by Edna Lister
“I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.” Matthew 16:19
1 Four Steps in Preparing for Ascension
2 I Know!
3 The First Step: I Accept!
4 The Second Step: I Surrender!
5 The Third Step: I Arise!
6 The Fourth Step: I Ascend!
7 The Keys of the Kingdom
8 The First Key: Seeking the Kingdom of Heaven
9 The Second Key: Agreeing with God
10 The Third Key: The Way of Initiation
11 The Fourth Key: Payment of All Past Vows
12 The Fifth Key: The Magic Word for All Miracles
Four Steps in Preparing for Ascension
From the Creature to Become the Christed One of God A Creator of Miracles Through the Spoken Word
Our goal in life is to become Christed ones, who live by “I AM” consciousness. Seekers of Truth have called this the Way of Initiation, and it represents the soul’s struggle to overcome the desires of the “little self,” better known as subconscious mind.
From the first recognition of our inheritance as Children of the Kingdom to our final Soul Ascension into oneness with the Divine is a long and wearisome journey. We can complete this pilgrimage only by overcoming the little self through prayer, and constant vigilance.
The more highly developed creature, though still living by instinctive intelligence, finally recognizes the Divine as a goal toward which to aspire, and takes the first step from the creature stage of development.
I Accept! I Surrender! I Arise! I Ascend to “dwell in the House of the Lord forever.”
I now stand in the Heart of the White Fire of the Christ Consciousness.
I now stand in the Light that descends from Above.
Acceptance is the first step that opens the long journey through the land of Egypt, represented by the abdominal cavity, the domain of darkness of the soul. This is a stage of bondage to the little self, with its selfishness and misunderstanding. Little by little, soul unfoldment overcomes the creature stage, which gives way to the Son of Man stage.
Intellect is the ruler in Surrender, the second step upward through the Son of Man stage, and the individual must still “see to believe.” His soul slowly opens to glimpses of the Promised Land, symbolized by the thoracic cavity, the heart, stomach and lungs.
We usually spend much time standing on the border between the land of Egypt and the Promised Land under this second step, hesitating to turn back but without the strength of soul to move onward. Even after we decide to enter the Promised Land and conquer self, we may wander for decades, because our flame of Aspiration and Inspiration flares, flickers and burns low. The lure of the world, the “fleshpots of Egypt,” still pulls us downward.
We may stumble for years, at times grasping Law clearly, at other times unable to understand the need to obey Law. We conquer self when Inspiration flames high, losing ground when it flickers low and almost goes out. Sometimes we even turn back for a while. Yet we are always gaining strength, learning more about Law and God.
We take many lesser steps during our climb through the four steps in Soul Ascension. Our little steps seem not to count at the time, or to be part of the climb. Later we find that each small step has brought us a gain in understanding, which finally lifts us from the little self stage, the Son of Man stage, and in sight of a beautiful goal, the Son of God stage of unfoldment.
The third step of Arising takes us through the Promised Land. Each lesson teaches some facet of Love and Faith while we change from only being able to “see to believe” into that serene and confident state where we “believe to see,” and are able to stand and know. This inevitably brings us in sight of the Garden of Eden, which symbolizes everything above the collar bones.
Through continued practice of giving up the little self, the Vision grows in brilliance, the miracles become an expectant attitude instead of just “sometimes” miracles. We move upward from the Son of Man stage, where intellect rules, into the Son of God stage, where God rules life and becomes our very Breath of Life.
The soul demands that little self fully gives up control to become a subordinate part of the soul. Once we experience the joy of this Vision, we may never turn back to the “good old days” when the little self could wander in the land of Egypt without hearing the soul’s call to ascend. The little self becomes alert with the Life of God. It must forever hear the call of soul, and hearing, heed and obey.
We accomplish the fourth step of Ascension when we fully amalgamate the little self’s identify with soul, and reunite it with the soul after its long pilgrimage upward and into its own Garden of Eden, the Higher Creative Center, the place of Intuition and Illumination. By mating Desire with Will, we reach the place of “I AM,” or the Christed consciousness of God.
When we mate Desire and Will, they enter the Throne Room, the lost Garden of Eden, the Paradise of God, and the “I AM” of the Son of God becomes part of the great “I AM THAT I AM,” part of the Source, part of the whole.
This is the only true Way of Initiation, the only true Ascension of Soul to become a Christed One.
2. I Know!
I know that the Love of God can only walk softly before God.
I know that the Love of God can only speak gently before men.
I know that the Love of God must keep its own high Golden Silence before God.
I know that the Love of God must speak Wisdom before men, under the compulsion to speak to defend Truth.
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”
Matthew 7:7
So, “in quietness and confidence shall be your strength,” and I know that my knocking is but another term meaning to stand Godlike. I now stand upon the rock of Unconquerable Faith, releasing the Love of God through my rejoicing.
I stand in my own room of Light within the Golden Silence of God while waiting upon Him in expectant persistence. Since “to wait” means “to serve,” I know that I must keep my eyes upon the Light while I go about my outer business here below, never losing my Christed consciousness under any outer condition.
My knocking is my ability to realize always that I am forever in the Kingdom of Heaven and that there is no place on earth where I could possibly hide from it. The desire to increase the quality of my Love of God and to increase the quantity of the Love of God using me is my full quota of knocking.
What do I find? I find that the rewards for living this new life are truly “riches, honor and life.” I find that when I have filled every corner of Heaven full with my Love for God, His own promises forever impel the Father to wrap it all into one beautiful package and return it to me as the greatest desires of my heart, if only to make room in Heaven for more prayer Substance!
At the end of each day’s trail, I find I have made new friends, new vistas open, and I see new ways of conquering. I have found what God’s Substance and Power can do when I allow them to rule my life.
Love is timeless! Love is measureless! Love is Joy in action!
3. The First Step: I Accept
For the first time in my life, I truly realize what it really means to be a child of God. I understand that my whole inheritance is still awaiting me. I also see that the reason I have never collected my inheritance has nothing to do with God’s Desire or great Plan for me.
I realize how often I have taken my place before the Window of Heaven to collect some part of my inheritance, only to allow the outer world to distract my attention. My own doubts and fears have caused me to take time out for weeping in self-pity, long enough to lose my place at the window, sending me to the end of an even longer line. I have nothing to show for my shadow chasing.
I recognize that God must have my full cooperation if I am ever to collect my full inheritance. He has it waiting for me and has given me every Law needed for cooperation with Him in collecting what is mine.
First, I shall learn to be fully steadfast in my purpose, to be unwavering in my prayers of rejoicing while I stand continuously at the Window of Heaven, and allow nothing to turn me away. Then He will be ready to send His agents and His powers to touch earth here and there to make my desires visible to my eyes and to my touch.
I now accept that Love fulfills the Law. I begin to see dimly what the Love of God is, and how it works as me. I am beginning to fall in Love with God!
I am beginning to know what is means to “love my neighbor as myself.” I see that I have been loving my neighbor exactly as well as I have loved myself. Now I use only “I AM Love” statements for myself, instead of calling upon myself innumerable old names. I realize that God’s Love does move in and take over my heart until it swells and vibrates with the Love of God for God.
My Love of God, loving myself or my neighbors has nothing to do with self-love. In this state of consciousness, I forget myself completely, leaving the Love of God free to possess me. When I turn to my neighbor, it is God’s perfect Love that pours over him to do its perfect work with no thought of “me” in it. When I hold no thought of myself to color my love for my neighbor, only Harmony can reign.
I accept that I can include all prayer in ask, seek, knock, and find, which are words of stability in the practice of the Love of God through rejoicing. When I hold firmly to asking, seeking, knocking and finding, I’ll have no time left to listen to old thoughts. Holding firmly to my new concept of prayer is the difference between being a weak Son of Man and a Creator of all Good, who is possessed by the Love of God, and is used by this Love to lift the whole world.
I accept that I must ask to become responsible, so that only the Love of God shall go before me in the Spirit of Joy to prepare my way as a carrier of Light into dark places. I accept that great place that God, my Father, has had waiting for me since the beginning of all time.
I realize that the place I now occupy is one I have busily created for myself. I now understand exactly why this place of my own creating has been so unsatisfactory to me. I know that I must climb out of it and into my rightful place by conquering and mastering every lesson that life presents to me.
I accept that I cannot hope to understand the governing Laws of my own life unless I seek to translate every one of my earth experiences into an understanding of lessons well learned. Through this method only can I hope ever to know what I really want to ask for, what I must seek, what door I must knock upon and what I must find.
I see that the right place to begin my seeking is where I stand now. I know that seeking does not mean running around on the outer, hunting for some perfect teacher to show me the way. I listen to everyone who is of the Truth, I read and study, yes. However, putting my faith in any teacher on the outer, expecting perfection is foolish. Teachers are only other “seekers” who are ahead of me on the Path, good folks getting better through their seeking and practice of Law.
I must place all my Faith in Principle, as I walk with all others who seek Truth. I am becoming as perfect an “ensample” of Truth as I can now achieve.
