FATHER DIVINE
Lest we allow circumstances and oppositions to side-track us and cause our minds to stray away from the Fundamental in Whom is perfect Peace, our Loving Savior, FATHER DIVINE, delivered a beautiful Message at the morning banquet, illustrating how praises and Thanksgiving will unlock every barred and shut door, for they are the Key to Heaven and all it contains.
If we can but learn to ignore the spirit of selfishness and self-exaltation when it manifests itself, it cannot enter our consideration to disturb us, and eventually it will disappear into its own unreality, and leave us serene in that lofty state of consciousness at Home with our FATHER.
Dearest Savior, we thank YOU for this beautiful Message of Inspiration!
(The foregoing statements are those of the transcriber, and FATHER'S Lecture follows:)
PEACE EVERYONE! That was just a little thought I reproduced in the expression of reiteration of that which has quite often been sung, but in a little different tune, and also just before the last speaker, in reference to praising My Name -- if each and everyone of you, not only those of you here under the sound of My Voice as persons and personally observing and hearing ME speak from a Personal point of view, but all living creatures universally, could and would but take cognizance of this Message:
'If you want Joy, Peace and Happiness, just keep on praising My Holy Name.'
This thought should be considered; it should be stamped in your memory; for praising
will unlock every barred and shut door; all adverse and undesirable conditions
will be eradicated and dispelled once and forever, to come no more.
It has quite often been said by those of Christendom:
'Prayer is the Key to Heaven, but Faith unlocks the door.'
The transposed version and the real interpretation of prayer is Praise! Praise
will unlock any barred and shut door. If you read back in Bible times when those
who were bound in prison, even to the prophet who was let down in the dungeon
-- it was a matter of impossibility for him to be delivered or emancipated from
such a condition, saving by giving Praise and Thanksgiving.
As they praised GOD for the limitless blessings bestowed upon them, and gave thanks at the remembrance of His Holiness, the mystery of that which seemed to be prayer, it comes out in Praising and Thanksgiving. Therefore, I say, "If you want Joy, Peace and Happiness, just keep on praising My Holy Name."
I often think of the devoutness and the sincerity of a few -- a good many -- of My Followers; how trials and tribulations, though it may be snowing, raining or storming otherwise on the outside, they are in these different auditoriums, dining rooms and assemblies, giving thanks and giving praise at the remembrance of the One Whom you love so well!
Then I say, Praise will unlock every barred and shut door! If you give Praise continually and doubt, no, never, lo! I will be with you throughout all eternity -- I will be with you now, henceforth and forever!
Praise will keep your hearts filled with Joy! It creates energy within your mentality. It causes you to have power mentally and spiritually to overcome every difficulty and every trial and every tribulation, if you will give Praise and Thanksgiving at the remembrance of what GOD is doing for you.
How glorious it is to observe the mystery! This has stressed quite vividly upon My own consideration how marvelous it is when you are lost in Thanksgiving, when you are lost in Praise! Trials and tribulations may come or go, they matter naught to you when you are engrossed in Thanksgiving and Praise continually, and keep your mind sincerely and conscientiously stayed upon ME!
'Just keep on praising My Holy Name.'
Matters not what the oppositions may be, as I said, when it is storming on the
outside, of rain, of snow and of hail -- those things that are commonly known
as storms from cosmic forces of nature as a sketch and a reflection of the mental
conflicts you have in opposition to the Fundamental -- when those rise without
you having not been altogether within, if you are substantiated in faith and
unshaken in confidence and continue to give Praise and Thanksgiving, you will
have Victory over all of the storms of your trials and tribulations, matters
not from whence they come. Then I say,
'Just keep on praising My Holy Name.'
Every adverse and undesirable condition will be dispelled, although the mortal mind and those who are in opposition will try to attract you prayerful attention in a different direction. But if you are concentrated on the Fundamental whole-heartedly and continually praise GOD for the blessings bestowed upon you, you will have Victory and will overcome, for naught can enter the Praises of Salvation when you are surrendered by Thanksgiving and Praise.
Truly might have David said:
'Serve the Lord with gladness; enter His Presence with singing and into His gates with praise.'
You can see the mystery of the success of a good many people, when they are filled
with enthusiasm and are conscientious in all of their endeavors and will give
praise to GOD and thanks whole-heartedly.
You will overcome every difficulty, overcome all trials and overcome all tribulations. Even if you pass through them, you will not remember them. They will not reach you, for you will have victory over and above them -- the adverse condition of those conditions that have risen in opposition. That is the mystery.
Then I say, you need not fret nor worry. If you are filled with enthusiasm, Thanksgiving and praise, the Spirit of My Presence gives Victory. Even if you have to pass through those seeming tribulations, you will not feel the effect of them.
'When thou passeth through the water, yea, the waters, though they be many, they shall not overcome you. When thou passeth through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon you.'
Then I say, all you must needs do is to be substantiated in faith and unshaken
in confidence, and give Praise and Thanksgiving continually and I will be with
you with victory over each and every difficulty.
These words may not sound so appealing, but it is a Message to you. Truly might I have declared through the mouth of the Apostle:
'There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: GOD will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but with the great temptation He will make a way of escape that ye might be able to bear it.'
It matters not what sort of a temptation may overtake you, it is common to man,
and even those tendencies and trials and tribulations, and things that are in
opposition that would overcome humanity generally, the Spirit of My Presence,
if you are conscious of it and be substantiated in faith and unshaken in confidence,
will give you victory to overcome all things that can and will, and those things
that actually do, overcome mankind.
