Advertise on podcast: THE GIFTS OF GOD — Sondra Ray and Markus Ray on A Course in Miracles

What is underneath all of our fear? Fear of death? Fear of death puts us in a discombobulated state of mind. In this Podcast we learn how to invoke the Holy Spirit's help is translating the things we see that give us a sense of fear and death into something of peace, and safety in that peace. Usually a person's transition out of the body gives us a sense of "fear and death.” Relationships can go their own way. Relationships can "die." We are challenged to keep our heart "beating in the peace of God." Love and happiness are the ultimate results of turning our perception over to the Holy Spirit to translate what we "see" into God's Answer of Peace and Joy. There is no death. We give over to the Holy Spirit whatever we are seeing as an "obstacle to peace" so we are given a different Vision that sees no fear or death.

We are addicted to comparisons. We get stuck in the contrasts of "this" versus "that." The dichothomy of "good" versus "evil" preoccupies our mind, and the conflict between the two prevents us from maintaining our Inner Peace. The lesson #262 today asks us to put all comparisons aside. "See no differences," it says. This is particularly important when seeing people whom we have deemed undesireable and as "enermies." Can we let forgiveness rest upon all people? Then we would let go of the notion of "having enemies." I am in the flow of a mind that does not compare and exclude. It does not divide things and people into "these" and "those." We cease to project "guilt" onto ourselves and others. We see only the purity of Christ's Vision, the innocence of our true nature. We are all sinless in truth. We are the Holy Son of God Himself / Herself.

What is our Refuge? What gives us a sense of true security, safety, genuine trust? Is it the Body we think we inhabit? Can the body give us security? Can the body really know Love? The Lesson, #261, says, "God is my refuge and security." How do we connect with God, our Source? Love is a unification with ALL. Love is an Eternal Connection to Life that is All-Pervasive and in Eternity. How will we relate to that Infinite Nature? The relationship I have with the Eternal Life Force gives me my "refuge and security." Have we exchanged our pursuit of impermanent things with the certatinty we are seeking the Eternal? Can we seek our True Self, find it, and realize our heavenly state of being? This is our Refuge and Security.

The link to Truth is our awareness of our True Identity as the Christ. We have this awareness in us, but we have not been giving attention to it. Our True Identity is One with GOD and also One with all our brothers and sisters. We are Joined in the Christ. When I choose to spend my day in "perfect peace" I am choosing to end the separation in my mind and unite with the Mind of God and the Christ. We are all children of God, joing with God and each other, we can connect with the heavenly state of being within us. It is the Holy Spirit's function to help us see our true Self. Heaven is here now, and we can enter into it. Heaven is a state of mind within us that we can awaken into. The Sons and Daughters of God can be aware of perfect peace because it is our natural inheritance to claim.

We dedicate our life, and the solving of any problem in our life, to Truth. "Truth will coreect all erros in my mind." The correction of our errors in thoughts, words, deeds, and actions in our life is done through the Holy Spirit's undaunted trust in us and our Truth. Faith is needed for this kind of total healing. But the challenge is that the solution lives in the unknown regions of our mind, transcendent of the "thoughts of the brain." We have a Mind that is not affected or governend by the brain. It is not a limited entity, nor can it be held back in any way from full expression of of Truth whne we do not stand in the way of its revelation with our doubts, fears and limitation. We step outside of our limited self image. "Our Self is ruler of the Universe," Lesson #253 says. And we have simply acknowledeged that we are ready to be our True Self. And the infinite about of love and energy comes flowing us to us from On High. All of the time. The Voice for God is always speaking within us. Are we listening to it? Can we honestly say, “Let every voice but God’s be still in me?” This would be a breakthrough to hear only that!

There is an open-mindedness that has an unlimited nature that truly surrounds us with infinite possibilities. We can have peace and joy envelop us totally in all aspects of our life? We connect with the “glory” of the universal dimension in which we always inhabit. Can we jump “levels” and go into the glory of a heavenly state of being? We have Free Will to see whatever we choose to see. Are we looking toward the Unlimited Glory of our existence here in our earthly life? Are we with the “faith” that Truth will correct any errors in our minds that take us away from this glory? Even the “errors” we might not be aware we are making? The forgiveness of the Higher Self is complete and perfect. Everything meant to come into balance will be balanced by the Truth. Unknown to us in its Absolute sense, Truth has the capacity to smooth the road, straighten the crookedness, make gentle the curves, and make clear the path of our journey through this Life. So, let us not see ourselves as limited. We have all the Resources we need to create our Heaven on Earth, right now.

"Forgiveness end all suffering and loss.” First, do we see that we are suffering and maintaining a sense of loss? We may have cleared up a lot of this suffering in our life, and feel the natural abundance of the Universe that wants to give us more than we need. But what are the remnants of this sense of "lack" still lingering in our psyche, still affecting the fear in our everyday life, literally causing ourselves to suffer? Forgiveness undoes all of this "suffering and loss," the Lesson says. Do we trust that it can? And do we perceive forgiveness exactly as it is? Are we able to transcend the body-identification, which is the home of "suffering and loss," and rise into our Spiritual-Identification, in which there is no "suffering and loss"... none! This is the action of forgiveness necessary to end all forms of suffering. Are we willing to see things differently, and reconsider our very Self-Identity? This is what this Lesson asks us to do.

