Author: gongarola@gmail.com

I Am Among the Ministers of God.

1. Let us be neither arrogant nor falsely humble today.

²We have moved beyond such foolishness.

³We cannot judge ourselves, nor is there any need to do so. ^I

⁴These are merely attempts to delay the decision and commitment to our function.

⁵It is not our place to judge our own worth.

⁶Nor can we know what role is best for us to play, or what we are capable of in a plan far beyond our understanding.

⁷Our part was created in Heaven, not in hell.

⁸And what we think is weakness may be strength, and what we see as strength is often arrogance.

2. Whatever role has been assigned to you was chosen by the Voice that speaks for God, whose function is also to speak for you.

²He sees your strengths exactly as they are, and knows as well where, when, how, and to whom they can best be applied.

³The Holy Spirit chooses and accepts your role on your behalf.

⁴He does not act without your consent.

⁵But He is not deceived about what you are, and listens only to His Own Voice in you.

3. It is through His ability to hear but one Voice—His own—that you at last become aware there is a Voice in you.

²And this single Voice assigns your function, tells you what it is, and gives you the strength to understand it, carry it out, and succeed in everything related to it.

³God joins His Son in this, and thus His Son becomes His messenger, proclaiming his unity with Him.

4. This joining of Father and Son through the Holy Spirit is what distinguishes salvation from the world.

²This Voice speaks of laws the world does not know.

³It is the Voice that promises release from every sin and the end of guilt in a mind God created sinless.

⁴Now this mind becomes aware again of Who created it, and of the everlasting union of its Creator with itself.

⁵Thus its Self becomes the only Reality where its will is joined with God’s.

5. A messenger does not choose the messages he brings.

²Nor does he question the right of him who gives the message, or ask why he has chosen those who are to receive it.

³It is enough that he accepts it, brings it to the ones for whom it is intended, and fulfills his role in its delivery.

⁴If he insists on determining what the messages should be, what their purpose is, or where they should be delivered, he is no longer acting as the bearer of the Word.

6. There is a crucial difference in the role of the messengers of Heaven that sets them apart from those the world appoints.

²The messages they bring are meant first for themselves.

³And only if they accept them for themselves are they able to bring them further, and deliver them to all those for whom they are intended.

⁴Like worldly messengers, they did not write the messages they carry. But without question, they are the first to receive them, for they accept them in order to prepare themselves to give them.

7. A worldly messenger fulfills his role by delivering all the messages.

²God’s messengers fulfill theirs by accepting His messages as meant for themselves, and showing they understand them by giving them away.

³They do not choose any role that has not been assigned by His authority.

⁴And so they, too, benefit with every message they deliver.

8. Do you want to receive the messages of God?

²For that is how you become His messenger.

³You have already been appointed.

⁴But you delay in giving the messages you have received, and so you do not know that you have them, or recognize them.

⁵No one can receive or know he has received something until he gives it.

⁶For only in giving can he prove to himself that he has accepted what was given him.

9. You, who are now God’s messenger, receive His messages, for that is part of the role that has been given you.

²God has already given you what you need, and you have accepted it.

³But you still must fulfill the other part of your task.

⁴He who has received the messages of God for you desires that you receive them fully now as well.

⁵For in this way you identify with Him and recognize as yours the gifts He gives.

10. This union is what we seek to recognize today.

²We will not try to keep our minds apart from Him Who speaks for us, for it is our very own Voice we hear when we listen to Him.

³Only He can speak to us and speak for us, joining in one Voice the giving and receiving of God’s Word; the giving and receiving of His Will.

11. Today we practice giving Him what He would have, so that we may recognize the gifts He has given us.

²He needs our voice, that He may speak through us.

³He needs our hands to bring His messages to those He points out.

⁴He needs our feet to lead us where He wills, so that those who wait in misery may at last be released.

⁵And He needs our will, united with His Own, that we may truly receive the gifts He gives.

12. Let us learn but this today:

²We do not recognize what we have received until we give it.

³You have heard this in a hundred ways, a hundred times, yet you still do not believe it. ^II

⁴But know this: until you do, you will receive a thousand and then ten thousand miracles, yet you will not know that God Himself has left no gift but that He gave it to His Son, nor has denied the slightest blessing to His one beloved Son.

⁵What meaning would this hold for you, unless you identified with him and with all that is his?

13. Our lesson for today is stated thus:

²I am among the ministers of God.

³And I am thankful that I have the means by which to recognize that I am free.

14. The world recedes as our minds are lit with this truth, and we acknowledge that these holy words are true.

²They are the message our Creator sends today.

³Now we will demonstrate how His Word has changed our minds about ourselves, and about our function.

⁴For by refusing to accept any will we do not share, the countless gifts of our Creator become visible before our eyes, flow forth from our hands, and we clearly recognize all that we have received.

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^I Probably the most difficult thing for every student of thisCourse to accept and embrace in its teaching is the relinquishment of their own judgment for evaluating anything that crosses their mind. It is normal for this to arouse great apprehension and resistance. And this is because it completely contradicts what the world constantly urges you to do: to take control of your life and be responsible for your own decisions.

It may seem as though this Course intends to restrict your freedom, impose upon you a will not your own, and turn you into a mindless zombie in the service of an entity you do not know, which offers you illusory rewards for your servitude. You may think that this Course is brainwashing you.

In a sense, you are not far from the truth. This Course is indeed attempting to wash your brain. But as for turning you into a zombie—no; that is impossible. You already are a zombie.

