Lesson 166

I am entrusted with the gifts of God.

All things are given you. God’s trust in you is limitless. He knows His Son. He gives without exception, holding nothing back that can contribute to your happiness. And yet, unless your will is one with His, His gifts are not received. But what would make you think there is another will than His?

Here is the paradox that underlies the making of the world. This world is not the Will of God, and so it is not real. Yet those who think it real must still believe there is another will, and one that leads to opposite effects from those He wills. Impossible indeed; but every mind that looks upon the world and judges it as certain, solid, trustworthy and true believes in two creators; or in one, himself alone. But never in one God.

The gifts of God are not acceptable to anyone who holds such strange beliefs. He must believe that to accept God’s gifts, however evident they may become, however urgently he may be called to claim them as his own, is to be pressed to treachery against himself. He must deny their presence, contradict the truth, and suffer to preserve the world he made.

Here is the only home he thinks he knows. Here is the only safety he believes that he can find. Without the world he made is he an outcast; homeless and afraid. He does not realize that it is here he is afraid indeed, and homeless, too; an outcast wandering so far from home, so long away, he does not realize he has forgotten where he came from, where he goes, and even who he really is.

Yet in his lonely, senseless wanderings, God’s gifts go with him, all unknown to him. He cannot lose them. But he will not look at what is given him. He wanders on, aware of the futility he sees about him everywhere, perceiving how his little lot but dwindles, as he goes ahead to nowhere. Still he wanders on in misery and poverty, alone though God is with him, and a treasure his so great that everything the world contains is valueless before its magnitude.

He seems a sorry figure; weary, worn, in threadbare clothing, and with feet that bleed a little from the rocky road he walks. No one but has identified with him, for everyone who comes here has pursued the path he follows, and has felt defeat and hopelessness as he is feeling them. Yet is he really tragic, when you see that he is following the way he chose, and need but realize Who walks with him and open up his treasures to be free?

This is your chosen self, the one you made as a replacement for reality. This is the self you savagely defend against all reason, every evidence, and all the witnesses with proof to show this is not you. You heed them not. You go on your appointed way, with eyes cast down lest you might catch a glimpse of truth, and be released from self-deception and set free.

You cower fearfully lest you should feel Christ’s touch upon your shoulder, and perceive His gentle hand directing you to look upon your gifts. How could you then proclaim your poverty in exile? He would make you laugh at this perception of yourself. Where is self-pity then? And what becomes of all the tragedy you sought to make for him whom God intended only joy?

Your ancient fear has come upon you now, and justice has caught up with you at last. Christ’s hand has touched your shoulder, and you feel that you are not alone. You even think the miserable self you thought was you may not be your Identity. Perhaps God’s Word is truer than your own. Perhaps His gifts to you are real. Perhaps He has not wholly been outwitted by your plan to keep His Son in deep oblivion, and go the way you chose without your Self.

God’s Will does not oppose. It merely is. It is not God you have imprisoned in your plan to lose your Self. He does not know about a plan so alien to His Will. There was a need He did not understand, to which He gave an Answer. That is all. And you who have this Answer given you have need no more of anything but this.

Now do we live, for now we cannot die. The wish for death is answered, and the sight that looked upon it now has been replaced by vision which perceives that you are not what you pretend to be. One walks with you Who gently answers all your fears with this one merciful reply, “It is not so.” He points to all the gifts you have each time the thought of poverty oppresses you, and speaks of His Companionship when you perceive yourself as lonely and afraid.

Yet He reminds you still of one thing more you had forgotten. For His touch on you has made you like Himself. The gifts you have are not for you alone. What He has come to offer you, you now must learn to give. This is the lesson that His giving holds, for He has saved you from the solitude you sought to make in which to hide from God. He has reminded you of all the gifts that God has given you. He speaks as well of what becomes your will when you accept these gifts, and recognize they are your own.

The gifts are yours, entrusted to your care, to give to all who chose the lonely road you have escaped. They do not understand they but pursue their wishes. It is you who teach them now. For you have learned of Christ there is another way for them to walk. Teach them by showing them the happiness that comes to those who feel the touch of Christ, and recognize God’s gifts. Let sorrow not tempt you to be unfaithful to your trust.

