Strength

Strength is "the state, property, or quality of being strong; the power to resist attack, strain or stress, durability, the ability to maintain a moral or intellectual position firmly, the capacity or potential for effective action."

Physical strength or lack of it is not the problem, but your lack of burning desire is. In addition to being physically powerful, strong means "having force of character, will, morality, or intelligence, capable of the effective exercise of authority, not easily upset; resistant to harmful or unpleasant influences, persuasive, effective, and cogent, forthright and explicit; intense in degree or quality.

Spiritual strength is different from physical strength, yet you built much the same way, by exercising discipline over self to build soul. The degree of active spiritual vitality determines the strength of your body and affairs.

Strength is an abstract principle, rooted in the Logos emanation of Power, lowered one grade in its rate of vibration; the Logos becomes Power when the Godhead exerts it, and relative power as energy or strength when you express it. Strength is also a soul virtue and a mental faculty.







Edna Lister on Strength

Wisdom and strength belong to the brave heart.—Edna Lister, The Lord’s Prayer, September 26, 1934.


The degree of active vitality from Spirit determines the strength of your body and affairs.—Edna Lister, The Fountain of Youth, December 19, 1934.


Love’s strength lies in its self-sustaining ability.—Edna Lister, Unquenchable Love, Christmas, 1936.


You must be resurrected from all weakness into all strength.—Edna Lister, March 12, 1938.


God uses lights [Hebrew urim] to test your strength and your weaknesses, to select your strengthening earth-lessons, all to make you perfect, according to the depth of your desires.—Edna Lister, August 25, 1938.


Full devotion to God and the Master increases your strength.—Edna Lister, September 6, 1938.


Sometimes you must retreat to increase your bodily strength to meet your soul strength.—Edna Lister, November 11, 1938.


You must be ready to give up all weakness for all strength.—Edna Lister, January 2, 1939.


You can draw strength from no one on earth, only from the One God.—Edna Lister, January 13, 1939.


Cease struggling and striving toward something you already are and have. To strengthen yourself, you need only to work, rest and relax.—Edna Lister, March 24, 1939.


God tests your ascending soul for dry rot, soft spots in structure and all manners of weakness, that you can bear all strains put upon you, in strength and in endurance.—Edna Lister, March 24, 1939.


The law is life going forth as strength of mind, strength of heart, strength of body, strength of affairs.—Edna Lister, September 1, 1939.


When you surrender to all the Power, God gives you great strength to stand firmly and steadfastly under the Light.—Edna Lister, November 26, 1939.


When you face delay in peace, fully content that law is now acting, whether you can see it or not, it creates strength great enough to stand throughout the ages.—Edna Lister, December 11, 1939.


Grow in strength of instant surrender in which is no taint of willfulness, rebellion or resentment.—Edna Lister, December 11, 1939.


Reconcile yourself to strength first, then you can sacrifice all weakness easily.—Edna Lister, January 28, 1941.


Keep your knees bowed, ever acknowledging God as the Source of each moment’s strength.—Edna Lister, April 29, 1941.


At certain points of initiation, you may see others’ falsities and surely will see your own to make certain that you strengthen yourself. Depend only on God, not on others or the self.—Edna Lister, May 6, 1941.


Honor is the Source of your strength.—Edna Lister, May 23, 1941.


Choose to be raised high enough for all strength and wisdom to move through you.—Edna Lister, July 20, 1941.


In quiet and confidence shall be the fullness of your strength.—Edna Lister, July 23, 1941.


To let the Father’s strength flow through to bring the universal Right to pass, you must have the courage to dare to stand for that chosen Right, the love to lift all toward that Right, and the selflessness to be used for that universal Right.—Edna Lister, August 20, 1941.


To pass higher, you must undergo testing for hidden weaknesses, as if you were a cable being adapted to a heavier load. Every added strain pulls upon each hidden strand of which it is woven. The testing must proceed very slowly, so that if one strand shows weakness, you may strengthen it without harming the whole.—Edna Lister, September 23, 1941.


Dreading a task misuses energy as procrastination. Getting to it uses the energy generated when the idea was born, and leaves the body with a surplus. This is the secret of abounding strength to do as you like.—Edna Lister, Life in a Nutshell, "Peak Performance," 1942.


"I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing."—John 15:5. Vine branches must grow and pruned back to the parent stem for many years so that both the vine stem and the branches become strong enough to bear the great burden of fruit, for fruit is a burden that vine and branch must nourish. Therefore, after much pruning and growing, strength comes and finally the branch is ready to bear the so great responsibility of the greatness of its fruit.—Edna Lister, February 5, 1942.


