Via Christa: Via Christa Life: Sermons: Edna Lister’s Sermons 1968, II

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Edna Lister’s Sermons 1968, II

Edna Lister sermon outline; October 20, 1968, Cleveland, Ohio. Scriptures: Matthew 6:14-23, Matthew 6:33.

“For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 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 6:14-23.

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” — Matthew 6:33.

Mystery deals with the secret worship of a deity, unexplained or unknown, as a mystery of life. Mere acceptance of theology does not reveal the mysteries of religion. Every law that Jesus taught and expounded is the source of a mystery. The mysteries are never revealed except as a result of the seeker’s obedience to law. Everything is based, first, on your acceptance of the purely spiritual universe. You must be so convinced of this that you go beyond reason, beyond theology, dogma, or creeds to find the source of truth.

One approach to God is through the principle of faith. Everything everywhere is composed of God’s Substance as faith, planned by His Mind and made by and through His Power. All man’s physical science applies the science of divine mind. Living on and by faith is applying the science of mind to your life. It gives you a personal identity with your Source. The greatest mystery overall is that all is from the Light and all is Light. Study reveals that the purpose behind all mysteries is for your step by step ascension to do the greater works. The mysteries can reveal this purpose only through the soul’s obedience to law.

The principle of faith is God’s hold over you. First grade metaphysics teaches the resurrection from old patterns and ways. Yet ascension takes you into a higher state of consciousness, a faster rate of vibration. Ascension assures contact with your Source of Light. Then, through that live wire of omnipotence called faith, pure life comes pouring down through the soul-spiritual dimension into the mental, emotional and physical portions of your earth equipment as life eternal and immortal.

We call the path of the mysteries unveiled the Via Christa, the Way of Christ. Our basis and proof of this is in the truth that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” — James 1:17.

How can you go someplace when you are already there as Light? If it is in the world, Light has formed it, and the Light cannot be changed. All you may do is to close the doors and shutter the windows to Light. “If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” — Matthew 6:23.

Five main Bible mysteries conceal the main laws that every soul must eventually accept and obey: 1. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” — Matthew 6:33. 2. “Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him.” — Matthew 5:25. 3. “What is that to thee? follow thou me.” — John 21:22 4. “Abstain from all appearance of evil. — 1 Thessalonians 5:22. 5. “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” — John 12:32.

To seek first the kingdom of heaven is to seek the Light first. These laws are tough ones in conquering self, but the main ones in unfolding the hidden mysteries. Remember, a mystery is but the hidden high meaning held within every law, which will open the veils of illusion. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights.” — James 1:17. How can you be obedient to this law? You must become Light, and the first step is constantly to declare, “Let there be Light.”

Becoming the Light is a slow, difficult process at first. Mere words and lip service are not enough. You can envision Light, but how do you hold to that vision moment by moment? Your process must become an instantaneous act, so you must involve that great faculty, imagination. First, build a great sun center of Light above your head by visualizing it, then step into it. Practice makes it real, instantly. You can step into its enfolding warmth between the ring of the telephone or doorbell, and answering it.

The second law is to “Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him.” — Matthew 5:25. Agreeing ends your slavery to any self-proclaimed enemies, and you remain undisturbed, untouched, unharmed, and unhurt by what they may say or do. Give him Light to exalt and praise the so-called enemy. Give him what you desire. Ascend on the would-be enemy, using his provocation as a step up in consciousness.

The third law is, “What is that to thee? Follow thou me.” — John 21:22. Lay off the automatic judging and criticizing, knowing you never have any excuse to judge another unjustly or self-righteously. Everyone has soul debts to pay for interference in another’s life, and for unrighteous judgment.

The fourth law is to “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:22. When you fall from your own high vibration, you become vulnerable, sometimes even dissolving your own sun center of Light. This is the source of all false-gods-worship, idle words, and gossip. When you repeat gossip, you take on and must pay the other fellow’s soul debts.

The fifth law is “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” — John 12:32. When you are lifted up into a high state of consciousness, you reach illumination and comprehension to open spiritual seeing and hearing. To draw all men to you means to lift all their soul debts into Light, and all that they are — good, bad and indifferent. One law says, “Only mine own can come unto me,” which includes all the debts that you have avoided paying. Your present lesson is just to lift, not to take it in first. “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” — Romans 8:28.

With your every declaration of “Let there be Light,” your sun center of Light grows larger, with rays of repulsion flowing from it to protect you. Nothing can come against you successfully because any any evil is consumed by the glory of Light.

The Heavenly Mysteries Unveiled

Edna Lister sermon transcript; October 20, 1968, Cleveland, Ohio. Scribes: Elizabeth Barnes, Ruth Johnson, Irene White. Scriptures: Matthew 6:14-23, Matthew 6:33.

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” — Matthew 6:33.

Webster’s Amrican Dictionary defines mystery as “a profound secret; something wholly unknown or something kept cautiously concealed, and therefore exciting curiosity or wonder. In religion, mystery is anything in the character or attributes of God, or in the economy of divine providence, which is not revealed to man. Mystery is that which is beyond human comprehension until explained. In this sense, mystery often conveys the idea of something awfully sublime or important; something that excites wonder.”

All religions are based on mysteries, yet the ordinary untrained person does not know how to unfold the mysteries. Each soul feels a compulsion to seek a source of being beyond the self. We want to know who we are, where we came from, and why we are here. Every law that Jesus taught or revealed has a mystery hidden within itself. The secret of being able to unveil a mystery lies within the soul’s obedience to law.

Death and destruction result from the soul’s disobedience to God’s laws, which is why the dark ones, those who choose to do evil on earth cannot tolerate the truth contained in the mysteries and revealed by unfolding them. Even the Elect have always resisted the mysteries. Yet we must rise above religious creeds and dogma to reach the heart of the mysteries.

Your God-given mind operates on a vibration greater than any computer because you have access to the mind that was in Christ Jesus. God has equipped you with your own computer terminal — your brain within the golden bowl inside your head. You have 144 mental and soul faculties awaiting development, although most people only use about four at a time. You must awaken these faculties through study to receive the added mental potential for illumination from divine Mind. To tap this potential, you must study and ponder, not just sit around waiting for illumination to strike.

Mental laziness is the great stumbling block of the world. Most persons use little of their brain power consciously, but you must awaken all your brain cells to open the personal soul records stored in your midbrain. God designed us to be creator gods — when will we, the Elect, choose to pursue this and become the creators of the good that He destined us to be?

Your mental receiving set equals the spiritual illumination you can receive, and to increase that capacity, you must open and develop new brain cells in each life. You must bring everything you have learned in past lives through the veils of illusion for use in the here and now. To begin you must believe, you must know that God created the spiritual universe with the fiat, “Let there be Light!”

How do you gain access to the universal Mind of God? First, you must burn with the desire to unveil the mysteries. Start by lifting your hands in prayer and praise to be filled with Light. To pray or to meditate with your hands on your knees or in your lap holds your seeking soul down in the Land of Egypt. This is a disobedience to law and prevents spiritual illumination. The Bible holds many references to lifting your hands in prayer. Why? Because you are offering your prayers to God.

As you study, remember that two elements are essential in unveiling the heavenly mysteries. First, you must comprehend that the overall spiritual universe is a universe of Light. To comprehend this, you must understand the mysteries of creation contained in the Book of Genesis. Second, you must rigorously obey law — but without forgiveness, you can get nothing. To forgive means to give Light, to give love for what another brings you to lift. This is obedience to law, and you must remember to obey law. Finally, you must believe in the spiritual universe of Light because you — soul and body — are made of that Light. You need some background to comprehend this.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” — Hebrews 11:1-3. Faith is God’s hold on you. Faith is an attribute of God and therefore of all that is — Mind, Substance, and Power. Faith is the power of the Logos, the spoken Word that created everything. The Word still creates for you when you speak it. Faith is new, untouched substance from the Source that permeates soul from the mental to the emotional to the physical life.

To fully comprehend faith, you must contemplate it in the golden silence of the soul in communion with God. To contemplate something is to meditate on it, to revolve it in mind so as to view it from every angle. Most forms of meditation are nothing more than “skull bumping” — they take you nowhere. Hatha yoga emphasizes breathing, and you do draw life into the body through breath. However, controlling the breath brings little enlightenment.

You can learn to fully inflate your atomic mental body with one deep breath to explode atoms for greater available energy. How? Faith permeates the soul first, then the mind, then the emotional life, and finally the physical. All life originates in God. When you breathe, breathe deeply knowing that you are inhaling life, and you will fill your atomic body with billions of atoms that you can explode for greater life and vitality.

“Every good and perfect gift cometh down from the Father of Lights.” — James 1:17. These are lights from above. Your soul vision will show you a universe of Light, but how do you reach it? If the universe is all Light, your body is in and made of Light, and you have no place else to go; you are standing in the Light now. You are already there. Yet you must convince your appetitive soul of the truth of a spiritual universe. To do so, use your great tools of creation, desire, thinking, and imagination.

“Seek ye first the kingdom of God.” — Matthew 66:33. To go up in Spirit is to “seek first the kingdom” until you obey His law. You become the law by obeying it, yet this gives you no right to demand obedience from another soul. Never let any intolerance touch you. When you are tolerant, you do not know that you are tolerant.

Metaphysics starts you on the path by teaching you of the need to resurrect your mental and emotional life, by emphasizing doing the “greater works” to change your old ideas, reactions, and former life pattern. All this is good, but little has been taught about the Ascension of Jesus, which is a greater mystery. To ascend is to move upwards, to proceed from an inferior to a superior degree. You may consider ascension to be an expansion above and beyond your former position in life, to get your feet off earth, as an ascension of consciousness into the Light. Since we know that every perfect gift comes from God, the Light, this serves as the basis for our belief here. You can resurrect your pattern for life and make it greater.

The last chapter of Luke records that Jesus was taken up before their eyes — he ascended. You need not worry about getting to heaven, for how can you go to where you already are? God begot your body, created it of Light. You are immortal this very moment, and can ascend in consciousness in this body of Light. “This is good. Let there be Light” is your first declaration. But if declarations were all you needed, you would be a shining star already. Declarations are only part of ascension of consciousness.

Additionally, you must apply five laws to ascend and unveil the heavenly mysteries: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.” — Matthew 6:33 deals with your desire. “Agree with thine adversary quickly.” — Matthew 5:25 relates to your speech. “What is that to thee? Follow thou me.” — John 21:22 applies to your thinking. “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:22 refers your conduct. “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” — John 12:32 concerns ascension.

Who are you to merely tolerate others without lifting them? You must become law, no matter what they do, and the only way is to obey law. Meet everything life hands you with, “This is good. Let there be Light.” Take a deep breath before you speak, and a greater degree of the same Light-as-Power that shines through a lampshade will also move through you to the whole world. Mind acts on Power as you speak the Word, to transform substance into miracles of healing and lifting. Mind must act on Power to move it from its potential state into its actively kinetic state as energy. This is difficult to visualize, so you must use soul vision to succeed.

Mind acts on the soul faculty of imagination, the eyes of mind, to enable you to see spiritually. You see things with your physical eyes, but the vision we speak of is a soul faculty. Imagination is a mental-spiritual faculty on which divine Mind acts. Desire, thinking, and imagination create a sphere of Light above your head as your personal “sun center.” Use your imagination to create a glowing sun center just above your head. Declare, “Let there be Light,” step into your sun center, and encase yourself in Light to create your desires. “Let there be Light” is your contact with the Source. Take a deep breath, then declare, “Let there be Light,” and you contact your Source.

The sun center of Light you create is made of the substance of faith. Its warmth enfolds you and brings the form of your desire to pass. You are now become faith personified. You enter that Light that you already are. You cannot be hurt or touched by anything anyone says. You stand serene and invulnerable in the world, no matter what happens. For example, water is just water at first, before it becomes steam or ice. Just so with imagination — the “seen” is the substance of faith and the principle to which you cling. Faith gives you your identity with God.

“Seek ye first the kingdom of God.” — Matthew 66:33. Come into that Light, which you already are. This is seeking first the kingdom so all miracles become yours in the Light.