Your sighs will now betray the hopes of those who look to you for their release. Your tears are theirs. If you are sick, you but withhold their healing. What you fear but teaches them their fears are justified. Your hand becomes the giver of Christ’s touch; your change of mind becomes the proof that who accepts God’s gifts can never suffer anything. You are entrusted with the world’s release from pain.

Betray it not. Become the living proof of what Christ’s touch can offer everyone. God has entrusted all His gifts to you. Be witness in your happiness to how transformed the mind becomes which chooses to accept His gifts, and feel the touch of Christ. Such is your mission now. For God entrusts the giving of His gifts to all who have received them. He has shared His joy with you. And now you go to share it with the world.

INITIAL INSIGHT: God has given us everything. The reason we are not aware of His gifts is because we do not see that our will is one with His. We made a world of our own with a separate will. The world is not real and neither is separate will.  “…but every mind that looks upon the world and judges it as certain, solid, trustworthy and true believes in two creators; or in one, himself alone. But never in one God.”

While we believe in our own separate will and while we prefer it to our true will which is one with God’s Will, we will believe that accepting God’s gifts will be capitulation. It would be a denial of the little self. And so, we suffer and think the suffering is a small price to pay to preserve the world we made.

We are so confused. We are afraid to give up the world we know for the world that is our Home but is no longer in our conscious memory. We think we want to be human because we have forgotten what it is like to be Divine Beings. But even in this amnesiac state in which we find ourselves, God goes with us. We are lost in our own senseless wandering mind, but not lost to God who knows us and loves us.

No matter how tragic the story and now much we seem to suffer, we remain as we were created, we remain eternal and perfect. We are literally choosing to replace reality with this imagined world. We defend against Heaven and refuse to see the evidence that proves we are not what God created.

Here is something I wrote a short time ago. I said that I must be closer to awakening, to accepting the truth. I say this because I utter the truth such as I am as God created me. I am an eternal and divine being. I am in God and of God right now. And this time when I remind myself of the truth, I feel a frisson of fear pass through me. It’s hard to put into words. Maybe like, how could that be? What would that be like? I feel a desire to remain small because I know smallness and I don’t know greatness. After the fear passes, I smile because I am not interested. I know that shudder of fear is the ego and I am not the ego.

That fear passed and I became ready for the Christ to help me perceive my Self and to know my Self. I laugh at the perception of myself as small and insignificant, as fearful and guilty. I now know that I am not this body image and this sad little story. I know what is not true about me and I am letting the memory of what is true come in its own time. I simply stay open and receptive and trusting.

“God’s Will does not oppose. It merely is. It is not God you have imprisoned in your plan to lose your Self. He does not know about a plan so alien to His Will. There was a need He did not understand, to which He gave an Answer. That is all. And you who have this Answer given you have need no more of anything but this.”

People often wonder how it is that God could not know of our plan to lose our Self and choose an alien will with which to do this. If we are in God, and God is in us, then how could He not know about our life here and our fears and guilt? I like to remember that God does not believe, God knows and what He knows is eternal and unchangeable. If God knew of the world then the world would be eternal and unchangeable. Not something to wish for, is it?

I don’t know God the Father, and so I cannot know the actual answer to that question of how it is that we can be part of God, and yet He not be aware of the world we made. The closest I can come is to think of our experience here as a dream. I am in God and part of the mind is dreaming. God knows that the dream is interrupting our communication and thus interrupting our joy and peace, and so He placed His Voice within us so that we could awaken when we were ready. His Voice is the answer to our suffering.

 “The gifts you have are not for you alone.”

The Voice for God is bringing us back to an awakened state so that we can remember who we are. But as we receive this call to awaken, we must also share it. We must learn to give. We become the teachers of God who help our brothers awaken with us. And how do we do that?

“Teach them by showing them the happiness that comes to those who feel the touch of Christ, and recognize God’s gifts. Let sorrow not tempt you to be unfaithful to your trust”

This is my commitment and I live up to it as much as I am able. When I fall short of being the living proof of what Christ’s touch can offer everyone, I correct my course and continue to walk the path. He has shared His joy with me and now my job is to share it with the world. That is my mission.

