Study Guide for A Course in Miracles

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In other words, if you read something that seems incomprehensible or that you simply can’t believe, just set it aside in your mind for the time being. What seems unbelievable to you now may make more sense at a later time; what is unclear now may be explained to your satisfaction further on. If concept 5 causes you to feel uneasy, understand that this is a natural response to learning about a completely new way of thinking. Just keep going.

We will not find true happiness until we have remembered our shared Home in God. It is in remembering our oneness with God that we reclaim our true Identity. All our searching in this ever-changing world is due to a sense that something is missing and we want desperately to reclaim it. What we seek are not the goals the world sets forth, but our true Self, what the Course calls the Son of God or the Christ. A Course in Miracles is a guidebook for finding our way back to the remembrance of God and our true, eternal Self, which is forever one with God.
But it also says we are all both teachers and students. We are equals as brothers and sisters. Another thing to keep in mind is that while many know the Course and its words well and consider themselves teachers, there is no guarantee that they understand or practice it consistently. Some may claim authority—that only their understanding of the Course is the correct one and that others are wrong.

Some commingle the Course’s message with other spiritual teachings, which risks muddying the waters. The Course itself says nothing about learning from an outside teacher. It does, however, have a great deal to say about learning from our Inner Teacher. One of the cornerstones of ACIM is the idea that we each have within us an Inner Teacher, which the Course calls the Holy Spirit, Who is the Voice for God. (Please note that it is the Voice for God, not the Voice of God.)

(Manual for Teachers, Section 29, paragraph 2:6-7) This means that the Holy Spirit knows exactly what you uniquely require to shed your mistaken beliefs about yourself and the world and return to your true Self in God. We learn to turn to Him and trust His answers over our own. Of course, trust in the Holy Spirit can only be developed over time with practice. We must be willing to ask for guidance, then listen and then put that guidance into practice, if we want to experience its results. We cannot see spirit with our physical eyes. 

It is invisible. But we can experience its effects and through them become certain of its reality. This is different from prayer as it’s commonly practiced because we are not asking for the things of this world or any particular outcome to our problems. We need only to release everything to the Holy Spirit in the understanding that we are incapable of knowing what will truly help us. As Workbook lessons 24 and 25 states

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