Lesson 191
I am the holy Son of God Himself.
1. Here is your declaration of release from bondage of the world. ²And here as well is all the world released. ³You do not see what you have done by giving to the world the role of jailer to the Son of God. ⁴What could it be but vicious and afraid, fearful of shadows, punitive and wild, lacking all reason, blind, insane with hate?
2. What have you done that this should be your world? ²What have you done that this is what you see? ³Deny your own Identity, and this is what remains. ⁴You look on chaos and proclaim it is yourself. ⁵There is no sight that fails to witness this to you. ⁶There is no sound that does not speak of frailty within you and without; no breath you draw that does not seem to bring you nearer death; no hope you hold but will dissolve in tears.
3. Deny your own Identity, and you will not escape the madness which induced this weird, unnatural and ghostly thought that mocks creation and that laughs at God. ²Deny your own Identity, and you assail the universe alone, without a friend, a tiny particle of dust against the legions of your enemies. ³Deny your own Identity, and look on evil, sin and death, and watch despair snatch from your fingers every scrap of hope, leaving you nothing but the wish to die.
Once again, Jesus is telling us that our problem is simple; we think we are separate from each other and from God. We think we are bodies living in time and space. We think we are something we could not be. Choosing to be identified as less than what we are, the solution is obvious, we must reclaim our identity. When we wake up from this dream of separation, all the suffering and death will be a joke we played on ourselves.
4. Yet what is it except a game you play in which Identity can be denied? ²You are as God created you. ³All else but this one thing is folly to believe. ⁴In this one thought is everyone set free. ⁵In this one truth are all illusions gone. ⁶In this one fact is sinlessness proclaimed to be forever part of everything, the central core of its existence and its guarantee of immortality.
And once again, Jesus tells us what we need to know to be free again; we are as God created us. This one undeniable fact if believed would wake us up. It is the answer to all forms of suffering. How could I suffer if I am as God created me? Would God create me to suffer? In my current state of mind, I am the one that is insane, not God. I am the one who has forgotten what she is and has taken on the burden of a false identity.
5. But let today’s idea find a place among your thoughts and you have risen far above the world, and all the worldly thoughts that hold it prisoner. ²And from this place of safety and escape you will return and set it free. ³For he who can accept his true Identity is truly saved. ⁴And his salvation is the gift he gives to everyone, in gratitude to Him Who pointed out the way to happiness that changed his whole perspective of the world.
This is what our brother has done for us. He remembered that we are as God created us and the whole story of billions of people suffering through billions of stories was undone. It was undone for us all because we are one mind. What is healed in any mind is healed in all minds. But here we are, sitting in the theater watching the stories play out over and over again until, we too, remember that we are as God created us.
6. One holy thought like this and you are free: You are the holy Son of God Himself. ²And with this holy thought you learn as well that you have freed the world. ³You have no need to use it cruelly, and then perceive this savage need in it. ⁴You set it free of your imprisonment. ⁵You will not see a devastating image of yourself walking the world in terror, with the world twisting in agony because your fears have laid the mark of death upon its heart.
7. Be glad today how very easily is hell undone. ²You need but tell yourself:
³I am the holy Son of God Himself. ⁴I cannot suffer, cannot be in pain; I cannot suffer loss, nor fail to do all that salvation asks.
⁵And in that thought is everything you look on wholly changed.
This one thought wholly believed will change everything. We project the world we see from the thoughts in our mind. Fear thoughts show us a terrifying world. Thoughts of hatred show us a hateful world. Belief in pain and suffering show us a cruel world. But the world is nothing without our projections and so as we accept the truth of our reality as God’s holy Son, the world must change as well before it disappears entirely.
I am watching the world I see change as my mind changes. It has been a slow shift but it is like a snowball going downhill, the closer it gets to the bottom of the hill, the more momentum it picks up. This change continues to surprise me and delight me. It is just as Jesus says, we free ourselves from suffering just as easily as we bound ourselves to suffering. I still see the process is not complete, but it is close enough that I am experiencing the world in a vastly different way.
8. A miracle has lighted up all dark and ancient caverns, where the rites of death echoed since time began. ²For time has lost its hold upon the world. ³The Son of God has come in glory to redeem the lost, to save the helpless, and to give the world the gift of his forgiveness. ⁴Who could see the world as dark and sinful, when God’s Son has come again at last to set it free?
9. You who perceive yourself as weak and frail, with futile hopes and devastated dreams, born but to die, to weep and suffer pain, hear this: All power is given unto you in earth and Heaven. ²There is nothing that you cannot do. ³You play the game of death, of being helpless, pitifully tied to dissolution in a world which shows no mercy to you. ⁴Yet when you accord it mercy, will its mercy shine on you.
Jesus is very clear in this lesson. We are not human beings, we are pure spirit, the holy Son of God Himself. We are not weak and frail and we are not victims of this world we made. We are powerful. We chose the experience of separation, and we will undo that decision through forgiveness. Jesus emphasizes this when he reminds us that there is nothing we cannot do, we have all the power in both earth and Heaven. We will set the world free as we set ourselves free.
10. Then let the Son of God awaken from his sleep, and opening his holy eyes, return again to bless the world he made. ²In error it began, but it will end in the reflection of his holiness. ³And he will sleep no more and dream of death. ⁴Then join with me today. ⁵Your glory is the light that saves the world. ⁶Do not withhold salvation longer. ⁷Look about the world, and see the suffering there. ⁸Is not your heart willing to bring your weary brothers rest?
11. They must await your own release. ²They stay in chains till you are free. ³They cannot see the mercy of the world until you find it in yourself. ⁴They suffer pain until you have denied its hold on you. ⁵They die till you accept your own eternal life. ⁶You are the holy Son of God Himself. ⁷Remember this, and all the world is free. ⁸Remember this, and earth and Heaven are one.
We made the world in error, Jesus says, but it will end in the reflection of our holiness as we forgive all that we made. Jesus asks us to join with him today. He asks us to look around and see the suffering and to do something about it. All our brothers are suffering and it is within our power to end their suffering along with ours.
This is not an overwhelming job even if it sounds like it is. All we need to do is to accept the Atonement for ourselves. That is our part. Today, when I feel pain in my back, I will remind myself that I am still as God created me. When I have a judgmental thought, I will remind myself that I am still as God created me. I am His holy Son and I will be freed from this long and insane dream and so free my brothers as well.