Via Christa: Via Christa Life: Sermons: Edna Lister’s Sermons, 1952

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Edna Lister’s Sermons, 1952

The Master’s Challenge
Edna Lister outline, March 15, 1952, Tacoma, Washington; John 14:6-14

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.–John 14:6-14.

The Master’s great challenge is, I am the way, the truth and the life, which leads you to the Father. The Master’s first challenge is to accept the Father as your Father, personally.
He that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.–John 14:12. The greater works include fulfilling your soul desires. Fulfilling your own desires is possible because of the Father’s gift to His Son, which are the arms of Light upholding you, and the Gates of Light that are forever open to your soul.
When you follow the Master, and cease following little me off into a corner alone, letting self take credit. By then, you have learned to let the Father do the works. Thus, you earn the right to release greater Power.
The question is not what Power is to be released, or where this Power is, but How can I reach and release this Power? You can’t use the Power because it is the Father acting as the Power. You are a part of Him, the One who is perfect. As Tennyson wrote, Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet. To be used as an instrument of His divine glory, you must surrender and open the windows of your soul (Wisdom, Love and Joy). So, you must choose between the world, which tears down your life plan and stops you, or God, who builds. Be determined to ascend on your faith in God. When you center your thoughts on your needs, the needs multiply. Focus on the love of God and your whole world will become love.
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.–Matthew 5:17-18. Jesus came to fulfill the law, not to change it. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.–Romans 13:10. Your job is not to use law to fulfill love, but to use love to fulfill law. Love creates. God never limits your creative capacity, but too often you push Him away.
Your great challenge is to accept more life and more truth. Every hour’s investment in love increases your life’s annuity in eternal youth. Your greatest challenge is to do the greater works of love. Declare, I am in love with God, with life and truth.

The Higher Pantheism
The sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, the hills and the plains,
Are not these, O Soul, the Vision of Him who reigns?

Is not the Vision He? tho’ He be not that which He seems?
Dreams are true while they last, and do we not live in dreams?

Earth, these solid stars, this weight of body and limb,
Are they not sign and symbol of thy division from Him?

Dark is the world to thee: thyself art the reason why;
For is He not all but thou, that hast power to feel ‘I am I’?

Glory about thee, without thee; and thou fulfillest thy doom,
Making Him broken gleams, and a stifled splendour and gloom.

Speak to Him thou for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet—
Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.

God is law, say the wise; O Soul, and let us rejoice,
For if He thunder, by law the thunder is yet His voice.

Law is God, say some: no God at all, says the fool;
For all we have power to see is a straight staff bent in a pool;

And the ear of man cannot hear, and the eye of man cannot see;
But if we could see and hear, this Vision—were it not He?
–Alfred, Lord Tennyson

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The Golden Chalice
Edna Lister outline June 15, 1951, Tacoma, Washington; Philippians 3:7-17

What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample.–Philippians 3:7-17.

When St. Paul penned the Letter to Philippians, he was not far from his former beliefs, as Saul, in the false gods of intellectualism and agnosticism. Devoted to the persecution of the early Christians, he traveled from Jerusalem to Damascus with orders to arrest all the Christian disciples he could find.
Saul hated the Christians. Yet when he was on the road traveling, he was struck blind by his vision of the Christ, then healed. Later, as Paul, he gave us his formula, a four-bitted key to life eternal and perfect creations, here and now. From his former state of apprehension, he desired to achieve comprehension and outlined four steps—apprehension, faith, knowing and comprehension.
I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.–Philippians 3:12. Apprehension is the first step. It is a grasping with the mind, a direct or immediate perception. To know only partially creates the type of apprehension that holds dread and fear.
You constantly swing on a pendulum between the known and the unknown. To overcome fearful apprehension, you must recognize and admit that you are still learning to see only Light. Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.–1 Corinthians 13:12. Seeing through a glass, darkly is seeing the apparent dichotomy, Light and dark, good and evil.
Faith is the second step, but not the faith of beginners, which is a variable, undependable faith. You demonstrate this lesser faith when you live by law, then by doubt. You still have faith in the outer appearance of things. When you surrender to faith, you place your faith in the truth of reality, in principle, as love for God. Devotion to the truth of reality causes you to see through the darkness and evil to the Light and good.
The third step is knowing the truth. Miracles happen like clockwork when you know law and abide by it invariably. You are gaining steadfastness and may experience many miracles as answers to prayer. Now you are living by the faith and the love of God, which opens Christ consciousness.
The fourth step is comprehension, which is a fullness of understanding, and poise at all times, a broad grasp of facts that includes everything—God as all principle and personality.
Accept God as a state of consciousness and a place. The faith of God and love of God are the one spiritual substance, available everywhere and in all things.
The I AM consciousness encompasses the duality of the Love and Wisdom principles that you are destined to become as personality. In living by the I AM, you dwell in a state of consciousness and a place, simultaneously. How do you achieve this state of the creator’s God consciousness? Use Paul’s formula, that four-bitted key to eternal life and perfect creations here and now.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.–Philippians 3:13-14. The first bitting on the key is, This one thing I do now—I will arise and go to my father.–Luke 15:18.
The second bitting on the key is, forgetting those things which are behind, I ascend in consciousness, into my Father’s house. The third bitting on the key is, reaching forth unto those things which are before, I stand under the Light. The fourth bitting on the key is, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.–Revelation 3:7-8. Jesus Christ is the open door.
To comprehend, first you must apprehend that there is a Resurrection from the dead ways of living. That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection.–Philippians 3:10. The way of apprehension is hard, but opens the way to the power of the resurrection. You may say, I am resurrected, when you fully accept the responsibility for living the redeemed life in Christ. What you need to know of little me, the little self, will be revealed to you. Then lift the self up to God until it is all resurrected. Lift until you agree with your Christed soul with no inner conflict.
The way to comprehension is then easy. You may comprehend the full power of Ascension to attain the prize, the open door. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.–John 10:9. At times you must lift so much self that the chunks of self seem too large for soul to handle. Yet you have to resurrect the self of the past until you become the Christed I AM of God.
No task is too hard or too long for soul. Do it now. Forget the past. Reach forth. Press toward the mark of the high calling of God, which is love, and the pure golden chalice of immortality will overflow with the nectar of eternal life.

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Is Mind Important?
Edna Lister outline, June 15, 1952, Tacoma, Washington; Philippians 2:1-11

If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.–Philippians 2:1-11.

Is mind important? To answer this question, immediately you must know what mind you are referencing. Divine Mind is not yours, your neighbor’s or the world’s. These minds are forever changing. You are constantly making up your mind, unmaking, remaking it, and the result is confusion. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.–Philippians 2:5. What is this Mind which was also in Christ Jesus? Principle is unchanging, immutable, everlasting, and unalterable. Wisdom is the Mind that thinks and plans. Love is Substance that fills, sustains and nourishes what Wisdom builds. Energy is Power, acting as balance, harmony and action.
Love, the desire principle, acts through Wisdom, the will principle, to decide, to choose, which is how you make up your mind. Power is the energetic action principle that enables you to act on your decision. The Light as Mind principle must have a body, a mechanism through which to work. Three phases of Mind operate through man as the subconscious, conscious and superconscious phases of mind. You are the instrument that receives divine Mind’s broadcasts through the brain cells and endocrine glands in your head.
You can fulfill your desires in five steps. First, the concept exists in divine Mind. Then, through your use of your superconscious phase of that Mind, it becomes an idea in your individualized mind. Third, you apply your mental faculties of logic, reason, discernment, discrimination, and discretion through the process that we call thinking. You use your mind to plan, build, direct, and control your own destiny.
Fourth, you apply the spoken Word by making declarations, decrees or statements to open a vibration of action, which you preface with Let, and complete with This is good! to energize the Light-as-substance. Finally, your miracle takes on form as you fulfill it.
The Light as Wisdom principle holds the idea’s pattern, then uses its relative expression as Mind to build the form-mold, but Mind alone is barren. The form requires the Light of Love-as-substance to nourish and sustain it until the Word of action energizes it. Thus the three, acting as one, become the Breath of Life that moves upon the face of the waters.
Use your past experiences as a step-stool to reach for the stars beyond your reach. Next, increase your decrees and make them grander and more lavish, while you increase your ability to release Light as love. The Light you release is the substance that you feed your unborn yet forming creations, and is their only nourishment. Feed them well!

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The Golden Silence
Edna Lister outline, June 22, 1952, Tacoma, Washington; Acts 9:1-22

Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink. And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord. And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth, and hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight. Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name. But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake. And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized. And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus. And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God. But all that heard him were amazed, and said, Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests? But Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ.–Acts 9:1-22.

