XI. The State of Grace

T-7.XI.1. The Holy Spirit will always guide you truly, because your joy is His. ² This is His Will for everyone because He speaks for the Kingdom of God, which is joy. ³ Following Him is therefore the easiest thing in the world, and the only thing that is easy, because it is not of the world. ⁴ It is therefore natural. ⁵ The world goes against your nature, being out of accord with God's laws. ⁶ The world perceives orders of difficulty in everything. ⁷ This is because the ego perceives nothing as wholly desirable. ⁸ By demonstrating to yourself there is no order of difficulty in miracles, you will convince yourself that, in your natural state, there is no difficulty at all because it is a state of grace.

T-7.XI.2. Grace is the natural state of every Son of God. ² When he is not in a state of grace, he is out of his natural environment and does not function well. ³ Everything he does becomes a strain, because he was not created for the environment that he has made. ⁴ He therefore cannot adapt to it, nor can he adapt it to him. ⁵ There is no point in trying. ⁶ A Son of God is happy only when he knows he is with God. ⁷ That is the only environment in which he will not experience strain, because that is where he belongs. ⁸ It is also the only environment that is worthy of him, because his own worth is beyond anything he can make.

T-7.XI.3. Consider the kingdom you have made and judge its worth fairly. ² Is it worthy to be a home for a child of God? ³ Does it protect his peace and shine love upon him? ⁴ Does it keep his heart untouched by fear, and allow him to give always, without any sense of loss? ⁵ Does it teach him that this giving is his joy, and that God Himself thanks him for his giving? ⁶ That is the only environment in which you can be happy. ⁷ You cannot make it, any more than you can make yourself. ⁸ It has been created for you, as you were created for it. ⁹ God watches over His children and denies them nothing. ¹⁰ Yet when they deny Him they do not know this, because they deny themselves everything. ¹¹ You who could give the Love of God to everything you see and touch and remember, are literally denying Heaven to yourself.

T-7.XI.4. I call upon you to remember that I have chosen you to teach the Kingdom to the Kingdom. ² There are no exceptions to this lesson, because the lack of exceptions is the lesson. ³ Every Son who returns to the Kingdom with this lesson in his heart has healed the Sonship and given thanks to God. ⁴ Everyone who learns this lesson has become the perfect teacher, because he has learned it of the Holy Spirit.

T-7.XI.5. When a mind has only light, it knows only light. ² Its own radiance shines all around it, and extends out into the darkness of other minds, transforming them into majesty. ³ The Majesty of God is there, for you to recognize and appreciate and know. ⁴ Recognizing the Majesty of God as your brother is to accept your own inheritance. ⁵ God gives only equally. ⁶ If you recognize His gift in anyone, you have acknowledged what He has given you. ⁷ Nothing is so easy to recognize as truth. ⁸ This is the recognition that is immediate, clear and natural. ⁹ You have trained yourself not to recognize it, and this has been very difficult for you.

T-7.XI.6. Out of your natural environment you may well ask, "What is truth?" since truth is the environment by which and for which you were created. ² You do not know yourself, because you do not know your Creator. ³ You do not know your creations because you do not know your brothers, who created them with you. ⁴ I have already said that only the whole Sonship is worthy to be co-creator with God, because only the whole Sonship can create like Him. ⁵ Whenever you heal a brother by recognizing his worth, you are acknowledging his power to create and yours. ⁶ He cannot have lost what you recognize, and you must have the glory you see in him. ⁷ He is a co-creator with God with you. ⁸ Deny his creative power, and you are denying yours and that of God Who created you.

T-7.XI.7. You cannot deny part of truth. ² You do not know your creations because you do not know their creator. ³ You do not know yourself because you do not know yours. ⁴ Your creations cannot establish your reality, any more than you can establish God's. ⁵ But you can know Both. ⁶ Being is known by sharing. ⁷ Because God shared His Being with you, you can know Him. ⁸ But you must also know all He created, to know what they have shared. ⁹ Without your Father you will not know your fatherhood. ¹⁰ The Kingdom of God includes all His Sons and their children, who are as like the Sons as they are like the Father. ¹¹ Know, then, the Sons of God, and you will know all creation.