finding the ladder of prayer

Sometimes we feel/seem lost as if in an abyss and need to find a way out. Jesus obliges. This commentary is about the first message of love, "The Gift of Fear". 
Living this message is the 1st crucial step in the journey from only fear to always all ways love. See

https://goo.gl/JH1HmK

Jesus' last message to Helen, unadulterated

Jesus' last message of love was scribed by Helen on 4/11/78.
In 1982 the publisher printed (in a book of her poems) an embedded special message (scribed on 1/14/78) 
in the middle of the message that was later scribed on 4/11/78 
thus obscuring the special message and distorting Jesus' last message. Hence, the printed poem named "The Fathers Love" is structured this way:

some of the 4/11/78 message, the 1/14/78 message, the rest of the 4/11/78 message

So, the middle of Jesus' last printed  message contains the earlier request for all five messages of love. 

• To benefit from Jesus' messages, it helps to read them in the sequence he gave them. 

If intermingling messages was a good idea, Jesus would have given them to Helen in an intermingled way, but he did not.
Here is Jesus' last scribed message, given to Helen (and us) on 4/11/78, it's about the love that lifts you up the ladder of prayer, and a call for communion with your creator:
“There is a secret place in everyone in which God's gifts are laid, and his to Him. It is not secret to the eyes of Christ Who sees it plainly and unceasingly. Yet it is hidden to the body's eyes, and to those still invested in the world and caring for the petty gifts it gives, esteeming them and thinking they are real. Illusions' gifts will hide the secret place where God is clear as day, and Christ with Him. O let this not be secret to the world so full of sorrow so wracked with pain. You could relieve its grief and pain, and let the peace of God envelop it as does a mother rock a tired child until it sighs and slips away to rest.

Rest could be yours because of what God is. He loves you as a mother loves her child; her only one, the only love she has, her all-in-all, extension of herself, as much a part of her as breath herself. He loves you as a brother loves his own; born of one father, still as one in him, and bonded with a seal that cannot break. He loves you as a lover loves his own; his chosen one, his joy, his very life, the one he seeks when she has gone away, and brings him peace again on her return. He loves you as a father loves his son, without whom would his self be incomplete, whose immortality completes his own, for in him is the chain of love complete- a golden circle that will never end, a song that will be sung throughout all time and after-wards, and always will remain the deathless sound of loving and of love.

O be at peace, beloved of the Lord! What is your life but gratitude to Him Who loves you with an everlasting Love? What is your purpose here but to recall into His loving Arms the Son He loves, who has forgotten Who his Father is? What is your only goal, your only hope, your only need, the only thing you want, but to allow the secret place of peace to burst upon the world in all its joy, and let the Voice within it speak of Him whose love shines out and in and in-between, through all the darkened places, to embrace all living things within its golden peace?

You are my Son, and I do not forget the secret place in which I still abide, knowing you will remember. Come, My Son, open your heart and let me shine on you, and on the world through you. You are My light and dwelling place. You speak for me to those who have forgotten. Call them now to Me My Son, remember now for all the world. I call in love, as you will answer me, for this the only language that we know. Remember love, so near you cannot fail to touch its heart because it beats in you.

Do not forget. Do not forget, My child. Open the door before the hidden place, and let me blaze upon a world made glad in sudden ecstasy. I come, I come. Behold Me. I am here for I am You; in Christ, for Christ, My Own beloved Son, the glory of the infinite, the joy of Heaven and the holy peace of earth, returned to Christ and from His hand to Me. Say now Amen, My Son, for it is done. The secret place is now open at last.

Forget all things except My changeless love.

Forget all things except that I am here.”

Where can the messages of love be found?

Beginning on 2/8/78, a few months after scribing The Song of Prayer, Helen Schucman, Ph.D. scribed five messages of love.

 

These messages of love apply what had been given earlier because

God's Son can yet be more merciful on himself.

I remain grateful for the Love that inspires those messages and the collaboration that brings them to our attention.

The Gifts of God Poem

How five messages of love were published as a poem entitled The Gifts of God is described in the Absence from Felicity biography of Helen, especially Chapters 14 and 15.

• The messages of love are published as
  “a long blank verse poem in five sections printed in prose form”. (say what?)
• Section five of the long blank verse poem is not as scribed (this will be explained in a different post).

The messages of love are at the end of Helen's book of poems, on pages 115-128. The book of poems is also entitled The Gifts of God. How confusing. The message scribing dates, poem sections, and pages in the poetry book are

2/8/78 The Dream of Fear pp 115

2/9/78 The Two Gifts pp 118

2/11/78 The Ending of the Dream pp 119

early 3/78 Our Gift to God pp 123

4/11/78 The Father's Love pp 127

These messages of love are an application of The Song of Prayer addressed to (Helen 1st) everyday people. It is helpful (but not necessary) to be familiar with The Song of Prayer booklet before trying to grok the messages of love. The messages of love lie along the ladder of prayer in this way

upper rungs Our Gift to God and The Father's Love

rising on the ladder of prayer The Ending of the Dream

lower rungs The Dream of Fear and The Two Gifts

The messages of love differ in form from ACIM, for example the word ego and the word miracle do not appear in the messages, nor do they appear in The Song of Prayer as scribed. These messages help us live the song of prayer, they strengthen our faith and holds us up as we “ascend the shining stairway to the lawns of Heaven and the gate of peace”.

