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Edna Lister’s Sermons, 1967
To Stand, Endure and Hold
Edna Lister keynote address outline, International New Thought Alliance 52nd Congress, July 2, 1967, San Francisco, CA. Scripture: Genesis 1:1-4.
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.”–Genesis 1:1-4.
God is alive, and man is immortal now because our Creator has formed us in His image and likeness of from the One Mind, One Power and One Substance. Do you believe this?
The Bible opens with the first spoken words recorded—“In the beginning, God created” and the proclamation, “Let there be Light!” which is the Creative Fiat, God is still creating and still saying, “Let there be Light!” The Old Testament prophets proclaimed, “Thus saith the Lord,” and preceded His prophecy with, “And it shall come to pass.” Jesus proclaimed, “I am the way, the truth and the life. Love fulfills the law. Follow me.” The prophets of old talked about the law, but Jesus was the law. That law is love, which is our basis for teaching Love as a fundamental principle, with Wisdom and the Logos, the Word, as selfless joy, Mind, Substance and Power. Faith includes every possible combination of love, and faith as action must be based on the teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, which is foremost, an attitude of nonresistance.
God has given you a personal computing unit, a computer, which is the brain. Yet Mind must use it, or it is worth nothing to you. Using only nine digits, we have performed all the calculations to produce jet fuel and determine the orbits of plants and the Moon. Using the 26 letters of the alphabet, we have produced millions of books and translated them into many languages. From that first proclamation, “Let there be Light!” all this progress sprang. “Let there be Light” produced Albert Einstein and his now famous equation E=mc2, which says that energy and matter are two states of the same thing. Light is energy, which becomes mass. You breathe Light, which fills your atoms, transforming it into a degree of energy your body can use. While man can translate mass into Light through an atomic explosion, he cannot add to or subtract from the total mass or energy of the universes. Science, using the One as mass or energy in different combinations, creates miracles. You may do so using the principle of nonresistance.
Three actions are possible under nonresistance as three virtues you may apply—to stand, to endure, and to hold are intense actions. If you think it takes no action to stand, just try doing so. This is not tongue-biting nonresistance or mere passivity. Love’s nonresistance is all faith in action. To stand requires that you call upon every power in the universe to back you until you become immovable, irresistible, unwavering, and untouchable. No one knows what you are thinking while you stand, think as Light, or know as faith that God is alive.
To endure in joy, you must be able to say, “This is good,” while looking into the face of blackest evil, or the most terrible emotional hurt. When you declare, “This is good! Let there be Light!” you are seeking the kingdom of God first. Endurance is the greatest byproduct of the soul quality of strength. Hold fast to the truth. To hold is to know the truth of reality and to ignore the truth of appearances, such as pain or evil. To declare, “This is good! Let there be Light!” causes evil and pain to shrink from lack of nourishment.
Know the truth of reality. Do you know that God is above all? Do you know that He knows what He is doing? Do you hold this knowing as your strongest inner conviction? A metaphysical statement verbalizes what you think you know. A declaration verbalizes what you want to do. A decree is the measure of what you comprehend and do now.
Faith as action that produces miracles is like starting a kite flying; you lift it up to start it. Your decreed miracle brings the Breath of Life, limitless, to carry faith aloft. Then you stand, endure and hold until your miracle is you. You are immortal now! If your eye is single, you become Light. When you let that so-great Light shine, it removes all the blocks. “Let there be Light!”
God Overall
Edna Lister outline, International New Thought Alliance 52nd Congress Healing Meeting, July 3, 1967, San Francisco, CA. Matthew 24:21-22, Philippians 3:13-14, Romans 8:35-39, Revelation 8:2-5
“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”–Philippians 3:13-14.
“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.
God is overall and over all. “Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”–Matthew 24:21-22. Without God, no flesh would be left alive. Yet because of the prayers of the Elect, we will be saved. The Elect include all who believe in Jesus Christ and all who pray.
“I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.”–Revelation 8:2-5.
All prayers are pooled and sent to the altar described in the Book of the Revelation, the eighth chapter. A great angel with a censer sends the purifying fire to earth in return.
“If God be for us, who can be against us?”–Romans 8:31. Do you believe this? Evil is being stripped of its stolen power. Stand the evil ones before a full length mirror, and declare them stripped of all power and ability to hide or to conceal themselves or their activities. Declare that the U.N. is good, to expose its darkness and darkness-serving members, and to let God move in to possess it. This will lift all hate.
“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”–Philippians 3:13-14. In the morning, stand, reach for the stars, and move into your body as you say, “Let there be Light. Let love take charge.”
Religion’s Supremacy
Edna Lister outline, October 15, 1967, Cleveland, OH, John 6:41-51, John 6:59-69
“The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”–John 6:41-51.
“These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.”–John 6:59-69.
Religion is defined as “the human recognition of superhuman controlling power, especially of a personal God entitled to obedience; the action that one is bound to do reverence to and worship of God.” Religion is also defined as “the quest for the values of the ideal life, involving three phases—the ideal, the practical, for attaining the values of the ideal, and the theology, or the world view tying the quest to the environing universe.”
You can make a religion of doing something, or following someone or some set of beliefs. Religion is the feeling or spiritual attitude of the embodied soul. The manifestation of this feeling in your conduct or way of life is pure religion. Religion is also the scientific seeking for an identity with something greater than the self.
Despite current atheist propaganda against God, Jesus the Christ as deity, and religion, despite the mocking of churches, ministers and religious groups, religion is the greatest universal topic of conversation all over the world, with science itself declaring that a Source of All Power exists. The cry that Jesus is the embodiment of deity, and that divine love is religion, is growing.
This great chapter in the Gospel of John is about your relationship to a heavenly Father, and gives you your identity with a Source. With that identity established, you find that you become integrated in mind, heart, body, and soul. Jesus declares his identity repeatedly and clearly here, especially in this verse, “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except he who is from God; he has seen the Father.”–John 6:46. As creator gods, we saw the Father before we descended to earth.
The “bread of life” is that divine creative and creating substance of love. You eat it as manna daily, through your prayer life—and by devotion to God, you become immortal. “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”–John 6:63. Spirit is the life spark substance, which is the Source of your life. To “eat of my flesh” is to partake of Spirit and spiritual substance. The mere physical flesh profits nothing.
Theology is thoroughly intellectual, and is not a true interpretation of religious values. Jesus taught divine love to be your personal expression of religion. Theology deals with attitudes about love, religion and God. All outer religion, man-made or God-inspired, deals with three states of being and doing—inspiration, faith, and reverence. First, religion deals with inspiration, which arrives when you hunger and thirst after righteousness. Second, you have faith in what your quest has found. Third, you have reverence for, devotion to and worship of the attained goal of your search.
When man’s quest is solely intellectual, filled with opinions and prejudices, he finds and creates false gods. With Jesus the Christ forming your base as deity, you find religion as divine love. Inspiration is under divine wisdom. Faith is under divine love. Worship is under science, as second in command, which gives you a basis in law. All religion must move through science to God, or it cannot and does not hold fast to God. World-based religion becomes restless, always seeking new, easy ways of living. Intellectual religious interpretations can never save the world. Only divine love of God as overall Deity can become a spiritual reality.
Love, as the substance of faith, becomes your expression of absolute spiritual values. No morals, or only lax morals, result from having no religious identity with God. God-consciousness is not a creed or some man-made formula, but divine love, worshiping a giving God. Religion is not an invention of or by man, but an expression of your soul. All arts, all sciences come from the great religion of divine love.
Christed religion rejects false gods, and refuses to follow them. Follow Jesus the Christ as deity. Refuse to let the world pigeonhole you, or to demean or compartmentalize your faith. You are free to worship your Source, and to hold your identity inviolate. The end of your quest, Light, embraces you. Desire for more becomes a consuming fire within you. Your supreme gesture is your magnificent reaching up, up for the supreme reality.
Religion’s Supremacy
Edna Lister transcript, Elizabeth Barnes, Margaret Pratt Doan, Ruth Johnson, Irene White, scribes, October 15, 1967, Cleveland, OH, John 6:41-51, 59-69
“The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”–John 6:41-51.
“These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.”–John 6:59-69.
People are confused about religion, being educated by many who offer opinions and prejudices rather than the inspired words of those who know God. We believe in a Father of Wisdom and Mother of Love, reflecting the duality of God as both personality and principle.
The dictionary defines religion as a “human recognition of superhuman controlling Power, especially of a personal God, who is entitled to obedience.” The dictionary also defines religion as “the quest for the values of the ideal life, involving three phases, the ideology, practicality and theology or world view.” Religion must be practical to attain the values of the ideal. You can make a religion of doing anything or nothing, or of following anything—cleaning, bricklaying, politics, insurance, health, or wealth, especially obtaining money. Politics is a religion to many. Each pursuit then is a quest after an ideal state.
Religion is further defined as “the feeling or the spiritual attitude of the individual in manifestation.” This feeling is in itself a pure religion, since the individual uses the pure substance of love. Religion is a scientific search for an identity with something greater than the self.
Religion, in a greater sense, is the most universal topic on earth today, despite the propagandist materialistic views, atheism, and secular humanism of ministers and priests speaking against God and Christ. Everyone has opinions about it, seekers after truth, and ministers who demote religion and bring it down to the lowest common denominator, which is always a low point in consciousness. How many theology schools and seminaries train students with inspiration in the love of God? Intellectual theology denudes the students of their worship of God as personality, and students come out minus inspiration, trained in intellectualism, with little or no truth to give.
Intellectualism cannot interpret mysticism or make God into a formula or a creed. How can an intellectual interpret the mysteries of God and His Christ? They rush along in a horizontal position, teach their own opinions and prejudices to students, and we trust our children to them. Intellectuals cannot interpret God, and do not try to prove God, but more often try to disprove Him.
The people who worship God as a personality seem voiceless because the intellectuals, agnostics and atheists mock them. Those who declare Jesus the Christ as the only Begotten Son are ready to shout, and they will be heard. You must have an identity with God because God is the Father of your identity. John 6 speaks of mystical things, and God as personality. It establishes the basis for God as the Father, and gives you your personal identity with God. Each soul needs confidence in his own identity.
You cannot interpret religion from an intellectual standpoint of just words, which lowers the vibration. If you sit and meditate on words, your vibration descends. You must ascend in consciousness into the Light, not to meditate or try to educate God by telling Him what you need. Do you think God is utterly senseless? He knows what you need, what your family needs. If you mean it, if you want God’s will to be done in your life, watch as three quarters of your prayers go toward educating God, repeating what you want Him to do.
A woman, who complained that God did not answer her prayers, explained that she told Him, “Not my will, but Thy will be done,” repeatedly, thus constantly pushing away the answer she sought. She couldn’t understand that once was enough. God is not deaf; He hears you the first time. Such pathetic efforts are worthy of the creature stage and kindergarten. God does not need you to educate Him.
Ascend to be one with God in your consciousness. He is your Father. Declare, “Let there be Light. Let Thy Light express and fulfill all the needs of everyone. Let me be so one with Thy Light that I am the Light, seeing only the Light.” Hold everyone up in the Light. Release the Power as Light, which moves forth to each who needs healing. “Father, let Thy Light use me as a transformer to send Light forth to fill and transform Mary (Jim or whomever).”
You, as an instrument of God’s Power, release Light that descends from the great Source to individuals, whose Guards stand by to release that Power through them, which is the meaning of “My Father works hitherto, and I work.” God runs on a perfectly economical plan. He knows what it is all about. God does the work.
Patriotism is a kind of religion, a love of God, then country. As patriotism is a religion, so is pacifism. Pacifists let others fight their battles—cowards run, but they will all have to pay their debts someday. Peace comes by taking up the sword of love and wisdom, but not for the use of force. The Elect are descended creator gods, who have let things slide for so long that now we have to get our hands in the dirt and to administer a thorough metaphysical scrubbing.
Theology intellectually teaches attitudes toward life. The great souls have given the world marvels of invention, and inspired religions of God, all of which have been based in inspiration, faith, and devotion, the fundamentals. A man must hunger and thirst to be inspired to succeed; he has to have the faith, and devotion to a cause.
Jesus taught us to express God as love, and religion teaches us His divine attributes and qualities, which we are to become. Wisdom inspires you, but faith is your expression of the emanation of the love of God. Everything you accomplish well, you were inspired to do. You are devoted to and worship what you find in the Wisdom and Love of God. Religion is a study of all that God could be or become, hidden wisdom which must express through Love, Wisdom and Energy. Love must permeate science with the hidden wisdom of religion to create a unified whole.
