CIM Lessons 313-319 and Miracles Principle #46

Miracles Principle #46: “The Holy Spirit is the highest communication medium. Miracles do not involve this type of communication, because they are temporary communication devices. When you return to your original form of communication with God by direct revelation, the need for miracles is over.” Holy Spirit communicates from God to us. He is the mediator between reality and the dream. When we are all finished with our dream/experiment of separation and have forgiven everyone including ourselves, we no longer need the Holy Spirit as a link to God. We are then restored to awareness of perfect Oneness and direct communication with God. The miracle and the Holy Spirit have meaning only within the separated world.

Lesson 313—“Now let a new perception come to me.” The vision of Christ “beholds all things as sinless.” (1:1) To see all things as sinless is not something I need to strive to do; it’s a gift, given to me by God. I need only to be open to receive it. When I perceive sin, what I can learn to do is to ask for a different perception. “Now let a new perception come to me.” I can want this new perception, and this is all that’s required of me. Christ—Who is my true Self, eternal and changeless—already “sees no sin.” There is nothing to achieve, nowhere to go; we’re already there. All that’s required is the recognition of what is already true.

What is the Last Judgment? “The final judgment on the world contains no condemnation.” (2:1) Most of us have been taught for generations that in the Last Judgment God will separate the “sheep” from the “goats,” the “wheat” from the “tares”—the good guys from the bad—and send the bad guys into everlasting hell. When we envision standing before God in the Last Judgment, we get a little nervous because we know we’re not perfect. How can there be no condemnation in the Final Judgment? Because God knows He created only perfection. Our Creator “sees the world as totally forgiven, without sin and wholly purposeless.” (2:2) This idea, that the world is “wholly purposeless,” obviously cannot be squared with the idea that God created the world. Would God create anything without purpose? Have you ever looked at the world and thought it was fundamentally without purpose? The endless progression of birth and death doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. We struggle through life, attain what we can, and then we die. Seen without purpose, we can consider letting it go and be willing to be willing to consider that our true home is in God.

Lesson 314—“I seek a future different from the past.” In the ego’s perception, the future is only the result of the past. To the Holy Spirit, “The future now is recognized as but extension of the present” (1:2). What we choose to perceive and believe in the now determines what the future will be like. The future is not determined by the past. By letting go of the past, I bring into being a future different from the past. Without remembrance of the past, fear can have no effect. Let me “choose to use the present to be free” (2:1) The more I practice bringing my fears and hurts to Spirit for healing in the moment, the more peace will extend itself outward into my day. Let me choose to leave past mistakes behind and leave the future in God’s hands.

Lesson 315—“All gifts my brothers give belong to me.” In Lesson 97 we’re told that Spirit will multiply our gifts “tens of thousands” of times—plural tens, so that means as much as ninety million times! The numbers are probably just symbolic of an extremely large number, but Jesus makes it quite clear that an unimaginably large number of minds will be affected by our choice. Every mind that’s open to receive will receive our gifts. In this lesson, we’re given the opposite side of the coin. For all those millions who are open, and who, like us, give the gift of their mind to God for a moment, we, in turn, receive their gifts. All minds are joined, and so this cosmic exchange within the greatest “Internet” in the universe is going on all the time. Everyone is wired in.

Lesson 316—“All gifts I give my brothers are my own.” This lesson is obviously reinforcement to yesterday’s. We not only receive a gift every time one is given by someone else—a smile, a word of mercy, and act of love—but also we receive a gift each time anyone else receives a gift! Our treasure house is full! If we feel uncertain how to go about claiming and recognizing all these treasures, we can join in the prayer that closes this lesson.

Father, I would accept Your gifts today. I do not recognize them. Yet I trust that You Who gave them will provide the means by which I can behold them, see their worth, and cherish only them as what I want.

Lesson 317—“I follow in the way appointed me.” “I have a special place to fill; a role for me alone.” (1:1) There is something that is meant specifically for me to do, and until I find and fulfill my part, “salvation waits.” My particular twist on the insanity of separation needs to be healed before healing is complete. But how do I know what my special function is? Ask Spirit. As a clue, you can know that whatever your function is in some way involves alleviating guilt, some way of recognizing and validating the Christ in those around you.

Lesson 318—“In me salvation’s means and end are one.” The goal of salvation is what I already am, and the vehicle for bringing about salvation (happiness) is also what I am. I am what salvation is, and I am the way to get there. Salvation is the recognition of Oneness and therein the recognition of our purity and wholeness. I am the thing I seek because I have been It since I was created. I don’t need to change. I need to accept what I (and my brother) have always been.

Lesson 319—“I came for the salvation of the world.” CIM is very clear that our purpose here, every one of us, is the salvation of the world. This is quite different from the purpose for which the ego came to the world, which was to find a place that God could not enter, a place to hide from God, so to speak, and eventually, a place to die. But Spirit has a different purpose for everything the ego made for its nefarious purposes. Our purpose here is to bring the world back to light by allowing ourselves to be transformed, becoming God’s extension into the dream to awaken our brothers along with ourselves. I am here to help. I am here to heal. I am here to bless. I am here to save the world.

Practical Application: This week think about what others could do to make you feel whole and worthy and loved. Then look for opportunities to do those things for others. Think Random Acts of Kindness. We’ve had this assignment before, but it can’t be too often repeated.

Assignment: Miracles Principle #47. Lessons 320-326. Focus your reading in The Teacher’s Manual. We’ll be focusing on the Manual for the remainder of the year—which is almost over!