender and the freedom it accords me. I look forward to the next opportunity to master this decision because each time I choose surrender I am closer to knowing my Self.

Here are the three ideas that I use to wake up.

• Peace: Peace is my guiding light. If I am not peaceful, I have lost my way and I ask the Holy Spirit for help.
• Identity: Who am I? I remind myself all through the day that I am not Myron, not this body. I am spirit only. I am part of the Sonship, an extension of God, beloved of my Creator.
• Purpose: I remember my purpose. I am here to awaken as I help others to awaken. Everything that happens is a lesson God would have me learn and so this is how I see everything. As I use my life for this purpose, I awaken further. One day, I will not dream at all. I will only be aware of the dream.

Click here to learn more about The End of Death by Nouk Sanchez.