FATHER DIVINE, Rockland Palace, NYC, 1940
When FATHER Personally entered the Banquet Hall, the explosion of love was witnessed by all, as the sincere hearts of the Angels spoke the language of love to their Creator, being a language of actions as well as words. Several testimonies of the same nature were given by those who had fallen from their steadfastness. GOD in His Mercy and Compassion, being an All-Wise and All-Forgiving Savior, immediately after the second testimony of confession, sang the song below recorded, and then gave this infinite Message of Salvation, that those who had confessed their sins, and those who had not, might find clemency in His Love through the medium of this Lesson, and be saved from sin and from sinning. Compassionate Redeemer, we do thank THEE.
(The foregoing statements are those of the transcriber, after which FATHER speaks as follows, preceding the Message with the song below recorded.)
Song, FATHER softly and sweetly sang:
'Let nothing between your soul and your Savior,
so that His Blessed Face might be seen;
let nothing prevent the least of His Favors,
keep the way clear, let nothing between.'
(FATHER arose at this instance, and spoke to the multitude, from the Fount of
His Own Omniscience -- we thank YOU, our LORD.)
PEACE EVERYONE! ("Peace, FATHER Dear!" resounded the greeting of the assembly.) Here we all are again! There I sit and stand! Through the condescension of love, in mercy I came.
That little composition is well worth considering by each and every individual, but especially by those of you who are inclined, according to the mortal mind, to let something between your soul and your Savior; to let something in that will tend to cause you to deviate from your steadfastness and from being substantiated in faith and unshaken in confidence.
This I cannot stress too vividly, for it is the experience of many who deviate by self-indulgence, human tendencies, human fancies and human pleasures and other ways of your human inclinations. These things will tend to sever you from GOD. If you are of ME, you will be the same at My Personal Absence as you would be in My Personal Presence. This is the Work of GOD among this people, to bring them into a place in consciousness where they can always recognize GOD'S Actual Presence.
With the recognition of GOD'S Actual Presence, you would not indulge in your human tendencies, you would not indulge in your human fancies, you would not indulge in your human pleasures, if you recognized GOD'S Actual Presence more at His Personal Absence than you would in His Personal Presence. For this cause I came, and for this purpose I stand.
As a rubber stamp I AM stamping My Name and My Thoughts in the hearts and minds of men, that they might recognize this Everpresence with "indelible ink of Salvation", where it cannot be eradicated. If you recognize this Presence and realize GOD as All and in All, and all of your human fancies, tendencies and pleasures as the dust of the ground and as something to which you do not wish to return, you will leave those things behind and refuse to indulge therein.
Oh, it is a privilege to realize, "GOD is rich and all you need; GOD can and will your every hunger feed", if you will recognize GOD'S Actual Presence and live according to same by the recognition and the realization of His Work and Mission, and the significance of it for all mankind. To think of the redemption of your body, of your Spirit, of your mind and of your affairs, how you can be lifted from the undesirable conditions of such as may be called yours, and live in the Actual Presence of GOD, where there is Peace and pleasure and a-full and a-plenty for one and for all! By this you can overcome. You will not have an occasion to live in lacks, in wants and in limitations, for "the abundance of the fullness of the consciousness of good, no space is vacant of the fullness thereof."
When you live in this recognition and do according to My Plan and Purpose for one and for all, "the Spirit of the consciousness of the Presence of GOD is the source of all supply, and it can, and it will, yea, it does, satisfy every good desire." When you fail to get everything you need and every desire fully satisfied, and every hunger fed, it is plain to see and know you do not recognize GOD'S Actual Presence, for such a recognition will adjust matters satisfactorily from every angle expressible. Even from the angles that are inexpressible, ways will be made and means will be supplied to adjust matters when they do become to be expressible, for GOD prepares the way before the time comes.
I recall, once a man said to ME, "Why, I am the same as YOU are. Of course, I do not have my rent until the very day . . . the very day that my rent is due, the LORD always provides", and he questioned ME. He asked My Opinion on that. He said, "What do YOU think about that, and how is that?" He said, "Of course, YOU always have a-full and a-plenty and to spare apparently, but I do not -- not until at the time I need it. At the very moment I need it, it is supplied." I said, "Why, the earth is the LORD'S and the fullness thereof. If you would have the Mind of GOD and let this Mind be in you that was also in CHRIST JESUS, you would not have to wait until the very day you need it, for you could have it in your possession as well as it could stay out in someone else's possession until the time for you to get it; for they do not need it. Therefore, you had just as well to have it, if the earth is yours and the fullness thereof."
