I am as God created me.
1. If you just held this thought firmly in your mind, the world would be saved. I
²We will repeat it from time to time as we reach new levels of learning.
³And as you advance, it will take on greater meaning for you.
⁴These words are sacred, for they are the ones God gave in answer to the world you made.
⁵When they are spoken, the world disappears, and all things seen in its hazy and vaporous illusions vanish.
⁶For these words come from God.
2. This is the Word by which the Son became the joy of His Father, His Love, and His Completion.
²With them, Creation is proclaimed and honored as it truly is.
³There is no dream these words will not dispel.
⁴There is no thought of sin, nor illusion held within that dream, which does not fade before their power.
⁵They are the trumpet of awakening sounding across the world. II
⁶The dead arise in answer to their call.
⁷And those who live and hear this sound shall never see death. III
3. Holy indeed is he who makes these words his own; who awakens with them in his mind, remembers them throughout the day, and takes them with him as he goes to sleep.
²His dreams are happy, his rest is sure, his safety certain, and his body healed, because he sleeps and wakes with truth always before him.
³And he will save the world, because he gives it what he receives each time he practices the words of truth.
4. Our practice today is very simple.
²For the words we use are mighty and need no added thoughts to change the mind of him who uses them. IV
³The mind is changed so thoroughly that it becomes the treasure house in which God places all His Gifts and all His Love, to be distributed to all the world.
⁴These gifts increase as they are given, and the mind remains forever full because it shares without end.
⁵And thus you learn to think with God.
⁶Christ’s vision has restored your sight by setting your mind free.
5. Today we honor you.
²For you have every right to claim the perfect holiness you now accept.
³By accepting it, you bring salvation to all, for who could continue to value sin when such holiness blesses the world?
⁴Who could despair when you are perfectly joyful and stand ready to bring relief from sorrow, misery, and every sense of loss, offering to all complete release from sin and guilt?
6. And who could now be anything but your brother—you, who are his redeemer and his Savior?
²Who would not lovingly open his heart to you, longing to unite with one as holy as himself?
³You are as God created you.
⁴These words dispel the night, and darkness is no more.
⁵Today, the Light has come to bless the world, for you have recognized the Son of God, and in doing so, the world has recognized him as well.
I This statement is God’s Answer to the idea of separation. In it is condensed the entire function of the Holy Spirit: to remind you who you are. It is impossible to express in words the importance of this declaration in the ordering of your holy mind. One could say, without exaggeration, that it is the most significant statement in the entireCourse. When you succeed not only in keeping it present in your mind but in making it absolutely true for you, you will not simply be advancing—you will be standing before the gates of Heaven. And the radiance that shines from beyond them will set your heart ablaze.
“I am as God created me” is not a pretty phrase nor a mantra for difficult times. It is an atomic bomb against the ego. A categorical denial of every lie you ever believed about yourself. And if it does not transform you, it is because you are not saying it from the source of power: your will. You may repeat it a thousand times, but if you do not say it wholeheartedly, nothing happens. The Course is not magic. It is honesty.
Do you want to know if you are practicing it correctly? Ask yourself whether you feel fear. For this idea purifies the mind. A mind that lives in this certainty knows neither threat, nor sadness, nor conflict. It sees everything with a smile. And not because everything goes well, but because it knows nothing can affect it. That is how radical it is. That is how simple.
This is not about making a space for the Course in your schedule. It is about surrendering your entire schedule to it. This lesson does not want five minutes of your day. It wants your life. For if you truly believe it, there is nothing else to do. Everything you do, you will do from it. And that changes everything.
This statement answers the old aphorism: “Know thyself.” For to truly know yourself is to remember that you are the Son of God. And that remembrance, when complete, makes it impossible for anything to disturb you. Then indeed you are out of the world—even though you still walk within it.
II Joel 2:1 “Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of Yahweh is coming, for it is near.”
1 Corinthians 15:52 “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”
III John 8:51 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever keeps My word will never see death.”
John 11:25–26 “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live; and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?’”
IV Today, simply keep this powerful idea fixed in your mind. Repeat it constantly and set your will, with determination, on planting it in the deepest part of your heart. Today, set your will on believing this idea.
You think your beliefs come from your freedom. Nothing could be further from the truth. Everything you now believe comes from the whims of the ego and has absolutely nothing to do with you. The problem is that you do not understand what freedom is. Freedom is the condition, the power, or the capacity to be what you are, and thus to fulfill your function. That is what freedom is—nothing more, nothing less. To be free to be what you are not is not an option; besides, it makes no sense.
God is infinitely free; He is the epitome of freedom, and His Creation is the manifestation of His function: to create by infinitely extending His infinite Love in perfect abstraction. And you are the result—the same as He is—and your function and your freedom are likewise the same. When your mind functions perfectly, as it was created—and this is what truly occurs in eternity—that is what you do, and the result is your perfect Creations: the Creations of the Son of God. Anything else is nothing but a bad dream, the result of misusing your will and your freedom.
Today, however, you will use your will rightly to believe in the Truth, for that is your true freedom.
To believe is merely to think that what you imagine is true. Contemplate yourself as God’s work, and think with firm determination that this is the truth. This is an exceptional point at which belief merges with Knowledge. Here, they are one and the same, because that in which you now choose to believe reflects exactly the Truth.
If you succeed, your mind will be filled with light and your heart flooded with joy. If you do not, do not worry. You remain in darkness, but a lamp has been set before you to light your way. You need only turn toward the light with as little doubt and uncertainty as you can. It will not be long before the power of these words demonstrates their truth by transforming, of themselves, the dream around you. And then you will immediately recognize the power they contain—that is the power of miracles.
You need only follow, with determination and trust, the path they show you, even stubbornly if need be; it does not matter. The only thing that matters is your will to make them true for you. The rest will follow.