The Influence of Heredity — FATHER DIVINE

Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it — Bible

The 126th Street Extension

The 126th Street Extension.

 

FATHER DIVINES Message at the Banquet Table 152-160 West 126th Street, New York City
Tuesday Evening and Wednesday Morning, June 21-22, 1938 A. D. F. D., Time: 12:55 A. M.

The evening Banquet was in progress on this 21st day of June, 1938 when FATHER had a Message HE had previously given, proofread for publication.  The over-all theme of this Message was on heredity and environment.  Rising at 12:55 A. M., FATHER continued speaking on the same subject as follows:

 

Peace, Everyone!  Good health, Good will, a Good appetite with Good manners, Good behavior, all success and all prosperity, all wisdom, all knowledge and all understanding, to you I bring this morning.

How glorious it is to realize, that which has been spoken into consideration can become to be a living reality if you will but consider it.  That which you dwell upon, that on which you think vividly, you tend to produce it and bring it into actuality by your conscious thinking in that direction.

While in this Message just read, we bear record of the spirit of heredity, how the spirit of environment was considered in it; yet the spirit of heredity and environment, they are unified together as one man at Jerusalem.  In speaking of the boy who was born as being termed a Jewish boy, and one as being termed a Catholic boy, this thought was well worth considering, and I appreciate the speaker who gave the message for giving it, for it is a a true saying, "You do not know who you are."

I have often said you do not know who you are.  You know not from whence you came.  You do not know where you are going.

These two boys, neither of them knew who they were.  They were merely going by what had been said concerning them; so it is a true saying; by this I AM verifying the same:

"You know not what manner of spirit you are of."

Men live in the darkness of misunderstanding — many of them super-intelligent, humanly speaking, yet they are groping in the darkness of misunderstanding and ignorance for the lack of honesty in those with whom they have come in contact, for it is merely a matter of saying, "You do not know who you are."  You can say to others, "I do not know who I am."  You cannot tell who you are.

 

A Reality in not Knowing Who You Are

Through your supposition you may speak positive words as though you know, but when you stop to consider the past experience of millions, you will see definitely there is a reality in not knowing who you are.

I recall I read in a paper about twenty years ago, where there was a man  who had married for about sixteen or seventeen years, and he,  as he had supposed himself to be, he was allegedly the father of about eight children, I think there were.  He had never been a father so far as they were concerned, and his wife had never been a physical mother.  This was apparently a scene or an experience that would have seemed impossible, but according to the records as given by the press, this man did not know that those children were not his children.  This man did not know his wife  had never been a mother, but yet he was living with her.

Then I say, there is nothing impossible with whomsoever they may be, if they or he sincerely believes.  This woman believed in something so vividly that she actually "pulled the wool over his eyes."  Just before the birth of every next born child, of course she would go away and she would come back with the child, so the press stated.  It goes to show you very plainly, you know not from whence you came, and you do not know where you are going.  Then I say, you do not know where you were born.  You do not know who are your parents.  They may be known as though they are your sisters  and brethren, but you do not know who they are definitely, for you cannot remember.

FATHER DIVINE

FATHER DIVINE

Then I say, truly might have Jesus said,

"We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen, and yet ye receive not our witness."


It is a common phrase quite often used in America, "Speak that you know, and testify that you have seen."   It is requested in our courts of law, to speak that which you know!  Tell the truth and nothing but the truth!  Whatsoever you may have to say concerning the matter, you are to tell the truth  and nothing else but the truth.  If you do, you do not know whether you are that which is termed a Jew or an Irishman.  You do not know definitely.  You are going by what others have told you, and going by what they tell you.

 

Influence of Heredity

Then I say, it is a privilege to live in the Actual Presence of GOD where the very Spirit of Truth can and will teach you, and will by aspiration and by inspiration, lead you and guide you in the way you should go, and will lift you up in the light of understanding with such information by inspiration until you can make your declaration known of that which you sincerely believe.  It is enough to be verified by the children of men more distinctly by that which the Spirit has revealed than that which has been told you by them.

How glorious it is to live in such a recognition.  Then I say, environment and heredity, in other words, heredity may be as expressive one with the other as the other, for that which you harmonize with, you will become to be a partaker of it; hence, if you live in an environment and continue to live in it, if it is good or if it is evil, your very conscious mentality will be influenced by such an environment and you will become to be a partaker of it hereditarily, and eventually you will express it in all of your deeds and in all of your actions.

