Office Talk Given by FATHER DIVINE to Some of HIS StaffWhile in His Private Office, Circle Mission Church of Philadelphia,764-772 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA.Monday June 4 1945 A.D.F.D. 2:15 P.M.For Thy Words of Salvation to the Children of Men, Almighty GOD, We Humbly Thank Thee!
( The foregoing statements are those of the transcriber, and the following is the Office Talk, with FATHER speaking firstly as follows:)
As I was thinking about, the other night when I was serving the Banquet, how much difference it is in a person who is serving self and for a selfish purpose all the time, from one who is unbiased. They (the ones who are unbiased) they have more to serve because they have more to serve. They have more to be served, therefore it is essential for them to have more food and everything else to serve, to handle, because there are more to be served, and therefore, if it is a morsel for every person as there is a berry for every bird, naturally, if you get the persons, the morsels must come, and if you get the birds, the berries will come. The berries will come where the birds are. If they are confined, they will attract and draw the berries. Their appetites will draw them.
It reminds ME that once they claim some place the Indians wanted rain and it was so they couldn't get rain, and the people had prayed for the rain, and the Indians knew that GOD would hear the animal's prayers. Understand, anything that has breath and can move from place to place of its own accord, is an animal. So, they caught a good many water turtles or terrapin, and tied them out in the hot sun and they said they would pray for the rain and the rain would come, and so they did, and the rain came.
So the thought goes, the desires of anything will attract and draw that which is desired, if it is necessary. So, if you get the birds, the berries will come, and if you get the mouths, the morsels will come and the things to satisfy the different desires and the different appetites- therefore, they wonder why and how, it and they can have so much to supply the people with.
Well if you have the people, the supply will come to the desires to satisfy the appetites that desire; if they desire in all sincerity, and if they are worthy and it is actually needed, it will come. So that is the mystery of supply.
Secretary: You know, FATHER, many times you aren't hungry, but you just eat through habit.
Selfish Thinkers
FATHER: Yes, but some think more of self than anything and anybody else, and the very thoughts are directed in a selfish direction, and even if they come up from the satisfying of the physical appetite for food, material food, if there develops a mental desire for anything, it is something for selfish aggrandizement or something of that sort; it always points out to self even mentally as well as physically and personally. So it is essential to be born again, to be born again out of that Adam ic state of consciousness and think differently from the way you originally thought by nature and through and from hereditation and prenataled influence you had been thinking.
To be born out of it, you get on the real line and whatsoever is necessary for the sustenance of the body and for your mental and Spiritual existence, will come automatically when you stress your thoughts in the positive direction and absolutely unselfishly.
Secretary: It is wonderful! It automatically takes your thoughts off of self. You don't have to think about it.
FATHER: It is plain to see concerning ME. A good many say, "Well YOU have everything!" I do have everything, and yet I do not have anything, because I refuse to have anything as a Person, and yet as a Person to ME everything is automatically supplied to satisfy My every desire. It comes forth into expression automatically by the relaxation of My conscious mentality, not thinking for the purpose of Myself as a Person. So it is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful Blessing!
Self-denial Is The Keynote to the Mysteries
And the more you deny yourself for Righteousness' sake, if it is necessary, justifiable or justifiably to be extended, it will come forth into expression automatically as cooperation, as help, as everything, and it does come forth into expression. The sacrifice is being made of those things all the time, therefore they are increasing and multiplying all the time. It is wonderful. So, it really means something to be self-denied. It is the keynote to the mysteries of the secret of the ages to satisfy and to fulfill the predictions of the prophets and the sages and that of the predictions made by them concerning things in the positive instead of the negative.
Secretary: It is marvelous!
Another Secretary: I remember, when we first came to YOU, when we would get a seat at the table, the first thing we served on our plates, we wanted to hurry and eat it and get rid of it so we could watch YOU, and I noticed some of the older sisters, they seemed to think more of eating than giving praises to YOU.
FATHER: As I said, with that tendency or preconceived mind or sense of selfishness, if it is not in the flesh and for the material things that the human appetite calls for, even if it is something that the mentality calls for, or even something that the would-be spirit calls for, as it may be deemed, it is directed in a selfish direction for a selfish purpose in opposition to others at times, when it comes through a selfish channel. You even hear people speak of blessings, and someone will testify of an unfoldment of the Truth from a spiritual or mental point of view above the ordinary expression of the person in the audience and of what has been commonly known, another at times will try to produce something better in illustration or testimony to be more stressful to be considered that they might get personal consideration. Then that if it is done through a selfish channel, it is not as it would be if it is done volitionally and through an unselfish channel.
