Father Divine’s message given at 1887-1889 Madison Avenue New York City on Monday afternoon June 3, 1940 at 3:15 p.m.
For centuries man has lived, bound by theories and doctrines and misconceptions, allowing his own mortal mind to lead him erroneously in the ignorance of misunderstanding, trying to live in the spiritual realm without even applying common sense and allowing his finite mind to tell him that the teaching of Jesus was not meant to be taken literally but figuratively and could be practiced at some future date in some mythological heaven; but not so. The time has come when we must live this life, “The wages of sin is not only sickness, but the wages of sin is death.”
When sickness and affliction come upon different individuals there are those who are prone to criticize and condemn FATHER DIVINE, not realizing they are condemning the Hope of their own Salvation. “If FATHER DIVINE is GOD, why does HE heal some and some HE does not heal?” This question along with many others that the intelligent ignorant ask in an effort to embarrass and bind others by their mortal versions, is forever answered by GOD HIMSELF in this glorious Message which followed the testimonies of two sisters who for some time had desired healings. In HIS Infinite Love, FATHER, GOD ALMIGHTY, opened the way for them and all who might be in the same condition to be lifted and freed forever.
BLESSED ALMIGHTY GOD,
WE THANK YOU!
(The foregoing statements are those of the transcriber, after which FATHER Speaks as follows:)
PEACE, EVERYONE: Good Health, Good Will, and a Good Appetite; Good Manners, Good Behavior and All Understanding; Life, Liberty and the reality of Happiness; these and all other Blessings I have actually established.
At this particular instance I would just like to say for the benefit of those who may be interested and for others who may hereafter be concerned, it is a privilege to realize common mother wit, common human sense as it may be termed, will teach you wisdom, knowledge and understanding whereby you may give ME in consideration, MY real emancipation. Unless you can free ME you cannot free yourself.
It is essential for you, every one of you, to have at least a little understanding. It is good to have at least a little human understanding. Human understanding will free you in consciousness concerning yourself and concerning others, but it is especially essential for you to free ME in consciousness and in consideration whereby you may have an outlet whensoever one tends to bind you.
It is well worth considering to know when and wheresoever one may lead you mentally and spiritually and try to shame you, in other words, try to handicap you or bind you under some version of condemnation, if you have understanding you can give ME as well as yourself MY real emancipation. Free ME from the versions of men, from their thoughts, ideas and opinions, especially when they try to condemn.
Accusing GOD of Partiality
“Why is it FATHER heals some and does not heal some others? If HE was GOD, HE would not do such a thing!” That is the assertion or consideration in their illustration with a thought to try to embarrass you and to create a doubt in you concerning HE in Whom you trust! The answer could be in consideration with insignificant intelligence, “Why is it your God does heal some and some HE does not heal? Why is it the God of all of the divers religions does not heal some people while He heals some others? Why is it some He does not even allow to get sick and some He allows to get sick and die? This should be your consideration to make the comparison concerning GOD your Creator and the suppositional creator of the suppositional creation of the world.
You imagine an imaginary God and you imagine an imaginary creation but the creation of realness which is the realization of those who understand the mystery is the real GOD of all creation Who created the earth and the heaven! Whilst the earth was void and without form it was invisible, of course; being invisible it was impractical, it was unprofitable, it was merely an imagination, but when it was brought into outer expression by dry land appearing, there and then, yea, even the Heaven was made a living reality because of the tangibilization of the earth being actually established.
There was no realness of the earth nor of the Heaven until the earth was made visible, tangible and practical and profitable for the creation connected with the earth creation; but when GOD made the earth visible, from the earth other things were in evidence and even man was formed out of the dust of the ground according to Biblical history. Then the visible things that are in evidence today, even GOD HIMSELF, through HIS Condescension, apparently came from the earth as well as the Heaven as far as the visible or visibility of HIMSELF is concerned!
The Word Made Flesh
GOD formed man out of the dust of the ground and from man, as it may be termed, through the generations GOD formed HIMSELF in the Name of Jesus the Christ, and the Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us ─ the Word being made Flesh when it was invisible, because it was impractical and unprofitable, being invisible unless there would have been some visible concept of something in evidence to express it.
Your physical bodies are the outward expression of some mental and spiritual conception. The earth as you see it visible and tangible, is the visible and outer expression of that mental and spiritual creation. GOD created the earth as practical and as profitable but it was impractical and unprofitable until it was made visible ─ the practicality and the visibility of the earth and the profitableness of it came forth into expression all together by the visibilization of the creation.
Then I say, if you get understanding concerning all things that concern you, you will eventually have understanding when critics come against you as against ME, to try to embarrass you by criticizing and condemning ME.
