1 HEAVEN BY LILLIAN DEWATERS Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 1 Cor. 2:9 “When God is seen with men to dwell, And all creation makes anew, What tongue can half the wonders tell? What eye the dazzling glories view?” LOVINGLY DEDICATED TO THE HOSTS OF READERS NEAR AND FAR WHO HAVE BEEN HELPED ON THEIR WAY BY THINKING HEAVENWARD
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1
HEAVEN
BY
LILLIAN DEWATERS
Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the
things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 1 Cor. 2:9
“When God is seen with men to dwell,
And all creation makes anew,
What tongue can half the wonders tell?
What eye the dazzling glories view?”
LOVINGLY DEDICATED
TO THE HOSTS OF READERS
NEAR AND FAR
WHO HAVE BEEN HELPED ON THEIR WAY
BY
THINKING HEAVENWARD
2
From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand. — MATT. 4:17.
Jesus did no works of healing prior to his forty days‟ fast in the wilderness.
From that time he began to preach and teach publicly, making known to the
people that the revelation of eternal life would now be declared to them. He
must have meant: “Repent ye! Forsake ye the old way of thinking and living;
give up your present erroneous ideas of life; for I am here to instruct you and
to teach you the truth about heaven.”
The Master taught that it is necessary for us to put on the seamless robe, — the
consciousness that believes in good only, and recognizes God as the only
power; in proportion as we do this, will all evil become unnatural and unreal to
us; suffering and limitation will cease; and we will enter heaven, which is the
abode of love, peace, and harmony.
Try it for yourself. The only proof that a theory is correct is the result
obtained.
Refuse to believe in the reality of all material phenomena, clinging to the
reality and presence of one Mind, good. This is the way to demonstrate in a
practical manner the presence of heaven.
The greatest good that we can do for anyone is to help destroy for him his
belief in the reality of matter. “Lo, I [the spiritual reality] am with you alway.”
The underlying hypothesis of all the teachings of Jesus is the unreality of
matter. The dynamic force of every single miracle is the unreality of matter.
Nothing but good, the real, possesses duration.
The only absolute phenomena, the only realities of heaven are divine Mind and
its ideas.
Heaven, the perfection of being, can only be entered, entertained, in proportion
as consciousness through the understanding of spiritual realities, separates
itself from every thought which is unlike Go(o)d.
Each must deal directly with the Father. To each may be given “the hidden
manna,” the “new name written;” but you must “work out [with God] your
own salvation.”
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No one can properly force open a rosebud; nor will it give forth wondrous
bloom without the necessary nourishment. Unfoldment of God comes to each
individual gradually, as he is ready for it, — as he reaches out for it and
welcomes it. If you are half-hearted, half awake, you will not accomplish
much.
Stir up the gift of God, which is in you. — II TIMOTHY.
Let every man prove his own work. — GALATIANS.
4
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. — MATT.
5:3.
Those who are humble in thought find easy access into heaven. “By humility
are riches and life.” — PROVERBS.
Heaven, the spiritual kingdom, is a perfection of being to be lived. It is the
world of reality where there is nothing but God and His manifestation.
Suppose this truth about God and heaven is explained to two individuals, both
of whom are in quest of health. The first questions: “How long will it take me
to be healed of my sickness and to understand God aright?”
“The demands of Spirit are that you give up your present erroneous ways of
thinking and living. It may take a day, a week, a month, or even longer for you
to manifest the health which is of heaven; but what if it does? Have you not
been sick in mind and body for months and years? It generally takes time to
gain a working knowledge of music, of art, etc.; and, similarly, it takes time to
gain an understanding of the Science of Life. No human can tell you at just
what moment your sickness will disappear. When you become conscious that
life and intelligence are purely spiritual, your body will then utter no
complaints.”
The individual, disappointed that anything is required of him, goes haughtily
on his way, and carries his sickness with him.
