Today we return to the story of Abraham and his wife, Sarah. As you know, Abraham represents willingness. Sarah represents belief in the world. It’s important to realize that both Abraham (willingness) and Sarah (belief in the world) are in your mind now. The story about Abraham and Sarah is a story about you.

In the story, God promised Abraham that he would have offspring as numerous as the stars. However, years past without a child being borne, so Sarah took matters into her own hands. She asked Abraham to sleep with her slave, Hagar, and she adopted the child when it was born.

That didn’t work out like Sarah expected. Since Sarah was unable to nurse the child, the boy bonded with his natural mother, Hagar. Also, Abraham loved his son, Ishmael. Sarah became jealous.

And then one day a miracle happened. Sarah, an old and previously barren woman, gave birth to a son, Isaac. Isaac’s birth was different than Ishmael’s birth, because it occurred in spite of the physical laws of the world—laws that would have made a birth impossible if the world and its laws were constant and real.

This story indicates that truth is supreme. When we believe the world is supreme, like Sarah did when she asked Abraham to sleep with Hagar, we make a mistake. By believing the world is supreme, we reinforce our belief in it. However, if we are willing to see that the world is illusion and only truth is supreme, evidence of this fact will come into our experience. We will learn this truth directly for ourselves, just as Abraham learned it through Isaac’s birth.

One word of caution: It isn’t for us to decide how we will learn that the world isn’t real. Our role is to surrender and follow intuition in faith. As we do that, the evidence that is most helpful will come. We will see for ourselves that the world is not real and truth reigns supreme.

As we learned on Day 66, faith is:

• trusting the healing process
• having confidence in a benevolent power beyond what your senses or mind can know
• accepting that all is well under all circumstances, regardless of the appearance

Side comment: Muslims and Jews remain divided today over differences of opinion regarding which son was the son promised by God in his covenant with Abraham. Muslims say that the first-born son, Ishmael, was the promised son. Ishmael is believed to be the beginning of the Arab lineage. Jews say that Sarah’s son, Isaac, was the promised son. Isaac is believed to be the beginning of the Jewish lineage.

Careful consideration of the Bible shows that Abraham loved both sons equally, and God looked over and cared for both sons equally. To use the story to support division is listening “through the ears of judgment,” taking the “message of freedom” and making “of it a slave.”

God promised offspring as numerous as the stars. That offspring represents awakening. God’s promise is still being fulfilled through the Muslims, Jews and all of mankind. For example, Rumi was a Muslim. Jesus was a Jew. And then there was Buddha, Lao Tzu, and others who were neither.

The story of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael and Isaac is to be taken figuratively, as are all stories. Figurative interpretations are used by inner wisdom to point toward truth. Interpretations laid upon the literal almost always point to belief in the world and further entrapment in separation.

Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.

Today’s reading begins by reminding us not to judge ourselves. It says:

You can misunderstand My message when you listen through the ears of judgment. You can take my message of freedom and make of it a slave. In this way, My message is lost to you.

I ask you to lay down your judgment and listen to Me with clarity.

A good coach must show us what we are doing wrong so we can improve. Without that helpful guidance, we can’t make progress.

Imagine how useless a golf coach would be if he didn’t point out the error in your golf swing!

The same applies to the spiritual path. In order for a coach or teacher to be truly helpful, that coach must point out our errors. When we see that our mistakes are pointed out to help us improve, we listen with clarity. When we judge ourselves for the mistakes we make, the teacher’s helpfulness is lost to us.

Today’s reading points out that the world is a false god that we make and worship. The purpose of this false god is to tell us that we are separate. It could also be said that the world is made to give us a sense of self or a distinct feeling of “me.” The world does this through people, places and experiences, and through the differences found in each.

The world is an effective false god because it tempers its own message. If the experience of separation were overpowering without any sense of community or communion, we would reject the world entirely and awaken immediately. The reason we linger within illusion is because there is enough community and communion to keep us interested.

In other words, the sense of communion in the world isn’t a sign of an awakening world. The sense of communion is a trick to keep us mesmerized by a world that is made to be different from truth.

Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.

Today’s reading references the story of Abraham. Abraham is believed to be the father of both the Arab and Jewish nations.

According to the Bible, God made a covenant with Abraham. He told Abraham in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” Abraham was worried because he was childless and did not have an heir. His wife, Sarah, was barren, and both Abraham and Sarah were old. According to Genesis 15, God said to Abraham:

Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be.

NTI Galatians interprets that story by saying that Abraham represents birth. One definition of “birth” is “the beginning or coming into existence of something.”

According to NTI Galatians, Abraham represents the birth of Light. Light is the symbol for truth realization, so Abraham represents the birth of truth realization.

Comparing Abraham’s offspring to the stars, which cannot be counted, signifies an infinite awakening—a total awakening to truth, with no part of consciousness left out of it.

The total awakening of consciousness is an interesting promise, but the promise becomes more interesting when you realize that Abraham represents willingness.

You see, Abraham was a man who heard the Voice for God and followed it where it led, even though it meant uprooting his family and servants from the place where they lived and leading them into the desert toward an unknown promised land.

Abraham is just like willingness. It is our willingness that listens to inner spiritual wisdom and follows it, even though that means letting go of familiar beliefs and attachments and walking through purification toward an unknown experience called “awakening.”

Willingness is the state of wanting to do something and being mentally, emotionally and/or spiritually ready to do it, even if learning must occur in the process. Our willingness is the birth of awakening.

Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.

NTI Galatians comes to us from awake consciousness as the voice of Jesus. It harnesses the essence of his experience as a human who awakened to truth and shares the simplicity of awakening from his point of view. As NTI Galatians 1 said:

I am the Way and the Life. I come to you on this day to clear up your confusion, for there have been many thoughts that have confused you until now. Do not fret over your confusion. It is nothing and can be easily laid aside when you see the simplicity of love as I offer it to you.

Yesterday’s reading spoke of a belief. It said:

I know well of this belief, for I experienced it once myself. But I have been made free by My own choice to release the belief that isn’t true.

Today’s reading tells us what that belief is:

You believe in separation.

It also points out the way to let go of that belief and awaken to truth:

Through acceptance, not judgment, the Light of Heaven is yours.

This isn’t the first time that we’ve been told judgment (or declaration) is the cause of illusion and acceptance (or Loving All) is a means to awaken.

As you contemplate today’s reading:

1. Reference Day 138 and Day 157, and then realize that we are being told that letting go of judgment and accepting what is as it is is the simple way to awaken.
2. Consider how you fall for the deceit that judgment is sometimes justified, a deceit that declares illusion real.
3. Ask yourself if you’d rather feel righteous in a world that is made to be different from truth, or if you prefer to awaken and realize truth as it is.

Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.