ACIM Chapter 7. IX. The Extension of the Kingdom, P 7. Be confident that you have never lost your Identity and the extensions which maintain It in wholeness and peace.
ACIM Chapter 7. IX. The Extension of the Kingdom, P 7
IX. The Extension of the Kingdom, P 7
7 Be confident that you have never lost your Identity and the extensions which maintain It in wholeness and peace. Miracles are an expression of this confidence. They are reflections of both your proper identification with your brothers, and of your awareness that your identification is maintained by extension. The miracle is a lesson in total perception. By including any part of totality in the lesson, you have included the whole.
It is easy to forget that my Identity is safe. I see evidence of separation all around me, and I see the ego acting out and this can create a feeling of being vulnerable and small. Who would think that this could be the Son of God? But I can be confident that my Identity remains safe and is never lost in spite of what I seem to be now. My extensions, that is, my creations, are safe as well. We are maintained in wholeness and peace.
Jesus reminds us that miracles are an expression of this confidence. Miracles are the natural result of our returning memory of our Identity. Some of the miracles I have performed have occurred on another level as a result of the healing of the mind, and I am not necessarily aware of them. But many miracles have occurred on this level, and while the miracle is always a healing of the mind, they can also have visible effects. They occur as an expression of my confidence in my true Identity, but they also help build that confidence.
Here is another point that Jesus makes.
Miracles are reflections of my proper identification with my brothers, which means that I know my brother and I are one. I know my brother and I share innocence. I know that I extend love to my brother rather than using him as a place to project guilt.
Jesus also says that the miracle is a reflection of my awareness that my identification is maintained by the extension of God’s Being, which is my only function. Obviously, I must remember who my brother is in order to do this, and I must let go of the ego thought system that blocks this extension.
One morning, I did the day’s lesson: Into His presence would I enter now.
During this meditation, what came to me were the faces of several people. It started with the face of a young man with whom I had a brief encounter the day before. When I saw his face, I realized there was something wrong and that he was probably mentally deficient. But he was very friendly and pleasant to talk to. This morning, when his face came into my mind, his true presence peaked out at me. This happened with several other people.
I had recently watched Avatar again, and this experience reminded me of my favorite line in that movie: “I see you.” In the meditation that morning, each person showed me his real self. It was a remarkable experience and brought me to tears and laughter. I prayed that I would be able to maintain that vision throughout the day. This experience was a miracle because it changed forever the way I would see my brother. It was not just the words I learned from the course; it was the direct experience of those words.
I continue to see the effects of that change in my life. Those effects are a visible miracle. I never know how they will appear, but they will always be perfect for the situation. I feel a lightness and joy as well as an expansive confidence that I did not feel before this experience. Being willing to see differently is how I became open to this miracle. I was willing to see my brother differently, and I was willing to extend God’s Being as well as I could. I look forward to continuing this extension as I am guided.
A final thought.
Reading this section of the Text has shifted me to another place in my mind. I have heard the ego voice this morning as it warned me to hurry or I would be late, but there is a calmness in my mind that answers this warning. How can I have anything to fear? I am the Son of God. I am under no laws but God’s. What is time to me?
What has Jesus told us that has made such a difference to me. Let me review this. He has said that only I can limit my creative power, but God wills to release it. I limit my power when I think it is bound by the ego laws that I set up to make a separation story. God would have that power released so that I create as He creates.
Even here, in this world of illusion, I am free to use my creative power with wild abandon! I can make a happy world instead of an ego limited world of suffering. He does not will that this be possible only when I am a better ego. He wills this for me now because He knows me as perfect and worthy in this moment. God would deny me nothing.
Jesus says that everything God created is given all His power.
This means that I have been given all the power that is God. That is why I can make a happy dream as easily as I can make a painful dream. He gave me that power in my creation, and that power remains as it was given, so it is available to me now. The power of God is in me because I am in God.
As I accept that all of this is true for all of my brothers as well, I can begin to use the power in the way God wills me to use it. It is only my desire that I be special that clouds my mind. This is why I deny every guilt thought that enters my mind. No matter what I perceive in my brother, I know he is not guilty. I cannot afford the sacrifice of seeing him as guilty because to do so is to deny the Kingdom to all of us.
Jesus says that the ego’s whole thought system blocks extension.
Thus it blocks my only function. I want to undo the ego so that my function can be fulfilled because I understand that fulfilling my function is my happiness. It is the way I know my Self and remember my creations. It is the way I open my mind to full communication with my Creator. This is what I long for. So, my prayer is always that the Holy Spirit heal my mind and undo what I have done.
Jesus says that a split mind cannot perceive its fullness and needs the miracle of its wholeness to dawn upon it and heal it. My mind is split as long as I still value any part of the idea of separation. I willingly relinquish the self-image I have made. I willingly relinquish the desire to be special. Thus, I relinquish the idea that I am separate from my brothers and from God.
I enthusiastically relinquish the belief in guilt, in pain, in suffering, and in the ridiculous notion of death. I relinquish the idea that I am something, anything, that God did not create. As I do this, I see all these ego beliefs as nonsense and the source of all suffering. And when I let my mind stray into ego, I gratefully and quickly give these thoughts to the Holy Spirit.
“Holy Spirit, I open my heart and mind to You. Please correct my wrong-minded thinking and bring me back to sanity and to the Kingdom where I belong.”
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