Via Christa: Via Christa Life: Sermons: Edna Lister’s Sermons, 1961.

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Edna Lister’s Sermons, 1961

Forgiveness
Edna Lister Good Friday outline; March 31, 1961, Baltimore, MD. Romans 8:35-39.

“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 8:35-39.
From the creature to the creator, all souls are learning how to be conquerors. The creature moves up in consciousness for God to bestow the first portion of a living soul, then climbs in the long slow process to become a son or daughter of men. As you accept that you must pay obedience to the Christ laws, and assume the attendant responsibilities, you become a son or daughter of God. Then, and only then, can you learn how to become a creator.
“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.”–John 14:12. When you live by the laws of love and compassion, your devotion to Jesus the Christ begins to show as the greater works in your daily life, through your body, face, eyes and words. All of Jesus’ teachings have outlined this as the Way of the Christ.
His seven Words, which are proclamations he spoke from the cross, have mystical meanings, and practical ones as well. They represent seven ways or attitudes you must assume in your daily life. They are the seven ways you can and must walk on the Via Christa, the Way of the Christ.
The first way is forgiveness. “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”–Luke 23:43. The second way is consideration for others, and responsibility to people. “Woman, behold your son. Behold your mother.”–John 19:26-27.
The third way is the fruit of repentance, which opens the gates to heaven, both here and hereafter. “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.”–Luke 23:43. Repentance does not pay your debt, but makes it possible to pay your debts.
The fourth way is surrender, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”–Matthew 27:46. The Supreme had fully o’ershadowed Jesus from the Mount of Transfiguration on. He had to withdraw all this Light, which had imbued his soul substance, before he could leave earth. Yet you must surrender self so that Light can move in to possess you. Later you must surrender your self-centered will to lighten your soul to ascend.
The fifth way is, “I thirst.”–John 19:28. Jesus’ thirst was physical, but yours must be a soul thirst for spiritual waters to cleanse and wash away all taints of earth.
The sixth way is, “It is finished!”–John 19:30. You end self’s reign when you let go of your need to control, and let God rule. The seventh way is the complete surrender of self to do God’s will. “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.”–Luke 23:46.
Easter morning opens the forty days to Ascension Day, which must be forty days of soul ascension for you. The sacrifices of self that you make during Lent are supposed to create enough space in your mind and heart for the Holy Spirit to pour in, which is the Power of God using you.
Yet sacrifice is only half of what you need. The other half, the first law of forgiveness is the secret of your preparedness. You pass through three stages of forgiveness as you ascend. First, you have a faint glimmering of the need to forgive, where you say, “I’ll forgive him, but he’d better never do it again.” You offer no excuse for the other fellow.
The enemy-idea binds you fast on earth because you are still enemy-conscious. You must reach the fringes of the second stage before you even consider giving up the enemies you so cherish. Get off your cushion of self-righteousness, and look in the mirror. If you hate what you see in the little self, you are blaming yourself for failures and shortcomings.
Blaming the self is just as wrong as blaming another. So you learn to say, “Father, may You forgive them, for they know not what they have done.” Consider this—you are still blaming them, but are beginning to excuse them. Still, an inner conflict is continuing between little me and “I AM” Christed consciousness. Each day you must choose who is starting your day, “I AM” or little me. This conflict of who-takes-whom-where rages, subsides, then flares again.
Yet one day you can say, “Lord, please prepare a table for me in the presence of my loved ones” instead of “my enemies.” You no longer give anyone or anything in the world power over you. Family, friends or the world can no longer condition your life.
You reach up to the third stage and say, “Father, forgive me, lest I cause my brother to stumble.” Something happens! A glory floods you and rapture fills your soul. You no longer sag at the soul-seams. Gather your years of experience in recollection and delight in their beauty. Tune in on the miracle station, “Life Unlimited.”
Every day is a new adventure when you have fallen in love with God. You have traveled from being a son or daughter of man to being a son or daughter of God, and have now become a creator of miracles, doing the greater works. Know that Jesus walks beside you and holds your hand. He has promised to be with you “even unto the end of the world” of darkness. “If God be for us, who can be against us?”–Romans 8:31.
Please let me share with you a picture of him as he is today: “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 8:35-39.

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A Formula for Daily Living
Edna Lister Prayer Circle newsletter article, April 1961, Washington, D.C. John 3:2.

“Beloved, now are we the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be.”–John 3:2.
Love, faith and praise are the three most important keys to the kingdom of heaven. They are limitless cosmic principles that you are supposed to contact and use lavishly all your earth life.
God sent us here with the power of choice in using love, faith and praise. What you think about them, the use you make of them is yours alone. How you use them today determines what your tomorrow will be. What you think, feel and say about today will appear tomorrow as your life’s expression.
The quantity of your love determines the quality of your faith. If the little daily frustrations of life dilute your love, your life will not filled with greater love and joy tomorrow. If you dilute your faith by doubts and fears, you will delay your miracles.
Since praise is the motive power behind every miracle of your life, it follows that it sets both love and faith into action. Therefore, the more you praise, the more vitalized and quickened your love and faith will become.
If your molds of desire are well planned and built, and by praise you keep the substance of love and faith flowing continuously into them, nothing should delay your speedy results.
Praising God keeps love flowing to touch everything about you with its transforming magic. Praise is your only hold on your own constancy and alertness. Praise increases the warmth of God’s love to hold the fires of faith burning at the white point of heat in your crucible of life.
Pure love, held constantly, melts all obstacles and barriers this world can produce between you and your fulfilled dream desires. Yet you must constantly feed your molds with the substance of love and faith if they are ever to be filled and so become visible.
When your praise is weak or fades through neglect, allowing love to cool, and faith to falter, you do not grow in greater strength and courage with comprehension of God’s bountiful laws unfolding for you.
Only praising can hold the vibration of love and faith high enough to keep them flowing, unchanged in quantity and quality. Unless you hold the vibration steadfastly, the wavering in your love and faith will create thin spots in your prayer molds, which will leak, causing delay.
To know that nothing can separate you from the love and faith of God brings miracle after miracle. To praise and name everything that comes to you by God’s name on earth, good, gives principle a chance to transform any darkness into Light.
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be.”–John 3:2. Thus, “all things work together for good to them that love God” enough. Then shall it appear that you truly are a son or daughter of God. It shall then also appear what you can do and be when you love God enough.
When your faith is constant and strong enough to overcome things of the world, praise will be your companion, day and night. Beloved, now we are the sons of God and it does appear that we are doing the greater works and becoming the outer fulfillment of joy.

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No Shadow of Turning
Edna Lister Prayer Circle outline; May 1, 1961, Washington, D.C. James 1:17.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, or shadow of turning.”–James 1:17.
Everyone can see the wonders of spring. Every bush, every tree is bursting with new leaves and blossoms. Breathtaking beauty comes from the cold and darkness of winter. Do you actually believe this beauty has come into being overnight? You know better.
The Master hinted at what has been going on in the invisible realm when the trees looked dead: “The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.”–John 14:10. “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.”–John 5:17.
A quiet process has been happening underneath the apparently dead surface, the process of appropriation. The process of appropriation has three phases, expansion, explosion and expression.
The bulb appropriates nutrients, expanding until it bursts into a shoot. The tree appropriates vitality all winter, until it bursts into buds. Each living thing is reaching, pushing upward to the Light and to its particular expression of “added things.” Nature meets the challenge of the sun by expanding the life in all living things.
How does this apply to your life? You can appropriate from three sources only, Mind, Substance and Power. Further, you have three tools with which you can appropriate, your imagination, thinking and desires, or emotions. How you use your tools determines how much you desire to appropriate.
Under expansion, your imagination should broaden your horizon with every lecture you attend, book you read, and idea you hear. Every truth to which you are exposed, every prayer you offer will expand your imaginative faculty.
When your love has grown great enough, appropriated enough Light as Mind, Substance and Power, an explosion must result. What happens when your present shell reaches a bursting point?
Do you reach for the sun, more love, and more Light? Or do you weep over the loss of the old shell? No one can return to yesterday any more than the chick can return to its egg, which is the metaphysical explanation of Humpty-Dumpty. A lost paradise is an outgrown shell. An angel with a flaming sword stands guard against your return to the past.
“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.
Let your expression now blossom. A lost paradise always appears after the highest illumination you’ve had, the highest prayer you’ve ever offered. Your explosion into Light uncovers your formerly hidden weaknesses.
Do not hunt the bomb shelter of self to hide from God or man. Never pout or sulk because God has not done what you have demanded. Self looks backward, saying, “I have given,” and demands more. Soul looks upward and onward, declaring, “Let me give more” in love and compassion.
“My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.”–John 5:17. Do the next thing next. Redouble your fervency, your joy. Take a firm grip on your rudder of life, steering imagination, thinking and desires as emotions. If you’re tired of sailing blind, put in a new instrument panel. Label your controls No Variableness, No Wavering, No Shadows of Self, No Turning from the Light. See God as Light.

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When Prayer Is at Work
Edna Lister outline; June 4, 1961, Cleveland, OH. Ephesians 1:10, 1:17-23.

“That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.”–Ephesians 1:10.
“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.”–Ephesians 1:17-23.
When is prayer at work? All the time. “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.”–John 5:17. These may be just words unless you put a deep, inner conviction behind them. Your results depend on the depth of your convictions.
How do you know that your prayers are working? Are there any guidelines? How do you know what is good to pray for? Is there any way to be sure? In the past, people tried to ensure that their prayers would get to God by self-flagellation, starvation, wearing hair shirts, and punishing the body to save the soul. Even today, some sects ban movies, dancing, card games, or wearing jewelry. Doing these things as self-torture is just one step from forcing others to become “good” according to some particular doctrine. Today they call it brainwashing, but it is still the use of force.
The Western world experienced a wave of revulsion against self-inflicted cruelty and torture after the Medieval Era. Yet again, various meditation practices have swept the United States from the Orient. Fakirs walk on hot coals, and sleep on beds of nails, and swords.
The first thing they teach is to relax, to get comfortable and let go of all conscious thought. Complete inactivity, to become peaceful and quiet, is a preparation for sleep and death, not a better life. Forcing your focus on nothing instantly lowers the vibration of body cells, and a dying down of all active vibration. The result of which, of course, is to go to sleep.
You can let go either down or up in consciousness. A lower vibration is a colder vibration, which tightens the nerves until you huddle to remain warm. When you settle inside the body, you close the mental body lotus petals to any new thinking. Ascend in consciousness to warmer nerves, not a sunken slackening, but an ascending relaxation. The nerves expand as you think up in consciousness, let go of all tension, and lift it into Light, giving it to God.
Meditation teachers instruct their followers to take a mantra, a formula of words with them into the silence, to meditate on them. Such mental action starts an inner conflict of association and comparison. The mantra is still for the little me because the self is still interested in thinking about and considering only its relationship to God. Self is still dwelling on self.
Prayers work at the vibration level of the prayer. Each prayer is working on a set level, a level set by self or by soul. If you ask for peace, it provides no energy, no activity, because peace operates as quiet, sleep or death. Even if you ask for strength, saying, “Father, please fill me with strength,” the prayer goes forth according to the fervor behind your words.
Such prayer is still on the level of my relationship to God, and further lowers my vibration. Prayer based on the level of God’s relationship to you, raises your vibration, which explains “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.”–John 5:17. The right way to pray must be something else. How do you know what is good? Are your prayers spiritually legal?
First, ask yourself, Do I really want what I have asked for, or is it something I think I want? One story illustrates this point. As a youth, St. Augustine caused his mother great anxiety. He was a wayward son, rebellious, disobedient, with no interest in the Church. He wanted to leave home for the big city, Rome. His mother prayed novenas, lit candles to all the saints to keep him at home. God did not answer her prayers. She wanted her son saved, yet worded her prayers based on the self and her will for her son. Augustine went to Rome, and somehow met St. Ambrose, who trained him. Eventually, he became St. Augustine, a wonderful man, who saved many souls. Yet, God had ignored his mother’s spoken prayers. God instead answered her heart’s deep desire to save her son.
Prayer, to be right, must be purged of self. To be legal, prayer must be selfless, and for the world. God looks into the hearts of those who pray. What is not answered, is not good for your soul growth. Say instead, “God, please take my weak, ineffectual prayers, and throw them into the scrap basket. Please give me Your prayers for me.”
Second, ask yourself, “Are my prayers selfish, or are they for everyone?” God is only interested in the best for everyone. He has an inexhaustible supply of legal blessings, so climb the ladder of prayer. Third, ask yourself, “Will I declare everything good? Am I willing to become what God wants me to become? Do I want to be the kind of person for whom God answers prayer?”
Do you still want your way without giving up self, just paying lip service? When you surrender self to be used by the Power, nothing of self or darkness can withhold God’s Light, life or abundance from you. God cannot restrain Himself from giving you all good things for doing so would contravene His laws for Creation. God is always ready and available, and He always says yes.
Stand in your own shaft of Light right now. No one is too insignificant to be answered. No one is greater than another. When you follow law, you experience no delays in life. However, you must know that your answer is always there, waiting for you. Declare, “I do know that my own good is there all the time, waiting for me.” Remain mentally and emotionally still until you can feel the Light. This is how to “wait upon the Lord.”
Will you hear a Voice? Perhaps, but no matter, wait until the abundance of Light convinces your sense of knowing. After you ask, you should experience a feeling of warmth, a glow while waiting in the Light. This is the right way, the “up” way. If you doubt, you will feel no warmth, for it is a “no.”
Then, change your form of asking. It does not mean that your desire is illegal, but that your form of asking is illegal. Also, you can substitute praise for asking that your desire be fulfilled. Stand, praise, and wait in the Light.
One moment of fervent praise is worth an hour of lukewarm armchair meditation. Use contemplation in the Light instead of meditation on self-centered words. “Be ye raised up from the dead” of your overstuffed chair. The “first death” is a lowered vibration. The “second death” is sinking lower in vibration to loss of identity with your Source.
Whatever you declare good is named and numbered Good above. A miracle is a desire to which you have given enough life to act on earth. Jesus said, “Some here shall never see death,” meaning that they would never have a lowered vibration.
Ordinary meditation lowers the vibration to descend in consciousness. If the crown lotus petals close, it drives the Oversoul from the body. It shuts out life, and you cannot contact God. Create a quiet time in which to contemplate life and Light, and to ascend. You will know that your prayers are at work.

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When Prayer Is at Work
Edna Lister transcript; June 4, 1961, Cleveland, OH. Margaret Pratt Doan, Ruth Johnson, Ross and Virginia Whitehead, scribes. Ephesians 1:10, 1:17-23.

“That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.”–Ephesians 1:10.
“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.”–Ephesians 1:17-23.
Prayer is at work all the time. Our Father neither slumbers nor sleeps. Use these verses as your mottoes: “The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.”–John 14:10. “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.”–John 5:17. This is all you need, yet these declarations may be just words without a deep conviction underneath. The power of your words, your results depend on the depth of your convictions.
Most people ask several questions regarding prayer: How do I know if my method of prayer is working? What guidelines should I use? How do I know what is good to pray for? Is there any way to be sure? Prayers work at the vibration level of the prayer. Each prayer works on a level you set with your fervency of desire and devotion when you begin to pray.
“We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”–Romans 8:28. So, continue praising no matter whether your prayer seems to be working. To be successful, offer your prayer on a love vibration, because Light as Mind, Substance and Power works on the level of your consciousness. In former times, people practiced flagellation and starvation. They lay on nails, swords, and walked on hot coals. Such practices began in India where certain fakirs mutilated and immolated themselves.
Later the early Christian world held the idea that anything enjoyable or pleasing was the work of the devil. They wore hair shirts, meted out punishments for pleasure and practiced self-mortification to kill self and save the soul. Self-torture historically has degenerated into torturing others to convert them or to make them more religious. Even today, some sects refuse to dance, play cards, see movies or watch television.
All modern brainwashing and cruelty spring from such practices and the use of force. Self-torture is a repulsive idea, so the pendulum then swung to Oriental forms of meditation. Meditation has two phases, high and low. On the low pole, meditation is just concentration, which tightens the nerves and takes you nowhere fast. That’s why we call it “ceiling bumping.”
Some methods tell you to be comfortable, in the right position, to relax and let go of all conscious thought. They recommend complete inactivity, peacefulness and quiet, which are the preparations for sleep or death. This instantly results in lowering the body cells’ vibration, and causes all active vibrations to die down to nothing. People, of course, go to sleep. Others tell you to take a personal mantra, a formula of words into the silence to meditate on them. Mental action creates an inner conflict, because the word-formula is still for little me. Self is interested in and thinks about its relationship to God, which is still self-centered.
Some schools of meditation tell you to ask for peace, a vibration that lacks energy or activity besides the quiet of sleep or death. You can enter the silence seeking peace and you may get it, but when you seek peace for the self, it is inactive. Your vibration dies as you meditate on words such as peace, because you have now named peace as your goal. Thus, and you shut out the mainstream of the River of Life. To seek peace is self-centered and selfish. Other schools tell their followers to ask for strength, so they ask, “Fill me with strength.” Yet strength is a powerful quality and you cannot get it from meditation. Prayer is different from meditation. Prayer goes forth according to the fervor behind the words. Prayer on the level of your relationship with God lowers your vibration. Prayer based on God’s relationship to you raises the vibration, since it expresses the law of “My Father works hitherto, and I work.”
A lower vibration is a colder vibration that tightens the nerves. You huddle to get warm and your mental body lotus petals close. Einstein taught that when mass accelerates in energy, it becomes light. Nerves can relax only under love’s warmth, but become numb while you concentrate on cold peace. When you ascend in energy, you call it ascension, which results in warmer nerves, not a sunken but an ascending relaxation. Think up in consciousness, let go of all tension, and lift self and self’s problems to a cloud continent of Light. You either can let down or go up in consciousness.
Enter the golden silence to relax your nerves. Add love, and the vibration increases. When you try to escape life, you lower your vibration. Add more life to meditation, and leave out self to ascend. When you ascend on a high vibration to meditate, you establish God’s relationship to you, not yours to God.
How do I know what is good? Are my prayers spiritually legal? Do I really want what I ask for, or is it what I think I want? The story of St. Augustine illustrates all these questions. He was a wayward son, rebellious, disobedient and would have nothing to do with the Church when he was in his early teens. Instead, he wanted to leave home for the big city, Rome. His mother prayed novenas and lit candles to all the saints to keep him at home. Yet God did not answer her prayer. God does not answer any prayer to make you feel good or to satisfy your self-centered desires.
Augustine went to Rome, somehow met St. Ambrose, who made a man of the callow youth and trained him. Augustine became one of the greatest of saints, a saver of many souls. His mother’s prayer went unanswered, because she worded it for the self, dictating to God, playing God, though she wanted her son to be saved. Instead, God answered this mother’s deepest desire.
God always answers the sincere prayer of the soul, when purged of self. Prayer, to be right and legal, must be selfless and for the world. God looks into the hearts of all who pray and answers only the good. The world needs activity. Prayer always works according to the state of your consciousness. Power requires something to work with, and it works on the vibration you establish.
Do you really want what you are praying for? Are you wording your prayer as a thank-you? Say to God, “Father, please pray for me and through me so that Your Power expresses as me.” Declare that the Power of God is filling you. Are you praying for what you think someone else should have? Put each person on a cloud continent of Light, declare perfection and all that God wants for him. Declare, “Let illumination move through him to awaken his mind and heart.” If you look around to see if God is answering your prayer, you tear it to pieces. Leave it to God.
Do you know when your prayers are spiritually legal? They are when you pray for God to do the work and preface your requests and declarations with “let.” Are you a person whom God can trust with answered prayers? No matter how God answers your prayer, despite the form it takes, if you can stand and say, “Thank You, Father, this is good!” you are a person for whom God can answer prayer.
Are you willing to give up man-made ideas of good and bad to say, “This is good!” to each blow? “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”–Romans 8:28. God gives you time to pick up the obstacles your cross-vibrations created. When you have had an answer to prayer, God has gathered all things up as one in Christ.
How can you have perfection in your life? The Psalmist said, “I shall dwell in the House of the Lord forever.”–Psalm 23:6. The Master said, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”–John 14:2. You each have a room there—the mansion of soul, the golden bowl, the crown lotus, your head. When you live in the higher creative center, it frees you of earth’s bedevilment.
Some people say, “Don’t bother God with little things.” Yet, this attitude is abortive since nothing is small. How can you bother God? Do you bother the water company when you ask them to turn on the water? Turning on light does not bother the power company, so how can you bother God? God pours forth His Love. Ascend in consciousness to your upper room and stand under the Light in the House of the Lord. Your nerves expand in the warmth of the love of God. Declare, “This is my way of life. I know prayer works.” Stretch out your arms, saying, “Father, please touch everyone on my list.”
You have the power of choice in meditation. “I stand in the Light, not to meditate but to contemplate God’s goodness and greatness while Power is doing the work.” Sitting in a chair, relaxing while praying is good, but remain spiritually active, positive, loving and selfless in God. Do not force your will. Name the person you would treat, not from meditative peace, but from on high, covered in Light as you speak the Word. Light from the Source then moves through you to stretch your nerves and to heal you and those for whom you pray. Always pray from “up there.” You can speak the Word from anywhere, or pray while you work. When you come to a rest period, pray and rest up as God holds you in the Heart of the Almighty.
Leave it all to the Father in your prayers. Pray from a vital point of Light, until you feel warm, and know the work is done because Power goes forth to heal. Live in a state of poise, a high contemplative point of serene poise, not armchair peace.

