"When One Is Willing and When One Is Ready, God Will Act.

"We Beheld His Glory, the Glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father and of All of His Fullness,
Have All We Received, Grace for Grace."

 

The Word of GOD Revealed
'Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth...' St. John 16:13


FATHER DIVINE'S Words from the Notebook of John Lamb

Installment 21

 

Saluting the flag at stone marker ceremony

Saluting the flag at stone marker ceremony

At the table tonight a visitor who had been admitted contrary to the usual regulations because he appeared to be in need of particular help, testified that he had had no work for over six months, that his wife was in the hospital undergoing a serious operation, and that he had ten children at home starving, and that he was in poor health himself. He wanted FATHER's blessing. FATHER replied as follows:

'When one is willing and when one is ready, GOD will act.

Man's extremity is GOD's opportunity.

I have thousands of calls, but humanly speaking, if I thought I was limited to some Personal limited activity, such as that would touch and affect ME considerably. But knowing that because I AM at man's extremity, because I know that I get more calls from a material standpoint of view than any man could respond to, I know that the Omnipotence of MY Name and the Infiniteness of MY Spirit is sufficient to reach every emergency where I, as a man, could not reach. Therefore, I still the activity of the mortal version of MYSELF, and I extend and speedily advance the activity of MY Infinite and Impersonal Self. Therefore, I can, in the Name of GOD, from an Impersonal standpoint of view, if you know with Whom you have to do, reach your conditions and your desires can be speedily accomplished, where it could not be if it was from a Personal standpoint of view that I was standing and leaning on.

If I was leaning and depending upon the Personal, I could not reach the millions of people that are calling upon ME in all parts of this world, but because I know the Omnipotence of this great Name, the Name of GOD, as it is written,

'In my name shall ye cast out d-v-ls;'

I know that your condition and your conditions can be reached, it matters not where you are if you make your mental and spiritual contact. And that is why CHRIST in the Person of Jesus said,

'Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'

I can rest comfortably tonight, not thinking that those children will be suffering, for I AM there as well as here.

'Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me;'

and,

'Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

'Then

'Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me . . . for my yoke is easy and my burden is light . . . and ye shall find rest unto your souls.'

We have rest. This is the abundance of it manifested here. We don't have to worry about what we are going to eat, or what we are going to wear, or for this week's room rent, for in the CHRIST Consciousness there is rest. There is rest, I say, sweet peace and rest, and that you have found for your soul.

'You don't need to take any thoughts what you are going to eat, drink or wear for tomorrow. Consider the lilies that reap not, neither do they toil. Oh, how your heavenly FATHER clothes them, for they are under the jurisdiction of the FATHERHOOD of GOD and the motherhood of nature and therefore, they are controlled thereby. It is Wonderful!

' Whether they are conscious of it or not, it is good for you to not be conscious or to be unconscious sometimes. That is why I say, still your conscious mentality. Now I know that that general condition in his home and in his family can be reached without MY doing any Personal thing, and that is why it can be reached for I still MY Personal human, as it would be termed, activity, and I put in operation MY Mentality or Spirituality, and the CHRIST within responds.'

 

GOD Is Concerned With Our Affairs

'So it is a great consolation to know that you can rest assured that the government is upon HIS shoulders. The responsibilities, obligations and cares of the world are upon HIM and not upon you. I will take you and your burden, someone has said, through the Spirit, through the sins and through the praises, will set the prisoner free and will give the weary rest and will set at liberty them that are bound. You have been bound to obligations, responsibilities and cares. You have been bound to wants and lacks and limitations and adverse and undesirable conditions of every kind, but,

'He that the Son sets free, is free indeed.'

Now aren't you glad? Feel yourselves free as a bird to a tree, for JESUS CHRIST your Savior, set you free.