“Agree with thine adversary quickly.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:22. To agree makes you untouchable to the outer world. Do not be self-righteously smug or holier than thou, but be subtle. Not to be a hypocrite “of a sad countenance” requires that you wash all self from your face. To agree quickly means now. This gives the adversary all the credit your little self would like to take. Praise is the secret of agreeing and adjusting. Seek a point of praise for your adversary: “I think you are wonderful. Wanting to make me better is so good of you.” You do not need any adversaries. You can turn them into friends, if you so desire.

“What is that to thee? Follow thou me.” — John 21:22. What business about the other fellow is yours? No one has the right to judge another unjustly, self-righteously or from the self. How do you know what the other fellow thinks or whether he regrets his mistakes? How can you really know all the facts in a case? Only God knows all the facts.

Everyone is here, paying on their soul debts from other lives. You may have been instrumental in pushing that fellow off the path in a previous life. Do not blame him, but recognize that he is paying his debts. Do not interfere with the other fellow’s spiritual lessons. His Guards may be trying to get his lessons through to him. Put him in a sun center of Light and broadcast, “Name, pay your spiritual debts.”

“Abstain from all appearance of evil.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:22. This law goes much further than just meaning crime or evil. It means not using idle words, and not repeating gossip or slander, which are idle words used to recreate past incidents. Do not recreate the past to build a soul debt for yourself and a double debt for the one who started it. Your idle words can erase your own sun center of Light!

Abstain is a stronger term than “avoid.” Avoid ever telling about illness. Put your words into Light and leave room for a supreme miracle. Say as little as possible, for only your “own” can come unto you, usually from the words you speak. When you abstain from evil by not repeating gossip, you pay your soul debt. To avoid some action is to control the urge, but to abstain is to conquer the soul taint.

“I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” — John 12:32. To draw all men to you means that you are responsible for lifting the other fellow. Do God’s work whenever and wherever it comes to you. You cannot lift another even an inch higher than your own state of consciousness. When someone or something comes to you for lifting, give it to the Father, to lift it to where it belongs.

When you ascend, the Power comes through in glory. Your sun center is a container for God’s substance for instantaneous miracles. You then fill your aura with Light, which becomes rays of repulsion to darkness. Rays of repulsion cleanse a person or thing of you and your interference because you enter your sun center and condense the Light from above into the spoken Word of lifting and healing.

The law of accountability states that “Only my own can come to me for lifting.” When you truly accept that whatever comes to you is yours, you will know you are being used as an agent of the Almighty. Remain in your sun center of Light, to focus the great Light coming forth for the universe. Step into your sun center of Light and remain in the Light. This is the mystery of all mysteries: To ascend into the Light always. Let there be Light.

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Five Important Questions

Edna Lister sermon outline; October 27, 1968, Cleveland, Ohio. Scriptures: John 14:5-21, John 1:12-13.

“Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” — John 14:5-21.

“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. — John 1:12-13.

Throughout history, when man has questioned some facet of reality and found no ready answer, he has named it a mystery. A mystery is something that is not yet understood. God implanted a cosmic compulsion within the soul, a relentless curiosity to know what makes things tick. We are always seeking a point of beginning in order to understand some process or some construct.

Nietzsche’s so-called “God is dead” theory is a queer sort of agnostic/atheistic seeking for a secure foundation on which unbelievers may stand. It does not deny that God is, but implies that there was a God, though now He is gone. And, as usual, nothing comes from nothing, which is all the faithless have — nothing.

The mystery of the ocean is that you can depress its surface with a finger, yet it can carry 80,000 tons or more afloat. Science aims to discover the secret forces at work in nature by experimentation and observation so that man may gain control of them.

This aspiration does not alter man’s wonder about how these secret forces were at work centuries before the first scientist noticed them. When science discovers and documents the “how,” it still will not have answered the questions of “why” or “where.”

All this is why we must study the five most important questions, which are all mysteries: The mystery of God, the mystery of personal identity, the Immaculate Conception, the Resurrection, and the Ascension.

Our most imperative need is to have a beginning, a point of origin, a source. Religion is the overall name for this quest. You may practice your religion with faith or be faithless. You may accept or reject, for religion is a personal matter, but everyone lives by faith. You have faith in your parents or teachers, for example. Or you may choose to live by rejection and have faith in that. Some souls seem to arrive on earth riding a tidal wave of rejection and repudiation.

To walk the Via Christa, you first accept the Bible as your textbook for life, not because you are required to, but because it is right and natural. You believe that God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, the prefix omni- meaning “in all ways, in all things and of all places.”

The Gospel of John, the fourteenth chapter, illustrates the Father as a personality. You believe and know that God is both principle and personality. God is the Source of all Light, all Wisdom, Love, and the Word. He is the universal Mind, all Substance, and all Power. You may reject and repudiate these statements, but you cannot change them. You cannot change God. No matter what you do or say, God is still there as All That Is — the stars, the planets, the seasons, and you.

The Light is always there, and science accepts that. Science can use force to change the state of substance or energy, but it cannot add to or subtract from that substance or energy. Science, using technology, can only cause the omnipresent substance and energy to change states of being.

So, ultimately you find that you must believe in, accept, and have faith in God to have Him as your foundation. When you know that God is the foundation of everything, it is no longer a mystery.

The second important mystery is your personal identity with your source of being: “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” — John 1:12-13. The secret of your eternal identity unfolds itself when you accept that you are made of the Light, came from the Light, and will return to the Light. You are the immortal sons and daughters of God now.

You can easily understand the third mystery, the Immaculate Conception, by applying simple scientific facts. Rays of Light are always pelting earth, all under their own specific rate of vibration. When the two seeds of life [sperm and egg, or ovum] are bombarded by focused rays of Light, a physical conception can happen, just as TV waves produce a picture. All this occurs naturally as the result of your first acceptance of God as personality and principle, which prepares the way to accept this on faith.

The fourth important mystery is Resurrection, which means to be lifted up and out of the old into a new spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical condition. The bloodstream, which the soul inhabits and controls through the platelets, is the source of physical life. Rays of Light lifted Jesus’ soul from his body on the cross after his Crucifixion. After the tomb was closed, Jesus called his remaining electronic sparks of life to himself. This was the Resurrection.

The fifth mystery is Ascension to a higher state of consciousness. You may ascend and descend easily. Jesus said, “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” — John 14:16-17.

The Father also adds another Comforter, a new soul portion, whenever you make a new sacrifice of the self. The secret is to be receptive, flexible, and balanced. You must be receptive to new things. When you are flexible, you find it easy to agree with God and adjust to mankind and the world. You cannot hurry time — you can but use time or lose it, redeem it or waste it.

You are always operating under God’s Power and the temptations afforded by your God-given freedom of choice. So choice is your challenge, your tempter. You are always powerful, yet you must learn to shift mental gears speedily to hold your balance on the hub of the wheel of Power.

You may brood and yearn, hunger and thirst after God, or repudiate and reject Him. Yet, eventually, after long ages in some cases, your high choice brings glory and ecstasy to give you triumph.

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Five Important Questions

Edna Lister sermon transcript: October 27, 1968, Cleveland, Ohio. Scribes: Ruth Johnson, Lotus Landis, Irene White. Scriptures: John 14:5-21, John 1:12-13.

This scripture releases such a tremendous Power — it is so great. God has created us with the cosmic urge of divine curiosity. Within the soul is the need for a genesis, a beginning. You need this point of origin in the morning, or you flounder because you have established no starting point for the day.

Those ministers and the pseudo-intellectuals who subscribe to Nietzsche’s “God is dead” theory have rejected God. When you reject your Source, you have no point of origin. You begin with nothing and end with nothing. “God is dead” is now being preached by sects and churches that should give us our point of origin in God.

God sent His creator gods, the Elect, to earth to lift the masses and to establish science and religion. We have accepted and rejected, and the rejection has caused confusion. Objectors accept only themselves. You labor under the law of choice all day so you must choose all day. Everyone is born under faith, just as a child is born breathing, which is an expression of faith. You have faith in your parents, teachers, and traffic signals, but some people say they have no faith in God.

Science is under this same compulsion to unveil the mysteries — this compulsion follows everyone through life. The desire to know is even the basis for wondering why a neighbor moves or where they move. Science cannot reveal “when” or “where” the universe began because they cannot measure it or prove it. Knowing the point of origination comes only through accepting, on faith, a spiritual universe that is operating all the time, beyond the appearance of thing, in the realm of absolute reality. You can know your source of being only by accepting the mysteries, not rejecting them.

The first, most fundamental mystery is knowledge of the Source as God. The second fundamental mystery is your identity with that Source to explain who you are, where you came from, and why you are here. The first two mysteries give you balance.

The ascending Elect must accept religion as representing the Word of God, not the mere opinions of theologians about it. With your acceptance of religion, you accept God as the Creator and the Bible as your primary textbook. Other fundamental mysteries are tenets of the religious life: The Immaculate Conception, the Resurrection, and the Ascension.

In accepting the spiritual universe, you must accept God as its Creator. He said, “Let there be Light” and there was Light. We find the scientific approach to religion under the philosophical principles of God’s omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. “Omni-” means “of all things, in all ways, and of all places.” When we speak of an omnipotent God, we mean God as principle, God as all substance, God as all Power. God is all that is.

Science says the universe consists of one substance in a fixed quantity, to which nothing can be added, from which nothing can be subtracted. However, you can change the form and renew substance. This is how you can produce miracles once you have established your choice under the laws of acceptance or expansion.

If you have rejected religion in the past, today you must accept and be certain to apply the absolute faith of God, not just everyday faith in God. A vast distance and difference lie between the two views.

“As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” — John 1:12-13.

Accepting God as principle satisfies intellect, but does not answer your questions or establish your contact with God as the Source of personality. In the Gospel of John, the first chapter, John establishes Jesus as our identity contact with the Father. To believe on his name is to be born of God. These verses refer to the begotten and created gods who originally descended, the Elect.

How high is your Christing? How deep are your faith and love of God rooted? Do you realize that you look at the Father as you look at each other? How much of the Father do you see? How much do you express? The Christian trinity is the Father, the Son and the Holy Breath or Holy Spirit — we also call this the trinity of the Father, the Mother and the Son.

Archeologists have discovered many symbols of the hidden Mother carved on walls in excavated cities all over the world. She appears throughout the ages, whether she is known as Isis, Demeter, Cerwydden, Buddha’s mother, or the Virgin Mary. In accepting the hidden Mother, you are accepting your identity with the Father of all Light and life.

The mother of evil has been stripped of her name, and now is known only as the black queen, called the mother of cruelty, perversion, and fornication. Women such as Lilith, Hagar, and Jezebel were parts of her. You find her wherever women are debased and depraved.

“If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” — John 14:14-17. The Holy Spirit is the Comforter.

At times of certain great initiations, the Father endows you with a cloud-like portion of Mind, Substance, and Power combined, which enclose life sparks of your own Oversoul substance being added to you. Last October 20, the ascending Elect received a new endowment of the Oversoul, the indwelling Comforter that gives you added ability to contact divine Mind. This depends on your choice — you can accept or reject because your spiritual life depends on your choice. Those who reject refuse to accept responsibility for becoming like unto the Christed One. We all look the opposite way at times, but of course you wouldn’t (spoken in an ironic tone of voice).

The Immaculate Conception is a Roman Catholic doctrine that the Virgin Mary was conceived free from all stain of original sin. However, it has a greater and more mystical meaning. Under the Immaculate Conception, you breathe from the Source and the Breath of Life fills you.

The magnetic currents of earth arise through your feet, the etheric currents descend through the top of your head, they meet at the solar plexus. An explosion, which occurs every twenty-eight days under the lunar phases, forms two seeds of life that o’ershadow both the father and mother seeds (sperm and ovum). The child born of such a union can be a genius.

An ancient cosmological theory stated that when two stars conjoin, a new baby star is born. If you accept the spiritual universe, you can accept this. To accomplish the original Immaculate Conception, God filled Mary’s Ark of the Mother, her womb, with Light and the Father’s divine seed fertilized her seed.