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When God Takes Charge
Edna Lister outline, June 11, 1961, Cleveland, OH. John 10:25-42.

“Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God. If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him. Therefore they sought again to take him: but he escaped out of their hand, and went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized; and there he abode. And many resorted unto him, and said, John did no miracle: but all things that John spake of this man were true. And many believed on him there.”–John 10:25-42.
In the past, men built bridges level with the banks of rivers. To meet the needs of tall ships, they began to build drawbridges; they built three over the Wilamette River in Portland, Oregon. Then came the “jack-knife” bridges that fold up, built on great pylons and piers. Next they built towering arch bridges, such as the Washington Bridge over the Hudson River (1888), which is so massive that its approach begins blocks away from the bridge itself.
The great dream was the Golden Gate suspension bridge from San Francisco to Oakland, towering high. I watched them for several years drilling for rock on which to set the pylons. The five-mile Bay Bridge across the Chesapeake soars so high that the tallest ships can pass under it easily. The Holland Tunnel and the Lincoln Tunnel are also marvelous feats of engineering. All these structures were built under hardships and at great cost and delay. All the while, many said, “It cannot be done.”
Nearly four hundred years ago, Leonardo da Vinci dreamed of flight. The Wright brothers caught the vision and put the dream into action in 1903. In just sixty years, we progressed from bi-wing airplanes to jets, to rockets and satellites. In Africa, tribes whose immediate ancestors were cannibals and headhunters, are building new cities and colleges. They have emerged from the Stone Age in mere decades. All these works and more have been done by men and women who had a vision great enough to carry them past the obstacles and through the opposition of scoffers. Who but God could do such works? Not puny humanity, alone.
A man with a donkey sees himself owning a pack train. A man building a barn sees himself heading a construction project. All these ideas are one process: Imagination looking upward, grasps a concept in divine Mind, then, through pondering and thinking (which is the use of the mental faculties), you bring the “vision” into the realm of ideas. Every creation translates from an invisible vibration into a final concrete fact. Vision is a concrete picture in that grade of substance, and becomes an idea only when you bring the faculties to bear on it. Every abstract theory begets a picture as the thinker ponders it. The vision becomes concrete when a person lowers the substance in its rate of vibration and fills that vast mold. An abstract theory requires an experiment to make it visible.
Mystical miracles are easy. Scientific miracles are hard work. At some point in this process, God takes charge. That point is where the person’s love, courage, faith and devotion become great enough to match his new vision. The vision you ponder releases the Power needed to fulfill itself. All creation is subject to delays. Failure is frittering away the Power though fear and doubt. God can take charge when your courage, love, faith and obedience grow great enough to match the size of your vision. Delays are breakdowns in your vision. Delays come because you are not yet big enough to match the size or grow up to your vision. Delays come because of your weaknesses.
God’s life is unlimited, with plenty left over every day. You can draw on all the life you can imagine or need. Yet you never do draw enough life until you accept full authority over your own life, for responsibility is the mother of appropriation. First, before you act, prepare to welcome the changes your newly exercised responsibility brings. Avoid getting bogged down in the swamp of despair others create with their intolerance and criticism. Avoid the chasm you dig with idle words, which lull your brain cells to sleep. Mark Twain wrote, “The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter—it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” 1

1 Mark Twain in a letter to George Bainton, October 15, 1888.

When Jesus said, “My sheep know my voice,” he meant those who heard the truth he spoke. You mean your words, or you would not say them. Idle words wreck your prayer molds. Your words travel around the world, attracting everything like themselves, and return to you. Your words are your soul’s nourishment, and they feed you. Are you feeding yourself poison, sedatives, or tranquilizers? Speak high, positive nutritious words continually, to feed yourself properly and sufficiently. Then, how can you truly know that God has taken charge? The wrinkles in life, your problems, smooth out and disappear. Your business, life and relationships become successful. Why? Because your “works” bear witness that you live by His Name.
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”–John 10:27. Your sheep know your voice when you accept truth, stand and know. You mean your words, spoken from the high place of your soul vision, and they return to you as fulfilled miracles. Your own love, faith and joy call your words back to you. When you give them eternal life, they can never perish. No one can pluck them from you or from God’s hands.
What are your high words? “I and my Father are one.”–John 10:30. “Ye are gods.”–John 10:34. What bears witness to your works? Your body. What do you do with it? You smile, eyes shining with the Spirit of truth, the deep mysteries revealed through praise. Dare to believe that God is your life. Be enthralled with life. Feed on life. Capture life, and hold it close with both hands. Love it, praise it, and hug it to you. This is faith in action. This is an aggressive, strong faith, a creating, conquering faith. Charles H. Spurgeon, a London minister in the late 1800s, said, “I am on fire for Christ. And when I preach, people come to watch me burn.” The blaze in one man’s heart can set you afire from within. When the love of God begins to set you afire, then God has taken charge.

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When God Takes Charge
Edna Lister transcript, June 11, 1961, Cleveland, OH. Ruth Johnson, Irene White, Virginia Whitehead, scribes. John 10:25-42.

“Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God. If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him. Therefore they sought again to take him: but he escaped out of their hand, and went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized; and there he abode. And many resorted unto him, and said, John did no miracle: but all things that John spake of this man were true. And many believed on him there.”–John 10:25-42.
Sometimes a great man’s work dies for lack of someone with the vision to continue and expand it. Many innovations have begun as abstract ideas in divine Mind, but inventors later introduce them in the world as facts, such as telegraph, telephones, radio, and television. Many people said the Holland Tunnel, Golden Gate and Brooklyn bridges could not be built. Leonardo da Vinci and later the Wright brothers shared a vision of flight, and now we have jets, missiles and satellites. They accomplished these seemingly impossible marvels when God took charge.
No one can do marvelous things unless God takes charge. In all these cases, the approach and process are the same. Turn imagination upward until it becomes soul vision.vYour mental antennae can grasp a vision of divine Mind, draw it down as a vibration to touch your brain cells, and transform it into outer form. The first breath of doubt may blow this tenuous substance away. Too often your mental antennae quiver and quake—you talk to God but get no answer. You must let go and let God.
The scientific approach to God as principle is different from the devotional approach to God as personality. Anyone can draw on a concept in divine Mind, but one who uses the devotional approach in love sees a vast picture. The concept vibration is lowered just enough for him to see it in application.vThose who limit themselves to the scientific approach get the concept, but no picture. They believe in the limitations of the material reality. Occasionally they bring forth the formula.
When you combine both personality and principle, the physical and the metaphysical, you cannot fail. You can contact this life of divine Mind for anything you want to do, but at some point, God must take charge. You reach that point when your love of God ascends to match the size of your vision. Moment by moment, God holds you in His love. When an individual fails, he simply lacks the ability to ascend high enough in consciousness to become the vision. His faith, devotion and courage must expand to equal the size of God’s vision.
Love is the only answer. Only prayer and the love of God can do this. You move from having to see to believe to believing to see. Thus, you can fill the prayer mold with invisible substance that will become form. When you see an idea manifest as an invention and say, “I thought of that five years ago,” you had the vision. Yet your faith did not rise high enough to expand the vision. The other fellow, who had more courage and faith, took that concept from divine Mind and did the job. All this is just having enough of God’s life moving through, and being unafraid to ask the ultimate of Him. Do not ask for signs. Asking for that consumes Power that would be filling your molds instead.
When you experience delay, add more vision to expand your mold. I add a building each year to the College of Ascension I have in mind. Do not stop asking, or you die out at the top. When you decide to push through your doubts and hesitation, unafraid, you do. This is the difference between failure and success. If you reach into the world for your answers, it drags your vibration down until you can do nothing. Don’t let your vibration drop just because someone says no. Let God take charge. Dig down, pick up the vibration, and take it to the next agent. Never leave an idea for anyone to trample. Do not let the vibration sag, but reach up in consciousness. Light will carry your vibration up and you will be twice as powerful.
God gives you an unlimited account with life. What do you want? How much are you drawing on it? How large a check will you write on life’s bank account? How much God-Substance are you appropriating? Don’t be afraid to ask the ultimate of God. You can have faith, glory, abundance, health and strength. The Power comes through with the vision, so use it to fulfill the vision. Never fritter it away by wallowing in idle words. Mark Twain wrote, “The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter—it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” 1

1 Mark Twain in a letter to George Bainton, October 15, 1888.

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”–John 10:27-28. “My sheep hear my voice” means that your words express your thoughts. They hear your mental voice and go forth as your sheep. You can send out the highest words and they leave a trail of Light that your sheep use to follow you home. All your words return to you, so use them wisely to nourish and sustain every soul vision. What kind of nourishment are you giving them? Are you excusing your idle words, which drain the energy and vitality from your prayer molds? You can starve your sheep with lukewarmness and no enthusiasm. Do you speak more words of joy and glory, or are you putting people to sleep? Only you can give your sheep eternal life.
Jesus’ words give the world eternal life. Do you feel immortal today? Do you feel immortal now? “I and my Father are one.”–John 10:30. These are high words, and when you speak them, your Father takes charge. How many substances are there? How many powers do you believe in? Only one Mind, one Power and one Substance exist. When you pray, you must know that God is One, Light as Mind, Substance and Power. You cannot pray to six different versions of what you think God is. “Ye are gods.”–John 10:34. Why do you not accept this? God takes charge in your life when you accept the authority He has given you over your body and affairs. The body is the primary manifestation of your works and how you bear witness to the Power. When you accept this fact, you are immortal now.
God’s Bank of Life is limitless. When you draw upon His Mind, Substance and Power, and believe these things, you finally accept your responsibility to have authority over your body. When you inflate your atomic body, you will feel immortal. Reach out for more life, and accept it as a divine gift. Declare, “My body is Light, beyond this outer sheath. I accept it as a gift.” Atomic radiation raises the vibration of fruits and vegetables. The lymph system is the body’s irrigation system and it needs plenty of water. Drink enough water daily to inflate your mental body and meet the challenge.
You are an individualized expression of God, and can expand as greatly as you choose. If you owe soul debts, pay up. Pay your debts in joy, knowing that you are immortal. Charles SPurgeon said, “I am on fire for Christ. And when I preach, people come to watch me burn.” Even the scorners and scoffers may yet come to see you, in turn, be set afire.
Grasp immortality as a gift. Just ascend in consciousness, accept the possibilities and your responsibilities. Know that you will see the way, the complete soul vision. Grow up into your original vision, in devotion. Accept, ascend and let God take charge by growing into His original vision for you. This is faith unconquerable.

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Without Shadow of Turning
Edna Lister outline; June 18, 1961, Cleveland, OH. James 1:5-17.
“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”–James 1:5-17.
We have just come through the period of increasing Light, watching the miracle of spring. Breathtaking beauty has burst forth from complete barrenness, from cold darkness. Does anyone think all this just came overnight? Down in the darkness, underneath the dead surface, in the quiet darkness, something was happening. “The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.”–John 14:10. The process of growth was working under the phases of expansion, explosion and expression.
In the bulb, the bush, the tree, the process works the same. Nature has been meeting the challenge of the sun. The rate of growth in any living thing is determined by its ability to appropriate life as Light. The nature of the bulb, for example, is to follow the unconscious urge to become, according to the pattern written in its being. It appropriates from and uses earth’s magnetic and etheric currents, moisture and minerals.
God has given man consciousness and the personal equipment, the tools with which to appropriate. Individually, you meet the challenge of the Light coming down from above. Man reaches forth with his God-given tools and appropriates from this abundance of life. Man’s desires, thinking and imagination appropriate from Mind, Substance and Power, which are free and limitless.
The size of the portion of your heart that you give to love, devotion and seeking, determines how much you appropriate. Love expands that portion you have devoted to desire, so that the amount you appropriate depends on the degree and kind of your desire, its size, and heat. Nothing limits your appropriation of Mind, Substance and Power, save the eagerness of your prayers. You are the limit you place on your own thinking, desire and imagination. Under expansion of your desire to learn and to know, you appropriate from every lecture, book and idea you experience in the world. Every prayer and inner illumination pushes your limits, until you become over-full. Finally, you burst forth from the old, shedding the old bonds with an explosion. Sometimes it is so great that it drives you from an old paradise.
Like Humpty-Dumpty, you fall off the wall you built, break the shell and cannot put it together again in the same old pattern. Imagination and desire have expanded and extended your horizon, so you can move to a higher cloud of Light, lift the souls for whom you are responsible, and help those less capable onto small new clouds of their own.

“What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”–Mark 11:24. You may begin with half-way surrender, half-way love and have half-way faith, but eventually, you learn that faith is the actual possession of your desires right now! Experience will teach you the difference between a declaration and a demand. A demand is always forceful, a grim determination that only thinks it has given up control and surrendered self. People who are stuck here say, “Well, I want it. I have prayed and I have sacrificed enough.” Beware of using “I,” anywhere, anytime. The “I-me-my-mine” expressions are nothing but self.
Self says, “I’ve already given.” Soul says, “Let me give more.” A declaration begins with, “Let there be,” and you name the object of your desire, the goal. Then you reach up and out for that feeling of “rightness.” Spend time loving God. Fuel the faith fires to keep them going. Your tools are thinking, desire and imagination, your steering wheel of life. If you are tired of flying blind, put in a new instrument panel with new control switches labeled Ask, Faith, Endure, and Single-minded.
“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”–James 1:5-8.
“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.”–James 1:12.
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”–James 1:17.
Your reward for your newly expanded soul identity is a crown of life. You gain the identity that “Ye are gods.”–John 10:34. Your way of life is to follow the Light.
“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.”–John 14:12. Your service to do the greater works of Jesus Christ.
Everything moves up, expands and gives up its old life to create the new, without shadow of turning. It takes heat to cause expansion, and the warmth of your love and joy are an irresistible combination.

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Without Shadow of Turning
Edna Lister transcript; June 18, 1961, Cleveland, OH. Edna Bender, Ruth Johnson, Irene White, Virginia Whitehead, scribes. James 1:5-17.

