ACIM Chapter 6. V. C. Be Vigilant Only for God and His Kingdom, P 1, 2

ACIM Chapter 6. V. C. Be Vigilant Only for God and His Kingdom, P 1, 2. The Holy Spirit does not teach you to judge others, because He does not want you to teach error and learn it yourself.

C. Be Vigilant Only for God and His Kingdom, P 1

1 We said before that the Holy Spirit is evaluative, and must be. He sorts out the true from the false in your mind, and teaches you to judge every thought you allow to enter it in the light of what God put there. Whatever is in accord with this light He retains, to strengthen the Kingdom in you. What is partly in accord with it He accepts and purifies. But what is out of accord entirely He rejects by judging against. This is how He keeps the Kingdom perfectly consistent and perfectly unified. Remember, however, that what the Holy Spirit rejects the ego accepts. This is because they are in fundamental disagreement about everything, being in fundamental disagreement about what you are. The ego’s beliefs on this crucial issue vary, and that is why it promotes different moods. The Holy Spirit never varies on this point, and so the one mood He engenders is joy. He protects it by rejecting everything that does not foster joy, and so He alone can keep you wholly joyous.

One of the beliefs that the Holy Spirit purifies is time.

We are told not to stay in the past, which doesn’t exist, and not to send our mind into the future, which doesn’t exist. This is the way the ego uses time to keep us in the illusion. The Holy Spirit uses time to awaken us. All I have to do is decide for awakening, and the Holy Spirit helps me to see things differently.

The following is from my journal. It happened a few years ago and is a good example of how I use this information.

Yesterday, I was enjoying the leisurely morning of a snow day. We didn’t actually get snow, but rather ice. Either way, though, the South doesn’t tend to fare well in this kind of weather. We are so unprepared for it. There are no snowplows, no salting of the roads, and no one has snow tires. So, I got the day off, two days actually. I love it. I still woke up early and went straight to my meditative writing and posting. But today, it was done at a very leisurely pace.

There were other things that I did.

I worked on two of the Pathways of Light courses I am doing with other people. I read and watched a Carol Howe video. And I made homemade bread and drank hot chocolate. Just a really nice two days. But yesterday, I remembered I would return to work the next day. Instantly I was out of the now moment and into the future, a future which I based on my experiences from the past. My little bubble of contentment burst.

But (yay for me) I realized that I was misusing time, and in so doing, I was destroying my own happiness. I changed my mind. I let the thought that I need to think about tomorrow and the thought that I know what tomorrow should look like dissolve. Letting it go right away was good. If I let it settle in for a stay, it would be harder to get rid of it. This is the right use of time, this catching wrong-minded thoughts and letting them go to the Holy Spirit.

As I continue to allow the Holy Spirit to choose for me, many thoughts are being healed. I try to keep an “I don’t know” mind. In this way, I give up judging, planning, and deciding on my own. One Who knows does this for me. I just keep my mind open and ready to receive.

C. Be Vigilant Only for God and His Kingdom, P2

2 The Holy Spirit does not teach you to judge others, because He does not want you to teach error and learn it yourself. He would hardly be consistent if He allowed you to strengthen what you must learn to avoid. In the mind of the thinker, then, He is judgmental, but only in order to unify the mind so it can perceive without judgment. This enables the mind to teach without judgment, and therefore to learn to be without judgment. The undoing is necessary only in your mind, so that you will not project, instead of extend. God Himself has established what you can extend with perfect safety. Therefore, the Holy Spirit’s third lesson is:

Be vigilant only for God and His Kingdom.

This is another example from my journal of a few years ago. I was learning to be vigilant for God but would slip into the ego and then out again. It is much easier now, though I have not become vigilant ONLY for God and His Kingdom. However, I am getting much closer.

This is what I wrote about those years ago.

I have learned to be vigilant for God and His Kingdom, but that was not always the case. I have been vigilant for the ego for many years. An example of being vigilant for the ego is attack thoughts. This morning, I woke up thinking about something I forgot to do for a customer. I lay there listening to my mind.

I heard that irritating little voice attack me for my carelessness. Then, it attacked my customer for not taking care of his own business. Then, it attacked my fellow workers for not doing their part to prevent this. The ego doesn’t care who is attacked as long as I am attacking and defending. If I am attacking or defending, I am being vigilant for the ego.

I used to be vigilant for any sign that I was under attack, and since I expected to find them, of course, I did. I had not yet learned to question the belief that I was a victim of the world I saw, and I completely believed I was. As a victim or potential victim of the world, I always had to be on the lookout. I had to be ready to defend myself against what I saw as unpredictable and unfair attacks. It’s a wonder I had time to do anything else. It takes a lot of effort to be this vigilant.

Here is the good news.

By the time I discovered that I am not the victim of the world I see but actually the maker of the world, I had established the fact that I can be vigilant. Now, I just needed to turn that vigilance toward God rather than the ego. So, this morning, as I lay there berating myself (and everyone else) for forgetting to do this favor for my customer, I was also watching my thoughts about it.

First, I would be anxious and make plans about mitigating the fallout from the situation. This is me identifying with the little mind. Then, from the seat of the observer’s mind, I would become aware of these thoughts as if I were watching all this on the big screen, and it was hilarious, and I would laugh. Then, I would slip right back into the ego drama of it all. I switched back and forth for a while, knowing that I was torturing myself with my conflicted thinking.

Finally, I noticed the Holy Spirit was urging me to get out of bed. I did so and automatically began my morning ritual of coffee and prayerful journaling. As soon as I got up and started my morning, the conflict resolved itself. My vigilance for God means more to me than my vigilance for ego. I gave the attack thoughts over to the Holy Spirit to be judged and the situation resolved.

I think getting out of bed was symbolic for me of choosing against ego.

It was like washing my hands of ego. As soon as I did it, I felt relieved. It’s funny how the mind works, and it’s neat that I don’t have to understand it; I only have to follow the guidance of One Who does. While I was vigilant for ego, the attacks seemed real and justified, and defending myself seemed urgent indeed.

It was hard to pull my attention away from it, but when I became vigilant for the Kingdom, the idea of attack seemed ludicrous, and my mind returned to peace. From the peaceful mind, I teach peace, and I learn it. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for relieving me of the burden of judging. I gladly surrender judgment to You.

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