Library of Christ Mind Teachings
ACIM Original Edition
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16 Glory be to God in the highest and to you, because He has so willed
it. Ask and it shall be given you, because it has already been given.
Ask for light and learn that you are light. If you want understanding
and enlightenment, you will learn it, because your will to learn it is
your decision to listen to the Teacher who knows of light and can
therefore teach it to you. There is no limit on your learning, because
there is no limit on your minds. There is no limit on His Will to
teach, because He was created [by unlimited Will in order] to
teach. Knowing His function perfectly, He wills to fulfill it
perfectly, because that is His joy and yours.
17 To fulfill the Will of God perfectly is the only joy and peace that
can be fully known, because it is the only function that can be fully
experienced. When this is accomplished, then, there is no other
experience. Yet the wish for other experience will block its
accomplishment, because God’s Will cannot be forced upon you, being an
experience of total willingness. The Holy Spirit knows how to teach
this, but you do not. That is why you need Him and why God gave Him
to you. Only His teaching will release your will to God’s, uniting it
with His power and glory and establishing them as yours. You share
them as God shares them, because this is the natural outcome of their
being.
18 The will of Father and of the Son are one together by their
extension. Their extension is the result of their oneness, holding
their unity together by extending their joint will. This is perfect
creation by the perfectly created in union with the Perfect Creator. The
Father must give fatherhood to His Son, because His own Fatherhood
must be extended outward. You who belong in God have the holy function
of extending His Fatherhood by placing no limits upon it. Let the Holy
Spirit teach you how to do this, for you will know what it means of
God Himself.
19 When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see
him, you will see yourself. As you treat him, you will treat yourself.
As you think of him, you will think of yourself. Never forget this, for
in him you will find yourself or lose sight of yourself. Whenever two
Sons of God meet, they are given another chance at salvation. Do not
leave anyone without giving salvation to him and receiving it
yourself, for I am always there with you in remembrance of you.
20 The goal of the curriculum, regardless of the teacher you choose, is
know thyself. There is nothing else to learn. Everyone is looking for
himself and for the power and glory he thinks he has lost. Whenever you
are with anyone, you have another opportunity to find them. Your power
and glory are in him, because they are yours. The ego tries to find
them in yourself, because it does not know where to look. The Holy
Spirit teaches you that if you look only at yourself, you cannot
find yourself because that is not what you are.
21 Whenever you are with a brother, you are learning what you are
because you are teaching what you are. He will respond either with
pain or with joy, depending on which teacher you are following. He
will be imprisoned or released according to your decision, and so will
you. Never forget your responsibility to him, because it is your
responsibility to yourself. Give him his place in the Kingdom, and
you will have yours. The Kingdom cannot be found alone, and you who
are the Kingdom cannot find yourselves alone.
22 To achieve the goal of the curriculum, then, you cannot listen to
the ego. Its purpose is to defeat its own goal. The ego does not
know this, because it does not know anything. But you can know this,
and you will know it if you are willing to look at what the ego has
made of you. This is your responsibility, because once you have
really done this, you will accept the Atonement for yourself. What
other choice could you make? Having made this choice, you will begin to
learn and understand why you have believed that when you met someone
else, you had thought that he was someone else. And every holy
encounter in which you enter fully will teach you this is not so.
23 You can encounter only part of yourself, because you are part of
God, Who is everything. His power and glory are everywhere, and you
cannot be excluded from them. The ego teaches that your strength is in
you alone. The Holy Spirit teaches that all strength is in God and
therefore in you. God wills no one suffer. He does not will anyone
to suffer for a wrong decision, including you. That is why He has
given you the means for undoing it. Through His power and glory, all
your wrong decisions are undone, completely releasing you and your
brothers from every imprisoning thought any part of the Sonship has
accepted. Wrong decisions have no power because they are not true. The
imprisonment which they seem to produce is no more true than they
are.
24 Power and glory belong to God alone. So do you. God gives
whatever belongs to Him, because He gives of Himself, and everything
belongs to Him. Giving of your self is the function He gave you.
Fulfilling it perfectly will teach you what you have of Him, and this
will teach you what you are in Him. You cannot be powerless to do
this, because this is your power. Glory is God’s gift to you, because
that is what He is. See this glory everywhere to learn what you are.