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”–James 1:5-17.
Do you believe that God is invariable, and never turns from His creation? We have watched the glories of spring, unfolding great incomparable beauty. Did that beauty come overnight? Deep in the darkness of winter, when earth looked barren and dead, something was happening. Our Father was working. Spring is our proof that despite us, deep within, something is happening. If you lack wisdom, turn to God and ask in faith, believing.
Satan had decided that if he could bind the soul of man, he would win the world. Satan wanted God to hide man’s soul in the depths of the ocean. The heavenly council refused. He proposed hiding it in the bowels of the earth. Again the council refused. Then Satan said, “Hide it deep within man himself, then he will never find it.” And he almost won, for only prayer has saved humanity. The Light of God is saving the world through us. God has released enough great Light through us to conquer darkness, but not enough to keep up wit the darkness so many people create! Your physical equipment releases the Power. God sent you here with this equipment ready to use, but your potential is largely asleep. You must awaken it. A few great minds in our age have used their potential to give us modern marvels, jet planes, missiles, satellites, etc. Yet, the potential has always been there.
A deeply buried flowering bulb appropriates its degree of truth through an implanted divine urge, and reaches up to the sun. A bulb unconsciously calls on earth’s magnetic currents, minerals, and moisture in the air to grow up to Light and produce its flower. Man’s equipment and creative tools are different. You do not have this flower bulb urge, but you do have brain cells and faculties, including thinking, desire and imagination. With these creative tools, you may consciously appropriate everything you need from God’s Mind, Substance and Power to condense Light into energy and substance dense enough to fill your prayer molds. This is yours to use.
How much of your heart have you devoted to the love of God? The size of your love donation determines how much you can appropriate from your divine inheritance. Say, “Here I am Father. Please move in and use me!” Your potential is limitless! You can awaken forty-four great soul faculties but usually use only three or four; Einstein used five. You can awaken every faculty and quality to express completely, but use them only to God’s honor and glory. First, you must awaken your burning desire, which is your personal sunshine and heat, and then must radiate God’s love as compassion for humanity. Love is brisk and firm, stands on law, and is compassionate, without blame.
You can reach the point of knowing that when you pray in faith believing, you have it. However, you can have only what is yours, according to the amount of soul substance in your Oversoul star. Also, you must learn the difference between forceful demands and declarations. You can declare that you will have a car, but not demand a certain car, because that is selfish. You receive the car that your unselfish mold builds.
Declare, “Oh, how I would love that car. Think how many friends I could take out in that car.” See yourself giving others pleasure with your new car. Do not say, “God must answer this prayer.” Indulge in no tantrums! You can have only what is yours. This is true for everything. If you want to save your eyes, see God’s perfection and good. Love Him enough for this to manifest. Then healing can come, but not if you continue to see and declare illness, limitation or evil. You already have health in the invisible reality, so act as if you have it in the visible world of appearances. Do everything possible for your body’s good. See yourself dancing on a cloud. This is how to possess health.
“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.”–James 1:12. Focus your imagination up there, with God’s reality. Make yourself good while you make others happy, and do not try to reform them. The Father of all lights puts the right words on your lips, and you can even say no, gently yet firmly.
A flower bulb represents the triple principle of expansion, explosion and expression. Ascend in consciousness to God. The instant you begin appropriating from God’s almighty love, it expands your heart in understanding and you explode into growth. If you expand too quickly, you can explode, like Humpty Dumpty, and be left holding only the pieces in self-pity. Yet even an explosion can turn out well if you pick up the pieces and go ahead. Lift your lines of Light and responsibility and open a new paradise, greater than any you have ever conceived or imagined.
Have you expanded enough to give the world greater gifts than you did twenty years ago? How much can you desire? God’s Power is so great that it can produce more miracles than you can imagine because you can draw on Light from above in unlimited quantity and quality if you choose. However, if you let your vibration die, you will wind up on the skids, resting yourself to death. No one will want you then.
As you use your potential powers to mature and ascend, you expand, explode and express, which lights your way from one paradise to the next. You can see how great and vast this ascension is in comparison to the silly self-pity or fear to which you cling. When you think up in consciousness, you discover that God really is everywhere evenly present and available. Ask to have divine Mind’s vibrations translated into words, believing you already have it, with gratitude to God.
Expansion, explosion and expression are your set of standards, the code of principles by which you hold your point. Then, where you glance, the other fellow desists. Ask God in prayer, believing you have it to receive, and enjoy it emotionally and mentally. You need ask only once. The rest is daily gratitude, praise and faith, which pours divine substance into your prayer molds and makes them overflow into glorious outer manifestation.
Have the sense of possessing something wonderful in the imaginary world, which is where all great things originate. You do not need to see how God engineers the vibration, but leave God’s work to God! Have a single mind, perfectly focused. A double-minded man cannot receive anything from the Lord. Make a choice and stick to it. If what comes is not what you want, say, “God, I love this. Now I’m waiting for the real thing.” Life is generally an endurance race. To endure is to stand as love. Complying with the law of endurance is believing that Power works through you. Even an evil man who believes he can do something, has faith in that.
Your crown of life is your conscious identity with God. You know the Power you can draw on, and who you are. You know that you have credits and debts to pay both here and on the inner. As a son or daughter of God, you are an heir to the kingdom if you comply with law. This is your heritage. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”–James 1:17. Abiding by law is wearing your crown of life and Light, which means you do know the way. You are a creator god, ascending according to your love, faith, forgiveness and your desire to do good deeds to help others.
Lift and help wherever you can without drawing your skirts aside. This is your service, according to your Light, faith, and desires. Climb and ascend to the place of “no variableness or shadow of turning.” The law of appropriation will provide all the strength you need. Do not walk in your strength, but reach up and plug your power line into the eternal Source of Power. Move from fear into a complete, satisfactory and beautiful way of life. Accept God’s Word and get into action. Love God more. Call it good, and you’ll discover a new paradise. Open your heart wide to love and compassion, and use them as stepping stones to God. Move into this place from whence every good and perfect gift descends.
“Father, we walk with Thee. Let all the love that can encompass every individual fill every cable of Light, move through us now and into our projects. Father, we thank Thee. We are vitalized with Thy Light and glory.”

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Invisible in a Mist
Edna Lister outline, June 25, 1961, Cleveland, OH. John 1:1-14, Matthew 5:16, 6:22-23.

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Invisible in a Mist
Edna Lister transcript; June 25, 1961, Cleveland, OH. Irene White, Virginia Whitehead, scribes. John 1:1-14, Matthew 5:16, 6:22-23.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”–John 1:1-14.
“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.
“The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!”–Matthew 6:22-23.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”–John 1:1. As it was at first, so shall it ever be, the Word is still God and contains all that is. The Word is the vibration that moves forth as Light, carrying the subordinate principles of color, tone, number, name and form. Within the many words you use to communicate are a vast number of vibrations, which are combinations of these lesser principles. The spoken Word is your master key of desire that unlocks your equipment, so speak the Word to use it.
No one can rightly say that love is just a word. The Word is a name for God in action, and so is love. Love, God’s love does not deal with personality, but with God as principle. Personalities express love as a principle that they personalize. The spoken Word, which is like unto God, goes forth, and sets into action the wholeness of God. It acts through you, whether you are upside down or right side up.
“All things were made by him [the Word]; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”–John 1:3-4. The Word made all things. “In him was life” was the first arrangement of Light, as personality. “The life was the Light of men.” Light is the first arrangement of God in action as life.
“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”–John 1:6-9.
John was stepped off from the Light as a forerunner to bear witness of the Light. This is the original model from which Plato took his story about every soul taking a flame to light its way through life. The truth of the Word is “the true Light, which gives light to every man coming into the world,” whether he is a creature or a descended creator god.
Instinctive intelligence and three urges—eating, sleeping and mating—rule the creatures that have just come up the scale through evolution of consciousness. The Father must bestow a living soul upon them. God adds soul substance to you as you grow in consciousness life after life. The capacity of your soul’s equipment is equal to the size of your thinking, imagination, and desire.
“For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.”–Matthew 25:29. From him who has no desire, the little he has shall be taken away. Ascend, and grow! The outside world offers plenty of stimuli to wake up anyone on earth. Believe that God never grows old. To him who has great desire, more is added. Age has nothing to do with it. It is never too late. If it hasn’t happened yet, it’s just too soon.
“As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”–John 1:12. Ponder this passage, which has great meaning. Depend only on the credits you have stored in your bank account with God. “To them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”–John 1:12-13. Even the souls who just believe on his name have opportunity because they create opportunity through their faith.
A son or daughter of God is someone who receives and accepts the Light, and believes that Jesus is the Begotten Son. Anyone who surrenders to become the Light and wants to exercise the power of the spoken Word is a son or daughter of God. Stop using idle words. The spoken Word of love that builds can also destroy if misused as criticism or nagging. It works for every word you speak. Write in letters of fire within your mind, “I act, do, and speak like a son of God.”
War cannot destroy this earth because God holds it in His hands. When you ascend in consciousness, you can see the truth of this. The Light of God became the Light of men, which pervades earthly life. The Light of God permeates every cell with life. Light becomes energy. Atomic power is the life of God. Einstein showed us how light, energy and mass exchange states endlessly. God’s universal plan constantly reuses the Light as photons and rays. Everything becomes energy that powers you. You are constantly shifting your energy state up or down in rate of vibration. Ascension of consciousness continually increases your rate or holds it steady for stability.
Do you believe that God’s Power is filling and energizing the atoms of your body, and quickening your affairs? Get busy and act on it without spending years just thinking about it! What price do you pay for this? Where does the Light originate? Ascend to the source of Light! “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. Let your share of this original Light so shine. This is the original Light from which God created you and with which He has endowed you. Your spoken Word releases that original vibration that is God. You go to the place you have created for yourself.
Many embodied souls must have a symbol for the soul vision that sees beyond the limits of the physical eyes. So, you paint word pictures to entice them. For example, the Invisible is in a mist, hidden in the mists of matter. Point people to the Light. Declare for them, “Let your Light come forth, to be a living ensample of God’s potential.” Be grateful the Father has you to use as His instrument. He is waiting for your lights to shine, to see the life as it becomes the Light in you. Your family will criticize you, but who cares? Just let your Light so shine.
“The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!”–Matthew 6:22-23. Focus your eyes singly on the Light, and you will not see people being fuzzy in their focus. Let love rule as the Light shining through your eyes. Reach out with more Light to help the needy one on his point of challenge. In Light there is no darkness. Be so busy with the Light that the world cannot bother you. Be compassionate and loving without paying attention to darkness or to what is happening on earth. Pay attention only to lift people and situations into the Light.
Light transforms everything into itself, into love! How can you transform Light into love? The love of God doesn’t dictate, demand, or whip another, but is steadfastly expectant of good. Declare, “I am the Light!” Let it shine. Stay up in consciousness. Wear your rose-colored glasses to expectantly color things with Light, and let it shine on the real thing. Peering through the mists of matter carries a responsibility with it—to lift everything you see. You cannot change law, but you can give the Father a gift when you accept the law and live by it. You cannot hide from your responsibility, erase it or avoid it. When you live in the Light, it works right now, and shines out into the world. Climb high enough.
You are the Word made flesh. So speak the Word to put it into action, and having done all, stand when you meet delay. Know that God has something greater than you’ve asked for. Say, “Please, show me, Father!” After Israel marched seven days around Jericho, the walls fell. Use that degree of focus and persistence to stand on the Word after you speak. The spoken Word fills your prayer molds, and builds the soul of your desired creation. First, work out your salvation. Once you’ve visualized and spoken the Word for something, it comes to you. The price is to stand in obedience to law and faithfulness to your word. The Light of God pervades everything around you. Grab the wheel of Light, life, and joy. Declare everything good! Declare your life good! Your words create your desires, but only love can bring Light down into form.

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The Man, God High
Edna Lister Prayer Circle outline, September 25, 1961, Washington, D.C. John 1:1-4.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”–John 1:1-4.
I declare that In me is life, and the life is the Light of men! To be God-high, you need life equal to His. Do you believe this? How much life is there? Life is limitless in God. If your personal master switch is set on low, you will not have enough Power to run your furnace, range or lights. Yet your free choice allows you to do this. To be effective, turn on your master switch at the Powerhouse of God. Are you afraid of too much life? If the little you have hurts so much, why seek more? Just before an illness is finished, a crisis comes, during which you may feel much worse. A cut or sore hurts worse just before you are healed. When you have sunk below the level of God’s life, returning to health hurts, as though your arm or leg was asleep.
So, how much life is enough life? How much life does it take to make you God-high? How high is God, not in the sense of distance, but in being instantly available? All divine potential qualities are available to you, to do with, to act for you, through you and as you. Do you know that you can be of the stature of God-likeness now? “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.”–John 5:17. You work not by running around and turning on one little light after another, but by turning on your master switch. As a son or daughter of God, you must stretch up to meet His stature. You must be convinced that “This means me.” If you sink inside your wall of self, you have no conviction of this truth.
My idea of God’s stature is all love, all joy, all wisdom, all good and all glory. Must you be convinced of this? You are on holy ground now, because wherever you walk, God is. You are treasured and cherished in His love. You have no doubt that when you switch on the electric light, it will come on, or turn the faucet and water will flow. When you walk to God, to make use of His height, you just reach for Him and turn on the full Power of the Source. When you reach, a thrill moves through you. You breathe up, stretch and reach in an ecstasy of expectation. When you are in high fervor, you can move mountains of darkness, as Light lifts it from earth.
Miracles come from one such moment of joyous exaltation. Somewhere someone will receive a prayed-for miracle. Perhaps it will not be your personal need that is met, but somewhere someone always receives a miracle. Dare to believe that God is your life. Be enthralled with life. Hold life close and feed on God-high life, moment by moment. Prayer is answered according to your fervency when you capture life with your mind, heart, and hands. When you are afire, ablaze with God’s life, you become God-high. When God’s life takes charge, everything else gets up and moves out of the way. You do not need to tell it to leave. This a man, God-high in action. This faith is creative and conquering. Declare, “God, You are so wonderful! How I love You!”

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The Key to Right Action
Edna Lister outline; October 1, 1961, Cleveland, OH. Matthew 5:39-48.

“But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”–Matthew 5:39-48.
Jesus’ whole message was about right action. He planned to break through the bondage of the soul to the little self, and to lift the lower part of the soul up to serve the higher part of the soul. The beauty of the song of Spirit running through all his words was to lift forever from earth all conflict between Light and worldly dark, good and evil, between the lower self and the higher soul. Man must be at one within himself before he can become one with God.
“Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”–Matthew 18:19-20. Today’s word for agreeing is integration, which means to mix or enfold diverse elements as one. The three must meet on the highest possible level, not the lowest. No integration is possible in darkness, where each individual unit wants to have its own way.
In these verses are two words, nonresistance and give, which you can later synthesize into one. Nonresistance is not a passive state, but an active, dynamic principle of God. To give is to pour forth, but what? Nonresistance is a good overall title for the Sermon on the Mount, which covers every emotional need, and includes an attitude to meet every emotion prompted by darkness. Stand, face whatever it is, and you can be serene under difficult situations. Wait before answering, and smile. Face front, in quiet and in confidence, with no urge to fighting or internal conflict.
Let us consider giving. You give two ways, consciously or unconsciously. You unconsciously radiate pictures from imagination, emotions from desire, and thoughts from your thinking. People understand you, and you understand them back without a word spoken. You may consciously give others a piece of your mind, or free advice, though it’s often unwise to do this. You have a divine flight instrument panel in your brain. You can push its buttons and flip the switches anytime, anywhere. The instrument panel is divided into two sections, one for low altitude world-limited flights, the other for high altitude soul flights. The first section is devoted to human nature, the instinctive intelligence that’s just one step up from the animal kingdom. The other section is attuned to the one divine Mind. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”–Philippians 2:5.
You push a button and tune out the heavy physical earth noises. You push another and tune out earth’s sound waves, the composite world mind, and mental noise and suggestions. You push yet another to tune out thought waves from others’ mental concentrations. Finally, you push the button that tunes in your own high frequencies from deep within the golden silence.
“All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.…There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven.”–1 Corinthians 15:39-40, 44-47.
In ascension, you lift your vibration from the heavy outer body to your finer inner or soul body. Paul called the first the natural body, and the other the spiritual body. He also speaks of them as a terrestrial body, and a celestial body. The golden silence is the source of your contact with life, strength and glory. In this place, time begins to fit itself into space, as you achieve full integration between the soul and God. Nothing can disturb the soul’s devotion. You cannot even clutter it with your feeble attempts to use words.
The golden silence is the soul’s house of life, the “secret place of the Most High” within you. It is the place of perfect nonresistance and of perfect giving because nonresistance and giving integrate as love, which is the one and only key to right action in living. You find all your “missing parts” in the golden silence. Some you have allowed to rust, others you have thrown away, used up, or they are still waiting for you to use them. God is all potential attributes, qualities, Power, Mind and Substance. If you have less than all, you need to integrate your missing parts. You have not yet been able to see the master switch, marked Love.
You become God-high in the golden silence. How high is God? Divine height is not a distance, but an inner stature, an exalted consciousness. At birth, God gave you two master switches, one on the human nature panel, the other on the divine Mind panel. The divine Mind master switch was turned to full, the highest setting. You choose what degree you turn on your human-nature switch of love. If you choose low, you lack the vitality to run your body and affairs. It is your choice. Early teachers of metaphysics taught to treat only one person at a time, to run from John to Mary and back again, which scatters your efforts. Turn on the master switch, and radiate life over them all at the same time.
Love integrates ample life, life to overflowing, with enough left over to feed you all night. One moment of thrilling ecstasy in the golden silence always means a 100 percent miracle. It may not always be yours, but somewhere a miracle is granted. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”–Matthew 5:48. How do you become perfect? Sacrifice and surrender of self is the only process by which you can lift yourself up to God. How perfect is God? He is all Power, all joy, all glory…ALL! Turn on the master switch, and the result is an exaltation of shining glory, transfiguration, and soul ascension!

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The Key to Right Action
Edna Lister transcript, October 1, 1961, Cleveland, OH. Irene White, scribe. Matthew 5:39-48.

“But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”–Matthew 5:39-48.
Do you know the true magnificence of Jesus’ teachings? His entire theme was on right living through right action, which frees the soul from bondage to the little self to become part of the greatness of God again. He foretells the triumph of Light in the conflict with darkness, as the little self and soul become one. The one keyword of this Christed Age is integration: you must unite your rational soul and Oversoul to become one. Jesus’ immortal Sermon on the Mount provides all the laws necessary to overcome every negative emotion and act, and greatly emphasizes giving.
The power of nonresistance runs the universe in equilibrium, harmony and balance. Nonresistance is the one great law of life that will lead you straight back to God. Nonresistance is how to stand up and become an adult. It grants the fortitude to face whatever comes from the outer, without fearing, flinching, or moving. Stand serenely confident, waiting upon the Lord under the Light, and the waves of life’s ocean of experience cannot hurt you.
Whom do you want to be right now? Your nonresistance must be from the toes up, as the royal attitude of a creator with God. Give consciously of what is inside you, what you have now, without willfulness or resentment. Nonresistance is God in action. Integrate your will and desire into the key that opens all doors, and you can if you stand serenely poised, immovable, and irresistible.
God created you with two switchboards, one for dealing with the world and its constant conflict, the other a master switchboard, given you as a creator. You can choose which one you use. When you set the gain to low on your little self instinctive creature switchboard, you tune in the world’s conflicts.
When you begin to ascend in consciousness, you learn to use the master switchboard on your divine instrument panel. First you turn a switch to close out noises of earth, which includes the clatter and chatter of those who express at the lowest levels. Your desire to ignore them turns the switch and silences their noise.
Your desire of intention forms a sheath of Light around you to close out the noises of earth, to ban them from your aura. Otherwise, the first blow strikes, then seven more follow because the force circles earth seven times before it dies. If you react with an “I’m hurt” attitude, you turn the switch off, leaving you with no protection, and you must restart it. Turning the second dimensional switch closes out sound waves, and you can ascend higher in consciousness. Agreeing and adjusting is easier from here.
The third dimensional switch is marvelous because it closes out thought waves, world thoughts, and builds a fiery sheath of protection around you as you stand still and wait upon the Lord. The fourth dimensional switch is love, the substance of the sheath surrounding you. When you turn this switch, God’s power-of-love flows through you.
God gave you this fiery body, created in His image and likeness, a celestial, spiritual body, protective and divine. It fits into the space around you. The sun stands still for you, divine Mind puts the right words on your lips, Light lifts old ideas, and the situation opens. Do not blame anyone else when you leave a detail unattended. Learn to turn your switches to high, enter the golden silence, and close out all outer confusion.
Finally, you know the silken smoothness of God’s Power and cannot bear to lose your contact with it. God Himself opens the master switches to His omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience for you. To turn the fourth dimensional key, you must love your service to God. Suffering it or just liking and enjoying it is not enough. You can’t boil water if you set the heat on simmer. Nonresistance stands in stable perfection, and absorbs every earthy vibrations within its Light-range.
The Father sent His Son Jesus to show us this. Ascend, God-high, and stop acting like a worm crawling in the dust. Every moment can be a thrilling ecstasy, because a miracle has flowed through you.
Batter down the barriers of self. Every time you say, “Father, I love You,” a miracle happens on earth. When you need a miracle that much, you will have it. Someone else’s prayer may be your miracle, and your prayers can supply miracles for others.
Turn on the master switch, say prayers for one person, take care of him, and he has a miracle. “Take care of him, Father” is your prayer. If you can think of half a dozen people to pray for at once, God can think of a thousand. You will never run out of people and situations for which to pray.
Declare, “My Father in heaven is the Source of all perfect glory, love and joy!” Move to where all His glory and perfection move through you. What do you want? The master key is love. No man can steal your keys or block your access to the divine instrument panel.

