predencia

God has condemned me not. No more do I.

My father knows my holiness. Shall I deny His knowledge, and believe in what His knowledge makes impossible? Shall I accept as true what He proclaims as false? Or shall I take His Word for what I am, since He is my Creator, and the One Who knows the true condition of His Son?

Father, I was mistaken in myself, because I failed to realise the Source from which I came. I have not left that Source to enter in a body and to die. My holiness remains a part of me, as I am a part of me, as I am a part of You. And my mistakes about myself are dreams. I let them go today. And I stand ready to receive Your Word alone for what I really am.

I made my first sale of Betrayed today. YEA! Admittedly it was to a friend, but a friend who had read Dare to Love, liked it, and wanted to read something else of mine. That was such a huge compliment.

Anyway, back to the lesson. The last few days I’ve made time to look at the lesson several times, and found it extremely beneficial. It’s like having someone whisper in your ear ever so often, ‘You’re great, you’re brilliant, you’re exactly as God created you, perfect.’ It’s been much easier to let things wash over me, the proverbial water off a duck’s back.

I had a chat to a friend today about the difference between ‘money concerns’ and ‘money issues’. One can have money issues, but they don’t necessarily have to become concerns. I guess it’s the same for anything. You can have family, or children, or work or health issues, but whether they become concerns or worries are entirely up to you. Working toward a solution of any of these constitutes a responsible attitude, worrying about them do not.

This is my holy instant of release.

Father, it is today that I am free, because my will is Yours. I thought to make another will. Yet nothing that I thought apart from You exists. And I am free because I was mistaken, and did not affect my own reality at all by my illusions. Now I give them up, and lay them down before the feet of truth, to be removed forever from my mind. This is my holy instant of release. Father, I know my will is one with Yours.

And so today we find our glad return to Heaven, which we never really left. The son of God this day lays down his dreams. The Son of God this day comes home again, released from sin and clad in holiness, with his right mind restored to him at last.

My copies of Betrayed were delivered before I read the lesson this morning, so by the time I got over turning the copy I’d picked out over and over, opening it to check the print, and reading a few pages to check the sense of it, I was pleasantly pleased, and mightily relieved. It wasn’t till some time later that the excitement kicked in. This book is one step closer to my goal, and I’m equally excited about the shape the new one is taking. Last night I began bonding with the main characters, and talked to them on and off all day.

Please get a copy of Betrayed from the publishers

http://www.troubador.co.uk/book_info.asp?bookid=1897

(as Amazon won’t sell them till the official publication date in November) and let me know what you think.

I came back to the lesson twice in the day. Once because I must have been so excited the first time I couldn’t remember what I’d read, and a second time late in the afternoon when I needed reassurance that I am, in fact, carrying out God’s will. I had to explain to a friend that I see my main job as one of bringing people to God, i.e. helping them find peace. I judge the success of my day not by how much I’ve achieved physically, but by what impact I’ve had on people’s lives.

Today, I felt close to God

My home awaits me. I will hasten there.

If I so choose, I can depart this world entirely. It is not death which makes this possible, but it is change of mind about the purpose of the world. If I believe it has a value as I see it now, so will it still remain for me. But if I see no value in the world as I behold it, nothing that I want to keep as mine or search for as a goal, it will depart from me. For I have not sought for illusions to replace the truth.

Father, my home awaits my glad return. Your arms are open and I hear Your Voice, What need have I to linger in a place of vain desires and of shattered dreams, when Heaven can so easily be mine?

Today is one I’m going to file under ‘all time loving and peaceful day.’ It began with the lesson, and my acceptance that the world I see is the one I’m projecting. So I projected a happy day. The sun shone brightly and it was warm. I went to the park for a walk, and lost track of how many laps I’d done because I was talking to a friend, helping her to gain a different perspective on things she’s been projecting into her world. The trees were very generous with their energy and their oxygen, I wanted to thank each one with a hug, but settled with hugging just a couple. I’m sure the other felt the love.

The things I planned to do didn’t happen as I intended, but other things happened that took their place.

