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Edna Lister’s Lectures, 1934
Lectures 1934, Part I.
All Things are Possible
Edna Lister, February 15, 1934, Buffalo, NY, Matthew 19:26, Mark 9:23
“Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.”–Matthew 19:26.
“Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.”–Mark 9:23.
God could not enjoy the glory of His Creation without having us to witness and reflect its glory. Some things just go together and depend on each other—like a conductor and the orchestra’s musicians—no single musician can play a symphony alone, and a conductor needs an entire orchestra to fulfill his role. However, having great knowledge and wisdom does little good unless you also have the understanding that integrates your experience. Limitless Power is always waiting for you to release it and nothing is impossible to God, so hold up your prayer molds for Him to fill now.
Each soul is an individualized expression of the one Mind, the one Substance, and the one Power. Everything expressed as form is composed of God’s Mind, Substance, and Power. For example, you can combine butter, eggs, and flour to make a thousand recipes, good or bad, but the elemental substance of the basic ingredients you use—the butter, eggs, and flour—is always the same.
Love is always waiting to be released, to return Creation to God, so let God, as the one Power, do the work. This is the true meaning of the scripture, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”–Matthew 11:30. Keep your eyes focused ahead to the future, your soul vision turned up to God, and remain independent of the world’s weight of attraction.
The Savings of a Lifetime
Edna Lister, February 16, 1934, Buffalo, NY, Matthew 6:19-21, Psalm 37:5
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”–Matthew 6:19-21.
“Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.”–Psalm 37:5. People are always accumulating things, material goods. Yet no matter what wealth you have accrued, you must leave earthly savings, money, houses and land behind when you pass from this life.
Eventually you realize that your main responsibility in life is to save immaterial treasures in heaven—such treasures as education, friends, love, service, hard work, giving, joy, peace, happiness, confidence, and trust. Thus you can understand the law “Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.”–Psalm 37:5.
The divine substance for all your needs is available for your use, yet people often ask what divine substance is, where it is, and how do you find the substance? Trees, flowers, vegetables and fruit all have a seed of desire within them, desire to grow toward the Light.
Desire is your seed also. You fill your invisible creative molds with pictures of your thoughts, emotions, and imagination, so be sure they are all good. Then feed them again with praise and love. All this is the treasure you store up in heaven.
Being God-Aware
Edna Lister, February 22, 1934, Buffalo, NY, 1 Corinthians 14:20
“Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.”–1 Corinthians 14:20.
How can you maintain your contact with God’s Power every day? To hold your contact with the divine Power that is forever filling and renewing the River of Life, you must maintain your awareness of God constantly.
As long as you still remain a “child in understanding,” you constantly think of what you must do and how you will do it. God has all the answers you need. If God is your consciousness, then the right answers are always there at your mental fingertips.
Forgetting God interrupts your contact with His Power. When you take in the other fellow’s malice, or think unworthy thoughts, you break your own circuit with God. When you use force to make another do your will, you lose your hold on that smoothly flowing Power because every bit of pushiness or force makes it slippery in your grip—you break contact.
As Edmund Burke said, imagination is the kingly faculty—it is free, unlimited, and will never wear out. Anyone can imagine himself a prince instead of a pauper. Yet the greatest, the finest use of imagination is to picture what you want or need as happening to someone else.
Offer prayer treatments for others for whatever you need yourself. When you pour out the prayer and declarations for another, the overflow returns to you.
Using Your Talents
Edna Lister, February 23, 1934, Buffalo, NY, Matthew 25:14-30, Job 22:15-18
The servant to whom his lord had given responsibility for five talents gained five more for his master’s use. Then the servant who had received two talents to account for earned two more. Yet the servant to whom he had given charge of one talent did nothing with it. The lord took the talent and fired him because he had failed to discharge his responsibility. It may seem unfair, yet often the people who cry “unfair” the loudest are those who do the least.
“Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden? Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood: which said unto God, Depart from us: and what can the Almighty do for them? Yet he filled their houses with good [things]: but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.”–Job 22:15-18.
Every idea carries its own ability or method to release all things associated with its perfect completion. Why complain because others may have many ideas when you have only one? That is walking in the “old way.” If you act on that one idea, you will undoubtedly think of more. To use one idea makes more room for other new ideas to enter your mind.
“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.” John 6:37. The one Light, as Mind, Substance and Power, is the “all” that the Father gives, and flows as a stream, the River of Life—you may keep any of it or none. If you were a dairy farmer, you could save your leftover milk each day for future use, but money, like talents you must use daily like a free-flowing stream.
Anyone who holds onto Power, instead of releasing it, is withholding from God and the world. Eventually you must bring forth whatever you have wasted, misused, or hidden.
Love’s Qualities
Edna Lister, February 27, 1934, Buffalo, NY, 1 Corinthians 13
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”–1 Corinthians 13.
If you pull back from loving, if you choke the flow of love through you, you are holding out on God and starving your own soul.
You must ask the self five questions about the quality and steadfastness of your love, your praise, desire, imagination, and how you speak the Word.
Expanding Imagination
Edna Lister transcript, May C. Wilder, scribe, March 1, 1934, Buffalo, NY
Let us expand our imagination: Fundamental principles form the basis for your statements of truth; for example, God is omnipresent—everywhere evenly present and available in all things, through all things, and as all things. You must integrate this statement with the place you occupy here and now, and be able to relate all things to it. God must manifest as all parts of Creation for He cannot be separated or divided from it.
Symbolically, seven spheres form one cosmic universe. Wisdom, the Father God principle, the positive masculine aspect of the Creator, guides the involution of consciousness into form. Love, the Mother God principle, the negative feminine aspect, holds all form together. Love fuses with Wisdom to form the third principle of Selflessness, the Son principle of the universal Christ consciousness, which is growing, evolving, and ascending.
Thus, the Mind that thinks, the Power that acts, and the Substance that becomes one in you and as you are the principles that work together to form the foundation for everything there is. I AM THAT I AM is all things, and is what you are. People are generally quite selfish in how they apply the principles of Love and Wisdom, which circulate in the River of Life that continually bathes the universe with supernal Light. You, too, must yourself fuse Love and Wisdom into the principle of Selflessness, which balances them.
Steps in the Silence
Edna Lister, March 1, 1934, Buffalo, NY, Psalm 46:10, Hebrews 13:8
“Be still, and know that I am God”–Psalm 46:10.
1. Surrender and Expansion: Your body is analogous to a seed or bulb. God has planted you in His garden of Spirit and patiently tends your growth as He awaits your blossom time. Spirit is never old, but eternally youthful as it moves and renews all things. God, as Spirit, is deathless, ageless and abiding. “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”–Hebrews 13:8.
As a soul you are an immortal spiritual being of Light, the vehicle of expression, a temple of the living God. To return to God with the fruit of your experiences and the wisdom you have garnered, you must create a large and perfect temple, and to do so, you must surrender to God’s Light as Mind, Substance and Power. You must lift your self up into a consciousness great enough to expand into contact with God.
2. The Practice of the Presence: Tightened nerves and muscles are body-conscious and grasping. Think of yourself as Light, filling the room you occupy. Let your Light so shine that you lose all consciousness of having a physical body. This is how to be God-consciousness. Hold onto this awareness, and lose yourself in joyous recognition of truth: “The kingdom of heaven is everywhere I look or step. I am in the kingdom now for it is within me. My presence in the world extends to include all whom I meet. The Light of God’s kingdom moves through me to heal everyone I meet.” As you apply these healing statements through the spirit of selflessness, be sure to speak these words of truth, declaring: “Not I, but the Power of my Father flows through me doing the work as I work for Him. Not I, but the Father in me, He doeth the works.”
3. Start With a Great Idea: God started with an all-encompassing Idea when He created the Universe. You also need an idea so great that it fills your mind until you can think of nothing else—transfiguration of your physical body to our Father in Heaven, for example.
4. Imagination: A picture must follow the idea; for example, imagine a mental picture of your heart as a sun center radiating Light.
5. The Great Breath: Deeply inhale seven degrees (grades) of breath in one.
6. Lifting: As a member of the Elect, you must lift the lines of Light to all outer conflicts into the inner kingdom, into the Heart of God.
7. Universal Praise: Praise God for the beauty of His Creation.
8. Treatments: Speak the specific prayer treatments for situations that have been brought to your attention.
9. Specific Praise: Praise everyone and everything you can think of, aloud.
10. Let the Power do the work, then surrender to the Power again to expand further.
“Metaphysics” means “beyond science” and is the study of invisible energies. Of all the disciples, Peter, James and John best understood the need for more love. Only more and more love will fan the fame of your desire to at one with God. Otherwise, inertia and stagnation will be your portion.
To ascend in the inner dimensions, you must pass tests on your motives and resolutions on the outer. Love is the “open sesame” that opens all gates and doors to progress in the invisible reality; love builds the bridge, it bridges the abyss from the seen to the unseen.
Mystical Governance
Edna Lister, March 6, 1934, Buffalo, NY, Revelation 3:12
“He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God.”–Revelation 3:12.
A mystic is “a follower of a mystical way of life, an advocate of a theory of mysticism,” someone who believes in the existence of realities beyond human comprehension. Mystical is defined as “of God; concerned with the soul or the spirit rather than material things.”
Mystical governance describes the act of regulating Power in a responsible way. As an individual, you must command the self to enable the free flow of God’s Power through you by speaking the Word to release it.
“He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God.”–Revelation 3:12.
All souls have equal rights to work, study, and play. Beyond that equality lies in the soul’s right to work spiritually, to conquer the self, and to return to God. Those who choose to do this become members of the Elect.
The Brotherhood of Man is the responsibility of each individual embodied soul. The twelve pillars in the Temple represent twelve types of responsible people within the Seven Degrees: The Neophyte, Disciple, Adept, Mystic, Master, Priest and Christos, which expand into seven times seven equals forty-nine degrees of service through brotherhood.
How God’s Power Works
Edna Lister, March 8, 1934, Buffalo, NY
You can only raise or lower the rate of vibration of the substance involved in healing. Divine Power is all potential until God exercises it by releasing it through His Creation where it emerges as energy. We measure this detectable power by its rate of vibration—the frequency and wavelength of its electromagnetic energy. However, limiting God’s “allness” by assuming that we know all about universal Power is an error in perception. The mere reasoning that dictates reality as being limited to what we can measure is deeply flawed.
No healing is possible unless you set aside the negative effects of prior experience. For example, having a “broken heart” does affect the organ itself. You must learn to assume the responsibility to gain new experience in other nondestructive ways. Do not work at healing one moment then let go of your plan the next. Do not begin to heal one problem area then start something else in another area.
In short, you must learn how to direct and control your own emotions and reactions before God can trust you with direction or command over His Power. Anger is a direct line of contact to the worst of the destructive elements in your personality and character, so overcoming resentment, which breeds anger, is essential.
Compensation
Edna Lister, March 9, 1934, Buffalo, NY
God’s law is exact and just. You always receive something in return for what you do, whether you obey or disobey His laws. When you consider your choices in advance and aim for a better outcome, you will experience new ideas, health, love, and understanding.
Treat all the debts you owe as though they are favors from God, and repay them with joy. To treat a debt to be paid, put it on the altar as an empty basket, then see the basket overflowing with the money you need.
Ideas are your initiators and God sends them in the guise of outside agents to clothe them. He is waiting for you to put the ideas into expression. So it works in your consciousness as the idea trains you and makes you unfold. Money is no more or less important than anything else, so give freely!
Wisdom and Trust
Edna Lister, March 15, 1934, Buffalo, NY, Proverbs 9:10, 2 Corinthians 3:4-6
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.”–Proverbs 9:10.
“Such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”–2 Corinthians 3:4-6.
“Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” refers to what motivates you to obey the laws of wisdom.
To understand God as the Father-Mother in the real “knowledge of the holy” requires walking as a creator god. To be “chosen” means that you choose to live in the Light now and forever, to lift and to make of your life a kingdom of heaven on earth right here and now.
God will not hold it against you if you have referred to Him as “Father” instead of “Father-Mother.” The Father is the letter of the law, but the spirit that “giveth life” is the Mother.
To obey the letter of the law is hard, but becomes much easier as you attain soul balance. So aim for spiritual balance as Wisdom, Love and Selflessness, and consciously hold them in equilibrium.
Looking to Heaven
Edna Lister, March 16, 1934, Buffalo, NY, Luke 9:10-17
“He took them, and went aside privately into a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. And the people, when they knew it, followed him: and he received them, and spake unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing. And when the day began to wear away, then came the twelve, and said unto him, Send the multitude away, that they may go into the towns and country round about, and lodge, and get victuals: for we are here in a desert place. But he said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they said, We have no more but five loaves and two fishes; except we should go and buy meat for all this people. For they were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, Make them sit down by fifties in a company. And they did so, and made them all sit down. Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, and brake, and gave to the disciples to set before the multitude. And they did eat, and were all filled: and there was taken up of fragments that remained to them twelve baskets.”–Luke 9:10-17.