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Your Contact With Cosmic Power
Edna Lister sermon outline; October 8, 1961, Cleveland, OH. Philippians 3:9-14, 1 John 5:1-8.

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.”–Philippians 3:9-14.
“Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.”–1 John 5:1-8.
Cosmic derives from cosmos, which means the greater overall universe as a complete, harmonious system. Therefore, cosmic Power is universal Power. Only the one Power exists, which is stepped down from its absolute potential state to become all subsequent states of kinetic energy, in atoms and molecules. Power includes lightning, electricity, jet fuel and all other physically perceivable forms of energy.
“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.”–Philippians 3:9-11.
This passage from Paul’s Letter to Philippians speaks of “the power of his resurrection.” Resurrection of what, and from what? How can you know this power of resurrection? “Mine own righteousness, which is of the law,” means obedience to principle, which can degenerate into nothing more than rigid dogma. If this is the height of your performance, you cannot contact enough cosmic Power for full Resurrection.
How then may you do so? Apply that “righteousness which is of God,” given to all, through the faith of Christ, not mere faith in Christ. Your goal is to attain unto the “resurrection of the dead.” Yet what is “the dead?” It is every old, buried picture of imagination, thought and emotion that has crystallized in the body.
The first death is not to believe that Jesus the Christ is the only Begotten Son of God. You cannot contact the cosmic Source of all Power without this. To be resurrected from this death is the raising of the lower self vibration to the higher Christed cosmic vibration. Yet just to believe this is never enough. You must add something else. You must love God, the Father who begot the Son. You must love the Creator, then you must love His creations.
First you have to choose between being a vessel or an instrument. A vessel just goes somewhere to be filled. It can only contain or hold something. An instrument submits itself to be acted on, and gives forth. Just being filled gains you nothing, for it is the giving that overcomes the world. Again, you may choose what you are giving, as you pass through several stages.
The whiny-needy stage comes first. “Do not scold me. Don’t tell me I’m wrong. I live only on praise. Tell me I’m wonderful, or I’ll know you do not love me.” Here, you are a noble martyr who accepts being loved in spite of your not-so-pleasant traits. Next is the unconscious imitation stage: You may try being sly, like a fox, or show royal arrogance, like a lion. Some people spend lifetimes doing this. Yet, finally, you must use your thinking faculties to be “born of God” and to “overcome the world.”
What do you want to use cosmic Power to do, and how do you use it? The only right answers are to be resurrected from the old ways of living, and to overcome death. This is the victory. You can gain this cosmic victory only through love, which is the greatest quality in cosmic Power. Use love to cover the transgressions of others with Light. Cover what they do until you can see what they really are.
To set a tombstone debt of blame on another’s darkness only buries it deeper until he feels ever more perfect where he is. Your darkness of blame, added to his misdeed, hides it until it can fester in the darkness. To cover another’s darkness with the power of cosmic love absorbs his darkness and his debt stands uncovered. Sometimes you miss the mark because your sacrifice of hurt or blame is only mental, because your righteousness is merely “of the law.”
Your only true contact with all cosmic Power comes through repentance, contrition and devotion through love. Then your righteousness is through the faith of the Christ, in God. Nothing can move you from your place in line at the banker’s window of heaven when you stand steadfastly.
You must know that Jesus the Christ is the Son of God by the water of baptism and the blood of crucifixion of self. Then your witnesses are the three in heaven, the Father as Light, the Word as energy, and the Holy Spirit as mass or substance. The Word, in this context, is feminine, for only love can make the contact or speak the Word for miracles — which is why many women talk so much. On earth, the three witnesses are Spirit, water and blood, or Light, energy and mass. They appear on earth through Oversoul, soul and self. The Spirit moves on the face of the waters.
Then, keeping the commandments is not burdensome, severe, a task, but a joy. At last the “greater you” emerges victorious. “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.

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Your Contact With Cosmic Power
Edna Lister transcript; October 8, 1961, Cleveland, OH. Scribes: Ruth Johnson, Irene White, Virginia Whitehead. Philippians 3:9-14, 1 John 5:1-8.

“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.”–Philippians 3:9-14.
“Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.”–1 John 5:1-8.
What is cosmic power? The word cosmic comes from the term cosmos, which means the greater overall universe as a complete, harmonious system. So this universal Power is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Science is still seeking the ultimate infinitesimal substance, which we call life sparks. Mind acts upon the life sparks, which congregate and ensheath themselves within a coating of other life sparks of Shekinah glory. You also bring together your life sparks, which are named and numbered with your unique vibratory rate, to form your body vehicles, and sheath yourself with that coating of glory.
You cannot separate any life sparks from God’s absolute substance. Even the atomic bomb is just an assembly line of life sparks condensed and combined for one purpose. Life sparks form the substance in fire, electricity, atoms, molecules, cells and inanimate matter everywhere. Light, as Mind, Substance and Power, is absolute before its phases become relative in manifestation.
God has given man the power of choice, direction and control of substance, thinking and planning via mind, and by releasing His Light as power. As individualized beings, most souls, in their fantastic egotism, have divided and separated their consciousness regarding Light as Mind, Power and Substance.
The physically-oriented faction of those who worship God as principle say, “Worship the Christ within,” then proceed to worship the self. When opinions and prejudices taint you, you become crystallized and object to new ideas. As groups of us originally descended to earth, we shed our soul substance life sparks to form the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms, from mineral to man. We invested portions of our soul substance to make all these things.
This same soul substance forms your creature-like appetitive soul today, which is why your subconscious memory carries every experience earth could produce from the atom through the animal kingdom. You ushered your own unconscious life sparks into the cells of the vehicle you formed for this life.
Imagine how many improvements it took to climb from the gaseous mass-stage to form this temple within which to dwell. Your body is yours, but you are more than just your body. “Ye are gods!” We, the descended creators, are all one, forever.
God has given soul three phases of expression to live among men — appetitive soul as subconscious mind, rational soul as conscious mind, and Oversoul as super-conscious mind. The appetitive soul forms the body. Your conscious rational soul applies mental faculties such as logic and reasoning to live in the world of men. Oversoul maintains your contact with God.
The little self may misuse the Power. If you persist in human nature or descend to downright evil, you can draw on and waste your own soul substance, but can never touch your Oversoul. Instead, you hit a wall of law that you cannot move or penetrate. You may not use universal cosmic Power for evil, but some embodied souls often do use their own soul substance. The little self cannot touch Oversoul for evil unless you misuse so much soul substance that it destroys your integrity.
Cosmic power contains love, wisdom and all other qualities, attributes of the Godhead. Think of it this way: when power is dominant, it also contains love and wisdom; when love is dominant, it also contains power and wisdom; when wisdom is dominant, it also contains love and power. The predominant vibration varies according to how you use love, wisdom and power for creating. One at a time, each serves as the dominant vibration. How can you successfully seek contact with this cosmic power?
“Be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law.”–Philippians 3:9. History proves that a faction can form that obeys only principle, which means that opinions and prejudices may crystallize into mere dogma. Emerson said, “Don’t hold me accountable for yesterday’s truth.” Today’s truth is always greater than yesterday’s because you see more of it, more clearly.
The law of Moses is pure and rigid justice. You may not set law aside. When necessary, invoke it for justice. Yet Jesus says that you cannot contact cosmic Power through the consciousness that is set forth by law. He said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.”–Matthew 5:17.
Philippians 3:9-14 outlines your personal responsibility, and the way to obey law. You are now responsible for obeying higher law, which includes every lesser outer law. Jesus the Christ filled Mosaic law full of the love of God, and the Elect must do so also.
“That I may know him and the power of his Resurrection.”–Philippians 3:10. You do not, even through worship, truly know Jesus the Christ or comprehend the power that he invoked to resurrect the dead. Paul is not referring merely to resurrection of a dead body and returning a soul, but to resurrect one’s less than perfect self from the lost past to live by complete perfection in the love and glory of the Christ.
Any static parts of the body, created by the irritations, resentments, hurts of the emotional life or imagination, are dead. People drag the dead past with them everywhere, and air dead issues in cycles of argument. All this needs resurrection. Fear, condemnation and intolerance grow from consorting with the dead past. What good does it do to bring up the same dead issue, dead past, dead fear, or condemnation? People rehash these things like a static-filled recording played repeatedly.
Resurrect every old life spark that came with you through the animal kingdom to purify and ascend the lesson learned. Resurrect the little self, bathe it, clean it up, and ascend its good to make it part of the whole soul again.
The Bible speaks of the first and second deaths. The first death is to deny or blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, or to refuse to accept that Jesus is the only Begotten Son of God. Yet only that high Christ Power can resurrect the dead. Eventually, all souls must accept that Jesus is the firstborn, the only Begotten Son to whom the Father ever gave the full scepter of Power to speak the Word of God as God with Him. The Father sent His Son to earth knowing he would sacrifice, love and speak the Word of God perfectly. Love, mercy and compassion are all-important as you wield a big stick of Power. You must add the Love of God to righteousness.
“Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.”–1 John 5:1. Who are the begotten? Is it enough to love the original begotten? The Love of God loves everyone.
Life sparks compose everything in the universe. God begot every life spark as a part of Himself, and you must love them, no matter what form they may take. Sometimes loving the form the life sparks take is hard. Love the begotten life sparks in those who walk the earth, and declare the life sparks are the original Substance of God.
“By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.”–1 John 5:2. So what if another is guilty? Your darkness of opinion covers his dark treasure and buries it deeper. You could bury his debt so deeply he can never see it until you become perfect and blameless, a mirror in which he may see his debt.
Don’t stop to say, “He knows not what he does.” Pour love on it. Let Light absorb it until the other fellow sees what he has done. This pays the greatest dividends. If you become so involved in hurt feelings about what grieves you, you descend to the eye-for-an-eye stage. The you will be the one required to apply repentance and contrition to make it whole and good again.
“Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”–1 John 5:4. What is born of God? Light as faith, love, wisdom and power—faith is power so you must be faith as power, wisdom as power, and love as power. God’s Light as Power is faith and love, so you must see God as your clothing, money, and substance. God is your faith, love and wisdom because you have accepted Jesus as the first Begotten Son of God. Those who do not accept him are not yet resurrected from the dead.
Your freedom ends where the other fellow’s ribs begin, so if you cherish your freedom, do not step on his toes. The law of the love of God invokes the laws of repulsion and protection. Hate draws evil things to you, but when you love, you stand serenely confident and nothing of evil can touch you.
Overcoming the world means blaming no one else, and never justifying the self. Everyone has dead things to resurrect, to call back from the dead, and the big one is blame. When you blame, you indulge in your smelliest darkness, which carries its own dead vibration. Those who cling to this layer of darkness will say that you are to blame when they first see their fault.
When Jesus said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do,” he invoked their soul debts but took it with him through the Gates of Light; he did not let it dangle. Yet when you say you forgive ironically or sarcastically, you take on their spiritual debt. If you are prone to let it dangle, you pay.
When you become perfect and blameless, you pour out love and Light absorbs the fault so the other fellow can see. If you can see his faults and blame him, you are taking it on yourself. When you allow things to hurt you, you are living by the old Mosaic revenge law of an eye for an eye, the point where everyone went wrong before. You must add repentance, love and sacrifice.
Stand before heaven’s windows shining with the bounty of God’s glory until you are born of blood and water, as Jesus was. His mystic Rebirth was Baptism by Water, and Crucifixion by blood for death. When John baptized Jesus, the Holy Spirit descended. He resurrected earth by the Spirit.
“There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit: and these three are one.”–1 John 5:7. They form your contact with cosmic Power and bear witness on the soul record of your own platelets and memory cells in the higher creative center, your higher consciousness. The Father is pure Light, the Mother is energy and the Holy Spirit is the mass. The Light is first energy, then mass.
“And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.”–1 John 5:8. The Mother is always hidden, so in this context, the Word is the feminine Mother. The Father is pure Spirit above, the Mother is Light above, the Holy Spirit is energy above. The Father is Light on earth, the Mother is energy on earth, and the Son is the blood, the mass, the cells of the body, the temple of the living God.
Oversoul is pure Spirit. The rational soul walks on water. The appetitive soul is the blood that suffers the tortures of giving up, having resurrected dead emotions. Every idle word separates the three-as-one Light of Mind, Power and Substance. You can lift the dark clouds that remain by reintegrating the force the hard way by accidents, stubbed toes, or by transforming force as the righteousness of the Resurrection of the dead.
“For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.”–1 John 5:3. When you keep God’s commandments, they are not burdensome. You no longer suffer, but obey in joy, standing before God, resurrected. You have added the lower self of appetitive soul to rational soul and Oversoul, which rules with Wisdom. I AM is the Christed name of the original creator god that you are.
Then you understand “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. “Before” is your cosmic beginning. The prize is yours for living in complete righteousness under the Christed laws, not just believing in but standing with Christ.
When you cover others’ transgressions so completely in Light, you no longer see what he does. You see him as he is and nothing limits the cosmic Power that you can release. You stand in Light, walk on the water of your emotions and resurrect all the dead parts. Declare healing for all those who are in need. “As I free everyone else, I free the path to my door, so miracles may enter.”

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The Tree of Life
Edna Lister outline; October 15, 1961, Cleveland, OH. Genesis 2:7-9, 2:21-22, 3:1-7, 3:22-24, Revelation 2:7, Matthew 13:1-23.

“And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.”–Genesis 2:21-22.
“Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.”–Genesis 3:1-7.
“And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”–Genesis 3:22-24.
“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”–Revelation 2:7.
“The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side. And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; and when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side. But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”–Matthew 13:1-23.
At the close of a Day of Creation, God withdraws Light from the planets, which then continue to whirl on in their courses. The animals and the masses of humanity fall asleep in a Night of Rest and Assimilation. When the dawn of a new Day comes, the people and animals awaken, unconscious that any time has passed.
The Adamic civilization opened in the regular way. The creator gods descended to an actual Garden of Eden, while the masses of humanity lived elsewhere, in the “land of Nod,” which means “wandering.” Great creator gods, dual, masculine and feminine, descended in their own spheres of Light, conjoined by a cord of a thousand strands of rainbow lights. They, too, fell into a deep sleep, their cord was severed, and they were clothed in separate spheres of Light. As their spheres of Light faded, they needed “clothes,” so their outer sheaths—the physical body—became heavier.
“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”–Genesis 2:7-9.
The temptation story of Eve and the serpent describes the “Fall of Man,” which is the descent from higher cosmic magnitudes to the lower outer planets. The creator gods descended to gain experience and to redeem their life sparks by building physical bodies for the life sparks to fill and take form. Many of the Bible’s “angel” stories describe high creator gods coming to teach the families of the masses of humanity.
Thus, in one sense, the entire Book of Genesis is a metaphor. The woman represents love and the emotions. The man represents wisdom and the intellect. The serpent represents the unrestrained emotional and physical desires for pleasure and excess, subtly entwining and enslaving the soul.
The “fall,” from eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, represents the emotions tempting intellect to misuse the creative fire. When the soul had reached a requisite point of knowledge of good and evil, the right and wrong ways to love, God closed the Garden of Eden.
Human Geography: Humanity climbs in consciousness from lower to upper Egypt, into the Promised Land, and finally into the Garden of Eden. Entering the Garden of Eden describes the soul in its expression beyond self, reaching for the Tree of Life. When humanity could finally tap the Tree of Life, God closed access to the higher creative centers in the head, the doors to intuition and spiritual illumination, so man could not misuse them in service to the self.
The creative fire rises from lower Egypt, the sacrum plexus, to the throne of Pharaoh in upper Egypt, which is the solar plexus, the seat of self-centered personal will. Then the individual must lift the creative fire to the heart center in the Promised Land, and to the throat center.
The pons of the medulla oblongata, which lies at the base of the physical brain, is the crossing out point of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. {The pons, part of the brainstem, links the medulla oblongata and the thalamus. At the pons, nerve fibers from one side of the body cross over to the opposite side in the brain.}
The angel with the flaming sword stands guard here, at the gate to the Garden of Eden, to prevent the soul’s reentry with taints of earth. The flaming sword represents the divine creative fire, concentrated at the pons. Any remnants of misused creative fire will manifest as migraine or cluster headaches. Pray to lift this.
God trusts you to a point with free will. When you have become conscious of good and evil, yet are ready to make a poor choice, He puts His foot down, saying, “Thus far, but no farther.” You have no immortality of consciousness until your right choices personalize your own Tree of Life, the medulla oblongata—you have to earn immortality of consciousness.
The Book of Genesis teaches mankind’s involution into the outer darkness of experience. The Revelation teaches our evolution back to God and the Light. The fulfillment of all God’s promises depend on you and me, our open eyes and open ears. Many sank so far that they have no memory of what the Tree of Life means. Such knowledge was forbidden while the soul roams the darkness, but now is the time to open such memories to return to the Light.
God sends teachers to awaken you. For example, the Master taught parables to those who had refused to open their eyes and ears. “Whoever has, to him more will be given.” Has what? Open eyes and ears. “Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”
“The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side. And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; and when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”–Matthew 13:1-9.
You can go wrong in three ways, and only one way is right, the open way. “Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed,” because they are afraid to see and hear spiritually, “Lest they should understand with their hearts, and turn, so that I should heal them” of self. To “turn” means to repent.
“Some seed fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them.” Many people are afraid that if they repent they will lose either their will or identity. Fearful souls do not hear truth because they cannot hear anything but the sounds that excite their fears. The indifferent ones let their minds wander, and so fail to hear.
The seed that falls on stony ground represents the curious seekers, those who may only pretend to get it. They receive each new lesson of truth joyously, but grow only shallow roots. They are always seeking something new rather than to develop mastery of the older lessons.
The sower planted the third seed among thorns, which sprang up and choked it. People who grow thorns just never give up self. They try for a while to clear out their jungle of self, but it’s just too hard, so they forget. The jungle wilderness entangles them again.
The only fruitful seed is that which falls on good ground. Good ground is an expanding consciousness, awareness of an expanding universe, being ready to receive. You find that only one right way to focus attention exists; ascend in consciousness to become God-conscious.
“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”–Revelation 2:7. The promise to those who overcome the self is to eat of the Tree of Life. The Garden of Eden includes all endocrine glands, and paradise refers to the pineal body and pituitary gland in the golden bowl, the higher creative center in the head. Opening the pineal body to function fully as the Light is picking up your precious pearls of wisdom. Inviting love to rule your desires opens the pituitary gland, after you have lifted the five physical senses to serve the soul.
You have only one set of senses, but can direct them either down into the outer or up toward the inner. When you lift the senses, they become your aids to spiritual seeing and hearing. To strengthen your use of the senses as spiritual faculties, declare, “I see this. I hear this. I can feel this. I can just taste it. I can certainly smell it.”
The Tree of Life roots in the outer physical body, and feeds on the magnetic currents of earth. The tree blossoms in the head, in the lotus centers, which draw Light from the Source into the Garden of Eden, which becomes paradise. To cling to some outer paradise closes the new paradise waiting to be added to your being.