'If you continue in MY Words that I speak unto you here and now, you will know the Truth and the Truth will make you manifestedly free. If you are not manifestedly free and consciously free, you are free anyway, and I know it. But the Truth will make you manifestedly free and consciously bring it into your world. For this cause we can rejoice, we have nothing to worry about. Cease from your struggling, cease to worry, be still and know that the Spirit, which I AM in you, the source of all supply, AM GOD, your refuge, your strength and a strong help in every need. So it is Wonderful!

'Now I said that, so that those here will know that if his call is a true and a genuine call, with substantiated faith and unshaken confidence, if his call is not to man or matter or personality, but to GOD, his prayer shall have been heard, for, prayer is the heart's sincere desire, unuttered or unexpressed. It is written,

'Before they call, I will answer, and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.'

It is a great consolation to know that your prayers have been heard, your prayers have been answered. Now if you can only be ignorant enough or radical enough or filled with fanaticism enough to think that GOD is in your home tonight, or wheresoever your children are, know that GOD is not far away from them neither is GOD unconcerned. But GOD is concerned in the affairs of men, knowing that GOD is one with HIS thought through you and GOD is one with HIS spoken Word through you, knowing that GOD is the FATHER of those children and not you, knowing that GOD will take care of HIS own children, you know that in reality you will not worry any more.

'If you know that GOD is the woman's husband-- that you call husband-- and know that GOD is the wife that you call wife, know that CHRIST is all and in all in Truth; and know that CHRIST is rich and all you need, reflecting HIMSELF, producing and reproducing HIMSELF in varied degrees of expression to appease the mortal concept of the human mind until you shall have been awakened out of the state of mortal consciousness or materialism. When that shall have been done, why then, you will know as I do, that CHRIST is your All and in all. Then when you see GOD in all of these varied degrees of expression to appease the mortal concept of the human mind, you shall have acknowledged HIM in all your ways, and your path shall have been directed. GOD spoke through the mouth of Solomon,

'In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path.'

Your path shall have been directed by HIM and wheresoever you go you will keep your mind stayed on HIM and

'in perfect peace I will keep thee, whose mind is stayed on me.'

'You will find peace, you will find rest, you will find contentment, for your soul, yea, even for your body. You will be able to lie down at night, knowing not only that GOD is the FATHER of your so-called children, but that GOD is your FATHER and you never had another. GOD is the FATHER of the whole universe, and of all of mankind. HE condescended to put on material bodies to appease the mortal concept of the human mortal mind, until those bodies shall have developed the CHRIST Consciousness within sufficiently to recognize GOD their FATHER. It is Wonderful!

'You read in the Bible, in the book of Romans, where it says that

'The whole creation travaileth in pain until now, and it has been waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body, to the manifestation of the Sons of GOD, whereby ye cry 'Abba, Father.'

I have been bringing you to the point where you can recognize the FATHERHOOD of GOD and where you can cancel from your world all thoughts of yourselves as individuals in particular, and that you can recognize your at-one-ment with GOD and that you are joint heirs with CHRIST. Is not that Wonderful? It is Wonderful! That is what all of this is about, Dear Ones, that is what this is about, because we have GOD always present in consciousness.'

Sayville home

Sayville home

Each One Should Express the Fullness of the Heir-ship

'Wheresoever you be and wheresoever you go, GOD is there, and GOD is not something any more imaginary; GOD is real. Heaven is no more imaginary, but Heaven has been brought into materialization and into outer expression and here it is. We can see and feel and handle it, and say as one writer said, Even words of life, we can handle it and feel and see it. For the Word has been made flesh and we beheld His glory. Do you not behold the glory, Dear Ones. You can behold the glory.

'We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the FATHER.'

Now you are chosen, not only as heirs of GOD and joint heirs with CHRIST, but you are as the only begotten son, as the only heir, for we beheld that same thing as the glory of the only begotten of the FATHER, as if though He were the only Son that ever was or ever would be. Then it doesn't stop there, but it said,

'of all of his fullness, have all we received, grace for grace.'

