"The Father's Love" message and commentary

The Father's Love pp 126

The Father's Love message is shorter than what was printed in the 1982 book, The Gifts of God. The difference is explained in the Absence from Felicity biography. As this message is applied, we approach the top of the ladder of prayer just this side of Heaven. The text below is what Jesus dictated and Helen scribed on 4/11/78:

“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?”

• The tone shifts here. Usually Jesus speaks as the Holy Spirit but the rest of this dictation is as if Helen heard God speak (a similar pedagogic style is used at the end of The Song of Prayer).

“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.”

The last page of The Song of Prayer is as if God said:

“The universe is waiting your release because it is its own. Be kind to it and to yourself, and then be kind to Me. I ask but this; that you be comforted and live no more in terror and in pain. Do not abandon Love. “

• There is no finer way to be kind to God than to join in conscious union.

Here we are encouraged to embrace our Loving nature and allow it to reflect in the illusion. Nestled within The Father's Love message is the mighty force of communion. In the last two paragraphs of The Father's Love, Jesus uses metaphor, as the Father knows us only in truth not in illusion. Speaking “as God” gives greater emphasis.

The last two sentences point to another mighty force, the little fish. Centuries ago Jesus spoke to his disciples about “The Wise Fisherman”, Saying #8 in the Gospel of Thomas. Jesus sometimes spoke in a cloaked way so that a Roman Centurion listening nearby might not report him as a rabble rouser (well at least that worked for awhile):

“A wise fisherman cast his net into the sea.
When he drew it up it was full of little fish.
Among them he discovered a large, fine fish.
He threw all the little fish back into the sea, and he chose the large fish.
Anyone here with two good ears should listen."

This saying is not about Tilapia in the Sea of Galilee. Jesus explains what happens when we are self-aware, observant of the ebb and flow of our thoughts. Every thought is born of love or born of something else e. g. fear, guilt, anger. These something else thoughts are deceptive and will lead us astray, away from peace. When we observe the flow of our thoughts for a while we may see an abundance of thoughts of the "something else" variety .... these are like the little fish. Amidst these will be a true thought, one whose genesis is Love, a gift from the Mind of God ... this is the large, fine fish.

To toss all the little fish back means we only need the God thoughts, we can ignore all the other thoughts, just toss them away. In the last two sentences of The Father's Love message Jesus mentions two large, fine fish:

• “Forget all things except My changeless love.
• Forget all things except that I am here.”

What once was best taught by parable is now more overt. The messages of love are a way our process of forgetting gradually but surely happens. The little fish mighty force is part of that process.

Application: Communion

• Ask Jesus to help you and he be of one mind in the place of holy joining at God's altar to His Son.
• Recall that you and Jesus are part of God’s one Son and all are born of God's changeless love.
• With gratitude, welcome His radiant Love, melt into God's ever presence,  and allow the Love you are to reflect everywhere within and everywhere else.

commentary "Our Gift to God" pp 123

Our Gift to God pp 123 

Our Gift to God explains how we answer the call to teachers of God that Jesus made on page 121 in the previous message, The Ending of the Dream. The Holy Spirit is mentioned twice. If you need clarity about the Holy Spirit's role, see the special thoughts just after Lesson 280. 

The first page of The Song of Prayer says 

“2 1 To you who are in time a little while, prayer takes the form that best will suit your need. 2 You have but one. 3 What God created one must recognize its oneness, and rejoice that what illusions seemed to separate is one forever in the Mind of God. 4 Prayer now must be the means by which God's Son leaves separate goals and separate interests by, and turns in holy gladness to the truth of union in his Father and himself.” 

Our Gift to God is about how we recognize oneness and share ourselves. As this message is groked and often applied, we are rising on the ladder of prayer. 

The first paragraph defines gratitude as 

love expressed in joining 

Gratitude is also central to the prayer (on page 119 in The Gifts of God book) at the end of an earlier message, The Two Gifts, where Jesus prays with us. When we pray with another we can pray with a sense of gratitude. 

Page 7 in The Song of Prayer says 

“ 7 The key to rising further still in prayer lies in this simple thought; this change of mind: 8 We go together, you and I. 2 1 Now it is possible to help in prayer, and so reach up yourself. 2 “ 

Page 124 in Our Gift to God says 

“My brother, there are many calls to you from those who lost their way and need your help in finding it again.” 

On page 14 The Song of Prayer explains about relationships: 

“5 1 What should I do for him, Your holy Son?" should be the only thing you ever ask when help is needed and forgiveness sought. 2 The form the seeking takes you need not judge. 3 And let it not be you who sets the form in which forgiveness comes to save God's Son. 4 The light of Christ in him is his release, and it is this that answers to his call. 5 Forgive him as the Christ decides you should, and be His eyes through which you look on him, and speak for Him as well. 6 He knows the need; the question and the answer. 7 He will say exactly what to do, in words that you can understand and you can also use. 8 Do not confuse His function with your own. 9 He is the Answer. 10 You the one who hears.” 

Our Gift to God teaches us how to pray freely with another, to allow Love to help those who know not how to give. On page 125 we are encouraged to echo the Holy Spirit's saying 

“ … let me give to God your gifts for you Because His altar waits  for them in love, And He is asking  that We place them there.” 

This is the mighty force gratitude. This mighty force can be a way healing intent is fulfilled  (i. e. some of the many calls to you, may present as a sickness) as described on pages 19 and 20 where The Song of Prayer says: 

 “4 1 Is there a role for healing, then, that one can use to offer help for someone else? 2 In arrogance the answer must be "no." 3 But in humility there is indeed a place for helpers. 4 It is like the role that helps in prayer, and lets forgiveness be what it is meant to be. 5 You do not make yourself the bearer of the special gift that brings the healing. 6 You but recognize your oneness with the one who calls for help. 7 For in this oneness is his separate sense dispelled, and it is this that made him sick. 8 There is no point in giving remedy apart from where the source of sickness is, for never thus can it be truly healed. 