In each new realm, phase or technique, you must apply every available resource on a higher level to bring a miracle to pass from the invisible. Jesus did this when he used physical loaves and fishes to manifest enough to feed the multitude.
Thirty years ago, metaphysical teachers taught people to concentrate in order to “demonstrate” their ability to supply abundance. Such demonstration is the application of mental force on the law, which results in the student creating a debt of misuse of law by separating Mind from Substance and Power. Many teachers still teach this way.
We teach this process differently. First, lift everything into the kingdom of heaven by giving it to God. Then, although you still hold an earthly state of mind, you consciously train your imagination to build the form of a good legal mental picture in desire-level molecular substance. Do not use force by demanding anything. Instead, call your miracle into visibility by loving and praising God.
The only way to succeed in doing so is by doing as Jesus did and “looking up to heaven” in expectancy of soul. The Lord blessed the bread and broke it, gave it to his disciples to distribute for the people to eat. And still, though he had fed a multitude, twelve full baskets were left over to share.
Your Lines of Light
Edna Lister, March 17, 1934, Buffalo, NY, John 12:32
“I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”–John 12:32.
Why do you, why should you lift situations and people on your lines of responsibility onto a cloud continent of Light? Lifting is a selfless universal service, which is the task of the Elect, especially those who choose to walk the Via Christa consciously.
Lines of Light run from you to every embodied soul whom you have ever known throughout eternity, creating a mesh of Light that fills the universe. Your lines of Light are pipelines through which you release love and wisdom to persons and through situations for healing. In other words, they are the supply lines you use to fulfill your responsibility.
“I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”–John 12:32. When you have lifted all men—all people and conditions in life—you too shall be lifted. When do you lift? Right now. Where do you lift? Right here. What do you lift? Everything and everyone. Declaring everything good creates the opportunity for perfect growth, like pruning the dead wood. You serve God when and as you serve your fellow man.
Increasing Your Talents
Edna Lister transcript, May C. Wilder, scribe, March 21, 1934, Buffalo, NY
If you would keep the talents you have, you must use and develop them to make more. If you do not exercise your talents, they will be given to one who has multiplied his abilities tenfold.
You may develop your talents and abilities along any line you choose, should you wish to put forth the effort. Write a list of what you want to accomplish, the courses you want to take, the subjects you want to study and master.
Search your attic and basement, physical and mental. Pull every unfinished project out into the open and examine them. Go over everything you have, make a list of whatever you need to finish the projects, then get busy and do it.
Use all your talents to become what you want to become. You will have to do it now or later, so why not now?
Your Spoken Word
Edna Lister, March 23, 1934, Buffalo, NY
Two questions: Do you generally use some particular tone of voice? Is it pleasant or annoying? Pay attention to this because this is how you automatically strike your own keynote; you set the vibration for any exchange with your tone of voice at the beginning.
Does it help to write out your desires to prioritize them in an outline on paper? Yes, for the process can clear up any confusion or doubts in your subconscious and conscious phases of mind. Every word spoken is the spoken Word, the Logos.
Idle words are all your I can’t-s, which return to you as form. You are responsible to melt and dissolve all idle or useless forms you have strewn as obstacles in your path of life. You are the one who must remove them from the road and return them to the Light.
Your Contact With Light
Edna Lister, March 29, 1934, Buffalo, NY
A contact is a union or junction, especially the junction of two electrical conductors through which a current passes. Being in contact refers to an association, a relationship, a connection, or communication. Continuity refers to an uninterrupted connection, succession, or union.
Light is the primary substance of everything within God’s universe, the pure essence of life sparks as the ultimate subatomic substance. Physically, this refers to the photon as the measurement of light. Science can measure only what is physical, but God is so much more than the appearances we see in the physical world. There is the light that you can see as radiating from the sun, from a light bulb, or a campfire. The supernal Light divine is invisible to the naked eye but is infinite, boundless, and eternal—the radiance of the ultimate Source of All Light.
God created the Universe and its infinite number of worlds with the first word, the Creative Fiat “Let Light be!” and the light we can perceive came into being with the subsequent pronouncement “and light was.” God is the supernal Light, which had no beginning and will have no end.
We are familiar with Creative Fiat as the first verses in the Book of Genesis, the Book of the Beginning: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” The result was an explosion of Light that created the universe.
Thus, God reveals the pattern for creation as expansion, explosion, and expression. You create outer form through combustive action also. Do as He did: Plan your creation first, in as much detail as you can. Gather your resources, imaging them first in the form you need. Then pray and praise God that you already have everything you need. Finally, speak the Word to bring your creation into form, beginning with “Let there be Light,” and ending with “This is good and very good” to insure its perfection.
Everything God has, all God’s abilities are potentially yours to use, so long as you are obedient to His law; you can always access His Power as all the energy you will ever need.
Ask and Ye Shall Receive
Edna Lister, March 30, 1934, Buffalo, NY, Matthew 7:7-12
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.”–Matthew 7:7-12.
In light of this scripture, review the five types of questions you must ask of the soul regarding love, praise, desire, imagination, and the spoken Word. Do I love God enough? Have I loved enough to fulfill the law? Have I praised fervently and lavishly enough? Is my burning desire flaming high enough to draw sufficient substance into my prayer molds? Is my imagination all-encompassing and strong enough to envision the perfect result I desire? Have I spoken the Word creatively and completely enough to bring a miracle into form?
The Abundant Word
Edna Lister, April 5, 1934, Buffalo, NY
When you work on spiritual needs or prayer, work in silence. When you talk about it you are using the share of God’s Light-as-power you are responsible for releasing into the world, and usually wasting it.
When you waste the Light-as-power your words return to you “void” of Light, life and energy. The law is that what you send forth does return to you unless you have already used it up by telling the world how grand and noble you are! Always remember to speak the Abundant Word!
The Right Way to Ask
Edna Lister, April 6, 1934, Buffalo, NY, Matthew 7:7-12
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.”–Matthew 7:7-12.
Ask once, thank God a thousand times an hour that you have it now, then act as if you do have it. A lily bulb draws energy from the sunlight, appropriates the substance it needs in order to grow, and then matures and bears its fruit—a beautiful flower.
You also draw energy from the Light and take in all the substance you need from around you. Now extend that idea to attract what you need—build plenty of pictures in imagination and fill them in with Light substance every day. Then do as Paul and Silas did: they prayed, and sang praises unto God until the prison doors were opened, and the bands were loosed.
The Cosmic Urge
Edna Lister, Psychology Club, April 9, 1934, Buffalo, NY
An urge is “a desire, a strong wish, especially one that is difficult or impossible to control.” Cosmic means “of the universe, as a whole.” A cosmic urge is a universal insistence, something universally driven.
A single cell expands into something greater than itself, as does a seed or a bulb. This primary expansion leads to further secondary growth. Everyone is seeking something higher or greater than what he has now.
There is an indwelling power, which you must release to grow into the person God intended you to be. This is the basic plot line of all myths and morality plays. This is more than an idea, it’s an accepted fact. Some compelling “drive” works through all life. How do you release its pressure?
Expansion means growth, not of the body, but of the soul, within which is the divine urge, leading man to overcome time and space itself in pursuit of truth. It is our expansion into a being of Light, with nothing left out or overlooked. Grabbing in greed like spoiled children is the wrong way. We must expand in selflessness not selfishness.
Start something: Find yourself. You live through three different periods of twenty years each. You achieve adulthood, sharpen your equipment by study, then use it forever. This is overcoming the death of stagnation. Spend yourself lavishly! You know failure only when you look down into the world, not up to God’s glory!
Finally, never split your focus when you study: To study five things at once destroys your focus. Study one thing at a time, and the next thing next until you finish. Remember that it is only too soon, never too late.
Love, the Conqueror
Edna Lister, April 12, 1934, Buffalo, NY
“Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”–Romans 13:8-10.
The first triunity of absolute principles is composed of Love, Wisdom, and the Logos, which is also called the virtue of Selflessness. It is the opposite of the worldly triunity of hatred, intolerance, which is born of ignorance and selfishness.
Love is active as desire in terms of consciousness, but passive in the outer world until you act. Legally, you may never demand or ask of others, but must always give them the freedom to choose their own way in life.
Love is an active flame on the inner realm, forever seeking an outlet. Yet love, when colored by worldly thinking, is polluted, diluted, and reduced to a tiny stream.
Love burns up and burns out all obstacles, melts all barriers and is glorious in its action. Declare that any interference or bar to progress is a glory. Declare it so to make love active on the outer. God is waiting for you to do this now.
Concentrate or Surrender?
Edna Lister, April 13, 1934, Buffalo, NY
When you concentrate on manifesting supply, you must demonstrate, which really means you must exhibit or show proof. Concentration is forcing the mental faculty of thinking in one direction and holding it there. Since you can concentrate on only one thing at a time, concentration does not pay enough dividends for the time and effort you expend doing it.
Instead, surrender to God’s Light as Power, which is always working right now. Lift your physical and subconscious mental awareness into spiritual perception. Remember also that a part-time surrender is like a wind that blows from every quarter; it buffets you from every direction and keeps you off-balance.
“By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”–Matthew 12:37. Most important is to lift all your self-centered idle thoughts about your affairs before you speak them as idle words.
“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.”–Psalm 19:14. Be sure that your words follow your heart’s conviction. Using these rules it is easy to see what happens when you speak before you think. Consider the current jokes about war munitions—that the munitions themselves are power—they have it exactly backward.
Love’s Qualities
Edna Lister, April 19, 1934, Buffalo, NY; Matthew 5:37, 12:34-37, 23:37, John 12:32, Ephesians 6:13
“Let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.”–Matthew 5:37.
“Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”–Ephesians 6:13.
Love’s qualities are many, but chiefly the following: Purity of heart, mind, and purpose. “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”–Matthew 5:8.
Humility, which is open-mindedness, brings the “reward of humility” through selfless sacrificial service. Express your gratitude in your praise of God, and love for Him and His gifts.
Empathy is a soul faculty that many souls lack. Most people say, “Father, forgive them,” when they should say, “Father, forgive me” for having caused my brother to stumble, which means, “I’ll pay the debt,” with firm bracing, holding love.
Jesus displayed compassion when he viewed Jerusalem from afar and said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”–Matthew 23:37.
Compassion is lifting the world: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”–John 12:32. Sincerity never needs to excuse, justify, or explain: “But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.”–Matthew 5:37.
“O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”–Matthew 12:34-37.
“Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”–Ephesians 6:13. Loyalty to God is to stand firmly forever to meet the need for universal service, so it’s best to say, “I’ll stand.”
Love is flame and a fire that burns ever. Love cannot be quenched. Love is. A blacksmith can ignite a fire with a magnifying glass, and maintain it with a gas mantle.
Release the Light
Edna Lister, April 20, 1934, Buffalo, NY, Proverbs 11:24-25
“There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. The liberal [generous] soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.”–Proverbs 11:24-25.
You must let go of mental tightness and rigidity in your mind and release the Light to achieve mental flexibility. Prosperity requires your willingness to be used, led, and lifted until each hour of surrendering self pays you dividends in soul conquering.
Lectures, 1934, Part II.
The Pearl of Great Price
Edna Lister, May 4, 1934, Buffalo, NY, Matthew 13:45-46
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”–Matthew 13:45-46.
Remember to declare “I am now receiving abundance!” If all is now, then now is the time, and here is the place where you can see the truth of reality. So go ahead and declare it: “I am now receiving abundance!”
Thankfulness
Edna Lister, May 10, 1934, Buffalo, NY, Romans 8:14-17
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”–Romans 8:14-17.
The lessons contained in this scripture include three points. First, God judges each soul according to its individual effort to surrender self to be led by the Spirit.
Second, while you are not required to make payment for the other fellow’s debt, you are required to pay your own. Also, as children of God, you must offer your brothers compassion.
Third, you are a joint heir with Christ, and when you have paid your debts, meaning that you have suffered the crucifixion of the self, your inheritance is to be glorified together with him.
Love as Creative Power
Edna Lister, May 10, 1934, Buffalo, NY
Love is the mighty generating, activating, creating power of the universe. Love cannot fail to accomplish that whereunto it is sent when God-directed for the good of others, or the good of all humanity, good and evil alike.
You need only turn your attention to the person or condition that requires changing, remedying or helping, and love will handle that person, thing or condition the way that God wants it to be handled, in the way it should be handled for the greatest good of all concerned.
You may not be able to see any change in the person, thing or condition, but no matter. The results are no concern of yours. “God’s will be done” should always be your will and desire. Learn to attune your will to the Will of God, and before long you will begin to see changes occurring that will be simply stupendous.
