ARCIM

Daily Lesson 169 ~
June 18

By Grace I live. By Grace I am released.

Grace is an Aspect of the Love of the Divine that is most like the State prevailing in the Unity of Truth. It is the world’s most lofty Aspiration, for It leads beyond the world entirely. It is beyond learning yet the goal of learning, for Grace cannot come until the mind prepares itself for true Acceptance. Grace becomes inevitable instantly in those who have prepared a Table where It can be gently laid and willingly received, an Altar clean and holy for the Gift.

Grace is acceptance of the Love of the Divine within a world of seeming hate and fear. By Grace alone the hate and fear are gone, for Grace presents a State so opposite to everything the world contains that those whose minds are lighted by the Gift of Grace can no longer give belief to the idea that the world of fear is real.

Grace is not learned though It is the goal of learning. The Final Step the Divine takes to translate perception into Knowledge must go beyond all learning. The Grace of this Step is therefore not the goal this Course aspires to attain. Yet we prepare for Grace in that an open mind can hear the Call to awaken. It is not shut tight against the Divine’s Voice. It has become aware that there are things it does not understand, and thus is ready to accept a State completely different from experience with which it is familiarly at home.

This Course has stated that the Revelation of the Creator and the Creation as One has been already set, that the mind determines when that time will be, and has determined it. It may appear to contradict that statement when you are urged to bear witness to the Word of the Divine in order to hasten the experience of Truth, and speed Its Advent into every mind to recognize Truth’s Effects on you. There is no contradiction.

Oneness is simply the Idea that the Divine is. And in Its Being It encompasses all things. Every healed and whole mind holds only the Divine. We say, “The Divine is,” and then we cease to speak, for in that Knowledge words are meaningless. There are no lips to speak them, and no part of mind sufficiently distinct to feel that it is now aware of something not itself. It has united with its Source, and like the Source Itself, it simply is.

We cannot speak or write or even think of this at all. It comes to every mind when total Recognition that its will is the Divine’s has been completely given, and received completely. This returns the mind into the endless Present, where a past and future cannot be conceived. This is beyond awakening, past all thoughts of time, forgiveness, and even the holy Face of Divine Essence. The Children of the Divine have merely disappeared into their Creator, as their Creator has in them. The world has never been at all. Eternity remains the constant State.

These things are indeed beyond experiences we try to hasten. Yet forgiveness, taught and learned, brings with it the experiences that bear witness that the time the mind itself determined to release itself from all but this is now at hand. We do not hasten it, in that what you will offer was never concealed from Holy Spirit, Who teaches what forgiveness means. All learning is already in Its Mind, accomplished and complete. It recognizes all that time holds, and gives this to all minds, that each one might determine, from a point where time has ended, when it will be released to Revelation and Eternity. This Course has stated several times that you simply make a journey that is already done.

For Oneness must be here now if It is at all. Whatever time the mind has set for Revelation of its Oneness with the Divine is entirely irrelevant to what must be a constant State, forever as It always was, forever to remain as It is now. We merely accept our part assigned long since, and fully recognized as perfectly fulfilled by Spirit, Who wrote awakening’s Script in Its Creator’s Name, and in the Name of Its Creator’s Children.

There is no need to further clarify what no one in the world can understand. When Revelation of your Oneness comes, it will be known and fully understood. Now we have work to do, for those in time can speak of things beyond, and listen to words that explain that what is to come is past already. Yet what meaning can such words convey to those who count the hours still, and rise and work and go to sleep by them?

Suffice it, then, that you have work to do to play your part in the Divine’s Plan. The Ending must remain obscure to you until your part is complete. It does not matter. For your part is still what all Atonement depends on. As you accept the role assigned to you, awakening comes a little nearer each uncertain heart that does not as yet beat in tune with the Divine.

Forgiveness is the central theme that runs throughout awakening and Atonement, holding all Its parts in meaningful relationships, the course It runs directed, and Its Outcome sure.

And now we ask for Grace, the final Gift awakening can bestow. Experience that Grace provides will end in time, for Grace foreshadows Heaven yet does not replace the thought of time except for a little while. The interval suffices. It is here that miracles are placed, to be returned by you from Holy Instants you receive, through Grace, in your experience, to all who see the Light that lingers on your face.

What is the Face of Divine Essence but theirs who went a moment into Timelessness from this world, and brought a clear Reflection of the Unity they felt that Instant back to bless the world? How could you finally attain to this State of Grace forever while a part of you remains outside, unknowing, unawakened, and in need of you as witness to the Truth?