Resurrection is the Christian doctrine concerning Jesus’ rising again on the third day after the Crucifixion, or the rising again of the dead at the Last Judgment. Every change of mind or change in your plan of life comes under the principle of Resurrection, which lifts you up and out of the little self.

Jesus lived mainly in a mental body held together by divine Mind, but he also had a physical bloodstream. When they pierced him in the side on the cross, he had already drawn his physical platelets into the pons of the medulla oblongata at the electronic level. His bloodstream was drained and divine substance was poured in to replace it. Despite the appearance of outer form, all they ever laid in the tomb were the life sparks that Jesus had gathered into his ascended body. Resurrection is the simplest thing in the world — a raised vibration of substance that is part of the “greater works,” which include levitation and acceptance.

Ascension is the Christian doctrine concerning Jesus’ bodily rising into heaven on the fortieth day after his Resurrection. You ascended this morning when you came here. You ascend every time you have high thoughts or do good deeds. Ascension means accepting responsibility and letting others see something of the Father in you.

Acceptance leads to flexibility, which creates balance. Accept all new things as good and part of God — and watch your words. Flexibility means learning to change your mental gears in a hurry, so stand on the hub of the Wheel, not its rim — stand with the Children of Israel in New Jerusalem.

Accept everything as good, do not reject anything. Each thing is right in some way for someone. All is a matter of choice. Choice is your challenge through life, your tempter: the choice of acceptance or repudiation — ice or steam.

Mesh your mental and emotional gears in balance so they will not grind with resentment and rejection. This is the mystery of the Father as the Source, God as personality and principle. You shall travel a pathway of triumph as sons and daughters of the IS-ness and DO-ness of God. Be responsible.

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What Reward for Sacrifice?

Edna Lister sermon outline; November 3, 1968, Cleveland, Ohio. Scripture: Romans 8:16-39.

To those who walk the Path of Ascension, sacrifice is the giving up of self. The whole of the Letter to Romans, the eighth chapter, is about sacrifice. “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” — Romans 8:16-27.

To be called is to be predestined; to be predestined is to be justified and to be justified is to be glorified. You cannot escape your destiny with God. When you have been called up in consciousness and ascension, you must then wait upon the law for justification. You may not ask for justification, but must know that evil falls of its own weight. None of us has never known such rapture as to be glorified.

“What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.” — Romans 8:31-33. You must be willing to sacrifice everything of earth for the honor, loyalty, and integrity of God. Doubt, fear, prejudices, opinions, lukewarmness, and indifference are nothing important, just low vibrations of worldly things.

You may never possess people or things. As the ascending Elect, we know that all things are ours, given of God to be used lavishly. We do not have a stingy God. We are His custodians here on earth, His caretakers. We conquer self and take care to sacrifice all self’s darkness to stand in the Light. The Book of Revelation 2 and 3 record seven promises God has given His Elect through His Begotten Son:

The first promise: “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” — Revelation 2:7.

The second promise: “He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.” — Revelation 2:11.

The third promise: “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.” — Revelation 2:17.

The fourth promise: “He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. And I will give him the morning star.” — Revelation 2:26-28.

The fifth promise: “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.” — Revelation 3:5.

The sixth promise: “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.” — Revelation 3:12.

The seventh promise: “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” — Revelation 3:21.

Finally: “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.

These God-given promises are your rewards for sacrifice. You are triumphant conquerors in Christ!

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What Reward for Sacrifice?

Edna Lister transcript; November 3, 1968, Cleveland, Ohio. Scribes: Elizabeth Barnes, Ruth Johnson, Irene White. Scripture: Romans 8:16-39.

“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall He not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” — Romans 8:16-39.

{This service began with the Memorial Service for Margaret Pratt Doan, who had passed to the other side. Certain comments about her life apply in a universal way, so we include them here.}

Margaret’s life was one of pure sacrifice of self because she didn’t know she was making a sacrifice, she was not conscious of it. In her wish for her family and closest loved ones, she asked that her soul credits be used for spiritual illumination for them. This memorial service is the first of its kind, for an ascended one, so we will have no Bon Voyage because she is already there. Instead we shall offer a prayer of praise. Margaret shall be a living power in our lives, for she has opened a new day through her desire to use her credits as soul illumination for others.

Sacrifice is a giving up, with stress upon idle words. Sacrifice is declaring a consciousness of something higher, an expression of the mind of God, such as when we say, “I give up.”

This entire chapter, Romans 8, speaks of sacrifice, especially verses 16-17. “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” Our present sufferings are unworthy to be compared with the glory to come.

“The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain.” We, who have first fruits of spirit, also groan while waiting for redemption of body. Redeeming the body is drawing the life sparks of soul substance from the outer physical and lifting them to the spiritual body.

God predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son, and declared this to be so in the Magna Carta of Creation. “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

“Everything works together for good” is the source of our declaration, “This is good. Let there be Light.” For this reason, we must declare everything good for Light to move in and make it so. In His Magna Carta, God also planned for us to walk in the Path of Light. The goal is to become perfect, as He called us to be — and every soul has had some contact with idea of life beyond the flesh. The “God is dead” crowd has, in fact, turned more people to God than away from Him. Thus, God uses evil to promote His Power. If you wait upon the Lord and declare everything good, God will justify and glorify you.

What is sacrifice? God never wants you to give up anything good. Yet you must pay your soul debts to clear the way home before you. The Magna Carta declares that you are now on way home even if you have to back up to get there. You must give up doubt, fear, opinions, prejudice, self-pity, and all other soul taints, which are the sacrifices required of you.

What are the rewards of sacrifice? We have seen an ensample of sacrifice of self in the life of Margaret Doan. She was always “on call” — she spent her lifetime being on call, and so became the epitome, the wayshower of making sacrifices. These were the gifts she laid on the altar for God.

The second and third chapters of the Book of Revelation detail the rewards for sacrifice and service to God: The first reward: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches…To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” — Revelation 2:7. An overcomer is a soul who completely sacrifices self.

The physical Tree of Life is in the sacrum plexus, which is the root center of physical love’s expression on earth. When that vital center whirls, it circulates Light through the whole body. You breathe the Light in seven degrees. It requires the three higher degrees of breath to purify the pollution that collects in the four lower breaths. All pollution is not physical from the outer world; much comes from polluted minds. Everyone needs to sacrifice at least some of self’s stupidity, and much lukewarmness of the soul’s desire.

The second reward: “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches…He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.” — Revelation 2:10-11. The crown of life is the thousand-petaled lotus that forms an electronic protective sheath of Light around your physical head to ward off the cross-flow-induced vibrations of earth’s energies.

The third reward: “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.” — Revelation 2:17. The hidden manna is the sustenance you receive from the mind that was in Christ Jesus, the Mind of God. An endless supply is available when you open and fully develop the pineal body, pituitary gland, and the para-thalamus structures in the brain, which open your higher creative center to the full flow of the River of Life.

The fourth reward: “And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. And I will give him the morning star.” — Revelation 2:26-28. “Power over nations” refers to the manner in which your twelve endocrine glands, nerve plexus centers, and vital centers will respond to your high breathing and be in harmony. Yours will be the glow of good health.

The fifth reward: “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.” — Revelation 3:5. To be clothed in white raiment is to constantly fill the auric sheath around you with Light. The keynote to gaining this reward is acceptance, which builds a magnetic wall between you and the world. You must become aware, accept your personal responsibility, and obey all laws as you learn them.

Your loyalty to and love of God are all-important to open the Gates of Light for God’s principles to use you as soul virtues. You then stand on the integrity of your own soul, being compassionate, comprehending, and loving. To increase your service, declare that the Light of God permeates those who curse so that their misused soul substance finally can be restored to them. If you continue doing this repeatedly, when you go before the Father’s throne and He asks how you have cared for those souls He has placed in your hands, you can say, “Father, I have done my very best.”

The sixth reward: “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.” — Revelation 3:12. To be named as a pillar in the temple means that your performance and record of conquering has earned you the right to be among those the Father chooses to release great lifting Light as Power. Refuse to see anything on the outside as less than good, and that alone will increase your soul’s strength to stand unwaveringly. Every time you move up in overcoming the self, germs, viruses, and all contagious and degenerative diseases are healed.

The seventh reward: “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” — Revelation 3:21. The Master’s throne is the Light of life, and it symbolizes the fully opened crown lotus center of the mental body. You have to sacrifice all recognition on the outside and see only good to get there. If God is for you who can be against you? What are you declaring about our nation? God can release double Power for good wherever you declare that the evil resident is good. This is the cradle of the coming wave of Christed souls.

“In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” — Romans 8:28-39. Do you allow anything to separate you from loving Christ? Every time you overcome self’s hold on your soul’s consciousness, clouds of force are wiped away somewhere. What is the depth of your love for Christ? Is it rooted in the center of earth? How high are you persuaded that nothing can separate you from love of God that is Christ Jesus?

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The Secrets of the Soul

Edna Lister sermon outline: November 10, 1968, Cleveland, Ohio. Scripture: Psalm 27.

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion: in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me; He shall set me up upon a rock. And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me. When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face, my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. Hide not Thy face far from me; put not Thy servant away in anger: Thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. Teach me Thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies. Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.” — Psalm 27.

What is the soul? We have so many different words meaning almost the same thing, sometimes used interchangeably, that it’s no wonder so much confusion results. The terms “spirit” and “soul” are oft used examples of this.

Spirit may refer to God overall, or as a part of God, as in “There is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.” — Job 32:8. Spirit refers to the Source, and is supposed to give us our identity, but the term has become too ambiguous over time. Soul is an individuated, personalized spirit, to which God has given the right equipment for being embodied in the physical world.

Soul is condensed substance, containing all parts and attributes involved, then placed in a body, its equipment. The golden bowl, your head, holds your personal computer terminal [hardware] in the brain. The more esoteric psychological terms for soul describe the embodied three-as-one as including the subconscious mind of the appetitive soul, the conscious mind of the rational soul, and the super-conscious mind or Christ mind of the Oversoul. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” — Philippians 2:5. Through the mind of Christ, the soul is open to all of divine Mind and can function every potential power provided in the Magna Carta of God. The first imperative is to accept law and the necessity of your obedience to it. Legend leads us into fact. Implanted within every soul is a universal compulsion to see its own identity, something greater than it is.

The Legend of the Soul of Man: The devil had finally spread out over earth until he believed he was strong enough to take earth over completely, as his kingdom. Yet, he knew he needed one thing to be able to hold it. He called a conference of all his high counselors, saying, “I have decided to take over earth as our kingdom. I need but one thing: Give me man’s soul. I shall then hide it where he can never find it again.”

They pondered till the devil said, “I know, I shall hide it in the depths of the sea. Man can never find it there.” His counselors replied, “No. They will build boats for undersea travel. Man will surely find his soul if you put it there.”

Again they pondered, until the devil said, “Well, then, I shall hide it in the depths of the earth. Man will never find it there.”

The counselors said, “Not there — man will learn to dig for wealth. He will find it if you hide it there.” They continued with greater pondering.

Then the devil said, “I have it! Give me man’s soul and I will hide it deep within the depths of him. He will never look for it there, so he will never find it. It is the last place he will ever look.”

The first great secret of the soul is learning your identity with your Source, which is God as both personality and principle. This relationship, once established, opens the next great secret: You are a creator now. Here you either accept, or repudiate the truth — if you fear or want to avoid taking responsibility for your own life. However, you still must obey the laws, and you face the need for acceptance, sacrifice and obedience, no matter whether it seems too hard or the path too long.

So, eventually you find that you must turn from seeking some easier way and accept your identity as an immortal creator. This opens your creative tools of desire, thinking, and imagination, which you use these tools to contact all Mind, Substance and Power, and to fashion the form of all your heart’s desires.

Mystics have called imagination the kingly faculty and it does rule the faculty that governs visualization. You must turn imagination upward to contact high soul vision so that it can become vivid enough in the Light to build molds that will hold enough condensed substance to become your “added things.” If you grow lax or lukewarm, your molds grow thin and leak substance until you can have no miracle.