Firmly fix this thought in your consciousness—the idea that Love is the activating, propelling power back of all things. Love is the power which impels men to do certain things that may be entirely foreign to what they may intend or want to do. Yea, verily, Love projected forth to a man, with the full faith of the operator back of it, can instantly arrest his action in a course contrary to God’s Will.
Again, Love is the activating or compelling power behind all action, good or bad; Love is the Christ in action or the activating quality of Holy Spirit. Remember, it neither knows nor recognizes good or evil. It is the One greatest Divine or spiritual power that is always started forth or activated by man himself. It starts to flow in the direction man sends it by his thinking.
Man has been using this power destructively to his undoing and disaster for many generations, acting in ignorance and blindness. Had he had the full knowledge of how to direct and control it, while manipulating it for selfish ends, all humankind would have been destroyed long ago and the earth with them.
The power of love is terrific for accomplishing good, much more so than when directed to evil. When you direct Love’s power consciously, intelligently, definitely and with the full knowledge and faith to carry out the will of the Father it will bring in the Kingdom of the Christ on earth.
It is just the same principle of the electrical discharge. Lightning generates such terrific voltages as 15 million volts or more, with tremendous amperages back of it, but it accomplishes very little of importance because it is not directed to a definite end and confined. Lightning’s awful energy is expended vainly in the atmosphere and lost. On the other hand, 2200 volts, definitely directed, will light a whole city and run its many industries.
Do not try to look for definite results at first. Remember, you are just learning, learning and studying the greatest science of the universe, which constitutes the definite handling and manipulation of the most powerful basic power of the whole universe, greater even than electricity, and much more subtle. Remember, Love is a power that can be most terrible and deadly if used for evil.
Your self-discipline and duty now consists in placing yourself at the Father’s service completely under the Christ direction, not letting your reasoning faculties get in your way as you exercise this power at the Father’s behest. The Christ is always at hand to manifest and to give sanction to or interpretation of any undertaking that you are called upon to negotiate.
Accept now, once and for all, that you will leave all habitual reaches of your imagination far behind, and the sooner you let yourself go, the sooner will the Great Plan be aided into manifestation by the work the Father can accomplish through you. Renew your love daily. Amen.
Ten Plagues on Egypt
Edna Lister lecture series, May 16, 1934 to June 20, 1934
Attitudes for Success
Edna Lister, May 18, 1934, Buffalo, NY
The attitudes of success and prosperity include surrender, joy, love, and completeness. Surrender all the negative traits of your personality and your character flaws.
To merely assume an attitude of anything is posing as it, not being it. This is true no matter what you intend to do, whether to write or to be a speaker. Unless you aim at becoming what you desire, you will only be pretending, which may well be obvious if you behave affectedly, or just attitudinize.
A word of caution: Any settled behavior tends to indicate and reveal opinions, prejudiced feelings, and being addicted to impulsive and appetitive sensations.
Abundance
Edna Lister, May 18, 1934, Buffalo, NY
One form of abundance is money. How do you manifest financial abundance? You use high visualization. Give to others and to yourself from above.
Play a game and imagine, like playing dolls at a tea party. Pretend you are Santa Claus!
Giving, in metaphysical terms, is mental and therefore invisible. Receiving is visible. When what you give is invisible, what you receive will be visible in form.
A Streamlined Mind
Edna Lister, May 24, 1934, Buffalo, NY
Cars are streamlined for speed so they generate less resistance, not zero resistance. Actually, this is just the reduction of an active resistance, but is not a passive nonresistance.
Do not live according to old patterns of tension, conflict, and resistance. Living graciously, plus accepting everything that comes to you as good and very good, equals the science of right living multiplied by a joyfully pleasant social life equals an ascending soul and body.
Self-Mastery is Freedom
Edna Lister, May 25, 1934, Buffalo, NY
Three questions: What must I do to find a position? How do I get into the right place? How do I know this is the right place for me?
To find a position, use prayer treatments to release the substance today for use three months from now. The substance available is not the same every day, and yours is already waiting.
How do I get into the right place? Serve a thousand percent where you are now. How can you achieve Freedom through self-mastery? By practicing two hours per day, four hours per day, ten hours per day until you are perfect.
How do I know this is the right place? Do next thing next.
Are You Ready to Serve?
Edna Lister, May 31, 1934, Buffalo, NY
Are you ready to serve? Are you a willing servant of all the Power? Do you want to hold up your lines of responsibility? The lifting work of the Elect is important. God’s Power must be released.
We are joint heirs, who must collect our inheritance, and we are coworkers with Christ. We are co-responsible with him and share in responsibility for releasing the Power in his name.
Life is a Gift
Edna Lister, June 7, 1934, Buffalo, NY
Life is a gift. What are you doing with it? Blows to your pride, security, or income in life are opportunities to grow. But you can’t grow if your access to divine Mind is like a leaky valve.
You need a sense of proportion and perspective. Sit down and face the facts. Take your discounts, and pay your debts gladly. Be a silent peacemaker, and a pacemaker.
Get in Gear!
Edna Lister, June 14, 1934, Buffalo, NY
The power of a running an automobile engine is useless until you put the car in gear! The flowing stream of life does no work for you until you get in gear!
Patience
Edna Lister, July 9, 1934, Buffalo, NY
Impatience is a lack of trust in God. Patience is endurance in joy and unwavering devotion.
As Mattie Carr
The Seed of Perfection
Edna Lister, July 12, 1934, Buffalo, NY
Mattie Carr said, “If we give the essence of our mental substance to failures and our own shortcomings, we will have nothing with which to water the seed of perfection.”
The Principle of Life
Edna Lister, July 12, 1934, Buffalo, NY
Mattie Carr said, “The law of the principle of life rules all my life.” The Good alone has or can have a principle to sustain it. The Real is always Being-as-God. The unreal has no being. Therefore, God, the Good, is the only possible principle ruling my life.
Dr. Frank Crane’s Four Minute Essays: “All noise is waste.”
Your Place in the Light
Edna Lister outline, August 22, 1934, Buffalo, NY, Luke 15:11-24, 1 John 3:2
“A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.”–Luke 15:11-24.
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be.”–1 John 3:2.
“I will arise and go to my Father’s house.” Who is my Father? Where is His house? The Upanishads teach that Mind, the Father, is the beginner; speech, the Mother, is the sustainer, and life, the Child, is the expression, the product, or the outer form. The Father is the first person of the Trinity, the second person is Christ, the Son, and the third person is “I AM,” which is you in your righteous estate, your rightful place. Now are you the sons and daughters of God.
The I AM consciousness within you is the gathering point, the centralizing point, the focusing point of connection with the mind that was in Christ Jesus. By your word, you become that which you take in, and by your word, you display what you are. So you take yourself into what you take into yourself.
Each soul has an embryonic desire, which is its potential capacity, to be “like the Father.” You must “mother” your desire until the world fades, and your desire becomes manifest and tangible. Failure results from failure to mother your “son” of desire. Further, you must tarry until you fulfill the original creative motive within you. To do so, you must continually speak the Word, “let.”
Never confine your progress to your virtues or retard your virtues by indulging vices. Instead, return to your Father’s house now. The only suicide is forgetting who and what you are. You cannot be wrong when you remember to surrender to the Source. Life begins in life, in the life of God, not out here in the world of dense matter. Only eternal divine life can cure what ails your temporal individual life.
The Law of Attachment
Edna Lister outline, August 24, 1934, Buffalo, NY
You make your own individual laws. The Law of Attachment states that what you love becomes your law, your guide. You take yourself into what you take into yourself: What you hear, see, and choose to accept.
As a son or daughter of God the Father-Mother, you are the third person in the trinity of your life. Like the Father and Mother, there is no end to your capacity to unfold, expand, and produce.
When folks say they are in love, they are actually in enthrallment. Do you say that you “fall” in love? The power is in the love to which you are enthralled. To fall is selfish, and brings you pain. Arise in love, for this is the Selfless Way.
Immeasurable Power to use for success lies in that soul who becomes enthralled, possessed by the idea of surrender to God’s Power, to complete absorption, complete surrender, one with all. “I can be that which I truly am. I can release power through and as substance. I can ‘mother’ this God-given desire until it is ready to move forth into form.”
Social Psychology
Edna Lister outline, August 27, 1934, Buffalo, NY
As a species and a race, mankind has displayed an eternal curiosity, endlessly questioning what has been, what is, and wondering about what will come. We have made dramatic progress, although social science tells us that it will take millions of additional years to civilize us thoroughly, or a mere 20,000 years of asking enough questions and finding their answers instantly. Only then will we know no more hatred or incessant fighting and wars for supremacy.
The story of Daniel in the lions’ den illustrates the necessary approach: Daniel was so perfectly focused on God that he was able to close the mouths of a pride of hungry lions in their den. When one man or woman can stand so firmly based in the peace of God’s presence that he or she can quell a riot in advance of guns, he can hold a multitude of men in stillness and silence.
Most people have favorite phrases, such as, “It doesn’t surprise me,” “Oh, that will never work,” or, “That’s impossible!” When you are desperate, and what you’ve tried hasn’t worked, you’ll be willing to try almost anything, including going to God first.
Our divine destiny is to become prophets, teachers, lifters, servants of humanity, and leaders of men. Man must strive to live as he thinks or he will end up thinking as he is living. Achieving your destiny begins with observing others’ actions while watching your own reactions. At the same time, you must insistently demand of the self not to hear, see, or feel negatively. Consciously live your inner life until it becomes your outer way of living. Your slender taper of Light then becomes a flaming torch to light your way Home.
Your Independence
Edna Lister outline, August 29, 1934, Buffalo, NY
The Garden of Eden is a glorious reality, beautiful beyond compare. It represents the divine presence, the center of all knowledge, the abiding place of the Tree of Life of which we may “eat thereof and live forever.” Thus the Garden of Eden is a symbol of perfection, a play ground for life as eternal delight.
How would this work for me? When you really know how to do something well, you love to do it. When you have learned to excel in any activity, you like to show it. When you have learned a thing well, it is a joy to do it, and you then work at play and play at work. Whatever business you love becomes play to you, and you can excel at it just as you play the games you love.
God’s Creation is seven symbolic days in duration. He created for six days, and rested on the seventh, which we are in right now. The seventh day is the Sabbath, a day of peace in which no labor or tilling of the ground is permitted, for it must be a day of rest. Being truly at rest means knowing that all things must fulfill themselves. How can this be? Words, prayers, and prayer treatments are all formulas, methods to keep you resting from activities and distractions that take your mind from God, from knowing His truth.
We are now in seventh day. Time did not exist until the fourth day of Creation when God divided the Light from the darkness, the day from the night. Yet not until the completion of the sixth day was everything finished and ready for mankind to begin the work for attaining his spiritual perfection. How are we to understand this?
Symbolically, Mind is the Father, the Beginner. Mind uses speech, the Mother, the Sustainer, to create and nurture Creation. Life is the Child, the expression, the product of the conjoint action of the Father and Mother. The mothering idea fills the seventh day. All that Mind begins can be brought to completion only if the Mother nourishes and sustains it. Man discovers his independence where and when he discovers his complete dependence on God’s Power. Through accepting this idea you become a creator with Him.
Surrender of self requires that you be possessed by, commanded by, enthralled by, and enamored of God’s Life and Power. Thus He made the Garden of Eden perfect for our development. God put us in the Garden, but we put ourselves out of it. Where is this Garden? Right where the Father’s house is, here and now. But to find His house, you must do as the Prodigal Son did: “I will arise in love and go unto my Father’s House.”
Let’s go! Let’s tarry there until the descent of Power that brings independence, which is freedom.
Creative Desire
Edna Lister outline, September 5, 1934, Buffalo, NY
God desired to create and a universe was born. The Word describes the Creative Impulse in the first chapter Genesis and the first chapter of St. John. From the fundamental premise of one name, the Logos, we have drawn the premise of one God as all, one universal Mind embracing all, one Christ Mind expressing all.
The purpose of creation is to embody the Creative Impulse, and creation sustains the Creative Impulse. The Creative Impulse is the freeing action of an inner urge, such as how you release an impulse to create art through expansion. Any creative desire expands the Creative Impulse.
Thought has no power in or of itself. The power in thought is the power behind that which formulates thought. The degree of the One Mind behind thought determines its power and conviction. The power in the condition of your mind may belie your words. Molding thoughts into words will not cure the condition of your mind if your thoughts do not agree with your mental condition.
The creative desire to express is in the seed itself, but the power within the seed—the acorn in the case of an oak tree—is the pattern, the Idea expressing itself as an oak tree. Desire carries the power to express itself within itself. Desire is like a flying fish, able to leap from one medium into another yet to live in both.
