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Perfectly Powerful Prayer Often people ask, "Am I praying the right way?" All prayer is good. Yet some forms of prayer are more effective than others. Edna Lister asked, "Are you ready for greater prayer? You can always put more into your prayers. All you need to do is to forget everything else. Forget self. See, think, feel only God’s Light until you speak only to God, of God, thanking Him that He is there. Just talk to God. Tell the Master how much you love him, and thank him that he is there." "Talking to God" is Edna Miriam’s way in prayer. She practiced moment to moment intimacy with the Father all her earth life. "It is the Master’s way," she taught. "If you spend your time always talking with God, you must eventually become God-conscious," she said. The first act of Creation was "God said, Let there be Light: and there was Light. And God saw the Light, that it was good: and God divided the Light from the darkness." God spoke the Word to create. The Gospel composer John wrote: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . All things were made by him." God, the Father-Mother, begat the Eternal Son of Light as the Divine Template for all subsequent lesser personalities. We are those personalities, Divine in origin, of whom the psalmist wrote: "Ye are gods." Of all the Father’s earthly Creation, only humanity possesses the ability to form the Divine Alphabet of Creation into words. Speaking the Word, as God spoke the Word to form the heavens and the earth, is the essential step in perfectly powerful prayer. The gift of speech is our most valuable tool for making, forming, and creating form from Light. Therefore, as students learning how to become full co-Creators with God, we pray aloud to release the Power of the Word. The Master himself taught us valuable guidelines in prayer when he gave us the Living Soul’s Prayer to Melchizedek, the King of Righteousness: "When you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the open streets, that they may be seen of men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, enter into your room, and having shut your door, pray to your Father in secret, and your Father seeing in secret will reward you openly. But when you pray, do not babble vain repetitions, as the heathen, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Therefore do not be like them, for your Father knows what things you have need of, before you ask Him. Therefore, you should pray this way": Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed is thy name. Thy kingdom is come, thy will is done on earth, as it is in heaven. Thou hast given us this day our daily bread. And thou hast forgiven us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors. And thou leadest us not into temptation, but deliverest us from all evil: For thine is the Kingdom, and thine is the Power, and thine is the Glory, forever. Amen. For 2,000 years we had only the version of the "Our Father" prayer as recorded in the Gospels, written for the masses of humanity. When Edna Miriam asked, the Master granted permission for her to release upon earth the true Prayer of Melchizedek, as he taught it to his initiated disciples, who included many more than the twelve named, and many of whom were women. Edna Lister began her quest for God in childhood, and pursued it all her life. She left us a tremendous written legacy of her journey and insights. Yet, how grateful we are that some of her students recorded what she said, as well!
Your
Magnetic Powers We are Spiritual Substance, which is perfect, whole and complete, untouchable by anything of the outer world. Spirit cannot be touched, separated or divided. The basis of prayer, to which we can turn forever, is "Ask anything in my name, believing that ye have it, and ye shall have it." If I then ask intelligently for anything on earth, the invisible Substance of it is in my hand. I do not ask again, but believe forever that I do have it. I then release Love, thank God that I have it now, and let it become visible. Keep on releasing a little more love, and praise without ceasing: "Let it become visible. Open my eyes to see it. Let it come to pass." Pray, believe, and thank God for it. The following three Laws dovetail in this: 1) "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you," 2) "Give, and you shall receive," and 3) "Love is the fulfilling of the Law." Let us tie up to these Laws the declarations of "I am in the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom is within me, and all these things shall be added." We must take our minds off the world of appearances, always. We must release Love, which is Divine Substance, all the time, and know that we are living in the inner kingdom. When we have released enough Love, we shall have everything. Praise condenses Divine Substance and brings it into visibility. It is always God’s perfect time to let us have anything we want. The Master said, "All the works that I do, and greater, shall ye do," to which we might add, "if you follow, live by my laws, assume the responsibilities that I did, and become personally responsible." Our statements must be both specific and general. Sometimes you may need to speak aloud, and even shout, which releases the Power more dynamically. Use definite tones of command, intense conviction, and name the person you treat. When thoughts of fear, lack or doubt cross your mind, put more Power, more emphasis into your statements. Examples of specific statements include, "I am (Name), now ready for my Teacher, ready for my mate, for companionship, for perfection. I am now ready for my very own. Nothing can touch me that does not belong to me. Only my own can come to me. I am now coming into my very own. I am now accepting my new position, my promotion, increase in salary, for perfect health, to give perfect service. I am now filled with the Life of God, filled with Peace, filled with Poise, filled, ready, accepting. I am now receiving, now, now, now. I am now building my new eyes. I am now praising and loving God. I am now praising and loving my family. I am now praising and loving the world. I am now praising and loving my new position." To yourself, say, "Name, you are now building your new body, your body consists of pure Spiritual Substance. Your heart consists of Spiritual Substance. Your eyes consist of Spiritual Substance," etc. General statements are also necessary. "My body is now the Temple of the Living God, and God is in His Holy Temple. God is in the midst of me, healing me. The Life of God now fills every cell in my body. Every cell is now alive, alight and alert with the Life of God. A wall of Love shall surround every cell that my Heavenly Father hath not planted. Light shall melt, dissolve, absorb, and make every unlikeness to Thee into Spiritual Substance. If I go to the uttermost parts of the earth, Thou art there, even to the utmost depths." A sample of healing rhythm for a general statement is, "I am that radiant Life, I AM (or use Light, Love, Strength, Power, Health, Joy, etc.). I am releasing the Power of Love, which goes forth to melt, dissolve and absorb all darkness, and establish perfection. Peace, Peace, Peace." Some teachers have their students use the rhythm of nine instead of three. We use groups of three, such as Peace, Peace, Peace, Love, Love, Love. Use these statements always. If you can use them ten thousand times a day, so much the better. Praise, then see the Master on the Mount of Transfiguration. Do not use denials. If you unconsciously use a denial, follow it quickly with a strong, positive statement.
"As oil mingles with oil, as water mingles with water, as air mingles with air, so does my life expand, and mingle with the Life of God." Close your eyes: Imagine yourself within the heart of a radiant Sphere of Light, and open yourself, which draws you into the Light and the Light into you. Within this Light we live and move and have our being. This moment we are touching the innermost Power that is, Power that goes forth and accomplishes, which radiates, makes perfect and complete, which is Divine, all-knowing and all-seeing. That Power is ours now. We are the Power now, and the Power goes forth to accomplish perfection. Enter your chamber of Silence with hands up to send forth the Power of Love that fills the whole body with Light, carrying Light to every cell of the body, melting, dissolving, absorbing and transforming it into God’s infinite perfection. Bring all your dear ones into the room, hold them up, and "know" until you "sense" that your fingers are touching their point of weakness (the stomach, heart, head, etc.). After lifting,
speak the Word, and the Power does the work. With closed eyes and relaxed
mind, know that you are one with all, that you are a radiant
being of Light, that you can release the Power of Love.
