Seven

The creative power of both God and His creations is limitless, but they are not in reciprocal relationship. You *do* communicate fully with God, as He does with you. This is an ongoing process in which you share, and *because* you share it, you are inspired to create *like* God. Yet in creation you are not in reciprocal relation to God, since He created *you*, but you did *not* create Him. We have already said that only in this respect your creative power differs from His. Even in this world there is a parallel. Parents give birth to children, but children do not give birth to parents. They *do*, however, give birth to *their* children and thus give birth *as* their parents do. If you created God and He created you, the Kingdom could not increase through its own creative thought. Creation would therefore be limited, and you would not be co-creators with God. As God's creative Thought proceeds from Him to you, so must your creative thought proceed from you to *your* creations. Only in this way can all creative power extend outward. God's accomplishments are not yours. But yours are *like* His. *He* created the Sonship, and you *increase* it. You have the power to *add* to the Kingdom, but not to add to the *Creator* of the Kingdom. You claim this power when you become vigilant only for God and His Kingdom. *By accepting* this power as yours, you have learned to be what you are. Your creations belong in you, as you belong in God. You are part of God, as your sons are part of His Sons. To create is to love. Love extends outward simply because it cannot be contained. Being limitless, *it does not stop.* It creates forever, but not in time. God's creations have always been, because *He* has always been. *Your* creations have always been, because you can create only as God creates. Eternity is yours, because He created you eternal.

The ego demands reciprocal rights because it is competitive rather than loving. It is always willing to make a “deal,” but it cannot understand that to be *like* another means that *no* deals are possible. To gain you must give, not bargain. To bargain is to limit giving, and this is not God's Will. To will with God is to create like Him. God does not limit His gifts in any way. *You* are His gifts, and so your gifts must be like His. Your gifts *to* the Kingdom must be like His gifts to *you*. I gave *only* love to the Kingdom because I believed that was what I *was*. What you believe you are *determines* your gifts, and if God created you by extending Himself *as* you, you can only extend *yourself* as He did. Only joy increases forever, since joy and eternity are inseparable. God extends outward beyond limits and beyond time, and you who are co-creators with Him extend His Kingdom forever and beyond limit. Eternity is the indelible stamp of creation. The eternal are in peace and joy forever. To think like God is to share His *certainty* of what you are and to *create* like Him is to share the perfect love He shares with *you*. To this the Holy Spirit leads you that your joy may be complete, because the Kingdom of God is whole. We have said that the last step in the reawakening of knowledge is taken by God. This is true, but it is hard to explain in words because words are symbols, and nothing that is true *needs* to be explained. However, the Holy Spirit has the task of translating the use*less* into the use*ful*, the meaning*less* into the meaning*ful*, and the temporary into the timeless. He *can* therefore tell you something about this last step, although this one you must know yourself, since *by* it you know what you are. This *is* your being. God does not *take* steps, because His accomplishments are not gradual. He does not teach, because His creations are changeless. He does nothing *last*, because He created *first* and *for always*. It must be understood that the word “first” as applied to Him is *not* a time concept. He is first in the sense that He is the first in the Holy Trinity itself. He is the Prime Creator, because He created His co-creators. *Because* He did, time applies neither to Him *nor* to what He created. The “last step” that God \[was said to\] take was therefore true in the beginning, is true now, and will be true forever. What is timeless is *always* there, because its *being* is eternally changeless. It does not change by increase, because it was forever created *to* increase. If you perceive it as *not* increasing, you do not know what it *is*. You also do not know what created it or Who *He* is. God does not *reveal* this to you, because it was never hidden. His light was never obscured, because it is His Will to *share* it. How can what is fully shared be withheld and *then* revealed? To heal is the only kind of thinking in this world that resembles the Thought of God, and because of the elements which they share, can transfer *to* it. When a brother perceives himself as sick, he is perceiving himself as *not whole* and therefore *in need.* If you too see him this way, you are seeing him as if he were absent from the Kingdom or separated from it, thus making the Kingdom itself obscure to *both* of you. Sickness and separation are not of God, but the Kingdom is. If you obscure the Kingdom, you are perceiving what is *not of God*.

To heal, then, is to correct perception in your brother *and* yourself by sharing the Holy Spirit with him. This places you *both* within the Kingdom and restores its wholeness in your minds. This parallels creation, because it *unifies by increasing* and *integrates by extending*. What you project you believe. This is an immutable law of the mind in this world as well as in the Kingdom. However, the content is different in this world, because the thoughts it governs are very different from the thoughts in the Kingdom. Laws must be adapted to circumstances if they are to maintain order. The outstanding characteristic of the laws of mind as they operate in this world is that by obeying them—and I assure you that you *must* obey them—you can arrive at diametrically opposed results. This is because the laws have adapted to the circumstances of this world, in which diametrically opposed outcomes *are* believed in. The laws of mind govern thoughts, and you *do* respond to two conflicting voices. You have heard many arguments on behalf of “the freedoms,” which would indeed have been freedom if man had not chosen to *fight* for them. That is why they perceive “the freedoms” as many instead of as one. Yet the argument that underlies the defense of freedom is perfectly valid. Because it is true, it should not be *fought* for, but it *should* be sided *with*. Those who are against freedom believe that its outcome will *hurt* them, which *cannot* be true. But those who are *for* freedom, even if they are misguided in how \[they\] defend it, are siding with the one thing in this world which *is* true. Whenever anyone can listen fairly to both sides of *any* issue, he will make the right decision. This is because he *has* the answer. Conflict can *seem* to be interpersonal, but it *must* be intrapersonal first. The term “intrapersonal” is an ego term, because “personal” implies “of *one* person” and *not* of others. “Interpersonal” has a similar error in that it refers to something that exists among different or *separate* people. When we spoke before of the extremely *personal* nature of revelation, we followed this statement immediately with a description of the inevitable outcomes of the revelation in terms of *sharing*. A person conceives of himself as separate largely because he perceives *of* himself as bounded by a body. *Only* if he perceives himself as a *mind* can \[he overcome this\]. Then he is free to use terms like “intramental” and “intermental” *without* seeing them as different \[and\] conflicting, because minds *can* be in perfect accord. *Outside* the Kingdom, the law which prevails *inside* it is adapted to “what you project you *believe*.” This is its *teaching* form, since outside the Kingdom teaching is mandatory, because *learning* is essential. This form of the law clearly implies that you will learn what *you* are from what you have projected onto others and therefore believe *they* are. *In* the Kingdom there is no teaching *or* learning, because there is no *belief*. There is only *certainty.* God and His Sons, in the surety of being, *know* that what you project you *are*. That form of the law is not adapted at all, being the Law of Creation. God Himself created the law by creating *by* it. And His Sons, who create like Him, follow it gladly, knowing that the increase of the Kingdom depends on it, just as their own creation did. Laws must be communicated if they are to be helpful. In effect, they must be *translated* for those who speak a different language. Nevertheless, a good translator, although he must alter the *form* of what he translates, *never* changes the meaning. In fact, his whole purpose is to change the form *so that* the original meaning is retained. The Holy Spirit is the *translator* of the laws of God to those who do *not* understand them. You could not do this yourselves, because conflicted minds *cannot* be faithful to one meaning and will therefore *change the meaning to preserve the form*. The Holy Spirit's purpose in translating is naturally *exactly* the opposite. He translates only to *preserve* the original meaning in *all* respects and in *all* languages. Therefore, He opposes differences in form as meaningful, emphasizing always that *these differences do not matter*. The meaning of His message is *always* the same, and *only* the meaning matters. God's Law of Creation in perfect form does not involve the *use* of truth to convince His Sons *of* truth. The *extension* of truth, which *is* the Law of the Kingdom, rests only on the knowledge of what truth *is.* This is your inheritance and requires no learning at all, but when you *dis*inherited yourselves, you *became* learners. No one questions the intimate connection of learning and memory. Learning is impossible *without* memory, since it cannot be consistent *unless* it is remembered. That is why the Holy Spirit *is* a lesson in remembering. We said before that He teaches remembering and forgetting, but the forgetting aspect is only *to make the remembering consistent*. You forget in order to *remember better*. You will *not* understand His translations while you listen to two ways of perceiving them. Therefore, you must forget or relinquish one to *understand* the other. This is the only way you *can* learn consistency so that you can finally *be* consistent. What can the perfect consistency of the Kingdom mean to the confused? It is apparent that confusion *interferes* with meaning and therefore *prevents the learner from appreciating* it. There is *no* confusion in the Kingdom, because there is only *one* meaning. This meaning comes from God and *is* God. Because it is also *you*, you share it and *extend* it as your Creator did. This needs no translation, because it is perfectly understood, but it *does* need extension because it *means* extension. Communication is perfectly direct and perfectly united. It is totally without strain, because nothing discordant *ever* enters. That is why it *is* the Kingdom of God. It belongs to Him and is therefore *like* Him. That is its reality, and nothing *can* assail it.

