Can you help me?
I would like to start sending the message of Gorgeous for God to as many people as possible, and I need your help.
At the bottom of every blog entry I write is a link that says “Like this blog post? Email it to your friends.” If I’ve written a blog post that inspires you or has helped you, could you please forward that post to your friends and family, or to someone who might benefit from it?
A lot of people are out there praying for help, right in this very moment. And no one needs to suffer, and no one should be alone.
So, let’s spread the Word of God.
I appreciate it.
Love, lisa
The power of decision is my own.
The only real requirement that is asked of you is unbroken communion with God the Father … your Father.
The revelation that you are one with God must come in time to you. It must come in time to every mind.
You are One with God. He is your Father. He loves you.
It’s the thing you have been searching for. You’ve spent your whole life searching for meaning and purpose, searching for love, searching for security, searching for happiness … and you’ve known all along that you misplaced something, forget something … and that “something” that you’ve been trying to find is the recognition that you are One with God.
That’s it.
It has nothing to do with A Course in Miracles.
I – I, Lisa, here at Gorgeous for God – teach A Course in Miracles and use it as a practical tool to help you find your inheritance from God, but only because it worked for me.
Any path will work for you.
The journey back to God has nothing, zero, zilch, nada to do with religions, paths, books, teachers, groups, A Course in Miracles or anything else you can think of that has an organized structure.
I just want to put that out there, for the record, lest you get trapped in thinking A Course in Miracles is the end all, be all.
Okay?
It’s not. This is the difficulty all religions have had throughout time – they get trapped in the very structures that were designed to lead back to God, and next thing you know: a church is built.
Don’t do that.
I am here to set you free. I am here only for this moment to help you remember what you forgot.
I teach A Course in Miracles because it worked for me. The practical lessons led me out of the hell I made for myself. I used to get frustrated by stories of people who had a spontaneous awakening experience through going into the light, through death, meditation, through some stroke of luck.
I tried for years to will myself to go into the light. Nothing worked. I spent years praying that I would have an experience. Nothing worked.
I was NOT one of those few individuals who spontaneously woke up.
Then I found A Course in Miracles, and it guarantees an experience from fear to love, an experience of joy, peace and happiness, and as I gave it a fair trial in my life, I saw that its promises are true.
So, as a teacher, I use it.
But the journey home to God is any path and every path and no path, it is with words and it is wordless, and it can happen at any time and any place, and all I’m here to do is to help you shorten time to come to that realization as quickly as possible.
There is no need to suffer.
The whole history of man is filled with brilliant expressions of awakening experiences, long before even Jesus came along, long before A Course in Miracles. Look at it. I invite you to write in the comment area all the brilliant minds that have expressed the truth, and you will see that since the beginning of time there have been individuals who came to know themselves as One with the power of universe, and had a dedication only to express this knowledge. Teachers are everywhere.
The teacher is within you. You have a Guide. You are not alone.
The power of decision is your own.
You decide when to wake up. You decide when misery, sorrow, suffering, pain and fear are over for you. You decide when to lay harmful toys aside. They have never served you and they have never given you anything but … well … misery, sorrow, suffering, pain and fear!
God’s Will for you is perfect happiness.
“No can suffer loss unless it be his own decision. No one suffers pain except his choice elects this state for him. No one can grieve nor fear nor think him sick unless these are the outcomes that he wants. And no one dies without his own consent.”
“Nothing occurs but represents your wish, and nothing is omitted that you choose. Here is your world, complete in all details. here is its whole reality for you. And it is only here salvation is.”
AND IT IS ONLY HERE SALVATION IS.
Once you know yourself, you will not need me, this blog, A Course in Miracles, groups, books, classes, or therapy or time itself. You won’t need any of it anymore because the goal will have been accomplished.
The awakening can take place anytime, and any place. It can happen now. Or it can take a year. Or it can take a million years for you.
You decide.
How long do you want to suffer?
The power of decision is your own.
I am going through every workbook lesson in A Course in Miracles in one year – I’ve started arching past blog posts – because I love you. I’m here to help. I’m here to represent Him Who sent me.
“You who are now the bringer of salvation of the function of bringing light to darkness.”
So, that’s what I do. That’s what you’re here to do.
Remember again: the only thing that is asked of you is UNBROKEN COMMUNION WITH GOD.
If you don’t feel like doing A Course in Miracles, don’t do it.
But if nothing else is working, I invite you to give it a try.
The practical training of the workbook lessons helped me (and I was a train-wreck of a case) but ascending to God happens because of Who you are, and by the simple fact that God created you as His Son.