“Why is it FATHER does not do many things?” The thought should be in evidence as in your past experience; why was it, or why is it, GOD did not do it before HE knowingly had any Body? ─ before HE had any Body to your knowledge, I could have said. But through the Condescension of Love and Mercy CHRIST came visibilated, tangibilated, reincarnated, reproduced and personified, so that mankind and all conscious thinking creatures might realize there is a Reality in the True and Living GOD!
Can the God of the Critics Do Better Than FATHER?
Take these thoughts to consideration; hence when they come with any criticism whatever concerning your Life and your Liberty, of which I AM, tell them the same as I AM telling you now and tell them, what about the Gods of the rivers religions, even the God of theirs if He is a good One? And see if He can and will do better for them!
Oh, it is a privilege to realize the Truth concerning the mystery! Back to the first speaker in consideration, I stress in all simplicity and yet in sympathy for the temple and for the mentality of the individual and for others; it is written,
“If you love me keep my commandments.”
My Commandments are not grievous, but they will be grievous so long as you live in mortal consciousness and love others better than you do your FATHER!
I have declared and I re-declare the same,
“If ye live after the flesh ye shall surely die . . .”
not only get sick but you will die;
“. . . but if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body ye shall surely live!”
The wages of sin is not only sickness but the wages of sin is death!
I think you get off very easily! It is very easy when you only get a little sick and be a little sickly, for GOD is having Mercy and Compassion with sympathy for you!
These thoughts are well worth considering. Around ten years ago, according to your statement, in Sayville I told you there was something you had to get rid of. I need not go around trying to Personally interfere with family ties but I give you the Scripture since the Scripture is the guide for all of the religious people, and those of you who are intelligent, I need not Personally tell you.
Do What GOD Said Literally
To understand any part of the Scripture you must understand it literally firstly before you can understand it spiritually. You must be willing to take all parts of the Scripture from a literal point of view and endeavor to do what GOD said do literally, personally, yea, physically, before you can get the inspiration of the Spirit for the Spirit to tell you and give you the meaning of such Scriptures that may be mentioned. Can you not see the mystery?
Mortality that is trying to rob you out of Life, Liberty and the reality of Happiness, will give you all sorts of mortal interpretations and try to change GOD’S Word to satisfy its own purpose, as it is selfish; but the Scripture for the benefit of the people, all of you should take it literally and believe every word it says just as it reads, until you get an interpretation to give you the real interpretation, but you must fulfill the Scripture literally firstly or else you cannot count on getting the victory, because the Scripture to you is literal, as you are personal!
I need not say more. That which is good for one is good for the other, and that which is applicable to one, it is applicable to the other. Matters not how your religious, political, social or financial affiliations may be, that which is applicable to the most insignificant, it is applicable to you, and I require the same of all mankind if they are going to live on the face of the earth and inherit GOD’S Kingdom on earth prepared for you before the foundation of the world!
Symbolism of the Crown of Thorns
These are facts and figures, though they may be a little pointed. But Jesus wore the thorny Crown as an abstract expression in the interpretation of the mystery, how the thorns of thoughts would pierce Him in His Mind in opposition to His Own Understanding, but He was willing to wear that Crown! Now take on the yoke of CHRIST, your LORD and your Savior, and CHRIST will bear your burden for you. That is the mystery!
Live in this recognition, build upon this foundation, and if you say you love ME, at time it calls for a radical, fanatical fulfillment of your predictions from a literal and from a personal point of view until the mystery is actually revealed to you and you understand the interpretation of your prediction and of the Scripture; but it first must be fulfilled literally.
Oh, how glorious it is to live in such a recognition! For,
“MY Ways are Joy and Peace,
All MY Truths are Righteousness,
If MY Truth within you dwells,
All is well, all is well, all is well!”
I said by the Scripture and you must take it literally,
“Come unto me all ye that labor and are
heavy laden and I will give you rest.
“Take my yoke upon you and learn of
me, for I am meek and lowly in heart
and thou shalt find rest for thy soul!”
First Deny Yourself
Another pointed Scripture, yea, a Gospel Scripture as given by Jesus and recorded by the Apostle ─ it is very pointed:
“If you hear of any man inquiring after
me, tell him I said first deny himself!”
The same first as explained in that quotation but in another interpretation it says,
“First seek ye the kingdom of God and
his righteousness and all these things
shall be added unto you!”
So the first is the first but the interpretation may be different as the interpretation by others is given, the divers interpretations whichever; but it is just the same.
“First seek ye the kingdom of God and
his righteousness and all these things
shall be added unto you!”
“If you hear of any man inquiring after
me tell him I said first deny himself:
lay down the world and take up his cross
and come and follow me!”
