Paragraph 1. The last lesson ended with “There is no need for complicated change. There is no need for long analyses and wearying discussion and pursuits. The truth is simple, being one for all.” (P-2.IV.11:8-10) This section begins with “While truth is simple, it must still be taught to those who have already lost their way in endless mazes of complexity.” (P-2.V.1:1)

Is that you? Do you feel that there must be an exit from this illusory world if you just knew which door to open or which button to push? Surely your Father would not leave you without a way through or out?! But then you look at your situations, and the situations of your brothers, and this illusory world, and you begin to wonder. . .is there a door to the real world? And if so, where is it? How is it found?

Jesus says there is a door to the real world and that he stands there holding it open for you. And that the Holy Spirit guides you to it and through it. Have YOU gone through that door? Have you come close a few times? Have you seen it? What must you do, then, to get to the real world and even beyond?

In the wake of the complexity of the ego world “comes the inevitable belief that, to be safe, one must control the unknown.” You believe there are forces to overcome in order to be alive at all. So you buy locks for your doors, bars for your windows, insurance policies, and for some, bulletproof vests and cars. There is proper food you must eat, shelter to provide, money to manifest, the weather to endure (i.e., hurricanes and earthquakes), disease and illness to sidestep, bodily injury to avoid or overcome, and the ever present idea of death looming overhead. You feel helpless, hopeless and terrified that one or more of these forces and/or others will prevail.

Yet you pretend that everything is okay. You show an inflated sense of yourselves to your family and friends, employers and co-workers. You do not let what you “really” feel show lest you be considered weak, unreliable or certifiable. You act like you are “together” even if everything is falling apart. You lie to yourselves and pretend that you can hold back the ocean if need be – anything other than look directly at your fears and confront them for what they are (which is nothing).

Paragraph 2. And yet you are God’s Miracle Workers, and people come to YOU for help, and they are bitterly afraid. What they believe can help will only harm; what they believe will harm alone can help. They rationalize, theorize, aggrandize, and apologize. These do not work. The truth is too farfetched for their finite minds to grasp, and yet it is the finite mind to which they look for help.

You, God’s Miracle Workers, must show them that there is a pure and holy mind that can help them. A mind that is within them that knows all the answers, and can truly help them with their perceived difficulties. It is this mind, the holy mind, that will save them from the split mind and all the fear and terror that it presents and represents. The holy mind will only present happiness and healing and joy and abundance and the total absence from fear. Unless you can help the patient reach this mind, you will have failed to give him what he needs. The patient must be persuaded to reverse his twisted way of looking at the world and at himself. He must be taught that strength lies in love and certainty and defenselessness, not in fear and doubt and attack.

You must show the patient that real strength is not an inflated self that must constantly attack and defend, but a Self that is so secure and changeless that It could never need defense. It is up to you, God’s Miracle Workers, to wedge open the contracted split mind of the patient, and to do it so gently that he is unaware that it is even happening, lest he hold tightly to the past and refuse to let it go. The Holy Spirit will show you how, and you will follow His lead.

Paragraph 3. “If this world were ideal, there could perhaps be ideal therapy.” (P-2.V.3:1) Yet the therapist could not long remain in a world which is far from ideal. But still you must do all that you can to help the insane return to sanity – within the bounds of the attainable, for them and for yourself. So rather than speaking of the “ideal,” speak therefore of the “attainable.

While the insane are thus sick, you can and you must help them. No more than that is asked of you; no more than that is expected of you. Yet you must give all that you have to give, as that is all that is worthy of you. You cannot deprive the patient of anything or of everything, lest you deprive yourself of the same. What you give the patient will be what saves you. What you give, you will receive, in just the form you need it.

The Holy Spirit will show you exactly who to help, and what to say and do, so the guesswork is nil. When helping someone, you may think or even know that there is more that you could be doing for the patient. But do you know whether or not the patient is ready for more? You do not know, not by yourself. That is why you must look to Jesus and to the Holy Spirit for guidance – because They do know.

Paragraph 4. “Healing is holy. Nothing in the world is holier than helping one who asks for help.” (P-2.V.4:1) And two come very close to God in this attempt, however limited their efforts, even if lacking in sincerity. Where two have joined for healing, God is there. And He has guaranteed that He will hear and answer them in truth. They can be sure that it is a process that He directs, because it is according to His Will. (Notice – both you and the patient are brought together for healing, as no one is healed alone. Though the roles appear different – you as therapist, he as patient – you are both here for the same purpose: healing.) As you help your brothers, you have God’s Word to guide you, Jesus to lead you, the Holy Spirit within you to do it for you, and the plan of Atonement as your holy map. You, who also see yourselves as helpless, can lean on Them for the Way to the Truth, for Strength beyond your little scope, and for what to teach as well as for what to learn.

Paragraph 5. “A brother seeking aid can bring (you) gifts beyond the heights perceived in any dream,” because “what he asks is asked by God through him.” (P-2.V.5:1,3) You may think that it is your brother who is asking for help. Not so. It is the Holy Spirit in him who is asking for the Holy Spirit in you to help this brother. He is asking it for him and for you, as two or more joined in healing guarantees the help of God. Your brother comes to you therefore as Christ and Savior. And what you do for him becomes the gift you give to God. It is no small gift either, because this gift is given to every brother who ever came to this earth, is here now, or is yet to come. This gift is given to everyone in the Sonship.

