Principle 38: The Holy Spirit is the mechanism of miracles. He recognizes both God’s creations and your illusions. He separates the true from the false by His ability to perceive totally rather than selectively. (T-1.I.38:1-3)

COURSE REFERENCES

Read “The Holy Spirit.” (Clarification of Terms.6.all)

Jesus is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, Whom Jesus called down upon the earth after he ascended into Heaven -- or rather after he became completely identified with the Christ, the Son of God as He created Him. The Holy Spirit, being a creation of the One Creator, creating with Him and in His likeness or spirit, is eternal and has never changed. He was “called down upon the earth” in the sense that it was now possible to accept Him and to hear His Voice. His is the Voice for God, and He has therefore taken form as that Voice. This form, this Voice, is not His reality, which God alone knows along with Christ, His real Son, Who is part of Him. (C-6.1:1-4)

The Holy Spirit is described throughout the course as giving us the answer to the separation and bringing the plan of the Atonement to us, establishing our particular part in it and showing us exactly what it is. He has established Jesus as the leader in carrying out His plan since Jesus was the first to complete his own part perfectly. All power in Heaven and earth is therefore given to Jesus and he will share it with you when you have completed your part. (C-6.2:1-3)

The Holy Spirit is described as the remaining communication link between God and His separated Sons. The Holy Spirit abides in the part of your mind that is part of the Christ Mind. He represents your Self and your Creator, Who are one. He speaks for God and also for you, being joined with both. And therefore it is He Who proves them one. (C-6.3:1,4:1-4)

He (Holy Spirit) seems to be a Voice, for in that form He speaks God’s Word to you. He seems to be a Guide through a far country, for you need that form of help. He seems to be whatever meets the needs you think you have. But He is not deceived when you perceive yourself entrapped in needs you do not have. It is from these He would deliver you. It is from these that He would make you safe. (C-6.4:5-10)

An example of needs you may think you have are the “need” to be liked and accepted among your worldly peers, the “need” for material gain and wealth and financial “security,” the “need” to be safe and protected and loved (you already are), the “need” for company and companionship or for a “significant other” in your life, the “need” for immunization and medication and of the body’s protection in innumerable ways. (W-76.3,8)

It is insanity that thinks these things. The body is endangered only by the mind that hurts itself, as the Holy Spirit will teach you. The body suffers just in order that the mind will fail to see it is the victim of itself. The body’s suffering is a mask the mind holds up to hide what really suffers. It would not understand it is its own enemy; that it attacks itself and wants to die. Dismiss all foolish magical beliefs today, and hold your mind in silent readiness to hear the Voice that speaks the truth to you. You will be listening to One Who says there is no loss under the laws of God. (W-76.4:1,5:2-5.9:2-3)

You must accept guidance from within. The guidance must be what you want, or it will be meaningless to you. That is why healing is a collaborative venture. Jesus can tell you what to do, the Holy Spirit can guide you, but you must collaborate by trusting that They know what you should do. Only then will your mind choose to follow Them. (T-8.IV.4:6-10)

Healing reflects your joint will with Jesus. Healing is the way in which the separation is overcome. Separation is overcome by union. It cannot be overcome by continually separating. (T-8.IV.5:1,3-5)

Your mind is the means by which you determine your own condition, because mind is the mechanism of decision. It is the power by which you separate or join, and experience pain or joy accordingly. Jesus’ decision cannot overcome yours, because yours is as powerful as his. It if were not so the Sons of God would be unequal. (T-8.IV.5:7-10)

The world you perceive is a world of separation. The world you made is therefore totally chaotic, governed by arbitrary and senseless “laws,” and without meaning of any kind. For it is made out of what you do not want, projected from your mind because you are afraid of it. Yet the world is only in the mind of its maker, along with his real salvation. Do not believe it is outside of yourself, for only by recognizing where it is will you gain control over it. For you do have control over your mind, since the mind is the mechanism of decision. (T-12.III.9:1,6-10)

Understand that you do not respond to anything directly, but to your interpretation of it. Your interpretation becomes the justification for the response. That is why analyzing the motives of others is hazardous to you. If you decide that someone is really trying to attack you or desert you or enslave you, you will respond as if he had actually done so, having made his error real to you. (T-12.I.1:4-7)

When you look within and see Jesus, it will be because you have decided to manifest truth. And as you manifest it you will see it both without and within. You will see it without because you saw it first within. Everything you behold without is a judgment of what you beheld within. If it is your judgment it will be wrong, for judgment is not your function. If it is the judgment of the Holy Spirit it will be right, for judgment is His function. You share His function only by judging as He does, reserving no judgment at all for yourself. You will judge against yourself, but He will judge for you. (T-12.VII.12:1-8)

