1. If the patient must change his mind in order to be healed, what does the teacher of God do? Can he change the patient’s mind for him? Certainly not. For those already willing to change their minds he has no function except to rejoice with them, for they have become teachers of God with him. He has, however, a more specific function for those who do not understand what healing is. These patients do not realize they have chosen sickness. On the contrary, they believe that sickness has chosen them. Nor are they open-minded on this point. The body tells them what to do and they obey. They have no idea how insane this concept is. If they even suspected it, they would be healed. Yet they suspect nothing. To them the separation is quite real.

2. To them God’s teachers come, to represent another choice which they had forgotten. The simple presence of a teacher of God is a reminder. His thoughts ask for the right to question what the patient has accepted as true. As God’s messengers, His teachers are the symbols of salvation. They ask the patient for forgiveness for God’s Son in his own Name. They stand for the Alternative. With God’s Word in their minds they come in benediction, not to heal the sick but to remind them of the remedy God has already given them (forgiveness). It is not their hands that heal. It is not their voice that speaks the Word of God. They merely give what has been given them. Very gently they call to their brothers to turn away from death: “Behold, you son of God, what Life can offer you. Would you choose sickness in place of this?”

3. Not once do the advanced teachers of God consider the forms of sickness in which their brother believes. To do this is to forget that all of them have the same purpose, and therefore are not really different. They seek for God’s Voice in this brother who would so deceive himself as to believe God’s Son can suffer. And they remind him that he did not make himself, and must remain as God created him. They recognize illusions can have no effect. The truth in their minds reaches out to the truth in the minds of their brothers, so that illusions are not reinforced. They are thus brought to truth; truth is not brought to them. So illusions of sickness are dispelled, not by the will of another, but by the union of the One Will with Itself. And this is the function of God’s teacher; to see no will as separate from their own, nor theirs as separate from God’s.

Notes:

What is the function of the teacher of God in the healing situation? First, he rejoices with those who have already made the choice for healing, thus amplifying the choice by joining with his brother. There is power in joining. It is called the “power of two” or more. We all appreciate being supported when we make an outstanding choice for growth in God.

Second, the teacher of God comes to those who have not yet chosen healing, to represent another choice which they had forgotten. Just the fact that he has “shown up” is a reminder of this alternate choice. It is important for the teacher of God to respond to his brother with patience, and with gentleness, and all the character traits of the teacher of God. If the teacher of God is not “in character,” then his brother, the potential teacher of God, may go the other way and choose to stay sick. So the balance between the two (teacher and brother) must stay honoring and kind, all the while not wavering from the truth. The teacher must not give in to the lie of sickness, nor attempt to force his brother to choose healing. Even if it is a very fine line, you must find it. Invite the Holy Spirit to help your brother heal, and Jesus will bring Him down to you both. Listening constantly to the Holy Spirit as He guides you in what to think, say and do, will be most important in helping your brother choose again, and this time to choose for healing.

MANUAL FOR TEACHERS

5. HOW IS HEALING ACCOMPLISHED?

III. THE FUNCTION OF THE TEACHER OF GOD

RECAP

1. A patient must change his mind in order to be healed. He must be willing to choose forgiveness.

2. For those already willing to change their minds, the teacher of God has no function except to rejoice with them, for they have become teachers of God with him.

3.The teacher of God has a more specific function for those who do not understand what healing is. To them God’s teachers represent another choice which they had forgotten. They are symbols of salvation to the patient. “They ask the patient for forgiveness for God’s Son in his own Name.” Because the illness is some form of unforgiveness – toward himself, his brother, Jesus, or toward God – unless the patient is willing to forgive, healing must wait. So the teacher of God reminds the patient of the remedy God has already given him: FORGIVENESS.

4. It is not the teacher of God’s hands that heal, nor is it his voice that speaks the Word of God. It is the patient’s own mind that chooses forgiveness that effects the healing in himself. The patient himself is the physician.

5. The teacher of God is a reminder to his brothers to turn away from death to Life. What unforgiveness could be worth holding onto sickness? What unforgiveness could be worth turning away from the face of Christ in your brother, of turning your back on God and His Love for all His Sons? Is there ANY unforgiveness, ANY offense, ANY condemnation worth being SICK?

“Behold, you Son of God, what Life can offer you.

Would you choose sickness in place of this?”

6. The form of the sickness is unimportant. All of them have the same purpose:

a. to separate the Son of God from his brothers and from God.

b. to so isolate the Son of God from Life, that endurance followed by death seems to be the only other possible choice for final relief from the sickness.

7. The teacher of God reminds his brother that he did not make himself, and must remain as God created him. So the “sickness,” in whatever form it takes, is not real. The sickness can be removed as quickly as the thought that made the sickness was chosen, simply by changing the sick thought to a healed thought. As the teacher of God reminds the patient of this, the patient responds by allowing the sick thought to be brought to truth and relinquishing it as not worthy to be in the mind of the Son of God. The sick thought is thus dispelled by the union of the One Will with Itself. The Son of God’s mind has returned home to Truth and to God. And the Son is healed.

So sickness, whatever form it takes, can be dispelled instantly, by exchanging an old, outdated, worn-out, past-its-time unforgiving thought – with a new thought of forgiveness and love and light.

8. “And this is the function of God’s teacher; to see no will as separate from their own, nor theirs as separate from God’s.