Money buys self-confidence for many people, but it won’t buy you out of spiritual poverty. You cannot buy God with money. Money will not buy soul-confidence, which Paul epitomizes in this text. Saul received illumination about Love in the blinding Light on the road to Damascus, and had moved from self-confidence to soul-confidence as Paul.

The temple council in Jerusalem had tried him for desecrating the temple and gave him to the Roman commander for scourging. Paul told them he was a Roman citizen and claimed the right to be brought before Caesar for trial. They took him to the Roman governor at Caesarea, who held him prisoner for two years, hoping for a bribe, a situation where money would have worked! Porcius Festus heard Paul’s case and bound him over to the king of Judea, who would have freed him had Paul not appealed to Rome.

Paul sailed for Italy with a Roman centurion, at the onset of the autumn equinoctial storms, when the winds were contrary. Storms frequently forced them to stop, but they continued, hoping to reach Rome before winter.

Confidence is trust or faith in what we believe, our ladder as we climb from the old. The sailors’ self-confidence so easily became a self-doubt because they didn’t add soul-confidence, or know where they were going. They were in the storm fourteen days and nights.

"Paul said, ‘Men, you should have listened to me, and not have sailed from Crete, and incurred this harm and loss. Now I urge you to be of good cheer, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.’" Paul loved to exhort, to say, "I told you so." We all do.

Each of us must face the goal of our vision, be brought before some heavenly Council and be asked, "Where did you keep your vision?" In moth balls? In a deep freeze? In a safe, warm place?

The angel of God said, "Fear not, Paul. You must be brought before Caesar; and, lo, God has given you all those who sail with you." He was showing him the vision and goal. To hold a vision, you work out your salvation where you are, and Divine Law brings you to that goal. The use of force only delays attainment of the goal.

Paul made them cast out anchors after fourteen days, and they ate bread and meat. The sailors dropped four anchors of Faith, Trust, Responsibility and Obedience, which protect the ideal of giving enough.

No one owes us anything beyond payment of his just debts, but we all owe God Love. Faith is Divine Substance, a rod of Power that establishes us with the Source, filled with the Principle of Energy. Wisdom, Love and Energy are the Source Principles that are necessary to Faith, the bridge across the abyss, the way to success.

Trust imparts untouchable serenity and soul-confidence. The contrast between self and soul-confidence is like the difference between light and dark. Faith’s Power moves through our trust to build real soul-confidence.

Winds blew them on the rocks, and the ship broke in half. The soldiers wanted to kill Paul lest he should escape, but the centurion refused. Some clung to boards and pieces of the wreckage, but all got to shore safely because Paul took responsibility for them.

Responsibility is protecting, taking full advantage of faith, a positively working active peace, a divinely active soul-confidence, vitalized by the Light of the Son. Vitalized words invigorate brain cells. To protect and keep your own life inviolate, just pour out love with no demands. "I love you just where you are."

A black cloud permeates one who rages, and only love can penetrate it. "I love you where you are now" pierces rage. Obedience requires balance. Only the creature lives by emotions. We must have pride in our ideals and should be too proud to become unbalanced in any stupid temperamental way. "I’m only human" is the creature stage. You might as well say, "Take me back to the jungle to swing from the tree tops."

You live in glory and happiness when you live by soul-confidence. What is the quantity of your love? How much do you give? Is the quality of your love Godlike and beyond measure? Love burns away all dross.

Water the Seed of Love in your heart with love until it envelopes you, moves through you in greater quality and quantity, and you become a "love millionaire." Money cannot buy the Love of God.

Integration is joining all parts together for perfect wholeness. We must integrate ourselves to ascend to God because He wants every unit of His Creation back home.

Like the prodigal son, our desires send us forth on the path to gain experience. Young people are eager to experience varied phases of education in college and new aspects of social life, yet no school on earth can touch the wisdom found in the College of Ascension in the Mental Realm.

The burned child dreads the fire of experience, but God uses those hard experiences for our own good. He uses our self-interest to draw us home, no matter what angle of it we express. The harder we seek, the closer we get, because God reels in the line and pulls us to Him. We, as wives, mothers, husbands and fathers, must send out enough love in prayer to lift our loved ones’ load of spiritual debt.

To integrate our scattered parts, we must put on the whole armor of God. Four times these verses say to stand, not to sit or lie down but to stand, to face the Light as it permeates and flows through us. To "withstand" means we must stand with God.

Putting on the spiritual armor involves six steps: Gird your loins, put on the breastplate of righteousness, cover your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, carry the shield of faith, put on the helmet of salvation, and carry the sword of Spirit, the Word of God.

