General Lessons vs. Specific Answers

As you perceive more and more common elements in all situations, the transfer of training under the Holy Spirit's guidance increases and becomes generalized. Gradually you learn to apply it to everyone and everything, for its applicability is universal. When this has been accomplished, perception and knowledge have become so similar that they share the unification of the laws of God. (T-12.VI.6)

A Course in Miracles tells us that we need to generalize the lessons of the Holy Spirit. This means that we need to take what we learn in a specific situation and learn that that lesson can be applied to every other situation as well. For example, while the first time you see your holiness reflected it is in a specific person, that experience of holiness must be applied to every relationship and situation for you to understand what holiness is. This is generalizing the lesson that holiness is everywhere. If it wasn’t, holiness would be specialness. If you exclude one person or situation from holiness you still believe that some parts of God are separate from God. The mind is whole and is general, or abstract. It is everywhere. No part of it can be separate for it to be what it is.

Last time I wrote about how specific answers from the Holy Spirit to specific questions about life in the world are meant for the specific asker of the question at that specific time (http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/06/one-limit-to-holy-spirits-guidance.html). This does not contradict the idea that the Holy Spirit’s lessons must be generalized. Specific answers to specific questions are not lessons in themselves. When you ask the Holy Spirit something and get an answer the lesson is that the Holy Spirit is real, is within you and can guide you through this world to awaken to your True Identity. The specific answer you receive will help you in your specific circumstance at the moment but it has no lasting value in itself. What you must generalize – or apply in every situation – is that you can trust the Holy Spirit to guide you in every situation.

The world is simply a tool the Holy Spirit can use to reach you. That is all of its value. Specific situations have value only when you give them to the Holy Spirit so that you can learn that you and the Holy Spirit are One. Specifics will pass away but the general lessons the Holy Spirit uses them for remind you of the eternal.

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View the archive for this blog by topic at www.acimmentor.com.Now available at www.acimmentor.com: Understanding A Course in Miracles: A Quick Reference for Students.

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