Your approach to prayer should be scientific, a practical application of the laws of God under inspiration, faith and soul devotion. In this, you ascend, and become the Light. Time and space collapse as you ascend in consciousness, and God consciousness moves forth as perfection. Lift the situation until Light permeates that portion of the world you are upholding. You do not remember the world. You hold the person or situation in Light until he or it becomes that Light.
Divine Mind inspires the relative mind of man. Love is substance from which all creation is formed. Devotion is the power of the living soul. Stand in the Light where you are. Ascend in consciousness with eyes that see and ears that hear, and you will see spiritually when you reach God consciousness. Light is Wisdom as inspiration, Love as faith, and energy as devotion. Hold this trinity high, and in becoming spiritualized, you see miracles as perfection.
Jesus taught us to express love, through which the Elect are taking the Power from evil. Those practicing chicanery, treachery, and deceit are falling of their own weight. People are rejecting false gods and the lies of propagandists, repudiating being compartmentalized or pigeonholed. Declare, “I repudiate, I ignore, I forget all things of the past except that which I am inspired to do or live by Jesus Christ. I stand in the Light.”
Ascend in the Light. You can visualize, and lift everyone on your prayer list in an instant, as you go about your daily business. When people try to educate you through repetition of endless opinions, take that time to ascend and see them in Light. Praise the Light for going forth and creating. You are becoming the creator gods that God meant you to be as you follow the Light, reaching up in the Light every minute. Worship the Light, and when you see the Master, you will be one with all that is new illumination—Light.
The Religion of Jesus
Edna Lister outline, October 22, 1967, Cleveland, OH, Matthew 5:14-16, 6:22-23
“Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”–Matthew 5:14-16.
“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.
Under the category of what we call the religion of hidden wisdom, lies a vast realm of the unknown, according to the average intelligence. Yet aways, a source of information seeps through the illusion, from the jungle drum of the witch doctor to the highest type of intellectual philosophy. From fear of it to ridicule, the Source of All Light entices us.
In Jesus’ time, many intellectually dogmatic creeds prevailed, based on opinions and prejudices, resulting in a wide variety of religious cults. In Judaism, the old Mosaic law of “an eye for an eye” had permitted revenge to enter into judgment, which keeps the soul bound to earth.
Occult work is ancient, containing the mysteries of religion. The term occult means “secret, hidden, concealed, mysterious; beyond human reasoning, not understandable by the finite mind.” All schools of occult work teach as fact that in antiquity, darkness had closed the Gates of Light. For hundreds of years, only the Egyptian astrologists were able to penetrate beyond the outer practical reality.
Then came Jesus, a man of the people, who dared to talk about the world beyond. He spoke of spiritual seeing and hearing. He insisted that he came to fulfill the law, not to destroy it. Jesus insisted on love as the basis for religion, where bigotry had been the rule. He preached to the poor, telling them the kingdom of heaven was open to all souls because the Father had given it to them. If no one needed to make sacrifices or pay tribute to the Temple, the priests feared he was undermining their work and income.
The Beatitudes begin Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which contains the law as based on love. He outlined God as personality and principle, with love and obedience to law as outstanding features. Jesus taught a message that no prophet, teacher or messiah had ever touched before him and which no one ever completely achieved after, elevating our relationship with God as our Father into a sublime experience. In three and half years of constant teaching, he outlined a new view of religion that has lasted, and proven itself repeatedly, despite persecution, ridicule and being forbidden. It is immortal and shall live forever.
Jesus treated first things first. His religion is a magnificent ensample of intimacy with God, personal and all-embracing, with God as our tender, understanding Father. For example: “What man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?”–Matthew 7:9-11.
Jesus’ faith was not some intellectual reflection, or a mystical meditation, but faith with works. It takes more than intellectual belief in principle, but complete faith in principle can give the religion of Jesus to everyone. He taught a relationship with God that was unfaltering and unwavering because it crowned faith with an identity with the Source and an unshakable faith and devotion to that Source. With his own identity in the Father, he could not be moved. It gave him a sublime knowing, confidence, serenity, peace, and tranquility of soul, which came from this God-focused identity. God was a living reality to him. He found all values in the invisible kingdom of heaven.
“Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”–Matthew 6:33. You must seek the kingdom first. You find the Light of God by looking up, but only evil and darkness when you look down. To make wise decisions, ask, “What will this choice do to me? How will it affect those around me?” Most people are forever finding themselves backing into someone else’s barbed-wire fence. Everyone has a sticking point of soul where they begin to defend themselves, and to push beyond this barrier is to find a knife of cutting sarcasm, for example.
Six creative laws govern the ascending soul and correspond to the Beatitudes: I accept everything as a gift of God. I surrender self. I give of soul. I seek God in all things. I forgive as I would be forgiven. I create good as I am good. “I accept everything as a gift of God” relates to “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”–Matthew 5:3. Blessed are the poor in self who can give up self and surrender.
“I surrender self” relates to “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.”–Matthew 5:4. Blessed are they that mourn but surrender self to God’s Power, knowing that in the overall picture every soul has many lessons to learn on earth. Let go of the past and surrender self.
“I give of soul” relates to “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”–Matthew 5:5. I give without wondering how it will affect me. If you step beyond someone’s defense mechanism you will get hurt. Let there be light. This is your sheath.
“I seek God in all things” relates to “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.”–Matthew 5:6. I forever seek first the kingdom of God.
“I forgive as I would be forgiven” relates to “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”–Matthew 5:7. I fill the other fellow’s aura with Light. Then keep on filling it. As the Light inflates his aura, it absorbs his darkness. I create good as I am good” relates to “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”–Matthew 5:8. I create for you and for others that good which I desire for myself.
Jesus’ faith was his spirit and anchorage. Free, undaunted in face of the world’s greatest defeat, an ignominious death left him undaunted. His sublime faith was unconquerable.
The Religion of Jesus
Edna Lister transcript, Elizabeth Barnes, Ruth Johnson, Irene White, Virginia Whitehead, scribes, October 22, 1967, Cleveland, OH, Matthew 5:14-16, 6:22-23
Religion is defined as a “human recognition of superhuman controlling Power, especially of a personal God, who is entitled to obedience.” The dictionary also defines religion as “the quest for the values of the ideal life, involving three phases, the ideology, practicality and theology or world view.”
The record of a man’s conduct through life is a picture of his religion, pure or otherwise. The soul of man is always searching for an identity with something greater than self. Yet seminaries today train ministers in intellectualism, stripping divinity of its divine nature and personality. Matthew 5, the longest chapter in the New Testament, repeatedly says that Jesus and God the Father are one, thus revealing our identity with the Father of personality.
How can you know the truth? How can you receive the answer to your prayers? So many sources tell you to meditate on God’s Word, yet when you meditate, you lower your vibration. You must ascend in consciousness instead, seeking God in an exaltation of soul in the Light. When you pray, hold in mind the truth that you cannot educate God. He already knows what you need, so you need not tell Him in a detailed list. You receive the answer to prayer in the same way that you learn to know the truth. When you ascend in consciousness, you let Light do the healing. Declare, “Let me become an instrument of Thy Light, Father, and be used as a step-down transformer of Thy Power.” Your Guards always stand ready to receive and release the Power according to your declarations. Hold the person in need in the Light on a cloud continent of Light, and remain in the silence yourself. This way, Light moves forth as perfection. Under inspired faith and devotion, everything operates properly under God’s emanations of Wisdom, Love and the Word.
Theology is supposed to provide an attitude for life through inspiration, faith, and devotion, which are the three freedoms of religion that Jesus teaches us to express. Religion’s role is also to teach us the right soul attributes and qualities. Your faith is your expression of the love of God, your devotion to Him, and your worship of what you find Him to be. All souls are destined to become the Light. “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”–Matthew 5:14-16. You are the light of the world.
The world itself operates along two lines—that which is known, and that which is unknown. Today, the unknown is so quickly becoming the known that keeping up with it is difficult. Cross-vibrations that did not exist twenty years ago now come from every direction as radio waves and television transmissions [and now, from computers, monitors, microwaves, and cellphones]. Thought radiates from each person as the signals from a broadcasting station, and circles earth five times to permeate and penetrate everything. Nothing can shield against these vibrations. They have tried to block them out but the vibrations go right through nearly every barrier. This is the world you face each morning.
You are a receiving set automatically tuned to receive every vibration every day, unless you have anchored your identity in God, and believe in the auric sphere of His Light around you. By breathing deeply, you can keep your aura filled with condensed Light for protection to surround and penetrate you, forming an expanding magnetic wall on its periphery. However, nothing can prevent the world vibration from impinging on it. Unless you reach up, raise your hands for the Power of God to fill your aura, everyone’s thoughts may bedevil you. Invoke the Light and fill your aura as a protective sheath. Enough Light absorbs any and all darkness. Wherever you go, the Light of your aura moves through dark auras and lightens them.
When you follow the religion of Jesus, you are protected. “A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.”–Psalm 91:7. You will remain untouched. Whatever darkness touches your aura then is changed into light. Jesus taught all this as the hidden wisdom of religion, which has been on earth from the beginning, before his advent as Christ. Teachers and small groups have always safeguarded the hidden wisdom, keeping the Light alive. The term “occult” has become associated with black magic, which is unfortunate because many of the mysteries of truth are occult in nature. Occult really means “supernatural, mystical beliefs, practices, or phenomena; beyond the range of ordinary knowledge or experience; mysterious: communicated only to the initiated; esoteric, hidden.”
The Elect are constantly being intiated into the occult mysteries of Jesus Christ, to love God more each day, to forgive all offenses by loving God enough. As initiates, the Elect must change darkness to Light wherever they go. As an embodied soul, you must also open the darkness of other lives to the Light, for cleansing. Is your soul record white as snow, or is it splotched? What have you cleaned up behind yourself? Has it been enough? Every doubt or question about world conditions creates a splotch. Send forth the pure Spirit to cleanse darkness and turn it into Light. No matter what is happening, send forth Light. Say, “Let there be Light,” as you go through the day, creating room for Light in each person you contact or lift in prayer.
When Jesus came, evil was so rampant in the world that something had to be done to lighten it. The same wrecking crew devoted to darkness who were working then are working to bring chaos again. They have destroyed ancient civilizations and plan to do so again, but the descended Elect have moved into place to prevent them. The prayers of the Elect have shortened time for the fulfillment of the Plan of Salvation. The millions who pray are greater than those the fools and nitwits who stand around doing nothing, or the few who are devoted to evil. You must keep all your vital and creative centers open from within to pray and release Power effectively. Your prayers part the veils of illusion and open the Gates of Light.
The Power that Jesus released with his sacrifice of Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and his Ascension has lasted two thousand years and is still saving us now. Jesus came to earth as one of us. He is from the lineage of David, another descended creator god who was also born in a humble place. When Jesus began to preach, he told the common people that he was one with God and that they could be also. He told them, “Go to your Father for all your needs.” He did not need any priestly bell, book or candle,
Jesus organized a new approach to religion, a method of personally identifying with God that will never die. His approach is based on the fact he identified himself with his Father, God. He preached God as love, a loving Father of all His children, the sons and daughters of God. In his opening statement, the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus preached a life of atonement, at-one-ment with God that left no loophole for self. His religion epitomized every tenet and virtue he preached during his 3.5-year ministry, as did the life he lived. He was a living ensample of the words he uttered.
Jesus taught surrender of the influence of the self to rulership of the soul, and to “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”–Matthew 6:33. With the laws that he taught, Jesus gives us a tranquility of spirit that pushes through life’s petty cares and holds fast to the truth of God’s love. He was intimate with his Father, yet impersonal, opening the way for all souls to follow him. The Power Jesus spoke about and released then is the same Power moving through today, multiplied unimaginably. This is the same Power you invoke when you open your eyes in the morning to the Light and substance of God. All night long the floating force in the world dies down, so all you need to do is to raise your hands and effortlessly press the Light switch while proclaiming, “Let there be Light!”
Jesus, crowned with tranquility, taught Light—“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.
Your eyes are the windows of your soul. The light of your eyes tells those around you what vibration you are carrying with you as you walk among them. What stage do you occupy? Leave the horse-and-buggy stage for the jet age of Power’s release. If your eye is single, focuses on God, your whole body shall be full of Light. Use no idle words—they lower the vibration of Light that shows through your eyes. The Light is that life substance in you.
