Increase, Growth

To increase is to become greater or larger, to multiply; reproduce.Oxford English Dictionary
  Growth is the process of growing; full development; maturity; development from a lower or simpler to a higher or more complex form; evolution; an increase, as in size, number, value, or strength; extension or expansion.Oxford English Dictionary


“Use what you have; God will give the increase.”—Edna Lister


Gratitude is the first law of increase. All growth comes under the great law of appreciation, or gratitude. Increase is an abstract law and a law of being.







Edna Lister on Increase and Growth

You must understand the law of increase to understand the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000 the loaves and fishes. A miracle is a natural law accelerated. The world’s idea of miracle timing is usually delay and wait. When you need an equal balance between demand and supply, God’s idea is always now.—Edna Lister, Loaves and Fishes, February 21, 1937.


Gratitude and joy increase the Power released from above.—Edna Lister, July 11, 1938.


Find small things about which to be grateful, and surely the law of increase shall give you more.—Edna Lister, August 14, 1938.


All law is inevitable in its action. What you bless, you increase. What you ask and thank God for, you have. What you love, you hold. Inevitably, what you truly desire shall come to pass.—Edna Lister, September 15, 1939.


Increase your prayer and your praise that your finances will loosen.—Edna Lister, January 27, 1940.


Do all you can with what you now have, and God will take care of the rest of the increase.—Edna Lister, February 25, 1941.


Desire is the creator, the Creative Impulse. Imagination is the builder of blueprints and molds. Praise releases the divine substance that increases and fills the molds.—Edna Lister, The Joyful Conqueror, June 7, 1942.


Joy is the accelerator that increases your capacity and opens all centers of the desire, mental and spiritual bodies.—Edna Lister, Turn on the Heat! November 30, 1942.


Praise is the only attitude of increase of all good.—Edna Lister, September 18, 1944.


You can and do increase your good by blessing and praising it. Thank God that I already have _____.—Edna Lister, August 12, 1945.


You can increase the fervency of your praise and the Power behind your unconquerable faith hourly, if you care enough about it.—Edna Lister, September 17, 1945.


Praise increases all things. Curses increase darkness; therefore, cursing is praising darkness.—Edna Lister, Jesus’ Prayer of the Ages, April 27, 1947.


Use what you have; God will give the increase.—Edna Lister, November 24, 1947.


An investment is not on an increase vibration. When you call it a gift, you put it on the 5,000-fold increase vibration, which means perfect freedom, material and spiritual. It actually moves through all your affairs on the same high, increasing vibration, loosening all things bound, delayed, limited or limiting, all lacks of any kind, any manners of darkness. The word gift releases according to your consciousness. If you insist on saying my investment, you lower it to the loss-or-gain, up-or-down plane.—Edna Lister, November 26, 1947.


Praise increases your creative powers.—Edna Lister, February 19, 1948.


Increase Light by reaching into Light for more. Increase your capacity the same way to awaken the brain cells to function greater Power. The important part is asking, seeking and knocking, which lifts you another notch and opens another realm. Do not be satisfied with any point of Light gained. Divine dissatisfaction can take you back to the Source.—Edna Lister, June 18, 1951.


God uses every increase in Power to entice evil from hidden places.—Edna Lister, January 5, 1952.


Increase the fervor of your decrees and make them more lavish, while you increase your love. The love that you feed your unborn yet forming creations, is their only nourishment.—Edna Lister, Is Mind Important? June 15, 1952.


The law of perfect abundance and increase states that you increase whatever you dwell upon mentally.—Edna Lister, How to Relate Mind and Power, June 22, 1952.


Instead of, "I did this," say, "The Father has used me to do this." This is a greater expression because it instantly returns to you the equivalent of all your past prayer power and the Light you have sent forth. Declare it good, and it comes rolling back as compound interest accrued to you. Law is inevitable in its action, and is under the control of one who says, "Not I, but the Father works; His Light goes forth to do the work. In that Light is His greatness performed through me. Thy Power, Father, which I call through me, is thoroughly inevitable and irresistible in its power to increase." And so it is.—Edna Lister, September 14, 1952.


As the Elect’s capacity for love increases, the universal rate of vibration increases.—Edna Lister, November 15, 1954.


Every word has a numerical vibration, and tunes in on its own kind, which is the basis of all cyclic laws and the law of action and reaction. You send forth a vibration on every breath, and its degree and kind is added as it goes around the earth, and returns to you increased.—Edna Lister, Miracles or Demonstration? September 4, 1955.


God is always increasing the Power moving through you, as He must or you would lose all gains. It takes twice as much Power in both quantity and quality to do the work needed now than it did last year. Therefore, you must increase your devotion and praise to meet heaven’s needs.—Edna Lister, January 5, 1956.


A miracle is an acceleration of law. Jesus shortcut the process, by his knowledge of law, from seed to bread into an act of increase, from five loaves to enough to feed 5,000!—Edna Lister, Two Miracles of Increase, March 11, 1956.


Here I am, Father increases the quality of the substance you send through and Thank you increases the quantity.—Edna Lister, December 17, 1956.


Through the years of conscious lifting, we have increased the Power until it could equal the original Let there be Light! Power can increase only through love, and only through the pure, selfless love of the Elect can it be increased enough to hold earth.—Edna Lister, January 7, 1957.


