Principle 18: A miracle is a service. It is the maximal service you can render to another. It is a way of loving your neighbor as yourself. You recognized your own and your neighbor’s worth simultaneously. (T-1.I.18)

COURSE REFERENCES

All expressions of love are maximal. (T-1.I.1:3) Love is of God, and God is but love and therefore so are you, as are all His creations, all made in His image and light. He is only love and nothing else. His love is not sullied by the constraints of the world. His love is pure, maximal, and indiscriminate. He loves ALL His Sons and loves EQUALLY and loves MAXIMALLY. And this is how everyone must learn to love. This is the goal!

The miracle sets reality where it belongs. Reality belongs only to spirit, and the miracle acknowledges only truth. It thus dispels illusions about yourself and puts you in communion with yourself and God. The miracle joins in the Atonement (the undoing of error) by placing the mind in the service of the Holy Spirit. This establishes the proper function of the mind and corrects its errors, which are all merely "lacks of love," The mind that serves spirit is invulnerable. (T-1.IV.2:3-7,11) Therefore you see what to choose now:  choose to serve spirit, which is the same as being in service to truth.

The miracle is a sign that the mind has chosen to be led by Jesus in Christ’s service. The abundance of Christ is the natural result of choosing to follow Him. All shallow roots must be uprooted, because they are not deep enough to sustain you. The illusion that shallow roots can be deepened, and thus made to hold, is a major distortion that must be corrected. Be aware that as these false underpinnings and pseudo-supports are given up, equilibrium may be temporarily experienced as unstable. However, nothing is less stable than an upside-down orientation. Nor can anything that holds it upside down be conducive to increased stability. (T-1.V.6:1-7) Miracles turn the upside-down to the right-side up. Miracles correct the perceptions. Right perception, wrong perception – it is still all perception. Aspire to the knowledge of God.

The mind returns to its proper function only when it wills to know. This places it in the service of spirit where perception is changed. (T-3.IV.5:6-7)

You respond to what you perceive, and as you perceive so shall you respond. The Golden Rule asks you to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It is the rule for appropriate behavior. Yet you cannot behave appropriately unless you perceive correctly. This means that the perception of both you and others must be accurate. Since you and your neighbor are equal members of one family, as you perceive both, so you will do to both. Since perception is still used in the illusion, at the very least use correct perception. Thus, you look out from the perception of your own holiness to the holiness of others. (T-1.III.6:11-7)

Miracles arise from a mind that is ready for them. Jesus knows who is ready for a miracle, and he will be your guide in this. By being united the holy mind goes out to everyone, often without the awareness of the miracle worker himself. As an expression of what you truly are, the miracle places the mind in a state of grace. (Remember, miracles can only be performed when the miracle worker is in the 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. (T-1.III.7:1-2,4-5) (He was always your brother, but your perception was askew and you did not recognize him. In the state of grace, you see all “others” as your brothers!)

Recognize the Majesty of God as your brother and accept your own inheritance. (T-7.XI.5:4) When you accept your brother’s guiltlessness you will see the Atonement in him – and in you. All are in this illusion together; all have “fallen short of the glory of God.” All are looking for the Way. Help each other to find that Way, not to perish in the illusion, but to rise above it.

A Son of God is happy only when he knows he is with God. That is the only environment in which he will not experience strain, because that is where he belongs. It is also the only environment that is worthy of the Son of God, because his own worth is beyond anything he can make. (T-7.XI.2:6-8)

Whenever you heal a brother by recognizing his worth, you are acknowledging his power to create – and simultaneously acknowledging your own! He cannot have lost what you recognize, and you must have the same glory you see in him or you would not see it. There is only one glory, and that is the glory of God. Thus, if you deny your brother’s creative power, you are denying your own and that of God Who created you. (T-7.XI.6:5-6)

Whenever you deny a blessing to a brother, you will feel deprived because denial is as total as love. It is as impossible to deny part of the Sonship as it is to love it in part. Reality cannot be partly appreciated. Yet denial is a defense, and so it is as capable of being used positively as well as negatively. In the service of the Holy Spirit, it can help you to recognize part of reality, and thus to appreciate all of it. Mind is too powerful to be subject to exclusion. And you will never be able to exclude yourself from your thoughts. (T-7.VII.1:1-2,7,9-13)

Do you want to know all of creation? The Kingdom of God includes all His Sons and their children. Know, then, the Sons of God, and you will know all creation. (T-7.XI.7:10-11)