How far is it from self to soul? “If the light that is in thee is darkness how great is that darkness?”–Matthew 6:23. Every idle word douses the vibration of Light in the body. Jesus taught that the Light that moves through you is not you, but is that substance which is life to you. You can use all you can hold or give to others. Jesus taught God as both principle (Wisdom, Love, and the Logos) and personality (the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). He taught us to obey principle, to love and worship personality, and to know that God is your all-understanding Father. I am profoundly grateful that I have a Father whom I can love without reservation, in all trust and confidence. These are the tenets of Jesus’ religion. You can work all this out in the first six Beatitudes.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”–Matthew 5:3. Blessed are the poor in self who can surrender and give up self to become the instrument of God’s desire and will for them. If you are pure in spirit, you are not haughty in self.
“Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.”–Matthew 5:4. Blessed are those who surrender selfish will to the power of God, knowing that they have many lessons to learn on earth. Your need for help mentally touches your Father, who fills your aura, glands, and creative centers with Light. Your answer will come, but you can go to God only by having completely surrendered the past.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”–Matthew 5:5. I give; I do not sit and wonder how a situation or person will affect me. The higher you go in Light, the more you force your loved one into it, whether he is ready or not. If you step beyond his defense mechanism, he will lash you. Declare, “Let there be Light,” to fill his aura and your own. When enough Light fills the aura, it expands and condenses into a great wall of protection.
“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.”–Matthew 5:6. To hunger and thirst means to seek. Declare, “I seek the Light.” In finding Light, you have found everything you need.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”–Matthew 5:7. To be merciful is to forgive. Declare, “I forgive. I give love.” Fill the other fellow’s aura with the condensed Light of the living God. Keep filling his aura. As the Light fills his aura, it destroys the darkness.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”–Matthew 5:8. Blessed are the pure in heart, mind, purpose. I create in others that which I desire for myself.
What made Jesus stand out and be so different? He was the only one who proved his religion by becoming the faith of his religion. He was indifferent to pain and scorn. Jesus became the religion he taught, but proved the faith of God as the Father, obedience to principle, and that faith becomes unconquerable. Through Jesus Christ, you know a glory of soul and confidence.
The Future of Religion
Edna Lister outline, October 29, 1967, Cleveland, OH, Daniel 2:37-44, Colossians 1:10-18
“Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.”–Daniel 2:37-44.
“That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.”–Colossians 1:10-18.
Daniel dreamed of four kingdoms, of gold, silver, brass, and iron and clay. Nebuchadnezzar was a son of a begotten creator god. He possessed every soul faculty and spiritual gift given of God.
The First Kingdom of Gold: “And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.”–Genesis 11:1-9.
The first kingdom was of gold: “Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.”–Daniel 2:37-38. The second kingdom was of silver: “And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee.”–Daniel 2:39. The second kingdom was of silver in the breast and arms. The third kingdom was of brass: “And another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.”–Daniel 2:39. The third kingdom was of brass in the belly and thighs.
The fourth kingdom was of iron and clay: “And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.”–Daniel 2:40-44. The fourth kingdom was legs and feet of iron and clay. Today we are finishing last phase of the iron mixed with clay, for communism is crushing the toes. The last phase of this fourth kingdom shall be iron with no clay, stronger than all kingdoms before it. During all this time, the head of gold has continued ruling underneath the surface, behind the scenes. For God has established everything below, and nothing can exist without Him.
“That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.”–Colossians 1:10-18.
This passage from the Letter to the Colossians, the first chapter, tells us what fourth kingdom is. The whole New Testament is a living vital recital of our future in the fourth kingdom.
You are now in your future kingdom: “Walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing” means to make yourself good, and the other fellow happy. Walk as royalty, and walk tall. Old age accompanies sagging knees. Stretch yourself, body, mind and soul. You cannot afford to think low thoughts and still be delivered from self.
You can appropriate only from three principles, Mind, Substance and Power. By nature, life is ebbing and flowing, receding from vitality to rest. Will you allow your vibration to slow? Death is no vibration. Life is an accelerated vibration. You can contact the Source, which is the image of the invisible God. What God has created, He can recreate. You are the Word made flesh, and visible. Your red blood carries the energy that God created to animate and vitalize your physical body, made by Him, for Him and for your future use.
How great is your vision, your ecstasy of soul, your rapture of love, your triumph over darkness, your creations, your future now? Stop dragging your past into your future. You are living in your hereafter now. The difficulty lies in trying to live the past, present, and future in this hour. You cannot do that.
The Future of Religion
Edna Lister transcript, Elizabeth Barnes, Ruth Johnson, Lotus Landis, Irene White, scribes, October 29, 1967, Cleveland, Ohio, Daniel <2:37> Colossians 1:10-18
“Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.”–Daniel 2:37-44.
“That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.”–Colossians 1:10-18.
Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, was a man of God. He had conquered the Hebrews in Jerusalem and brought certain of them to Babylon in the land of Shinar. In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed troublesome dreams that his own Chaldean astrologers, magicians, sorcerers could not interpret. Daniel was brought before the king to interpret the dream. He told the king that Nebuchadnezzar was the head of gold on the image. Daniel told the king he had founded a dynasty of God. The head of gold represented the golden bowl where a soul’s essence is concentrated. You may declare, “My kingdom is the golden bowl.”
The breast and arms of silver represented the first king to follow Nebuchadnezzar, and who was to reach out and conquer the known world. The second empire to follow Nebuchadnezzar was represented by the belly and thighs of brass. The belly is a vulnerable area and the thighs uphold a strong kingdom. The belly of brass probably represented the kingdom of the Ottoman Turks.
The British Empire, represented by the legs of iron, was the third empire to follow the Babylonians. They legged it [walked] all over the world and protected all they got. The present British Empire, represented by the feet of clay mixed with iron, is the fourth empire. Iron and clay cannot mix, but create great weakness and only some strength. The British Empire could not hold together, but lost the colonies.
Behind all this was the great Empire of God and Jesus Christ. Christ was the stone that was cut without hands that smote the feet of the image and broke it into pieces. This foundation stone of the Empire of God then became a mountain, filling the earth. The Scripture states that the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. This represents the White Dynasty.
You are living in the future today, living in the hereafter. You are living in your own future right now. Difficulty comes because the world’s teeming millions are trying to live in the old kingdoms. Living in an old way is merely existence, not being alive, much less alert and aware. No one can live in the past, present and future unless they reach out and gather in all the scattered parts of themselves. You cannot think low thoughts if you stand ten feet tall, reaching for the Light. Live in the now.
You are now living in the invisible Empire of the Christed Dynasty, headed by Jesus Christ. How can you know that and still fear the world’s negativity, criticism or blame? God has worked out His plans, and our task is to execute His will of universal love, not for us to delay them. Jesus Christ is Emperor of heaven and earth, and he walks earth daily.
Do you put 100 percent of yourself into each moment? If you do, you “walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing.” Listen only to the Father and let His Light move through you, cleansing, purifying, and compensating all your sacrifices of self. You can be translated, delivered from the darkness of the little self. The prayers of the Elect have shortened time. The seven veils of illusion are now parted, and the Power is coming through.
God knows what He is doing. You can touch someone else with the finger of God for healing. Declare, “You are now cleansed and purged of anything negative that might hurt you.” When you receive a compliment, lift it instantly so that you do not hang onto another’s coattails. If you reach for the stars and stand ten feet tall, you can and will conquer.
Call down Power on the evil ones, one at a time, to purge them of evil. Put a mirror in front of an evildoer, to let him see himself. Declare, “You stand before this mirror and are purged.” Light will render his tongue unable to speak curses or lies, and he will forget his dark plans. Hold him before this mirror to hasten the process of him seeing himself one day as he really is. Let the finger of God touch him. Let the Power of God go through him to heal him. Every word you utter is a bullet of Light. Say, “You are purged from all evil” with the force of a bullet.
“And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: for as much as iron breaks in pieces and subdues all things: and as iron that breaks all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.”–Daniel 2:40. Jesus Christ is that fourth Kingdom of iron. Let them be purged of all evil. Let the Light move in softly for their healing. To lift yourself, stand before a mirror and see yourself objectively. Put on a face that will be pleasing to God and will lift the world.
“Iron breaks in pieces and subdues all things: and as iron that breaks all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.”–Daniel 2:40. Reach out all over the world using a crane with a wrecking ball to crack evil’s shell to break it up, like demolishing a building. Let the Light in and use a wrecking ball on all governments, committees, or groups which are concocting darkness.
When Jesus came and submitted to be crucified, he lifted the stone that cracked the feet and toes of darkness. Jesus the Christ is the real fourth great kingdom. God has not created one life spark that cannot be returned to the Light. Do not let anyone on your lines of Light dangle in danger of falling, but keep them lifted onto a cloud continent of Light. The golden bowl is your future. What are you making of your future?
Religion and the World
Edna Lister outline, November 5, 1967, Cleveland, OH. Matthew 4:1-11, Matthew 10:34.
“Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.”–Matthew 4:1-11.
“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.”–Matthew 10:34.
“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.”–John 1:1-3. A world was formed in the beginning. God used Mind to gather and concentrate Substance until the Word exploded and Creation opened.
The Word was a planned, controlled explosion. The Word was God in action as Mind. The Word was a rhythmic pulsation filling all universes, which yet remained void, having no form as we know it. The Word, acting as Mind on Substance, began to build up enough condensed Power to last a whole Day of Manifestation. God created first a place, space. Then He filled it with principle and personality.
From principle and personality came the second great action, time. This was all created in Mind, which contained the whole plan for all universes. It was then and still is an unchangeable, unalterable and perfect Magna Carta containing the beginning, the middle, and the end. The whole plan impregnated every infinitesimal life spark, which has carried out the divine plan ever since. Thus, the Magna Carta was formed in Mind, of Substance by Power, and is still operating through the All That Is.
God’s ability to stand behind the scenes and to know the end from the beginning has grown greater, not less. God is greater than all the atheists, greater than the millions of brainwashed agnostics, who degrade Jesus the Christ to a mere man. No deviations, no denials of or delays, nothing man can do can change one Word of God’s Universal Magna Carta. All deviations from and denials of notwithstanding, God’s Magna Carta shall be fulfilled.
Do you believe this? Do you believe in a great eternal everlasting God who knows where we are all going and what the end must be? Think! From nine digits and the twenty-six letters of the alphabet come all our computations and communications. If the Magna Carta contained the Wisdom for this, it contains all the principles as laws that are needed to bring us home.
Moses put this Magna Carta into form through the words of the Ten Commandments, and all creation now depends on our obedience to law. From the creature to the creator, all must obey law. Obedience is the keynote, from instinct to conscious intelligence, with its millions of confirming experiences. Moses’ Ten Commandments operate on three levels, the physical, the mental-emotional, and the spiritual. True obedience is never to demand, expects or even to ask another, but to command the self. How great is your obedience?
Jesus came and brought the three temptations in the wilderness of self on Substance, Mind and Power: “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”–Matthew 4:1-4. The first temptation was to turn stones into bread. You may not demand from others, but let love win. “Let the windows of heaven open for a miracle.” Your faith must work to earn a miracle, and you must give to receive.
At the turn of the 20th Century, one Methodist-Episcopalian minister, Dr. Thomas Parker Boyd, was on salary but his parish was unable to pay him. He and his family were near starving. He knelt and prayed and thanked God for the abundance of food on their table, which was empty. A knock came at the door. God had told one farmer to gather everything his family could spare, and visit. He had brought enough for three months. Through this, Dr. Boyd learned the importance of obedience to law and to praise God for whatever you need.
“Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”–Matthew 4:5-7. The second temptation fulfills law on the mentaland emotional levels. The test is on the misuse of Mind. You have no need to prove yourself before men, but to let your Light so shine. When you hold no fear or doubt, you can easily stand on principle and hold fast to God. You can face any challenge of darkness through obedience to God.
“Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.”–Matthew 4:8-11. The third temptation is all about the misuse of Power, triggered by pride and worship of self. Pride is the worst of false gods, and makes you merely a show-off. Rather than taking the easy way, or claiming that the end justifies the means, you must practice obedience to law as the servant of all Power.
