The Course in Miracles

Idea Cloud

abandoned accelerate accomplished accomplishment accomplishments accordingly achievement acknowledge acknowledged acknowledging acknowledgment acquisition affirmations afterwards appropriately approximation attempted attributes automatically awareness because benevolence birthplace blackest capriciousness carefully ceaselessly changelessness characteristic characteristically characteristics childhood circumstance communicate communication comparisons completes completion concealed conditional consciousness consequence consistency constructively contradiction contradictions contradictory contradicts crucifixion curriculum dangerous defenselessness defensiveness demonstrated demonstration demonstrations description destroyed determination determines differences different difficulty disappear disappeared disappears disappointment disappointments discrimination disguises dispassionately dissatisfying distinctions divergencies encompassing enlightenment establish established establishes everything everywhere evolutionary expenditures experiences experiential extending forgiveness generalization gentleness grandiosity gratitude hallucination hallucinations identification illumination imagination imaginings immortality impatience impermanent impossible impoverishment inapplicable inconceivable inconsistency indication indiscriminately indiscriminateness ineffectual ingratitude inheritance intensify interfere interpretation interpretations introduction invulnerability invulnerable irreconcilable judgment judgments justifications loveliness manifestations meaningless meaninglessness miracles misinterpreted misinterpreting misperceptions misunderstanding misunderstands misunderstood nightmares nothingness organizational ourselves perceptions perspective preconception preoccupation preparation projection projections psychotherapist qualifications recognition recognize recognized recognizing reconciliation reinterpretation reinterpreting relationship relationships relinquishment replacements reservations responsibility resurrection salvation separated separates separation simultaneously specificity sufficient surrounding thankfulness thanksgiving themselves therefore threatened timelessness totality transfiguration transformation transformer treachery unaccomplished unaffected uncertainty underestimate understand understandable understanding understood unintelligible voluntary worthlessness

On Freedom:

Father, my freedom is in You alone.

I did not understand what made me free, nor what my freedom is, nor where to look to find it. Father, I have searched in vain until I heard Your Voice directing me. Now I would guide myself no more. For I have neither made nor understood the way to find my freedom. But I trust in You. You Who endowed me with my freedom as Your holy Son will not be lost to me. Your Voice directs me, and the way to You is opening and clear to me at last. Father, my freedom is in You alone. Father, it is my will that I return.

There is no one who does not feel that he is imprisoned in some way. If this is the result of his own free will he must regard his will as not free, or the circular reasoning in this position would be quite apparent. Free will must lead to freedom

The ego tries to teach that you want to oppose God's Will. This unnatural lesson cannot be learned, and the attempt to learn it is a violation of your own freedom, making you afraid of your will because it is free.

The Holy Spirit leads you steadily along the path of freedom, teaching you how to disregard or look beyond everything that would hold you back.

We have said that the Holy Spirit teaches you the difference between pain and joy. That is the same as saying He teaches you the difference between imprisonment and freedom. You cannot make this distinction without Him because you have taught yourself that imprisonment is freedom.

The Holy Spirit's teaching takes only one direction and has only one goal. His direction is freedom and His goal is God. Yet He cannot conceive of God without you, because it is not God's Will to be without you. When you have learned that your will is God's, you could no more will to be without Him than He could will to be without you. This is freedom and this is joy. Deny yourself this and you are denying God His Kingdom, because He created you for this.

The freedom to leave behind everything that hurts you and humbles you and frightens you cannot be thrust upon you, but it can be offered you through the grace of God. And you can accept it by His grace, for God is gracious to His Son, accepting him without question as His Own.

God would not have His Son embattled, and so His Son's imagined "enemy" is totally unreal. You are but trying to escape a bitter war from which you have escaped. The war is gone. For you have heard the hymn of freedom rising unto Heaven. Gladness and joy belong to God for your release, because you made it not. Yet as you made not freedom, so you made not a war that could endanger freedom. Nothing destructive ever was or will be. The war, the guilt, the past are gone as one into the unreality from which they came.

The power of decision is your one remaining freedom as a prisoner of this world.

Above all else I want the freedom to remember my true identity.

[ Back ]

Menu

Idea Cloud