[acimlessons_list] Lesson 320 - November 16

[Sue Roth]

LESSON 320 - NOVEMBER 16

"My Father gives all power unto me."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS 

See complete instructions in separate document.  
A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

Practice suggestion: Take a few moments and reflect on the following three
questions, one at a time, using the questions beneath each one to guide your
reflection. You may even want to write down your reflections.

Can His Will do all things in me?
If not, doesn't that mean that I am not His creation?
If I am not His creation, where did I come from? Did I spring out of
nowhere?

Can His Will reach through me to all the world?
If not, doesn't that mean there are some places He cannot go?
Does that make sense?

Is there any limit on His Will?

Could God's Will possibly be limited? Just one more limited will among many?

Reflecting on these questions has prepared you to fully accept today's idea.
Now repeat that idea in a special way: Imagine that you are the risen Jesus
speaking those words. As Allen points out in his commentary today, today's
idea is an allusion to Jesus' statement in the final scene of Matthew.
There, Jesus appears to his disciples to send them out to "teach all
nations," and declares to them, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in
earth" (Mt 28:18). So, as you repeat today's idea, imagine that you are the
risen Christ. Feel the exaltation. Feel the power you possess to illumine
the entire world.

COMMENTARY

Those of us who have not studied the Bible, or the Gospels in particular,
may not recognize these words as a paraphrase of words spoken by Jesus
shortly after the resurrection: "All power is given unto me" (Mt 28:18). I
find it significant that the Course puts these words into our mouths. It is
an indication of the equal plane on which the Course places us, with Jesus.
He was not anything we are not; all of us, along with him, are equal sons of
God. He's just a little further along in time (or perhaps out of time), but
with the same raw material. We are all the Son of God, together, as God
created us.

This lesson expands on the idea of the limitlessness of the Son of God that
is mentioned in "What Is the Last Judgment?" There, God says, "You are still
My holy Son.as limitless as your Creator" (W-pII.10.5:1). Here we are told
we (as the Son of God) are "limitless" (1:1); without limit on any of our
attributes, whether strength, peace, joy, or whatever. Limitless strength,
limitless peace, limitless joy. To be honest, I can't even conceive of what
joy without limits is like, and yet this lesson says it is mine. I know joy.
I know a great deal of joy. Sometimes, I am so joyful I can scarcely contain
it. But joy with no limit at all? What must that be like?

I think we all put mental limits on our strength, our peace, and our joy.
And our happiness, for that matter. Haven't you ever had the feeling that it
is somehow dangerous to get <too> happy? (What a strange juxtaposition of
words is that phrase, "too happy!") "Watch out!" we think. "We don't want to
become 'bliss ninnies.'" Yet the characteristic of the Son of God is
limitless joy. How will we ever come to know that as our own while we place
limits on our joy? Our egos act like governors on the inner engine of
happiness and joy; we can get just so happy, and then the power seems to cut
out. We need to cut loose from the governor.

Do I really believe that what I will with my Creator "must be done" (1:3)?
Do I believe that my holy will cannot be denied (1:4)? There are those who
catch a glimpse of this, and they are those who seem to accomplish so much
in their lives, refusing to believe that what they envision cannot come to
pass. Instead they realize it <must> come to pass.

Of course, we are not speaking here in earthly terms alone. This isn't the
message of mastery of will, of the dominance of our environment by sheer
force of will. This speaks of our "holy" will, joined with God's Will, which
is expressed in the extension of His Being. Here, we have unlimited power.
In this, "Your Will can do all things in me, and then extend to all the
world as well through me" (2:1). Each of us can be an unlimited force for
good and for God in this world if we transcend our beliefs in limitations.
The power of love, for instance, is without limit, because there is nothing
real to oppose it.

Let me examine my thoughts today, my Father, for the beliefs in limits that
hold back Your power working in me and through me. Let me recognize them as
false, and open myself to Your great power, working through me, to extend
into all the world.

WHAT IS THE LAST JUDGMENT?

Part 10: W-pII.10.5:2-3

"Therefore awaken and return to Me. I am Your Father and you are My Son."

The Final Judgment of God ends with this, completing the statement we
covered yesterday. All of the things God is here quoted as saying of us are
things we have difficulty accepting about ourselves. We need to awaken from
the dream in which their opposite seems true, and return to the Father Who
has never ceased loving us with an everlasting love. "You are My Son." That
is what we all long to hear, and all of us, like the prodigal son in the
Bible, fear that we have lost the right to hear them. The prodigal was so
filled with guilt that he went back to his father hoping, at best, to be
taken in and treated as the hired help. Instead, he was welcomed with a
banquet. His father met him on the road.

Do we fear to approach God? Do we hesitate to turn to Him? Do we feel
ashamed of how we have lived, and of what we have done with the gifts He has
given us? He is not angry. He is not ashamed of us. He only knows that we
are His children, His beloved. And He is forever calling to us to return to
Him, out of the nightmare in which we have lost ourselves, waiting to
welcome us once again into His loving arms.