Principle 13: Miracles are both beginnings and endings, and so they alter the temporal order. They are always affirmations of rebirth, which seem to go back but really go forward. They undo the past in the present, and thus release the future. (T-1.I.13)

COURSE REFERENCES

The circle of creation has no end. Its starting and its ending are the same. But in itself it holds the universe of all creation, without beginning and without an end. The extension of creation cannot be blocked, the ego cannot touch it, and it has no voids. It continues forever; however, much of it is denied. Your denial of its reality may arrest it in time, but not in eternity. (T-11.I.3:5-7) It continues on, with or without your acknowledgement or acceptance.

Waiting is possible only in time, but time has no meaning, as it was not created and therefore it is not part of the creation. You who made delay can leave time behind; simply recognize that neither beginnings nor endings were created by the Eternal, Who placed no limits on His creation or upon those who create like Him. You do not know this simply because you have tried to limit what He created, and so you believe that all creation is limited. It is not; it extends without limit eternally. Your efforts did not affect timelessness at all. (T-11.I.4:1-3)

The ego arose from the separation, and its continued existence depends on your continuing belief in the separation. The ego must offer you some sort of reward for maintaining this belief. All it can offer is a sense of temporary existence, which begins with its own beginning and ends with its own ending. Yet stacked up against this sense of temporary existence, Spirit offers you the knowledge of permanence and unshakable being . . . the glorious gift of God. (T-4.III.3:2-4,6,8) As stated in paragraph one, there are no beginnings and no endings in God, Whose universe is Himself. (T-11.I.2:3)

Note: The miracle minimizes the need for time. It shortens time by collapsing it, thus eliminating certain intervals within it. It does this, however, within the larger temporal sequence. Temporal means “of or relating to time or earthly life.”

Evolution is a process in which you seem to proceed from one degree to the next. You correct your previous missteps by stepping forward. This process is actually incomprehensible in temporal or worldly terms, because you return as you go forward. The Atonement is the device by which you can free yourself from the past as you go ahead. It undoes your past errors, thus making it unnecessary for you to keep retracing your steps without advancing to your return. In this sense the Atonement saves time, but like the miracles it serves, does not abolish it. As long as there is need for Atonement, there is need for time. But the Atonement as a completed plan has a unique relationship to time. Until the Atonement is complete, its various phases will proceed in time, but the whole Atonement stands at the end of time. At that point the bridge of return has been built. (T-2.II.6:1-10)

Note: Atoning means undoing (as the undoing of error). (T-1.26:2)

You have a part to play in the Atonement, but the plan of the Atonement is beyond you. You do not understand how to overlook errors, or you would not make them . . . This sense of limitation is where all errors arise. The way to undo them, therefore, is not of you but for you. (T-9.IV.2:1-2,6-7)

Important: The Atonement is a lesson in sharing, which is given you because you have forgotten how to share. By reinterpreting the ability to attack into the ability to share (extend), the Holy Spirit translates what you have made into what God created. (T-9.IV.3:1,3)

The shadowy figures from the past are precisely what you must escape. They are not real, and they have no hold over you unless you bring them with you. They carry the spots of pain in your mind, directing you to attack in the present in retaliation for a past life that is no more. And this decision is one of future pain quite like the past. Unless you learn that past pain is an illusion, you are choosing a future of illusions and pain, and are losing the many opportunities you could find for release and joy in the present. (T-13.IV.6:1-5)

The ego would preserve your nightmares and prevent you from awakening and understanding they are past. Would you recognize a holy encounter if you are merely perceiving it as a meeting with your own past? For you would be meeting no one; the past would be obliterating the present. Thus, the sharing of salvation, which makes the encounter holy, would be excluded from your sight. The Holy Spirit teaches that you always meet yourself, and the encounter is holy because you are. Yet the ego teaches that you always encounter your past, and that because your dreams were not holy, the future cannot be holy either and therefore the present is without meaning. (T-13.IV.6:6-10)

It can appear difficult to let the pain of the past go, especially with the person standing in front of you whom you perceive caused that pain. Yet if you do not let it go, you will miss the joy of the present, and will also miss the truth of the present and the truth of who you and your brother are! If holding onto the pain of the past would be helpful in the present, then there would be a purpose for holding onto it. But it serves no purpose but that of the ego, to keep you in the past in the dark, and away from the light of now. And then neither you nor your brother can move past the darkness that surreptitiously came between you and your relationship with God. Is there really any benefit in that? The best and highest course of action is to rise out of the darkness into the light and to take your brother with you.