To heal is to liberate totally. We once said there is no order of difficulty in miracles, because they are *all* maximal expressions of love. This has no range at all. The non-maximal only *appears* to have a range. This is because it *seems* to be meaningful to measure it *from* the maximum and identify its position by *how much* it is *not* there. Actually, this does not mean anything. It is like negative numbers in that the concept can be used theoretically, but it has no application practically. It is true that if you put three apples on the table and then take them away, the three apples are not there. But it is *not* true that the table is now *minus* three apples. If there is *nothing* on the table, it does not matter what *was* there in terms of amount. The “nothing” is neither greater nor less because of what is absent. That is why “all” and “nothing” are dichotomous, *without* a range. This is perfectly clear in considering psychological tests of maximal performance. You cannot interpret the results *at all* unless you assume either *maximal* motivation or *no* motivation at all. Only in these two conditions can you validly compare responses, and you *must* assume the former, because if the latter were true, the subject would not do *anything*. Given *variable* motivation, he *will* do something, but *you* cannot understand *what it is*. The results of such tests are evaluated relatively *assuming* maximal motivation, but this is because we are dealing with *abilities*, where degree of development is meaningful. This does *not* mean that what the ability is used *for* is necessarily either limited *or* divided. Yet one thing is certain—abilities are *potentials* for learning, and you will apply them to what you *want* to learn. Learning is *effort*, and effort means *will.* We have used the term “abilities” in the plural, because abilities began with the ego, which perceived them as *potentials for excelling*. This is how the ego *still* perceives them and uses them. The ego does not *want* to teach everyone all it has learned, because that would *defeat* its purpose. Therefore, it does not *really* learn at all. The Holy Spirit teaches you to use what the ego has made to teach the *opposite* of what the ego has learned. The *kind* of learning is as irrelevant as is the particular ability which was applied *to* the learning. You could not have a better example of the Holy Spirit's unified purpose than this course. The Holy Spirit has taken very diversified areas of *your* learning and has applied them to a *unified* curriculum. The fact that this was *not* the ego's reason for learning is totally irrelevant. *You* made the effort to learn, and the Holy Spirit has a unified goal for *all* effort. He *adapts* the ego's potentials for excelling to potentials for *equalizing*. This makes them *useless* for the ego's purpose but *very* useful for His. If different abilities are applied long enough to one goal, the abilities *themselves* become unified. This is because they are channelized in one direction or in one *way*. Ultimately, then, they all contribute to *one result*, and by so doing, their similarity rather than their differences is emphasized. You can *excel* in many *different* ways, but you can *equalize* in *one way only*. Equality is *not* a variable state, by definition. That is why you will be able to perform *all* aspects of your work with ease when you have learned *this* course. To the ego there appears to be no connection, because the *ego* is discontinuous. Yet the Holy Spirit teaches *one* lesson and applies it to *all* individuals in *all* situations. Being conflict-free, He maximizes *all* efforts and *all* results. By teaching the power of the Kingdom of God Himself, He teaches you that *all power is yours*. Its application does not matter. It is *always* maximal. Your vigilance does not *establish* it as yours, but it *does* enable you to use it *always* and in *all ways.* When I said, “I am with you always,” I meant it literally. I am not absent to *anyone* in *any* situation. *Because* I am always with you, *you* are the way and the truth and the light. You did not make this power, any more than I did. It was created to *be* shared and therefore cannot be meaningfully perceived as belonging to anyone *at the expense* of another. Such a perception makes it meaningless by eliminating or overlooking its *real* and *only* meaning.