I said, "Why is it now that you ask ME that? It works that way
", I said. I said, "It is because you are not trustworthy." I
said, "GOD cannot trust you with this money, because GOD knows you will
spend it before the time comes, so Mr. Rockefeller, Mr. Morgan and other financiers
should hold the money, because they will keep it and take care of it, or put
it into exchange until the time it is actually needed; therefore, you cannot
get it because you would spend it wastefully and destructively." So that
did not sound so well to the preacher; but yet it is My Conscious Conviction
and Belief. I sincerely believe, when you become to be real trustworthy from
every angle expressible, GOD can trust you with His money, since "the
earth is the LORD'S and the fullness thereof", as well as HE can trust
it in the care and keeping of Mr. Morgan.
Why should you be in lacks? Why should you be in wants? If you are trustworthy, why, just keep it until you do need it, and spend it only when you need it, and with those to whom it is due, and those who do actually need it; and then, and only then will GOD trust you with a-full and a-plenty of His money.
'To him that hath, it shall be given, and to him that hath not, even that which he seemeth to have, it shall be taken from him.'
Because GOD sees and knows that those who will not have anything, they are untrustworthy;
in other words, they are not trustworthy, they cannot trust themselves and how
can they expect anyone else to trust them?
There are those who cannot trust themselves with a few dollars, for they will spend it when they do not need it, if they know where it is. They will go and get it, even if they do not have it with them; they will go and get it and spend it. But how marvelous and how glorious it is to let this Mind be in you that was also in CHRIST JESUS; the Mind of the Almighty transmitted, the Mind of GOD reincarnated, reproduced and re-personified! When this shall have been established in one and all, you will speak, you will act, you will think and you will do, just like your GOD, for whatsoever GOD would do, that is what you will do, if you have the thing to do with, as GOD has.
Then I say, "He who puts his trust in ME shall never be confounded." You
need not live in lacks, wants nor in limitations, for GOD will abundantly bless
you with His Own Spirit and with His Own Presence, when you recognize His Presence
and live thus accordingly even at all times as you do when HE is reckoned in
your consideration.
Then I say to the last speaker, if you go in faith -- substantiated in faith and unshaken in confidence -- when you are apparently absent from My Personal Presence, I will be as expressive in Blessings of joy and of happiness, Peace and pleasure, success and prosperity as in My Personal Presence, if you will reckon GOD'S Ever-Presence as a Living Reality: this is, in expression in your deeds and actions, for "actions speak louder than words." Hence, you will be the same at My Personal Absence as in My Personal Presence, if you expect to receive the same Blessings from GOD as these do, and as you do under My Personal Jurisdiction and in My Personal Presence. It will be the same. The same will be with you wheresoever you go, if you will be exact the same in every word, deed and action at My Personal Absence as you would be in My Personal Presence, in your thoughts, in your mind, in your words, in your deeds and in your actions.
If you are the same at My Personal Absence, you will be the same in the blessings
which you will receive and GOD will be as expressive to thee, as when HE is
Personally Present with you; but it is a close walk to be that way. Mortality
is deceitful. Deception is the thing that will sever you from the Presence
of GOD, and it will sever you from all success and all prosperity, all joy
and all happiness, all life and all health, and all love. It will sever you
from everything else that is good, if you will allow deception to be an expression
in your soul; if you allow it to even, say, reflect itself in your deeds and
in your actions, or in your manner of expression.
Deception will rob you of GOD'S Actual Presence, and will sever you from the Spirit of His Majesty and from His Protection. You can be right with GOD, side by side, and the spirit of deception can creep up, if you will allow it to, and bring a separation between you and your GOD, although you may be sitting side by side with HIM. Unless you are fully consecrated to the Service, and fully, whole-heartedly self-denied and recognize GOD'S Actual Presence by taking on His Characteristics, His Nature, His Mind, His Ideas and His Opinions, you will be severed from GOD'S Presence even though you be Personally with HIM.
