ACIM Chapter 8. III.The Holy Encounter, P 1, 2. Glory to God in the highest, and to you because He has so willed it.
ACIM Chapter 8. III.The Holy Encounter, P 1, 2.
III. The Holy Encounter
1 Glory to God in the highest, and to you because He has so willed it. Ask and it shall be given you, because it has already been given. Ask for light and learn that you are light. If you want understanding and enlightenment you will learn it, because your decision to learn it is the decision to listen to the Teacher Who knows of light, and can therefore teach it to you. There is no limit on your learning because there is no limit on your mind. There is no limit on His teaching because He was created to teach. Understanding His function perfectly He fulfills it perfectly, because that is His joy and yours.
One day, I was telling a friend that sometimes I almost know what I am. And then sometimes, I feel like Myron, this body, this personality, and that I feel like a beginner. I feel like I am in first grade and will never get to second grade. But how could that be true? No matter what I feel like, I must be as God created me. I must be what God Wills for me. This is not optional. I am still as God created me.
What I see is that the only difference between the two states, feeling like I am the Will of God and feeling like I am a separate self, is the teacher I am listening to. If I were to feel lost or hopeless, the only thing that would be wrong with me is that I would be listening to and believing the ego thoughts in my mind. The truth doesn’t go anywhere just because I am not paying attention to it.
I will have enlightenment because enlightenment is what I want.
I will have it because it is always there waiting for me and because I have the Holy Spirit, Who was made for this. As Jesus says in Chapter 21, ⁵You must have set aside a place in which the Holy Spirit can abide, and where He is. (ACIM, T-21.V.5:5)
He teaches perfectly and continuously because it is His function. He teaches joyously, and I can learn joyously, as well. As I remind myself of the truth and turn my face toward the light, the very idea of failure becomes ludicrous. I remember to ask that my perception be corrected, and I see that was the only problem. My perception was out of alignment with the truth.
III. The Holy Encounter, P 2
2 To fulfill the Will of God perfectly is the only joy and peace that can be fully known, because it is the only function that can be fully experienced. When this is accomplished, then, there is no other experience. Yet the wish for other experience will block its accomplishment, because God’s Will cannot be forced upon you, being an experience of total willingness. The Holy Spirit understands how to teach this, but you do not. That is why you need Him, and why God gave Him to you. Only His teaching will release your will to God’s, uniting it with His power and glory and establishing them as yours. You share them as God shares them, because this is the natural outcome of their being.
The only way I will ever be perfectly happy and perfectly peaceful is if I unite my will with God’s Will. The way I accomplish this is to notice what I want instead of God’s Will and then ask the Holy Spirit to heal my mind, that is, to accept the Atonement for that error in thinking. This is the Holy Spirit’s job, and only what I learn from Him will release my will. It can feel hard if I do not entirely want it, but it is simple because of the Holy Spirit and because in reuniting my will with God’s Will, I am returning my mind to its natural state. I cannot actually have a will separate from God’s. I can only imagine that I do.
When the Atonement has been accomplished, we will know only joy and peace.
The only thing that blocks this is the wish for some other experience. What experience could I want that is more important to me than uninterrupted peace and perfect joy? The perplexity that I feel when I think about that occurs because I am confused about what makes me happy.
I used to think if I were thinner and never had to worry about how what I eat affects my body, then I would be happy. So I thought the experience I needed was to be thinner, and how could that keep me from experiencing joy? Being thinner wouldn’t keep me from peace and joy, but the belief that I needed this experience to be happy was the problem. Deciding I know how to order my thoughts about this is the problem. Fully surrendering the perceived need and the solution was the answer.
I used to think I needed the experience of being loved and respected by my children. Being loved and respected was not the problem. Believing that this was an experience I must have to be happy was the problem. I constantly looked for signs that I had what I needed, and even when they expressed their love and respect, it wasn’t enough. I would worry I would do something to change their minds. When I didn’t see proof of love and respect, I felt sad and unworthy or resentful and angry.
Let’s use these two simple examples.
I see that the belief I could need certain things in the world to happen and that I could somehow accomplish these things on my own are the very things that were blocking my joy and happiness. Those beliefs represented my willfulness, my belief that I wanted the experience of a personal will rather than that I share the Will of God.
Even now, I will, at times, believe I need something outside myself to be happy. Asking that the Holy Spirit correct my perception about these desired experiences is the solution because, in doing so, I am choosing to abandon the idea that I have a personal will and that it is important to me. I don’t know what I need or how to get it. The Holy Spirit does know and will teach me if I ask, and if I let go of the belief that I already know the answer.
I am reminded of Chapter 5, Section 5, paragraph 7, in which Jesus talks about the guilt that occurs when we try to order our own thoughts. He reminds us that this is the Holy Spirit’s job. Our part is to want this help. Here is part of what I wrote about this when contemplating that paragraph.
Our ego thoughts are our attempt to think apart from God.
When we think apart from God, we feel guilty for doing so. We then believe we are responsible for them and responsible for their effects. The guilt is maintained as we continue to believe our thoughts. The only solution is to undo them, not change them ourselves. Rather, they are undone for us as we accept the Atonement for ourselves. Guilt is inescapable by those who believe they order their own thoughts, and must therefore obey their dictates.
All of the solutions that involve correcting my own perception will just lead me deeper into guilt because I am using the ego mind to find the solution. The ego mind wants to be the thinker of the thoughts, but my thought was created by God. Listening to and believing in the thoughts I think with ego are guilt-inducing because they seem to be in opposition to God.
The Atonement, on the other hand, is a true solution. When I ask for and then accept the Atonement in any situation, the mind is ordered. It is returned to its original state, which was created by God; thus, there is no guilt. Without guilt, I am at peace, and I am happy. Peace and happiness are how I know I am listening to the Voice for God. Feelings of guilt and unhappiness are how I know I am listening to and believing the ego.
I am taking part in a year-long remarkable experience with many other teachers of A Course in Miracles.
I’ve been counseling people for years on how to change their mind and experience the miracles we’re all entitled to. It’s been a great honor and privilege to work with people who are cultivating the willingness to see differently and let go of pain and suffering.
It’s also been an extraordinary opportunity for me to increase my own healing and awareness of truth. We heal together.
Being a counselor and a coach for all these years has taught me so much and that’s what I’ll be sharing in this Quantum Counseling program with 16 ACIM teachers coming up in just about a week. The early-bird ends on Wednesday, January 31. If you are interested in learning more about this event, CLICK HERE.