Then it is for you to behold His glory as though you are the only begotten of the FATHER, having all of the fullness of GOD, as the inheritor of all of GOD's limitless blessings. You are just as though you were the only one, the only son, not sons many, not as an heir, but as the heir. It is Wonderful! And that is what this is all about.

'When you come to this realization it is brought into manifestation on the material plane, or on the natural plane, so that you can show that you are the heir. Of all of his fullness, not some of it, each one should express the fullness of the Heir-ship, not an heir, but the heir. Then why lack and why want when you are the direct inheritor of all that the FATHER has, when all that your FATHER is, is yours. Did not CHRIST in the body called Jesus say,

'All thine are mine, and all mine are thine?'

Did not John say,

'Of all of his fullness, have all we received?'

These are facts and figures too stout to be denied, and on this foundation have we built a tower too strong to be torn down.

'Take these thoughts home with you, and know that you have all of His fullness, and then you will be able to say and affirm, and GOD will confirm in you and within you, even also as I do, that you have all things, everything that heart can desire.

'You read in the Bible that even the Apostle said,

'All things are yours, things present and things to come, all things are yours, and ye are CHRIST's and CHRIST is GOD's.'

Take these thoughts in and you will have no more occasion to falter or to fear. There are so many men looking more like a man than I do; some of them don't even have enough to feed a wife, some of them don't even have enough to feed themselves. Why? Because they are limited in the material expression of man. They have looked on GOD only as Spirit and they have separated GOD from their bodies and as far as they are concerned, GOD is not on the material plane with them. And therefore, they have detached themselves from the limitless source of all supply and detached themselves from GOD's Presence.

' I know that when I lie down GOD lies down, and when I get up GOD gets up, and when I go out in the car riding, GOD rides. And David said,

'If I take the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the earth, behold GOD is there.'

GOD is with you wheresoever you go because

'in HIM you live, and move, and have your being,'

and in you HE lives, moves and has HIS Being. So when you lie down and when you get up, GOD gets up and when you think you are asleep or someone thinks you are asleep, GOD is in your sleep and wheresoever you go when you think you are asleep, why GOD goes there. Some will say, such and such a one is gone to sleep. Well, if you have gone to sleep GOD has gone to sleep.

' Now if you take these thoughts unto yourself and preach them they will come into expression in your lives, and GOD will soon show you that HE is present in all your works and all your ways, and it will be a matter of impossibility for you to make a failure. It will be a prayer, and the testimony of Jesus, Immanuel, being interpreted, 'GOD is with us.' GOD has always been with us, but that is the reason GOD had to come forth in that body called Jesus to verify the statement of the children of men. Isn't that so? And there He materialized Himself as being called the Son of GOD.'

 

Plant Rightfully and Righteously

Mrs. Jay was in the Kingdom today and upon being asked to speak she testified that Mr. Lanyon was not doing much lecturing at present, that he was just being quiet and having silent broadcasts of the message and that it did not seem to be necessary to say very much. FATHER replied as follows: 'That is a wonderful place to be, when you realize that you can do that, but you must plant the seed first. There are places where people plant fruit and sod. They plant them and they leave them be. There is a place up the country here now where a party planted on a farm so much hay and barley for the stock. They have sowed it down and it is supposed to last from three to five years. Every year it will come up and they will not have to do anything for the next three to five years except reap it. So that is the mystery of this Life and this Love. When you see it has been rightfully and righteously planted in the soil of the souls of the children of men you don't have to worry; you know that it will come forth and it will bring forth fruit after its own kind. It is Wonderful!

'So I suppose Mr. Lanyon feels that he can be silent for a little while and let the Spirit work because he realizes that it is the Spirit and not a man that works. It is a wonderful place to be. He said to ME in his last letter that he was so glad he had found ways and means that he could advocate and demonstrate the Impersonal Life. He said by the recognition of GOD without, it gave him a chance to emphasize and advocate the Impersonal Life and therefore, causes them to direct their thoughts and mind from him, from the personal standpoint of view; for it is not everyone that would be radical enough to feel that fanaticism enough to sacrifice their lives for the Name's sake and thereby, launch out and make such affirmations and declarations about the perfect standard of love. So therefore, he seemed to be happy now, and happier than ever before to know that he could advocate this Impersonal Life, and,

'the government will be upon His shoulders.''