Take these thoughts to consideration, for it is not a personal contact, nor presence that is the great essential, but it is the impersonal mental and Spiritual contact and Presence that is the great essential for the redemption of all humanity; nevertheless, it is true, when you are mentally and Spiritually with ME, and I AM mentally and Spiritually with you harmoniously, why, there and then, you will be with ME Personally, equivalently the same as if I would be Personally Absent. My Personal Absence would not prohibit My Impersonal Presence, and My Personal Presence would not prohibit it, neither would it help it, for I would be the same when I AM Personally Absent from you as when I AM Personally Present with you, but deception will bring about a separation if it can.
The human heart, with mortality's versions, ideas and opinions, it is filled
with "chicaneriness" and deception from every angle expressible,
and will make many diverse suggestions to bring about your deviation and separation
from your Savior. It will tell you, "Why, FATHER does not want to be bothered
about those things. You should not do that or say this, that or the other in
FATHER'S Presence. You can say it when HE is absent, but do not say it when
HE is present, because HE is thinking about something else." But those
little sly and shy foxes will spoil all of the Vines of your Salvation; will
spoil all of the tender vines of love, and bring about a great separation.
The experience of many should be openly exposed, that you might see and know definitely, what your portion will be when you deviate from ME. When you are not true, when you allow self and self-indulgences, human affection and lust and passion, and all of those cursed, detestable tendencies to have access in you, you should know, and I will, if you do not get rid of such things, expose them in you as the ones who commit such things, for when you are exposed by death, why, then someone else may not know, but I know the cause of all of those things.
"The wages of sin death, but the Gift of GOD is Eternal Life." If you do the slightest thing at My Personal Absence that you would not do in My Personal Presence, you are deviating. The very slightest word you may speak, it is an expression of deception, which will bring about a separation through your slightest deviation, and after a while, when you are completed, it will sever you from life, health and happiness, and even sever you from your life's existence, until you will come to your personal destination.
Oh, it is a privilege to observe the mystery! When you claim to know GOD,
you should recognize His Presence at all times. When you can speak the slightest
word at My Personal Absence that you would not speak in My Personal Presence,
there and then you have started sliding and deviating and through your deception
and deviation you will eventually bring about a complete separation. That is
what selfishness comes for. That is what selfishness and selfish tendencies
come for. They come forth into expression to bring about a slight deviation
in the beginning, and after the slight deviation is noted or noticed in your
consideration, you are deviating slightly; eventually you will be separating
yourself from ME completely and separating yourself from that which you say
I AM.
If I AM not what you say I AM; if I AM not what others say I AM, if you allow deviations to come and bring about the slightest separation from ME as a Person, you are severing yourself from that which all of these, My Followers, say I AM, GOD Almighty. If I AM nothing more than another person, that which you say I AM to you, from that angle of expression, I AM that. I AM it; therefore, when you sever yourself from ME, you are severing yourself from that which you and millions of others say I AM. It matters not what I AM, so long as you have said I AM; so long as others have said I AM; I AM that to those who deviate from ME, and I AM that to those who harmonize with ME. That is the mystery! You cannot get away from it! You had just as well to come right on up or close up -- one or the other, for the time is at hand, when everyone must recognize GOD'S Actual Presence, or deviate and pass away from the land! Aren't you glad?
As I say: it is not what anything really is, but it is what it is believed to be to such individuals. That is just what it is believed to be; therefore, you know what you say I AM, and you know what millions believe ME to be. Aren't you glad?
Then I say,
'Let nothing between your soul and your Savior,
so that His Blessed Face can be seen;
Let nothing prevent the least of His Favors,
Keep the way clear, let nothing between.'
You allow these little selfish tendencies, human fancies and human pleasures
and self-indulgences to bring a separation by your beginning to deviate in the
beginning; by saying little idle words at My Personal Absence that you would
not say in My Personal Presence; by your little emotions and expressions, by
the blinking and the winking of your eye. If you can move your eye, and would
not want ME to know it, and you claim you know Who I AM, there and then, you
have deviated, so far as that is concerned, and the time will come, you will
feel the effect of a separation by deviating in the slightest measure.