God's meaning waits in the Kingdom, because that is where He placed it. It does not wait in time. It merely *rests* in the Kingdom, because it *belongs* there, as you do. How can you, who *are* God's meaning, perceive yourselves as absent *from* it? You can see yourselves as separated from your meaning only *by experiencing yourself as unreal*. This is why the ego is insane; it teaches that you are *not* what you *are.* This is so contradictory that it is clearly impossible. It is therefore a lesson which you *cannot really learn*, and therefore *cannot really teach*. Yet you are always teaching. You *must* therefore be teaching something *else* as well, even though the ego *does not know what it is*. The ego, then, *is* always being undone and *does* suspect your motives. Your mind *cannot* be unified in allegiance to the ego, because the mind does *not* belong to it. Yet what is “treacherous” to the ego *is* faithful to peace. The ego's “enemy” is therefore *your* friend. We said before that the ego's friend is not part of you, since the ego perceives itself as at war and therefore in need of allies. *You* who are *not* at war must look for brothers and *recognize* all whom you see *as* brothers, because *only* equals are at peace. Because God's equal Sons have everything, they *cannot* compete. Yet if they perceive *any* of their brothers as anything other than their perfect equals, the idea of competition *has* entered their minds. Do not underestimate your need to be vigilant *against* this idea, because *all* your conflicts come from it. It is the belief that conflicting interests are possible, and therefore you have accepted the impossible as *true*. How is that different from saying that you are perceiving *yourself* as unreal? To be *in* the Kingdom is merely to focus your full attention *on* it. As long as you believe that you can attend to what is not true, you are accepting conflict as your *choice*. Is it *really* a choice? It *seems* to be, but seeming and reality are hardly the same. You who *are* the Kingdom are not concerned with seeming. Reality is yours, because you *are* reality. This is how having and being are ultimately reconciled, not in the Kingdom, but *in your minds*. The altar there is the *only* reality. The altar is perfectly clear in thought, because it is a reflection of *perfect* Thought. It sees only brothers, because it sees *only* in its own light. God has lit your minds Himself and keeps your minds lit by His light, because His light is what your minds *are*. This is *totally* beyond question, and when you questioned it you *were* answered. The answer merely *undoes* the question by establishing the fact that to question reality is to question meaninglessly. That is why the Holy Spirit *never* questions. His sole function is to *undo* the questionable and thus lead to *certainty*. The certain are perfectly calm, because they are not in doubt. They do not raise questions, because nothing questionable *enters* their minds. This holds them in perfect serenity, because this is what they share, *knowing* what they are. As has so often been said, healing is both an art and a science. It is an art, because it depends on inspiration in the sense that we have already used the term. Inspiration is the opposite of dispiriting and therefore means to make joyous. The dispirited are depressed, because they believe that they are literally “without the Spirit,” which is an illusion. You do not *put* the Spirit in them by inspiring them, because that would be magic and therefore would not be real healing. You *do*, however, recognize the Spirit that is *already* there and thereby *reawaken* it. This is why the healer is part of the resurrection and the *life.* The Spirit is not asleep in the minds of the sick, but the part of the mind that can perceive it and be glad *is*. Healing is also a science, because it obeys the laws of God, Whose laws are true. *Because* they are true, they are perfectly dependable and therefore universal in application. The *real* aim of science is neither prediction nor control but *only* understanding. This is because it does *not* establish the laws it seeks, *cannot* discover them through prediction, and has *no* control over them at all. Science is nothing more than an approach to *what already is*. Like inspiration it can be misunderstood as magic and *will* be whenever it is undertaken as *separate* from what already is and perceived as a means for *establishing* it. To believe this is possible is to believe *you can do it*. This can *only* be the voice of the ego. Truth can only be *recognized* and *need* only be recognized. Inspiration is of the Spirit, and certainty is of God according to His laws. Both, therefore, come from the same Source, \[because\] inspiration comes from the Voice *for* God, and certainty comes from the laws *of* God. Healing does not come *directly* from God, Who knows His creations as perfectly whole. Yet healing is \[nevertheless\] *of* God, because it proceeds from His Voice and from His laws. It is their result, in a state of mind which does *not* know Him. The *state* is unknown to Him and therefore does not exist, but those who sleep *are* stupefied, or better, *unaware*. \[*And because*\] they are unaware, they do *not* know. The Holy Spirit must work *through* you to teach you He is *in* you. This is an intermediary step toward the knowledge that you are in God, because you are part of Him. The miracles which the Holy Spirit inspires can have no order of difficulty, because every part of creation is of *one* order. This is God's *Will and yours*. The laws of God *establish* this, and the Holy Spirit reminds you *of* it. When you heal, you are *remembering* the laws of God and forgetting the laws of the ego. We said before that forgetting is merely a way of remembering *better.* It is therefore *not* the opposite of remembering, when it is properly perceived. Perceived *improperly*, it induces a perception of *conflict* with something *else*, as all incorrect perception does. *Properly* perceived, it can be used as a way *out* of conflict, as all proper perception can. *All* abilities, then, should be given over to the Holy Spirit, *Who knows how to use them properly.* He can use them *only* for healing, because He knows you *only* as whole. *By* healing you learn of wholeness, and by learning of wholeness you learn to remember God. You *have* forgotten Him, but the Holy Spirit still knows that your forgetting must be translated into a way of *remembering* and *not* perceived as a separate ability which opposes an opposite. That is the way in which the ego tries to use *all* abilities, since its goal is always to make you believe that *you* are in opposition. The ego's goal is as unified as the Holy Spirit's, and it is because of this that their goals can *never* be reconciled in *any* way or to *any* extent. The ego *always* seeks to divide and separate. The Holy Spirit *always* seeks to unify and heal. As you heal you *are* healed, because the Holy Spirit sees no order of healing. Healing is the way to *undo* the belief in differences, being the *only* way of perceiving the Sonship without this belief. This perception is therefore *in* accord with the laws of God, even in a state of mind which is *out* of accord with His. The strength of right perception is so great that it brings the mind *into* accord with His, because it yields to His pull which is in all of you. To *oppose* the pull or the Will of God is not an ability but a real *delusion*. The ego believes that it *has* this ability and can offer it to you as a gift. *You do not want it*. It is *not* a gift. It is *nothing at all*. God has given you a gift which you both have and are. When you do not use it, you do not know you *have* it. By *not* knowing this, you do not know what you are. Healing, then, is a way of *approaching* knowledge by thinking *in accordance* with the laws of God and recognizing their *universality*. Without this recognition, you have made the laws themselves meaningless to you. Yet the *laws* are not meaningless, since all meaning is contained *by* them and *in* them. Seek ye *first* the Kingdom of Heaven, because that is where the laws of God operate truly, and they can operate *only* truly since they are the laws of Truth. But seek this *only* because you can *find* nothing else. There *is* nothing else. God is all in all in a very literal sense. All being is in Him Who *is* all Being. *You* are therefore in Him since *your* being *is* His. Healing is a way of forgetting the sense of danger the ego has induced in *you* by *not* recognizing its existence in your brothers. This strengthens the Holy Spirit in *both* of you, because it is a *refusal* to acknowledge fear. Love needs only this invitation. It comes freely to *all* the Sonship, being what the Sonship *is*. By your awakening *to* it, you are merely forgetting what you are *not*. This enables you to remember what you *are*.

