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Substance
Substance is in a general sense, being; something existing by itself; that which really is or exists; equally applicable to matter or spirit. The soul of man is called an immaterial substance, a cogitative substance, a substance endued with thought. That which subsists by itself is called substance; that which subsists in and by another, is called a mode or manner of being. The essential part; the main or material part. Something real, not imaginary; something solid, not empty. Body; corporeal nature or matter.
–Webster’s American Dictionary
“All substance is Light, which originates as God’s divine essence.”–Edna Lister
In your study of substance, you must also study Light, for all substance is Light, which originates as God’s divine essence. Substance is an absolute and an abstract principle, rooted in the Love Emanation. As an absolute abstract principle, Substance is metaphysical Light made manifest as an ultimate particle that we call the life spark. The photon of physical light is the smallest particle of measurable substance known to physics and science, and it acts as both a particle and a wave. Substance is both visible and invisible.
God is omnipresent as substance; thus, substance is an expression of the divine Love of God for all Creation. All ensouled beings are the divine Substance in individualized form, which we call soul substance.
When you choose to express God as Love and Substance, you do so by loving and by faith in Him: Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
–Hebrews 11:1. Thus, we could preface this verse with the statement God is the essence of your faith.
As a law of being, God numbers and names universal substance with near infinite particular rates of vibration that become the soul substance identities of living souls.
Edna Lister on Substance
“Love is the fulfilling of the law.”–Romans 13:10. Always take your mind off the world of appearances before offering prayer or healing treatments. Release love all the time, and know that you are living in the inner kingdom. When you have released enough love, which is divine Substance, you shall have everything. Praise condenses Substance and brings it into visibility.–Edna Lister, Your Magnetic Powers, January 13, 1933
You are your own creator and build your own environment with every thought, word and deed. Love goes forth as creative substance, yet returns to you in different form, because its vibration has traveled around the earth several times since it left you. Love returns in a more condensed state of substance, at a lower rate of vibration. Yet it is still radiant Light, for Light, as the life sparks, is the invisible atomic substance of the universe. Light is the carrier wave over which love travels faster than the speed of light.–Edna Lister, Your Royal Birth, January 24, 1933
God is the fullness of spiritual substance that fills all.–Edna Lister, Eternal Youth versus Old Age, November 28, 1933
You are each part of God as the One Power, One Mind, and One Substance. Everything is composed of it now: butter, eggs, flour, countless millions of things, good or bad, it is all the same Substance.–Edna Lister, Get Wisdom and Get Understanding, February 15, 1934
Conscious union is knowing that you know. At the center of Being is the One God, which is the One Light, One Mind, One Substance and One Power.–Edna Lister, Regeneration, February 9, 1935
Life is God as all Mind, Power, and Substance as Light. Light fills the universe with Light. The life sparks of Light are in all, through all, and as all. Form encases and enfolds Light.–Edna Lister, The Sacredness of All Life, April 12, 1935
The first category of Being, embracing all that we know or may know concerning life or substance, spiritual or material, includes the principle, life, Mind, Spirit or Substance from which all manifestation comes forth in the process of Creation, which is God becoming all that is, visible and invisible. Being is first “that which is,” and second, “that which appears.” Creation proceeds from the invisible to the visible, from the unseen to the seen.
Reality is both absolute and relative. Spiritual substance is absolute. Material substance is relative.
The fifth category of Being is the relation of Substance and its attributes: Relativity or relation, deals with the inherent qualities or attributes of substance and their active relationship with one another. The law of cause and effect is subordinate to relation. Cause is the original action and effect depends on or is the result of action, the reaction. Relation also encompasses the law of reciprocity expressed in the axiom, “As above, so below.”–Edna Lister, Theory of Being, November 25, 1935
Being has three forms: Thing, soul and God, which include the relationship among substance, Spirit and the material world.–Edna Lister, Philosophy, January 27, 1936
Faith is the line over which spiritual substance travels.–Edna Lister, Joy, March 19, 1937
God composes the whole manifest universe of one Substance, called life sparks, which are infinitely variable in their combinations. These combinations determine the different forms that Substance takes in this material world of form.
If you believed, consciously or unconsciously, when you asked God to heal you, then you could not still remember you had the darkness. So what you really need to cure is the idea. The substance involved, no matter its present form, will instantly snap back to unalterable perfection, no matter how un-Godlike it appears. Substance is perfect now, even when you do not like its present form, because the One Substance can never become imperfect. You can only send substance into an imperfect mold built from your own dark, negative thoughts, pictures and desires, your doubts and fears.
