You have never understood what “the Kingdom of Heaven is within you”
means. The reason you have not understood it is because it is NOT
understandable to the ego, which interprets it as if something outside
is inside, and this does not mean anything. The word “within” is
unnecessary. The Kingdom of Heaven IS you. What else BUT you did the
Creator create, and what else BUT you is His Kingdom? This is the whole
message of the Atonement, a message, which, in its totality, transcends
the sum of its parts. Christmas is not a time; it is a state of mind.
The Christ Mind wills from the Soul, NOT from the ego, and the Christ
Mind IS yours.

You, too, have a kingdom which your Soul created. It has NOT ceased to
create because your ego has set you on the road of perception. Your
Soul’s creations are no more fatherless than YOU are. Your ego and your
Soul will never be co-creators, but your Soul and YOUR Creator will
ALWAYS be. Be confident that your creations are as safe as you are.

“The Kingdom is perfectly united and perfectly protected, and the ego
will NOT prevail against it, – Amen.”

That was written in that form because it is a good thing to use as a
kind of a prayer in moments of temptation. It is a Declaration of
Independence. You will find it very helpful if you understand it fully.

In its characteristically upside-down way, the ego has taken the
impulses from the superconscious and perceives them as if they arise in
the unconscious. The ego judges what is to be accepted, and the impulses
from the superconscious are unacceptable to it because they clearly
point to the nonexistence of the ego itself. The ego therefore
experiences threat, and not only censors but also reinterprets the data.
However, as Freud correctly pointed out, what you have repressed can
retain a very active life BEYOND your awareness.

Repression thus operates to conceal not only the baser impulses but also
the most lofty ones from awareness because BOTH are threatening to the
ego and, being concerned primarily with its own preservation in the face
of threat, the ego perceives them AS THE SAME. The threat-value of the
lofty is actually much greater to the ego because the pull of God
Himself can hardly be equated with the pull of human appetites. By
perceiving them AS the same, the ego attempts to save itself from being
swept away, as it would surely BE in the presence of knowledge.

The upper level of the unconscious thus contains the Call of God as well
as the call of the body. That is why the basic conflict between love and
fear is unconscious; the ego cannot tolerate either, and represses both
by resorting to inhibition. Society depends on inhibiting the latter,
but SALVATION depends on DISinhibiting the former. The reason you need
MY help is because you have repressed your own Guide, and therefore need
guidance. My role is to separate the true from the false in your
unconscious, so it can break through the barriers the ego has set up,
and shine into your minds. Against our united strength the ego CANNOT
prevail.

It should be apparent to you by now why the ego regards the Soul as its
“enemy.” The ego arose from the separation, and its continued existence
depends on YOUR continuing belief in the separation. Having reduced the
Soul impulses to the unconscious, the ego has to offer you some sort of
reward for maintaining this belief. All it CAN offer is a sense of
temporary existence, which begins with its OWN beginning and ends with
its OWN ending. It tells you this life is YOUR existence because it IS
its own. Against this sense of temporary existence the Soul offers you
the knowledge of permanence and unshakable BEING. No-one who has
experienced the revelation of THIS can ever fully believe in the ego
again. How can its meager offering to you prevail against the glorious
gift of God?

You who identify WITH your egos cannot believe that God loves you. YOU
do not love what you have made, and what you made does not love YOU.
Being made out of the denial of the
Father, the ego has no allegiance to its own maker. You cannot conceive
of the real relationship which exists between God and His Souls because
of the hatred you have for the self YOU have made. You project onto your
OWN idea of yourself the will to separate, which conflicts with the love
you feel for what you made BECAUSE you made it. No human love is without
this ambivalence, and since no ego has experienced love WITHOUT
ambivalence, the concept is beyond its understanding.

Love will enter immediately into ANY mind which truly wants it, but it
MUST want it truly. This means that it wants it WITHOUT ambivalence, and
this kind of wanting is wholly without the ego’s “drive to get.” There
is a kind of experience which is so different from anything the ego can
offer that you will never recover. The word “recover” is used quite
literally here, – you will never be able to cover or hide again. It is
necessary to repeat here that your belief in darkness and in hiding IS
why the Light cannot enter. The Bible gives many references to the
immeasurable gifts which are FOR you, but for which YOU must ask. This
is not a condition as the ego sets conditions. It is the glorious
condition of what you ARE.

No force except your own will is strong enough or worthy enough to guide
you. In this you are as free as God, and must remain so forever. You can
never be bound except in honor, and that is always voluntary. Let us ask
the Father in my name to keep you mindful of His Love for you and yours
for Him. He has never failed to answer this request because it asks only
for what He has already willed. Those who call truly are ALWAYS
answered. Thou shalt have no other gods before Him because there ARE
none.

It has never really entered your mind to give up every idea you ever had
that OPPOSES knowledge. You retain thousands of little scraps of
meanness which prevent the Holy One from entering. Light cannot
penetrate through the walls you make to block it, and it is forever
unwilling to destroy what you have made. No-one can see THROUGH a wall,
but I can step around it. Watch your minds for the scraps of meanness,
or you will be unable to ask me to do so. I can help you only as our
Father created us. I will love you and honor you and maintain complete
respect for what you have made, but I will neither honor it nor love it
unless it is true.

I will never forsake you, any more than God will, but I MUST wait as
long as you choose to forsake yourself. Because I wait in love and not
in impatience you will surely ask me truly. I will come in response to a
single unequivocal call. Watch carefully and see what it is you are
really asking for. Be very honest with yourself about this, for we must
hide nothing from each other. If you will really try to do this, you
have taken the first step toward preparing your mind for the Holy One to
enter. We will prepare for this together, for once He has come you will
be ready to help me make other minds ready for Him. How long will you
deny Him His Kingdom?

In your own unconscious, deeply repressed by the ego, is the declaration
of your release. GOD HAS GIVEN YOU EVERYTHING. This is the one fact that
means the ego does not exist, and which therefore makes it profoundly
afraid. In the ego’s language, remember, “to have” and “to be” are
different, but they are identical to the Soul. The Soul knows that you
both HAVE everything and ARE everything. Any distinction in this respect
is meaningful only when the idea of “getting,” which implies a lack, has
ALREADY been accepted. That is why we made no distinction before between
HAVING the Kingdom of God and BEING the Kingdom of God.

The calm being of God’s Kingdom, which in your sane mind is perfectly
conscious, is ruthlessly banished from the part of the mind which the
ego rules. The ego is desperate because it opposes literally invincible
odds, whether you are asleep or awake. Consider how much vigilance you
have been willing to exert to protect your ego, and how little you have
been willing to expend to protect your higher mind. Who but the insane
would undertake to believe what is not true, and then protect this
belief at the COST of truth?