The journey home is guaranteed by God.
But if you are suffering, and cannot seem to get out of your suffering no matter what you try, help is available.
I’m just saying!
So start by spending your days in unbroken communion with God, your Father.
Be in constant communion with God.
Keep remembering His Love for you, every moment of every day.
Do it while you are buttering your bread, making tea, typing an email, walking the dog, doing the laundry, cleaning the house, driving your car, getting dressed, taking a shower, shopping for groceries, talking on the telephone, paying your bills, and working a job.
You can remember God in every moment because “the power of decision is your own.”
“Decide but to accept your rightful place as co-creator of the universe, and all you think you made will disappear.”
Amazing, right? Decide to to accept your rightful place as co-creator of the universe and the hell you made (you thought you made) will disappear.
“As God created you, you must remain unchangeable, with transitory states by definition false. And that includes all shifts in feeling, alterations in conditions of the body and the mind; in all awareness and in all response.
The power of decision is my own. This day I will accept myself as what my Father’s Will created me to be.
In patience wait for him throughout the day (UNBROKEN COMMUNION WITH GOD), and hourly invite Him with the words which the day began – The power of decision is my own – concluding it with the same invitation to your Self. God’s Voice will answer, for He speaks for you and for your Father. He will substitute the peace of God for all your frantic thoughts, the truth of God for self-deceptions, and God’s Son for your illusion of yourself.
You are the light of the world.
All things are echoes of the Voice for God.
It should be evident to you by now that your senses do deceive you. And that there is massive amounts of false perception and bad communication in practically everything you do, see and hear.
It’s impossible to see the whole picture in any situation. Even if you followed me around all day long, listened to my conversations, watched the way I interact with people, witnessed the way I am, read every single blog entry I’ve ever written, read my old love letters, read my book, private journals, looked at my photo albums, watched how I cook a meal, how I drive my car, how I shop for groceries, how I talk on the phone, looked at my bookcase, my movie collection, my music CD’s, and how I interact with the cashiers at Walmart and the baristas at Starbucks, it’s still only a partial picture.
This is why judgment is impossible. You cannot possibly know what is going on at any given time with anyone, because everything is based on senses.
“You place pathetic faith in what your eyes and ears report.”
Knowing this, judgment becomes impossible.
You would be in state of acceptance, that everything is exactly the way it is, and nothing needs to be changed.
All things are echoes of the Voice for God.
The easiest simplest way to undo all that you have learned is to be willing to be wrong about everything. Let go of every idea that came before this moment. Wipe the slate clean. Open up your mind – ever so slightly – to see that maybe the situation did not happen the way you thought it happened. Maybe your judgment was based on partial evidence. Maybe what you thought was attack was actually a gift. Maybe the person who pisses you off actually has something important to tell you.
In my marriage I used to constantly react to things I heard and saw. I was a hot little firecracker, constantly exploding in emotional outbursts. One little word could wreck my whole day. Back then I used to break things. Then I would calm down and silently hold a grievance for weeks, and sometimes months. Then one day I realized that my body’s eyes and my body’s ears do not show me anything. They report nothing. They literally show me what is false.
Suddenly I saw clearly that my husband is my Friend and Savior. He’s here to help me, he’s me, and I constructed a story in which I was the victim.
Oooooooooooooooooooooops.
Knowing this, how could you judge anything anymore?
How could you be upset anymore?
If you were wrong and the situation did NOT happen the way you thought it happened … how could you hold a grievance?
How could you stay angry?
You would see your childish antics for what they are, and then you would laugh like crazy.
As a practice, I started to pause a moment before reacting. I would stop. I wouldn’t smash the water glass. I wouldn’t start yelling. I would pause. I would stand still. I would ask to see this situation/person differently. I would ask for Christ vision. From here, it is the easiest thing in the world to give the thought to God and ask Him to purify it.
“And as each thought is thus transformed, it takes on healing power from the Mind which saw the truth in it, and failed to be deceived by what was falsely added. All threads of fantasy are gone. And what remains is unified into a perfect Thought that offers its perfection everywhere.”
Gorgeous for God was born from this idea, as a 3-word phrase in my mind to help me to remember to pause a moment and let my thoughts be purified by God.
from the Introduction:
When I first started Gorgeous for God my idea was to “inspire and motivate individuals to be as God created them … perfect.” I knew my own life had been transformed by A Course in Miracles and I also knew that many people (myself included) were turned away by religion. I had an idea that people would return to God if He became contemporary and practical. Not something based on old outdated rules that old strict men had passed down for centuries. What could be more exciting than knowing that you could change any aspect of your life simply by changing your mind?
