I WANT THE PEACE OF GOD: ACIM LESSON 185
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I WANT THE PEACE OF GOD.
A Course In Miracles Workbook LESSON 185
As I read this lesson, I would pause to contemplate the words. And as often happens, the Voice of the Holy Spirit stepped in, guiding my mind with deftness and understanding. I will share what depth of truth was revealed to me as I went along. It became a transcendent meditation for me…
So, let our minds rest on the words that follow, in holy peace, quiet reverence, and the healing love of God. For these words do indeed have the power to heal all things, transform the world, and gift miracles to you and all creation.
I want the peace of God.
“To say these words is nothing. But to mean these words is everything. If you could but mean them for just an instant, there would be no further sorrow possible for you in any form; in any place or time. Heaven would be completely given back to full awareness, memory of God entirely restored, the resurrection of all creation fully recognized.” (ACIM)
If we meant the words “I want the peace of God,” we would remember Who We Are in relation to the Oneness of All Creation. To mean the words “I want the peace of God,” is to feel them as God does; to feel yourself at peace with every soul in existence. These words bring total healing because they include Totality of Creation. (Holy Spirit’s Clarification)
“No one can mean these words and not be healed. He cannot play with dreams, nor think he is himself a dream. He cannot make a hell and think it real.” (ACIM)
We can no longer be tricked by what we see. The ego cannot deceive us because we believe in the Truth: we are not what our bodies say and do that cause us fear and pain. We have awakened! We see the dream of pain for what it is; a distraction from the truth of our Unity and this realization thusly dispels the dream. We now want only one thing: peace with every aspect of Creation. (Holy Spirit’s Clarification)
“He wants the peace of God, and it is given him. For that is all he wants, and that is all he will receive.” (ACIM)
We have rejected what we know will end in time and avoid that disappointment altogether in our hearts. We do this by bypassing our ego reaction to the world. A reaction of fear, hatred, judgment and sadness. We overlook what triggers us and decide for peace because that is all we want. (Holy Spirit’s Clarification)
“Many have said these words. But few indeed have meant them. You have but to look upon the world you see around you to be sure how very few they are.
The world would be completely changed, should any two agree these words express the only thing they want.” (ACIM)
And who would be the other person wanting peace besides myself? Who would be my “plus one” to make two, joined in agreement that peace is the only thing we want? Only minds can join, so it is, that I need not seek another body to join me. I only need to extend my love through my mind to find another. And God will join us, though we do not know one another. I need but one to join me here, where we stand in peace together, in the Mind of God. (Holy Spirit’s Clarification)
“Two minds with one intent become so strong that what they will becomes the Will of God. For minds can only join in truth. In dreams, no two can share the same intent. To each, the hero of the dream is different; the outcome wanted not the same for both. Loser and gainer merely shift about in changing patterns, as the ratio of gain to loss and loss to gain takes on a different aspect or another form.” (ACIM)
This is because when we perceive our minds as separated by bodies, our goals become separate as well. We each want our own version of the dream, and no two are alike. But when I recognize my mind is One with everyone else’s, here there is no separation, for minds are bodiless. Minds have no boundaries. And when my mind joins in will with God’s Will to recognize such Oneness, He will find another of like-mindedness to link with mine. And we will join together with God, in Him, in Heaven. (Holy Spirit’s Clarification)
“Yet compromise alone a dream can bring. Sometimes it takes the form of union, but only the form. The meaning must escape the dream, for compromising is the goal of dreaming. Minds cannot unite in dreams. They merely bargain. And what bargain can give them the peace of God? Illusions come to take His place. And what He means is lost to sleeping minds intent on compromise, each to his gain and to another’s loss.” (ACIM)
Bodies can seem to come together, yet even so, we each have our own agenda. And so, we must compromise in order to fit our version of what we want to fit alongside another person’s idea of happiness. This is the bargain our ego makes to alleviate it’s suffering over not getting its own way. What bargain can the ego make that equals the peace of God? Let me not sleep in the illusion of finding peace in any form of compromise – I will not compromise the peace of God for the idea of playing a body in a dream. (Holy Spirit’s Clarification)
“To mean you want the peace of God is to renounce all dreams. For no one means these words who wants illusions, and who therefore seeks the means which bring illusions. He has looked on them, and found them wanting. Now he seeks to go beyond them, recognizing that another dream would offer nothing more than all the others. Dreams are one to him. And he has learned their only difference is one of form, for one will bring the same despair and misery as do the rest.