The copies of Betrayed I was eagerly expecting did not arrive, instead the delivery has been re-scheduled for tomorrow, (though I gather the publisher has now got their hard copies). I checked it on their website,

http://www.troubador.co.uk/book_info.asp?bookid=1897

and was very surprised and pleased to find that Betrayed is also available on i-phone, as well as an e-book on Amazon and other leading bookstores. (Did that sound like and advert?) I’ll be doing some promotion soon, book signings, radio interviews, press etc. 

I caught up on some jobs I’ve been putting off for a while, and spent time with friends and family. What more could I ask for to make it a perfect day? Some inspiration to move novel number three on – which came in abundance.

I AM SOOOO HAPPY. I AM HOME!!

God is my Father, and His Son loves Him.

Father, I must return Your Love for me, for getting and receiving are the same, and You have given all your love to me. I must return it, for I want it mine in full awareness, blazing in my mind and keeping it within its kindly light, inviolate, beloved, with fear behind and only peace ahead. How still the way Your loving Son is lead along to You.

Brother, I will find that stillness now. The way is open. Now we follow it in peace together. You have reached your hand to me, and I will never leave you. We are one, and it is but this oneness that we seek, as we accomplish these few final steps which end a journey that was not begun.

Oneness and stillness – the theme continues. After contemplating the first I was forced into the second by the rain that begun minutes before I was due to go out and tackle much in the outside world. Instead of going out, the work came to me, in the form of long phone conversations from people in need of spiritual exchange.

During a conversation with my friend I went out to the shed and saw a snail at eye level beside the bolt to the door. She’s very much into animal symbolism and suggested I looked up what snails symbolises, which I duly did. Snails = slow, steady progress, not overnight success, perseverance, self-sufficiency. Because they carry their homes on their back and can disappear within at any time, they also symbolise carrying our security in our hearts. Happiness is an inside job.

A few minutes after reading this, I had a phone call from the printers to tell me that Betrayed will be sent by courier today and will be with me tomorrow. It gave me a spurt to get on with writing the third novel. Yes, progress has been slow, but now it needs to be steady as well.

God is my Father, and He loves His Son.

My true identity is so secure, so lofty, sinless, glorious and great, wholly beneficent and free from guilt, that Heaven looks to It to give it light. It is the gift my Father gave to me; the one as well I give the world. There is no gift but this that can be either given or received. This is reality, only this. This is illusion’s end. It is the truth.

My name, O Father, is still known to You. I have forgotten it, and do not know where I am going, who I am, or what it is I do. Remind me, Father, now, for I am weary of the world I see. Reveal what You would have me see instead.

I’m watching the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympics after a day of stillness when I was able to reflect on the message of the lesson. My phone mysteriously could not receive or make voice calls but could receive and send text messages, a condition which was remedied as soon as I left the hotel. I took it as a sign that I was not meant to communicate in any vocal way with the outside world, to simply enjoy more weddings and the secnery.

During discussions with my friend as we sat in the sunshine (before the rain started) I realised that I’ve been carrying guilt for what I thought I was doing to a person. Although I had accepted on an intellectual level that I could not be responsible for his state of mental health and happiness, I hadn’t accepted it in my heart that this was true. Today a shift happened. I actually felt lighter as my heart accepted my guiltlessness and I knew I had freed him from the responsibility of my guilt. The illusion ended for both of us.

The Dhol drummers are in full swing in the closing ceremony, and everyone looks urophoric. The games are deemed a success. If we can work together for sport, why can’t we do that for life? Some of these people will go back to countries at war with each other. So strong is the illusion that we are separate, the belief in lack, that we have to fight for what we want and need, and that someone must lose in order for someone to win. Isn’t what these games actually reinforce –winners and losers. And yet in some of the team games it was the cooperation of the team members that lead to victory.

While we have world events like the Olympics that glorify competition, we are still a long way from encouraging belief in oneness and cooperation. And while I’m very happy for the Jamaican athletes who will be taking home 12 medals from these games, I would much prefer to see a Jamaica that lives in harmony with each other.

God is my life. I have no life but His.

I was mistaken when I thought I lived apart from God, a separate entity that move in isolation, unattached, and housed within a body. Now I know my life is God’s, I have no other home, and I do not exist apart from Him. He has no Thoughts that are not part of me, and I have none but those which are of Him.

