Lesson number 46 from A Course in Miracles says, "God is the love in which I forgive." This lesson bridges the two themes we've been focusing on over the course of 2021 and now beginning for 2022. Several months prior, we illuminated this lesson under our "Forgiveness" theme and today we will observe it under a different context fitting our new theme of "love."
The first paragraph of the lesson reads, "God does not forgive because God has never condemned and there must be condemnation before forgiveness is necessary." Forgiveness is the great need of this world and that is because it is a world of illusions. Those who forgive are thus releasing themselves from illusions are those who withhold forgiveness are binding themselves to them as you condemn on yourself. So do you forgive on yourself?
As we noted in July, one of the things that stands out for most people when they encounter this lesson for the first time, or people who are experienced with this lesson is this idea that God does not actually actively forgive anything. The reason being that God never condemns anything. I'm just reemphasizing that this stands out for people that God does not forgive which is quite a bit different from traditional notions of God, where God is giver or withholder of forgiveness; if we do bad things, then God judges us and components us. This is still a perspective that a lot of people have of God and what the afterlife is about, which is "the final judgment." You either go to heaven if you've been good, in the Jude Christian tradition anyway, or you go to hell eternal damnation if you haven't met the criteria. So there is condemnation in some of these religious systems. Of course, it's saying that in truth, God is not condemning. Love is the basis.
So in paragraph two, it says that although God does not forgive, God's love is nevertheless the basis of forgiveness. Fear condemns and love forgives. There is this enormous power in love, which is that it just removes blemishes and wrongdoing and mistakes. That is its nature. That's what it does. It is not criticizing the actions or intentions of others and then deciding to "let them off the hook." We forgive through God's love and there is this enormous internal superpower that we have, to love like God without condemnation.
So God does not actually have to forgive and it is the same for us. We're so consumed with peace, love, abundance and goodness, that the things which would normally irritate us, annoy us, hurt us, cause us pain, or resentment don't even register anymore. This is because the goodness in us is so overwhelmingly powerful and abundant. We harness a spring of unconditional love that is an automatic and constant state of forgiveness. When we come from a state of unconditional love, then the forgiveness is there
The Course offers an exercise in order to aid in our practice of using God's love as fuel for forgiveness. T says to make a list of people you don't like or annoy you, and then start to practice the exercise by saying their name within the statement, "God is the love in which I forgive you, Gregory," for example. If you don't like someone in any way, shape or form, then that's probably a clear indication that you're condemning them. This lesson recognizes the idea of moving to a place where you don't condemn at all. It's automatic and allows you to fly above the weather of all of that.
Furthermore, it's saying for most of us need to go through this process of admitting to ourselves that unlike God, we do condemn. We do judge. We do have people we don't like. In my past mindset, there have been people in my life that would have been irritating to me. I would have reacted, I would have condemned, I would have attacked, I would have questioned. But now I am in the practice of reminding myself that I'm so full of love, that there is no need to attack. There's a definite pivot with some of the things that have bothered me more intensely that do not anymore. But of course, I still have a list of things that do bother me that I have to work on.
There are three applications that I want to emphasize for absorbing this lesson.
The first application is to continue to lean in and understand this idea that within us is this amazing problem solving power of God's love. It is a real thing that is inside of us. We can use the variety of different techniques, affirmations, visualizations, meditations, and audio programs to help us plug into this love. When we do so, we are opening up our lives on the personal side as well as the professional side to a problem-solving power that really does solve seemingly impossible problems.
In terms of an immediate application, when somebody is doing something dangerous, irritating, or disempowering, rather than fretting about it, with the practice that we're talking about, one's mind can tap into this power inside. What does this power tell me to do about this situation right in the moment? There are powerful answers to completely pivot the situation around.
The second application which this lesson is talking about is to create an inventory of all the people you don't like and it's not unreasonable to think that if there are people we don't like, then these are people we haven't yet forgiven. And so we want to tap into God's love and use that as the basis for forgiving them. That gives us sense of completion. I personally find myself having a vast inventory of things and people that have been bothersome in the past. Some of these can be historical figures, even looking back at World War II and Hitler. There are relatives whom I may have gone in and out of bad feelings toward. There are friends over the past 40 or 50 years that I can recall. There are work colleagues, which can include employees and other freelancers and service providers have been involved with past conflicts. There are my toxic relationships, romantic relationships. There are even characters and movies that I've resented. I have these categories and these inventories going back to my earliest days, and every time I re-do one of these applications a new memory or person comes up. I keep this ongoing historical record. So I can see all the different layers that have popped up at different points, but I can see it almost like a spreadsheet. I have it all mapped out so that I can keep making sure that I'm releasing, letting go. You will definitely need to all on help from Higher Power to truly love and let go, and repeating this process indefinitely will lead to an overall transformation where you are fully consumed by this all-powerful love.
The final application is applying this love of God, in broad terms, and then this ability to harness the the love of God within us to forgive, release, heal to our workers, leaders, executives, CEOs, entrepreneurs. This is what I refer to as us being part of a "lighthouse brand." "Lighthouse brand" is like a constant outpouring into the world vibrationally, telepathically, and practically the healing power of what's behind these lessons that we will study. At a certain point in the executive coaching work that I do, clients will get excited about being the leader of a "lighthouse brand." They must learn how to develop a group of people who think and operate personally and professionally with this love of God in their hearts, even though we're not aiming to turn work into church or a religion. How does the leadership cascade from them throughout the organization so that this is part of our core values, the miracle mindset work. It is crucial that leaders really use miracle mindsets as an opportunity to spread light in the world, no matter what kind of business they might be in. You focus on the internal structures and ethos of the company and these internal ethos actually become a ripple effect which can also seep into the customers and the personal lives of the employees, so don't underestimate the impact of your company culture. It's a joy to see leaders get excited about that level of influence. Leadership is influence, and it's not just your stock price or whether you're getting good press; it's really about bringing more light into the whole world.
And there are specific ways in which this can be enhanced with individuals with teams with whole organizations. In addition to core values or mission statements, there are all kinds of different mastermind groups that can be seeded in an organization that function in a holistic way to bring more light into achieving the bottom line goals of the organization. Using this lesson as a guide, you can utilize God's love into fuel for forgiveness to create miracle solutions in your lives, relationships, and careers.
