LESSON SIXTY SIX

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: The Course text is in bold face. The Guidance is in normal type In His Guidance, He has asked Me to capitalize the pronouns You and We as an acknowledgement of the Divinity of All of Us, an acknowledgement of Equality, an expression of His Love and respect for You. When You see the word ‘YOU’ capitalized in the Guidance, know that He is not just speaking to YOU, He is honoring YOU.

Workbook PART I

Lesson 66

My happiness and my function are one.

How could One be happy doing what does not come easily: that is misery. Misery is far from the natural state of the Son of God, who was created to know only joy. So what is Your function, that You may be happy?  To be You.  You need fill no-one else’s expectations about You, only God’s. For His intention for You is that You be happy.

¹ You have surely noticed an emphasis throughout our recent lessons on the connection between fulfilling your function and achieving happiness. This is because you do not really see the connection.  You’ve been taught by the ego that getting what You think You want and doing as You think You please will make You happy.  And the ego lies to You.  If the ego says it, it isn’t true.  And function and happiness are no exception to this rule.  Believing ego is to be a fool.₁  So We would choose to heed Our God instead and learn this lesson, even though it seems confusing to Us. (That is, if it does.) Yet there is more than just a connection between them; they are the same. Their forms are different, but their content is completely one.  And so even if it seems confusing, let’s continue on.  Clarity will come.

² The ego does constant battle with the Holy Spirit on the fundamental question of what your function is. So does it do constant battle with the Holy Spirit about what your happiness is. It is not a two-way battle. The ego attacks and the Holy Spirit does not respond. He knows what your function is. He knows that it is your happiness. God is Love. Of course His Gift could only give You happiness; and not just happiness but purpose too. Therefore, so must Your function be good too.

Unlike the distortion that You see as “the world”, all action comes from God and, therefore, is harmonious.

³ Today we will try to go past this wholly meaningless battle and arrive at the truth about your function. We will not engage in ceaseless arguments about what it is. We will not become hopelessly involved in defining happiness and determining the means for achieving it. We will not indulge the ego by listening to its attacks on truth. We will merely be glad that we can find out what truth is.  In other words, let Us ignore the ego’s frantic comments, intended to constantly distract Us. Let’s focus on God.

⁴ Our longer practice period today has as its purpose your acceptance of the fact that not only is there a very real connection between the function God gave you – You are to be You, completely necessary to Us All! –  and your happiness, but that they are actually identical. God gives you only happiness. Therefore the function He gave you must be happiness, even if it appears to be different. Today’s exercises are an attempt to go beyond these differences in appearance, and recognize a common content where it exists in truth. Clearly the understanding of this Lesson can transform Your whole experience of Life this instant.

⁵ Begin the ten- to 15-minute practice period by reviewing these thoughts:

⁶ God gives me only happiness.
He has given my function to me.
Therefore my function must be happiness. 

Isn’t that good news! And very happy!

⁷ Try to see the logic in this sequence, even if you do not yet accept the conclusion. It is only if the first two thoughts are wrong that the conclusion could be false. Let us, then, think about the premises for a while, as we are practicing. This is for those of You who love logic.

⁸ The first premise is that God gives you only happiness. This could be false, of course, but in order to be false it is necessary to define God as something He is not. For We know that God is but Love. If Love were not God, it would and could not exist.  And We know It does. Love cannot give evil, and what is not happiness is evil. Stop here a moment, and rejoice in this good news! Happiness is Your right. God cannot give what He does not have, and He cannot have what He is not. Unless God gives you only happiness, He must be evil. And it is this definition of Him which you are believing if you do not accept the first premise. How very painful are the world’s beliefs of evil! Both painful and mistaken, for God gives but Good!

⁹ The second premise is that God has given you your function. We have seen that there are only two parts of your mind. One is ruled by the ego and is made up of illusions. And it isn’t real, though it claims to be. The other is the home of the Holy Spirit, where truth abides. This is cause for song: the Holy Spirit is Your mind! It’s Truth! There are no other guides but these to choose between and no other outcomes possible as a result of your choice but the fear which the ego always engenders and the love which the Holy Spirit always offers to replace it.

It’s an easy choice, as You learn to ignore the ego’s lies. They’re easy to spot because they’re loveless.

¹⁰ Thus it must be that your function is established by God through His Voice or is made by the ego which you have made to replace Him. Which is true? Unless God gave your function to you, it must be the gift of the ego. Does the ego really have gifts to give, being itself an illusion and offering only the illusion of gifts?  And the ‘gifts’ the ego gives are dubious at best, leading not to happiness.

¹¹ Think about this during the longer practice period today. Think also about the many forms which the illusion of your function has taken in your mind and the many ways in which you try to find salvation under the ego’s guidance. Did you find it? Were you happy? Did they bring you peace? I know: the answers are embarrassing. For You have listened long and hard to the voice for misery: a.k.a. ego. And now You’re learning.

¹² We need great honesty today. Remember the outcomes fairly, and consider also whether it was ever reasonable to expect happiness from anything the ego has ever proposed. Yet the ego is the only alternative to the Holy Spirit’s Voice. And both voices speak to You in Your mind. Yet One of them alone is real, and not the other. Only You can make this important choice: to which one will You listen? You will listen to madness or hear the truth. Try to make this choice as you think about the premises on which our conclusion rests. We can share in this conclusion, but in no other.  I can encourage You, yet not do it for You, since You, are the One that makes the choice to choose again. What I can do is offer You the Strength of God within You. For God Himself shares it with us.

¹³ Today’s idea is another giant stride in the perception of the same as the same and the different as different. On one side stand all illusions. All truth stands on the other. Let us try today to realize that only the truth is true. Thus there is one side, and one side alone. The ego is Your favorite word: a phantasmagoria!

What must Your choice be but to choose today for Reality.  You made a faulty choice; now do You get to choose once again, because God is Love and loves You dearly.

¹⁴ In the shorter practice periods, which would be most helpful today if undertaken twice an hour, this form of the application is suggested:

¹⁵ My happiness and function are one
because God has given me both.  These beautiful words assure Me that I am so belovèd to God, and useful both to Him and All. My Life has Meaning.

¹⁶ It will not take more than a minute, and probably less, to repeat these words slowly and think about them a little as you say them.

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¹ Yes, Brother is deliberately playing with the words of the old song hit by Connie Francis! And apparently the song went all over the world, so this is for Course students everywhere: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everybody’s_Somebody’s_Fool

 

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[Thank you Dear Brother]

*Sun~Rose is the scribe of the recently published book, “YOU ARE LOVED AND SAFE: PREP NOTES FOR EXPERIENCING GOD’S LOVE“, Jesus’ Guidance on the Miracle Principles

She is also author of, “RADIANT LIFE: RAW FOOD AND THE PRESENCE OF LOVE”

BOTH now available on amazon.com