When I returned to my own innocence, it was not just a nice idea in my head, it was a real experience. I would look in the mirror and be blown away by my reflection staring back at me. HOW and WHEN did I get so beautiful? How? When? My whole body was transformed. Literally and Physically.
I never thought I was pretty. Growing up I always compared myself to other people. I compared myself to models in magazines. I compared myself to people in movies and on television. I was never good enough. I was always too fat. I was constantly on a diet. I was always thinking “someday”. But there was always someone better than me. “Someday” never seemed to arrive. I kept striving to make my body better.
“If only I was thin and beautiful” was the soundtrack playing in my brain.
If only I was thin and beautiful, I would get the love and attention I desire. If only I was thin and beautiful, people would pay attention to me and listen to what I have to say. If only. If only. If only.
But then I got thin and beautiful, and nothing changed. I didn’t get the love I desired. I didn’t get the attention I craved. I still felt lonely. I still felt afraid. I still felt worthless.
Around this time is when “Gorgeous for God” popped in my mind. I decided instead of trying to change my body (which I had been trying to do, unsuccessfully, for 30 years) I would simply be Gorgeous every day. I would focus on qualities like INNOCENCE, GRACE, BEAUTY, PATIENCE, HONESTY, GENEROSITY, JOY and HAPPINESS.
Gorgeous for God began, really, because I needed a constant reminder of my own function in the world. It began as 3-simple-words, a phrase in my mind, to help me remember my purpose on earth. I was constantly forgetting that I’m the light of the world. I was forever getting sidetracked, forgetting that I’m here to represent God.
I am here only to be truly helpful. I am here to represent Him who sent me.
I would momentarily forget that I am spirit, and these moments (of being a contained limited human being) would sometimes extend into days and weeks. This is the real reason I started Gorgeous for God … as a way for me to REMEMBER and NOT FORGET.
Every time I would begin to judge something, I would remember: Gorgeous for God.
Every time I would start to gossip, I would remember: Gorgeous for God.
Every time I wanted to hold onto a grievance, I would remember: Gorgeous for God.
Every time I would begin to defend myself, I would remember: Gorgeous for God.
Every sigh and frown was replaced by my own self-imposed constant reminder: Gorgeous for God.
I couldn’t get away from it. Every day GORGEOUS FOR GOD was staring me in the face. I definitely didn’t feel Gorgeous in the beginning but here is a proven method that works: “FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT.”
Act gorgeous and you will become gorgeous. Act perfect and you will become perfect. It’s no coincidence that things began to change for me. I actually started to look better. I began to feel better. I could feel life creeping back into my body. THE LIGHT DOES THE WORK. It makes you look good.
How do we begin to change the world standard? I have no idea. I suppose it would start with a few good role models. People who would say, “I’m going to be myself” and let this be enough.
It starts with me. To demonstrate that I am good enough. Not later, but now. I am whole and perfect as God created me. There is nothing physical that needs changing or improving.
There is only your own recognition of what is already true.
All things are echoes of the Voice for God.
I drink fruit smoothies every single day.
My favorite ones – because they are so easy to make – I call “Pink Ladies”:
Throw all this in the blender (for those of you who don’t currently own a blender, when you finally put down the $15 it costs to buy one, you will wonder how you ever managed to live without one):
canned mandarin oranges with juice
canned pineapple with juice
frozen strawberries
water
ice
My mind holds only what I think with God.
(139) I will accept Atonement for myself.
(140) Only salvation can be said to cure.
Today is the last day of review, so let’s review!
Please reread the Introduction to Review IV by clicking the link:
Introduction to Review Lessons 141-150
“Now we review again, this time aware we are preparing for the second part of learning how the truth can be applied. Today we will begin to concentrate on readiness for what will follow next.”
God offers thanks to you who practice thus the keeping of His Word. And as you give your mind to the ideas for the day again before you sleep, His gratitude surrounds you in the peace wherein He wills you be forever, and are learning now to claim again as your inheritance.
An exclusive interview from
Eckhart Tolle (www.eckharttolle.com), spiritual teacher and author of A New Earth, recently visited
Beginning May 29, 2008, at 5 p.m. Pacific/8 p.m. Eastern, you can tune into www.unity.fm to see this three-part video series where Eckhart shares his thoughts on prayer, presence and peace.