This Power fills your body and consciousness with Inspiration, Illumination
and Understanding. The
Magic Hour The Silence is not concentration. When we enter the Silence with the statement, "As oil mingles with oil, as water mingles with water, as air mingles with air, so does my life expand and mingle with the Life of God," it makes us God-conscious. Close your eyes and reach up to the Most High. Know that you are drawing into the Heart of Light. In this Heart of Light we have become one with each other and with all that is, now. We are opening our minds to receive great Inspiration and Illumination. Light shall reveal the Truth of the Universe unto us, beyond any previous revelation, in this moment. Let our eyes be opened. Let that which is our own appear. Let our own be poured out upon us this very hour, and it shall be so. Amen. We can get to God only through Love, which is the key, the magic wand that opens the way. There is as definite a method and technique for entering the Silence, as there is to mathematics. We go through a certain process. Don’t try to make your mind a blank, or a vacuum. We have tried to make our minds a vacuum, but cannot. Our conscious mind is merely the functioning part of our mind, which also includes the subconscious and the superconscious. In the Silence we automatically tune in on the subconscious mind, which is the phase that reminds us of things. At night, give the subconscious an opportunity to register what it wants. Try to listen to it. Hold back, hold back, and listen. Train it to produce thought-pictures. Give your subconscious mind suggestions immediately preceding sleep. Immediately upon coming back to consciousness, before arising, give the subconscious a chance to register its ideas. Then give the superconscious mind a chance to register on your brain. See what the revelations are in the morning, then listen to the superconscious. The Silence is everywhere. We can consciously enter it anytime, or anywhere, since we are always in it anyway. As we turn our attention to it, we surrender to it. It takes all of our concentration to keep ourselves surrendered to the Silence. First, sit, lie or stand comfortably. Keep the spine straight, which is imperative. Do not put your hands in your lap. Lift them, palms up, facing inward toward your ears. We actively send forth the Power, as we lift our hands in an attitude of selfless surrender to God. We take nine steps to enter the Silence: 1. A statement of surrender. 2. Relaxation of nerves and muscles. 3. Several deep breaths. 4. An idea so great that it just envelopes everything. 5. A picture to follow the idea. 6. Praise and devotion. 7. Treatments. 8. Again praise and devotion, and humble waiting. 9. The spoken Word. The first step:Make a statement of surrender, such as: "As oil mingles with oil, as water mingles with water, as air mingles with air, so does my life expand and mingle with the life of God." Another good statement is, "The Kingdom of Heaven is everywhere evenly present and available. I am in the Kingdom of Heaven now, and the Kingdom of Heaven is within me." It took me five years to learn to enter the Silence. Now I can enter the Silence while using my hands to do a task I do not need think about. The subconscious follows the hands, and leaves the mind free. Activity intrigues and lifts the subconscious to become one with the superconscious. We cannot enter the Silence if we have any resentment in our minds. If, during the Silence, the subconscious injects something into your mind, write it down on a pad. The subconscious mind is our "adversary," and we should "agree with the adversary quickly," saying to it, "You are a marvelous servant and mind. I appreciate the idea you have just brought to me, but I have no time for it now. Let us lay it right here on the altar. We are entering the Silence, and when we are through with that, remind me of it again." We should love the subconscious mind and lift it up. Raise your fear or anything that is negative and unlike God, lift it up, lift and agree with it. If your stomach hurts, tell it what a perfect stomach it is. Tell your brain what a perfectly marvelous brain it is, that it is going to be constantly and definitely perfect. The second step into the Silence is to relax nerves and muscles. You cannot enter the Silence with tense nerves and muscles, or relax when tensing the muscles to concentrate. Yet you can enter the heart of the Silence by complete surrender. It takes relaxation to surrender. As I enter the Silence, I raise my hands to lift everything and everyone. Take three or four deep breaths, and lift all burdens. Lifting uses or involves the subconscious, since it follows the hands, and causes it not to interrupt. Concentration is purely mental, and when exercised through Will, then mental force returns to us. One teacher warned his pupils that if they sent out the Power by concentrating on it, to be ready to take it on the chin when it came back, or it would knock them down. Holding the hands up lifts Power from the seat of control of Will power, the solar plexus, to the seat of Love power in the head. We doubly harness the subconscious, the hands have its attention, then we turn it loose as Love. All of the Power being released goes forth as Love, from the heart center. We then harness the subconscious under Love’s control. The third step: Take several deep breaths to surrender and connect. Say, "I now inhale the Illumination of the Almighty. I now inhale the Inspiration of the All-Wise, of the All-Love. I am now inhaling the Breath of God." This is the conduction rod to lift us into the Heart of the Silence. The fourth step: Have an idea of God that is so great that it just takes all of your attention, a supreme idea, such as: "I am now perfect, whole and complete." See the solar plexus as a ball of fire that is radiating through every part of the body. The fifth step: Picture a gorgeous sunset. Try to see something that is invisible. Edna Lister likes the idea of seven great universes, galaxies, each having solar systems like ours. She also sees seven great physical suns and seven great spiritual suns, of which our sun is the heart. Watch, seek and see this spiritual sun. This idea is great enough to intrigue the subconscious and all our attention, emotions and imagination to the point where we will build the picture of our idea. The sixth step is Praise and Devotion: Praise God that He is, that He is all the Mind there is, that He holds the world in the hollow of His hands, that He is the great invisible, irresistible all-Glory, that He is the repository of all hidden Wisdom, that He holds our lives in His hands, that He is the Source of all revelations, and has held us from the beginning. You get into the Heart of God and the Silence by praise and devotion. Read Psalms 33 and 34. Praise Him because He is the Heart of this radiant Light. Praise Him because the Power He releases through you can melt and dissolve every imperfection. Praise Him for the Power to hold up any number of people, for the Light and Love that pours out upon them. Praise Him that you can hold up the world. Lift, and lift, and lift, and praise Him always. As you praise God, you will extend your consciousness, and have the sense of leaving the earth. Enter the Silence once this way, and you will hunger and thirst for it evermore.
Do not ask to be lifted, but thank God that you are lifted into the Heart of the Fire, and that He has armored you with Light. Praise Him continually because He is perfect, and again tell Him that He is perfect. We thank Him that Power has recharged us with Power, and that He has given to us the task to release Power throughout the world. The seventh step: When you have finished praising until you are completely in the Heart of the Silence, turn your hands upright and begin your treatment. Do not treat yourself, but lift others into the Silence to treat. Surround them with Pillars of Fire, and a Wall of Love. See Love permeating them all, and fill their bodies with Light. Have the sense of laying hands over their eyes, hearts, etc. The eighth step: Speak the Word for them, in the name of the Master, and radiate it out over the whole world. "Release the Power of Love through me, to go forth to those who are crying for help." Your closing declaration is, "These words are the Spirit of Life. These words are Spirit and they are Life. Light now establishes these words. These words are now finished in the kingdom and they shall become visible. Let them come to pass. Let them be established and come into manifestation. Let these words go forth and do the work." The word "let" releases the Power. The ninth step: End treating, and thank and praise God for increasing your capacity to love, etc. Thank Him that the Power of Love has already gone forth. Thank Him that you can be as the leper named in the Bible, and can go your way rejoicing, that you are willing to surrender to service, that you are His mouthpiece and that He establishes your words forever. There is no special point at which to ask God for anything for ourselves. We thank God that we already have it. We may sometimes ask God specially for what we desire. Declare that you have already received what you want, the desire of your heart. Doing this
in an orderly manner will enable us to stay in the Silence
all the time, no longer body-conscious, but forgetting the outer world.