5 1 Healers there are, for they are Sons of God who recognize their Source, and understand that all their Source creates is one with them. 2 This is the remedy that brings relief which cannot fail. 3 It will remain to bless for all eternity. 4 It heals no part, but wholly and forever. 5 Now the cause of every malady has been revealed exactly as it is. 6 And in that place is written now the holy Word of God. 7 Sickness and separation must be healed by love and union. 8 Nothing else can heal as God established healing. 9 Without Him there is no healing, for there is no love.” 

Here on page 125, Our Gift to God also echoes Lesson 195 of the Workbook Love is the Way I Walk in Gratitude, a great read which also contains a mighty force. 

Application (gratitude) 

We cannot say how our brother is presented, perhaps 

someone sick or weak or needy or afraid or mourning a seeming loss or  feeling pain or suffering cold or suffering hunger or
walking the way of hatred  or walking the way of death (e. g. a killer). 

This is an example of using the mighty force gratitude. This usage can only be done lovingly. Among your gifts to be placed, even if the only gift, is your feeling of love for your Creator ... which grows as memory of your Oneness strengthens.  

• Ask Jesus to help you, your brother, and He to be of one mind in the place of holy joining at God's altar to His Son, the Christ 
• Remember Oneness, recall that you and your brother and Jesus are part of God's one Son, the Christ 
• Place each of your brother's “gifts” (and yours) on the altar and surrender them to Jesus
• In stillness, with gratitude, and open empty hands, allow you and your brother to receive the gifts of God and Christ. 

Comments on "The Ending of the Dream" pp 119

The Ending of the Dream pp 119

The Song of Prayer says (page 2 paragraph 5):

“Prayer is a stepping aside; a letting go; a quiet time of listening and loving.”

The Ending of the Dream is about listening and loving and supports ascent on the ladder of prayer. Even so, it may not be a rapid ascent, we may focus here for awhile.

As fear diminishes we are more able to grok the truth about dreams, the illusory nature of the shabby world the collective prodigal son made. On page 120 of The Ending of the Dream Jesus alludes to the made world with an an unattractive but honest view:

“No one would hesitate to leave a dream of shock and terror, merciless decay

and sickening contortions, with despair always in sight and death not far behind,

if he believed that it were but a dream.”

We may be tempted to seek gifts within in the illusion (as described in the third paragraph on page 120) only to later see hopes become nightmares. Jesus just spoke of this a few months earlier saying (page 6 in The Song of Prayer):

“6 1 It is not easy to realize that prayers for things, for status, for human love, for external "gifts" of any kind, are always made to set up jailers and to hide from guilt. 2 These things are used for goals that substitute for God, and therefore distort the purpose of prayer. 3 The desire for them is the prayer. One need not ask explicitly. 5 The goal of God is lost in the quest for lesser goals of any kind, and prayer becomes requests for enemies. 6 The power of prayer can be quite clearly recognized even in this. 7 No one who wants an enemy will fail to find one. 8 But just as surely will he lose the only true goal that is given him. 9 Think of the cost, and understand it well. 10 All other goals are at the cost of God.”

About halfway through The Ending of the Dream (page 121), Jesus says:

“Do not be tempted. Do not fall away into the shadows and a deeper sleep ….”.

This reference to temptation is about the self deception of seeing yourself as illusion, as an emotional or physical body. When temptation happens we can choose once again … this is what Jesus taught earlier, at the end of the Text (Section VIII).

When we notice that temptation has happened, we can review the 1st two messages, The Dream of Fear and The Two Gifts and work with them for awhile (these are actually one message, split --- work with them as a pair).

On page 121 of The Ending of the Dream Jesus asks us to rise on the ladder of prayer as teachers of God:

“Salvation needs your help as well as mine. You do not answer for yourself alone. My call to you is that you offer help from all the dreams the holy Son of God imagines ….”

Jesus' call is answered in Love as further explained in the next, Our Gift to God, message.

The Ending of the Dream message includes the mighty force stillness. Jesus explains about our divine nature and encourages us to listen, to hearken to the call of Christ.

“Be still and hear Him, for His call to you could not be more insistent nor more

dear, for it is the call of Love itself, which will not cease to speak of God to you.”

Our listening helps draw us up the ladder of prayer. Around the middle of page 122 Jesus says

“Let the dream of time be given its appointed end,

and let God's Son have mercy on himself.”

Since the messages of love are in part about healing we can notice the contrast with sickness. Pages 16 and 17 in The Song of Prayer contain a thorough consideration of sickness' cause, and says in part:

“... The body can be healed as an effect of true forgiveness. Only that can give remembrance of immortality, which is the gift of holiness and love. Forgiveness must be given by a mind which understands that it must overlook all shadows on the holy face of Christ, among which sickness should be seen as one. Nothing but that; the sign of judgment made by brother upon brother, and the Son of God upon himself. For he has damned his body as his prison, and forgot that it is he who gave this role to it. ...”

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

Application of Stillness

This focus on stillness is reminiscent of Lesson 273 The stillness of the peace of God is mine.

Stillness

• Ask Jesus to to help you and he be of one mind in the place of holy joining at God's altar to His Son, the Christ.
• Remember Oneness, recall that you and Jesus are part of God’s one Son.
• In stillness, listen to the call of the Christ …. the very call to you of Love itself.

We can remain vigilant regarding fear and possibly revisit earlier messages (also, if we experience temptation or resistance). Because the circumstances of fear temptation and resistance are not uncommon, our focus on the first few messages may extend for awhile.