Thinking feeds information into the golden bowl that holds your computer mind, the brain and your access to the mind that was in Christ Jesus. You must remain steadfast in thinking high thoughts because you have to play the hand you are dealt in this card game to receive the right answer. Make up your mind to stand and hold onto your burning desire.

The third secret of the soul is now revealed: Self-control versus soul conquering of self. Self-control causes all your difficulties. It can and will betray you into self-exaltation, excuses, self-justification — and that little self, the master of idle words, has a grand vocabulary of excuses for every occasion.

Letting little self be in charge of your mind leads to worship of false gods, and betrays the soul’s highest moments. For example, one woman was afraid to make a declaration of truth for fear she might be wrong. So she said, “God, let the Power create this success, and if I am wrong, slap me down.” She was utterly shocked when I told her that was why rivals were slapping her in the business world. She said, “Why, I’m only talking to God!” Yet her words did not know what she intended, so they had issued an invitation and challenge for others to slap her silly.

Never attempt to bargain with God. Stand on your soul principles, make a declaration as a creator, then praise God that it is so. But do not qualify your declarations or statements. This is the difference between acceptance and repudiation. “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.” — Matthew 5:19.

Some seekers never uncover the third great secret that you are immortal now. This spells out your soul’s desire: “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple.” — Psalm 27:4.

In these verses you may have perfect faith: “For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion: In the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me; He shall set me up upon a rock. And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord.” — Psalm 27:5-6.

The psalmist also tells us: “When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face, my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” — Psalm 27:8.

“I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.” — Revelation 20:11. All references to the face of the Lord refer to the Father as personality.

Read the first and last verses of Psalm 27 to build your faith in God’s Power: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?... Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.” — Psalm 27:1, 14.

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The Secrets of the Soul

Edna Lister sermon transcript; November 10, 1968, Cleveland, Ohio. Scribes: Elizabeth Barnes, Ruth Johnson, Irene White. Scripture: Psalm 27.

Light is all that is, and God is Light. “God is Light, and in him is no darkness at all.” — 1 John 1:5. “The Lord is my light and my salvation.” — Psalm 27:1.

What is Spirit? What is the soul? The words Spirit and soul are used interchangeably, but what do these terms mean? First, remember this dictum: Spirit is one; soul is many. Spirit is One as the universal Wisdom, Love, and the Logos, the Word. Soul entails the many, meaning that it includes all differentiated personalizations of soul, unless a single or select group of souls are under discussion. Spirit is Wisdom, Love, and the Word as One — functioning as One, as Mind, Substance, and Power.

For example, one may say that Spirit is Power, but needs Divine Mind to direct and control it, and Spirit must be acted upon by Power to move it. The Substance of Spirit is the very Breath of Life. Thus, “the Many are One,” meaning that God — the All That Is — is of One Mind, of One Substance, and of One Power, no matter how many ways the One chooses to express as the Many. Man’s various opinions about God through the ages have not affected the Godhead as principle, nor the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as personality.

In the beginning, God created — Light as Eternal Wisdom breathed an unimaginable amount of life sparks of Light into one pool of substance, concentrating it until it condensed to create a triple explosion of Light that filled the space that Wisdom had conceived as the universe within itself. “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” — Genesis 1:3. This was and ever shall be the Creative Fiat, the Word spoken by God to embody Spirit within a myriad of forms.

Then God took a portion of this most rarified Light as life sparks, which were God as Spirit, and begat the first group of souls, who were each later given a golden bowl of Light to hold mind apportioned to them as individualized beings. All ancient records admit that there is a sun center at the Source containing two blue stars symbolizing the first precipitation of Light into form. Divine Mind has always been, as has the golden bowl. We are lesser creator gods begotten from the Whole, given a golden bowl by God to know Him through our mind, which is one with our soul. We are each an original, potential creators-in-the-making. This is how God the One becomes God the Many.

Light is all that is, both animate and inanimate, from the Source of All Light to the densest rock of earth. Since God, the Light, is all consciousness using some degree of mind, all Creation is conscious in one degree or another — from the life spark of Light, through every phase of Creation, returning to the Mind of All That Is. Experience teaches, and every life spark constantly adds its share of experience-lessons, what it learns, to the Mind overall. This holds true as the life sparks of soul substance progress through the animal kingdom, through the creature stage of consciousness, and through the child of earth stage where instinct rules.

Soul substance may have form, but only God can breathe a living soul into that form. “The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” — Genesis 2:7. Man could not become a creator himself without the divine spark of life. The first recognizable vehicle the newly begotten gods occupied was a spiritual body of electronic “fire.” The soul’s degree of descent into matter determined the kind of body it needed, proceeding from electrons to atoms to molecules and finally into cells.

Each soul is given the power to incarnate and thereby to learn what and who it really is. Thus, God has implanted an inner compulsion within every living soul to seek a Source greater than itself. This holds true from the lowest to the highest form of life and mind. Inspiration, acceptance, and devotion combine to create the compulsion that drives even the creature to seek God, whether it be a false god or the true One. As you breathe Light, Spirit fills you with inspiration to seek and find, the power to accept whatever comes to you, and to remain devoted to God as your Source of All Being.

All souls must abide by several imperatives: Because the soul of man is always seeking, you must seek your true eternal identity as a child of God. You must have a conscious identity with God for you stand before Him, made in His image and likeness. So, first, you must seek your identity with God. Second, you must accept that you are a creator made in His image and likeness, and this is the point at which you must either accept or repudiate Him. Worshipping God is the first sacrifice of self. Here you find that divine inspiration has led you to seek and find, to accept and to sacrifice self, to worship the Source of Being in devotion, and to shepherd His Creation with full responsibility.

You are immortal now. You are as immortal now as you ever shall be. Take up and faithfully discharge the responsibility of being immortal now. Turn your imagination up to the Light and let it become soul vision. Don’t let the walls of the creative prayer molds you’ve created grow so thin they cannot hold the Light you must release for God, as His agent. Keep them strong for God’s Light as substance to bring them into outer manifestation. To do this, you must stabilize your thinking until it is perfectly steadfast. Your soul’s desire has to burn white hot, but it must follow the path seen by your highest ideal in imagination, chosen by your thorough thinking and planning. To control these three tools you must first control the self until soul completely conquers it. Idle words are self-expressions and soul conquering lies above that. You cannot qualify the article of your soul’s covenant, or bargain with God.

There are three great Secrets of the Soul: If you must challenge God, say, “Let this be the lesson of all lessons.” If something negative happens, you can lift it immediately and say, “It never happened” — thus, declaring it melted, dissolved, and absorbed into Light. In the moment of need, declare, “It is good to be hidden in the tabernacle of the Lord,” and He fills your aura with Light. Stand upon the rock of the Lord. Tell God you are good for something and ask for more. Today, we have entered a new Age, here and now. Ascend into your sun center and into the midst of that Light, read Psalm 27.

When a door is closed to you on the outer, stand before your Father and say, “Father, please, let room be made for me!” If you can have a little miracle with two or three standing together as creators, think what a hundred together can do! Let God’s Light as Power entice you upward. Wait upon the Lord. Never repudiate the Light. Keep moving up into it! Only in His Light can you truly comprehend the three Secrets of the Soul: Your identity with God, your co-creatorship with Him, and your immortality now!

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Three States of Consciousness

Edna Lister sermon outline; November 17, 1968, Cleveland, Ohio. Scriptures: Hebrews 12:1-13, 2 Peter 3:9-13, 2 Esdras 3:6, 2 Esdras 8:52.

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.” — Hebrews 12:1-13.

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” — 2 Peter 3:9-13.

“And thou leadest him into paradise, which thy right hand had planted, before ever the earth came forward.” — 2 Esdras 3:6.

Consciousness is a state of awareness, of being mentally awake, alive and alert to everything around one. Webster’s American Dictionary defines consciousness as “the knowledge of sensations and mental operations, or of what passes in ones own mind; the act of the mind which makes known an internal object. Consciousness of our sensation, and consciousness of our existence, seem to be simultaneous. Consciousness must be an essential attribute of spirit.”

Mystical wisdom teaches that to be aware is to be alive and alert on three distinct levels, physical, mental and spiritual. Consciousness also means to be observant. Yet to be truly observant, you must add to today’s awareness all you know of the past, for success in life consists in your ability to make comparisons. Unless you integrate yesterday’s experiences, you cannot meet today’s needs in a balanced way. If one episode leaves you confused, you consequently misunderstand what happens today.

All your experience, past and present, is instantly available to you now. It resides in divine Mind, in the River of Life. Out there, in the universal record, everything that has ever touched you is stamped with your soul’s number and name. You can never disown it, for it is yours.

“And thou leadest him into paradise, which thy right hand had planted, before ever the earth came forward.” — 2 Esdras 3:6.

“For unto you is paradise opened, the tree of life is planted, the time to come is prepared, plenteousness is made ready, a city is builded, and rest is allowed, yea, perfect goodness and wisdom.” — 2 Esdras 8:52. In a time to come, paradise will be opened again. Earth will again enjoy beauty. According to Plato, the true earth is now just above the outer visible earth, in the high substance of the ether.

According to Esdras, a “time of threshing” precedes the “time of refreshing.” “By measure hath he measured the times; and by number hath he numbered the times; and he doth not move nor stir them, until the said measure be fulfilled.” — 2 Esdras 4:37.

God gives each soul three phases of mind that are also three states of consciousness: Subconscious mind, conscious mind and super-conscious mind. These states of consciousness correspond to three phases of soul: The creature soul, the embodied rational soul and the Oversoul. Mind is not different from soul; they are the same.

Psychology describes God, as the principle of mind, as states of consciousness in mankind. Psychology describes God, as personality, according to phases of soul. The conscious mind is always looking out, taking in the world of things. The conscious portion of soul is always looking up, taking in divine Mind. As Oversoul, the super-conscious mind, you pull in outward things and pull everything upward. Thus, a three-way conflict is operating within each soul at all times.

The subconscious mind is filled with the memories and experiences from all incarnations, everything from the world. All its propensities (natural inclinations or tendencies) are rooted in the self, the “little me.” However, despite its propensities, the subconscious appetitive soul is forever seeking to give itself up to side with conscious rational soul and super-conscious Oversoul, which we call “conscience.” Conscious mind is subject to the world-mind’s influence and is often very willful, full of “I’m right.” Oversoul is forever conscious of its identity with God, and is always pulling the embodied rational soul upward in seeking, while the self of appetitive soul pulls it down.

The battle, the struggle, the conflict between self and soul is constant. The subconscious battles the super-conscious and the conscious mind stands between, seeking to ignore the struggle while moving higher in consciousness. The battle goes both ways because conscious mind may be proud of everything intellectual: “I know. I think,” until it surrenders to Oversoul to become an ambassador of Light. Hebrews 12 tells the story of this conflict: “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” — Hebrews 12:4. You need repentance and contrition, but you must repent while on our way up in consciousness to God.

“Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” — Hebrews 12:11. It is never joyous to pay our debts, yet a glory, a lightness of Oversoul descends.

“Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.” — Hebrews 12:12-13. Unless you make a straight path, the silver cord slips off the spinal vertebrae, slowing your physical ascension. To walk a straight path is to be healed. Eventually, you must burn away the silver cord to ascend, replacing it with the golden cord. As the highest level of your Oversoul awakens under your sacrifices of self, your silver cord moves up to meet it. This requires perfect desire.

Are you holding out any single element in your desire to be perfect? Have you sold everything, every bit of the subconscious mind taints, wants and gimmes, to obtain the pearl of great price? You must lift everything, not allowing a phone call, letter or word to condition your life or consciousness.

“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” — Matthew 5:48. You must be lifted up in consciousness to ascend. First, you must forgive yourself to climb the path, the golden way. Then you must take up your bed and walk, meaning that you lift your desire above your head.

All you need is the desire to be perfect. Chastening is good for you. Take up your cross, which is the self, and lift it until you dwell in heavenly triumph and victory.

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Three States of Consciousness

Edna Lister sermon transcript; November 17, 1968, Cleveland, Ohio. Scribes: Elizabeth Barnes, Ruth Johnson, Irene White. Scriptures: Hebrews 12:1-13, 2 Peter 3:9-13, 2 Esdras 3:6, 2 Esdras 8:52.