The mind which means that all it wants is peace must join with other minds, for that is how peace is obtained. And when the wish for peace is genuine, the means for finding it is given, in a form each mind that seeks for it in honesty can understand. Whatever form the lesson takes is planned for him in such a way that he cannot mistake it, if his asking is sincere. But if he asks without sincerity, there is no form in which the lesson will meet with acceptance and be truly learned.” (ACIM)
How can we be sure we ask for the peace of God with sincerity? We know we ask in purity by the measure of our desire to let go of all grievances against another. Can we forgive, or overlook, the bodies we see, including our own? Can we reach instead for the Light within? For that is all we must do, to ask for peace. Let all physical reality “off the hook.” Let our verdict be “not guilty” in the court of our own mind. Let us release the physical world from all judgment and see what happens; what peace may come. (Holy Spirit’s Clarification)
“Let us today devote our practicing to recognizing that we really mean the words we say. We want the peace of God. This is no idle wish. These words do not request another dream be given us. They do not ask for compromise, nor try to make another bargain in the hope that there may yet be one that can succeed where all the rest have failed. To mean these words acknowledges illusions are in vain, requesting the eternal in the place of shifting dreams which seem to change in what they offer, but are one in nothingness.
Today devote your practice periods to careful searching of your mind, to find the dreams you cherish still. What do you ask for in your heart?” (ACIM)
Do we ask for vengeance? Are we feeling unfairly treated? Do we wish another body would behave in ways as we demand? Or do we wish the world would be as we want, the physical amenities arranged to our liking? What change in our physical reality do we think will bring us a sense of peace equal to the peace of God? (Holy Spirit’s Clarification)
“Forget the words you use in making your requests. Consider but what you believe will comfort you, and bring you happiness. But be you not dismayed by lingering illusions, for their form is not what matters now. Let not some dreams be more acceptable, reserving shame and secrecy for others. They are one. And being one, one question should be asked of all of them, “Is this what I would have, in place of Heaven and the peace of God?”
This is the choice you make. Be not deceived that it is otherwise. No compromise is possible in this. You choose God’s peace, or you have asked for dreams. And dreams will come as you requested them. Yet will God’s peace come just as certainly, and to remain with you forever. It will not be gone with every twist and turning of the road, to reappear, unrecognized, in forms which shift and change with every step you take.
You want the peace of God. And so do all who seem to seek for dreams. For them as well as for yourself, you ask but this when you make this request with deep sincerity. For thus you reach to what they really want, and join your own intent with what they seek above all things, perhaps unknown to them, but sure to you.” (ACIM)
Many seek for peace in the world in many forms, be it through abusing chemicals, food, emotions and bodies. Many think amassing material gain will bring them peace. Abuse of the body and disease comes as a direct result of trying to force their dream onto another, bending the world to the will of their ego-desires. Yet we can free even them, though they do not know where to look for their peace. We can desire it for All Creation by extending our peace to All Creation. This is our purpose in coming to this dream. To waken the world, through our own awakening. (Holy Spirit’s Clarification)
“You have been weak at times, uncertain in your purpose, and unsure of what you wanted, where to look for it, and where to turn for help in the attempt. Help has been given you. And would you not avail yourself of it by sharing it?
No one who truly seeks the peace of God can fail to find it. For he merely asks that he deceive himself no longer by denying to himself what is God’s Will.” (ACIM)
God’s Will is that we share in His peace, through seeing the world through His eyes; through seeing all things as One Thing, at One, at peace, within God Who contains Us. In this way, we too, have All Things in existence. (Holy Spirit’s Clarification)
“Who can remain unsatisfied who asks for what he has already? Who could be unanswered who requests an answer which is his to give? The peace of God is yours.
For you was peace created, given you by its Creator, and established as His Own eternal gift. How can you fail, when you but ask for what He wills for you? And how could your request be limited to you alone? No gift of God can be unshared. It is this attribute that sets the gifts of God apart from every dream that ever seemed to take the place of truth.
No one can lose and everyone must gain whenever any gift of God has been requested and received by anyone. God gives but to unite. To take away is meaningless to Him.” (ACIM)
To God, it is impossible to remove anyone from His Totality. God knows only Unity. It is meaningless for God to think of loss for anyone, because we are each a part of All That Is. (Holy Spirit’s Clarification)
“And when it is as meaningless to you, you can be sure you share one Will with Him, and He with you. And you will also know you share one Will with all your brothers, whose intent is yours.” (ACIM)
Every person experiencing a body wants peace. And we can extend peace to them from our mind to theirs, whether they are aware of it or not, thus satisfying what they desire in the heart of their soul and joining with God’s Will for us as well. (Holy Spirit’s Clarification)
“It is this one intent we seek today, uniting our desires with the need of every heart, the call of every mind, the hope that lies beyond despair, the love attack would hide, the brotherhood that hate has sought to sever, but which still remains as God created it. With Help like this beside us, can we fail today as we request the peace of God be given us?” (ACIM)