To seek means to look up to the Father of all Lights, that “Light which comes down from above.” When I keep my eyes trained on my goal of letting the Love of God possess me, perfect Love that does cast out all old fears, does absorb all past detriments of my life. This allows me to go free, onward and upward into my own future victory and triumph. This has now become my whole aim.
I shall seek to redeem every moment of wasted time, one at a time, seeking, asking, knocking and finding what I have left undone. I shall remember those forgotten ideals that I stored in a deep freeze so many years ago, seek them out, thaw them and begin my youth again.
Although I cannot do everything at once to catch up with all this past neglect, I shall repeat my new vows concerning them. Daily I shall make strong statements about their fulfillment, knowing that He will accept this as my proof of intention, and as my down payment on account with Him in this new way of life.
God will accept every prayer I make, every statement of Truth and every “Father, I love You” as another payment on this account I have opened in the Heavenly Bank. According to His vast promises, He will deliver miracle upon miracle in return.
I have accepted, but how shall I pray by knocking? I have already learned better than to use force and dare not make demands upon the Law. Only by “letting” can I live by the full Love of God. I cannot gain anything by pounding at any door, either of earth or of Heaven.
Law is already perfect. I cannot make it more so. It already is! Love that does fulfill the Law is gentle and soft-spoken. What, then, shall I do about knocking?
4. The Second Step: I Surrender!
I now surrender to be possessed by the full Power of the Living God. I now surrender to become the servant of all the Power, all the Glory, all the Wisdom, all the Love, all the Beauty and all the Compassion that I can release through prayer, sent forth on wings of rejoicing!
I surrender every old thought, shabby, vain imagining, every old feeling, to make room so that the perfect Love of God may use me. I constantly surrender my mind for “that Mind that was also in Christ Jesus” to fill it. I surrender my heart to Divine Compassion, to use as an instrument for all of God’s Creation.
The Faith of God leads my ancient captivity captive as I surrender the old to be absorbed into Love of God. The bonds of Love now hold me tightly. Love severs my captivity to little self and old less-good desires. I am free forever.
The only freedom in the world is to be free from bondage to the lesser self, to be led captive by the higher soul. The Faith of God is my foundation upon earth, and my anchor in Heaven.
It has taken me so long to reach this point of surrender and to achieve this Unconquerable Faith of God because I became so involved in earthly affairs as I moved up from bondage in the land of Egypt, through the Promised Land, and into my own Garden of Eden. At last, no angel with a flaming sword stands at the Gates to bar me, because the Love of God has banished all barriers above and below.
Through surrender I have learned what sacrifice of self can mean in rewards of success in my daily life. Surrender of self makes room for enough of the Love of God to move through me to fill all my molds. Through surrender of the little self, I have learned what Compassion toward everyone means for me.
Since charity begins at home, I began my practice of Compassion with my family and friends first. Then I spread it to include an ever-widening circle of people. Besides creating beauty in my private life, the reward for such practice of Compassion freed me of wanting to judge others in any way, righteous or unrighteous.
My subconscious mind cannot distinguish the difference between “righteous” and “unrighteous,” and it always works out any type of judgment through my own body and affairs. This great shock came when I reached this point in my surrender of self to live by higher Laws. I suddenly realized that any kind of judgment is either criticism or condemnation or both, and the physical results are hardening (sclerosis) of some of my body organs.
Through further surrender, I understood that the answer to the healing of this hardening must be to let enough Love of God flow through me as Compassion. I sought and found the answer to freedom from past misunderstandings of Law: Compassion taught me that everyone is doing his present best, according to his knowledge of Law. It taught me that no one else can ever live up to the Christ-consciousness as it expresses through me!
Thus, I saw how mistaken I had been to judge others. How could I know what their Christ-consciousness was telling them? Through surrender of self, I learned that no one can practice or live up to any Law until he comprehends Law through personal experience – not my personal experience, his!
I learned to be obedient to my highest understanding of the Laws unfolded to me through practice, and experience of surrender to be used by the Love of God. With much stumbling and by trial and error, I found that “trying” is not good enough anytime! One can’t discover Truth by “trying” to. Truth is Law, which I hear, I accept, then I become that Truth!
When I discovered that just “trying” meant that I was telling God, “Please, leave me alone a while longer. I’m not through playing yet,” it was an easy matter to surrender to the next step, becoming. The Law demands that I always practice everything I have learned, with no excuses for physical or mental laziness, doing nothing on a part-time basis.
Through surrender, I learned that a willing sacrifice made in the full Love of God (and forgotten at once) can transform my life and fill my personal desire molds instantaneously, turning my whole life into Joy. In reverse, I learned that an unwilling sacrifice, or one made grudgingly (a “must” sacrifice of obligation), causes many delays and postponements, and brings no returns at all on the inner.
So, I learned to wait. I do not make any sacrifice until I surrender to be used by the Love of God, and forget everything but loving enough. I can now make the sacrifice and know that the instant I do, I can forget both the sacrifice and whatever may transpire as a result.
Love enough has gone forth to make the gift and to pay dividends as miracles for myself and the one for whom I offered the sacrifice. Making no gift at all is better than to make it and remember that I have made it. This is true sacrifice through surrender, accompanied by enough Compassion for the receiver, and is in full obedience to the Laws of the Christed One who possesses nothing for the self.
Through surrender to be possessed by the Love of God, I have learned to love enough to accept a gift gracefully and graciously. To accept ungraciously, with all my thoughts centered on how I feel about taking something from someone, is self-consciousness not soul-consciousness. The Power and the Love of God do not use self-consciousness, which does not love God enough, does not dwell upon the Christed consciousness.
I dwell upon making the givers of such good gifts happy that very moment. I pour over them compassionate Love and forget the little self through surrender to be Love’s captive in the bonds of the White Light of the Christ.
I am now become the perfect graciousness and the loveliness of a Christed One, with only one Desire, to know God and His Laws, better and better. I reach the place of consciousness where miracles are my daily portion, my expectation from God, since I am complying with all the Laws He has given me to use. I do love God enough and praise Him enough. I do stand in Unconquerable Faith of God waiting for His next Revelation and Illumination, which will surely come.
The Love of God now burns away all barriers, overcomes all obstacles. I stand fearlessly and chant, “Now I AM strong. Now I AM healed. Now I AM become the Spirit of Joy!”
5. The Third Step: I Arise!
I arise! What lifting power lies in these two magic words! I move upward on the blithe Spirit of Joy. From the very instant I accept my heritage of Joy, I move upward and am lifted into that surrender of self as an inner compulsion that grows greater day by day.
Now that I arise, every nerve of my body tingles, all tension is gone and I am released from all pain and discomfort. I move up and out of my old garden filled with weeds and dry grass.
I now stand in my inherited Garden of Love where I find every beauty of Spirit. My Garden of Love blooms the year ‘round, forever fragrant and colorful.
My little self no longer parades before the world, no longer prowls among the obstacles, hurdles, barriers and quicksands of earth, no longer faces the outer darkness because I have turned to face God’s high Light from above. In this Light, I cast no shadow in which to be lost again. I know that I made my own shadows and clouds in the past.
It is always prayer time in my Garden of Love. Every nod of the flowers, every breath I draw becomes an ecstasy of my soul.
As I stand before the High Altar in my Garden of Love, I find myself in the Golden Silence where nothing of earth can distract me. Nothing of the outer world can ever intrude upon this Golden Silence.
I reach the Golden Silence only through the magic act of surrender to be possessed of all the Power of God, even as I arise into Christed consciousness. I leave all thoughts of earth outside and I become untouchable Compassion, immovable Faith.
I feel as if I hold everyone I love with me in this Golden Silence, in this place of beauty of the soul. I know that when I speak the Word from this magic place of glory it shall “come to pass.”
I need tell no one that my life is changed, or that Joy has become its keynote. I do not leave this Golden Silence, or find any need to descend from my high state of consciousness to contact the world. Therefore, my face is radiant with the lighthearted Spirit of Joy. I am no longer an outer example of the little self, but a living ensample, vibrant with Christ consciousness.
I leave part of my soul consciousness standing there in my Garden of Love, before my High Altar in prayer of praise. The Spirit of the Lord now has a chance to move through me, going before me and making clear and easy my way, because I keep my channel of Light wide open always. I do not disconnect my lines of Light anytime. They are up, and in an instant the Power moves through me or the words are placed on my lips.
In this place of Illumination, I give understanding to all others, having forgotten that I ever wanted it for myself on the outer. Loving God enough, praising Him enough, leaves me with a permanent ecstatic Glory of Soul that reaches out to enfold everyone I know and meet. My Joy increases because I am no longer an outcast from my own Garden of Love. The old longing in my heart, for something I did not possess, has been stilled.
I AM free!
I must find new ways to share my secret. I must lead others into the ways that will open to them their own Garden of Love in their own High Place of the Golden Silence. Loving enough is a yearning, brooding attitude over every creative idea and every contact with others. I know that my sharing must be in this brooding feeling toward the world, not in words.
Now I know that to yearn and brood over my loved ones from my Garden of Love does in some magic way draw them into the Light of their own Christed consciousness. In the Golden Silence, the magic of enough Love gestates all things of earth!
