Principle 10: The use of miracles as spectacles to induce belief is a misunderstanding of their purpose. (T-1.I.10)

COURSE REFERENCES

The purpose of miracles is not to induce belief, for miracles are merely a change of purpose from error to correction, from hurting to healing. When you are strong in offering miracles, you will be equally strong in your conviction of their power to heal. The strength of your conviction will then induce the conviction of the miracle receiver. You will offer miracles because you are a miracle worker for Jesus, and you are one with God. Complete restoration of the Sonship is the only goal of the miracle-minded.

Miracles are habits and should be involuntary. They should not be under conscious control. Consciously selected miracles can be misguided. (T-1.I.5:1-3) This is why you must not concern yourselves with how to help your brothers, as you will be told if, how and when by the Holy Spirit. Until receiving His guidance, you are not to judge your brothers, but simply to love and accept them with all your heart, mind and spirit. All abilities should therefore be given over to the Holy Spirit Who understands how to use them properly. He uses them only for healing, because He knows you and your brother only as whole. (T-7.X.3:8) Leave the working of miracles to One Who knows where they are most needed, and you will be sure to serve only the highest good for everyone.

Note: Even though a brother stands before you, and you perceive a need for a miracle of healing, you may not be the one the Holy Spirit works through to heal this brother. Maybe someone other than you will be chosen to give and to receive here.  Someone may be better suited to help him and maybe they also need the healing they will give and receive.  Yet do stay alert, as it may be you.

A miracle is a service, the maximal service you can render to another. Your mind along with the mind of Jesus can unite in shining your ego away, releasing the strength of God into everything you think, say, and do. Do not settle for anything less and refuse to accept anything but this as your goal. Watch your mind carefully for any beliefs that hinder its accomplishment, and step away from them. (T-4.IV.8:3-5) These hindering beliefs may be judgment or impatience, or the desire to rid a brother of an annoying habit (vexation), or as simple as an exaggerated desire to be truly helpful before hearing from the Holy Spirit. Trust in Him to call on you if you are needed. He knows where you are. ☺

Since the ego often runs rampant, you must ask: “Where can I go for protection?” “Seek and ye shall find” does not mean that you should seek blindly and desperately for something you would not recognize. Meaningful seeking is consciously undertaken, consciously organized and consciously directed. The goal must be formulated clearly and kept in mind. Learning and wanting to learn are inseparable. You learn best when you perceive that what you want to learn is of value to you. (T-4.V.5:1-6) Simply follow the Holy Spirit, and you will be simultaneously giving up the ego. Can anything be easier?

The goal of the curriculum, regardless of the teacher you choose, is “know thyself.” There is nothing else to seek. Everyone is looking for himself and for the power and glory he thinks he has lost. Whenever you are with anyone, you have another opportunity to find that power and glory. Miracles unite you directly with your brother. If you perceive truly, you are correcting misperceptions in yourself and in others simultaneously. Look from the Christ in you to the Christ in your brothers. Offer them your acceptance of their truth so they can accept it for themselves, and simultaneously you accept it for yourself. This is the healing that the miracle induces. (T-3.II.6:5-7)

Perception always involves some misuse of mind, because it brings the mind into areas of uncertainty. The mind is very active. When it chooses to be separated, it chooses to perceive and then it can only choose ambiguously. The only way out of ambiguity* is clear perception. The mind returns to its proper function only when it wills to know. This places it in the service of spirit, where perception is changed. It is from spirit that it derives its whole power to make or create. Thus, even in miscreation the mind is affirming its Source, or it would merely cease to be. (T-3.IV.5)

You have done miracles, but it is quite apparent that you have not done them alone. You have succeeded whenever you have reached another mind and joined with it. When two minds join as one and share one idea equally, the first link in the awareness of the Sonship as one has been made. The miracle makes this possible.

It is impossible to convince you of the reality of what has clearly been accomplished through your willingness while you believe that you must understand it or else it is not real. (T-16.II.4:1-5) Belief is an ego function, and as long as your origin is open to belief you are regarding it from an ego viewpoint. When teaching is no longer necessary you will merely know God. (T-4.II.4:8-9)

When you have made this joining of your mind with a brother’s mind as the Holy Spirit bids you and have offered this joining of minds to the Holy Spirit to use as He sees fit, His natural perception of the gift you offer enables Him to understand it and enables you to use His understanding on your behalf. Enable your brothers on behalf of God.

A better and far more helpful way to think of miracles is this: You do not understand them, either in part or in whole. Yet they have been done through you. Therefore, your understanding cannot be necessary. Yet it is still impossible to accomplish what you do not understand. So, there must be Something in you that does understand. (T-16.II.2:4-8) And this Something is the Holy Spirit in your Christ Mind. Miracles are natural to the One Who speaks for God.

Jesus has assured you that the Mind that decided for him is also in you, and that you can let it change you just as it changed him. This Mind is unequivocal** because it hears only one Voice and answers in only one way. Accept this Mind as yours. IT IS.

You are the light of the world along with Jesus. Rest does not come from sleeping but from waking. The world is very tired, because it is the idea of weariness. Your task as a miracle worker, with Jesus, is the joyous one of waking the world to the Call for God. Everyone will answer the Call of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, the Sonship cannot be one, sharing the one Mind of God. The Holy Spirit is the call to awaken and be glad.

What better vocation could there be for any part of the Kingdom than to restore it to the perfect integration that can make it whole? Hear only the Call for God through the Holy Spirit within you and teach your brothers to listen as you are being taught by Jesus. Joining the holiness of your mind with that of a brother, through miracles performed by the Holy Spirit, is surely the way for you and your brother together to know GOD IS.

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*Ambiguity: unclear or inexact because a choice between perceived alternatives has not been made.

**Unequivocal: leaving no doubt; unambiguous.