To be born again is to let the past go and look without condemnation upon the present. The cloud that obscures God’s Son to you is the past and you must not see it now. If you still see it in your illusions, it has not yet gone from you, although it is not even there. (T-13.VI.3:5-7) The miracle enables you to see your brother without his past, and so perceive him as born again. His errors are all past, and by perceiving him without them you are releasing him. And since his past is also yours, you share in this release. Truth lies only in the present. Remember, your past was made in anger, and if you use it to attack the present, you will not see the freedom that the present holds. (T-13.5:1-4,7) Remember, too, that what a brother once did in the dark, is not who he is in the light. Look past the dark to the light with His ever-present Help.

Arrogance is the denial of love, because love shares and arrogance withholds. As long as both appear to you to be desirable, the concept of choice, which is not of God, will remain with you. While choice is not true in eternity, it does appear true in time, so that while time lasts in your mind there will be choices to make. Time itself is your choice! If you would remember eternity, you must look only on the eternal. If you allow yourself to become preoccupied with the temporal, you are living in time. As always, your choice is determined by what you value. Time and eternity cannot both be real, because they contradict each other. If you will begin to accept only what is timeless as real, you will begin to understand eternity and make it yours. (T-10.V.14:1-9)

Note: The Father keeps what He created safe. What is immortal cannot be attacked. What is temporal has no real effect. (T-24.VII.5:1,4)

God holds your future as He holds your past and present. They are one and the same to Him, and so they should be the same to you. Yet in this world, the temporal progression still seems real. And so you are not asked to understand the lack of sequence really found in time. You are but asked to let the future go and place it in God’s Hands. And you will see by your experience that you have laid the past and present in His Hands as well, because the past will punish you no more, and future dread will now be meaningless. (W-194.4:1-6)

Suggestion: Take one situation and truly place it in God’s Hands and see what happens. And remember, there is no delay with God, so do not superimpose the time delays of the world upon your situation. Give it ALL to Him. Ask the Holy Spirit to assist you in giving it ALL.

Release the future, for the past is gone. And what is present is then freed from its bequest of grief and misery, of pain and loss, and becomes the instant in which time escapes the bondage of illusions where it runs its pitiless, inevitable course. Upon release, each instant which was made slave to time is transformed into a holy instant, when the light that was kept hidden in God’s Son is freed to bless the world. God’s Son is free, and all his glory shines upon a world made free with him, to share in his holiness. (W-194.5:1-4)

The Garden of Eden, or the pre-separation condition, was a state of mind in which nothing was needed. When Adam listened to the “lies of the serpent,” all he heard was untruth. You do not have to continue to believe what is not true unless you choose to do so. All that can literally disappear in the twinkling of an eye because it is merely a misperception. (T-2.I.4)

What is seen in dreams seems to be very real. Yet the Bible says that a deep sleep fell upon Adam, and nowhere is there a reference to his waking up. The world has not yet experienced any comprehensive reawakening or rebirth. Such a rebirth is impossible as long as you continue to project or miscreate. It still remains within you, however, to extend as God extended His Spirit to you. In reality this is your only choice, because your free will was given you for your joy in creating the perfect. (T-2.I.3:5-10)

The mind can make the belief in separation very real and very fearful, and this belief is called “the devil.” Belief in the separation can have a very powerful, active, destructive influence upon your temporary life on this earth because it is in opposition to God; it literally denies His Fatherhood. Look at your life and see what “the devil” has made. Just realize that this is a lie. Your creation by God is the only foundation that cannot be shaken, because the light is in it! (T-3.VII.5:1-5)

Your starting point is truth, and you must return to your Beginning. Much has been seen since then, but nothing has really happened. Your Self is still in peace, even though your mind is in conflict. You have not yet gone back far enough, and that is why you still become so fearful. As you approach the Beginning, you may feel the destruction of your ego thought system upon you as if it would crush you, as if it were the fear of death. Breathing and talking may even become difficult. Yet there is no death, only a belief in death and that you can release as untrue. The branch that bears no fruit (ego) will be cut off and will wither away -- but you can be very glad! (T-3.VII.5:6-11,6:1-2)

The rest of you, the truth of you, will be restored with new life, new joy, new purpose and even a new home (Heaven) – A New You as GOD IS.

Prayer:

We thank you, Father, for Your guarantee of only happy outcomes in the end. Help us not interfere, and so delay the happy endings you have promised us for every trial we think we still must meet. Amen. (W-292.2:1-2)