Be Conscientious and Sincere
So it is a wonderful thought to see and know what it really means to be self-denied. But the great essential from your infancy is to be conscientious and sincere in whatsoever you may endeavor and be honest in your deed and in your actions. Do not try to make someone think you understand when you do not understand. Do not try to get an example worked out by someone else and you not know it. You should know the example when it is worked out supposedly by you. You should know it! Not just say, "I will get someone to work it out for me," or "I will copy someone else's to do it," in order to pass it. You are robbing yourself because you fail to know what you are getting honors for. And every promotion you get, it should be thorough for it should be your experience and your own by merit and not by favoritism, neither by someone else's consideration nor someone else's information as given.
Secretary: Just the other day, one of the school children came to me and asked me to write her speech for her. I told her I wouldn't think about such a thing; that she should write it herself, although I did say I would give her a few suggestions. On the same day another one of the children brought me the speech she had written, to look over the valedictorian address, and FATHER, it is a beautiful speech.
FATHER: It is wonderful to work out things. I mean, to be able to work them out yourself individually; but if anyone gives you information concerning any example, if they give you the information, you should not stop until you get it and understand it so it is yours by inheritance, you see. You have inherited that from the person who gave it by instruction, but you should learn it, not just say, present it as a the example someone else has written out just in order to pass and be promoted without the knowledge of it yourself individually; but if you get it yourself personally, it is real!
The Foundation Of Civilization Must Be Reconstructed
Hence, the Foundation of the whole world of our advanced civilization, no doubt, must be reconstructed, for it has been founded through and by the acts of dishonesty the dishonesty of the pupil and the dishonesty of the teacher in a great measure. It should be honesty from start to finish, and sincerity. And if this would be, the child who seeks to get converted or seeks salvation from a conversional point of view, as some teach the system of getting converted, they would teach it in all sincerity and would be diligent in whatsoever they do and would be conscientious, true and faithful in whatsoever they would do and receive, for it would be real. It would not be just a pretense or mockery of the truth concerning the Mystery, but to the person, the individual, it would be a reality!
True conversion is a great thing. Now there may be a question as to the emotional expression of the conversion and where it starts and where it stops and how one would or should express his conversion by emotion and by vibrations and emotional expressions. Under whatsoever religious affiliation you are seeking that light of salvation, to that degree of that unfoldment of those of the converts of that religion, I mean, as they deem it to be, you will get it from the convictions of those who have been converted and from that degree of that unfoldment wherein those persons have been converted under that realm.
The divers emotions and expressions of the vibrational inner urge of the persons being converted would, according to the persons under whom they are seeking conversion in that field of activity, in that field through which they are being religiously born from that angle of expression and from those from that angle the emotional expressions come forth according to the conversion, according to their convictions, and their convictions would be according to the person or persons under such a religion. If it is under the Holiness Movement, it would express from that angle of expression. If it is another ritual or another dogma, it would express from that angle of expression according to the highest leading of that particular expression of that religion. Therefore the emotions and vibrations would be according to same.
Expression Is According To Heredity
Therefore, you cannot confine the emotions and vibrational expressions of the person saving as that person is converted and awakened into some vibrational emotional expression. One may express in this manner and another in that, according to the spiritual awakening of the person from the within and from whence cometh that vibrational expression through concentration. It expresses according to the ancestors from whence those emotions come, and it is emotionally put forth into expression according to the conversion of the person and according to the ancestral emotional expression of that same emotion coming down by tradition.
One may get converted under different churches even, and different organizations and may express emotionally the vibrational expressions of those that are not directly under that particular religion. They have maybe transcended that limited barrier of that particular organizational religion and may have received the inspiration from some other passing through the borders of the organizational expression of that particular religion and you may see them vibrationally and emotionally express according to it, yet it may not be exactly the direct emotional expression in that particular religious family.
Secretary: That would have to be a case of those, FATHER, that have come up through metaphysical religion where they are so still. They would have to be passing through the borders of some other religion, wouldn't they?
FATHER: It may come through some where they were still or had been still, yet it may be some vibrational expression, or some emotion the organizational expression of that particular lineage of religion and they may express from that angle of expression. That is why one said: "Prove yourself a workman, rightly dividing the Word of Truth, to be able to comprehend with all saints."
Or words to that effect. You can be able to comprehend with all saints when you are spiritually awakened to the light of understanding to know that you cannot confine the emotions and the expressions of religion to any special specific limited emotional expression. That is why one should not be ready to condemn so quickly, for you may haply try to condemn a person through jealousy or through envy or through prejudice or bigotry and be running up against the Holy Ghost from some other religious conviction with which you are not so swell acquainted.
(And with this last remark, FATHER left the Office to serve the Holy Communion.)
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