 Today, we continue on with Chapter 7, The Reality of the Kingdom. The Holy Spirit teaches one lesson and applies it to all individuals in all situations. Being conflict-free, He maximizes all efforts and all results. By teaching the power of the Kingdom of God Himself, He teaches you that all power is yours. Its application does not matter. It is always maximal. Your vigilance does not establish it as yours, but it does enable you to use it always and in all ways. When I said, I am with you always, I meant it literally. I am not absent to anyone in any situation because I am always with you. You are the way, the truth, and the life. You did not make this power any more than I 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. God's meaning waits in the Kingdom because that is where He placed it. It does not wait in time. It merely rests in the Kingdom because it belongs there as you do. How can you, who are God's meaning, perceive yourself as absent from it? You can see yourself as separated from your meaning only by experiencing yourself as unreal. This is why the ego is insane. It teaches that you are not what you are. That is so contradictory. It is clearly impossible. It is therefore a lesson you cannot really learn and therefore cannot really teach. Yet you are always teaching. You must therefore be teaching something else even though the ego does not know what it is. The ego then is always being undone and does suspect your motives. Your mind cannot be unified in allegiance to the ego because the mind does not belong to it. Yet what is treacherous to the ego is faithful to peace. The ego's enemy is therefore your friend. I said before that the ego's friend is not part of you because the ego perceives itself at war and therefore in need of allies. You who are not at war must look for brothers and recognize all whom you see as brothers because only equals are at peace. Because God's equal sons have everything, they cannot compete. Yet if they perceive any of their brothers as anything other than their perfect equals, the idea of competition has entered their minds. Do not underestimate your need to be vigilant against this idea because all your conflicts come from it. It is the belief that conflicting interests are possible and therefore you have accepted the impossible as true. Is that different from saying you perceive yourself as unreal? To be in the Kingdom is merely to focus your full attention on it. As long as you believe you can't attend to what is not true, you are accepting conflict as your choice. Is it really a choice? It seems to be, but seeming in reality are hardly the same. You who are the Kingdom are not concerned with seeming. Reality is yours because you are reality. This is how having and being are ultimately reconciled. Not in the Kingdom, but in your mind. The altar there is the only reality. The altar is perfectly clear in thought because it is a reflection of the perfect thought. Your right mind sees only brothers because it sees only its own light. God has lit your mind himself and keeps your mind lit by his light because his light is what your mind is. This is totally beyond question and when you question it you are answered. The answer merely undoes the question by establishing the fact that to question reality is to question meaninglessly. That is why the Holy Spirit never questions. His sole function is to undo the questionable and thus lead to certainty. The certain are perfectly calm because they are not in doubt. They do not raise questions because nothing questionable enters their minds. This holds them in perfect serenity because this is what they share, knowing what they are. And from the workbook, lesson 47. God is the strength in which I trust. If you are trusting in your own strength, you have every reason to be apprehensive, anxious and fearful. What can you predict or control? What is there in you that can be counted on? What would give you the ability to be aware of all the facets of any problem and to resolve them in such a way that only good can come of it? What is there in you that gives you the recognition of the right solution and the guarantee that it will be accomplished? Of yourself you can do none of these things. To believe that you can is to put your trust where trust is unwarranted and to justify fear, anxiety, depression, anger and sorrow. Who can put his faith in weakness and feel safe? Yet who can put his faith in strength and feel weak? God is your safety in every circumstance. His voice speaks for him in all situations and in every aspect of all situations telling you exactly what to do to call upon his strength and his protection. There are no exceptions because God has no exceptions and the voice which speaks for him thinks as he does. Today we will try to reach past your own weakness to the source of real strength four five-minute practice periods are necessary today and longer and more frequent ones are urged. Close your eyes and begin, as usual, by repeating the idea for today. God is the strength in which I trust. God is the strength in which I trust. God is the strength in which I trust. Then spend a minute or two in searching for situations in your life which you have invested with fear, dismissing each one by telling yourself God is the strength in which I trust. Now try to slip past all concerns related to your own sense of inadequacy. It is obvious that any situation that causes you concern is associated with feelings of inadequacy or otherwise you would believe that you could deal with the situation successfully. It is not by trusting yourself that you will gain confidence but the strength of God in you is successful in all things. The recognition of your own frailty is a necessary step in the correction of your errors but it is hardly a sufficient one in giving you the confidence which you need and to which you are entitled. You must also gain an awareness that confidence in your real strength is fully justified in every respect and in all circumstances. In the latter phase of the practice period, try to reach down into your mind to a place of real safety. You will recognize that you have reached it if you feel a sense of deep peace. However briefly, let go all the trivial things that churn and bubble on the surface of your mind and reach down and below them to the Kingdom of Heaven. There is a place in you where there is perfect peace. There is a place in you where nothing is impossible. There is a place in you where the strength of God abides. During the day, repeat the idea often, God is the strength in which I trust. God is the strength in which I trust. God is the strength in which I trust. Use it as your answer to any disturbance. Remember that peace is your right because you are giving your trust to the strength of God. So again, today is a day to focus on God and strength and realize that trust settles every problem now. That in the strength of God, there is no situation or circumstance that could trouble the mind in any way. With God's strength, there is no cause for depression, anxiety, worry, concern. Today again is a beautiful sinking inward meditation, opening to a very, very deep feeling of peace within. He tells us, let go all the trivial things that churn and bubble on the surface of your mind and reach down and below them to the Kingdom of Heaven, which is perfect peace where nothing is impossible, where the strength of God abides. This stillness is perfect invulnerability, perfect safety. It cannot be assailed by anything. It is why you came is the purpose of everything. There is nothing but this peace. Do not be tempted to put your faith or trust in anything of this world, not in any desire, not in any outcome. Do not pursue anything in this world. Instead, allow your mind the stillness that is its inheritance. Allow yourself the peace that passes the understanding of this world. Allow yourself the Kingdom of Heaven, perfection, absolute stillness. As you say, God is the strength in which I trust.