Following the premiere presentation on May 29, 2008, the video and audio will be available via the Unity.FM archives for on-demand listening or download.
My mind holds only what I think with God.
(137) When I am healed I am not healed alone.
(138) Heaven is the decision I must make.
When I am healed I am not healed alone. “Today’s idea remains the central thought on which salvation rests.
It’s a CENTRAL THOUGHT, so please pay attention.
Please read Lesson 137: When I am healed I am not healed alone.
“Healing is the opposite of all the world’s ideas which dwell on sickness and on separate states.”
1. Sickness is a retreat from others, and a shutting off of joining.
2. Sickness is a door that closes on a separate self, and keeps it isolated and alone.
3. Sickness is isolation.
In the past few weeks I’ve been receiving a lot of messages from blog readers who have been quietly reading this blog for months and who are now reaching out and saying “I’m so tired of my life. I’m tired of my depression and loneliness. I need help.”
That’s great. That’s a terrific first step. You’re coming out of your isolation. You’re coming out of hiding. Having the courage to write an email is the courage to let down your walls, and invite someone in. It appears like you are writing to me, but in truth, it is an invitation to the Holy Spirit to enter into your life.
This website/blog is an invitation for you to start communicating.
If you’ve ever wanted to talk with God, or write a letter to God, write it to me, and He will hear it.
lisanatoli2@gmail.com
The whole universe hears it, because there is nothing outside of your most holy mind, and the action of reaching out to another human being is the entire action of healing.
Don’t be concerned with “how” it is accomplished.
And remember, I am not a therapist and I am not here to solve your problems. It is the action of reaching out beyond yourself that help is given to you.
Just have a little willingness to open the door, and invite someone in. It could be me, it could be anyone.
You can leave a comment (with your email) on this blog, and angels will rush in.
Chapter 4 in the text of A Course in Miracles says “you retain thousands of little scraps of fear that prevent the Holy One from entering. Light cannot penetrate through walls you make to block it, and it is forever unwilling to destroy what you made. Watch your mind for scraps of fear, or you will be unable to ask me (the Holy Spirit) to do so.”
Got that?
You have free will. You are responsible for the scraps of fear. You are responsible for stepping into the fear. No one can do it for you, not even the Holy Spirit.
“Light cannot penetrate through the walls you make to block it, and it is forever unwilling to destroy what you have made.”
Light cannot penetrate through a brick wall. You gotta let the wall down.
In the 12 Step Program of Alcoholics Anonymous:
1. First, you admit you are powerless (over alcohol, over an addiction, over your life) and that your life has become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than yourself could restore you to sanity.
3. You make a decision to turn your life and will over to the care of God.
4. You make a searching moral inventory of yourself
5. Admit to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of your wrongs.
So, you see? Step 5 forces you out of your isolation. Most people talk to themselves and God all the time, and they think this is sufficient. They pray in silent.
But now, you are being asked to come out of the closet. For me this was the scariest thing I ever did. My entire adult life I kept all my thoughts secret. I let everyone know that I was “doing great” and that “life was good” and that “I was fine.”
In secret, I was crying my eyes out that my life was unmanageable. I was praying fervently (behind locked doors, in the privacy of my own home) for a relationship, to quit alcohol, to be happy, and to find peace.
And then the next morning, I would put on my best clothes, a happy smile, and do my best to blend in with those around me, and tell myself that my life was not that bad, and that I was doing okay.
And finally one day, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I opened the dark dungeon to another human being. I said: I need help. I don’t know what to do. My life is a mess. Everyone thinks I’m so successful, but I am a complete and utter failure and I’m lonely, and I’m scared, and I’m tired.”
And that was the beginning.
This other person never gave me a single bit of advice – she just listened to me – and that was the new beginning for me, a definite turning point, because I opened the door to let some light in.
I made a decision to stop isolating myself. I invited someone (other than myself, other than God) to have a look at the mess that I’d made.
I decided that I wanted to be happy, and I realized that I needed help.
Lesson 138 says: “Heaven is the decision I must make.”
“Of all the choices you have tried to make this is the simplest, most definitive and prototype of all the rest, the one which settles all decisions. If you could decide the rest (how to make money, how to live, who to love, what to do for work, how to pay your bills, what you need, what you want, what you should do), this one remains unsolved. But when you solve this one, the others are resolved with it, for all decisions conceal this one by taking different forms. Here is the final and the only choice in which truth is accepted or denied.”
Heaven is the decision I must make.
Let your walls crumble in. Be willing to let the house you built fall apart. Let some light in.
My mind holds only what I think with God.