The millions and millions of My Followers all over the world, there may be some who do not know definitely, but since you have claimed ME, I shall assure you and prove to you, you must come up to the measure and come up to the requirements or deviate completely and be cut off from My Presence! The time is not far away from where there shall be a great open outward expression of a dividing line, by the deviations that these are making now in words, in actions and in deeds, and in their minds.
These little no-harm things, these little shy and sly foxes! Why are you shy of ME? It is because you are foxy. If you were not foxy, you would not be shy of ME. You are foxy and you are sly because you are foxy; therefore, you are shy because you are trying to do things you would not do, or want to do in My Personal Presence; therefore, you are shy and shying behind "the bushes" to do it. They will spoil all of the tender vines of love, and put you "in bad" with your GOD. You will wonder why you do not feel that sweet Fellowship of the Spirit and you cannot commune in the love of the Presence of GOD, as you had been. You will wonder why. It is because you have deviated and have allowed something else to come in that has really separated you from GOD'S Actual Presence.
Now whatsoever GOD means, that is what I mean to you, and to all under the Jurisdiction of this Teaching, who claim ME. Then, if the deviation comes forth into expression in words, deeds or in actions in the slightest measure, it is an open expression that you are deviating and if you are deviating, you are automatically separating yourself from GOD'S Actual Presence, from His State of Consciousness and from His Personal Activities. But oh, how glorious it is to be in the Actual Presence of GOD, and in perfect harmony with your LORD! It brings Peace! It brings pleasure! It brings harmony and union in Spirit, of Mind, of Aim and of Purpose. It gives the love that surpasses all human understanding, and it puts you in the way of Peace and pleasure, for I have long since declared,
'All of My Ways are Joy and Peace; all of My Paths are Righteousness, If My Truth will in you dwell, All is well! All is well!'
'In perfect peace I will keep thee, whose mind is staid (harmoniously) on ME.'
If your Mind is not harmoniously staid on ME, misery will follow you. If your
mind, I say, is not harmoniously staid on ME, I say, it is woe unto you. The
woe will follow you as Peace follows the individual who is in harmony. I do not
Bless the people Personally, and I do not curse them Personally, but by their
contacting ME harmoniously, they are Blessed personally, coming from the harmonious
contact with ME, but when they contact ME inharmoniously, as you contact the
live wire inharmoniously, or a live rail inharmoniously, you feel the effect
of it, by making such an inharmonious and negative contact with it. But if you
contact it harmoniously, constructively and according to the Plan and Purpose
for you, it will be a Blessing to you. That is the mystery!
The Spirit is a Blessing to every individual who will contact ME harmoniously. The individual who contacts ME inharmoniously mentally and spiritually, that inharmonious contact -- the reaction of it -- will bring an inharmonious and undesirable result, for that mental and spiritual inharmonious touch.
Now live in this recognition if you wish to. Deny yourself of all human tendencies, of all human fancies and of all human pleasures, and of all human self-indulgences, and I will be with you and overcome every difficulty, overcome all trials and overcome all tribulations, and you will not have an occasion to fret nor worry whether you are personally present with ME or personally absent.
How glorious it is to have such a Blessing. By living in such a recognition and by dialing in on the Fundamental harmoniously continually, I will be with you and you will be with ME. You will be the same when you are thousands of miles away from My Personal Presence. You will be the same when you come in contact with those with whom you have been in contact, heretofore, even if they are the opposite sex to you. Whatsoever sex you may be, if they are the opposite sex, and seek to contact you from any manner of expression whatsoever, you would be the same at My Personal Absence as in My Personal Presence, and you would talk and act the same way. There and then if you do, I will be a Blessing to you and will be everything you need. I will bless you from every angle expressible, and even from the angles that are not expressible.
Deception through the sexes is an expression deceiving all of the nations. From the very beginning of the creation, sex affection was the way "the other fellow" had to sever man from the Presence of GOD. Can you not see the mystery? Can you not see I have a right to stress this point for consideration? That was the way the enemy, as being termed "the serpent" in the beginning, had to reach man, to cause him to deviate and to separate himself from the Presence of GOD. He automatically separated himself by deviating from GOD'S Command, through the human affection in the act of the tendency that the serpent gave him, through self-indulgence.
