FATHER DIVINE at
The Circle Mission Church, Philadelphia, PA
Truly, this profound and dynamic Sermon was given by the great Dean of the Universe and Ms. D., D. D., FATHER DIVINE, for HE only can rightly get at the underlying cause of all sickness and disease and divulge it to His patients, HUMANITY, that they might take the cure herein prescribed, and be healed of their physical ills as well as their worldly national and international ills that have been leading them to death and destruction.
If mankind will but take cognizance of these Words of Spirit and Life, and weigh every situation by them and let them be the Scale of Justice for them, they will receive an equitable adjustment in all things that concern them, for the Spirit will be the Just Balance for them.
For Thy Words of Spirit and Life, Almighty GOD, we humbly thank THEE!
(The foregoing statements are those of the transcriber, and the following is FATHER'S profound Sermon, with FATHER speaking as follows:)
PEACE EVERYONE! Good Health, Good Will, a Good Appetite, with Good Manners and Good Behavior, All Success and All Prosperity, Life, Liberty and the Reality of Happiness! These and all other Blessings to you I have given if you can and will accept of them. While sitting and thinking, I thought how marvelous it is to live in the actual Presence of GOD and to have a real emancipation such as Abraham Lincoln mentioned:
' That this whole nation might have a New Birth of Freedom .'
When you are free and free indeed, you are free from all racism, sectarianism;
you are free from the isms and creeds and doctrines of men. You are free from
the versions and the ideas of them, for GOD has set you free. You are free indeed!
Think about how marvelous it is to be free from superstition and all of the mortal versions, free from tradition and even free from hereditation; for though you may be cursed by hereditation, with curses handed down through ancestry and even down through tradition, if you have this New Birth of Freedom I will free you from all of those limitations, obstructions, barriers and all adverse and undesirable conditions!
That little interview as proof read, I mentioned how we have transcended all barriers and limitations, or words to that effect, showing you definitely, I have broken that line of demarcation and racism, nationalism, and all of those limited barriers have no barrier for ME! I have broken that alien yoke of bondage! I have set you free and I AM setting millions of others free mentally and spiritually universally, and eventually they will be free physically and personally!
When you are free from every mortal version, you are no longer bound by superstition, neither by tradition, for truly did I say:
'Ye think that I came to bring Peace on the earth; I say to you, nay, but rather a sword . . .'
or words to that effect. The Same Spirit is speaking today, because CHRIST stirs
up jealousy among the nations of the earth as a man of war, to bring about confusion
among them because of GOD'S Presence being in contrast to theirs! Can you not
see the mystery?
So then I say, it is a privilege to live in the Actual Presence of GOD, where the Tree of Life is blooming; over on this side of Jordan is a Tree of Life blooming, and here is rest for the weary; here is rest for you!
When I say, Good Health, Good Will, a Good Appetite, Good Manners, Good Behavior, All Success and All Prosperity, Life, Liberty and the Reality of Happiness, all of these Blessings I AM giving you by bringing an end to all superstition and all limitations and all adverse and undesirable conditions that are prenataled within and handed down by tradition. Just think of being free from all of your creeds and modes and doctrines of men and free from all of those versions and ideas and opinions of them that have kept you shut up in superstition until now, the same as it was in the days of Jesus in the Sonship Degree when they said Jesus was a man gluttonous, a friend of publicans and sinners, yet John did not come eating and drinking as Jesus did, for Jesus came eating and drinking, says the Scripture, but John came neither eating nor drinking, but Jesus came both eating and drinking. They called John one who had the "other fellow" because he came neither eating nor drinking, but Jesus came both eating and drinking; they said He was gluttonous, a wine bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.
But if you learn the Truth concerning the mystery, you are freed from all versions and ideas and opinions of men in reference to eating and drinking, for I did say on one occasion, I said,
'Such kind cometh out with fasting and with prayer.'
But what are you to fast from? You are to fast from prejudice, fast from strife,
fast from bigotry, fast from division and inequality, fast from all of those
mental and spiritual characteristics that have kept the people divided! But as
far as fasting from material food, you need not fast from any material food that
is for the sustenance of your body, for I did say, he that eateth with thanksgiving,
it is a blessing to one, yea, everyone that cometh eating and giving thanks,
for, "In everything give thanks, for this is the Will of GOD in CHRIST JESUS
concerning you."