You bring these temptations down on your own head by failing to pay your soul debts on time, and by always being ready to make amends. In fact, the greatest debts you owe from the past fall due at the highest point of your soul rapture and ecstasy. The
God does not send you a telegram saying the force is on its way. It arrives like a thief in the night. When you pray and praise, you expand your aura of lights and colors with greater Light, which protects you with rays of repulsion against darkness. “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.”–Matthew 10:34. Peace is a state of consciousness both fearless and divine, not “easy on, easy off.” Hold aloft your sword of peace. Peace, an active creative peace, is a sword of truth that cuts your debts down to manageable size for you to lift.
Religion and the World
Edna Lister transcript, Elizabeth Barnes, Ruth Johnson, scribes, November 5, 1967, Cleveland, OH, Matthew 4:1-11, 10:34
“Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.”–Matthew 4:1-11.
“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.”–Matthew 10:34.
In the beginning, the Word was formed. God used Mind to breathe and condense universal substance. After a certain period of breathing, He spoke the Word, the substance exploded and filled the universes. The Word was God in action as Mind. The Word was filled with condensed and glowing substance that went forth according to plan.
The Word named a vibration, “Let there be Light.” At first it was a pulsing vibration, then it became rhythmically wave-like and began to prepare a place of creation within which to gestate. This took far longer than science knows. In the “seven days” of creation, events of such magnitude and condensation took place that it has expanded the universe light years farther than science can calculate.
The Word, which became space and was peopled by descended creator gods, was God’s Magna Carta. God’s Divine Plan is still there. Science is still trying to name these pulsations by which the Word moved forth and will return. If only the world could see this overall Plan, they would understand that God is bringing each one home. No atheist can change any part of it, not one life spark. Stand firm on this truth.
You came to earth with the Adamic civilization. The descended creators brought free will to earth. Every word is impregnated with the divine Magna Carta. All Wisdom, Love and Joy permeate everything. How could anyone think that God would permeate all with Himself and that He would not have restraint? Every life spark has the mark of obedience within it. Ministers who say they would take us back to God are teaching disobedience. Obedience to the divine will is nonresistance.
God has implanted two great compulsions within man’s soul: First, the divine urge to use Mind as will and second, the divine compulsion to be obedient to law. Moses brought the way to meet these two compulsions into outer form. He stressed obedience in the Ten Commandments, which had to be put into written form because man had sipped the cup of Lethe [the river of forgetfulness in Greek mythology]. The Elect have more or less obeyed them.
The Ten Commandments cover three phases of life: First, the physical, including restraint, do not kill, do not steal, etc. Second, the emotional-mental, including emotional jags. Every time you tell someone off you use your own soul substance in the words you speak. With every emotional jag, you thicken a veil of illusion. Opinions and prejudices do more harm to the body than doubt or fear. The subconscious depends on the permeating Spirit of God moving in at night to cleanse it and keep it healthy.
Finally, you must conquer on the spiritual phase. The Ten Commandments show that obedience to law complements free will. This was enough to suit the world for thousands of years. Then came Jesus. The first tests he met were the three temptations in the wilderness.
You have heard, God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.–Galatians 6:7. Every negative expression builds and adds to spiritual debt. How many times in the past month have you had a negative thought?—including calling yourself names, etc. Each night, did you fill the holes you kicked in your prayer molds to hold divine substance?
The Word explodes from your lips and permeates and penetrates into the home of the person you talk about. To avoid building more soul debts, you must know and declare that God’s Light has surrounded, covered, and absorbed your negative words. Know this and review all the negative words and thoughts since your birth. War grows from the negative vibration of words.
Jesus faced and conquered three temptations on the physical, emotional-mental and spiritual levels. These match the Ten Commandments and accompany them, covering obedience, correct will, and freedom of choice. The Ten Commandments teach you how to obey. The three temptations show you how to meet physical laws and what to do about them.
The Magna Carta contains the plan based on God’s know-how on the descent, our stay here, and in drawing us home. In everything from rocks to plants to creatures to creators, the compulsion is to obey law. Even Nature obeys the seasons. Both a Divine Plan and a personal plan exist to bring forth your potentials. God planned that we expand upward, not downward.
How often have you made vows, only to disobey? At a certain point, always a climactic time in life, you meet the three temptations. In the church they call it conversion, implying a change in mind and course of action. Under that rebirth, all past lives in which you disobeyed (and there could be many) come up for cleansing. So, everyone has a mess to clean up before going home.
When you plan ahead to reach higher goals, you store up the power as energy that you’ll need to accomplish them. If you reach a day when you have no strength, it means you have depleted your substance and forgotten to store power by daily prayer. Prayer today furnishes power for tomorrow.
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You have the ability to send forth good, but if you allow your zeal to fade, your aura becomes dim. If you did not have the Light, and your lamp trimmed and burning as the five wise virgins, then you might receive a blow of returning force and wonder why. This only happens if you have not stored up energy to carry you through today’s needs. So, God must add extra energy from the store of soul substance you have lifted and ascended, to take you home.
The whole process of obeying law is threefold: Stand and declare, “God is all that is. This is good. Let there be Light.” This declaration consumes negativity. Jesus said, “I came not to bring peace, but a sword.” His sword is the Light and Power of the Word. When you say, “Let there be Light,” it separates the darkness from the Light in your life. Christ’s is the sword of love, truth and obedience to the Magna Carta of God. You do not earn credits through just prayer or by wanting something. The only way to peace is through using the sword of obedience on self, and conquering self.
Every life spark has the whole Magna Carta of the divine plan. The golden bowl contains the magnificent equipment of the computer Mind of God, ready to become your personal Magna Carta for life. God has sent us forth with free will and the knowledge of how to use it to gain experience. Obedience to His law takes us home. This is the world of religion on the Via Christa.
The Great Modern Problem
Edna Lister outline, November 12, 1967, Cleveland, OH. Matthew 24:1-7, 24:21-27.
“Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.”–Matthew 24:1-7.
“For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: Behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”–Matthew 24:21-27.
Two thousand years ago, opinion and the prejudice of hatred crucified Christ. The sign on the cross above his head was inscribed in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and read, “This is Jesus: King of the Jews.” The message was significant on three levels of consciousness: at the intellectual level in Greek, at the governmental or civil level in Latin, and at the religious level in Hebrew. The sign itself was a proclamation, registered at the Source, and it has been fulfilled. Today, the so-called meek meet by the thousands in temples, churches, and halls, before altars, under tents, testifying to the durability of the Christed religion.
Protestant sects number more than 250, some growing, some declining, some emerging, some teaching division, others teaching disobedience. Some are evangelistic, preaching the Gospel of Jesus. Some are liberal, and some have degenerated to a merely social base. Many remain traditional, bound to creed and dogma, but all are in doubt about some aspect of their professed faith. Most agnostics revolt against church dogma, not against God or Jesus. Despite all this, religion remains the greatest, most universal topic today.
The Christ of today has little or no relation to the Christ prophesied by Isaiah, or portrayed by Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. The idea of Christ, in the modern world has dwindled to crucifixes, small statues and crosses stuck in dark corners, lighted only on Sunday. This ineffective and puerile Christ makes no lasting impression on the youth or adults. The materialistic age justifies self by denying Jesus divinity or deity.
Without tradition, people are left with nothing to follow, nothing to live up to, no code ethics or standard of right action. Today we stand on the brink of change in three areas: Spiritual enlightenment, social readjustments, and a moral quickening. A universal living Christ now disturbs the whole world. The Elect are carrying and some even swinging the sword of peace, which is meant solely for defense, never aggressive, but always determined and immoveable. Unfortunately, the undisciplined and violent are slashing right and left, using the sword of defense for offense.
Spiritual enlightenment is gripping atheistic Communist Russia today. Trustworthy messages begin to come from her. After the political purges, they destroyed the churches, and forbid all religious ceremonies and sacraments, such as christenings and marriages. They placed civil departments in charge of all aspects of life.
Today, more people are quietly worshiping God as deity than ever before, together with Jesus the Christ, the first and only Begotten Son. Everywhere, people are beginning to defy civil authority over their religious life, and a few priests and ministers quietly christen, marry and bury them. Christian missionaries provide 85 percent of the education south of the Sahara Desert in Africa. Despite the purging and propaganda, atheistic Communism cannot stamp out the deity of Jesus the Christ, or reduce him to a mere man or legend. World prayer continues and grows unabated. Some trained ministers may have curdled and turned sour on prayer, yet the Elect praise God in prayer and know the truth.
“Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilence, and earthquakes, in divers places.”–Matthew 24:4-7.
“As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”–Matthew 24:27. These verses describe social readjustments. The Elect have prayed, and lightning shall come from the east. Jesus survived the dark ages, and is now surviving the gray ages before a new dawn. Our new leaders must be fearless, and our new ministers brave. A religion about Jesus is not good enough. Jesus as a deity to follow, to become like unto is adequate.
A moral quickening shows that honor above all is exerting its influence on the souls of humanity. Man must ascend in consciousness from the “stew” of lowered ideals, moral standards and world-tainted ethics. Making religion nothing but a social practice assures the peoples’ disillusionment and disappointment. Yet you can use the propaganda, the lies that have denuded deity, as an escalator to lift you into high Light. When we apply all the modern coordination we use in computers and machines to the way we teach religion, we will have one God, one Christ of Deity, in all, through all, as all. We will have God as all, not God and lies, God and false gods.
A strong conviction compels man to go the first mile. Service, liberty and freedom take him through the second mile. Delight in God sends him through the third mile with wings on his feet. Once you have earned your soul wings, the “human” (physical) part of your being is gradually consumed as you praise God. Thus you find Jesus the Christ modernized to fit every need, unsullied, transcendent above all earth.
Threatened Christianity is now raising its head and shoulders above all the sniveling, groveling escapists and false prophets. The Elect are draining pagan swamps and barbarian morasses. Expectant faith opens hope’s doors for humanity, and leaves rationalizing man behind as an empty shell. The Christianity of tradition, the Jesus Christ as deity stands tall, strong and solid, above, below, around, and within, lighting the way home. Thus, the world’s modern problem is your personal glory.
The Great Modern Problem
Edna Lister transcript, Elizabeth Barnes, Ruth Johnson, and Irene White, scribes, November 12, 1967, Cleveland, OH, Matthew 24:1-7, 24:21-27
“Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.”–Matthew 24:1-7.
“For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: Behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”–Matthew 24:21-27.
Hatred of the truth crucified Jesus 2,000 years ago. On the cross, over his head, Pilate had posted a sign printed in three languages: Greek, signifying the world of culture, Latin, for the material world, and Hebrew, which represents religion. “This is the King of the Jews,” it read. No matter what the Sanhedrin thought about Jesus, Pilate had termed him “king” correctly, for he was king of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Ten tribes had been lost since the Diaspora in 585 BC Only Benjamin and Judah remained. When they left Assyria, they intermingled with nomadic desert tribes. In that mixture, they returned to Jerusalem and were called Jews. So then, “Jews” meant the twelve tribes. This sign, “King of the Jews,” opened the Christian epoch, and named Jesus king. A new opening vibration always inaugurates a thousand-year epoch. The vibration that Pilate started now covers the earth. The Christian religion has spread all over the world, with the Roman, Greek and Russian Catholic churches, and 250 different Protestant sects. Each is part of the whole. Some are always growing, declining, or emerging.
Many are teaching disobedience, a social liberation theology, and the old heavy traditional views, which are unattractive, ineffective, and puerile, with no “come hither” enticement to soul greatness. These are the churches today. Critics say that the revolt of agnostics is not really against God or Christ, but against the church and its dogma. They are denuding Jesus of divinity and have left the world no heroic standard to live up to. Too many are becoming empty shells.
Paul Tillich has said that if they burned all religious books and killed off the religions, we would build it all back within in one hundred years. We are doing our part to reestablish Jesus’ deity. We face something marvelously unlimited in the declaration, “Ye are gods.” You do not yet know or understand the scope of your potential.
Under this coming vibration, we shall see a new spiritual enlightenment, a new social adjustment, a new moral quickening. Morality means to live by honor toward man and God, with loyalty to God. Your integrity reflects the soundness of your relationship with God. You cannot afford to set honor aside. The vibration is lowered under today’s liberal social life. Jesus as “a good man” is nothing much. You must have more than mediocrity to live up to as a standard of conduct. When hope is being buried, a mess results.