I know that I still must work out my own salvation here below, making up for past neglect. I must do the same old things with the same old individuals on the outer, in the same old places, in the same old ways. Yet now I no longer want to change life for my own convenience. I do not waste any time or energy trying to make people over on the outer. I now spend all my time seeking new ways to change myself to suit God!
My desire grows in depth and height to become a fitting ensample of His Glory and a worthy instrument for His Power. His radiance, His glorious and Unconquerable Faith seems to fill the universes for me. I continuously repent of my past foolishness, lost time, laziness and indifference and, above all, the time spent in self-pity.
I repent as I go onward and upward. I know better than to stop for one moment, even for repentance! I repent as I arise even higher.
I now realize that God has always understood me. He has understood me most of all when I have been rebellious and unrepentant for my past disobedience, some committed in ignorance, some in deliberate willfulness.
Yet He has always looked at me while saying compassionately: “Yes, child, I know how it is with your heart. I know of the suffering, the hurts and the griefs, and that your desire has ever been to please Me. However, I cannot set aside Law to spare you or to please you. Come higher, and learn to make a complete surrender to be filled with My Love. Come higher and learn to surrender to My Power. Let My Joy be your life and my Love your protection, even from that little self, which is sometimes so willful. Let go of self, reach up and stand before Me in High Places, and My Spirit of Joy shall descend upon you and your Joy shall be unto you a life-giving fountain of Eternal Youth forever and ever.”
I arise to stand in my own room of Light, bathed in its radiance and glory, filled with the Faith of God, and forever free from earth bondage, where nothing is impossible for me to accomplish in His Name.
6. The Fourth Step: I Ascend!
What is Ascension? What does it mean to me, and what part have I in it? What can it do for me now?
Ascension is a mystical term, meaning to those on the Way of Initiation exactly what “atomic research” means to scientists. It is moving inward, getting behind the outer visible shell. Ascension is a refining process, and a work of penetrating through outer layers and into that Substance held within the outer shell, the protective sheath.
Unaided vision cannot see the finer particles contained within an atom, but the physical effects of this Power, when released, are clearly visible. So it is with the soul, which we cannot see with physical eyes, yet we see the effects of unleashing the inner soul powers very clearly on the outer.
What we know as personality represents the soul on the outer. Yet physical eyes cannot see personality itself. They can see and feel only the results of personality. Soul-living shows in both expression and results.
What science can do with mechanical aids, we, as individual expressions of the Almighty, can do with our minds. We can unfold and apply our potential abilities by using our three great creative tools: Desire, Thinking and Imagination, working together as one to become the foundation upon which we can build Godlike lives. Every lesser faculty will follow the leadership of these three when they work harmoniously as one.
Then we ascend both self-desire and self-will to become one with soul Desire and the free Will of God as man. They fuse to become the balanced Love and Wisdom of God, known to man as the “I AM.” When this fusing takes place, they express through the faculties as Intuition and Illumination.
Once the “I AM” takes over the life as Christ consciousness, Imagination, which has been used for imagery, turns itself upward and becomes the guardian of life known as Vision. Vision reveals Law, and Intuition and Illumination become the interpreters of what vision grasps from Divine Mind.
We cannot ascend to mate of soul Desire with God’s free Will without becoming poised. Yet we can perfectly direct and control every portion of our outer expression from this sanctuary of Poise. Imagination turned up as Vision sits at the control panel, holding us in Poise on our new life course, undeviating in its direction: UP!
Another mating occurs, a joining between this Poise and new Power as it moves through us from above. As this pair becomes one in expression, we move into our own Center of Balance. We actually move upon an Axis of Balance, a Rod of Power, inflexible and constant as the rotation of the planets, if we hold our position through Love of God. Love of self throws us off this delicate balance in an instant.
This Power that now moves through us in its Ninth Dimension of Divine Universal Brotherhood is invisible, dynamic and dramatic in its ability to create from the invisible Source held within its own heart. It is self-sustaining, self-renewing, and nothing is impossible to it. It contains the invisible Substance to mold into all outer creations, just as the atom holds invisible Power within itself.
Nothing on earth can withstand the irresistible movement of this mighty Power or its ability to change every cell, every condition, every thought and action into itself. It is already perfect, and it can and does absorb all imperfections into itself as it moves, forth, undiluted by man’s ignorance and unhindered by man’s interference.
This is the Mind of God in action as man. It is a miracle. Our thinking, our desires and our plans must change the instant we move up to where it is found. We contact this Power when we move into our own Garden of Eden, the “I AM” center of consciousness, where this Almighty Power of God embraces and enfolds us.
This Power is all the names we can possibly call it, for it is the ALL of everything. These names all become the Names of God for us once we use them, whatever they are. The names we give this Power determine the kind of life we make for ourselves.
Paul said we have a “natural body” and a “spiritual body” (I Corinthians 15:44). God created us with an inner spiritual body of atomic Substance, and we were born on earth with the power to hold or disturb the balance of this atomic body.
We may release the particles held within the atoms, converting them into the forms of Energy we use for all action. Unless we know how to recharge this atomic body, we may experience continuous disturbances of our spiritual body, which then show outwardly as weakness or illness in the physical body.
Breathing on the vibration of Joy is the high voltage charge that explodes our atomic Substance to release the Energy we need for action. Great emphasis has always been placed upon breathing because we recharge this atomic body with every breath. The Joy-Power, which sets off the atomic reaction within our body, carries with it the renewing atomic Energy that fills and nourishes every cell in our physical body.
The diluted charges of atomic radiation in the atmosphere, some scientists say, are going to make us immune to diseases of earth. We can become immune anytime by breathing the full Power of God.
We have used this mighty Power for years for our healing work. Getting the one in need of healing to “look up” begins inflating his spiritual body atoms, raises the vibration, and he has a miraculous physical healing.
The atomic body, sheathed by the physical body, is created in full perfection and nothing of earth has touched it. It cannot become ill. It cannot become weak unless, by our own weak Thinking and failure to inbreathe Breath of God, we close out all universal recharging Power. Our atomic body can function through the full atomic Power of God whenever we are tired of limping along on the diluted portion that we allow ourselves with our shallow breathing.
When we Desire to act, our brain automatically sends a message. This impulse to action runs along the physical nerves to whatever portion of the body needs a sparking impulse. This impulse-spark ignites and explodes the atoms of that portion of the body, generating Energy, transformed into the action we call motion, all because we release our own divinely-provided atomic Power through the process of sparking it with our Desire.
There can never be a shortage of this universal atomic Power for our use. It is from everlasting to everlasting. It flows from the Source and returns indestructible, undiminished by use, and moves forth to be used again.
Universal Power is from the Source. It is the Source of Eternal Life and our Source of eternally youthful bodies now!
We cannot avoid having perfect bodies when we open ourselves to this free-flowing Power. It is the cleansing, purifying Stream of Life that flows through our bodies, absorbing that which is not perfect into itself again.
The atomic Substance we inhale raises the vibration of every cell of our physical, every atom of our atomic bodies until we feel light. We can go tirelessly through the day, and “rest up” at night by setting our subconscious mind to the “miracle channel” before we sleep.
We recharge every cell and atom of our bodies throughout the night, and awake refreshed and ready to meet life with open arms of Joy! We have ascended our physical and emotional bodies, and can walk the emotional waters of life fearlessly and eagerly.
“Therefore, I now move up into my own Garden of Eden where I contact the supreme Power of Joy. My song shall be one of rejoicing, day and night! In this place of the soul, “I AM” rules my life, and the Power of the Love of God fulfills my every high Desire. I now ascend to dwell in the House of the Lord forever!”
7. The Keys of the Kingdom
Once we, who have hungered and thirsted ceaselessly, have received the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, we discover, like Peter, that we must first turn them in the keyholes of our hearts and minds before the great Gates above open to our knock. When the Glory of His Light bathes us for even a breathless moment, our souls no longer rest until we have won back our royal birthright as Sons and Daughters of the Living God.
8. The First Key: Seeking the Kingdom of Heaven
“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Matthew 16:19
“By humility and the fear [obedience to Law] of the Lord [Law] are riches, honor and life.”
Proverbs 22:4
True humility consists of complete surrender of the self to be ruled by the soul. Complete surrender is a willingness and a readiness to be used in any capacity, in any way, anywhere, anytime, by the Honor of God, the Wisdom of God and the Faith of God. Complete surrender blends into one radiant Joy of God, which sparks the “I AM” (John 8:58, Exodus 3:14) into a balanced expression of life upon earth.
Your Approach
“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Matthew 6:33
Some seek the whole Kingdom of Heaven in some distant place, inaccessible to laymen. Others seek the Kingdom within man himself, as the whole of the Kingdom of Heaven. Since neither of these groups has yet become as “perfect as their Father in Heaven is perfect,” it seems safe to think that both groups must be correct and need each other to make a perfect whole.
We believe in the unity of God, and in some distant future we shall again be enfolded into the Source of All. Thus, simple reasoning tells us that we cannot leave out either of these assumptions about where to find the Kingdom of Heaven.