So then I say, it is a privilege to live in such a recognition and to build upon such a foundation as this one, being free from all the mortal versions of superstition and ideas and opinions of men, for they have been imposed upon you until the time of reformation; not only until the time of reformation, but since this is the time of resurrection, those carnal ordinances and versions and ideas and rituals of men have no longer access within! Aren't you glad! ("Yes, so glad, Almighty GOD!" came the happy response.)
These thoughts should be stamped in your memory once and forever, for there are those who do speak on and teach different creeds and different carnal ordinances imposed upon them until they be resurrected or awakened with the Spirit of GOD from on high! When this is done, you will no longer be subject to those carnal ordinances and carnal versions, carnal ideas and opinions, for
'To him that is natural, all things are natural, but to him that is spiritual, all things are spiritual.'
We are happy to present to you and to the world at large the reality of the Actual
Presence of GOD transforming, changing and resurrecting you from the dead works
of materialism and mortality to true spirituality! Aren't you glad! ("So
glad, LORD!" came the happy cry.) When you lived in those things you were
subject to death and subject to disappointment; you were subject to failure,
for
'In Adam all die, but so shall in JESUS CHRIST all be made alive!'
I further say, John declared he must decrease, but One cometh after him, He shall
increase! John's doctrine must decrease and all of them's doctrine must decrease,
but MY doctrine is from everlasting to everlasting -- without the beginning of
days and without the end of life!
Truly might have John the Revelator caught the glimpse of the Mystery in his Revelationic prediction of his Revelation and said he saw a
'New Heaven and a New Earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away!'
You see, the first one is passing away! Can you not see the Mystery? The first
versions of men, the first vision of men and their revelation and their concepts
concerning that imaginary heaven, those things are passing away and the Consciousness
of GOD'S Presence is coming into being and
'GOD Himself shall be with them,
he declared,
and shall be their GOD and they shall be His people!
Then as I say, the first imaginary heaven, with all of its imaginary glory, with
all of its imaginary grandeur somewhere in the suppositional heaven, that imaginary
heaven is passing away, and I John declared he saw a New Heaven and a New Earth
coming down from that imaginary heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband!
The imaginations of men have shaped and fashioned and formed for them a heaven far above the sky and the sky is nowhere and is nothing, but everywhere where there is nothing upwards! Aren't you glad! ("So glad, FATHER Dear!" came the happy reply.) Therefore, as they have shaped and fashioned for themselves in their superstitious imaginations, a heaven, that imagination, I AM working cancellation and dispellation on that imaginary heaven, for that is the way it is passing! Aren't you glad! ("So glad, LORD, so glad!" echoed the eager assembly.)
It is a privilege to realize all of that imaginary heaven, the heaven of your so-called mothers and fathers as they taught you, was an imaginary heaven; was not a reality! Was far above all of the planets and stars; far above all of the suns and the moons, yea, it was far above the sky and yet it was such an imagination you were in that delusion until you were awakened out of that imaginary concept of heaven and came to the conscious realization of the New Heaven and the New Earth that shall dwell with men!
Then I say, in transforming the natural to the spiritual -- in other words, GOD is making the material things spiritual and spiritual things material! GOD is bringing into materialization and into outer expression your fondest imagination where you will no longer suppositionaly discern the heaven above the sky! Aren't you glad! ("So glad!" again came the reply.) Where you will bring down into your consciousness of GOD'S Presence and among yourselves the Reality of that Heaven that was coming down from GOD, from that imaginary GOD out of heaven, out of that imaginary heaven to the place of your abode!
CHRIST said in the Sonship Degree,
'HE dwelleth with you and shall be in you!'
He said,
'The Kingdom of GOD is within you.'
That is the privilege, to realize the Kingdom is not some place far above the
sky, but the Kingdom of GOD is within! One writer declares on another occasion:
'The Kingdom of GOD is not meat and drink, but it is Righteousness, Joy and Peace in the Holy Ghost.'
These Attributes of GOD are reproducible and reincarnatable, re-personifiable
and realizable, because Righteousness, Joy and Peace in the Holy Ghost, all of
these Attributes and Characteristics and even the Life of GOD Himself, they are
all materializable, producible and personifiable, and you are to personify these
qualities of GOD'S Attributes and Characteristics and make them visible; no longer
suppositionaly discerned, but make them visible in your very beings!
