III: The Reality of the Kingdom
- The Holy Spirit teaches one lesson and applies it to all individuals in all situations. Being conflict-free, he maximizes all efforts and all results. By teaching the power of the Kingdom of God Himself, He teaches you that all power is yours. Its application does not matter. It is always maximal. Your vigilance does not establish it as yours, but it does enable you to use it always and in all ways. When I said I am with you always, I meant it literally. I am not absent to anyone in any situation. Because I am always with you, you are the way, the truth, and the life. You did not make this power, anymore than I did. It was created to be shared, and therefore cannot be meaningfully perceived as belonging to any one at the expense of another. Such a perception makes it meaningless by eliminating or overlooking its real and only meaning.
- God’s meaning waits in the Kingdom because that is where He placed it. It does not wait in time. It merely rests in the Kingdom because it belongs there, as you do. How can you who are God’s meaning perceive yourself as absent from it? You can see yourself as separated from your meaning only by experiencing yourself as unreal. This is why the ego is insane; it teaches you that you are not what you are. That is so contradictory it is clearly impossible. It is therefore a lesson you cannot really learn, and therefore cannot really teach. Yet you are always teaching. You must, therefore, be teaching something else, even though the ego does not know what it is. Ego, then, is always being undone, and does suspect your motives. Your mind cannot be unified in allegiance to the ego because the mind does not belong to it. Yet what is treacherous to the ego is faithful to peace. The ego’s enemy is therefore your friend.
- I said before that the ego’s friend is not part of you, because the ego perceives itself at war and therefore in need of allies. You who are not at war must look for brothers and recognize all whom you see as brothers, because only equals are at peace. Because God’s equal Sons have everything, they cannot compete. Yet if they perceive any of their brothers as anything other than their perfect equals, the idea of competition has entered their minds. Do not underestimate your need to be vigilant against this idea, because all your conflicts come from it. It is the belief that conflicting interests are possible, and therefore you have accepted the impossible as true. Is that different from saying you perceive yourself as unreal?
- To be in the Kingdom is merely to focus your full attention on it. As long as you believe you can attend to what is not true, you are accepting conflict as your choice. Is it really a choice? It seems to be but seeming and reality are hardly the same. You who are the Kingdom are not concerned with seeming. Reality is yours because you are reality. This is how having and being are ultimately reconciled, not in the Kingdom, but in your mind. The altar there is the only reality. The altar is perfectly clear in thought because it is a reflection of perfect thought. Your right mind sees only brothers because it sees only in its own light.
- God has lit your mind Himself and keeps your mind lit by His light because His light is what your mind is. This is totally beyond question, and when you question it you are answered. The answer merely undoes the question by establishing the fact that to question reality is to question meaninglessly. That is why the Holy Spirit never questions. His sole function is to undo the questionable and thus lead to certainty. The certain are perfectly calm because they are not in doubt. They do not raise questions, because nothing questionable enters their minds. This holds them in perfect serenity, because this is what they share, knowing what they are. [1]
The one lesson of the Holy Spirit is applied across the board to everybody at all times and in all situations. Holy Spirit does not allow the differences that we see between ourselves and others to interfere with the truth of the matter. Because He sees no difference between you and me, it does not matter if we are male or female, black or white, rich or poor, Jew, Muslim, or Christian. He simply teaches the reality of God’s Kingdom; the strength of God’s Kingdom belongs to you and belongs to me equally. How we want to use that strength has no bearing, it is always there and always at full capacity. Whether we are vigilant about it or not we all have the strength of God’s Kingdom. However, our vigilance about God and His Kingdom enables us to call upon it, to use it and apply it in all situations and for all purposes.
Jesus is with us always. Because of His constant presence within us, we are the way, the truth, the life along with Him. We did not and cannot make this happen for ourselves, nor did Christ. God created the power of the Kingdom to share – nobody can keep it only for themselves, not even Christ; nobody would want to keep it for themselves, if they properly understood the meaning of the Kingdom of God for its very meaning is always about unity, oneness, sharing, and equality for all.