Be grateful to return to this world, as you were glad to go an Instant beyond this world and accept the Gifts that Grace provided you. You carry Them back to yourself as well as to your sisters and brothers. And Revelation of your Oneness stands not far behind. Its coming is ensured.

We ask for Grace and for experience that comes from Grace. We welcome the Release It offers everyone. We do not ask for the unaskable. We do not seek beyond what Grace can give. For this we can give in the Grace that has been given us.

Our learning goal today does not exceed this prayer. Yet in the world what could be more than what we ask this day of Spirit, Who gives the Grace we ask, as It was given It?

 

“By Grace I live. By Grace I am released.

By Grace I give. By Grace I will release.”

 

Corresponding Text Section

 

Chapter 15: Dissolving Dissociation

 

5. Deciding with the Divine

When you accept a brother’s or sister’s innocence, you will see Atonement in them. For by proclaiming It in them, you make It yours, and you will see what you sought. You will not be able to see the Sign of your brother’s or sister’s innocence shining within them while you still believe it is not there. Their innocence is your atonement. Grant it to them and you will see the Truth of what you have acknowledged. Yet Truth is offered first in order to be received, even as the Divine gave It first to Its Children. The first in time means nothing, but the First in Eternity is the Creator, Who is both First and One. There is no other Creator beyond the First, no second or third, and nothing but the First.

You who belong to the First Cause, created by It like unto Itself, and Part of It, are more than merely guiltless. The State of Innocence is only the Condition in which what is not there has been removed from the disordered mind that thought it was there. This state of seeing Innocence, and only this, must you attain, with the Divine beside you. For until you do, you will still think that you are separate from the Divine. With guilt gone you can now feel the Divine’s Presence with you, but you do not yet remember, and therefore do not know, that you are One with It. This need not be taught. Learning applies only to fulfilling the Condition in which knowing happens of itself.

When you have let all that has obscured the Truth in your most holy mind be undone for you, and stand in Grace before your Creator, It will give Itself to you, as It has always done. Giving Itself is all the Divine knows, and so It is all Knowledge. For what the Divine knows not cannot be, and therefore cannot be given. Ask not to be forgiven, for this has already been accomplished. Ask rather to learn how to forgive, which will restore what always was to the unforgiving part of your mind.

Atonement becomes real and visible to them that use It. Atonement and what leads to It (forgiveness, miracles, healing and awakening) is your only function on Earth, and you must learn that It is all you want to learn. You will feel guilty until you learn this. For, in the end, whatever form your guilt takes it arises from your belief that you have failed to fulfill with all your mind your Function in the Divine’s Mind. Can you release yourself from this guilt by failing to fulfill your function here, which is to release yourself from guilt? To do what must be done, you need not understand Creation before that Knowledge would be meaningful to you. The Divine will not fail in anything, nor ever has. It makes no barriers, neither does It break any. When you release them, they are gone.

Come to full clarity that the Divine is right about Its Children and that therefore you have been wrong about yourself. It created you out of Itself but still within It. It knows what you are. Remember that there is no second to It. There cannot, therefore, be anyone without or outside of Its Holiness, nor anyone unworthy of Its perfect Love. Fail not in your function of loving in a loveless place, which was made out of darkness and fear, for thus are darkness and fear undone. Fail not yourself, but instead offer to the Divine and to yourself Its blameless Children. For this small gift of appreciation for Its Love the Divine will Itself exchange your gift for Its.

Therefore before you make any decisions for yourself alone and on your own, remember that you previously decided against your Function in the Realm of Heaven when you became a perceiver, and consider carefully whether you want to make your own decisions by yourself here. Your function here is only to decide against deciding alone what you want, in recognition that you do not know. How, then, can you decide on your own what you should do? Leave all decisions to the One Who speaks for the Divine and for your function here as It knows it. So will It teach you to fulfill the Condition for Knowledge, through removing the awful burden you laid upon yourself when you chose not to love the Children of the Divine, and tried to teach them guilt instead of Love. Give up this frantic and insane attempt that cheats you of the Joy of living with your Creator, and awaken gladly to Its Love and Holiness, which join together as Truth in you, making you One with It.

When you have learned how to decide with the Divine, all decisions become as easy and as right as breathing. There is no effort, and you will be led as gently as if you were being carried along a quiet path in summer. Only your own volition seems to make deciding hard. The Holy Spirit will not delay at all in answering your every question of what to do. It knows. And It will share this Knowledge with you, and then carry out the decisions for you. You who are tired might consider whether this would not be more restful than sleep. For you can bring your guilt into sleeping, but not into this.