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The Tree of Life
Edna Lister transcript; October 15, 1961, Cleveland, OH. Ruth Johnson, Irene White, Virginia Whitehead, scribes. Genesis 2:7-9, Genesis 2:21, 3:1-7, 3:22-24, Revelation 2:7, Matthew 13:1-23.

“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”–Genesis 2:7-9.
“And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.”–Genesis 2:21-22.
“Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.”–Genesis 3:1-7.
“And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”–Genesis 3:22-24.
“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”–Revelation 2:7.
“The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side. And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; and when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side. But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”–Matthew 13:1-23.
The relationships within these verses is amazing. These divine principles stand as the basis of our life and soul conquering. The truth has always been there, but it has taken time for man to discern it. In the beginning, so much is happening at once. First, God speaks Light into being. At the end of a day of expression, He begins to withdraw the Light slowly.
Astrophysicists tell us that we live in an expanding universe. Some star systems are traveling so rapidly that they are gone from our view in fifteen minutes, which is an outer proof that God is enfolding us. These systems are among the first whose life has been ascended. Their Light has been withdrawn and they are being absorbed into the wholeness of God.
When the Light has been withdrawn, a night of rest and assimilation begins. When this happens to our galaxy, the Milky Way, we will already have been withdrawn into Sagittarius, a constellation that lies near the center of the galaxy. Consciousness will go to sleep and live on the fifth degree of breath, in a sort of suspended animation, but life will continue to exist through the night of rest.
When our Adamic civilization opened, 12,000 creator gods, who are androgynous beings, masculine and feminine as one, descended to earth in great spheres of Light to open a great Day of Creation. Explorers and archeologists have found traces of the race in some of the most remote areas of the world. The mythological histories of Adam and Eve, Isis and Osiris, reveal what happened. The Lord planted a garden eastward in Eden, implying that the whole planet was a heaven-like garden. “Eastward in Eden” meant the civilizations were to the west. This referred to an actual place, like the legend of Shangri-la hidden in the Himalayas.
The leaders, great creator gods of Light, condensed a sheath of Light around themselves as they descended. Each Holy Pair had their own sphere of Light within which they were connected by an umbilical cord with a thousand strands of rainbow light. When the time came for the process of gestation, a deep sleep fell on the androgynous beings. The heavenly Watchers severed the umbilical cord of each pair, separating them from each other. The cord of 1,000 strands of Light was wrapped and coiled into the sphincter muscle around the navel, symbolic of the rib taken from Adam to make Eve.
As they awakened on earth, the high Light of the sphere around them faded and they saw they were naked, but they were not ashamed. First they wore leaves, then skins, which means these first creator gods had descended and now wore physical bodies. Every soul uses the body to redeem the mass of his soul substance life sparks, to return them to his Oversoul star. This is the meaning and reason for the so-called fall from the high place to earth. “If you eat of the Tree of Life, you will surely die” means you will die to the self and selfish use of the creative fire. To live the right way, the soul must conquer the physical appetites to assume personal responsibility, and to become conscious of and avoid evil ways. Each soul must choose to do this.
When the subtle serpent arrived, he used sophistry, a plausible argument that eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil would not cause them to die. In truth, the soul is immortal and cannot die. However, the soul surely does die to self and selfishness through the creative power. The knowledge of good and evil is knowing and understanding the nature of them. To know a thing means that you take on responsibility for lifting it into the Light, which is the death of ignorance and innocence. If you become conscious of evil ways, you take on responsibility to heal them.
The woman represents love’s expression on earth. Man represents the wisdom side of life. When the creative fire descends the spine, the appetitive soul, using the creative love-center can get the rational soul into difficulties ranging from minor to great. You use the creative fire for all expressions, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. You can misuse it sexually and all the other ways. People misuse the outer creative fire as promiscuity, but more often as idle words, cursing and gossip. You are responsible for every word you speak. Some day you will be required to give an accounting of your use or misuse of the creative fire.
The woman tempting the man means love desire tempts wisdom to descend and experience physicality. The serpent represents the emotional life, physical appetites and sensation. The caduceus, the symbol of Hermes, featuring two serpents twined as a double eight around a winged staff represents love mated with wisdom. Only the one creative fire exists in you, which you call on as a creator god.
Jesus said, “Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself.”–Luke 4:23. The physician’s staff of twined serpents, the caduceus, symbolizes the mating of love and wisdom. A serpent sometimes represents temptation through the emotional life, as well as wisdom. In the beginning, love, as physical desires, tempts wisdom to descend to the physical. At the end of a Day, love in its spiritual expression entices wisdom to ascend.
“And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.”–Genesis 3:7. Knowing that they were naked means that they had lost their ignorant innocence, but were as yet unexperienced. When the Lord condemned them to leave the Garden behind, He made them coats of skins, and clothed them, which means the descended creator gods were then fully in physical sheaths or bodies. They came to redeem their life sparks so other souls related to them could be born into a physical body. The so-called fall was the descent from their high home.
“The eyes of them both were opened” describes their realization of how deeply involved they had become in the world of matter and material form. The world’s masses, the children of earth, have no innate contact with the higher degrees of universal power, nothing beyond appropriating it as vitality. Further, they have no ideas beyond their degree and kind and are thus satisfied with living according to the pattern society sets for them. If anyone rises up from the masses, he is undoubtedly a descended creator god, usually with a mission to uplift the group among whom he was born. Only the creator gods have that inborn contact with Light as cosmic power, which we call the moral compass. Earth’s masses did not originally misuse power but followed those who did and fell under the weight of resulting soul debts.
With opened eyes, the creator gods began to realize the condition of their existence as sweet, pure, lovely, and boring. How can you know you are good if you do not know what good is? You learn what good is through eating of Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which makes you conscious how good God is and how good you could be. They were ready to progress, but were taken with the same selfish curiosity that plagues people today. Adam and Eve were ready to act on their own selfish desires, but once they ate of the fruit, they became aware of how much self they still had to sacrifice. That was why they were ashamed of their nakedness.
They had to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil because taking personal responsibility was the next step in soul conquering. They had reached the point where they could take from the Tree of Life and become immortal, but they lacked the experience and had not yet earned the wisdom or the right to take what they had not earned. They were not ready then to become immortal and so had to leave the garden and go out in the world. You earn the right to ascend higher by taking responsibility for everything at your current level of experience.
The history of the human races is reflected in the history of the individual soul of man. Every time the soul attains the point where it could eat of the Tree of Life, it slips back into mists of matter and misuses power — this has happened to hundreds of thousands of souls repeatedly. The angel with a flaming sword stands at the gate to bar you from Tree of Life until you have again sublimated self and earned the right to eat of the Tree of Life. This is protection, for if the soul is too crystallized, the greater Light as Power will damage its life sparks of soul substance.
This is the history of the human race. The history of the individual soul of man is just as important. The conditions of both apply to you, for you have both the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life within you. You have both trees within you hidden within your central nervous system and your endocrine system. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is the human spine, from its base at the sacrum up to the pons at the base of the skull. Inside the pons, the nerves from one side of the body cross to the other side of the body at the medulla, the pyramidal decussation atop the spine. The Garden of Eden rules the whole earthly body through the endocrine system’s ductless glands and the central nervous system’s afferent and efferent nerves. Further, it is the anteroom to the Tree of Life, which is the universal Christ consciousness, the mind that was in Christ Jesus.
“And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: for this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.”–Matthew 13:10-17.
Matthew tells us how to get to the Tree of Life. You cannot force your way through, but must ascend in consciousness to awaken every endocrine gland and nerve to earn immortality of consciousness. Migraines are caused by trying to force your way there. Matthew tells how we became involved with the materiality of earth, which we call the involution. Wisdom brought us out from the Light, holding us in a chalice of love which is our anchor in the Source of All Light. Involution brought us out here to experience the contrast between good and evil. At the half-way point, the dominant vibration of wisdom changed poles to that of love, and wisdom becomes the chalice held by love, the soul’s magnet of return.
“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”–Revelation 2:7. Genesis teaches you involution. Revelation teaches you soul evolution and how to return to God as the Tree of Life and Light. Jesus’ teachings bridge the abyss between Genesis and the Revelation. He came to fill Mosaic law full of love. Instead of demanding an eye for eye, he taught us to cover blame and guilt with love and to lift them into Light.
Your desires ascend as you die to the old ways of being and living, and that causes self to suffer. Self tightens its grip because soul threatens its freedom to express physically. Jesus often mentioned having eyes to see with and ears to hear with — he was talking about your soul’s faculties. You can see the fulfillment of every promise in the Bible if you have open eyes and ears. Unfolding the secret of ascension into immortality depends on open spiritual eyes and ears. The secret of ascension depends on where you focus your eyes and ears. Man sank so far into earth’s illusions that he forgot even the memory of the Tree of Life. Yet you must remember it when you ascend in consciousness into Light again.
“For whoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.”–Matthew 13:12. All power is yours to draw on but you have choice as to what you will do with it. He who has no desire to open his eyes and ears will not have much left. God meant for you and I to become conscious of our immortality. All the Power and glory and life is ours to draw on for miracles and ascension.
His disciples asked Jesus why he spoke in parables. He said it was “because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.” You can fail to die to the old and go up in consciousness several ways. To be deaf and blind spiritually prevents the soul from being converted and healed; in other words, the soul is afraid to leave self behind to live by soul. The refrain of self is, “I must have free will. I won’t let you force me into believing your ideas.” The appetitive soul will not voluntarily surrender to the Light, yet this fear is an underlying acknowledgment that the rational soul has already eaten of the Tree of Life.
“Blessed are your eyes and ears.”–Matthew 13:16. Many have desired to see what the disciples saw, but want to force their way in without dying to self and giving up the old patterns of appetitive soul. The communion is to make the body a living sacrifice and oblation for the Lord by eating of the Tree of Life. This is dying to little self and to hear those things you have not before.
The parable of the sower features those who can hear but will not listen to truth—they nonchalantly go on their way. Some run to every teacher and sop up truth like a sponge, but their consciousness is so porous that truth oozes out and is lost. It reaches the heart but cannot take root because they are so dry inside — they do not want to eat of the Tree of Life, and thus die to self.
Religion frightens some people who then claim the truth is lies because they do not want to work to ascend. When tribulation arises, the truth he has heard offends him, and he blames the teacher in fear of the Tree of Life. He receives seed but the cares of this world choke it out. He who receives the word among thorns, just chokes the life from what he hears, rationalizing it to death, and no root grows within him.
Under constant soul ascension, when next you seek, the angel with the flaming sword is gone because you truly are killing little self. Take away the past and go on. Some teachers have eaten of the Tree of Life without raising their cells, and have lost their lives. “But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”–Matthew 13:23. Once you get a good-sized bite of the Tree of Life, you will be so hungry for more. You need another bite, and because it has such a fascinating flavor, you need more. When the Tree of Life is opened to you, you have miracles and added things to encourage you.
The process of soul ascension is lifting the five senses into soul faculties. Inducting through the five senses of the outer world turns your life focus to earth. But when you lift those senses and ascend in consciousness, you see and hear spiritually, and have miracles. You open the pineal body, pituitary gland and other gland-like structures within the brain, feel the Light and feel close to God. However, you cannot smell the roses of heaven if your nose is in someone’s garbage can. When you smell roses or perfume from above, you have ceased to poke your nose into evil. You can taste the flavor of heaven as well as feel it. Smelling, tasting and feeling form the trinity that upholds you if you keep your pons and medulla oblongata open to ascend in consciousness to heavenly ways. So stay in the beauty, and taste the flavor of heaven.
“To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”–Revelation 2:7. We have all lived in the Garden of Eden, and once we have created the full brotherhood of man, we will live in the Garden of Eden again. When you desire to eat of the Tree of Life and do not regress to the Tree of Knowledge, you will have ascended to change Eden into Paradise. When the Elect ascend in consciousness, the world will become Eden again.

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Whither Thou Goest
Edna Lister outline, October 22, 1961, Cleveland, OH.; Ruth 1:16-17, Matthew 16:24-28

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Whither Thou Goest
Edna Lister transcript, October 22, 1961, Cleveland, OH. Ruth Johnson, Irene White, Ross Whitehead, scribes. Ruth 1:16-17, Matthew 16:13-19, 16:24-28.

“Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.”–Ruth 1:16-17.
“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.”–Matthew 16:24-28.
Before you start any journey, you need to ask three questions. First, Who is going, I am or little me? Second, Where am I going? Third, Who am I? Ruth is our example for this, “Whither thou goest there will I go.” Jesus taught his disciples this way when he sent them out.
“When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”–Matthew 16:13-19.
Peter symbolizes strength as faith and acceptance. Man has built his church “on this rock” of this faith, by accepting Jesus the Christ as the Son of the Living God. Stand steadfastly, always being faithful. This is how you build your personal church of soul, too.
“I will give you the keys to the kingdom.” If you say, “This body shall be like the living God in His image and likeness,” you are binding in heaven and binding yourself to hold until the heavenly power descends and makes it true. Use fervor when you work for the kingdom of heaven. People do bind things on earth, and in heaven, until law fulfills itself according to their decrees, but you cannot ask anything to be remade and lifted without binding heaven to it and it to heaven.
You cannot declare greater intelligence, but you can erect a rock of faith and bind heaven to manifest its Light. This requires that you have a perfect place. Whatsoever you loose on earth means that you can release yourself from bondage to others by lifting and loving them. You need not notice them. If someone tries to force you, just say, “I am busy this week,” to put them off. Love them and agree with them. Say, “You are wonderful,” but stay away from them.
“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”–Matthew 16:24-25. The idea of losing one’s life frightens so many. What value have you put on your life? Do you overvalue or undervalue your life?
If you want to save it, you must first lose it. Make a just appraisal of your life. What part can you afford to lose? The part that is dark, unlike God. God does not ask you to give up anything worthwhile, only that which is worthless or completely useless. While you may lose your life to save it, you cannot ask that of anyone else.
Climb to the trailhead of your Path of Destiny, the path returning to God, which is often lonely, but is glorious in its destination. No one can do it for you. The seed of divine life within, which drives you to express God, was sent with you. Eventually that divine seed drives you to ascend in consciousness from a fate line into a destiny pattern.
Ask yourself, Do I want perfection for myself and loved ones? When negativity enters your consciousness, the divine creative seed of soul power cannot help you. So you must recondition your life to eliminate negative habit patterns. Life itself is perfect. You interfere with it by negativity and that interference makes you a mess on the outside.
God gave you this beautiful seed of life, so do not degrade it by being a victim of the telephone, the doorbell, or anything. Recondition yourself for receiving greater life from above. Declare all negativity that comes your way is good so that you can make everything you touch into a miracle.
When man’s body and consciousness moved up from the creature stage, God gave him instinctive intelligence. Then He bestowed five great faculties on us as keys to right thinking—reason, comparison, induction, deduction, and synthesis. Unconsciously you use instinctive intelligence on the path of fate—for example, reasoning that if Mrs. Jones cursed yesterday, she will also curse today.
This leads us to the story of Mary and Martha, which is a simple tale of the difference between conscious and unconscious reasoning. Mary sat at Jesus’ feet while Martha worked. When Lazarus died, Mary and the crowd of mourners with her flopped in consciousness, while Martha stayed busy, consciously attending to the details.
Instinctive intelligence as the lower form of reasoning told Mary and her friends that Lazarus’ body would stink after being in the tomb for three days. But Martha, and the disciples who had made up their minds to follow Jesus, used conscious reasoning, remembering past miracles and knowing he could raise Lazarus. They were kept busy and not devastated and grief-stricken.
This is the difference between conscious and unconscious reasoning. You need to use reason, but from above, not from the world of men. Comparison is the greatest of the five faculties involved here. If you compare yourself with others, you may feel smug. “I do not see how he could do that when I am so good to him.” Some women compare their husbands’ breadwinner powers to those of the Joneses and unconsciously kill their husbands with negative comparisons.
Yet, if you return to your heavenly beginnings, “Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.”–Ruth 1:16, you push fear aside and let faith take charge. “Faith is substance of things hoped for and evidence of things not seen.”–Hebrews 11:1. Bind yourself to God with faith and become as perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Hope is great but God only hopes that you will come up and stay there. He hopes your bonds of faith will be strong enough to hold you there. Compare yourself and your performance to the Master on the Mount of Transfiguration. When a soul becomes such transfigured glory, he may not know it but the world will—he will be a perfect instrument for God to use as His eyes, His glance, His words. The transfigured soul will stand out in the crowd. You can back up to the stairs to reach the glory of transfiguration, but an escalator is running to heaven and you are on it.
Inductive reasoning makes broad generalizations from specific observations. In inductive inference, you go from the specific to the general. You make many observations, discern a pattern, make a generalization, and infer an explanation or a theory from it.
With unconscious intelligence using the five senses, people induct from outside world, and you can pinpoint it when you hear them say, “Did you see how she acted? Did you hear what she said?” You collaborate with both light and dark this way and can easily become confused. When you draw in the five senses and aim them upward, not inducting data from them, you will have no more fears, no chip on your shoulder, no more idle words.
For example, when some one complains, “I can’t read at night anymore. My eyes are gone,” you can see he is becoming a zombie. Don’t follow his lead. Stand on your rock of faith and declare that God made your eyes as windows of soul for you to use them. When you say, “I’m bored,” you’ve left love behind to walk the burning sands of the desert, and the drought-killed barrens. Climb back up on your rock of faith and leave the nothingness behind! When you pick up with your old friends, like God, you are never more bored. You suffer fools gladly in joy. Light breaches the gloomy clouds and you journey into the sun-filled beauty of life.
Deductive reasoning starts out with a general statement, or hypothesis, and examines the possibilities to reach a specific, logical conclusion. You can use deduction to test hypotheses and theories. You base deductive reasoning on some theory you hold, and predict what its consequences should be if your theory is correct. You move from the general to the specific—from the theory to your observations about it.
Spiritual debt can quickly catch up with you here since deductive thinking awakens your memory of soul records. Be sure you are traveling into the Light, not into further confusion. You go to school here, relearning the lessons from your last fate line on earth in your most recent past life to your birth this time. God has given you this glorious equipment of the five keys to thinking, so use them.
You can go to the Hall of Records at night and ask to see what will happen tomorrow, and what attitude you will need to conquer or adopt to achieve a miracle. If the lesson is to be on false pride, for example, many records from similar lessons will open. You may find why you have been there before, or why you met a person who could help you. If you want to bring this back to conscious memory, prepare a clear area in your memory before you sleep.
The life lessons that come to you today may have delayed a miracle because the lessons you skipped or ignored have become deductions from your soul credits. Using the process of synthesis, bring of every remembered fact together, and write out your experiences to consolidate and cleanse your soul records. Light comes through your Oversoul star and you reach to open the soul faculty of apperception, which can be wonderfully practical. Your five senses induct Light from the Source and you consciously register that Light from above.
Whither are you going? asks your Oversoul. Either up into the glory of instantaneous miracles, or having to work it out as a slow process of lesser miracles. Know who you are and whither you are going. Do not hang onto old miracles such as having blindness healed. After praising it and loving, say, “Away with you! Go to others, who need you now. I’m ready for my next miracle!”
I am so excited inside about watching the way God is working the world out of the messes people and nations find themselves in. I would like to press a button to light a fire under each one to make them excited, too.
Tell the Master, “Whither thou goest, there will I go, all the way home!” However, remember that if you even once look like you have been to the Mount of Transfiguration, your whole family will expect you to continue to be perfect.
Knowing where you are going is glorious, and you are on your way. Prayer holds back the forces of hate until you are a perfected instrument for God to use in sending love to absorb every lesser vibration. Be sure you are climbing and facing the Light. Stand on the rock of complete faith where nothing can turn you aside. Assume your responsibility. Erase your old habit patterns and declare, “I will expand my service unto Thee, O Father.”