So we act upon a third assumption about this debated inner Kingdom of Heaven, knowing that we must include everything in that final enfolding. We must lift everything, even present darkness, back, healed again into the pure Light of God from which God made it.
We must begin with a premise that is the same for every expression of God upon earth: The Kingdom of Heaven is open to everyone. As individualized expressions, created in the image and likeness of God the Father, our abilities for ruling this inner and outer kingdom are potentially alike. The only room for difference is our individual Desire to unfold and use these potential powers.
God has given everyone the power of choice about how to use this personal inner kingdom of the mind, heart and the outer form itself. From the time we reach the age of self-determinism, we have absolute control over these realms of our personal kingdom. When we awaken the Desire to rule our inner and outer kingdom, awakening those potential faculties to establish rulership will follow.
God has given each of us the power and freedom of choice to close out everything from the outside world that might interfere with the perfect inner kingdom. Each of us can also open the door to the Kingdom of Heaven above!
God gave us this right, under freedom of choice, over which no one may prevail without first having gained our consent by some form of persuasion. God, Himself, cannot get in to “scrape the platter clean” when we need it. He can only use all His powers of suggestion and persuasion from above, and send His agents upon earth to urge us gently, to lead us onward and upward into His Light.
The River of Life
The Epistle of James 1:17 tells us: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, or shadow of turning.” This is our authority for accepting and knowing that there is a Source, a Power-house Kingdom of Heaven that flows as a River of Life (Revelation 22:1) into our inner kingdom.
Accepting and opening ourselves to this River of Life, we find that we have opened the main floodgate of the in-flowing almighty atomic Power of the universes. We no longer limp along, running down like an old unwound clock. We can contact this powerhouse River of Life anytime, for it is always flowing and ready to serve us.
The secret to holding open our floodgate is the ability to stand steadfastly, with “no variableness, or shadow of turning,” no wavering or letting go for a backward look. When we reach this state of consciousness, always keeping the floodgate swinging wide, we discover that although we have been seeking the free-flowing River of Life, we need a further step before it may move through us with its cleansing Power.
Moving a dirty screen through water best illustrates living in the River of Life, watching the water flow through the screen, carrying the debris away. When we consciously accept our true place, openly and expectantly look up amid the stress of life, the Power of the River of Life moves through every cell of our physical bodies. It cleanses and purifies every organ and system, absorbs all dross gathered over years of our misunderstanding of Law, and carries it away.
The River of Life is the active Mind of God moving throughout all His creations. It is a Substance vibration, radiating in a vast sphere-circle from its Central Source, and back again on its appointed way.
The River of Life carries all of us with it, whether we will or not. If we refuse to move up in consciousness or to give up our opinions and prejudices, clinging to old places, emotions or things, we stage a struggle against the inflowing current of the River of Life as it moves inward and upward on its return journey to the Source. Yet it is still carrying us upward and homeward into the Heaven of our Source – some of us backward – hauled in feet first!
In this state of perfect harmony between every cell of our physical bodies, between our heart, mind and soul, we need no ritual, no special statements or denials, no further preparation for our joyous approach to God. “Seeking first the Kingdom of Heaven,” we are ever conscious of our relationship with God, ever conscious of our Source, ever conscious that we are the Kingdom of Heaven within. Nothing from the outer can shake our confidence or interfere with our steady advance upward.
St. Augustine told inquiring students to “look up a thousand times an hour.” He was telling them to practice the up look always. The subconscious mind always objects strenuously to allowing the soul to take charge. It takes constant practice, and holding focused attention, to train the subconscious mind to let go of its past rulership. It requires persistence to let the conscious mind stand as keeper of the floodgate of the River of Life, but the reward is far beyond the struggle.
The “righteousness” we seek is constant, vigilant consciousness of being in the Kingdom of Heaven every moment of every day, realizing we are in it with each awakening thought in the morning. It is a state of being “right with God,” of “right living” within ourselves.
Righteousness is our high Vision in action. It is a state of right expression of the loveliness, graciousness and compassion of a Christed One of God, a state of true prayer, a yearning, pushing upward toward this high state of ecstasy and bliss known as becoming One with God.
Our reward is that “all these things ” shall be added, for holding fast to every gain in soul conquering, for keeping our obligation to God. We give Him Desire-molds that we keep clear and perfect, just as many as we can envision, one at a time – healing for our bodies and affairs, healing in harmony for all our relationships.
All things shall be added. Not a few, not just a part of our heart’s desire . . . all! All things are added for our constancy and steadfastness, for our unwavering stand before High Altars in Joy. We will know that we have prayed enough, loved enough, been joyous enough in practice when we have our desires in our hands. Visible manifestations of the Spirit of God will move upon the face of the waters of life, creating our rewards for our righteous approach to Heaven.
“All things shall be added to you” means everything for us, as greatly as our imagination can envision. Through this approach, obedience becomes a habit of pleasure, and once formed, we cannot bear to part with it. No one can ever take it from us. It is ours forever. This Glory feels too good to chance losing it.
“I now approach God in perfect obedience and love!”
9 he Second Key: Agreeing with God
“It is impossible but that offenses will come.”
Luke 17:1
Somewhere along the Way of Ascension, we realize that remaking others to suit our personal pattern is impossible. We cannot make others good, so that we can be happy. We must make ourselves good, so that all others can be happy!
Once we learn this lesson, life becomes easier, common sense begins to rescue us from the little self, which always takes offense at everything. We forget what has disturbed us in the past, and move serenely onward and upward on our inner pathway of the soul.
Eventually we realize that we must not be an offense to others, lest we find ourselves going about with a millstone hung abut our neck, hindering us, weighing us down, anchoring us to earth. This is our goal: To absorb the offenses of others with our love, and to reach that place of the soul where offending another is impossible.
Your Choice
“Agree with your adversary quickly while you are in the way with him.”
Matthew 5:25
Every hour life calls upon us to make choices in our daily affairs, and today’s choices do not last forever. We must make even this hour’s choice again next hour, if we are to hold fast to our highest point of expression. The old tendency is to slip back into indifference and lukewarmness, unless we are constantly on guard and consciously reaching upward.
Of course, the necessity for choosing is greatest when we are with others, for we are open to their ideas. Yet we need strong vigilance even when alone, lest Imagination runs away with us, taking Thinking and Desire (emotion) with it for company. Soul conquering provides no rest periods. It is a second-by-second affair of the heart, mind and imagination.
Unless we consciously train ourselves always to stand before our High Altar in the Garden of Eden, we are apt to be caught unaware. We speak too hastily, act too quickly, give or take offense before we become conscious of what we are doing.
We are always surprised to find that we have allowed our Joy-fire almost to die, realizing our loss only when no response comes to our hasty call upon it for help. Fires do grow cold when left untended.
When we become lax in our practice of Ascension, we find ourselves in some outer situation that we might have avoided if we had kept the fires on our Altar of Joy brightly burning. When we fail to take time to live up, we cannot produce a joyful smile under outer pressure.
The most important word in our Law of Agreeing and Adjusting (Matthew 5:25) is “quickly.” It means to respond instantly to another’s demand for an argument. Quickly does not mean next week, tomorrow or even an hour from now; it means right now.
To agree quickly is seeking first our Kingdom of Heaven, to make sure we are in complete contact with the “I AM” center of our consciousness, the only place from which we can hear the “still, small voice” when it directs us in any situation.
Next in importance is “while you are in the way with him,” meaning we must stand still and wait on the outer. This involves agreeing with God that the situation is good, and lending ourselves with a Joy-smile to whatever is being done, to whoever is presenting us with this lesson for our soul growth.
Agreeing and adjusting also involves being grateful to the person or situation for showing us our weakest point in our Ascension work. Someone or something is giving us the opportunity to discover exactly how much we have learned to love, how well we have surrendered the pride of necessity always to find our own opinion right, though the whole world finds us wrong.
Our tests are always about our “worst favorites!” They tell us we have more polishing to do. Therefore, we must stand and complete the lesson, no matter how it is being presented. We do not allow ourselves the pleasure and convenience of waiting for another or a better time to face the same issue.
Now is the right time to conquer! Think of the glory of discovering our weakest spot, loving enough to ascend upon it, thus making it our highest point of exaltation. The greatest of all dividends and credits are paid for giving up our weakest spots.
If we find it difficult to muster a Joy-smile anytime, it is our sign that our contact with God has grown thin. Somewhere along the way we have forgotten to choose to be vigilant enough with ourselves. Soon we learn to welcome these outer tests of strength, which teach us our highest and finest contact with God and His Power.
We become so interested in conquering that we move easily into the third important phase of this Law: Agreeing. The only true freedom of soul comes when we reach that point in Ascension where we learn to agree and adjust without having to think about what we are doing.
When nothing of the “old” is left to express through us, we will automatically agree without having to stop and think about it. This comes of making the choice to agree often enough to make it a habit of the soul.
When we have become the Law of Compassion, no desire is left in the heart to find fault or blame anyone for anything they may say or do. Compassion than becomes a triumph in every lesson learned.