The only hell and misery we experience is brought to us through a decision. Hell comes to us through a decision to be unconscious in life, and allow the influx of thoughts and situations that give us misery and problems. There is hell or Heaven, and this is the one decision we have to make. "Heaven is the decision I must make.” This is a decision we make with our whole being. We are tempted to “stay in hell,” using our past as a reference point. Will we feed our past traumas or let them go down to dust? When we decide for Heaven, we are in danger no more, nowhere in the world. Markus describes his real life encounter with this Lesson #244: “I am in danger nowhere in the world.” It was a God-Sent Thought he needed to think in a potentially “dangerous” situation of meeting bears on the heights of Mount Wheeler in New Mexico. A Course in Miracles is here for us in our time of need. We are safe in its embrace. The Thoughts of God are offered to us. Will we not decide for Heaven as a result of them?

We cannot judge. Do we justify our anger in any situation that does not give us what we want? It is a temptation to feel "hurt" by another person's actions with which we do not agree. We could feel "thrown off," like somethings is "taken away" from us. Then we go into a judgment about the person or a situation. Today's Lesson #243 is "Today I will judge nothing that occurs.” Can we rise to this state of being in which we always see what is happening in front of us as "the perfect thing to happen." Everything that happens—a car crash, a diagnosis, a person leaving us, an incident that felt hurtful—are all happening for our greater good! We do not judge it but release ourselves from the attachment to our anger, which is "never justified." We stay in Peace. This is the important decision we must make. It is the quality of Heave, and it is our responsibility to be there, in that inner state of Reality that is ours to claim and practice.

We have made up a world from false perception. It eventually ends in death. It is a false world we made up. The Christ is here to help us escape from the mess we made through forgiveness. There is no other way. We can remove with the help of the Holy Spirit our "false perception" of the world. The true perception of the world can come in a Holy Instant... when we are willing to forgive everyone and everything, and give our Life to God to guide today. (Lesson #233). "Sorrows pass away and all pain is gone." This would be the Heavenly State of Being. Do we want to go there more that anything else? This is our Holy Instant and Heaven is awaiting us here in the now. Can we completely LET GO of our past... completely? This is the requirement for us to enter into this real world, not the one I made of my own false perceptions. We give our day to the Christ to lead me to a more perfect happiness.

What do we fear? Why do we fear? We have "meaningless thought" we are told early on in the Workbook of ACIM. This "meaningless thought" is showing us a "meaningless world," which engenders fear. Fear involves conflict between an illusion we are pursuing and an illusion of not achieving that pursuit. There is some perfect happiness that is here now for us to accept, and this requires no achievement on our part to have it. It is our inheritance now. There is no conflict in this Reality of Peace. There is no illusion in the Reality of God's Love. This is our true Identity—"Love, which created me, is what I am." Love has no fear or conflict. We are present in this awareness of our Divine Identity. Thought is stopped. We think with the Mind of God, which holds only Thoughts of Love. Can we do this? This is the miracle in action.

Have you ever spent your day immersed in the Glory of your Creator? What would your day look like being aware of your Glory? There is great Beauty and Silence in this Glory. Perfect happiness is held out for us to claim. "The glory of my Father is my own." Can we "own" this glory as already ours? How would we be changed? The Beauty of existence is everywhere, even in the seeming clutter that accumulates around us as the debris of our incomplete actions. We let in the Glory of God's perfect happiness surround us and envelop us in our day, in our comings and goings. Notice how you feel differently while focusing on your Glory. Let us embrace our own majesty. Let us acknowledge our Self as God created us. Let us have Faith that we can achieve perfect happiness and "enter the miracle zone" of God's Will for us—the Divine Mother's Grace surrounds us in our every thought, word, deed and action in this glorious state of Divine Awareness.

The world is a mighty big place. Right now in present time this represents 8.31 Billion People. Salvation of all those folks depends on me. What do we mean by "salvation?" The liberation from all negativity and suffering would be salvation. The release of "guilt" and the "embrace " of our innocence could be "salvation." This lesson says we are responsible for this—for the whole world of 8.31 billion people. What would this require on our part? Maybe we have evolved up the ladder of our own holiness, and we have risen up on the scale of our enlightenment. How do we see and treat people who have not evolved as high? They are evolving too. And can we release everyone from our judgments? People evolve at their own rate, and they have free will to be where they are. We are responsible NOT to judge anyone, but we are responsible to accept everyone where they are on the scale of enlightenment. We are liberated in our embrace of the wholeness of this world of "being" a human being. All 8.31 Billion of us.

I have a Mind. This is my "command center" of my life. I rule this Mind, having full dominion over it. I think the thoughts I choose, and fill my mind with these thoughts. And my Life is governed by these thoughts. They determine my words I use, the deeds I perform, and the actions I take. I rule this Mind of mine, and I can decide to connect it with the Mind of my Creator, or not. The Mind of my Creator would only lead me to more Love, Peace and Joy. If I am going in a direction other than that, running into problems, experiencing pain and suffering, then I am "ruling my mind" without the Higher Guidance of my Creator. I can restore my Mind to listening to the Holy Spirit, Who can lead me out of my problems into a Heavenly State of Being, free of all "problems." But I must make this conversion with my own free will. It is an action I take to allow my Mind to be guided by a Higher Force of Love.

There is a Life Force that is merciful and conducive to helping us solve every "problem" that comes across our path in life. This Life Force is benevolent to our needs, and gladly meets them. This could be a solution to any problem we are having. The Lesson says, "God in His/Her mercy, wills that I be saved [from this problem]." We do not need to now "how" to solve the problem. Our job is to invoke the Holy Spirit's help, and give that Life Force the faith that it can give the solution. Then we have to be willing to let go of our "needs" that made the problem up in the first place. We have to drop our own negative thoughts that are attached to the problem. We let go of our "case." We may need to look at our "fear, guilt, or anger" that made this problem up in the first place. We do an assessment of our negative thoughts and forgive them. We let go. We are open to a solution that is not of our own making. We accept the Mercy of God that saves us from all "problems." We can rejoice in this heavenly state that is being given us.