1. This question really answers itself. Healing cannot be repeated. If the patient is healed, what remains to heal him from? And if the healing is certain, as we have already said it is, what is there to repeat? For a teacher of God to remain concerned about the result of healing is to limit the healing. It is now the teacher of God himself whose mind needs to be healed. And it is this he must facilitate. He is now the patient, and he must so regard himself. He has made a mistake and must be willing to change his mind about it. He lacked the trust that makes for giving truly and so he has not received the benefit of his gift.
2. Whenever a teacher of God has tried to be a channel for healing he has succeeded. Should he be tempted to doubt this, he should not repeat his previous effort. That was already maximal because the Holy Spirit so accepted it and so used it. Now the teacher of God has only one course to follow. He must use his reason to tell himself that he has given the problem to One Who cannot fail and must recognize that his own uncertainty is not love but fear, and therefore hate. His position has thus become untenable, for he is offering hate to one to whom he offered love. This is impossible. Having offered love, only love can be received.
3. It is in this that the teacher of God must trust. This is what is really meant by the statement that the one responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the Atonement for himself. The teacher of God is a miracle worker because he gives the gifts he has received. Yet he must first accept them. He need do no more, nor is there more than he could do. By accepting healing he can give it. If he doubts this, let him remember Who gave the gift and Who received it. Thus is his doubt corrected. He thought the gifts of God could be withdrawn. That was a mistake, but hardly one to stay with. And so the teacher of God can only recognize it for what it is and let it be corrected for him.
4. One of the most difficult temptations to recognize is that to doubt a healing because of the appearance of continuing symptoms is a mistake in the form of lack of trust. As such it is an attack. Usually it seems to be just the opposite. It does appear unreasonable at first to be told that continued concern is attack. It has all the appearances of love. Yet love without trust is impossible and doubt and trust cannot coexist. And hate must be the opposite of love, regardless of the form it takes. Doubt not the gift and it is impossible to doubt its result. This is the certainty that gives God’s teachers the power to be miracle workers, for they have put their trust in Him.
5. The real basis for doubt about the outcome of any problem that has been given to God’s Teacher for resolution is always self-doubt. And that necessarily implies that trust has been placed in an illusory self, for only such a self can be doubted. This illusion can take many forms. Perhaps there is a fear of weakness and vulnerability. Perhaps there is a fear of failure and shame associated with a sense of inadequacy. Perhaps there is a guilty embarrassment stemming from false humility. The form of the mistake is not important. What is important is only the recognition of a mistake as a mistake.
6. The mistake is always some form of concern with the self to the exclusion of the patient. It is a failure to recognize him as part of the Self, and thus represents a confusion in identity. Conflict about what you are has entered your mind and you have become deceived about yourself. And you are deceived about yourself because you have denied the Source of your creation. If you are offering only healing, you cannot doubt. If you really want the problem solved, you cannot doubt. If you are certain what the problem is, you cannot doubt. Doubt is the result of conflicting wishes. Be sure of what you want, and doubt becomes impossible.[1]
When we offer God’s help and healing to anyone in any situation or circumstance, we must believe that just as God helps and heals us, He helps and heals others. There is never any reason to continue to plead with God to heal someone or in a particular situation. We can trust in God to hear our prayer the first time we pray it for we belong to Him, and He does not put us on hold or deny our calls to Him.
When problems arise in our lives, when our loved ones get sick and die, when our bodies age and we can no longer do the things that we did when we were young – we turn to God to help us. We trust in His love and care for us; we do not grovel before Him as if we are unworthy beggars – we come to Him as Sons asking for help and we trust in His Love to help us. God withholds no good thing from us.
When we begin to doubt God’s love and mercy, we are not offering ourselves or anybody else God’s gift of love and mercy; we are offering them hate. This was a difficult concept for me to understand at first. For those of you who have been studying the Course with me from the start, you may remember how I mentioned what it was like growing up with a faith healer mother. She did not take me to a doctor, she prayed for me. And I either got better immediately or I got better eventually – but in either case she refused to “turn to man” for help. I was raised with no medicine, no doctor’s appointments, and only the vaccinations and medical exams required by law for school and travel. Many times when I did not feel well, I just kept quiet about it because I would otherwise be pummeled by her over-boisterous laying on of hands and commanding the foul spirits of whatever was troubling me to desist! In spite of her good intentions, her antics were particularly hard to bear and felt hateful, for if I did not get better as soon as she prayed for me, I was accused of entertaining foul spirits, evil thoughts, or engaging in secret sin. This form of faith healing is a practice limited by lack of understanding, egoism, and it breeds hypocrisy – many times I feigned getting better to avoid the accusations and insinuations, which only encouraged the wrongdoing.
When we practice miracles, there is no accusing anybody of anything. We are not to be concerned at all about how and when God answers our prayers for God is only responding to the Voice for God within us – we are, as His Son, simply inviting God into an otherwise hopeless and helpless seeming situation. If we choose to hold a hand or place hands upon a patient’s shoulder or head it will be with the gentleness called forth by Holy Spirit, and always with consent!
We are never to bring doubt into any request we make from God for we pray for God’s Will, not the will of flesh. We happily keep our own demands, judgments, qualifications, and other impediments out of it. We know that God is not the author of pain, sickness, mental illness, cruelty, or violence of any kind. We know that God does not punish us by making us sick, causing bad things to happen to us, or denying us happiness and goodwill. To doubt God’s good Will is not to know God, and when we do not know God’s Will, we will not know goodness, we will not know how to be truly loving, gentle, or kind. Doubt is the result of these conflicting ideas that we may have about God and the conflicting wishes that we have toward others.
In your personal devotions today, read over this passage and let it rest in your mind and heart. Bring all your worries, fears, and failures to God and let Holy Spirit sort them out. This is the most loving thing we can do because when we try to sort them out ourselves, they only loom larger in our minds, dragging us down. This is how to develop trust in God and in the Voice for God within you. As your mind is changed, you gladly accept the Christ within, for the Christ within is your real and eternal Self, the You which does, in confidence and certainty, offer healing, help, and forgiveness for others. What you offer, they receive. It is finished. You can have no doubt in this because this is a certain thing. Do not beg and plead and grovel before God but rest assured that God heard you the first time. Relax and trust in the only One that can solve your problems, heal your ailments, and help and heal others. When doubts arise, remind yourself Who God is and who you are in the Sonship. Our certainty in God makes doubts and other fears disappear and our trust is deepened each time we practice faith in God and His Love for His Son.
[1] A Course in Miracles. Manual for Teachers. 7. Should healing be repeated? 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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