But this does not come by fasting from material food, fasting from the food that is for the sustenance of your bodies. It does not come by so doing! It comes by fasting from all strife, from all prejudice, from all division, from all racism, from all inequality, from all bigotry and from all of those detestable tendencies prenataled within you! Though you have been living on them from your infancy, if you stop now and fast from those tendencies, you will be fasting the kind of fast that GOD is speaking about! "Such kind cometh out with fasting and with prayer!"
Aren't you glad! ("So glad, Almighty GOD, so glad!" shouted the assembly.) Some have said, "FATHER, I have thought this and I have thought that and I have thought the other; and I have been influenced internally or mentally in my sub consciousness through my dreams and visions and the like." I have said that such kind will come out with fasting and with prayer, by fasting from doing those things that those tendencies prenataled within you will suggest for you to do! Can you not see the mystery? By fasting from them persistently, conscientiously and sincerely, you will overcome them, for they will come out with persistence, fasting and with prayer! Aren't you glad! ("So glad, FATHER Dear!" shouted the eager assembly in one voice.)
Therefore, it is a blessing to know what fasting means and what I was speaking of when I said Scripturally, fast! Yes, you should fast! You should fast from all of your hereditive tendencies, all of your mortal fancies and mortal pleasures! You should fast from all of your prenataled influences and live in the Presence of GOD in consciousness and those things will come out by you fasting from them with a desire to overcome the wicked one!
Prayer! Now what is prayer? Prayer is not a multitude of words. Prayer is the heart's sincere desire, unuttered and unexpressed! With a sincere desire in fasting to overcome any detestable tendency, even though it has been prenataled within you, having a sincere desire to overcome those tendencies within you, and by abstaining from the suggestions and tendencies that they may lead you to do or say -- refuse to obey those tendencies -- you are fasting and praying! Can you not see the mystery?
No such a thing as getting down, going through a performance of prayer after the manner of men, for I did say:
'You know not how to pray as you ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession in groaning with cannot be uttered;
'For HE that searcheth the heart knoweth what is the mind of the spirit, for HE maketh intercession for the saints according to the Will of GOD.'
See the Mystery? So then I say, it is a privilege and a privilege beyond a limitation,
beyond all barriers of all superstition, to live in such a recognition and to
build upon such a foundation as this one, and realize, when you are fasting from
those detestable tendencies, characteristics, ideas and opinions and fasting
from all of your mortal and carnal tendencies by refusing to obey them, though
they are within you, you are fasting the kind of fast that I, GOD, was telling
you to fast from!
This is GOD'S Administration and I AM Reigning now! Aren't you glad! ("So glad, Almighty GOD!" echoed the enthusiastic shout.) No doctrines of men or dogmas from any individual or from anyone can change the Doctrine of GOD in this, His Administration, for GOD is Reigning and having His Own Way! That is what I AM talking about! There is no other fast to fast from but from your human tendencies, fancies and pleasures; your prenataled influences and your characteristics; your disposition and all of your hereditation, and be New Creatures, for I did say, "Nicodemus, ye must be born again!"
So long as you live in your human tendencies, human fancies or human pleasures, so long as you are influenced by hereditation or by preconceived ideas and opinions, you are influenced by the mortal versions and you are made subject to corruption. Can you not see the Mystery?
Then I say, live in this recognition and I will lift you above barriers and limitations, for GOD is Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent and yet in all of His Majesty, Dominion and Authority GOD is here and Ever Present!
Take these thoughts to consideration and live in this recognition, for through your ideas and opinions, even when you are free from sin and from sinning, you can live in the ideas and opinions and the versions of others and you have made yourselves subject to corruption by living in the ideas and opinions of others, though you may not even be sinning! Can you not see the Mystery?
The same as I have had many to come to ME and say, "FATHER, I am living the best I can, I am not sinning now. I know I am not doing anything that is contrary to Your Teaching or contrary to the Bible and yet I am sick and sickly, I am having aches and pains, I am having disappointments and failure." I say, you may not be sinning personally or individually, but you are living in the atmosphere of sin and corruption and the germs of those contagious germs of diseases that are in the atmosphere in which you are living, they have affected your physical bodies by the influences they have over you! They can influence you to do what someone else would do and what others do that are living in mortal consciousness; and you have made yourselves subject to the corruption of those who are corrupted thereby and the germs of those who are living in that state of consciousness will be effective and contagious to you and to others because they are by nature contagious!
