You no more recognize what is painful than you know what is joyful, and
are, in fact, very apt to confuse the two. The Holy Spirit’s main
function is to teach you TO TELL THEM APART. However strange it may seem
that this is necessary, it obviously IS. The reason is equally
obvious. What is joyful to you IS painful to the ego, and as long as you
are in doubt about what YOU are, you will be confused about joy and
pain. This confusion is the cause of the whole idea of sacrifice. Obey
the Holy Spirit and you WILL be giving up the ego. But you will be
sacrificing NOTHING. On the contrary, you will be gaining EVERYTHING. If
you believed this, there would BE no conflict.

That is why you need to DEMONSTRATE the obvious to yourselves. It is NOT
obvious to you. You believe that doing the
OPPOSITE of God’s Will can be better for you. You also believe that it is
possible to DO the opposite of God’s WILL. Therefore, you believe that
an impossible choice is open to you, and one which is both very fearful
AND very desirable. Yet God WILLS. He does NOT wish. YOUR will is as
powerful as His because it IS His. The ego’s wishes do not mean
anything, because the ego wishes for the impossible. You can WISH for the
impossible, but you can WILL only with God. This is the ego’s weakness,
and YOUR strength.

The Holy Spirit ALWAYS sides with you and with your strength. As long as
you avoid His guidance in any way, you WANT to be weak. Yet weakness IS
frightening. What else, then, can this decision mean except that you
WANT to be fearful? The Holy Spirit NEVER asks for sacrifice, but the
ego ALWAYS does. When you are confused about this VERY clear distinction
in motivation, it can ONLY be due to projection. Projection of this kind
IS a confusion in motivation, and GIVEN this confusion, trust becomes
impossible.

No-one obeys gladly a guide he does not trust, but this does not mean
that the GUIDE is untrustworthy. In this case, it ALWAYS means that the
FOLLOWER is. However, this, too, is merely a matter of his own belief.
Believing that HE can betray, he believes that everything can betray
HIM. Yet this is only because he has ELECTED TO FOLLOW FALSE GUIDANCE.
Unable to follow this guidance WITHOUT fear, he associates fear WITH
guidance, and refuses to follow ANY guidance at all. The Holy Spirit is
perfectly trustworthy, as YOU are. God Himself trusts you, and therefore
your trustworthiness IS beyond question. It will always remain beyond
question, however much YOU may question it.

We said before that you ARE the Will of God. His Will is not an idle
wish, and your identification WITH His Will is not optional since it IS
what you are. Sharing His Will with me is not really open to choice,
though it may seem to be. The whole separation lies in this fallacy. The
only way OUT of the fallacy is to decide that you do not have to decide
ANYTHING. Everything has been given you by God’s decision. That IS His
Will, and you can NOT undo it. Even the relinquishment of your false
decision-making prerogative, which the ego guards so jealously, is not
accomplished by your wish. It was accomplished FOR you by the Will of
God, Who has not left you
comfortless. His Voice WILL teach you how to distinguish between pain
and joy, and WILL lead you out of the confusion which you have made.
There IS no confusion in the mind of a Son of God, whose will MUST be
the Will of the Father because the Father’s Will IS His Son.

Miracles are IN ACCORD with the Will of God, Whose Will you do not know,
because you are confused about what YOU will. This means that you are
confused about what you are. If you ARE God’s Will and do not ACCEPT His
WILL, you are denying joy. The miracle is therefore a lesson in WHAT JOY
IS. Being a lesson in sharing, it is a lesson in love, which IS joy.
Every miracle is thus a lesson in truth, and by offering truth you are
learning the difference between pain and joy.