THE GIFTS OF GOD —Sondra Ray and Markus Ray on A Course in Miracles

Are we receiving and giving Christ's vision here? What is it? Love holds no grievances. Forgiveness is complete. And we have accepted the Atonement for ourselves. Then we look upon a "forgiven world." Are we doing this? This is the challenge and the gift. 

Into His Presence would we enter now. What is this Presence? Are we ready to enter into it? The Christ’s Presence is very real, and available to us, yet it is only through our pure intent that we will approach it and enter into it. It is not attained through “learning,” but rather through grace and the surrender of our ego’s attempts. The Presence is there when we show up empty handed, and with th...

“I walk with God in perfect holiness.” Do we keep this in our awareness during the day? If not, why not? If this is the real Source of our Joy, then it would follow that we do not really want Joy if we are not stepping back and following our Source. We inadvertently follow “pain and suffering” then. Maybe the ego does not want us to realize we are doing this, but we are. However, we always have an...

What does it mean to step back and let Him lead the way? Who is He, whom leads the way? And where would He be leading you? These are the questions this lesson brings up in us. The Christ is the one we are invoking in this lesson to “lead the way.” A state of mind that is in a state of happiness is the destination. Are we willing to step back, put our directions aside, and go the way towards this i...

We have a message of innocence to deliver. We did not write the message, but we have been chosen to deliver it to those appointed us. Will we choose to follow this direction, listening to the "Voice for God?" We have free will to cooperate with this mission or not. We have free will to join with the Christ in us or not. Why not if it brings us more joy? Being among the ministers of God means that...

No Lesson in A Course in Miracles reverses the thinking of the world as much as this one. The ego associates "safety" with "defenses." In reality it is just the opposite. A Mind that is safe has no need for defenses, because it sees it cannot be threatened, hurt, or made to do what it does not choose. This is the Lesson in which we begin to "identify" with the Christ Consciousness within us. This...

What is the “power of decision?” What are we deciding? Nothing short of being the Master of our Divine Destiny we share with our Creator. This is one of the KEY LESSONS in the Workbook of A Course in Miracles. This lesson is a matter of “life or death.” This power of decision lies in our own hands, not in some force “beyond our control.” Truly we have things to clean up in our life, and order to r...

This is the first lesson in the next section of 20 lessons. "All things are echoes of the Voice for God." Can we give up our own judgments of people and things? We must if we would like to be shown Christ's Vision. The Voice for God can give us the one JUDGMENT of innocence that is our Truth. This we extend to our brothers, and transmute all we thought before into the Truth. We can let go into thi...

In Estonia we presented a “Spiritual Cleaning Training.” This is the talk we gave, translated into Estonian, on ACIM. There were many people who had not heard of it before. What is the basic truth that A Course in Miracles is trying to help us realize? What is the purpose of studying this thought System of Christ Consciousness? These are a couple of the questions answered in this Podcast talk (wit...

This is the last lesson of Review IV. "My mind holds only what I think with God; I will accept atonement for myself; Only salvation can be said to cure." Are we ready to see ourselves in a different light? Complete forgiveness is the atonement. And this is the pathway to curing all that ails us. This is what ACIM calls "salvation." The questions is, "Can we accept it?" 

We are in the momentum of suffering. The root of this suffering is our imagined separation from the Source of Life. Healing is a decision we make to be connected to our Source in our awareness. This connection is free of suffering and despair. Then we can begin to “clean up” our projections of sickness and defenses. Others are positively affected by this healing. It does not occur in isolation. We...

Defenses attract attack. By the time we pick up a defense, in essence, we are perceiving ourselves as "already attacked." This leads to more trouble, and might even manifest as a "sickness." Anger held in the mind over a period of time can easily make the "body" sick. Anger is a defense, and defenses attract attack, sickness, and a state of being NOT in touch with our Inner Peace and Joy. Realizin...