Perhaps you think that now you are free, that you make your decisions with complete independence, and that you do whatever you please. Nothing could be further from the truth. What actually happens is that you have no idea what you are, you do not know what the mind is, and you are totally unaware of how it functions. In fact, you usually refer to it as “my mind,” as if it were some sort of instrument at your service for your own purposes, which you control at will.

How confused you are!

You do not have a mind. You are your mind!

There is no one and nothing that controls your mind, for the simple reason that there is nothing apart from your mind. Your mind is all there is. Notice how absurd it is to think that you control your mind, for that would imply that this “you” is another mind controlling your mind—which is utter nonsense.

Think instead in these terms: your one mind—which is the only thing that exists and which is what you are—can function well or can function poorly. It can believe it is alone and separate from everything, within a fragile and mortal body, and in a dangerous world in which it must struggle to survive… for a while. Or it can believe that this is a bad dream from which it must awaken to its glorious condition.

These are the only two alternatives you can believe in. And the very fact that you believe you have alternatives shows clearly that you are still dreaming, for when you cease to dream you will have the certainty of true knowledge, in which one cannot believe in alternatives, for it is a state of perfect certainty. The condition of that state you cannot even imagine, precisely because you are dreaming; if you could see it, you would already be awake.

In your current dream state, your only freedom is to decide which dream you choose: the dream of the world or the dream of the Atonement. It does not matter which you choose—you will still be dreaming. But your dreams will, indeed, be very different. Understand that both dreams are automatic, in the sense that they unfold on their own without your intervention. You are not at all responsible for what happens in either of them, for once you choose one, it unfolds according to its own dynamic. Yet what you can and must do is firmly choose between the two. You already know where the ego’s dream leads.

The dream of the Atonement is still unknown to you, but have faith in Jesus, believe his words, and trust: it will not be long before you are convinced that he speaks the truth. To waver between these two alternatives will weaken you, plunge you into uncertainty, and cause you to waste your precious time.

Today’s lesson urges you, as they all do, to choose well. But since you have already come a certain distance, you are now invited to take on decisively the role of messenger of the Word you already know. It is yours now. You are being asked to communicate it, to reinforce it in your mind so that you may make your own the infinite gifts it contains. You are strongly reminded that you will enjoy them only when you give them wholeheartedly to others. Then you will see that you already have them.

That does not mean you should take to the streets with the blue book in your hand. No. The Voice of your Teacher will tell you precisely what to do, through the people and circumstances placed before you so that you may express your truth to them. And the only testimony you can offer is that of your gentleness and your certainty of being happy and safe in your Father’s arms.

^II The idea that giving and receiving are the same is one of theCourse’s most frequently repeated themes. For example, in theWorkbook for Students we find the following references to this principle in the group of lessons preceding the Fourth Review:

W-121.9:1: “A mind that cannot forgive cannot believe that giving and receiving are the same.”

W-122.6:4: “As you give, so shall you receive.”

W-126: “All that I give is given to myself.” This idea is crucial for achieving the reversal of thinking that this Course proposes.

W-126.7:5: “And true forgiveness… must heal the mind that gives, for giving and receiving are the same.”

W-134.8:5: “For if a brother has received this gift from you, the door is open to you.”

In the  Text, too, there are countless references to the idea that giving and receiving are the same.

Here a greater truth is revealed: you are not here by chance. You are not lost. You have been chosen. And a holy function has been entrusted to you. That does not make you special, but it does make you responsible. All have been called, but only those who respond begin to awaken.

This world is not your home, but it is here that you must fulfill your mission. And that mission is to remember who you are, by teaching it. For teaching is nothing but remembering. And remembering is healing. But you will not heal alone; you will heal by giving. Each time you give a true thought, that thought is strengthened in you. Only what is not given is lost.

Today you are told that you are a minister of God. What does that mean? That you have accepted to carry the messages of Love—not because you fully understand them, but because you yourself need them. You give them because they are for you. And in giving them, you receive them. You do not have to convince anyone. You only have to be the clear channel through which the message is transmitted. And for that, you are asked but one thing: trust.

Trust what you do not understand. Trust the Voice that speaks for you. Trust that everything will be given to you when you need it. Your part is minimal: be willing. He will take care of the rest.

In My Defenselessness My Safety Lies.

1. You who feel threatened by this ever-changing world, by its turns of fortune and its bitter ironies, by fleeting relationships and by all the “gifts” it lends only to take back again, pay close attention to this lesson.

²The world provides no safety.

³It is rooted in attack, and all its “gifts,” which seem to offer you security, are but deceptions.

⁴The world attacks relentlessly, again and again.

⁵There can be no peace of mind where danger lies so close.

2. The world makes you inevitably defensive.

²For to feel threatened leads to anger, and anger makes attack seem justified and reasonable in the name of self-defense.

³But a defensive posture carries a double threat.

⁴For it bears witness to your weakness and sets up a system of defenses that cannot work.

⁵Thus, the weak are made even weaker—betrayed without, and even more betrayed within.

⁶The mind becomes confused, no longer knowing where to turn to escape what it imagines.

3. It is as if the mind were trapped within a circle surrounding it, chained to another inside, and still another further in, until all hope of escape or release is lost.

²The mind’s hours and days go by in endless cycles of attack and defense, defense and attack, which press upon it like heavy bands of reinforced steel that yield only to begin again.

³There seems to be no pause nor end to the tightening grip that binds the mind.

4. The cost of defenses is the greatest price the ego demands.

²Madness hides within defenses in a darkness so deep that the hope of sanity appears to be a vain and impossible dream.

³The sense of threat the world promotes is so intense, and of such frenzy and depth, that you cannot even imagine the devastation it has wrought within your mind.

⁴You are its slave.