The body is nothing more than a framework for developing abilities. It is therefore a means for developing *potentials*, which is quite apart from what the potential is used *for*. *That* is a *decision*. The effects of the ego's decision in this matter are so apparent that they need no elaboration here, but the Holy Spirit's decision to use the body *only* for communication has such a direct connection with healing that it *does* need clarification. The unhealed healer *obviously* does not understand his own vocation. *Only* minds communicate. Since the ego *cannot* obliterate the impulse to communicate because it is also the impulse to create, the ego can only teach you that the *body* can both communicate *and* create and therefore does not *need* the mind. The ego thus tries to teach you that the body can *act* like the mind and is therefore self-sufficient. Yet we have learned that behavior is *not* the level for either teaching *or* learning. This must be so, since you *can* act in accordance with what you do *not* believe. To do this, however, will weaken you as teachers *and* learners because, as has been repeatedly emphasized, you teach what you *do* believe. An inconsistent lesson will be poorly taught *and poorly learned*. If you teach both sickness *and* healing, you are both a poor teacher *and* a poor learner. Healing is the one ability which everyone can develop and *must* develop if he is to be healed. Healing is the Holy Spirit's form of communication and the *only* one He knows. He recognizes no other, because He does not accept the ego's confusion of mind and body. Minds can communicate, but they *cannot* hurt. The body in the service of the ego can hurt other *bodies*, but this cannot occur unless the body has *already* been confused with the mind. This fact, too, can be used either for healing or for magic, but you must remember that magic is *always* the belief that healing is *harmful*. This is its totally insane premise, and so it proceeds accordingly. Healing only *strengthens*. Magic *always* tries to weaken. Healing perceives *nothing* in the healer that everyone else does not *share* with him. Magic *always* sees something “special” in the healer which he believes he can offer as a gift to someone who does *not* have it. He may believe that the gift comes *from* God to Him, but it is quite evident that he does not understand God if he thinks he has something that others \[*do not*\]. You might well ask, then, why some healing *can* result from this kind of thinking, and there is a reason for this. However misguided the “magical healer” may be, he is *also* trying to help. He is conflicted and unstable, but *at times* he is offering something to the Sonship, and the only thing the Sonship can *accept* is healing. When the so-called “healing” works, then, the impulse to help and to *be* helped have coincided. This is coincidental, because the healer may *not* be experiencing himself as truly helpful at the time, but the belief that he *is*, in the mind of another, helps *him*. The Holy Spirit does *not* work by chance, and healing that is of Him *always* works. Unless the healer *always* heals by Him, the results *will* vary. Yet healing itself *is* consistence since *only* consistence is conflict-free, and only the conflict-free *are* whole. By accepting exceptions and acknowledging that he can sometimes heal and sometimes not, the healer is *obviously* accepting inconsistency. He is therefore *in* conflict and *teaching* conflict. Can anything of God *not* be for all and for always? Love is incapable of *any* exceptions. Only if there is fear does the *idea* of exceptions seem to be meaningful. Exceptions are fearful, because they are made *by* fear. The “fearful healer” is a contradiction in terms and is therefore a concept which *only* a conflicted mind could possibly perceive as meaningful. Fear does *not* gladden. Healing *does*. Fear *always* makes exceptions. Healing *never* does. Fear produces dissociation, because it induces *separation*. Healing *always* produces harmony, because it proceeds from integration. Healing is predictable, because it can be counted on. *Everything* that is of God can be counted on, because everything of God is wholly *real*. Healing can be counted on, *because* it is inspired by His Voice and is in accord with His laws. Yet if healing *is* consistence, it cannot be inconsistently understood. Understanding *means* consistence because God means consistence. Since that is *His* meaning, it is also *yours*. Your meaning cannot *be* out of accord with His because your whole meaning, and your *only* meaning, comes *from* His and is *like* His. God cannot be out of accord with *Himself*, and *you* cannot be out of accord with Him. You cannot separate your *self* from your Creator, Who created you by sharing *His* Being *with* you. The unhealed healer wants gratitude *from* his brothers, but he is not grateful *to* them. This is because he thinks he is *giving* something *to* them and is *not* receiving something equally desirable in return. His *teaching* is limited, because he is *learning* so little. His healing lesson is limited by his own ingratitude, which is a lesson in *sickness*. Learning is constant and so vital in its power for change that a Son of God can recognize his power in one instant and change the world in the next. That is because by changing *his* mind he has changed the most powerful device that was ever created *for* change. This in no way contradicts the changelessness of mind as *God* created it, but you think that you *have* changed it as long as you learn through the ego. This *does* place you in a position of needing to learn a lesson which seems contradictory—you must learn to change your mind *about* your mind. Only by this can you learn that it *is* changeless. When you heal that is exactly what you *are* learning. You are recognizing the changeless mind in your brother by realizing that he *could* not have changed his mind. That is how you perceive the Holy Spirit in him. It is *only* the Holy Spirit in him that never changes His Mind. He himself must think he *can*, or he would not perceive himself as sick. He therefore does not know what his self *is*. If *you* see only the changeless in him, you have not really changed him at all. By changing *your* mind about his *for* him, you help him *undo* the change his ego thinks it has made in him. As you can hear two voices, so you can see in two ways. One way shows you an image, or better, an idol which you may worship out of fear but which you will never love. The other shows you only truth, which you will love, because you will *understand* it. Understanding is *appreciation*, because what you understand you can *identify* with, and by making it part of *you*, you have accepted it with love. That is how God Himself created *you*—in understanding, in appreciation, and in love. The ego is totally unable to understand this, because it does *not* understand what it makes; it does *not* appreciate it; and it does *not* love it. It incorporates to *take away.* It literally believes that every time it deprives someone of something, *it* has increased. We have spoken often of the increase of the Kingdom by *your* creations, which can only be created as *you* were. The whole glory and perfect joy that *is* the Kingdom lies in you to give. Do you not *want* to give it? You *cannot* forget the Father, because I am with you, and *I* cannot forget Him. To forget *me* is to forget yourself and Him Who created you. Our brothers *are* forgetful. That is why they need your remembrance of me and Him who created me. Through this remembrance, you can change their minds about *themselves*, as I can change *yours.* Your minds are so powerful a light that you can look into theirs and enlighten them, as I can enlighten yours. I do not want to share my *body* in communion, because that is to share nothing. \[Would I try to share an illusion with the most holy children of a most holy Father?\] Yet I do want to share my *mind* with you, because we *are* of One Mind and that Mind *is* ours. See *only* this mind everywhere, because only this *is* everywhere and in everything. It *is* everything, because it encompasses all things within *itself*. Blessed are you who perceive only this, because you perceive only what is true. Come therefore unto me and learn of the truth in *you*. The mind we share is shared by all our brothers, and as we see them truly, they *will* be healed. Let *your* mind shine with mine upon their minds and by our gratitude to them make them aware of the light in *them*. This light will shine back upon *you* and on the whole Sonship, because this is your proper gift to God. He will accept it and give it to the Sonship, because it is acceptable to Him and therefore to His Sons. This is the true communion of the Spirit, Who sees the altar of God in everyone and, by bringing it to *your* appreciation, calls upon you to love God *and* His creations. You can appreciate the Sonship *only* as one. This is part of the Law of Creation and therefore governs *all* thought.

