Willingness, Not Submission or Surrender

There are certain words that students still identified with the self use in their relationship with the Holy Spirit (Awareness of Truth in their own minds) that not only have negative connotations that indicate or increase fear; they are also not applicable. Two of those words are “submit” and “surrender”.

To submit or surrender to the Holy Spirit would mean, first, that the self is the correct view of yourself and it is from this view that you must submit or surrender to the Holy Spirit; second, that the Holy Spirit is something separate from you; third, that you can give up your power to It. All of these are erroneous.

The difference between submission and surrender is that submission sounds less defiant than surrender. Submission means you recognize the Holy Spirit’s greater power and surrender sounds like you were defeated by the Holy Spirit. But neither attitude is applicable toward the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is the thought system in your mind that speaks for the Truth in you. The idea that you could submit or surrender to the Holy Spirit starts from the false premise that the self is you. It is the ego, the thought system of the self, that teaches you this. It tells you that the Holy Spirt is the “other” in your mind. Your power is in the ego; the Holy Spirit seeks to take away your power. But really the Holy Spirit is your Power because It is the Awareness of Truth in your mind. It is not “other”; the ego is actually the “other” in your mind. You are under submission to the ego in your belief that it speaks for you. But it speaks only for its own perpetuation in your mind. It is what says you are under attack from an “other” (Holy Spirit) that seeks to “defeat” you. But it is the ego that attacks the Holy Spirit; it is the ego that seeks to defeat the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not need to attack the ego because it knows that the ego is nothing. And it certainly does not need to defeat you, because It is part of you. Only the ego attacks, seeks defeat, and demands submission or surrender. And then it projects all of this onto the Holy Spirit.

The only appropriate approach to the Holy Spirit is willingness to let It into your awareness because It is the part of your mind that knows your Reality, your true Power. This is not done from the view that the self is you. It is done from the recognition that you do not know what you are. It is done from an open mind willing to be shown Reality.

Whenever you fear the Holy Spirit, remind yourself that It is not separate from you. It is the part of your mind that knows you as you do not yet know yourself. You cannot submit or surrender to It, because It is not apart from you. And because your willingness is necessary for It to come into your awareness, you are always in charge of the process of becoming aware of Reality. You are always empowered. The Holy Spirit cannot bring into your awareness more than you can accept into your awareness.

(A note about the word “surrender”: I have had clients refer to “surrendering” the ego, as in, “letting it go”. This is obviously a different way to use the word than I am using it here).

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If you are giving things up or have a sense of sacrifice on the path you are looking at something in the wrong way. Sorting this out is what I help my clients with. You can email me at Liz@acimmentor.com to set up an appointment. Learn more at www.acimmentor.com.

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