Dividends of Illumination come only after we learn to make the “I AM” contact quickly enough. First we stand quietly, waiting for the right words to be placed on our lips. If no words come, then that is the right answer – no words, just a smile. We spent too much time in the past going over the same old lessons.
Today, now, quickly, agree – these have become our words of conquering. Vain arguments are but a waste of God’s time, since those who desire an argument have made up their minds, with no intention of changing. They want to be thought right, they want the last word, so we give them the first word and save all our words and time.
As we smile, we reach up quickly, grasp our own Rod of Power and hold fast to it while we smilingly wait for the arguer to run down. It is worth the effort to be silent and smile when we see the facial expression of one who realizes there is no opposition or reason for more speech. This Law always works.
To agree and adjust does not mean we are obligated to like what anyone is doing. We are not obligated to go their way if it is against our own Laws and Principles. God asks us only to love others for what they are capable of becoming! Not for what shows on the outside in words or actions.
Our responsibility, as we ascend in consciousness, is to stand in our own High Place and “see” all others perfectly expressing their own quality and beauty of soul until the love we send forth draws answering love from them. Only loving enough will awaken the children of God. Each of us will be called upon to love enough somewhere, sometime, and we might as well begin here and now.
It is good policy to manage our lives by agreeing and adjusting, since God pays no attention to our disagreements with anyone. He does not take our personal opinions about anyone or anything into consideration in His final judgments.
God rewards each of us according to our personal earnings and no more. But not less, either! Although our nearest and dearest family members and friends sometimes tell Him all about our lacks and limitations, He does not grant our credits based on what they think.
What anyone else thinks about us cannot change our balance sheet. God compiles that sheet from our own daily ledger, which takes into consideration the perfection of our desire to be perfect, and is not wholly based on our daily practice of Law.
When we want to agree, leaving ourselves free to make beautiful choices, freeing others to live as their own Christed consciousness dictates, we realize what the whole Law means: When we agree quickly with God, we cannot do anything but agree with others. We suddenly realize that we have never had any enemies or adversaries on the outer.
Standing in our Garden of Love, bathed in the Golden Silence becomes the dearest action of our lives, and from here we are free of any desire to disagree with anyone about anything. At last we learn the art of “keeping silence before Him.” God has become too important to us for the lesser levels of hurt and resentment to enter into our consciousness.
It is wonderful to understand that we create our own adversary every time we acknowledge an enemy. We discover that we assume the role of “judge” when we think in terms of enemies, and those so declared surely become adversaries who then judge us.
Matthew 5:25: The judge (conscience) we become turns us over to the officer (regret) who in turn casts us into prison (remorse). And there we stay – sorry and depressed – until through prayer and forgiveness we move up out of the prison of our little self to ascend to our Holy of Holies, the “I AM” consciousness, and dwell again in our Kingdom of Heaven.
Our own lack of ability to forgive ourselves usually causes the need to struggle to climb back, since it anchors us to earth as firmly as going our own self-way, unconscious of having been selfish. What we seek is balance in repenting as we move up. There’s no need to grow a guilt complex because we blunder, but we must understand enough of the Law of Love to accept that each debt necessarily must be wiped out.
Learning to love enough wipes each day’s pages clean again. Love enough is the key, and it must be the pure Love of God. The Love of God, the Light of God, does absorb all else into itself. Love enough covers all transgressions for all of us.
When a disciple asked Jesus how often we must forgive, the answer (Matthew 18:22) ringing down through the ages was, “until seventy times seven” and seven times a day if needed. Seventy times seven is four hundred and ninety times. Now, forgiving someone four hundred and ninety times in a day should just about establish us in the habit of forgiveness. The idea is to reach the point where the soul reigns and cannot be bothered to notice little annoyances.
Only by thoroughly understanding the Law of Forgiveness can we learn to agree quickly with all adversaries. If we can remember the offense, we have not forgiven. When we pour enough compassionate Love upon the adversary, we forget the offense. Only then is our forgiveness complete and so recorded on our heavenly balance sheet.
As long as we can recall the offense, we are forgiving only an inch at a time. Ascension lifts us out of forgiveness as an inch-by-inch slow process into becoming the Law of Forgiveness as instantaneous action.
We ass through three definite stages while learning the Law of Forgiveness, which includes full “for-get-ness.” To regain full use of all our own memory cells for worthwhile thoughts, we must cleanse them of all old material, holding only those thoughts that will pay us dividends.
The first stage of forgiveness begins when we learn to say, “Father, I forgive them, but they’d better not impose on me again” or “treat me that way again.” We feel very proud of ourselves, and magnanimous about our ability to forgive. We take our ability out at times and examine it among friends: “I forgave him.” This is not perfect forgiveness, however we are learning Law, for there was a time when we did not think it necessary to forgive a wrong.
We eventually reach the second stage of forgiveness when we say, “Father, You forgive them, for they know not what they do to me!” The attitude of forgiveness is still selfish, but the Law has us well hooked. We are growing in grace and understanding because we have learned that only the Father can do the forgiving.
Once we reach this stage, we can never repudiate the fact that we have made a Covenant with God, and “Father, forgive them” is our signature on that covenant. Once we have signed this Covenant we are sealed by Oneness with the Father and our own Christed consciousness, which dictates the Covenant must rule our lives forever.
We must pass many tests during the step into the third stage of forgiveness, where we have given up enough self to say, “Father, forgive me, lest I cause my brother to stumble.” This brings us into a full Covenant with God where we stand in our Garden of Love clothed with an inner Robe of Love and an outer Garment of Joy, which makes us invisible to enemies of God.
Forgiveness renders us immune to all earthly ills so long as we hold fast to our high Vision. The floodgates of the River of Life are opened wide and the rush of heavenly waters illumines and thrills us! We are possessed by the fullness of the Power of the Living God.
We are free! What ecstasy! What supreme joy! What glory! Our choice, moment by moment, is to love enough and to practice the Law of forgiveness unto all forgetfulness of the past.
“I now choose the Love of God as my fortress and my strength.”
10 he Third Key: The Way of Initiation
“This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
John 5:12-13
We know that Jesus did not mean us to take our physical life, therefore we realize that he meant we must lay down our old ways of living, our selfish ways, our interfering ways, our demanding ways, for the practice of the unselfish ways of God. We find the outer expression of the ways of God in giving, giving, giving, without thought of how much or how little we are giving.
The ways of the Love of God have now become a timeless, measureless Glory to us. And giving constantly, in Understanding, in Compassion without thought of self, is more important than life itself. We have caught the Vision of Love as it is in God, and it has become our soul’s need to express our new-found ways of Love.
Your Plan
“What is that to you? Follow me.”
John 21:22
This next period in our lives along the Way of Ascension of the soul has been called many names, the most meaningful being an Initiation known as “crossing the Burning Sands of the Desert”– probably because we must walk it alone and it has so many oft-repeated “Trials by Fire.”
These Trials by Fire are testings of our knowledge and application of Law, which repeat again and again until we learn the lesson each contains. We play the same old record as often as is necessary to learn the Law of Acceptance. Refusal to accept a lesson as belonging to us drops the old record into place back onto our record player of life. [A more up-to-date simile would be a CD or MP3.]
This Burning Sands of the Desert Initiation is truly a time of Crucifixion of the little self. We are “betwixt and between” everything.
Our old ways are ended and our old friends do not find us compatible anymore, yet we have not met new friends who understand what we are seeking. Our whole world looks grey, and we live in a drab consciousness where we decide nothing will ever happen to make us feel anything again. Nothing looks worthwhile. Nothing interests us. We are lost.
We still cling to our desire for understanding and continue looking although we have just made vows of sacrifice about giving it up. Every day brings greater disappointments. No one understands us!
One good point, though, we have fully given up all enemies! Imagine our surprise when we discover that all we have left is an aching void. We are empty! It is a shock to find that the enemy idea took up so much room in our hearts.
Then we suddenly make another discovery: We have become an empty chalice waiting to be filled by the Love of God. We have made no mistake in our choice of the Way of Truth. We are not on the wrong path! This has been part of our grief and loneliness – that we might have made a wrong turn somewhere along the way and are really lost in some outer darkness.
We find that our resolve to stand still and wait upon the Lord in our Golden Silence has not been wrong. All these doubts and fears are part of the Burning Sands Initiation, the last vital struggle of the little self to hold on to our subconscious for its own selfish purpose.
We also discover that we want to withdraw from everyone and life because no one understands us, others find more faults in us than ever before, others blame us for everything, until we feel it is an offense just to be alive. We know now that this desire to withdraw is not the right answer either. It is just part of that old, old martyr complex, crying out in self-pity in a last gasping death struggle before giving up and allowing soul to take over for a good scrubbing.
How glorious to realize that this lack of feeling about or interest in people and life is our sign that full Illumination is just around the corner! This is where our struggle to become more perfect is paid off in dividends of Comprehension of Law. Our sacrifice of self is made into a Crown of Glory for the soul, a reward for our steadfastness in climbing upward in Ascension and our obedience to Law.
This is no time to stop. This is the time to dig in and practice what we have learned!
