FATHER DIVINE at The Circle Mission Church
FATHER DIVINE:.
Peace, Everyone: Good Health, Good Will and a Good Appetite; Good Manners, Good Behavior, all Success and all Prosperity. These and all such Blessings, I cannot stress them too much, to stamp them in the hearts and lives and in the minds of the children of men to make them real to them. I stress them over and over again. As in the experience of a child going to school, the child must iterate and reiterate over and over again that which he is seeking or trying to learn. By reiteration and by a constant rehearsing it will be established in the mind.
Hence, when I speak these thoughts into consideration I hope those who have been our critics in the past will not continue to criticize. For the sake of humanity and for the love of the Almighty, I hope they will consider with a simple consideration that will lead them to see and know that in this Movement, especially with ME where I AM Personally connected, there is nothing to criticize.
But as the speaker mentioned tonight, I thought of what one said once ; a good many people are as those who may be out in the cold freezing weather, almost freezing to death, and you in a nice comfortable home as you are tonight, and the critics such as are hungering and thirsting and starving for food and shelter, for comfort and for convenience, would attempt to criticize someone who is living in splendor with the Abundance of the Fullness of everything that life demands. How inconsistent and how ignorant such a person is, instead of giving thanks and praise for the Blessings they see and hear of. If they did, some Blessings would fall on them.
I thought of that because, as we sit around this Holy Communion Table where you are free to partake, realize these are the Blessings of GOD for which you all have prayed and of which you all have sung in your doxology,
'Praise GOD from Whom all blessings flow,
Praise HIM all creatures here below !'
You can see the Blessings flow freely from ME, do they not ? They come automatically and they are extended and passed around as you do in your churches when you serve your communion service. But this is for the sustenance of your bodies as well as for the benefit of your souls. Aren't you glad ! This is for your comfort and for your convenience, to make real that which has been a symbol and the shadow and the figure of something that was to come; but that is it of which it was speaking in the parable-ated words of expression, in the divers actuated words in illustration.
You are now enjoying the actual blessings of GOD that flow so free, and I know you can see and say with ME, it looks as though all blessings from ME flow, do they not ? And as I say without a mortal thought of praise of self but by the reality of the Infinite One Whom you say I AM, I say,
'Praise GOD from Whom all these blessings flow,
Praise HIM all creatures here below !'
It is written,
'In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.'
And when this has been awakened in you, you will automatically give thanks in the fulfillment of your infant prayer you prayed in the name of saying grace when you said,
'Lord, make us truly thankful, for the
Blessings we are about to receive, for
the nourishment of our bodies and for
the benefit of our souls !'
I have made you thankful in reality ; that is why you say automatically, " I thank YOU, FATHER !" Once upon a time you were not made thankful but when you are made thankful in reality, automatically you are thankful and you say, "Thank YOU," unthoughtfully, volitionally and at times unwillingly because you are made thankful.
Now, I have answered your childhood prayer as being termed the grace you said:
'Lord, make us truly thankful for the
Blessings we are about to receive, for
the nourishment of our bodies and for
the benefit of our souls ! Amen.'
Aren't you glad !
I have made millions and millions thankful, for this is the Will of GOD in CHRIST JESUS concerning you. You should give thanks for all of the blessings and I have caused you to be thankful volitionally.
Then I say, it is a privilege beyond measure and I AM thankful so that you might be thankful ; as a Wayshower to Salvation and as the Hope of the Redemption of all creation, I AM thankful MYSELF for the Blessings bestowed upon you.
One writer said,
'Behold what love the FATHER has bestowed upon us.'
He was speaking of this day in his Epistle-ic prediction of what you are now experiencing. He said,
'That we might be called the Sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is.'
And when all shall have imbibed the Spirit of Unity, Love and Tranquility, even if it comes through by the way of the Universal Brotherhood of man it will lead you on to victory until you get where I AM.
Oh, how glorious it is to observe this mystery ! Why live in lacks, wants and limitations ? Why live in confusion and in disturbances ? Why live in misery, affliction, sickness and diseases when GOD is your Adjuster of all matters and will adjust matters satisfactorily ? Why live in such condition if you love GOD wholeheartedly and know HE is your Savior ? And when they say ugly things they are in lacks and wants and limitations going around soliciting, borrowing, begging and stealing. They are in afflictions, sickness and diseases and you are living in splendor, in peace and joy and happiness, door you are living on earth in heaven !
Then when you praise GOD for the blessings you have received and the blessings you are now receiving and take cognizance of the Message and realize this is the Will of GOD in Christ Jesus concerning you: "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" then when you dom it, HE increases the Blessings.
