Would you like to experience a future better than your past? To this question, the answer is always a resounding and unequivocal “yes” from every human soul.

 

And all of you unequivocally try to attain a better future through much struggle and strain – all to no avail.

 

Why do your attempts fail so completely?

 

Because you do not yet realize what it is that you need to do to make a shift in your present moment, in order to bring you a shift in your future to bring you something different than the past.

 

What is this shift in thinking?

 

Forget the purpose of the world, as you know it.

 

If you do not take this first single simple step, the future will be like the past: a series of depressing dreams gone wrong, failures one after the other and a feeling of despair and disappointment at every turn.

 

Why must you forget the purpose of the world?

 

Because you assume you know what it is and why you are here and you are wrong about all of it.

 

But when you release all that you think you know, you open your mind to the Truth.

 

To change your future, you must open up a road to your own release from the past.  Otherwise the cycle will continue on endlessly.

 

In order to break the cycle, you need but decide you do not know the purpose of the world.

 

Those of you who are students of “A Course In Miracles” will recognize this as the very first lesson: “Nothing I see in this room (on this street, from this window, in this place) means anything.”  (A Course In Miracles,Workbook Lesson 1)

 

This very first lesson requires you relinquish all you know about the world around you – releasing it from the past and opening it up to a new and lovelier future.

 

This very first lesson contains all you need to know in order to be healed, and if you learned it completely, you would not need the other 364 Workbook lessons.

 

All things within this world were made to keep the truth of your Reality in Me a secret.  

 

All things within this world are a distraction to keep your allegiance to its problems, needs, wants and perceived wrongdoings, rather than remembering the truth of your Light and peace within.

 

All such distractions lie outside of you.

 

All solutions lie within you.

 

Allow your mind to accept that all things outside of you will fail and are in fact designed to fail; simply because they must.

 

This is because nothing outside of you is eternal.

 

And only the eternal part of you can effect eternal change upon your future.

 

Therefore, do not seek outside yourself for a new and brighter future.

 

Seek instead, within.  Seek for the holy instant in the present, which will shift your future forever.

 

How do you bring about such a shift?  How do you “seek within” for the holy instant in the present?

 

The first step is to recognize that every body, thing, place, situation or circumstance – every single thing desired, owned, wanted or achieved – is a deception.

 

It is all equally a block to your peace.

 

The second step is a mighty one indeed, though upon hearing it you may not give it much importance.  In fact, you are highly likely to disregard it entirely.

 

You must accept – and truly believe– that you are not a body.  You are free.  And you remain as I created you: an eternal part of My Love, Light and joy.

 

You are still part of Me, and we are One Love.

 

And you are still part of everyone else within Our One Love.

 

And to see this in every situation, circumstance and relationship, is to allow your mind to be healed of the past and let go of all it holds for your future.

 

You will literally be undoing time itself.

 

And a new, more loving and beautiful future will unfold for you – one that is beyond your imagination and beyond your wildest dreams.

 

By acknowledging you do not know what the world is for and by refusing to believe that you are the bodily identity living in it, you place your future in My Hands.

 

Be freed of both past anxieties and future dread by placing your present moment in the Hands of God.  

 

You are not a body.  You are free. And you are still as God created you to be.

 

Remember this when the world tempts you to fall from grace and into the pits of despair.

 

You want what God Wills for you, not what your ego wills.

 

For the ego does not want you to awaken and will fight to keep your peace from you with anxious sad thoughts about this world.

 

Release such thoughts about the past and you release your future.

 

None of what you think you know is true.

 

Once you agree that you do not know the purpose of the world and do not believe in your identity as a body, it is not necessary that you “fill in the blank” with anything else.

 

Simply allowing these definitions to be “blank” is all that is necessary for God to write upon your heart what He Wills and cause a shift in your mind and therefore a shift in what you experience.

 

Why is it so important to set your judgments aside and maintain an open “blank” mind when it comes to looking upon the world?  

 

Why does God ask this of you?

 

Listen carefully to these next words:  

 

When you make the mistake of believing that you understand what you perceive, its meaning is lost to you.

 

When you do this, you see no reason to ask God for help in understanding.

 

In making the mistake of assigning your own meaning to the world and all it contains, you fail to see the problem and therefore fail to ask for God’s Answer.

 

Do you want the problem, or do you want the Answer?

 

The ego will forever try to analyze your world, thus obscuring the problem as much as possible.  It would have you react to all your interpretations of people and events as though you were correct in your assessments.

 

To withdraw your judgment is to cease to analyze anything at all.

 

This is also called forgiveness.

 

The only interpretation of your fellows that need be given is appreciation and gratitude for the Love of God that binds you.

 

All else is an ego attempt to analyze what cannot be understood.

 

If you would look only through the eyes of God’s Love, the world’s reality would make a dramatic shift, for you would then be letting down your defenses against your Unity.

 

And all forms of separation would disappear from your sight.

 

For the Holy Spirit’s interpretation of the world is the only thing that can dispel fear and bring your awareness to the undeniable truth of your state of everlasting Love.

 

This is the way God replaces fear with Love and heals the world through you.

 

And so I tell you this:

 

If someone upsets you, you will not ask God who he is in truth for you will think you already know.

 

The fact that you are upset is a clear testimony to this state of mind.

 

But if you remember to be still a moment and ask, you will be shown.

 

Ask God Who he is when you are frightened or upset and He will reveal his truth to you.

 

And your fears will vanish for you will be shown God’s Love for you both.

 

You will be shown Light and thus become enlightened.

 

Your certainties about others are false and closing your eyes to their true nature will not show you their Inner Light.

 

Do not try to banish God’s Love from your mind through hatred and fear.

 

This will not succeed, for God’s Love lives within you all.

 

Would you not make this simple exchange of hatred for God’s Love?

 

Lay aside your judgments – those things you think you already know – and the Holy Spirit within you will be allowed to step forward and judge instead.

 

And He will judge truly.

 

And what you are will shine with God’s Holy Light, for you will have offered yourself to Him to be judged as innocent and pure.

 

Therefore, offer the Holy Spirit everything you do not want and He will transform it through your perfect willingness to let it go.

 

In essence, you need do nothing but remain open to God’s Will.

 

If you feel you need to do something to help you remember God’s Will, you can pray.

 

Pray first to know God’s Will and pray secondly for the wisdom to understand it and carry it through.

 

You only need to remember that you do not know what the world is for nor do you remember your true Identity in God.

 

And with this thought you allow God’s Love to take over your mind and your present experience will shift to a new and wondrous future for you.

 

Amen

~ Holy Spirit