 

The Highest Expression of Truth Is to Know Your GOD With or Without a Body

'It is not that one must necessarily contact ME from a Personal standpoint of view, but where they need not contact ME Personally they need not contact anyone personally.' This was said in reply to testimonies by Mrs. Jay and Miss Davidson to the effect that they were finding the same thing FATHER was teaching, wherever they went. FATHER continued as follows:

'Where they must not contact this Body, they must make a visible sacrifice of all bodies. As I say in so many of the churches, it is not necessary for anyone to contact ME Personally, and then and there the ministers will look at the members and as much as say to them, 'Even FATHER says you need not go to HIM Personally,' and then they turn right away and want them to go to them personally, or go to that material church. Now I AM canceling all material expressions. When I cancel the body called Jesus, I also cancel this Body and all other visible expressions, and thereby live entirely from the spiritual standpoint of view.

'Know your GOD within yourselves, and when you do you will be abundantly blessed. But as long as one lives in the consciousness of any material cooperation or expression, why then, they might just as well seek out some personal expression of GOD, as well as seek any expression. So it is a close walk, but your most precious and hidden treasure is to know your GOD with or without a Body, and that is the highest expression of Truth that has been developed in consciousness and put forth. But without the right concept and realization of the Truth you can be misled from every angle. You can be misled by looking at ME or someone else as a person and you can get self-conceited and look at your own self as a person and make an ideal out of your own self, your own ideas and opinions, ways, inclinations and tendencies, etc.

 

Worship and Follow Someone Who Is Living the Impersonal Life

'So it is a close walk on both sides. But as a technical point of view that people must watch if they are in the Spirit, they must watch that they do not make an ideal out of a person and worship the ideal. If you are not watchful you may stray from the true point of view and say, 'I have my own,' not seeing anyone else from a personal standpoint of view, but seeing yourself and taking yourself and making an ideal of your point of view instead of the Impersonal Truth within. So you see it is a close walk. I do not desire to see anyone misled one way or the other, but it would be better for someone to follow Dr. Grier, or someone that is a perfect example, than to follow themselves, their own personal views. As Paul said,

'Follow me even also as I follow CHRIST.'

It would be better for some people to follow almost anyone than to follow their own ideas and opinions for theirs are more mortal sometimes than someone else's. I do desire to see you advocate, emphasize, and demonstrate that Impersonal Life.

'As I say so often in reference to the churches, they delight to hear ME say that it is not necessary to contact ME, because they desire to live in their own selves, even in their own families, their own desires, their own sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers and all flesh. And would it not be better to worship and follow someone that is living the Impersonal Life than to worship all the infirmities your ancestors had? For as long as you follow them you are subject to all of their adversities. That is your own salvation, to cut loose from their characteristics. You are subject to all of the T. B. they ever had as long as you have a mother, sister or brother. You are subject to all of their instincts and characteristics and tendencies and pleasures; you are subject to their nature. The most important thing is for one to deny himself. That is the most important thing. It is better to follow someone else no better than yourself than to follow yourself. It is Wonderful!

'So it is a close walk, Dear Ones. You see that is why individuals inherit all kinds of so-called diseases and afflictions and tendencies and characteristics of their ancestors and they don't get rid of them sometimes when they get so-called saved or sanctified or whatsoever it may be called; they don't get rid of these inclinations, tendencies and expressions. They have the very expression that one who has claimed to know nothing has. Why? Because they have not been changed, they have not detached themselves from them. If I have a mother, a sister or a brother, why then what is in them is in ME. And all psychologists know that. They know it is a psychological point of view and it is well worth considering. It is Wonderful! It is Wonderful!