There is but one interpretation of motivation that makes any sense. And because it is the Holy Spirit’s judgment it requires no effort at all on your part. Every loving thought is true. Everything else is an appeal for healing and help, REGARDLESS OF THE FORM IT TAKES (caps mine). Can anyone be justified in responding with anger to a brother’s plea for help? No response can be appropriate except the willingness to give it to him, for this and only this is what he is asking for. Offer him anything else and you are assuming the right to attack his reality by interpreting it as you see fit. Perhaps the danger of this to your own mind is not yet fully apparent. If you believe that an appeal for help is something else you will react to something else. Your response will therefore be inappropriate to reality as it is, but not to your perception of it. (T-12.I.3:1-10)

Remember that the Holy Spirit interprets the body only as a means of communication. Being the communication link between God and His separated Sons, the Holy Spirit interprets everything you have made in the light of what He is. The ego separates through the body. The Holy Spirit reaches through it to others. You do not perceive your brothers as the Holy Spirit does, because you do not regard bodies solely as a means of joining minds and uniting them with yours and mine. This interpretation of the body will change your mind about its value. Of itself, it has none. (T-8.VII.2:1-7)

Jesus’ role is to separate the true from the false, so truth can break through the barriers the ego has set up and can shine into your mind. (T-4.III.2-5)

Atonement brings a re-evaluation of everything you cherish, for it is the means by which the Holy Spirit can separate the false and the true, which you have accepted into your mind without distinction. (T-13.IX.4:1)

He (the Holy Spirit) sorts out the true from the false in your mind, and teaches you to choose only truly. Every thought you allow to enter the mind must be in the light of what God put there. Whatever is in accord with this light He retains, to strengthen the Kingdom in you. What is partly in accord with it He accepts and purifies. But what is out of accord entirely He, in effect, rejects and removes it by completely ignoring it so it disappears. This is how He keeps the Kingdom perfectly consistent and perfectly unified. (T-6.V.C.1:2-6) When you have accepted the Atonement for yourself, and when it is complete, you will do this yourself in the light of Christ.

Remember, however, that what the Holy Spirit rejects the ego accepts. This is because they are in fundamental disagreement about everything, being in fundamental disagreement about what you are. The ego’s beliefs on this crucial issue vary, and that is why it promotes different moods. The Holy Spirit never varies on this point, and so the one mood He engenders is joy. He protects it by rejecting everything that does not foster joy, and so He alone can keep you wholly joyous. (T-6.V.C.1:7-11)

You were in darkness until God’s Will was done completely by any part of the Sonship. When this was done by Jesus, it was perfectly accomplished by all. How else could it be perfectly accomplished? Jesus’ mission was simply to unite the will of the Sonship with the Will of the Father by being aware of the Father’s Will himself. This is the awareness he came to give you and your problem in accepting it is the problem of this world. Dispelling this problem is salvation, and in this sense Jesus is the salvation of the world. The world must therefore despise and reject Jesus, because the world is the belief that love is impossible. If you will accept the fact that Jesus is with you, you are denying the world and accepting God. Jesus’ will is His, and your decision to hear Jesus is the decision to hear God’s Voice and abide in His Will. As God sent Jesus to you so will Jesus send you, as his miracle workers, to others. And Jesus will go to them with you, so you and he can teach them peace and union. (T-8.3:1-11)

CALL FORTH in everyone only the remembrance of God, and of the Heaven that is in him. For where you would have your brother be, there will you think you are. Do not hear his appeal to hell and littleness, but only his call for Heaven and greatness. Do not forget that his call is yours, and answer him with Jesus. God’s power is forever on the side of His host, for it protects only the peace in which He dwells.

Because of your Father’s Love you can never forget Him, for no one can forget what God Himself placed in his memory. You can deny it, but you cannot lose it. A Voice will answer every question you ask, and a vision will correct the perception of everything you see. For what you have made invisible is the only truth, and what you have not heard is the only Answer. God would reunite you with yourself, and He did not abandon you in your distress. You are waiting only for Him, and do not know it. Yet His memory shines in your mind and cannot be obliterated. It is no more past than future, being forever always. That’s why we say “GOD IS.” (T-12.VIII.4:1-8)

Oneness is simply the idea God is. And in His Being, He encompasses all things. No mind holds anything but Him. We say “God is,” and then we cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are meaningless. There are no lips to speak them. There is no part of mind sufficiently distinct to feel that it is now aware of something not itself. It has united with its Source. And like its Source Itself, it merely is. There is no need to further clarify what no one in the world can understand. We cannot speak nor write nor even think of this at all. It comes to every mind when total recognition that its will is God’s has been completely given and received completely. It returns the mind into the endless present, where the past and future cannot be conceived. It lies beyond salvation; past all thought of time, forgiveness and the holy face of Christ. The Son of God has merely disappeared into his Father, as his Father has in him. The world has never been at all. Eternity remains a constant state. (T-169.5,6) And now say together: I AM as GOD IS. AMEN (W-169.5:1-7,6:1-7)