If we remain in the Silence all day, we cannot falter or fail. Get
on the Receiving End of Life "Before you called, I answered you." This moment in our lives was finished in Divine Mind, millions of years ago, and only our ideas that it was not, has held it back. Thank God in this moment for the finished kingdom of perfection, which is ours, which has always been pure, glorious and complete. We bring in more situations, more miracles to be completed in the hour. We declare that they are finished and that they shall come forth and shine. Our minds and hearts are open, ready to receive that which is our own. It is so, and it shall "come to pass" as spoken. We put up our hands to pray because we release Love through the heart center. Put up your hands and talk to God: Tell Him who you are and ask Him all about what He is using you to do. Leave your desires in God’s hands. With hands held up high, say, "Let my very own appear." Love is a Power, not a sentiment. We first experience Love through emotions and desires, which are subject to the corruption of self and negative experiences. Yet we must send Love forth in purity, so we lay our Desires upon an altar for purification. When we release ourselves in surrender to the Power, we may release many other people and their desires. We release Love, and it goes forth into the world as a vibration and a Substance, complete in seven grades. Love goes forth on the wings of Light, and it flows out definitely through our hands, under the Law of Correspondence, "As above, so below." We create the forms of our "added things" with the Substance that comes back to us. What we get in our lives is what we have created. "Let Love go forth through every situation. Let it go through every room in every home in the city." The Sacrificial Fires, which we light this way, are limitless in their Power to heal.
Every moment of every hour is a miracle, and Light, as breath, renews our bodies continually. We must praise God for this so that our bodies will build themselves into beauty and youth. In treating, Light must melt, dissolve and absorb the whole situation. First we hold up the problem we are working on, all family, all friends, and lift them up on a cloud. Above the clouds, the sun is shining, although it may be cold and gray below. We lift up every limitation. We are our own creators, and build our own environment. Love goes forth as perfect Substance, but since it has traveled around the earth, it may return to us in a different, more condensed form, a lower rate of vibration. Yet it is still radiant Light, for all of the invisible atomic Substance in the universe is lifesparks of Light, through which Love travels faster than the speed of light. Send your consciousness to the sun center of Light. Hold your hands up high and ask to be purified. We must always have a song of praise in our hearts. Our praise invokes a great power. Praise lifts and clothes us in a cloak of glory. The Psalmist said, "Never have I seen the seed of the righteous begging bread." Read Psalms 33 and 34, for unequaled praise. We do not use enough dynamic praise from a full heart. Praise is the commonest form of gratitude, even among men. If we praise God, we will have no difficulty in praising other people or situations. Give praise for the things that are visible and those that are still invisible. We should use our tongue to give praise, not to condemn. Praise everything, even an injury or a growth. Declare that it consists of perfectly beautiful Substance, but that Light must dissolve it to take on a higher form. A headache can be a crown of glory, if you declare it so. Say that it is "beautiful, wonderful. This is God’s own perfect headache, made of perfect Substance." As Creator gods, we have misused the Divine Power and Substance, and have created what we do not like. We must be masters of life, conquerors of life, lifting and creating perfection. We are gods, making, not gods in the making, and are now learning to create perfect things. As we send forth praise, the Love Substance returns to us, so expanded that it actually forms an invisible container, which Love fills. If we want a new car, for instance, we work with this Substance. Praise extends the walls of the workroom, and Love returns to fill the room. If we do not praise enough, we might not have a place for the Love that returns! We should praise that God has sent it back, forming what we desire, and that we may have it now. Praise expands the walls of the workshop, and keeps the wheels running. Love returns and condenses into the room until it is nearly visible. The whole world is suffering acutely from lack of Love. Praise God that He has made conditions tough. This gives us stamina, grit, determination. The challenge that fairly makes us gasp will give us that "extra something" that puts us over the top, since it gives us the punch we need. Immovable and untouchable Spirit cannot ache. Only the body has sensation, and the mind must agree before it has even that. Don’t be intolerant. Thank God even for pain.
Desire is the Creator. Love is the Conqueror. Praise is the Shortcut. When you ask God to open your heart, mind and purpose you must have a definite intense desire to create perfection in your life. Review your life to find what your desires really are. Lift up your desires to purify them and make them universal. To come into outer perfection, they must be unselfish. Desire the great good, not for yourself or loved ones alone, but for all humanity. A desire to help anyone is the Spirit of God in you seeking expression. You can ask for money, if you want to use it to give better service to humanity. You must desire that God pours abundance out upon those you wish to help, according to His will, His method, His agents. We must have a fervent, burning desire. Desire is the God-given fundamental Creative Impulse within each individualized manifestation of God as a living soul. Praise is the most marvelous shortcut. Praise, so that "all these things shall be added to you," from the outside by that marvelous, magnificent, glorious, irresistible Power of Love. If you are up against an urgent need, you must conquer that outside "circumstance." Our attitude should be, "I must conquer." Our ideas of separation, lack and limitation stand between us and our instantaneous miracles. The only way to bring a miracle into being is to keep the mind’s eye absolutely single upon perfection, recognizing only what is perfect, and we cannot do that while we think that we must demonstrate supply, health, etc. We can achieve only when the driving necessity from within us is to conquer. Praise is the only thing that keeps our mind clear. Through steadfastly praising for ten minutes, we can conquer any blow life may offer. The world is divided into four classes: The Knowers are born knowing who they are, what they want and where they are going. Born with desire flaming, they achieve. The Hopers often display lugubrious countenances, sometimes joyous, usually sweet. Being a Hoper is different from "hope" itself. The Wishers are spineless leaners, cheerful and joyous. Often smiling, they say, "I wish I could do as you do." This will never work. The Wanters are willful, selfish, greedy, grasping, which changes Desire into to wanting and taking without earning. This is disastrous. We must purify the Desire first and say, "Let it come to me." Then we give praise and love. We thank God that we have it now, and it will come. Hoping, wishing and wanting, when purified, make the right Desire. As our Desire burns brightly, as our praise goes forth, this burning Torch of Desire increases in size, and radiates as a whirling mass of scintillating Light around us. We cannot achieve complete success unless we Desire to create perfection. To conquer or express, the burning Flame of Desire must be intensely, radiantly active.