Under spiritual enlightenment, the ranks of Christ are picking up the sword of peace. This is not a squinting pacifism that says Jesus was “just a good man,” but is a sword of soul defense. Declare, “I believe in the divinity of Jesus the Christ. I know that he is divine.” This is your sword of peace. To stand up and declare that Jesus is part of Deity is a necessity. If you permit the world to strip him of divinity, people can do as they please. You can, by lifting up the sword of peace, release the Power to conquer this darkness.
“For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”–Matthew 24:27. A universal living Christ now disturbs the world. Those who have taken up the sword are cutting aside doubts, opinions and prejudice. Not many years ago there were no radios, televisions, airplanes, or spaceships. Power now comes through the walls. Social justice comes from living in the Christ Light, not through legislation. Morality is living in and through the Christ, which will satisfy every earthly requirement.
Throughout the twelve tribes, scientists and philosophers are and will declare the one God. They are following a star: One God in all, as all, and through all for the world. Do you have God and money, government and business, or do you have God as all these things? Each soul is a son or daughter of the living God. Raise your voice in the wilderness speaking words that declare that Jesus the Christ is returning with an explosion of Light and glory. Religion is following Jesus Christ as deity, as someone to become the breadth, depth, height and length of the Power of God.
This is the Second Coming. Declare this with the love of God for God as all Creation. The Light of God can permeate and penetrate any barrier erected against Him. Stand free and glorious before the throne of God.
Creating Divine Security
Edna Lister outline, November 19, 1967, Cleveland, OH. 1 John 3:1-4, 5:1-12.
“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.”–1 John 3:1-4.
“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 Ghost: 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. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”–1 John 5:1-12.
The Crucifixion was finished. Jesus had appeared to the disciples many times. Peter’s first public appeal was preaching in the upper chamber, at the first Pentecost. This one talk determined the results of that meeting. It decided future policies and determined the plans for the majority of the apostles in their effort to proclaim the Gospel of the new “kingdom of heaven.” Peter really founded the Church that day. He carried the message to the Gentiles. The Greek believers carried it to the whole Roman Empire.
The priest-ridden Hebrews, as a people, refused to accept either Jesus’ Gospel of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, or Peter’s teachings proclaiming the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ. The Roman Empire was receptive to Christ’s teachings because they believed in Jupiter, the greatest and best Father. The whole of Western civilization then was war-weary and intellectually skeptical of all existing religions. The Greek culture expressed the tradition of its great past, including a celestial Father and Mother. They could contemplate their inheritance of accomplishments in philosophy and art with political progress. However, they had evolved no soul-satisfying religion.
Jesus had set the stage and now the disciples’ fiery proclamations set their devotion aflame, and filled their hungry hearts with the new order of living. Immediate conflict arose between the older and the newer religious practices. This meant victory for the old or the new, or compromises. History shows how the struggle between old and new has always ended in a compromise.
Christianity is too complex to absorb in one generation. It was not merely a new religion, but is more than ever a whole new order of life, of human society. Christianity has struck at every block in art, science, etc., as the Pauline version of Christianity came into expression. We owe the Nicene Creed to the Greek Bishop Athanasius. His persuasion against the arguments of Arius gave us an immanent God instead of an eminent God.
Under the shadow of the Acropolis, the Roman Paul proclaimed to the Greeks his version of the new religion from the Jewish province of Judea and the Galilee. He intimated that the Greeks and Christians had one common goal, the growth of the individual, mentally and spiritually, morally and ethically. We call this the Pauline ministry. Later, its keynote evolved into love. Today, the only security we have is to love enough.
“Behold! What manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us.”–1 John 3:1. The knowledge of man’s divine, eternal destiny shines through all the dismembered, segregated, isolated analyses, which are both misleading and confusing.
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.”–1 John 3:2-4. Sin is disobedience to law. Man must keep His commandments.
“He that overcometh the world, believeth Jesus, the Son of God.”–1 John 5:5. Three bear witness of the record in heaven, and three on earth. Why do we need witnesses? The world sees what it believes and believes what it sees. The three that bear record in heaven are the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. They comprise the first trinity to which we belong, and which is our security.
The Word is behind the action that brings your creations into being. The Holy Ghost provides the sustaining nourishment, but you must renew your relationship constantly. A record is given to each soul in heaven when it is begotten. The witness on earth records what you have done with your heritage.
The practical trinity encompasses Spirit, water, and blood. Spirit is the substance available for you to draw on as you accept and open vivid imagination, burning desire. The witness of water is soft, a state in which you wander around, unable to make a decision, but driven by your own emotions. In this state, people say, “That just took the heart out of me.” What did? “He just put me on a spot.” What spot? Do you have a spot or a code of life, ethics, morals, and firm integrity?
The witness of blood is your life stream, which your thinking and emotions may poison. Blood is the carrier of the Holy Ghost as energy, vital and quickening to your body. It gives you the heart to do, to stand anything the world brings and to conquer it. Faith rules the physical bloodstream. Your faith shows in your actions. Faith is also your outlet for love. Faith as the Son of God is unconquerable, radiant, brilliant, triumphant victorious. Look unconquerable before the world.
Creating Divine Security
Edna Lister transcript, Elizabeth Barnes, Ruth Johnson, Irene White, scribes, November 19, 1967, Cleveland, OH, 1 John 3:1-4, 5:1-12
“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.”–1 John 3:1-4.
“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 Ghost: 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. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”–1 John 5:1-12.
John’s Letters are expressions of the soul’s praise perfected. If you magnify God, it will spill into and enrich all your relationships. After the first shock of the Crucifixion and Resurrection, Jesus appeared to some disciples and apostles, then ascended. When the disciples and apostles all gathered in the upper chamber in Jerusalem, after the Ascension, they were still shocked. They had waited for him to save himself at the last moment, even Judas had. They never dreamed that he would not save himself.
Many had not seen Jesus after the Resurrection, so each who had must have told the story of his perfect experience with Jesus, what they had seen, what they had asked him and what his answers had been. They knew they had to carry on the work, so they made plans about their future procedure and how they would present his message to the world.
Peter made his first official speech to them, then they prayed. Their ears were open and they were listening. They were afire. The whole of Jesus’ ministry had prepared them for this great day, to preach the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. After he had sent them out and they returned, Jesus had asked his disciples what the people were saying. He asked whom they said he was. Only Peter answered rightly:
“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 16:16-19.
Peter’s Ascension Day speech was the real foundation, the opening of the church. Simon Peter was the first bishop of Christ’s church. The Lord called Paul later, on the road to Damascus. Peter remained the head of the early church in Judea. Paul went to the Greeks and preached the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ under the shadow of the Acropolis. The Greeks had grown in culture, art and political progress, but were religiously dissatisfied. Some among the Gentiles were set afire and in turn taught the tenets of the new religion throughout the Roman Empire. Paul and Peter never stopped teaching Jesus the Christ and the Fatherhood of God. From this emancipation the free man emerged.
Christianity is a code of living for humanity, designed to touch every department of life. The disciples integrated and synthesized what Jesus had taught them into the teachings of Christianity. Yet their analysis does not keep us from knowing our destiny as the sons and daughters of God.
“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 12:30-31. The word “love” gives us all security. Jesus emphasized that he came to establish brotherly love. You cannot love your brother unless you love yourself, first having established your identity with God. Your security is based in love. “Behold! What manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us.”–1 John 3:1. Those who call themselves names are insecure. How does love use you? If you use love, you’ll be an unholy mess. God created you for love to use as its creation. Oversoul is the love in you, yet you must know who Oversoul is to know who you are.
Your rational embodied soul uses your brain cells, and reaches up to use the Mind of God to control and lift the self. The creature soul’s task is to care for physical equipment, nothing more; it is the repairing soul part. If you love enough, Oversoul keeps up the repairs, using creature soul as its servant. You cannot run the physical body on last week’s breath. It becomes sour having been used repeatedly. You can smell the “wrong” vibration of those who are living on last year’s energy supply.
What degree of love do you live under today? Are you breathing the full love of God? How long does your love last when your worst favorite person walks into the room? How deep is your love? One tiny poke can scratch through the gold plating of some people’s love, exposing the base metal beneath.
What manner of love do you consider as your share of universal Power? Your choice of the degree of love you want to live by is in accordance with your belief in your identity with God. You have access to all potential Power. Do not talk about man’s potential, as the intellectuals do, for all the potentials are God’s.
God has given you the brain cells, nerves and glands to use as instruments in your golden bowl, and no man-made computer compares to it. The computer within the golden bowl would require an area the size of the Empire State building with the power of Niagara Falls. This potential wisdom of the Almighty is yours to express.
How much do you love God? How grateful are you for the equipment that lets these potential powers use you? You are creator gods, but the potentials are your Father’s. A great compulsion drives every soul to stand and say, “This is good! Let there be Light!” The inner compulsion fails only when you turn off your faith. Then the Light illumines only a tiny area of your brain.
Your record in heaven is the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. They bear witness to the record of what you do here, which is contained in your manner of love. A Father implies a great Being using Mind for His creations. This is your heritage, in which you have personal identity. God the Father is your security. No one can take the Father down. He is not dead. No one, by talking “God is dead” propaganda, has made it so.
Science has proved the underlying invisible energy store of the universe. You cannot take from or add to it. The Father, the Word and your equipment to function God’s potential has given you speech. From just nine digits and 26 letters, we speak, write, and communicate. How can anyone deny an overall universal Mind? One half is manifest in Spirit, the other half in form. You cannot escape, but you can quit, dangle or regress.
Every word you utter is an expression of the Word. Holy Spirit is the energy that enlivens it. Mind and Spirit bear record in heaven. They enable you to contact the Power. They bear witness on earth as to how you have used the qualities of God and limitless Spirit that fills eternity. Spirit condensed is Mind. You call on God for the substance you are using. Your creations are the substance and Spirit of God, seemingly a contradiction.
For example, you must be ambitious but may not have ambition. The law is that whatever you make the focus of your attention grows. Do not focus on ambition or you may, in turn, become greedy and grasping. You must use the faculty of imagination as soul vision to see your creations unfolding and manifesting perfectly. Declare, “My creations are made of the substance and Spirit of God.”
Water is volatile, and often insecure. Emotions represent Spirit in its action over and through you for cleansing, and the use of the water of spiritual potentials of God flowing through. Water is visible, but blood is heavy. Soul inhabits the bloodstream as platelets through which emotions and thought intertwine. They work like twins to lift you or to make you heavy.
To say, “It took the heart out of me,” turns off the Light in your faculties. No one can touch your heart, or you had little in the beginning. Heart is part of the soul of you. If you identify yourself as a son or daughter of God, how can anyone affect you from the outside without your consent? You are free to choose your associates. No one has any power over you unless you permit them.
You can stand and say, “I believe in Jesus the Christ, the only Begotten Son of God.” No one can put you in jail for it. They may consider you wacky, but so what? Do your work perfectly. In success, you progress on each step. You can put your adversary in confusion, and put him to flight. Use these laws to your advantage for your protection.
Who are you? Where are you going? What manner of love is possessing you today? Only you may answer these questions. This water represents your emotional life, stabilized and cleansed, and is your renewal. Your Oversoul star holds the Power of living God, and is the symbolic seat of your soul. You move through your star as soul.
Oversoul is the energy of God, the pure substance of faith manifest as your ground of faith. It purifies itself in the activity of renewed faith. Faith is the rod of power that your spine represents. Your faith takes you through the seven veils of illusion up through the many universal levels to the Supreme Source. From there you return through your rod of power with ideas. When you turn your imagination loose on them, you come forth with inspired writing or some project in the world.
Holy Spirit is the bloodstream, the energy of God, the white Light of Christ. To reach this, declare that Jesus the Christ is the only Begotten Son of God. You are part of God when you believe this, although you may not use your outlet to the computer Mind of God. Faith is in your bloodstream, revealing the manner of your love of God. This has carried every Christian through martyrdom. Many forms of martyrdom still exist in families and in business.
Learn to love your brothers who mistreat you. Treat them well in return, and smile. You will upset them by doing this. They may swat you, but then, nothing can really touch you. Start now and declare that this manner of Christed love moves through you. Know that the potential powers of God are making it possible for your computer mind to work. You will find yourself doing what you had thought impossible.
You will open your soul vision to past incarnations. Light touches the nerves in the midbrain, the records unfold, and you will see your records on the screen of life. God has given you this record of eternal life, which you are opening right this moment. Use your spiritual potential. Awaken your soul’s powers now.