⁵You do not know what you do because of the fear you have of it. ^I

⁶You do not understand how great a sacrifice it has demanded of you to feel its iron grip upon your heart.

5. You do not see how deeply your defensive posture has sabotaged the holy Peace of God.

²For you are looking upon the very Son of God as victim to the attacks of fantasies, dreams, and illusions he himself has made.

³Yet he sees himself defenseless against them and must defend himself with still more dreams and illusions of safety to comfort him.

6. Defenselessness is strength. ^II

²Your defenselessness bears witness that you have recognized the Christ in you. ^III

³You may recall the Text of this Course teaches that you always choose between the strength of Christ and your own weakness when you see yourself as separate from Him. ^IV

⁴Defenselessness can never be attacked, because it recognizes a strength so great that attack is folly, or a childish game a tired child might play when he has fallen asleep and forgotten what he wants.

7. A defensive posture is a sign of weakness.

²It proclaims you have denied the Christ and are afraid of God’s just wrath.

³What can now save you from your delusions of an angry god, whose terrifying image you believe you see in all the evils of the world?

⁴And how can you defend yourself except with illusions, when it is but illusions that you fight?

8. Today we will not play such childish games, for our true purpose is to save the world, and we will not trade the infinite joy our function brings for foolishness.

²We will not lose our happiness because a fragment of a senseless dream crosses our mind and we confuse the figures in it with the Son of God, and that fleeting dream with eternity.

9. Today we look beyond all dreams and recognize we need no defense because we have been created invulnerable, with no thoughts, desires, or dreams in which attack can find a foothold.

²Now we cannot fear, for we have left behind all fearful thoughts.

³And in defenselessness we stand protected, with the quiet assurance that we are safe, certain of salvation, and fully confident that we will fulfill the purpose we have chosen, as our ministry extends its holy blessing over the world.

10. Be still a moment and contemplate how holy is your purpose, how secure you rest, invulnerable in the light of your defenselessness.

²The ministers of God have chosen that truth dwell with them. ^V

³Who could be holier than they?

⁴Who could be more certain that his happiness is fully guaranteed?

⁵And who could feel more powerfully protected?

⁶What defenses could they need now, who are among God’s chosen?

⁷For that was His Will, and now it is theirs as well. ^VI

11. The function of God’s ministers is to help their brothers make the same choice they have made.

²God has chosen all, but few recognize that His Will is also theirs. ^VII

³And until you teach what you have learned, salvation waits, and darkness keeps the world in its grim imprisonment.

⁴Nor will you recognize the light that has already come to you, or know that your release is fully accomplished.

⁵For you will not see the light until you offer it to all your brothers.

⁶When they receive it from your hands, you will recognize that it is your own.

12. Think of salvation as a game that happy children play.

²It was designed by One Who loves His Sons and wants to take away their fearful toys and give them joyful games instead, games that teach them the game of fear is over.

³His game instructs in happiness because in it no one loses.

⁴All who play will win, and what they win is shared with everyone who played.

⁵The children gladly drop the game of fear when they perceive the benefits salvation brings.

13. You who have played at losing all hope, at being abandoned by your Father, and at believing He has left you alone and terrified in a fearful world, crazed by sin and guilt, rejoice now.

²That game is over.

³A time of quiet has now come, in which we lay aside the toys of guilt and put away forever the quaint and childish thoughts of sin from the pure and holy minds of Heaven’s children and the Son of God.

14. We pause but for a moment more to play our final happy game upon this earth.

²And then we go to take our rightful place where truth abides, and games are meaningless.

³And so the story ends.

⁴Let this day bring nearer the final chapter in the world’s long tale, that all may learn the tales they read of a terrifying destiny, of broken hopes, of pitiful defenses against a vengeance they cannot escape, are but their own deluded fantasies.

⁵The ministers of God have come to waken them from the dark dreams this story has evoked in their confused, bewildered memory of that distorted tale.

⁶At last, the Son of God can smile, realizing it was not true.

15. Today we practice in a form we will maintain for quite some time. ^VIII

²We begin each day by giving our attention to the thought for the day as long as possible.

³Five minutes is the least we give to prepare ourselves for a day in which salvation is our only goal.

⁴Ten would be better, and fifteen better still.

⁵As distractions cease to hold our interest, a half hour will seem too short a time to spend with God.

⁶And we will be grateful and filled with joy each evening that we gave Him more, rather than thinking we gave too little.

16. Our peace increases with each hourly remembrance of the Will we share with God.

²Sometimes only a minute, or even less, will be the most we can afford when the hour comes.

³At other times we may forget.

⁴And still other times the business of the world will close upon us, and we will be unable to withdraw our minds from worldly things to turn to God.

17. Yet whenever we can, we will remember our commitment as ministers of God

²And we will quietly sit and wait for Him and listen to His Voice, and hear what He would have us do the hour that follows, while we give thanks for all the gifts He gave us in the one before.

18. With time and practice, you will never cease to think of Him, and hear His loving Voice guide your footsteps on quiet paths where you will walk in true defenselessness, knowing Heaven goes with you.

²You will not let your mind depart from God even for an instant, though time is spent in offering salvation to the world.

³Do you believe He will not make this possible for you, who chose to carry out His plan for the salvation of the world and yours?

19. Our theme today is our defenselessness.

²We clothe ourselves in it as we prepare to face the day.

³We rise up strong in Christ, and let our weakness disappear as we remember that His Strength abides in us. ^IX

⁴Throughout the day we will remind ourselves that He remains beside us, and that His Strength upholds our weakness always.

⁵And we will call on it whenever we feel the temptation to defend ourselves is undermining our certainty of purpose.

