 We continue today with chapter 9, the acceptance of the atonement, the acceptance of reality. Fear of the will of God is one of the strangest beliefs the human mind has ever made. It could not possibly have occurred unless the mind were already profoundly split, making it possible for it to be afraid of what it really is. Reality cannot threaten anything except illusions, since reality can only uphold truth. The very fact that the will of God, which is what you are, is perceived as fearful, demonstrates that you are afraid of what you are. It is not then the will of God of which you are afraid, but yours. Your will is not the egos, and that is why the ego is against you. What seems to be the fear of God is really the fear of your own reality. It is impossible to learn anything consistently in a state of panic. If the purpose of this course is to help you remember what you are, and if you believe that what you are is fearful, then it must follow that you will not learn this course. Yet the reason for the course is that you do not know what you are. If you do not know what your reality is, why would you be so sure that it is fearful? The association of truth and fear, which would be highly artificial at most, is particularly inappropriate in the minds of those who do not know what the truth is. All this could mean is that you are arbitrarily associating something beyond your awareness with something you do not want. It is evident then that you are judging something of which you are totally unaware. You have set up this strange situation so that it is impossible to escape from it without a guide who does know what your reality is. The purpose of this guide is merely to remind you of what you want. He is not attempting to force an alien will upon you. He is merely making every possible effort within the limits you impose on him to re-establish your own will in your awareness. You have imprisoned your will beyond your own awareness where it remains, but cannot help you. When I said that the Holy Spirit's function is to sort out the true from the false in your mind, I meant that he has the power to look into what you have hidden and recognize the will of God there. His recognition of this will can make it real to you because he is in your mind and therefore he is your reality. If then his perception of your mind brings its reality to you, he is helping you to remember what you are. The only source of fear in this process is what you think you will lose. Yet it is only what the Holy Spirit sees that you can possibly have. I have emphasized many times that the Holy Spirit will never call upon you to sacrifice anything. But if you ask the sacrifice of reality of yourself, the Holy Spirit must remind you that this is not God's will because it is not yours. There is no difference between your will and God's. If you did not have a split mind, you would recognize that willing is salvation because it is communication. It is impossible to communicate in alien tongues. You and your Creator can communicate through creation because that and only that is your joint will. A divided mind cannot communicate because it speaks for different things to the same mind. This loses the ability to communicate simply because confused communication does not mean anything. A message cannot be communicated unless it makes sense. How sensual can your messages be when you ask for what you do not want? Yet as long as you are afraid of your will, that is precisely what you are asking for. You may insist that the Holy Spirit does not answer you, but it might be wiser to consider the kind of questioner you are. You do not ask only for what you want. This is because you are afraid you might receive it and you would. That is why you persist in asking the teacher who could not possibly give you what you want. Of him, you can never learn what it is. And this gives you the illusion of safety. Yet you cannot be safe from truth, but only in truth. Reality is the only safety. Your will is your salvation because it is the same as God's. The separation is nothing more than the belief that it is different. No right mind can believe that its will is stronger than God's. If, then, a mind believes that its will is different from his, it can only decide either that there is no God or that God's will is fearful. The former accounts for the atheist and the latter for the martyr who believes that God demands sacrifice. Either of these insane decisions will induce panic because the atheist believes he is alone and the martyr believes that God is crucifying him. Yet no one really wants either abandonment or retaliation even though many may seek both. Can you ask the Holy Spirit for, quote, gifts such as these and actually expect to receive them? He cannot give you something you do not want. When you ask the universal giver for what you do not want, you are asking for what cannot be given because it was never created. It was never created because it was never your will for you. Ultimately, everyone must remember the will of God because ultimately everyone must recognize himself. This recognition is the recognition that his will and God's are one. In the presence of truth, there are no unbelievers and no sacrifices. In the security of reality, fear is totally meaningless. To deny what is can only seem to be fearful. Fear cannot be real without a cause and God is the only cause. God is love and you do want him. This is your will. Ask for this and you will be answered because you will be asking only for what belongs to you. When you ask the Holy Spirit for what would hurt you, he cannot answer because nothing can hurt you and so you are asking for nothing. Any wish that stems from the ego is a wish for nothing and to ask for it is not a request. It is merely a denial in the form of a request. The Holy Spirit is not concerned with form being aware only of meaning. The ego cannot ask the Holy Spirit for anything because there is complete communication failure between them. Yet you can ask for everything of the Holy Spirit because your requests to him are real, being of your right mind. Would the Holy Spirit deny the will of God and could he fail to recognize it in his Son? You do not recognize the enormous waste of energy you expend in denying truth. But would you say if someone who persists in attempting the impossible believing that to achieve it is to succeed? The belief that you must have the impossible in order to be happy is totally at variance with the principle of creation. God could not will that happiness dependent on what you could never have. The fact that God is love does not require belief but it does require acceptance. It is indeed possible for you to deny facts although it is impossible for you to change them. If you hold your hands over your eyes you will not see because you are interfering with the laws of seeing. If you deny love you will not know it because your cooperation is the law of its being. You cannot change laws you did not make and the laws of happiness were created for you not by you. Any attempt to deny what is must be fearful and if the attempt is