1. Jesus is in charge of the process of Atonement, which he undertook to begin.  When you offer a miracle to any brother, you offer it also to yourself and to Jesus.  Jesus does not need miracles for his own Atonement, but he stands at the end in case you fail temporarily.  His part in the Atonement is the cancelling of all errors that you could not otherwise correct. 

2. The power to work miracles belongs to you.  Jesus will provide the opportunities to do them, but you must be ready and willing -- that is your main beginning part in performing miracles.  Doing them will bring conviction in the ability to do them, because conviction comes through accomplishment.    The ability is the potential, the achievement is its expression, and the Atonement (the natural profession of the children of God) is the purpose.

3. "Heaven and earth shall pass away" means that they will not continue to exist as separate states.  Jesus' word, which is the resurrection and the life, shall not pass away, because life is eternal. You are the work of God, and his work is wholly lovable and wholly loving.  This is how a man (or woman) must think of himself in his heart, because this is what he is.

4. The forgiven are the means of the Atonement.  Being filled with spirit, they forgive in return.  Those who are released must join in releasing their brother, for this is the plan of the Atonement.  Miracles are the way in which minds that serve the Holy Spirit unite with Jesus for the salvation or release of ALL of God's creations.  And yes, the Holy Spirit serves you and you serve Him.  It is a joint service.

5. Jesus is the only one who can perform miracles indiscriminately, because he IS the Atonement.  We ask him which miracles to perform and therefore are under his direct communication.  A guide does not control but he does direct, leaving it up to you to follow. "Lead us not into temptation" means "Recognize your errors and choose to abandon them by following his guidance." Error does not threaten truth, as truth reigns supreme, but the right choice is inevitable if you remember this:

Spirit is in a state of grace forever.

Your reality is only spirit.

Therefore you are in a state of grace forever.

6. Atonement undoes all errors in this respect, and thus uproots the source of fear.  Whenever you experience God's reassurances as threat, it is always because you are defending misplaced or misdirected loyalty.  When you project this to others you imprison them, but only to the extent to which you reinforce errors they have already made. This makes them vulnerable to the distortions of others, since their own perception of themselves is distorted.  (Distortion attracts distortion.  So, we pray:  Straighten my mind, my Father, straighten my mind.) The miracle worker can only bless them, and this undoes their distortions and frees them from prison. This is the power of the miracle and the miracle worker!

7. You respond to what you perceive, and as you perceive so shall you behave.  The Golden Rule asks you to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  This means that the perceptions of both must be accurate. The Golden Rule is the rule for appropriate behavior.  You cannot behave appropriately unless you perceive correctly.  Since you and your neighbor are equal members of one family, as you perceive both so you will do to both.  You should look out from the perception of your own holiness to the holiness of others.

8. Do YOU want a miracle?  Miracles arise from a mind that is ready for them. (Remember the song: I am ready for a miracle, ready for a miracle, ready for a miracle today . . . ) By being united this mind goes out to everyone, even without the awareness of the miracle worker himself.  The impersonal nature of miracles is because the Atonement itself is one, uniting all creations with their Creator.  As an expression of what you truly are, the miracle places the mind in a state of grace.  The mind then naturally welcomes the Host within and the stranger without.  When you bring in the stranger, he becomes your brother.

9. That the miracle may have effects on your brothers that you may not recognize is not your concern.  The miracle will always bless you.  Miracles you are not asked to perform have not lost their value.  They are still expressions of your own state of grace, but the action aspect of the miracle should be controlled by Jesus because of his complete awareness of the whole plan.  The impersonal nature of miracle-mindedness ensures your grace, but only Jesus is in a position to know where they can be bestowed.

10. Miracles are elective only in the sense that they are directed towards those who can use them for themselves.  Since this makes it inevitable that they will extend them to others, a strong chain of Atonement is welded.  However, this selectivity takes no account of the magnitude of the miracle itself, because the concept of size exists on a plane that is itself unreal.  Since the miracle aims at restoring the awareness of reality, it would not be useful if it were bound by laws that govern the error. 

                                                         (Continue to Text, Chapter 1, Section IV: The Escape from Darkness)