DAILY APPLICATION: The Thought of God created me, and so it remains who I am. I cannot change the Thought of God, but I can deny it. My happiness lies in my decision to come out of denial and accept the gifts of God. In accepting the gifts of God, I “become the living proof of what Christ’s touch can offer everyone.”

How do I deny the gifts of God? Every time I attack another, every time I defend myself, every time I look in the mirror and see a body and think, “That is me,” each of these times I am denying myself as a Thought of God. Every time I notice that I am attacking or defending, but choose differently, and every time I think I am a body but am willing to be wrong about that, I am removing blocks to my awareness of Love’s presence.

As I watch rioting and looting, the ego-mind sees guilt but I see brothers in fear and confusion. I look within for fear and confusion and if I find it, I forgive it and in so doing, I forgive it in all our projections. I see political maneuvering at the expense of our country, our democracy, and our people. I see guilty people doing this and so look within for times when I have acted out of self-interest and I ask for correction so that I can become the example of love in action instead.

I see people turning against each other letting fear drive their actions and I look within for fear-driven thinking on my part. May my thoughts always be peaceful so that my life reflects peace and is a beacon light for others to follow.

I rejoice that there are so many ways in which I can be used by the Holy Spirit in benefit to all my brothers. All I need to do is to accept the gifts of God.

INSIGHTS FROM HOLY SPIRIT: Here is a message I received from Holy Spirit when I was still working and still confused. It helped a lot.

There are a million little ways that you deny God in your life – in your being. When you forgot something important at work and wondered what was wrong with you that you didn’t think of it, you denied God. When you heard a call for love from your brother and saw it as an attack, you denied God. When you worry about your son’s safety, and your daughter’s financial situation, and your brother’s anxiety level, you deny God.

Notice these thoughts, Myron, and realize that they are attacks upon yourself, and an attack upon God Who holds you in His Mind. God does not fear your attack nor believe in it, because He is not deceived by your careless dreams. But you, my precious child, imagine yourself lost in hellish nightmares where tragedy and failure dog your heels. This is not true. God would never give you fearful gifts.

Look on your world today and see all that the ego would give you. Are these the gifts you truly want? Is the sun shining, and a gentle breeze blowing? It will soon be hot and muggy, and the breeze will turn into a gale. Are your friends gathering to honor you? One day they will gather to condemn you. Do your children love and respect you? They have their own lives and will turn from you. The ego offers little, and nothing of lasting value.

Look again upon the world, but look with Me. I will show you how to see differently. The ego would use your life to prove your worthlessness, but God created you worthy and so the ego can only lie. Let us look at the error you made at work that so upsets you. The purpose the ego gave this situation was to show you how embattled you are on every front.

The ego seeks to show you that though you are only doing the best you can you are still failing, and everyone wants to see you brought down. The ego says that this situation proves that you are losing your memory and your mind cannot be far behind. It proves that those who care for you will quickly turn from you if it is in their best interests. The ego says that once again the world has attacked you and left you bloody, and the only reasonable thing you can do is attack back before you are destroyed. This is the purpose the ego gives this situation.

I see another purpose in this situation. I look with you at the seeming attacks, and together we see that it offers you an opportunity to see how the ego works to keep your thoughts directed away from God. It becomes clear that to the ego life is an eternal battleground, and that your purpose in life is to build battlements to keep everyone away. There is great value in seeing the ego’s motive clearly because this allows you to make a different choice.

As we look at the “enemy” we see the fear they are enmeshed in, their frightening cries of attack become calls to you for love. Now what had been seen as an attack against you is seen as a call to you for help. Would you answer a call for help with attack? Would you defend against a call for love? As your eyes soften and your heart opens, you ask for guidance to know how you can most be helpful at this moment. And you are healed with your brother. The ego sees everything as a reason to separate and attack. The Holy Spirit sees everything as an opportunity to unite in a common purpose.

My message to Holy Spirit

Me: Holy Spirit, I am very happy that I am able to detach from ego thoughts enough to look with You and see things differently. But sometimes it is very hard to do, and it takes time for me to make that transition.

