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SearchWould the Holy Spirit ever Guide me to invest in real estate?
Question:
Four years ago my father gave me some money to buy some property. I have the feeling that buying property is not very “Course in Miracles” of me, so I'm in conflict about the whole thing. Can I invest my money and still do ACIM properly? Am I being a fraud if I participate in these things (insurance, investment, etc.)? I would be very grateful for some enlightened words.
Answer:
Thanks for writing and sharing what's on your mind. Where your treasure is there will your heart be also. It is helpful to think of the word "investment" as meaning "what you value." The belief that this world holds anything of value is the "source" of all fear, guilt, and anxiety. Valuing is wanting, and it is helpful to hold all things you think you want up to the Light of the Holy Spirit. In Lesson 133 in ACIM "I will not value what is valueless" Christ gives 3 "tests" of choice "...by which you can distinguish everything from nothing."
1. "If you choose a thing that will not last forever, what you chose is valueless. A temporary value is without all value."
2. "If you choose to take a thing away from someone else, you will have nothing left. This is because, when you deny his right to everything, you have denied your own. You therefore will not recognize the things you really have, denying they are there."
3. "Why is the choice you make of value to you? What attracts your mind to it? What purpose does it serve?"
"If you feel any guilt about your choice, you have allowed the ego's goals to come between the real alternatives.... All things are valuable or valueless, worthy or not of being sought at all, entirely desirable or not worth the slightest effort to obtain."
Beneath the complexities of the ego belief system and its projected time-space cosmos, the Truth of Spirit is extremely simple. In approaching the Truth within, in moving in the direction of Awakening, let the Holy Spirit Guide you every step of the way. The Holy Spirit will Guide you in what would be most helpful to invest in during the "process" of undoing/unlearning. In the parable of David, first came the Guidance to use "time" to meditate and read spiritual texts and contemplate and question the underlying beliefs. Guidance received on the surface of consciousness led from job to job, relationship to relationship, and place to place as I uncovered and exposed the ego belief system within the mind. Debts were handled, mortgages and credit cards assumed and paid off, arrangements were made to handle obligations and duties that had been made. The "teaching" and "missionary" work of the last decade was completed under the backdrop of various nonprofit variations using the name "Messengers of Peace" and later "Foundation for the Awakening Mind." Then came the Guidance to release all remnants of attempting to value something of the world. This has sometimes been called renunciation or sacred vows to God, and I express it as singleness of Purpose. In this Purpose there is Joy and Peace—there are no possessions, no striving, no effort, no reciprocity, and definitely no lack. Divine Providence is free of cares and worries, for the Holy Spirit is the Provider and nothing is personal.
It is most important to understand that Awakening is the same in Content for everyone, yet the form varies enormously, and in this sense, the Curriculum is "highly individualized." At every step of the way, the Holy Spirit offers Gentle Guidance as to what to think, say, and do. There is a feeling of calmness and ease that comes from making decisions with the Holy Spirit and releasing ego goals and expectations. It is a big turnaround from pursuing ego "future goals" to accepting the Spirit's Purpose of Present Peace. Yet in the Holy Spirit the seeming "task" is already accomplished. Accepting Atonement (the Correction Which is already accomplished) is the aim of everything, the aim of all apparent effort and dedication. It is the aim of your work with “A Course In Miracles.”
The guilt and fear you feel with regards to money and property is a direct result of the investment in the ego belief system. While the ego seems valuable to the mind, guilt and fear will seem to be valuable and attractive. Ego, guilt, and fear go together, yet the Holy Spirit's Purpose offers an Alternative which has nothing to do with the ego. Money and property are entirely neutral to the Holy Spirit, for the cosmos is nothing more than symbols that the Holy Spirit uses to Awaken the sleeping mind. Things and concepts do not defile. It is the ego's use of things and concepts that maintain a false sense of self, and guilt arises from the attempt to deny the Reality of Christ and God. The Holy Spirit uses the symbols of the world to release the belief in the reality of the world:
"As Mediator between the two worlds, He knows what you have need of and what will not hurt you. Ownership is a dangerous concept if it is left to you. The ego wants to have things for salvation, for possession is its law. Possession for its own sake is the ego's fundamental creed, a basic cornerstone in the churches it builds to itself. And at its altar it demands you lay all of the things it bids you get, leaving you no joy in them.... Therefore ask not of yourself what you need, for you do not know, and your advice to yourself will hurt you. For what you think you need will merely serve to tighten up your world against the light, and render you unwilling to question the value that this world can really hold for you.