The story of Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus reveals three outstanding facets at the first reading. First, both Saul and Ananias accepted Christ’s message for them, then acted at once. Neither man rationalized away what he had been given. Second, both men were obedient. Though Ananias reminded the Lord of Saul’s former acts against his followers, he obeyed. Had Ananias failed, God would have had to send another agent, and Paul’s mission would have been delayed. The third great factor was that both men had a vision, and heard a voice that impressed their hearts and souls.
The men accompanying Saul also heard the voice that he heard. Again he accepted, and was changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye (1 Corinthians 15:52) from the dark to Light. Saul’s conversion to Paul took no time in hours, days, weeks or months, but occurred now. Paul moved into the Light instantly, and remained there, which is the secret of healing that lasts. This story outline forms the six steps from the creature stage, where Saul lashed the early Christian followers, into the creator stage: He misused Power as force against others, the Light descended, he was blinded for three days, he had visions, he was healed and finally, he ministered by giving and preaching.
Saul had to hear the voice, accept and obey, to act at once, which is instant obedience. Saul spent three days in the silence. The Light is the golden silence. We know that he spent this time in the Light because he let the men lead him without asking why he was blind. Saul never knew Jesus personally, yet he recognized him instantly. He could not have known what was coming. Anyone who comes to or learns of the truth, struggles to enter the silence.
Where do you find the silence? The silence is everywhere right now. An old truth statement says, Silence is being, yet what does this mean? Your being is that Godlike original self, that individual expression, created in His image and likeness, which you may have closed out of your consciousness. The Master taught, Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.–Matthew 5:16; and, If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!–Matthew 6:23.
First, you must discover the three steps into becoming the Light. Begin with meditation, statements and prayer until you feel like praising and thanking God. Use this approach until you have opened the three windows of the soul (Wisdom, Love and Joy) to Jerusalem, your high place of consciousness, where Saul spent three days. Praise God and count your blessings.
Second, offer treatments for others and the world, giving of your overflow of Light because you are so full that you cannot help but to give. Speak the Word and send forth the vibration. As you speak the prayer treatments, you spiritually hear the voice of instruction and the soul visions come. Finally, wait upon the Lord in the high place of consciousness. You have not gone anywhere, but take the time to listen. Let Light in and give it time to settle into every cell of your body to harmonize your rate of vibration with the Light.
The quality of time and effort you spend determines your results, if you obey law. You come forth from the silence to do the next thing next, using what you have, ignoring any outer influences. Declare, I accept. I arise. I surrender to be possessed by all Power and Light.

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Integrating Mind and Power
Edna Lister outline, June 22, 1952, Tacoma, Washington; John 6:1-13, Philippians 2:5

After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias. And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased. And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. And the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh. When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.–John 6:1-13.

What a dramatic story this is about the five loaves and two fish that Jesus multiplied and added to feed the multitude. Jesus had studied universal Mind, which is forever the same, deathless, ageless and abiding. Do you really believe that this Mind and Power work through your mind now? Only a hair’s breadth separates your legitimate uses of your mental and spiritual faculties, and the flexible letting power of universal Mind. You learn by the process of trial and error, bumbling along. Yet when you straighten out your relationship to God as Power, Substance and Mind, He works now, smoothly and perfectly, creating miracle after miracle comes.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.–Philippians 2:5. God has given you three phases of mind to use, subconscious, conscious and superconscious. Subconscious mind is the source of all your delays and troubles, yet is supposed to run the body and be the servant of the superconscious. The subconscious mind must have a pattern to follow.
If you are body-conscious in any way, you are living by subconscious dictation. The subconscious is like a robot machine. It cannot change the design, but works out every habit pattern you set for it. If you allow others to dictate to you and thereby change your life’s structure, confusion results in your life pattern. Stated another way, if you let others’ emotional advice recondition you away from logic and principle, you will confuse your mental patterns.
The soul is perfect as an individualized manifestation in the image and likeness of God. That which is unconscious in a baby becomes conscious as you change the patterns of your life, and broaden into greater awareness and later, into full consciousness.
The subconscious mind is the memory storehouse of past actions and experiences, which creates the fate line if you live by self, not soul. The subconscious is the seat of hunches, which are its form of plausible deductions. The subconscious mind cannot think or originate thoughts. The subconscious is always fishing in the waters of life, catching fears and doubts, and creating more failure. When you have a hunch of right or wrong, you allow subconscious mind to condition your thoughts from past events and experiences only.
Your conscious mind uses reasoning, comparison, deduction, induction and synthesis united as thinking, which can change, evolve new patterns, and combine others’ experiences with its own to create new patterns. You must consciously recondition your life of mind, which is a slow process to overcome subconscious habits.
The conscious mind is the functioning phase of the individualized rational soul that breathes itself into the body at birth to awaken the body for its use. Your superconscious mind changes your course in life from the fate line to the pattern of destiny. Giving up habits for the destiny pattern is like pulling teeth.
The law of perfect abundance and increase states that you increase that which you dwell upon, spiritually, mentally or emotionally. So, let addition and multiplication rule your life, which requires you to balance Wisdom, which plans, and Love, which sustains. You love your creations, but do you love them enough?
You present your check on life’s account to the Father, but receive only what remains after the foolish deductions, your debits and subtractions. Oh yes. You receive exactly what is left of your joyous praise and love of God enough, minus your fears, doubts, wavering, lukewarmness, indifference, and self-pity.

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Creative Mind in Three Phases
Edna Lister outline, June 29, 1952, Tacoma, Washington; Isaiah 45:2-3

I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight. I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron. And I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel.–Isaiah 45:2-3.

The one divine Mind functions in three creative phases in humanity. superconscious mind provides your direct contact with God’s broadcasting station. You need only to raise your antennae, and know the truth. Then you must turn the conscious mind dial to tune in God’s radio station. The instant you forget, you tune into the subconscious dregs, a mental Bowery, the source of delays, laziness, confusion and limitations. Subconscious reasoning is specious, only plausible, and its hunches may be right or wrong.
To conquer, you have to make everything old pay you dividends. You have been investing your life in the outdated subconscious negatives for years. Now you must collect interest on those past investments. Make the subconscious your servant.
Conscious mind governs reasoning, comparison, deduction, induction, and synthesis, the mental faculties you use to lift the unconscious. When these faculties fade out, you reach a place of silvery fields called the burning sands of the desert. To cross its barren loneliness, you must lift, lift, lift your so-called treasures of darkness, your taints of self, to >make the crooked places straight. The way to cross the desert lies just above waking consciousness in soul’s superconscious intuition.
The Light breaks the gates of brass, and cuts asunder the bars of iron that formerly held you from the full Light of illumination, which is God’s Power. You see a rim high above, spilling forth Light. As you climb higher in the Light, you discover that it is a mansion with verandas, huge windows, and wide archways, shining with greater Light.
Within are the hidden riches of secret places. If you back out, and turn to face the dark again, you become lost. So face the Light, saying, This is my new home in the Light. This is my new plan. I make everything pay dividends of Light. This is the right time now, and I do do know what to do. Thank You, Father!

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Steadfastly Searching for God
Edna Lister outline, July 6, 1952, Tacoma, Washington; Hebrews 11:1-11

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.–Hebrews 11:1-11.

Unconquerable faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Everything earthly is made of the one substance of God. The difference between material substance and spiritual humanity is in its degree of faith, unconscious to conscious.
From Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Moses, Miriam, Joshua, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, down to Jesus, all had in common a thread of steadfastness of purpose in their search for God. They climbed from seeking personal survival to conscious ascension of soul.

“The difference between material substance and spiritual humanity
is in its degree of faith, unconscious to conscious.”

Power and faith activate one another, permitting nothing negative or passive in their action. Active faith is unconquerable. Joshua and the Israelites used their faith, acting as Power, to cause Jericho’s walls to fall. Jesus used the same active faith to raise the dead—Lazarus, the widow of Nain’s son, and Jairus’ young daughter.
You must find and follow the path to unconquerable faith to earn your reward. Your first seeking for the power to save and heal starts the activity that opens your path, but to climb the path, you must add devotion and worship to your faith-as-power.
Finally, you earn the reward, which is growth of consciousness, and your horizons expand into soul ascension. Step by step, you enter your soul’s heaven, which you are working to do. Inevitably, as you expand and ascend, you outgrow last year’s ideals, soul robes and place because. If you seek to settle down and enjoy what you have earned, you will be jolted out of your Garden of Eden. Why? You cannot avoid the restlessness of divine dissatisfaction.
You outgrow the past, even what you have loved the most, but cannot afford to let doubts take you back to the past. Yesterday’s new becomes today’s opinions and prejudices unless you move on toward tomorrow’s goals. Your former paradise was good, but is now outdated.
If your family and loved ones refuse to ascend in consciousness with you, why weep in self-pity or resentment? If you ask, you receive, so why clutch at the old and stop, after receiving the new? Heavenly compassion replaces the earthly personal love. Compassion is far better for it gives more, asks nothing, and satisfies the other party. Leave them alone, and they will come home, just like Bo Peep.
An angel with a flaming sword stands guard over the gate of every lost paradise. And you cannot return. It must be so because as you grow in consciousness, your faith, devotion and worship expand your horizons for soul ascension, and new gates open into new paradises.
Hold to the forward look. Each flaming sword means fulfillment, not a wall to limit you. Never permit your ideals to become moth-eaten, decrepit or lame and on crutches. Never let them become your jailor or hold you in bondage, which they can do if you settle into opinions about truth or prejudices against anything.
The angel with a flaming sword is driving you out, on and up to greater glories. When you look upward, another angel beckons you on, welcomes you to another Garden of Eden, which in time shall be barred.
Let go of the old, and kiss that paradise goodbye. You must wear your new robe, your share of the Mantle of Christ now.

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Acceptance and Obedience to Law
Edna Lister outline, September 2, 1952, Tacoma, Washington; Romans 12, Matthew 7:16-20

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another; not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality. Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.–Romans 12.

