I wanted to break down these 3 lessons that Jesus gives us in the Text of A Course in Miracles.
I have found that these 3 lessons are literally stepping stones to the Kingdom of Heaven within us. We are ALWAYS in the kingdom, but we have forgotten, as we have clouded our minds with pain and past experiences that defend us from the Truth. As soon as we recognize that we are responsible for the loss of vision OF us being in the Kingdom now, we can take the steps to change it by changing our minds to think with God. We are only a few steps away from the recognition and acceptance of the Kingdom of Love as being here and now.
We shift out of our painful life experiences, that are filled with suffering, blame, attack and anger....the instant we begin to learn to apply new laws and listen to a new voice. Below are the Laws of God that help us to do just that.
I have found that these 3 lessons are literally stepping stones to the Kingdom of Heaven within us. We are ALWAYS in the kingdom, but we have forgotten, as we have clouded our minds with pain and past experiences that defend us from the Truth. As soon as we recognize that we are responsible for the loss of vision OF us being in the Kingdom now, we can take the steps to change it by changing our minds to think with God. We are only a few steps away from the recognition and acceptance of the Kingdom of Love as being here and now.
We shift out of our painful life experiences, that are filled with suffering, blame, attack and anger....the instant we begin to learn to apply new laws and listen to a new voice. Below are the Laws of God that help us to do just that.
1) To HAVE, GIVE all, TO all.
This teaches us that to HAVE anything at all, we must GIVE all to ALL and we will HAVE everything.
To the ego, to give to others is to lack. Yet to the holy spirit to give to others is to give to your Self, and thus receive what you give. Ego is all about "getting" and its drive to get over powers its drive for anything else... It spends its time getting money, relationships, better bodies, jobs and homes and all things of this world, but ego is never satisfied, and thus the thought of GIVING is something that is truly scary to it. Yet again, to the Holy Spirit, who sees us all as Gods Children who are ONE in TRUTH, when we give to each other we ARE giving to our self. And as we give, we realize we have been given everything! God has given all his love, all his being, all his creation, all his power to his sons. The only way we learn this, is by giving all of our SELF to our brothers..... when we give like God, we learn we are OF Him Remember also, that we are speaking of giving of content, of thought, of being, of love. When we give of these, we are giving of what is TRUE and we will receive what is true and MORE!
This step often causes conflict in ones experience, as it is the complete OPPOSITE of the ego's thought system. Yet if we are to learn to live in the Kingdom of Heaven, now, we must learn to apply the laws of God and not the laws of ego. Let not the temptation for conflict prevent you from applying this lesson. The more you give, in thought, word and action the LOVE and HELPFULNESS you would want to receive .. you will receive it.
This first step in the turning point, we turn away from the ego, and towards God. Stay here, and contemplate this lesson for as long as you need until you LEARN it and EXPERIENCE it as true. You will be brought your lessons, through your relationships and life events, to help you to understand and to apply it.
Once we learn that to give is to receive, and we cannot lose anything when we give all to all...... we move on to the next step.
2) To HAVE peace, TEACH peace, to LEARN it.
Now we learn through this lesson, that we literally learn what we teach! And in every moment we are teaching, in thought word and action. ALL is a demonstration of what we think and believe. Either we teach anger/attack or we can teach prayer/forgiveness. If you find your automatic response is upset, or anger or to just run away from the "problem"...... recognize that THIS is what you are teaching to yourself and to others .. thus you will KEEP it and continue to repeat it. Instead, you can choose prayer and pray to learn how to see this differently and be at peace. You are calling upon the strength of GOD in you with this, and you WILL be answered. A call for peace is always answered from the Teacher of peace (holy spirit) in our minds. When you ask for it, you will receive it, to give it.
We also realize here that we WANT peace! Above all else, we want to be at peace! Therefore we teach peace TO have it. If we do not feel at peace, in any moment, we can PRAY to ask for it, to have it, to see it, to GIVE it. This is our practice... and the more we practice it, the more we will experience the effect of Peace.
We continue to feel more and more at peace during this lesson, and the more peace you feel the closer you are to God. The more peace you teach, the more you will remain in peace. And at this time you will be ready to move on to the next step.....
3) Be Vigilant ONLY for God and HIS Kingdom.
We learn here how to be vigilant for Gods thoughts in our Mind and only His thoughts. The first two lessons have opened our heart and mind TO Gods Voice and Laws, and now its about purifying our minds of everything that is NOT His. This also allows us to be vigilant against the ego at the same time. We are to "judge" with the holy spirit, EVERY thought that enters our mind as being for God or against God and choose accordingly.
We will have moments still where doubt or fear or lack arises in our experience. It can always be traced back to a thought in our minds that we concluded in the past. This thought is the cause of all those painful feelings, no matter what is happening in our world. The world teaches us to "fight or flight" and we will attempt those first, until we realize that those don't actually solve the problem. Eventually we realize there must be a better way! This better way IS mind training, and realizing that we are responsible for everything we think, see and experience. In being responsible we can CHANGE how we think and feel, and thus not just avoid or fight the pain, but transform it and let it go for good. This changes our experience from being painful in the world, to joyful in the Kingdom.
The Kingdom is JOY and any time we are NOT in joy, we are in need of healing. This is where VIGILANCE comes in.... to recognize when we are not in joy, even a little bit, and hand it over to the holy spirit to heal OUR mind. Once we begin to do this, then we are realigning our mind back WITH the kingdom, and enabling ourselves to SEE. We often have to get triggered in order to FEEL the pain, to realize we NEED to let a thought/conclusion go in our minds. We are not meant to stay in blame of the one who triggered us, but instead turn within to the holy spirit where our minds can be healed of the button that can be pushed to trigger. So when pain is there, it is coming up ONLY for the thoughts to heal. Its time to let yourself BE healed. This vigilance is necessary for the holy spirit to prepare us for God. When we are consistently joyous, we can consistently hear him and BE in His kingdom consistently.
This is how we learn to live in Heaven on Earth. By following these laws of God. Gods laws trump the laws of this world every time. We are here to learn to apply his laws so that they undo the laws of fear, lack, chaos, sin, death, pain, sickness, judgement and anger from our minds entirely. Each thought that rises in our own mind, we are to ask for correction so it is REPLACED with joy. The more often we do this, the faster we will live in peace and the consistency of the Kingdom becomes extended from us, and through us, unto all.
This is what the world as a whole needs... demonstrations of how to live in this world according to the Laws of God and not man. This is how we become realigned with our CREATIONS, in JOY, and we create with GOD to bring forward a new world here. A world of peace, cooperation, communication love and gentleness. This is ALL possible, for these are traits of what we are in TRUTH. As we embody these traits and give them.... we experience them, live them and demonstrate their reality and validity...AS Jesus did :)
Peace to us all, as we learn to forgive and heal our minds... and give this healing to all the world.
This is what the world as a whole needs... demonstrations of how to live in this world according to the Laws of God and not man. This is how we become realigned with our CREATIONS, in JOY, and we create with GOD to bring forward a new world here. A world of peace, cooperation, communication love and gentleness. This is ALL possible, for these are traits of what we are in TRUTH. As we embody these traits and give them.... we experience them, live them and demonstrate their reality and validity...AS Jesus did :)
Peace to us all, as we learn to forgive and heal our minds... and give this healing to all the world.