MOTHER DIVINE and Some of Her Staff at the Bible Institute
(Song just before FATHER arose to speak.)
FATHER, we appreciate YOU,
FATHER, we appreciate YOU;
We love and adore YOU.
We'll have no one before YOU; We are abundantly blessed!
FATHER DIVINE speaks as follows:
PEACE, EVERYONE: That little inspiration as a composition and yet a declaration, for the future a prediction, is well worth considering. Aren't you glad! You realize you are abundantly blessed and your blessings are increased and multiplied according to your conviction and according to your declaration concerning your blessings.
When you sing and make such a declaration and make such a prediction and observe it as a prediction by affirmation and a declaration, and a declaration as an affirmation, as a prediction for the future it is well worth considering, realizing, as you think and as you believe, so it is. For it is written,
"As a man believeth (or thinketh) in his heart, so is he"; and "According to your faith, so be it unto thee!
Reverse Your Gears of Thinking
It is a blessing to think in the positive instead of the negative. It is a blessing to make your declaration in the positive instead of the negative. You hear some say at times, "I declare this, that or the other," but they make such declarations in the negative and they stress it and stress them, but rarely stress- the positive as they do the negative. "I declare ...," and some will even say, "I swear that thus and so," in the negative it is true. But oh, how glorious it is to reverse your gears of thinking and be able to direct such an expression in the Positive — such an expression in the Truth, in the Good instead of the evil — and make your declaration known of something that is good in the Good; of something that is positive in the Positive, and give thanks for it ; and
"According to your faith, so be it unto thee," for "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he!"
I thought a little while ago in reference to MY often rehearsed statement concerning the mystery of the limitless and infinite Blessings as depicted in that composition of an enumerational assertion and declaration of the Blessings; and I thought, oh, how glorious it is to realize, as you think and as you declare, so it is; for your thoughts in the positive are as operative in the real as they are in the unreal and untrue!
You have made your way through misery, through disappointment and failure by letting your thoughts go forth in the negative, the untrue and unreal, and by declaring them; but the reversal of the gears of thinking comes through and by your great Conversion.
Changed Internally
A conversion means a change around—a turn around — and as you are converted and reversed in the reversed gears of expression — I mean, of the expression of life, you are directed in a different direction from the way you had been directed. Therefore, you will think and speak according to the way you are now directed since you have been truly converted. Can you not see the mystery? Then the conversion of the heart and of the mind, it actually turns the whole body around as the bits in horses' mouths turn their whole bodies about .
Just think of the mystery of being converted; conversion by being changed around internally mentally and spiritually; you are changed automatically physically and you go in a different direction because you are a New Creature.
Then in giving thanks, as I said, give thanks for the blessings you have received, and if you love others as you love yourself you will also give thanks for these; you will not only give thanks for yourself as a person; for you have transcended the barriers of personality and you seek no longer the pleasure of individuality and you transcend the plane of the psychic.
You Give Thanks for Everybody
You forge through superstition directly to GOD! You take on GOD'S Nature and Characteristics and you think and act accordingly. Therefore, GOD being absolutely Impersonal by Nature, you are partakers of GOD'S Nature and Characteristics. You give thanks and praise for everybody! Aren't you glad! And as I say, when you praise GOD from Whom all blessings flow and for all blessings that have flowed, or all blessings that are flowing from HIM, why, there and then your blessings of multiplication begin (Aren't you glad!); for giving thanks is a great mystery and it is the secret of increasing your blessings. For by your asking, GOD has actually given and by your giving thanks, GOD has increased them. By your giving praise, GOD has multiplied them!
Hence, for your affirmation, GOD will confirm them. For your affirmations GOD will confirm them, and for your giving thanks, after making your affirmation, even before it is in outer expression as a declaration, GOD will increase your blessings! Aren't you glad! And for your giving praise for that which you have affirmed and GOD has confirmed, for that which you have given thanks and GOD has increased, for that which you have given praise and GOD has multiplied, those blessings are increased and multiplied continually, for praise is the multiplicant of the blessings you have declared you have. They are increased and they are multiplied. By consciously making such a declaration of thanksgiving and praises they are brought into outer expression; for they are materialized, and brought into the recognition, for they are realized.
This is no longer a supposition, it is a known fact that GOD is with you. The critics and the statesmen and citizens of our nation — officials and laities alike — the great and the small, the high and the low, the rich and the poor, they, know GOD is right here with you! Through your declaration I have materialized, through carrying your declaration through the process of materialization, your declaration has brought millions into the recognition of that which you have been declaring.
GOD Is Present
GOD is actually Present with Infinite Blessings, for even in your infancy in Christianity you declared,
"Ten thousand blessings in HIS Hands to satisfy the poor."
But you realized in your advanced class of spiritual understanding, GOD'S Blessings that are in HIS Hands and that are with HIM are Infinite; therefore, you cannot enumerate them by the system of mathematics, nor by the tables of mathematics can you count them.
Oh, how glorious it is to live in the actual Presence of GOD! But as much as you can give praise for and can consciously think into consideration GOD can bring into materialization, for GOD can and will materialize them. When they are brought into materialization and into outer expression and especially when GOD personifies them, they are realized and no longer surmised, for the personification is the realization of that which has been personified.
The realization comes with the personification and the recognition stands thereby, for that which was merely surmised as a supposition has become to be a recognition and a realization. You can realize things that you once merely surmised in your suppositional version. Aren't you glad!
Then for your giving thanks GOD will increase your blessings even more than you can imagine! But for your asking, GOD has already given, and for your giving praise GOD will multiply them and pour them out into outer expression and into materialization and into observation to that place in consciousness where you will not have room to receive them!