From the time soul first hears about returning to God, it begins the long pilgrimage from the Land of Egypt, which represents darkness, famine, lack of initiative, and weakness. The soul must pass through the Land of Promise, which symbolizes inspiration. There you must fulfill all your promises and your vows to become like God.
Then you must enter your original Garden of Eden, which is the high place in consciousness, your tower room, the soul’s prayer closet. In the garden, you find the golden silence, and hear the voice of Oversoul’s I AM consciousness.
Acceptance of and obedience to law are twins. Truth is not just trying, but full acceptance of the law as applying to you. You move from I hear, to I accept and I become. You pass through four stages of acceptance, from being unwilling to expend any effort, to doing without grudging the time or effort it takes.
In the first stage, you wonder, Who am I? Young zeal is still slumbering, so it rolls over to whine, Leave me alone! I want to rest. The impulsive appetitive soul is still a skull-bumper in this phase, loving its own opinions, and never leaving its cubicle of supposed reality.
The second stage is the first awakening. The creature soul says, I hear you, but usually responds to any new ideas with, You’re wrong! At best, the consciousness is a ceiling-bumper in prayer here. Yet, how can you learn unless you first see something wrong outside, somewhere else, in someone else. This is the universal way of learning what’s wrong.
In the third stage, the impulsive appetitive soul finds its personal will, and uses it constantly as, Do it my way! In this cloud-climber state of consciousness the majority rules as I do things my way and self acts as God to form the majority.
Intellect backs the will and forcefully seeks to strengthen will as determination and concentration. The star grabbers in consciousness grasp at the Light they can see outside of the self. They try to hold onto the Light and often fail, but they are launched off earth at last.
The fourth stage is the crucifixion of will, as symbolized by Abraham sacrificing his firstborn son, Isaac. The story of Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah, illustrates the soul’s perfect sacrifice of self to God. Abraham represents the soul’s willingness to sacrifice the firstborn of self to do God’s will.
In the fifth stage, soul becomes a throne-seeker searching for the I AM consciousness of the superconscious mind, the Oversoul. What the throne-seeker finds is the I AM THAT I AM of God, the source of all good, the precious substance of God’s Reserve Bank.
We are all like the five-year-old boy who spread his arms and said, See me? Everyday now I practice flying! He hop, hop, hopped as high as possible, saying, I don’t quite know how yet, but I’m learning! You can help yourself along by declaring, I AM all acceptance and obedience! I hear the still small Voice that is as loud as thunder. I hear I AM THAT I AM. By your fruit you will be known:
Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.–Matthew 7:16-20.

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The Golden Chalice
Edna Lister outline, September 14, 1952, Buffalo, New York; September 21, 1952, Cleveland, Ohio; Acts 9:1-22

I hear. I accept, and I obey is the synopsis of St. Paul’s miracle on the road to Damascus. As Saul of Tarsus he had been sick with hatred and intolerance, yet in a flash of Light, he was healed.
Saul, who had never seen Jesus in the flesh, recognized his voice instantly. The men who were with him heard the voice also, but saw no one. Their silence about the miraculous event is evidence of their acceptance of the whole affair. Without argument, he let them lead him into the city.
The contrast between self-righteous Saul, who had the mighty power of Rome behind him as a Roman citizen, and his new incarnation as Paul was remarkable. He had turned humble.
He obeyed the voice he heard and went into the city to wait. Imagine Saul, the impatient man of action, waiting for three days. Then another man, Ananias, heard the Lord’s voice and orders. After questioning once, he also heard, accepted and obeyed.
Paul had spent three days in the golden silence. The first step in the silence is to arise in consciousness, to look up and listen up. You really have only one automatic lifter—praise! Using the love of God, your praise opens all doors and lifts all things, persons and situations.
The second step is to give, but how? You can give praise until your cup runneth over and you are overflowing with Light, life and glory that then spills out onto the world.
The third step is to wait upon the Lord and listen. No matter the question, your right answer is I love God, my fellow man, life and every lesson that comes my way! Love even the little bits of darkness on your path because you can lift them for the Father, not in irritation with I hate this! I can’t stand that!
Declare, I AM in love with God in all my dealings. Love is the only intimate approach to God or your life. Everything is either a gift or your own creation. All parents know they cannot send their children back, as though they were presents they do not want. So your only lifting answer is, I love life, no matter what it brings because I love God first, last and always!

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The Golden Chalice
Edna Lister transcript, Ruth Johnson, scribe, September 21, 1952, Cleveland, Ohio; Acts 9:1-22, Philippians 3:10-17

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on that I may apprehend that for which Christ Jesus has also apprehended of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, press toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you are otherwise minded, God shall reveal this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind. Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk so as you have us for an ensample [pattern].–Philippians 3:10-17.

Saul had acted vindictively toward Jesus’ followers, but after his conversion on the road to Damascus, he wanted to know him and the power of his resurrection. As Paul, he then said, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are ahead, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.–Philippians 3:13.
Apprehension is the ability to understand what is approaching, and to recognize it as light or darkness. You are apprehensive or fearful about the future if you live by the truth of appearances, yet you can apprehend that truth if you ascend in prayer to the truth of reality. Paul ascended using comprehension and faith to reach apprehension and resurrection.
Apprehension plants your feet on the road to resurrection. You resurrect your past when you turn to good, yet bury your Godlike qualities under pride, resentment and emotional negatives if you swing on life’s pendulum like some victim of fate.
Many people touch their high point briefly, but fall back on the old, worn-out belief that God made law for their use. Finally you simply must grasp the pendulum’s rod of power to climb to perfect faith. Gradually you begin to have miracles without making statements invoking them because you now seek the kingdom of heaven. In seeking the kingdom fervently, you find that all things you need are added.
After demonstrating your faith, showing it off for others to see, you know the truth and just let the miracles happen because you comprehend that law is perfect and God made law to use you. You must overcome through faith, and live by the love of God, not love for God. Ultimately, you live by the faith of God, not faith in God or unimportant words.
Some people say, I’ve done enough for him. Now he can do it on his own. I’m finished! which is a great curse, an intellectual sophistry. Did God ever turn off His Power and Light to you? Once you put your hand to the plow, keep it there. Love God enough to do the work, and love the person or situation enough to heal it. You can release so much Light that the other fellow changes or leaves if he cannot stand the Light. The Light moving through you heals persons and situations by wrapping them in a blanket of love, and you simply watch the Light do the work.
God is all Wisdom, Love and Power. When you call someone good, you are calling him God, because good is God’s action on earth. Your forgiveness is incomplete if you still bear a heavy cross after forgiving your enemies ten times. Love your enemies until your burden becomes Light. All your difficulties in life come between your high points of happiness. Self is vulnerable to dark suggestions, even while soul consciousness is high, until you fully cleanse it. So, the tests must come until you lift all remaining darkness.
Lift every self-expression, which is the only way to become a conqueror. Otherwise, you must reincarnate to cremate your dead past. To bury it is not enough, for you could still dig it from the grave to enjoy it. The dead past stinks, and you can choke on what you leave unburned. Yet nothing will remain to wallow in if you call on God’s divine fire to cremate the past. Since you must become pure untouchable, immovable Spirit, exalt the past to lift it. Stop wallowing in it! Your credits build the rungs of your ladder to Light, so reach to build a new rung, then press on. Look at the Master and tell him, I love you, instead of reviewing some past ugliness.
Let us, as many as are perfect, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.–Philippians 3:15-16. How do you apply this? Decree, I apprehend the power of Resurrection and comprehend the full power of Ascension. This one thing I do now, I see the glory of the kingdom of heaven. God will establish it for you.
Never limit the time ascension takes, for every hour holds an eternity of glory and brings new strength. Forever is a flexible term that includes the duration of your current experience, an hour, a day or however long it takes.
Climb the ladder of Light in the fullness of atomic ascension power. Swing your bat of Light at the ball of darkness and hit a home run, seeking the kingdom. You ascend when you have no further desire to return to the bullpen. Your soul’s goal is to shine the full Light of ascension on all your past. God needs you in the full Light to lift earth, so never waste a minute in the futility of blaming yourself or others. What if you stumble? God never tires of your tardiness or mistakes, but says, Come to Me!
God is the same yesterday, today and forever, and His Power is yours to express. We could lift the world’s chaos if all prayer groups stood on this standpoint of Light for one month. We are lifting darkness. Exposés plague governments and businesses because we are lifting their foundations, and washing earth’s dirty laundry.
Let it come up, ascend it, and burn it in the everlasting fires of divine love. Call it good because this is the way of soul ascension. The Power of God’s Love is pouring through you, overflowing into the world. Look up in consciousness and become a golden chalice full of Light.

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The Golden Silence
Edna Lister transcript, Ruth Johnson, scribe, September 28, 1952, Cleveland, Ohio; Acts 9:1-22