Everyone must go through this Initiation, this silver field, to reach the heights of glory. From the instant we decide to move up, we begin to lift the five outer senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell) up with us. Gradually, they begin to fuse and synthesize themselves into the one great sense of Apperception, which is to tool, the high sense of the “I AM.”
It is just before we reach the final lifting of these five senses that we stand alone, without feeling anything, our hearts filled with such a great sense of loss. The old is gone forever, but the new is not quite fully established or blossoming for us.
At this point push up! You are about to realize who you really are! You are becoming Law itself. The long process of reaching the Golden Silence is about to become an act of knowing, an act of Joy!
During this Initiation, among the many Trials by Fire, one point causes much loss of time for us as students. We begin to see that our teachers have feet of clay, caused by their inability to live up to the high Laws taught. Remember that to know Law does not always mean an inner Desire to become Law. Vows are only registered as high as the students’ or teachers’ ability to practice. Each time we make a vow it is registered and we must practice it.
Teachers may be perfectly honest in their desire to hold on to a student. They may reach out and clutch, and may even feel that the student is mistaken and being led from the Truth. Some are unable to understand that Truth is forever unfolding, and many must reach higher for greater knowledge of Law.
An ascending one cannot loiter or stop the search for more Law. Such a one, who sees the feet of clay, cannot linger in any class once they understand the Law as given in that class.
We must understand grief over teachers’ failure to live by Law. Students must realize that, whether the class is an inner or outer one, there comes a time for promotion, for an advance in Ascension or in outer knowledge. We must not expect to take either classrooms or teachers with us on the outer, nor should we expect to drag along any teacher of Truth. Failure to understand this change in relationship can hold back any student.
No one should hold it against teachers, inner or outer, if they elect to continue in that same grade, the one they know best, continuing to give their best. They may want to continue preparing the lessons needed for those who keep coming up from the rear, for whom they will again be the high point of consciousness.
We move on, minding our own business, loving the teachers we are leaving behind us for what they are, blessing them for what they shall one day become and for what they have meant to us. Above all, we never demand that they ascend with us on our well-defined pathway. We apply the Law that Jesus taught: “What is that to you? Follow me.”
Now, every hour’s investment in the Love of God increases your share in Eternal Youth. Love is now the fount of youth within us and we become the filled Chalice of Love, overflowing out into the world.
We meet new friends who are traveling in the same up direction, and suddenly we are in love again: In love with God, in love with our families, in love with the whole world. We renew our vows of dedication and consecration to be used by the Power of God. We rejoice and are glad!
We ascend and all people we meet draw from us that Love of God needed for their happiness, their renewed strength, their understanding of life. Love responds and flows forth in quantity and quality to meet the needs of all who are seeking love.
It seems that our exaltation cannot expand further, nor can our Joy be confined within us, it is so great. We are caught up in the Spirit and see beauties almost unutterable, too beautiful not to share. We might tell it like this, if we dared to express it aloud:
Extended Vision
As earth faded from sight and everything pertaining to it melted away, I stood alone somewhere “above” bathed in misty light. I was awake, although completely weightless and almost bodiless. I felt I was moving higher and higher, although there was no sense of motion and nothing in the mist by which to make a comparison.
I heard a Voice calling to me but could not distinguish words, nor could I see through the mist to find where it was coming from. The light was mistily golden – now soft and veiled, now misty though brilliant – fading where it touched me with its fingers, growing brighter and heavier as my eyes penetrated farther through the radiance. Suddenly, golden clouds surrounded me, seemingly formed by rays of light reaching through them, withdrawing and reaching out to me again, each time creating greater cloud density.
The sensation of being lifted grew greater, then stopped. At once the golden clouds grew thinner and thinner until only light mist was left surrounding me. I sought to extend my Vision, to penetrate through the last of the mist, seeking also to hear what the Voice was saying.
Then I beheld an awesome sight. The glory and magnificence of The Face filled all space before me. Though I was standing afar, its grandeur and the benign smile seemed to be just right, the size being no surprise to me, while the extended arms appeared to be the source of rays of light. Only the shoulders were visible, the brilliance of the light swallowing any further form.
Then the Voice lovingly and gently commanded me, saying: “Look, child, behold!” The hand pointed before and below me. At first nothing was visible through the golden haze that still held below and behind me. Soon my Vision penetrated the haze to see vast gates, broad and tall and built of a golden opalescent material, intricately designed in lacy patterns. If opened, many people could have walked abreast through them, but they were closed, and I could see no handles or locks upon them.
The mist cleared enough for me to see beyond the gates into immense gardens with many pathways running through them, and one wide roadway in the center paved with the same opalescent material. It wended away into the distance with trees of shimmering gold and fairy colors bordering it all the way.
Although the murmur of many subdued voices came to me from the gardens, I could see no one. The occasional laughter sounded like muted flute calls or the tinkling of heavenly-built harpsichords. The great and gentle Voice did not speak to me again (or if it did, I could not hear it).
I could not yet tell what I stood upon, but it seemed to be of some solid substance, the same substance which formed the stairways and terraces stretching downward from me to touch earth far below.
Before the great gates and extending in either direction there stretched a wide terrace, which was neither grassy nor paved, but seemed more like a solidified cloud than any other substance I can liken it to. It formed a pathway that followed the wall of light, which I knew extended beyond the gates and sloped downward for a long way before the stairs began.
While I watched, a rosy mist wall formed itself before the gates and softly ended some twenty feet in front of it on the outside. It extended within the gates, growing denser until it was enfolded into the golden radiance, which came and went as I watched. Sometimes the gardens were clear to my Vision, and again the light hid them from view.
Before this rosy shot-with-gold mist, the way was lined by a vast throng in either direction. They pressed against the rosy light as if it were some tangible barrier – it did seem to hold them upright when the crowd pushed against them from behind. Whatever it was, it was an impassable line through which no one seemed able to move.
Some looked weary enough to fall, had they not been held up by those behind and the light in front. Others looked cheerful and spoke in soft tones to their neighbors, and all seemed to be waiting for something to happen. At times, some hardy one would push through the crowd from the rear only to be stopped by the barrier of light.
Watching breathlessly, I noticed here and there that someone near the gates would turn and seek a way to move to the rear again. It seemed to take more strength to move backward through the crowd than it did to come up to the gates with it. A few gave up trying to retreat and allowed the crowd to carry them upward again, probably because this took less effort than pushing against the long line that stretched from earth to the gates.
My eyes followed the line downward toward earth and I saw people coming from all directions to start up the causeway, part in terraces and part in stairs, both growing wider as they climbed higher, until my eyes could not see the edges in either direction. I followed them from earth with my extended Vision to see that some barely started the long climb, only to turn back almost at once.
Others moved upward quite a way before turning back. Sometimes they returned in twos and threes. It seemed to me that each climbed as far as strength lasted then, too tired, returned to earth. Always the shoulders of some, who looked too disappointed to care what happened to them, drooped with utter weariness.
As my Vision reached higher, I saw a couple who separated when they had nearly reached the halfway point in their climb, each sitting down on a rock at the side of the stairs, evidently to think it over. One turned back unheeding of the cries of the other who kept turning to look upward toward the light above, then back again to the shadows upon earth. He finally stood up. Glancing back and down once, he slowly and doggedly began again the long climb into the light.
Suddenly I saw an amazing event at the gates. A woman who had made her way silently and gently through the throng before the gates, whose eyes saw nothing of those about her but were fixed steadily upon the lights beyond the gates, was suddenly transformed. I am sure she was seeing the glorious Face just as I had seen it.
Her face lighted up with an unearthly radiance, as if she had heard the Voice calling to her, and she paid no attention to that invisible line in front of the crowd. She pushed right on through those standing there and across the invisible line, moving with beauty and grace through the rose mist before the gates and on through the gates exactly as if they were not there. She seemed to get lighter and lighter in her body as she hardly touched the wide roadway into the gardens, disappearing as if gathered into the Golden Light.
While I was watching and pondering the significance of her finding the gates no barrier (and I thought this must be because she saw only the Light and His Face), again I heard the Voice speaking to me, saying: “Daughter, look back again and observe.”
I then began to see beautiful things happening upon the causeway to God. Everywhere those who were coming up were rejoicing, some laughing, some singing, singly and in groups. These joyous ones were always stopping to help the weary ones. They would stop to entice many who had burdens upon their backs, and seemed to be acting as if this were only another hard task imposed upon them after a hard earth life, composed of nothing but impositions and hard tasks no one else would perform.
I saw one woman sink in weariness and discouragement only to be partly lifted to her feet, partly carried along in the arms of one singing woman who supported her in love. She never left her alone again until her strength returned and her weary body could support itself. Another helped someone as far as possible, leaving her self-appointed task only when the weary one refused to go farther. Everywhere I saw joyous ones, who spoke encouraging words to those who were about to turn back, helping them to hold to their original desire to climb into the Light.
