ACIM Chapter 5. II. The Voice for God, P 10, 11, 12

ACIM 5. II. The Voice for God, P 10, 11, 12. I have assured you that the Mind that decided for me is also in you, and that you can let it change you just as it changed me.

II. The Voice for God, P 10

¹⁰ I have assured you that the Mind that decided for me is also in you, and that you can let it change you just as it changed me. This Mind is unequivocal, because it hears only one Voice and answers in only one way. You are the light of the world with me. Rest does not come from sleeping but from waking. The Holy Spirit is the Call to awaken and be glad. The world is very tired, because it is the idea of weariness. Our task is the joyous one of waking it to the Call for God. Everyone will answer the Call of the Holy Spirit, or the Sonship cannot be as one. What better vocation could there be for any part of the Kingdom than to restore it to the perfect integration that can make it whole? Hear only this through the Holy Spirit within you, and teach your brothers to listen as I am teaching you.

That first sentence reassures me. The Mind that decided for Jesus is in me, and it will decide for me, too. I will change as Jesus changed, and all that is needed for this to happen is my decision for it. I just have to want the change. And I will make this decision because it is through my choice to heal that the Sonship will once again be as one. If I make that decision now, I will no longer suffer.  

Ego Advice

One day, I had a persistent headache and upset stomach. I was told it was probably a virus. The ego mind says it might be something worse. It was caused by something I ate or someone I was with. It says that maybe it is a symptom of something fatal. The ego can be very dramatic. It recommends medicines that have worse side effects than the discomfort I now suffer. The ego also says I am guilty of being sick and in pain. The ego mind offers very little that I value, yet here I am listening to its bad advice and, thus, suffering and in pain.  

There was a time when I thought I had no place to go except the ego. I believed everything I thought. This is no longer true. Now I question the ego thoughts in my mind. I show them to the Holy Spirit and ask Him to heal the sick thoughts. I know I have sick thoughts because they are projected on the body and appear as pain and suffering. Even though I ask for healing, I don’t always accept it immediately or fully. I know this is crazy, yet here I am, suffering and in pain and rejecting the healing that is mine when I want it. All I have to do is value the healing more than I value the pain and suffering. In so doing, I gladly let go of my ego’s beliefs.  

Learning Patience

I know healing is possible because I have chosen a healed mind and have seen the effects as the pain and suffering disappeared, sometimes disappearing so quickly that I was left laughing in wonder. I have listened to the Holy Spirit, and I have listened to the ego. When I listen to the ego, I am uncertain and doubtful. I am afraid and guilty. I suffer. When I listen to the Holy Spirit, I always hear only one thing. I am innocent. That is, I am still as God created me.  

I don’t know why I still listen to the ego sometimes, but I am learning to be patient with myself and use each opportunity to experience more healing. Jesus says that I am to teach my brothers to listen as he is teaching me. I do this in every way that I can. I teach what I have learned but also what I am learning. If someone asks, I tell them that I am confused about what I really want and that I still find value in pain and suffering but that I know that I can choose again.  

It might be helpful to know that they are not the only ones who still listen to ego, and it might be helpful to know how I deal with it. I tell them that I am patient with myself and forgiving of my choices. I tell them that I just use the pain and suffering as another chance to choose God, and I do it without guilt and each time with more confidence. Our temporary setbacks are not failures or something to be ashamed of. In fact, they can be good teaching tools.  

Seeing the Truth

Another way I teach is to see the truth in other people. Just as I am learning to see my own ego without judgment, I practice seeing their ego without judgment. When I do this for either of us, I see through the ego’s judgment and to the truth of our being. The Course says that we are not sick and cannot die, but we can confuse ourselves with things that do. It is the body only that can get sick and die, and I am not that.   By realizing that my ego can see his ego but that neither ego is real but just a confusion of the mind, I teach the truth whether I ever say anything or not. My ego thinks it is sick today, but I am not my ego. Remembering this is a way to teach. Remembering the truth when you say you are sick is also a way to teach. We can teach each other. Whichever of us is saner at the moment can be the teacher.  

II. The Voice for God, P 11

¹¹ When you are tempted by the wrong voice, call on me to remind you how to heal by sharing my decision and making it stronger. As we share this goal, we increase its power to attract the whole Sonship, and to bring it back into the oneness in which it was created. Remember that “yoke” means “join together,” and “burden” means “message.” Let us restate “My yoke is easy and my burden light” in this way; “Let us join together, for my message is light.”

I have often called on Jesus to help me remember how to heal. The average day is sure to have many times when I will first see things from the ego perspective, realize my mistake, and ask for healing. The wrong voice tempted me, but now my goal is oneness, and I seek to make that goal stronger and stronger so I seldom miss an opportunity to change my mind. I change my mind about what I want, and the Holy Spirit changes what I believe to be true. We are a team.  