You must cross the burning sands of the desert step by step, alone. To do so, you must gain in hearing, vision, strength unalloyed by weakness of the self, and love, which is pure and undefiled.—Edna Lister, April 24, 1942.


Your ability can always equal your desires, and you can always draw upon unknown strength to do things, when your desire is flaming.—Edna Lister, July 15, 1942.


Trials come to make you strong. If you say, "I am weak and cannot handle this or do that," then so it will be. Yet if you say, "I am strong in God’s strength to do all tasks before me to do," then this will be your strength. Choose, then use; choose, then stand on that choice.—Edna Lister, September 23, 1942.


Only the foolish would want the way smoothed before them until they gained no strength, although living long on earth. You build no strength without conquering of self, and cannot conquer self except through struggle, hurts, pain and sorrow.—Edna Lister, September 22, 1944.


Initiations do no good if someone else writes your final paper for you. Strength comes from misusing law and learning how not to do it.—Edna Lister, October 27, 1944.


A weak desire will bring weak results — you must have strength. A strong desire means a strongly entrenched soul in a strongly ascended body, ready to stand and endure all things, asking nothing for the self.—Edna Lister, November 13, 1944.


You lose joy and strength only when you let subconscious mind betray you into looking backward and downward.—Edna Lister, December 2, 1944.


The full knowledge of law will strengthen you for any future outer work.—Edna Lister, December 2, 1944.


Your weakness rises to slap you down, until you make it your greatest strength.—Edna Lister, December 15, 1944.


If you strive toward full surrender of all self, your strength will be greatly increased into ability to know instantly what to do and how to accomplish it.—Edna Lister, December 15, 1944.


Watch hourly for the least forgetfulness or failure to be the law that you have been given. For in this way, your greatest strength is born of your greatest weakness.—Edna Lister, June 25, 1945.


Each time you fail, you still build more strength to win the next battle.—Edna Lister, July 10, 1945.


Declare that whatever food you eat gives you strength for all your needs. Do not overeat. Be wise and never overdo.—Edna Lister, July 15, 1945.


Your weakness shall become your greatest strength when conquered. That greatest inhibition or hidden taint becomes your crowning glory of strength.—Edna Lister, July 22, 1945.


Your smallest weakness is stronger than your greatest strength, for your smallest hidden weakness sends you to the bottom, while your greatest strength gains you only one step at a time.—Edna Lister, July 25, 1945.


The Master’s Path is steps and only by climbing one step at a time, while building the next step and gaining the strength to stand on and defend that new step, can you become a Master in law.—Edna Lister, August 1, 1945.


When you face the Light, it shines on you until your weakness is lifted into God’s strength.—Edna Lister, August 20, 1945.


There is no small thing; law tests you in what you think are the small things. Thus, you build the strength to overcome all the large things.—Edna Lister, September 20, 1945.


The Lights are on you to aid you in strength. Hard work and long hours will not hurt you — only self, pulling against the soul’s advance, can damage or weaken.—Edna Lister, December 2, 1945.


Go to the Father at night and ask Him to let Power and His strength move through you so that you may fulfill your vows.—Edna Lister, April 4, 1946.


You express true strength as gentleness.—Edna Lister, October 15, 1946.


After the first marriage of the Lamb — personal will and desire wed to divine Wisdom and Love — the Oversoul descends, finally taking possession of the seat of the higher creative center, the pineal and pituitary glands, and rules the body. When the Oversoul remains in the body, only health, strength, and radiance abound. Spirit is beautiful within and without, and the individual becomes a Christed One. Self causes Oversoul to depart.—Edna Lister, December 9, 1946.


In confidence and in quiet, you shall find strength. Stop passing it by; become.—Edna Lister, December 18, 1946.


As you seek 1,000 days of perfection through burnt offerings of self, you accumulate strength and credits.—Edna Lister, May 19, 1947.


There is no question of your ability, of your strength to reach into the Light. It is a question of reaching high enough to make contact. Plug in your lines of Light completely for results, no partway connection will work.—Edna Lister, October 12, 1947.


Strength comes from advancing steadfastly in the Light, in the footprints you find before you.—Edna Lister, March 30, 1952.


Strength consists in stripping away your self to give.—Edna Lister, Look Up and Be Alive, October 11, 1953.


The perfect mantra of the conquering soul is "I am. I can. I do all things through Christ which strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13). When you totally surrender to this gift of strength, you will forget all silly notions of weakness or lack, knowing that "God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."—Philippians 4:19.—Edna Lister, What Is Your Gift? June 12, 1955.