Can you not see the mystery? That serpent degree of expression was an expression to come through, and it did come through the sexes and sex affection, to cause them to indulge in selfish tendencies, to bring about a separation between themselves and the INFINITE. That is the just what the same spirit is doing today. He will come in your sex affection and sexual tendencies, for the purpose of separating you from the INFINITE, for those are the hobbies of men: sexual affection and sexual tendencies, fancies and pleasures.
Through these avenues the enemy comes, and will use those things to bring something between your soul and your Savior to sever you from GOD'S Actual Presence. I can see them dying daily by so doing. Both men and women are dying daily by self-indulgences, by human tendencies, human fancies and pleasures, by allowing the enemy, the serpent, "the other fellow", to get in the sex affection and organs for the purpose of bringing about a separation between you and the Almighty, but such kind cometh out with fasting and with prayer. By fasting persistently from those tendencies and refusing to compromise with them, you will overcome every tendency of them, and GOD Himself will be your portion, and you eternally will have power over mortality and GOD Himself will be in your body and cause you to put off mortality and put on immortality.
These thoughts are well worth considering. The enemy will tell you from that angle of expression, "Look at this one, and look at the other one." The enemy will tell you all sorts of things to get you to think as you have thought again. He will lead you into self-indulgence from one angle or the other, that you might lose your contact with your FATHER. But if you will recognize GOD'S Actual Presence, and fast from those tendencies that may rise up in you, and refuse to indulge in them, regardless to your sense of feeling, eventually those tendencies will leave you completely; there and then, you will have the Victory.
If a person is fasting from material food, the first day or two it is hard to fast, but after you fast some six or seven or eight or ten days and continue to fast, even the appetite for food will eventually leave you. This is a parable of the mystery of those things coming out of you, those mental and Spiritual and mortal tendencies coming out of you by refusing to indulge in them.
How glorious it is to know the Truth! Then I say, build upon this Foundation. If you do, you cannot be separated, for GOD will be with you now, once and forever, and will be your Blessed FATHER with you. Give HIM your whole mind and attention, your love and your devotion, all of your ideas and opinions, have them all concentrated on the Fundamental, and those mortal tendencies will have no longer an access within you.
How glorious it is to know your GOD! I cannot stress this point too vividly, for as I said, "In the beginning of the creation, when GOD created the Heaven and the earth, and all things that in them are", when GOD formed man out of the dust of the ground, and placed him in the Garden of Eden, where there was a-plenty, where they could live in splendor, the enemy desiring to bring a separation between GOD and His two Angels, Eve and Adam -- his two visible Angels, Eve and Adam -- the enemy knew how to get into them in the sex affection and self-indulgence, the human appetite to tempt them to indulge in something. That is the mystery. It brought a separation between GOD and them immediately, and GOD drove them from His Presence apparently; but they were driven automatically from GOD'S Presence before GOD actually drove them. Can you not see the mystery?
So it is today with those who are indulging in human fancies, human tendencies, human pleasures. The first little pleasure which you indulge in -- even so much as talking with the opposite sex pleasantly, because of a tendency, because of your former prenatal influence, fancies and pleasures -- by such a slight indulgence you are deviating, and from your slightest deviation you will eventually bring about a complete separation from your Savior.
These are facts and figures too stout to be denied. Now you can do it, if you wish to. I AM not putting handcuffs on you, neither will I put a physical ball and chain on you to keep you from going where you wish to go, and doing what you wish to do. You can go and commit suicide if you wish to, for that is exactly what you are doing, if you claim ME and go back into those things, in the act of indulging in your human affection, human lust and human passion.
What said I by the motto for consideration, as a command to all of this people?
'Minds and Attention, Love and Devotion, Ideas and Opinions, all concentrated on this FUNDAMENTAL.'
This was a motto, it is true, especially a motto for you; nevertheless, it is
the interpretation of the request of Jesus, as recorded in the Gospel concerning
you: "If you hear of any man inquiring after Me, tell him I say, first deny
himself." A self-denial is the great essential.