⁶Then we will pause a moment and hear Him say: “I am here.”

20. Your practicing will now begin to take the fervor of Love, to help you turn your mind away from distraction.

²Do not be afraid or hesitant. ^X

³There is no doubt you will attain your final goal.

⁴The ministers of God can never fail, because the Love, the strength, and peace that shine from them to all their brothers come from Him.

⁵These are His Gifts to you.

⁶All He asks in return is your defenselessness.

⁷Just lay aside what never was real, so you may behold the Christ in you and see His sinlessness.

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^I Luke 23:34 “Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’”

^II There is no force more powerful in the universe than that which comes from peace, and every sense of weakness arises from fear. Cease to fear and you will be strong.

Do you know anyone stronger than Jesus, whose strength was omnipotent? Do you know anyone more peaceful than he? His life is the testimony that the words you are reading are true. His defenselessness changed the world and drew multitudes who multiplied over time, proclaiming his message: “The Kingdom of God is within you, and the Son of God is innocent.” It was a new idea in a world suffering from fear and guilt, breaking through the history of mankind’s dream. Would you not like to take part in that work? It is easy: believe in him, follow his teachings, and you will acquire his very attributes. He is your brother, he is like you, and then as now he does nothing but remind you of this. Jesus is the epitome of defenselessness, the living proof that meekness is but another word for strength.

Look at the world around you. Wherever you see many flags, you will know there is much fear. Wrapping yourself in a flag is to proclaim that you are afraid because you do not know who you are and desperately need someone to lend you a false identity. Then, without a doubt, you will have many enemies whom you feel threaten you and from whom you must defend yourself. Fear and hatred are two sides of the same coin that will lead you steadily toward disaster.

Breathe; you are not that. Your fears are imaginings you entertain in your mind, with which you frighten yourself and make your dream still deeper. That is not the way; that is not the path to your awakening. Defenselessness is.

Do not be afraid; trust. It has already been clearly explained to you who you truly are and what your condition is. You dream that you are in time, but you are in the Heart of God in eternity. Still, as long as you believe in your perception, believe also that what serves you best is not to build defenses that only strengthen your fears.

Perhaps now you find yourself too afraid to embrace this idea wholeheartedly. Do not worry. Begin with simple things. Start by letting go of your smaller fears, and little by little you will learn to release your greater ones as well. In the world you can hold only beliefs; therefore, you will have to rely on them to strengthen your faith.

Trust is built through achievements, which will make evident that your beliefs are aligned with truth. It is only a matter of willingness and honesty in your practice. Always tell yourself the truth. Look with clear eyes at your mind, your heart, and your behavior.

Do not deceive yourself. This will be enough to make you realize that, when you practice the teachings of this Course well, your life in this world improves. And do not be afraid to see that you often make mistakes and fall back. That does not matter in the least. It only causes you to lose time, but perhaps it will help you rise again and walk your path with greater determination.

^III You are very fortunate. Be aware of it. You have begun a journey hand in hand with the best teacher possible. Jesus walks beside you and asks that you not defend yourself. Listen to him, and you will find that not responding to the attacks you now perceive makes you stronger. Soon you will learn that, in truth, you are not being attacked; you are merely surrounded by frightened brothers who, in their terror, are desperately asking you for help in the only way they know. You are their only hope. Do not abandon them. When they see your strength, they will learn to relinquish their own fears and build theirs as well.

There is nothing a human being longs for more deeply than to know that he is accepted just as he is. Accept your brothers as they are, and have no doubt whatsoever that no one—absolutely no one—will be able to defend themselves against your acceptance and love. It is impossible to resist the irresistible power of feeling accepted and loved. All those whom you accept and love will follow you unconditionally. You will have a new student who will offer you the opportunity to learn for yourself all that you teach him.

The destiny that awaits you lies far beyond anything you can imagine. You need only your faith to set forth on the way. You are infinitely fortunate to be given the perfect key to escape the sinister labyrinth of the world, which ends in a fictitious death. Do not defend yourself, and turn often to inner silence to strengthen your resolve. You need do nothing more.

^IV T-31.IX.2:3: “You always choose between your weakness and the strength of Christ in you.”

2 Corinthians 12:9 “And he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will most gladly boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

^V The term “ministers of God” is used only in this lesson and the next, and there only in the idea for the day. The term “ministry” is also mentioned in Lessons 106, 151, and 157. This lesson emphasizes that the ministers of God have been entrusted with the mission of awakening their brothers, which they accomplish by extending to them “the love, the strength, and the peace” of God (20:4). The following lesson stresses that the ministers of God are the “messengers” of God, who first accept His messages for themselves, that they may then “give them everywhere they were intended to be given” (W-154.6:3).

^VI Psalm 105:6 “O offspring of Abraham His servant, children of Jacob, His chosen ones!”

Luke 18:7 “And will not God vindicate His chosen ones, who cry out to Him day and night?”

^VII Matthew 20:16 “So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few are chosen.”

T-3.VIII.18.2 “‘Many are called, but few are chosen.’ SHOULD be: ‘ALL are called, but few choose to listen.’”

^VIII We will practice in this way for forty-eight lessons, until the beginning of the Sixth Review at Lesson 201. This form includes one long session in the morning, considering the idea for the day, and each hour a brief moment in which we remember the idea, thank God for His gifts in the past hour, and ask His guidance for the next. At night, we again consider the idea for the day or simply rest in God.

^IX 1 John 3:24 “And he who keeps His commandment abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit which He has given us.”

Ephesians 6:10–11 “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” The Course gives its own turn to the image: instead of putting on armor, you are clothing yourself in defenselessness.

