9. Are Changes Required in the Life Situations of God’s Teachers?
1. Changes are required in the minds of God’s teachers. This may or may not involve changes in the external situation. Remember that no one is where he is by accident, and chance plays no part in God’s plan. It is most unlikely that changes in attitudes would not be the first step in the newly made teacher of God’s training. There is, however, no set pattern, since training is always highly individualized. There are those who are called upon to change their life situation almost immediately, but these are generally special cases. By far the majority are given a slowly evolving training program, in which as many previous mistakes as possible are corrected. Relationships in particular must be properly perceived, and all dark cornerstones of unforgiveness removed. Otherwise the old thought system still has a basis for return.
2. As the teacher of God advances in his training, he learns one lesson with increasing thoroughness. He does not make his own decisions; he asks his Teacher for his answer, and it is this he follows as his guide for action. This becomes easier and easier, as the teacher of God learns to give up his own judgment. The giving up of judgment, the obvious prerequisite for hearing God’s Voice, is usually a fairly slow process, not because it is difficult, but because it is apt to be perceived as personally insulting. The world’s training is directed toward achieving a goal in direct opposition to that of our curriculum. The world trains for reliance on one’s judgment as a criterion for maturity and strength. Our curriculum trains for the relinquishment of judgment as the necessary condition of salvation.[1]
As we come to our devotional practice today, let us consider our personal life situations and remind ourselves that where and when we awaken is no accident, it does not happen by chance, nor are we to be filled with regret that we did not awaken at an earlier or more salient time in our life! Our individual forays into the perceptual world teach us exactly what we need to learn; we come to learn these lessons and our awakening cannot take place until we have accomplished this. Do not engage then in any ego pursuits of playing the game of “what if?” in regard to your spiritual journey. Your spiritual journey began when you were born and has lasted through as many lifetimes as necessary to bring you to this point of ego surrender!
For the surrender of ego and its vain attempts to be the Judge of All that it beholds is the necessary condition of salvation! Surrender the ego’s arrogance and realize how ill-conceived and trite its sense of maturity and strength in its own estimation truly is, and that is all the change of mind you need to come to God. If you try to change yourself by removing yourself from the teachers you have been assigned; if you try to change any aspect of your outer life and lifestyle in your attempts to please God, you are turning back to your own ego judgments and the qualifications it makes up for you to come to God. Let Holy Spirit lead you. When it is time to quit your job, you will know. When it is time to stop trying to find God in texts and doctrines where there is conflict, judgment, condemnation, and lack of true forgiveness – you will know. When it is time for you to go or stay within any relationship, circumstance, or event – you will know. Each time you learn to listen and to recognize the Voice for God within, you will learn the trust necessary to become an established teacher of God. Each time you make a mistake, you will also learn to trust, for it will be made unmistakably apparent to you that it was the whim of ego. You will learn to recognize the difference when you want to recognize the difference.
Our awakening takes place as we learn to listen less and less to the whims and wiles of the ego and more to the quiet, calm, certain Voice for God within us. This is mostly an inward experience while the circumstances in our outer lives follow. Not relying on our own egos and judgments is the most important thing we can learn – and while it is not personally insulting, it seems to be – especially before we learn how mean, small-minded, and egotistical our own judgments actually are!
In your devotional meditations ask Holy Spirit to show you the difference between your own judgments and His judgment. I was happily surprised to find that His judgment for me and for everybody else is one of love, worthiness, and eternal goodwill. This is the judgment I have come to know, appreciate, and love and this is the only judgment I want to share. When I share any other judgment, it makes me sick – in my mind, in my body, and in my relationships – instead of being of help, I need help; instead of bringing healing, I need healing. In either case, I learn to trust in God and the Final Judgment which is always one of mercy and grace.
[1] A Course in Miracles. Manual for Teachers. 9. Are changes required in the life situations of God’s teachers? Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992).
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