Doctor of Spirituality / Lesson VII / coursework - Stefan Schulz

Hello Loretta, hello ULC Seminary, please find attached my coursework to lesson no. 7 / The Ladder of Prayer. This lesson was again a very special one for me, as the concept of the Ladder of Prayer helped me to better understand my current state of consciousness and to effectively apply very valuable insights from it to my prayer life. Thank you very much for this wonderful lesson! Your brother in Christ, Stefan

Name:           Stefan Schulz

Date:             June 4, 2024

Course:        Doctor of Spirituality (ACIM) of ULC Seminary

Lesson:        VII – The Ladder of Prayer

 

1.      Explain how the ladder of prayer has affected your understanding of prayer. 

 The ladder of prayer presented in this lesson has affected my understanding of prayer in such a way that for the first time I am able to reflect on my prayer life holistically, i.e. in what underlying spiritual state of consciousness I am really in.

 From this perspective, the ladder of prayer represents a very meaningful concept/benchmark/guide for me to grasp my state of communion with God better and by this, to ask the Holy Spirit to guide and to teach me to pray/to communicate with more substance and awareness.

 In my case, I can say that I got through the period of prayers of need very early after Jesus Christ re-activated my spiritual life and the Holy Spirit began to restore my true self. As I consider the three remaining levels of the prayer ladder (prayers of freedom, of joining, and of humility), my prayer life currently moves in a fluid continuum between these levels. Especially those parts of my prayers that belong to the prayers of freedom show me clearly what unresolved attachments and bondages I still have.

 However, through the conscious consideration of the ladder of prayer, the Holy Spirit has led to the profound understanding that my remaining core or lifetime attachment (which can be characterized as a "struggle for financial independence") is the result of not yet fully resolved traumatic fears, which in turn act as a blockage or shadow for an unclouded communion with God on a higher prayer level.

 

 2.      Write a prayer of need. Change it to a prayer of freedom, then a prayer of joining and finally a prayer of humility. 

Heavenly Father, I pray to you in the name of Jesus Christ, who is my light, truth, way, redeemer, savior, king, priest and brother. Heavenly Father, I turn to you in the Holy Spirit. Heavenly Father, please guide our communication because You know what I really need in my current state of consciousness.

 A prayer of need:

Heavenly Father, I humbly ask that You be with me and support both my plans and my activities and give me the strength to achieve my desired financial independence in the short term. I have worked so hard for this for so many years, so please leave my professional conditions unchanged until at least mid/late 2026, so that from then on I can finally live free of paid work that has been ultimately forced by the ruling socio-economic system onto me. Heavenly Father, please answer my prayer, which I pray to You as Your Son in Jesus Christ and in Your Holy Spirit. Amen.

A prayer of freedom:

Heavenly Father, I humbly ask that You teach me in and by the Holy Spirit how to let go my all my fears and false perceptions which are related to my goal of financial independence, because they both have occupied and directed my thoughts, my emotions, my words and my acts away from You and has created a self-constructed prison for a very long time.

Please help me to understand that it is only my ego, that over time has created this unnatural, self-evolving belief system, which does not make me free, because due to my egoic, worldly programmed aim of financial independence, this manipulated consciousnness has only caused and fueled

• fear that I perhaps will never be able to reach the goal (e.g. due to weakness, illness, lack of perseverance, lack of toughness and discipline towards myself)
•  rejection and hatred towards an economic, educational and social world system that has forced me into these inhumane, materialistic, economic, physical and mental dependencies and bondages
• rejection, harshness, competition, and anger towards people and agents who could jeopardize or undermine the achievement of my goals
• sadness and disappointment that my life on earth has been overshadowed and controlled by this false consciousness for decades and has stolen true community, joy and love from my family, my friends and me
• consumption of life energy and life time for a false goal and the resulting activities and life-affecting decisions (e.g. choice of place of residence only in relation to the workplace, number of children in relation to financial possibilities, consumption and savings decisions that were only made in relation to the overall goal and by ignoring other factors like well-being of the family)
• false feelings of happiness when intermediate goals or situations critical to success have been "successfully" achieved
• guilt and self-hatred and knowing that these feelings and perceptions are wrongly programmed from my childhood on and have been fueled by previous life experiences, and lead me away from the beauty of God's reality which is oneness, love, forgiveness, joy, wisdom and righteousness

  Heavenly Father, please show me Your way to set me free from this self-made, perfect prison of fear, hate, anger, guilt, sadness, rejection and disappointment.
  You have shown me that I can trust You completely.