Healing is “letting” the Mind of God operate as your thinking and planning. Healing is “letting” the Power of God quicken you into a divine desire for activity. Healing is “letting” the Substance of the Spirit vitalize the very cells into the ability to change. Letting is the cleansing, purifying process of Spirit.
Substance operates as the Love of God and as desire in man.
The identity of substance is one reason that world-thinking identifies soul with the physical body, forgetting that a body can never be anything but a living soul’s vehicle.
If you do not draw atomic substance from above, your lotus centers withdraw it from every atom, and begin to deflate and collapse.
Light is the first substance you see with physical eyes.–Edna Lister, A Design for Ascension, 1941
Substance has only the power of becoming. The soul, conscious or unconscious, has the power of conscious direction and control. You are held in bondage by your unconscious mental jumble, which passes for thinking. Until you lift the appetitive soul completely, you cannot know complete soul o’ershadowing in the Light. You cannot fully awaken brain neurons while darkness from the past remains. Breathe deeply to lift this. The Holy Breath is the great Source of creative substance for all creations, and it descends from above to permeate everything. Thus, everything is good, after its own degree and kind.–Edna Lister, April 24, 1945
“Let there be Light!” brought forth all original substance of Light, which gave rise to everything, all the original cells of Light, expressed through the Trinities, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, the Father, Mother and Son.–Edna Lister, The Glory of the Holy Ghost, July 7, 1946
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”—Hebrews 11:1. Faith is the Substance of Light.
You can do only two things with substance, expand or condense it. You can freeze water into ice or boil it into steam, but you cannot have ice and steam together. Substance condenses and contracts to a pinpoint of nothingness through criticism, judgments and negative qualities. Substance expands through praise, love and joy.–Edna Lister, To Seek the Light, June 10, 1951
God breathed from the macrocosm and sent forth a creative Substance as the Father-Mother-Son Substance of the Holy Ghost. Thus, the microcosm inhales the pure essence of God.–Edna Lister, The Concealed Mother, July 22, 1951
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”—Hebrews 11:1. Everything earthly is made of the one Substance of God. The difference between material and spiritual substance to humanity is the degree of faith unconscious to conscious.–Edna Lister, The Flaming Sword, July 6, 1952
When God said, “Let there be Light!” the Word condensed itself into Substance.–Edna Lister, Number and Fate, November 24, 1953
Faith is the name of the “void,” an invisible whirling of life sparks, potential energy without active vibration. Then came three Emanations, which opened the vibration of this primordial substance of the void. So, the faith of God is first because faith is Substance void of expression, just being. It has only the power of becoming once God has given the soul conscious direction and control over it.–Edna Lister, Your Life’s Plan, May 16, 1954
Faith, Love and Wisdom are all Substance. You cannot understand faith as substance without studying the miracles recorded in the Bible. Sarah, Hannah and Elizabeth, women who conceived in “old age,” symbolize that the creative powers never cease. When you have experienced a marriage of the Lamb, when your desire and will, Love and Wisdom become Oversoul I AM, your unconquerable faith creates all form.–Edna Lister, Heavenly Manna, August 14, 1955
The state of consciousness of the one who is praying determines how much Light goes forth as Substance.–Edna Lister, October 16, 1956
God’s Substance is always good. It is God’s good Substance, even in the darkest expression.–Edna Lister, March 7, 1957
The Substance of the Source must descend on the Word, “Let there be Light!” yet this doesn’t work until someone transforms it with breath and soul fire, not long, empty prayers. It may take months, but no matter how long it takes, transubstantiation works.–Edna Lister, April 7, 1957
Space is absolute universal substance, the absolute substrate upon which relative times moves.–Edna Lister, Conquering Time, October 22, 1957
All cells of the physical structure and the bodily fluids are light, which is pure spiritual substance. God begat or created you in a form, and you maintain the form He originally gave you in the finest, highest state throughout all levels down to the coarsest, lowest state in which you exist. Substance is the difference from realm to realm. You are seen and identified in the form your choices and actions have created as modifications to the original. The physical body is the outer cellular shell, which is only a fraction of the real you. Ascension is to become Light.–Edna Lister, December 18, 1957
Jesus created a vacuum of desire that drew invisible universal Substance down into the form of loaves and fishes.–Edna Lister, May 6, 1958
Constantly feed your prayer molds with the substance of love and faith if they are ever to be filled and so become visible.–Edna Lister, “A Formula for Daily Living,” The Prayer Circle Newsletter, April 1961
If you obey law, the Substance of God becomes your treasure. God’s Substance makes universes, our bodies, business and money.–Edna Lister, Before the Beginning, I Am, November 3, 1963