Only the Holy Spirit knows what you need. For He will give you all things that do not block the way to light. And what else could you need? In time, He gives you all the things that you need have, and will renew them as long as you have need of them. He will take nothing from you as long as you have any need of it. And yet He knows that everything you need is temporary, and will but last until you step aside from all your needs and realize that all of them have been fulfilled. Therefore He has no investment in the things that He supplies, except to make certain that you will not use them on behalf of lingering in time. He knows that you are not at home there, and He wills no delay to wait upon your joyous homecoming.
Leave, then, your needs to Him. He will supply them with no emphasis at all upon them. What comes to you of Him comes safely, for He will ensure it never can become a dark spot, hidden in your mind, and kept to hurt you. Under His guidance you will travel light and journey lightly, for His sight is ever on the journey's end, which is His goal." (T-13.VII.10-13)
Be still a moment, and catch a glimpse of the State of Mind to Which the Holy Spirit leads. You are being Guided to an experience of carefree Joy and Peace and Happiness. Such is Divine Providence. While the mind believes it has needs and projects them onto the body and world, the Holy Spirit offers miracles of perception in which those needs are met in highly unconventional and nontraditional ways. The parable of the life of David is sprinkled with these miracle stories, yet they but witness to the experience that in following the Holy Spirit, all seeming needs are met without effort.
The recent tour of gatherings was representative of Divine Providence in action, so to speak. Resta and Kathy and I were taken in, housed, fed, and cared for by many angels (Holy Spirit) along the way who blessed us at every turn. Donations and love offerings (Holy Spirit) covered the expenses of the travels, and it would take a book to hold all the miracle stories and synchronistic happenings of this 2-week trip. It would take volumes to share all the miracle stories of the parable of David for the last 15 years. I share them freely with those I meet, for they but witness to another way of looking upon this world that is not of this world.
My message is simple: I am Calling you out of the thinking of the world. I Ask everyone to join the Purpose the Holy Spirit has Given the Awakening mind. It is a Purpose that Gives everything away freely—It Gives All to All. No one is turned away from this Purpose. Everyone is Called, and now is the time to listen to the Spirit and accept our Inheritance as the Child of the Living God. The mind that Answers the Call to return Home will not be disappointed. In devotion to one Purpose, everything is Handled by the Holy Spirit. Fears dissolve away in the Light. Worries of the future vanish. Guilt about the past is forgotten as the remembrance of the Christ dawns in awareness.
The security you seek will only be found and experienced through following the Spirit within. Invest your mind's energy in the Present Moment, and let the Spirit tell you what it is that you are to do or not to do. Everything we believed about this world gets undone, and the question facing the sleeping mind is always: To Be or not to Be. Christ Is. All struggle is the attempt to deny One's True Identity as Christ. To Be only seems to require a relinquishment or letting go to the ego. In Truth, there is nothing real to let go of. For God creates Christ Whole and Complete in Spirit, and the illusion of Waking gives way to Mind Awake. Mind Awake is Constant and Certain and Eternal.
The Holy Spirit will use the concepts in which you believe to strengthen your commitment to Purpose your function offers. Then as this commitment grows, you will aim it at the true Purpose of commitment: accepting the Atonement. All earthly commitments are redirected to Waking by the Holy Spirit. Your task is simply to be still and accept the Guidance and instructions offered you in prayer. Holy Spirit meets the mind wherever and whatever it believes it is. It is really this simple.
I am with you all the way, for our Self is One in God.
Love and Encouragement always,
David