Emerson, in his essay “Nature,” held that the process of mind begins deep within the most fundamental part of nature. He was describing the universal mind, the mind that was in Christ Jesus, which is always seeking expression. You can’t work your thoughts into a form external to you by merely saying the words. The creative mind that expresses the thought must unfold from within. To do anything less is to join the ranks of the mental garbage eaters, such as those who live by and for the purpose of recreating gossip and other idle talk; they rely and depend upon the borrowed ideas and imitations they seek and find within memory.
The subconscious mind is not and cannot be creative, but only repeats what it has seen or done before. To draw ideas from the outside this way is like running backward to go forward; it has no creative ability, and is but reversing the plan of God. The creative mind must give, must flow outward because nothing in the world can flow backward for very long.
To be successfully creative, you must give to receive, not give to take. Man’s thoughts have wings that either let him soar or be dragged through the dust of earth and ruined. Dragging thoughts create a drugged mind. When your ideas come from the outside, you believe you can’t succeed, but when they come from within, you know you can win through any difficulty. What a deadly exercise it is to have to constantly pump self up a like flat tire! Think expansive thoughts. Think ideas that want to explode into being!
The Life Practical
Edna Lister outline, September 14, 1934, Buffalo, NY, John 11:41-44
“Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave-clothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.”–John 11:41-44.
Every idea of men points in one of two directions: Disintegration of the old, or construction of the new, from the old into the new, which keeps you on your toes. The new must include more life. That life must be good, perfect, and just. It must contain good for each soul, from lowest to highest. It cannot be less, but must be more.
God’s invisible shelves are filled with divine supply. Bring your needs in, leave them on the altar, and take away your supply. The secret of abundance is dwelling in the heart of God, together with treating every case of need perfectly.
The Master said, “Lazarus, come forth,” and a dead man came to life. Jesus had spent years in preparation to raise the dead, yet waited another three days before he told his disciples that Lazarus had died. He knew in advance what he would do, and how he would do it.
As a mystic, you are now dwelling in the heart of God. The walls fade out until no walls, no space, no time exist. Present your claim, and God will provide the supply. This is true fulfillment.
Navigating the Silence
Edna Lister outline, September 15, 1934, Buffalo, NY
The first step in navigating the Golden Silence is to surrender the tightness, the constriction of self in favor of soul expansion into Christ consciousness. The second step is to focus on a great God-centered idea.
△
Power and Substance
can express though you as
Love, Wisdom and
▽
Selflessness, the Christ in you
Where does this happen? In every soul, potentially. Each soul is a Christ Idea and has access to Christed Ideas. My idea of what Christ is expresses itself as the Christ I see in you. This is what I see in each and every soul.
Every galaxy has a central sun, just as you have a radiant sun center of Light at your solar plexus, the center of your soul’s control of your physical body, the seat of all physical action and power. In the same way, a ship has an engine room and a bridge where the captain stands in charge of all operations. And from this base of command radiate all your soul’s rays of life and Light.
Take but one step up into the heart center, where the flame of your soul’s desire burns fiercely bright. Now reach for the stars as the Star you are!
Do We Need Psychology?
Edna Lister outline, September 17, 1934, Buffalo, NY
We describe various types of psychology by several different names—academic, personal, practical, Christian, social, group, business, and mob psychology. These different offshoots, good, not so good, and bad, spring up like mushrooms overnight giving rise to many whacky notions.
We find balance in five phases, the categories of expression—psychology, metaphysics, science, philosophy, and mysticism—which are aspects of the illusory reality of time and space in which we dwell. As teachers, the Greek philosophers Pythagoras and Plato knew that we can’t separate these five phases, which operate together as aspects of the one Mind within us, and we must keep the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual phases of life in balance.
Something is always attracting you because you think it will make life better or more pleasant. We like to have it easy and we like to have it our way. Likewise, something is always repelling you from one choice or action into its opposite. Man has discovered and uses countless thousands of ways and means to make life better, easier, or more convenient. You cannot eliminate anything of potential benefit because everything has soul. The soul of a thing determines what it is good for.
You can study a person’s inner life by observing his outer form, actions, and speech, by listening to him voice his thoughts and dreams, etc. Pythagoras had the message, “Know thyself,” carved into the arched entrance to his school in Crotona, Italy. To know yourself, first you must know who God is, and then you can learn who you are. Next, you must study the lower self, to discover what you can do to improve your life.
Most people are overly involved in the lower self, and are simply fascinated by it. They study dreams, palmistry, astrology, and numerology, working to master one discipline after another, hoping to master themselves through understanding all these methods.
Psychology is the basis for understanding your own soul. Metaphysics explains how and why things work the way they do. Science is a ladder, like a rose trellis supporting the soul as it reaches upward in ascension. Philosophy is the hook tethering you to absolute principle, and to mysticism, which explains the principles that serve as the foundation and framework of all that is—God and His Creation.
The Unchanging Word
Edna Lister outline, September 18, 1934, Buffalo, NY, John 1:1-5, John 1:14, Matthew 24:35
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”–John 1:1-5.
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”–John 1:14.
“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”–Matthew 24:35.
The nature of the Word is utterly impossible to define. You must “feel” your way into its heart. Is the mystical Word, a Word of syllables or of an inherent nature? The Word holds magical power. Fairy tales reveal the mystic realm, a magical world of fantasy, in which you may see things as you feel they ought to be.
In the realm of fact, you see things as they are in the earthly dimension of consciousness. The Word is that thought within, which is changeless, and conveys the facts: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”–Matthew 24:35.
Not one word shall pass away from what our Lord has spoken. Humanity has always displayed an unchangeable tendency toward using magic names, numbers and occult words. “Jesus the Christ” is such a magic name. His life is the story of man as he conquers self, the perfect template for soul ascension of consciousness.
John Fletcher, a playwright who co-authored with William Shakespeare, said,
Man is his own star; and the soul that can
Render an honest and a perfect man
Commands all light, all influence, all fate.
Nothing to him falls early, or too late.
Our acts our angels are, or good or ill,
Our fatal shadows that walk by us still.
That soul that can
Be honest is the only perfect man.
–John Fletcher, An Honest Man’s Fortune
The ancients taught that we live in a world comprised of four elements—earth, water, air, and fire, which symbolize the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual levels or worlds of consciousness. In the physical earth element phase, humanity is always digging for some material treasure. Earth is beguiling, fixing your attention on the law of gravity, not on God. When the soul is immersed in the emotional water element, man lives by the emotions and “feelings.” In the mental air element phase of development, science defines inspiration as breathing only. To the traveler in the realm of mysteries, inspiration is the lodestone of the soul’s truth. To live life in the spiritual fire element, man lives by the fiery truth of the soul:
You must climb to the fourth dimension of spirit, transcending time and space, to discover the true meaning of “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.”–John 1:1-2. Then you can comprehend that “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.”–John 1:14.
God has given man the power of speech, the ability to form the Word into many words. Unfortunately, not all our words have created only the good. Each time you have misused the Word, you have separated the principles of creation. You have torn Mind from Substance and Power, creating terrible force. In returning to God, your task then includes redeeming force, which is misused Power, to fuse it with Substance and Mind again. The difficulty you have created for yourself depends on the degree of force you have used.
The power of the Word lies in the facts the Word reveals, not in its syllables. Power is the heavenly fire animating the Word. John, the Gospel writer, referred to himself saying, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord.”–John 1:23. A Voice speaks the eternal Word. The voice today is man, who must speak the lost Word. You are that voice today, the Word clothed in flesh.
The Life Powerful
Edna Lister, September 21, 1934, Buffalo, NY, Job 22:25
To become “an expert in doing good” takes a long time. Thornton Wilder
How do you release that inner power and develop your talents? It’s not a question of where the Power is, but of what Power is. How can you release what you have from where you know you have it.
Scientists and inventors now have hundreds of new developments and inventions in laboratories, ready for when we are ready to use them. For example a “Little Black Box” that records what happens on airplanes is in the works.
Once you have accepted “all power and dominion,” the how to do it is what still confronts you. How to Release: Richard Mansfield
It makes no difference what you desire to do, you can do it if you invest ten minutes each day in exercising your talent and another ten minutes a day in study. Doing this repeatedly, you win the race as did the tortoise, who beat the hare in Aesop’s fable.
Too much time is the curse of the world. You always have plenty of time when you practice inner calm and approach life’s tasks just a little at a time. A Chinese proverb says that “a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” So you can become “an expert in doing good,” which will inevitably lead you to true prosperity. “The Almighty will be thy treasure and precious silver unto thee.”–Job 22:25.
Lectures 1934, Part III.
Metaphysics of Psychology
Edna Lister outline, September 24, 1934, Buffalo, NY
There is One God, One Mind, One Power, One Substance. Thus, the whole world is inter-related, the whole universe is inter-related. This means that just one choice of action can potentially affect else in the world. The vibration of all thoughts and of all words spoken in this instant permeates the atmosphere around earth within twenty-four hours. We are surrounded by thought, ours and others’. We cannot even think alone!
Everyone has witnessed how the disposition of one member can affect the whole family. If one person fears, it results in a roomful of fear. One cannot live like a hermit, alone and to one’s self. Everything is interrelated.
Psychology is like the trunk of a tree whose branches and roots are both physical and metaphysical, seen and unseen. The soul is a composite of appetitive soul (subconscious mind), rational soul (conscious mind), and Oversoul (superconscious mind).
Soul is Spirit manifesting its individuality within the composite world mind, which affects your consciousness whether you are aware of it doing so or not. That means that your consciousness bears the overlapping weight of all phases of your own mind, plus that of the world. You cannot sever your soul’s contact with this world mind, yet you can go higher in consciousness and remain psychologically complete and unaffected by it.
Psychology is “the study of the soul,” and has been a topic of discussion among many ancient Greek philosophers—Pythagoras, Socrates and Plato for example. Yet psychology as spoken of and as practised today has cut the soul out of the picture and classes man as an animal only—no God mentioned. We need more use of God’s law and Christian principles applied to psychology to deliver it from the barren waste of slavery to mere intellectualism. Only then will psychology be able to play its rightful role in healing the mind of man.
The Lord’s Prayer
Edna Lister outline, September 26, 1934, Buffalo, NY, Matthew 6:1-18
“Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
“For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.”–Matthew 6:1-18.
The Lord’s Prayer is a perfect formula, covering each phase of life and every human need. The needs of the now is the predominating idea. Yet what does God get from this? The seed is glorified in the flower. Yet God is glorified in your individual completeness and perfection. Everything the Father has works to your infinite benefit, and is available in limitless supply. Anyone who needs anything, “Let him ask of the Father.”
Prayer is the only way out of a confused condition. Under the law of forgiveness in prayer, you can break a vicious circle, and only the evil will be destroyed. Using prayer and declarations, you can lift everything that comes to you to a cloud continent of Light. Your life is an expansion and expression of I AM consciousness, an extension of your rational consciousness. How great an expression your life become is solely your choice.
An internal combustion engine uses gas, a steam engine uses coal, and an electric motor uses electricity as power. God has designed your body to burn the fuel of spiritual energy, which are cosmic rays. If you try to use the worldly energy of human emotions, you dissipate your vigor. The motive power of a “wicked, stiff-necked generation” is selfishness and greed, traits that produce only stiff necks. Spiritual Power has a refined force, potency, and strength.
Scripture says that the “Spirit of God created them,” meaning all mankind, and Elijah saved a boy when he “breathed into him health of life.” You must return to the spiritual filling station for more life. Your refill must be steady, not spasmodic. To keep your tank full, fill up every night with the right kind of Power. “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”–James 1:8. You need to be “minute-minded” in regard to God consciousness. Keep your feed line lifted and connected to the refined Power storehouse.
Fasting is the discontinuance of cheap mental and emotional fuels, which can cast you into a “den of thieves” who steal your energy. Going without food makes the body’s nervous system more “sensitive,” which generally means more irritated. Thus, negativity will seize the body if you are mentally and emotionally negative before you begin. Fast from negatives and whatever earthiness you have indulged that has robbed you of your innate divinity.
Prayer is the application of divine principle. Prayer is to the servant of divine principle what practice is to a musician. First, you must surrender to God in devotion, which is a process of sublimation, of perfecting the self. A successful singer, musician or dancer must practice constantly. Thus, you know that to be successful in prayer, you must “pray without ceasing.” The urge to prayer originates in the deepest longings of man’s nature. Prayer releases the hidden, inner manna that feeds the soul. A soul praying is like a musician playing a musical instrument.
You must overlook—look up over—the problem, step into the fourth dimension, and see God instead. The ancients believed that the gods loved prayers fervent enough to pull the answer down from heaven. Say, “God, here I am! I’m ready!” Most people let too many “little tin gods” of convention—like “you should” and “you ought to”—block the way of effective prayer.