The story of Saul’s conversion of soul is tremendous. A great light shone around him and he heard, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Blinded by the Light, his escort took Saul to Damascus, where he lay three days fasting and praying. Ananias, a disciple, heard the Lord tell him to find Saul, lay hands on him and return his sight. Saul received illumination, changed his name to Paul and preached the gospel. The name Saul means a gift prayed for, and Paul means humble,
Saul’s story is like that of the prodigal son. He had never met Jesus, but was obsessed with a revenge idea and was cruel to Jesus’ followers. Previous chapters of Acts reveal that he was a violent man who lashed Christians, and his mission to Damascus was to persecute them. Yet, he submitted completely after the Light blinded him.
A spiritual reason always backs any instant illumination. Jesus told Saul that he kicked against the pricks, but was really asking, Why are you going against your soul nature? Saul’s Oversoul was calling him to follow Christ, even when his worldly concept of honor made him fight and persecute the Christians. Saul erased his past in one question, Lord, who are you?
His love for truth had been growing under his outer expression of violence. Blinded, but believing and in utter submission, he allowed the men to lead him to be used by God’s Power. Saul, who had been agnostic, heard the voice and saw the Light. His companions heard the voice but saw no one.
God as personality speaks through personality to personality. To say, I follow the Master or I follow this teacher is another way of saying, I follow personality. The Power of this Christed Age is so great that the Master’s most devoted followers actually may take on some measure of his personality.
Conventional people are afraid to admit to God’s personality. You need not acknowledge God to hear Him, but your innate ability helps you to listen and hear His Voice. Supreme Power can express through anyone, whatever race, gender or spiritual status. Even a trickle of Power can awaken your full capacity for God’s Power.
Saul sat three days in the golden silence, waiting upon the Lord in complete surrender of self. The first step to the golden silence is to submit to God’s law. The golden silence is that place of praise, hearing, accepting, obeying, and complete submission where you surrender self to make room to be possessed by God’s love.
Silence under blame is incomprehensible to the average person, but is a great soul defense. You will achieve outer perfection when you express the perfection and glory of inner law. You can have the Golden Age now, if you choose it, declare it and know it is here now. No propaganda or negative words that anyone spews can change this.
Praising God is the second step to the golden silence. Praise, as loving declarations of perfection, changes black clouds into Light instantly. Love sustains all visions and creations, so picture shafts of love’s magnetic fire surrounding families, nations, cities and the whole world. Declare, Light now heals every agent of God, and they are putting this healing into practice. Your soul expands in the golden silence because you are busy loving God.
The third step to the golden silence is to lift everything for metaphysical scrubbing. God must use many who are now actively negative, including criminals, dictators and materialists, because their experience has trained them. Lift everything and everyone into the kingdom of heaven, including family and friends. See them standing with their soul wings uplifted in the golden silence. Paul was lucky to have spent three days there.
The fourth step to the golden silence is pure soul exaltation. In the silence, wait three days on the Lord while you maintain a direct line of Light to God. Your Oversoul remains in the silence, filling you with atomic energy. Your desire body becomes lighter in vibration, while you return to work out your salvation here on earth consciously. You begin to comprehend the glory and presence of the living God within you, your tongue is silver-tipped, and you stop scattering yourself over earth’s distractions. Nervous tension is a physical sign of a scattered self.
Withdraw the soul substance that you have permitted self to invest in those you have hated or blamed, and return that misused soul substance to God for purification. God stamps your Oversoul name and number on the star substance you redeemed while in the golden silence. Say, I am the wealthiest person in the world. See baskets filled with large denomination bills to cover your needs, obligations and pet projects. See baskets filled to overflowing for others and for the world.
Ananias was accustomed to hearing God’s Voice. He heard Jesus’ order, but fussed about it before he obeyed: Lord, I have heard from many about this man. People often descend to the basement in criticism before following orders. Ananias was playing with the idea of darkness, not sure if he agreed, not sure if he wanted to soil himself by healing Saul, who had harmed many people whom Ananias loved. Yet he finally accepted, and went to heal Saul.
So many people are like Ananias. God always gives you time to accept and obey. Saul had already accepted in the golden silence and was ready to obey as Paul. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.–Acts 9:18. Paul’s eyes were opened, and he arose healed from his desire for fame, status and fortune.
God created you of His immortal substance, through His almighty Power to be the living expression of love for law to use. To hear, accept and obey will lead you into submission to law. Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ.–Acts 9:22. The number of this verse, 22, symbolizes completion, so declare, Father, let all I have done be transmuted, and God changes it into love, kindness and power.
Enemies are an impulsive appetitive soul luxury you simply cannot afford. You can stop the power of others’ negative thoughts when they criticize you, if you do not permit it to bother you. It hurts your feelings because you accept the belittling before lifting it! When you feel the sting you have given it power and put a head, eyes and stinger on it!
Criticism returns like a boomerang to the one who throws it. Someone must transmute such darkness into Light, and that someone could be you. It would take twenty-four people praying together for three years to fulfill a thousand days of perfection, to transmute earth’s evil into Light. Jesus said, My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.–Matthew 11:20. The way of self is hard. Like Saul, people are always kicking against the pricks of conscience. Willfulness is a greased pole that is exhausting to climb. Visions come through Oversoul, which remains in the high place to watch, worship and wait upon the Lord in the golden silence.

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The Magic in the Sky
Edna Lister transcript, Ruth Johnson, scribe, October 5, 1952, Cleveland, Ohio; Romans 8:28-39

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.–Romans 8:28-39.

The end of fear is the beginning of wisdom. Fear and wisdom are like twins, dark and light. Genesis reveals the Creator’s keynote, to declare darkness good. Soul exaltation and ecstasy can dawn from the darkness of experience, yet most people easily allow others to dim their happiness. If life’s darkness can get you down, it proves that your joy is just lukewarm. God is God’s name above; Good is God’s name on earth. You can release unimaginable Power if you call on God’s hidden name. Yet you must properly devote yourself to the Source in gratitude and hold fast to illumination, or Power returns as force to strike your weakest point.
An attitude of joy and calling your creations good instantly invokes the Light that makes the invisible visible. The double O in good represents the twin principles of Love and Wisdom in perfect balance. As you say, I am good, you arise from the creature stage through the son of man and son of God to be a creator. You can invoke the truth that Light absorbs darkness in one great up-sweeping of Power.
Every square inch of your body pushes 14.7 pounds of atmospheric pressure as you face family, friends and your business life. Pressures impinge on you from every direction when you are low in spirits and consciousness. You are crawling when you admit that you’re down. Self drops to the creature stage on criticism or condemnation when you have crammed it down in the subconscious, where it inevitably causes a blowout.
By complaining, you curse government, business associates, traffic, neighbors, the world you feel pressing against you. You build tension while you feel so saintly inside, and explode in some illness—swollen feet, legs, endocrine glands or even brain cells bloated from pride in your own goodness. You want to find God the easy way, not by being kicked upstairs by someone who tells you the truth and makes you dig out your subconscious mess! Light clears the path when you live by the higher soul faculties of intuition and illumination, and declare your creations good. Declare God first by saying, This is good!
Some things cannot coexist: Heat with cold, good with evil, light with dark. God has predestined you to ascend and become His sons and daughters. Yet you cannot ascend while holding dark thoughts or images, nor do you want to create a debt of criticism for someone you love. Even righteous anger cuts off your Light, and you pay a double debt, yours and his reaction to it. Who can be against you if you declare that God is for you? Stand on this truth and it works miracles. Who can condemn you? Only the little me—self!
Faith comes in many degrees, from weak to strong, or complete. You can ascend in illumination, forget to love, sleep in a bed of self-satisfaction, then fall into the mud puddle you create while weeping tears of self-sympathy. Soul tears from the heart are worth infinitely more than self-tears from your eyes. Compassion nourishes, but sympathy starves the soul. No one can afford soft sympathy, but everyone can afford to be firmly compassionate.
Neither death, life, angels, principalities, powers, things present, things to come, height, depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God.–Romans 8:38-39. Complete faith is unconquerable because it knows that nothing can separate you from God, unless you decide to snuggle into a creature-consciousness mud hole. The compassion you send forth on the wings of God’s love is your glory, protection, and inspiration to create and become.
Dignity is never letting the offender see that he has scored, even by the look in your eyes. You choose whether you crawl or fly in life’s occupations. Many souls never pass beyond the barriers their own offensive attitudes create. Yet you may never feel smug or virtuous as you advance. If you desire to progress materially, mentally or spiritually, you had best look innocuous, not arrogant. Speak gently, maintain golden silence, and when you do speak, do so wisely. Call on the fire of God’s love as Light to descend and absorb all obstacles, anything unlike itself.
God’s immutable never-failing principles form a protective sheath of fire to open doors, purify the blood, dissolve growths and work miracles. What holds you back are your limiting ideas about your ability to create perfection. You become a living ensample of Light, a challenge to darkness, and know the magic in the sky as you soar on the wings of God’s love.

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The Messiah’s Mantle
Edna Lister transcript, Ruth Johnson, scribe, October 12, 1952, Cleveland, Ohio; Hebrews 11:1-11

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and through it he being dead still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken away [translated] so that he did not see death; and was not found, because God had taken him: for before he was taken, he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a reader of those that diligently seek Him. By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household; by which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he should receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise, as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. By faith Sara herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.–Hebrews 11:1-11.

We believe the statements about faith in this text sometimes. The world wants to see it before they will believe it. Yet, you cannot always see it first, sometimes you must believe to see. Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed.–John 20:29. God is all Mind, Power and Substance. Faith is the expression of the Mother God principle. The Father’s Wisdom principle holds the molds in form, and faith as substance fills them. Thus, you represent a facet of God when you express faith.
Hebrews, the eleventh chapter, perfectly formulates the principles of faith. God is everywhere evenly present and available as divine substance. If faith is a substance, what about a fish or a table? The difference between a person and a turnip is the difference between a conscious working, active faith and an unconscious inactive faith.
God created you for His Mind to use, but you cannot progress on passive animal instinct. Most people use faith as a seat cushion of spiritual comfort, but china eggs never hatch, no matter how long you sit on them. Unconquerable faith is positive, dynamic Power when you let it use you. You can choose to be a vegetable, or gloriously free.

“Each seeker ultimately proves God to himself.”

You need not prove anything to anyone, but you must be an ensample of truth. Each seeker ultimately proves God to himself. You have enemies only when you believe you do. When you do not consider them as such, they fade away. Believing you do have enemies is a mistake because then you feed them as enemies and they can attack. Most people understand this premise no better than they understand the difference between an example and an ensample. When you seek to set a good example, you provide an outer proof that others can see and believe. Yet, like a sticker applied from the outside, it is not part of you.
Being an ensample comes from within, like peaches growing from a tree. So, your faith evokes an inner awareness in the observer. He may then believe that becoming an ensample is possible, and his belief will bring his progress into being. To express as faith, first search for the Source of faith until you find the Power of God. Then act from a foundation of love to produce success in career, home, family and friends.
Charity begins at home, but service is the best action. If you want love and devotion, serve that to others, and offer God a balanced devotion and faith. Everyone worships his soul creations, yet you create an imbalance and danger of a too earthy love life unless you give your devotion and faith to God first. Your poised approach in heaven brings the gift of balanced love on earth without the little self’s smothering, selfish possessive counterfeit love. You may then recognize the relative good in everything and cease making mistakes about people or situations.
The first soul expansion is the glory of devotion. Consciousness grows as you recognize your ascension, then the pricks and prods come from within and without. Your glorious restlessness prompts you to continuously ascend to ever higher ideas and ideals. As you ascend, you have more love and greater compassion to pour out on your loved ones. See their frailties only to lift, which is soul-satisfying to them, and draws them up. They may not know what draws them, but they love the glory of God’s love and feel that you love them more than ever, which you do.
As a chalice, carry principle and personality, Wisdom and Love, within you to the highest degree. Thus, you pull every line of responsibility you ever contacted with you when you step up in ascension of consciousness. Some whom you lift may object, so love them more. Stand in unwavering faith, and see only God’s glory until He makes the enemy a footstool, which you declare for the rebellious one’s rest as the evidence of your faith.
You cannot return to yesterday’s paradise, but you can find a new paradise. You may look back, as Jacob did after serving fourteen years for Rachel, or look up to see God’s new plans and ideas for you to bring into outer manifestation. Faith is the substance of your dreams, and it fills them full. Love flows through faith, with faith, and your dreams are placed in your hands. Set your faith into action by becoming the white heat that will ignite your affairs. Make your ideals great, and stop being stingy with God. Take time to see what’s behind the Gates of Light that swing wide for your soul ascension.
The higher you ascend, the more faith as substance descends, so your affairs grow and prosper as you exchange treasures of darkness for the bounty of Light. Ascend to the golden silence for new ideas to apply to everything you do. As you walk earth with soul expanded, an angel of Light one day will place your share of the Messiah’s mantle on your shoulders, for healing and comprehension. When that mantle touches you as glory of being, you will experience the proof of your faith.