Imagination is the "kingly faculty." The trend of our lives depends on these pictures, what our creations will look like, how successful our married life or business will be. Imagination determines the "how" of our lives. If we build the right pictures of success and achievement, in the right way, we needn’t worry, we can’t fail to triumph. If we become discouraged and give up, voice the wail of the fainthearted quitter, we will never succeed. We should not pity ourselves. To be where we are is a privilege. God is sending us to school and we must reach the goal to graduate. We all must accept and conquer someday, so we might as well do it now. God puts us where we are to conquer, to express this inner ability, which we have not yet expressed. God has put us where life has made things easy for us to conquer. We should build pictures of ourselves conquering, to conquer. Imagination is our kingly faculty, but we must direct and control it through mind. Mind is a vibration, and is also an essence. The essence of Mind permeates everything, such as walls, etc. Our brain cells are a receiving set for these vibrations. One man said that the brain secretes thought, and he was right. We can go wrong in only three places, the thoughts we hold that are negative, the negative emotions we hold, and the negative pictures we build. A person who overeats wrongly visualizes food first. It takes a real man or woman to hold their peace, to control themselves always. We should check daily to see what kind of picture we are building, to pour Love out upon what we have been dreaming of or picturing. Praise increases the size of our workshop. Desire ignites Substance into radiant activity. Imagination builds a picture and flashes this against the inner sensorium of the brain. Imagination builds, in this invisible Substance, a Form as definite and perfect as we could build it with our carpenter’s tools. We create the invisible form of the thing we desire, so we must build a form that will hold Substance, and keep on filling the form. We create and destroy, God doesn’t do it. Desire is an activity, and the activity of the spoken Word condenses Substance into form. When we no longer have fear or doubt in our heart, are no longer able to think a negative thought, we won’t need to bother about Imagination. Until we are Imagination-perfect, we must watch our pictures. If we mix our pictures, the Substance will ooze from the right one. See everything perfect just before going to sleep. At night, just before dropping off to sleep, picture your desires, and as the last thing, flash these pictures against the screen to see if they are perfect as you want them, for instance, lots of money on hand, etc. Picture work piled up to accomplish, see the cash register full and overflowing with the outer returns (money). Do not go to sleep seeing it empty. If someone owes you money, see his wallet overflowing with money, more clothes and more prosperity than he can handle, because what you give to him in thought, will return to you. We can make forms of either what we want or what we do not want. What we give the most time and attention to, is what we will make and what will return to us. See a perfect picture of what you want, but give it to someone else, see someone else having it. Make your idea universal. Flash a perfect picture of what you desire, but always give the Substance of the thing to the other fellow. He may not want it – no matter. If you want a car, say, "The whole world has cars." If someone wants to give you anything, always say, "If you want to give it to me, yes." Never turn anything down, but you must give away the thing you really need. Just before going to sleep, flash this picture against the inner sensorium of the brain, to make absolutely certain that it is perfect. Be sure that what you do want is perfect in your blueprint, not the blueprint of what you don’t want, about which you have been thinking all day. The blueprint you draw in the brain will reflect itself out here in the world. We must harness Imagination and get it to working for us. If we have started to build the wrong pictures, we must tear them out again, or the subconscious mind, which acts like a clock that has been set, will go right on reproducing them in our lives. Raise your hands and send the Power of Love forth to lift your pictures in Imagination, then praise God that this Love Substance is returning to you. Praise Him for everything you have and have not, which increases the size of your workshop, and brings results more rapidly. Keep your burning Desire perfect, complete and glowing. You must Desire to do perfectly the thing you are doing, or for perfection for someone else. Then the Imagination, the architect, the construction engineer, must harness and control it, to build what you do want. Picture the Master on the Mount of Transfiguration, put your hands in his, and send forth Love. Now lift, lift, lift up your difficulty, the thing or person. Know with absolute perfection that your eyes shall be opened, and your ears shall be unstopped. Imagination shall be harnessed from this day forth, working constructively as a protecting pillar of fire about all.
Love is the highway and the conqueror. Praise without ceasing is the shortcut. Desire is the creator, and must be stirring and expectant. Imagination is the builder of forms. The spoken Word condenses Substance into outer form, but does not stop the activity of the lifesparks. We must give the equivalent, in Love, of the thing we want, yet we must keep the balance. We must release the invisible Love Substance as its equivalent, yet we may not grasp, for this unbalances the world. When we have reached the point of being conscious of what we are doing, we must maintain careful watch over our spoken Word. God gives us a new name for overcoming at a certain period of Initiation: "To him who overcomes I will give . . . a new name" (Revelation 2:17). Yet we can get this name only by accepting and assuming responsibility. The only way to make our Word complete and established now, is to give a universal reason for the release of the Power, since a personal reason is not enough. The Power alone will not work, but if we will assume responsibility, nothing limits the Power we can release. Then we cannot find enough people or situations or circumstances or things, to lift and pour life upon, because through our lifting, the greater the load, the sooner we have our new name and the last name and the Power. Many teachers have earned the right to the new name, and in their joy at being given it, they have used it constantly, thinking it was theirs to use forever. However, this is one thing that we must use only under direct command, until the teacher reaches the point where he or she has earned the right to, and can, command all the Power the name releases. Everything comes in tests of three, such as "purity of heart, mind and purpose," etc. We must have selfless love and loyalty to Principle, while we harness ourselves to a universal reason for everything. For instance, we ask for other people, then thank God that He has already given it to us. Thus, we will never get tied up selfishly. Every word we utter creates something, after its degree and kind. Every word we utter reacts and returns to us, increased and magnified. It adds to itself and goes around the earth. It returns and waits for us like a dark cloud or light. We get back everything it collects, every bit of it. We must then lift it and change it by love. We must take the responsibility for our spoken Word. If a "dweller on the threshold" is waiting there for us, we must lift it up, instantly. (The "dweller on the threshold" is the sum of all of our taints.) We instantly must pour forth enough love to neutralize it. For instance, if you have a refractory child, do not scold and berate him, but say, "You are a wonderful child. Love armors you in love, and nothing inimical can happen to you." If your daughter is seeing a youth to whom you object, do not arbitrarily forbid her to see him, but say something like, "Since you are going with this boy, you must see something good in him, or you wouldn’t love him, because sometimes the ones who do wrong are the most lovable ones." If your son is keeping bad company, take the same line with him, because he loves the lovableness of these undesirable ones. He gets something of love from them that he doesn’t get from those at home. He is satisfying his desire to have someone appreciate him. Pour out enough appreciation, declare that these questionable friends are perfect and complete, and ask him to help you lift them up. Say, "I am so glad you are lending Light to the darkness. We will lift him up. We will form a Pillar of Fire around him (or them), which will make him perfect, too." Keep on lifting, and keep on pouring out love. The word goes forth and multiplies, so we should watch our idle words. Avoid slang. "I am, I can, I will, I do": These phrases have their time and place. Say, "I can do it." Sometimes we say, "I know I can do it," but "I am now doing it" is better. Say, "I will" very seldom, for "will" scatters the vibration. Get the "hoper" and "wisher" to say, "I do." "I’ll try" is the subconscious mind’s pet phrase, is a little sophistry. We are always living in the Eternal Now, with no future nor past. We want the real thing now! The thought that maybe God doesn’t want me to have it now is the root and branch of lack. Realize that you now have it in the invisible, "Let it become visible. This is God’s perfect hour of fulfillment for me. This is God’s perfect will for me and now is God’s perfect time." Now is the only time we need to recognize. We are ready at any given moment, to manifest the thing we can see. "This is God’s perfect time to have love come forth to me. Now is the perfect time for all of God’s good things to come to me." "Now" is the greatest little word we can grasp. Say, "I am perfect, whole and complete in Spirit, now. I am now expressing all of this now." There is no time, no space, no limit, no letting go. Law protects us if our desire is unselfish. Remain impersonal, unselfish, willing and open, want it for all, keep on lifting, lift, lift, and lift all we can. Even if we are dead wrong about "it," if we are also holding the desire up for love to be poured out upon it, it will come to us in the right way. If we hold it up in the right way, the Law, itself, will protect us. "It shall come to pass," and "it came to pass," are the two halves of a perfect whole. Finally we must say, "Let it become visible. Let it come forth. Let it be made flesh and blood. Let this perfection manifest." If you always say, "It shall come to pass," you will always be able to say later, "and it came to pass as spoken." You could cure colitis by seeing the body as the temple of the Living God and every organ filled with life, using the words, "and it came to pass as spoken." Check your idle words. Have I poured out enough love today? Have I praised enough? Have I kept my desire burning today? Have my pictures been perfect today? Have my spoken words been perfect, and what I want? If I cannot say "yes," I must pour forth more love, send forth more praise, hold up my hands until I am enfolded into the Light, until my desire burns, until I see everything as perfect, and then say, "Let this perfection manifest." Since practice brings perfection, practice, practice, practice, practice! It gives us the ability to have strong days when we do pour forth enough love, and our spoken words will come to pass, for they cannot help it.