The loins represent Egypt, the abdomen. Most of our physical weariness results from forgetting to gird our loins, and the physical result is a pot-bellied profile. Unless we tighten the abdominal muscles, the internal organs, including the heart, sag and pull on the spine. You droop emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually if your loins sag. Consciousness sinks, closes the thousand petaled crown lotus that enfolds the brain nerves, and closes out the River of Life until only a dead, dried out stump remains. To "gird" means to bind up, hold up, look up and lift up! The only way is to look up in surrender and become the servant of all Power.

You must live up to your highest vision of righteousness to wear the breastplate. It descends over your girded loins and covers the stomach, heart and lungs, which should work together in rhythm. Its twelve stones focus rays of Light that can keep us from taking in others’ negative emotions, yet the protection our breastplate provides depends on what we choose to do. We must be reborn every hour. Stop excusing your idle words – you meant them or you wouldn’t have said them! Power flows in and refills us when we lift.

Cover your left foot with Peace, and put Patience on the right. Desire ascends and mates with Will to become Oversoul "I AM" consciousness, begetting Intuition and Illumination that create the great gift of Poise, which is Love and Wisdom in equal measure. Peace and Patience are the firstborn twins of Poise and Power.

Wear your shield on the spiritual left arm, leaving the worldly right arm free for action. The shield covers you from head to toe so faith can uphold you, protect the physical body and the emotional-mental life. Give Unconquerable Faith a free rein to use you to the greatness of its capacity.

The crown lotus opens as you consciously carry your shield, and their Light becomes your helmet of salvation. Athena and Aphrodite, the Greek goddesses of wisdom and love, wore helmets. A halo appears around your head when your lotus petals open. The helmet of salvation saves us from intellectual crystallization and opens us to intuition and Divine Illumination.

You hold the two-edged sword of truth in your right hand. Spirit is God’s Universal Substance, and the sword shines with that Spirit as you separate the sheep of Light from the dark goats in life. Good thoughts are sheep, but negative thoughts smell like goats! Sever the idle words from your life, gird your loins and lift!

Integration gathers your scattered parts and harmonizes them with God to ascend and be at one with Him. Do you want to be an "ambassador in bonds" and stand against "principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places?" Stand under the Light and let it use you as God’s ambassador in bonds.

Each night, count how often you thought of self versus remembering and loving God. Send out enough love in prayer to lift your loved ones’ load of spiritual debts. Recognize their flaws in love, but don’t be soft.

Telling a secret to a weak person, who is like a sieve, tempts him, and you take the blame. Don’t burden people beyond what they can carry. You may not expect them to do what they’re unable to do. A just and loving appraisal to lift into the Light isn’t unrighteous judgment.

The Power of God consumes all darkness. "This is good to lift! I put it in the consuming fire to free another of God’s children. Let Power move through me as an Ambassador of Light to overcome all darkness." We are one great family marching home to God!

The kingdom of heaven is open to all believers. Heaven is a place we go. Whether you get there in consciousness, depends on how much you want it, and how much self you are willing to sacrifice.

The world is starving for an understandable, plain and practical, yet highly mystical way to reach heaven. Practicality alone does not satisfy the soul, which yearns to envision the Mystery of God. The minds of the masses are set in a new vibrational groove, and people want a more personal contact with God.

Today’s trend is toward experiments in telepathy and extrasensory perception. Most of earth’s population believes in God, an afterlife, miracles, angels and healing. People’s "silence" about these subjects means that they believe.

Humanity doesn’t object to God as Personality, but to the contemporary religious picture of Him. God doesn’t need an oil can to fix the squeak, but we do. We have no common world theology because religion must satisfy many different grades of earthly intelligence.

We all stand equal in that we each have the right to breathe twenty-four hours a day, and to ascend. However, each must prove truth for himself, since each sees and comprehends the facts differently. No two people are alike: Each must witness the glories and prove it himself.

We are the result of millions of years of development. God gave us brain cells according to a Divine Pattern, but we can assimilate only what we accept on earth. We are all free to choose, but all occupy different degrees. Those who say, "I learn through illumination," are using their trust fund from past incarnations. Don’t be lazy, but open and develop new brain cells.

We must have a great desire to receive much. Yet we must conform to Principle and obey Law, for God cannot set them aside for anyone.

We may worship God as Personality in a vast setting, the whole of the kingdom of heaven. One who works on Principle only says, "God understands me." Yes, He knows what you need, but that may not be what you think you need. Earth’s vibration is constantly ascending, and people need to ascend their bodies, too, to meet today’s challenge of atomic radiation, to assimilate the food that radiation has raised in vibration. The atomic bomb is an expression of God’s Good. We might not have needed to develop atomic weapons if our prayers had been fervent enough to overcome the world’s fears. Fears kill more people than atomic radiation does. We’re using radiation to burn out illness, and when we desire to enough, we will wipe out disease.

Prayer has three facets that are vital to our daily needs: Desire, Pattern and Goal.

