We would all love to accelerate our journey into awakening and enlightenment; that elusive promise by God that we will one day no longer suffer and find eternal peace and happiness at last.  How do we speed this along and stop making so many pit stops at places we do not want to spend any more time? 

            The answer lies in understanding how God’s gift of the Holy Spirit to us as an internal Helper and Guide operates in our daily lives.  The speed-up to being a miracle worker is directly related to your willingness to cooperate with your Internal Helper’s guidance.  It is a decision to hear only the Voice of the Holy Spirit within you, instead of the ego.

 

ACIM T.pg.75 Chapter 5 II. The Voice for God

            "The Holy Spirit is the motivation for miracle-mindedness; the decision to heal the separation by letting it go."  (1.4)

            "The principle of Atonement and the separation began at the same time.  When the ego was made, God placed in the mind the Call to joy.  This Call is so strong that the ego always dissolves at Its sound.  That is why you must choose to hear one of two voices within you.  One you made yourself, and that one is not of God.  But the other is given you by God, Who asks you only to listen to it.  The Holy Spirit is in you in a very literal sense.  His is the Voice that calls you back to where you were before and will be again.  It is possible even in this world to hear only that Voice and no other.  It takes effort and great willingness to learn.  It is the final lesson that I learned, and God's Sons are as equal as learners as they are as Sons."  (3.1-11)

            "The Voice of the Holy Spirit does not command, because It is incapable of arrogance.  It does not demand, because It does not seek control.  It does not overcome, because It does not attack.  It merely reminds.  It is compelling only because of what It reminds you of.  It brings your mind the other way, remaining quiet even in the midst of the turmoil you make.  The Voice for God is always quiet, because It speaks of peace."  (7.1-7)

            "When you are tempted by the wrong voice, call on me to remind you how to heal by sharing my decision and making it stronger.  As we share this goal, we increase its power to attract the whole Sonship, and bring it back into the oneness in which it was created."  (11.1-2)

            "The power of our joint motivation is beyond belief, but not beyond accomplishment."  (12.4)

            "Child of God, my message is for you, to hear and give away as you answer the Holy Spirit within you."  (12.6) 

 

            So how to do we tell the difference between the voice of our ego and the Voice of the Holy Spirit?  The answer is simple.  The voice of the ego is always negative, fear filled, angry and incurs guilt in either yourself or tries to establish it in another. 

            The Voice of the Holy Spirit always feels like sweet inspiration.  His Voice encourages, loves, and gives freedom to yourself and others.  It is the Voice that releases Love within you.  You will always know it by the level of uplift you feel in your heart.  His Voice raises you above the voice of the ego.

            The ego will always try to drag you down and keep your attention here in the world outside you, rather then allowing you to rest in peace within.  This world is referred to as “sin” by A Course In Miracles, and sin by definition of the Course is merely a mistake in how we see things.  This world then, is a place made by the ego, that we see mistakenly.  The world our bodily eyes currently see is a distortion of the truth.  It is a distortion of the world created by God that we call Heaven.       

I think we can all agree we want the illusion imposed by the ego, lifted from this world so we can see Heaven!  In order to do that, we must decide we no longer want what we see.  We must adjust our vision from within through adjusting our beliefs.  We must cease to believe this world is our true reality.

 

ACIM T.pg.429 Chapter 20 III. Sin as an Adjustment

            “The belief in sin is an adjustment.  And an adjustment is a change; a shift in perception, or a belief that what was so before has been made different.  Every adjustment is therefore a distortion, and calls upon defenses to uphold it against reality.”  (1.1-3)

            “Adjustments of any kind are of the ego.  For it is the ego’s fixed belief that all relationships depend on adjustments, to make of them what it would have them be.  Direct relationships, in which there are no interferences, are always seen as dangerous.”  (2.1-3)

