"Except a Man Be Born Again, He Cannot See the Kingdom of Heaven."
---FATHER DIVINE

Healing and the Cause of the Return of Undesirable Conditions

Excerpts from an Interview Granted to a Sister in Father's Office, Philadelphia Hotel, 764-772 South Broad Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Thursday, August 27th, 1942 A.D.F.D., Time: 9:30 P.m.



FATHER DIVINE

FATHER DIVINE

 

The excerpts from this interview granted to a sister have been transcribed that others might share the blessing of the explanation of several significant points.

The interview opened with the sister telling FATHER of the return of an ailment with which she had once suffered, and has been transcribed from where He patiently explains the cause of its return.

WE THANK THEE, OUR GREAT PHYSICIAN!

The foregoing statements are those of the transcriber, and FATHER'S Words follow:

 

Humanly speaking it is quite hard to overcome such conditions unless you are redeemed completely from a mental and spiritual point of view. The Bible says :

'Go in peace and sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee,'


and the same SPIRIT is speaking today. If you do not sin, why, those conditions have no right to return. If you do not have the same old disposition, the same nature and the same characteristics that brought such conditions or created such conditions, they have no right to come, because they would not be able to identify you if you are a NEW creature. But if you are the same old creature dispositionally and characteristically and nature-ly, why, naturally those tendencies will identify you to the same old infirmities, the same old sickness, afflictions and disease. That is the mystery.

Of course, it is something like I told a party sometime ago; they said they did not know why certain conditions result in undesirable conditions to them and for them, and I said, 'If you are in that world where those conditions exist, those conditions can reach you. If you are in that world characteristically or dispositionally--if you are in that world where those conditions have access for expression, they may reach you and affect you even though you may not be sinning then, but just being in that world where those conditions exist.'

 

Hereditary Conditions

There are many human tendencies, human fancies, human pleasures, human ideas and human opinions handed down traditionally and hereditively that are imposed upon certain families or certain offspring of such families from which they come, and as long as they stay in that world of expression, in the nature and the characteristics and the disposition of the old, they will be subject to the infirmities of the old, and they will be able to identify you and impose them upon you.

It is just the same as if you had a child or even a mother, and if you had plenty of money and your mother did not have any and the government finds out that is really your mother and you have plenty of money, the government considers you should be responsible for your mother, you see. So a person is responsible for his old characteristics and old disposition, old human tendencies, fancies and pleasures.

So that is the reason I say:

'Except a man he born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven.'


It is essential to be born out of that Adamic state of consciousness and be a NEW creature. But so many people have the same old disposition after they claim to know Me--have the same old characteristics; anything that would offend them before they knew Me, it would affect them after they know Me. Well then, that in itself would tell them that they have never been redeemed from the old and they are susceptive to the infirmities, transgressions and iniquities of their ancestors.

Sister: Well, FATHER, I know there is something in me because I feel that way--because I know You are pure, and I know I am not pure, but I want to be pure.

FATHER: It is written:

'He that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.'


So it is your privilege and your duty to justify yourself by abstaining from the preconceived tendencies, fancies and pleasures and all ideas and opinions that are detrimental and conflicting.

As the interview proceeded along more personal lines, it developed that the sister had been disappointed at not receiving the accommodation she desired in the hotel for her week's vacation. So FATHER explained the psychological or spiritual cause as follows:

 

The Main Thing Is Self-denial

The main thing to do is to be self-denied. If you are self-denied and consecrated and absolutely unselfish, why then, things will work harmoniously for you. It is just the way conditions and circumstances and surroundings are; that is just the way your physical condition and physical system may be. You believe, as I do, that sin is the cause of physical ailments and complaints and sickness and disease. Then undesirable conditions are equivalently the same. If everybody would live right and do right, why, things will work harmoniously for them physically and materially in their surroundings.

GOD will take care of the person or persons who will live right and do right. Things will work harmoniously for them--not only in the body, but in their surroundings. GOD will bless them in their storehouses, the same as I said today--in their baskets and in their land. GOD will bless them with comfort and convenience and everything else. But if they are not worthy of these blessings, with or without My Person, they will not get them! You see, that's the idea.