Spiritual vision literally cannot see error, and merely looks to the Atonement (the correction). With spiritual vision, all solutions the physical eye seeks dissolve. Spiritual vision looks within and recognizes immediately that the altar has been defiled and needs to be repaired and protected. Perfectly aware of the right defense it passes over all others, looking past error to truth. Because of the strength of its vision, it brings the mind into its service. This re-establishes the power of the mind and makes it increasingly unable to tolerate delay, realizing that it only adds unnecessary pain. As a result, the mind becomes increasingly sensitive to what it would once have regarded as very minor intrusions of discomfort. (T-2.III.4:1-7)

When a brother acts insanely, how do you see it in the light? See that he is offering you an opportunity to bless him – that is how. See also that his need is yours. You need the blessing you can offer him. There is no way for you to have it except by giving it. This is the law of God, and it has no exceptions. What you deny another you lack, not because it is lacking, but because what you have denied in another you are therefore not aware of in yourself. Every response you make is determined by what you think you are, and what you want to be is what you think you are. What you want to be, then, must determine every response you make. (T-7.VII.2:1-8)

Rather, then, than allow yourself to be irritated by another’s insane behavior, be you rather grateful that you can be the means to serve His end with this brother. This is the only service that leads to freedom. (T-22.VI.3:2-3) After all, you are here only to be truly helpful, and that is as the Holy Spirit guides you. (T-22.VI.3:2-3) You will see your value through your brother’s eyes, and each one is released as he beholds his savior in place of the attacker who he thought was there. Each little gift you offer to your brother lights up the world. Through his release the world is released. This is your part in bringing peace. (T-22.VI.8:1-3)

You are being blessed by every beneficent thought of any of your brothers anywhere. You will want to bless them in return, out of gratitude. You need not know them individually, or they you. The light is so strong that it radiates throughout the Sonship, returning thanks to the Father for radiating His joy upon it. Only God’s holy children are worthy channels of His beautiful joy, because only they are beautiful enough to hold it by sharing it. It is impossible for a child of God to love his neighbor except as himself. That is why the healer’s prayer is:

Let me know this brother as I know myself. (T-5.in.3:1-8)

You who are not at war must look for brothers and recognize all who you see as brothers, because only equals are at peace. (T-7.III.3:2) Sometimes this seems difficult. A brother acts insanely, or unlovingly, or spitefully – and you do not see him as an equal. Yet the outer behavior is not your brother. That is the ego using your brother. Your brother is the light in him who is the Son of God, the same as is in you. Once you see that light, you will see peace. Your right mind sees only brothers, because it sees only in its own light.

Forgiveness is the healing of the perception of separation. Correct perception of your brother (and all aspects of “the dream”) is necessary, because minds have chosen to see themselves as separate. (T-3.V.10:1-9)

It will be given you to see your brother’s worth when all you want for him is peace. And what you want for him you will receive. (T-20.V.3:6-7)

When Jesus says “I am with you always,” He means it literally. He is not absent to anyone in any situation. And because he is always with you, you are the way, the truth and the life, the same as he. You did not make this power, any more than Jesus did. It was created to be shared, and therefore cannot be meaningfully perceived as belonging to anyone at the expense of another. Such a perception makes it meaningless by eliminating or overlooking its real and only meaning: oneness. (T-7.III.3:2) Can you tell the difference between each drop of water in the ocean? ALL your brothers are the core of the Sonship. See them as such.

How, then, does true healing occur? It is obvious that when you are afraid, you have placed yourself in a position where you need Atonement (undoing of error). You have done something loveless, having chosen without love. This is precisely the situation for which the Atonement was offered. Thus, the need for the remedy inspired its establishment. You see, as long as you recognize only the need for the remedy, you will remain fearful. However, as soon as you accept the remedy, you have abolished the fear! Is this not so? This is how true healing occurs! (T-2.VI.8:1-9)

Note: You MUST allow the Holy Spirit to help you in times of perceived need. So HOW do you let Him in to solve the problem? You already know. You INVITE Him in and let Jesus bring Him down to you. That is how. Everyone can issue that invitation. And then leave it to Jesus and the Holy Spirit to induce the remedy, and the fear is then abolished. Do this now ~

Prayer: Heavenly Father, I invite the Holy Spirit to come into my mind, into my life, to straighten the crooked places and to resolve all the issues of separation in my mind that are the result of loveless thoughts garnered from listening to the ego. I do not want to go around the treadmill of the ego even one more time; I will only to step off that ego treadmill and allow the Holy Spirit to lead me back to the path of righteousness, which will lead me out of fear and into the light, which is where I belong and where, in truth, I AM. I belong where GOD IS.