The second, bowed with the weight of trouble and disease, yet, with hungry,
earnest expression, queries: “How long will it take me to regain health; to run
and leap; to be free again?” Upon hearing the demands of Spirit, he exclaims,
with a glad smile, “I am willing to try, — and to wait.” Whereupon, he finds
that he is instantaneously healed of his physical trouble; or else, within a very
short time he is free. “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of
God: for they are foolishness to him.” — I. COR. We must become as little
children in order to grasp spiritual understanding, — in order to understand
God and heaven. God is the sum total of all good. The Bible declares Him as
Life, Truth, Love. God is also ever-present Principle, which destroys the evil
when man stops thinking wrongly and thinks rightly. God is always with us,
and when we cease to think evil the good becomes manifest.
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Intellect argues; but the simple, child mind drinks unquestioningly of the deep
things of God. The human thought longs to know God; but how does it seek?
The most popular method has been the beseeching method. Do we have to
beseech the sun to shine? No. It always radiates light. We do not have to beg
and implore God for blessings, any more than we have to implore the sun for
light. No matter what we humans do God never changes.
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Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise
ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. — MATT. 6: 1.
We should be careful not to put forward our thoughts or deeds for the purpose
of attracting attention. Let us be inspired only by the glad, earnest promptings
of a grateful heart. “Cast away personality, sacrifice it, for what is left is the
essence of life — Love.” — TOLSTOY.
The cold, calculating thought which measures and outlines what it should
receive because of what it has given, does not understand aright the law of
giving and receiving. We should give and do right because we love God; not
because we want something in return. Love is the divine way to heaven.
“With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” —
MATTHEW. We mete what we are, — our own character is measured back to
us; in exactly the degree that consciousness comprehends divine Love and
expresses it, will one experience Love returning to him. We possess only what
we give. We receive from Love just what we give out of love. Emerson said:
“That only which we have within can we see without.” Therefore it is not
necessary nor essential that we seek a prominent locality to shine out our
works of faith. The place to begin our sunshine is in the home. Let us seek
reformation and regeneration there.
We may consider ourselves fettered by our environment, and be inclined to
blame certain existing circumstances for our inharmonious condition.
Environment is our opportunity to become strong and to overcome limitation.
Whatever place we occupy, that is the place for us to be. In that place we have
lessons to learn; weaknesses to overcome; ideals to work out.
An individual cannot demonstrate more than he understands of Principle. In
proportion as he honestly, earnestly and industriously applies what he already
knows, will his understanding be increased. Newness of life and regeneration
flows in us, in proportion as it flows from us. Understanding and its use are
metaphysically equivalent. What we receive from the Father we must give out
to the world, keeping a perfect equilibrium between the inflowing and the
outflowing, the receiving and the giving.
A pool cannot be kept sweet and clean unless there is an outlet as well as an
inlet. It is our business to keep the outlet open. Unless we are using for the
service of others what God has already given us, or what has already been
unfolded within us, we will find it a long, dreary road to spiritual
understanding. Some one has said: “We should never think, say, nor do
anything except with the object of helping another or becoming ourselves
better men.”
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Our progress depends upon the number of hours out of the twenty-four that we
think rightly. Every man is responsible for his own living. He makes it by his
thought. Every time we reverse a wrong thought it becomes easier for us.
Shakespeare said: “And many strokes, though with a little axe, Hew down and
fell the hardest-timbered oak.”
No thought is ever lost, the dye of it stains the universe.
“A thought is like the smallest seed;
When given a place to grow,
It bursts into a living thing,
Like unto that we sow.
“Whate‟er you do, watch how you think;
Make no mistake in this;
Whate‟er you sow‟, will surely grow,
And yield you woe or bliss.”
8
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, —but lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven. —MATT. 6:19, 2O.
Right ideas are “treasures in heaven,” worldly beliefs are “treasures upon
earth.”