You cannot count the blessings, but you can do the best you can. In the act of giving thanks and praise for them you are increasing and multiplying them, for I have declared,
"Praise is the multiplicant of the blessings GOD has given!"
Live in this recognition; build upon this Foundation. I will confirm your affirmation. Every affirmation that is a positive one; I will confirm it, for it is confirmed. And for every thanks you give for blessings, I will increase them, and when you begin praising GOD for them I will multiply them.
Just look over the vast audience here and all over this wide extended plane, where in the fulfilment of an often rehearsed composition in Christendom
"All over this wide extended plane
Shines one Eternal Day,
Where GOD the Son forever Reigns
And scatters night away!"
The darkness of misunderstanding, of superstition, and the fogs of doubts and fears, I have scattered from thee. GOD the Son forever reigns in Light, in Love and Majesty, in Wisdom and in Knowledge and Understanding, lighting up the dark misunderstanding of all humanity. And it matters not if you did not or do not understand it, the Spirit of MY Presence will light up your understanding.
Light where There Was No Light
Therefore, all over this wide extended plane shines one Eternal Day, where GOD HIMSELF now shall forever reign and scatter misunderstanding away.
When in darkness you groped until now — when the whole world was lost in the darkness of sin, I heard one say by inspiration and by composition,
"The Light of the world is Jesus!"
I came to light up the dark pathway, and not only the dark pathway but all of the deep. And the deepest light of human understanding, it is dark in humanity in making the comparison; but when GOD moves out upon the face of the deep and says, "Let there be light," light will be! As it was, so it is and so will it be throughout eternity!
I speak into existence a light where there is no light; understanding where there is no understanding; and all humanity eventually shall understand it; for the Light of MY Presence, which is the Life of men that lighteth every man that cometh into the world, I will light up the dark pathway and this whole extended plane with the Light of this Understanding that I have given to you all.
What said the Scripture prediction of this mystery?
"And they all shall know ME from the least to the greatest!"
Then the Truth I AM making a re-declaration of, for it shall be fulfilled all over this world.
"All over this wide extended plane Shall shine one Eternal Day,"
was the inspiration to them I gave; but now I AM fulfilling that inspirationic prediction. I can say;
"All over this wide extended plane
Now shines one Eternal Day,
Where GOD Himself forever reigns
And scatters night away!"
Setting the Prisoner Free
Give thanks and give praise! Thanks and praise will unlock every barred and shut door; will set every prisoner free; for you know what it has done for thee! Aren't you glad! Thanksgiving and Praise unlocked the prison door for Silas and Paul in jail! Praise has unlocked every barred and shut door whensoever praise has been prayed; I say whensoever praise has been prayed!
Even when you think you are praying in your Christian infancy, you do not touch the Throne of Grace, as it may be termed, until you begin to give thanks to HIM and praise GOD for the blessings you have received . Can you not see the mystery?
Retrace your thoughts back to your Christian infancy and you will see and know definitely — not only your Christian infancy but the Christian infancy of others when they prayed, their praises were their prayers that were heard and answered — not that which is commonly considered as prayer, but the praise was the prayer!
Retrace your thoughts back to each and everybody from your earliest existence, and when they would get down on their knees even in the church and by the bedside and pray, they did not get happy until they began to give thanks and praises to GOD! That is what I AM talking about. The happiness did not come, neither do any of your blessings come through beseechings and groveling attitude towards GOD, but your blessings come through thanksgiving and praise; and when you touch that Channel of the Spirit your prayers are heard and answered, for your prayers are praise that will approach the Throne of Grace! Can you not see the mystery?
For I said:
"Serve the LORD with Gladness and enter HIS Presence with Thanksgiving and in HIS Courts with praise!"
Can you not see the mystery?
Whensoever you did get a little sip or a little taste of this Unmingled Love, it came through thanksgiving and praise to God but not through begging and beseeching with groveling attitude, but through thanksgiving and praise to GOD for the blessings you know of HIM. Aren't you glad!
Unlocking Barred Doors
Thanksgiving and praise will unlock every barred and shut door. I AM purging your prayers now! it is written:
"I shall purify the Sons of Levi and purge them as silver and as gold, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness as in former years and as in the days of old."
I AM purging your thoughts and your ideas and your opinions. I AM purging the mentality of all Christian humanity. Aren't you glad! I AM purging them and regulating them. I AM taking out the dross of sin, superstition, doubts and fears and lighting up that understanding — that which was misunderstanding — and causing you to have an understanding into this Light, or in this Truth, whereby you may know the way you should go. If you know the way you should go you will be able to see the way you should go.
Understanding is seeing. You speak to a person — a good many of you speak to people daily and you say, "I see you," or "I see," whichever. When you understand you say, "I see!" That is the Light I AM giving to the conscious mentality of all humanity as I lift up a Standard for all living creatures that they might walk in the Light I have given!
Then I say, it is a privilege to give thanks for the blessings you have been making affirmation of having, and give praise for the infinite Blessings I AM making the declaration of giving! They will be increased and multiplied and they will be materialized if necessary and worth while. So from the invisible I will bring them into outer expression and into materialization so that conscious thinking people and all humanity might see them. Aren't you glad!
By this, when you are conscious in thinking and have been truly converted and if you are New Creatures, you will be able to see them; and this is it of which Jesus was speaking when He said to Nicodemus:
"Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of heaven."
You will be able to see this Joy, this Peace and this Happiness in the Holy Ghost as exemplified among you; the Kingdom of GOD, yea the Kingdom of Heaven that was spoken of by John when he declared,
"The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!"
I thank you!