You will overcome all of those conditions, circumstances and all evidences and each and every consequence and the consequences that may result in opposition to you on account of your faith or any other rightful effort you or others may make. My Spirit will give you victory to overcome all of them, if you will recognize My Presence and keep on praising My Holy Name!
'If you want Life, Health and Liberty, just keep on praising My Holy Name.'
Do not stop to condemn! Do not stop to pay any attention to oppositions! Praises
will give you victory over every opposition, and will give you Success and Prosperity
where there was nothing but misery, where there was nothing but failure.
It matters not how the oppositions may be, it matters not how severe or how great they may apparently be, if you are substantiated in faith and unshaken in confidence in ME, GOD in you will give you the Victory! Even though all other individuals and all humanity generally would be a failure under such oppositions, My Spirit will give you the Victory, for GOD is Victorious!
The Spirit of GOD transmitted, as GOD is Victorious, will give you the Victory. The Spirit and the Nature of GOD transmitted will cause you to express victoriously and cause you to ride prosperously through the land, giving you Victory over all mankind.
GOD would not be Supreme, if HE could not express His Supremacy within you. His Supremacy transmitted and reincarnated within you, when you are the expressers and the expressions of GOD'S and Nature, you will express the Spirit of Supremacy, which means that which is Superior to all oppositions -- everything imaginable -- therefore,
'GOD in one man is the majority.'
If you need a number to count closely to outnumber another, GOD in the one individual,
whether man or woman, is the majority. That is the mystery. Therefore, GOD is
the Over-balancer over each and everything. Hence, those conditions and circumstances
that may rise from time to time, if GOD is on your side, GOD will overbalance
them all. >
Just as GOD'S Love shall outlast them all, just as GOD'S Love is more great than all, just as GOD'S Spirit and GOD'S Mind and GOD'S Unselfishness -- all of these qualities or attributes of GOD, they are all Superior, they all are expressing the perfection of Perfection, of the PERFECT whichever; therefore, those of you who are partakers of them, you will have victory and will surpass all oppositions, if you recognize GOD'S actual Presence continually.
Then I say,
'If you want Joy, Peace and Happiness, just keep on praising My Holy Name.'
When you stop Praising My Holy Name and use your mentality for the slightest
thought for doubt, for fears, for condemnation, especially of the Fundamental,
for the thought of trying to correct or exact the Fundamental, you are working
detrimentally to yourself and to your advancement, and it will prohibit you eventually
from going on the Perfection. But when you leave everything to My Spirit and
keep on Praising My Holy Name, you will have victory over every difficulty, over
every trial and over every tribulation, and you will not have an occasion to
fret nor worry -- that is, if you love ME whole-heartedly.
Now remember, Praise is not confined nor bound to words alone, but praise GOD in actions and in deeds in the fulfillment of the Scripture, if you please, and you will have victory; for there and then you are truly praising ME.
Self-denial is the great essential! That is the first step to get you away from self; for if you desire to be seen and heard, if you are not willing and ready to hide yourself and your version, your ideas and your opinions, completely in the Infinite, and allow GOD to speak within you and in others without your consideration, you are not really serving GOD nor praising GOD whole-heartedly.
If you desire to be seen or heard, it is evidently known you are not giving GOD all the praise; for that which you would say, if you are of ME, if you are not forced by My Spirit and can prove it by the reaction of the Spirit within you or others, you can refrain from speaking and My Spirit will speak in others and you will enjoy and will get as much glory and more than if you try to let My Spirit speak in you especially.
I delight in speaking in others! If you are of ME, you would rather whosoever it is that I can speak in most distinctly, most appealing, most convincing, most advancing, most instructive, I would be privileged to speak in that individual or those, with My greatest pleasure, with My most great and highest appreciation, to hear ME speak in individuals through whom I can speak volitionally and willingly and bring out something more distinctly than I can, more perfect. If you can, if you please, bring it forth and I will hear thee.
But how glorious it would be if you would allow ME to speak and listen to My Voice! When you are still yourselves as individuals, My Spirit can and will speak and when it speaks other than within you, it is most expressive, it is most convincing. I say, it is most expressive, it is most convincing and it is unadulterated, even though it was transmitted through you firstly.
Let My Spirit intuitively and transmittingly convey it and transmit it to others, that I might speak through them volitionally. Build upon this foundation and keep on praising My Holy Name, and when oppositions rise, when anything rises repulsive, antagonistic and conflicting, you do not have to even so much as allow such things to enter your mentality, much less than enter your system, for it first enters the mentality before it can affect your body.
After it has entered your mentality through conflict, or through indulgence or through toleration, why, the reaction of such a condition will result in your system; but firstly in your mentality, if you please. Many times I hear the different individuals, they talk and they talk and they sing and they sing and they say and they do many things that are self-exalted and for a selfish purpose, for honor and self-praise. I hear them and I do not hear them; do not pay any attention to them.
Selfishness and mortality will wane and will disappear of its own unreality and own abnormal weight, if you will not tolerate it but ignore it completely and not allow it to enter your consideration, but keep on praising My Holy Name! When oppositions rise, My Name and My Spirit and My Presence and My Activities, My Work, My Mission and all I AM doing among this people and among others, can and will give you a-plenty to praise ME for! I thank you.
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