Poor people are those who are not conscious of the ideas of divine Mind, and
of their relation to them. One may have accumulated a fortune of dollars, acres
of land, mines of gold; yet, if he has not secured these things from the one
Father, the only resource, he has not even touched the hem of the garment of
true riches. The lily in the field does not strive for anything. It is content to
feel the warmth of the sun; the thrill of the rain; the touch of the wind; and
unfold daily in its simple, fragrant beauty. Oh, if we could only know and
content ourselves to rejoice that divine Love and the realities of heaven are all-
sufficient for us!
The light of a new day is dawning upon us. The day of ridiculing mental
healing has passed. The world is waking to the knowledge that the miracles of
Jesus are based upon universal, spiritual law, — present now as much as then.
To-day there are millions of spiritual, mental workers throughout the world
bringing good, health, joy, and prosperity into their own lives and into the lives
of others, by applying the words of the Master: “And ye shall know the truth
[the facts of Life], and the truth shall make you free [and your knowledge of
Truth shall free you from all seeming power of evil].” It is the Truth, and our
consciousness of oneness with it, which purifies, transforms, and redeems us.
If our desires have God in them they must be fulfilled; for this is the secret
spring which yields us prosperity and success. External wealth comes from
righteousness (right-use-ness) or the use of right ideas. Outer symbols follow
naturally the consciousness of inner wealth.
As he [man] thinketh in his heart so is he.
— PROVERBS.
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Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of
heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. —MATT.
7:21.
By no means are all who profess to worship God His true disciples; nor by any
means are all these worshipping ones entering heaven. Only those who are
demonstrating their understanding of Life by their healing works, — by
removing sickness, sin, and limitations by the Christ-method, — are entering
heaven. Eternal life must be earned; and there is a price to pay for it.
Opportunity is now; but our use of opportunity determines our rate of progress.
Let us be about our Father‟s business now; “the night cometh, when no man
can work.” This means that we may let opportunity slip by too often; and,
when we would behold Truth, because of our continued stay in darkness,
Truth, the light, may seem afar off to us.
When is the best time for us to learn the truth about ourselves? About God?
About heaven? Now. What is spiritual understanding? It is the revelation of
Truth to the individual consciousness. We each have to seek within our own
consciousness this revelation of the living Christ. Realization cannot be given
us by any human being; nor can it be bought with any coin. Each of us must
“seek and find” the way to eternal life. We prove our knowledge of God, our
understanding of Life by our works. There is no other method of
determination. Jesus‟ endowment was from “on high.” It is from this same
altitude that the Christ-mind will come to us.
Ultimate salvation from all sin is inevitable. St. Paul says: “Every knee shall
bow to me [be humbled], and every tongue shall confess [acknowledge] to
God.” — ROMANS.
“With all thy getting get understanding.” All that there is to be learned is
within the reach of man. To be open and receptive to new and true ideas is the
attitude of mind necessary, if we desire to grow in understanding and
knowledge. Begin simply. What you do not understand to-day may be clear to
you to-morrow. “Within is the foundation of good and it will ever bubble up if
thou wilt ever dig.” — MARCUS AURELIUS.
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Take thought about your thought. Every thought has an effect. Just consider
how true it is that the greatest miseries of the world come through wrong
thinking. When right thinking commences, righteousness begins. We must
not attempt to put new wine into old bottles. Many try to do this. It is one
thing to get hold of a new idea; it is quite another thing to let go an old idea.
“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear [open] ... I will come
in.” — REVELATION.
God knocks on the door. Man must open it, — he must open up his
consciousness, — be quickened, in order to receive and retain good. “It is the
spirit that quickeneth; ... the words that I speak to you, they are spirit, and they
are life.” —JOHN.
11
And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching ... and preaching the
gospel of the kingdom [of heaven], and healing every sickness and every
disease among the people. — MATT. 9:
The great Teacher united preaching and healing, and this is what we should do.
It is he who teaches by healing and heals by teaching that shall wear the crown.