If they make crooked paths for their feet to walk in, they make it hard for themselves. It is a common phrase you have heard no doubt, where it says, 'If you make your bed hard, you must turn over but the oftener;' and old folks used to tell their children, 'If you marry a man and make it hard for yourself, why then, you have to turn over but the oftener.' So people make conditions from the invisible realm according to the spirit and the mind they are in, just like they make the conditions of the physical system.

 

Nobody Gives You Any Undesirable Condition--You Make It

Nobody gives you asthma; nobody makes you have asthma or makes you have any undesirable condition about your physical body, but you bring those conditions upon yourself; and as with the ailments and complaints in the way of your physical system and your mental condition, so with the surrounding with which you are concerned. You make undesirable conditions for yourself physically and materially. The material surroundings will express the condition of your mind and you can make harmonious conditions for yourself physically, mentally and spiritually.

So you cannot blame others; just blame yourself and adjust matters satisfactorily within yourself by getting rid of all selfishness, of all selfish tendencies, all graft and all greed and all resentment and all anger and all of those detestable tendencies, and I will bless you in every way expressible. You will have all of the comfort and the convenience and everything necessary for your physical rest and convenience and comfort even as you will also have physical health and strength and vigor and courage, just like you received it when you first believed in Me.

Wheresoever you be, if you have a comfortable place, that is My SPIRIT that prepared it for you according to the sacrifice and self denial, according to the way you have been living and doing. But if you do not have one, it is because you have not paid for one in the sight of GOD--have not done the thing that would warrant your getting a place like that, you see. But if you love GOD, serve GOD, be right in heart and mind and be free from self and selfishness in every way, your surroundings and your convenience will be pleasant and comfortable even as you are comfortable mentally and spiritually when you are physically healthy and happy, you see, and when you physically please the ALMIGHTY.

 

According To Your Faith And Acts

All of this comes from your own faith and your own work within yourself and by your own doings according to your faith you have in Me. It is written:

'Say ye unto the righteous, Ye shall eat of the fruit of your doings.'


So each and everyone will reap whatsoever they sow. If you sow some seeds of terror and misery, disappointment and failure, you will reap such conditions; but if you sow the reverse, the desirable conditions will result; for just as it is with Me physically and in My Personal surroundings, My Personal comfort and convenience, so can it be with all of My Children if they have the same mind and live and do even as I have done and as I AM doing.

Take these thoughts to consideration and endeavor to harmonize with them and live them and put them into expression, and the results will come exactly according to the way you work out for yourself mentally and spiritually and physically, because others are not responsible for you; you are responsible for yourself, for you can bring about any desirable condition you desire or you can create undesirable conditions by your thinking, by your acts and by your disposition, by your characteristics and by your deeds.

So these thoughts are to be considered deeply, and that which is applicable to you and expressive with you, the same is applicable to others and expressive with them. That which works for one, works the same for all men. Some might be right in My home and may not be happy--may not be as happy right here in this residence where I AM, as some who are not near Me Personally. It is all the condition of the mind and according to how they live and obey Me and abide in My SPIRIT and in MY MIND.

 

Feared To Displease FATHER

Sister: FATHER, that's all that worries me--when it looks like I don't please You.

FATHER: Well, that's the thing that you get the results of-- what you do, you see--your thoughts, your mind, your desires, your nature. If you live in a world where confusion can come, where sadness can come, it can and it will; and all of those conditions will come to one when they live in that world. If you live in the world of self or selfish tendencies, human fancies, or pleasures, or if you live in a world of trying to do something to seek self justification or to justify yourself or to protect yourself or to cause someone to think more of you by trying to do something just for that purpose, it is a selfish tendency. Then the results would be as such, and living under a selfish government, conditions that reach the selfish people could reach you because you would be in that country, mental and spiritual country. You would be in that realm where those conditions could come. That's it. All right, that's all.

Sister: All right, FATHER. I thank You so much!

FATHER: You're welcome. PEACE!

 

***************