Evolving Concepts of God

Most people who become students of A Course in Miracles do not come to it already conceiving of God as the Only Being of Which they are a Part. God is almost always an authority figure of some kind, a parental figure or a supreme being, one which is over you, not one which encompasses you. Few who believe in a tyrannical god would accept the Course at all. So most who become students believe in a God who is probably a tough-love moral authority, a benevolent judge who wants you to measure up to Him/Her/It and is willing to help you do so. And of course, this god made the world and our bodies/egos, as well as our individual spirits/souls.

So there is a huge leap to be made in your concept of God as you study and practice the Course. God did not make the world or bodies/egos, not even individual spirits. There is only One Spirit, of Which we are all a Part, and that One Spirit is God. It takes time to accept this intellectually, and even more time to accept this emotionally. After you have accepted the idea you will still have to work through feelings that indicate you still believe in another God, modeled on the ego. You will feel guilt and fear God for a long time. You will find buried in your mind expectations you have of God and that you think God has of you. You may wrestle with the impersonal nature of God, hoping to find a way to keep your ego and still have peace.

Of course, God cannot be conceived of, only experienced. You may go through many concepts of God before you accept this. And that is okay. What is important is that as your concepts evolve they move you away from guilt and from a sense of God as “other”. You are Part of God. You cannot change that. You do not have to measure up to God; you are already perfect. You cannot make God angry, disappoint God or fail God in any way. All thoughts along these lines and the guilt and fear they inspire are only illusions.

>>>>
Receive this bi-weekly blog directly in your email by contacting Liz@acimmentor.com.
Now available at www.acimmentor.com: Understanding A Course in Miracles: A Quick Reference for Students.

Comments

michael said…
nice post. God rocks. :)
5:43 PM
Anonymous said…
Liz rocks.
2:41 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ask: What is meant by "extend Love"?

I wonder exactly what is meant by "extend love" or how one extends love. Is it a loving intention toward the person, or a wish for them, or what? Can you give an example? – JO “Extending love” means replacing unloving thoughts in your mind with the awareness of Love in your mind. For example, your peace of mind is disturbed while watching something on television. Your peace is gone because you believe that what you see is reality. You extend Love in this situation by turning inward to Truth (God), feeling Love’s Presence within you, and remembering that It, not the images appearing, is What is Real. It may take you a while to accept that only your own thoughts cause you pain. So at first you may feel that you need to extend Love “out there” to the images that seem to be causing you pain. Or you may extend Love to another who is sharing their painful story with you. You can do this by imagining the situation or the person in a Loving Light. Or you may use some other image to
Read more

Committed to the Spiritual Process

If you’ve been reading my blog/newsletter for the past few weeks then you know significant things have occurred in the life of this mind. Four years ago the ego (personal thought system) fell away. I didn’t realize it fully and I spent three and a half years personally in a rather barren place in this mind, though there was peace in the rest of my mind. I did feel done with the world, but I didn’t know what that meant. I just stayed with the feeling, wondering what would come next. The next thing arrived in this mind last summer with a subtle shift from emptiness to a delicious Spaciousness. This was followed by beautiful Golden Light, Love, and Joy filling the Space. Bewilderingly, an effect of this was a romance novel! From there, the Light and the shifts continued. During this time a client in Australia whom I have called Zelda in these articles, but whose real name is Hannah, became a friend as well. We grew closer over several months and began to experience a lot of sync
Read more

Evolving Practice with ACIM

           The Course was dictated to two who had a sense of Spirit working in their lives. After all, they were taking down the Course itself! The Universal Christ Mind sought to develop and grow their awareness of Spirit through the lessons in the Workbook as well as simply in discussion with them, privately and through the Course . And for those who find the Course and already have an awareness of Spirit, even if only dimly, the Course functions in the same way. Through the practice suggested, they develop their trust in Spirit. But for many who come to the Course , the discernment of Spirit within has not yet occurred. For them, practice is the means of opening to the awareness and experience of Spirit. Those who do not understand this often feel frustrated and even angry with the Course for suggesting that they should be having experiences that they do not yet have. They feel that they fall short when they read the instructions and descriptions in the lessons, when the appr
Read more