My present desire: Have I asked for it? My prayer pattern: How have I asked for it? My goal: What is it? We must ascend our desires.

Question yourself: What kind of desires do I have? For survival only? Am I interested in God first? Do I want to know more and go higher? Should I compare myself with neighbors, family, friends? "I’m doing better than they are" is cold comfort. The average person talks about nothing, but we must discuss about how desire applies in our lives. Do I desire illumination, comprehension, to know the Law of Growth?

Isaiah describes the true way of fervent prayer: "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God." Everything depends on the fervency of our prayers. How zealous is "I tried"? How hot are your prayers? Below zero? Ten degrees above? How high do they go? To the ceiling, or the stars?

How do I straighten my path? God can’t find you on a winding path up a mountain of negative emotions, or walk a crooked path with you. Every path straightens when desire turns upward. Ask yourself: "How have I prayed?" Half demands, half doubts? Most metaphysical truth statements are demands. Yet when you demand in prayer, you use inner credits on the outer. You have nothing left to lift you if you stub your toe, and you fall into the ditch. Decide what you want. Once you believe to see Divine Power in action, it pulls you back on the path.

Every "valley" is an emotional low that we must fill with Light, so take your share. Why be a martyr or give up the share of Light meant for you? Darkness uses the energy you waste! Anyone who is conscious of giving is living under self-imposed martyrdom, which depletes vitality. A noble martyr makes a great show of suffering to arouse sympathy, yet earns no inner credits. Any virtue used to exalt the self becomes a form of viciousness.

We must bring every mountain-lump and hill-growth low, and straighten the path to the goal. People who say, "This is my last incarnation," have many more ahead. You could do it in a year, a day, or in a single prayer, if you loved God enough. Worry quickly dissipates energy, so quit imagining your spiritual debts.

Today is cleanup time under prayer. Do it now and make the "rough ways smooth." How long do you put off making vows or decisions? Why wait? Eat what’s on your plate, like it, finish paying your debts and ascend.

The perfect process of prayer is lifting, praising and letting. Tune out the world vibration and tune in the Power of Almighty God. Surround your loved ones with Light in prayer, then nothing but Love can enter.

Cold Principle does not warm us. We need Personality to draw forth the flowering of love. Melchizedek, the King of Peace, still walks earth, and in your Garden of Eden at eventide. Praise God in an ecstasy born of soul rapture that replenishes you. Know that Light moves forth and that you can ascend with no self, as a perfect servant of all Power. Let God use you and do the work, and let Power fill the world through you.

"I am all that health and abundance, Father. Let Your health manifest as me." After praising God enough, no self remains to limit how far you can extend your consciousness. God has designed your threefold extension of Divine Mind to operate from the Golden Silence, where your superconscious mind of Oversoul forever kneels in prayer before High Thrones. Subconscious mind handles all automatic needs in the physical world when you, who are the Creator, remain on the Mount of Illumination.

Seek first the kingdom of heaven, your goal: God and His Power. Walk with God and awaken your brain cells. Walk in the Light only and it will shine on you.

Why refuse complete Ascension? Take your body with you, and dedicate it as a servant of Power for God to use until "all else" is added to you. You may experience sometimes years of delay, but a thousand years are only a day in God’s sight. Your hopes, and the high visions God gives, do come to pass. What is your goal? Never confine it to years, months, weeks, days or minutes, but make your goal limitless.

Many decide to follow Jesus, then refuse to ascend. You are gods and it "does not appear what you shall be." You could lift and declare that everyone you contact is God’s perfect agent, if you have an Ascension goal in mind.

Mr. Anyone was happy until he saw the doctor, whose diagnosis was negative. He fearfully believed this, followed the doctor’s advice, but became worse. If you roll in a coal bin, you turn black. Mr. Anyone could have bathed in his tower room of Light if he had once declared that he walked the Path of Ascension. He could have told the doctor, "God works through you. I declare this is a miracle of God," and walked out whole and perfect.

A doctor has every reason to believe the worst if the patient is negative. Declare that your doctor’s brain cells are filled with Divine Illumination and his hands drip with o’ershadowing Light. Any doctor can accept the fact that he can heal, and Light will use him. Ascend to the Life of God, who can recreate whatever He created, which is our basis for believing in miracles.

An angel with a flaming sword bars the gate to your every past paradise. Today is your point of no return, and you won’t be happy with the results when you act or think or speak negatively again. You can’t relive the past, but you can start living right today. We must grow, face the Light and make the future the present.

Even today’s paradise will eventually squeeze like tight shoes, because you are always ascending to a higher octave. You can ascend while facing old negativity, or a new Paradise.

The Voice still cries in the wilderness. Enter your Garden of Eden and "dwell in the House of the Lord forever." Let God’s Beauty walk the earth as you.