When we get rid of the limitations, we will see why we could not manifest miracles. Love is the Fire that consumes all obstacles. If anything in our lives has grieved us, pour love upon it all to cleanse every old emotion, negative thought or picture that has built a subconscious form. Open the closed doors of the past. We can’t close the door, repress or ignore, and get rid of the old. If we still see someone doing something to us, we still have a closed door that we must open. We have an affinity for anything that annoys us, and we must clear it out. Do not use Law mentally — use it spiritually. Love will do it. Love makes the Law perfect. If we are unable to pour out enough Love to neutralize the situation, we will fail. Until we fill people with love, Divine Love cannot get past our criticism. We should increase our capacity to love, our devotion to service, and lose the Power to behold evil. Then we will look at the other fellow, know that we are responsible for him, pour out love upon him and help him to become perfect. Open the doors farther back into the past and pour love back over that line to make it perfect. Hold up those in the flesh, and those who have passed. God is. The Power is working. It is not I, but the Father through me who does the work. As we lend ourselves willingly to His Power, it flows through us and goes forth into manifestation. This Power goes forth for you, through you and as you. This love melts crystallization and brings that which it touches into completeness and perfection. We lift all old emotions up. "You are the Life of God. You are filled with ease and comfort, and so shall it manifest." Open yourselves definitely to greater Illumination, seek to reach into the Heart of God further, for revelation. It is the truth that the tablets of the hidden treasure in Egypt have been opened, and revelations are being allowed to come forth. We must understand that Power is automatically released with inspired revelations, which upsets the world. Ask to be a purified instrument, so that you may release enough Power to clean up the government, the dark places, and hold up everybody you see and come to, because the Power goes forth through you and it will return to you, but you must send it forth with a universal reason for it. Everyone, anyone, anywhere, can lift the world. If we build universal pictures, we can release the world. Part of the time we do not shine, and that’s why we do not get what we want. We should leave a cloud of love in every place we go, even if only walking through a store. Spray everyone with love perfume, since it lifts people. Be indrawn into the heart of this Power, higher and ever higher into the Heart of the Fire, for only in the Heart of the Fire can we stand steadfast, be worth what we desire to be worth in the service of God.
To progress and have successful results, we must hold up our desires every night and morning, to have them purified, cleansed and perfected. Jesus knew who he was when he came to earth. He became a teacher at age twelve, and overcame the three great temptations (the misuse of Substance, Knowledge and Power) at age thirty. Jesus walked and talked with God, was a great scientist, the greatest philosopher of the ages, the great physician, the greatest mystic the world ever had. He was developed as an all-around person, and every bit of him expressed as a Son of God. "The works that I do and greater shall ye do, and greater works than these." Do we believe this? Our acceptance of this will determine what our lives are going to be this next year. Why? Because today, the Power released is greater. Just as we had then the hard tallow candle and the rushlight, and now the electric light, so, too, we have greater Power to release through this brain equipment, if each and all would use the Power they have. To be cured of any disease, the patient must be relieved of the idea behind the manifestation. Once you cure a person of the idea of the disease, it works out into the outer form as perfect. We must be cured of the idea. The instant we cure the idea, the body slips back into place. The first time the Word is spoken, the work is done, the healing has gone forth and health is established. It is finished on the inner. Renounce the old things of the past. After we have lifted them up, they enter no more. Keep your eyes fixed on the perfect, by the most strenuous effort. You could add health, abundance, love, social life, success in business, "all things else." These come in proportion to the effort put forth, but you must obey the fundamental Laws. Love is the conqueror. Love is irresistible, is invincible, is complete, and we must send out this Love on the wings of Joy, twenty-four hours a day. Your heart must be a garden of praise, a paean of thanksgiving, just "because," backed up by twenty-four hours of praise a day. Joyous praise is the shortcut to all miracles. If needed in a hurry, pour forth enough praise and it will come to you in a hurry. Love determines the amount, praise determines the time elapsed, and both must be used to be complete. Praise that you have cut down the time until things happen, right now. Desire is a Creative Flame. We must desire to express more of God, and keep our flame burning eagerly all the time, to fill the form and increase what is there. Imagination determines the form the miracle will take. If it is not perfect, our pictures are not perfect, square and complete. Then the spoken word: "Judge not lest ye be judged." Every word judges us. With every thought we hold, we create something. The emotions we send forth create for us. What are we sending forth? We are responsible for our own lives. The secret of success, which lies within each of us, is the ability to stand up, despite what comes into our lives, and accept it as our own creation. We look neither right nor left, nor to family or friend to see where it came from, but take it as our own responsibility. That will determine success. Success consists in the ability to push a little harder, think a little faster, and smile a lot more than the rest of the world. Failure consists in the ability to run, find a corner to think it over, to lie down and cry when setbacks hit us. Success consists in standing alone, never whining, crying, or asking favors, but pushing, loving and praising. That gives us the ability to push harder, think faster and smile more. Lift up, and keep on lifting. If we do these three things, nothing can hold us down. Ask in faith from Christ Jesus. It is yours, and you have it in your hand. Then praise that he has already given you what you asked for, adding, "Let it come to pass. Let it become visible. Let it come into complete visibility. Let this heart beat in harmony with the Heart of God. Let this business send forth such service that it draws unto itself its own." Obey these instructions in seeking the kingdom, and you don’t need to worry, for you are then in the kingdom. Give, give, give! Lift, lift, lift! Love, love, love! We cannot pour out too much love on any day, any occasion or situation. We are always progressing upward. The more we pour out, the more our capacity increases, and the more we will find upon which to pour out more love. The great and definite Law is, "Love is the fulfilling of the Law." Exercise your ability to expand and completely surrender to the Power of Love itself. The message of the mustard seed is surrender. The law of the lily is to grow today, to use everything in our lives today as if it were to be the last day of our lives. Live each hour this way, and your days will be more perfect. Praise God, praise each other, praise everything always. Cure the idea. Say, "It is good. My faith, surrendered completely to the Power, makes it manifest now, at once!" At night, look over your day, see if you poured out enough love every second of it on everybody and everything, every situation and condition. Pour more love through the past. Take on your neighbor’s share, to pour out enough love to create what you need to manifest in the visible tomorrow. Then praise God. Has your desire been constructive all day? What about the imagination pictures you built today? Look well to your pictures. Pour out love and praise. Flash pictures against the screen in your mind. What about the spoken word? Have you sent forth the word in love today? How about irritation? Entertain no idle words or thoughts. Have you seen everyone perfectly perfect today? You must see them that way. Declare them perfect, and the Law brings it to pass.