Consciousness is awareness. Many souls live a half-life while being only 10 percent aware, and 50 percent would be huge for the majority. Some never move up in consciousness beyond their physical body and its needs and appetites, but they believe they are conscious and aware. Yet to ascend, you must build your consciousness on a base of wisdom that is alive, alert, and actively knowledgeable of everything that is happening around you. A self-induced semi-blindness keeps most people from being fully aware of anything outside their own little personal world, but such self-centered awareness is no sound basis for the soul who is interested in ascension of consciousness.

You will get nowhere unless you become conscious of the significance of your own past experiences. If you have no way of comparing episodes, you are bound to misunderstand all the experiences of your life, and memory of experiences in past lives is necessary for an ascended consciousness. You can have no understanding today without knowing history. So you must accept the fact that you can access all the experiences of your past lives, too. This is possible. Only awareness, observation, and acceptance that you can contact your past is necessary. You have named and numbered everything you have ever touched with your unique vibration — and remember it with what we call “soul knowing,” which Plato called “recollection.”

God created us in His image and likeness. Your subconscious, conscious, and super-conscious mind are all parts of the One Mind operating on three levels. Appetitive soul uses subconscious mind, the rational soul uses conscious mind, and the Oversoul uses the super-conscious mind. So God has given you your own share of the One Mind for your use in contacts within the world. The subconscious mind of the appetitive soul is crammed full of detrimental memories, but is always seeking to ascend and join the rational soul. When the rational soul is swamped with earthy interference, Oversoul is enticed and tempted to descend, to please the self, and to enjoy the kingdoms of world.

The Oversoul is that phase of the living soul that has never been involved with earth, but has always been in contact with the mind that was in Christ Jesus. Those who live Christian a life are often aware that they have contacted some higher soul awareness from above. One half of your rational consciousness is always looking upward, while the other half is always being dragged down by physical appetites and the emotions. You can be in so much inner conflict that you cannot even think straight. This constant three-way conflict among “down there,” “here,” and “up there” goes on within you daily. It’s no wonder that you sometimes forget you are a Son or Daughter of God with your own share of the One Mind.

“My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.” — Hebrews 12:5-8.

The “little me” is always in conflict with your rational mind. The subconscious monsters you battle are the “bastards” that seek to pull you down and control your mental life. But appetitive soul is designed to control body functions in perfection, nothing more. When you clear out the mental trash, the subconscious reverts to its original purpose — it tells you what to eat, what to do for your good. The vitamins, minerals, and healthy foods being recommended are gradually making us better. Eventually, when you bring all parts of your soul under your Oversoul’s conscious direction and control, the body will function in the divine image and likeness of God.

The subconscious urges, promptings, and hunches are meant to serve as warnings, not as a replacement for thinking. The subconscious mind is supposed to find lost or hidden things for you, tell you when to turn off the lights, to check the stove, or check the locks on the doors. The subconscious mind also becomes a recorder for dreams, visions, and soul flights. You can unfold all this under ascension, and then be able to remember where you were while you were asleep. This phase of consciousness can be perfected, but you must chasten it whenever it steps out of line, beyond its proper function.

In most people, their rational conscious mind has become lazy and is all too prone to fall down and worship “little me.” It’s up to you to recondition your conscious mind and evict all the time- and space-wasting fetishes your subconscious has stored there. For example, your conscious mind gathers worldly facts, then mixes them with subconscious hunches to make comparisons and choices. That’s a poor use of your conscious mind’s abilities. You can contact divine Mind for a record of everything you have ever done.

As you conquer self, you are able to go to the Source. You are moving up to contact the Mind of God, the Christ mind. You will put up the antennae of Oversoul, and will remember past lives. The Elect are entering into the age of a marvelous three-way consciousness. Oversoul can be tempted to fall down and worship self, to be conscious of “me” and “how wonderful I am.” But Oversoul can also be enticed to remain in constant communication with the Almighty, and that is its strongest inclination.

When you get to the point of choice where you regularly chasten yourself, God won’t have to do it for you. Even children can learn to command and conquer self, to make their own choices, and learn to walk the Pathway of Ascension. The world is full of old souls who need not wait for some imagined maturity to prompt them to ascend. Nearly everyone has met a five-year-old who’s turning fifty!

“Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” Not many have resisted evil to the point of bloodshed — we have not needed to in our mostly civilized society. When you hear someone say, “My heart bled for her,” it is usually in grief of soul for a loved one who is not living the right way. However, our hearts should bleed with contrition for failing our Guards and our Fathers so often and for so long. So many “good Christians” ignore their Guards who must then step back and wait until they become aware. Despite all this, our Guards and Fathers must receive us back, their prodigal sons and daughters.

Too often it is the “good” people who criticize others the most — family and friends, to help them “improve,” public officials, TV personalities, politicians, and the government. Whoever you criticize, you pay half their debt plus what you’ve created. Put a throne above each person you would criticize and fill him with pure Light for healing. This treatment can lift the whole world and wipe evil from earth. Whenever you chasten yourself, you release the chastening breath of God’s heavenly love. Do this and earth can be saved faster. Strive and struggle with your heart’s blood to lift other fellow — yearn and brood over your loved ones as you climb the ladder of ascension. Let the love of God move out on your words of praise to recondition the souls of your neighbors and the world.

When the Holy Spirit descends through you, the Light around you can easily be an offense to others. Now if you credit yourself for this, you slide down the greased pole. If the Light you carry stops conversation in a room, don’t imagine they are talking or thinking about you. One person can upset a whole group, while another can chasten himself and lift a whole group.

“Lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.” — Hebrews 12:12-13. Be deliberate about keeping your hands above your waistline, above the Land of Egypt. When you first sit, lift your hands slowly and feel your weight lift from the chair because when you are conscious, self no longer weighs you down. When you breathe high and deeply, your knees grow strong and straight. As you make full consciousness your new habit, you find it easy to make stronger paths for your feet, lest you stumble. Feet represent understanding, and greater consciousness increases your comprehension.

As you breathe high and deeply, the etheric currents and three higher degrees of the Breath of Life descend your spine. Two streams of Light (positive and negative, solar and lunar) flow along the outside of your desire body’s spinal nerve ganglia to hold the physical spine in proper alignment. They come together at top of the spine at the Atlas vertebra to hold the head. Weak knees make a weak back; the streams of Light then go off and you may have a fall or rupture a disk. When your breathing holds the streams of Light to their proper function, the physical body will agree. When you straighten your spine, the disks and spinal cord are perfectly protected.

“Thou leadest him into paradise, which thy right hand had planted, before ever the earth came forward.” — 2 Esdras 3:6. “For unto you is paradise opened, the tree of life is planted, the time to come is prepared, plenteousness is made ready, a city is builded, and rest is allowed, yea, perfect goodness and wisdom.” — 2 Esdras 8:52.

The Books of Esdras in the Apocrypha are the writings of the Hebrew priest and scribe Ezra. He wrote of a time to come when the paradise of the Garden of Eden will be opened to man again. Earth will again enjoy the beauty of God’s paradise. Esdras refers to a time of threshing, and we are in the threshing time now. “How long shall I hope on this fashion? when cometh the fruit of the floor of our reward? Uriel the archangel gave them answer, and said, Even when the number of seeds is filled in you: for he hath weighed the world in the balance. By measure hath he measured the times; and by number hath he numbered the times; and he doth not move nor stir them, until the said measure be fulfilled.” — 2 Esdras 4:35-37.

Plato also wrote of a paradise just above earth in the etheric substance, called the “upper world,” waiting to o’ershadow earth.

“We dwell in a hollow of the earth and think we dwell on its upper surface; and the air we call the heaven, and think that is the heaven in which the stars move. But the fact is the same, [109e] that by reason of feebleness and sluggishness, we are unable to attain to the upper surface of the air; for if anyone should come to the top of the air or should get wings and fly up, he could lift his head above it and see, as fishes lift their heads out of the water and see the things in our world, so he would see things in that upper world; and, if his nature were strong enough to bear the sight, he would recognize that that is the real heaven [110a] and the real light and the real earth. For this earth of ours, and the stones and the whole region where we live, are injured and corroded...But the things in that world above would be seen to be even more superior to those in this world of ours.... And in this fair earth the things that grow, the trees, and flowers and fruits, are correspondingly beautiful.” — Plato, Phaedo 109d-110a,d.

Everyone can think of answers he would like to have, answers that can only come from God. God on the other hand has questions for us: How soon will the Elect among the descended begotten creator gods assume responsibility to heal the unsaintly? How many of us take on the internationalists {the globalists of the 21st Century} to call down upon them the fires of heaven, to put crosses on their mouths, and to close the mouths of degraders? We can release this power, and God is great enough to stop them through us.

God already used His word scrambler on man when He confounded man’s speech at the Tower of Babel. Declare the dark words of demagogues are instantly changed into the words God wants to hear. Talk to the world in terms of God from your home. Do this daily. Fill the earth with Light, working to God’s advantage. God wants all His bastards healed, so speaking the Word for God can speed up time and clean up the evil. Man’s three states of consciousness — subconscious, conscious, and super-conscious — must be folded into the three-in-one at the level of God consciousness to truly lift earth.

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Let Your Light So Shine

Edna Lister sermon outline; November 24, 1968, Cleveland, Ohio. Scriptures: Matthew 25:1-13, Matthew 5:14-16, Matthew 6:22-23.

“Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.” — Matthew 25:1-13.

“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.

How do you let your light so shine? “So” means “in a way or manner indicating a greater degree.” We use “so” to emphasize a point or the extent of our desire. “So” is also an exclamation of disapproval or triumph. “Let” means the “degree of” and sets the keynote for surrender. Where does it come from? You are the light of the world.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” — James 1:17

“God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” — Genesis 1:3

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” — John 1:1-4

“Ye are the light of the world.” — Matthew 5:14. Do not hide our light. Do not seek credit, but give the credit to God.

The first step in letting your light so shine is to surrender: “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. “Thine eye” cannot mean the physical eye, left or right, so it must refer to the mystic third eye that you use for soul vision. When you notice darkness and evil, you “see” it. “If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” — Matthew 6:23. If our eye is “single,” that is, focused on the Light, our whole body will be full of Light.

All of this is great theory and sounds good, but how do I get to this Light? How do I make it a practical thing, working for me and through me every day? Above, in the atmosphere, lightning needs no vehicle through which to operate — two forces clash and explode, creating a havoc of fire. You often clash with opposing force in the world, sometimes creating ruin and havoc. This potentially destructive power must be under the direction and control of mind. Mind needs a vehicle, an instrument, some material object through which to operate. The ten virgins are a perfect example of this.

Virgins are innocent, equal, and they begin at the same starting place. It takes ten of them to confer spiritualized personality, to make a perfect soul. The parable of the ten virgins has practical, metaphysical, and mystical values. The ten represent, first, the five senses pointed into the outer to induct from the world, and second, five pointed upward in consciousness. The five senses directed to the world become the foolish virgins, while the five focused upward become the wise virgins. All the senses remain foolish unless you consciously lift them up into your full awareness, which you can do by lifting your desires to mate with will and become the Christ conscious I AM of super-conscious mind and Oversoul. We call this initiation the Christing.

As the ten virgins — already negative and positive, dual in nature — move up and touch the cerebellum and pons of the medulla oblongata, at the base of the skull, they divide there, five to the left and five to the right, five added to the pituitary gland as intuition, five added to the pineal body as illumination. They are equal to this point. Now comes choice. They take turns at inducting from the world and from above, and also work together to awaken the pineal body and pituitary gland. As long as the senses work together, the illumination continues and all ten are wise virgins.

If five virgins remain focused down in the world, they use up their oil and must ascend to receive oil from the pineal body and pituitary gland. If they have no oil, they have no high vibration for lifting what they sense. You cannot awaken the para-thalamus structures unless the ten virgins are alive, alert and aware, and have enough oil. God’s powerhouse never breaks down, so you can always find oil (Light) for your lamp. The foolish virgins are always starting over, have no deadline, and will always gladly wait for another day.

