ACIM Workbook
Healing Perspectives

Lesson 87

Review: “I will there be light.”
and “There is no will but God’s.”

I really find the consistency of the Course’s sticking to the truth very helpful in my process of awakening. I still find it easy to make what bodies say and do real in my mind. The Course helps me by jarring these perceptions loose and giving me a handrail by which to accept true perception. The world of bodies is an illusion. What bodies say in do within the realm of time and space is really meaningless when I remember there is no will but God’s. “There is no will but God’s” means all is still as God created it. God is. Love is.

I need this consistent practice day in and day out to return my mind to the truth. The light that is within us all is still there and I will to find this and only this. As I go through the day, I still find my mind joining with the ego’s dream of separate bodies. Again today, I am willing to practice seeing through the lens of God’s Will. I am willing to step back and let go of my perceptions. They really do mean nothing. There is no will but God’s. As I accept this, the Light of God shines every false image away. This is my practice today. I will there be light and there is no will but God’s.

The two review ideas today are key ideas in the reversal of the thought system of the world. In our identification with the ego thought system, it seems that our will is everything but Light. We walk in fear and defensiveness poised for attack lest we be vulnerable to attack. These thoughts of attack bring with them a burden of guilt that darkens our world. Believing we are creatures of attack we believe our Creator is like us and would attack us as capriciously as we would attack another.

With this belief the idea that there is no will but God’s is terrifying. It means that we carry an unconscious terror that in any moment God will attack and inflict great pain or death. In this thought system guilt and fear preside and there appears to be no end to it except through death. Death seems like it would be a welcome relief from this terrible and dark world.

The thought, “I will there be light,” reverses this whole scenario. If it is true that I will there be Light, then attack, defense, fear and guilt are not my will. In the acceptance that I will there be Light, darkness disappears. Attack becomes meaningless and holds no attraction. There is no darkness and in the Light I see nothing to fear. i see only Light sharing of Itself with all Light.

If I will there be Light, I must be Light. And if I will there be Light, my Creator, Who must be like me, must also will there be Light. Now the idea that there is no will but God’s is accepted with gratitude, for it is recognized as not something to be feared but welcomed. God’s will becomes my comfort, my safety, my place of rest and peace.

With the acceptance of these two ideas, fear and guilt disappear, for they are meaningless. And I can rest in the perfect safety of knowing that only Love is real and I am Home in that Love.

I brought to mind this morning as many of my dark thoughts as I could so that I could shine them away with the Light that is my being.

As I did this, I chose a couple of them to really examine. One of the thoughts I chose had to do with weight loss. I went way off my diet yesterday and when I do this, I always punish myself for it. I thought about how wonderful it would be to give up this behavior. I asked for another way to see this part of my life.

As I let thoughts come to my mind, I thought about how I was choosing to let a body type be my salvation. I don't want to do this anymore. I have made different diets my salvation. I don't want to do this anymore. I recognized my reactions as my inner child listening to old tapes, living by past lessons that I learned from other people’s inner child. It makes sense to let that go and choose another guide.

I realized that it is at this point I feel like backing off. I feel threatened somehow and start to feel confused. Then I understood that I have used this form of salvation as my guide to behavior for so long that I am afraid to let it go even though it is no longer serving me. A thought came to mind,"What do I use instead?" And then I understood my fear and the reluctance to let go.

I don't know what to use instead. So I asked Holy Spirit for a new beacon. I need a new savior, an Idea to follow instead of the one that tells me if my body can achieve a preconceived idea of perfection then I will be saved.

Now I start feeling that the Light of God is shining away these dark shadows that have been clouding my mind for so long. When the shadows have cleared, the answer will be obvious. Since my meditation I have had the old thoughts try to reestablish themselves, but I don't think they can ever come back in the way they had before because now I no longer entirely believe in them. Each time I choose to see it differently, they fade a little more.

I will there be light. This course has taught me that light is truth and the thought that I have the power in me to see truth gives me a sense of closeness with my Heavenly Father. The course has also made me realize that my will is in accord with God's, which also gives me a sense of unity with Him.

This day, if nothing else, I will try to have the awareness of that will and that light as this is a beginning for a new way of life for me. It is the awareness of the fact that I will be able to see my brothers in a different light that gives me hope and the willingness to commit to this course and to stay focused on the will of God/my will.

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