Religion and the World
Edna Lister outline, November 26, 1967, Washington, D.C. 1 John 3:1-2, John 1:1.
“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”–John 3:1-2
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”–John 1:1. God formed a world “in the beginning” when He used Mind to breathe. The Word exploded and Creation opened. The Word was God as Mind in action as a planned, controlled explosion, a rhythmic pulsation filling all universes, which were then “void,” with no form.
The Word, acting as Mind on Substance, began to build up enough condensed Power to last a whole Day of Manifestation. God first created a place, space, which He then filled with principle and personality. From principle and personality came the second great action, time. This was all Mind and contained the whole Plan of Creation for all universes, an unchangeable, unalterable and perfect Magna Carta, containing the beginning and the end.
God impregnated every smallest life spark with the whole, and each has carried out the divine plan ever since He formed the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta still is. God’s ability to stand and know in the background has grown greater, not less. The Magna Carta is greater than all the atheists, agnostics, greater than the millions who degrade the Christ to a mere man. No deviations, no denials or delays, nothing man can do can change one Word of God’s universal Magna Carta.
Do you believe this? Do you believe that a great eternal everlasting God knows where we are going, and what the end must be? Think. All communications come from nine digits and twenty-six letters of the alphabet, from these silly little symbols. If the Magna Carta contained the wisdom for this, it contains all that is needed to bring us home. Science attests that we cannot take away, add to, or change substance. Yet we contain the Power to do all healing of substance in form in our brain, within the golden bowl of Ecclesiastes.
Moses brought the first form of healing, which is obedience to law. Jesus brought healing as love. “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us.”–1 John 3:1. You do not yet comprehend the length, breadth, depth or height of this love.
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God.” Do you believe that God is greater today? Do you know He is? To stand, to obey, to love and to hold, declare, “This is good. Let there be Light.”
Religion’s Supremacy
Edna Lister outline, Prayer Circle, November 27, 1967, Washington, D.C. John 6:41-51, 6:59-69, Matthew 24:1-7.
“The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”–John 6:41-51.
“These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.”–John 6:59-69.
“Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilence, and earthquakes, in divers places.”–Matthew 24:1-7
Religion is the Word, expressing as humanity. It must contain principle and personality. Religion embodies man’s unconscious search for balance. Eventually, you find that you must identify with something greater than self, which includes groups, family, friends and nations. You must identify with something on which you may count as stable and in which you may have confidence. Religion must become a way of life. To do so, it must become your inspiration, your faith and your devotion. These three become your goal, a must-be and must-do as your expression.
Two thousand years ago, when they crucified Jesus, they hung a sign over his head, which read, “This is Jesus, King of the Jews,” in three languages. In Greek, it signified the intellectual level, in Latin the governmental level, and in Hebrew the religious level. This proclamation was registered in heaven and opened the new cycle, which is now fulfilled. Those written words opened the new Christed vibration.
Yet the church-taught Christ of today is not even a distant relative of the Christ of Isaiah, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. To deny the deified nature of Jesus leaves no standard to live up to or goal to look forward to attaining. He said, “I come not to bring peace, but a sword.” His is not a sword of offense, but of defense. His is a sword of spiritual enlightenment, social readjustments and moral quickening. Today we are slashing at the darkness of evil. You are divinely inspired, quickened and are adjusting to the world.
Hold your hands cupped before you, lifting all into a sun center of Light for healing. Hold a mirror for evil’s cleansing. Jesus the Christ as deity is our religion. We put no god before God, nor do we worship false gods. We worship God as all. With Jesus as the ensample of our religion, we stand strong and tall, solidly based below and worshiping the Light above. This is religion, unsullied, transcendent and triumphant.
What Really Happened at Pentecost?
Edna Lister outline, December 3, 1967, Cleveland, OH. Acts 2:1-8, 2:32-41.
“When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?”–Acts 2:1-8.
“Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens, but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made the same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.”–Acts 2:32-41.
On that first Pentecost, Peter founded Christianity with only 120 people in an upper room. Pentecost falls on the seventh Sunday after Easter, or 50 days after Easter. What happened between the two events? Several women had been the first to know of Jesus’ Resurrection, having been first to arrive at his tomb to anoint his body. They were loyal followers and several funded his ministry with their own money. This was the first time women had been given any standing in monotheistic religion. Jesus opened the vibration for women when he said, “Son, behold thy Mother,” from the cross. He opened vibration of love for the enfolding of all life upward in the River of Life.
At this time, the Pharisees thanked God daily that they had not been born a woman, a leper, or a Gentile. Jesus’ unswerving determination to do the Father’s will has taught us the true nature of the Father’s love and the Son’s mercy and compassion. Jesus closed out wisdom as the governing ray, and enthroned love as the leader of evolution in consciousness and ascension. The Father used cohesion, the magnetic ray of attraction to entice and establish love as the way at Pentecost.
Pentecost endowed man with the power of desire to forgive without blame. At Pentecost, the Jesus of history became the divine Son of living experience. Jesus freed religion forever from bondage to a priesthood, and lifted religious rites and tenets from their custody. Pentecost freed man of all rote intellectual religious restrictions, and social and racial fetters. The Light of Christ was tried, bound, condemned, crucified and cast into the grave, but it burst free. Light cannot be confined, for it is free.
Jesus’ earthly life provides us with a fixed point in time and space at which man’s soul regained its true religious freedom and stature. While Pentecost provided the idea of an everlasting expansion and growth of religion, it also served as the basis for a religion of eternal progress and divine unfolding of the soul. Inherent in this emancipation is the timeless truth that each soul must become his or her own own high priest, responsible for every aspect of its beliefs, faith, and practice.
Until Pentecost, religion had revealed man as seeking for God as though man were lost and God was somehow hidden beyond his finding. After the Pentecost, man still seeks, but the idea of God forever seeking man to endow him with His Spirit to fill him, shines forth all over the world. Before Pentecost, the disciples had given up everything worldly to follow Jesus. At Pentecost, they gave up self to be possessed by God as their Father.
“When the day of Pentecost was fully come,” the roaring sound from heaven filled the house with the Holy Spirit. A nucleus of only 120 people brought in 3,000 converts in one day. They had no mechanical distractions then such as TV, movies, cars, buses, taxis, or the incessant noise of modern civilization that we experience. Everyone in Jerusalem was aware of the mighty rushing sound of the Holy Spirit’s descent. No one could fail to hear it or ignore it. These facts all reveal that something wonderful was happening.
To perceive the miraculous, you need a threefold code of action—repentance, acceptance, and rejoicing. You can repent only through choosing to stand in the Light, as the Light. Acceptance comes only when you finish voicing such nonsense as, “This is too hard. God would never treat me this way. The Master is kinder than this.” You must rejoice, but how?
Paul Tillich said that what he calls religion’s “dimension of depth” gives us radiance, brilliance, and makes us victorious. You are able to pray, to prophesy, to set aside destruction, to see visions of beauty, and dreams come true on your decree of the Word. Self is such a heavy burden by comparison. What does the world see when it sees you? Decree, “I am excited about God. I see God face to face, in all His blinding glory. I am enthralled with God.”
What Really Happened at Pentecost?
Edna Lister transcript, Elizabeth Barnes, Ruth Johnson, Irene White, scribes, December 3, 1967, Cleveland, OH, Acts 2:1-8 2:32-41
“When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?”–Acts 2:1-8.
“Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens, but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made the same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.”–Acts 2:32-41.
Every 2,000 years, through all ages since manifestation began, the vibration of God’s Creation has increased. Because time has been shortened,
Jesus had set the keynote for a 2,000-year vibration. Throughout his last days, he taught lessons to strengthen his disciples and followers to meet the new vibrations he was releasing to open the Christed Age. As he prepared the way during the Lord’s Supper, the Passover seder, he told them to wait for his Resurrection, and afterward to prepare for the Feast of First Fruits, Shavuot. Pentecost, the Greek name of counting the harvest comes 50 days after his Resurrection and Ascension. They remained in Jerusalem then because they needs time to agree and adjust to the world without his physical presence after his Resurrection and Ascension.
Jesus set seven great governing vibrations for the age to come, among them, he emancipated womanhood from the cross. At that time, the ultra religious Pharisees prayed every morning, thanking God that they were not born as women, lepers, or Gentiles. Jesus opened the vibration for outer expression of God’s feminine aspect, and changed the ruling power of Wisdom, putting the power of Love uppermost, which was the only way God could draw His children home.
That original Pentecost was first time women had been given a public role in monotheistic religious service. Pentecost opened the way to woman’s religious emancipation. It also established the fact that Jesus’ teachings had taken religion from the hands of priests, and made each man and woman his or her own high priest. This change has not yet been fully completed on the outer, but those who covet and try to dominate religious power cannot hold onto it.
Jesus’ oneness with the Father, his doing the will of the Father, his obedience to law gave us something we really needed. He took religion and God from the skies and put Him in the minds and hearts of men. The early church fathers could not have established the Nicene Creed had Jesus not originally established its vibration during his Crucifixion and ratified it at Pentecost. The Pentecost elevated Jesus from being a mere footnote to history—he became a living experience for each man and woman. In that moment, the prophesied church was founded.
Before Pentecost, men had sought a religion and a God. At Pentecost, the idea of religion changed. Jesus had opened the Gates of Light that darkness and evil had closed, and God sought man. Afterward, the idea spread that God was seeking man and filling him with Holy Spirit to express as the Father expressed. All the vibrations we need today, to be able to hold onto God, were established during that original Pentecost. In his first public sermon, Peter repeated what David had prophesied about Jesus. So he helped to establish Jesus as the Begotten Son of God and head of the church at Pentecost. No denial can wipe out these facts.
The disciples had given up everything on the outside to follow Jesus. They had pooled their assets and become one community. Jesus taught them his great message that God was their Father. They gave up self to be possessed by God the Father, went out selflessly and became martyrs, one by one. They had seen Jesus’ miracles and witnessed the fulfillment of his prophecies. They knew they had to wait for the full coming of the Holy Spirit before they could meet again in the upper room. They heard a rushing mighty wind, cloven tongues of fire descended on them, the Holy Spirit filled them, and they spoke in tongues to the awe of witnesses.
Jesus, both Lord and Christ and full head of the Christ Spirit, that which we call the Holy Spirit. The power and the glory go with him. The power of the spoken Word going out into the world is stepped up, especially those who speak in tongues. In a fever, Power has to recede from the feet, so send Power through the top of the head down to the feet for a fever.
Why did they speak in tongues? New Power was being released, and that same Power is being released today. In churches where they speak in tongues, they will speak today as never before. The original Pentecost vibration circles around earth today, irresistible in its power to move the soul. Ordinarily, I am given some idea Saturday as the basis for the sermon on Sunday. I waited upon the Lord, and was given this—“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made the same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.”–Acts 2:36. In this is Jesus as the only begotten Son and full head of the Christ Spirit within men, the Holy Spirit, the Blood of the Lamb, the personalization of the energy of God. Jesus Christ created the Elect as his Christed ones.
The greatest gift God has given us is the power of the spoken Word, and today we receive the announcement of additional Power, stepped up and brought into focus to be released to every part of earth. This knowledge is great. Some of us may have known of being caught up in a spirit. When my youngest son was two and a half, I was alone in the cabin, 60 miles from a town or doctor, and my child was burning with fever. I held him up and declared, “Father here is Your son. You are all there is, the only one who has all the power here.” I wept because I was so grateful that I knew God.
When you depend only on some medium grade power, it is watered down. You must fill your doctor with the Holy Spirit and declare him Christed, knowing that God uses his brain and hands. You always have to be prepared for a Pentecost, together with others or alone. I thought that the cabin would crash down on us, it swayed so in the rushing wind that blew from four directions. I looked out as the wind howled, but not a breath of air stirred outside. I felt angels were present and I knew my child was healed. From the top of his head downward I saw the scarlet receding. When you treat for fever, rotate your hands over the head then swish it down the body so it goes out through the feet. The power of the Holy Spirit moves in through the head. I was in an ecstasy with God’s presence.
You have access to this power of the Holy Spirit all the time. When the Pentecost is over, the seven veils of illusion open for you. Some of us were present at the event described in Acts. At that stage they had to have something to see with physical eyes—they had to see to believe. You do not need to see to believe. Repent that you have merely been simmering on low. Why have you not lived at that white point of heat all your life? Nothing on the outside can keep you from living this glorious faith inside. Have you endowed everyone with this miracle of Pentecost? This morning is a Pentecost. Are you going to be set afire and see cloven tongues of fire descend? Accept the fact that a new Pentecost is established today. Expect miracles! Petty things are nothing, watered down from something to nothing. If you act like a worm, someone will step on you.
