ACIM Chapter 8. V. The Undivided Will of the Sonship, P 3-6. God’s Oneness and ours are not separate, because His Oneness encompasses ours.
ACIM Chapter 8. V. The Undivided Will of the Sonship, P 3-6
V. The Undivided Will of the Sonship P 3
3 God’s Oneness and ours are not separate, because His Oneness encompasses ours. To join with me is to restore His power to you because we are sharing it. I offer you only the recognition of His power in you, but in that lies all truth. As we unite, we unite with Him. Glory be to the union of God and His holy Sons! All glory lies in Them because They are united. The miracles we do bear witness to the Will of the Father for His Son, and to our joy in uniting with His Will for us.
I smiled as I read this. I had a vision of a toy I had as a child. It was a colorfully painted egg nested in another egg, which was nested in a third egg. This is how I envision us right now. We are in the third egg and imagine we are all alone in the egg and alone within the egg. We think that all that exists is in this egg.
There is a Voice, though, that whispers to us of something greater, something glorious. This Voice is waking us up to a different reality in which we are not separate. As we start to wake up, the egg’s shell becomes thinner, and we understand there is something outside the egg and want to join with that. We are calling the second egg Jesus.
How exciting to realize we are not alone!
Like newborn chicks everywhere, we are pecking away at the shell that seems to keep us separate from Jesus. We do this as we question the belief that we are separate. We do it every time we doubt the ego beliefs in our mind and every time we use the stories of our lives to cast doubt on our separateness.
As we start to feel that we are joined with all the others within this egg, the shell begins to crack, more light pours in, and more of us are now pecking away at the shell. Soon, we begin to realize that we are one with Jesus as well, and the shell of our separate existence from each other and from Jesus falls away.
From this more enlightened place, we realize nothing was keeping us apart and keeping the light out except for our desire to be separate. It was all in our mind, and with the help of our brother, Jesus (who already knew this), we begin to open our hearts to the truth without fear and with total acceptance. As the final shell dissolves, we see that we are united, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
V. The Undivided Will of the Sonship P4
4 When you unite with me you are uniting without the ego, because I have renounced the ego in myself and therefore cannot unite with yours. Our union is therefore the way to renounce the ego in you. The truth in both of us is beyond the ego. Our success in transcending the ego is guaranteed by God, and I share this confidence for both of us and all of us. I bring God’s peace back to all His children because I received it of Him for us all. Nothing can prevail against our united wills because nothing can prevail against God’s.
In this section, Jesus is really making it clear that together, we will transcend the ego. It is very simple, really. Jesus transcended the ego and now helps us to do what he has already done. He has total confidence in us because he knows we will succeed as he did. I used to doubt myself, but Jesus held steadfast in his certainty thus, he knew for me what I still doubted. Now, I have no doubt whatsoever that I will return my mind to God because I have joined my will with his, and nothing can prevail against us because nothing can prevail against God.
While I still become distracted and get hooked by my ego sometimes, I never lose sight of the goal.
I might become angry with someone, but I never want to stay angry and never argue for my anger. I might make the other one guilty in my mind, but I change my mind. Even while I am temporarily angry, I am asking that the belief my brother is guilty be removed from my mind. This is how it is for me now. I look forward to the day the desire to blame cannot even find a foothold in my mind, no matter how tenuous.
I don’t doubt that day will come because I don’t doubt God. So, I don’t doubt His Voice, the Holy Spirit. And I don’t doubt God’s plan plan of Atonement. I don’t doubt my brother, Jesus and his commitment to me. I don’t even doubt myself anymore. Jesus transcended the ego, and by joining my will with his, he will transcend it again through me. And in perfect timing, he will do so through each of us until, as one, we will return to our Father.
V. The Undivided Will of the Sonship P 5
5 Would you know the Will of God for you? Ask it of me who knows it for you and you will find it. I will deny you nothing, as God denies me nothing. Ours is simply the journey back to God Who is our home. Whenever fear intrudes anywhere along the road to peace, it is because the ego has attempted to join the journey with us and cannot do so. Sensing defeat and angered by it, the ego regards itself as rejected and becomes retaliative. You are invulnerable to its retaliation because I am with you. On this journey you have chosen me as your companion instead of the ego. Do not attempt to hold on to both, or you will try to go in different directions, and will lose the way.
I am very aware of ego retaliation. I used to think that when I would slip back into ego it meant that I was weak and vulnerable and that my best efforts came to naught. The reason I believed this was that is what the thoughts in my mind were saying to me. When that happened, I felt like a failure and that I couldn’t do this. That left me in an impossible place since I couldn’t go back to complete ignorance and yet couldn’t go forward. It was hard because I had not yet detached from my ego identity enough to realize that I was not that defeatist voice I was listening to.
It’s different now.
Even though I still notice the ego thoughts in my mind and sometimes get hooked by them, I always question them. When I experience a significant shift in my thinking, I especially get bombarded by ego thoughts. The ego part of the mind is trying to pull me back into the story. It tries anything and everything to get me interested. It says others are guilty, I’m guilty, I’m never going to succeed, I’m a failure, I’m overworked and put upon.
I still hear all that nonsense and sometimes. listen and believe for a little while, but I never fall for it like I did before. Yesterday, the ego tried again, and I felt bad about myself for a few minutes, then turned away from it. I cannot yet avoid the ego voice completely, but I can choose the voice I would believe. I made a deliberate choice to remember the truth. So, I gave the ego thoughts to the Holy Spirit and asked that they be removed from my mind. Each time I do this, I become more certain of my true identity, and the ego hold on the mind loosens some more.
V. The Undivided Will of the Sonship P 6
6 The ego’s way is not mine, but it is also not yours. The Holy Spirit has one direction for all minds, and the one He taught me is yours. Let us not lose sight of His direction through illusions, for only illusions of another direction can obscure the one for which God’s Voice speaks in all of us. Never accord the ego the power to interfere with the journey. It has none, because the journey is the way to what is true. Leave all illusions behind, and reach beyond all attempts of the ego to hold you back. I go before you because I am beyond the ego. Reach, therefore, for my hand because you want to transcend the ego. My strength will never be wanting, and if you choose to share it you will do so. I give it willingly and gladly, because I need you as much as you need me.
Jesus is so certain of me that when I think of it, I cry.
I feel certain of me, too, because I am willing to share his certainty. Jesus knows because he has transcended the ego, and so has Knowledge now. I trust him, and he trusts me, so I trust me as well. I trust myself even when I am confused. And I trust myself even when I slip back into ego thinking. I trust myself even when I feel helpless and hopeless. Because I trust myself, I always rise from the ego pit into the light, and I do so quickly.
I do reach for your hand, dear Brother, and I do this as often as I need to. As I do this, you are my elder brother, partner, and aide. I look to you as the model I would follow, your teachings as the standard I would achieve in my life. I will transcend the ego because you did. It is my purpose, as it was yours and is everyone’s. This day and every day is dedicated toward that goal. Thank you for showing me the way, being my ever-present helper, and lending me your strength. I cannot express the depth of my gratitude because I just don’t have the words.
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