Lesson 159

W-pI.159.1. No one can give what he has not received. ² To give a thing requires first you have it in your own possession. ³ Here the laws of Heaven and the world agree. ⁴ But here they also separate. ⁵ The world believes that to possess a thing, it must be kept. ⁶ Salvation teaches otherwise. ⁷ To give is how to recognize you have received. ⁸ It is the proof that what you have is yours.

W-pI.159.2. You understand that you are healed when you give healing. ² You accept forgiveness as accomplished in yourself when you forgive. ³ You recognize your brother as yourself, and thus do you perceive that you are whole. ⁴ There is no miracle you cannot give, for all are given you. ⁵ Receive them now by opening the storehouse of your mind where they are laid, and giving them away.

W-pI.159.3. Christ's vision is a miracle. ² It comes from far beyond itself, for it reflects eternal love and the rebirth of love which never dies, but has been kept obscure. ³ Christ's vision pictures Heaven, for it sees a world so like to Heaven that what God created perfect can be mirrored there. ⁴ The darkened glass the world presents can show but twisted images in broken parts. ⁵ The real world pictures Heaven's innocence.

W-pI.159.4. Christ's vision is the miracle in which all miracles are born. ² It is their source, remaining with each miracle you give, and yet remaining yours. ³ It is the bond by which the giver and receiver are united in extension here on earth, as they are one in Heaven. ⁴ Christ beholds no sin in anyone. ⁵ And in His sight the sinless are as one. ⁶ Their holiness was given by His Father and Himself.

W-pI.159.5. Christ's vision is the bridge between the worlds. ² And in its power can you safely trust to carry you from this world into one made holy by forgiveness. ³ Things which seem quite solid here are merely shadows there; transparent, faintly seen, at times forgot, and never able to obscure the light that shines beyond them. ⁴ Holiness has been restored to vision, and the blind can see.

W-pI.159.6. This is the Holy Spirit's single gift; the treasure house to which you can appeal with perfect certainty for all the things that can contribute to your happiness. ² All are laid here already. ³ All can be received but for the asking. ⁴ Here the door is never locked, and no one is denied his least request or his most urgent need. ⁵ There is no sickness not already healed, no lack unsatisfied, no need unmet within this golden treasury of Christ.

W-pI.159.7. Here does the world remember what was lost when it was made. ² For here it is repaired, made new again, but in a different light. ³ What was to be the home of sin becomes the center of redemption and the hearth of mercy, where the suffering are healed and welcome. ⁴ No one will be turned away from this new home, where his salvation waits. ⁵ No one is stranger to him. ⁶ No one asks for anything of him except the gift of his acceptance of his welcoming.

W-pI.159.8. Christ's vision is the holy ground in which the lilies of forgiveness set their roots. ² This is their home. ³ They can be brought from here back to the world, but they can never grow in its unnourishing and shallow soil. ⁴ They need the light and warmth and kindly care Christ's charity provides. ⁵ They need the love with which He looks on them. ⁶ And they become His messengers, who give as they received.

W-pI.159.9. Take from His storehouse, that its treasures may increase. ² His lilies do not leave their home when they are carried back into the world. ³ Their roots remain. ⁴ They do not leave their source, but carry its beneficence with them, and turn the world into a garden like the one they came from, and to which they go again with added fragrance. ⁵ Now are they twice blessed. ⁶ The messages they brought from Christ have been delivered, and returned to them. ⁷ And they return them gladly unto Him.

W-pI.159.10. Behold the store of miracles set out for you to give. ² Are you not worth the gift, when God appointed it be given you? ³ Judge not God's Son, but follow in the way He has established. ⁴ Christ has dreamed the dream of a forgiven world. ⁵ It is His gift, whereby a sweet transition can be made from death to life; from hopelessness to hope. ⁶ Let us an instant dream with Him. ⁷ His dream awakens us to truth. ⁸ His vision gives the means for a return to our unlost and everlasting sanctity in God.