When your faith is strong, you are up in consciousness. When your faith is weak, you are down. You can be no stronger than your greatest weakness. Yet conquering makes your greatest strength from the weakest of your weaknesses.—Edna Lister, One Life in Christ, June 26, 1955.


You build character on strength that dares to exceed itself each time life calls on it to do something unusual.—Edna Lister, Daring to Do, April 22, 1956.


Build strength in one small effort after another until you achieve greatly.—Edna Lister, Truth, Your Plan, October 21, 1956.


The strong ones descend to be born on earth through great tribulation, so that they may be strengthened for their mission.—Edna Lister, November 12, 1956.


Clean up the self and repent as you climb every minute, every hour, every day. Seek the kingdom of heaven always as a heavenly habit. Unless you do it all the time, you will not have enough strength to climb to the heights when you need to do so.—Edna Lister, September 30, 1957.


"Whom the Lord loves, He chastens."—Hebrews 12:6. God chastens you to crack your shell and to strengthen the weakest link in your chain of love for Him. The weakest link in your love of God is the strongest link in your self-love.—Edna Lister, September 30, 1957.


The Spirit of the Christ will hold you up, will be your strength and your rejoicing and the joy in your heart. It shall uphold and uplift all whom you love and make you more than equal to any task set before you.—Edna Lister, December 16, 1957.


When you cut the principle of joy below the minimum quantity, your life runs low because the amount of active joy in your life determines how much strength you enjoy. When you reach the maximum quantity of joy and reach up for more, strength brims over because your life vibration increases to a full capacity of Power.—Edna Lister, I AM Joy, 1958.


There is great strength in humility.—Edna Lister, November 24, 1958.


"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."—Deuteronomy 6:5. You must serve and love God with your whole heart. The strength of your body equals the amount of heart behind your prayers. If your heart is not consecrated, you cannot draw on the Christ consciousness.—Edna Lister, Love Unquenchable, December 7, 1958.


You are strong and have always had strength. To beg for more strength is but telling God that He must be responsible for what happens in your life while you enjoy self awhile longer.—Edna Lister, February 23, 1959.


True meekness is the strength to stand unwavering under all conditions as an instrument of God’s love.—Edna Lister, March 3, 1959.


"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance.—Galatians 5:22." Longsuffering is really endurance in strength.—Edna Lister, Idealization, May 10, 1959.


You will always find or encounter tempters along the path to strengthen and to prove you worthy and well qualified for greater revelations.—Edna Lister, May 15, 1959.


Strength comes with ascension, finding and holding your new relationship with God and man, agreeing and adjusting in harmony with the River of Life. When you tune in on universal strength, illness walks away.—Edna Lister, Eight Great Powers of Being, June 23, 1959.


Strength is composed of morality and intelligence, patience and perseverance, faithfulness and courage, method and insight, ingenuity and energy.—Edna Lister, What Is Symbolism, October 6, 1959.


Strength and victory come through lending yourself to be used by God.—Edna Lister, October 29, 1959.


Reaching upward and breathing atomic power for the body gives you ample strength physically.—Edna Lister, November 20, 1959.


You can complete a complicated task well, but often you need reviews or repeats so your perfect performance becomes second nature. The law is, "Stretch the self in every task, for it becomes your new strength."—Edna Lister, January 28, 1960.


The Father must place the burdens of the world on those whose shoulders are broad enough, for only those who are strong can carry the load or bear the gift upward back to the altar. Great is the reward thereof.—Edna Lister, May 6, 1960.


Strength is a powerful vibration, and you cannot get it from meditating on peace.—Edna Lister, When Prayer Is at Work, June 4, 1961.


The limitless Power of God from above is the only strength you really have.—Edna Lister, The Word: Your Magic Wand, April 12, 1964.


When you assume responsibility in joy, you invoke almighty strength.—Edna Lister, Responsibility and Respect, October 18, 1964.


The way to get spiritual seeing and hearing is to become the strongest one in the family, with not one thought of self. Secondly, follow the straight and narrow path of the Master, on which there is no room for self. When you slip, you must climb back. You must learn the lesson, or it returns repeatedly.—Edna Lister, January 27, 1965.


