A Course in Miracles
Text Perspectives

Perspectives on
Chapter 19, Section IV: The Obstacles to Peace — Intro.

Read ACIM Chapter 19, Section IV Intro. (pages 406-07)

The three paragraphs introducing Section IV are very important in helping us experience how the Holy Spirit works through us to "embrace all the Sonship and give it rest." (1:1) Here Jesus emphasizes the importance of our being willing to receive and extend peace and how this is accomplished through our joining with the Holy Spirit.

How do we receive and extend the peace the Holy Spirit offers us?

He tells us, "The Holy Spirit asks that you offer Him a resting place where you will rest in Him. He answered you, and entered your relationship. Would you not now return His graciousness, and enter into a relationship with Him?" (2:4-6) In Workbook Lesson 208 Jesus gives us a description of how we accept the peace the Holy Spirit has to offer us: "I will be still, and let the earth be still along with me. And in that stillness we will find the peace of God. It is within my heart, which witnesses to God Himself." (W-pI.208.1:2-4)

Our daily practice of stilling our mind and inviting in the peace of God is the way we return Home. Going to this place of quiet peace within our mind leads us to an awareness of the calm contentment and fullness of Love that surrounds us and is our true Nature. We realize we are blessed and we extend this blessing in return. Jesus describes how the Holy Spirit extends the peace we accept to all our brothers: "The extension of the Holy Spirit's purpose from your relationship to others, to bring them gently in, is the way in which He will bring means and goal in line. The peace He lay, deep within you and your brother, will quietly extend to every aspect of your life, surrounding you and your brother with glowing happiness and the calm awareness of complete protection." (1:5-6)

Take a minute to realize how important accepting Holy Spirit's gift of peace is to you and your relationship with every brother. How important is it to give time to allowing Holy Spirit's gift of peace into your mind? How would your life experience be changed as you allow the Holy Spirit's gift of peace to extend into every aspect of your life? Think what it would feel like to constantly accept the Holy Spirit's gift of glowing happiness and the calm awareness of complete protection. Become aware that the Holy Spirit's gift of peace is always there in your mind, waiting for your acceptance.

When we accept Holy Spirit's peace, what message do we carry to everyone?

As you accept the Holy Spirit's peace, you become the vehicle to extend the healing rest peace offers. You just naturally extend the peace you receive to every brother, just as it was extended to you. Jesus tells us, "And you will carry its message of love and safety and freedom to everyone who draws nigh unto your temple, where healing waits for him. You will not wait to give this, for you will call to him and he will answer you, recognizing in your call the Call for God. And you will draw him in and give him rest, as it was given you." (1:7-9)

Because of the power of our minds, we get what we focus on. Here we are seeing that it truly is worth our time to focus on accepting the peace the Holy Spirit has to offer us. It truly is worth accepting the peace of God, which is our natural inheritance. To help with this acceptance, Jesus gives us a prayer in Lesson 205 that is priceless: "The peace of God is everything I want. The peace of God is my one goal; the aim of all my living here, the end I seek, my purpose and my function and my life, while I abide where I am not at home." (W-pI.205.1:2-3)

Why is Jesus so confident that we will consistently accept peace?

Because we may not have the habit of accepting Holy Spirit's peace fully developed as a constant practice, we may doubt our ability to consistently accept the peace that is inherent in our true Nature. Jesus expresses his confidence in us when he says, "All this will you do. Yet the peace that already lies deeply within must first expand, and flow across the obstacles you placed before it. This will you do, for nothing undertaken with the Holy Spirit remains unfinished." (2:1-3)

In the upcoming subsections, Jesus goes into detail explaining how we can overcome the obstacles to peace that we have placed in our minds. He tells us, "Some of [the obstacles] you will try to impose. Other [obstacles] will seem to arise from elsewhere; from your brothers, and from various aspects of the world outside. Yet peace will gently cover [the obstacles], extending past [them,] completely unencumbered." (1:2-4)

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