The Lord’s Prayer is perfect, covering each phase of life and every need. The need of the now is the predominating idea. Yet what does God get out of it? The seed is glorified in the flower. Everything the Father has works to our infinite benefit, available in limitless supply. Yet God is glorified in our completeness and perfection. Anyone who needs anything, "Let him ask of the Father." Prayer is the only way out of a confused condition. Under the Law of Forgiveness, a vicious circle is broken, and Light destroys only the evil. Prayer lifts all that comes to you. Your life is only an expansion of "you," an extension of your consciousness. An internal combustion engine uses gas, a steam engine uses steam, an electric motor uses electricity as power. God has designed our bodies to burn the fuel of spiritual energy, cosmic rays! If you try to use the "world energy" of human emotions, your vigor is gone! The motive power of a "wicked, stiff-necked generation" is selfishness and greed, which produces only stiff necks. Spiritual Power has a refined force, potency and power. Scripture says that the "Spirit of God created them," and Elijah saved a boy when he "breathed into him health of life." We must return to the spiritual filling station for more life! Our refill must be steady, not spasmodic. We must keep our fuel tanks full, so we fill up every night with the right kind of Power. "A double minded man is unstable." What about "minute-minded men?" We must keep our feed line up to refined Power. Fasting is the discontinuance of cheap mental and emotional fuels, which casts us into a "den of thieves" of energy. Going without food makes the body more "sensitive." Therefore, negativity will seize the body if we are mentally and emotionally negative before we start. We must fast from negatives and whatever has robbed us of our innate divinity. Prayer is the application of Divine Principle. Prayer is to the servant of Divine Principle what practice is to a musician. First, we must surrender in devotion, which is a process of sublimation, a process of making the self perfect. A successful musician must practice constantly, so we know that to be successful in prayer, we must "pray without ceasing." The urge to prayer started in the deepest longings of humanity’s nature. Prayer releases the hidden, inner manna. A soul making a prayer is like a musician playing a musical instrument. We must overlook the problem, move into the Fourth Dimension, and see God. The ancients believed that the gods loved prayers fit to pull the answer down. We say, "God here I am! I’m ready!" People have too many "little gods" in the way. Ordinary prayer is like going begging every time we want something! At the end of a day, a beggar has only small change to show for his effort. We need more than nickels, dimes and quarters in prayer. Someone told a woman that "There is no hope, only God can save you." She said, "Oh! Has it come to that?" My portion is all that the Father has available now, upon which I may draw. Say the Lord’s Prayer through once, without letting go of God-consciousness, and you will receive complete Illumination. Prayer is the magic, and prayer is your luck. Prayer gives you the will to stand still long enough to "let" the Power move forth and create. Wisdom and strength belong to the brave heart. Declare that all delay is good, and a greater door will open.
Aspiration is an awakened desire toward God, good and perfection. Communion implies sending and receiving, receiving and sending. We give and receive during communion. Words represent ideas and thoughts. Thought is the medium between the idea and the word. The thought must be of the Truth of Reality, which means realization and recognition. Develop the habit of right thinking, and you’ll always speak the right words. "Every man’s words become his burden," so make your words as buoyant as a balloon. Prayer can move or remove mountains when you fast from habits of negative thinking and using negative words. Opinions distort vision, like looking through dirty glass. Faith cleanses the glass into perfection.
Prayer is a state of being, communion, devotion, the intelligent desire to communicate with our Father-Mother God. We pray with treatments, asking and receiving. We can give treatments while we are sitting, standing or lying down, by releasing Power and lifting, but we lift our hands to God when we ask. We receive from God after we have praised to express our thankfulness and gratitude. Why do we pray at all? The Law is, "Give and you shall receive." If no current stirs the water, it becomes stagnant. A becalmed ship is worthless. Becalmed souls are worthless to themselves and world. When a ship spreads its sails, it slips swiftly, smoothly through the water. If even one sail is gone, the ship drifts off-course. When you spread the wrong sails, life’s winds toss the ship around. A ship’s captain knows every sail and what it will do. We have three sets of foundation sails on each side to balance our Faithfulness and Steadfastness, our Hope and Patience, our Gracious Giving and Receiving. Our "heart sails" include Purity and Sacrifice, Desires and Compassion, Meekness and Courage. The imagination sails are Pictures and Tolerance, Justice and Right, Truth and Appreciation. The top sail is Love.
Gratitude is a soul quality. Joy is a heart quality. Gratitude increases Joy’s fervency, and keeps Desire burning brightly. Joy releases ardor. Faith is the line over which Spiritual Substance travels. Joy’s depth is determined by its fervency. Gratitude’s depth is determined by the depth of Joy. Faith’s Power is determined by gratitude’s depth. All three determine our success, which equals our steadfastness of purpose.
Prayer is your highest Desire to know God. It is your greatest idea of success. To be kindly is the finest prayer you can make. To be sweet is prayer incense going up to the Father. To be compassionate is the prayer of the Master. To be just is the prayer of the Judge. To be tender is the Mother’s prayer. To be understanding is the prayer of the Father. Every virtue we express is a fine prayer, ascending our souls into heaven. Every action in love is prayer of glory. Every movement of joy sent forth to the Realms of Light is prayer. Let us then spend another shining new hour a day in real Prayer. Anyone can smile, praise, sing, hum or whistle for an hour a day. It does not need be a continuous hour. It can be for moments, like sun breaking through the clouds. Prayer is the expression of the soul’s delight in obedience to Law. It is the soul’s glory in its own high estate, and knowing that its Source is forever drawing it home and into its own Light.
The first step in prayer, in the face of a problem, is Awareness that we are in the Kingdom of Heaven right now, Recognition that we are the best servant God has in this place, and Surrender to all the Power of God, for it to use us, right here, right now. We begin by lifting our self to surrender, and lifting everything that comes. The second step is Visualization of perfection and the decree: "Let thy Power move forth. Let the Light go forth." Then we offer praise and words of gratitude that God has done it. "My words shall go out and accomplish that whereunto they are sent, and shall return to me fulfilled." Prayer is gratitude and praise, a powerful treatment, overcoming darkness and changing it into Light. God is everywhere evenly present. We go to the Silence to see and hear God. You can enter the Silence anywhere. You cannot hear God with your ears, but you can listen with your brain cells. The Silence is the uttermost stillness that earth can conceive. To enter the Silence is to enter a state of heaven-consciousness. You can enter the Silence to hear and use the Mystic Eye of God to see. You enter the Silence to hear the vibration of the Voice of God, and interpret it into symbols to see, or words to hear.
Substance is divided into seven types. One-seventh was used for each Day of Creation: Cells, molecules, atoms, etc. We form pictures, good or bad, to fill molds from the third dimension atomic Substance. We may not use a brush, but Imagination paints the form in atomic Substance, just as definitely as if it were paint applied to canvas. So we, with our creative faculties, paint pictures according to our desires. We paint a picture of the Master as he appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration standing before the alcoholic we wish to heal. We paint this picture in invisible atomic Substance until it is complete. When the person is tempted to drink (or steal, curse or act in anger), the Master himself sends a ray of Light that vitalizes the mold and says, "No, Son" (or Daughter), and touches the person. Declare that the individual’s desires are lifted to seek God instead. Take invisible Substance and build a pair of gloves of Light that reach to his elbows, declaring that these gloves cannot pick up any harmful thing. Place shoes of Light upon his feet ("I walk in the paths of righteousness and peace"). Declare that he is now satisfied with the spiritual waters from above. "I am lifted up and I do lift everyone and everything on my lines."