Sickness

When I was sick, I spent a couple of days watching myself as I experienced my body as if it were sick. I know that this cannot be true. The body does not feel, so how can it feel sick? The cause of pain is separation, not the body, which is only its effect. (ACIM, T-28.III.5:1) The mind was sick and needed healing. By the middle of the day, I was feeling better, and by 5:00 PM, I was well enough to enjoy a movie. The body seemed to be getting well. That was the appearance, but it was the mind that being healed, and so projected that effect, just as it had projected the effect of sickness.  

The next morning I woke up looking for symptoms, and some part of me hoped to find some. I think I wanted another day of leisure. I wanted some mild symptoms that would give me an excuse to take off but not so serious that my day was spoiled. That is one of the ways that sickness is valuable to me. ³You suffer pain because the body does, and in this pain are you made one with it. (ACIM, W-136.8:3) Another way is that I have believed that sickness proves I am not really waking up, that I am not worthy of God. It is, as Lesson 136 tells us, a defense against truth.  

Judging the Situation

I am willing to be healed of both those beliefs. If I want to stay home, I will just take a vacation day. I’m not going to give sickness value in my mind. If I feel unworthy, I am going to notice that thought in my mind and ask the Holy Spirit to change my mind, to correct my thinking. In other words, I ask for the Atonement and accept it.  

Before I got sick and for a while during the sickness, I got caught up in feeling like the ego instead of just watching the ego. I think that this happens when I judge myself and others. Usually, I watch my “life” with at least some detachment, then other times, I am fully in the story. When that happens, I suffer, and if it happens long enough, the ego projects it; the ego tries to throw the suffering in the mind out onto the world, sometimes onto my body, and I think I am sick.  

A Fundamental Sense of Well Being

I will tell you the truth; I am amazed that I can still get so caught up in the story as to forget the truth, even for a short time. I can’t imagine doing this when I am sane, but when I forget who I am, I get hooked by the story and am right back there. The difference, though, is that I am no longer completely there, not ever. There is always the truth in my awareness, even if it is dimly seen. It is a sense of fundamental well-being that is never entirely absent.  

All the time I am sick or angry or fearful, I am asking for healing. In the past, I was just blindly asking for help. With study and practice, I became more detached as I watched myself being lost and asking for help. Now, I realize that guilt must have entered my mind, or I could not be sick. So I simply ask that my mind be healed of the belief in guilt. I will be glad when I wake up completely, as I am tired of the conflicted mind syndrome. I am happy, though, to do my part in healing the mind. But I am willing to do it with less suffering, is all I am saying. I know it is not a necessary part of awakening for it to be painful, so I ask for the Atonement for that.  

II. The Voice for God, P 12

¹² I have enjoined you to behave as I behaved, but we must respond to the same Mind to do this. This Mind is the Holy Spirit, Whose Will is for God always. He teaches you how to keep me as the model for your thought, and to behave like me as a result. The power of our joint motivation is beyond belief, but not beyond accomplishment. What we can accomplish together has no limits, because the Call for God is the Call to the unlimited. Child of God, my message is for you, to hear and give away as you answer the Holy Spirit within you.

I used to make a mistake that I think is common to many of us. I would notice that my behavior was not like Jesus’ behavior, and I felt guilty and would try to change it. The harder I tried, the more frustrated and anxious I became. Jesus says right here that I should behave as he behaved. I forget that he goes on to say that the way to do this is to let the Holy Spirit teach me how to think like Jesus. When my thoughts align with the truth, my behavior will automatically be like Jesus’. “What would Jesus do?” should be “What would Jesus think?”  

Whenever I become upset or discouraged with myself, it is always because I put the horse before the cart. I have tried to drive my life through proper behavior, which is backward. This part is absolutely simple. I notice the thoughts that need to be changed, looking at them with the Holy Spirit and accepting His correction. Easy peasy.  

Remembering My Part

If it is not easy, it is because I have, once again, become confused about my part. If I am anxious about my behavior, I must believe that I should control it, and am not doing so. Otherwise, I would simply be happy to see an effect of an unhealed mind. These behaviors mean I have an opportunity to accept the Atonement for us all. I seldom make that mistake anymore. However, I can still sometimes look at my behavior and judge myself rather than see my behavior as an opportunity. But not for long. I know too much now.  

When I compared how I felt when I did this to when I remembered my function, it was clear that my happiness lies in forgiveness, not judgment. As I forgive myself for my errors, realizing that nothing is really happening because the entire illusion is nothing, I know I cannot be guilty. Now it is just a matter of allowing the Holy Spirit to heal my mind.  

It is a matter of trust. I trust Jesus, I trust the Holy Spirit, and so I am learning to trust myself. I anticipate a peaceful mind as I do this more and more. But even more exciting is the promise Jesus makes that what we can accomplish together has no limits. Holy Spirit, please heal my mind today. I will trust you to do that according to my desire. I step back and allow you to do your part.    

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