'Now I don't believe that anyone much has all of the characteristics of Jesus manifestedly, unless they have produced them. As they travel on they produce them. But I so often speak that, and I speak it practically all of the time, and still they are clamoring for ME, and even though I tell them it is not necessary to come to ME Personally, yet they might be better off to be with someone else that is better than ME than to be with themselves.'

 

When You Try to Bind Someone, You Free Them

A visitor testified at the table this evening that she had come to FATHER to ask HIS help in getting some financial support from her husband who had left her two years ago with a small child and had since that time been supporting someone else, but would not provide anything for her. She had taken legal action, but it had failed to produce results. FATHER replied that if she thought CHRIST would contend for HIS rights she should do the same and if she didn't think so, she should not do it. HE continued:

'When you try to bind someone, you free them. That is why there is so much separation. When you try to lay mortal claims on anyone, you separate yourself from them. That is why the world cannot be ruled by resentment, anger, etc. When jealousy begins, that is no longer the Work of GOD, it is the work of men and as soon as the work of man begins, that is a limitation. As soon as you begin to lean on the arms of flesh they will fail you, for I dare you to trust your own.

'I told Mrs. Divine that if she was in perfect harmony with ME and did not lay any claims on ME she would have all. But it is because she does not try to claim anything, and because she does not try to have any legal claim, she has everything. I may spend thousands of dollars daily on the general public and she does not make one complaint and I spend as much as I please on you and on those other men and women, as you would term them to be, and she does not feel it, and yet she has all. It is Wonderful!

'GOD condescended to impute unto men, because of the hardness of their hearts, this Love that will melt a heart of stone. I put before you a Love that is beyond utterance and this Love is a sample and example for men and women in all walks of life that you may be even as I AM: laying no mortal claims on any material thing; relaxing your conscious mentality and recognizing all things are given unto you; allowing the CHRIST within you to realize HIS at-one-ment as being you, as being the inheritor of all that you have, and hence, you being an inheritor of all that is in the world.'

 

You Are the Sole Beneficiary of Your FATHER'S Inheritance

'Then in you there will be no limitation, there will be no terrors. There is no limitation to ME, and there will be no limitation to you when you know yourselves. For as I have brought to the surface the truth that I have quoted for a few days -- and I desire the whole world to know it -- that you are the only begotten of the FATHER, and that you have all things, as well as I. Not that you are an heir or a joint heir with CHRIST, but you are the only begotten of the FATHER. You are the sole beneficiary of your FATHER's inheritance, as though you were the only begotten of the FATHER. You know when a man lives and marries and dies, having no children but one, the only son or only daughter, after the father dies or the mother dies and if there is no other relative, they are the inheritor of all the father's estate, are they not? And as they are the inheritor of all of their father's estate, so are you the only begotten of the FATHER, full of grace and truth. Now you say that meant Jesus, but what did it say in the next verse, that as you beheld that in Jesus,

'of all of his fullness have all we received grace for grace.'

'Now you are the only inheritor of the FATHER , not laying claim to fifty or seventy-five or a hundred dollars a week; what is that? You are the inheritor of GOD's limitless blessings. You are the inheritor of all that GOD is. But when you subjugate your mind and your words to some limited degree of material legal complications or claims, why then you are limited to that extent and that will be the height of your ambition and will be your destruction.

'Raise your consciousness to contact the CHRIST Consciousness and then you can say even as Jesus said in the seventeenth chapter of St. John, for,

'All mine are thine, and thine are mine.'

You will be able to say just as Jesus said, that,

'My Father and I are one.'