Nothing is hidden to Light, and the most fleeting thoughts, emotions and vague pictures in imagination may push you back, sometimes many steps. There is only one Path up for each, your own ladder of Light; each must take it alone, and must reclaim it if let go, repeatedly until you complete your conquering. You build strength from each holding. Weakness fades finally in the glory of full knowing and complete surrender. The full miracle cannot be accomplished until you purify every cell of the consciousness of self. The glory is yours to accept and the Power is yours to express as you will. When it reaches that finely-honed edge of consciousness, then the miracle shall be in your hands.—Edna Lister, March 21, 1965.


Life is your school of experience and your research laboratory where you test for strength and weakness to stand fearlessly. When a blow comes, you choose to be a weakling or a conqueror.—Edna Lister, Eternity Is Now Mine, May 9, 1965.


Your love invokes the irresistible Power of the universal law of nonresistance, and it moves through you, bursts through your body-sheath as strength and health.—Edna Lister, What Is Nonresistance? May 23, 1965.


Darkness will always strike at points of weakness. Weakness must be shattered and scattered and the place of its being shall turn to Light.—Edna Lister, June 21, 1965.


Be busy and serve to strengthen the next generation. Lift them on a cloud continent of Light and recognize that learning from living is good for them. They need to learn what love is, and that love is what suffers. Empathy combines imagination and the love of God into a complete understanding of others’ experiences, true compassion. Tell them you do comprehend what lies beyond this point, and that glory fills the future. Be compassionate, but not "touched" emotionally. Be not sentimental, or you’re a weak jackass. Declare them healed and strong. Hold others in your arms "out there" and love them. Hold them up on a cloud, not inside your aura, which is the difference between love and sentiment. Compassion says, "I would that I could lift you out of this."—Edna Lister, July 31, 1965.


Strength is on the vibration of tone. The A chord is the chord of beauty as strength. When you move into the Light, your arrival strikes an A chord of beauty on which you automatically move when you reach for the Light. Strength is beauty, but you need to register "A" on a rejoicing, praising vibration.—Edna Lister, November 21, 1965.


"The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?"—Psalm 27:1. Beauty is harmony, and harmony is beauty. Everything working together harmoniously builds energy divine, then you generate atomic Power. This is the source of ghostly strength, ghostly because it is untouchable, inexhaustible. The dependability of this strength is described in "Whom shall I fear?"—Edna Lister, November 22, 1965.


All you need to say is, "Let there be Light. Let Light go forth." When you have put everybody else in the Light, you will be in the Light yourself. To put someone else in the Light opens the floodgate, and you cannot hold yourself separate. You need not ask for more strength. Say, "Father, move in and possess me. I have Your strength now."

When you feel you cannot go on, put your body down, put your hands up and say, "Father, please fill me with more Power and Light." Pay no attention to the fact that you become weak and wobbly. Lie down, but move up in the Light. Go to bed to move higher in consciousness. When you get that, you will have the whole thing.—Edna Lister, February 12, 1966.


Live for God, and His strength shall be instantly available.—Edna Lister, February 13, 1966.


You must be strong to give others stability and security. Practice the three Gs: grit, guts and grin. It takes intestinal fortitude and you must speak boldly. You are an ambassador in bonds, in bondage to Christ.—Edna Lister, March 4, 1966.


Do not attempt to possess strength. Declare, "I move up in consciousness and let strength possess and use me."—Edna Lister, June 23, 1966.


The Light, once invoked, is inevitably stronger hour by hour. Nothing can stand before it, nothing!—Edna Lister, July 31, 1966.


When reaching for the Light, the vibration opens to new ideas. Every idea carries the strength for its accomplishment.—Edna Lister, March 10, 1967.


Your strength lasts longer as you remove the weakening taints of self, repudiation of law and blocks to Light.—Edna Lister, September 24, 1967.


Your prayers and invocation of Light build the Power for your body to release it. As you release that Power, it increases your strength to walk your Path of Destiny. Therefore, never drain yourself of strength, but stop before depletion.—Edna Lister, January 12, 1968.


When any weakness rears its head in your thoughts, affirm strength in its place. Identify with the image of God, which is the truth about you.—Edna Lister, March 13, 1968.


You must know that your strength is equal to all time and eternity, or do you expect it to run out at the end of the month?—Edna Lister, June 13, 1968.


A powerful choice in strength is to say the past "never happened." Only the future is real now.—Edna Lister, November 18, 1968.


You gain new strength from each of the thousand days of burnt offerings you complete. Even when you fall on your face, you have gained the strength to go that much longer.—Edna Lister, One Thousand Burnt Offerings, November 23, 1969.


