ACIM 5. VII. The Decision for God, P 1, 2. Do you really believe you can make a voice that can drown out God’s?

1 VII. The Decision for God

1 Do you really believe you can make a voice that can drown out God’s? Do you really believe you can devise a thought system that can separate you from Him? Do you really believe you can plan for your safety and joy better than He can? You need be neither careful nor careless; you need merely cast your cares upon Him because He careth for you. You are His care because He loves you. His Voice reminds you always that all hope is yours because of His care. You cannot choose to escape His care because that is not His Will, but you can choose to accept His care and use the infinite power of His care for all those He created by it.

The ego mind does believe it has made a self separate from God. That is why the ego is so afraid. But I did not. I am still as God created me. The only reason I am ever afraid is because sometimes I still believe I am the ego. I identify with the ego and so think that what the ego believes is true for me. I have this voice in my head that is demanding I believe it, and it seems so very loud that I tell myself I can hear nothing above its clamor.

Making a Choice

But that isn’t true. In silence, I can hear God’s Voice. I see now that I have always been choosing what I would hear. I used to think I could not hear His Voice, but what was really happening was that I was listening to my ego so that I couldn’t hear His Voice. Acknowledging this as true is very freeing because now that I am willing to admit this is true, I can change my mind. Instead of telling myself that I can’t hear His Voice, I can tell myself that I have chosen to listen to my ego, but now I want to hear God.

For the last two days, that Voice has told me about who I am. It started when I read in Lesson 190 that says I have the power to dominate all things I see by merely recognizing what I am. As I perceive the harmlessness in them, they will accept my holy will as theirs. Since I have been allowing Him to show me that this is true, I feel like I have turned a corner so to speak.

Everything seems different now. It also seems very new, like when a plant first peeks out of the ground. I must be careful and care for the plant until its roots are firm in the ground and it has some growth. Then I need only weed around it and water it from time to time. That’s how it feels with this new realization. It has just peeked out, and it is still fragile and needs my care. I must take care it does not get trampled by the careless thoughts of the ego, and so it doesn’t die from lack of attention.

Body Appetites

Yesterday, I had a very busy day. Outside of a shake in the morning and a bit of popcorn as a snack, I had not eaten all day. I was starting to get hungry, and when I pulled up for gas, I had the thought of going in to get a cupcake. I thought about how tasty that would be, and a familiar longing for some sugary confection came over me. But I recognized it as the ego body appetite wanting to be filled.

I have often fed those body appetites in the past and thought I had no choice. I would crave certain foods, usually sugar, and then I just couldn’t help myself. Even when I swore I wasn’t giving in to that craving, I would do it anyway. Then I convinced myself I was out of control and it wasn’t my fault. I was a victim of my appetites. Now, I am not saying there is anything wrong with eating a cupcake. However, It is not true that I must eat a cupcake.

When I felt that old urge, I also felt fear because in the past, I believed I was subject to my appetites. Yesterday, I heard another Voice, and this one asked that I question that belief. (It all happened very quickly, and I am putting words where there were none at that moment, but this is what it felt like.) I remembered that I dominate all things because of what I am.

What Am I?

I asked the Holy Spirit what it is that I am. I was reminded that I am a divine being, God’s own Son, and a perfect creation of a perfect Creator. And I remembered that all things must bow to my will because this is true. The urge to feed my appetite disappeared without even a whimper. It bowed to my will. The choice to eat a cupcake or not to eat it is not earth-shattering in and of itself. But the decision to acknowledge the power of my decision is.

Today, I feel more like what I am than I did before that moment at the gas station. All this time, I was not subject to my appetites; I was using them to drown out the Voice for God. I was using them to separate myself from God by separating myself from my true nature. But I was in charge all the time. I was just using my power to pretend that I was powerless. I pretended to devise a thought system of powerlessness that separated me from God, but it was nothing, just smoke and mirrors. In truth, I cannot undo what God has done, and what God has done is available to me at any time.

I Am Protected

I am fully protected even from my vain imaginings. He loves me, and His love protects me. “You need be neither careful nor careless; you need merely cast your cares upon Him because He careth for you.” I can pretend to escape His care, but it is just pretense. I am learning to accept His care through accepting what I am. In so doing this for me, I do it for us all.

I wrote down Lesson 233 to remind myself all day that this day is dedicated to hearing only His Voice and following His guidance without reserve. How perfect is the above quote. I can afford to put aside my ego drive to be in charge because He careth for me. I am safe in following Him because I am safe in Him.

VII. The Decision for God, P 2

2 There have been many healers who did not heal themselves. They have not moved mountains by their faith because their faith was not whole. Some of them have healed the sick at times, but they have not raised the dead. Unless the healer heals himself, he cannot believe that there is no order of difficulty in miracles. He has not learned that every mind God created is equally worthy of being healed because God created it whole. You are merely asked to return to God the mind as He created it. He asks you only for what He gave, knowing that this giving will heal you. Sanity is wholeness, and the sanity of your brothers is yours.