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God’s Magna Carta
Edna Lister outline, October 29, 1961, Cleveland, OH. Exodus 20:2-17, Genesis 1:1, Matthew 5:17-24, Mark 13:29-31, John 1:1, 9-10.

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God’s Magna Carta
Edna Lister transcript; October 29, 1961, Cleveland, OH. Ruth Johnson, Irene White, Ross Whitehead, scribes; Exodus 20:2-17, Genesis 1:1, Matthew 5:17-24, Mark 13:29-31, John 1:1, 9-10

“I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.”–Exodus 20:2-17.
“When ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.”–Mark 13:29-21.
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”–Genesis 1:1. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”–John 1:1.
Creation! To imagine Creation, you must envision endless space as filled with supernal light, vibrating beyond the wavelengths of physical visibility. Thus, it is an apparent darkness that reaches everywhere, a vast throbbing pulsation of pure potential energy. Then Mind, acting as the Word of God, opened a vibration that is still continuing today and will last forever and ever.
Thus, the Divine Mind of All That Is opened the first universal Magna Carta, with the Word as the head. Magna means great, and Carta means charter. Such a great charter is a constitution, guaranteeing certain rights and responsibilities. The Magna Carta of Western law was signed by the English King John in 1215 A.D., but the charter we are describing is the governing plan for the entire universe.
Creation opened with Light as a vibration of principle enfolding the overall Creative Plan and fundamental law. This Light, as the Word, which is Mind in action, breathed at a set rate of vibration until it generated a series of vast controlled, planned explosions that went forth from the Source of All That Is as the three emanations of Light, Wisdom, Love, and the Logos. The emanations contained all that was, is, or ever shall be.
After the Magna Carta was unveiled, creating space and place, it moved forth to create form as personality’s expression. However, personality, expressing through form, does not necessarily live by the principles of Light as Wisdom and Love.
To the finite mind, principle is that which contains all you need to know of the Creative Plan and law for universes. Principle remains perfect and unchanged, but what you need to know, what you can understand about the plan and law is subject to change as you grow and mature. The Magna Carta assures the soul’s liberties and governing laws. It provides the means and the method for providing freedom and protection, but the soul’s obedience is required.
Everything went well for eons, until one pair of ruling creator gods decided evolution was not proceeding fast enough. Experimenting, they created all the present malformations we see today—extremes such as creatures that are unduly aggressive and vicious [Africanized bees or “murder hornets” for example], will continue to manifest in lesser creature physical bodies because they gain sufficient experience in form before being endowed with living souls. Once in human form, either they will be healed, or the life sparks will be taken up for an age of cleansing before they return in new bodies.
The Elect, the descended creator gods, foolishly allowed the evil to happen. You can tell how strong a creator god you are by the way you do, or do not, wobble under emotional or ethical pressures. The Bible contains the history of the descent of the creator gods who opened the Adamic civilization. Those who were weak, good and evil, have returned to learn their lessons in ruling well. The masses coming up from the creature stage are incapable of ruling themselves.
God gave Moses His Magna Carta directly in the form of the Ten Commandments. The Commandments form the Magna Carta under which you live on three great levels, as an appetitive soul, rational soul, and at the Oversoul level. You rise or fall spiritually on your understanding of and obedience to them. You take thirty-three degrees of initiation on the Ten Commandments, mostly in daily life, but take the last three degrees on the sun at night while your body sleeps.
“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. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Ye have heard that it was said of them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.”–Matthew 5:17-24.
“Ye have heard that it was said of them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.” Everyone must obey this first level of the Ten Commandments on the outer. Every outer law is based on these Commandments, whether phrased as a promise or a warning. The first level holds the power of physical restraint, like a police force over the physical-emotional level of the subconscious mind. If you have never had emotional trouble in this life, you were born on the higher third level set, having conquered on the lesser levels.
In learning greater restraint of self’s impulses, you move up in consciousness and begin to live on the mental-imaginative level. On its lower level, imagination turns downward without engaging the mental life. Gradually the soul moves up in consciousness to open the mental life, but selfishly. For example, the racketeers of organized crime use their mental life to circumvent the law. However, through this, they learn restraint the hard way by the processes of the council of judgment, punishment, prison terms, etc.
At the second level, you are still in danger of hell fire under the law of emotional and mental restraint if you call someone a fool, which is a misuse of the spoken Word. Man’s laws permit freedom of speech here, but every soul has heard of higher law, which covers idle words. God has His way of informing the masses through examples from life, which are pictures. Many pictures are good, yet some are evil. For example, pornographic and all other violent images have no power in themselves, but the individual, the soul is free to choose whether he will look or turn away. However, do not feel self-righteous if you turn your back on evil. Do not advertise how good you think you are by walking around with a grim or a smug expression.
You stand in danger of the judgment after you become aware of a higher way to live. Since only vicious or sick animals are put down, a rabid dog for example, a man will not likely be forced to appear before the judge before he ascends in awareness. Yet if you, a member of the Elect, call someone a fool, you are in danger of the council. You are capable of applying logic, reason, discernment, discrimination, and discretion to everything because you carry your council within you. So, do not use a club of words when a simple touch would do. The world judges you by your idle words, not by your positive loving expressions.
The higher you go, the hotter the flames of your fire initiations burn. This is the hell fire that burns your guilt, your fine view of yourself, your peace of mind, and your self-satisfaction. Yet you dare not upset the balance by stopping or you and the one prayed for may fall to the basement in consciousness. God needs you to be working. Repent as you climb in consciousness. Tell God, “Here I am. I’ll pay penance as I ascend,” and never stop doing His work. If you slide so far down the scale that you think others are fools, you are regressing and can sink into hell fire.
The third level the universal of Magna Carta law covers the spiritual-visional side of life, where you live by seeing and becoming all God desires you to be. While you may not always be in the right place at the right time, at least you know you have made whatever place you occupy. You climb by the process of ascension outlined by the living God in His Magna Carta. “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven,” which is the kingdom of the Magna Carta. Accept Jesus’ plan for ascension, and walk the Via Christa. You know his plans and principles for you.
Don’t cut off the new miracles you’re building by diverting your thoughts from the path. Do not wreck a miracle you’ve had by being ungrateful. Love it, praise God for it, and move on to new miracles. Live by the fullness of the Magna Carta, so that whoever comes near you would be healed. The healing power is as much greater today than in Jesus’ time as the difference between a camel and a jet plane. What are you getting from that power?
Jesus said, “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.”–John 14:12. Do the works of Jesus Christ where you are, in complete balance. At this stage in the third level, you dare not lose your balance. “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.”–Matthew 5:19. The least in the kingdom is a mindless creature.
After you finish the initiations on the three levels of the law as given through Moses, you move into the expression of the Magna Carta that Jesus brought. God’s messiahs have brought us out of the darkness that is Egypt, His Son takes us up in ascension of consciousness to walk the Via Christa, and our own obedience to all the law therein will take us home.
Jesus said, “Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”–Mark 12:29-31. God has said, “I have given you keys of the kingdom.” Reach up and say, “Father, here I am. Use me!”
Here, in this truth, is the power to cover healing in all ways. When will you meet God on His terms? Look up regardless of the guilt you may feel. All Light as Mind, Substance, and Power is moving forth through you to do the greater works, to love God enough. God uses your spoken Word to release His Light as Power.
“Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” is the greatest Magna Carta edict. Law cannot fill love with Light, but love fills the law. Light as Love fills all your prayer molds as quickly and as perfectly as you can envision it. How do you envision? You can view anything in a constructive or destructive way, even atomic fallout. Love creates its own kind and degree. Love cannot be divided or used up. It permeates, transforms, builds, and takes you back to that glorious place where you can give its truth as a teacher in another age.
The higher you go, the more laws you can obey instantly because you love God enough. All the principles are at your fingertips to apply. All plans are right there to follow. God has given us all laws in the Master’s messianic message and through his great ability to love.

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Man, God-High
Edna Lister outline. November 5, 1961, Buffalo, NY. John 1:1-5, Philippians 3:9-14.

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Man, God-High
Edna Lister transcript, November 5, 1961, Buffalo, NY. Susan Bender, scribe. Philippians 3:9-14.

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The Soul’s Exaltation
Edna Lister Prayer Circle speech outline; November 13, 1961, Washington, D.C. Psalm 25:1, 86:4, 91:1-2, John 12:32

“Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.” Psalm 25:1.
“Rejoice the soul of thy servant, for unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.”–Psalm 86:4.
“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.”–Psalm 91:1-2.
“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”–John 12:32. To be exalted is to be “lifted up.” To lift up your soul in praise is to aspire to be one with God. You can experience no soul exaltation without such aspiration. Life is as dull as ditch water unless you have some goal greater than anything of the material universe toward which to aspire. Only God will satisfy your soul’s desire.
From birth to transition, you constantly shift the center your attention. Wherever you center your attention, there you have miracles. You must choose whether you focus on Light or dark, up or down, self or soul. Your lifeline moves along your attention-line.
When you pay attention to self, you notice aches, pains, lacks and needs. You have a miracle of needs. Your whole life flows into needs-molds, which are full of holes, such as self-pity, and so are always empty. You are using God’s Light as Mind, Substance, Power, and life, but the soul substance life sparks leak out.
When you pay attention to soul, the fullness of supply makes your molds self-sealing, and the substance does not leak. Soul-attention creates joy. Self-attention creates grimness in appearance, which finally creates a grim attitude. The “nobody loves me” look drives people away, including opportunities and money.
You need a high goal, a goal to reach up to that will stretch you. You must aspire toward a high goal. Through inspiration, you automatically move into prayer. Prayer comes in several kinds and degrees. “Duty prayer” gets up at 6:00 a.m. every day, because “I must have my time of silence.” This attitude creates a “ceiling bumper,” who gets no farther than the room. Joyous prayer always praises God. “I thank Thee, Father, for what I want. I know I have it. Let it be visible.”
Prayer can be conscious or unconscious. Some have no trouble praying rejoicing prayers. Others would be tongue-tied if they were asked to pray. Some never pray, and thus never enjoy the silence. Yet every breath is a prayer. Unconsciously, some live this way, because they are joyous, vital with life, and have a good word for everyone they meet. These people pray with their whole soul.
At the crown of your head, you are always in contact with God. This is your prayer room. You must take three steps to enter this room and close the door on the world. First you must tune out all earth noises. Then, tune out all earth sound waves. Finally you must tune out all earth thought waves. This process is not mental concentration.
You came to earth equipped with a master switch that you can use to tune in on the high frequencies, deep in the golden silence. You use a lower instrument panel for low-level flights of imagination, and a high instrument panel for soul flights of pure joyous exaltation.
“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.”–Psalm 91:1-2. The golden silence is the secret place of the Most High, the source of the soul’s life. You do not want to clutter it with feeble words. Time fits itself into space here, and results in harmony. You find all your missing parts in the silence. You have been running on half parts, some you have thrown away, used up, some rusted out, others are still in their original wrappings.
God is all potential Power, life attributes and qualities of Mind. When you use these, the result is Transfiguration and Ascension, the final steps in joyous exaltation of soul. You have moved higher in consciousness. Center your attention on God’s Light, power and universal substance. Right here you take stock. Are you clinging to anything of the past? Are you seeking more love or appreciation where someone has already given you your quota? A higher moment of ecstasy, of glory is always possible.
As you walk the Via Christa, you strive to surrender the last tiny bit of self, as the Master did on the cross. Then you can say, “I commend my spirit to God’s care.” The Master commanded us, “Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” This includes your body, feelings, thinking and imagination. You can be perfect. For this one moment, I am perfect because God’s life is perfect when unobstructed by self. This is your Mount of Transfiguration and ascension of the soul in its joyous exaltation.

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This One Thing I Decree
Edna Lister outline; November 19, 1961, Cleveland, OH. 2 Peter 3.

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This One Thing I Decree
Edna Lister transcript, November 19, 1961, Cleveland, OH., Ruth Johnson, Irene White, scribes. 2 Peter 3.

“This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.”–2 Peter 3.
Peter outlined in his letter what those who received the letter were doing wrong. He described the group’s failures. He explained that Sodom and Gomorrah failed through disobedience to law.
I have often asked why the disciples dwelt so much on corruption. The disciples and apostles had to show the early groups where they were wrong. They had no psychology books. The Bible was their only psychology manual.
If you read the Bible in a literal way, you will miss the many nuances. They very often wrote the apparently lascivious parts in answer to questions the groups had asked. If you see it, then it is there in your consciousness.
When you read the descriptions of evil people and events, you need not let that make a mess of your consciousness. You do not need that, but to cleanse your subconscious. Skip the stories that are negative, if you need to.
The apostles wrote to the groups to help them to dig out and clean up their subconscious. You all have selfish limitations under the surface. You need to dig up the buried treasures of darkness to cleanse the subconscious mind.
“I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior: Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming?”–2 Peter 3:1-4.
Lust here means immorality, but also means following selfish desires, whether physical appetites, negativity, any self indulgence you must conquer. The scoffers then asked, “Where is promise of his coming?” They asked then and are still asking now.
A decree is an edict that has authority. Denials neutralize your positive decrees. Only one great denial is legal, “This is enough of this.” You do not need petty denials, which is bowing down to a false need. You do need your soul edicts.
In the middle of chapter, Peter begins to talk about the world and what will happen to it. “By the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”–2 Peter 3:5-7.
“Water,” in this instance, represents the beginning of an Age. The world that “perished” refers to the Flood of Noah’s time. The heavens and the earth “reserved into fire to the day of perdition” signifies the second coming of Christ.
Astronomers predict an eclipse and a grand alignment in Aquarius for February 4, 1962. Many astrologers and metaphysicians believe it will begin the Aquarian Age. Others predict that Jesus shall come again, or that an avatar could be born then.
Yet Jesus has renewed himself in us. He is also coming again, but not through birth on earth. The world was formed and sealed in Light to protect it from evil. The release of enough atomic energy could burst this magnetic wall. God is allowing it so earth can ascend. There is the predicted fire that will end the world.
At the Crucifixion, the dead walked. It happened because the Power his sacrifice released rent the veil between the visible and invisible worlds. As then, so it shall be. Those who have no fear shall be unhurt and lifted. The cells will ascend to molecules, to atoms, to the fire body.
The alignment of the whole galaxy changes as earth enters Sagittarius. The dark prophecies for February could have happened had it not been for the prayers of the Elect. The earth could have been destroyed. We have been lifting the effects of evil and it is lifted.
Peter was describing our time now in this chapter. The Master had given him this preview. “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”–2 Peter 3:10.
A great explosion, such as nuclear testing, will be the great noise in the stratosphere. The works of earth that will be burned up refers to the evil in man’s consciousness, which fills the world to the stratosphere. What kind of person shall you be then? Look to the future with hope.
An edict is an authoritative command; authority confers the power and ability to enforce obedience. Obedience is compliance with law and commandments. Always, you must balance the scales when making a decree. You do need edicts, which are your positive constructive decrees, not petty denials. Once you make your decree, you must hold to it.
Jesus made positive, constructive decrees, such as, “Take up your bed and walk.” You derive your authority to make decrees from, “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 14:13-14.
When you decree a thing in the name of Jesus the Christ, it shall be established unto you. Yet you must choose what you really want, and not divide your attention. When you choose, you then make a decree. Yet if you deny, you will not have a miracle.
Stand before the Master and say, “Lord, help me,” knowing that he knows your need without any unnecessary explanation. You need not explain, for he knows. “Here I am Father, please finish the work.”
Avoid using force or demanding in making statements or decrees. The voice of authority does not speak a forceful decree, but in devotion to God, kneeling before the throne. Your vibration of authority must hold devotion, blamelessness, love, and the nonresistant power of the word let. The soul says, “Let this be,” and you continue in devotion.
Ascend in consciousness into the Christ mind where you have soul identity and speak from your soul. Know that the new heaven and new earth is within you. While you will see more darkness and dirt come to the surface than ever before, your every high thought moves into the pool of prayer for the world. Grimness comes from becoming displeased with something in the world. Show the world a smiling, joyous countenance.
Peter made a decree for the Elect, yet you must still face your own soul’s great tribunal. You make an edict from your soul’s authority. State, “I am reaching for high calling of Jesus,” but it must come from the soul. Declare, “This is one thing I do now. I am pressing on,” and mean it.
One great edict for your life is, “I have eyes to see with. I have ears to hear with. He who hath eyes to see shall see. He who hath ears to hear, let him hear.” This covers everything, and you can tune in if you listen from above. You shall be able to tune in on the Sermon on Mount and see and hear it as a vision, seeing and hearing through inner eye and ear.
Every word from your lips is a decree. If you make it negative, or blame, criticize and resent, you are using God’s Power outside the law, illegally. When you decide that your edicts shall be of glory, your path becomes one of Light, a high part of soul vision.