Although you can *love* the Sonship only as one, you can *perceive* it as fragmented. It is impossible, however, for you to see something in *part* of it that you will not attribute to *all* of it. That is why attack is *never* discrete and why attack must be relinquished *entirely*. If it is *not* relinquished entirely, it is not relinquished at all. Fear and love are equally reciprocal. They make or create, depending on whether the ego or the Holy Spirit begets or inspires them, but they *will* return to the mind of the thinker, and they *will* affect his total perception. That includes his perception of God, of His creations, and of his own. He will not appreciate *any* of them if he regards them fearfully. He will appreciate *all* of them if he regards them with love. The mind that accepts attack *cannot* love. That is because it believes that it can *destroy* love and therefore does not understand what love *is.* If it does not understand what love is, it *cannot* perceive itself as loving. This loses the awareness of being, induces feelings of unreality, and results in utter confusion. Your own thinking has done this because of its power, but your own thinking can also save you *from* this, because its power is *not* of your making. Your ability to *direct* your thinking as you will is *part* of its power. If you do not believe you can do this, you have *denied* the power of your thought and thus rendered it powerless in your *belief.* The ingeniousness of the ego to preserve itself is enormous, but it stems from the power of the mind, which the ego *denies*. This means that the ego *attacks* what is *preserving* it, and this *must* be a source of extreme anxiety. That is why the ego *never* knows what it is doing. It is perfectly logical but clearly insane. The ego draws upon the one source which is totally inimical to its existence *for* its existence. Fearful of perceiving the *power* of this source, it is forced to depreciate it. This threatens its *own* existence, a state which it finds intolerable. Remaining logical but still insane, the ego resolves this completely insane dilemma in a completely insane way. It does not perceive *its* existence as threatened by projecting the threat onto *you* and perceiving your *being* as nonexistent. This ensures *its* continuance if you side with it by guaranteeing that you will not know your *own* safety. The ego cannot afford to know *anything*. Knowledge is total, and the ego does not *believe* in totality. This unbelief is its origin and, while the ego does not love *you*, it *is* faithful to its own antecedents, begetting as it was begotten. Mind *always* reproduces as it was produced. Produced by fear, the ego reproduces fear. This is its allegiance, and this allegiance makes it treacherous to love, *because* you are love. Love is your power, which the ego must deny. It must also deny everything which this power gives you, because it gives you *everything*. No one who has everything *wants* the ego. Its own maker, then, does not want it. Rejection is therefore the only decision which the ego could possibly encounter, if the mind which made it knew *itself*. And if it recognized *any* part of the Sonship, it *would* know itself. The ego therefore opposes *all* appreciation, *all* recognition, *all* sane perception, and *all* knowledge. It perceives their threat as total, because it senses the fact that *all* commitments the mind makes *are* total. Forced, therefore, to detach itself from you who *are* mind, it is willing to attach itself to *anything* else. But there *is* nothing else. It does not follow that the mind cannot make illusions, but it *does* follow that if it makes illusions it will believe in them, because that is *how* it made them. The Holy Spirit undoes illusions without attacking them merely because He cannot perceive them at all. They therefore do not exist for Him. He resolves the *apparent* conflict which they engender by perceiving *conflict* as meaningless. We said before that the Holy Spirit perceives the conflict exactly as it is, and it *is* meaningless. The Holy Spirit does not want you to *understand* conflict; He wants you to realize that, *because* conflict is meaningless, it cannot *be* understood. We have already said that understanding brings appreciation, and appreciation brings love. Nothing else *can* *be* understood, because nothing else is *real*, and therefore nothing else *has* meaning. If you will keep in mind what the Holy Spirit offers you, you cannot be vigilant for anything *but* God and His Kingdom. The only reason you find this difficult is because you think there *is* something else. Belief does not require vigilance *unless* it is conflicted. If it is, there *are* conflicting components within it which have engendered a state of war, and vigilance therefore has become essential. Vigilance has no place at all in peace. It is necessary against beliefs which are *not* true and would never have been called upon by the Holy Spirit if you had *not* believed the untrue. You cannot deny that, when you believe something, you have *made* it true for *you*. When you believe what God does not *know*, your thought seems to *contradict* His, and this makes it appear *as if* you are attacking Him. We have repeatedly emphasized that the ego *does* believe it can attack God and tries to persuade you that *you* have done this. If the mind *cannot* attack, the ego proceeds perfectly logically to the position that you cannot *be* mind. By not seeing you as you *are*, it can see *itself* as it *wants* to be. Aware of its weakness, the ego wants your allegiance, but not as you really are. The ego therefore wants to engage your mind in its *own* delusional system, because otherwise the light of *your* understanding would dispel it. The ego wants no part of truth, because the truth is that the *ego* is not true. *If* truth is total, the untrue *cannot* exist. Commitment to either must be *total*, since they cannot coexist in your minds *without* splitting them. If they cannot coexist in peace and if you *want* peace, you must give up the idea of conflict *entirely* and for *all* *time.* \[This requires vigilance *only* as long as *you do not recognize what is true*.\] While you believe that two totally contradictory thought systems *share* truth, your need for vigilance is apparent. Your minds *are* dividing their allegiance between two kingdoms, and you are totally committed to neither. Your identification with the Kingdom is totally beyond question, except by you when you are thinking insanely. What you are is not established by your perception and is not influenced *by* it at all. All perceived problems in identification at any level are *not* problems of fact. They are problems of *understanding*, since they *mean* that you believe what you can understand *is* up to you to decide. The ego believes this totally, being *fully* committed to it. It is not true. The ego therefore is totally committed to untruth, perceiving in total contradiction to the Holy Spirit and to the knowledge of God. You can be perceived with meaning *only* by the Holy Spirit, because your being *is* the knowledge of God. Any belief that you accept which is apart from this will obscure God's Voice in you and will therefore obscure God *to* you. Unless you perceive His creation truly, you cannot know the Creator, since God and His creation are not separate. The Oneness of the Creator and the creation is your wholeness, your sanity, and your limitless power. This limitless power is God's gift to you, because it is what you *are.* If you dissociate your mind from it, you are perceiving the most powerful force in the universe \[of thought\] as if it were weak, because you do not believe *you* are part of it. Perceived *without* your part in it, God's creation *is* perceived as weak, and those who see themselves as weakened *do* attack. The attack must be blind, however, because there is nothing *to* attack. Therefore, they make up images, perceive them as unworthy, and attack them for their unworthiness. That is all the world of the ego is—*nothing*. It has no meaning. It does not exist. Do not try to understand it, because if you do, you are believing that it can *be* understood and is therefore capable of being appreciated and loved. That would justify it, and it cannot *be* justified. You cannot make the meaningless meaningful. This can *only* be an insane attempt. Allowing insanity to enter your minds means that you have not judged sanity as *wholly desirable.* If you *want* something else, you will *make* something else, but because it *is* something else, it will attack your thought system and divide your allegiance. You cannot create in this divided state, and you must be vigilant *against* this divided state, because only peace can *be* extended. Your divided minds are blocking the extension of the Kingdom, and its extension *is* your joy. If you do not extend the Kingdom, you are not thinking with your Creator and creating as He created. In this depressing state, the Holy Spirit reminds you gently that you are sad because you are not fulfilling your function as co-creators with God and are therefore depriving yourselves of joy. This is not God's Will but *yours*. If your will is out of accord with God's, you are willing without meaning. Yet because God's Will is unchangeable, no *real* conflict of will is possible. This is the Holy Spirit's perfectly consistent teaching. Creation, *not* separation, is your will *because* it is God's, and nothing that opposes this means anything at all. Being a perfect accomplishment, the Sonship can only accomplish perfectly, extending the joy in which it was created and identifying itself with both its Creator and its creations, *knowing* they are one.

