How Do We Overcome Fear?

What does perfect love cast out fear mean?

Fear, as intense as it can feel, is not real. It’s best thought of as an acronym, F.E.A.R. i.e. false evidence appearing real. The falsity of fear comes from the decision to experience the universe through the five senses. This lends itself to the perception of an unreal physical world which veils the Truth. Because our true nature is abstract Love and Light, experiencing physicality creates the illusion that our Reality, the Reality that God created, has somehow been altered. This is the belief in the ego, or the belief in separation from God. It grips the mind in fear, or oftentimes, terror. The body, which is the star of the show in the perceptual dream, is key to this altered state of mind from Heaven to hell, from safety to danger, and from oneness to separation.

“The body is a fence the Son of God imagines he has built to separate parts of himself from other parts. It is within this fence he believes he lives to die as it decays and crumbles. But within this fence he believes he is safe from love ... and if he didn’t die, what “proof” is there that God’s eternal Son can be destroyed.” (ACIM W-260)

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Love is what we are, and love cannot be destroyed; to know fully who we are will cast out fear.

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Returning to Love often requires mind training, which slowly but surely draws our mind’s energy away from the ego, as this thought system is highly addictive when believed in. True forgiveness of the perceptual dream is realized through emptying our mind from all that it thinks it thinks and thinks it knows, to overcome its belief in the “I know” mind. Our real Mind holds only what we think with God, which is pure knowledge of our nature as Love and Light. Any unloving thoughts, which contradict our true nature, stem from the false belief that the perceptual dream is real; that we are merely the body, and that the five senses are a valid test in determining what reality is. Forgiving these thoughts and perceptions can be accomplished by observing them with the Holy Spirit, a gift given to us by God to guide us home.

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“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8)

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As we withhold judgment of our feelings and perceptions, instead giving them over to the Holy Spirit, our mind begins to be cleansed of its perceptual errors; hastening in its return to the light. As we gently recover awareness of the power of our Mind, the light becomes more and more present within it. We become more and more adept at resisting the temptation to make egoic thoughts real or to accept them as true. Eventually, the knowledge of our pristine Mind, where fear can enter not, is recovered.

Allowing the Holy Spirit to gently guide our mind to its original mooring in Love indeed changes the purpose for the body. It is transformed from a fence keeping us stuck in hell without hope of escape, to the means by which we can be freed and returned to sanity. In this way, the goal of Heaven has been exchanged for the pursuit of hell. As we allow only loving thoughts toward our brothers and sisters, we begin to recognize that they are intimately joined with us. They are walking along the road back to sanity with us, hand in hand. What a stark contrast to viewing them through the egoic lens which sees them as a source of competition and opposition to perpetuate fear! Now the body serves the Mind it was designed in. It is no longer being used in the ego’s plan for salvation to kill, but being used for the holy purpose of extending love.

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“There is an experience that brings an end to all uncertainty and an end to all questions. The experience is Love.” David Hoffmeister.

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To dive deeper into the experience of the teachings of Jesus: A Gospel of Love, visit https://store.livingmiraclescenter.org/collections/featured/products/jesus-a-gospel-of-love