  You also have shown me the causes and destructive effects of my ego-driven aim. 

  Moreover, You have shown me why my fears have been completely unfounded and what responsibilities I have missed to carry out in this context.

Please, Heavenly Father, give me the strength and confidence to walk this initial path of enlightenment in You and to end all attachments to my imagined, ego-programmed fears and perceptions.

Thank You for enabling me to walk this path to freedom and into your light with You and in You this far. 

Thank You for showing me that my true opponent is not the worldly "system of economic force", but my programmed perceptions, assumptions, experiences, attachments and negative emotions, i.e. the destructive, self-imprisoning consciousness of my ego. 

Thank You for also showing me how this ego-induced, false consciousness prevents me from having full communion and oneness with you and all creation in true love, joy, peace and abundance.

Please guide me to end this destructive and exhausting state of duality and separateness. Please forgive me my wrong life and the damage it has caused to others. Amen in the name of Jesus Christ.

A prayer of joining:

Heavenly Father, I humbly thank You for guiding me in Your Spirit into the full, conscious understanding that it is only my ego-driven goals, perceptions and consciousness that are keeping me from having fully communion with You and all of Your wonderful creation.

Please let me put aside all of my individual interest and please guide me into the understanding that in Your real universe, which You have created eternally, there are no enemies and no worldly system that denies me real freedom, real joy, real love and real peace. Please forgive me this self-separating victim mentality so that nothing stands between You and me, and re-connect me fully into Your spirit with You and Your entire creation in love, joy, wisdom, righteousness and peace.

Please give me Your confidence that I am not a lonely, self-controlled victim anymore, because I am and always have been Your child and son. Thank You for showing me that I alone was the spiritual inventor and architect of my separateness, self-imprisonment, and loneliness and that this ego-driven segregation prevented me from existing in complete harmony with You and Your creation.

Please cleanse me completely from this unnatural state of being and its projection onto others once and for all. Thank you for changing my attitude to financial independence into an attitude of financial peace. Now I am really ready to join and pray with all my brothers and sisters in undivided communion with You.

Please show me how I can sustain and live out these inspiring spiritual insights within You and share it with others. Amen in the name of Jesus Christ and His golden rule which is documented in Matthew 7:12: „So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them".

A prayer of humility:

Heavenly father, I thank you with my entire mind, soul and consciousness for restoring my spiritual oneness with You and my re-joining with all creation in Jesus Christ, this in love, joy, peace and abundance.  Forgive me if I cannot express my thanksgiving in suitable words.

Thank you for Your love and grace that has literally opened my spiritual eyes and cleansed me of everything destructive, negative, denying, and therefore unreal.

Thank you for bringing me the deep understanding that categories like „struggle", „financials" and „independence" and all related causes and effects are truly not of You, but are solely worldly, ego-bound projections and a mirror of my former state of consciousness.

Thank you for guiding me back to my true, eternal place in You and in Your universe and for allowing me to put aside everything that is not of You so that it can no longer control and determine my spiritual existence.

Thank You for restoring to me my true identity in Jesus Christ and for allowing me to be one with You and Your whole creation. From now on, Heavenly Father I humbly ask you to protect me and all my sisters and brothers from everything that is not of You. Please never allow anything that does not come from You to gain power over me again.

Thank you for Your guidance, protection, forgiveness, unity and peace. Amen in the name of Jesus Christ.