You begin choosing your courses of action in heaven, before you leave for earth. An angel from the Order in charge of the Light powerhouse asks you how much Light you want to take with you. People give many answers: Enough to be a good father or mother, a minister, to have wealth or fame, or to help the world.

When you first open the pineal body and pituitary gland, you are a balance of love and wisdom. Love is watching and seeing, and wisdom is listening and hearing. You must cultivate the endocrine glands to provide the pressure to push you up, not to squeeze or shrink you. Stop being a slave in the tower of Babel and start being a servant in the tower of God. You can stand in a tiny niche or move on into spaciousness when you step off the Wheel of Fate and onto the

Path of Destiny.

The ten wise virgins open your seeing, hearing, and all the Light above. Then your senses are alert and aware of everything above and below. You can easily lift everything into the Light and let your Light so shine while watching and listening for the bridegroom.

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Let Your Light So Shine

Edna Lister sermon transcript; November 24, 1968, Cleveland, Ohio. Scribes: Elizabeth Barnes, Ruth Johnson, Irene White. Scriptures: Matthew 25:1-13, Matthew 5:14-16, Matthew 6:22-23.

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” — Matthew 5:16.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” — James 1:17.

“God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” — Genesis 1:3.

“Ye are the light of the world.” — Matthew 5:14. What would we do without Light? Not very much, would we? Do not hide your light under a bushel. Do not seek credit for what that Light does through you, but give all the credit to God.

Let your Light so shine! How great a word so is. “S” symbolizes the serpent Moses raised up in the wilderness — it represents wisdom and is a symbol of the mysteries. “O” represents the circle of unity. We use the word “so” so often in our common speech.

The dictionary says that “so” represents “a way” or “a manner” — it indicates a higher degree for any phrase or statement. “So” is also an exclamation of approval or triumph. “So” is a definite measuring rod telling the world the exact extent of your desire. The tone of your voice as you say “so” pinpoints the exact degree of your desire beneath the surface. “So” chronicles your true desires on the invisible records of your lines of light and responsibility. Early Christians believed in a recording angel, which acted as a similar restraint in those days.

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” — Matthew 5:16. Pondering this passage from the Sermon on the Mount, I believe that Jesus must have astounded the group who heard him say this. How much Light do you have? A city set on a hill can’t be hidden. Don’t put your Light under a bushel. What are you hiding your candle under, world opinions and ideas? Then he tells them, “Let your Light so shine.” “So” means according to your degree of consciousness. “That they may see your good works.” “They” means the world. Your task is to make yourself good so others can be happy. Stand in the Light and let them see your good works so they will glorify your Father which is in heaven. Don’t take credit for the good that results — credit the Light instead. When you stand in the Light and are of the Light, not self, you will be pleasing to them.

“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. Let the Light shine from your eyes to witness to your degree of Christianity. “You are the light of the world,” and “Let your light so shine” are statements that deal with the world — the psychological and metaphysical approaches — but “If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light” is the mystical approach, describing the opening of the “third eye” of mystic vision to the Light that comes from above.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” — James 1:17. Whatever comes to you is a gift, for your good, or something for you to lift up to God. It’s a matter of choice — you can choose either to see Light or darkness. If you focus your mystic eye on darkness and mention it, you are guilty of using idle words, and “If thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.” You must direct and control your own thinking. When you let your emotions rise up and clash with your thinking, you use God’s perfect Light to see all the evils of the world. How great will you let that darkness be? Your choice shows your moral and ethical base — it must come from within — so what is your choice?

You choose how light your body is, or you choose partial darkness. Here we have a theory that each must try and apply for himself. How do you make the application of Light from above practical for everyday use? Light must work through an instrument. Lightning is electricity, energy that can illumine or destroy, but it’s the product of the same divine Mind, Substance, and Power, operating at a lower degree than the supernal Light. The electricity that powers a light bulb can kill you, and the same Light that heals can destroy. Its nature, which is power exercised as energy, doesn’t change.

Light and darkness are two forces coming from opposite directions in a manner similar to the way lightning operates. Unlike lightning, which is merely an electrostatic discharge, Light must have a director-controller. Man’s desire, thinking, and imagination are the mental and soul faculties that he uses to direct and control the focus of Light when he speaks the Word. Negative thinking, emotions, and speech, based on self-pity, anger, resentment and fear, can cause an explosion and a wreck on the outer. Thus, you can misdirect and use the perfect Power and Mind of God in an uncontrolled way, and reap what you have sown and deserve.

Every parable is a lesson moving from psychological to mystical values. God sent us forth as His agents, but under our own control according to the laws He established by His will. Free will means that you have the freedom to choose whether you will obey those laws. God waits to see how you will use His will as a creator. These are among the mysteries that teach, that give you direction and control of your own life of mind and soul.

The ten virgins refer to the five physical senses, to five different sensations, ways of thinking, ways of feeling emotions, stemming from the subconscious mind — any of the possible ways through which you can experience life in a body in this world. Each of the five can operate in two directions — up or down — depending on your choice. Thus, the five virgins become ten in this parable.

[Note: the molecular desire body duplicates the cellular physical at a higher vibratory rate, interacting with it in ways that physical science does not yet understand. Scientists would refer to this interaction as psychosomatic, implying that it’s all in your head, but it’s really the result of the soul’s action on the body. The source of confusion is the names of the body parts are the same for both molecular and cellular bodies. In fact, you have a body vehicle for at least four discernible levels in the electromagnetic spectrum: the cellular, molecular, atomic, and electronic.]

The cellular sacral plexus, rooted in the molecular desire body at the base of the spine (just where the tailbone begins), is seat of the vibrations arising from the five senses. The cellular sacral plexus supplies some of the 22 abdominal structures within the pelvis and the lower limbs. [Next, is Edna Lister describing something like fiber-optic cables?] Two molecular “cords” (really channels, passive and active, lunar and solar) arise from the center of the molecular sacral nerve ganglia, each cord ending in five “fibers,” making ten in all. These cords lie on either side of the molecular spinal column, working conjointly with a third “cord,” that rises within the spinal cord itself.

The etheric vitality to feed your desire body comes from deep breathing that mixes and mingles with the earth’s magnetic currents rising up through your feet. The desire body’s vitality also nourishes your physical vehicle in addition to the food you eat. Your bodies are rooted in the earth and the world, but your soul is rooted in heaven.

To get greater Light as soul illumination and intuition, you have to raise the rate of vibration of your desire to a white hot degree. Your desire body is not only the seat of the five senses, but also of all hypochondriacal ailments, which are the result of psychological neuroses. Hypochondria results from the influence of self on your mind and emotions. A true psychosomatic illness is the result of allowing self to affect your soul. Let your light so shine! You can’t afford to let self rule and live after the creature-like pattern of human nature. If you do, then the five senses fall back under the control of self, into the solar plexus center in the Land of Egypt, causing terrific physical upset.

As you lift five senses into perfection, in the process called sublimation, you raise them up through the vital centers to the brow center in your forehead. When they reach the heart center, you enter a drab period in life, during which you wonder if it’s all worth the effort. Like the tortoise who beat the hare, bear in mind that you will win the race by determination, endurance, and devotion to your goal, which is God.

Temptations will abound when you finally lift the five senses to the throat center ruled by the self, constantly expressing as “I, me, my,” and “mine.” The tests will urge you to use idle words to see how well you control your tongue. Once you have lifted the senses to the brow center, your faculty of desire touches the seat of will situated there, and an explosion of Light opens the mystic eye of the soul for soul vision. The Light then lifts the faculties of desire and will into the brain — will to the pineal body, desire to the pituitary gland. Thus, you sublimate the five original senses of the physical body.

While you are lifting the five physical senses, you are also lifting the ten molecular virgins up the two mystical cords along your spine to the pons of the medulla oblongata. Once there, the fibers within the cords will cross over along an X-shaped pair of pathways — fibers from the left to the brain’s right hemisphere and from the right side to the left hemisphere. These molecular fibers, five on a side, will each contact a receiver neuron in the brain’s gray matter, flowing through them as electrical current within a conducting wire. Inside each of the ten specialized molecular neurons the soul’s memory records of its entire history will then reside, ready to be accessed in an instant at need.

Using the the molecular endocrine and central nervous systems, the soul then creates a circuit [electrochemical] linking the optic chiasm, thalamus, hypothalamus, pineal body, pituitary gland, and newly created para-thalamus structures. The soul’s records (physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual) of experiences in its present body constantly update the eternal record of its core identity. The information carried in the circuit travels through the constant flow of Light from and back to the Oversoul star.

While all this is going on, the ten virgins, five wise and five foolish, begin to unfold their roles in the Master’s parable. Immediately after the explosion of Light, you will discover a growing awareness that Light is now constantly descending through the top of your head, filling your higher creative centers (the glands and nerve structures there) as the Light descends to fill your atomic body to brim and to overflow of unimaginable creative power. If you do not experience this, you must redouble your praise and thanksgiving until you do — and you will have to keep on at that pace for however long it takes to build your soul stamina.

We must unfold the symbolism of the ten virgins for better understanding of the mysteries they hold. The two ascending molecular cords each carry five connector neurons: The five left-side neurons will connect all love-related faculties, opening new watching and seeing capacities. The five right-side neurons will connect all wisdom-related faculties, opening new listening and hearing capacities. All this happens in the decussation of the pyramids at the pons, before the neurons move up to complete the circuit in the brain.

We know that five virgins could remain awake and five could go to sleep. The alert virgins will make sure they have enough oil in their lamps, meaning that they will constantly partake of the spiritual Light that descends. These are the wise virgins who keep their lamps burning and trimmed. The five foolish virgins of permissive love can fall all the way down to the lower creative center to wallow in the darkness of the soul enslaved by sensation, including the worst of the physical expressions (fornication, lust, etc.), emotional expressions (hate, fear, revenge, etc.), and mental expressions (gossip, lies, etc.). This is how they fall asleep and burn all the oil in their lamps.

Love expands, often into excess, but wisdom contracts. The wise virgins have a different experience and expression. When the soul has been awakened in the molecular body and remains awake, you don’t slumber and sleep. The wise virgins constantly receive the oil of spirit, fill their lamps, and keep them trimmed and burning. When the five senses are lifted to the para-thalamus structures, they open the all-seeing eye of soul to the Light. Imagination becomes soul vision, and you feel it throughout your body. You see above with what was formerly your imagination, but the visual tract now includes your Oversoul star, so you are seeing reality in the Light flowing through your optic chiasm to fill your optic nerves until you are physically aware of the vision. Thus, while you started out with a choice between Light or darkness, you are now living on two levels of consciousness.

God’s powerhouse operates eternally and infinitely with no possibility of a Power failure. The Light is released as Power, and it can destroy as well as create, as Jesus showed us when he withered the fig tree (Mark 11:12-25). This same Power is released to every soul who sublimates the senses. If a soul then falls asleep and becomes stubborn and obstreperous, he blinds himself to Light. Be constantly aware that God is there as the Light that is in you. This is the natural state of the souls made in the image and likeness of God.

God has given each soul the power of choice. You can live hundreds of years; you can appear and disappear as Jesus did. This is your choice, the choice of each soul according to degree and kind in all walks of life. Just as God can move the souls of planets and stars to make way for miracles, so your Oversoul star can expand when you let your Light so shine. When your Oversoul star expands your mystic eye to the Light, no evil can appear too great for Light to conquer. No one can put an evil sticker on you saying that you can’t be as perfect as God is perfect. So stop pasting stickers on yourself! You are the Light of the world. Let your Light SO shine, pouring the Wisdom, Love, and Glory of God into and through you to fill your life with His good.

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Unwaveringly I Stand

Edna Lister article; Prayer Circle newsletter, Washington, D.C. Scripture: James 1:17.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, or shadow of turning. — James 1:17.

James tells us that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, or shadow of turning.” The available, potential powers of God work through each of us as Light from above.

Light moves forth as substance to become whatever our statements, decrees, declarations, or prayers form as our spoken Word. Under law, a vibration accelerates when you speak the Word from a deeply held inner conviction so firm that no outer vibration can touch or disturb you. The world calls the result a miracle.