Only truth is self-sustaining. Darkness must steal substance to sustain itself. Love and Wisdom, February 7, 1965
The Light of your Oversoul Star is Substance from the Source, condensed and ready to draw upon for your prayer molds and declarations, to become the form of anything you wish to manifest here on the outer.–Edna Lister, Seven Life Ages of Man, from Birth to the Star’s Descent, November 22, 1966
Divine Mind directs and controls through the fundamental principles of Light, color, tone, number and form, by which it lowers the vibration of Light, condensing it into Substance in successively denser stages until it reaches the point at which we may recognize it as form.–Edna Lister, The Relationship Between Color and Number, February 19, 1970
Light is all there is, the complete basic life sparks of the universes that must be condensed to be used as creative substance. Spirit is that portion of substance that comes through you. It is still Light but is balanced, and Mind has not taken over rulership. It moves through you as life, but is all that is and the first degree of substance under the Light.–Edna Lister, Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream of the Tree, November 24, 1970
To stand as faith, you must know that God is everywhere evenly present and available as the principles of Light, color, tone, number and form. Nothing can be left out since God has created everything from the one Substance.–Edna Lister, Stand, Endure and Hold, Three Magic Words, November 30, 1970
Top ↑Individual soul substance is that universal substance of life sparks that God named and numbered with your personal identity as He breathed the Breath of Life into you. A physical cell contains physical substance and the substance of electronic life sparks. The rate of vibration of the name carries the number of the soul substance.
When an embodied soul sinks into darkness, and uses all his soul substance, he may become an entity and possess a similar creature as a vehicle.–Edna Lister, July 3, 1941
When even a tiny part of an embodied soul calls for repentance, his individual mind still holds, is not discarded but turns to God in sorrow or disease. Such a soul is in regression, but cannot be cut off. When a soul is doing harm, but has not come to the end of its incarnation cycle, it will return again after death of the physical. When a soul reaches the end of all its time, it fades. Yet this may not happen until the soul draws in and consumes all its soul substance, including the Oversoul, in wrong deeds and demands. The Oversoul withdraws upward when the embodied soul misuses, yet even God cannot withhold the Oversoul when a soul demands it, just as He cannot deny a soul’s plea for mercy under sacrifice and repentance. The plea is the Oversoul rescinding the lesser soul’s demands.–Edna Lister, December 4, 1941
Speak of the past to lift it in prayer only, for a cleansing of soul substance, not for gossip or vain repetitions.–Edna Lister, September 11, 1941
You find peace by drawing in your scattered soul substance to become whole again. All illness is caused by the embodied soul scattering Substance, Mind and Power. Redeeming it is your need for wholeness.–Edna Lister, January 31, 1945
When you constantly use the personal pronuns, “I-I-I” and “I-me-my-mine,” you use your own soul substance, not God’s divine Substance.–Edna Lister, April 18, 1945
Pray that “vampires,” those who unlawfully feed on the soul substance of their companions, may take and use only their own soul substance.–Edna Lister, May 3, 1945
Soul substance must have conscious intelligence to have conscious control, to solidify into the myriads of physical forms.–Edna Lister, July 12, 1945
When you are negative and release no Power, you use your own soul substance until finally there is no more and disintegration occurs.–Edna Lister, August 18, 1945
You are no good to God in a poor physical body, which is the result of misusing soul substance. The body is the sum of your thoughts today.–Edna Lister, Eternal Youth, the Seven Breaths, November 6, 1946
Life sparks have the same “vitality quotient” no matter what form that substance takes—whether in carrots, meat, or as in you; therefore, meat-eating is as beneficial as vegetarianism. At this stage of physical development, meat is still a necessity. For example, lamb chops are an important meat protein because lamb helps to correct an overly acid condition. When you buy a fur coat and love it, you lift each animal that sacrificed its life for the coat. Keep your consciousness high, lift resentments and all negativity into the Light.–Edna Lister, May 15, 1947
An oyster builds a pearl with its own substance. When you are hurt emotionally, surround the memory of it with the love of God to ascend your invested soul substance as “pearls.” Dreaming of pearls symbolizes soul substance wrapped around grief, resentment, etc. Light makes it into a beautiful pearl.–Edna Lister, May 18, 1947
You cannot ascend without redeeming all your soul substance. You blunder because you have given away bits of your soul substance, invested it in blame, then enclosed the memory in brain cells that can atrophy and harden. You lose life sparks of soul substance with every critical word you speak. To blame or criticize, to be prideful or intolerant is to give away soul substance. Lift your entire past, not once, but always lift the roots of intolerance and pride. Go into the past each day to lift the day’s unwisely invested soul substance.
