Principle 8: Miracles are healing because they supply a lack; they are performed by those who temporarily have more for those who temporarily have less. (T-1.I.8)

COURSE REFERENCES

While lack does not exist in the creation of God, it is very apparent in what you have made. It is, in fact, the essential difference between them. Lack implies that you would be better off in a state somehow different from the one you are in. Until the “separation,” which is the meaning of the “fall,” nothing was lacking. There were no needs at all. (T-1.VI.1:1-7)

Therefore, a sense of separation from God is the only lack you really need correct. This “sense” of separation would never have arisen if you had not distorted your perception of truth, and had thus perceived yourself as lacking. (T-1.VI.2:1-2) Yet to sense is not to know. If you are “knowing,” you know that everything was given you in your creation and you have need of nothing. Yet you “sense” lack or need in the illusion, as that is the realm where “not knowing” abides. So “knowing” is the answer to “sensing.” No learning is acquired by anyone unless he wants to learn it and believes in some way that he needs it. This is where the miracle enters.

Wholeness is the perceptual content of miracles. They thus correct, or atone for, the faulty perception of lack. (T-1.I.41:1-2) Miracles restore the mind to its fullness. Miracles are a way of earning release from fear by atoning for lack (undoing the idea of lack) and thus they establish perfect protection. A major contribution of miracles is their strength in releasing you from your false sense of isolation, deprivation and lack. (T-1.I.42:1) The spirit’s strength leaves no room for intrusions to frighten the Son of God.

To extend is a fundamental aspect of God which He gave to His Son. The inappropriate use of extension, or projection, occurs when you believe that some emptiness or lack exists in you, and that you can fill it with your own ideas instead of truth. The world is full of options for this, but though they appear to temporarily fill a lack, it is not full-filling. What God created perfect cannot be amplified by the world’s ideas; it simply cannot.

This sense of autonomy and separation would never have arisen if you had not distorted your perception of truth, and had thus perceived yourself as lacking and then allowed this to disturb your peace. Yet in reality you are perfectly unaffected by all expressions of lack of love or imperfection. These can be expressions from yourself and others, from yourself to others, or from others to you. Peace is an attribute in you. It cannot be disturbed by anything outside of you, and not even by a thought. Any thought that appears to disrupt your peace is simply untrue and has no power.

For example, when you lack confidence in what someone will do, you are attesting to your belief that he is not in his right mind. This is not a miracle-based frame of reference, and has the effect of denying the power of the miracle. Specialness is a lack of trust in anyone except yourself. It is self-invested faith. (T-24.IV.1:1-2)

Let us look at it another way. When a brother appears to you to be acting insanely, he is offering you an opportunity to bless him. 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 (to give is to receive), and it has no exceptions. What you deny you lack, not because it is lacking, but because you have denied it in another and are therefore not aware of it in yourself.

In reference, then, how can you “love thy brother as thyself” if you do not first love yourself? How can you be aware of receiving if you are not aware of having and giving? And you cannot give unless you have something to give. To give thanks to your brother is to appreciate the holy instant, and thus enable its results to be accepted and shared. To attack your brother is not to lose the instant but to make it powerless in its effects.

Have you been grateful to your brother? Or has your appreciation flickered and grown dim in perceiving his mistakes? Perhaps you are even now entering upon a campaign to blame your brother for the discomfort of the situation in which you find yourself. Yet the Holy Spirit does not see mistakes at all! Therefore, neither do you in truth. Note: the miracle perceives everything as it is. If nothing but the truth exists, right-minded seeing cannot see anything but perfection. All the innocent can see is what is real. They do not suffer from distorted perception, nor from lack of peace. (T-3.II.3:1-8) In reality, then, you are perfectly unaffected by all expressions of lack of love.

Since the separation, the words “create” and “make” have become confused. When you make something, you do so out of a specific sense of lack or need. Anything made for a specific purpose has no true generalizability. When you make something to fill a perceived lack, you are tacitly implying that you believe in separation. The ego has invented many ingenious thought systems for this purpose. None of them is creative. Inventiveness is wasted effort even in its most ingenious form. The highly specific nature of invention is not worthy of the abstract creativity of God’s creations.

The surface traits of God’s miracle workers are not at all alike. They do not look alike to the body’s eyes, they come from vastly different backgrounds, their experiences of the world vary greatly, and their superficial “personalities” are quite distinct. Nor, at the beginning stages of their functioning as miracle workers, have they as yet acquired the deeper characteristics that will establish them as what they are. God gives special gifts to His miracle workers, because they have a special role in His plan for Atonement (the undoing of error). Their specialness is, of course, only temporary; set in time as a means of leading out of time. All differences among the Sons of God are temporary.

Yet because the miracle worker has responded to the call, he strengthens it in a brother experiencing sickness or error by weakening his belief in sickness and error, which he does not share. The power of one mind can shine into another, highlighting the truth, because all minds are joined. The lamps of God were lit by the same spark. The sick must heal themselves and all errors must be corrected because the truth is already in them. Yet having obscured it, the light in another mind must shine into theirs because they share the same light. As a miracle worker, you accept the responsibility for how your brother sees himself. You can change his whole mind in just an instant merely by being there! Your simple Presence is enough to heal your brother.

Now that you know the power of healing that the reflection of God, shining in you, can bring to all the world, hasten to make the mirror of your mind clean to receive the image of the holiness that heals the world. From this day forth, allow your ministry to take on a genuine devotion, and a glow that travels from your fingertips to those you touch, and blesses those you look upon. A vision will reach everyone you meet, and everyone you think of, or who thinks of you. For you are among God’s chosen miracle workers; you have answered the Call! You now know, and have the power, to demonstrate GOD IS.