^X John 6:20 “But He said to them, ‘It is I; do not be afraid.’”

Matthew 14:27 “But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘Take heart; it is I; do not be afraid.’”

I Have the Power to Choose.

1. No one can suffer any loss unless it is by his own decision.

²No one can experience pain unless he chooses it.

³No one can grieve, feel fear, or think he is ill unless that is what he desires.

⁴And no one dies without his own consent.

⁵Everything that happens is a reflection of your wishes.^I

⁶And nothing you desire is denied to you.

⁷Behold your world, complete in every detail.

⁸This is the only reality it holds for you.

⁹And it is here alone that salvation lies.

2. You may believe this is a radical position, and that it reaches too far to be true.

²But can truth have exceptions?

³If all has been given you, can loss be real?

⁴How can pain be part of peace, or sorrow of joy?

⁵How can fear and sickness enter a mind where Love and perfect Holiness abide?

⁶Truth must include all things if it is true.

⁷Accept no opposites and no exceptions, for doing so is to contradict the truth entirely.

3. Salvation is the recognition that truth is true, and nothing else is true.

²You have heard this before, but you may not yet accept both parts. ^II

³Without the first, the second has no meaning.

⁴But without the second, the first is no longer true.

⁵Truth cannot have an opposite.

⁶This cannot be emphasized too often or remembered too frequently.

⁷For if what is not true were as real as what is, then part of truth would be false, and truth would lose all meaning.

⁸Nothing but truth is true, and what is false is false.

4. This is the simplest of distinctions, yet the most difficult to grasp.

²Not because it is hard to see.

³But because it is hidden beneath a vast array of choices that seem to be beyond your control.

⁴And so, truth appears to have some aspects that deny its consistency.

⁵But they are not what they seem to be: contradictions that you yourself have projected upon the truth.

5. Because God created you, you must be changeless forever.

²And transient states are false by definition.

³This includes your shifting feelings, changes in the conditions of your body or your mind, and every alteration in your awareness and behavior.

⁴This is the universal condition that distinguishes truth from illusion.

⁵And it is what separates the true from the false, so that the false may be clearly seen for what it is.

6. Does it not seem strange to you to believe it is arrogant to think that you made the world you see?

²God did not make it.

³Of this you can be sure.

⁴What could He know of the ephemeral, the sinful and guilty, the fearful, the suffering and the lonely, or of a mind that lives within a body doomed to die?

⁵To think that God created a world where such things seem real is to accuse Him of madness.

⁶God is not insane.

⁷But only madness could have made a world like this.

7. To believe that God made chaos—contrary to His Will—invented the opposite of truth, and allows death to triumph over life, is nothing but arrogance.

²Humility would at once perceive these things could not have come from Him.

³And how could you see what God did not create?

⁴To think you can is merely to believe you can perceive what God did not will to be.

⁵And what could be more arrogant than this?

8. Let us today be truly humble and accept what we have made as it is.

²We have the power to choose.

³Simply choose to accept your rightful place as co-creator of the universe, and all you think you made will disappear.

⁴Then all that always was will rise to your awareness, eternal in its present state.

⁵And reality will replace the illusions with which you tried to deceive yourself, as you sought to usurp the altar of the Father and the Son.

9. Today we practice true humility, laying aside the false pretense through which the ego tries to prove that humility is arrogance.

²Only the ego can be arrogant.

³But truth is humble in acknowledging its power, its changelessness, and its eternal wholeness that encompasses everything: the perfect Gift of God to His beloved Son.

⁴We set aside the arrogance that claims we are sinners, guilty and afraid, and ashamed of what we are. ^III

⁵And instead, we lift our hearts with true humility to Him Who created us immaculate, like Himself in power and in Love.

10. We have the power to choose.

²We accept from God what we are, and humbly recognize His Son.

³To recognize the Son of God is also to abandon all the concepts we have made about ourselves, and acknowledge them as false.

⁴We have seen they are arrogant.

⁵And with humility, we joyfully accept as ours the splendor of the Son of God, his gentleness, his perfect sinlessness, his Father’s Love, his right to Heaven, and his release from hell.

11. Now we join in the joyful recognition that lies are false and only truth is true.

²As we awaken to the day, we think only of the truth and devote five minutes to the practice of its path, comforting our fearful minds with this:

³I have the power to choose.

⁴Today I will accept myself as my Father’s Will created me.

⁵Then we wait in silence, setting aside all the ideas with which we have deceived ourselves, as we humbly ask our Self to be revealed to us.

⁶And He Who never left will return to our awareness, grateful to restore to God His home, as it must be.

12. Wait patiently throughout the day for your Self, and invite Him every hour with the words with which you started the day.

²And end the day with that same invitation to your Self.

³The Voice for God will answer, for He speaks for you and for your Father.

⁴He will replace all your frantic thoughts with the Peace of God, your deceptions with His truth, and the illusions you hold about yourself with the truth of the Son of God. ^IV

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^I Everything that happens is the manifestation of your desires, Son of God.
You may tell yourself that this is not true—that you did not make the sun, the earth, or the stars; that you are not responsible for the world’s happiness or misery; that you did not choose to become ill of your own will. Well, in a sense, you are right. The person you believe yourself to be certainly cannot do such things; in fact, it can do nothing. It has never done anything, because it is an effect—a manifestation through which your fragmented mind expresses itself, affected by the belief that you are separate from God. You, Son of God.

