Principle 39: The miracle dissolves error because the Holy Spirit identifies error as false or unreal. This is the same as saying that by perceiving light, darkness automatically disappears. (T-1.I.39:1-2)

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You do not know the meaning of anything you perceive. Not one thought you hold is wholly true. The recognition of this is your firm beginning. You are not misguided; rather you have accepted no guide at all. (T-11.VIII.3:1-4)

The principle of Atonement and the separation began at the same time. When the ego was made, God placed in the mind the call to joy. This call is so strong that the ego always dissolves at its sound. That is why you must choose to hear one of two voices within you. One you made yourself; that one is not of God. The other is given you by God, Who asks you only to listen to it. (T-5.II.3:1-6) If someone is talking to you, and your mind is wandering and thinking about what you ate for breakfast the day before, or what you are going to do this afternoon, or even about the book you just read – how much understanding will you have of what is being said to you? You may either slough off what the person standing in front of you has just said, or you may say something like “I am sorry, what were you saying?” If that Voice is of the Holy Spirit whom you cannot see, will you even redirect your attention to Him, realizing your mind was preoccupied and you did not hear Him? It is not likely.

Yet the Holy Spirit is the perfect teacher. He uses only what your mind already understands to teach you that you do not understand it. The Holy Spirit can deal with a reluctant learner without going counter to his mind, because part of it is still for God. Despite the ego’s attempts to conceal this part, it is still much stronger than the ego, although the ego does not recognize it. The Holy Spirit recognizes it perfectly because it is His Own dwelling place; the place in the mind where He is at home. You are at home there, too, because it is a place of peace, and peace is of God. You who are part of God are not at home except in His peace. If peace is eternal, you are at home only in eternity. (T-5.III.10:1-7)

The first step toward freedom involves a sorting of the false from the true, the illusion from the reality. This is a process of separation in the constructive sense, and reflects the true meaning of the Apocalypse.* Everyone will ultimately look upon his own creations and choose to preserve only what is good, just as God Himself looked upon what He had created and knew that it was good (per the Bible). At this point, the mind can begin to look with love on its own creations because of their worthiness. At the same time, the mind will inevitably disown its miscreations which, without belief, will no longer exist. (T-2.VIII.4:1-5) Only the creations of light are real. Everything else is your own nightmare and does not exist. (T-1.I.24:4,3)

*Apocalypse - considered to be the final destruction of the world. In the Course, it is the mind disowning its miscreations.

The miracle compares what you have made with creation, accepting what is in accord with it as true, and rejecting what is out of accord as false. (T-1.50:1)

When Jesus said that the Holy Spirit’s function is to sort out the true from the false in your mind, he meant that He has the power to look into what you have hidden and recognize the Will of God there. His recognition of this Will can make it real to you because He is in your mind, and therefore He is your reality. If, then, His perception of your mind brings its reality to you, He is helping you to remember what you are. The only source of fear in this process is what you think you will lose. Yet only what the Holy Spirit sees can you possibly have. (T-9.I.4:2-6) Thus, you have nothing to lose!

All your difficulties stem from the fact that you do not recognize yourself, your brother or God. To recognize means to “know again,” implying that you knew before. You can see in many ways because perception involves interpretation (see MP37, page 2, paragraph 2), and this means that it is not whole or consistent. The miracle, being a way of perceiving, is not knowledge. It is the right answer to a question, but you do not question when you know. Questioning illusions is the first step in undoing them. The miracle, or the right answer corrects them. Since perceptions change, their dependence on time is obvious. How you perceive at any given time determines what you do, and actions must occur in time. Knowledge is timeless, because certainty is not questionable. You know when you have ceased to have or to ask questions. (T-3.III.2:1-11)

You may insist that the Holy Spirit does not answer you, but it might be wiser to consider the kind of questioner you are. You do not ask Holy Spirit only for what you want. This is because you are afraid you might receive it, and you would. That is why you persist instead in asking the teacher (ego) who could not possibly give you what you want. From ego you can never learn what it is, and this gives you the illusion of safety. Yet you cannot be safe from truth, but only in truth. Reality is the only safety. Your will is your salvation because it is the same as God’s. The separation is nothing more than the belief that it is different. (T-9.I.7:1-9) So here are some valid questions that you may ask yourself: “Do I want to know the truth about what I really want? Do I remember that the spirit only gives me happiness? Do I truly want to be happy (or do I prefer to be “right”)?” May I help you here? The ego (illusion) would prefer always to be “right.” Yet the truth of you (spirit in the state of grace forever) would prefer always that you be happy. God’s Will for you is perfect happiness, remember?