The Power that returns to you, the substance that is filling your molds, can only be as great as the size, length and height and breadth of the idea back of it. If you want it to return a thousandfold increase, you must see it as increase as it goes forth and see the thousand needs it will fill. The greater your idea, the greater the Power going forth. It must equal the idea in size.—Edna Lister, October 3, 1957.


You can always increase your fervor and double the Power coming through.—Edna Lister, December 19, 1957.


To sacrifice the self increases the love moving though you, while sacrifice of things increases wisdom.—Edna Lister, May 6, 1958.


Praising God for His beneficence is the only way to increase the Power and miracles.—Edna Lister, June 27, 1958.


To use the term gif for anything received puts the gift into the vibration of increase. You may declare 100,000 increase to return to the stingiest person you know, and the change will come to you. If you think in terms of ten, it would be a hundred. Think of hundreds and it will be thousands. Share with the stingy; declare that ten thousandfold the Mind, Substance and Power manifests to them as cars, clothes, vacations.—Edna Lister, May 24, 1959.


Remember to build up every part of living by praising the simplest things, the breath, to see, to hear, to enjoy for a tingling, vital life. What the world takes for granted are the things that, when praised, will increase life, health, happiness, joy and added things.—Edna Lister, March 30, 1962.


Increase is the keyword of the Scorpio division of the first Wheel of Ezekiel.—Edna Lister, Stations of the Cross, April 17, 1962.


Without rejoicing, man is nothing, for gratitude is the first law of increase. All growth comes under the great law of appreciation, or gratitude. Gratitude and joy keep you from slipping into the mud of self. You cannot rejoice if you are bound to the little self, which demands praise of the higher soul. To touch the vibration of praise, move into the high principle of joy. Work toward being able to rejoice and be glad under all outer conditions, for your declaration, This is good! must be born under the spirit of praise and devotion to God, or it is meaningless.—Edna Lister, December 13, 1962.


This last year’s good is not good enough for the coming year. Let no day go by that you do not make an effort to exceed yesterday’s effort. It is the only way to increase your capacity for receiving from above. The receiving capacity must ever grow ahead of the expenditure of effort and love, and you can do this only by using everything that is given to you at once and reaching up for more. Do not allow a vacuum to appear anywhere in your thinking, desires, or spiritual ascension.—Edna Lister, December 19, 1962.


Praise everything you want to increase.—Edna Lister, Rejoice! God Reigns, June 5, 1964.


Increase your praise when you have conquered; only praise will take you through the 33 Via Christa Degrees.—Edna Lister, May 13, 1965.


Attention, plus Power acting, increases the life anywhere you focus. If you focus on needs, such as illness, you have a miracle of increase, and the illness grows. There is only the one Power, and it must increase whatever you attend to, as you nourish it with desire, thinking and imagination.—Edna Lister, You Are Immortal Now, September 19, 1965.


Praise is the increase of all good.—Edna Lister, November 24, 1965.


Praise increases what you are, what you have and what you do, your ability, your ascension.—Edna Lister, February 12, 1966.


Let your thoughts, words, and devotion increase and magnify until the Power itself lifts earth home to God.—Edna Lister, March 3, 1968.


Money is not evil except as speech and thoughts make it so. Original God-substance cannot be changed. Life sparks are not changed because a dollar bill has been through a dishonest experience. Ask yourself if you need to resort to opinion and prejudice about money earned dishonestly. The evil is in the one who recreates it. You handle this type of money every day because money circulates among the good and non-good.
  You like new bills because they give you no responsibility for where they have been in the past, but your task is to lift evil, declare the Light upon the old bills and everyone who touched them. Bless your wallet morning and night for greater income, and praise God that it is so. This is the law of increase for good, and exchanges the good for darkness and evil, to absorb the evil changing it into Light.—Edna Lister, May 26, 1968.

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Stories That Illustrate Increase

The Miracle of Loaves and Fishes:

Matthew’s Account: And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals. But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes. He said, Bring them hither to me. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.—Matthew 14:15-21.


Mark’s First Account: And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed: Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat. He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat? He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? Go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes. And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties. And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. And they did all eat, and were filled. And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes. And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men.—Mark 6:35-44.


Mark’s Second Account: In those days the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him, and saith unto them, I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat: And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way: for divers of them came from far. And his disciples answered him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness? And he asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven. And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground: and he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people. And they had a few small fishes: and he blessed, and commanded to set them also before them. So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets. And they that had eaten were about four thousand: and he sent them away.—Mark 8:1-9.


John’s Account: When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.—John 6:5-13.

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New Testament on Increase and Growth

Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.—1 Corinthians 3:5-7.


We … do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.—Colossians 1:9-10.


Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.—Colossians 2:18-19.


Be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.—2 Peter 3:17-18.

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There is that scatters, and yet increases; and there is that withholds more than is meet, but it tends to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat.—Proverbs 11:24-25.

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


Edna Lister


Etymology of increase: Latin increscere: in- + crescere, "to grow."

Etymology of grow: Middle English growen, from Old English growan; ghre-, "to grow, become green."


Increase and growth are abstract principles.

Increase is a law of being.


References

Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, 2024.

The Holy Bible. King James Version (KJV).

The Oxford English Dictionary: Compact Ed., 2 vols. E.S.C. Weiner, ed. Oxford University Press, 1971.