Lesson 77. I am entitled to Miracles.

What are miracles? What is mine by right? Surely miracles are that which is beyond the sight of the thinking mind. In common parlance, it seems as if a miracle is a happy resolution to a problem I have defined. This cannot be what a miracle is. We know that I am not capable of defining the problem. Defining the problem and seeking to have it fixed is the terrain of the ego. What, then, could a miracle be?

A miracle is defined in the Cambridge English Dictionary as “an unusual and mysterious event that is thought to have been caused by a god because it does not follow the usual laws of nature.” ACIM tells us “The miracle is taken first on faith, because to ask for it implies the mind has been made ready to conceive of what it cannot see and does not understand.”

“Today we will claim the miracles which are your right, since they belong to you. You have been promised full release from the world you made. You have been assured that the Kingdom of God is within you, and can never be lost. We ask no more than what belongs to us in truth. Today, however, we will also make sure that we will not content ourselves with less.”

Finally, we must come humbly to ask what it is our habitual way of seeing has hidden from our sight. What am I that miracles should occur at my request? Father show me how to live in the miracle of my true nature—show me what I Am.

How could I know when a miracle is needed as stated in the lesson? I know when I am believing in the laws I have made. I know when I am believing I am a limited and biased body-mind. I know when I experience less than the peace and joy I have been told that I am. NTI Thessalonians tells us: “Peace is the guiding light that you must follow as you learn to look within the mind. For it is peace that leads you to recognition of truth, and it is lack of peace that reminds you that you are not following your way.”

When I recognize the absence of peace, then, I know “the situation calls for [miracles].” Then, I shall ask and wait in silence for the answer. “We are asking a real question at last.” – What am I? What is God/truth? What is a miracle? Show me, that I may know.

Lesson 76. I am under no laws but God’s.

This lesson says something very important. “… how simple is salvation.”

How many senseless things have seemed to be your salvation?  Our concept of salvation has led us to select some things above all else because we believe that what we select will save us from unhappiness or discomfort or pain or even death.  Today’s lesson tells us the things we seem to select have imprisoned us. We think we need to get them by either the laws of the world or through divine intervention. Either idea is the same mistake. The mistake stems from a fundamental error, the belief that we are bodies.

If we’ll just watch our minds for one day, we will see all the things we avoid or do to protect our bodies.  We buy health insurance.  We buy extended warranties.  We cultivate special relationships and work to keep others at bay.  We buy creams and pills and vitamins.  We buy homes in certain neighborhoods so our children will be exposed to certain things and avoid others.  We buy some medicines in advance just in case we might need the remedy.

The list of laws that we follow goes on and on in the name of protecting our bodies. This lesson calls our quest for salvation “magic.”  Magic is the medicine we take, the salve we rub on our bodies and the protective clothing we wear.  Magic is the ego’s means of protecting the body, but this lesson tells us that magic imprisons, but God’s laws free us.

How do God’s laws free us?  Because we are no longer imprisoned when we accept that “what [magic] is meant to save does not exist. [And o]nly what [magic] is meant to hide will save you.”  Magic is meant to hide the fact that we are so much more than our limited concepts. We are One with All That Is.

Salvation is not divine intervention to receive the cures and fixes we think we need in order to be happy. Salvation is seeing beyond the belief that I am a body-mind. Salvation is realizing what I am, something real that cannot be threatened.

Today, when practicing “I am under no laws but God’s” do not practice with the idea in place that you still need magic, except now you want the magic to come from God. Instead, begin to wonder, “What are God’s laws?” “What am I?” Let truth whisper into your mind and shine in your awareness.

See how simple salvation is. Absolutely nothing has to change. You only need to realize what you are, which is present and available to be seen in this very moment. Salvation need not wait on anything.

Lesson 75. The Light has come.

We have embarked on a grand endeavor. We have come to see that we cannot believe the body’s eyes nor believe our own concepts about the world and ourselves. We have seen that refusing to believe ego thoughts about ourselves, our brothers and our world and turning toward the truth is forgiveness. We have practiced forgiveness consistently and this practice has led us to the threshold of a new way of seeing.

We now rest in the empty space left where illusions once stood. This lesson asks us to devote our practice to “looking at the world that our forgiveness shows us.” That is, it invites us to explore our innermost being without the clouds of the judgments, concepts, grievances and beliefs that have blocked our Vision until now.

“Realize that your forgiveness entitles you to vision. Understand that the Holy Spirit never fails to give the gift of sight to the forgiving.”

What we are ready to be shown, is the truth of our own being. NTI 1 Thessalonians reminds us that Holy Spirit/Inner Wisdom is “continually with you, looking over you in peace and looking through you with peace as My only sight and the manifestation of My glory. This is why you shall know Me through peace. It is because I am that which is known as the peace of the Heart, which cannot be taken away.”

This is not some abstract promise of heaven; this is simply fact. When we quit relying on the thinking mind to interpret for us—that is when we let go our beliefs, concepts and images that have kept us blind from our Truth we know peace and we know our Self. “To know peace in any moment is to know your Self within your heart. Take care to be grateful for every moment of peace that comes to greet you, and it is moments of peace that you shall continue to know.”

In a very simple statement of cause and effect, the lesson assures us our own Holy Spirit “will be with you as you watch and wait. He will show you what true vision sees. It is His Will, and you have joined with Him. Wait patiently for Him. He will be there. The light has come. You have forgiven the world.”