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A Design for Living
Edna Lister outline, November 2, 1952, Buffalo, New York, November 16, 1952, Cleveland, Ohio; Luke 15:11-24

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.

The parable of the prodigal son is a story about a father who had two sons. The younger son had no design for living at all, and the elder son’s design was purely materialistic. A design is a pattern that you use as a guide. If you have no design for living, no matter what you choose, dissatisfaction sets in and a time comes when life turns sour, fails to satisfy, and you become tired of living.
As you grow in experience, you find that people live in one of several ways. Everyone has a pattern. Some are unconsciously using their grandma’s pattern, some old world pattern, or a new and modern hedonistic pattern. Many people live by mistaken ideas, without consideration for God or others. Others float indifferently as the playthings of the four worldly winds—criticism, condemnation, opinions and prejudices. Yet some people live consciously, directing and controlling their lives.
The prodigal son was a self-centered hedonist, who spent his inheritance in riotous living until he had nothing left. Then he said, I will arise, which is always the soul’s call to the flesh. The boy completely surrendered self, from top to bottom, from the inside out. We know this because he was willing to face his brother’s criticism, and he came home. When he arrived, his father gave him gifts—a robe, symbolizing purity of purpose, a ring, which represents unity or oneness, and shoes, which symbolize understanding and compassion.
To weave these patterns into a design for living, you must first make a life plan, then put it into action. Both your plan and action must include the right use of time and space, which are great abstract principles. Take time to live, to love, to dare and to do! Take time to be lovely and gracious as well. Your right life’s action is to take time to listen to God’s Voice in the golden silence.
Declare, I do the next thing next with no complaints or self-pity, which is the right use of time, because I know that only my own can come to me. This is the perfect use of what you have, which is your present supply, in the place you occupy. Ignore the truth of outer appearances and declare for good. Depend on God, bless everything below, praise all above, and pray, praise and sing. Let God do the work. Leave it in His hands! You either believe or you do not believe. Name your own creations good! You have no time to name the weeds in your garden, so do not rehash the day’s negatives.

“You receive no credits for doing what you must do, but only for
your struggles against the dominance of self.”

When the elder brother complained about the gifts, his father said, Son, you are always with me, which infers that you receive no credits for doing what you must do, but only for your struggles against the dominance of self. When the Master calls, answer, I will arise! Your desire for complete surrender of self becomes your whole aim. Your desire for heavenly knowledge and to know God, becomes your whole goal. Now you are taking time for the golden silence, daring to live, to love, to do the good. All things are added, a robe, a ring, shoes. Praise, pray and sing until you walk in triumph and victory.

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A Design for Living
Edna Lister transcript, Ruth Johnson, scribe; November 16, 1952, Cleveland, Ohio; Luke 15:11-24

The parable of the prodigal son provides a blueprint, a design for living. The two sons represent stark contrasts, utterly opposed ideas and choices. The younger son was selfish, but he loved his father or he would never have returned to him. His father had spoiled him. Perhaps the boy looked like his mother, who had died bearing him, and whom the father had loved and missed. The older son ran the farm and increased his father’s fortune because he loved wealth and materialism. He loved husbandry, and grew everything divinely. He loved the farm into perfection, but his design for living was rigid.
Their patterns differed, yet they reached the same end. Bored and soured, the older son made no time for friends because he was always working. The younger son bought friends, so he ended, like his brother, with no friends. Each had only his father to turn to in the end. People fall into patterns through desecration, which can include too much drink, invalidism or recurring ill health. They expect colds or flu in winter, or allergies in summer. Some do not even have enough energy to fall into patterns, but become playthings of the four world winds through indifference, lukewarmness, opinions, prejudices and condemnations, which will draw and quarter you. These are not designs for living, but they are static patterns.
First you must plan a design using the universal Mind, which thinks, plans and consciously directs and controls your life. Your perfect design must be as strict in self-discipline as the measures the older son used to manage his father’s farm. The younger son had probably scorned his brother, who stank of cattle, until he learned to appreciate their aroma while he reeked of swine.
Second, your design must dare to do. The younger son had to live with swine to appreciate his father’s farm laborers, and had to love his father enough to choose to go home. Then he had to dare to return, face his family and live with his I told you so brother. The boy completely surrendered and emerged from his negative pattern to a design for living when he said, I will arise and go to my father. You, too, may say, I will arise and go to my Father’s house, where I will await my salvation.

“Take time to live and love in a Godlike way every second.”

You have twenty-four hours a day to choose how to love, work, play, and use each moment for important constructive action. You may not use law, but you do use time, so use it well in an active expression. No matter how often others interrupt or interfere, you can take time to live and love in a Godlike way every second. You are living by the world plan in darkness if you are hurt, critical and condemning. Live by a consciously directed design.
Third, make do with what you have. Do not wait, but reach out to others, which activates your vibration. Give love enough. Ignore the truth of appearances, declare the good and depend on God to fulfill it. Do the next thing next without being a plaything of the four winds. Fill the next thing with God’s love, compassion and understanding. I love you, too or I think you’re beautiful, too is the answer to a statement that spits at you. Any adversary will run out of spit before you run out of prayers.
After the young man created his design for living, his father welcomed him with a robe, a ring and new shoes for his sore feet, gifts that represent rewards for initiations by fire. The robe represents purity of purpose, the sandals, understanding and comprehension, and the ring symbolizes unity, the Power of God moving into the soul. Throw out the old patterns, and look up to God to multiply the Power a thousand times a second. When your great design becomes the love and faith of God, you gain comprehension.
I become as perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect. I surrender to all the Power. I treat for the other fellow’s eyes if my eyes are weak. If I need money, I pray for all who need money. Arise and see Light through darkness, hear the Master’s voice. Kneel before the high altar, saying, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in Your sight.
Ascend until your works show, and you express God with strict self-discipline. Plan your new design for living, using your full capacity of divine Mind. Let your soul wait upon the Lord while you work out your salvation. Dare to act on your perfectly designed plan until you obtain victory over the little self. God robes you in purity of purpose, absorbs you into the ring of unity with almighty Power, and gives you the sandals of understanding to wear. All the Father’s gifts, a robe, ring and sandals, the fatted calf, are yours for the conquering of self.

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The Great Challenge
Edna Lister transcript, Ruth Johnson, scribe, November 23, 1952, Cleveland, Ohio; John 14:6-14

I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us. Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father, so how can you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own authority: but the Father who dwells in me, He does the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves. Most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to my Father. And whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.–John 14:6-14.

We face a world of challenges today. We grew up with science fiction, so the wonders of scientific and technical developments are not news to us. Divine Light penetrates every place on earth like the waves that operate radios and televisions. Darkness broadcasts the same way as light, so each must choose carefully which station he listens to, hourly. You do have a choice. It’s a waste of time to roll in the ditch while consorting with darkness, since becoming part of it does not lift darkness. Yet you do need compassion, which is never holier than thou. Anyone can resist temptation by declaring and choosing Light daily.
Jesus’ great challenge is I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.–John 14:6-7. The world’s challenge is that even the greatest Christians do not really know Jesus. Haven’t you often felt that people who say they know you, really do not?
An ascending soul’s outstanding trait is that he is too considerate of his loved ones to uncover what he knows, but covers their transgressions, even from himself, and calls them good. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.–Matthew 5:16.
He that hath seen me hath seen the Father...Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me.–John 14:9,11, means that I have lifted my self and no longer live by the tenets of self. Light absorbs me. You can see the Father only when you are high in consciousness. Ye shall know them by their fruits.–Matthew 7:16. Many say, I must work this out alone. Yet no one can do it alone without sliding down the greased pole of self, where the Power of the Spirit of God could shatter the body. He that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.–John 14:12. The greatest challenge is to do the greater works, but people ignore the because!
The heavenly Gates were closed before Jesus descended, yet the magnetic power in his aura became atomic power and opened them when he ascended. The heavenly Councils remitted the sins of everyone who heard his message and believed in him. Remission means to return to the Most High to receive your mission. When Jesus said, because I go to my Father, he brought the Almighty closer as personality. The Father’s personal gift to His Son was to send arms of Light through the Gates of Heaven to lift us to Him. The Father does the work because you cannot do it alone. You must love God enough, which challenges you to let the Father possess you.
People have feared the principle of nonresistance because they are afraid of being a nonentity. Yet Jesus, who lived as the epitome of nonresistance, did not evade the Crucifixion. His Resurrection and Ascension prove he was a conqueror. The very pattern of his life tells you to lift your cross and make it a ladder of Ascension. God’s almighty Power comes from above and from nowhere else, but how does it use you? To surrender to be possessed by God’s Power is the only way. You have no chance to succeed unless the Father possesses you and does the work, but if you are like most people, you’re afraid to surrender the little self. Deep breathing and devotional praise will harness Power, which helps you to worship God as both personality and as principle.
You can ascend if you care nothing about outer credits to self. Well, I’ll try shows that little self wants credit. It says, This will be hard, and I’ll deserve recognition and praise if I can do it. Just speak the Word and let those who need the healing apply it. Continue knowing the truth, which in this case is that God does the work. You manifest the glory of God’s works when the Father uses you to His universal credit.
How can you be God’s servant? God pours His love on humanity through the glance of your eyes. Wear a self-satisfied smile and someone will try to wipe it off. You will not become smug about being the instrument if you always remember that you are looking into God’s eyes when you look at others. They are seeing God when they look at you.
The great challenge is to love enough. Jesus came to fulfill law, not to destroy it. Enough love fulfills law, or you have a barren creation. Satan served as the challenge of evil, using three temptations in the wilderness. Some say, It’s too late for me now. If I’d only known this thirty years ago. I haven’t had enough education. The It’s too late is the voice of Satan, the tempter of the weak petty self within. Anything is possible when you let the Father move in to rule your conscious through wisdom, love and joy.
People ask, I’ve surrendered to the Power, so why doesn’t something happen? If you still blame your parents for your failure after age sixteen, you are lying to yourself, for only mental and emotional laziness delays success. When you study, you open new brain cells and God opens the door for you. It is never too late to be successful, just too soon. Rationalization is the common escape route, but it stifles great thought.
I am the way, the truth, and the life.–John 14:6. The way to God is surrender without fear. The truth is that God does the work, not the self. The life is mental, emotional and spiritual creativity. These are your great challenges. The difference between Power in this age and in Jesus’ time is the difference between a camel and a jet airplane, and it is the same in heaven. The Father absorbs you when you meet the challenge of I am the way, the truth and the light. Being Christed, you are then greater than your self. Power can use you only according to the number of brain cells you have awakened. For example, you can have a small or a large pitcher of cream, and your awakened brain cells are the pitcher’s capacity.
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days. And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah.–1 Kings 17:14-16. The cruse of oil that fails not is the Spirit of God moving in to possess you, a heavenly abundance of eternal youth, which is eternal life.