"How can those things be?" some may say. "I am not touching anyone with a contagious disease." They may say, "I am not physically or personally in their presence", but if you are mentally and spiritually in the presence of those with the contagion, you have made yourselves subject to the contagions that they carry in themselves, whether physical contagions or mental contagions! See the mystery?
"I am sick. Seems like I can't get well and I know I am not sinning now." If you live in races, creeds and colors, if you live in families or any others', you have made yourselves subject to their infirmities and sickness and diseases that they are carrying in their physical bodies! Aren't you glad! ("So glad, LORD!" came the response.) I know you are glad to know that, so that you will let go by fasting out of your system all of those preconceived ideas and opinions and the ideas and opinions of others who have carried a contagion! See the Mystery?
They are sick and they are dying! Some are not sinning, and dying. Maybe they are not sinning, but they are dying because they are living in that state of consciousness that is infected in itself by the contagions of those germs of diseases that are manifested physically in the physical bodies of the children of men!
Take these thoughts to consideration, but yet, talking about fasting from food that is for the sustenance of your bodies, for your comfort and for your convenience, and not fasting from those preconceived ideas and opinions; not fasting from hereditive fancies, pleasures and tendencies, and all of those carry the very germs of your ancestors if you are carrying the characteristics and the nature and disposition, if you are carrying the ideas and the opinions of them, your bodies will pay for it!
You may not be affected physically presently or at present whichever, with the contagious germ of diseases that your fathers and mothers died with, but if you carry their characteristics and their disposition, their fancies and their tendencies and their pleasures in your bodies, you will conceive the same germ and will be affected by it! Now if there be any critics under the sound of My Voice, tell them that this is Ms. D., D. d.!
The custom of doing things is not at all times a crime, but those who do those things in vice and crime, they carry the germ of the crime in the habit or custom of doing those things! Can you not see the Mystery? Therefore, fast from those things by refusing to harmonize with them or sympathize with them or compromise with them by refusing to be a partaker of them mentally and spiritually, for I said:
'Wherefore, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit . . .'
Not only cleanse yourself from the filthiness of the flesh, but FLESH and SPIRIT!
And I say, cleanse yourselves of all filthiness of the mind! It is written of
ME:
'HE shall purify the sons of Levi and shall purge them as silver and gold are purged.'
I AM purifying and purging you now! I AM purging your vocabularies! I AM purging
your sub consciousness, and even in your dreams in the future, as you are purged
completely, you will not even think subconsciously in your dreams, in obscenity!
You will not think vulgarly because I AM purging you now! I Came among you to
purge you of all of those detestable hereditive tendencies, fancies and pleasures
and to purge you from all of your subconscious characteristics and disposition
to make you New Creatures in Reality so that you might have the Victory over
death, the "other place" and the grave!
I continue to tell you from time to time that I AM purging your vocabularies! I AM purging your subconscious minds as well as your conscious minds! Your conscious minds may be purged by education.You see the mystery? But I AM purging your subconscious minds as well as your conscious minds so that you might be able to offer unto the LORD an offering in Righteousness as in former years and as in the days of old!
In the days of old they offered unto the LORD an offering in Righteousness because they offered unto the LORD themselves; and Paul caught the glimpse of the Mystery of this great significant issue and said:
'I beseech ye therefore brethren, by the mercies of GOD, that ye present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy, which is your reasonable service and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.'
Therefore, pure bodies, free from all self-indulgence, free from all human tendencies,
human fancies and pleasures and free from that adamic state of consciousness
-- you should offer unto the LORD a Spotless body, pure and clean!
Then I say, you are doing a work that is a work that could not be condemned -- can you not see the mystery? -- for it is a Work of Righteousness being done by the Spirit, for HE shall purify unto Himself a glorious church without spot and without wrinkle!
Then I say, stress these thoughts in your memory and learn from now more stressfully, how you should fast. Fast from all of those ideas and opinions and versions and fancies and pleasures of men! Fast from all of the doctrines of men and all of their ideas and opinions, for I AM within to stay! I thank you.
(As FATHER left the Holy Communion Table and went immediately to His Office Study, HE continued speaking on thuswise as follows:)
You see, you can just do those things. It is something to consider.
'In Adam all die, so shall in JESUS CHRIST all be made alive!'