We must enter the Silence with an idea that involves both our imagination and subconscious mind. Answers come not because we ask questions, but the poise and calm of the Silence reflect them upon our mirror-like brain cells, which is why ascending the physical cells, nerves and glands is so important. Contemplate the Altars of God and the Universe from a cloud of Light. Use a hymn or image of something beautiful to enter the High Place. You can imagine all the places in heaven, but you cannot imagine God. The first step is to look up and praise God. The praise you offer rises to His Altars, and returns to you as the Substance of your creations. So the Golden Silence is a prayer. The second step is giving. Lift the people on your lines. Let the Light push all darkness ahead of you. As you lift your hands, it starts a wave vibration in the etheric currents, and the Guards then pour Light into the one for whom you prayed. Soul Ascension, yours and theirs, comes only through prayer. The third step is the let stage: "Father, let there be Light, let there be health, let there be abundance, etc." When you can think of no one and nothing else to lift, you have reached the outer fringe of the Golden Silence. Then you praise God again. Stand still. Watch and you will know the ecstasy. Your Guards may conduct you before an Altar or through a Temple, and finally, Illumination comes. You are never the same again. Desire for prayer is the desire to commune with God. Prepare the way before you enter the Silence. Circle your house with Divine Fire, the White Light of the Christ. Circle the room, your chair and finally yourself, so nothing will disturb you. The path you build always leads to the same Altar. Jesus never left, but ascended, and he still walks earth today. Christ consciousness is the New Age. Life has three kindergarten stages: First you hear about it, then you talk about it, then you think about it. Such people are not ready to become the Law, because they have nothing yet to ascend on. When they finally begin to "try," their efforts will bring them the experiences they need. It isn’t wacky to see and hear. You must use your mental faculties to enter the mental and spiritual anterooms of the Silence. Hold yourself high in consciousness, at the Higher Creative Center, and be a threefold being to maintain contact through practice of the Presence of God. Zip yourself into a suit of Light before you sleep, to maintain and add to the body’s vitality.
An inner Altar is descended into every room in which a person prays. Two Guards, who stand behind you for twenty-four hours, build a vibration in the chair you use for prayer. It is your duty to plan to be used completely by all the Power in prayer. Search your soul, your self for anything that is unlike God and bring it as gifts to the Altar for lifting, or if having conquered it, in gratitude before the Altar. A prayer is worth only what you give in it. Prayer is a form of praise and is also a form of confession. Many people today do not believe in confession, which is a form of cleansing self, although psychiatry and the Church have used it. An oral confession before the inner High Altar convinces the subconscious mind that we are out to conquer self, because witnesses are in the inner group before the High Altars. This digging out of self through confession aloud before an Altar, is the only way that you can swiftly contact the Power above. It is your direct means of opening the door and allows you to repent. To repent means to go up into the High Place. If you cannot feel the Power when you pray, you have a block of self to clean up. This is the best opportunity to find it. Some have more layers of blockades than others. No one is in a position to criticize another’s prayers. Our goal is God. We must learn to act like the Master, and to speak the Word like the Master. We must become word-conscious so that we become soul-conscious. If you have difficulty in prayer, you are unconsciously having difficulty in your everyday statements, using negative terms and idle words, for your words are reflections of your thoughts and emotions. We practice speaking aloud to God, knowing that He can hear us. If you feel self-conscious on a high vibration, watch out! It is very much like practicing the piano for a week, then going for a lesson. You have been making mistakes, sliding over them, but the teacher here is God. Promises
Given What have I asked for? Everyone has a goal but seeing it is necessary. The answer to prayer condenses little by little to the one who visualizes it. To stimulate the White Light of the Christ, you must have a burning desire to be One with God, keep your imagination constantly vivid, and act as if you already have it. Have I just bombarded God with petitions? You can pray fervently for three hours a day, but if you’re lukewarm the other twenty-one, your neglect catches up with you. Pray only when praise, glory and joy fills your heart. Leave part of your consciousness with your Oversoul, which always kneels before an inner Altar. Declare, "Father, You are the Source of my life. Please fill my body with Thy Substance of atomic energy." So many people have asked selfishly for thousands of years that they have created a vast world debt of force, which someone must conquer and pay. How do you know that what you pray for is right for your Ascension, for your loved ones, neighbor or the world? Avoid making the wrong request. For example, demanding the money to pay bills is force, which pulls your consciousness down into the heavy world mind, and returns as accidents, delay and disappointment. Gratitude and praise return as abundant miracles. Your Father’s "good pleasure" is to give you what you need, so praise, glorify and thank God that you already have the funds you require. Do you want what you prayed for when it comes? So many people fret and fume on a teeter-totter faith in God’s answer to their prayer that they exhaust themselves. Put your plan on a cloud of Light and love it into being without fuss or worry. No matter how much you pray, all you can do is prepare the way for Power to use you to manifest your plan. Success comes when you have loved enough, and your plan’s power and glory haunts you. Those who "know better" than God may try to bypass Divine Law or take a shortcut to get what they want, but that method always costs more in the end. You can have your way every time, if it is God’s way. The
Glory The Power moves through when we accept everything that happens to us. If we aren’t in our own place, whose shoes could we fill? Predestination is the calling of the Christed ones. God has predestined us to be gods and each of us has a place! We may not like our own place because we have ourselves filled it with darkness. If we are not in our own place in Light, we have an underlying current of sorrow and grief without cause, which is the Oversoul telling us that we have not moved up by paying our debts. You cannot be lifted up and reach balance if you do not lift your family with you. You must tie your earth to your Heaven or become an iconoclast. God had to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah to explode the dark clouds of evil to lift them. God does not tear down anything unless building on it is impossible. The right way is to build, step by step, and unfold like a bud into full blossom. "All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose" depicts our standing with God, who we are, what God has endowed us with to use as our eternal decrees in our life’s expression. The first words, "All things work together for good" are the greatest. I think it pricks us hardest – it seems to me, after thirty-one years in this work, that our greatest stumbling block is to look into the face of utter destruction and darkness and declare it good. In Genesis, God declared it good and very good. These words set a line of demarcation between an irresponsible creature and the responsibility of the Creator. Yet we straddle this. If I could just paint the beauty of the world closed to the creature, yet open to the Creator. I am talking about the degree that you brought with you, the possibility that you can express. The
Flaming Sword When you need a miracle, read Hebrews 11. When you need assurance and confidence, read Psalm 91. Hebrews 11 forms the bulwark of Power behind anyone seeking help. It has the same effect in our lives as does tuning a certain radio station. It tunes our dial to a higher frequency and builds faith. We’d like to have miracles to fall into our laps by praying without acting, but Faith is Divine Activity, not passivity. Steadfast God-consciousness and constant prayer are the activities that back a miracle. We combine steadfastness and Unconquerable Faith in three ingredients: the seeker, the searcher and the finder. We must seek first the kingdom of God. Then we must search for truth, which can be intellectual or spiritual. God is both Personality and Principle. The intellectual approach to God as Principle, minus the love of Personality, is as cold as a dead fish. The intellectual type becomes nauseated by the emotional type who runs around saying, "Love, love, love." We need both. The finding involves growth of consciousness as you search, expansion of your horizons, ascension of soul. What you find is the beauty of God. You find a place where the angel with a flaming sword stands before the gate of your lost Paradise. Forgiveness The fifth breath breathes through the atoms of your whole body and that fifth breath is prana, the pure Breath of God. The atoms of your body are so constructed that it becomes only energy. The secret of healing is to let the new atomic Substance move into your atoms, and declare that it consumes poisons. When a minister gives a healing treatment under Divine Law and says, "Let Light consume darkness," it will consume anything, because it is the Consuming Fire. Light consumes darkness, and negative things. Say, "You are under Divine Law to consume only that which is darkness." Where have you placed your faith? In the Power of the original Substance to consume poisons, which do not dare to move into the body, but are lifted. Take care of your body, but use the atomic Substance of which it is made. You may use everything on the outside to the Glory of God, but you must cure yourself of the idea that anything has any power over the pure Power of God. The