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This One Thing I Do
Edna Lister outline, November 26, 1961, Cleveland, OH. Acts 27:21-29.

“But after long abstinence Paul stood forth in the midst of them, and said, Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, ’Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.’ Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me. Howbeit we must be cast on a certain island. But when the fourteenth night was come, as we were driven up and down in Adria, about midnight the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country; and sounded, and found it twenty fathoms: and when they had gone a little further, they sounded again, and found it fifteen fathoms. Then fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern, and wished for the day.”–Acts 27:21-29.
Paul was a Roman citizen, and when the Jewish Court of the Sanhedrin laid serious charges against him and wanted the Romans to put him to death, he demanded to be brought before Caesar for trial in Rome. Agrippa would have freed him since he found no fault in him, except for this demand. They sailed so late in the season that their ship fell prey to the equinoctial storms on the Mediterranean.
”Now when much time was spent, and when sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was now already past, Paul admonished them, and said unto them, Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading and ship, but also of our lives. Nevertheless the centurion believed the master and the owner of the ship, more than those things which were spoken by Paul.”–Acts 27:10-11. As Paul had warned them, their ship was caught in a terrific storm, driven aground, and damaged. They repaired what they could and set sail again, spending the next three days in the teeth of the storm. The crew lightened the load, but that didn’t help.
Paul had fasted through this, then stood up and told them of his warning, an I-told-you-so. “Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me. Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain island.”–Acts 27:21-26. Paul believed that he was witness to the appearance of a heavenly being, and that he had been given the lives of all who were on the ship.
Some crew member thought to escape by jumping overboard near the rocky coast, but Paul let none leave. He told the centurion and soldiers, “Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.”–Acts 27:31. All souls must obey law: sometimes one faithless person upsets an entire schedule, or wrecks some plan at the last moment.
“On the fourteenth night” indicates this is the path of choice and separation from, wherein you must choose whom you shall serve, self or soul, man or God. They cast out four anchors named faith, steadfastness, devotion and surrender, for balance. Under the principle of equilibrium, balance means to hold. A stool with only two legs is easily knocked over, but is stable with three.
Faith is complete trust and confidence in the Power of God and that His Power is always working. Act as if you have it in the moment you ask. Believe. Know that God’s will for you is good. Jesus said that it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. When you trust yourself, God trusts you.
Faith is a compound principle composed of so many elements. Faith is love plus joy. Faith is a great stillness, a complete waiting confidence in God, and trust in your own ability to hold. Steadfastness is stable and unwavering, undeviating, with no doubt or fear, no looking back. Steadfastness is unconditional loyalty to your decision, to hold fast. You are a step nearer to God in faith.
You need devotion, but to what, when and why? Devotion expresses your appreciation and love of God in praise and song. You need compassion toward men. Devotion is thus a worshipful attitude of love that must give to the loved one.
Surrender is an outer, voluntary act of obedience, a final giving up of the self. Faith builds the stairs, but steadfastness and devotion are the right and left underpinnings, the risers. Surrender gives you the Power to climb. Surrender means how to give up. Do you give up your good? No. You give up only that which is dark or reacts as what you do not want.
To lift up selfish desires is a glory. To give up righteous indignation, you must give up the indignation, not the “right use” of help for others. Once you can put up with it and grin, you have the right to say, “Enough.” You cannot afford to allow pride to cloud your life or judgment.
Elias Howe, who invented the sewing machine, became discouraged while doing so because he could not figure a way to put the eye on the needle to thread it. His creditors were hounding him, and his wife had given him twenty-four hours notice that she was leaving him.
Nearly in despair, he went to bed and dreamed that savages were leading him to a fire. By the light of the flame, he noticed eyes in the heads of their spears. He shouted so loudly that he woke himself up at 3:00 a.m., and had finished the first crude needle by dawn.
Howe’s story is an example of steadfastness, devotion and surrender. He had faith in his idea, he worked at it steadfastly in devotion to it, and was willing to surrender of everything to bring it to pass.
Paul’s story is also about outstanding obedience under attention to details, from the Neophyte to the Christos Degree. “For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.”–Acts 27:23-25.
“I believe, therefore I obey.” And the promise was fulfilled. “Fear not, Paul. Thou must be brought before Caesar.” The law is that once you have asked for, demanded, prayed for or desired anything, then some place, sometime, it must be fulfilled. Your dreams shall come to pass, but you must pay your debts to the law.
“Fear not, Paul. Thou must be brought before Caesar.” Everyone on the boat was saved. Some swam, some clung to boards or to other parts of the ship, but all lived. Every prayer that is unadulterated by self, is fulfilled.

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This One Thing I Do
Edna Lister transcript, November 26, 1961, Cleveland, OH. Ruth Johnson, Irene White, scribes. Acts 27:21-29.

“But after long abstinence Paul stood forth in the midst of them, and said, Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me. Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain island. But when the fourteenth night was come, as we were driven up and down in Adria, about midnight the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country; and sounded, and found it twenty fathoms: and when they had gone a little further, they sounded again, and found it fifteen fathoms. Then fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern, and wished for the day.”–Acts 27:21-29.
Paul’s shipwreck story is romantic, like a thrilling movie. He had previously been tried on unproven accusations before the Jewish Court of the Sanhedrin, and then was taken to the Roman governor. After a sham trial there, Paul finally demanded to be tried by Caesar as a Roman citizen, knowing the governor could sentence him if he demanded a Roman trial.
So Paul was sent to Rome with other prisoners. They started in late summer but did not sail directly to Rome, the merchants having business to do at several ports along the way. The sailing was becoming dangerous and they had to hug the coastline. They ran into contrary winds and ended up at a tiny harbor on Crete. They stayed several days, but since the town was not large enough to winter in, they set sail again.
After two weeks of slow sailing, not making much progress, Paul warned them, saying, “Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading and ship, but also of our lives.”–Acts 27:10. However, the centurion paid no attention to Paul, listening instead to the merchant ship owner. Soon they ran into an equinoctial storm, the cyclonic winds called Euroclydon.
They battled the storm for three days and their fate seemed hopeless; the men feared they would be shipwrecked and drown. Paul exhorted them to be of good cheer. “Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me. Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain island.”–Acts 27:21-26.
Paul knew he simply had to speak and encourage these men. It is just as bad to stand back when you really know but do not speak the truth as it is to prophesy stupidly. Parents answer their children’s questions from their own past experience. Paul’s experience told him of the terrific dangers of an equinoctial storm. He was bearing witness with logic, reason, the facts of his previous experience, plus his faith. This you should remember and always do.
Those men battled that storm for fourteen days and nights, living in constant fear shipwrecking on the rocky coastal shore. Near midnight of the fourteenth night, the crew cast out anchors and wished for daybreak. Some of the sailors pretended to cast more anchors but were really launching a smaller boat to escape. Paul knew they were trying to escape, and told the centurion and soldiers that everyone had to stay together or no one could be saved.
Paul’s warning involves the law of remaining with the ship to save it, like staying with a business that seems to be failing but knowing that you can save it only by remaining. Back of his warning lay the power that held the ship together despite a few who would abandon the ship to wreck it.
Paul knew all their lives could be saved if they stayed and worked together. He based his faith in his love of God and put his soul stock in it. Fourteen is the number that symbolizes choice and separation. Do not try to escape a plan, or leave it because delay or obstacles come. Take all the love you put into it and invest it in a new life plan today. Always see a solid platform of faith in front of you, remembering that you cannot go ahead if you have left too much of yourself behind or with others. Cry if you must, but let love turn your tears of experience into pearls and string a new rosary of loving faith.
The four anchors cast off the stern have a special meaning. The ship’s prow faces land, symbolizing balance on earth. The four anchors represent what is behind you. The ship broke in half when they ran it aground. The stern broke into pieces. Some floated on bits of the wreckage, others on boards, all of which represent life preservers. The sea in this story symbolizes the sea of life. Your four anchors are faith, steadfastness, devotion, and surrender. The anchors on the left are faith and devotion, on the right are steadfastness and surrender.
Faith is the great principle, never conquered in any age. It is unconquerable when unadulterated with doubt or fear. A joyous love and grateful praise makes for perfect faith. Faith is a glory, assurance and confidence, a trust, a comprehending stillness that stands and knows, remaining immovable, untouchable and all conquering.
Steadfastness is the soul virtue that makes you able to stand fast and not to look back. Love will melt, dissolve and absorb anything in the past. That’s how God takes care of the past for you when you love Him. Having done all, stand steadfastly on the foundation of principle and law.
Devotion is a tricky virtue to hold on course though life. Some people are grimly devoted to self-pity, which is devotion to self. Make your devotion an unqualified success. Whatever you choose to devote yourself to, turn on the switch and give it your all, then transfer that devotion to God. Devotion to God is part of loving God. Devotion to God as principle helps you break through the veils of illusion, but devotion to God as personality take you straight to the Father. Do not put your devotion into menial tasks. Pour love into your four anchors, but save your devotion for God.
Surrender of the little self makes you buoyant enough to ascend. Surrender opens the way for an expectant attitude to move in and stay. Elias Howe, who invented the sewing machine, had faith, devotion, steadfastness, and surrendered to an idea. Despite all manners of obstacles and delay, he succeeded. Turn your devotion upward to God. These four perfect laws will take you to His throne.
Paul lived by his obedience to God. The angel said, “Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.”–Acts 27:24. When you make a demand on law, you are brought before your Caesar, which represents the world judging your goals. Caesar also represents the absolute justice of love and wisdom, the fulfillment of every promise made to you. Because you must be brought before Caesar and because you are surrendered in love to wisdom, faith, steadfastness and devotion, God gives you the lives of all on board your ship.
Everyone on board escaped to land in their natural way, not the captain’s way, which would have wrecked them all. They escaped because the angel had shown Paul that if he stood and believed, his word of faith would stand fast. The attitude of such absolute faith so affects the other fellow’s consciousness that it works, it puts and keeps a life preserver under him. It works the same for you. Only while you stand still in faith, can the Father bring your miracles to pass. I have eyes to see with and ears to hear Your Voice, O Father.

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This One Thing I Know
Edna Lister outline; December 3, 1961, Cleveland, OH. Ephesians 4:1-13.

“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”–Ephesians 4:1-13.
Jesus descended and ascended again to open the Gates of Light, which evil had closed. The universe is expanding, and the creator gods are now ascending, as is all life, from the creature to the creator stage. Your creative tools are desire, thinking and imagination.
“I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long-suffering; bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”–Ephesians 4:1-3. Paul referred to himself as a prisoner of the Lord in the bond of peace. When you are prisoners of the soul, the little self becomes transformed in the life of God.
To endeavor is to strive toward, to hold oneself to a certain way. Endeavoring has three stages, transforming, sublimation and transfiguration. Transforming means to move from one state to another, to change or recondition yourself to a new soul place through dedication, sanctification and the awakening of desire.
Sublimation is the awakening of vision. Meeting the challenge of one body, one hope, and one Spirit, the acceptance, the consecration to “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”–Ephesians 4:5-6. These verses hold the promise of limitless life and strength. “I am convinced,” means “I know.” The vitality of the life forces circulates through the bloodstream, leading to weakness or to strength.
Transfiguration means to be lifted up, to “be still and know that I am God.” To “let” and to give praise brings eternal immortal life and youth. You become as radiant as the sun. When our Lord “led captivity captive,” he showed us life. You cannot escape life, but what do you do with it? Sacrifice self to gain soul protection, turn inaction into action, indifference into soul-desire. Get up, get going, and do something. Make all your low points of weakness into high points of vision and glory.
Your old captivity to self becomes captive to love. Every new desire adds a new jet engine to your Transfiguration. You do know what to do next. You can be an apostle, a messenger of love, an evangelist and live the Gospels of Jesus the Christ. You can be a pastor and give guidance where it is needed. As a prophet, you can see where disobedience will lead you.
You can be a teacher when you are identified with the one God, the one Father. You know who you are, a son or a daughter of God, and you shall become the full stature of the Christ.

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This One Thing I Know
Edna Lister transcript, December 3, 1961, Cleveland, OH., Ruth Johnson, Irene White, Ross and Virginia Whitehead, scribes. Ephesians 4:1-13.

“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”–Ephesians 4:1-13.
This passage is among the most interesting in the Epistles. It contains so much in so few verses. Every time you read a section, you think it wonderful. Verses nine and ten are peculiarly written and set in parentheses. “(Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)”–Ephesians 4:9-10.
They accused Jesus of consorting with publicans and sinners. He came to save the lost souls, the rebellious ones. As it was in his ministry, so it is in yours. As you leave your home, as you step through your door, you feel as though you step through a shaft of Light. So you are blessed, cleansed and healed before you step out into the world’s vibration. In the world, you descend into the “lower parts” of the earth. You receive credits toward fulfillment of your mission, so the vibration of high Power is available wherever you go.
In nightly prayers, declare, “Wherever I have gone or my eyes have glanced, let the Power be quickened for good.” If every Christian made that statement, war could not exist. Whatever love touches, it converts into itself. To fulfill all things, you must ascend above all man-made ideas of heaven into a Source of Light and glory, where the Emanations come forth, where Power of God fills you. The cosmologists theorize that the universe is expanding, so plant your feet on the truth that God has given each the power to ascend.
You do not have to be wishy-washy or so pure that butter would not melt in your mouth. I would rather have one joyful sinner than a roomful of saints too pure to tolerate others. Ascension is not spineless and futile, but is all power, beauty and truth. The kingdom of heaven is open to all believers, yet you can go only as far as your soul goal and plan take you.
Paul said, “I am a prisoner of the Lord.” Reading this, many quit God right there, saying, “I refuse to be herded into heaven. I refuse to be a prisoner.” Little do they know that they already are prisoners of self, in bondage to their own hates, criticism, ideas, and blame. God sent you here with equipment to be divine, Godlike. You were supposed to use this equipment in a Godlike way, not to serve the self. So many people hold on to their small selfish hatreds like grim death, and so keep themselves from ascending.
A prisoner of the Lord is a prisoner of the law, and an ambassador of Light. When the self is a prisoner of the law, the subconscious will stop trying to be boss you, but will remind you to turn down the thermostat before leaving the house. It would properly put a hand on your lips when you would speak idly or to the wrong person. When you are protected from making mistakes, you have no regrets. The law is perfect, and obedience to law lifts you.
Paul gave us the keys to this power, which are meekness and forbearing. Love is strong, love is fearless, love is courage. To be meek and lowly means to keep your lips buttoned at right time. That is a blow to self advertisers, those who shout about their good works, like Pharisees praying on the street corners.
“Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”–Ephesians 4:3. Endeavoring means to hold one’s self fast to an idea, the ability to keep unity. You have three God-given creative tools—desire, thinking and imagination. Unless you keep them working in balanced unity, you cannot have a balanced life. Peace comes from unifying your emotional desires with perfect thinking. If desires, thoughts and imaginings take you in different directions, you are a mess.
Hold the reins of imagination’s horses steadfastly. Let no cross-eyed pictures break your unity with Spirit. Your brain cells are like a mirror. Sometimes the mirrored scene in the water is more beautiful than the real view on land. Your brain cells are designed to act like still pools, mirroring pictures of God.
Under ascension, you climb through three phases—transformation, sublimation and transfiguration. A caterpillar is a prisoner of natural law, so it automatically transforms itself into a beautiful butterfly under this process. You transform yourself when you rid yourself of opinions, prejudices, criticism, blame. God always says, “Child come up, come higher. I’ll send Light through you and wipe you clean.” When you blame someone, you pay for the original debt, their debt and the debt you just caused.
Transformation means to change your life, to step up in your conscious thinking to be a joyous prisoner of law. To transform your life, you must light the flame of desire under the burner. Sometimes a person must recreate his desire to transform, as in the case of an alcoholic, for example. You need an offering more attractive and greater than self. Often your smile or good word changes another’s day, yet if you do not like yourself, your work, your place, you just do not like. When you look sour, you react on another person in the opposite way.
Steel is porous, walls are porous. The River of Life permeates everything. You are in highest form of substance on earth. Let the River of Life move through your porous body to cleanse it. Breathe deeply to eliminate fatigue poisons, but also think in Light. Be a prisoner of law and let the Power of God send you forth and work through you as sublimation. Sublimation is a state of being sublime, high in consciousness.
By recognizing one Lord, one faith, one baptism, you can be under the Baptism of Fire day and night. “One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” is the Source of your life. Sublimation is composed of this. Unifying yourself with all that is, your identity, your powerhouse.
Transfiguration is the glistering Light shining from Jesus’ face. It is your reward, too, your covenant of peace. It is your imagination, desire, and thinking, working in unity to lead captivity captive.
When you have lifted any expression of the little self that is unlike God, self becomes captive to the power of love. Your soul’s destiny is to give up self to become the prisoner of divine law. One day, when enough believers want to be captive of love, want to ascend, want to unify and meet for days of prayer to lift all darkness and self from earth, the golden Christed Age can come.
You know laws must be obeyed. You know you want peace. When you live for it, you can have the beauty earth can produce. What is keeping you captive? What trait? Using slang instead of the right word? Declare that God in action works for all good. He can send strong winds to blow all radioactive material up to sun to be absorbed. Can be shot up with missiles.
Abraham tried to pick ten good men. The angel said find just one. Be captive to captivity. Be under the bond to Lord or law, so nothing can slip. Sign up to be a full prisoner of the law of love. When you do not obey law, you get off the beam. Through process of transformation, sublimation, transfiguration. No matter what happens, stand and grow into the stature of Jesus the Christ.