Love divine, all powerful, all upholding love penetrates every atom of the atomic body as an immovable ghostly, unforgettable strength. It forms a balance, centered in the heart, to prevent others from sending you off-balance. Once you establish this peculiar strength of poise, a solar plexus blow never again surprises you, since this strength gives you an unassailable, immovable, untouchable attitude; once gained, nothing can disturb it.—Edna Lister, December 3, 1969.

Top ↑


Treatments to Increase Strength

"They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles."—Isaiah 40:31. I am now filled with the strength of God. I am now ready to receive God’s great strength. I am now accepting God’s wonderful strength. I am now alive with God’s strength. I am now abounding in the strength of God. I am now radiant with the strength of God. I am now strong with God’s glorious strength. I am now strengthened with the Energy of God. I am now energetic with God’s vital strength.—Edna Lister, Great Britain Tour, 1931.


"You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you."—Acts 1:8. I am now filled with the Power of God. I am now strong with the Power of God. I am now strengthened with the Power of God. I am now alive with the Power of God. I am now ready to receive the great Strength of God. I am now applying this Power of God as my energy. I am now able to do all things through this Power of God. I am now serving with this Power of God.—Edna Lister, Great Britain Tour, 1931.


"I will lift up mine eyes unto the Light, and Shekinah glory shall descend and fill me to overflowing with Light, life, strength and joy." This declaration will really give you an overpowering sense of strength and lightness if you use it.—Edna Lister, February 4, 1942.


"I now use all the joy my Father gives unto me, as joy. In this joy lies my present strength."—Edna Lister, September 9, 1942.


Use the rotary rhythm (right hand over left, both whirling clockwise) daily for the very weak, whirling etheric current from the head down, whirling over the heart and solar plexus, and always bring the magnetic current from the feet to the head to give strength.—Edna Lister, January 31, 1945.


If you feel weak, take seven deep breaths, with a good stretch between each while the lungs are emptied. Do it slowly and use this statement on your out-going breath: "I am now One with all the universe. The universal Breath now moves through my soul and body all day long, making them over into God’s perfect image and likeness of power, of strength and of glory." You shall be renewed and made glorious and strong now.—Edna Lister, June 27, 1945.


"Father, I accept this — whatever it is — as something to work out and up from into a greater knowledge, a greater illumination and greater almighty strength." This declaration of acceptance covers everything. Then use wise speech or golden silence and pray while you stand outside it. Don’t wallow.—Edna Lister, November 13, 1947.


To convince the subconscious that you have nothing to fear, repeat, "God is all courage and strength." Fear pays no dividends.—Edna Lister, The Light, Your Expression, November 4, 1956.


A declaration at night sets the stage and gives the greatest strength to bodies, buildings, situations for following day. Say, "Let there be" or "Let it be so."—Edna Lister, October 30, 1958.


"I accept that I am working on Almighty strength. I am living on Almighty strength. I am serving on Almighty strength."—Edna Lister, Idealization, May 10, 1959.


You want to be strong with instant strength. If weary and low, you have dropped into the field of force (down to the chest). Move up in consciousness into the field of Light and Power (crown) that gives you energy. From there you can use I AM statements without the result of force, and the field of glory transforms the field of force into kinetic energy to use. "I AM moves up into this field of Light, Power and Energy, into Love, Light and miracles. I AM moves from the field of force into the field of love, draws up force and draws down the potential Power to become the kinetic energy of life." You become inexhaustible under the potential Power of God for its expression, but force depletes and exhausts you.—Edna Lister, February 4, 1960.


Do the next thing next to the glory of God in God’s strength, not your own. "I am working in the strength of God."—Edna Lister, January 19, 1966.

Top ↑


New Testament on Strength

There is one God; and there is none other but he: And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.—Mark 12:32-33.


Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.—Luke 6:47-49.


And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.—Luke 10:25-28.


The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.—1 Corinthians 1:25.


Strength is made perfect in weakness.—2 Corinthians 12:9.


I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.—Philippians 4:13.

Top ↑


Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord!—Psalm 27:14.


Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.—Proverbs 3:7-8.


The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.—Proverbs 18:10.

Top ↑




Edna Miriam Lister
1884—1971
The original Christian Pioneering Mystic,
Platonist philosopher, American Idealist, Founder, Society of the Universal Living Christ, minister, teacher, author, wife, and mother.


Edna Lister


Etymology of strong: Old English strang, "physically powerful, powerful in effect, forceful, severe."


Strength is an abstract principle.
Strength is a soul virtue.
Strength is a mental faculty.


References

Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, 2024.

The Holy Bible. King James Version (KJV). Public Domain.

The Oxford English Dictionary: Compact Edition 2 volumes. Oxford University Press, 1971.