I. At Home in God
- You do not know your creations simply because you would decide against them as long as your mind is split, and to attack what you have created is impossible. But remember that it is as impossible for God. The law of creation is that you love your creations as yourself because they are part of you. Everything that was created is therefore perfectly safe because the laws of God protect it by His love. Any part of your mind that does not know this has banished itself from knowledge, because it has not met its conditions. Who could have done this but you? Recognize this gladly, for in this recognition lies the realization that your banishment is not of God, and therefore does not exist.
- You are at home in God, dreaming of exile but perfectly capable of awakening to reality. Is it your decision to do so? You recognize from your own experience that what you see in dreams you think is real while you are asleep. Yet the instant you waken you realize that everything that seemed to happen in the dream did not happen at all. You do not think this strange, even though all the laws of what you awaken to were violated while you slept. Is it not possible that you merely shifted from one dream to another, without really waking?
- Would you bother to reconcile what happened in conflicting dreams, or would you dismiss both together if you discovered that reality is in accord with neither? You do not remember being awake. When you hear the Holy Spirit, you may feel better because loving then seems possible to you, but you do not remember yet that it once was so. And it is in this remembering that you will know it can be so again. What is possible has not yet been accomplished. Yet what has once been is so now if it is eternal. When you remember, you will know that what you remember is eternal, and therefore is now.
- You will remember everything the instant you desire it wholly, for if to desire wholly is to create, you will have willed away the separation, returning your mind simultaneously to your Creator and your creations. Knowing them you will have no wish to sleep, but only the desire to waken and be glad. Dreams will be impossible because you will want only truth, and being at last your will, it will be yours.[1]
Jesus assures us that we are at home in God. All that we experience here is like a dream. We all know what it is like to sleep and wake up from dreams and think, Oh, it was only a dream. We usually do not get too worked up about our dreams. There are times we do seem to find meaning in them, some are very pleasant, and others are not pleasant at all. But no matter what manner of dream we have, we shake it off and go about and soon our daily business makes us forget them. Jesus asks us to perceive this “reality” as a dream. The things that seem good about it and the things that are not good at all – it is only a dream of separation from God.
And this separation did not come about because God banished us from His Kingdom. There could not possibly be anything good about our dream if that was the case. No, we dream this dream because a part of our mind did not meet the conditions of knowledge.
The condition of knowledge is the same condition of the Kingdom for Knowledge and the Kingdom are the same. A part of our mind opposed God, choosing a realm of opposites rather than the laws of creation. A realm of opposites can only exist in a time-out from God’s Kingdom. A realm of opposites is a realm of that which cannot be God. It is a realm where there are fluctuations, where there is Spirit and flesh, where there is love and hate, where there is peace and war. In a realm of opposites, God is never solely a God of Love, but rather a God of love and fear. In a realm of opposites, mistakes are not forgiven and corrected but rather punished throughout eternity. In a realm of opposites, bloodshed and sacrifice are valued while safety, abundance, and rest are not. A realm that opposes God, that is built on uncertainty, that brings disease, destruction, and death to the Creation of God simply cannot exist!
When we come to the end of our desire to oppose God in every way, our minds will awaken fully to His Kingdom and this one will disappear for good. It will be awakening from a dream that seemed real enough while we were sleeping but will dissipate upon opening our minds to the truth of the matter. The truth makes us happy; the truth heals us; the truth makes everything right again.
There are no idols of sickness in God’s Kingdom. We will not want them, we will not need them, we will have no wish for them. Whatever it was that entranced our minds and lured them away from truth will never be able to tempt us again because all we will want is what we have and what we are in God.
[1] A Course in Miracles. Chapter 10 The idols of sickness. I. At home in God. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992).
For daily 2021 Workbook lessons visit www.i-choose-love.com courtesy of Linda R.
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