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This One Thing I Comprehend
Edna Lister outline, December 10, 1961, Cleveland, OH. Ephesians 3.

“For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”–Ephesians 3.
In the Epistle to the Ephesians, Paul opens with the glory of Jesus the Christ and holds it through three chapters. He speaks of predestination, redemption and forgiveness in the first chapter. He writes of the dispensation of the grace of God in the second chapter, and repeats the reference to the dispensation and grace in the third.
The dispensation is the management of the world by divine Providence. It is God’s planned beneficent care for us. The grace of God is a state of charm, of pleasing quality, a state of consciousness caused by, including, taking in, grasping and holding comprehension. A state of grace means compassion plus the love of God.
To comprehend is defined as “to include, to take in, to grasp and to hold.” Comprehension means to understand completely, a super-understanding, not from the surface of the mind and “I think,” but as “I know.” These chapters reveal the mysteries. The mystery revealed in the first chapter was “Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God,” as revealed in these passages:
“Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.”–Ephesians 1:9-11.
“Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.”–John 14:11.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman…I am the vine, ye are the branches.”–John 15:1, 5. These verses also describe your divinity, and your identity with God. Full comprehension is a compound of all virtues, and you must synthesize the five senses to have comprehension.
The second mystery, the “fellowship with men,” includes the Gentiles: “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.”–Ephesians 3:8-10.
Unsearchable means “being beyond the means of search.” Ordinary searching will not work. You must search with boldness, and access with confidence by faith. To be granted comprehension, you must grounded in love, to comprehend the breadth, length, depth and height of the love of Christ. What is the breadth of love? What does love include? Love is a broad highway versus the narrow path of obedience to God’s law. The narrow path is hedged in and pitted with self. If you step off your strip of ideas about what you “should” do, you will have no love.
“I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.”–Ephesians 3:13. I pay all debts. I take in debts to pay. When my brother is weak, I take up his burden, the excess. I free him enough to allow him to finish the climb of that initiation. Spiritual debts include war and evil. You do not need to pay them all. Pray, and leave what the other fellow needs to learn his lesson in this lifetime. When you must take on a debt, remember that it is your glory. Pass it on, the favor of debt-paying, with no blame, and taking no credit to the self. Can you take on blame? You must, to lift it.
Second, you shorten the length of your love of Christ by whining, “How long, oh Lord, how long?” How long can you carry the burden? One day longer than God. Third, measure the depth of your love of Christ: How deep is your love? How much battering can it take? Your own past misuse returns to you. What is the quality of your love?
Fourth, what is the height of your love? How high is God? How great in quantity is your love? Does it include all principalities and powers? You must balance your love with wisdom. A cubic foot of atomic power would hold trillions of tons of energy. When you go high consciousness, you release this potential as Power.
When the breadth of your love is truly wide, when its length is great enough, when its depth is deep enough, when its height is high enough, atomic energy runs your body. This is the Christ Power, the Christ Mind, the Holy Breath of Spirit. You must comprehend that you draw this Power from the very air you breathe.
Clare Boothe Luce said, “Take your hats off to the past and take your coats off to meet the future.” You need and must welcome more life experiences to finely temper the soul to withstand all darkness. The power of love is the only mystery you need to comprehend. Glorious Power flows from the Source to you. This is your life. This is you, the glory of the Power triumphant.

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This One Thing I Comprehend
Edna Lister transcript, December 10, 1961, Cleveland, OH. Ruth Johnson, Irene White, scribes. Ephesians 3.

“For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”–Ephesians 3.
Ephesians, the third chapter, is such a magnificent text. In Ephesians, Paul takes the group to the highest possible Source of heavenly Power. The opening chapter is about the Source. In the third chapter, he outlines how the Power can use them.
Jesus trained all his disciples to become experts in psychiatry and led Paul to do the same. He unfolded universal laws to them, the relationships of man to man, and man’s relationship to God. No modern psychiatrist can compare to Jesus as the healer of mind and soul.
The first portion of this text mentions predestination, redemption and forgiveness. While orthodoxy teaches that predestination is God’s “preordination of men to everlasting happiness or to misery,” it also means “election, to appoint or ordain beforehand by divine decree” Simply put, predestination means that you have no place else to go but back to God. No matter how far you wander, you will eventually return to your Source.
Redemption is the act of redeeming. To redeem is “to ransom, to deliver, to reclaim.” The prefix re- means to go back, to return. In redemption, you redeem your soul substance by lifting the life sparks, as you lift yourself from one path to step onto another. You redeem your own soul substance by lifting the life sparks of soul substance to be cleansed in the eternal flame.
Even if a soul has turn to evil, when all memory of evil is wiped from its mind eons hence, the repentant soul will come forth again with a new name and a cleansed memory. The soul substance that people have used in retrogression is purified above and returned to them here on earth. This is why you can recognize someone who has been redeemed.
Forgiveness is “the act of forgiving, a pardon; giving up resentment for an offense.” Forgiveness is a dispensation composed of and based on God’s laws. A divine plan backs Creation, and a comprehensive management structure oversees it. The “dispensation” outlines the overall management of the divine plan. You must follow the law Jesus gave or you return too slowly to be of much use to God.
Paul received an ordination of the soul to preach the Gospel of Christ through the grace of God. A state of grace is a state of consciousness. Grace also means charm, such as the gracious charm of one who entertains no inner conflicts. Most people have no conflict with God or the world, but do entertain inner conflicts within themselves.
In Ephesians, chapter 3, we read the mysteries. The first deep mystery is your identity with God through Jesus Christ as only Begotten Son. You need only to follow Christ to be completely enfolded with God at the Source. Endless references in the Bible tell us of our oneness with God: “I and the Father are one. I am the vine and you are branches.”
The second mystery is the fellowship of the mysteries, which is based on soul knowing that Jesus is the Christ and the First and Only Begotten Son of God. The sons of man, those coming up through evolutionary processes, do not know that Jesus is the Begotten Son, and so repudiate him. They do not know him or the truth of his being. The sons of God, however, have established their own identity with God and Jesus as the Christ. The gentiles, to whom Paul refers, were those sons of God and of men who were ascending to this illumination.
The third mystery is “the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.” The world passes right over this mystery because it is incomprehensible to most people. Love is a good step above knowledge and it must be to become comprehension. All is good but you do not receive fullness of that good until you comprehend love, until you know the depth, breadth, and height of love. Once you comprehend it, it can never to taken from you. To comprehend the depth of love, make a study of the Book of Job.
The breadth of love does not go beyond your own aura if you love in spite of or have negative thoughts about anyone. If you live in spite of, you are filled with pride in self. You are thinking about love, which is good, but only a little improvement. Broad loving takes the blame, pays others’ debts and even the world’s. If you tell God what you will do for Him, then gripe when the tests come, you love self first and God second.
“The fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.”–Revelation 8:12. Every evil one from the beginning of time has left his darkness behind in black clouds among the constellations, which is gradually released for the Elect to lift for cleansing in Light.
The force behind the darkness rolls around until it is redeemed by those who created it or by one who redeems back from the magnetic currents through his body. For example, when I had an accident in which my body was injured, I said, “All I can lift by hand and word, I shall do and dedicate to Thy service, Father, but let the other Christians do the same.” When you are ill or hurt physically, say, “Thank You Father,” and pray for all those in the same boat. Every prayer you pray lifts force left by evil ones on earth.
What is the length of your love? How long does your love last? Do you say, “My patience gave way.” The length of your love is how long it lasts, or endures. When you can stand like Job and say, “Even if You slay me, I love You,” or, “I can love just one day longer than you can hate.”
How deep is your love? Can it overlook anything the world can produce? Do you ever think the other fellow is wrong? You had at least better say it’s a good wrong. The depth of your love cannot be like a tumbleweed, but must be as deeply rooted as an oak.
What is height of your love? Too many waste time getting adoption papers to be a son of God. All you need is to remember your consciousness of the Source of all Power, of the powers in heavenly places. Go to your heavenly place, a place to go in consciousness. When you do, your love passes above mere knowledge, to comprehend, to include, to take in, to hold that which you know.
Once you comprehend and respond to the highest vibration of the Source, you do not forget, because you have lifted the five senses into apperception. All is lifted into your love of Almighty God. When the length, depth, height of your love is great enough, you will comprehend and broadcast Jesus the Christ as only Begotten Son.
You will become divine love expressing. Take off your hat to the past but peel off your coat and get ready for the future. A state of grace is that place where your identity with God, your fellowship is so complete that you cannot help but lead a triumphant life.

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The Song of the Lamb
Edna Lister outline, December 17, 1961, Cleveland, OH. John 1:35-36, 1 Thessalonians 5:14-23, Revelation 4:6-12.

“Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!”–John 1:35-36.
“Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”–1 Thessalonians 5:14-23.
“And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.”–Revelation 5:6-12.
The Song of the Lamb is a song of praise to God. A lamb represents purity and innocence, and also peace and joy. The lamb is the Christ’s personal symbol, representing new beginnings, declaring his innocence before he descended to earth. Jesus walked earth as purity and innocence. The “blood of the Lamb” represents the purity of life with no taint of earth. Yellow represents Wisdom, blue symbolizes Love, and red signifies Energy (the Word). Red represents the Son of God, the Holy Spirit, Holy Breath and Holy Spirit, all combined as the white Light of the Christ.
Jesus is best known and most depended on in his role of the Lamb of God. When John the Baptist heralded him crying, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” he gave Jesus his identity as the Lamb of God for earth. For the first ten years of his life, Jesus embodied the sacrificial lamb idea. In the last great chapter of his adult life, he was the lamb sacrificed. They reviled him, crowned him with thorns and forced him to carry his cross. Whenever needed, Jesus was aggressively, positively, dynamically nonresistant, able to stand on principle, and to know the truth.
St. John, in the first chapter of his Gospel, set the keynote for Jesus as the Word and as a creator god when he wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…All things were made by him…In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”–John 1:1, 3-4. God spoke the Word to create. The Light itself was the life in him, the action of creation, and the substance, too. Praise lifts you up in consciousness to the Word. Praise opens the vibration and you send the substance into the prayer molds by your spoken Word.
You use the Word to create your creations by declaration, but you must also call them good and very good. You follow the good when you seek first the kingdom of righteousness. Declare, “This is good. All is good.”
“Rejoice evermore” describes how you apply the Word. When your soul is rejoicing, you are in joy. Life means to move, to take action, to be alive. When you “pray without ceasing” twenty-four hours a day, you are God conscious and always giving thanks for outer “added things.”
“Quench not the Spirit” means never turning off the Power by allowing the little self to take over your consciousness. Light will “prove all things” when you use it to apply law, follow directions and pay your vows with obedience to law. “Abstain from all appearance of evil.”–1 Thessalonians 5:22, or any letting go of God. When you avoid the evil of idle words, “our whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” When you follow the good, you are obedient.
Praise is your contact point for being filled with and releasing the Light. Praise tunes your instrument, and plugs you into the live wire of omnipotence. The Light becomes your expression. “Let your Light so shine.” Does my Light shine? Am I good enough? Praise the Master without waiting for the key, or money, but do it now. Prune the dark shoots and put on rose-colored glasses.
Declare, “I am the Light of the world.” Your preparatory work is finished. You are ready for the University of Life. Behold the glory of God! You cannot lose God. He is the All That Is, greater than any church, teaching, altar, or image. Churches are simply places to seek for God. Choirs sing the Song of the Lamb at all hours in heaven’s temples. All you need to do to see and hear them is to look up in consciousness.
Follow these simple directions: “Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil.”–1 Thessalonians 5:16-22. Because the three basic principles are the Light, the Word, and the life, you must speak as the Word to have Light and life. Singing the Song of the Lamb is a most beautiful expression of the Word.
“The four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. And when those beasts give glory and honor and thanks to Him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before Him that sat on the throne, and worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.”–Revelation 4:8-11.

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The Song of the Lamb
Edna Lister transcript, December 17, 1961, Cleveland, OH. Ruth Johnson, Irene White, and Ross Whitehead, scribes. 1 Thessalonians 5:14-21, Revelation 5:9-12.

“Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”–1 Thessalonians 5:14-21.
“And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.”–Revelation 5:9-12.
The Song of Lamb is a song of praise to God. A lamb represents purity and innocence. It represents especially the joy all animals have in life itself. The gamboling lamb is so free, so abandoned to the sheer joy of living that it leaps in the exuberance of its joy. Joy is another name of the Holy Spirit.
Great controversies have raged about Christmas not being Jesus’ birthday. He was born during the Hebrew month of Nisan, which roughly coincides with April. I am positive that Aries the Ram was uppermost then, and was being used as the ascended symbol of Aries, the Lamb.
Way back in the beginning, waves of Light, high in their rate of vibration, emanated from the Source of All Light, and spread out to the rim of the universe to open this great day of manifestation. Thus, the Supreme took on form. The first Begotten of God was first to step forth from the center, ready for manifestation, eventually becoming the embodied soul we know as Jesus Christ, the Beloved. He is the only creator god who descended with the supreme scepter of power, given to him by the Father.
As the Beloved, he is the personality whom we call the Lamb. All the many songs of the Lamb praise the Source, exalting God Himself. The prayer keynote is adoration of the Supreme, through the Voice of the Beloved. Jesus came to earth under the auspices of the Lamb because it is a title of his Oversoul. Originally, no part of this first begotten creator god was meant to take on flesh. He was to have a supervisory role on the inner. The Beloved’s mission changed due to the rebellion in the skies, and here at the outpost where the descended creator gods took on their heaviest sheath like the molecular desire body. The rebellious ones wanted the masses to ascend faster, which started the conflict that became the war between good and evil, between the Sons of Light and the dark Sons of Belial. This war is now culminating in the Armageddon.
Symbolically, the conception of life, the fertilizing of the two seeds of life, occurs on the winter solstice. Full Power is released then for the birth at the spring equinox, symbolized by Easter. Jesus represents the joyous life-loving Lamb for the first twelve years of his earth life, all innocence and purity. He became the sacrificial Lamb again at the Crucifixion, and went out on that vibration. He came to earth to express love, and opened the vibration to exalt womanhood when he recognized his mother from the cross.
At Jesus’ baptism, John cried, “Behold the Lamb of God!” All the Gospels record the story, but only John gave him his supreme begotten title. James and Peter gave him his names on earth, the Son of Man and the Son of God. John writes that he was the Light and the life of men. He was the Word from which all things were made. You cannot create without speaking the Word. Only God and you know what you want as you speak the Word. He has given you free access to His Light as Mind, Substance, and Power, but you must speak it to name it into form.
“I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.”–Psalm 82:6. “Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?”–John 10:34. Therefore, your spoken Word can be powerful for good or ill. When you limp, you have cut off your own power, so you droop and die. When you bury your soul in a sarcophagus of self, you have no life.
At the point where the world slides down in consciousness, ascend and climb ever higher in consciousness, into the Light. You will have such energy such as the world has never known before, and your physical body is already equipped to release it. Einstein said that mass becomes energy, and energy becomes light as it explodes.
Under the Word, you can choose a formula to live by, one that works for you. “See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men.”–1 Thessalonians 5:15. Declare, “This is good!” The only way to overcome evil is to declare it good, to dig out whatever is below the surface; even if it is good for nothing, declare it good. Paul says to follow that which is good to begin with, for the good is part of righteousness. See as far as you can today, and next year you will see more and farther. You will move with the principles of God that do the work, but you may not wobble in your faith. You must be stabilized in body, mind and soul to succeed.
Rejoice evermore with your Oversoul, the part of you that sees God, and be caught up in soul illumination. Rejoice without wavering about what happens in life, and focus on receiving your credits in heaven. When someone bothers you, you really have no way of knowing how often he or she has tried to overcome the annoying trait. If you send good thoughts as canaries, they return singing, but your anger and thoughts of irritation return as crows.
Pray without ceasing. What is a prayer? Do you really believe that God answers prayer? Do you know it? You must believe and say, “Let it come!” Be balanced in what you permit and do with imagination and emotion. You cannot lose faith and win anything. The substance of your body and mind is a Godly vibration, but you could still dissolve your faculties through misuse of your soul substance. Yet you cannot lose God, for He is the same yesterday, today and forever. How can you lose Him?
Someone who misuses substance or arrogantly calls himself God does not change God. You can rub your nose in the dirt with him, if you choose to. Let him enjoy it if he so desires. If he wants to suffer his way back home, it’s his privilege, but you can know God, and know His good.
Give thanks for God’s Holy Breath, for His care. Thank God for every promise another makes and believe that He has it in store for you. God can fulfill the promises of those who promised in His Name, even if they withdraw it. I depend on God to fulfill promises people have made for the College of Ascension. The most stubborn ones just do not want to be healed. Use the little that you have anyway. That is the law. Praise what you have.
“Quench not the Spirit.” You do this when you consider darkness, or moan about the same old headache, pain, etc. Get up and rejoice instead. Praise. What good is silence in morning if you get furious when someone spits in your eye at 10:00 a.m.?
Use no idle words, but praise God instead. If you do not want death, why would you let someone bore you to death? Let the Light of God move in and use you. Do not allow yourself to be disillusioned. How many words a day do you use? At the office, send Light to each person whom your work and the sound of your voice touches. Use what you have no matter how small it seems.
A woman who had attended one of my lectures in Tacoma, Washington, was accosted while walking through a small park on her way home. The lecture topic had been Psalm 91 on protection. “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.”–Psalm 91:1-4. All she could remember was “feathers!” when the robbers accosted her in the park, so she shouted “Feathers! Help! Feathers!” And she scared them so badly they ran away, right into the police! She had faith in God’s protection and it saved her.
One day, you will see a great white temple and hear a glorious Voice. The Mind of God will pour reassurance and confidence into you to fill your mind with the first song of the Lamb: “The four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. And when those beasts give glory and honor and thanks to Him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before Him that sat on the throne, and worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.”–Revelation 4:8-11.
The Lamb is the name of the Supreme Beloved One at the Source. The eternal Elect are those from above who keep the ever-living, ever-new truth alive on earth. Even those who use the name of Jesus, the Lamb of God, the only Begotten Son, as a curse keep his name alive on earth. The Master meets them all with forgiveness when they pass to the other side.
Every day, declare, “Jesus is the only Begotten Son of God,” and praise, him and the Father. God has made us sons and daughters in His image and likeness and priests in His name. Do you want to feel like an heir of the Most High? Do you want this inheritance? Do you want it recreated for you in this Christed Age? Then sing the Song of the Lamb in joyful celebration! Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. We celebrate Jesus’ birth on December 25th, to germinate the divine conception of life above. Take advantage of the life eternal, and the Light everlasting.

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

References

The Holy Bible, King James Version (KJV).

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

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