What do we value? Will it last forever? Does it serve the good of everyone? Will it instill our God Created innocence? These are the questions Sondra and Markus discuss in this Lesson from Review IV. What is true forgiveness. This is also explored in this Podcast.

The Truth we honestly seek is ours. We cannot fail in this search. But one of the actions we must take is to bring our Mind to emptiness. No judgments, no assessments of the world we see at all compose the "real world." We can see the meaninglessness of all of our projections. On the "clean slate" of our Holy Mind, the "still mind" and the "quiet mind," God can show us who we really are. In this T...

We have a decision to make. There is a "world" of the ego's thought system. And beyond that world, there is nothing short of Heaven. But it requires our decision. Because we cannot see both, or the sight of one blocks the sight of the other, we have to choose. Which will it be for you?  1) Beyond this world there is a world I want.  2) It is impossible to see two worlds

“There is no Love but God’s.” We see the reflection of love in this world. Clearly it comes from the Original Source of Creation. We are asked to tap into that love. Also, we are asked to move past and beyond the “substitute” forms of “love,” which masquerade as attachment, co-dependence, and a “world” that really holds nothing for us.

Today we explore the "quiet." In Quiet I receive God's word and "thoughts." Can we bring our mind to that deep silence within? And then we give from that place of inner connection. What we give grows within us, and our storehouse is increased. The more joy we give away the more we have it for ourselves. This is obvious. And in turn, we have more Joy to give away as we take it within ourselves.&nbs...

Grievances and non-forgiveness block our awareness of our Divine Mind. Can we let them go? In order to see our mind one with God's Mind, forgiveness is necessary. And forgiveness is the key to happiness. The gifts of God are realized in this Mind, one of total forgiveness. Are we ready to remember who we really are in this Mind we share with God. It reminds us of lesson in #35: "My mind is part of...

“My mind holds only what I think with God.” This thought would silence all of the rest. What would we be if only the “thoughts of God” filled our mind? Forgiveness would be complete, our mind would be still—emptied of all the meaningless “chatter” of fear, anger or guilt that keeps us distracted from awareness of our Sacred Source. But in fact, our mind only does hold what it thinks with God. This...

Only your innocence is the real "medicine." We try to "heal the body" of its symptoms without healing the source of the sickness in the first place—good old fashioned GUILT! Guilt is underneath all sickness in the body. It is the mind that makes up the guilt, not the body. We have to accept the Atonement for ourselves. Only complete forgiveness, then (The course calls this "salvation") can be said...

Accepting who we are as God created us restores us to our Divine Perfection instantly. There is no heavy penance to perform. We discover a silence deep within that has left the uncertainties of the world behind. The Holy Spirit takes us there when we accept the Atonement for ourselves.

Have we ever made a real decision? Perfect Happiness is our true nature. It does not have an opposite. This is something you know in your very bones is true, and not any storm or change of fate can undo it. This is one of the "pinnacle" Lessons in a long string of Miracles. Can we take these words and heed them? One day we must. Why not now? We took a birth to come and make this one Decision. We h...

The sickness of "separation" cannot be healed in isolation. We imagined this separation to be true, and it made us "sick," both mentally and physically. Undoing our false sense of separation is the healing, and this cannot be done alone. Our healing is what everyone else is waiting for, so we can all ascend into our highest potentials and be healthy and free...together.

This Lesson lets us know that the mind rules the body in all instances. And the mind in union with its Divine Creator results in pure joy. Sicknesses we “make up” and play out in the body are defenses against these facts. The truth is that our true Self is never “sick.” We are asked to live from that Self all of the time.

"If I defend myself I am attacked." This is a totally new perspective on the subject of defenses. When I defend myself with my own plans, I am not trusting on the Peace of God to keep me safe. I am not allowing my mind to embrace the care of the Universe to provide for me. This subtle form of defense invites attack and for things to run amuck. God's plan for me results in perfect happiness when I...