Whenever you deny a blessing to a brother, *you* will feel deprived. This is because denial is as total as love. It is as impossible to deny part of the Sonship as it is to love it in part. Nor is it possible to love it totally *at times*. You cannot be *totally* committed *sometimes*. Remember a very early lesson—“Never underestimate the power of denial.” It has no power in itself, but you can give it the power of *your* mind, whose power is without limit of any kind. If you use it to deny reality, reality *is* gone for you. *Reality cannot be partly appreciated*. That is why denying any part of it means you have lost awareness of *all* of it. That is the negative side of the law as it operates in this world. Yet denial is a defense, and so it is as capable of being used positively as it is of being used destructively. Used negatively it *will* be destructive because it will be used for attack, but in the service of the Holy Spirit, \[the law becomes as beneficent as all of the laws of God. Stated positively,\] the law requires you to recognize only *part* of reality to appreciate *all* of it. Mind is too powerful to be subject to exclusion. You will *never* be able to exclude yourself from what you project. When a brother acts insanely, he is offering you an opportunity to bless him. His need is *yours*. You *need* the blessing you can offer him. There is no way for you to have it *except* by giving it. This is the law of God, and it has *no* exceptions. What you deny you *lack*, not because it *is* lacking, but because you have denied it in another and are therefore not aware of it in *you*. Every response you make is determined by what you *think* you are, and what you *want* to be *is* what you think you are. Therefore, what you want to be determines every response you make. You do not need God's blessing since that you have forever, but you *do* need *yours.* The picture you see of yourselves is deprived, unloving, and very vulnerable. You *cannot* love this. Yet you can very easily escape from it or, better, leave it behind. You are not *there*, and that is not *you*. Do not see this picture in anyone, or you have accepted it *as* you. *All* illusions about the Sonship are dispelled together, as they were *made* together. Teach no one that he is what *you* would *not* want to be. Your brother is the mirror in which you will see the image of yourself as long as perception lasts. And perception *will* last until the Sonship knows itself as whole. You made perception, and it must last as long as you *want* it. Illusions are investments. They will last as long as you value them. Values are relative, but they are powerful because they are mental judgments. The only way to dispel illusions is to withdraw *all* investment from them, and they will have no life for you, because you have put them *out of your mind*. While you include them *in* it, you are *giving* life to them, except there is nothing there to receive your gift. The gift of life *is* yours to give because it was given *you.* You are unaware of your gift, *because* you do not give it. You cannot make nothing live since it cannot *be* enlivened. Therefore, you are not extending the gift you both *have* and *are*, and so you do not know your being. *All* confusion comes from not extending life, since that is *not* the Will of your Creator. You can do nothing apart from Him, and you *do* do nothing apart from Him. Keep His way to remember yourselves and teach His way, lest you forget yourselves. Give only honor to the Sons of the living God and count yourselves among them gladly. *Only* honor is a fitting gift for those whom God Himself created worthy of honor and whom He honors. Give them the appreciation which God accords them always, because they are His beloved Sons in whom He is well pleased. You cannot *be* apart from them, because you are not apart from Him. Rest in His Love and protect your rest by loving. But love *everything* He created of which you are a part, or you cannot learn of His peace and accept His gift for *yourself* and *as* yourself. You cannot know your own perfection until you have honored all those who were created *like* you. One Child of God is the *only* teacher sufficiently worthy to teach another. One Teacher is in all your minds, and He teaches the same lesson to all. He always teaches you the inestimable worth of *every* Son of God, teaching it with infinite patience born of the \[love of Him for whom\] He speaks. Every attack is a call for His patience, since *only* His patience can translate attack into blessing. Those who attack do not *know* they are blessed. They attack because they believe they are *deprived*. Give therefore of *your* abundance and teach your brothers *theirs*. Do not share their delusions of scarcity, or you will perceive *yourself* as lacking. Attack could never promote attack unless you perceived it as a means of depriving you of something you *want*. Yet you cannot *lose* anything unless *you* did not value it and therefore did not *want* it. This makes you feel *deprived* of it, and by projecting your own rejection, you believe that others are taking it *from* you. One *must* be fearful if he believes that his brother is attacking him to tear the Kingdom of Heaven from him. This is the ultimate basis for *all* of the ego's projection. Being the part of your mind which does not believe it is responsible for *itself* and being without allegiance to God, the ego is incapable of trust. Projecting its insane belief that *you* have been treacherous to *your* Creator, it believes that your brothers, who are as incapable of this as *you* are, are out to take God *from* you. Whenever a brother attacks another, this *is* what he believes. Projection *always* sees your will in others. If you will to separate yourself from God, that *is* what you will think others are doing *to* you. You *are* the Will of God. Do not accept anything else *as* your will, or you are denying what you are. Deny this and you *will* attack, believing you have *been* attacked. But see the Love of God in you, and you will see it everywhere, because it *is* everywhere. See His abundance in everyone, and you will know that you are in Him *with* them. They are part of you, as you are part of God. *You* are as lonely without understanding this as God Himself is lonely when His Sons do not know Him. The peace of God *is* understanding this. There is only one way *out* of the world's thinking, just as there was only one way *into* it. Understand totally by understanding *totality*. Perceive *any* part of the ego's thought system as wholly insane, wholly delusional, and wholly undesirable, and you have correctly evaluated *all* of it. This correction enables you to perceive *any* part of creation as wholly real, wholly perfect, and *wholly desirable.* Wanting this *only*, you will *have* this only, and giving this only, you will *be* only this. The gifts you offer to the ego are *always* experienced as sacrifices, but the gifts you offer to the Kingdom are gifts to *you.* They will always be treasured by God, because they belong to His beloved Sons who belong to Him. All power and glory are yours, *because* the Kingdom is His.

We once said that without projection there can be no anger, but it is also true that without projection there can be no love. Projection is a fundamental law of the mind and therefore one which *always* operates. It is the law by which you create and were created. It is the law which unifies the Kingdom and keeps it in the Mind of God. To the ego, the law is perceived as a way of getting *rid* of something it does *not* want. To the Holy Spirit, it is the fundamental law of sharing by which you *give* what you value in order to keep it in your *own* mind. Projection, to the Holy Spirit, is the law of extension. To the ego, it is the law of deprivation. It therefore produces abundance or scarcity, depending on how you choose to apply it. This choice *is* up to you, but it is *not* up to you to decide whether or not you will *utilize* projection. Every mind *must* project, because that is how it lives, and every mind *is* life. The ego's use of projection must be fully understood before its inevitable association between projection and anger can be finally undone. The ego *always* tries to preserve conflict. It is very ingenious in devising ways which *seem* to diminish conflict, because it does *not* want you to find conflict so intolerable that you will *insist* on giving it up. Therefore, the ego tries to persuade you that *it* can free you of conflict, lest you give the *ego* up and free *yourself*. The ego, using its own warped version of the laws of God, utilizes the power of the mind *only* to defeat the mind's real purpose. It projects conflict *from* your mind to *other* minds in an attempt to persuade you that you have gotten *rid* of it. This has several fallacies which may not be so apparent. Strictly speaking, conflict cannot *be* projected, precisely *because* it cannot be fully shared. Any attempt to keep *part* of it and get rid of another part does not really mean *anything.* Remember that a conflicted teacher is a poor teacher *and a poor learner.* His lessons are confused, and their transfer value is severely limited *by* his confusion. A second fallacy is the idea that you can get *rid* of something you do not want by giving it away. *Giving* it is how you *keep* it. The belief that by giving it *out* you have excluded it from *within* is a complete distortion of the power of extension. That is why those who project from the ego are vigilant for their *own* safety. They *are* afraid that their projections will return and hurt them. They *do* believe they have blotted their projections from their *own* minds, but they also believe their projections are trying to creep back *into* them. That is because the projections have *not* left their minds, and this in turn forces them to engage in compulsive activity in order *not* to recognize this. You *cannot* perpetuate an illusion about another *without* perpetuating it about yourself. There is no way out of this, because it is *impossible* to fragment the mind. To fragment is to break into pieces, and mind *cannot* attack or *be* attacked. The belief that it *can*, a fallacy which the ego *always* makes, underlies its whole use of projection. It does not understand what mind *is* and therefore does not understand what *you* are. Yet its existence is dependent on your mind, because the ego *is* your belief. The ego is therefore a confusion in identification which never had a consistent model and never developed consistently. It is the distorted product of the misapplication of the laws of God by distorted minds which are misusing their own power. *Do not be afraid of the ego*. It *does* depend on your mind and, as you made it by believing in it, so you can dispel it by withdrawing belief *from* it. Do not project the responsibility for your belief in it onto anyone *else*, or you will *preserve* the belief. When you are willing to accept sole responsibility for the ego's existence *yourself*, you will have laid aside all anger and all attack, because they *come* from an attempt to project responsibility for your *own* errors. But having *accepted* the errors as yours, *do not keep them*. Give them over quickly to the Holy Spirit to be undone completely so that *all* their effects will vanish from your minds and from the Sonship *as a whole*. The Holy Spirit will teach you to perceive *beyond* belief, because truth *is* beyond belief, and His perception *is* true. The ego can be completely forgotten at *any* time, because it was always a belief that is totally incredible. No one can *keep* a belief he has judged to be unbelievable. The more you learn about the ego, the more you realize that it cannot *be* believed. The incredible cannot be understood, because it *is* unbelievable. The utter meaninglessness of all perception that comes from the unbelievable must be apparent, but it is not *recognized* as beyond belief, because it was made *by* belief. The whole purpose of this course is to teach you that the ego is unbelievable and will forever *be* unbelievable. You who made the ego by believing the unbelievable cannot make this judgment alone. By accepting the Atonement for *yourself*, you are deciding against the belief that you can *be* alone, thus dispelling the idea of separation and affirming your true identification with the whole Kingdom as literally *part* of you. This identification is as beyond doubt as it is beyond belief. Your wholeness has no limits, because being is in infinity.