Ordinary petition prayer is like going begging every time you want something. At the end of a day, most beggars have only small change to show for their efforts. For example, a doctor once told a woman, “There is no hope. Only God can save you.” She said, “Oh! Has it come to that?” Your true portion is all that the Father has.
You need miracles worth more than nickels, dimes, and quarters. Declare, “My portion is all that the Father has now, available for me to draw upon.” Speak the Lord’s Prayer through once, without letting go of God-consciousness, and you will receive complete illumination.
Prayer is the magic, and prayer is your luck. Prayer gives you the will to stand still long enough to “let” the Power move forth and create. Wisdom and strength belong to the brave heart. Declare that all delay is good, and a greater door will open.
The Life Victorious
Edna Lister outline, September 28, 1934, Buffalo, NY, Isaiah 59:19, Jeremiah 32:27
Arthur S. Brisbane
Yet, while we are perfecting our ability to produce anything we can think of, we have neglected distribution. You do not need to use your whole brain to get rich. For example, at Yale they have been experimenting with monkeys and apes, which they have taught to find food and go pay for it. Dr. Charles Abbot, at the Smithsonian Institute, has devised a machine that bakes bread. It provides ample heat in the morning to broil bacon and bake biscuits as well.
We are finding something new every day. So many new ideas are coming through daily, but people do not have enough help, or time to carry them out. Radio is a new invention, yet experts say they will revolutionize it within a few years.
A victorious life is not having power over anyone, anything, or any place, not money or success, not force or any single outer thing. A victorious life is rooted in a man’s confidence and pride in his own ability to create. He starts to create something. For instance, he may desire to lay the world at some woman’s feet, but loses sight of his ideals and allows things to absorb him, to own him, which will leave him unhappy, no matter his degree of success.
Only creating can satisfy the soul. Men are creating machinery to cool the air, turning barns and blacksmith shops into garages for mechanics, not farriers. You can see change everywhere, new growth, new Light. A victorious life grows from knowing that you are a victor, confident in your ability to create, to accomplish. You want to go somewhere. You are glorious, divine, so be fearless and go.
“When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.”–Isaiah 59:19. The enemy often comes in like a flood. The Israelites lived in a parched and arid land, cut by only a few rivers, subject to flash floods. Sufficient water was critical. A flash flood is immensely powerful and sweeps everything before it, leaving only barren destruction in its wake. A flood will level everything unless you raise a dike or a levee to contain its flow. Just so, you must lift up a standard against the enemy. A standard is a banner, an ensign symbolizing support, and it stands at the forefront of the battle line.
“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?”–Jeremiah 32:27. When God is your standard, no enemy can prevail. The Light, shining from your eyes when you remain at one with God, is your unbreachable levee.
Faith in Action
Edna Lister outline, October 3, 1934, Buffalo, NY, Matthew 14:22-33, Malachi 3:10, Luke 14:16-24
“Straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone. But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were in the ship came and worshiped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.”–Matthew 14:22-33.
“Prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”–Malachi 3:10.
“Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.”–Luke 14:16-24.
Fear is faith reversed. Every miracle comes “according to your faith.” Fear is your remaining belief in the negative. Faith is seeking possibilities, while knowing that you never waste any time. Jesus said, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”–Luke 12:32. This implies that God gets a thrill of real pleasure from His own creations.
Faith is a free gift from God. The kingdom of heaven is a free gift, but you must raise Hell to get it. Have you forgotten that you are God’s lifter? We have delayed His pleasure, and become the “lost sheep” that the Master descended to save. We have all experienced giving someone a gift, which they then received with indifference, and it is not pleasurable. The parable of the Great Supper (Luke 14:16-24) illustrates giving a gift and being met with indifference.
God must plan to contrive to sneak up on us, to entice us to take the whole “kingdom of heaven.” Yet, every time heaven catches up with you, you seem to dodge it, playing “keep away.” Some souls have dodged so often that they have become experts at dodging. You need only to reach out your hand, and heaven is right there. Spread your arms, physically and mentally, and expand your mind. Faith is an expansive idea. Just as a piano has little value if no one is playing it, faith is useless if you do not exercise it. Possessions are useless unless you can use them.
The world judges a man’s worth by the material value of his assets. Your only valuable heavenly asset is your faith, which determines how much you can have of anything else. If you choke off your faith, you shut down your supply line. Your only enemies are your thoughts that run counter to the supreme faith of God.
The hand symbolizes the body’s working principle as faith symbolizes the mind’s working principle. Imagination works as the forming principle of mind. The finished work of imagination is judgment, which is the retarding principle of man’s life. Ideas such as “I’m too old, too weak, too late,” stop all expansion and growth. People say, “He’s gone to seed.” Every plant goes to seed before it dies! Old age means that the body has gone to seed. Seedy things are hard-shelled. Defend your faith and avoid anyone who tries to destroy it, for faith-killers display the lowest type of mentality.
People are the most egotistical when they are doubting, setting up their own opinions as false gods and worshiping them. Yet you cannot be egotistical when you are accepting truth. Acceptance cancels egotism and arrogance. God calls you good. He has said that you are gods, so accepting this is not egotistical. God is your Father. Declare, “I know I can do anything for my Dad. I can do all things through Christ.”
Disbelief creates an absence of Spirit and a vacancy of mind, no matter what your mentality or attainments. However, if you constantly embrace your faith within, your faith’s magnitude becomes majestic. Peter, who represents faith, was the first disciple called, and the first to recognize the real Christ. Let no one rob you of your faith, but defend it as your companion of soul.
Daringly Peter crawled out of the boat and got his feet wet. Yet, when the physical called, he suffered cold feet from a lack of enough daring faith. You can cast yourself out, but first you must climb out of the boat! Take small risks on little things first, and remember that many small miracles make up a large miracle. Faith is the miracle gateway, for faith controls the portals of your mind.
“Prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”–Malachi 3:10. God dares, so dare to surrender, and risk everything, without weighing the matter, or judging the pros and cons. Climb out, and take a chance now!
God the Absolute
Edna Lister outline, October 5, 1934, Buffalo, NY
Omni- is a prefix meaning “all, of all things, in all ways, in all places.” God is omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent, and is absolute in these aspects. Omniscient refers to knowledge, wisdom, and mind. Omnipresent refers to God’s presence as all Mind, all Power, and as all Substance. Omnipotent refers to God as all Power. Omnifarious means of all sorts. Omnific means all-creating. Omnigenous means of all kinds.
Omnipotent is defined as “the infinite, limitless, endless Power of God everywhere evenly present and available, without beginning, without end.” So omnipotently means with absolute influence.
“And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.”–Isaiah 65:24. Before you even speak to God in prayer, He hears you. Write a mental letter now to each earthly creditor, paying your debt in full. Send mental letters to those who owe you, saying, “Thank you for the repayment.”
Omniscient is defined as “the infinite knowledge of God, wide information, all knowledge.” Omnipresent is defined as “ubiquitous, widespread, all-present.” Ubiquity is omnipresence, being everywhere at same time. Law is all over the kingdom, everywhere at once. A king is a form of judge. You represent God as the all-pervading ubiquity of the king.
Omniscient refers to knowledge, wisdom, and mind. Omnipotent refers to Power. Omnipresent refers to God’s presence. Mind, Power, Substance. Omnifarious means of all sorts. Omnific means all-creating. Omnigenous means of all kinds.
Deific means like God. To deify means to make a god of, to make godlike, to regard as a god. If God is everywhere, then all things are here now. God is all substance, even as money. Write letters saying Dear Sir, enclosed find my check for $… then put it in your Bible and ask God to supply your need.
Do you need it now? What shall you do? How shall you act? All that the Father has is yours as part of your Godly heritage. If you obey the laws He has given you, be assured that you may call upon Him in your time of need and He will answer.
Imagination or Imaginitis?
Edna Lister outline, October 10, 1934, Buffalo, NY
The freeing action is the cooling action. The freeing presence of the kingdom of heaven moves through you freeing, equalizing, cooling the fever of self, and harmonizing your whole life. You experience the presence of the kingdom through the silence, and in this you know the Christ principle, and the presence of the Father. You may know the presence of the agreement within you through the balance of Mind, Substance, Power and the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual alignment that results.
Imagination is a “River of Illusion,” which collects all the mistaken ideas moving over “the face of the waters,” the inner sensorium of the brain. Mentally, you follow action according to a blueprint, a negative. You can see the reflection of the blueprint without a movie projector or screen because Light projects the pattern into your mind. If you believe, so it is, and this applies to anything. Imagination produces all illusions and nighttime fears, causing you to experience all the same old emotions.
Imagination plays tricks on the mind as if its images were true. You must learn to “outsmart the trickster.” Imagination determines the world’s ideas of truth and reality, and unfolded, you may not like them. Do not blame anyone who tricks you with their belief in the illusions, but do make wise choices. Imagination is the foundation of all accomplishments in your experience. The pattern either sustains growth and expansion or perverts and prevents growth.
A Confederate soldier in the Civil War found an iron frying pan, but it wouldn’t fit into his pack, so he stuck the handle down his trouser leg, with the pan over his middle. The enemy was firing at him down hill, and his comrades were falling around him on every side. Bang! He was hit in the frying pan! His courage, bravery and tenacity made him lead the charge uphill to victory. He felt blood oozing between his toes and fell fainting, thinking he was dead. He came to and realized that his imagination had believed the bullet had put a hole in the frying pan.
When your job is gone, you have no income, you fear you’ll lose your home, and you’ll starve. Imagination follows this sequence as the scenes play out in a movie. Inevitably, imagination must work it out in pictures. If you permit this, your mind will follow the wrong logic chain, perfectly. Pictures follow the faulty logic of worry, too.
God created me, and He creates a perfect place for everything that He makes perfect. An idea needs substance to clothe itself. Henry Ford planned a place with Fords for his Fords. God planned a place for you. Everyone has his proper place in the universe. Declare, “The mind that was in Christ Jesus now moves me into my perfect place.”
What do you still desire? To win, life, love? To grow into the stature of Christ, you must chisel away all false ideas and concepts. If your imagination is cunning genius, you have the power of 10,000 spies. A doctor was quoted in a newspaper that 50% of meningitis is imaginitis. The whole creative process is perverted when you see the other fellow’s business or the world’s business before you see your own business.
Imagine two gardens, one filled with flowers, the other with weeds. Life is a process and death is the conclusion. Yet life must go on. You must be steadfast, and invincible. Following your destiny is perfect. Never settle down. Settle up! Take flights of imagination into the realm of life and Light, the land of reality, of things as they are, not as they appear to be. Life’s switch is on, and life cannot be thwarted or stopped. You must go ahead even though you have to leave the body behind, you must live. A streamlined body is built for speed and endurance. The destiny of life is above the world.
Whose Will?
Edna Lister outline, October 17, 1934, Buffalo, NY
The question of “will” involves not one but at least two kinds of will, that of the creature and also of the creator. A creature lives a three-dimensional life, ruled by instinctive intelligence and desire, centered on food, sleep and mating. Some species of animals among the dogs, horses and elephants seem to function more closely to the creator stage.
A true creator has a conscious desire, which operates through him as love, and conscious intelligence which operates through his will and developed intellect as wisdom. Without a developed intellect, creatures, even humans, are but crude and cunning creatures. Yet a too highly refined intellect can breed clever cruelty unless the soul uses the higher faculties.
God, the universal Creator, has given man the potential for perfection of the faculties, glands, nerve centers He has given us to develop as Love, Wisdom and Selflessness. You must “listen” to God with your brain cells to use Wisdom. Mere hearing without listening produces a use of personal will that may result in headaches.
The second step in developing your will power is choosing between the desirable and undesirable uses of your will. Jesus revealed the perfect method of applying your personal will when he said to the leper, “I will; be thou clean.”–Mark 1:41. He said, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.”–Luke 22:42.
A dictator says, “I will”—“I will do. I will have what I want. I will do the thing I have always wanted to do.” The creator knows that to bring the desires of your soul into manifestation, you must surrender your personal will to become God’s will for you. Thus, the creator says, “I am now the thing I have always longed to be and to do.”
Use rightly-ramed statements of intention to arouse your inner soul powers to direct self to operate in a certain direction. An aroused will is your first need. You need to select the right path, and find out where you are going. Find out who is going, I AM or little me. To avoid any perversion of the Power, concentrate all your attention and energy on one thing at a time, saying, “This one thing I do.”
Finally, you must accept your soul’s divinity. “I am become rich: I have found me out substance.”–Hosea 12:8. If you have to become rich some day, why not accept it now? Select a new approach to life, road to health, a path to walk. “I am rich. I can select a new way of walking through life, with a crown on my head.”