If that person believed it had such powers, it would be considered insane in the world that you—you, Son of God—have conceived in your holy mind. Yet you, Son of God, do have the power your Father gave you when He created you, to create as He does: by extending His Love. But, as you have heard many times, you can also misuse your mind to believe in fantasies that are real only to you, Son of God. It is you who have made that person appear to act on its own. You have always been behind the curtain, commanding everything and deceiving yourself by failing to recognize it.

Now you have transferred your identity to your illusions and think they are as real as you are, because you believe they are you. But they are not: your illusions are not real, because you have made them by infinitely limiting your infinite condition. Your illusions are precisely the myriad things you cannot be; they are the opposite of you in every way. For the world you see is the opposite of Heaven, which is your home and what you are.

You are real. You are an idea. You are not material. Matter is an idea you have conceived and projected outward. That does not mean you have cast it out of yourself, for there is nothing outside you; you have simply projected it there, considering in your consciousness that it was outside you. Nothing more.

Now then, once you have become enthralled with the idea that you are so-and-so, there is no other way to deal with you than to go along with your dream in order to lead you to a happy awakening, which, of course, will depend entirely on you. For remember: your will is always fulfilled. Jesus speaks to you in such terms because it makes little sense to insist on the ontological reasons that justify your true identity and the delusional nature of your hallucination, although at times it is essential to remind you of them, as right now.

Simply hold to this: while you are dreaming, you can only believe, and it is to your advantage to believe in things that lead you to awakening, because to some degree they are aligned with the truth. Yet there are other beliefs that will make your dream even deeper. Therefore, you will have to select and choose. But do not worry: you have with you unsurpassable Help, a magnificent Guide, a Teacher who will help you emerge from all this confusion. Listen to Him and trust Him.

One thing you can be sure of—whether you believe yourself to be a person or the Son of God—is that you always, always have the power to choose. Your will is fully operative, always. When you say that you have no will to do something or make a certain decision, it is because your will has voluntarily decided that it be so. The same occurs when, seemingly involuntarily, you do, refrain from doing, or forget something: be sure that all of it has been absolutely voluntary. Nothing happens without your express will. Again, whether you believe yourself to be a person or a celestial being, your will is always fulfilled, and everything in your mind is there because you have placed it there. Now, you may believe this or not. That too depends on your will.

If you decide to be ill, that person with whom you have identified will become ill. If you decide to punish yourself and suffer great pain, that person will suffer. If you decide to resolve that apparent conflict by placing your will in nothing, that person will surely die. You will not. You are the Son of God and cannot die. But if you wish to be yourself, and nothing but yourself, you will continue identifying with that person, or with another, or with anything else to which you decide to lend your imaginary consciousness of being separate from God.

To begin with, what now serves you best is to take the reins of your imaginary personal life and assume that you have the power to decide and to command your will. Please, recover a little sanity. How could you not have the power to decide!? Deceive yourself no longer.

^II T-14.II.4:3-4: “Truth is truth. That is all that matters, only that is real, and everything else does not exist.”

W-138.4:6: “For only truth is true, and nothing else is real.”

^III Stop thinking all those foolish things about yourself. Pause for a moment and reflect: why do you do it? What purpose does it serve? What do you intend to achieve with it? For what is quite evident is that you will not manage to become a better person or a better anything. You do it only to punish yourself. That is the sole purpose of harboring a poor idea of yourself. Nothing else. It serves only to suffer. The fact is that you are addicted to the pain produced by guilt, and for some utterly insane reason, it gives you a perverse pleasure. Do not go on with it.

Realize that at every instant you are born completely new and innocent into the eternal present. You have placed your will in making tremendous efforts to rescue the past and link it to the present, and thus you mortgage your future with all those distorted and guilty interpretations of what you did or failed to do. All that keeps you from exercising your will in the present and taking responsibility for your decisions now. The past is robbing you of your present. Do not allow it. You now have the power to decide. Do it. Be reborn to your true will.

^IV Notice well how this work operates. It is not your little self that builds fantasies of childish vanities, no matter how spiritual or lofty they may seem; no, you remain awaiting the sure, humble, and infinitely magnificent guidance of your own Self. It has nothing to do with your person; it has to do with the limitless, with the real. And reality is something that does not depend on you, nor on your efforts to attain it, for it has always been there. In that equation, the only thing that has been in excess is the false idea you hold of yourself and from which you distort what you perceive and what you think. Nothing you think is true. Stop thinking about reality, for that only hinders your ability to experience it. Reality is simply what you are.

All Things Are Echoes of the Voice for God.^I

1. No one can judge based on partial evidence.

²That is not judgment.

³It is merely an opinion founded in ignorance and doubt.

⁴Its apparent certainty is no more than a veil concealing uncertainty.

⁵It requires an irrational defense because it is irrational.

⁶And its defense appears firm, persuasive, and beyond question only because of the underlying doubt.

2. It does not seem that you doubt the world you see.

²You do not truly question what your body’s eyes show you.

³Nor do you ask yourself why you believe it, even though you long ago learned your senses deceive you.

⁴That you believe your senses down to the last detail they present is all the more strange when you pause to recall how often they have, in truth, been unreliable witnesses.

⁵Why do you trust them so blindly?

⁶Could it not be because of the underlying doubt you are trying to hide beneath a show of certainty?

3. How, then, can you judge at all?

²Your judgments are based on the testimony your senses offer you.

³Yet no witness could be more false than this.

⁴But how else could you judge the world you see?

⁵You place pitiful faith in what your eyes and ears report.

⁶You believe what your fingers touch is real and true.

⁷This is what you perceive, and you consider it more real than what is witnessed to you by the eternal Voice for God Himself.

