III. Love without Conflict

T-4.III.1. It is hard to understand what "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you" really means. ² This is because it is not understandable to the ego, which interprets it as if something outside is inside, and this does not mean anything. ³ The word "within" is unnecessary. ⁴ The Kingdom of Heaven is you. ⁵ What else but you did the Creator create, and what else but you is His Kingdom? ⁶ This is the whole message of the Atonement; a message which in its totality transcends the sum of its parts. ⁷ You, too, have a Kingdom that your spirit created. ⁸ It has not ceased to create because of the ego's illusions. ⁹ Your creations are no more fatherless than you are. ¹⁰ Your ego and your spirit will never be co-creators, but your spirit and your Creator will always be. ¹¹ Be confident that your creations are as safe as you are.

T-4.III.2. This is written in the form of a prayer because it is useful in moments of temptation. ² It is a declaration of independence. ³ You will find it very helpful if you understand it fully. ⁴ The reason you need my help is because you have denied your own Guide and therefore need guidance. ⁵ My role is to separate the true from the false, so truth can break through the barriers the ego has set up and can shine into your mind. ⁶ Against our united strength the ego cannot prevail.

T-4.III.3. It is surely apparent by now why the ego regards spirit as its "enemy." ² The ego arose from the separation, and its continued existence depends on your continuing belief in the separation. ³ The ego must offer you some sort of reward for maintaining this belief. ⁴ All it can offer is a sense of temporary existence, which begins with its own beginning and ends with its own ending. ⁵ It tells you this life is your existence because it is its own. ⁶ Against this sense of temporary existence spirit offers you the knowledge of permanence and unshakable being. ⁷ No one who has experienced the revelation of this can ever fully believe in the ego again. ⁸ How can its meager offering to you prevail against the glorious gift of God?

T-4.III.4. You who identify with your ego cannot believe God loves you. ² You do not love what you made, and what you made does not love you. ³ Being made out of the denial of the Father, the ego has no allegiance to its maker. ⁴ You cannot conceive of the real relationship that exists between God and His creations because of your hatred for the self you made. ⁵ You project onto the ego the decision to separate, and this conflicts with the love you feel for the ego because you made it. ⁶ No love in this world is without this ambivalence, and since no ego has experienced love without ambivalence the concept is beyond its understanding. ⁷ Love will enter immediately into any mind that truly wants it, but it must want it truly. ⁸ This means that it wants it without ambivalence, and this kind of wanting is wholly without the ego's "drive to get."

T-4.III.5. There is a kind of experience so different from anything the ego can offer that you will never want to cover or hide it again. ² It is necessary to repeat that your belief in darkness and hiding is why the light cannot enter. ³ The Bible gives many references to the immeasurable gifts which are for you, but for which you must ask. ⁴ This is not a condition as the ego sets conditions. ⁵ It is the glorious condition of what you are.

T-4.III.6. No force except your own will is strong enough or worthy enough to guide you. ² In this you are as free as God, and must remain so forever. ³ Let us ask the Father in my name to keep you mindful of His Love for you and yours for Him. ⁴ He has never failed to answer this request, because it asks only for what He has already willed. ⁵ Those who call truly are always answered. ⁶ Thou shalt have no other gods before Him because there are none.

T-4.III.7. It has never really entered your mind to give up every idea you ever had that opposes knowledge. ² You retain thousands of little scraps of fear that prevent the Holy One from entering. ³ Light cannot penetrate through the walls you make to block it, and it is forever unwilling to destroy what you have made. ⁴ No one can see through a wall, but I can step around it. ⁵ Watch your mind for the scraps of fear, or you will be unable to ask me to do so. ⁶ I can help you only as our Father created us. ⁷ I will love you and honor you and maintain complete respect for what you have made, but I will not uphold it unless it is true. ⁸ I will never forsake you any more than God will, but I must wait as long as you choose to forsake yourself. ⁹ Because I wait in love and not in impatience, you will surely ask me truly. ¹⁰ I will come in response to a single unequivocal call.

T-4.III.8. Watch carefully and see what it is you are really asking for. ² Be very honest with yourself in this, for we must hide nothing from each other. ³ If you will really try to do this, you have taken the first step toward preparing your mind for the Holy One to enter. ⁴ We will prepare for this together, for once He has come, you will be ready to help me make other minds ready for Him. ⁵ How long will you deny Him His Kingdom?

T-4.III.9. In your own mind, though denied by the ego, is the declaration of your release. ² God has given you everything. ³ This one fact means the ego does not exist, and this makes it profoundly afraid. ⁴ In the ego's language, "to have" and "to be" are different, but they are identical to the Holy Spirit. ⁵ The Holy Spirit knows that you both have everything and are everything. ⁶ Any distinction in this respect is meaningful only when the idea of "getting," which implies a lack, has already been accepted. ⁷ That is why we make no distinction between having the Kingdom of God and being the Kingdom of God.

T-4.III.10. The calm being of God's Kingdom, which in your sane mind is perfectly conscious, is ruthlessly banished from the part of the mind the ego rules. ² The ego is desperate because it opposes literally invincible odds, whether you are asleep or awake. ³ Consider how much vigilance you have been willing to exert to protect your ego, and how little to protect your right mind. ⁴ Who but the insane would undertake to believe what is not true, and then protect this belief at the cost of truth?