I have often rehearsed and rehearse again,
'For your asking GOD will give and for your giving thanks GOD will increase that which HE has given, and for your giving praise GOD will multiply that which HE has given and increased and your Blessings will never cease so long as you give thanks and give praise for the blessings you have received.'
That is the way to multiply them; and just as you hear ME say,
' It is Wonderful! It is Wonderful! It is Wonderful!'
I make MYSELF thankful for your sake and I praise MY Holy Name for your sake that you might also praise GOD so that you might lift yourself out of the ruts and mirks and mires of human superstition and away from lacks, wants and limitations and adverse and undesirable conditions by giving praise and thanksgiving!
Oh, how glorious it is to live in this recognition ! The blessings for you are flowing freely. Then, I say, let this Mind be in you to give thanks and give vent to that little Inner Urge that will lead you and make you truly thankful according to your childhood request when you said your grace:
'Lord, make us truly thankful for the Blessings we are about to receive for the nourishment of our bodies and for the benefit of our souls !'
Now you can see I AM keeping soul and body together so long as you love ME, be true and faithful and obey ME!
You heard them say, "We have to do something to keep soul and body together." I will keep your souls and bodies so closely connected I will not be able to get one without getting the other.
When Elijah as a prophet of old, was true and faithful to his GOD and follower where HE led him and always obeyed HIM, when GOD called for Elijah's soul HE could not get his soul without getting his body, for HE kept the two so closely connected HE could not get one without getting the other ! Aren't you glad !
That is what I AM doing with you ! You are here tonight because your soul and your body are together. They are united now, henceforth and forever, for your body has been resurrected and you are walking in the newness of life ; therefore, your body will go when you go the most of the time.
The little leaven has leavened the whole lump in the fulfillment of the prediction of Jesus as the Perfect Prophet, Priest and King, One Who has never prophesied anything that could not and would not be fulfilled. He said,
'The little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.'
Your spirit, your soul and your body are unified together and I came to cause you to let there be no division among them. Aren't you glad ! And your body feels good ; the body feels good as well as your soul. Aren't you glad ! For I have joined them together to depart no more. But you must live in this recognition and do not allow the critics to sever you from this state of consciousness, for if it severs you from this state of consciousness it will sever you from the blessings in this state of consciousness we all are daily enjoying. That is the mystery !
Now it can be like this everywhere you go just the same. Know within yourself GOD is with you now, henceforth and forever, and even as one writer said,
'If I take the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the earth, thou art there !'
If GOD is there the same as here, matters not where you go, the same comfort and convenience will be there if you are faithful and if you are true ! That is what I AM talking about!
So, I was saying a little while ago, it is Wonderful ! Although this is a matter of course with ME, but I have made MYSELF Personally truly thankful ! And another point for you consideration in answer to your prayer in your infancy, I heard you say and millions of others in retiring at night:
'Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul will keep;
And if I should die before I wake,"....
(You know what it said) the LORD your soul has truly taken. (Aren't you glad!) your soul and your body together; and your soul and your body, HE keeps them together that they may not be severed.
Oh, what a privilege to live in such a recognition and such a conscious religious conviction of GOD's Actual Presence as your real protection and as your help in every need !
I need not say more, but I thought I would say these few Words to stir up your pure minds and to stress you with the Spirit of Thanksgiving, for this is the mystery of getting. I say, this is the mystery of getting. It comes through and by the way of Thanksgiving. It increases, I say, by thanks, and it is multiplied by giving praise. Therefore, if you ask, affirm, give thanks and give praise, for your asking GOD will give, and for your affirmation GOD will confirm, and for your giving thanks GOD will increase, and for your giving praise GOD will multiply.
Now your soul is satisfied ! I heard the reverend say tonight he was satisfied. Your soul is satisfied as never before. That is the way you know where you are.
How do you know where you are ? You know where you are by the satisfying of your body and your soul, for you could not be satisfied before.
What said the Scripture, yea, the Gospel concerning the mystery when one as a delegate representing humanity said,
'Show us the Father and it sufficeth us.'
Jesus said:
'Have I been so long time with thee, Philip, and thou hast not known me?
He that has seen me has seen the Father, and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father ?'
But Philip was not satisfied for he was not conscious of seeing the FATHER; but when and wheresoever it is fulfilled, there and then that satisfaction has come and you as the children of men will be satisfied as never before ! That is the way you know, because you know you are not seeking anything less than (Aren't you glad!), but more and more of HIM Who liveth forever and ever, and the One Who is with you now, Who will leave you, no, never. I thank you!
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