Library of Christ Mind Teachings
ACIM Original Edition
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16 If sickness is separation, the will to heal and be healed is the
first step toward recognizing what you truly want. Every attack is a
step away from this, and every healing thought brings it closer. The Son
of God has both Father and Son because he is both Father and Son. To
unite having and being is only to unite your will with His, for He wills
you Himself. And you will yourself to Him because, in your perfect
understanding of Him, you know there is but one will. Yet when you
attack any part of God and His Kingdom, your understanding is not
perfect, and what you will is therefore lost to you.
17 Healing thus becomes a lesson in understanding, and the more you
practice it, the better teacher and learner you become. If you have
denied truth, what better witnesses to its reality could you have than
those who have been healed by it? But be sure to count yourself among
them, for in your willingness to join them is your healing
accomplished. Every miracle which you accomplish speaks to you of the
Fatherhood of God. Every healing thought which you accept, either from
your brother or in your own mind, teaches you that you are God’s Son. In
every hurtful thought you hold, wherever you perceive it, lies the
denial of God’s Fatherhood and your Sonship.
18 And denial is as total as love. You cannot deny part of yourself
because the remainder will seem to be unintegrated and therefore without
meaning. And being without meaning to you, you will not understand it.
To deny meaning must be to fail to understand. You can heal only
yourself, for only God’s Son needs healing. He needs it because he
does not understand himself and therefore knows not what he does. Having
forgotten his will, he does not know what he wants.
19 Healing is a sign that he wants to make whole. And this willingness
opens his own ears to the Voice of the Holy Spirit, whose message is
wholeness. He will enable you to go far beyond the healing you would
undertake, for beside your small willingness to make whole, He will lay
His own complete will and make yours whole. What can the Son of God
not accomplish with the Fatherhood of God in him? And yet the
invitation must come from you, for you have surely learned that whom you
invite as your guest will abide with you.
20 The Holy Spirit cannot speak to an unwelcoming host because He will
not be heard. The Eternal Guest remains, but His Voice grows faint in
alien company. He needs your protection, but only because your care is a
sign that you want Him. Think like Him ever so slightly, and the
little spark becomes a blazing light that fills your mind so that He
becomes your only Guest. Whenever you ask the ego to enter, you lessen
His welcome. He will remain, but you have allied yourself against
Him. Whatever journey you choose to take, He will go with you, waiting.
You can safely trust His patience, for He cannot leave a part of God.
Yet you need far more than patience.
21 You will never rest until you know your function and fulfill it,
for only in this can your will and your Father’s be wholly joined. To
have Him is to be like Him, and He has given Himself to you. You who
have God must be as God, for His function became yours with His
gift. Invite this knowledge back into your minds, and let nothing that
will obscure it enter. The Guest whom God sent you will teach you how to
do this if you but recognize the little spark and are willing to let it
grow. Your willingness need not be perfect, because His is. If you
will merely offer Him a little place, He will lighten it so much that
you will gladly extend it. And by this extending, you will begin to
remember creation.
22 Would you be hostage to the ego or host to God? You will accept only
whom you invite. You are free to determine who shall be your guest and
how long he shall remain with you. Yet this is not real freedom, for
it still depends on how you see it. The Holy Spirit is there, although
He cannot help you without your invitation, and the ego is nothing
whether you invite it in or not. Real freedom depends on welcoming
reality, and of your guests, only He is real. Know, then, who abides
with you merely by recognizing what is there already and do not be
satisfied with imaginary comforters, for the Comforter of God is in you.