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Ye Are Gods
Edna Lister outline, November 30, 1952, Cleveland, Ohio; February 5, 1956, Tacoma, Washington; John 1:1-9, John 10:34, 1 John 3:1-3

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which gives light to every man coming into the world.–John 1:1-9.
Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?–John 10:34.
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him, Beloved, now we are children of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.–1 John 3:1-3.

In the beginning was the Word, which is a vibration called a principle or a law. The Word was with God describes a divine personality. The Word was God describes the Son, the Christ principle as the Holy Ghost. In the beginning was the Word describes God as principle, cold and lifeless. It creates a picture of a lonesome God, who desired to create. The Wisdom principle thinks and plans through the Father as divine personality. Love is the Mother, who nourishes and sustains. The Mother gestates what the Father only protects. She is the hidden Mother around whom all mysteries revolve.
All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.–John 1:3-4. You are made in the substance of the Word in its ability to serve as the gestating Mother, the brooding Mother who holds everything together as love. Jesus is the Son, who partakes of the nature of the Father and the Mother. As principle, he became law, and as personality, he took on form. All Power is stepped down through the Son. Transmutation and transfiguration must occur in the same way as you return home to God.
That was the true Light, which gives light to every man coming into the world.–John 1:9. Jesus quoted David’s Psalm, Ye are gods.–Psalm 82:6. We are small parts of the One, seemingly, yet are endowed with all the potential qualities, attributes and every glory of the Godhead. Why then do we see such inequality in expression? Some people just do not believe in Light. They feel indifference toward the issue of personal responsibility, yet the fulfillment of responsibility expresses a type of desire.
The ancients told the story of souls who are ready to be born into earth life. Each passes down a long corridor into a room filled with Light. Most of them, in their eagerness to arrive on earth for their adventure, grab only a tiny taper. Others take time to weave many tapers into a great torch and so bring great Light to earth. One might ask, If I came with no Light, shall I stand forever in the darkness? No, for as Plato taught, each soul is given a star in the Milky Way, a star that God has filled with Light, just waiting to be used in your creations.
How do you bring this Light to earth? Beloved, now we are children of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.–1 John 3:2. When he appears means when you have accepted him in your heart as the illumination of Christed consciousness. No matter what you came with, you can always call for more Light. Having Light in your heart creates the desire for more Light.
Break away from all old crystallization in heart and mind. To do so, you need to become receptive, flexible and balanced, three conditions to make your life easier. When you become receptive to new ideas, you find it a simple matter to accept that I am a son (or daughter) of God. You do not really need to become part of God since you already are, but you do need to accept that you are His. When you are flexible, you find it easier to let go of what you no longer need. You cease being so rigid about old ways of being and doing.
When you become balanced in love and wisdom, you nourish your plans with love. Then you are able to turn your imagination upward on its axis in your mind’s eye, into soul vision of your high goals and more Light. It appears a long path to become a fully integrated son or daughter of God, especially when you seem unable to adjust to life’s hours and demands. Without sufficient flexibility, you experience delays because of your debits of fear, doubt, self-condemnation, impatience, criticism, pride, self-pity, opinions and prejudices.
You get from your call for more Light exactly what remains after these deductions, minus your whining. To have a debit from your Light, you must first have turned your back on the Light. You do so whenever you stand still to grumble, to feel hurt or to ask why this is happening to you. When you take time to create a deduction, you dig a ditch. You return to Light, but turn away again. Then your shadow hides the ditch you dug, you fall into the hole and wallow in the mud you’ve made with your tears.
Such turning ’round and ’round makes you a weary pilgrim, crying, How long, O Lord, how long? I grow tired. Your family grows tired and bored with your complaints. God says, How long, O child, how long must you turn from Me to wander in the dark? On the other side of vision, just beyond earth’s view is a glorious path illumined by limitless eternal Light. On this route you do the greater works in the Light. All the works that the Lord could do, you shall do also and greater works as well.
One day a boy was out walking when he spied a fuzzy caterpillar slowly inching along. He stopped and asked the caterpillar, Aren’t you tired of crawling along so slowly? The caterpillar said no, he wasn’t. The boy walked on, but turned back to ask, Are you happy doing that? The caterpillar said yes, he was. Then the boy asked, Where are you going? And the caterpillar answered, I am walking to my wings. The difference between the caterpillar and you is unconscious versus conscious faith. When you become receptive, flexible and balanced enough, your faith becomes unconquerable. Your call on Light is instantly filled.
You can say, My years are beautiful, My days are beautiful. My hours are all beauty now. I have captured and hold the beauty of unconquerable faith as my expression of graciousness and loveliness, all mine to use because I am now going to my wings of Light!

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Ye Are Gods
Edna Lister transcript, Ruth Johnson, scribe, November 30, 1952, Cleveland, Ohio; John 1:1-9, John 10:34, 1 John 3:1-3

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which gives light to every man coming into the world.–John 1:1-9.
Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, ye are gods?–John 10:34.
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him, Beloved, now we are children of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.–1 John 3:1-3.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God has a marvelous sound of complete reassurance, describing an all-inclusive Word, and the unfolding of a great Creation without end. We translate Word from the Greek, Logos, which includes the principles of the Emanations, Wisdom, Love and the Word that unfold into Mind, Substance and Power. They express as the Father, Mother and Son, who provide the personality pattern for acting as the unchangeable, immutable, undeviating principles on which God has based and established all universes.
The Word was with God is another way of saying that God is also personality. God as principle holds the Mind that can think and plan, Substance that can become, Power that can act, yet you can personally relate to God only through personality. We worship a God who is all principle and personality, and postulate a Father-Mother because we inherently know that divine personality must include a Mother God. The Father of Wisdom thinks and plans, Mother Love nourishes and sustains, and the Son of Selflessness acts on your behalf. All religions include the trinity of the Father, Mother and Son, expressing the principles of Wisdom, Love and Power in some form of energy.
The Word was God refers to the Begotten Son, and includes the sons and daughters later created. He was in the beginning with God describes the Father, Mother and Son as the first great Emanations that filled the universe, the core of Light whirling as Wisdom, Love and Energy. The Logos-Son begat the principles of activity, harmony and equilibrium. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made describes substance ready for us to express.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men denotes the Begotten Son’s personality, and Light as energy. In this, we now have a picture of a lonely God, who filled space as Wisdom, balanced by Love substance. We seldom think of a man as brooding or gestating, but in him was life portrays a yearning, brooding feminine quality, which is Mother God. The Father thinks about the plan while the Mother gestates, nourishes and sustains that plan with Light.
Jesus epitomizes the Son Emanation, which combines the Father and Mother in the family of personality. He was sweetly firm and final in his expression on earth. He acted as the Father in firmness when he drove the money changers from the temple, but expressed the Mother’s brooding quality when he said, O, Jerusalem...how often I would have gathered your children Jesus said, Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, Ye are gods?’ The I said implies that Jesus had been in the flesh before, and is the basis for knowing that God endows you with the potential qualities and attributes of the divine nature.
If these qualities fill the universe, lowering in vibration to outer form as small as you and I are, you cannot deny that your soul or cells are parts of the whole. Your divine heritage qualifies you to become a creator, though you are now just a small son or daughter of God. Inequalities exist because each is on a different step of initiation. No two people are the same, or release the same quality or quantity of Light. The glorious enticement is that you can become as great as you choose to be.
The ancients told a story of souls, ready to be born, who first descended to a room filled with tapers to use to light their way to earth. Some were in such a hurry that they dashed to earth without taking a taper, others took a light. A few took time to braid a torch, and they brought the great Light to earth. God fills your Oversoul star with Light when you come to earth. Some choose to invoke the Light of their star, others do not.
When he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.–1 John 3:2. The Messiah comes as the beauty of a sunrise, the ecstasy of a bird’s song, as music, as poetry. Christ Power is all the glory and Light in the universe. You see it, but may fail to hold onto it. Your first inspiration to achieve a goal beyond self lights a candle that invokes Light from your Oversoul star. You must abundantly encourage that inspiration to fan your flame of desire into aspiration to rise from creature to creator.
God levies no income tax, but you must obey divine laws, and the time you devote to any kind of negativity becomes deductions. Evil persists because personalities choose evil expressions. The Father cannot close the Gates of Light to an evil one while even one spark of good remains. No one but God can know when a soul puts out that spark. Good still outweighs evil.
Your shadow can hide a ditch, and you can fall in it. You can wallow in the mud, weep, feel God has deserted you, and so create your own deductions in life. God pays no attention to the deductions the world or your family claims against you. How hard you work at being His son or daughter determines your inner status.
Each embodied soul must become fully receptive, flexible and balanced. To be receptive, you must let go the past and your desire to recreate it. To be flexible is to agree with your adversary. You need not agree with his negativity, but can move into the golden silence and compromise with Light. Sometimes it pays to be firm and final, but often it pays to try the other fellow’s plan.
Never say it cannot be done. A full balance of Love and Wisdom means that you close no doors with rigid opinion or prejudice. Imagination ascends your consciousness, and you envision great new goals to become Godlike. Potentially, you can draw on all God’s faculties and qualities. You are ascending, endowed as a creator god, who must surrender all self to Power and become perfect.
The path is hard. No one gets anywhere until he has fifty active, powerful, dynamic enemies in the world. Enemies either bury you or push your ascension into overdrive. Read a biography of Abraham Lincoln for insight on the subject. If you lift your head above the crowd, the world may pillory you, yet you can never achieve greatly until you rise above your adversaries. The soul may grow weary, but you must continue.cYou may ask, Oh, God, how long? God asks, Oh, child, when will you ascend to receive, to be flexibly balanced in My Light?
A caterpillar is just a butterfly that unconsciously crawls on its way to grow wings. You can consciously ascend to your wings of Light. A butterfly folds its wings over its back until its transition in autumn, when it stretches them overhead. A butterfly would never drag its wings in the world’s mire. You can raise your wings and fly anytime.
Light holds the glory of God, all the atomic Power of the universe waiting for you to use, one step at a time. Conscious faith produces activity. Active faith never accepts the world’s no or stops, but keeps stepping up and pushing up. Turnips grow from turnip seeds. We are seeds of God, sons and daughters, potential creators, privileged to call on the Light and glory that our present capacity can emit. Make every hour one of beauty, catching and reflecting the glory as Light emanates. Ascension is your heritage, so shine with divine radiance.