You are supposed to draw upon above for your soul substance, not draw upon another soul by demanding sympathy!–Edna Lister, July 2, 1947
No embodied soul can go on “all in one” upon his true Path of Destiny unless he recalls all his misused soul substance.–Edna Lister, January 8, 1948
To use all your available soul substance to further your own interests is the way of self!–Edna Lister, February 10, 1948
Those who suffer from inflicted sadism have lost soul substance. Ask the Father to use you to lift and return their substance to the altars to be purified and restored. Use your hands in a scooping motion to lift it. Do the same for those in hospitals, mental wards, all those who are mentally troubled, and fill them with Light while they sleep.–Edna Lister, December 12, 1949
The “dweller on the threshold of consciousness” is a cloud-like entity formed of the Holy Breath and auric soul substance a soul has misused. Some embodied souls partially repent, then misuse again until they begin to drain their Oversoul substance.The Heavenly Council draws the line there so they many not fully destroy their own soul; they can however persist in misuse until they can no longer build a human form. {Read the exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac (Matthew 8:28-34; Mark 5:1-20; Luke 8:26-39), frequently known as the miracle of the Gadarene swine and the exorcism of Legion.}
The Elect assume personal responsibility for lifting spiritual debts. Do not use your own soul substance to pay a debt, but the Light of God, which especially illumines your aura as it heals another soul.–Edna Lister, June 19, 1951
Those who hide things from themselves build a grey or blackish body of their own misused soul substance. Lift the “dweller on the threshold of consciousness,” an aggregate of darkened soul substance that becomes an entity. Those who have lost substance by practicing evil, acting as vampires, and through possession, must have that misused substance cleansed. The Elect must soeak the Word to cleanse this.–Edna Lister, August 5, 1955
Wherever you have criticized or condemned, you must exorcize for yourself impersonally because you have invested your soul substance in them. Your choice to do this binds your and their soul substance, which becomes an anchor holding you both on earth. Exorcize and speak of yourself thus, “Father, send forth Thy clouds of glory and banners of Light to draw in all life sparks I have ever sent out by word, deed, thought or picture of imagination. Let all unwisely invested soul substance of this, Thy servant, be lifted from these Thy children. Let it be ascended to high altars, cleansed and refashioned by Thee into new soul substance to be returned to thy servant.”—Edna Lister, July 2, 1956.
Soul pirates pillage and plunder others emotionally to steal soul substance from them.–Edna Lister, June 6, 1957
You may not damn people into guilt for sinning then expect to escape the law. You misuse your own soul substance when you force or curse others!–Edna Lister, August 16, 1962
Investing your soul substance in another is a form of selfish possession. When you possess another embodied soul on earth, you use your soul substance to establish an inverted, sagging earthly umbilical cord that trips you. You can even lose your body by doing this. Withdraw all possessive lines, which reflexively cause a lack of energy and abundance in your own material affairs. New windows and doors to opportunity will open because what’s freed on earth is freed in heaven!–Edna Lister, June 27, 1963
Never recreate the past by going over and over it like a cow chews her cud! Some people have partners in this, friends who provide pessimistic reinforcement. Whole families permit this by not staying up in consciousness. You invest your soul substance when you hold onto the past and what people have said.–Edna Lister, October 1, 1964
When you possessively invest your soul substance in others, you bind them to you with bands of steel. Free others of you, not yourself of them. Demanding of others has put the world in bondage. Love does not do this! Instead, surrender to be possessed of Light, lift all life sparks, and declare, “I lift all my life sparks invested in others. Let them be free of me.”–Edna Lister, October 6, 1964
Domination of another is the worst destroyer of soul substance.–Edna Lister, March 3, 1965
Each time you conquer, more Oversoul substance as Light is added to your aura to replace each bit of self you lift. Light is transforming you into your original image and likeness of God, and is transfiguring you because this living soul substance is all-knowing, all-comprehending compassion and joy. This is God’s endowment for you.–Edna Lister, October 20, 1966
Every grade of substance is “solid” after its degree and kind.–Edna Lister, November 1, 1966
Much of the grief you witness in the world is really nothing more than selfishness being expressed. Most people grieve for their loss, not for the loved one. Any soul who grieves this way uses his own soul substance.–Edna Lister, January 11, 1968