Jesus used the best of everything. Letting Power move through everything is easier than limiting it to just one place or person. Treating for the whole body, the whole family is easier than for an eye or a son. It’s easier to treat for $10,000,000 than ten cents. You have no more time to use self-centered will constantly, or to expect a miracle to result from mere concentration. It is blasphemy against God to think that anyone or anything can limit His will.
A child takes his father a broken toy and asks him to fix it, expecting all good things from the father whom he loves and in whom he has faith of perfect performance. His father says, “I will,” then either acts according to his word or doesn’t. If, having said, “I will,” the father then fails to mend the broken toy, he adulterates his son’s processes of expectation, thinking, and believing in faith as an adult. A child’s character development is all-important, so make sure that everything you say when he asks is designed to lead him up and further into the kingdom of God.
Active submission to God’s will is active surrender of the self. You are always submitting, either to the world or to God. You are always the servant of something. Use the dumbbells of life as exercise tools rather than letting them exercise you. Exercising your free will foolishly or unwisely can put you in deep bondage. When you must choose, exercise your will to gain freedom from false appetites, false prophets, and base-metal friendships.
What can possibly defeat the great Creative Impulse? Only self and only for a limited time. When you will to do, you are doing, not trying. Do not insist on believing in old age, illness, or weakness. Instead, ask yourself, What am I going to do about this? Then pray. Prayer is always the first step.
Jesus Christ, Son of God
Edna Lister outline, October 19, 1934, Buffalo, NY
The throne of God’s dominion is that image in every cell of life that works toward perfection. Man’s use of mind (thoughts, pictures, and emotions), or elements work upon and pervert the divine idea.
| Father | Mother | Son |
|---|---|---|
| Wisdom | Love | Selflessness |
| Beginner | Sustainer | Expression |
| Mind | Life | Speech |
The throne in man is the Universal Christ consciousness, overcoming the idea of death here in the physical world through ascension of consciousness. Christ is the Way-Shower for all men. You are made in the divine image according to a perfect pattern.
Righteous Judgment
Edna Lister outline, October 24, 1934, Buffalo, NY
“And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”–Luke 18:1-8.
“Judge not lest ye be judged.”–Matthew 7:1.
Your soul is forever at a spiritual crossroads. You engage in the study of self, the study of your past life, choosing this day whom you will serve. To your conscious mind, this seems right today, but your subconscious is usually locked up in wrong judgments, fixed opinions, emotions, and prejudices, or demanding “justice” for some imagined or inflated wrongs—in short, in bondage to the world.
When someone questions you, are you always eager to have your say, without being questioned? Are you still eager to tell what you feel, always ready to go on record? Are you a wise judge of life’s facts?
Searching for all the facts is more profitable than jumping to conclusions. The conclusions will always unfold from the facts. A lawyer gathers the facts and evidence to produce only one outcome, a favorable verdict for his client, which may or may not be the truth. A wise judge holds an open mind, heeding no knowledge gained from gossip, and engages in balanced thinking, and comparison of the facts in hand.
Hard or unrighteous judgments create a hard face. Kindly, loving judgments create a kindly face. “Judge not lest ye be judged.”–Matthew 7:1. You may judge behavior, but not a soul. Really, you can only judge your self, so to confine yourself to yourself is best. You may not tell others how to run their lives until you look the part, act the part, and are perfect yourself.
Rub truth on self like an old-fashioned liniment on your muscles. Then let the truth fumes emanate. Searching for facts is more profitable than jumping to conclusions. The conclusions logically unfold from the facts when you have gathered them all.
Judgment Day will come soon enough, and worrying about. Many people fear the judgment. Yet the precursor to the final judgment is the day you begin going to seed, which means that you stop growing—you either expand backward into elemental parts or forward into greater magnitudes of glory. On Judgment Day your own judgments will fulfill themselves in you. You must make each day a judgment day. The seat of judgment is a point in mind where you reach your conclusion—whether rational, or opinion and prejudice.
Chaff is destined for the fires of Hell. Give up self’s false judgments to be made perfect. Unless you give up the chaff of self to be burned, you will be forced to sacrifice your body. For example, one temperance reformer drank eighteen cups of coffee a day, until it dissipated his body. He had consumed more poison than a dozen drinkers.
When lifted, the soul reaches beyond the stratosphere, into heaven. Thus, you are an explorer of the unknown dimensions. As a nation, we are spiritual explorers, leading the world to a Christed government. We bear the message of a new Gospel now, written in our hearts now. As the Shunammite woman, we may say, “It is well with me now,” despite any experience or obstacle that life produces. [See The Story of Elisha and the Shunammite Woman, 2 Kings 4:8-37.]
The Holy Spirit
Edna Lister outline, October 26, 1934, Buffalo, NY
The Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of truth, the Comforter baptizes the universe, baptizes man. How? What with? The thoughts of God. Perpetually permanent and continuous.
To establish is defined as “to set up on a permanent basis, to secure permanence, permanent acceptance, to place beyond dispute.” This establishes Divine law, Power, dominion, authority. Do you give away your power? How? To little things you admit into your house, give room to in your consciousness until you feel that you are holding up the sky and running the universe. This leads to a loss of faith. Playing God is hard work. All you can do is to play at it. Power is no external thing. All power, all dominion, all authority is given to man on earth.
Remaining Free
Edna Lister outline, October 31, 1934, Buffalo, NY
The typical idea of freedom is to have all we want, what we want, where we want it, and naturally we dislike all restraint. Freedom comes through definite understanding and obedience to all law. Understanding that there are many laws governing each plane frees you from ignorance.
Relationship is explained thus: Law attempts to define the relation of elements to each other, and their behavior toward each other. Law is not relationship; Law governs relationship. Einstein’s parting message upon leaving America was, “We scientists know practically nothing.”
Governing laws are not stationary. God Himself is forever evolving and expanding. We must go beyond the law governing the behavior of matter to the Source. Psychology and metaphysics deal with thoughts of “mind over matter.” All ideas of limitation find their source in thoughts of matter over mind. Most people believe in “mind over matter” sometimes.
We must go beyond the laws of mind to the laws of Spirit. We are each governed by laws according to our sphere of life. No two come together under exactly the same laws. We cannot be confined. We must move out into the spiritual realm. The law of Spirit must be Christ law, the laws of the Christian who knows of the Christ laws of the “Christed One” who has become a Christ.
“As a man thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7) is given as a law, but is only a statement of present facts, a revelation of what you now are. It is the point where you become conscious of your fundamental relationship to the Source.
Science is the source of the law that the “sum of the parts is equal to the whole.” The law governing the relationship of a part to the whole will govern and control the relationship of part to part.
The trinity of Love, Wisdom, and Selflessness begets surrender, expansion and protection when used perfectly. You are governed by the laws pertaining to the degree of your absorption into the heart of God’s life.
Surrender to law creates freedom, and love becomes the point of attachment. This admits no pretense or pose. The soul who adopts a pose is one who thinks he is acting as if he were, but is absorbed in self. When you are truly loving, you are absorbed in God.
You must rise out of personal consciousness into universal consciousness. You become free through bestowing freedom. The Christ in me salutes the Christ in you and you are free. I can please everyone in the world by pleasing God.
Why do you need freedom? What do you need it for? To hurry to get through day’s work to sleep more? Or a wisely planned life to get all there is out of it and to get exactly enough. Freedom to selfishly do as I please, or freedom to please as I do?
Freedom from the idea of having to hurry, redeeming time, not saving time. Poised freedom that goes from thing to thing without waste of time of effort. The eagle epitomizes poised, effortless flight. Do you accuse a deer of hurrying? It displays a natural, bounding, graceful, untrammeled freedom. In the heart of God’s life, everything moves faster at a higher rate of vibration of Light and life; thus, your life speeds up day after day.
Each new freedom won becomes a form of bondage as you ascend. Unless you have a greater goal ahead you will become bored, ruled by shadows of your own making. Although strong winds may blow, travel straight, and dance your way through! Don’t stumble, or leave any obstacle in another man’s path.
Soul Supremacy
Edna Lister outline, November 2, 1934, Buffalo, NY
Supreme means the highest in rank or authority. Supremacy the highest station of power, or authority, such as the Crown of All. Eternity is defined as “duration or continuance without beginning or end.” Supremacy is the soul’s objective. “Objective” certainty is when the proposition is certainly true in itself; and subjective, when we are certain of the truth of it. The one is in things, the other in our minds. An objective is a point to be gained, something to be achieved, something to be conquered, something to be earned, which you gain by overcoming.
We came forth from the Source of all Light on an arc of involution from Wisdom, Love, and the Logos, the Word. Soul evolution takes us back to God, into the invisible, which will then be visible to us. On earth, we are regaining access to all invisible worlds through our self-conquering actions.
Middle age falls between ages 40 to 60. By then, you know who you are, what your weaknesses are, all your strengths, and where to work. You have learned to be strict with yourself, and lenient with others. Youth is eager, uncertain, eager but untried. Poise is serenity without passivity, a state in which you may serve and work without strain. Thoughts of confusion and rest negatively affect the heart.
You are a radiant being of Light. Light describes both radiance and weight. Supreme Light melts and lifts heaviness. You do not need to hurry, for Light will speed you up, while you rest up. A dynamo needs to run for only a short period to generate the power required for an entire day. Light lifts you from action to action, in divine activity.
Let’s be eternally youthful in a good way—strict with ourselves, lenient with others, not playing God but blessing all. In ascension we know no such thing as “letting down.” So, unfurl your parachute to generate the divine Power for your activity, hour to hour, to be lifted high at night. Let go of the weight. Let up your parachute! Declare, “I arise, I shine, I float, I ascend.”
Attaining the Silence
Edna Lister outline, November 7, 1934, Buffalo, NY, John 1:1-14
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”–John 1:1-14.
You are the Word made flesh, the spiritual Word. Tending the Word means growth, expansion and expression. You begin by training the outer mind of intellect to grasp the meaning of outer words, and the inner mind to see through you and as you spiritually, by letting it do so.
To attain the silence, you must expand your nature or ability to grasp as your means of attainment. The keynote is attainment through silence. This is a personal accomplishment, which begins after you cease outer movement. The silence is cessation of all outer movement. Yet you cannot stop living or make your mind a blank, which really is a form of death. An old adage says that bats always fly into empty belfries.
People who do not pay attention stop one moment to begin another task, then give that up to begin yet another. Some people pay attention to pain. Rather than giving it up before going to bed at night, they crank it up in the morning. You need to give up the pain before you take it anywhere. Heart trouble, goiter, diabetes, all become worse when you are paying attention to them. At this point, you should be minding your own business, which is not encouraging pain. Mind your own business of ascension.
Sustained attention to the good means new discovery. Sustained, continuous attention to the good brings revelation, training the outer mind, and the inner spiritual seeing. Sustained and continuous expectancy of revelation means attainment of that revelation in reality. In truth, you have only one sense, seeing. When asked to describe a fragrance, most people say, “I see.” When you tell about some condition, they say, “I see,” never, “I know.”
The keynote of the silence is attention. The quality of the silence you attain corresponds to your degree of attention. Your degree of interest determines your attention. You must be interested in God while you are in the silence. The silence is the simplest operation of which you are capable, and you can attain it. While the silence is a time when you may not talk, keep your eyes to the front, knowing and remembering who you are. This requires your sustained attention. Make the silence your glorious hour, a time when you receive the divine revelations your soul must know and heed.
You are a being of Light, but with your wings furled, you cannot fly from crag to crag. Even an eaglet learns to fly, just like any lowly sparrow. In the silence, you strengthen your wings for the wondrous soul flights to come.
The Twelve Disciples
Edna Lister outline, November 9, 1934, Buffalo, NY
In one sense Jesus’ twelve disciples symbolize the twelve cosmic divisions of the universe, the twelve divisions of the zodiac, called the signs or houses, the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve divisions of the great pyramid at Giza, and the twelve nerve plexus centers and endocrine glands combined. By extension, the disciples also represent the 24 elders of the Book of the Revelation (4:6 and 15:2), the enthroned sons and daughters who cast down their crowns in their constant worship of God.
Peter represents the rock of faith, and the throat from whence you release Power through the Words you voice. Paul represents zeal for serving God together with overcoming selfish desire and will. James represents good judgment, having overcome opinions and prejudices. Matthew represents the faculty of ascended will, operating as the seat of control. John represents love, purified in its desires for the loved ones.
You cannot expect to get good results by sitting and concentrating on the centers in body to develop them. When you are seeking Light, you develop all centers spontaneously through the zeal of your focus on God. Jesus chose his disciples and apostles because they were ordinary men and women who had lived in the common way, were eager to hear what he taught, and grew into teachers themselves. They had no special qualifications, but Jesus knew that the educated ones were hard to teach because they already knew it all or so they thought.
Twelve great powers are concentrated in one flame of divine fire. As the fire goes forth it quenches the physical fire of appetitive soul; the inherent twelve powers separate and do God’s perfect work.