Holy Spirit: Myron, that is the good use of time. You have seen that it is easier to give me your willingness and to step back. When you try to make yourself see differently, you make this very hard indeed. Give me your willingness my dear one. That is all I need from you.

GRATITUDE: Yes, that is true. It becomes easier, and when it does feel hard, I still want it. I gladly step back, and I gladly give you all the willingness I have.

I am deeply touched as I read this lesson. I am healed and, in my healing, I am a healer. Let me not betray my purpose with more illusions of, fear and guilt, weakness and depression, sorrow, suffering, and death. Let me not retreat into darkness now that I have seen the light and seen its beauty and its brilliance.

REGINA’S TIPS

As mentioned during my tip for lesson 164, NTI teaches that the ego began with the wish for something different than what is. Because that is the basis of the ego, that is a key element of the ego thought system. If you pay attention to your mind, you will see that this idea shows up in one form or another multiple times each day.

Every time we think we do not have enough, there is the wish for something different.

Every time we complain about how things are, there is the wish for something different.

Every time we resist a task we need to complete, there is the wish for something different.

Every time we judge ourselves or someone else as not good enough, there is the wish for something different.

Etcetera.

Today’s lesson talks about he who “wanders on in misery and poverty, alone though God is with him, and a treasure his so great that everything the world contains is valueless before its magnitude.”

The treasure “so great that everything the world contains is valueless before its magnitude” is awareness-life-presence.

Reflect upon that for a moment. Without awareness-life-presence, nothing would be. The sound of a bird’s song or the sound of waves rolling onto the beach, the sight of a beautiful sunset or the sight of a herd of deer moving through the pines—nothing that symbolizes the treasure of life could be without awareness-life-presence. Awareness-life-presence is the basis of everything we treasure, and therefore it is the greatest treasure of all.

We wander alone “in misery and poverty” whenever we listen to the ego thought system with the wish for something different at its foundation. We are not satisfied with the treasure of awareness-life-presence. Instead, we choose unhappiness as we seek for something different. Even after change occurs, we seek for something different again. Therefore, one who is focused on the ego thought system is never happy for long, because the wish for something different continues to heckle him/her.

Today we will shift our attention from unhappiness to happiness, from the wish for something different to appreciation for the magnificent treasure that is always present.

Each time you notice the wish for something different in your mind today, pause. Shift your attention to awareness-life-presence, and spend a few moments appreciating it. Be as vigilant in this practice as you can be. I say this, because the wish for something different is a strong habit; it could occur many times during the day without you noticing it.

For example, the wish for something different may show up as the wish for more time to get things done, or as the wish for fewer things to do. It may show up as the wish for less traffic or a shorter line at the grocery store. It may show up as the wish that someone around you were different than he/she is. It may show up as the wish that you were different or that your body was different. It may show up as the wish that the world was different than it is.

Pay attention today for the wish for something different in whatever way it shows up in your thoughts, and then shift attention to notice the treasure. Let yourself feel appreciation for awareness-life-presence. Follow that by slowly saying to yourself, “I am entrusted with the gifts of God.”

MY THOUGHTS

My mind is focused today on choosing to remember and love through my highest Self and to see myself as God the Son. It is also focused on my responsibility to share what I am given through the way I live my life. It has taken me a minute to shift my mind to another way to do this. I can also focus my awareness on the mind that wants to think things should be different.

I see the value in changing my mind about that. Thinking things should be different in my life is a reflection of the original tiny mad idea in which I wanted reality to change. So in a sense, my wish for something to be different is the same as the original wish I had for things to be different. Every day is Groundhog Day, and though the form is different, the content of the form is the same, let today be different than reality.

So today, I will pay special attention to the desire for things to be different. I started out feeling a little frazzled so I stopped to examine my thoughts. I saw that I felt like some days are too full and that I would not have time to get everything done. So, I wanted that to be different. I let that thought go by deciding that today is perfect as it is and I will get done what I get done. Interestingly enough, everything is getting done that I had planned and I am at peace while it is all happening. It just took a simple change of mind.