You use your soul substance to form the mold when you condemn another, and the weight of your construct can drag him from his ascension path. You will be held accountable for his loss!–Edna Lister, March 16, 1968
God gave you a full investiture of soul substance when you came to earth; your task is to redeem every life spark of that soul substance and return it to Him when you go Home. If you have misused or wrongly invested your soul substance, you have to pay through the body.–Edna Lister, May 20, 1971
Top ↑Treatments for Lifting Soul Substance
Pray that “vampires,” those who unlawfully feed on the soul substance of their companions, may take and use only their own soul substance.–Edna Lister, May 3, 1945
Each has free will to use his own soul substance as he chooses. “Father, I reach out with arms of Light and gather up all scattered soul substance of thoughts, words, deed and actions, resentments, criticisms, etc., and put it all up on a cloud altar. Let it be covered with a pillar of fire, and as it is consumed, let it draw in all the taints. Let it then be purified, refashioned, made into Light and into new creative soul substance for this, Thy son/daughter.”–Edna Lister, June 9, 1949
Those who suffer from inflicted sadism have lost soul substance. Ask the Father to use you to lift and return their substance to the altars to be purified and restored. Use your hands in a scooping motion to lift it. Do the same for those in hospitals, mental wards, all those who are mentally troubled, and fill them with Light while they sleep.–Edna Lister, December 12, 1949
When you possessively invest your soul substance in others, you bind them to you with bands of steel. Free others of you, not yourself of them. Demanding of others has put the world in bondage. Love does not do this! Instead, surrender to be possessed of Light, lift all life sparks, and declare, “I lift all my life sparks invested in others. Let them be free of me.”–Edna Lister, October 6, 1964
For someone who has passed over, declare, “Let the high healing lights of heaven flow over Name, and through his/her body, vitalizing and quickening and restoring his/her soul substance that he/she may be consciously healed.”–Edna Lister, October 3, 1950
Wherever you have criticized or condemned, you must exorcize for yourself impersonally because you have invested your soul substance in them. Your choice to do this binds your and their soul substance, which becomes an anchor holding you both on earth. Exorcize and speak of yourself thus, “Father, send forth Thy clouds of glory and banners of Light to draw in all life sparks I have ever sent out by word, deed, thought or picture of imagination. Let all unwisely invested soul substance of this, Thy servant, be lifted from these Thy children. Let it be ascended to high altars, cleansed and refashioned by Thee into new soul substance to be returned to thy servant.”–Edna Lister, July 2, 1956
“Let all unwisely invested soul substance be lifted from these Thy children (naming the names), taken to high altars, cleansed and purified and returned to Thy servant. And may this soul substance fill the auras from whence this has been withdrawn, washing the pages white as snow.”–Edna Lister, September 23, 1958
Every word creates something. Before going to bed, reach out your arms of light in a sweeping gesture to bring back all idle words of the day. Declare the misused soul substance to be consumed by the fire and made pure for the coming morning.–Edna Lister, April 1, 1960
“I reach up with arms of Light and gather up all scattered soul substance of thought, word, deed, action, resentments, criticisms, idle words. I lift it up on a cloud altar. Please let it be consumed in a pillar of fire by the angel with the censer. As it is consumed, let it draw in all the taints to be purified, refashioned, made into Light, and returned as new creative soul substance for Thy son/daughter, Name.”–Edna Lister, June 26, 1969.
Top ↑A Story That Illustrates Soul Substance
The Prodigal Son: A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.
And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.
But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.–Luke 15:11-24.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.–Hebrews 11:1
Top ↑I am become rich. I have found me out substance.–Hosea 12:8.
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Edna Miriam Lister1884–1971
The original Pioneering Mystic,
Christian Platonist philosopher, American Idealist, Founder, Society of the Universal Living Christ, minister, teacher, author, wife, and mother.
Etymology of substance: The Ancient Greek term θεία ουσία is the divine essence of God. Ousia was translated into Latin as essentia or substantia, and hence in English as essence or substance.
Substance is an absolute principle.
Substance is a law of being.
References
Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, 2024.
The Holy Bible. King James Version (KJV).
Webster, Noah. "Substance." Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language. New York: S. Converse, 1828.
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