Miracles restore the mind to its fullness. By atoning for lack they establish perfect protection. The spirit’s strength leaves no room for intrusions (T-1.I.34:1-3).
Miracles – which are shifts in perception away from fear and towards love – testify to what mind is and therefore also witness to the creative power of the mind. The split mind heals itself by recalling its own wholeness; every miracle attests to this.
When the mind is full, it does not recognize lack. When nothing is missing, the mind is free to create as God – its Creator – creates. That is, it creates in love, for love and as love. It does not perpetuate the separation in any way, but rather sees beyond the error sustaining separation to what is true and therefore undoes separation entirely.
Healing is not fixing, and atoning is not ownership of, the effects of sin. Rather, healing and atoning are both right-seeing – they are synonyms for forgiveness in A Course in Miracles – which means that they do not recognize the illusion of separation nor any of the illusion’s apparent effects. They do not see and overlook – they simply do not recognize at all.
It is another level of being and of thinking and of knowing oneself.
When our minds rest in God, without lack and thus with no need to project unfulfillment of any kind, we remember the Holy Spirit’s strength. It is the Holy Spirit who clears our mind and brings us to peace. When we say that the Holy Spirit abides no intrusions in our mind, we are saying that the ego no longer has a means of raising its bad arguments and mean-spirited logic.
The Holy Spirit will not abide its diseased obsession with conflict.
Ego is the part of the mind that believes in duality, reinforces separation, and always knows lack. It promotes forms of behavior which justify its belief system. Something is always missing with ego. It is the part of us that feels isolated, alone and incomplete. Ego needs this sense of lack to keep us alert to its voice. Ego promises freedom from suffering and it promises abundance but it never delivers. Never deliving is what the ego is.
In contrast, the Holy Spirit knows that we both have and are everything. There is no cause for conflict anywhere at all – only the Cause for joy and peace. Therefore, miracles are effectively shifts in thinking away from the ego’s view and towards the Holy Spirit’s. To “atone” is to allow an error to be corrected. It is to consent to the miracles. We are not, in fact, separate, isolated or incomplete but are instead interconnected aspects of a unified whole that does not admit division.
When we identify with the ego, we feel vulnerable and threatened. But when we shift our identification to the holy spirit, we realize that nothing can actually threaten what we are in truth. We are invulnerable to attack and have no need of defense. We are no longer susceptible to the fear and guilt caused by taking on the ego’s perspective of self and world.
Miracles show us – and allow us to remember – that we rest in the peace of God, and extend the Love to others, that God extends to us. Our natural state of being can only reflect peace and wholeness, acceptance and love. This is our identity.