Our Father, let us see the face of Christ instead of our mistakes. For we who are Your holy Son are sinless. We would look upon your sinlessness, for guilt proclaims that we are not Your Son. And we would not forget You longer. We re lonely here, and long for Heaven, where we are at home. Today we would return. Our name is Yours, and we acknowledge that we are Your Son.

It’s as though I was one step ahead of the lesson with yesterday’s observation that I have God with me at all times. I find watching the golfers at the Belfry very relaxing, very peaceful. And today, again, there is sun. And for some strange reason my phone has no reception, in a spot which yesterday had perfect reception. Taking it as a lesson that I’m not to be disturbed today. That it is really a time of stillness. I’ll be still today and party at the Belair tonight.

God is with me. I live in love with Him.

God is with me. He is my Source of life, the life within, the air I breathe, the food by which I am sustained, the water which renews and cleanses me. He is my home, wherein I live and move; the Spirit which directs my actions, offers me its thoughts, and guarantees my safety from all pain. He covers me with kindness and with care, and holds in love the Son He shines upon, who also shines on Him. How still is he who knows the truth of what He speaks today.

Father, we have no words except Your Name upon our lips and in our minds, as we come quietly into Your Presence now, and ask to rest with You in peace a while.

Isn’t it amazing how clothes can transform a person. I saw my youngest son dressed for a wedding today and was transfixed by the young man, who, out of baggy jeans and t-shirt took on a new persona.

It reminded me of the transformation that happens when we decide to walk with God instead of struggle on in our tattered and torn jeans and t-shirt.

Found a bit of time to relax at the Belfry today. I spent most of the afternoon watching a wedding, and soaking up some sun. Happy people full of expectation and love. I wish them well.

This is the beginning of part two of lessons, and marks a turning point in the structure of the lessons.

Words will mean little now. We use them but as guides on which we do not now depend. For now we seek direct experience of truth alone. The lessons that remain are merely introductions to the times in which we leave the world of pain, and go to enter peace. Now we begin to reach the goal this course has set, and find the end toward which our practicing was always geared.

Now is the need for practice almost done. For in this final section, we will come to understand that we need only call to God, and all temptations disappear. Instead of words, we need but feel His Love. Instead of prayers, we need but call His Name. Instead of judging, we need but be still and let all things be healed. We will accept the way God’s plan will end, as we receive the way it started. Now it is complete. This year has brought us to eternity.

What is forgiveness?

Forgiveness recognises what you thought your brother did to you has not occurred. It does not pardon sins and make them real. It sees there was no sin. And in that view are all your sins forgiven.

An unforgiving thought is one which makes a judgement that it will not raise to doubt, although it is not true. The mind is closed and will not be released. He who would not forgive must judge, for he must justify his failure to forgive. But he who would forgive himself must learn to welcome truth exactly as it is.

Lesson 221

Peace to my mind. Let all my thoughts be still.

Father I come to you today to seek the peace that You alone can give. I come in silence. In the quiet of my heart, the deep recesses of my mind, I wait and listen for Your Voice. My Father, speak to me today. I come to hear Your Voice in silence and in certainty and love, sure You will hear my call and answer me.

The shift to the second part of the book heralds a different approach. It feels as if I’m being asked to take responsibility for my learning. Like moving from school to university, where the teachers no longer instruct me on how much time I should spend on each task, or how I should structure my study time. There is a certain freedom in this, but with it comes the burden of responsibility. I’m responsible for working things out for myself.

The great similarity is that there are always lecturers to ask for advice. They are my equivalent of the Holy Spirit, my Higher Self, the one who know all the answers, have seem many like me come to this point and move beyond it. Today, when someone commented on my confidence and asked me what had changed over the last 10 years, I told him that I no longer think that I have to tread this road alone. I know I am not alone, that I have a powerful, all-knowing, all-loving force with me, whose only objective is to lead me to happiness.

And of course, it would not be ACIM without a reminder of the need for forgiveness. It really is a course in forgiveness.

So, stillness is the theme of today’s lesson, silence and stillness. I have been very busy recently, but going to take a break at the weekend, and make time for stillness.