Corresponding Text Section

 

Chapter 32: The Final Vision

 

8. Choose Once Again

The temptation to misperceive in all its forms and wherever it occurs has only one lesson it would teach. It would persuade the holy Child of the Divine that they are a body, born in what must die, unable to escape its frailty, and bound by what the body orders them to feel. This lesson teaches that the body sets the limits on what the Children of the Divine can perceive and do, that the body’s weakness is the only strength they have, and that their grasp cannot exceed its tiny reach.

Consider whether you would accept this dismal lesson if Divine Essence appeared to you in all Its Glory with this Invitation:

 

Choose once again if you would take your place among the awakeners of the world, or would yet remain in the nightmare of separation and illusion, and hold your sisters and brothers there.

 

For Divine Essence has come, and It is offering you this Invitation.

How do you make the choice? How easily is this explained! You always choose between the weakness of your self-image of the body as you and the Strength of Divine Essence in you. And what you choose is merely what you think is real. Simply by not using weakness to direct your attention and fashion your perspective, you give it no power. And then the Light of Divine Essence in you is given charge of everything you perceive and do. For you have brought your weakness unto It, and It has given you Its Strength instead.

Trials are simply lessons presented once again that you earlier failed to learn, so where you made a faulty choice before you now can make a better one, and thus escape all pain that what you chose before brought to you. In every difficulty, all distress, and each perplexity you face, Divine Essence calls to you, and gently says, “My sister, brother, choose again.” It would not leave one source of pain unhealed, nor any image left to veil the Truth. It would remove all misery from you whom the Divine created as Its Altars unto Joy. Divine Essence would not leave you comfortless, alone in nightmares of hell, but would release your minds from everything that hides Its Presence from you. Its Holiness is yours because It is the only power in you that is real. Divine Essence’s Strength is yours because It is the holy Self that the Divine created as Its only Creation, perfect and eternal.

The self-images you make cannot prevail against what the Divine Itself created you to be. Do not fear the temptation to miscreate, mis-project, or misperceive, then, but see it as it is: another chance to choose once again, and to let Divine Essence’s Strength prevail in every circumstance and every place that you raised an image of yourself before. For what appears to hide the Presence of Divine Essence is powerless before Its Majesty, and disappears before Its holy Sight. The awakeners of the world, who perceive like It, are merely those who choose Its Strength instead of their own weakness that appears to be real when they perceive apart from It. They will awaken the world, for they are joined in all the Power of the Will of the Divine. And what they will is only what It wills.

Learn, then, the happy reflexive response to all temptation to perceive yourself as weak and miserable with these words:

 

I am as the Divine created me. Its Children can suffer nothing, and I am Its Child.

 

Thus is Divine Essence’s Strength invited to prevail, replacing all your weakness with the Strength that comes from the Divine, and that can never fail. And thus do miracles become as natural as fear and agony appeared to be before the choice for Holiness was made. For in that choice are false distinctions gone, delusional alternatives laid by, and nothing left to interfere with Truth.

You are as the Divine created you, and so is every created being, regardless of the images you may look upon. What you hold as sickness and as pain, as weakness and as suffering and loss, is merely the temptation to perceive yourself as weak, vulnerable, and trapped in a nightmare with no escape. Yield not to this delusion and you will see all pain in every form wherever it occurs simply disappear as mists before the Sun. A miracle has come to heal the Divine’s Children, and close the door upon their dreams of weakness and vulnerability, opening the Way to their awakening and Release. Choose once again what you would have your sisters and brothers be, remembering that every choice you make establishes your own identity as you will perceive it, and believe it is.

 

Deny me not the little gift I ask, when I ask only for your own Release. And in exchange I lay before your feet the Peace of the Divine, and Power to bring this Peace to everyone who wanders in the world, uncertain, lonely, and in constant fear. For it is given you to join with me and them, and through Divine Essence in us unveil their eyes, and let them behold the Presence of Divine Essence in themselves.

My sisters and brothers in awakening, I know you will succeed in hearing my voice and listening to my words. There is no place for nightmares within a world whose Loveliness is so wondrous and inclusive that it is just a Step from there to Heaven.

To your tired eyes I bring a vision of a different world, so new and clean and fresh you will forget the pain and sorrow that you looked upon before. But this is a vision that you must share with everyone you see. For otherwise you will behold it not. To give this gift is how to make it yours. And the Divine ordained, in loving Kindness, that it be for you. Let us be glad that we can walk the world together, and find so many opportunities to perceive another situation where our Creator’s Gift is once again recognized as ours. And thus will all the vestiges of the nightmare of hell, the secret “sins” and hidden hates, be gone, and all the Loveliness that they concealed appear like Lawns of Heaven to our sight, to lift us high above the thorny roads we travelled on before Divine Essence was recognized.

Hear me, my sisters and brothers, hear and join with me! The Divine has ordained that I cannot call in vain. And in Its Certainty I rest content. For you will hear, and you will choose once again. And in this choice is everyone made free.

 

I thank You, Creator, for these holy Ones who are my sisters and brothers as they are Your Children. My faith in them is Yours. I am as sure that they will walk with me as You are sure of what they are, and will forever be. They will accept the Gift I offer them because You gave It to me on their behalf. And as I would only do Your holy Will, so will they choose. And I give thanks for them.

Awakening’s Song will echo through the world with every choice they make with me. For we are One in Purpose, and the end of the nightmare of hell is near. In joyous welcome is my hand outstretched to every sister and brother who would join with me in reaching past the temptation of illusion and separation, and who turn with sincere determination toward the Light that shines beyond with perfect Constancy. Give me my own, Creator, for we belong to You. We must succeed in what is simply Your Will.

I give You thanks for what my sisters and brothers are, and as each one elects to join the Great Awakening, the Song of Thanks from Earth to Heaven grows from tiny, scattered threads of melody to one inclusive Chorus from a world released from all delusions and dreams, and giving thanks to You.

And now we say “Amen.” For Divine Essence has come to dwell in the abode You set for It before time was, in calm Eternity. The journey closes, ending at the Place where it began. No trace of it remains. Not one illusion is accorded faith, and not one spot of darkness still remains to hide the Presence of Divine Essence from anyone.

Thy Will is done, Creator, complete and perfect, and all Creation recognizes You and knows You as the only Source It has. Clear in Your Likeness does the Light shine forth from Everything that lives and moves in You. For we have reached where all of us are One, and we are Home where You would have us be.