            “A simple question yet remains, and needs an answer.  Do you like what you have made?  - a world of murder and attack, through which you thread your timid way through constant dangers, alone and frightened, hoping at most that death will wait a little longer before it overtakes you and you disappear.  You made this up.  It is a picture of what you think you are; of how you see yourself.  A murderer is frightened, and those who kill fear death.  All these are but the fearful thoughts of those who would adjust themselves to a world made fearful by their adjustments.”  (4.1-6)

            “Have you not wondered what the world is really like; how it would look through happy eyes?  The world you see is but a judgment of yourself.  It is not there at all.  Yet judgment lays a sentence on it, justifies it and makes it real.  Such is the world you see; a judgment on yourself, and made by you.”  (5.1-5)

            “The world the holy see is beautiful because they see their innocence in it.  They did not tell it what it was; they did not make adjustments to fit their orders.”  (6.3-4)

            “For what is Heaven but union, direct and perfect, and without the veil of fear upon it?  Here are we one, looking with perfect gentleness upon each other and on ourselves.  Here all thoughts of any separation between us become impossible.  You who were prisoner in separation are now made free in Paradise.  And here would I unite with you, my friend, my brother and my Self.”  (10. 3-7)

            “Your gift unto your brother has given me the certainty our union will be soon.”  (11.1)

 

            The Life and Light of God Himself lies within every living thing we see in this world.  He is here; behind the shadows of form we have tried to contain Him in.  Yet, He is not truly contained.  We only believe we have contained the power of God within limited, solid forms.  We have created the illusion that God has borders, limits and physical forms that can be controlled to suit our ego needs and wants. 

It is our holy mission here in the illusion to release God from our belief that He is limited in any way at all.  His power gives all living things life, but it does not stop at the borders of these living forms.  It extends beyond all we think we see; uniting all Creation in His Love.  To undo this mistake, and release Heaven here on earth, we must change our thoughts about the world.

Whenever we have negative thoughts about someone else, remember; it is God Himself we have imprisoned within the form of separation we see and seem to hate.  And so, it is God Himself we must release from this form or body in order to be at peace and be free ourselves.  When you find yourself having any thought of judgment, hate, resentment, anxiety, fear, guilt, or any other unloving thought that causes you discomfort and pain, say this to yourself after each one:

            “I do not want this.  I release you Father.”

            When you do this, you are releasing God from the separate form you think is causing you to suffer.  This is what the Course refers to as “forgiveness.”  It is forgiveness on the deepest level – right at the heart of the only problem we all have – our imagined separation from God.  Forgiveness becomes an efficient miracle-working tool when it is applied correctly to our lives.  It accelerates our transition into a world and a life of Light far beyond what any of us can imagine.  We cannot imagine it, because the ego cannot conceive of a world in which it does not exist. 

            Remember: your ego does not want you to let it go.  It does not want you to begin to hear the Voice of the Holy Spirit within you.  It does not want you to be at peace with anyone.  The ego wants you to hold onto to it tightly, hearing only its loud angry voice and to see only enemies.  In this way, it can hold you here.  But through releasing your “enemies” and the world you see from all guilt; everyone and everything will become your greatest savior.  Through releasing the world, your enemies and all your perceived problems from your mind, you release yourself from the ego.

            It seems we feel we never want our enemy to be our savior.  And the ego’s life is depending on you never choosing to release your “enemies.”

            This is the craftiness with which the ego protects itself.  It depends on us never forgiving our “enemies.”  Its whole existence depends on us never releasing anyone from the body we see them as.  Yet we can undo the camouflage of the body by not believing anything we see with our eyes.  We know this world is not real, and the players in it are our greatest friends.  If you knew who walked beside you in this world, you would fall to your knees in loving gratitude.  So, equally release everyone you see or think of- whether “good” or “bad” -from the form you see them as by simply stating:

            “And I release you Father.”

            And so you declare to your Creator that you want to see His Reality of Truth- not this world as shown through the eyes of the ego.  You want to see this world as God created it to be- and that can only be seen when who, and what, you see now is forgiven. 