Your minds and attention, your love and devotion should be concentrated on the FUNDAMENTAL. "In perfect peace I will keep thee whose mind is staid on ME." Hear the Words of GOD. If you do not live according to same, you are committing suicide automatically, for you are deviating from the Fundamental -- the hope of your redemption; therefore, you cannot be redeemed by doing such things that are deviating and causing you to get away from the Fundamental that is your real redemption. It is the same as one who used to be in Newark: so far as you could see, the individual was with ME, but so far from ME, by doing the same as many others are doing today, and would not come and confess and forsake those things as some are now doing. If he would have come and confessed those crimes which he was committing, confessed and forsaken them, GOD would have had Mercy, for "he that covers his sins shall not prosper, but he who confesseth them, shall have mercy."
If this party would have confessed his sin and would have forsaken those crimes, he would have been living today. That is the funeral of such an individual, of what thoughts I have concerning the one; going around committing crimes and claiming to be representing ME; hiding behind closed doors, and such like as that, and claiming that I AM their GOD! They think I do not see and know all they do and hear and know all they say.
The time cometh and now is, there will be no place to hide. Such terrible disasters befall such individuals, because of the lack of consecration and self-denial and because of the lack of the recognition of GOD'S Everpresence; therefore, they are daily deviating . . . in the beginning, through self-indulgence and selfish human tendencies, doing little simple things and saying little simple things, until they go so far away and try to take individuals away from the Presence of GOD and lead them into self-indulgence, vice and crime and sin of every kind, and think they can continue on like that.
It is not only this one of whom I AM now speaking, but many others are doing the same and just GOD shall cut them down, and the world shall see and know, those with whom they come in contact shall see and know they are not of ME, by the way they will be obliged to go from My Presence, from life, from health and from love.
You cannot hide from GOD and not feel the effect of it. Then truly might have one said by composition:
'Oh, for a closer walk with GOD, a calm and a heavenly frame,
a light to shine upon the road that leads me to the Lamb.'
This Light has been shining. This Light has truly come, for I heard you say ten
years ago or more, right here in this City,
"The Light has come: rise and shine." I heard you say and I heard others
say the same, "for thy Light has come, and the Glow-rays of GOD have risen
upon you all. Therefore, with joy let us draw water out of the wells of Salvation." You
can draw water out of the wells equivalently, for ye are the wells, if you let
ME. You will be wells of water and rivers of water springing up unto Everlasting
Life, if you will bring your bodies, your mind, your heart and your soul and
your all into subjection to CHRIST. You will be Living Wells of water springing
up unto Everlasting Life, and we will be able to draw water out of the Wells
of Salvation. This is the Mission of CHRIST!
Then I say, the Light has truly come, and in a closer walk you should be with GOD . . . a closer walk and a meek and contrite heart; that is the only way to be with your GOD to overcome all things of the world and to live in GOD'S Actual Presence forevermore. As I said, the Light has come. It has shone upon the road that leads you to the Lamb, and after this was fulfilled so distinctly and observed so plainly, I can see by inspiration as you saw when you sang: "Behold the Lamb of GOD! Behold the Lamb!"
Can you not see that this melody comes forth into expression daily? "Behold the Lamb", for the Light has led you to the Lamb. If you cannot see Him now, you will never see Him. Behold the Lamb. "Behold the Lamb of GOD Who taketh away the sins of the world" . . . the lamb likeness of the Almighty; the lamb likeness of Jehovah GOD; but in the lamb likeness CHRIST came to and for you all. Such an expression will take away the sins of the whole world.
Behold the lamb likeness! That is the mystery. Now it continues to tell you by inspiration intuitively: behold the Lamb, the lamb likeness of GOD Who taketh away the sins of the world. Behold the Lamb! And again, "these are they who followed the Lamb whithersoever HE goeth." If you behold HIM, now follow HIM whithersoever HE goeth. "These are they who are not defiled with women, for they are virgins. They are redeemed from among men."
If you are in the likeness of a man, you will be redeemed from among women, for you will be virgins. You will be virgins even though you are in the likeness of men, by interpretation "eunuchs"; but you will be virgins, with the same nature and the characteristics of those who are not married, and had never been married; those who have never had a mortal human tendency, or tendencies. Those will not have access within you -- such mortal tendencies, fancies and pleasures, for you will be with them as the number that are redeemed from among men and not defiled with women. I thank you.
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