Golden Silence Our Master taught us, "Let your Light so shine," and "if the Light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness?" We must discover the three steps into becoming the Light. First we begin with meditation, statements and prayer until we feel like praising and thanking God. We use this approach until we have opened the three Windows of Soul to Jerusalem, our "high place" of consciousness, where Saul spent three days. We must praise God and count our blessings. Second, we offer treatments for others and the world, giving of our overflow of Light because we are so full that we can’t help but give. We "speak the Word" and send forth the vibration. As we give the treatments, we "hear" the Voice, and the visions come. Finally, we "wait upon the Lord in the high place." We have not "gone" anywhere, but take the time to listen. We "let Light in" and give it time to settle into every cell of our body. The quality of our time and effort spent determines our results, if we obey! We come forth from the Silence to do the next thing next, using what we have, ignoring the outer. The
Golden Chalice The Elect, using the Faith and the Love of God only, without selfish interpretations, have released enough of God’s invisible Light and Power to create that which must appear in outer visibility. Those who have elected to demonstrate over physical needs are still having difficulties because they have not released enough Power for a 100 percent demonstration! Their prayers produce only 20 percent of a demonstration, so they must have recourse to doctors. Miraculous healing can come to the one who asks his brothers to add their prayers to his. A thousand or a hundred thousand praying together is better than for any to pray alone to demonstrate. Being unwilling to share with another is selfish, like putting oneself on a material level with the Publicans, who have no reward for their demonstrations. They want the outer credits, but have no healing. If you want miracles, then do not say, "I did this," but, "The Father has used me." This is a greater expression because it sends back instantly, in one great Light, the equivalent of all your past prayer power and the Light you have sent forth. Declare it "good," and it comes rolling back as compound interest accrued to you. Law is inevitable in its action, and is under the control of one who says, "Not I, but the Father, His Light goes forth to do the work. In that Light is His greatness performed through me. Your Power, which I call through me, is thoroughly inevitable and irresistible in its power to increase." So it is. Aspiration
and Prayer Prayer must be threefold. First it must be a devotional attitude toward Principle and Power greater than self. Second, you must turn imagination upward, extend it toward the universe and picture how small the portion is. Imagine this current of life flowing around earth. Visualizing something greater than earth means an awakening. Third, do not pray from inside your body. Why pray to a god inside the room? Expand to find God above! God must be great and have form! The universe is great and God fills the universe. Ascend into the magnificence of the universe! I like to feel that I pray to God before an Altar. A miracle is an acceleration of natural law that eliminates delay. We enter that place where we "see" and we make it manifest. Under prayer and burning desire, we set aside time and space, and Substance hastens into form. Expand yourself into a timeless, spaceless consciousness, and Law acts accordingly, instantly. Prayer:
The Soul’s Aspiration Aspiration means "to desire earnestly to do, to pursue something, to attain a goal." The first expression of life and the first movement in civilization must be an aspiration. We must aspire to attain any goal, and our conviction inevitably brings us to that goal. We can’t advance, achieve or express life without aspiration. Nor can we become any greater than the goal we aspire to, or go farther than the height of our desire. Without aspiration, one feels no need to do, but is filled with virtuously smug self-exaltation and self-satisfaction. Such a person is a square peg in a round hole, unhappy unless he can force everyone to do things his way. The soul’s aspiration is rooted in desire. Aspiration toward attaining a greater goal ignites the flame of desire. The body’s death begins when the soul’s aspiration dies. First we aspire to possess something, then we put enough flame in our desire to do what we must do. Prayer is the soul’s aspiration vocalized, in many stages of desire, beginning with the savage who worships a stone or a fetish. People pray in many ways, but valid prayer must be free of self. The psychological and metaphysical grades of prayer are usually demands on God – "I want, give me" – but "skull bumping" aspiration ascends no farther than your hair roots. At the intellectual level we find the "Christ is within me" type who has devoted himself to Principle, which is a valid approach to God, but is still demonstrating. He demonstrates the right behavior if God continues to answer his prayers. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t. "Ceiling bumper" prayers are nothing more than mental statements of Principle, Law or fact that contain no love, aspiration or devotion, yet we begin to see a goal greater than self. Next come the "cloud climbers," those who do see a goal greater than self. They devote themselves to Principle, so they climb the ladder to the clouds, one rung at a time. We need to know that someone is on the other end to hear our prayers. Belief in God as just Principle alone doesn’t open the floodgate of Light. Who can hunger for cold Principle? When we add Personality to our conception of God, we ascend the ladder of Light and Law to seek the Thrones above. Aspiration is a resurrection from the old to the new, born of a burning desire to know God as a Father. Aspiration unlocks the Gates of Light. To open the floodgates, we must seek and listen for the Master’s knock at our "door," the crown of our head. After we accept that our Father yearns over us, our aspiration becomes passion to become and to do, which brings us to the Love of God. Now we compose our prayers of joy and devotion to God as Personality. We yearn for God, the world, including family, friends and organizations. The Lord’s Prayer is our ensample of prayer for all ages that covers the great avenues of life. When we yearn for more truth, we step from resurrecting the old to ascending to the new, and it becomes a constant act. Yet no Ascension is possible without the "compound" of Joy and Love, a longing, devotional attitude toward God, who is that dependable Principle. The all-encompassing feminine Principle of Love is taking us home. Love is the Glory in your soul, as Joy is the energy in your body. Love is Light, the strongest element in the universe, yet so gossamer-light that we may bear it without feeling a burden. Yet emotions of grief, sorrow and self-pity taint Love with the weight of self, and self-pity is the heaviest burden in the world. We can misuse Love. For example, possessive mother love squeezes the loved one to death. We must add the Divine Principle of Action to the full Love of God to express Love in the outer. Joy is the great activating factor. Joy, Love and Wisdom are the Trinity from which all Laws manifest. Joy is Energy as Love in action, which fires our enthusiasm and makes us conquer worldly challenges. Love is Joy in action. Our prayers ascend to God’s Throne when we aspire to reach the Source of Light for our supply. Joy in action amalgamates our devotional love for God. Our aspiration and goal become one, to be an instrument to release Joy. We resurrect all good, forgetting the old as we balance aspiration with joyous prayer and love. Almighty Power returns over the line of devotional love we’ve built to God’s Throne, and we become Servants of all Power and Light, according to our physical capacity. We no longer measure our aspiration in prayer, which now partakes of the timeless, measureless quality of Unconquerable Faith. Faith is atomic Substance and Energy, the Holy Spirit’s transforming Power stepped down to use us because we have become sun centers of Light. We don’t think "selfish" or "unselfish," but become that limitless quality of Unconquerable Faith, "the Substance of things hoped for." Faith fills our mental body atoms, nourishing and sustaining physical cells to renew and recreate them. The Light goes before us as the Spirit of the Lord. The same Power that creates also can destroy form. Reach to the Source and stand when a challenger causes you butterflies! Declare him perfect, and that God moves through. Ascend! Almighty Power is the Holy Spirit, which answers all prayer from lowest to highest. Step into the Source of Supreme Light and limitless Power, and let it use you according to God’s perfect will. Joyous activity will fulfill your success and take you to your goal. Aspire greatly! |