strong it will induce panic. Willing against reality though impossible can be made into a very persistent goal even though you do not want it. But consider the result of this strange decision. You are devoting your mind to what you do not want. How real can this devotion be? If you do not want it, it was never created. If it were never created, it is nothing. Can you really devote yourself to nothing? God and His devotion to you created you devoted to everything and gave you what you are devoted to. Otherwise you would not have been created perfect. Reality is everything and you have everything because you are real. You cannot make the unreal because the absence of reality is fearful and fear cannot be created. As long as you believe that fear is possible, you will not create. Opposing orders of reality make reality meaningless and reality is meaning. Remember then that God's will is already possible and nothing else will ever be. This is the simple acceptance of reality because only that is real. You cannot distort reality and know what it is and if you do distort reality, you will experience anxiety, depression and ultimately panic because you are trying to make yourself unreal. When you feel these things, do not try to look beyond yourself for truth. For truth can only be within you. Say therefore, Christ is in me and where He is God must be for Christ is part of Him. And from the workbook lesson 65, my only function is the one God gave me. The idea for today reaffirms your commitment to salvation. It is also reminding you that you have no function other than that. Both these thoughts are obviously necessary for a total commitment. Salvation cannot be the only purpose you hold while you still cherish others. The full acceptance of salvation as your only function necessarily entails two phases. The recognition of salvation as your function and the relinquishment of all other goals you have invented for yourself. This is the only way in which you can take your rightful place among the saviors of the world. This is the only way in which you can say and mean, my only function is the one God gave me. This is the only way in which you can find peace of mind. Today and for a number of days to follow, set aside 10 to 15 minutes for a more sustained practice period in which you try to understand and accept what the idea for the day really means. Today's idea offers you escape from all your perceived difficulties. It places the key to the door of peace which you have closed upon yourself in your own hands. It gives you the answer to all the searching you have done since time began. Try, if possible, to undertake the daily extended practice periods at approximately the same time each day. Try also to determine this time in advance and then adhere to it as closely as possible. The purpose of this is to arrange your day so that you can set apart the time for God as well as for all the trivial purposes and goals you will pursue. This is part of the long-range disciplinary training your mind needs so that the Holy Spirit can use it consistently for the purpose He shares with you. For the longer practice period, begin by reviewing the idea for the day. Then close your eyes, repeat the idea to yourself once again, and watch your mind carefully to catch whatever thoughts cross it. At first, make no attempt to concentrate only on thoughts related to the idea for the day. Rather, try to uncover each thought that arises to interfere with it. Note each one as it comes to you, with as little involvement or concern as possible. Dismissing each one by telling yourself, this thought reflects a goal that is preventing me from accepting my only function. After a while, interfering thoughts will become harder to find. Try, however, to continue a minute or so longer, attempting to catch a few of the idle thoughts that escaped your attention before, but do not strain or make undue effort in doing this. Then tell yourself, on this clean slate, let my true function be written for me. You need not use these exact words, but try to get the sense of being willing to have your illusions of purpose replaced by truth. Finally, repeat the idea for today once more, and devote the rest of the practice period to trying to focus on its importance to you. The relief its acceptance will bring you by resolving your conflicts once and for all, and the extent to which you really want salvation in spite of your own foolish ideas to the contrary. In the shorter practice periods, which should be undertaken at least once an hour, use this form in applying today's idea. My only function is the one God gave me. I want no other, and I have no other. Sometimes close your eyes as you practice this, and sometimes keep them open and look about you. It is what you see now that will be totally changed when you accept today's idea completely. My only function is the one God gave me. So today we watch our mind very, very deeply for extraneous thoughts, for goals that are not our will and are not our Father's will. Our only function is the one that God gave to us. Our only function is salvation. And our text reading today from Chapter 9 focuses on the acceptance of reality. It focuses on what we truly want, knowing our will and the will of God exactly as it is. We clearly are shown that our will is not the egos. Our will is not to know a substitute reality. Our will is to know reality. We have associated reality with fear, but reality is not fearful at all. We have been arbitrarily associating something beyond our awareness with something that we do not want. We have believed that reality is fearful. The Holy Spirit sees the truth in us beyond illusions and offers us salvation, the experience of the oneness, of the eternal love, of the innocence and freedom that was given us in creation by God. We cannot rely on the ego for anything. The ego knows nothing. A divided mind cannot communicate because it speaks for different things to the same mind. Confused communication does not mean anything. How sensible can these messages be when asking for what you do not want? And this is what happens when we ask the ego because we are asking for what we do not want. Today we ask for what we truly want, reality, truth, and God. We will not turn against God, nor will we believe that God is demanding sacrifice. God is the universal giver who gives only love. And we remember the certainty of our journey and destination when Jesus tells us ultimately everyone must remember the will of God because ultimately everyone must recognize himself. This recognition is a recognition that his will and God's are one. We lay aside all erroneous thoughts, all false pursuits. We lay aside all goals of time and space and sink deep within to the kingdom of heaven. When a distracting thought arises today, tell yourself, this thought reflects a goal that is preventing me from accepting my only function. Tell yourself on this clean slate, let my true function be written for me. And remember, my only function is the one God gave me. I want no other and I have no other. My only function is the one God gave me. Amen.