IV. This Need Not Be

T-4.IV.1. If you cannot hear the Voice for God, it is because you do not choose to listen. 2 That you do listen to the voice of your ego is demonstrated by your attitudes, your feelings and your behavior. 3 Yet this is what you want. 4 This is what you are fighting to keep, and what you are vigilant to save. 5 Your mind is filled with schemes to save the face of your ego, and you do not seek the face of Christ. 6 The glass in which the ego seeks to see its face is dark indeed. 7 How can it maintain the trick of its existence except with mirrors? 8 But where you look to find yourself is up to you.

T-4.IV.2. I have said that you cannot change your mind by changing your behavior, but I have also said, and many times, that you can change your mind. 2 When your mood tells you that you have chosen wrongly, and this is so whenever you are not joyous, then know this need not be . 3 In every case you have thought wrongly about some brother God created, and are perceiving images your ego makes in a darkened glass. 4 Think honestly what you have thought that God would not have thought, and what you have not thought that God would have you think. 5 Search sincerely for what you have done and left undone accordingly, and then change your mind to think with God's. 6 This may seem hard to do, but it is much easier than trying to think against it. 7 Your mind is one with God's. 8 Denying this and thinking otherwise has held your ego together, but has literally split your mind. 9 As a loving brother I am deeply concerned with your mind, and urge you to follow my example as you look at yourself and at your brother, and see in both the glorious creations of a glorious Father.

T-4.IV.3. When you are sad, know this need not be . 2 Depression comes from a sense of being deprived of something you want and do not have. 3 Remember that you are deprived of nothing except by your own decisions, and then decide otherwise.

T-4.IV.4. When you are anxious, realize that anxiety comes from the capriciousness of the ego, and know this need not be . 2 You can be as vigilant against the ego's dictates as for them.

T-4.IV.5. When you feel guilty, remember that the ego has indeed violated the laws of God, but you have not. 2 Leave the "sins" of the ego to me. 3 That is what Atonement is for. 4 But until you change your mind about those whom your ego has hurt, the Atonement cannot release you. 5 While you feel guilty your ego is in command, because only the ego can experience guilt. 6 This need not be .

T-4.IV.6. Watch your mind for the temptations of the ego, and do not be deceived by it. 2 It offers you nothing. 3 When you have given up this voluntary dis-spiriting, you will see how your mind can focus and rise above fatigue and heal. 4 Yet you are not sufficiently vigilant against the demands of the ego to disengage yourself. 5 This need not be .

T-4.IV.7. The habit of engaging with God and His creations is easily made if you actively refuse to let your mind slip away. 2 The problem is not one of concentration; it is the belief that no one, including yourself, is worth consistent effort. 3 Side with me consistently against this deception, and do not permit this shabby belief to pull you back. 4 The disheartened are useless to themselves and to me, but only the ego can be disheartened.

T-4.IV.8. Have you really considered how many opportunities you have had to gladden yourself, and how many of them you have refused? 2 There is no limit to the power of a Son of God, but he can limit the expression of his power as much as he chooses. 3 Your mind and mine can unite in shining your ego away, releasing the strength of God into everything you think and do. 4 Do not settle for anything less than this, and refuse to accept anything but this as your goal. 5 Watch your mind carefully for any beliefs that hinder its accomplishment, and step away from them. 6 Judge how well you have done this by your own feelings, for this is the one right use of judgment. 7 Judgment, like any other defense, can be used to attack or protect; to hurt or to heal. 8 The ego should be brought to judgment and found wanting there. 9 Without your own allegiance, protection and love, the ego cannot exist. 10 Let it be judged truly and you must withdraw allegiance, protection and love from it.

T-4.IV.9. You are a mirror of truth, in which God Himself shines in perfect light. 2 To the ego's dark glass you need but say, "I will not look there because I know these images are not true." 3 Then let the Holy One shine on you in peace, knowing that this and only this must be. 4 His Mind shone on you in your creation and brought your mind into being. 5 His Mind still shines on you and must shine through you. 6 Your ego cannot prevent Him from shining on you, but it can prevent you from letting Him shine through you.

T-4.IV.10. The First Coming of Christ is merely another name for the creation, for Christ is the Son of God. 2 The Second Coming of Christ means nothing more than the end of the ego's rule and the healing of the mind. 3 I was created like you in the First, and I have called you to join with me in the Second. 4 I am in charge of the Second Coming, and my judgment, which is used only for protection, cannot be wrong because it never attacks. 5 Yours may be so distorted that you believe I was mistaken in choosing you. 6 I assure you this is a mistake of your ego. 7 Do not mistake it for humility. 8 Your ego is trying to convince you that it is real and I am not, because if I am real, I am no more real than you are. 9 That knowledge, and I assure you that it is knowledge, means that Christ has come into your mind and healed it.

T-4.IV.11. I do not attack your ego. 2 I do work with your higher mind, the home of the Holy Spirit, whether you are asleep or awake, just as your ego does with your lower mind, which is its home. 3 I am your vigilance in this, because you are too confused to recognize your own hope. 4 I am not mistaken. 5 Your mind will elect to join with mine, and together we are invincible. 6 You and your brother will yet come together in my name, and your sanity will be restored. 7 I raised the dead by knowing that life is an eternal attribute of everything that the living God created. 8 Why do you believe it is harder for me to inspire the dis-spirited or to stabilize the unstable? 9 I do not believe that there is an order of difficulty in miracles; you do. 10 I have called and you will answer. 11 I understand that miracles are natural, because they are expressions of love. 12 My calling you is as natural as your answer, and as inevitable.