LESSON 154 I am among the ministers of God.

1. 1Let us today be neither arrogant nor falsely humble. 2We have gone beyond such foolishness. 3We cannot judge ourselves, nor need we do so. 4These are but attempts to hold decision off, and to delay commitment to our function. 5It is not our part to judge our worth, nor can we know what role is best for us; what we can do within a larger plan we cannot see in its entirety. 6Our part is cast in Heaven, not in hell. 7And what we think is weakness can be strength; what we believe to be our strength is often arro­gance.

2. 1Whatever your appointed role may be, it was selected by the Voice for God, Whose function is to speak for you as well. 2Seeing your strengths exactly as they are, and equally aware of where they can be best applied, for what, to whom and when, He chooses and accepts your part for you. 3He does not work with­out your own consent. 4But He is not deceived in what you are, and listens only to His Voice in you.

3. 1It is through His ability to hear one Voice which is His Own that you become aware at last there is one Voice in you. 2And that one Voice appoints your function, and relays it to you, giving you the strength to understand it, do what it entails, and to succeed in everything you do that is related to it. 3God has joined His Son in this, and thus His Son becomes His messenger of unity with Him.

4. 1It is this joining, through the Voice for God, of Father and of Son, that sets apart salvation from the world. 2It is this Voice which speaks of laws the world does not obey; which promises salvation from all sin, with guilt abolished in the mind that God created sinless. 3Now this mind becomes aware again of Who created it, and of His lasting union with itself. 4So is its Self the one reality in which its will and that of God are joined.

5. 1A messenger is not the one who writes the message he deliv­ers. 2Nor does he question the right of him who does, nor ask why he has chosen those who will receive the message that he brings. 3It is enough that he accept it, give it to the ones for whom it is intended, and fulfill his role in its delivery. 4If he determines what the messages should be, or what their purpose is, or where they should be carried, he is failing to perform his proper part as bringer of the Word.

6. 1There is one major difference in the role of Heaven’s messengers, which sets them off from those the world appoints. 2The messages that they deliver are intended first for them. 3And it is only as they can accept them for themselves that they become able to bring them further, and to give them everywhere that they were meant to be. 4Like earthly messengers, they did not write the messages they bear, but they become their first receivers in the truest sense, receiving to prepare themselves to give.

7. 1An earthly messenger fulfills his role by giving all his mes­sages away. 2The messengers of God perform their part by their acceptance of His messages as for themselves, and show they understand the messages by giving them away. 3They choose no roles that are not given them by His authority. 4And so they gain by every message that they give away.

8. 1Would you receive the messages of God? 2For thus do you become His messenger. 3You are appointed now. 4And yet you wait to give the messages you have received. 5And so you do not know that they are yours, and do not recognize them. 6No one can receive and understand he has received until he gives. 7For in the giving is his own acceptance of what he received.

9. 1You who are now the messenger of God, receive His messages. 2For that is part of your appointed role. 3God has not failed to offer what you need, nor has it been left unaccepted. 4Yet another part of your appointed task is yet to be accomplished. 5He Who has received for you the messages of God would have them be received by you as well. 6For thus do you identify with Him and claim your own.

10. 1It is this joining that we undertake to recognize today. 2We will not seek to keep our minds apart from Him Who speaks for us, for it is but our voice we hear as we attend Him. 3He alone can speak to us and for us, joining in one Voice the getting and the giving of God’s Word; the giving and receiving of His Will.

11. 1We practice giving Him what He would have, that we may recognize His gifts to us. 2He needs our voice that He may speak through us. 3He needs our hands to hold His messages, and carry them to those whom He appoints. 4He needs our feet to bring us where He wills, that those who wait in misery may be at last delivered. 5And He needs our will united with His Own, that we may be the true receivers of the gifts He gives.

12. 1Let us but learn this lesson for today: We will not recognize what we receive until we give it. 2You have heard this said a hundred ways, a hundred times, and yet belief is lacking still. 3But this is sure; until belief is given it, you will receive a thousand miracles and then receive a thousand more, but will not know that God Himself has left no gift beyond what you already have; nor has denied the tiniest of blessings to His Son. 4What can this mean to you, until you have identified with Him and with His Own?

13. 1Our lesson for today is stated thus:

2I am among the ministers of God, and I am grateful that I have the means by which to recognize that I am free.

14. 1The world recedes as we light up our minds, and realize these holy words are true. 2They are the message sent to us today from our Creator. 3Now we demonstrate how they have changed our minds about ourselves, and what our function is. 4For as we prove that we accept no will we do not share, our many gifts from our Creator will spring to our sight and leap into our hands, and we will recognize what we received.