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The Living Chalice
Edna Lister transcript, Ruth Johnson, scribe, December 7, 1952, Cleveland, Ohio, October 30, 1955, Tacoma, Washington; John 3:16, 1 John 4:6-21

We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this, the love of God was manifested toward us, because God sent His Only Begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know we that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. He who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him, because He first loved us. If someone says I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar, for he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him, that he who loves God must love his brother also.–1 John 4:6-21.
For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.–John 3:16.

For God so loved are words of lavish giving. A Father who would send His firstborn Son in sacrifice for us reassures our confidence in God as our basis of eternal being. Who can picture God as being so foolish as to sacrifice His Son unless He was all-powerful enough to hold him and to bring him back into His arms again? The Father dared to send His Son from the glory of His Light into the darkness of earth because He trusted His Son’s honor completely. God has given man the priceless gift of free will, knowing that at any time He could draw back to Himself that part of Himself that He has sent forth.
God’s principles are immutable and undeviating. He sent you forth with free choice because He had perfect trust in your ability to conquer earth’s illusions and make honorable choices. People must misuse all their soul substance before they forfeit the privilege to be forgiven. Becoming totally evil is more painful and just as difficult as becoming perfect.
Knowing that God trusts us so much is a great comfort. He could gather us to Himself anytime, but that would be failure, because He knows that under the law of averages, most of us would come through. If a family member were missing, you would seek him. Heaven also has a missing persons bureau because God knows His business of loving enough. You will have reached that cosmic love yourself when you comprehend for God so loved the world. All ministers desire to reach their congregations and students with the wholeness and universality of that Light. God’s total integrity stands behind the statement for God so loved.
God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this: That we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.–1 John 4:16-18. We seldom think of these beautiful, comforting words of John’s first Letter. Believing it may be hard, but most agnostics and atheists already dwell in the love of God without knowing or realizing it. The agnostics dislike creeds because the so-called righteous ones have tried to force feed them religion. Most find themselves at God’s feet instantly after they leave earth, for they turn to Him sooner than many supposedly religious souls.
If someone says I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar, for he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him, that he who loves God must love his brother also.–1 John 4:20-21. This passage is a measure of just how much you really do love God. To find God’s love, then dwell in it, you must first know the difference between self love and soul love. Self love is selfish, interested only in itself and its own personality, but soul love is unselfish.
The little self lives for the world, never realizing the materialism and stunted limits of its affairs. The self lover imagines people are talking about him when he enters a room. Self love makes one more aggressive, overbearing, with only a splash of real personality. Selfish love thinks only of self and its relationships. It grows a garden of opinions and prejudices, little bloomers of self-pity, and weeds of envy, resentment, jealousy, hatred and anger. Like nettles, they sting and will take over a healthy but untended garden.
Unselfish soul love is the leaven that constantly works in quiet without any fanfare. You can hear a bread dough whispering while it rises, but no loud noise. Soul love invariably leads to complete surrender and forgiveness eventually. The first step in soul love is beginning to see what’s wrong with prickly self love. The soul lover needs to love God. He begins to have love for God, and grows beautiful, perfect blooms of love, hope, faith, discernment, discretion, discrimination, not weeds. You give birth to joy, the weed killer, when you move from love for God into the love of God.
How do you make this your truth and express it as your rock of faith? Everyone will arrive at the twin cities of Forgiveness and Selflessness eventually. Yet you must conquer the City of Forgiveness before you can enter the City of Selflessness. To forgive means to give love for whatever challenge life hands you. Three gates lead to the City of Forgiveness. The first is inscribed with I forgive, and its open sesame is I forgive my family, friends and enemies.
The gate opens, but to your dismay you find gray, barren sand dotted with tumbleweeds and cactus, not a garden of love, because the sense of I in I forgive forgets joy. I, me, my and mine expand to fill all available space. I forgive him, but he’d better never do it again! is a challenge that leaves fear and self-pity beneath the surface. Each pardon, spoken from the teeth out, plants a new weed crop that needs only the barren sand of self love and the dry ice of fear and revenge, not the water of human kindness. You end alone in a desert of self-righteous weeds.
The evidence of dry ice consciousness is a sullen No one loves me! No one understands me! attitude. Dry ice burns to the touch until you melt, dissolve and absorb it from within. A teacher can help, but cannot destroy anyone’s core of self love. Each must plod alone through the burning sands of the desert he creates. You reach the second gate when you lift this degree of self, and nobly demand, Father, You forgive them because they know not what they do, which puts you on a cross higher than Jesus, in a complete ecstasy of self. Jesus had earned the right to declare this. Yet, so many souls approach that gate with a core of self left, pat self on the back, shouting for a crown, proclaiming their saintliness and telling God how good they are.
Self love forms a cloud that enfolds you and obscures the view. Now you are sure you will find a garden of flowers, but they’re all dying amid dead sand patches. Horrified, you stand in a dry, barren ocean of weeds again. Desire flames as you cry, I must reach God. How can I give enough love to cover my past, to melt and dissolve the roots of my selfish weeds? God’s Light and love will heal self-condemnation first, but you will continue slipping until you dig out the roots of self-centered love. God’s love is the universal magical solvent that consumes all dross as it burns, and it always changes what it touches into itself, eventually.
Joy clears the view ahead and lifts you to the third gate. There you say, Father, forgive me, lest I cause my brother to stumble. Then you see the great cross, whose upright is desire and whose crossbar is will. The cross represents the crucifixion of self will, and the final sacrifice of self love. Lay self on the crossbar and say, Thy will, oh Father, not mine, be done. Finally, you know the love of God that reaches out to enfold those who despitefully use you.
The final gate of forgiveness will not open until you have sacrificed all self’s darkness. You want to fly, not climb off the cross again. Kneel before the high altar rail, praying to melt, dissolve and absorb everyone’s darkness of self. Enough love can absorb any darkness the world can produce, so look back only to pour love on it. The love of God is your inheritance, which dwells in you and you in it. God forgives your debts as you forgive your debtors. Selfish love says, Father, forgive them, and charges the full debt of blame to the other fellow.
Soul-love says, Father, forgive me because I didn’t love enough to cover his debt. Forgive me for causing my brother to stumble, which makes you the living chalice of God’s love overflowing into the world. You become a foundation here, a strong pillar of support for everyone you love. Your tone of voice becomes brisk with the quality of love’s strength, a glory to all. Flowers of beauty, glory and healing lie beyond the last gate of forgiveness, the garden you dreamed was in the City of Forgiveness. Miracle upon Miracle is inscribed on the triangular altar of the Citadel of Miracles there.
The proud creed of self love posing as realism preaches, I’m a realist. There’s no such thing as a miracle. They’re just unreal, illusions. Yet your goal is to ascend to soul love in the realm of the miraculous. How can you pass through the three gates immediately? Why, it is so simple. At the first gate say, Father, forgive me. I would be free and free my creations also. I love You, Father. I sacrifice my little self to move through Thy Gate. I would be a Christed soul who ascends to dwell in God. Love is the only true freedom. Declare, Father, forgive me. Give Your servant Your love, which flows into the world to consume darkness. I am now Thy living chalice of Love’s Light!

