OrEd-T-18.2-Substitution as Defense

OrEd-T-18.2-Substitution as Defense4. I made only one substitution, by believing that God is fear. That substitution has taken many forms because it was the substitution of illusion for truth, of fragmentation for wholeness. It has become so splintered and subdivided and divided again, over and over, that it is now almost impossible to perceive it once was one substitution, and still is what it was. That one error, which brought truth to illusion, infinity to time, and life to death, was all I ever made. My whole world rests upon it. Everything I see reflects it, and every special relationship which I have ever made is part of it. 5. I felt surprised at learning how different reality is from what I see. But nothing I have seen begins to show me the enormity of that original error, which seemed to cast me out of Heaven, to shatter knowledge into meaningless bits of disunited perceptions, and to force me to further substitutions. I continue not to realize the magnitude of that one error. It was so vast and so completely incredible that from it a world of total unreality had to emerge. Nothing else could come of it. The world's fragmented aspects are extremely fearful, as I begin to look at them. 6. Substituting fear for love was the first error projected outward. The world arose to hide the error and is the screen between myself and truth. This world where everything is backwards and upside down, arose as a screen for my projected error. Truth brought to this could only remain within, in quiet, and take no part in all the mad projection by which this world was made. Calling it sin would be investing it with guilt, implying guilt's reality. I call it only madness, for such it was, and is now. And above all, I must not be afraid of the world. When I seem to see some form of the original error rising to frighten me, I say to myself, "God is not fear, but love!" and it will disappear. For truth extends inward, where the idea of loss is meaningless and only increase is conceivable. 7. Truth does not leave me, and does not go out into the mad world. The truth is within me and will save me and keep me sane. Only I believe it is the other way around, that truth is outside, and error and guilt within. My senseless little substitutions have no substance, touched with insanity and swirling lightly off on a mad course like feathers dancing in the wind. My substitutions merge and separate in shifting and meaningless patterns. None of them matters. There is no point in judging them. The differences in form between my substitutions are not real differences, so the substitutions are really all the same. 8. I let them all go, dancing in the wind, dipping and turning till they disappear from sight, far, far outside me. And I turn to the stately calm within, where the living God dwells in holy stillness. I never left Him and He never left me. The Holy Spirit takes me gently by the hand, and retraces with me the mad journey outside myself, leading me gently back to the truth and safety within. He brings to the truth within me, all my insane projections and wild substitutions which were placed outside me. This way He reverses the course of insanity and restores me to reason. 9. We should hear no substitute's call. That call is but an echo of the original error which shattered Heaven, and the peace of those who heard. We would not further break apart and weaken what is already broken and hopeless. It is not here that we would look for happiness. We would prefer to heal what has been broken, and join in making whole what has been ravaged by separation and disease. We will return with Jesus to Heaven, walking together out of this world, through another world, into the loveliness and joy the other holds within it. 10. In our relationship, where, at our request, the Holy Spirit has taken charge of everything, He has set the course inward to the truth we share. In the mad world outside us, nothing can be shared, but only substituted. In reality, sharing and substituting have nothing in common. Within ourselves we love each other with a perfect love. Here is holy ground in which no substitution can enter, and where only the truth about each other can abide. Here we are joined in God, as much together as we are with Him. The original error has not entered here, nor ever will, and the Holy Spirit has committed our relationship to this radiant truth. He brings the truth here, where we would have it be. By giving Him our little faith in each other, He will show us that no substitute we ever made can keep us from Heaven or from each other. In us there is no separation. Our reality is God's creation, and has no substitute. 11. We are so firmly joined in truth that only God is there. And He would never accept something else instead of us. He loves us both, equally and as one. And as He loves us, so we are. We are not joined together in illusions but in the Thought so holy and so perfect that illusions cannot remain to darken the holy place in which we stand together. God is with us, with Jesus our brother. We join in God in peace and gratitude, and accept His gift as our most holy and perfect reality, which we share in Him. 12. Heaven is restored to all the Sonship through our relationship, for in our relationship lies the Sonship, whole and beautiful, safe in our love. Heaven has entered quietly, for all illusions have been gently brought unto the truth in us, and love has shined upon us, blessing our relationship with truth. God and His whole creation have entered it together. How lovely and how holy is our relationship, with the truth shining upon it! Heaven beholds it and rejoices that we have let it come to us. And God Himself is glad that our relationship is as it was created. The universe within us stands with us together. And Heaven looks with love on what is joined in it along with its Creator. 13. The peace of God is given us as we join in glowing purpose. Together we have been called to the world's most holy function. It is the only function which has no limits, and reaches out to every broken fragment of the Sonship with healing and uniting comfort. This call is offered us in our holy relationship. The holy light that brought us together must extend. We accept this healing function, and we give as we have accepted.