ACIM Chapter 9. IV. The Holy Spirit’s Plan of Forgiveness P 5, 6

ACIM Chapter 9. IV. The Holy Spirit’s Plan of Forgiveness P 5, 6

IV. The Holy Spirit’s Plan of Forgiveness, P 5

5 Forgiveness that is learned of me does not use fear to undo fear. Nor does it make real the unreal and then destroy it. Forgiveness through the Holy Spirit lies simply in looking beyond error from the beginning, and thus keeping it unreal for you. Do not let any belief in its realness enter your mind, or you will also believe that you must undo what you have made in order to be forgiven. What has no effect does not exist, and to the Holy Spirit the effects of error are nonexistent. By steadily and consistently cancelling out all its effects, everywhere and in all respects, He teaches that the ego does not exist and proves it.

This is so simple it is hard to believe that we make it hard. In essence, there is no guilt and so nothing to forgive. No matter what I think I see and what I think I think, I am innocent, and so is everything else. I am learning to look past the appearance of guilt and, thus, not see it at all. As I look past the appearance of guilt, I see only holiness reflected back to me.

I am learning true forgiveness from the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit teaches me true forgiveness as I ask Him to look with me at my assumed guilt. He sees no effects from my error, and therefore, there are none. If there are no effects, there is no error, and I am free. In this way he methodically teaches me the ego does not exist and proves it to me as He teaches me that I am innocent. This applies equally and in exactly the same way to everyone.

I was just minding my own business one day when I was assailed by a sudden vivid memory of something done in the past for which I felt guilty. It was like it was happening all over again. The guilt was so strong and fresh. The way the ego would have me deal with this is to recognize that I sinned and am guilty and then forgive myself for this.

Or not. Because now that it is real in my mind, I cannot be free of it.

No matter how much I tell myself that I am forgiven, I still remember doing this real thing. The ego suggests I make amends somehow, do something to compensate for my evil deed. I can’t do enough good things to undo what is real. The belief in that sin remains in my mind no matter what I do to atone for it because I believe in it.

After taking it to the ego and getting no relief, I took it to the Holy Spirit and asked for forgiveness. The Holy Spirit looks at me and sees only God’s holy Son in His perfect sinlessness. There is nothing to forgive. Everywhere He looks, He sees innocence. Where are the effects of sin now? Where is guilt now? Without guilt, where is the ego?

I don’t need to know how this is done.

I know only that when I released to the Holy Spirit the guilt I felt for the remembered error, the guilt was no longer there. My mind was purged of the ego belief I had sinned. Sometimes, when this happens, the undoing is so complete that I can no longer remember the imagined sin.

Most remarkable of all, I am learning true forgiveness. I am learning to disregard appearances and see innocence where I used to see guilt. I fail to do this perfectly, but the shift is occurring. There are many times now when I am aware of ego behavior, and it means nothing to me. I see right through it to the innocence beyond it. I don’t see anything to forgive.

“O, my dear God, thank you. “

IV. The Holy Spirit’s Plan of Forgiveness, P 6

6 Follow the Holy Spirit’s teaching in forgiveness, then, because forgiveness is His function and He knows how to fulfill it perfectly. That is what I meant when I said that miracles are natural, and when they do not occur something has gone wrong. Miracles are merely the sign of your willingness to follow the Holy Spirit’s plan of salvation, recognizing that you do not understand what it is. His work is not your function, and unless you accept this you cannot learn what your function is.

When I think of living like this, everything seems so simple. If I am experiencing anything except love, joy, and peace, then I am following the ego’s plan for salvation. Knowing this, I can choose again. I can release the ego thoughts to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to do His work. He knows His function and will complete it if I don’t interfere. That is if I don’t try to do it myself.

The ego wants all functions for itself. This is what happens when I think that I know what to do about a situation. When I got upset with a friend, I knew I wanted the situation resolved. I had thoughts about who was to blame. I had thoughts about letting my anger go even though the friend was wrong because being angry was not helping. And I had thoughts of being guilty of my feelings, but then I would feel rage at the coworker.

The ego mind thinks this is helping.

When I look at this from the ego’s mind, it seems like I must consider all angles of the situation, look closely at the story, decide who is wrong, and decide what to do about it to defend my position and protect myself. Sometimes, I stumble over a useful idea, and things seem to improve for a while, but nothing is solved because the ego cannot heal. The best I can hope for is a temporary secession of conflict, knowing it will show up somewhere else, in some other form.

When I choose to release this to the Holy Spirit, the experience and the outcome are entirely different. I notice that I am angry and upset with my friend. I realize my thoughts about this situation are making me miserable, and I show them to the Holy Spirit. He corrects my thinking and heals my mind. Sometimes, I stray back into the ego mind and pick up the problem again, but if I do, I just repeat the process with the Holy Spirit.

When I examine this situation with the Holy Spirit and hand it over to Him, it is all very simple and easy. The solution is permanent because healing has occurred. All that I have to do is stay in my real mind and let Spirit complete His function. I have no part in that other than not to interfere.

I have noticed that not interfering is the only hard part for me.

The ego mind wants to do the Holy Spirit’s job. It requires vigilance to be aware when I have strayed into a function that is not mine to fulfill. I remind myself that my job is to notice the ego thoughts, realize I don’t want them, and release them to the Holy Spirit. Period. I am through. Now, it is the Holy Spirit’s job to complete the forgiveness process.

What occurs when I do my part and stand back is a miracle. My mind is healed, and from a healed mind, a healed world becomes manifest. If I follow this simple plan, doing only my part and allowing the Holy Spirit to do the rest, my life will be miraculous. The world’s laws will be meaningless as the miracle supersedes them. As I do this more and more, forgiveness becomes easier and more natural, and so does miraculous living.