The choice to judge rather than to know (to be “right” instead of be happy) is the cause of the loss of peace. Judgment is the process on which perception -- but not knowledge -- rests. Jesus has discussed this before in terms of the selectivity of perception, pointing out that evaluation is its obvious prerequisite. Judgment always involves rejection. It never emphasizes only the positive aspects of what is judged, whether in you or in others. What has been perceived and rejected or judged and found wanting, remains in your mind because it has been perceived. (T-3.VI.2:1-6)

One of the illusions from which you suffer is the belief that what you judged against has no effect. This cannot be true unless you also believe that what you judged against does not exist. You evidently do not believe this or, as it is nothing, you would not have bothered to judge against it. In the end it does not matter whether your judgment is right or wrong. Either way you are placing your belief in the unreal. This cannot be avoided in any type of judgment, because it implies the belief that reality is yours to select from. (T-3.VI.2:7-11) Reality is created as one, by God, and is not open to selection. It is not in parts to choose from, but it is whole, complete and perfect. Recognizing this saves a lot of time in figuring, judging, analyzing and weighing “pros and cons.”

When you feel tired, it is because you have judged yourself as capable of being tired. When you laugh at someone, it is because you have judged him as unworthy. When you laugh at yourself you must laugh at others, if only because you cannot tolerate the idea of being more unworthy than they are. All this makes you feel tired because it is essentially disheartening. You are not really capable of being tired, but you are very capable of wearying yourself. The strain of constant judgment is virtually intolerable. It is curious that an ability so debilitating would be so deeply cherished. Yet if you wish to be the author of reality, you will insist on holding on to judgment. You will also regard judgment with fear, believing that it will someday be used against you. (T-3.VI.5:1-9) And without forgiveness, it will.

You may remember, when you feel the need arise to be defensive about anything, you have identified yourself with an illusion. (T-22.V.6:1)

The abundance of Christ is the natural result of choosing to follow Him. (T-1.V.6:1)

Only the different can attack. So you conclude because you can attack, you and your brother must be different. Yet the Holy Spirit explains this differently. Because you and your brother are not different, you cannot attack. (T-22.VI.13:1-4) Thus all attack is an illusion; it is a call for love!

You have no idea of the tremendous release and deep peace that comes from meeting yourself and your brothers totally without judgment. When you recognize what you are and what your brothers are, you will realize that judging them in any way is without meaning. In fact, their meaning is lost to you precisely because you are judging them. All uncertainty comes from the belief that you are under the coercion of judgment. You do not need judgment to organize your life, and you certainly do not need it to organize yourself. In the presence of knowledge all judgment is automatically suspended, and this is the process that enables recognition to replace perception. (T-3.VI.3:1-6)

You can do anything Jesus asks. He has asked you to perform miracles, and he has made it clear that miracles are natural, corrective, healing and universal. There is nothing they cannot do, but they cannot be performed in the spirit of doubt or fear. When you are afraid of anything, you are acknowledging its power to hurt you. Remember that where your heart is, there is your treasure also. You believe in what you value. If you are afraid, you are valuing wrongly. Your understanding will then inevitably value wrongly, and by endowing all thoughts with equal power will then inevitably destroy peace. That is why the Bible speaks of “the peace of God which passeth understanding.” This peace is totally incapable of being shaken by errors of any kind. It denies the ability of anything not of God to affect you. This is the proper use of denial. It is not used to hide anything, but to correct error. It brings all error into the light, and since error and darkness are the same, it corrects error automatically. (T-2.II.1:1-14)

Jesus has enjoined you to behave as he behaved, but you must respond to the same Mind as he does to do this. This Mind is the Holy Spirit, Whose Will is for God always. The Holy Spirit teaches you how to keep Jesus as the model for your thought, and to behave like Jesus as a result. The power of your joint motivation is beyond belief, but not beyond accomplishment. What you can accomplish together has no limits, because the Call for God is the call to the unlimited. Child of God, Jesus’ message is for you, to hear and to give away as you answer the Holy Spirit within. (T-5.II.12:1-6)     

Each little gift you offer to your brother lights up the world. Do not be concerned with darkness; look away from it and toward your brother. Let the darkness be dispelled by Him Who knows the light, and lays it gently in each quiet smile of faith and confidence with which you bless your brother. (T-22.9:9-11)

When you are tempted by the wrong voice, call on Jesus to remind you how to heal by sharing his decision and making it stronger. As you share this goal, you increase its power to attract the whole Sonship, and to bring it back into the oneness in which it was created. Remember that “yoke” means “join together,” and “burden” means “message.” Restate “My yoke is easy and my burden light” to be “Let us join together, for my message is Light.” (T-5.II.11:1-4) Light and Love are as GOD IS.

Prayer:

Father, we will to leave all judgment to the Holy Spirit, to live our lives in trust of Him, without the burden of having to decide and select and judge for ourselves. How simple and easy, Father. Thank you. Amen