You will be able to say even as Jesus said, that

'I thank thee Father that thou hearest me always,'

when I pray. You will be able to produce the answer to prayer as Jesus did when He said, 'Lazarus, come forth.' You will be able to produce to the world that which seemed to be dead and that which seems to be gone. It will return in GOD's way, but not in your mortal way of tendencies, pleasures and desires, for it is sown in weakness and it is raised in power. It is sown in the natural body and it is raised a spiritual body. Therefore, it is being raised in another body in a likeness as pleases GOD that you might lose your mortal view of the individual and of everything, that you might know your GOD and that HE is All in all, that GOD is your FATHER and that you never had another. When you deny all material claims, then you will spiritually legitimately have a right to make your claim on all spiritual things. You cannot rightfully have an inheritance from above until you shall have relinquished your claim on all material things below. It is Wonderful!'

 

Thoughts for Consideration

'It was such a wonderful point of view quoted by Mr. Lamb last night as he quoted his experience in the Life of CHRIST in bodies. That was such a wonderful point that he brought out, and you all that are tutored on this point of the citizenship in the United States, you know that when a foreigner comes to be a citizen, he must renounce his own country. He must abandon his own country entirely and he must sign an agreement to be faithful and devout by this country, even more against his own country than any other country. I thought that was such a wonderful point. So you must be the same. You must take a stand more against your own things, against your own claims than anything else, that you may inherit the other things. You know it was so wonderful.

'Some one will be expecting ME to talk tonight. Someone was expecting ME to talk last night. Maybe somebody will talk about this wonderful Life. Those wonderful receptive souls that were there last night, it was Wonderful. And as I say, it is Wonderful, and I know that those whose hearts are open and ready for this Truth, they can rejoice and they are glad that it has come in a life that is impersonal, that is interdenominational, interracial and inter-family, inter-language, international and non-sectarian. It is Wonderful! I AM bringing peace to all mankind and to none of them AM I bound.

'You know, there goes out a spirit of adversity, whether you know it consciously or not, as soon as you mention your race, creed or color, or any race, creed or color in the way of discussion. You have that seed of segregation in your consciousness when you can distinguish in your discussion. You must cast those things out of your consciousness and preach and teach and emphasize and reincarnate and duplicate that identical Life of CHRIST without personality or any personal expression, but advocating the Impersonal Life that can be presented in all human beings. And some have condescended to believe that it is being imputed and imported in the animal kingdom.

'You see how wise and intelligent that dog was that was there last night, just as intelligent as a human being, would get up and shake hands with you and would grin and laugh at you, would go in any part of the house when they told him to look for your hat, would go get his leash or anything like that if you told him to get it. So that goes to show you the Infinite and the impersonality of GOD's intelligence. HE is present in the animal kingdom as well as in the man kingdom, but not in expression. It is waiting for the adoption of the animals, for the redemption of their bodies, for the manifestation of the sons of GOD to speak unto the animals that the animals may speak unto them.'

 

If You See Your Way Clear, You Are Not Living By Faith

A Baptist minister who recently came to the Kingdom and gave up his denomination, after hearing FATHER talk about giving away free, fifty thousand copies of Mr. Lanyon's book, 'It Is Wonderful,' got up and asked FATHER publicly how it would be possible for him to live if he gave his services free. He said he had been a preacher for over forty years and was unfitted for anything else, especially as he was at present suffering from a difficulty which restricted him physically. He said he had published volumes of his sermons and charged for them, in addition to which he published songs and had received pay for being chairman of some board covering all of the Baptist churches in the state. He did not see how he would be able to live if he did not accept money. FATHER replied as follows:

'When they spoke of the Apostles, they said, look on them. The song again says,

'He that puts his trust in me shall never be confounded,'

and

'GOD will take care of you.'

It would not be faith, if you had some way and some preconceived means. Humanity as a whole are not living by faith individually, they are living by sight.

'Faith is the substance of the thing hoped for, it is the evidence of the thing not seen,'

and as long as you can see your way clear where you will make ends meet, why you are not living by faith. But this is a sure and a confidential foundation when you are trusting in the true and living GOD, with or without visible means of expression.