4. Can this be called judgment?

²You have often been urged to refrain from judging, not to deprive you of a right. ^II

³You truly cannot judge.

⁴All you can do is believe the ego’s judgments, which are all false.

⁵The ego carefully directs your senses to show you how weak, helpless, and fearful you are; how sinful, miserable in guilt, and afraid of righteous punishment.

5. The ego tells you that this thing it speaks of and claims to protect is what you are.

²And you believe it with stubborn certainty.

³Yet deep within lies the hidden doubt that even it does not believe what it so convincingly shows you.

⁴The ego condemns itself alone.

⁵And it sees guilt only within itself.

⁶And what it sees in you is its own despair.

6. Do not listen to its voice.

²The witnesses it sends to prove to you that its evil is your own, and who speak with certainty of what they do not know, are false. ^III

³You trust them blindly because you do not wish to recognize the doubts their master cannot entirely dispel.

⁴You believe that to doubt its minions is to doubt yourself.

7. But you must learn to doubt that its witnesses can help you know yourself, and let the Voice that speaks for God be the only one to judge what is worthy of your faith.

²He will not tell you to judge your brother by what your eyes see in him, nor by what his mouth tells your ears, nor by what your fingers report of him.

³He disregards those useless witnesses, who give false testimony of the Son of God. ^IV

8. He sees only what God loves, and in the holy Light of what He sees, all the ego’s dreams about what you are vanish before the splendor He beholds.

²Let Him judge what you are, for His certainty is free of any shadow of doubt, resting as it does upon a Truth so vast that before His Face doubt makes no sense. ^V

³Christ cannot doubt Himself. ^VI

⁴The Voice for God can only honor Him and delight in His perfect and unchanging sinlessness.

9. Let Him judge what you are, for His certainty is free of any shadow of doubt, resting as it does upon a Truth so vast that before His Face doubt makes no sense. ^VII

²This is how He judges you.

³Accept His Word about what you are, for He bears witness to the beauty of your creation and to the Mind Whose Thought created your reality.

10. What could the body mean to One Who knows the Glory of the Father and the Son?

²How could He listen to the ego’s whispers?

³What could convince Him that your sins are real?

⁴Let Him also judge all that seems to happen to you in this world.

⁵His lessons will enable you to bridge the gap between illusions and the truth. ^VIII

11. He will remove all the faith you have placed in pain, disaster, suffering, and loss.

²The Holy Spirit will give you a vision that can see beyond such dark appearances, and behold the gentle Face of Christ within them all.

³And you will no longer doubt that only good can come to you, who are so deeply loved by God.

⁴For He will judge all happenings, and teach you the one lesson each of them contains. ^IX

12. He will select in them the elements that represent the truth, and disregard those aspects that reflect but idle dreams.

²And all you see, all events, each circumstance, and every happening that seems to touch you, He will reinterpret in the light of His one frame of reference, which is wholly unified and sure.

³And you will see Love beyond the hate, the constant in the change, the pure in sin, and Heaven’s blessing resting on the world.

13. This is your resurrection, for your life is not a part of anything you see.

²Your life is beyond the body and the world, beyond all witnesses of the profane, within the holy, and as holy as Itself. ^X

³His Voice will speak to you, in everyone and everything, of your Self and of your Creator, Who is One with Him.

⁴And so you will behold the holy Face of Christ in all things, and hear in everything the echo of the Voice for God.

14. Today we practice without words, except at the beginning of the time we spend with God.

²We begin these times by slowly repeating once the idea with which the day begins.

³Then we watch our thoughts, calling silently upon the One Who sees the elements of truth within them.

⁴Let Him evaluate each thought that arises in your mind, remove the dream-like elements, and return it to you as a pure idea that does not contradict the Will of God.

15. Give Him your thoughts, and He will give them back as miracles, joyfully proclaiming the fullness and happiness God wills for His Son as proof of His eternal Love.

²And as each thought is thus transformed, it takes on the healing power of the Mind that saw the truth in it and was not deceived by what was falsely added.

³All trace of fantasy disappears, and what remains is unified into a perfect Thought, extending Its perfection everywhere.

16. Give this fifteen minutes when you wake, and gladly give another fifteen more before you go to sleep.

²Your ministry begins when all your thoughts have been purified.

³Thus are you taught to teach the Son of God the holy lesson of his holiness.

⁴No one can fail to hear you when you listen to the Holy Spirit honor the Son of God.

⁵And all will share with you the thoughts He has reinterpreted in your mind. ^XI

17. This is your Easter.

²And thus you lay upon the world the gift of lilies white as snow, to take the place of witnesses to sin and death.

³Through your transfiguration is the world redeemed, and joyfully released from guilt. ^XII

⁴Now we raise our resurrected minds with joy and gratitude to Him Who has restored our sanity.

18. And every hour we will remember Him Who is our salvation and our freedom.

²And in our gratitude the world will join with us, and gladly take our holy thoughts, which Heaven has corrected and made pure.

³Now at last our ministry begins, to carry throughout the world the happy news that there are no illusions in the truth, and that through us the Peace of God belongs to everyone. ^XIII

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^I After concluding the Fourth Review, this lesson marks a turning point in the pedagogy of theWorkbook. In a sense, the preceding lessons have been preparatory for what is to come. These earlier lessons explain and undo the old thought system, and prepare the mind for a new way of thinking: right-mindedness, or miracle-mindedness. Thus, you will see that what is now being told to you has an assertive and purely positive tone. It is assumed that you have already purified and trained your mind, and that you are now ready to claim your true condition and exercise your new ministry. Now we get down to work.

