Principle 16: Miracles are teaching devices for demonstrating it is as blessed to give as to receive. They simultaneously increase the strength of the giver and supply strength to the receiver. (T-1.I.16)

COURSE REFERENCES

The Holy Spirit is your strength because He knows nothing but the spirit as you. He is perfectly aware that you do not know yourself, however, and is also perfectly aware of how to teach you to remember what you are -- that you are as perfect as is He. He will gladly teach you what He loves, even through miracles, for He wills to share what he loves. (T-12.VI.2:3)

The Holy Spirit is the motivation for miracles. (T-1.I.38.1) Seek and find His message in the holy instant, where all illusions are forgiven. From there the miracle extends to bless everyone and to resolve all problems, be they perceived as great or small, possible or impossible, near or far. (T-16.VII.11:1-2) There is no problem in time that He cannot resolve, and there are no problems in eternity. Would you like to have Him you as your Friend? YES!

You will never give the holy instant to the Holy Spirit on behalf of your release while you are unwilling to give it to your brothers on behalf of theirs. For the instant of holiness is shared by its very nature, and it cannot be yours alone. Miracles are the instants of release you offer and will receive. (T-15.I.12:1-2,4)

How long is an instant? It is as short for your brother as it is for you. Practice giving this blessed instant of forgiveness and freedom to all who are enslaved by time, and thus help make time their friend. As you give this blessed instant to your brother, the Holy Spirit simultaneously gives this blessed instant to you. Be willing to give to your brother what you would receive of the Holy Spirit, for you join with Him in giving and receiving. In the crystal cleanness of the release you give is your instantaneous escape from guilt. You see, you must be holy if you offer holiness. You can only offer what you have to give. (T-15.I.13:1-8)

The holy instant is the Holy Spirit’s most useful learning device for teaching you love’s meaning, for its purpose is to suspend judgment entirely. Judgment always rests on the past, and therefore the past is the basis on which you judge. Even if you appear to be judging a person on what you see and experience now, your past experiences are actually the basis upon which you form judgments even in the present. Judgment becomes impossible for you without the past, for without it you do not understand anything. Without the past you would make no attempt to judge, because it would be quite apparent to you that you do not understand what anything means. You would simply have to say: I do not know. Remember the example of the cup? (W-7.Paragraph 3) You are afraid of your lack of knowledge because you believe that without the help of the ego and its view of the world, all would be chaos. Yet you can definitely be assured that without the ego, all will be love. (T-15.V.1:1-7)

The past is the ego’s chief learning device, where you learned to define your own needs and acquired methods for meeting them on your own terms. Thus, you have separated out certain aspects of totality and looked to them to meet your imagined needs, thus attempting to use separation to save you. These aspects are only a very small part of the mislearning in which you have engaged. For some the learning is broader and for others it is narrower, but all are illusion because all was learned of the ego from the desire to determine your own destiny and to make your own choices without God. So how could guilt not have entered? Separation is the source of guilt, and to appeal to it for salvation is to believe you are alone and guilty, thus denying the Oneness of the Father and His Son, and thus attacking reality. (T-15.V.2:1-7)

God knows you now, without the past and the dreaming and the illusions. The holy instant reflects His knowing by bringing all perception out of the past, thus removing the frame of reference you have built by which to judge yourself and your brothers and the world. Once the past is gone, the Holy Spirit substitutes HIS frame of reference for the one you built. His reference is God. The Holy Spirit’s timelessness lies only here. For in the holy instant, free of the past, you see that love is in you, and you have no need to look without with fear and no need to snatch love guiltily from where you thought it was. It was not there! (T-15.V.11:1-7)

Give gladly, brothers. You can only gain thereby. The thought you give remains and grows in strength as it is reinforced by giving it. Thoughts extend as they are shared, and only Thoughts of God can be shared. They are not lost. They cannot be lost. (W-187.5:1-3)

Since you cannot not teach, your salvation lies in teaching the exact opposite of everything the ego believes. This is how you will learn the truth that will set you free and keep you free -- as others learn it of you. The only way to have peace is to teach peace. As you teach it, you learn it. Any idea you share, you must have. Therefore, teach only love to learn love is yours.

You cannot understand the conflict in the world until you fully understand the basic fact that the ego cannot know anything. It is always wrong. To listen to its distracting voice is a waste of huge magnitude. Though the Holy Spirit does not speak first, He always answers. Wait for It. Wait and then respond. Listen, hear, understand and follow. His answer is worth the wait. It will prevent you from spending great spans of time undoing the mistakes the ego talked you into. You are not here to waste time. You are here to move forward, being truly helpful as you go.

It has been said that you are truly safe, even in this world. The only safety lies in extending the Holy Spirit because as you see His gentleness in others, your own mind perceives itself as totally harmless. Once you see the gentleness in yourself and in your brothers, it will dawn upon you that the safety of God is keeping you both perfectly safe forever. Without anxiety the mind is wholly kind, and because it extends beneficence it is beneficent. Therefore, safety is the complete relinquishment of attack. No compromise is possible in this. (T-6.III.3:1-8)

Come therefore unto Jesus and learn of the truth in you. The mind you and he share is shared by all your brothers, and as you see them truly, they will be healed. (Example: Jesus, “healing of leprosy.”) Let your mind shine with Jesus’ mind upon your brothers’ minds. By your gratitude to them you make them aware of the light in them. This light will shine back upon you. You are your brother’s savior, as he is yours. Spend but an instant in the glad acceptance of what is given you to give your brother, and know it is given both of you.

Believe in your brothers because Jesus believes in you, and thus you will learn that his belief in you is justified. In your mind you can accept the whole Sonship and bless it with the light your Father gave it. Dwell in the temple with Him because it is your will not to be alone. God blessed His Son forever. If you will bless your brother in time, you will be in eternity. Time cannot separate you from God. so use time on behalf of the eternal. (T-11.III.8:1-5)

Come to the holy instant where there is no judgment -- and be healed. The holy instant's radiance will light your eyes and give them sight to see beyond all suffering and to see Christ's face instead. There is no miracle you cannot give, for all are given you. Receive them now by opening the storehouse of your mind where they are laid and give them away. Liberate all things you see, and give to them the freedom that you seek, obeying the law of love. What would you thus give and make your own?! Only the knowledge that GOD IS.