Then I saw the most beautiful event of all. When enough of the joyous ones reached the place immediately before the gates (their faces reflecting the glory of the golden light, their eyes held upon the Face), the gates swung open. Those who had waited so long before them with longing in their eyes and their desire to enter holding them there unwaveringly, were practically pushed through and into the beautiful gardens.
They all looked as if it were a dream come true, and as if they were partly dazed with the unexpectedness and the glory of it. Even after they knew they were through the gates at last, they walked along timidly, not yet daring to believe their good fortune.
I could never forget the radiance upon their faces. The last thing I noticed was that the only “open sesame” to the beautiful Gardens of God is a joyous climb made in unselfishness, steadfastly keeping one’s eyes upon the Light. The radiance upon the faces of those who climbed drew out arms of radiance to meet these pilgrims as they moved through the gates, the light absorbing them into itself as they walked through the Gardens of God.
So, our plan must include a constant challenge that keeps us moving steadily upward into the Light. Do we dare to become the Spirit of Joy? Do we dare to take the time to live right? Do we dare to ignore all barriers and walk fearlessly through the Gates of Life?
11 he Fourth Key: Payment of All Past Vows
“Then you will have your delight in the Almighty, and lift up your face to God. You will make your prayer to Him, and He will hear you; and you will pay your vows. You will also decree a thing, and it will be established for you; so light will shine on your ways.”
Job 22:26-28
“Delight” means the Joy of God possessing us now. “Lift up your face” means to let it reflect the radiance of God. “Make your prayer” means to stand firm and steadfast upon Truth, overlooking darkness and overcoming the little self. “Pay your vows” means to do something each day toward setting our house in order, toward finishing all projects started in the past and to keep promises we have put off from day to day or neglected entirely. Then, when we have fulfilled all these requirements, we stand and decree everything good in Unconquerable Faith.
Your Responsibility
“I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
John 12:32
Being “lifted up,” and accepting our responsibility for “all people,” are the two working halves of a whole and perfect Law. To be lifted up means to have a Christed consciousness through Ascension of the soul and surrender of the little self.
When the Joy of God possesses us, it goes forth with a lifting quality that does draw all things into its radiance. It can transmute depression and discouragement into itself, for its whole reason for being is to absorb darkness into Light.
Joy is the great unifying factor of God, and no one can escape from the pure Joy of God. Selfish happiness of the individual cuts off and casts off from itself all disagreeable elements. Joy does draw everything to itself and wraps its arms about all that comes, adding all to make a perfect whole – whether in the body of an individual or in the many parts of a group. Joy is the miracle performer of the world. Joy has an entrancing quality that is irresistible because it is the highest vibration, compounded of both Love and Wisdom, and humankind cannot misuse it. We can reach pure God-Joy only through surrender of self.
In the beginning, God endowed us with freedom of choice so that we might learn to be Creators while on earth. When we left heaven to come to earth, He gave each of us a Star in the Milky Way to be used as our storehouse of Power and Substance. At birth it is filled and ready for our use as Creators.
The Divine Plan allows enough Power and Substance to descend through us to carry us through our early years until we become “of knowledge,” which begins with our first personal plans and desires. Thinking of what we desire to do starts the flow of Power and Substance from our own Star, to prepare the way before us, and to fill our molds according to our steadfastness of purpose.
Once we have learned about Truth and decrees, we become responsible as Creators to decree both Power and Substance moving forth from our Star to fill our molds of Desire. As we think about what we desire, our Star Substance starts vibrating, while a decree causes it to pour forth to fill our molds.
We make our decrees, the Substance moves forth to earth as us for our use, and God refills our Star instantly with more Power and Substance. If we are responsible for many people and situations, we empty our Star more often and it is refilled even more rapidly, expanding limitlessly to meet our needs for Power and Substance, according to the number of those whom we “draw to us.”
This is why we never cast off anyone who comes to us. We enlarge our heavenly ship to make room for more, providing a lifeline of love to those who choose to leave the ship, enabling them to return any time they desire. We make decrees for them wherever they go because we must make more calls upon the Power and Substance in our Star, if it is to grow larger. The greater our decrees for others, the greater the expansion of our Star and the Substance it may hold.
God runs His whole universe on the Expansion Principle, and when we comply with His Laws of Expansion, our life begins to expand in all directions. All expansion comes under His Divine Pattern.
Pseudo joy does not draw anything to itself. We cannot reach our Star with decrees made by self alone for our own pleasure. Our decrees only reach as far as our anchors of little self allow them to go.
This responsibility for lifting does not mean assuming dozens of obligations we are unable to handle on the outer. It does not mean we must take another into our home to live, to permit others to encroach to breed resentment.
All this is mystical inner work, which we do from Christed consciousness and the Golden Silence of our own Garden of Eden. It does mean we must hold fast to our own High Place, for we can draw no one higher than we have already lifted ourselves.
Love of God is our “lifter.” The higher we have lifted, the higher our state of consciousness, the deeper decrees penetrate into the Substance held in our Star, and the mightier the stream of Substance pouring forth to serve us, to bring our decrees into outer expression.
Joy is the freeing vibration in every department of our life, and God has given us the ability to decree on soaring wings of Joy always. The password to our Star is, “Father, I love You with all my heart.” Soaring, lilting Joy forms the conducting rod of our own Substance and Power from our Star to our earth molds, but it has to be a bubbling Joy in our heart because the Love of God is using us.
The decrees we make for others are only “priming” the pump. They do for the one who is in need exactly what priming the old pump on grandfather’s farm did on frosty mornings: Pouring water into the pump started the water upward, and it poured out for us lavishly.
We can add the Power and Substance of our Star to the River of Life moving through the individual until such time as their own Power and Substance starts flowing. This is “lifting them up” when they need it. This is all that any healer can do.
Our responsibility under this Law is that we must prime them as often as they come to us in need, no matter how long it takes to get them functioning smoothly under their own Power and Substance. Love enough of God will not allow us to grow “weary in well-doing,” and enough priming added to enough love will heal anything or anyone anywhere, given enough time!
Joy opens all doors and all vibrations, but only Love can do the lifting. Our Love and Faith must be active and working constantly to have results. The attitude of the mustard seed and its aggressive ability to push and push, while holding fast to the vision of becoming a tree, must be ours.
We dare not allow ourselves to take our eyes off the goal for an instant when we are lifting others. We must see them only as the perfection we know God wants them to express. Any wavering in our Vision of perfection for them only delays the perfect result. We cannot allow any distraction or interference when it comes to holding fast to our lifting of everything in our lives.
The parable of the leaven in the barrel of meal illustrates the Love-pervasiveness of Spirit, working to make everything over into itself. The leaven of the Love of God permeates and penetrates everything with a gentle but steady positiveness that finally takes over and transforms all darkness into Light. Love is the leaven. Its capacity for increasing “added things” and beauty in our life is exactly as expansive as a yeast cake added to meal: It expands all out of proportion to its original size.
When we begin our search for the Truth, we do not think much about Ascension of the soul. To be a charming vessel of Truth – sweet and satisfied with the bits of understanding we gain, ready to talk about it and eager to have credit for every small miracle – is about all our first application of Law gives us.
We escape crystallization as a vessel because once we have stepped onto the Path, it is impossible not to keep adding more Law to what we already know. We escape complete stagnation and its consequences just in time by moving a bit higher.
For a time we feel perfect as channels of Power of God, knowing it is flowing through us but without much idea of how to send it anywhere to do its perfect work. We make statements all over the place and we have miracles, but then discover that the old statements lose their power.
We grow into the next phase by our desire to know how to consciously direct and control this Power in our own lives. Just being happy because we know about Truth is no longer satisfying: We have to know more.
About this time we begin to learn about Ascension of the soul and how to conquer the little self. Here we learn to speak the Word and realize that we must be a perfect instrument for Power to use.
As we become ever more a mouthpiece for Law, we realize that now we have become all three: The vessel/chalice holding Love, the channel through which it flows and the instrument upon which God plays His mighty symphonies of Glory.
At last we understand what the Love of God can do when we allow it to use us freely without the petty obstacle of the little self. Our responsibility for lifting everything about us and in the world becomes our privilege and our delight.
We now know that being lifted up means we must forever stand before our own High Altar in our Garden of Eden, our Garden of Love, letting the Power of God use us for its own everlasting glory. We continually find more people and situations to lift up with us, increase the quality of our Love, and increase the quantity of our Joy.
Responsibility means the ability to stand under any earth conditions, loving God with all our heart, obedient to every Principle of God, seeking an ever greater comprehension of what we think we know and sending forth only the Compassion of the Christed consciousness to everyone in our outer world.
Responsibility is but another word meaning that we have grown up into the maturity of a Daughter or Son of God, that we have reached the point of being able to create anew all the elements of our life by lifting them back into their original pattern “on the Mount.”
“I am now recreating my whole life by lifting it up where the Love of God absorbs all darkness. Father, I love You with all my heart.”
12. The Fifth Key: The Magic Word for All Miracles
“God saw everything that He had made and, b hold, it was very good.”
