[acimlessons_list] Review VI, Lesson 213 - August 1

[Sue Roth]

Review VI, Lesson 213 - August 1

Central theme:

"I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me."

Review of:

(193) "All things are lessons God would have me learn."

Practice instructions

See Review VI Practice Instructions.

Commentary

Every circumstance of life offers me the choice between a miracle and my own
ego thoughts, which will hurt me. Or as the Text puts it, "The choice is
miracles instead of murder" (T-23.IV.5:6). That is the lesson that all
things have to teach me, today and every day. Which voice, ego or Holy
Spirit, will I listen to in this moment, and the next, and the next? It's
always one or the other, never neither, never both. "You will not make
decisions by yourself whatever you decide. For they are made with idols or
with God. And you ask help of anti-Christ or Christ, and which you choose
will join with you and tell you what to do" (T-30.I.14:7-9).

In each situation I face today, this is what is going on. The ego offers its
interpretation, and the Holy Spirit offers His; I choose which to listen to.
I can choose the miracle, or murder. My choice determines my perception and
my experience of the situation. Which will I choose today?

When the temptation to attack rises to make your mind darkened and
murderous, remember you <can> see the battle from above. Even in forms you
do not recognize, the signs you know. There is a stab of pain, a twinge of
guilt, and above all, a loss of peace. This you know well. When they occur
leave not your place on high, but quickly choose a miracle instead of
murder. (T-23.IV.6:1-5)

This choice is what sets me free. The Holy Spirit is always with me to help
me make this choice. In each instant I can choose to learn the lessons God
wants me to learn, and forget what I have been teaching myself. Let me not
evaluate anything without His help.

If we could grasp just this one lesson, this habit of referring everything
to the Holy Spirit, rather than trying to figure it out by ourselves (which
always means <with the ego's help>), everything else would simply fall into
place. This alone is enough to set us free.

One thing the Holy Spirit sees differently from the ego is my body. "The
Holy Spirit does not see the body as you do, because He knows the only
reality of anything is the service it renders God on behalf of the function
He gives it" (T-8.VII.3:6). When I choose to protect the body, to make it
the center of what I am doing, mistaking the body for myself, I am choosing
murder. I am not a body. I do not exist for my body's sake; its purpose is
to render service to God as I carry out the function He has given me in the
world, and that is all. If I listen to the Holy Spirit, I have to be willing
to see the body as meaningless in itself (W-pI.96.3:7), and useful only as a
communication device with which to reach my brothers. Let me remind myself
that I am not a body, as in each moment I seek to hear the Voice for God.