(135) If I defend myself I am attacked.
(136) Sickness is a defense against the truth.
This is one of those great lessons you can practice in your daily life and see that it is true. Next time someone is attacking you, do not respond. Just be still. Don’t do anything. Be like a child, totally defenseless.
You’ll probably feel like an idiot the first few times you attempt this – like you are retarded just standing there with no reaction – but you’ll see instantly that when you don’t defend yourself, the attacking stops immediately.
When you don’t enter into a discussion with someone, the conversation comes to an abrupt end. When you listen, truly listen, to what someone else is saying, really hear them, give them your full attention, and then don’t participate with defense or attack … something truly miraculous happens.
Try it.
Just be present with someone. Start to listen.
Once thing you will start to notice, as you begin to practice in this way, is that the majority of your time before was spent in formulating your own ideas while someone else was talking. You’ll realize that you were never fully present. You were in your own head, thinking about what you’ll say next.
Most people spend their time in conversations waiting for another person to end a sentence, so they can say something back.
Try this for an experiment: Just be present. Don’t formulate sentences in your head while someone else is talking. Really listen. Be still. Be focused on what the other person is saying.
THEY HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY TO YOU!
That is the Christ Himself speaking.
Even when someone is attacking you, just listen. Accept it with gratitude. This is the reason you will not need to defend yourself. Because you’ll be open to this new information that is being given to you.
If they demand a reaction out of you (”what do you have to say for yourself??” ), you can say: “I’m listening.”
Just be present and open. That’s the key. The key to salvation is this: “Your doing this to yourself.”
You will quickly realize that the person “out there” is not out there at all. He is you. He is an image, a reflection of your own inner state of mind. You’re doing this to yourself. Nothing at all is happening.
So you don’t have to react to figures in your dream anymore. “Let them be as hateful or as vicious as they may, they could have no effect on you unless you failed to recognize it is your dream.”
There is no need to defend yourself.
The other day when my friend was yelling at me to get a job, I really listened and took it into consideration. There is no need to defend myself. I’m always open to another possibility, and my brother is always offering me a new bright solution.
EJ said it best: “Think of the healing that occurs when you say ‘paper or plastic?’”
That’s so awesome.
It’s true. There is nothing separate from function, as if there is one path more special than another path.
“A healed mind does not plan. It carries out the plans that it receives through listening to wisdom that is not its own. It waits until it has been taught what should be done, and then proceeds to do it.”
I love that.
“It does not depend on itself for anything except its adequacy to fulfill the plans assigned to it. It is secure in certainty that obstacles can not impede its progress to accomplishment of any goal that serves the greater plan established for the good of everyone.”
Let every action “serve the greater plan established for the good of everyone.”
Tony Parson says: “One moment of presence brings more light into the world than a thousand years of “good works. In presence, all action is uncluttered and unsullied. It is spontaneity born from stillness.”
Eckhart Tolle talks about the waiter who is completely present as he puts a plate on the table in front of a customer. Pure presence. That is the function of a Teacher of God. To be totally present in every situation, not waiting for some “far off” future moment in which your life will begin.
Your life is happening now. This is it. This is all there is. Are you here? Or is your mind elsewhere? Bring yourself back into this moment, back into this day.
Be here, be now.
You who are now the bringer of salvation:
This is the day of full accomplishment. This is the day you fulfill your function by bringing light to darkness. The darkness in you has been brought to light. Carry it back to darkness, from the holy instant to which you brought it. You are made whole in your desire to make whole. Let your light encompass all of your actions. This is the only day you have. Give it your 100% full attention.
Amazing, right?
Look at the simplicity.
Salvation is not complicated.
“Try not to shape this day as you would believe would benefit you most. For you cannot conceive of all the happiness that comes to you without your planning.”
“Learn today. And all the world will take this giant stride, and celebrate your Eastertime with you. Throughout the day, as foolish little things appear to raise defensiveness in you and tempt you to engage in weaving plans, remind yourself this is a special day for learning, and acknowledge it with this:
“This is my Eastertime. And I would keep it holy. I will not defend myself, because the Son of God needs no defense against the truth of his reality.”
And of course, that leads to the 2nd lesson of the day: If you don’t defend yourself, sickness becomes impossible.
The only reason you get sick is because you defend yourself. Sickness is a defense against the truth.
So, don’t defend yourself and watch what happens. You’ll be amazed by the healing that occurs, in you and for the world.
It’s over there in the Blue Talkshoe Box
Just click the play button.
Enjoy!