Everyone you have ever prayed for is touched today. Bring in those you have been lukewarm about healing. You either believe that the Pentecost Power of the Holy Spirit does the work, or you do not. All evil melted and dissolved by the power of the Word. Every word I have ever spoken in healing is made complete now.
Why Earth Needed a Messiah
Edna Lister outline, December 10, 1967, Cleveland, OH. John 15:1-11, 15:17-24.
“These things I command you, that ye love one another. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.”–John 15:17-24.
In the days of Roman rulership, the governors or procurators divided the country of Israel into three provinces, Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. The evil in Israel had gone underground. Herod, the Idumean ruler, enjoyed friendly relations with Rome. He had spent lavishly to ingratiate himself with powerful Romans before he died in 4 BC Herod Antipas, his son, was greedy and craved power, yet had none of his father’s political ability. He was rapacious and cruel, and ruled until he died in AD 39.
The Jews all believed in and looked for a Jewish emancipator, a great deliverer from Roman slavery, a messiah. They considered the Gentiles inferior, yet they were open-minded, spiritually. Galilee, at the time, was more Gentile than Jewish. Four great philosophies dominated the Western world, providing fertile soil for the sprouting of Christianity—the Epicureans, Stoics, Cynics, and Skeptics. They all sprang into being as reactions to the Platonist philosophy of idealism and the pursuit of virtue, truth, and the good.
The Epicurean school (Epicurus) was dedicated to the pursuit of happiness, teaching that pleasure is the highest good. As utter hedonists, pleasure was the “beginning and end of the blessed life,” and pain or suffering were to be avoided at all cost. The Stoics (Zeno of Citium) believed in universal Mind, dominated by a ruling reason, living in accord with natural law. They taught that justice and virtue form the highest good, and that pleasure and pain were to be treated with indifference. The Cynics (Diogenes of Sinope) lived in poverty, hardship and toil, and felt free to speak openly about how others lived their lives, constantly criticizing them. The self-righteous Cynics were more democratic, and prepared the way for Paul’s teachings. Finally, the Skeptics (Arcesilaus and Carneades) asserted that all knowledge is fallacious, and that conviction and assurance are impossible. Nothing brought these factions together.
Every 2,000 years the Power of an age is exhausted. Humanity has used what has been condensed from Source. Some great soul must make a sacrifice and incarnate to open the Gates of Light to greater Power. The Rabbis gathered almost 500 passages concerning the new, coming messiah. They all prophesied a messiah who would free them. They were so enthralled with the idea of freedom, they forgot about personality. The Jews knew they were the Chosen people. They knew what his mission must be.
The laws of Moses followed principle, and set a rigid discipline. They were ruled by the masculine vibration of Wisdom, the Father aspect of God. The laws of Jesus taught God as personality. The Father he described is a kind, loving, forgiving, beneficent being who expressed the Mother aspect of God. They accused Jesus of being feminine. Moses’ rigid laws set the face in inflexible lines. Jesus’ laws left the face mobile, and flexible.
Professor Paul Tillich of Harvard University, said, “Religion is a dimension of depth.” Rushing forward, horizontally, man has lost the meaning of the symbols of religion. As historical stories, they lose all their power, because we cannot explain them intellectually.
The Gospel of John, the fifteenth chapter, gives us the key to success, to all “added things.”—“I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”–John 15:1-11.
A vine branch must be one with the vine or it is a dead nothing. Unless you abide in the Christ, Light prunes you and casts you into the fire, in the eternal flame until you are sent forth again. To abide means “to stay, to hold.” You may ask what you will, yet you are given only the fruit you can bear in the miracles you request. You must continue to abide in Christ’s love, his joy.
“If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.”–John 15:22. The new messiah will be the woman clothed with the sun, who symbolizes love crowned with intuition: “There appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.”–Revelation 12:1.
“Behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.”–Revelation 14:14. The sickle symbolizes lifting all life sparks to high altars of fire. To do this, you must hold a firm conviction, brisk love and eager expectancy. This describes our life’s code, our dimension of full glory.
Why Earth Needed a Messiah
Edna Lister transcript, Elizabeth Barnes, Ruth Johnson, Irene White, scribes, December 10, 1967, Cleveland, OH, John 15:1-11, 15:17-24
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”–John 15:1-11.
“These things I command you, that ye love one another. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.”–John 15:17-24.
We are now reaching the start of a new 2,000-year cycle, just as they were when Jesus was born. Herod, styled the Great, had Jewish blood, but was an Edomite, so was not a “proper” Jew. He was politically astute and clever, had catered to Rome, and had kept Caesar off the backs of the Jews until he died in 4 BC His son Herod Antipas had none of his father’s better qualities, but was a typical Oriental potentate, cruel and oppressive.
Jesus was born into this world at a time of conflict of cultures and ideas. Israel and Judah had merged, becoming Judaea. Its Mediterranean ports had opened the way to increased trade, which resulted in there being more Gentiles than Jews in the port cities like Acco in the northern Galilee, a gateway to Asian trade routes. The effect was a dilution of the Jewish culture. Many younger men and entire Jewish families had assimilated into the Greek trade culture and intellectual life.
The remaining Jews not only wanted freedom from Rome’s oppression and the burden of taxes, they wanted a Jewish king on the throne. They were waiting for the Messiah to come, and many of them firmly held the idea—and some the zealous belief—that he would come to free them. Ancient prophecies foretold the Messiah would be born of the line of David in the Galilee, but the people had lost sight of the Messiah-to-come as a person, a personality. So when Jesus finally arrived, his message seemed alien to many of them. He did not look like a king, and he taught a doctrine of “love your enemies” and “forgiveness.”
Moses had freed their forefathers from bondage in Egypt and taught them the masculine aspect of God, a rigid discipline under the wisdom principle. Jesus brought the full feminine love principle to serve as the catalyst uniting heaven and earth to take us home. Love replaced wisdom as the ruling principle of consciousness and ascension. Thus, many accused him of being too lenient and even of being effeminate.
Judas Iscariot was a Zealot who had helped his political party to stir people up to be ready for Jesus to accept the crown and become king. Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead only the day before his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Those who hoped, prayed and believed he could be the messiah were waiting to greet him. Many had witnessed this miracle and had rushed to share the news in the city.
Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9 on that first Palm Sunday—“See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” As a mystical footnote to recorded history, Judas offered him the crown as he spoke publicly in the temple. Jesus refused and left abruptly—Judas felt disgraced, that Jesus had left him looking like a fool. This explains Judas’ subsequent betrayal of Jesus.
Later that week, after Jesus had been arrested, tried and condemned to death, the Zealots turned the crowd on Jesus, just like political agitators do now. They violently demonstrated, demanding that Pontius Pilate free the “notorious” Zealot Barabbas, who was in prison for murder. When Pilate offered the crowd, which included Jesus’ followers, the choice between Barabbas and Jesus, the violent Zealots demanded that Jesus be crucified in his stead.
Thus, Jesus was crucified, and Judas killed himself, ushering in the 2,000-year period we see culminating today. Now we are opening a new 2,000-year era, and the same souls who demanded Jesus’ death are with us today as vandals, hoodlums, and rioters. We can recognize them in other areas of life also. Today they form the ranks of the unbelievers, the agnostics and atheists.
Many foreigners, Gentiles, had moved to Judaea from other countries. While the Jews held to the rigid religion of laws that Moses had introduced, the Gentiles had studied the philosophy of four philosophical sects, the Epicureans, Stoics, Cynics and Skeptics. These groups believed in various ethical codes, not in religion or worshiping God.
The Epicureans, followers of Epicurus, dedicated their lives to the pursuit of happiness, teaching that pleasure is the highest good. As utter hedonists, pleasure was supreme, but suffering was to be avoided at any cost. The Stoics believed that living by the rule of reason, in accord with natural law, was their fate, and acceptance of this was essential. They taught that justice and virtue are the highest good, and that pleasure and pain were to be treated with indifference.
The Cynics lived in poverty and hardship by choice, and constantly criticized others about how they lived their lives. The self-righteous Cynics prepared the way for Paul’s moral and ethical teachings. The Skeptics believed that all knowledge requires justification or proof, which is impossible; since you can’t prove anything, the best they could do was to suspend judgment. Nothing brought these conflicting factions together, nor does it today. All these ethical philosophies are still with us here and now.
Jesus was born into this world of conflict. Every 2,000 years God inhales pure Light, the Gates of Light open, and He releases enough Light-as-energy to empower the Magna Charta of the Word for another 2,000 years. A messiah must come to bring the message and always runs the risk of martyrdom. Moses had not stressed complete personal responsibility to obey law, but God provided Israel with the ritual of the sin goat, the scapegoat (Leviticus 16). The high priest put the sins of all Jewish souls on the scapegoat then drove it into the wilderness to meet its fate. Thus, everyone’s sins were banished and the people felt good about themselves and secure that they were free from the retribution of law for another year.
When Jesus came and taught the need for complete personal responsibility, they didn’t like it. The same fools from Jesus’ time are trying to run things again, but we are standing higher, and we shall not fail! When ministers exhort their congregations to join protests and marches against some cause,they are teaching disobedience to God’s law of nonresistance. Protesting anything is repudiation and the use of force. March for the Light and God’s good or for nothing at all. We have conquered and will continue to conquer evil. Because of the prayers of the Elect, Power is being taken from evil. We are not going backward, but forward and upward.
After Jesus taught the laws of nonresistance and love, the real heart of truth had to go underground for centuries. Again today, the evil ones are forcing Jesus’ followers to go underground again. But this cannot and will not last forever. The true Christian’s faith flourishes under persecution. How can we be assured of this?
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”–John 15:1-5.
As Christians and as followers of Jesus Christ, the most outstanding word in this chapter in John is abide. It means steadfastness. You are the branch of the true vine, which is Jesus’ assurance that you can hold to the identity of God as your Father and as Jesus represents Him.
“Without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”–John 15:5-5. If you do not abide in truth, the little you have is taken from you. Look around and you can see people withering on the vine. Their life sparks must then be gathered up and thrown into the lake of fire for cleansing and purification. When you hear of someone taking drugs, place him in a sphere of Light and gather up his misused soul substance to send it up like the smoke incense to be purified. His life sparks will then be placed in a container to store and safeguard them until his healing is complete. These youths are not using universal substance but their own soul substance, and it must be lifted and cleansed. Do not be so big-headed as to think you are doing the work, but you use your hands and arms as scoops and make your declaration to gather and
Treating for others adds to the credits you have earned in heaven. You can be the vine that clings to him, the true vine who is the guardian of your identity. If you abide in him, you have the joy of Christ, his special gift to all who follow the Via Christa. “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.” John 15:22. If no one ever told you of your mistakes, you probably wouldn’t know you had made one. When the cloak of ignorance is ripped away, you can make no more alibis. No other teacher of truth has done what Jesus did. He uncovered and lifted the weight of our sins to show us the way.
The only real gift you can to give God is to ask for more miracles. Miracles grow from within like peaches from the tree. Asking for miracles is proof of your love, faith, and gratitude. Ask for miracles for the world. How many miracles can you ask for to fill today’s quota? God cannot run short of Mind, Substance, or Power, so speak the Word for healing. Do not ask repeatedly for the same thing, or put a time limit on a miracle. Do not peek around the corner or demand a miracle. Just keep declaring, “Let there be Light.”
You must have firm Love of God and vivid imagination to see the glory of the miracles for which you pray. We are now in a new Messianic era. Jesus will not come in the flesh but will appear as he did to disciples. Those who are devoted to evil should be frightened by this. Ask for this miracle. Keep the Power moving through your petitioned miracles. Have marvelous expectancy. Thank the Father for everything all the time and for more ideas to weave into miracles. Thousands of unborn miracles are waiting out there for you to speak the Word and bring them through.
This is your Messianic Power coming through. We have entered a 2000-year era in which time is shortened. Power has been stepped up equal to what would have come through at Easter. Stand under a shaft of Light, waiting on the glory of God to come forth, while you work out your salvation out here. Praise God for His miracles!
