Showing results by publisher "Majestic" in Religion & Spirituality

"We have only to raise Imagination to the state of Vision and the thing is done." (William Blake) Just imagine it! That is all you and I are required to do. No matter what it is we desire, we have only to raise imagination to the state of vision, and the thing is done! Now, when the prophets of old used the word vision in scripture, they meant all of the senses, either individually or in combination.

Tonight, I want you to think of Christ as a cosmic being who contains everyone within him. Having died for all, this one being is in all, and will rise in all. Only one being can rise, for only one being fell. Having deliberately destroyed his temple in the fall, God (this one being) is rebuilding his temple out of the redeemed, in order for it to become something far greater than it was prior to its destruction. One being, containing all within him, fell into this world of death to become individualized as you, as me.

Every fact is a dream made visible, so I invite you to live as though your dream were already a fact! I am convinced that every dream (desire) I have dared to live in the now has gradually and unnoticed blossomed into fact in my life. I also know, not only from personal experience but from eternal vision, that the spiritual states of the soul are eternal. That like a traveler, individual man passes through states but the states remain forever.

The gospel is truly a mystery to be known only by revelation. In the 16th chapter of John we are told: "I came out from the father and came into the world. Again I leave the world and I return to the father." In these four short phrases we find the pre-existence of Christ, his incarnation, his death, and his ascension. I could put this in the first person, plural sense and say: "We came out from the father" for we're told in the first chapter of Ephesians: "He chose us in him before the foundation of the world."

In the 18th chapter of the Book of John, Pilate said: "So you are a king?" and Jesus replied: "You say that I am, but my kingdom is not of this world. For this I was born. For this I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth." Then Pilate asked: "What is truth?" and when there was no response, Pilate left, saying: "I find nothing in this man worth condemnation." Having already claimed: I am the truth, and my word is truth, here we find Jesus making the claim: I came to bear witness to the truth.

Tonight's subject is Order Your Conversations Aright. As we are told in the 50th Psalm: "To him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God." (Psalm 50:23, KJV1)

There are three very firm statements made in scripture defining God. God is light. God is love, and God is spirit. John tells us here that God is light, a light in which there is no darkness. Now try to follow me closely. The final gift to man is God himself and God is a revealer. Man's knowledge of himself is based on his knowledge of the revealer. Scripture records what is said of the revealer. As he awakens in you, read scripture carefully and you will discover to what extent God has revealed himself to you.

Now, we are told that Jehovah brought his people out of Egypt "with signs and wonders." All these signs and wonders are in the story of Jesus. We are told that Jesus is the representative of humanity. Take just one story, the story of Jesus, for it is really your story. Study it carefully; and once you have found it, in the light of all the signs and wonders in the career of Jesus. He is the Resurrection. That's the key to the entire thing. When that happens, all the other signs follow. They all unfold themselves in the individual.

Paul was the first man in history to be set free. His letters, forming a quarter of the New Testament, were written approximately 30 years prior to the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. His first letter, chronologically speaking, was to the Galatians and began in this manner: "Paul, an apostle - not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead." That statement, if understood, tells the entire story of salvation.

According to a rabbinical principle, what is not written in the Old Testament does not exist. The life of Jesus follows this principle. He made no attempt to change the world of Caesar or its social order, but left it just as it is, for man to make mistakes and live as he desires. Urging man to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's, Jesus comes into our lives for one purpose and that is to fulfill scripture. I want to show you how this is done in 1,260 days.

I feel compelled to touch lightly on the subject of prayer before I begin this series on how to live victoriously; but first may I share with you a letter I received from Northridge, California....

Your heavenly father knows you have to eat, drink, and clothe yourself, and they will all be yours if you will put first things first; and the first thing is to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, for God is in his kingdom; and when you find the kingdom, you find God.

Tonight's subject is "Christ Unveiled". That is quite a tall order, for we are told in Mark 13:21: "If anyone says to you, 'Look, here is Christ!' or 'Look, there he is!' do not believe it." And I will endorse that 100 percent. Listen to it carefully and see the pronoun used in that sentence. "Here he is, believe him not." So, here, who is Christ? What is Christ? Where is Christ?

When Miss Edith Wyatt was at Bryn Mawr College, she was known as "the girl in the cheering-up business". Homesick girls, discouraged girls, girls who were behind in their studies, weary students went to her for a bit of brightness and encouragement, and always found it. She radiated mental sunshine from every pore.

Those raised in the Christian or Jewish faith are taught to believe that scripture is secular history. But I know that the story of Jesus, from his conception by the Holy Spirit to his ascension into heaven, is a sign rendered by God to those who will receive it. The visions of the Old and New Testament are unchanged, eternal realities, which are forever. One day you will encounter what appears on paper to be a person, but he will be a state of consciousness personified.

In all the revelations that await you, there's none so fundamental and so filled with ecstasy as when you discover that the Bible is all about you. What joy will be yours, when the word of God as recorded in the books of Genesis to Revelation is revealed, and you - an individual - become the living Word and the interpreter of the Bible.

What you feel deeply is far more important than what you are thinking. You may think about doing something for a long time and never do it, but when you feel something deeply you are spurred to act - and God acts! He who is the cause of all life acts through the sense of feeling. You can think of a thousand things yet not be moved to act upon one of them. A deep conviction felt is far more important than anything you could ever think.

The secret of scriptural prayer, as told in the form of a parable, is to pray and never lose heart. One such parable tells the story of a widow who kept coming to a judge asking for vindication. At first, he didn't respond; then he said to himself: "Although I neither fear God, nor regard man, yet I will exonerate her because by her much coming, she wearies me." Parables, like dreams, contain a single jet of truth. This parable urges persistence in mastering the art of prayer.

Many times I have heard someone say: "I believe that imagining creates reality, but I once imagined something, and it never came to pass." Then I ask: "What are you doing, saying: 'I once imagined it' and not imagining it now? For God's name is I am, not I did!" Always thinking of God as someone outside of himself, man finds it difficult to keep the tense, but God is the human imagination, and there is no other God.

This book is about the pathway of the saints and sages; the road of the wise and pure; and the highway along which the saviors have trod and which all saviors to come will also walk.