Religion is the endeavour to understand and practise the law of God. The real
test of religion is: Are its doctrines demonstrable? There is not a passage in
the Bible which warrants the once popular belief that sickness and death are
the will of God. Just supposing it were true that God sent sickness to certain
individuals. Now, when the physician with his medicine kit arrives at the
bedside of the patient, isn‟t he a sinner, — an accomplice with the sick man,
daring to defy God? If the sick one thinks God sent him the sickness, how
dare he even attempt to get rid of it, and still affirm his allegiance to God?
Doctors and nurses also would be defying God every hour of the day, even
daring to keep good individuals out of heaven.
And the hospital! Would it not be the „home of a defiant, rebellious people,
working in opposition to the will and law of almighty God? “Awake thou that
sleepest.” Let the Christ Truth give thee light (understanding).
Evil, with its false accompaniments of matter, sin, sickness, and death, is but a
false belief, unsustained by God. Physical deformities are not man, nor any
part of man. The mortal body is but the visible expression of mortal mind. As
we remove error from thought it ceases to appear in effect.
God is Truth. To believe evil is true is to break the commandment to have
only one God. What is untrue must be unreal; for only that which is eternal is
true and real. Sin, sickness, and death are not eternal; they come not from God
and cannot be true. God made good only. All that is opposed to good is
uncreated, unfounded, hence with no true or lasting existence and subject to
destruction. Jesus destroyed sickness, sin, and even death. His thought was
free from the belief in the power and reality of matter.
We have been deceived into believing that we are material beings in a material
world and that we are subject to sickness and death. There is no truth in such a
theory. In truth man is now spiritual and perfect in the kingdom of heaven.
But we see the perfect creation, heaven, all wrongly because of our wrong
concept. We see “through a glass, darkly.” We see heaven through a “mist,”
— the material senses which cannot cognize God.
12
Even, at present, we can discern some of heaven; for all the love, the peace, the
harmony, the good, the pure, we see around us, is of God, and must belong to
heaven.
In other words, the kingdom of heaven is yours just to the extent that you get
into it. How far are you in?
The baptism of John symbolized the cleansing and purifying of the mind of all
wrong thoughts and beliefs. Jesus submitted to this baptism. It is necessary
that we also let all fear, worry, prejudice, narrowness, be washed away in the
cleansing water of denial; and let the inner kingdom be entered by affirmation
of its reality.
Every one must learn and practise the methods of Christ Jesus. Why not now?
Nothing is conquered until self is overcome. “Repent ye therefore, and turn
again, that your sins may be blotted out.” —ACTS (R. V.).
Who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? - GAL.
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As ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. — MATT. 10:7.
Jesus recognized that heaven is within reach of all; nay, even here for us to
behold. Many a one has pictured heaven as the dwelling-place of God and His
angels; and presumed it was beyond the clouds, where the white throne is,
upon which rests the book of life. Hymns tell us that loved ones shall meet
“beyond the river,” where harps are played, and where the streets dazzle with
gold. Had Jesus believed that heaven is in the skies he would have located it
there.
What is simpler and clearer than the truth that heaven is where God is? Can
we think of God and heaven separated? Obviously, no. Therefore, since God
is everywhere, it necessarily follows that heaven is everywhere. Simply
because one has not experienced heaven does not deny the fact that heaven is a
present reality.
Suppose one found himself out in the ocean, dying of thirst. Although water
surrounded him, believing it to be salt, he did not partake of it. But he hears a
cry from a distance, “Dip down and drink, — you are in fresh water!”
Immediately he drinks and lives. Now, what has changed the man from a
dying to a living condition? Merely his thought. His wrong belief yielded to
the voice of truth. It is just like this in regard to heaven and the material world.
People believe the world is material — and so starve, thirst, suffer, die. Now
what is the truth? God and heaven are right here but are hidden to the material
senses. This kingdom for which all mankind is looking, is the world of reality,
waiting for man‟s recognition and acceptance. It is heaven that we see in
proportion as “old things” (thoughts) have passed away.