After the Resurrection
Edna Lister outline, December 17, 1967, Cleveland, OH. John 20:16-17, 20:19, 20:26-27, 21:4-14.
“Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.”–John 20:16-17.
“Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.”–John 20:19.
“Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.”–John 20:26-27.
“But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No. And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher’s coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in a little ship; (for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits,) dragging the net with fishes. As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise. This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead.”–John 21:4-14.
When Mary Magdalene saw Jesus at the tomb it was his first appearance after his Resurrection. She ran and told his the disciples who refused to believe her, but five women did believe. David Zebedee, the brother of James and John, sent twenty-six runners to tell Jesus’ followers of the Resurrection.
The record reports nineteen separate appearances from the Resurrection to Jesus’ Ascension. The second time Jesus appeared to the disciples in the upper chamber the house of Mary and Martha, in the evening, Thomas was
The Gospel of John, the twenty-first chapter, records the disciples’ confusion. Peter opened a new vibration when he said, “I go fishing.” He knew how to fish, yet caught nothing. He lacked direction, and had no goal. Since he sent nothing out, nothing returned.
A “stranger” onshore gave them orders, which immediately reconditioned their mental and emotional states. Jesus told them to try fishing from the other of the boat, the right side. The right side is where fish are now. He changed their vibration so they looked up in consciousness.
Jesus later asked Peter three questions, all about Do you love me? Why did he do that? What good did it do? What is that to thee? Desire pervaded Peter. Prayer penetrated him, and the goal permeated him. Peter, because of Jesus’ questions and his own answers, found himself pervaded by the Holy Spirit, penetrated throughout by love, and permeated by Light.
You must ask yourself three important questions: What is my present desire? What is my prayer pattern? What is my ultimate goal? Desire must fill you net, which may have no holes. You must call your own to you, using love. When you reach up in consciousness, you find yourself pervaded by Spirit until your net is all-attractive and all absorbing. Your call is love. The net represents your prayer mold. If your former prayer pattern does not seem to be working, try the other side of your boat. No doubt or fear can weaken your fervor when you let Light penetrate and permeate you.
Your ultimate goal is soul expansion and ascension upward. Your soul expression outward will then be perfect. First, you must see the Father. Whenever you think, “My way is best,” your results are scattered and indifferent. “My way” squeezes the miracle until it is lifeless. When you preface your requests with let, the Word permeates your goal because Spirit then breathes life into your mold. You must bring your goal to life, to feel alive, strong and available for and to God.
After the Resurrection
Edna Lister transcript, Elizabeth Barnes, Ruth Johnson, Florence Waldorf, Irene White, Ross Whitehead, scribes, December 17, 1967, Cleveland, OH, John 20:16-17, 20:19, 20:26-27, 21:4-14
“Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.”–John 20:16-17.
“Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.”–John 20:19.
“Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.”–John 20:26-27.
“But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No. And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher’s coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in a little ship; (for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits,) dragging the net with fishes. As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise. This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead.”–John 21:4-14.
Each time I read a chapter in the Bible, whether in the Old or in the New Testament, I find it all new. The Gospel of John, the 21st chapter, is pregnant with meaning, and ranks with the great significance of the first eleven chapters of the Book of Acts. This final chapter of the Gospel of John is the greatest and is complete within itself. It tells of Jesus’ ability to disappear and appear after the Resurrection and before his Ascension. Jesus’ words, “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) are true and reveal his great promise to the Elect. Do you believe that Jesus can appear now? He is appearing now, and to you, if you have eyes to see him. He touches you if you have the faith to know it. I have listened to many people intellectually play around with the idea of Jesus appearing again, but they do not really believe it. Yet for all the incomprehension, doubt, and disbelief, when you call on Jesus, he lifts you a thousand years for every year you lift yourself.
Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene (John 20:16-17), then to his disciples in the upper chamber (John 20:19); at his third appearance (John 20:26-27), Thomas was convinced. The Gospel of Luke 24:13-32 record his appearance to Cleopas and others on the road to Emmaus. These instances, together with those recorded in The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ, show that he appeared to his disciples nineteen times altogether. Yet the story of Jesus’ appearance to his disciples at the sea of Tiberias stays with you in its penetrating and permeating quality that makes you feel as though you were present there also. These stories show that Jesus could lower the rate of vibration of his soul body so others could see him. We call this precipitation of a body, just as rain or snow precipitates from the atmosphere. One of the powers of being is to be able to become invisible if it is necessary. You can do this, too. Just reach for stars and think of yourself as light. The key to success is to forget the world, and be one with God.
Jesus had often disappeared before the Crucifixion. The disciples thought Jesus had prepared them, but when he was finally arrested, they wanted him to exercise his power to disappear, and avoid crucifixion. Jesus had already appeared to his disciples after the Resurrection, but had left them again, literally disappeared afterward. “Seeing is believing” describes Thomas’ reaction to the Resurrection, but they all must have been stunned, at least at first. What questions they must have had! Unable to rest, Peter announced that he was going fishing, and Thomas, Nathanael, James, John, and two others went with him. They were all thinking of their needs, their lacks, their loneliness, so they did not reach out with arms of Light to draw fish into their net. Thus, they fished all night but caught nothing. At dawn they saw a man on the beach who asked whether they had caught any fish, but none of them recognized him at first.
Jesus told them to cast the net on the right side of the boat. This is how he reconditioned their mental focus and showed them the miracle power of fishing on the right side, the correct side of the boat—and they caught 153 great fishes. The number 153 holds a mystery: 1 + 5 + 3 = 9, the number symbolizing the brotherhood of man under the Father. When they landed, he already had bread, and fish cooking on the coals. They were afraid of the Master at first because of the tremendous power-as-Light he radiated; they could feel it even if they did not see it.
This miracle of increase integrates with other miracle stories—when Gideon drew fire from heaven to make a burnt offering of meat, bread, and broth (Judges 6:11-22), and when Elijah increased the flour and oil for the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:10-16). The disciples had been present when Jesus fed the multitudes with fishes and bread, so they knew the fish represented physical substance, and the bread eternal spiritual substance. You may never tempt God to produce a miracle, but if you are in great need, in a tight place, God will back you. In your great need, He will supply a miracle to meet it. Substance will appear according to your faith.
After his arrest, Peter had denied Jesus three times, creating three debts of repudiation. To wipe out Peter’s debt, Jesus asked three times, “Lovest thou me?” Peter was embarrassed and hurt by the repeated question, and his answers show it, but Jesus did help him erase the debts that would have been immense obstacles in his future as a leader.
How do you pray when you need a miracle? What do you need to know to do it right? In prayer, your words will eventually get to heaven, but it takes more than just words. For example, a mantra would take a billion years unless God stepped in to take charge. To produce a miracle, you must be a co-creator with God instead of just praying to Him. To fill your net of expectations, you must send forth more than a list of lacks and negatives. You can avoid this by creating a mold and making positive statements about what you want. You’ve got to know these things, God doesn’t do your thinking for you.
First, you must know the answers to several questions. What is my desire? What is the pattern of my prayer? What is my goal? Ask yourself, Do I love God enough? Am I feeding His lambs? Lambs are new ideas. Sheep represent your emotional, mental, and spiritual life. Wondering if you’re doing it right starves your sheep. You feed new ideas with your imagination. Does your imagination build the pictures of what you want? Are you feeding it with spiritual substance or worldly trash? Does the love of God pervade your world and everything you do? Does the Holy Spirit of the living God permeate you? Even this may not be enough, so regularly examine yourself for dry rot in your joy.
Am I, with an open mind, reaching out for every new idea? What can I do today? Am I leaving anything undone? Are you reaching for new ideas about how to apply law? Ask yourself, Am I overlooking some law? Am I applying all the laws I already know? You must keep questioning your self. To question yourself is a process of self-examination that must be ongoing and cyclic to wipe out your debts of repudiation. You’d best devote time and attention to it at least three times a year, and whenever you’re planning some new project or venture.
Unless you focus your desire in the right way, you’ll starve your sheep. Don’t turn your emotions outward, but upward. To fish from the right side of the boat is to fish from the up side. Turn your imagination up, in the right direction to focus your desire properly. And remember, the conviction that God is working right now must pervade your whole being.
To sharpen your prayer focus, examine the pattern of your prayers: They should include the following points: Be generous in your prayers; give the good to everyone, but do not give to be seen of men. Always question yourself on your intent and motivation in prayer. Does the pattern of your prayer seem right, or change over time? If the prayer pattern changes, ask whether your prayer is still right. Remember, God gives what is good for you, to protect you. You can demand the wrong thing, get it, and spend five years regretting it, which is not success!
If your prayer isn’t answered right away, continue to know that it will be in God’s right time. After asking, put your desire on the altar; remember Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah, and keep your knife in hand, always ready to give up your firstborn of desire. Do not squeeze your miracle to death! Be ready to pay the price of sacrificing selfishness to bring your desire into form.
What is your goal? Does it permeate your life? Do you keep your goal perfectly unbesmirched? Your desire, prayer pattern, and goal must be of one accord. Your ultimate goal is to be as perfect as your Father in Heaven, and to get there you must expand. Is your short-term goal to express the law of God, or to have things? To expand your own soul, you must express compassion for everyone else. Again, remember that your prayer pattern and desire must be thoroughly permeated with the Holy Spirit and your conviction that this will work. Let the life of God pay you dividends. If you believe in God as substance, you are immortal now. You are living at this moment in a forever, which is a space of time. You are immortal in soul and the time is always now.
If you remain constantly permeated with the Holy Spirit, God will warn you to save you from doing the wrong thing. If you’re deliberately willful, you degrade God’s Power into force, and blacken the substance you use. You must pay the debt because you separated Mind from Substance and power. You redeem them to be one with Mind by returning to your original desire, prayer pattern, and goal.
Modern science and technology have created miracles, everything from jet planes to lasers, all of which are part of the “greater works” that Jesus said we would do. We have more to work with here and now than Jesus did. They had no electricity, hot or cold running water, no paved streets or conveniences such as we have. Greater evil and misuse of power exists now than then, but greater good exists also. So get busy with your conviction. “A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.”–Psalm 91:7. All you need is to believe God, not the world of appearances. Do not pray then let someone say Boo! to scare you, or read something in the newspaper and fear it can happen. Who forces you to read or believe it?
If you cast your net on the wrong side, your fish fall out. Jesus said, “I am with you to end of world,” which really means, “I am with you to the end of darkness.” Jesus is walking the earth right now. He had no sooner put Peter to the test to cleanse his soul than Peter looked around and asked what John would do! “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.”–John 21:22. John tarried till Pentecost and on the Lord’s day returned to the Isle of Patmos, where he and Mary mediated the Book of Revelation.
“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.”–Matthew 10:34. Jesus has given us a sword of defense, not of slaughter. Stand and defend the ground that God has given you. The most impossible things to earth are the possibles of God. Declare this in all ways. The Power of the living God is wiping out the impossible and bringing to pass the possible.
You are the sons and daughters of the Most High. Glorify the Father: Thank You, Father. This is good and very good! You are quickened and vitalized by the Light of God, the Love of God, the Power of God. You are immortal, and as perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect. Now, let your face show it!
Edna Miriam Lister
1884–1971
The original Pioneering Mystic,
Christian Platonist philosopher, American Idealist, Founder, Society of the Universal Living Christ, minister, teacher, author, wife, and mother.
The Apostles
The sermons and Bible studies from May and June 1967 will be coming soon. They include:
Peter and Andrew, Faith and Strength, May 7, 1967;
Philip and Nathanael (Bartholomew), Power and Imagination, May 21, 1967;
James and John, Judgment and Love, May 14, 1967;
Thomas and Matthew, Understanding and Will, May 28, 1967;
James and Jude (Thaddaeus), Order and Diplomacy, June 4, 1966;
Simon and Judas, Zeal and Appropriation, June 11, 1967;
Mathias and Mark, Salvation and Organization, June 18, 1967;
Luke and Timothy, Comprehension and Nonresistance, June 25, 1967.
References
“Bell, book and candle,” Encyclopedia Britannica Online, 2011.
“Lethe,” Encyclopedia Britannica Online, February 08, 2018. Accessed October 24, 2018.
The Holy Bible. King James Version (KJV).
The Oxford English Dictionary: Compact Ed., 2 vols. E.S.C. Weiner, ed. Oxford University Press, 1971.
“Religion.” Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, 2nd ed. G. & C. Merriam Co., 1956.