Almost every reader is dying, it's the often slow process on earth called life. These messages of love are a specific help for

the dying, the sick, the sad, the lonely, the grieving, those racked with pain,
each frightened voice that calls to God in whispered agony.

The same set of messages is germane to both circumstances (dying and sick) because, as explained in the section The Picture of Crucifixion (Text Chapter 27):

Sickness is but a “little” death; a form of vengeance not yet total.

Since sickness is a defense against the truth, we see in these messages, how Jesus presents truth in a simple gradual effective and persistent manner, to benefit all, especially those who call in sorrow.

a helping hand extends

On 1//14/78 Jesus overtly began hospice care for Helen in what was described as a special message. There, Jesus says “messages of love” are needed, and they begin arriving on 2/8/78. The training provided here is for the everyday person (no mention of terms that enriched her prior scribings, ... miracles, ego, psychology) and Helen.

• These messages of love help you be kind to yourself and are addressed to all those who call to God in sorrow - specifically, any of:  the dying, the sick, the sad, the lonely, the grieving, those racked with pain, each frightened voice that calls to God in whispered agony.

Here is what Helen scribed on 1/14. A few related posts (explanatory) may follow.

web page not renewed after 11/5/15

The web page, 

http://godsmessagesoflove.org/Home_Page.html

is commentary on part of  "The Gifts of God" book and will disappear on 11/5/15, along with all its online linked content.

These few/brief messages from J guide you to and up the ladder of prayer, a rare explanation of ACIM in the language of everyday (the word ego is not used).

• If you want any of the web based information you can copy or download in the interim.

The Two Gifts and Lesson 323 I gladly make the “sacrifice” of fear

Lesson 323

I gladly make the “sacrifice” of fear

The Two Gifts (a poem at the end of The Gifts of God book) is a way to explain and accomplish Lesson 323 and it  enables the assist The Song of Prayer mentions on page 16:

“Prayer has both aids and witnesses which make the steep ascent more gentle and

more sure, easing the pain of fear and offering the comfort and the promises of hope.”

The Two Gifts message helps us be kind to ourselves. Our vigilance and seeing allows for an exchange of gifts, our deliverance from fear. The Song of Prayer clarifies the role that Jesus can fulfill (page 2) as he “stands beside us”:

“... Help in prayer does not mean that another mediates between you and God. But it does mean that another stands beside you and helps to raise you up to Him. … ”

• You can think of the ladder of prayer as a kind of bridge over troubled waters …

in one fell swoop Jesus lifts you above the chaos and confusion that so oft mucks up life, and sets you firmly on your sacred way, home.

The exchange of gifts takes place with Jesus' help, within our mind at God's altar to His son. On page 118 of The Two Gifts Jesus again offers help:

“Open your hands, and give all things to me that you have held against your

holiness and kept as slander on the son of God. …. And these (gifts of God)

I give to you to take the place of those you give to me in mercy on yourself.”

Jesus encourages us,

“ Practice with every one (i.e. every gift) you recognize as what it is.”

The mention of practice alludes to the mighty force of exchange.

The Two Gifts message ends with a prayer of gratitude (last two paragraphs page 119). Gratitude is defined in the Our Gift to God message as

“... love expressed in joining; the necessary precondition

for extension and the prerequisite for peace.”

Application of Exchange

Anxiety, any fear. I used it to replace a confusing night dream and felt more peaceful after doing so. 

This is an example of using the mighty force exchange:

I'm afraid to fly, I hate it

• Ask Jesus to help you and he be of one mind, in prayer, at God's altar to His son.

• Being grateful for inspired assistance, recall any (or every) flying experience.
• Look without judgment at each experience with Jesus, and place each one in his hands on the altar
• With gratitude and open empty hands, receive in exchange the gifts of God and Christ.

genesis and use of mighty forces

God's messages of love embrace the Holy Spirit's mighty forces. Jesus first mentions mighty forces in the Text. 

In a 1967 “pep talk” for Helen and Bill Jesus says (Text Chap 16, paragraph 9):

“This is the year for the application of the ideas that have been given you.
For the ideas are mighty forces, to be used and not held idly by.”

The Text is quite rich in mighty forces and I gave up counting after seeing at least 15 of them in the first half of the text. They oft reappear as workbook lessons.

These messages of love are also rich in mighty forces, and we are yet encouraged to use them. I have described several, and your reading of the messages may reveal others. Please do share.