We are living here in the Mind of God - right now.  We are literally contained within God’s Mind.  And the world we currently see is the result of our will upon it; the will of our ego.

Out of love and respect for our Father, let us release our will and join with God’s Will to return His Mind to Its natural state of Peace, Joy and Eternal Love.

And so it is, we have the power to choose to let all things be healed.  When we make this choice, a new, sinless world will be revealed to our eyes.  It is then that we hear only the Voice of the Holy Spirit within us, and no other.  When this happens, the outside world shifts to reflect our inner state of peace.

 

ACIM T.pg.441 Chapter 20 VIII. The Vision of Sinlessness

            "Vision will come to you at first in glimpses, but they will be enough to show you what is given you who see your brother sinless.  Truth is restored to you through your desire, as it was lost to you through your desire for something else.  Open the holy place that you closed off by valuing the "something else," and what was never lost will quietly return." (1.1-3)

            "Do you not want to know your own Identity?" (2.1)

            "Would you not willingly be free of misery, and learn again of joy?" (2.3)

            "All this is given, waiting on your desire but to receive it.  Vision is freely given to those who ask to see." (2.8-9)

            "For peace will come to all who ask for it with real desire and sincerity of purpose, shared with the Holy Spirit and at one with Him on what salvation is.  Be willing, then, to see your brother sinless, that Christ may rise before your vision and give you joy.  And place no value on your brother's body, which holds him to illusions of what he is." (3.2-4)

            "What if you recognized this world is an hallucination?  What if you really understood you made it up?  What if you realized that those who seem to walk about in it, to sin and die, attack and murder and destroy themselves, are wholly unreal?  Could you have faith in what you see, if you accepted this?  And would you see it?" (7.3-7)

            "Hallucinations disappear when they are recognized for what they are.  This is the healing and the remedy.  Believe them not and they are gone.  And all you need to do is recognize that you did this." (8.1-4)

            "For what you see is merely how you elect to meet your goal.  Hallucinations serve to meet the goal of madness.  They are the means by which the outside world, projected from within, adjusts to sin and seems to witness to its reality." (9.4-6)

            "Think but an instant just on this; you can behold the holiness God gave His Son.  And never need you think that there is something else for you to see." (11.3-4)

 

So Who or What is the Holy Spirit?

            The Holy Spirit is the only part of you that is real.  Everything else you think is real is a projection from your ego.  Your body and life are actually a projection of your thoughts about who you think you are.  You may experience pain and suffering in your body and in your life, but it is only because you are seeing yourself as the ego sees you.  You can be hurt by nothing but your thoughts!  The only fear you have is the fear to accept only what is loving about you, and nothing else.  You are afraid to let go of your body identity.  Choose not to be afraid of love today.  The truth is, we are One Love and it is only in identification with all people as your own; part of your One Self that you will remember Who You Are.  Your true identity abides in You.  You have the power to reclaim your lost memories and your miracle working abilities.  All you have to do is elect to change all thoughts that hurt.  This decision is simple.  It is easy and you loose nothing by making it.  Allow your holiness to shine bright and clear today!  Quiet all thoughts that hurt.  Allow the hush of Heaven to hold your heart.  Make it clear to your ego that God is your goal, and only Him.  You do this by forgiving all thoughts that stand in the way of your peace.  Release them to the Holy Spirit to be healed- release God from all types of form we have tried to contain Him in.  Forget everything anyone ever did to you.  None of what happens here follows you into Heaven and therefore, none of it is real.  There is no point in holding onto it now.  Forget your brother’s past!  The past is over.  It can touch you not.  When you do this, you move your self into the present moment where the Holy Spirit resides.  And when you arrive at this place, your present happiness is all you see.  You have made miracles welcome in your life. 

            And so it is, that you bring healing to yourself and the world through your willingness to listen only to the Voice of truth.  You will accelerate your spiritual growth (and that of all humanity) beyond measure as you listen only to the loving Voice of the Holy Spirit within you.  Your life will be transformed from one of pain and suffering, to one of eternal joy and abundance.