The ideas and the opinions, the fancies and pleasures of the adamic state of
consciousness -- how do you expect to escape or rid yourself of your ailments
and complaints if you are going to live in that state of consciousness? If you
are subject to hereditation mentally and spiritually, if you are subject to those
tendencies that were prenataled within you, if you are subject to others' versions
and ideas and opinions as afore said -- you have made yourself subject to that
-- how can you get healed of anything? You have to be a different person, be
a New Creature, New Characteristics! They feed on those characteristics, those
ideas and those opinions! It is wonderful! It is wonderful!
I have often said and I have been stressing it all along -- you are made subject to those infirmities and the very germs of those who did have those germs of diseases that were manifested physically, you are made subject to them unwittingly as long as you have the same minds and ideas and opinions. You see the mystery?
The ideas and the fashions, even the customs and systems and even the styles and all of those things, carry the germs of those who carry them -- who created them! That is why so many people coming up in this Truth, down in the Holiness and in other Movements of religion, they throw off the customs and fashions and systems and styles of men because all of those things carry their germs! All of those things carry their germs!
How can you get rid of these ailments and complaints as long as you live in them and live by them? It is a hard saying, but yet it is true. That is why the people, when they used to get rid of certain things, they would go in seclusion and they would live like hermits, or something of that sort; they would leave civilization; they would be New Creatures! Civilization carries the germs you want to get rid of!
MOTHER DIVINE: It calls for a self-denial! Secretary:
It seems that it calls for more than a self-denial, to me!
FATHER: Well, that is self-denial. That is why I say, in Adam all die! In that adamic state of consciousness all die, but in JESUS CHRIST all shall be made alive -- in the CHRIST Consciousness Jesus was Crucified according to the Scripture, yea, according to the Gospel, but was Crucified in that state in which He lived; but when He was resurrected He didn't talk as He first had spoken,
'Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel!'
Now you see, that is somewhere you could put your finger, in a way of speaking:
'Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.'
Why go there?
Secretary: That was before He had come out of the flesh.
FATHER: It is wonderful! Of course, you would be inclined to be like that maybe, but through that inclination there were the infirmities; but after the resurrection there was a different language spoken:
'Go into all the world and teach all nations.'
You see the mystery?
You see, you hear people trying to bind My Followers to ME, "Your Followers", and some of you have done the same, try to speak on thuswise as though I AM to them and they are to ME alone, and as I said, I AM not talking about those who are called My followers alone, but to all people!
Secretary: That is what YOU told the lady today.
FATHER: Sure. That is My Thought all of the time.
Another Secretary: It is wonderful, FATHER. When YOU spoke about Jesus talked differently, before -- when He was talking before,
'Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel",
man could touch Him, and man could put their hands on Him; but afterwards, when
He got in YOUR SPIRIT, He was even out of their version and they could not touch
Him because they could not see Him.
FATHER: Sure, and speaking on the material plane:
'Go into all the world and teach all nations, and even baptize them in the Name of the FATHER, the Son and the Holy Ghost!'
So that is a wonderful, wonderful place to be, to rise above materialism and
the mortal version because germs are in those things!
Secretary: When YOU spoke of germs in the style and the fashions of men, I thought of what MOTHER said about our Rosebud suits, that they are the Robe of Righteousness.
FATHER: It is true. As the old saying is, thoughts are things. Your thoughts that are in that field and you are drawing thoughts from that world and you bring the germs of mental diseases from where those thoughts came, you have got to be strong to even say, come up here as you have, coming through all of the mortal versions and living in all of those mortal ideas and opinions.
MOTHER DIVINE: It was GRACE that brought us this far, and GRACE will take us through!
Secretary: But FATHER, when we have really ascended to our FATHER and know it, those things can't touch us!
Another Secretary: I thought of that the other day, FATHER, when I was looking at something on television. I was in here all alone and the person on television happened to be a person whose character I would not even want to know, and I thought if I looked at him, the thought came to me that I would be a partaker of his characteristics and I got up and turned the television off. It was not consciously done. It was more of an act of repulsion. I didn't think it out, I just did it!
FATHER: It is true. Even if you thought like that, you may not have -- as you say, you may not have been actually conscious of it as a reality, but yet I say, to make it a little more simpler, if you take it up, if you vision it, vision the person sympathetically and harmoniously from the angle of expression, the person is functioning, you might partake of some of the characteristics from that viewpoint, some of the ideas and opinions transmitted, for thoughts are things and they are as mental telepathy, they are transmitted. In other words, thoughts are as broadcasting stations or as broadcast messages.
(With a few more remarks, this timely office talk concluded and FATHER again started His never-ending Office-duties.)
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