Truly might have wisdom said — I mean wisdom in the name of Solomon:

"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."


You may train your children in the way they should not go, for by creeds, denominations and partisanism, you  are training your children now and the ones who will come hereafter.  So long as you live in such a state of consciousness, one will say, "I am a republican," and the other may say, "I have always been a democrat."  Why? "Well my father was a democrat and my mother was a democrat, and I must be a democrat."

These thoughts are common among the different individuals by such indulgence, for the lack of human intelligence.  Those who live in mortal consciousness they think they are intelligent at times, but having been "letterly" learned, they are as ignorant and more ignorant at times than those who have not a letter yet learned.

Kept in Superstition by Organizations and Creeds

Why is it you must be bound and shaped up in one special party, according to partisanism? Why is it you should be bound by some special organization or creed, according to sectarianism?  The different systems will keep you in the ruts and mirks and mires of human superstition, and such will also keep you in subjection to the infirmities of those with whom you have been connected.  Their infirmities and their iniquities and transgression will be upon you, for they are the identification by which you can be identified as being the descendants of such individuals, whether they be wicked or righteous.  What said the Scripture concerning the mystery?

"I am the LORD Thy God, which have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."
". . . for I the LORD thy GOD am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;"
"And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments."

So long as you express the characteristics, the disposition, the spirit and the mind of your ancestors, and you as the descendants continue to represent them, their infirmities will be upon you, even from a psychological point of view.  Your very infirmities with which you are afflicted, can and will be at times the transmission of those from whom you inherited them.  You inherit such conditions by their dispositions, by their characteristics, by their ways and by their actions; even the mannerisms of different individuals will carry in itself by expression the very characteristics and the nature of such person's contagions.  Their contagions are transmitted and you are partakers of them if you will allow yourselves to live in such a recognition.   Vise versa will be the expression of the change of your minds by this great  conversion.

 

Express Physical Newness

When you are converted into a new and living way, when you become to be new characteristically, when you become to be new dispositionally, you will become to be a new creature characteristically, and you will express it physically; therefore, your infirmities that have been upon you will no longer have a hold upon you, neither will the iniquities and the transgressions of your ancestors be able to find you, neither will they be imposed upon you.  If they find you, they will not be able to identify you, for what said the scriptures concerning this mystery?

"I beseech you therefore, brethren,  by the mercies of GOD, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto GOD, which is your reasonable service.
"And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind . . ."

When you present your  bodies as living sacrifices, and be not conformed to the world, automatically you are transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then I say, heredity is a reality when you allow it to be expressed in you, and "hereditivity" is an expression that comes throughby environment . . . comes throughby association.  If you continue to associate with different individuals, their characteristics and dispositions you learn and become to be  partakers of them.  Then I say, it is a privilege, dear ones, to be in the Presence of the living GOD.

By environment and association you are becoming to be partakers of GOD'S Nature and of GOD'S Characteristics, for

"Evil communications corrupt good morals; ill qualities are catching as well as diseases; and a man is known by the company he keeps."


If the negative is true, and has been made real in you, how about the positive since it is more expressive, as the positive has GOD with it, as the positive is all power?

 

Consider Positive  from Every Angle

Permit Me to bring to the surface and into your consideration the positive from every angle expressible that you may become to be producers of the positive instead of the negative.  When this shall have been once established in you, you will have victory over your former fancies and your former pleasures.  For what purpose would you stress it as being significant to have victory over your former tendencies, your former fancies and your former pleasures?  The significance is to have victory over your afflictions, your sickness and your diseases.

Your former characteristics, dispositions, tendencies and pleasures are the identification for your infirmities, for your transgressions and for the afflictions that follow the transgression of the wicked.  If you could and would but change your manner of thinking completely, you would automatically be a new creature, according to Christendom.

How glorious it is to become to be new creatures.  Your are new creatures characteristically by putting off the old man and putting on the new.  Then I say, your infirmities and the infirmities of your ancestors and even their iniquities will not be able to visit you if you put off your former disposition and your former characteristics and your former mannerisms and all of your former expressions, and lose your identity by getting away from your ancestors' characteristics and dispositions, and become to be new creatures.

"You do not know who you are!"   You know it is a true saying.  The majority of your so-called mothers and fathers would not tell the truth.  You know they would not tell the truth, especially concerning birth and the forerunner of birth; you know they would not!