I’m ready to heal the sick, to move mountains, and to raise the dead. How about you? All of those things seem easy when you realize what you are. As you realize what you are, all things become harmless and are easily set aside. But I see that all things must become one thing. I must see not only my own wholeness and my own sanity but also my brother’s as well. I must see there is no gap between me and my brother. This is hard if I still see either of us as a body, but once I realize what I am, I will have no problem at all.

Sickness

The following happened some years ago and was a turning point for me.

Yesterday, I practiced remembering what I am. It made for a very peaceful and happy day. But toward the end of the day, the weather got bad with thunderstorms, and I got a headache. My first thought was that the change in weather was the cause. This used to be what I believed, and the weather and headache combination seemed to prove I was right.

The ego always speaks first, so that was my first thought. But I don’t believe that anymore. I know the headache/weather connection has nothing to do with cause. It is simply the effect of the belief that I hold in my mind. I choose a headache (I’m sure the ego was getting desperate to undo all the healing that has been occurring lately), and then I use the device of weather changes as cause to make the headache seem reasonable and outside me.

If the body can get sick without my mind being involved, the ego can use this as proof that I am a victim and thus not part of God. It was a good plan. Every time the weather changed like this, I got a headache, and so the consistency of it was enough to convince me of the connection. The ego mind is sick but not without power and cleverness.

Correction

It’s not working anymore. I am onto the whole thing and am letting go of the idea that the world happens without my consent. So, I went back to my study for the day and remembered that I have the power to dominate all things I see by merely recognizing what I am. As I perceive the harmlessness in them, they will accept my holy will as theirs.

I looked at the headache in this new light. I am spirit, divine being, Son of God, and as such, I dominate all things. This includes the body and sickness and pain. I dominate them by remembering what I am, and in remembering, the headache is seen as harmless rather than a threat to my newfound understanding and harmless rather than painful and outside my control. I reminded myself that in its harmlessness, the headache (body/pain) would accept my holy will. The body must respond to my mind; whether my mind is sick or healed, the body must respond to it.

It’s a Process

It was interesting to watch. I would remind myself of the truth, and the headache would subside, then it would return. I continued the practice, and after a while, I was tired of the pain and thought about giving in to a magical solution and taking an aspirin. But really, while I did want to do this, I also was having fun. I wanted to see what could be done with merely changing my desire.

Could I permanently change the body’s condition just that quickly? I do not doubt that someday I will be able to do that and more, but why not now? I asked Jesus to help me understand his teachings, and I asked him to help me accept them. The pain subsided more quickly and easily, and eventually, it went away altogether. I guess I practiced for about half an hour or so. I don’t know for sure because it was a while before I realized the pain was gone for good.

Raising the Stakes

This morning, I got the chance to raise the stakes in my practice. Someone I love dearly called me with bad news. He had surgery recently on his back and had hoped for relief from the chronic pain he had suffered for years. It doesn’t seem to be happening, and now he seems to have re-injured it. All of this bad news has caused him to be very depressed.

I love him so much and want only to see him happy. I also know that his story of pain and suffering is not real. He is still as God created him. He is the master of his universe. But that is not his experience, and the experience he is having is really painful. I felt his deep discouragement as we spoke, and I wanted so much to do something, but what can I do?

I find that it is somehow harder to know the truth for him, that is, that he is not his body either, and that he is the cause of his universe as much as I am the cause of mine.  Because he has no interest in approaching this from a spiritual point of view, it is easy for me to think that he has no recourse and must suffer. I have had to overcome my own lack of faith to be helpful to him in any way.

Unhealed Mind

That I am still seeing an order of difficulty in miracles means that my mind is not healed, and so I must step back from trying to heal until I accept my own healing. This is what I have been doing this morning since I talked to him. My prayer this morning began with the reminder that I am not what I seem. I am not the body; I am spirit. I dominate all things, and seeing their harmlessness, they bow to my holy will. Now my prayer is also this: He is not his body; he is spirit. He dominates all things, and as he sees their harmlessness, they will bow to his holy will.

As I write this, I am reconsidering. All things I see must bow to my holy will. As I see his body manifestations as the illusions they are and know they are harmless because they are illusions, they must bow to my holy will. As Jesus says, …every mind God created is equally worthy of being healed because God created it whole. How is that different from accepting the Atonement on his behalf, something Jesus has told us we can and must do? I think this is the prayer I will hold in my heart today. If this speaks to your heart, I invite you to join me in this holy endeavor. We are meant to be healers, and we are meant to remember healing through joining in healing.

Today’s prayer: We dominate all things because of what we are. Knowing what we are, we see these manifestations as the harmless illusions they are, whether they occur in ourselves or another. And so they must bow to our holy will. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray.

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