Review of Miracle Principles 1-41

January 26, 2021

The fifty miracle principles are the foundation for the Course’s thought system.  Some big ideas were expressed in these first 41 principles.  

As you review today, spend a good portion of your study on the first three principles, just as Jesus requested of Helen.  

• “There is no order of difficulty [in miracles]” (1:1).  The first principle of miracles is interwoven throughout the entire Course (meaning it is a fixture of the text, workbook and manual).  It is referenced over 60 times.  We are told that nothing is too hard or too big for God.  This reminds me of the biblical idea that “Nothing is impossible for God” which is interwoven into Hebrew Scripture and the New Testament, starting when it was uttered by the angel to Sarah: 
  • “Is anything too wonderful for our Lord?” (Gen. 18:14)

Like Sarah, we may laugh find this absurd, but the answer is no.  Every miracle is of the same order, no differences in size or complexity.  “They are all the same” (T-1.1:2).

• The first three principles are so densely packed with the meaning of miracles: There is no order of difficulty among them (1), they do not matter; they are unimportant (2) and they occur naturally, the real miracle is the love that inspires them (3).  

Really take in those last five words: ‘the love that inspires them.’  That love means everything.  That love is everything.  That love is God.  Perhaps the most glorious aspect of the Course is what it tells us about God, our Creator, who also goes by Love.  

• The Course’s teaching about God and His nature are introduced on the first page.  “God is the giver of life” (1.4:1).  

• Miracles mean life (1.4:1)

• Miracles are expressions of love.  (Expression versus only an internal shift toward love). 

• On page two we are told we are “the created” and God is “the Creator” (11.1:2).

• We were created whole in the moment of creation.  That means we are already complete, not evolving.  “You had everything when you were created” (26.6:2).

Reflect for a moment on your spiritual journey.  Have you always thought of yourself in these terms?  You are a created being.  Someone Else created you. 

Or have you considered (like me) that I am both the created and the Creator? Or perhaps there is only Non-being as the ultimate reality?  The Course has a particular understanding about God as Being, and our relationship to Him.  Yes, Father and Son are one, in unity of Heaven, but “God and you are not equal” (T-1.46.20:7).  Really try to take this in.  Are you comforted by it?  Or disconcerted?

• This God is everywhere.  “Underneath are the everlasting arms” (15.2:3), a reference to Deuteronomy 33:27: The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”

• “Miracles occur naturally’ is repeated in Principle 5:  “Miracles are natural.”  They should be habitual, too (4). 

• Miracles are a form of healing (7).  

• Miracles defy the laws of this world.  When they are given and received, the miracle “reverses physical laws” (8.1:2)

• Miracles are given.  Often the exchange occurs between one “with more” to one who “has less” (7). 

• The person doing the giving is likened to a miracle worker, in the conventional understanding.  This person can “heal the sick and raise the dead” (23.1:2).

• No matter how wonderful (or dramatic) the miracle is it “should inspire gratitude, now awe” (31.1:1) . We are later told awe is an appropriate stance toward God (46.13:6), Who we should in fact worship.  But it is not appropriate to have awe toward Jesus (46:14:3), and it is not appropriate toward miracles.  

• This idea of awe above ties in with Principle 10, which states that “the use of miracles as spectacles to induce belief is wrong.”  We should consider what a spectacle is.  If a miracle worker were to raise the dead or cure some long-term malignancy, then we can expect this to draw a crowd. Remember when Jesus healed the paralytic, the man was dropped through the roof because the crowd was too thick at the door.  

A crowd gathering to witness a miracle does not mean a spectacle.  It only becomes a spectacle if the witnesses perceive that what they are witnessing to is unnatural.  Or if they believe some special power is emanating from the miracle worker, some form of self reliance they do not possess on their own.  This is a spectacle.  However, gathering to witness a miracle can also be an opportunity to praise God, worshiping Him, and knowing that His Love is the source of all miracles.  The story of the healing of the paralytic ends with this: 

Amazement seized all of them, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, ‘We have seen strange things today.’

For the believer, there is nothing strange about it.  The miracle is natural (3, 5) and “arises from conviction” (14).  They therefore praise God and worship Him (46.13:3-5).  For the unbeliever, the miracle is a strange thing, a spectacle.  What their eyes show them has “deteriorated into magic” (14.1:3)  We must remember that miracles are unimportant, natural and occur with no order of difficulty.

