Lesson 296. The Holy Spirit speaks through me today.
The Holy Spirit needs my voice today, that all the world may listen to Your
Voice, and hear Your Word through me. I am resolved to let You speak through me,
for I would use no words but Yours, and have no thoughts which are apart from
Yours, for only Yours are true. I would be savior to the world I made. For
having damned it I would set it free, that I may find escape, and hear the Word
Your holy Voice will speak to me today.
We teach today what we would learn, and that alone. And so our learning goal
becomes an unconflicted one, and possible of easy reach and quick
accomplishment. How gladly does the Holy Spirit come to rescue us from hell,
when we allow His teaching to persuade the world, through us, to seek and find
the easy path to God.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Below, is from Kenneth Wapnick's commentaries on this lesson, from "Journey
Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can be purchased at the
following site: ~ M. Street
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lesson 296. "The Holy Spirit speaks through me today."
*We see here the idea expressed so beautifully in the Introduction to the fifth
review, where Jesus tells us he needs our voice, eyes, feet, and hands through
which he saves the world (W-p1.rV.in.9:3). In fact this important theme is
repeated many times throughout A Course in Miracles -- the world and body are
illusions, yet since we believe we are here, they can reflect the truth that is
in our minds.*
(1:1-2) "The Holy Spirit needs my voice today, that all the world may listen to
Your Voice, and hear Your Word through me. I am resolved to let You speak
through me, for I would use no words but Yours, and have no thoughts which are
apart from Yours, for only Yours are true."
*We have seen this idea frequently in our journey through the workbook:
realizing the mistake in choosing our words instead of the Holy Spirit's -- ours
the words of separation, His the Word of Atonement that says there is no
separation. Thus do we become His teachers, the manifestation in <form> of His
Voice of forgiveness -- the <content> of salvation:
"Yet what makes God's teachers is their recognition of the proper purpose of
the body. As they advance in their profession, they become more and more certain
that the body's function is but to let God's Voice speak through it to human
ears. And these ears will carry to the mind of the hearer messages that are not
of this world, and the mind will understand because of their Source. From this
understanding will come the recognition, in this new teacher of God, of what the
body's purpose really is; the only use there really is for it." (M-12.4:1-4).*
(1:3-4) "I would be savior to the world I made. For having damned it I would set
it free, that I may find escape, and hear the Word Your holy Voice will speak to
me today."
*We damned the world by projecting our self-damnation onto it. This occurred in
the mind, where it can be undone -- the <only> place it can be undone.*
(2) "We teach today what we would learn, and that alone. And so our learning
goal becomes an unconflicted one, and possible of easy reach and quick
accomplishment. How gladly does the Holy Spirit come to rescue us from hell,
when we allow His teaching to persuade the world, through us, to seek and find
the easy path to God."
*Our unequivocally asking the Holy Spirit for help invites His vision of
forgiveness to heal our minds and the world as one, leading us from the
self-deceptive hell of separation -- the world's "hopeless and closed learning
situation" -- to the Heaven of our perfect Oneness:
"The purpose of the course might be said to provide you with a means of
choosing what you want to teach on the basis of what you want to learn. You
cannot give to someone else, but only to yourself, and this you learn through
teaching... Into this hopeless and closed learning situation, which teaches
nothing but despair and death, God sends His teachers. And as they teach His
lessons of joy and hope, their learning finally becomes complete."
"Except for God's teachers there would be little hope of salvation, for the
world of sin would seem forever real. The self-deceiving must deceive, for they
must teach deception. And what else is hell?" (M-in.2:5-6;4:7-5:3)
And would we choose to remain in hell when the peace of Heaven is ours for the
mere "price" of forgiveness?*