'It may be a hindrance to faith as I express it here, a hindrance to the faith of those that live with ME and around ME. Jesus in the body that was crucified supposedly nineteen hundred years ago, said,

'The birds of the air have nests and the foxes have holes, but the son of man has not where to lay his head.'

Still he tells the rich young ruler to go sell all that he has and give to the poor

'and come follow me.'

The expression of this appearance here, it may have been individually for this seeming conflict to arise against ME, as if though I would have had to have given up this place here, so that it would arouse your minds out of materialism and out of the visible means of Spirit that you as a whole that have been trusting in ME might trust in ME from an Omnipotent, Infinite standpoint of view, and not from a limited, material standpoint of view of the demonstration.

'As long as MY co-workers, students and friends, or whatsoever they may be called, have a visible means of support and they can see ME as a rich man they are not seeing GOD. When you see ME as a rich man that has a plenty to meet your demands you are still trusting, as far as you are concerned, in uncertain riches, though I AM not seeing MYSELF that way, and I AM not trusting that way or in what I have in outer expression, but I AM trusting MYSELF in that which I see not, and that which I might be termed, mortally speaking, to know not. But I know that when the time comes that I AM supposed to meet any emergency, I will be there, for I AM there now. Therefore, I AM not living in tomorrow, I AM living in today, for tomorrow, as I was telling a party over the telephone, next year will be this year when next year comes, and next month and next week will be this month and this week when they come, and tomorrow will be today when it comes. In that version of speaking, tomorrow will be today when it gets here. And today is the day of salvation. We have enough bread here for you today, and I AM not studying about tomorrow. 'Well,' you may say, 'YOU will buy it.' Well I will, I will. I will have the money to buy it.

'You are justified by faith and not by sight. You will always have peace with GOD if you live by faith, if you trust GOD as GOD, and not as man. If you try to trust GOD as man, you will not have peace with GOD. Years ago I did not do as much as I AM doing now, because I tried to appease the mortal concept of the human mind and such as that, giving them money to pay off the mortgage on the house, or to pay off the mortgage on the church, or to pay off their taxes, etc., but that did not do them any good; they did not see ME as GOD, they saw ME as a rich man.'

 

I Advocate Doing Nothing From a Personal Standpoint

'There was a preacher from this small church out here in Patchogue and he in some way wanted ten thousand dollars from ME. I AM not talking about dimes and nickels and quarters, and I gave him part of it. That was when I first moved out here, and I have never wanted for it. The people in Patchogue asked ME, 'Well how much did you give him?' But Mother has never even asked ME how much I gave him. She knows that she does not need to lack for anything, but yet she didn't say one time, 'How much did you give the Reverend?' But I gave him part of it. Now that goes to show you how sincere I have been in this Work, just in that little church. That was before it was built up and this minister preached down there. That was about eight or ten years ago he preached there and was holding services.

'It goes to show you how I get attached to anyone just for righteousness' sake. He said he came from Mansfield, Ohio, and he had all kinds of money there, but he did not have any with him. He said there was a piece of property in Troy, New York, worth $150,000, with a ten thousand dollar mortgage on it, and if he would pay the ten thousand dollar mortgage off, those parties, inside of thirty days, would return his twenty thousand dollars for that ten thousand dollars, because they had some money coming to them on the thirtieth of the month and the mortgage would be foreclosed and they would lose the whole thing otherwise. And they would sign papers saying that they would pay back twenty thousand dollars for the ten thousand dollars within thirty days, and they would sign over the house if they did not pay the money. Well, I AM not encouraging increase and usury, for Ezekiel eighteen says:

'If ye have not taken increase or usury . . .'

I shan't try to get any increase if I want to give anybody any money, but he said you will get your ten thousand dollars back and we will split the difference if you say so. Inside of thirty days he wanted to guarantee that it would be done. Well, I didn't bother about it, so he said he could get it if he went back to Mansfield.