One moment’s wavering or turning to the shadows of earth can cut your new vibration, puncturing your mold, allowing the substance being lowered into visibility to dissolve and sublimate again into pure Light, from which it was being formed.

Until you learn the lesson of obedience to this one law of constancy and steadfastness, you will be doing your work over and over again. When you are unwavering in your work, you take advantage of the Light-substance now being released from the new Star of Bethlehem, which is reaching its arms of glory down to earth to lift all people and nations back to their Source.

We are creators, each of us, endowed from the beginning with three creative tools — desire, thinking, and imagination — waiting for us to use under law on invisible substance to bring forth into condensed form all the desires of our heart and mind — new positions, new friends, and everything we need for our daily expression.

As the Light moves forth for your creations, it also forms a shield or aura around your body, a sphere of Lights, that same Light that formed the chariot of fire in which Elijah was caught up into heaven. It becomes a chariot of fire for you, too, if you so declare it, and lifts you into your new heaven or Mount of Transfiguration.

When you step into your chariot of fire as a creator, exercising both direction and control, you harness your three creative tools, imagination, desires, and thinking — the powers that are ready to draw your chariot.

You place imagination, the most important of the three, in the center, with thinking on the left and desire on the right, and divine Mind as guardian and protector. Then, no barrier earth can produce or erect against you can prevail. It is only when you forget that you must be constant in standing and holding fast to your goal that there is confusion and delay in your plans.

We, as begotten sons and daughters of God, created of Light by divine Mind, dwelling in this physical body-form, do establish ourselves under divine law to be obedient to the constant laws of the Creator.

Let us now partake of the full glory of the Christmas love and giving that God sends to earth at this season as rays of pure Christ Light.

Under the Light from above as divine Mind, we gather up the lines of our creative tools, vivid imagination, steadfast thinking, and a flaming, burning desire. Now stand firm in your chariot of love’s fire, holding unwaveringly and with no shadow of turning.

“Unwaveringly I stand and hold as I am filled anew with the Christ Light from above.”

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Let Your Light Shine

Edna Lister Sunday Vespers sermon outline; The Prayer Circle, December 1, 1968, Washington, D.C. Scriptures: Matthew 5:14-16, Matthew 6:22-23, James 1:17.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” — James 1:17.

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” — Matthew 5:16.

How do we let our Light so shine? “So” represents “a way or a manner, the extent of desire.” “So” qualifies any statement to a high degree.

“Let” means the “degree of” and sets the keynote for surrender. Where does it come from? Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. — James 1:17

Ye are the light of the world. — Matthew 5:14. This verse describes your relationship to the world. Do do not hide your Light, or seek credit for what Light does. You let your Light so shine. What is the quality of your Light? Have you added other commands in Jesus’ teachings to let your Light so shine? Are you the servant of all the Power? Have you surrendered to be possessed by the Light?

Are we so overflowing with that joy of knowing that you are filled with God’s Light that it shines forth to glorify our Father, God? Do you give God all the credit for shining His Light through you for the world to see? So, these three verses show you what you must let the Light do.

A second set of verses set the keynote of your relationship with God: “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.

This passage cannot refer to the physical eye, left or right. “If therefore thine eye be single” must refer to the mystic third eye of soul because vision that is dark or clouded is cut off.

Do you “see” evil by setting your expectation on finding it? If you review the past week, did you see, hear or speak of the darkness you found there? In the past three months, can you claim never to have had a dark thought, heard gossip, seen the headlines, or spoken wrongly?

Have you had even one day when your whole body was full of Light? How do you get to this Light? How do you make it a practical thing in your life?

Above, lightning clashes as two opposing forces meet and explode. This is how Jesus spoke the Word that withered the barren fig tree. On earth, your out-flowing vibration hits a world vibration, clashes, explodes and causes trouble. If you think this is impossible, you are mistaken. If your vibration or the world’s carries force, the result is an explosion of force.

The only way to avoid force is to remember these laws: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” — John 14:6. “What is that to thee? follow thou me.” — John 21:22.

You must lift the five senses so that they take in pure Light from above. This is how you may transform your pattern for living. It is your choice whether you remain a slave to any outer condition. Yet divine Mind must direct and control your life and choices.

You begin your process of choosing before you leave for earth. Plato’s legend tells of an Order of Archangels in charge of God’s powerhouse, who ask us how much Light we wish to bring to earth with us. People usually answer that they need just enough to be a good parent, businessman, minister, or to help the world.

Yet God’s powerhouse never shuts down, and you can always increase your standing order to release ever more Light as Power into the world. You must become and remain aware of your Source of Light, and alive and alert to all needs below. Let your Light so shine!

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What Is Shekinah Glory?

Edna Lister sermon outline; December 8, 1968, Cleveland, Ohio. Scriptures: Exodus 34:27-35, Matthew 17:1-9, Luke 9:28-30.

“And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel. And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him. And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Moses talked with them. And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in mount Sinai. And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. But when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out. And he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded. And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone: and Moses put the veil upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him.” — Exodus 34:27-35.

After six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only. And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.” — Matthew 17:1-9.

“And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, [Jesus] took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias.” — Luke 9:28-30.

Shekinah means God as presence, the earthly presence of God. It is derived from the Aramaic and Hebrew noun meaning “a dwelling.” Glory means “exalted renown, honorable fame, special distinction, bless; splendor of heaven, resplendent majesty, beauty, magnificence, effulgence of heavenly light, imagined earthly beauty, state of exaltation.” A gloriole is a halo of glory. Glorious means “possessing glory, conferring glory.”

Shekinah is the radiance of the glory of God, manifested in the storm cloud, the cloud and fire over the tabernacle, over the ark of the Covenant, the shining cloud on Mt. Sinai’s summit, the divine fire of the burning bush, and in Solomon’s Temple.

When any three sit together to judge, the Shekinah Glory sits with them. “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” — Matthew 18:20. Anyplace in the Bible, Old or New Testament, where “dwelling, sanctuary, glory or shining” is used, we may substitute or add Shekinah as the name or descriptive adjective to glory. Shekinah meant the glory “washed away sin.”

In Exodus, God ordered Moses to build a tabernacle, the ark of the Covenant, the Mercy Seat and all the furnishings, candles, robes, etc., to carry with them on their journey. God gave Moses two tablets of stone, laws written by the finger of God, for the tribes, the children of Israel.

While Moses was gone, on Mt. Sinai, receiving the Law, the people grew impatient and demanded that Aaron make them a visible god, a god that they could see, to worship. Aaron took their gold and ornaments and threw them into the fire, and out came the golden calf. As Moses descended from Sinai, he heard the music and sounds of revelry and dancing. When he saw them worshiping the false god, he threw down the tablets and they broke.

After talking with the Lord, Moses called them to pitch the tabernacle far from camp. He called the sons of Levi, the priests and oracles, to services of repentance to pay the debt.

When Moses went by, the people watched in awe, even those who had doubted and blasphemed when he disappeared. The instant Moses entered the tabernacle after the priests, a pillar of cloud descended before the entrance and they heard the Lord speaking to Moses.

Orders were given about the Laws. Moses was told to hew two stone tables like those he had broken. The law is that when we repudiate a gift, we must then make or earn the next one through hard labor of both time and energy.

Moses went up the mountain early. He remained in retreat for forty days and nights. Most had to write the Laws himself, whereas the first set of Laws God had written. When he returned to camp, Moses called the priests to him, the assembled the people. He read all the laws to them. Moses’ face shone so brightly that he blinded them. He had to wear a veil.

The glory of God filled the tabernacle. Even Moses could not enter when the Shekinah glory filled the tabernacle. After this, whenever the cloud of glory covered the tabernacle, the children of Israel did not travel. They went onward when the cloud lifted. For as long as they traveled, a cloud of glory led them by day and a pillar of fire by night.

The first record of the Shekinah glory in the New Testament was at the Mount of Transfiguration. To transfigure means “to change the figure or form, to change in appearance, to exalt or to glorify.” Jesus has prepared his disciples. He had fed the 5,000 with loaves and fishes. He had told them, “Whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” — Matthew 16:25

Jesus chose Peter, James and John to attend him on the Mount of Transfiguration because he knew they could “believe to see.” His face shone as the sun and his clothing shone with Light, white and glistering. They saw him with two men, Moses and Elijah, talking. When the disciples heard the Father’s Voice, they fell on their faces and were afraid. When Jesus touched them and told them to arise, no one else was there. —He told them, “Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.” — Matthew 17:9. Jesus did this so that when he appeared after the Crucifixion and Resurrection, they would remember and believe.

When you pray, the Shekinah glory covers you. When you build a figure of inner substance, a prayer mold, the Shekinah glory fills it. You become a mirror in which the other fellow sees himself reflected. Usually, he calls you what he sees! This is a “magic mirror” — often the first thing seen is evil. This is a good thing, for when you absorb the evil you see in Light, it is gone. It is as though it never happened.

You must hold to your goal and lift all things, even the life sparks in a match or a letter. You are descended creators, and this is how you qualify to create. When you lift your hands, the white prayer Wings of the Christ descend with the Shekinah glory to protect your golden bowl, your head. The colors of your lights become brilliant.

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What Is Shekinah Glory?

Edna Lister sermon transcript; December 8, 1968, Cleveland, Ohio. Scriptures: Exodus 34:27-35, Matthew 17:1-9, Luke 9:28-30. Scribes: Elizabeth Barnes, Ruth Johnson, Irene White, Ross Whitehead.

Shekinah is derived from an Aramaic and Hebrew noun, meaning “a dwelling,” which is used instead of “Lord” and “God” for all the powerful names that, when used, commonly produce disastrous results. The Hebrew Bible writers used “Shekinah” to hide these names because they taught that we cannot use, unfolded, the hidden syllables of the Name of God. Why did the ancient ones do this?

Shekinah is a term a meaning “God as a Presence,” an earthly presence of God, God walking earth — Melchizedek still walks earth. How can you say God is everywhere evenly present, but then say that God cannot take on form? Shekinah represents the radiance of the glory of God manifested, an indication of a soft Light, although it has degrees of radiance from earth to Source, where its radiance can be blinding. Shekinah releases glory and Light in a soft, beneficent healing way while the hidden names release the Power like the disastrous result of the withered fig tree.

You can see the Shekinah in a storm cloud as blinding light, the light over the Tabernacle, the light over Ark of the Covenant, the shining cloud over Mount Sinai, the burning bush. The Hebrews believed that when any three of them sat as judges, the Shekinah sat with them. When the words “dwelling,” “presence” and “shining” are used in Bible, you can substitute Shekinah.

Shekinah Glory washes away sin. If you raise your hands and ask to be possessed of Light, it washes out the taints. You must have faith, believing in this. Shekinah Glory Light is the ultimate in God’s substance that is the condensed light of which your physical body is composed. This is why God designed our bodies to be the Temple of your Living Soul. Nothing negative can exist when that Light is allowed free access to every part of your body. People seem to hold out in one place or another, especially their eyes, wherever weakness seems to be. It is only a matter of accepting God’s good instead of a physical limitation.

The Bible includes two outstanding examples of the Hebrews witnessing the Shekinah Glory possessing both Moses and Jesus. Moses was raised as an Egyptian until he was forty years old. He gained his true identity in the desert after he fled Pharaoh’s wrath. Then he returned to deliver the children of Israel from Egypt. They were steeped in idol worship. Although Isis and Osiris had brought truth, their teachings had degenerated into idolatry.

In the wilderness, after the Lord had engraved the laws on stone tablets for Moses to give to Israel, He ordered him to build a Tabernacle for the Shekinah. “And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.” — Exodus 25:8. God gave Moses complete instructions for how to build the tent, its furnishings, the Holy of Holies, the Ark of the Covenant with its Mercy Seat, and all the priestly vestments, including the Breastplate of Righteousness.

