ACIM Chapter 14. IV. Your Function in the Atonement P 9, 10
IV. Your Function in the Atonement
9. The children of Heaven live in the light of the blessing of their Father, because they know that they are sinless. ²The Atonement was established as the means of restoring guiltlessness to minds that have denied it, and thus denied Heaven to themselves. ³Atonement teaches you the true condition of the Son of God. ⁴It does not teach you what you are, or what your Father is. ⁵The Holy Spirit, Who remembers this for you, merely teaches you how to remove the blocks that stand between you and what you know. ⁶His memory is yours. ⁷If you remember what you have made, you are remembering nothing. ⁸Remembrance of reality is in Him, and therefore in you.
10. The guiltless and the guilty are totally incapable of understanding one another. ²Each perceives the other as like himself, making both unable to communicate, because each sees the other unlike the way he sees himself. ³God can communicate only to the Holy Spirit in your mind, because only He shares the knowledge of what you are with God. ⁴And only the Holy Spirit can answer God for you, for only He knows what God is. ⁵Everything else that you have placed within your mind cannot exist, for what is not in communication with the Mind of God has never been. ⁶Communication with God is life. ⁷Nothing without it is at all.(ACIM, T-14.IV.9:1–10:7)
Guilt is the problem.
My function in the Atonement is to let go of the very idea that any part of the Sonship could ever be guilty. Even more I am letting go of the belief that guilt exists at all. Whatever is not part of God does not exist, and there is no guilt in God and therefore none in His creation. We have denied our guiltlessness, and the Atonement restores that memory for us as we accept it. And we will accept it. I choose to do so now rather than continue to suffer until I do it at another time.
When I think of my brothers and sisters as guiltless, I feel enfolded in the Love of God along with them. My heart swells in joy, and I want this feeling to never leave me. When something happens that pulls my mind back to the world of separation, all that dissipates, and I am subject to the feelings of anger, fear, and guilt. Here is what is so clear to me now. That shift didn’t just happen. I am the sole cause of how I experience everything. It is my dream, and no one adds to it or takes away from it. No one but me.
That is such good news to me.
If I am responsible for the intrusion of guilt that comes with the belief in separation, then I am also responsible for releasing that belief and returning to joy. Guilt is part of the ego thought system of separation, and so one contains the other. As I let go of the belief in guilt, I am letting go of the belief in separation. The ego thought system is losing its relevance and so falling away on its own.
Turning within to the Holy Spirit for guidance as I learn to remember who I am is the way I accept the Atonement and let it heal my mind. The Holy Spirit understands what I believe, but does not Itself believe it. This is the bridge I needed to move from fear and into Love. Only the Holy Spirit knows what God is, and He shares this knowledge with me. He is the communication link with me as long as I think I am outside God. So when I say, “Holy Spirit, decide for me,” I am, in effect, speaking to God. Sometimes I am a little more direct, and I say decide for me for God.
Jesus tells us this.
The children of Heaven live in the light of the blessing of their Father, because they know that they are sinless. We are the children of Heaven who have placed ourselves in exile, but have not changed our essential nature. The Holy Spirit was given to us to remind us who we are and to teach us how to remove the blocks to our memory. The belief in guilt is the block that must be removed. We are not becoming guiltless. We are remembering that guilt never existed.
So when I have those moments of being of the world and think someone is guilty, myself or others, I call on the Holy Spirit to remind me of the truth. I used to argue with that truth because, from the perspective of the world, situations can seem real when they are not. Guilt seems so self-evident. But no matter what is done or said or how much it might seem like guilt, I choose to see the truth. Maybe not right away, but always eventually. These days, now that I have had an experience of real happiness, eventually is coming a lot sooner than before. Truth no longer needs to win an argument with illusion; it simply waits to be chosen.