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The Altar and the Flame
Edna Lister outline, December 14, 1952, Cleveland, Ohio; 1 Peter 4:10-11, Hebrews 1:1-7

As every man has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies.–1 Peter 4:10-11.
God, who at sundry times and in various manners spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, being made so much better than the angels, as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For to which of the angels did He ever say, You are my Son, this day I have begotten you? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son? But when he again brings the First Begotten into the world, He says, Let all the angels of God worship him. And of the angels He says, Who makes His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire.–Hebrews 1:1-7.

From creature to creator, consciousness passes through four stages of development. The creature crawls back and forth, unconscious in the three dimensions of length, breadth and height, and there he stops. The creator moves into a fourth dimension, conscious of time.
You also experience four stages in soul growth—cold, lukewarm, boiling and white heat. The creator dwells in the fourth dimension of Spirit, in the white Christ Light. Here the angel spirits become messengers between you and God, between the altar and the flame. The altar is the crown of the head, but the flame is the Holy Spirit from above. The angel spirits receive thoughts (ideas) in the throne room in the Garden of Eden, the seat of the creator, whose own Oversoul has descended and taken charge of his life.
When you reach this stage of unfolding, you are treading on holy ground. You stand in the midst of a burning bush, filled with awe and reverence for the sublime glory and joy that lie beyond. Joy sets the pace and keynote of your approach to God. Your results depend on the quality of your praise, which determines the height of your altar and the flame on it. You must learn to convert your darkest weakness into your highest point of glory. Approach God through praise and prayer, blessing your low points of weakness, not weeping over them. Your approach is weak when your prayers bring no results. If you do not love enough to kneel at your high altar and praise God, you snuff the joy candle in your heart.
Man loves to conquer against great odds, and to pioneer on new frontiers. The entire history of civilization is all about emerging from darkness into the Light. Today we are pioneering in the fourth dimension, time and space. Every business ever started depends on four factors: future resources, present assets, production, and distribution, all of which support the accomplishment of the plan. For example, a timberman wants to sell lumber. First, he maps his resources. In spring, he hikes the woods, following Indian trails, and maps out the timber stands. Though he cannot see any results yet, he learns the land and identifies any limitations on the work ahead. In summer, he sells the timber still standing as trees.
Second, he must make a market to sell his intangible product for tangible money. To do this, he must show a banker his resources, options for timberland, and orders for timber. He may have to plan new mills, and new access roads. Yet, he still cannot see any results. His whole business remains invisible, backed by his faith in his appraisal.

“Your success remains invisible until your faith gives it form.”

During the autumn, he hires men, builds the new mill and roads, fells the timber, cuts it into proper lengths and hauls it to holding points. The winter snows may hamper work some days, but his crews can still harvest timber and the snow makes it easier to haul by sled. Spring thaw melts the snow, swells the rivers, and the crews float the timber down to the mill, where sawyers cut it to order and into salable lengths. Is that all? No. His mills produce mountains of waste lumber scraps. Some entrepreneurs have made vast fortunes from making tiny clothes-pins, pegs, dowels, kindling and plywood, after everyone else has taken their profit.
How can I apply this to myself? you ask. Your altar is your present asset, and the flame is your future resource. Your sales agents are angel messengers, your inheritance of glory. God is your Banker. Production is what I am. Distribution is what I do. Collecting the profits from your production depends on your distribution, which the quality of your approach to God dictates.
First, you must learn where you are going, which is into the golden silence, your Banker’s office. Second, you must learn who is going to see the banker, your Oversoul I AM or the little me of self. Little me cannot think you into the golden silence, nor can it think from the golden silence. Weak little me will not impress the Banker because it has no character-foundation to depend on. Yet the I AM of Christed consciousness is the perfect ambassador, divinely courageous and dependable.
Life, to little me, is a series of frustrating petty ventures, mostly failures. But life is one grand successful adventure to I AM. Declare, I AM equipped to conquer. I AM created to conquer. Life is free, and plenty of it exists for all. Life can never fail, for death is not the end.

“Life can never fail, for death is not the end.”

Approach God, your Banker, through your angel messengers of service. Standing before the high altar, releasing the high flame of God’s glory, I AM becomes an oracle, the minister of the flame from the altar.

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The Altar and the Flame
Edna Lister transcript, Ruth Johnson, scribe, December 14, 1952, Cleveland, Ohio; 1 Peter 4:10-11, Hebrews 1:1-7

From the lowliest worm to the highest creator, consciousness progresses in stages through four dimensions, the first three of which are unconscious. Three-dimensional living portrays the lesser stages of creature consciousness and intellectualism. The worm crawls back and forth in the first dimension, width, the creature stage. Those who run back and forth seeking teachers live horizontally by length and width of intellect. The aspiring son of man says, I didn’t know, and falls on his face in the dimension of height.
The creator enters the fourth dimension, time. You create most of your spiritual debts as you reach to grasp time, until you finally learn that now is the high time to enter the fifth dimension, the eternal infinite golden silence. When you touch the fifth dimension, you pray to be free of time and space. You should always hold to the creator, I AM consciousness, but often straddle the fence between the third and the fourth dimensions.
Soul consciousness develops from the creature to the creator stage through four degrees of heat: Cold, lukewarm, boiling and the white heat of soul. The coldest is the fish stage of weeping, wailing and living in an emotional swimming pool. The bird stage is lukewarm, indifferent toward higher dimensions because it hasn’t yet developed sufficient brain cells to give it the first glimmering of self-awareness, but it spreads its wings. The creature consciousness begins to seek God when he reaches the boiling degree. All sects that whip emotional urges to the boiling point are seeking a goal greater than self, but are still afraid of God. They preach exclusive exclusionary creeds and dogmas based in fears.
The fourth dimension, time, is the point of white Christ Light, which brings complete soul freedom to make yourself good and the other fellow happy. Everyone is free to conquer self in time. Your soul seeks the fifth dimension of eternal perfection.
You can always ascend in joy consciousness, but first you must make your weakest third dimensional limitation your highest fourth dimensional point. This is the joker in the deck, and can trip you. When you have attained the fourth dimensional time capacity, you open the three windows of your soul to Jerusalem and receive illumination in your Garden of Eden. You ask, Where is the altar? Your high thoughts and ideas ignite the flame of the Holy Spirit, which reveals the altar, where you worship and receive God’s angels and messengers. You must stand, like Moses, and become a pillar of fire rooted in the burning bush, which is the golden silence approach to God. As you stand on holy ground, joy absorbs you in such a cloud of glory that you lose your self forever.
You live on holy ground because your Oversoul star has descended and becomes the heart of your crown center. God’s angels, Holy Ones from the Source become your spiritual messengers. You dare not pollute your holy ground by returning to third-dimensional unconsciousness, which is adultery. After you grasp the first idea, stand by and wait for orders. You cut the vibration if you quit praising to rush about looking for change. your praise. must be of sufficient quantity as well as quality. The quality of your praise depends on your joy and defines your results, the glorious flame of the Holy Spirit on your altar. The difference between creature and creator intelligence is the ability to pioneer in unknown territory.
All creatures have the urge to pioneer, but are limited to group soul consciousness. For instance, certain species of birds migrate annually, but always return to the same area to seek their breeding grounds. Humanity pioneers into unknown areas, and we are now trail-blazing in many directions of within the invisible world. We are planning world-wide communication and exploring energy itself, which is one aspect of the life of the living God.
A fellow once wanted to open a lumber camp. First he sold his idea of production and distribution. He approached a buyer with his assets in mind and explained how he could dam a river to float the logs to their mill. All this was invisible. Later he showed a banker his prospective orders. The banker examined his character and business references, and put up the money based on the man’s invisible pioneering. He logged in winter, so his creation was not visible until the spring thaw when the logs floated down the river to the mill. This man’s unconquerable faith provided the outer manifestation of abundance for many because he prayed before his altar and ignited the flame.
You are just as great a super salesman as the lumberjack. Your future resources are the flame of the Holy Spirit on your altar. Nothing limits the burning flame that can energize you and your creations in the fifth dimension. What do you plan to produce, and how do you plan to distribute it? God is your banker when your business plan leads to glory. Who will approach God, selfish little me or Oversoul I AM?
As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth.–1 Peter 4:10-11. Every night you are successful in some great venture while you attend the high altar. God created all souls with the I AM consciousness that would lead them to stand as conquerors before high altars to hear His messengers. God destined us to awaken to the call of Chrisred I AM, to become oracles and ministers of radiance and glory. I AM ascends to become a great Being of Light, possessed of the Holy Spirit, whose flames fill you, opening the world’s gates until you become the full victorious soul you are destined to be.

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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.

Works Cited

The Holy Bible. King James Version (KJV)

The Oxford English Dictionary: Compact Ed., 2 vols. E.S.C. Weiner, ed., Oxford University Press, 1971.

Tennyson, Alfred, Lord. The Higher Pantheism, The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. Nicholson & Lee, eds., 1917.

Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 3rd ed. Springfield, Massachusetts, G. & C. Merriam Co., 1929.

Copyright 2018-2026 by Linda Mihalic, The Society of the Universal Living Christ. All titles published under The Via Christa are copyright protected. All Rights Reserved. You may not modify, publish, transmit, transfer or sell, reproduce, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, display, or in any way exploit any of the content, in whole or in part. No part of any book or paper herein may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from The Via Christa. Created March 5, 2018; modified July 26, 2026.

Edna Lister’s Sermons, 1952

“The difference between material substance and spiritual humanity is in its degree of faith, unconscious to conscious.”

“Each seeker ultimately proves God to himself.”

“You receive no credits for doing what you must do, but only for your struggles against the dominance of self.”

“Take time to live and love in a Godlike way every second.”

“Your success remains invisible until your faith gives it form.”

“Life can never fail, for death is not the end.”

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“The difference between material substance and spiritual humanity
is in its degree of faith, unconscious to conscious.”

“You receive no credits for doing what you must do, but only for
your struggles against the dominance of self.”