 

Re-created in Land of Living

Jot these thoughts down in your vocabularies and let us become to be new creatures, for I AM recreating you in the land of the living that you might think altogether differently from the way you have been thinking, that you might be new creatures.  Aren't you glad?

It is good to be new creatures, for you have been cursed  with the curse by your ancestors' iniquities and their infirmities.  The very contagious diseases and afflictions which they were under, you have been made subject to them unwillingly.  Those conditions you have been made subject to unwillingly, but when you are transformed by the renewing of your mind, you are a new creature; therefore, those infirmities and the iniquities of your ancestors will not be able to impose themselves upon you.

It matters not whether your mother and father had the T. B. or not — what do I care about that?  When I change your manner of thinking and cause you to think altogether differently, automatically you are new creatures.  Their infirmities and iniquities cannot find you.  If they find you, they will not be able to identify you.

Live in this recognition.  From all undesirable conditions I will lift you and you will have victory once and forever; you will not have an occasion to seek for another.  That is the mystery.  How glorious it is, I say, to live in the Actual Presence of GOD where GOD HIMSELF forever reigns and scatters the night of misunderstanding away, for all of the darkness of the gloom of the night of misunderstanding is turned into bright noon day.  Aren't you glad?

Just get in that place where the healing waters flow and where the aspirations of the Inspirer flow and where the aspirations of the Inspirer and the Inspirator come.  The very Spirit of GOD'S Presence will bring them into expression as you bring your bodies into subjection to the Fundamental.  When you live in this recognition, dear ones, you feel differently, you think differently and you are a new creature.  Each and every one of you are new creatures in reality; by taking on the CHRIST Characteristics, you lose your identity completely from all of your infirmities and you walk in the land of the living as new creatures once and forever.  I thank you.

Peace, Everyone!  I did not mean to say so much in words as I have said, as I feel it should be MY consideration:

"A wise head is made by a still tongue."


When we cease to talk and do as we have been doing, our heads will be wise, but our tongues will be still.   Permit ME to speak when I can speak something that is uplifting as an aspiration to this people; in other words, as an inspiration to this people, that you might be quickened into the light of what I AM stressing and get more information concerning yourself and others.   This is the real intelligence of which we are stressing.

 

Secrets of God are Being Revealed to Men

So far as I AM concerned as an Individual, Bibles and hymn books and text books and song books and all of those things are closed; but the more accurately and perfectly they are closed, so far as I AM concerned the more great  will the inspirations be and the aspirations to speak of GOD, and to teach that of which has not been revealed to the children of men, for GOD teaches wisdom — things that are not yet revealed to them.  For the things that are hid as secrets belong to the Lord, but the things that are revealed belong to the children of men.  But GOD is daily, by aspirations and by inspirations, giving to the children of men those things that had been hidden from them — those things that were only GOD'S and GOD'S alone — for they were in the invisible so far as man was concerned, or so far as man is concerned they were in the invisible until GOD revealed them; therefore, when GOD revealed them, they are no longer merely GOD'S alone, but those things belong to the children of men.

Discoveries and inventions, many things that have been hid throughout the ages and since the beginning of time, those things belong to GOD until they are revealed to the children of men.  That is the way GOD will give those things to them.  That is the mystery.  Then I say, it is a privilege to be where GOD can and will give HIS secrets and HIS mysteries to HIS servants, those who are true and faithful and especially to the underprivileged, the insignificant and the illiterate.  GOD inspires them with things that were HIS, even until this day, for what said Jesus concerning this mystery and concerning many mysteries, comparatively:

"I thank thee Father, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent, and revealed them to babes and sucklings."

The more insignificant you can be intellectually or grammatically, you might say, the more expressive you may be inspirationally, and more expressive you may be aspirationally, and GOD will, through these aspirations, lift you and give you your real emancipation if you will but let HIM.

 

Be Mindful of Entertaining Strangers

Now I would like to say, there are visiting friends in our midst; we are always pleased to have them with us, as by inspiration it was given:

"Be mindful how you entertain strangers, whereby some have entertained angels unaware."


It is our privilege and our pleasure to reiterate such a quotation and stop and consider it ourselves, especially ourselves as individuals and for the consideration of others who will come after us.   Be mindful how we entertain strangers whereby some have entertained angels unaware. For this cause I AM refraining from speaking, and requesting the honor of any of our visiting friends who might wish to speak, sing or whatever you may be inspired to do, you may speak volitionally if you wish to; if you do not care to move from that angle of expression according to custom, we will introduce you if you desire us to. I thank you.



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