The material man is but a false sense of the real and spiritual man. It is only
this false view which needs correction and destruction. Jesus tells us in John
8: - that the natural man is not the true man.
Through daily study of the Bible and spiritual literature, we can dwell mentally
in heaven, though we walk on earth, until this earthy thought-world fades from
our consciousness, like a dream, and we “know even as also” we are “known.”
Whosoever ... shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my
Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will
I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. — MATT. 10: 32, 33.
14
We should always be ready to voice the truth; gratefully acknowledge good
whenever and wherever the opportunity is afforded us. We best confess our
understanding of Life, by sin forsaken; by sickness destroyed; by limitations
removed. When we are showing to the world that our hearts are humble,
grateful, tolerant; that our desires are pure, holy, and unselfish; and, that
through spiritual realization we preach the gospel, heal the sick, — then are we
confessing God before men.
God confesses us whenever we confess God. When we realize that our present
sickness is not of God, that it has no place in us and we have no place in it,
then does God confess Himself to us, — then will perfect health be revealed to
us, in manifested wholeness of body.
The doctors‟ theories change; but God never. Every year new diseases are
invented. Some rush to get them as they would to secure the latest style of
gown. The human mind is always changing, that is why there are so many
fresh causes and cures for diseases. Heaven, — the truth, — remains, and
there is no disease in God. People should not study disease in order to cure it;
but they should study health. Can anyone learn of mathematics by studying
mistakes? Can anyone learn music by studying discords? No. Therefore, to
learn of health we must study God.
People run hither and thither seeking satisfaction in multitudinous ways, yet
without finding it. Why? Because they are denying God before men. Because
of their restless, unsatisfied minds, they seek places of gaiety and amusement,
and with what result? They starve their souls, — and they become nervous,
irritable, anaemic, and diseased. God, good, has been denied such an one
according to divine law. In order to have true life, with its fullness of joy, we
must feed the thought with Truth — the bread of Life. Then will the love of
God satisfy you. “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for
the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” — ROMANS.
In the degree that we understand and demonstrate the truth of God, we are in
heaven. When we deny God we are in hell. We make our own heaven and our
own hell after the fashion of our thoughts. The time is fully ripe for us to wake
up and get out of wrong thinking (hell) into heaven, the consciousness of right
ideas. This world of perfection is here now, if we would but see it.
“At last the veil is lifted;
I open my eyes and lo!
I stand in the midst of heaven,
With its beauties all aglow.”
15
To be sure, there are those who will scoff at the idea that heaven is here! They
can only associate heaven as “up yonder,” a place of “many mansions.” “How
ridiculous that heaven is here!” Do you remember that centuries ago people
exclaimed, “How ridiculous that the earth is round”? Yet, it was scientifically
proven that the earth never was flat, it always was and is round. What became
of the “flat earth”? It went out of the people‟s minds, the only place it ever
existed. Now, as the flat earth was only a lie about the round earth, so it is true
that this material world is but a lie or mistaken sense of the real world, heaven.
“Men changed the truth of God into a lie.” — ROMANS.
God is one God and present everywhere. More and more will we become
conscious that heaven is among us. Even now, those of us, who look for it,
will catch a glimpse of it.
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first
earth were passed away; ... and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow,
nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.” — REV.
16
Verily I say to you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a
greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of
heaven is greater than he. — MATT. 2:11.
John the Baptist was a great messenger; yet he was without works. He had not
the right understanding of God; and he who comprehends and demonstrates the
realities of heaven is far greater than he who has “faith without works.”
The knowledge Jesus possessed of this faith was such that he was able to heal
every form of disease and overcome every limitation; and he said: “The works
that I do shall he do also.” He called twelve disciples and gave them authority
over “unclean spirits ... and to heal all manner of sickness.” The metaphysical
interpretation of some of the names of these disciples are: Simon, faith; James,