^II The biblical warning “Judge not” (Matthew 7:1) is repeated many times in theCourse. See, for example, T-25.VIII.13:3: “Judge not, but NOT because you are a miserable sinner, but because you cannot.”

^III The witnesses the ego sends you are the appearances of the world as interpreted by itself.

^IV Exodus 20:16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
Matthew 19:18 “Jesus said, ‘… You shall not bear false witness.’”

This lesson begins by putting a definitive end to the ego’s interpretations of what you call “reality.” It is not that; that is not reality, but only the interpretations the ego has fabricated out of perception, and which you have accepted without question. None of that is true. It is all false. And not only false, but counterproductive as well.

Those interpretations are making your life bitter; they serve no good purpose, and it is absolutely essential that you discard them completely. Pay no attention to them ever again. Whenever you feel bad, realize that what you are thinking is not true: it is the ego’s voice seeking to deceive you. You need no other criterion than this: your heart will tell you with certainty whether what you think is true or not.

Remember that the only thing you know—the only thing you relate to—are your own interpretations. Life, for you, is nothing more than a story you tell yourself. Sometimes you tell yourself that you are happy, and at other times that you are miserable, and all of it is based on premises, on rules of the game that you yourself—your ego—have established.

Well, you are not that, and those rules mean absolutely nothing. Let go of it all and begin a new life. You are now being offered the opportunity to think, decide, and act in a new way. Do it. Put this new thought system to the test. You have nothing to lose. Well, yes—you will indeed begin to lose the mental illness that has gripped your mind, and you will learn the meaning of love and freedom.

^V Along these lines appear two figures: the first is the Holy Spirit, and the second is the Christ in you, which is what the Holy Spirit beholds in you and in all your brothers.

^VI And here it is speaking of the Christ in you.

^VII And here it speaks of you at the beginning of the line, and of the Christ in you at the end.

^VIII That gap is the imaginary space where illusions seem to occur, giving rise to an illusory world.

^IX There is nothing—absolutely nothing—that happens to you that is not for your good. The world is a school in which the deranged mind learns to regain sanity. See it this way, and everything will take on a new meaning for you. If you view it thus, you cannot help but be permanently grateful for everything you encounter along the way. Surely, what you face will not meet your expectations.

But wake up! Your expectations were sheer madness! You have never known what was best for you! You have had a dreadful teacher—one who also hates you. He has always misled you, if you understand and accept that the goal must be happiness. That malevolent teacher has never truly made you happy, precisely because that was not his goal. He has led you only, and with firm steps, toward despair and death.

It is important that you understand and accept this fundamental idea: everything happens for your good. You are still dreaming, and your mind still retains a powerful inertia that leads it to cling to old interpretations and expectations. You will have to be very alert and put all your will into sustaining your new resolve, with the confidence that you are now being correctly guided. Your spiritual vision is still weak and faint. But that will change, and little by little a new way of seeing will emerge within you, based on very concrete and real achievements. You are healing, and you are becoming a healer.

All learning takes time and requires some effort. But realize that if learning—that is, changing—seems difficult, it is because you are fighting against yourself. There is no one in your mind but you. You have no need to struggle against anything, nor, in truth, do you need any time at all to change. So what you must decide is how much time you will give yourself to be, at last, free and happy. You hold all the power… but that is tomorrow’s lesson.

^X Exodus 26:33 “And you shall hang up the veil under the clasps, and bring in the Ark of the Covenant there, within the veil. The veil shall serve you as a separation between the holy place and the Most Holy.”

^XI Pay attention to these last four lines, for here begins the discussion of your task as a miracle worker. Notice how the seventh principle of miracles is repeated: “Everyone is entitled to miracles. But before this is possible, purification is necessary.” And here it becomes clear what that purification consists of: “… that (the Holy Spirit) remove the elements of dream, and return them to you as pure ideas that do not contradict the Will of God […] each thought is thus transformed […] he saw the truth it contained and was not deceived by what had been falsely added […] All traces of fantasy disappear, and what remains is unified in a perfect Thought that offers Its perfection everywhere.” And then, when you speak with a purified mind, “no one can fail to listen to you…”

^XII Matthew 17:2 “And He was transfigured before them; His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as the light.”

^XIII Remember: now your new ministry truly begins; now, at last, you begin to fulfill the role God assigned you in the plan of salvation; now, at last, you begin to be happy.

My mind holds only what I think with God.^I

1. W-139 “I will accept Atonement for myself.”

2. W-140 “Only salvation can be said to cure.”

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^I Constantly remember today these three powerful thoughts.

My mind holds only what I think with God.^I

1. W-137 “When I am healed I am not healed alone.”

2. W-138 “Heaven is the decision I must make.”

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^I Thank God throughout the day for the opportunity you have to fix your mind upon these three thoughts.

My mind holds only what I think with God.^I

1. W-135 “If I defend myself I am attacked.”

2. W-136 “Sickness is a defense against the truth.”

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^I These three ideas are pure truth. Repeat them silently within yourself constantly.

My mind holds only what I think with God.^I

1. W-133 “I will not value what is valueless.”

2. W-134 “Let me perceive forgiveness as it is.”

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^I Think constantly today of these three ideas; they are three immense gifts for you.

My mind holds only what I think with God.^I

1. W-131 “No one who seeks to reach the truth can fail.”

2. W-131 “No one who seeks to reach the truth can fail.”

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^I Remember today to welcome these ideas, which bring with them the salvation of your wandering mind.

My mind holds only what I think with God.^I

1. W-129 “Beyond this world there is a world I want.”

2. W-130 “It is impossible to see two worlds.”

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^I Keep these three ideas clearly in mind as often as you can. You need do no more.