God has no meaning in time; God’s meaning is in the Kingdom because that is where He is and where His meaning is made real, just as where we belong and where we are. When we perceive ourselves apart from God, we can have no meaning; we live lives that are filled with a lot of meaningless activities, drives, passions, and temporary accomplishments. The ego teaches us that we are not strong and powerful, but rather weak and vulnerable. Our brains which are ego’s replacement for the mind can easily get scrambled, making all kinds of havoc on our lives. Ego teaches us exactly opposite of what we are, making lessons that are so contradictory and full of suppositions and untruth, that we cannot really learn nor share with any surety what it teaches.
Jesus tells us that we are always teaching and what we teach undoes the ego. Even though the ego understands nothing, it does suspect our motives and is always suspicious and easily turned against us because we cannot be made one with the ego. None of us are capable of 100% loyalty to the ego for the ego itself is too contradictory, unstable, and scattered to command allegiance. Our minds were made by God and belong to God. Our minds were made for peace; to the ego peace is treacherous, for peace, which unifies the mind and the Sonship is the very undoing of the ego.
That which is friend to the ego can never be part of us, because the ego perceives itself at war while the mind is made for peace. The perceptions of the ego are looking for allies, not brothers. The mind of peace is looking for brothers, not allies. The mind of peace sees equals, for peace can only be in equality. The Sonship of God does not compete; they are equals and equally share all.
It is only when we see our brothers as having more or less that the idea of competition enters into the mind. Jesus tells us to never underestimate our need to be vigilant against the idea of comparisons, because all of our conflict comes from this idea that someone has more or less than we do, that someone is more special or less special, that someone has truth and the other has lies, that someone is better and the other is worse. We have fallen into the ego’s realm of perception and denied the oneness and unity of God’s Kingdom when we believe that conflicting interests are possible. God cannot love some and despise others, and neither can we. God cannot give one person more and another person less and love His Sons equally. If we believe that perceptual world is created of God, we believe in a God who made some people beautiful, healthy, and whole and others deformed, unattractive, and diseased. We will believe that He is a God that condoned slavery, human trafficking, wars, and sacrifice. We will believe that He has special people who are chosen and the elect and the rest He made to afflict with sorrows and death, hunger and poverty. We will believe in an impossible God and call this truth, which is no different than believing ourselves as full of conflicts, contradictions, and confusion.
Jesus tells us that all we have to do is focus our full attention on the Kingdom of God. This is the only way to be awake in the dream – for otherwise we will believe that conflict, contradiction, and opposites are a real choice. We will believe that the story that ends in death and decay is a real choice. But life and death are not the same; love and fear are not the same, blessing and curse are as different as peace and war! No matter how real the conflicts of the world and our traditional religions seem, reality is ours because we are reality. Having and being are reconciled in our minds, not in some faraway Kingdom in which we fly upon our physical death, but upon the altar in the center of our mind, which is the only real thing about us in this world. On this altar, we see only brothers, we see only equals, we see only oneness, wholeness, completeness. This is the altar which reflects the light of God’s perfect love. It is from this altar that we live and move and have our being as His Kingdom. This is the altar where healing of the nations takes place. This is the altar where salvation rests.
Our mind is God’s Light. Any questions about it have been answered. The truth has been established. This is why Holy Spirit never questions for His function is to undo that which is doubtful, that which is questionable, that which is uncertain and replace all ambiguity with the certainty of God’s Kingdom. In God’s Kingdom, we do not have to wonder where we got this trait from or that one. We are not at the mercy of hormones, testosterone, or our drives for money, power and control over others. We do not have to worship our ancestors, or make up stories about them, or try to find our meaning in the stories, myths, and fables of the past. We are Sons of God and the certainty of God’s Kingdom is ours. With certainty, we are calm. We do not ask questions because nothing questionable enters our minds. With certainty, we enjoy perfect serenity, and this is what we share because we know what we are, we know who we are, and we know where we belong. This is the reality of God’s Kingdom.
In our devotional practice, we ask Holy Spirit to teach us this one lesson. The power of God’s Kingdom is ours for you and I are the Kingdom of God. Our being is beyond perception, beyond questions, beyond all doubt and fear. As we accept our place in and as God’s Kingdom, use the power of God’s Kingdom to correct all of our misperceptions, heal all suffering and pain, and awaken all of our equal brothers to the light that shines forever upon the altar lit by God.
[1] A Course in Miracles. Chapter 7 Gifts of the kingdom III The reality of the kingdom. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992).
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