' It goes to show you the sincerity of MY purpose. I was working right with him there in the church at that time and I said, Well, I don't want to see you go back, so I was willing to give him part of the money so that he could pay on it without going back to Mansfield so that he could be in the meeting with us. That goes to show you how I feel about a brother or a minister working together. If I would have been jealous, I would have been glad for him to get away, but I was glad for him to stay and work with us. So I did actually give him part of the money, but it didn't do him any good and I have had thousands and thousands of calls from all over the world for help, and I used to give them coal and wood and groceries, and pay their bills, and pay on their mortgages, etc., but it didn't do them any good. They can be blessed without that if they live according to MY instructions and it will do them a hundred times as much good if they will live from that standpoint of view.

'And for years I have been advocating doing nothing from a Personal standpoint of view, as an Example, an Advocator and Duplicator of that identical CHRIST. I function from a spiritual plane and I have a hundred times as much as though I were functioning from both planes. I do not have to function from the material plane. I do not have to give anyone a penny, for MY help reaches out to all parts of the world. I do spend money, that is true, but as for going around and giving everyone money that would call on ME, I don't have to do that, and I AM blessed and they are blessed.'

 

Give Your Whole Time and Talent and the Spirit Will Take Care

'I say that to say this, that I do not take anything, I never take up a collection. I never do any soliciting and I have never been connected with anyone that did. And yet I have always had just as much as I needed to spend. So as I AM, so can you be if you take no thought for yourself. GOD will make a way where there is no way. You heard ME compose two or three songs this morning when I first came into the dining room. I compose songs daily, not only through this Body, but through other bodies, those whose hearts have been tuned to sing GOD's praises. And yet I have never written one song ballad yet. I have never sold a song ballad or anything of the kind, and yet this little booklet that Dr. Grier wrote about ME, that is a wonderful little book, and I think he said it cost sixty-five dollars per thousand. He said he sent out three thousand of them and I think I heard him say the other day that someone sent him a check for one thousand dollars. So he spent $195 for those little booklets and I heard someone say that someone sent him a check for one thousand dollars. He had just written ME that he had spent about all that he had to give away. He gave one thousand booklets in a few minutes as soon as he announced that they were off the press. He immediately gave out those and he sent back and got another thousand and he sent back and got still another thousand, and he said that was about all that he could meet, and there came a check as soon as he told ME that. From whence it came he may not know himself, but the check came and better it is that he should not know, for it did not come from an individual, it came from GOD. So if GOD be for you, who can be against you? All you have to do is to give your whole time and talent and service and be willing to be washed by the Omnipotent One, and the Spirit will take care of the situation. But we must be willing to be lost in the will of GOD in all things.'

 

Thoughts for Consideration

'Our hostess last night was saying how I came to her the other morning saying how she recognized ME, so that when she was calling on ME so and asking ME to come, someone rapped on the back door and smilingly said, 'Will you let me put out your ashes?' She said she saw ME. She had been wondering if she was worthy for ME to come to her place. She lived down on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn. She said the tears were streaming down her face so she did not know what to say. So she told him she thought the ashes had been put out and the man said, 'Will you let me come and put them out every Monday?' She said she knew it was ME. She recognized her GOD. It is Wonderful! And because she did, her heart is blessed, her husband is blessed and they didn't want us to leave last night. But it was a wonderful outpouring of the Holy Spirit, such love, such love, such love. By giving, you will gain life everlasting on the spiritual plane, and one hundredfold on the material plane.'

'But the way up is the way down, and the way down is the way up.

'He that exalteth himself shall be abased, but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.'

Years back, no doubt, there may have been some that looked at Mr. Joseph, that he was ignorant and foolish to be, as it would be termed, to be MY utility man. But yet you can see that Mr. Joseph goes with ME on the stand where some of the highest and loftiest in mortal consciousness cannot, for I have the key, not only to the doors, but to the highest, loftiest hearts; and I will change their minds and I will make their hearts to sing when the president of the United States and the presidents of the other countries will beseech ME and MINE to come with them and sit and dine.'

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