Only *you* can limit your creative power, but God wills to release it. He no more wills you to deprive yourself of your creations than He wills to deprive Himself of His. Do not withhold your gifts to the Sonship, or you withhold yourself from God. Selfishness is of the ego, but self-fullness is of the Soul, because that is how God created it. The Holy Spirit is the part of the mind that lies between the ego and the Soul, mediating between them *always* in favor of the Soul. To the ego, this is partiality, and it therefore responds as if it were the part that is being sided *against*. To the Soul, this is truth, because it knows its fullness and cannot conceive of any part from which it is excluded. The Soul *knows* that the consciousness of all its brothers is included in its own, as *it* is included in God. The power of the whole Sonship *and* of its Creator is therefore the Soul's own fullness, rendering its creations equally whole and equal in perfection. The ego cannot prevail against a totality which includes God, and any totality *must* include God. Everything He created is given all His power, because it is part of Him and shares His Being with Him. Creating is the opposite of loss, as blessing is the opposite of sacrifice. Being *must* be extended. That is how it retains the knowledge of *itself.* The Soul yearns to share its being as *its* Creator did. Created *by* sharing, its will is to create. It does not wish to *contain* God but to *extend* His Being. The extension of God's Being is the Soul's *only* function. Its fullness cannot be contained any more than can the fullness of its Creator. Fullness *is* extension. The ego's whole thought system blocks extension and thus blocks your only function. It therefore blocks your joy, and that is why you perceive yourselves as unfulfilled. Unless you create, you *are* unfulfilled; but God does not know of unfulfillment, and therefore you *must* create. *You* may not know your own creations, but this can no more interfere with their reality than your unawareness of your Soul can interfere with its being. The Kingdom is forever extending, because it is in the Mind of God. You do not *know* your joy, because you do not know your own self-fullness. Exclude *any* part of the Kingdom from yourself, and you are *not* whole. A split mind cannot perceive its fullness and needs the miracle of its wholeness to dawn upon it and heal it. This reawakens the wholeness in it and restores it to the Kingdom because of its *acceptance* of wholeness. The full appreciation of its self-fullness makes selfishness impossible and extension inevitable. That is why there is perfect peace in the Kingdom. Every Soul *is* fulfilling its function, and only complete fulfillment *is* peace. Insanity *appears* to add to reality, but no one would claim that what it adds is true. Insanity is therefore the *non*\-extension of truth, which blocks joy because it blocks creation and thus blocks self-fulfillment. The unfulfilled *must* be depressed, because their self-fullness is unknown to them. Your creations are protected *for* you, because the Holy Spirit, Who is in your mind, knows of them and can bring them *into* your awareness whenever you will let Him. They are there as part of your own being, because your fulfillment *includes* them. The creations of every Son of God are yours since every creation belongs to everyone, being created for the Sonship as a whole. You have *not* failed to add to the inheritance of the Sons of God and thus have not failed to secure it for yourselves. If it was the Will of God to give it to you, He gave it forever. If it was His Will that you have it forever, He gave you the means for keeping it, *and you have done so*. Disobeying God's Will is meaningful only to the insane. In truth it is impossible. Your self-fullness is as boundless as God's. Like His, it extends forever and in perfect peace. Its radiance is so intense that it creates in perfect joy, and only the whole can be born of its wholeness. Be confident that you have never lost your identity and the extensions which maintain it in wholeness and peace. Miracles are an *expression* of this confidence. They are reflections both of your own proper identification with your brothers and of your own awareness that your identification *is* maintained by extension. The miracle is a *lesson in total perception*. By including *any* part of totality in the lesson, you *have* included the whole. You have said that when you write of the Kingdom and your creations which belong in it, you are describing *what you do not know.* That is true in a sense, but no more true than your failure to acknowledge the whole result of the ego's premises. The Kingdom is the result of premises, just as this world is. You *have* carried the ego's reasoning to its logical conclusion, which is *total confusion about everything*. Yet you do not really *believe* this, or you could not possibly maintain it. If you really saw this result, you could not *want* it. The only reason why you could possibly want *any* part of it is because you do *not* see the whole of it. You \[therefore\] are willing to look at the ego's premises but *not* at their logical outcome. Is it not possible that you have done the same thing with the premises of God? Your creations *are* the logical outcome of His premises. *His* thinking has established them *for* you. They are therefore there, *exactly* where they belong. They belong in your mind as part of your identification with His, but your state of mind and your recognition of what is *in* your mind depend at any given moment on what you believe *about* your mind. Whatever these beliefs may be, they are the premises which will determine what you accept *into* your mind. It is surely clear that you can both accept into your mind what is not really there and deny what *is*. Neither of these possibilities requires further elaboration here, but both are clearly indefensible, even if you elect to defend them. Yet the function which God Himself gave your minds through His you may deny, but you cannot prevent. It is the logical outcome of what you *are*. The ability to see a logical outcome depends on the *willingness* to see it, but its truth has nothing to do with your willingness at all. Truth is *God's* Will. *Share* His Will, and you share what He knows. *Deny* His Will as yours, and you are denying His Kingdom *and* yours. The Holy Spirit will direct you only so as to avoid pain. The undoing of pain must obviously avoid pain. Surely no one would object to this goal *if he recognized it*. The problem is not whether what the Holy Spirit says is true, but whether you want to *listen* to what He says.