Genesis 1:31
The Word, or Logos, is not a word formed for speech with letters from the alphabet. It is an Emanation from the Source which contains all of everything that is created. It is an opening rate of vibration, the highest known to God or man, moving forth under Power conditioning to form the outer confines of universes. As the Logos travels away from the Source, it vibrates at a lower and lower rate, condensing in Substance until it finally reaches a point in crystallization we call physical matter.
All prayers partake of the quality of the Word or Logos, lowering the vibration and condensing the spiritual Substance into outer visible form. The magic word to speak over our creations – Good – is found above and it releases the original Logos vibration and “lets” it work for us. The magic of the word “good” sets the right keynote for the last step on our work of creating. The words “very good” lower the rate of vibration of invisible Substance until it can be felt and seen with the physical eyes.
We make our decree, then declare it good! Then we name the result “Miracle!”
Your Fulfillment
“God said, Let there be Light: and there was Light. And God saw the Light, that it was good.”
Genesis 1:3-4
The word “good” is the magic fifth key to our Kingdom of Heaven. It is the keyword that opens the faculty of Apperception, and polishes and finishes the soul’s task of turning Imagination upward on its axis, to its original position of high Vision in the Light.
The Light from above, made by God in the beginning, then shines down upon the “inner eye” awakening the giant faculties of “Seership” and “Prophecy.” These two faculties make of us Mediators of the Mystic Brotherhood, of the Legions of the Christed Ones.
When we sank down into the land of Egypt for experience, we turned the kingly faculty of Imagination downward on its axis, using it for clairvoyance and clairaudience as mediums. In this inverted position, Imagination perverts Power into selfish channels for greed and gain. Imagination cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven above until it reverses itself, and once more turns its face toward the Light. Imagination cannot contact the Christed consciousness without giving up self and fully surrendering the soul to be possessed by the Love of God with no thought of personal gain.
As we turn Imagination upward once more and use it as Vision, instead of “thought pictures,” it functions as both attributes of the Mediator: Intuition and Illumination, which form themselves into Comprehension, the combined Wisdom and Love of God in action.
This final stage of Soul Ascension includes Ascension of the body, heart and mind, and is only achieved when founded upon the highest inner conviction of Truth. This steadfast conviction enables us to “settle up” into our Garden of Eden, and ends our “forty years” of wandering about in the Promised Land, waiting and hoping for something to happen.
Delay comes because we evade our responsibility for the Ascension of our own soul. Delay puts off all promised fulfillment for the mystical “forty years.”
No “lip service” will ever ascend us to this High Place or give us a balanced Vision. We can make up for all the delay only by declaring all our creations and lessons (past, present and those to come) good and very good. Then we find miracle after miracle, miracle upon miracle following in fulfillment, as we climb steadily upward through degree after degree of Ascension.
While we believe we can rule our lives from the land of Egypt, home of the Lower Creative Center, we will operate exactly as a ship’s captain who prefers to run the ship from the engine room with no real vision of what’s ahead. The greatest “city” in the land of Egypt (the abdominal cavity) is the navel center, the solar plexus at the meridian of our physical bodies. This center is the seat of the “little me,” or the subconscious mind and its hunches, which always follow the most selfish desires of the little self.
The bridge of a ship is like the Higher Creative Center of our brain. A captain must rule his ship from the bridge, where he can see in every direction, and send messages to the engine room crew to prepare them for what is ahead. Whether the captain steers his ship by pushing buttons on a control panel or by turning the steering wheel, his responsibility is to chart a safe course for the ship to follow.
The place of control and right direction in our lives is the computer control panel of our “I AM” consciousness, the Higher Creative Center of our brain. There, empowered by the Christed consciousness, we know instantly which faculty to touch for the release of that Power which places the right words to be spoken upon our lips or to send us into right action.
The true sign that we have achieved Soul Ascension comes when we no longer keep slipping down in consciousness so that our miracles are scarce. Then we no longer desire to run away and hide in the bomb shelter of the little self, digging in deeper to evade the responsibility and explanation for our indifference. Under Soul Ascension, we no longer run our lives on a part-time schedule, and “sometimes” miracles no longer satisfy us.
Fulfillment, which means constant miracles, comes only with acceptance of our full responsibility for our creations by letting the Power use us. Acceptance, coupled with the perfect and continuous use of our magic word, “good,” repeated a thousand times an hour, means our days will be full of miracles.
“God” is the name used in the universal Kingdom of Heaven for God, the Father. “Good” is the name of God we use upon earth in His earthly Kingdom of Heaven. When we constantly call His Name upon our creations, ourselves, our loved ones and those for whom we pray, an explosion of Light happens in our brain centers, which we call Illumination. This Light of Illumination comes to us only when we have been unconsciously thinking or consciously declaring that our creations are good.
This Illumination-explosion of Light brings all new ideas, the Power and Substance with which to clothe them, and the plans by which we may bring them forth into outer forms of expression. The Light of Illumination, as our outer expression of our inner life, puts the right words upon our lips.
The Light of Illumination is the expression of Joy, and is the Divine Activity behind our fulfillment. It armors us in Faith as it moves forth to uphold every decree we can make. There are no more block-outs or blackouts in our daily lives, no more deductions taken from our “good gifts,” our desires fulfilled.
We always receive exactly what we ask for, minus deductions for the time and effort we spent in fear, doubt, self-pity, pride, inconstancy, resentment or rebellion. Idle words and idle time steal much of the Mind, Substance and Power released from our Star, but what is left over is always delivered to us.
Many years ago a student of Truth, a woman who had been asking and praying for a car, went laughing to her teacher because she’d awakened that morning to find that someone had left the back seat of an automobile on her lawn during the night. She was laughing because she realized that her asking and praying had earned just about as much of a car as that back seat represented, after her wavering, vacillating and wondering “if she would get it” had been deducted from her statements and her prayers.
As we remain constant in our Soul Ascension, the Illumination-explosion-expression is soon followed by a remarkable and miraculous expansion along all lines of our life. Our body grows lighter, our heart overflows with compassion, our affairs expand with increased income, new positions are offered to us, our business grows in volume. Our new, featherweight body tells us that we did not need more rest, we only needed more of the Life of God.
We have surrendered, we have ascended, we have pronounced good everything about our lives, especially the earth lessons we thought so hard. Yes, even our deductions are good because we have learned that delays and half-miracles no longer satisfy us.
We are now able to stand fearlessly in our own particular den of lions because all our mind if focused on God. We waste no time making false gods of lions. As Daniel, we are in love with God! Daniel stood there, serene and confident in the Love of God. He wasn’t thinking about lions and their nature, nor was he conscious of them being hungry. There was no “devouring” idea in Daniel’s mind. And, above all, he was free of any desire to conquer lions!
Daniel was in love with his God! He loved God with a love so great in quality that it instantly fulfilled itself and filled the den with Light! Nothing but Love could come near as it surrounded Daniel, as it emanated from him, because it came from above and moved through him as the pure Love of God. It was a good Love, and made good little lions of that group of hungry beasts.
Daniel became the Faith of God, and was unconscious of using Faith. He did not conquer Faith – Faith conquered him! Daniel, himself alone, had nothing to do with causing those lions to cower in their corner. It was pure, unadulterated, undiluted Love of God that rendered them powerless. Daniel’s part was fulfilled when he loved God enough to create a wall of Love between himself and the lions. How he must have rejoiced when he saw this proof of what the Love of God is capable of doing for man!
It is not our present perfection of performance and practice that holds us secure within our Christed consciousness. The absolute perfection of our Desire to be perfect raises us into the Light and causes us to assume responsibility for our lives that holds us safely there.
Full spiritual health and strength of body begin when Joy sets the cells to vibrating in a rhythmical acceleration which inflates them with invisible atomic Substance for our physical use. By breathing deeply we draw in atomic radiation in the right degree and quantity to lift us in our body ascension.
Therefore, we must ask ourselves these two questions: Do I believe that God is the same yesterday, today and forever? Do I believe with all my heart and mind that God is deathless, ageless and abiding?
Our answers to these two questions are the measure of our Faith: “According to your faith, so be it unto thee.” The only requirement for becoming spiritually healthy and strong in body is our acceptance of these Principles as perfect Laws already governing our lives. They contain their own capacity for fulfilling themselves when allowed to rule ourlives.
Atomic Power already permeates us, and our life must expand upward into the Light. Every hour is a challenge for us to invest ever more of ourselves in the Life of God, to invest more Love and more Joy in our life’s expression. Every hour’s investment in these expansive ways increases the flow of Substance from our Star, and insures our Ascension against lost time and effort in holding all our gains.
So we spread the wings of our souls and rejoice. The Love of God has become the Law of our life, and we are no longer conscious of the need to love. We love! Love has become a Flame, a Fire and a Glory to us.
Even as the Cherubim and Seraphim lift their wings above their heads when at rest, so do we lift our wings of Joy – and with their tips touching above our heads, we bow in reverence before High Altars. We pray, ready to arise and spread our wings for soaring aloft into an even higher Golden Silence where even greater than Comprehension is the power of becoming one with God!
This is now become my hour of fulfillment, for I declare my Heaven and my earth “good and very good!”
“I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: And I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places.”
Isaiah 45:2-3
The End