When a brother asks for help, consider it sacred as you know the Father is there with him, asking you with him. He needs your voice to speak His holy word to your brother; a hand to reach His Son and touch his heart. In such a process as this, who could remain unhealed? This holy interaction is the plan of God Himself, by which His Son is saved. And His Son is YOU!

Paragraph 6. “For two have joined. And now God’s promises are kept by Him.” (P-2.V.6:1) The limitations of both patient and therapist will be as nothing now because Christ is present in you both. The healing has now begun. By coming together to help each other as God directs, a tremendous Power has been set in motion. You have started something, but God will complete it (6:4). The ending is as important as the beginning, so stay with Him. Even if the answer seems to be a worsening and not a help, let the outcome not be judged by you.

When the patient asks a brother for help, he is actually praying to God. God asks only for “the smallest willingness, the least advance, the tiniest of whispers of His Name. To ask for help, whatever form it takes, is but to call on Him.” (P-2.V.6:5) A request to anyone is enough. God will hear the patient’s call and send (or has already sent) the therapist that can best serve his present needs – yes, even the financial ones. Remember, there is no order of difficulty in miracles. God can heal a cold or a cancer, provide a dollar or a million dollars – with equal ease. Just listen, trust and follow Him. A happy outcome is sure.

Paragraph 7. When the therapist is helping a brother, sometimes he stumbles. When a patient is receiving the help, sometimes he stumbles. Yet no matter how imperfectly the therapy has been given or received, in time no effort can be made in vain – the gift will be received somewhere, somehow. Perfection is not what is being asked of you, as it was already established in Paragraph 3 that what is asked is what is attainable.

You are deceived already if you think there is a need for healing. This would imply that God’s creation is somehow faulty, and now He is coming back around for a second “go” at creation, and is using you – your hands, your feet, your deeds, and even your money – to do it. Not so. In fact, “the truth will come to you only through one who seems to share your dream of sickness.” (P-2.V.7:5) This “one” is the one who appears to be your patient. ☺

Your job is to help this brother “forgive himself for all the trespasses with which he could condemn himself without a cause” (7:6). And you can help your brother do this best, when YOU perceive that his guilt has no cause. And as you see the light in his face come shining through where unforgiveness and guilt once shrouded it in darkness, you will perceive your own healing. You will see the face of Christ. And in that moment you will understand that you are looking upon your own face as well, and the face of Christ will shine in you. This is how you find the truth!

Paragraph 8: “Let us stand silently before God’s Will, and do what it has chosen that (you) do. There is one way alone by which (you) come to where all dreams began. And it is there that (you) will lay them down, to come away in peace forever. Hear a brother call for help and answer him.” (P-2.V.8:1-4)

THAT is the Way. Yet do not perceive of this as a sacrifice. God is asking you to do that which will lead you to discover your true Identity and your true happiness. Remember, God is for you, and who can be against you when God is for you?

“Hear a brother call for help and answer him. It will be God to Whom you answer, for you called on Him. There is no other way to hear His Voice.” There is no other way to seek His Son, the Christ, no other way to find your Self, no other way to lay your illusions down and exchange them for the truth. Hear a brother call for help and answer him.” Jesus continually helped his brothers here on earth, and he continues to do so.

Why is this the only way? Because the goal of the journey is the realization or awakening to the sure knowledge that you have not sinned, that sin is not real, that guilt is not real. And the only way you will be convinced that YOU are sinless, is through lifting the burden of guilt from others, helping them in their trials no matter what form they take, awakening their minds to the truth that is true for you both, that you are not only sinless and guiltless, but you are loved, loving and lovable. Someone cares! Only through such a holy act will you realize that holiness resides forever in you.

“Holy is healing, for the Son of God returns to Heaven through its kind embrace. For healing tells him, in the Voice for God, that all his sins have been forgiven him.” (P-2.V.8:9-10) And what is forgiveness? Understanding that what you thought happened (the separation) never occurred. So where is guilt NOW? It never was, it is not now, and it never will be the truth. The Son of God is FREE -- as GOD IS.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Recap

Though we as miracle workers are still in this world, and still have not risen above the temptations presented here, people still come to US for help. The help we give them is the same as the help we give ourselves, as it comes from the Holy Spirit through us to our patient. We show and are shown that there is a pure and holy mind that can help us with all perceived trials and difficulties – and that this help comes from God through each other.

“A BROTHER SEEKING AID CAN BRING US GIFTS BEYOND THE HEIGHTS PERCEIVED IN ANY DREAM, “ because “WHAT HE ASKS IS ASKED BY GOD THROUGH HIM.”

When a brother asks for help, then, consider it SACRED as you know the Father is there with him, asking you to help him. By coming together to help each other as God directs, a tremendous Power has been set in motion. You have started something, but God will complete it. The ending is as important as the beginning so stay with Him: A happy outcome is guaranteed by God.

“Healing is holy. Nothing in the world is holier than helping one who asks for help.” And two come very close to God in this attempt, however limited their efforts, even if lacking in sincerity. Beneath the ego’s insincerity is the Holy Spirit’s Sincerity. So it still counts. Remember God is asking for your help; it is not your brother doing the asking. And God will be giving him the help, not you.

As a channel for love, your task is just to love, again and again, and then love some more.

AMEN