CIM Lessons 320-326 and Miracles Principle #47

Miracles Principle #47: “The miracle is a learning device that lessens the need for time. It establishes an out-of-pattern time interval not under the usual laws of time. In this sense it is timeless.” Though the miracle appears within the dimension of time, it collapses time or lifts us above the world of time. When we choose to forgive, we can work through a huge chunk of guilt—a process that could take us a thousand years—in an instant. The miracle is the means that Spirit uses to teach us that we are not the victims of the world.  I can be treated unfairly only by myself, and for that I’ve already been forgiven. Thus, healing doesn’t take time, only realization.

Lesson 320—“My Father gives all power unto me.” These words paraphrase words spoken by Jesus shortly after the resurrection: “All power is given unto me.” (Mt. 28:18) In this lesson, Jesus puts these words into our mouths. It is an indication of the equal plane on which Jesus places us with him. All of us, along with Jesus, are the equal sons of God and all of us have the limitless power that God endowed us with at creation. Sweet Spirit, let me examine my thoughts today for beliefs in limits that hold back Your power working in me and through me. Let me recognize them as false, and open myself to Your limitless power.

Lesson 321—“Father, my freedom is in You alone.” This lesson, like many in this last part of the Workbook, is written from the perspective of a person entering the last stages of the journey home. It is the song of one whose uncertainty has ended, whose decision for the Kingdom of God is strong and clear. These are the words of one who has realized the peace of God is all he wants.  Most of us don’t feel this absolute confidence or commitment as yet.  We’re along about NC on a trip to Canada. We’re not at our destination yet, but we’re well on our way.

What Is Creation? CIM speaks often of “your creations,” yet never clearly says exactly what those creations are. It tells us our creation process continues unabated despite our unawareness of it, and that the Holy Spirit saves all our creations for us. There is an image of us entering Heaven and being greeted by all our creations. We have a fundamental misconception that makes it difficult for us to understand what creations are. We think God created this world. Therefore, when we think of creation, we think of something material and concrete. Yet CIM clearly tells us this entire world is an illusion, so how could our creations be here? My creations are not objects. They are thoughts. “Thoughts,” in this lesson, is capitalized, so we know this refers to God’s Son, the Christ. In the physical realm, we’re not used to equating thoughts and living beings. We don’t think of living beings as “only” thoughts. But CIM teaches us that we are only Thoughts in God’s Mind. “You are not a body.” (W-pI.91.5:2) We are something wholly other than material. We are spirit. We are thought.

Lesson 322—“I can give up but what was never real.” I can’t give up anything real: “As You created me, I can give up nothing You gave me.” The whole idea of sacrifice is alien to God. Oh, we are asked to give up things. CIM even asks us to give up the entire world. But not to sacrifice. The point of this lesson is quite simple: “I sacrifice illusions; nothing more.” (1:1)

Lesson 323—“I gladly make the sacrifice of fear.” Yesterday’s lesson ended with “What loss can I anticipate except the loss of fear?” and today’s lesson picks up on that idea. So . . . all I’m going to lose is fear? I can live with that! Losing fear is no sacrifice. I will lose my fear with pleasure. It may seem I’m being asked to give up some pleasant and valuable things, but all I’m really being asked to give up is “all suffering, all sense of loss and sadness, all anxiety and doubt.” (1:1) As I ponder this, let me remember I’m not letting go of anything real. All I’m doing is “letting go of self-deception and of images I worshipped falsely.” (2:1) When “fear has gone . . . only love remains.” (2:4) So why would I not “gladly make the ‘sacrifice’ of fear”?

Lesson 324—“I merely follow, for I would not lead.” Learning to follow my Inner Guidance is the goal of the Course. That Voice is the Voice for God in me. I am well served to learn that I am not on my own. God has set every step of my “journey.” As I look back with God, I know this is true. Nothing I’ve ever done has been anything but for my highest good. It has all worked together perfectly to get me exactly where I am now. What I thought were detours away from God were really lessons bring me closer to Home, and I am grateful for them all. Though the time I’ve spent wandering seems long indeed, put in the perspective that we are eternal, that time is literally nothing, a fragment of a dream.

Lesson 325—“All things I think I see reflect ideas.” This lesson is perhaps the best single summary of CIM’s theory of perception. Everything I see is a projection. By this analysis of perception, we see absolutely nothing real with our physical eyes. All that we see “reflects a process in my mind” and nothing more than that. As an earlier Workbook lesson says, “I have given everything I see . . . all the meaning it has for me.” As we choose what we believe, a testament to that world arises in our sight. What we really want is the ideas of God reflected in our world, rather than our own error thoughts and fears. Today, I don’t want dreams; I want God’s Reality.

Lesson 326—“I am forever an Effect of God.” The cause determines what the effect is. If I strike a billiard ball with my cue stick, the ball has no say in where it goes. If I am an Effect of God, and I am, I have no say in determining what I am. What I am is determined by my Cause. This is why it’s true that “as You created me I have remained.” (1:3) Does this preclude free will? Yes, it does, insofar as determining what my nature is. And thank God it does! Otherwise, I would have irretrievably damaged myself and made sin and hell into realities. Free will, as the Course says in its introduction, doesn’t grant us the right to “establish the curriculum.” It only grants the freedom to choose when we will learn/accept the truth of what we are in God’s mind. God’s will is “to have a Son so like his Cause that Cause and Its Effect are indistinguishable. (1:5) What an amazing statement! If God is Love, so is His Son. “God is but Love, and therefore, so am I.” (Lessons 171-180.)

Assignment:  Lessons 327-333 and Miracles Principle #47. Read as directed by Spirit.

Practical Application: When you have spare moments this week, sitting at a stoplight, stirring your soup—whatever—review in your mind the attributes of God according to your understanding. (Ex., “God is love, God in non-judgmental, God is joy,” etc.) After each statement, substitute the words “I am . . .(I am love, I am non-judgmental, I am joy,” etc.) So it goes like this:

“God is love. I am love.”

“God is nonjudgmental. I am non-judgmental.”

God is joy. I am joy.”