Moses was on Sinai forty days and forty nights, more than long enough for the disobedient and downright evil ones to stir up many others to join them in making the golden calf. Aaron, who was their high priest, did as they demanded and accepted their false god, the golden calf, and they worshiped it. They wanted Moses to fail in his mission, and he nearly did because when he returned, he smashed the original tablets of the law in anger. Moses asked, “Who is on the Lord’s side? let him come unto me.” And all the sons of Levi joined him. He sent them out with orders that “every man slay his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour.” About 3,000 men died.

Then God instructed Moses to hew two new stone tablets for the Ark in the Tabernacle, and told to bring them to Mt. Sinai for a blessing on the laws that were to be their religious code and the covenant between them. God had written the first tablets with His finger of fire, but Moses had to carve and engrave these tablets himself. When God gives in love and you destroy His gift, you have to remake and reform the destroyed substance yourself. When Moses came down from Sinai, the skin of his face show and the people were afraid to come near him. So Moses put a veil on face when he came close to instruct them, but removed veil in the Tabernacle when he spoke to the Lord.

This story of Moses is the first account of the Shekinah glory that blinds. The Shekinah is the Light and Power that goes forth when you raise your hands and arms to pray.

The first New Testament eye-witness account of the Shekinah glory was by John the Baptist, who, after he had baptized Jesus said, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.” — John 1:32.

The next account of the Shekinah glory is the Transfiguration of Jesus. To transfigure means “to change the form of your character and personal expression,” or “a change of form in outer manifestation.” Jesus had well established a foundation of miracles that he had performed, including feeding the 5,000, which had made him famous among the poor. The three (Peter, James, and John) loved him and did not doubt him at all. Jesus took them up with him to the Mount of Transfiguration.

“And it came to pass … [Jesus] took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias.” — Luke 9:28-30. Matthew records that he was “transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias [Elijah] talking with him.” Jesus had incarnated as Moses and Elias, yet they appeared as distinctly persons there.

The three disciples wanted to build tabernacles to them, but Jesus knew they were there to witness the Shekinah glory shining from his face. Then “behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” They fell on their faces in worship, for this frightened them even after all Jesus’ teachings about the Father. Peter, John, and James had also been with Jesus at the time of Moses.

Three or four prophets are now present on earth as lesser messiahs, sent to bear an uplifting message to specific racial and ethnic groups. Those who practice appearing and disappearing often claim messiahship. There may be many more lesser messiahs, but Jesus will never again incarnate in a physical body after conquering earth and the former prince of this world, and being enthroned in heaven.

When you have a day of utter joy, you are in a state between very high prayer and being o’ershadowed by the Shekinah glory. By comparison, happiness is no more than stickers that are stuck on the outside and can be washed off. Shekinah glory touches you when you give, but not when you take or use force. Shekinah glory can put a mirror of Light around you that causes a person to see himself when he looks at you — and he will resent what he sees in you.

Shekinah glory is the degree of Light that goes forth when you say, “This is good. Let there be Light” in an uncertain situation. It contains all the Power needed for right direction and control here, and is a buffer between you and the world. Anyone who slams a door on you will have a hard time opening it again. Say, “Let this Light of Shekinah glory move in and possess me.” For others say, “Let the Light of Shekinah glory go before me to enfold Name, to heal Name. I am possessed by the Light of Shekinah glory.”

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Enfolded in Light

Edna Lister sermon outline; December 15, 1968, Cleveland, Ohio. Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13.

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” — 1 Corinthians 13.

The whole world is now being forced to face both the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. Each who desires to return to his own personal Garden of Eden must first face God and choose for himself what path he will follow. Today, even the good people are forced to face evil, to hear about it, and to see evil in action. The most obscene language and words are shouted from the housetops.

What are we to do? Back in the February 1966 issue of Look magazine, Episcopal Bishop James Pike said, “I’ve jettisoned the Trinity, the Virgin Birth and the Incarnation.” Also, he rejects the idea of God as a Supreme Being, the idea of prayer, the idea of the deity of Christ, yet he is still permitted to remain a bishop in the Episcopal Church.

Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud attacked the idea of God in religion. Some, quoting Friedrich Nietzsche, want to hold onto the term “Christian,” yet loudly proclaim the death of God. They want a Christ only as an ethical, moral teaching, not the Son of God, while rejecting God as the Source. They wish to be rid of God while retaining a man named Jesus. Yet Jesus taught, “I and the Father are one. — John 10:30. There is no Jesus without God as the Source.

Despite all this social turmoil, the world is choosing Light, and climbing back into the Garden of Eden. Every soul must know evil to be able to choose the good, the Light, the Creator.

The thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians covers everything you need to know, not only to enfold you, but to be able to hold onto the Light once you have it. It tells you how not to do it, and how to do it — how to climb from the Land of Egypt into the Garden of Eden. It warns of the pitfalls, and promises the rewards. All this is contained in just thirteen verses. The thirteenth path is the Way of the Christ.

With the first verse, St. Paul introduces the word “charity” — a word with seven letters, and seven is the number of the Priest. Love, the other translation of “charity,” has four letters and is the number of service.

The first three verses apply to the self. We shall use love in the first verse. “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” — 1 Corinthians 13:1. This describes the silver-tipped tongue, the voice of angels.

“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.” — 1 Corinthians 13:2. You can have “all” or everything, but without love, you have nothing.

“And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.” — 1 Corinthians 13:3. You can give up everything, but without love, you are empty, you have nothing.

“Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.” — 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.

Love does not envy, vaunt itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly, does not seek its own, and is not easily provoked. You must polish all these facets of the self to awaken the thousand-petaled lotus in the crown center of the head. Then you fully open to faith, hope, and love. Faith is your private telephone line to your Begotten Father, your hotline for life. Hope eternal springs from your honor, loyalty, and integrity.

Ten verses of this Scripture are devoted to soul conquering. Faith is your lifeline. You derive hope from your loyalty to God and integrity of soul. Love is the substance you give God through your praise, gratitude, and devotion that return to you as a life annuity of divine Mind, Substance and Power.

Meet life’s challenges with praise, prayer, and singing, because, as Christian Larsen said, “All things respond to the call of rejoicing. All things gather where life is a song.”

You must live now, and we cannot read the answers from the back of the book in advance. Tomorrow’s answers are easy to read when you work out today’s problems today.

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Enfolded in Light

Edna Lister sermon transcript; December 15, 1968, Cleveland, Ohio. Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13. Scribes: Elizabeth Barnes, Irene White.

The second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ has been accomplished. The mind and hearts of all mankind are filled with his glory. Some souls acknowledge this in the form of curses. Yet those who curse the hardest will fall to their knees at his feet when they pass over. It makes no difference if some do not believe. As you believe and practice, you can partake. Some will worship, some say it’s all an illusion. But you can be caught up in spirit and actually be shown the chagrin and astonishment of some who did not believe in Jesus’ second coming. This triumph leads every last one of us back into the Garden of Eden.

In this age the Elect were supposed to be ready to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. A great Day of Manifestation is now drawing to a close, and we are here at the finish of the Armageddon. Since even we, the Elect, have been laggards, we are forced to look God in the face. We are forced to see both the good and the evil, to choose that which we will serve by choosing our own path in life. There is no longer an angel with a flaming sword to keep us out, but to enter, you must declare everything good and very good.

The February 1966 issue of Look magazine featured an interview with an Episcopalian Bishop, James A. Pike, entitled “An American’s Bishop’s Search for a Space Age God.” He rejected the idea of God as the Supreme Being, the power of prayer, the Virgin birth, and the deity of Christ. Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud had earlier attacked the idea of God and religion, opened the trend of denying the existence of God, and started an idea that became Nietzsche’s “God is dead” spew. Some want to be called Christian atheists, but when they call on the name of Christ, they will find themselves smitten with the very doubt they have created. Many intellectuals want the ethics Jesus taught, but first to get rid of any God at a Source.

Jesus taught, “I and the Father are one.” There could be no Jesus without God and the Source. The whole world is now slowly being forced back to live in the Garden of Eden or else to succumb to the lowest vibrations on earth. The force is being drained from evil, and it can’t hold to any point in the invisible Power of God’s Life. You must work to maintain your balance in the invisible River of Life — you have to hold your balance or sink.

The 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians contains everything you need to know to return to God, to maintain your presence in the Light — how to do it and how not to do it. It gives you the warnings as well as the promise of what happens when you live it. The first three verses are on how not to do it, the warnings. Charity has seven letters, representing the priest. You can have charity and not become personally involved in loving, the result would be a terrible disillusionment. The danger of investing your life with your love mostly ends in tragedy. You have no control over life, you can only live it or give it to somebody else.

Individualized love may or may not have charity in it. Love, if there is no love of God in it, you are a tinkling cymbal, or as sounding brass. Newspapers today are filled with the sounding brass of opinion and tinkling cymbals of prejudice. You can’t love without the love of God, and no soul can afford to nurture self-pity. Those who wear hair shirts of self‑pity have given their bodies to be burned with the corrosive acid of self, and prove it with such statements as, “I’ve given you the best years of my life.”

1 Corinthians 13 holds nine important ideas: What gives you soul credits? “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.” — 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.

1. Love suffers long and is kind. Love “gives” something “for” an offense, which means love forgives seventy times seven, until you don’t remember the offense anymore.

2. Love envies not, but wants only its own. Thank God for delay because it brings things in the right way at the right time, and gives you what you want without debts. When you are delayed, ask What more can I learn from this?

3. Love vaunteth not itself, and is not puffed up with pride. Keep your golden silence, no matter what, so you don’t have to pay debts for anger or forcing your will.

4. Love doth not behave itself unseemly. When you use no idle words, you never have to try to right something you said.

5. Love seeketh not her own, so don’t ask why a miracle has not arrived yet. Keep right on releasing Power to fill your prayer mold and condense into visibility.

6. Love is not easily provoked. Stand in the hub of the wheel of life. Do not let anything or anyone prod you, make you cry, or hold onto any grief.

7. Love thinketh no evil. Love thinks, “This is good. Let there be Light.”

8. Love rejoiceth not in iniquity, but only in truth.

9. Love believeth all things and beareth all things. This is the jeweler’s rouge for polishing your soul’s virtues. To bear all things is to endure, to hold, to reach the point where you can say, “Why, it never happened.” And it didn’t because love has wiped it out. You don’t have to deny evil. It’s simply some dirt, there to shine the Light that lifts it into the Light, to be cleaned up.

Love hopes all things. Hope is a product of honor, loyalty, integrity in God. All the words of the hate-filled atheists are futile because hope is a forerunner of joy, and is your comforter. Hope raises your soul’s vibration, and is the beginning of your completed faith.

Love all things, and never fails. “Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” Faith is a glory. Faith is your live wire plugged into God’s omnipotence, and your telephonic line to the Source, so plug it into an outlet high enough that nothing in the world can interfere with it. This is how to get your loved ones to see that all things are perfect, here and now.

How great is your love? Let the Fathers be the ones you magnify and love. When you pray for a miracle, somebody is granted a miracle who needs it more than you do yours. All it takes to have a miracle, say, “I press on! I march forward to God’s answer, This is the time for your miracle.” No such thing as delay really exists. The lack begins in your mind. Your answer is always the right answer for now. Stand up and shout with a mighty voice, “I now have all that is mine. I now have my miracle. Let it become visible. Send me through right door to see miracle we need.” You are fishing for a miracle. How high can you cast your line of faith to God? Hope causes your crown lotus petals to quiver, quickened with the beginning of joy. Joy is that part of love which draws your own to you like a magnet. Accelerate your vibration to match the high rate of your burning desire.

As Christen D. Larsen said, “All things respond to the call of rejoicing; all things gather where life is a song.” When you stand for the good, you must eventually become perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. “I climb to God. I and the Father are one. I am as perfect as my Father in heaven. I declare that I am one day nearer to the goal of being like my Father in Heaven.” Raise your hands of faith and declare, “My faith is the faith of God.”

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

References

The Holy Bible. King James Version (KJV).

Plato. “Phaedo,” Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 1, Harold North Fowler, trans,; Introduction by W.R.M. Lamb. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; Phaedo 109d-110a,d. 1966.

Webster, Noah. The American Dictionary. New York: S. Converse, 1828. Public Domain.

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