To be honest, it took me quite some time to finish Cindy Lora-Renard’s latest book, Heaven is Now.

I have been quite busy with life. My responsibilities also grew at work. I never seem to be able to find enough time for myself.

And the irony is that I often turn to the Course only when I am troubled. It is when I am losing my peace or having trouble falling asleep, that I remember to listen to Gary and Cindy’s online classes, or read an unfinished book on the Course.

In my earlier post, I mentioned it was reading Cindy’s latest book that I remembered to ask for the Holy Spirit’s help in healing my illness after several weeks of struggling with recovery. I wish I have done so earlier.

The ego is a master at distracting us with our body and the world.

As I have mentioned before, Cindy is Gary’s equal as an advanced teacher of God. Kenneth Wapnick is widely acknowledged as the best teacher of A Course in Miracles. But Cindy Lora- and Gary Renard are probably not far behind.

I can attest to this because I have been listening to their fortnightly online classes for about two years now. I have also read all of their excellent books including the previous two books by Cindy, A Course in Health and Well-Being and The Business of Forgiveness: Healing Yourself Through the Practice of A Course in Miracles.

Cindy clearly knows her stuff. What makes her an even better teacher is the fact that she is very willing to bare her soul and shares her own struggles.

A significant part of the book is about how she coped with a series of body issues. In the past two years, she had hit her head pretty bad resulting in dizziness for a long time. She also lost her voice for months after a cold.

Unlike some spiritual teachers who attempts to write or teach in an authoritative tone and make themselves appear infallible, Cindy would be the first to remind you that we are all the same and that she has her own shares of fear and anxiety.

Cindy teaches by using her own personal examples. She shows the way and demonstrates the principles of the Course by living it. She reminds us that everything that has happened can be a forgiveness lesson used by the Holy Spirit.

After all, the Course is all about the cause, and not effect. The cause is what we think and perceive with our mind and the effect is what we appear to be experiencing as bodies in this world.

To help the reader, Cindy has filled the book with examples of thought processes that she has used herself on how to forgive the illusions, heal our perceptions and change our mind about how we look at things.

It is often said that the Holy Spirit will try to help us in many different ways and sometimes the guidance can come in the form of something we read. Here’s an excerpt from the book which is something I really need to be reminded about:

The worldly jobs are really our cover jobs. As a reminder, our real job is to forgive. I had been through many different types of jobs before I realized I wanted to write and teach the Course. When I look back, I realize that I needed those jobs for a reason. Everything was preparing me for what was to come. Many of you are also in this situation. Please don’t be discouraged if you are working in an environment you don’t like. As long as you are there, you can still use it to allow the Holy Spirit to inspire you by shifting the purpose regarding what the job is for. You don’t know what’s right around the corner that might be coming your way. You will be guided if you stay on a right-minded track.

I will end this quick review by sharing another quote from the book which aptly summed up the book:

Heaven is now by choosing it, and then becoming the living demonstration of it; a manifestation of the Christ.

A Passerby

Review of Heaven is Now by Cindy Lora-Renard