ACIM Daily Lesson: Workbook 49, Year 2019

ACIM Workbook Lesson 49

God’s Voice speaks to me all through the day.

It is quite possible to listen to God’s Voice all through the day without interrupting your regular activities in any way. The part of your mind in which truth abides is in constant communication with God, whether you are aware of it or not. It is the other part of your mind that functions in the world and obeys the world’s laws. It is this part that is constantly distracted, disorganized and highly uncertain.

 The part that is listening to the Voice for God is calm, always at rest and wholly certain. It is really the only part there is. The other part is a wild illusion, frantic and distraught, but without reality of any kind. Try today not to listen to it. Try to identify with the part of your mind where stillness and peace reign forever. Try to hear God’s Voice call to you lovingly, reminding you that your Creator has not forgotten His Son.

 We will need at least four five-minute practice periods today, and more if possible. We will try actually to hear God’s Voice reminding you of Him and of your Self. We will approach this happiest and holiest of thoughts with confidence, knowing that in doing so we are joining our will with the Will of God. He wants you to hear His Voice. He gave It to you to be heard.

 Listen in deep silence. Be very still and open your mind. Go past all the raucous shrieks and sick imaginings that cover your real thoughts and obscure your eternal link with God. Sink deep into the peace that waits for you beyond the frantic, riotous thoughts and sights and sounds of this insane world. You do not live here. We are trying to reach your real home. We are trying to reach the place where you are truly welcome. We are trying to reach God.

 Do not forget to repeat today’s idea very frequently. Do so with your eyes open when necessary, but closed when possible. And be sure to sit quietly and repeat the idea for today whenever you can, closing your eyes on the world, and realizing that you are inviting God’s Voice to speak to you.

Journal

Oh my God, I love this lesson so much! I love it because I believe it, and believing it, I know I can trust that whatever the question might be, the answer lies right alongside of it. I do not trust my ego mind to solve all problems, to bring me joy and peace, but it is the Voice for God that I turn to when I am in need. This I can trust.

“The part of your mind in which truth abides is in constant communication with God, whether you are aware of it or not.”

Does this statement astound you? Does it amaze you? It does me, even as it brings my mind to peace. I have a mind that is in constant communication with God. I have no idea what that is like. It certainly isn’t in words. God does not know or need words.

What if you could know everything I feel and everything I know just because you want to. Would you need words to describe this knowing? Of course not. Why would you? What need would words fulfill if the knowing were complete already?

I cannot imagine the communication that is occurring between God and me, but I accept that is occurring. I do experience the effects of this communication. There are times when I feel distraught and I know that the peace of God is what I really want, so I ask for that with a complete willingness to accept it. Suddenly, it is as if I had never been upset.

Sometimes, I can’t even remember why I was upset. This effect is caused by the Voice for God communicating to me His peace.

Sometimes, the Voice for God translates the communication into words for me. This occurs as thoughts that are in my mind that were not there before, thoughts that represent the Truth, or come as close to it as I am able to absorb. I was reading something I wrote on Facebook last year and it was really profound and I thought about how much I have grown over the years. I then read the same exact thing I had written on Facebook nine years before.

I was stunned for a moment as I considered that I was really wise back then. Of course, I was not wise in my understanding, just wise enough to ask for and receive clarity. I was given an answer that I understood in 2009, but that I understood more deeply now. The ego mind can learn things, but it cannot know things. The knowing comes as the Voice for God in constant communication with us heals our mind of what is not true. It needs only our permission, not our cooperation, and not even our surface awareness. Holy Spirit, heal my mind. Wake me up.

Regina’s Tips

God’s Voice is silent. It communicates with no words at all. We ‘hear’ God’s Voice more as an intuitive feeling. An example of God’s Voice is the feeling ‘all is well.’ When we feel ‘all is well’ under all circumstances, we are listening to God’s Voice consistently.

God’s Voice prompts us in daily life, if we are willing to ‘listen’. It may come through as a feeling that ‘I don’t need to do anything’ about a particular situation; ‘I can wait’ or have patience. It may come through as a feeling that ‘it is best if I say nothing now’. Or it may come through as a feeling that ‘it is best if I say this particular thing now’. It may come through as awareness, noticing that ‘I am listening to an out-of-control mind now’ and a reminder to breathe and shift attention, etc.

The brain has the ability to translate God’s silent Voice into your language, which means you can hear God’s Voice as words/thoughts. This may or may not happen for some individuals. It may happen sometimes but not all of the time.

Past Entries

First, I must acknowledge this one sentence. We are trying to reach God. I am trying to reach God. I don’t want to let the mundane work of forming new habits of stillness to draw my attention from what a profound and sacred experience this is to be. Even on those days when I don’t feel like I achieved my goal, the very attempt is in a whole other category from anything else I do during the day.

Through years of practice, I am aware of the Voice for God speaking to me in different ways at different times. I sometimes experience the Voice as a knowing and then I ask that I be guided in choosing words to express what I am given. Sometimes it occurs as a prompt or an inclination toward something. Sometimes it is a feeling. Often what happens when I ask a question is that I will receive a thought in answer, and then I remember something that verifies that thought. An example, I suppose you would say.

This morning as I do this lesson I am reminded that He never fails to speak to me, and as His Voice has told me before, it is I who is often not listening. Instead, I am listening to the thoughts of separation that chatter on and on in my mind. Thoughts of I, me and mine. I feel antsy. I feel cold, I have a pain. Why is this happening to me? Even when I think of others it is in relation to how it impacts me. In listening to these thoughts, I am constantly reinforcing the separate self. I am in a relationship with the separate self alone. I am laughing now because I notice the desire to hear what the Voice for God wants “me” to know.

When I think to turn my mind from that chatter and become receptive, I can hear the Voice for God in the mind. It is always there singing love songs to us. It always invokes a feeling of peace and of joy when I listen. The more time I spend giving the Voice for God my attention, the stronger that relationship becomes. This is not a personal relationship because God is unaware of “personal,” knowing only Wholeness. My attention to the ego voice of separation keeps me focused on the value of the separate self, and perhaps this is why I reject the Voice for God so much of the time.

Perhaps I still want God to acknowledge my specialness.

Well, whatever the reason, habit, stubbornness, fear of losing self, I have resisted hearing the Voice that is speaking to me all through the day. But in spite of the resistance, I have learned to hear the Voice for God and my desire now is to learn to hear only that Voice. Even in this world that is possible and it is what I want. I want to be in relationship with God, not the ego. That means I know myself as part of a whole and am in relationship with all things, leaving nothing outside of me. “I” and “me” will then signify inclusiveness rather than a separate self.

I used to go at these lessons like a soldier breaking through the enemy’s lines. It was a very active, aggressive attitude. I was mostly using the self-will to make things happen because it was all I knew. But over time, I have come to realize that I can’t do this work with the ego. I can’t make myself listen only to that Voice, but what I can do is allow and accept. Instead of approaching this ready for battle, I approach it ready for peace. All that I am, all that is reality, already exists. I merely need to desire it, to allow it, to accept it. I will stop frequently, if only for brief moments, during my day, and allow myself to become aware of our Voice for God. I will rest quietly, receiving whatever is offered, in love and in gratitude.