You no more recognize what is painful than you know what is joyful and are in fact very apt to confuse the two. The Holy Spirit's main function is to teach you *to tell them apart*. However strange it may seem that this is necessary, it obviously *is.* The reason is equally obvious. What is joyful to you *is* painful to the ego and, as long as you are in doubt about what *you* are, you will be confused about joy and pain. This confusion is the cause of the whole idea of sacrifice. Obey the Holy Spirit, and you *will* be giving up the ego. But you will be sacrificing *nothing*. On the contrary, you will be gaining *everything.* If you believed this, there would *be* no conflict. That is why you need to *demonstrate* the obvious to yourself. It is *not* obvious to you. You believe that doing the *opposite* of God's will can be better for you. You also believe that it is possible to *do* the opposite of God's will. Therefore, you believe that an impossible choice is open to you and one which is both very fearful *and* very desirable. Yet God *wills.* He does *not* wish. *Your* will is as powerful as His because it *is* His. The ego's wishes do not mean anything, because the ego wishes for the impossible. You can *wish* for the impossible, but you can *will* only with God. This is the ego's weakness and *your* strength. The Holy Spirit *always* sides with you and with your strength. As long as you avoid His guidance in any way, you *want* to be weak. Yet weakness *is* frightening. What else, then, can this decision mean except that you *want* to be fearful? The Holy Spirit *never* asks for sacrifice, but the ego *always* does. When you are confused about this *very* clear distinction in motivation, it can *only* be due to projection. Projection of this kind *is* a confusion in motivation and, *given* this confusion, trust becomes impossible. No one obeys gladly a guide he does not trust, but this does not mean that the *guide* is untrustworthy. In this case, it *always* means that the *follower* is. However, this too is merely a matter of his own belief. Believing that *he* can betray, he believes that everything can betray *him*. Yet this is only because he has *elected to follow false guidance*. Unable to follow this guidance *without* fear, he associates fear *with* guidance and refuses to follow *any* guidance at all. \[If the result of this decision is confusion, this is hardly surprising.\] The Holy Spirit is perfectly trustworthy, as *you* are. God Himself trusts you, and therefore your trustworthiness *is* beyond question. It will always remain beyond question, however much *you* may question it. We said before that you *are* the Will of God. His Will is not an idle wish, and your identification *with* His Will is not optional, since it *is* what you are. Sharing His Will with me is not really open to choice, though it may seem to be. The whole separation lies in this fallacy. The only way *out* of the fallacy is to decide that you do not have to decide *anything*. Everything has been given you by God's decision. That *is* His Will, and you can *not* undo it. Even the relinquishment of your false decision-making prerogative, which the ego guards so jealously, is not accomplished by your wish. It was accomplished *for* you by the Will of God, Who has not left you comfortless. His Voice *will* teach you how to distinguish between pain and joy and *will* lead you out of the confusion which you have made. There *is* no confusion in the mind of a Son of God whose will *must* be the Will of the Father, because the Father's Will *is* His Son. Miracles are *in accord* with the Will of God Whose Will you do not know, because you are confused about what *you* will. This means that you are confused about what you are. If you *are* God's Will and do not *accepw* His Will\[, you can *only* be not accepting what you are. But if your joy *is* what you are\], you are denying joy. The miracle is therefore a lesson in *what joy is.* Being a lesson in sharing, it is a lesson in love, which *is* joy. Every miracle is thus a lesson in truth, and by offering truth you are learning the difference between pain and joy.

The Holy Spirit will *always* guide you truly, because *your* joy is *His*. This is His Will for everyone, because He speaks for the Kingdom of God which *is* joy. Following Him is therefore the easiest thing in the world and the only thing that *is* easy, because it is not of the world and is therefore *natural.* The world *goes against* your nature, being out of accord with God's laws. The world perceives orders of difficulty in everything. This is because the ego perceives nothing as wholly desirable. By demonstrating to yourselves that there *is* no order of difficulty in miracles, you will convince yourselves that in your *natural* state there is no difficulty, because it is a state of grace. Grace is the *natural* state of every Son of God. When he is *not* in a state of grace, he is out of his natural environment and does not function well. Everything he does becomes a strain, because he was not created for the environment that he has made. He therefore *cannot* adapt to it, nor can he adapt *it* to *him*. There is no point in trying. A Son of God is happy *only* when he knows he is with God. That is the only environment in which he will not experience strain, because that is where he belongs. It is also the only environment that is worthy of him, because his own worth is beyond anything he can make. Consider the kingdom *you* have made and judge its worth fairly. Is it worthy to be a home for a Child of God? Does it protect his peace and shine love upon him? Does it keep his heart untouched by fear and allow him to give always without any sense of loss? Does it teach him that this giving *is* his joy and that God Himself thanks him for his giving? That is the *only* environment in which you can be happy. You cannot make it any more than you can make yourselves. It has been created *for* you, as you were created for it. God watches over His Children and denies them nothing. Yet when they deny Him, they do not know this, because they deny *themselves* everything. You who could give the Love of God to everything you see and touch and remember are literally denying Heaven to yourselves. I call upon you again to remember that I have chosen you to teach the Kingdom *to* the Kingdom. There are no exceptions to this lesson, because the lack of exceptions *is* the lesson. Every Son who returns to the Kingdom with this lesson in his heart has healed the Sonship and given thanks to God. Everyone who learns this lesson has become the perfect teacher, because he has learned it of the Holy Spirit, Who wants to teach him everything He knows. When a mind *has* only light, it *knows* only light. Its own radiance shines all around it and extends out into the darkness of other minds, transforming them into majesty. The Majesty of God is there for you to recognize and appreciate and *know.* Perceiving the Majesty of God *as* your brother is to accept your *own* inheritance. God gives only equally. If you recognize His gift in anyone else, you have acknowledged what He has given *you*. Nothing is as easy to perceive as truth. This is the perception which is immediate, clear, and natural. You have trained yourselves *not* to see it, and this has been very difficult for you. *Out* of your natural environment, you may well ask, “What is truth?” since truth *is* the environment by which and for which you were created. You do not know yourselves, because you do not know *your* Creator. You do not know your creations, because you do not know your brothers, who created them *with* you. We said before that only the whole Sonship is worthy to be co-creator with God, because only the whole Sonship can create *like* Him. Whenever you heal a brother by recognizing his worth, you are acknowledging *his* power to create *and yours.* He cannot have lost what *you* recognize, and *you* must have the glory you see in him. He is a co-creator with God with *you*. Deny *his* creative power, and you are denying yours *and that of God, Who created you.* You cannot deny part of truth. You do not know your creations, because you do not know their creator. You do not know yourselves, because you do not know *yours*. Your creations cannot establish your reality any more than you can establish God's. But you can *know* both. Being is known by sharing. *Because* God shared His Being with you, you can know Him. But you must also know all He created to know what *they* have shared. Without your Father, you will not know your fatherhood. The Kingdom of God includes all His Sons and their children, who are like the Sons as they are like the Father. Know then the Sons of God, and you will know *all* creation.