If you do not know Who I AM I need not be in consideration as a Person. As far as I AM concerned Personally, it is immaterial to ME whether you consider ME; but if you will consider the Gospel of Jesus Christ as recorded in the four Gospels of the New Testament and believe it sincerely, if you are Christians you are required to do it. Even without ME Personally, take Jesus as the sample and the example and live exactly according to His Life and His Teaching; there and then you are living Evangelically but not until you take the Life of Jesus as exemplified before you.
Evangelical means the Life and Teaching of Christ Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels and as pointed out by the Epistle Gospel of the Apostles as written in the Epistles concerning the mystery. But especially stressfully consider that which is recorded as being the Words of Jesus. Take these Words literally and do them, whatsoever He said and how He lived and what He did, as a sample and as an example for those who would follow Him!
Jesus Understood Who His Real Mother Was
Oh, it is a privilege to observe the mystery! No doubt in the illustration in a Gospel quotation it was something as you are now experiencing and have experienced. When Jesus with others was assembled they came and said,
“Thy mother and thy brother want thee
out there.”
Jesus said,
“Who is my mother and who are my
brethren? They that do the will of my
Father, the same is my mother my
brother and my sister!”
Jesus ignored the good woman, as she may be termed by the Christian religions, and disrecognized her as being His Mother, for GOD had given Him something better, which was an understanding to know who was His real Mother!
Oh, how glorious it is to observe the mystery! In the quotation, in opposition to the mortal version by which MY critics have tried to persecute the church for, through and since the time of the beginning of Christianity, when one said, “I will follow thee but let me first go and bury my . . .” Jesus said, “Let the dead bury their dead but come and follow me!”
To get the understanding of the mystery spiritually you first must be in the Spirit to get it. You cannot touch spiritual things unless you get out of the flesh and get in the Spirit so you can get it by the Spirit, then the Spirit will give you the interpretation of it. But as long as you live in the flesh you have a right to obey the Words of GOD and HIS Commandment from a literal point of view until you get in the Spirit, and the Spirit when the Spirit of Truth has come, it will tell you what to do!
The Spirit Will Not Tell You Differently from Jesus
These are facts and figures too stout to be denied! “Let me first go and bury my brother!” I do not Personally tell any of you what to do. I stressfully tell you continually to be governed by your highest intuition; but if you have relaxed your conscious mentality and love GOD wholeheartedly the Spirit will tell you exactly what Jesus told you! The Spirit will not tell you different from what Jesus told you. If the Spirit tells you anything different from what Jesus said and what Jesus did, why, you may know that is not the true Spirit or that is not the Spirit! Can you not see the mystery? It may be the spirit of someone but it is not CHRIST’S Spirit, for His Spirit would not tell you something different from what He has told you and would not want you to act differently from what He acted and the way He did it.
Now these are facts and figures too stout to be denied, and what I AM saying, I AM saying it for the benefit of all who are concerned in races, creeds and colors, families and others with whom they have been mortal-mindedly connected; for such connections will not only bring you sickness and disease but they will bring you death and carry you to the grave, the way they all have gone! Now I mean it! I may be mean in the hearts and minds and in the consideration of many because I speak the Gospel as given by Jesus, but it is Life, it is Liberty and the only way for Happiness; the only way for Success and Prosperity for the people! Aren’t you glad!
The True and Faithful Will Fulfill the Prophecy
Take these thoughts to consideration. Some say that I say leave this one and leave the other one. Certain points that are required by the Scripture of which you should fulfill literally, I do not usually Personally tell you, for you would say I told you to do that and try to blame ME Personally; but automatically those who are true and faithful they will fulfill the prophecy, fulfill the Law and the Gospel as they are predicted, and they will fulfill it literally, yea, they will fulfill it literally, and none will be able to criticize them. If they criticize them they will strike up against Something!
I don’t blame a person for not wanting a bad name with their family or people, to say that their family is disgraceful or disrespectable, because that is the way it is with ME about MINE! I do not want MYSELF or MY Family to be disgraceful or disrespectable; I want all MY Supernatural Royal Family to be respectful and graceful in every way of expression instead of being disrespectable and disgraceful, and I would not want to have a name that I did not respect MY Family! I don’t blame you all for that; for wheresoever your treasures are, there is where your heart is! Your mind will be there and you will not be satisfied until you go there.
But oh, how glorious it is to know the Truth, and whatsoever the Gospel says in the four Gospels, as being recorded as that of the Words of Jesus, you must do it literally if you are going to live! You have to do it literally, whatsoever Jesus said. I AM not saying just now what Jesus said. There are other prophecies of this dispensation even in the prophecy of the prophets that are actually being fulfilled today, and they must be fulfilled from a literal point of view; whatsoever GOD said in any of HIS Prophecies, especially speaking of this dispensation, it must be fulfilled literally from a personal and from a material point of view even if I do not Personally tell you to do so! I thank you!