By contrast, belief in the world and the outer creative fire eats up your soul’s investiture in the body until little or nothing of your soul’s wisdom remains. The divine fire of Spirit consumes the outer conflagration of selfishness, which nothing else can melt or dissolve. It’s like illumining a dark hallway by opening a door to Light.
The Greater Knowledge
Edna Lister outline, November 14, 1934, Buffalo, NY
Noah Webster said that knowledge is “A clear and certain perception of that which exists, or of truth and fact.” He further added that “We can have no knowledge of that which does not exist. God has a perfect knowledge of all his works. Human knowledge is very limited, and is mostly gained by observation and experience.” You gain knowledge by gathering outer facts, practical and theoretical. Sometimes you may touch true knowledge, sometimes it evades you, but you can’t tell what knowledge is if you don’t know it; unrecognized, it just fades away, quickly becoming indistinct.
Where does knowledge come from? God is everywhere evenly present and available, so knowledge is right here, right now. You need go to no other state of consciousness or another place beside the practical world of facts. If you seek the knowledge of wisdom in things or in people, your search will mislead you. If you seek the truth in books, you focus the vision of your mystic eyes of mind outside yourself, but the fountain of contact is within you.
You have a broadcasting and receiving set in your head. You receive worldly vibrations through the solar plexus, but the wisdom vibration comes through the brain equipment in your head. Your brain centers must translate the world vibration. Mind is everywhere and your access to it is through that mind which was in Christ Jesus. Seek within the mind of Christ, which you already have, by looking up in consciousness, and remember that up is also “everywhere.”
You will find the world’s ideas everywhere, as common as dust, but the Christ ideas are within your mind just above where you commonly look, just beyond your conscious memory. If you keep the Christ ideas bottled up within, you eventually experience a blowout. Spirit holds the Christ mind, but spirit must expand to serve your soul. “Hell” is losing sight of and falling from the truth of Being. The first real sin is forgetting this truth.
Practice these three points: 1. “Look unto me, be ye saved.”–Isaiah 45:22. The Light does everything, of myself, I can do nothing. Power uses me as its instrument or mouthpiece for speaking the Word.
2. “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done.”–Matthew 18:19. When you are in agreement with the law of perfection, “it shall be done.” Disagreement creates disintegration. Am I the person I seem to be (little me), or the person I’d like to be now, the great I AM.
3. “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”–Matthew 7:21. It’s not enough to acknowledge the Lord or Law. “Faith without works is dead.”–James 2:26.
The glory slaves of Light are rulers, servants of all Power. The Elect slave twenty-four hours a day, with no time off. Individually, you must practice agreement with God and adjustment to man to release Power. Just as you tune a piano or auto engine, you must expect that Light shall tune your soul with law. Become fascinated with Light.
Christ knew how perfect we could be and told us we would do the “greater works” that he had done and greater works than those. Your degree of mystical contact is perfect right now. Look for your inner divinity within the Christ mind, not in books, things, techniques, or teachers. Teachers may show you the way, but truth and wisdom must be lived. Let yourself be possessed by God’s Power, by Light. “Be still and know that I am God.”
God is Spirit
Edna Lister outline, November 16, 1934, Buffalo, NY, Luke 6:38, Proverbs 18:16
“Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”–Luke 6:38.
God is Spirit. God, as Spirit, is first invisible, non-manifest, then visible and fully manifest. The Holy Spirit is the Christed breath of life that filled Jesus. God, as Spirit, is everywhere evenly present and available. Now ask yourself, What do I really want?
“A man’s gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men.”–Proverbs 18:16. A man’s gift may also become his cross, and bring all his lessons. A man’s gift must be unfolded just as you unwrap a birthday present; God does not give a gift that is already fully formed. You must use your gift to give it form, and the best way is by giving.
“Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”–Luke 6:38. What? When? Where?
Would you like to know how to adopt a miracle? Give of God’s invisible substance. You do not need to see it in form. Just fill any void places with a handful of fiery substance from the cosmic aether.
The other fellow molds his own form while you furnish the prayer substance to fill it. Allow each to build his own form. Give freely of life’s flowers, beauty, and goodness. Give freely of this invisible substance of fiery Spirit. Giving is a miracle; receiving is another miracle, but you attain soul freedom only through selfless giving.
Knowing the Unknown
Edna Lister outline, November 22, 1934, Buffalo, NY, Acts 17:22-31
“Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.”–Acts 17:22-31.
You must use intuition righteously, but super-sensitivity masquerading as intuition is misuse. “They should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us.”–Acts 17:26. You may contact true intuition only in the silence. A hunch is the subconscious extending mental “feelers” to predict the stock market, play the horses at the racetrack, read minds, etc. They “seek God that haply” they might ‘feel’ Him and ‘see’ Him. Wanting God, many seek a guru, but they are really are searching for God.
Every soul is a genius in some field. You are all experts at doing something—some in this world are expert at avoiding work or expert in excuse-finding. Too many are specialists in poverty and disease. A wise man once said, “If you want to know a person’s genius, listen to his line of talk.” You are radiant with genius, yet your use of silence is the parting of the way toward success or failure. Using the silence to commune with God marks a life-changing turning point.
Consider this: You cannot be an expert job holder and an expert job hunter at the same time. Let go of the job you do not have, and apply yourself to your present place. Let your Light so shine!
But remember, you cannot take a question into the silence with you, or you will have no room for the answer. Let go of the questions of why and how. That’s God’s business. Quit chasing shadows. Quit chasing darkness. Quit chasing things. Quit chasing petty and selfish desires. Start chasing the Joy way!
Divine Intelligence
Edna Lister outline, November 23, 1934, Buffalo, NY, John 20:17, John 10:30, Luke 12:15
“Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.”–John 20:17.
“I and my Father are one.”–John 10:30.
“And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.”–Luke 12:15.
The Mind of God separates the atom and brings it together again by the same creative device: intelligence. Intelligence is instinctive in the animal, but is knowledge and intellect in man. From the atom to the Creator, the Divine is constantly flooding the world with Light.
Munitions experts and war mongers use the Light of divine Mind to create air ships and battle ships to destroy cities and lives. It’s time for us to turn up the floodlights; otherwise you cannot see the evil, for it is dark to the eye.
The battle is in every man and woman—between the higher rational soul and the lower appetitive soul, which destroys life in order to exist in its own mindless way. Power and dominion rightly belong to an inner group, the Elect, who use Light for the good of all mankind, not its destruction.
Jesus taught us how to know God. For example, Mary Magdalene tarried at the empty tomb after the other disciples had gone. Jesus appeared and said to her, “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.”–John 20:17.
“I and my Father are one.”–John 10:30. You are like your Father now, in spirit and in truth. Spirit is a flame of life and Light. Quickened into anger, it can become blazing hate, when it should be the blazing flame of divine glory.
Our original estate is a prospering consciousness. What is that? “And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.”–Luke 12:15. Life consists not in the abundance of material possessions or riches, but in that rich consciousness of God’s Power and your own soul’s dominion.
Self-skepticism is disbelief in dwelling in the self, rendering you unable to think the thing through, or to be the thing. The subconscious mind is full of fear, and doubts even while he conscious mind says, “I think I am. I hope I am. I try to be. I try to do.” Yet, if you just “think” you are doing, you never buckle down to doing and being. Be life, as a light ray. Do and dare.
“Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.”–Matthew 19:26. When you cling to God as your rock of refuge, all things are possible.
Revelation in the Silence
Edna Lister, November 28, 1934, Buffalo, NY, Psalm 46:10, 1 John 4:8, Malachi 3:10
“Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.”–Psalm 46:10.
“He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”–1 John 4:8.
“Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”–Malachi 3:10.
Revelation means “to reveal, to make clear.” All revelation comes through the silence. What you see depends upon what you are seeking or asking, and why you want revelations. Do you want to be greater than anyone else? To know more than anyone else? To make more than anyone else? To have more than anyone else? Or to be a greater servant of all the Power? You gain what you seek, so choose your line of progress with care. Some folks grow weak and ill. Some folks grow strong, grand and glorious. Where you are now is the right place.
Revelation is Light coming through as the answer. Revelation releases Light and Power: The Light brings added things. You can have real revelations only through the silence. Thank God for the small, the faint, and the large revelations. You need only one thing, Light, so be still and receive the answer in the silence.
The first revelation is about the nature of God, the second is about the nature of man, and the third revelation concerns the relationship of man to God. All revelation deals with this, knowing, silent, powerful, presence of God. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all things shall be added unto you.”–Matthew 6:33.
A woman once was required to pay $1000.00 to a man she detested; she paid him, although resentfully. Before taking an ocean voyage, she received a cable from him, reading, “God is love.” She was indignant and kept thinking, “The idea!” What happened then was miraculous indeed: While on the ship in the middle of the ocean, she finally “got it.” The money she paid had released the power of love to fill her.
Another example is the man who went to a spiritual retreat to study with Masters from Tibet. He was all ready to start, eager to have information imparted to him, like Christmas ornaments hung on a tree from the outside. The first morning, the teacher told him, “Go sit on that little knoll and meditate on the presence of God.” He went to the hill and sat an hour and a half, distressed, but “endured” the rest of day. The next morning, the teacher again said, “Go to the little knoll and meditate on omnipresence of God.” The man refused to be made a fool of while others watched, but he finally went three hours later.
In the third lesson, the teacher said, “Go up and meditate.” Disgusted, the man went and sat there, wondering why folks even came to the retreat, wondering what they got from it, how they got it, and from where. He became lost in thought and sat on the hill, forgetting everything else for twenty-four hours; he ate no meals, and had no sleep. When he returned from the hill, he was radiant of face and transfigured.
In the silence, alone, when you are aware of nothing but God, you receive your private lessons with God. Creatures and the primitive children of men are disappearing, and the creator gods are coming. When you believe only in God, the world will be filled with only creator gods. Ponder this in your heart, until you are alive with the life of God. The woman dwelt upon “God is love.” The man pondered the presence, and both received a revelation in the silence.
Let go of everything else for that one revelation, for it is worth it. “Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”–Malachi 3:10.
Aim not to disprove, but to prove God. Then you will hear, “Come and see.”—“And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.”–Revelation 6:1.
Original Authority
Edna Lister, November 30, 1934, Buffalo, NY
Who is man? What are thoughts? What are emotions? What are the pictures of imagination? Original authority is “the initial, innate, earliest, existent from the first.” Original means “creative, inventive, pattern, design, thinking or acting for oneself, not derivative, dependent, first hand.”
Authority is the power to enforce obedience or the right. Authoritative is commanding, imperative, possessing authority, proceeding from competent authority, a lawful exercise or practice, a correct proceeding under exact scientific procedure, which produces the same result each time when the thing becomes a law. To harmonize means “to make harmonious ease, light, comfort and accord.”
The "Path of Spirit revealed" is your idea, your thought of the path now. You do your own revealing. Lift into Light all you possess. Need and supply, the two ends must be welded together. Power melts ice and also welds metal when you apply it. Let Power use you as supreme authority.
Command of Earthly Powers
Edna Lister, December 1, 1934, Buffalo, NY, Mark 4:35-41
“And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side. And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”–Mark 4:35-41.
The Master’s rebuke to the tempest was, “Peace, be still,” which illustrates power over the forces that can destroy. The situation remains dangerous until you can release enough Power and have the steadfast faith and understanding to direct and control the resulting disintegration.
Under the cyclic law of action and reaction, everyone is granted the opportunity to step up in consciousness and take higher initiations. Some fail while others pass quickly. Yet no one really loses, for all gain strength in love and Light, and another opportunity will be offered.
However, the one who commands Power without the requisite and corresponding understanding runs the very real risk of destroying himself. Also, one who takes credit for such a release of Power will create the reaction of a debt of force.
Your only full protection comes through “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”–Matthew 6:10. You must remain in complete obedience to God’s commands to withhold or to give.
You may not let go for an instant or you force a debt to be paid to the law. Your faithfulness shall lead you to hear the Master say, "Today shalt thou sup with me in paradise."
Problems or Opportunities?
Edna Lister, December 5, 1934, Buffalo, NY, Matthew 16:21-27, Hosea 12:8
“From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.”–Matthew 16:21-27.
What is a problem? Loads of folks say there is no such thing. A problem is a situation you’ve produced with your own thinking, emotions, and imagination. If you insist on living with a problem, insist on taking it to bed, insist on taking it to work, insist on taking it to play, insist on taking it out to exercise it, the problem will thrive.
Since whatever you think is done in silence, you are in silence with the problem. As long as you are conscious of the problem, you feed it. When you shut off its food, it grows weak.
Christ told the devil, who was using Peter to tempt him, “Get behind me Satan.” Keep your eyes on the Light. Be absorbed by the Light.