• We are urged to give miracles daily.  To be devoted to giving them (15). 

• Miracles start from thought (12).  It is a two-step process where the thought causes the expression (miracle, effect).

• The miracle helps adjust levels.  The spiritual level and physical level are given their proper place.

• The other level adjustment achieved through miracles is that of our mind, “the levels of awareness”: the superconscious from above, the subconcious below (where the miracle drive originates) and the conscious mind – the place of action (See 28 and 36)

• Spirit is the only reality (35.9:7).

• The mind is the center of change.  The spirit was created and is eternally changeless. The body has no reality.

• Darkness is dispelled by light.  A vacuum is emptiness that is calling to be filled with light.

• Projection is an operative condition of this world.  It started in the separation when we “hurled” ourselves out of Heaven.  We repeat this original error by projecting our darkness onto the world and our brothers.

• Nothing has the power to possess us.  Only our thoughts can harm us.  God offers perfect protection.

• Jesus wants a relationship with us. So far this is what he has told us about himself and how we co-operate with him:

• “You will see miracles through your hands through me.” 
• “My strength will support you, so don’t worry and leave the rest to me.”
• “I will tell you when [to review the Course], but remember to ask.” 
• “I have forgiven you and that means all hurt and hate you have ever expressed is canceled. I need the children of light now.”

• “Unless you remember this [that no effort is wasted], you cannot avail yourself of my efforts, which are limitless.” 
• “If you are ashamed of me (or embarrassed by love), you will project and therefore make it impossible for me to reach you.  Make every effort you can not to do this. I will help you as much as you will let me.”
• “You who are in the image of the Father need bow only to Him, before Whom I kneel with you.”
• “I am in charge of the process of Atonement, which I undertook to begin.  My Atonement [resurrection] was for the canceling out of all sins which you could not otherwise correct.
• “’Inasmuch as you do it unto the least of these my brethren’ really ends with ‘you do it unto yourself and me.’  The reason why you come before me is because I do not need miracles for my own Atonement, but I stand at the end in case you fail temporarily.”
• “Therefore, when you say [to Jesus], ‘If you want me to I will,’ please add ‘and if you don’t want me to I won’t.’”
• “There is a way of speeding you up, and that is by leaving more and more time for me, so you can devote it to miracles.  The reason I direct everything that is unimportant is because it is no way to waste your free will….I will tell you exactly what to do in connection with everything that does not matter…You have to remember to ask me to take charge of all minutiae…If you will ask, I will arrange these things…I am not intruding on your will but I am trying to free it…
• “I went on very personal record to this effect [demonstrating we are all forgiven] and I am the only completely true witness for God.  You have every right to examine my credentials. In fact, I urge you to do so. It may have been years since you read the Bible.”
• You now share my inability to tolerate lack of love in yourself and in everyone else, and must join the Great Crusade to correct it.”
• “The real members of my party are active workers.”
• “The power to work miracles belongs to you.  I will arrange the right opportunities for you to do them.  But you must be ready and willing to do them, since you are already able to.”
• “A miracle is a universal blessing from God through me to all my brothers.  
• “[The disciples] were promised that I would never leave them or forsake them.  Atonement is the natural profession of the children of God, because they have professed me.”
• “My word, which is the resurrection and the life, shall not pass away, because life is eternal.”
• “[Miracles] release him [a person] from a prison in which he has imprisoned himself. By freeing his mind from illusions, they restore him to his right mind and place him ‘at the feet of Jesus.’”
• One of the major problems with miracle workers is that they are so sure that what they are doing is right, because they know it stems from love, that they frequently do not pause to let me establish my limits. While what they do comes from me, they often cannot be induced to ask me each time whether I want them to perform this particular miracle…. The answer is to never perform a miracle without asking me if you should. This spares you from exhaustion….I am the only one who can perform miracles indiscriminately, because I am the Atonement. You have a role in the Atonement, which I will dictate to you.”
• “The impersonal nature of miracles is an essential ingredient, because this enables me to control their distribution as I see fit.”
• “A miracle is a correction factor introduced into false thinking by me.”
• “A miracle acknowledges all men as your brothers and mine.”

Practice Suggestion: 

“Miracles praise God through me.”