The idea that “I must be free!” is an indication of feeling a sense of bondage. Since no one can bind you, you must be binding yourself. You glue yourself together with the idea.
You give yourself to be plastered with Christmas seals and stickers. Yet when the next storm comes, they wash off.
Freedom from problems is the “natural” result of knowing truth. Truth is the sum total of facts and processes as they exist, move and have their being as stated in principle. Truth about life is the sum total of facts and processes as you find them in life.
The truth of principle is life as God knows life. You must know life as it is in God. How is life in God? You see the evidence in the inevitable, invincible, limitless, Substance, Power, and Mind of God touching you as ideas. Like a vacuum cleaner, you gather in all the experiences of life. “I am become rich. I have found me out substance.”–Hosea 12:8.
Go to heaven voluntarily or life will kick you into it eventually. If you have to know first, you will never arrive. Knowing first is impossible. You must seek first, which is possible Let go of the problem entirely. Do not care about it. Love the Light, the Power. Love God.
Understanding is inevitable in the Light. You will have glory to spare when you declare, “This is good. Let there be Light.”
Multitudes of Possibilities
Edna Lister, December 13, 1934, Buffalo, NY, Matthew 16:23-25
Life on earth is filled with a multitude of possibilities, but possibilities of what kind? In general, people want a good life with the power to do as they wish and the financial substance and wherewithal to do so. You need certain attitudes to attain all this: You must be a creator, a conqueror, and an ambassador. You will need sufficient strength, but how much? How strong will you need to be? Are you willing to be the strongest in your family right now? What kind or form of strength do you need, or want? What form will your desires take? This is the finite level where you must be specific about your life, your affairs, and your development, the “I-me-my-mine” of you.
Use your time in the silence as the place of revelation where you rediscover your own divinity of soul and define the burdens of the self. You can remember everything you have ever experienced from the beginning of time, from the moment God made you. Yet if you only hold onto the ugly part of the past, with its mistakes and transgressions, you cheat yourself of your soul’s glory. Then you have only a meaningless cipher, and see yourself as “a zero, having no influence or value; a nonentity” saying, “I am nothing but this old mess.” Holding fast to sin is believing “I am nothing” or “I am weak. I am unable.” A cipher is also a “key to a secret message.” To decipher the soul message within you, you must transmute the failure idea into “I am able to do all things now through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
What you see with your physical eyes acts upon and affects what you think and imagine. Intuition is seeing with the eyes of mind. Change your gloomy view to the Light of pure intuition, which is glorious and superb. Letting your senses run riot hither and thither around in the outer leads to a blah conglomeration of confusion. Strengthen your physical and spiritual visual faculties. See your empty wallet or purse filled with large denomination bills. When you see lack, your sense of soul vision has sprung a leak and your good sense, your common sense runs out. Look into the heart of truth and be invincible!
Mother your creations to make them strong enough to manifest. The relentless power of love, mother power, must create through you. It will not let you go and you cannot let it go. Deep in your memory is the desire of your real soul’s desire to return home to God. Live by this law: “If any man will come after me, let him deny his self.”—see Luke 9:23.
“Whosoever will save his life shall lose it.”–Luke 9:24. If you prefer to save your old pattern in life, you will lose the great new life awaiting you. Stop withdrawing from life. Let go, and let God use you. Be the soul He intended you to be!
The Truth of Reality
Edna Lister, December 14, 1934, Buffalo, NY, Genesis 3:22-24, John 16:32-33, 1 John 5:4-5
“And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”–Genesis 3:22-24.
“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”–John 16:32-33.
“For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?”–1 John 5:4-5.
Long ago we left the path of glory for the Fall. We fell from knowledge of whom and what we really are. God gave us to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Then we were driven from the garden lest we eat of the tree of life also and live forever.
When you live by the truth of appearances, you depend upon material conditions, and limit yourself to mothering nothing more than worldly ideas. To move beyond a finite supply and demand, you must bring love and praise together, more love, and more praise.
When you work for God’s greatest hour as God’s greatest servant of the Power, you bring the Father of Wisdom together with the Mother of Love. Thus, you part the veils of illusion that are hiding the truth of reality from your earthbound sight.
To know the truth of reality, you must overcome the world, the flesh, and the Adversary through Jesus Christ. You can do this through knowing who you are, through the creative power of thought and speaking the Word. To be successful in this, you may permit the self no idle words.
To save their lives, some people live indoors, getting no fresh air or sunshine. He who covets his ease and freedom makes plenty of money to enjoy it, which he is then afraid to lose. When you risk your life outside the safe walls, you get more life. Live in the joyous expectancy of receiving God’s surprise for you. Declare, “I am now fulfilling the law. This is my greatest hour as God’s Agent.”
The Fountain of Youth
Edna Lister, December 19, 1934, Buffalo, NY, Matthew 26:36-54
“Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy. And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going: behold, he is at hand that doth betray me. And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people. Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast. And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master; and kissed him. And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus and took him. And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest’s, and smote off his ear. Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?”–Matthew 26:36-54.
You are constantly meeting the dichotomy of two conflicting ideas: Youth and strength, age and weakness, etc. What causes each? Ideas! Youth and strength train together. You know this because the world knows this is true. Age belongs to the calendar, but weakness belongs to the mind. Spirit is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. What happens to cause you to age? You entertain undesirable guests. When you stop entertaining them, they leave.
A strong will is one that never lets an outside source change its purpose. A weak will is afraid to change attitudes, tactics, or its way at a moment’s notice, or lets another change it for him. You must hold to the purpose of your goal. A ship’s captain uses aids, for example, such as charts and a compass to reach his goal, the ship’s destination. By holding fast to his purpose and goal, his helm and course, he can make his way through any storm.
All life backs the man who surrenders completely to God’s Power, but no halfway measure will do. You must be willing to gamble your life, and stake everything, knowing that you have all the aces in hand to play at the right time. When you let God’s Power control you, nothing can stop you. Steadily unchanging, surely determined, the end-game is yours. You’ve beaten the world before you begin, if you start under Light, controlled by Light. Yet you must start in silence, without revealing your plan or intent.
The degree of active vitality you derive from Spirit determines the strength of your body and affairs. Be a “clinging vine” to God if you expect to be filled with Spirit. For example, say you must buy a new car. First you must finish your work before you can leave the house to shop. Yet you mentally spend the morning visiting the car dealer, staring at the selection of cars, slowing down when you see the car you want and examining it. In effect, “nobody is home” because you have already left the party. Your mind is running around shopping while your body remains at home working. You may sometimes do this for days, your mind always shopping. Finally, mind is finished thinking and imagination is tired of picturing, so you really do go shopping to buy a car. The dealer has no car you like and you are so disappointed. Home you go to fall into a chair, and find that you feel rested, together, and “at home” for the first time in days.
You must be and do everything required right here, where you are. If your spirit is drawn out, let it settle in. Life fills you with Light, as liberating energy. What Light you release will return to you. You can contact God, who is a fire, a flame. His Power fills you with strength and youth. No condition can keep you down, conquer you, hold you back, or prevent you from achieving your chosen goal. You cannot change your soul’s inner desire to be as perfect as your heavenly Father; it is innate. Man’s “impossible” is Spirit’s only “possible” course of action.
A dictator must have an army to back him. Yet this reliance on force is a confession of weakness. A Christed one may be alone, but is always joyful. “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?”–Matthew 26:53. Jesus knew his Father’s heavenly host was backing him.
Youth and strength come from agreeing with God and adjusting to life and your fellow man. God has built you to be and to do now. Your task is to express His Light, to push forth and bloom. Yet always, you must start under and stay under the Light.
Our Original Estate
Edna Lister, December 21, 1934, Buffalo, NY
To “establish” means to set up on a permanent basis, to place beyond dispute; “to make national, to secure a permanent acceptance for.” It implies a plan, a divine plan. As an illustration, consider the “River of Life,” which holds and circulates all divine Mind, Substance, and Power throughout the universe with no diminution or separation.
Through Jesus mankind first learned that you can attain the Christos Degree while in an earth life. He did this more than 2,000 years ago. He became the Wayshower, and his life portrays the way.
Moses’ message was an “eye for eye.” Jesus’ message was “Love fulfills the law.” Today, we know that we are descended creator gods. Act the part, use your God-given talents and abilities, and let go of self to let God’s Power use you.
Your Power of Mind
Edna Lister, December 26, 1934, Buffalo, NY
You are your own boss. An ineffective boss is a poor boss because he fails to pay sufficient attention to his own business. Man has power, but too often uses it in the wrong way, which is the cause and the reason for the mess we are in today. Those who find themselves in the worst messes have the most power though 98 percent do not believe it, and seek to disprove it, while the remaining 2 percent will not practice for perfection.
A boat’s sails catch the wind. Your soul’s sails are made for catching Light’s glory to float, to move, to push you along. Dish-washing is hard work if you think it is, but if you work hard to the glory of God even while doing what you dislike, time flies! You accomplish more than you had dreamed possible in no time at all, and you make more money and progress in life.
During the 1920s, a superintendent of Baldwin Locomotive Works, an American manufacturer of steam engines and cars, traveled to France where his firm had sold important machines to the French Government. The largest, most important engine had broken down, and the needed spare part was unavailable because it was hand-made. He had no time to wait for a replacement part to be shipped. They had informed him that no payments would be made, and no more sales unless he supplied the part at once. This man had no psychological, physical or metaphysical fix, just God was left.
He put on his hat and went to a movie. He surrendered to Spirit and let Spirit work. His subconscious mind got involved in the movie and off the engine track as he watched. He let go so God could do the work. In the middle of the movie, he heard a voice say, “Look on the scrap heap.” He jumped up and rushed to look. Sure enough, he found a discarded part, the exact duplicate of the one he needed. He had it cleaned and polished, and delivered it on time. He folded his love and faith into one, surrendered to God and invoked the Power.
Put on a hat, go to a movie, or leave your work area and take a walk through the park. Let Spirit work: Keep your eyes and subconscious mind busy. You’ll find the right idea in the middle of a jumbled scrap heap, almost overlooked. He found his missing part and fixed that machine on time. So can you when you let God’s Power work for you while you work also.
A man who was facing failure because he had no business for nearly a month during the Great Depression, then he decided to give God a chance. He knew only one thing, and while not a student of religion or specifically religious, he declared, “This is the greatest month of of sales we’ve ever had.” He quit sub-letting his mind to the world and its ideas of failure. He then enjoyed more business during rest of that month than he had for the three months previous. God hadn’t changed, but he did. He turned on the heat under his love and faith until they measured up God-high. He became his own spiritual boss.
Figure out what your own Path will be. If it turns out wrong, fine. It’s good to make mistakes. It’s how you learn. “This one thing I do now.” First, make your acquaintance with God’s Power. Second, be conscious and willing to rely on God: “Not my will, but Thine be done.” Third, believe in yourself to create continuity. Fourth, apply consistent conduct. Fifth, do it now!
The Prayer of Faith
Edna Lister, December 28, 1934, Buffalo, NY, Luke 24:36-49
“As they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them. And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.”–Luke 24:36-49.
What is prayer? What is faith? Your prayers rise to God and the answers return to you as the rain of the spiritual substance of faith precipitated into the outer realm. How? In what substance? Ice, water, vapor, and steam, are all varying degrees of the one element, water, which is a substance. The body, too, is composed of the one substance of God.
You can do only two things to substance, you may raise or lower its rate of vibration. When you are sick, the body substance has been lowered too far in its rate of vibration. Healing then is raising the rate of vibration of the body’s substance.
Trespasses (transgressions) and sins (disobedience to law) “kill” the body’s vibration until you must resurrect it from weakness and ill health. You can do this only by lifting and raising its rate of vibration. The last enemy you meet in life is fear of death. To “tarry in Jerusalem,” which is the City of Peace, the garden at the heart center of Being, symbolizes raising the body’s rate of vibration.
Alchemy is the art of transmuting base metal into gold. As a spiritual alchemist, you can transmute the cells of your body into perfect form also. A bulb, planted in earth’s darkness, needs only abundant Light to coax it into growth. Working to remold the body is fascinating, and changing it is delightful. Your task is to shine, to radiate, to overcome death.
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Edna Miriam Lister
1884–1971
The original Pioneering Mystic, Christian Platonist philosopher, American Idealist, Founder, Society of the Universal Living Christ, minister, teacher, author, wife, and mother.
Note: Edna Lister became Minister of the Buffalo Unity Center in December 1933. She resigned in June 1937, when the local board of directors ordered her to cease preaching and teaching the divinity of Jesus Christ as the first and only Begotten Son of God.
Works Cited
“Big Bang Theory,” Space.com, March 24, 2023.
Cooper, William R. An Archaic Dictionary, from the Egyptian, Assyrian, and Etruscan Monuments and Papyri. London, 1876.
The Holy Bible. King James Version (KJV).