We have been having several good heart -to -heart
talks regarding that prayer which Jesus taught
you and taught me to pray. It's something so
very personal. It's something that is so important.
The Lord's Prayer is definitely the most important
of all the Christian documents. And it will be
one of the greatest experiences of your life
when you can get to the place where you'll have
that wonderful spiritual revelation where you
can fully understand the meaning of the prayer
that Jesus taught us to pray. It's so simple
that sometimes I think that perhaps that's the
reason that Thousands miss it. We've gotten to
the day when we try to be so analytical. We try
to analyze everything. And we just cannot accept
the simple things of life. Accept them as they
are. Sometimes I get so disgusted Disgusted with
human nature. I wonder if God ever does. I just
wonder. I know once he must have because the
word of God says that he repented that he ever
made man. And, you know, sometimes I look up
and I wonder whether he gets disgusted with me
for my... ignorance and my lack of intelligence
and understanding. Parents sometimes, even the
best of parents, get a little disgusted with
their children and will probably shake them a
little bit and love them at the same time. And
sometimes I think the Heavenly Father takes you
and takes me and he shakes us a little bit, you
know, gets a little provoked with us, but he's...
still keeps on loving us. And men and women are
still trying to analyze the power of God, the
manifestations of the Holy Spirit. When it comes
to this thing of divine healing, you know, they'll
call it everything under the sun. Psychosomatic.
They'll try to say it's... One thing, it's another.
One group has their name for it. Another group
over here has its name for it. When in a final
analysis, it's just so simple. Call it what it
really is. The power of God. That's all. When
it comes to slaying by the Holy Spirit, I don't
understand it. I don't have to understand it.
God does not demand of me my understanding of
his great power. Who can analyze God? Who can
understand the person of God? Who has the mentality
to analyze, to understand the great creator,
the one who spoke the very world into existence?
God never expected man to analyze him, to understand
him. We are to accept the person of the great
creator. We're to accept the person. The one
who said that let there be light and there was
light. In exactly the same way, we are to accept.
the manifestations of his great power, is just
enough for me to say it's gone. That's all. The
slain power of the Holy Spirit, I don't understand.
I accept it because I know its scripture. Now,
when it comes to man's relationship, with the
great creator, with man's relationship to God,
with our relationship with the heavenly father.
It is so simple that it's beyond the understanding
of the intellectuals. And so there you are. Yeah.
You have to dismiss a lot of man's thinking and
analyzing to be able to come with a little child
and say, bother. My, Bob. A child never tries
to analyze. That relationship that he has between
his mother and himself, his father and himself.
He accepts it. There's Papa. Or you say, my father.
My dad. And just because you can't analyze it,
your mind cannot analyze it, you don't say. I
won't accept him as my father. I won't accept
her as my mother. But it's the strangest thing.
A child always accepts that relationship and
accepts his father. And the father accepts the
child as his son. Oh! if only we could become
more simple in our understanding. It would be
so wonderful. Now let's begin where I left you
in our last heart -to -heart talk, where the
man says my religion is summed up in the first
two words of the Lord's Prayer. Our Father. Let's
go a little deeper to this. If you meditate upon
this fact, Until you had some degree of understanding
of what it really means, then most of your difficulties
and a lot of your physical ailments would disappear.
For they are rooted and grounded in fear. And
fear is the greatest enemy that you can take
into your life. There is no greater enemy. that
any man, any woman can take into his life than
fear. Right now while I'm speaking to you, pause
just a moment. You think of your own life. Fear.
Fear right now keeps you from God's best. Fear
right now is keeping you from being what God
wants you to be. Fear. Maybe you have never thought
of fear as being an enemy. Maybe you've just
closed your eyes to the fact that you're dominated
by fear. I'm afraid you may not say it audibly,
but inside of you. Fear is keeping you from being
your best. Now, when you are completely immersed
with this truth that God is your heavenly father,
that he cares for you, he loves you, you're his
child, you're the child of his care, you're the
child of his keeping, it takes away the... Fear
of what tomorrow holds. All this relationship,
I just wish I could put it in little capsules
and just send it out. Millions of capsules to
every person in the world who's being governed
by fear. Oh, I've seen men and women over and
over and over again who are... being dominated
by a great mental depression. If I could just
get them to see that God is their Heavenly Father.
They don't have to fear the great unknown. They
don't have to fear tomorrow. They don't have
to fear the future. You have one. In position
of Father, our Heavenly Father. eternal, all
-powerful, the all -present God, the loving Heavenly
Father, and that you are a child of His care
and His keeping. And perfect love casteth out
all fear when you get to the place where you
love your Heavenly Father. with all of your heart.
That's that wonderful bond between the two of
you. When you begin loving him as a heavenly
father, not only acknowledging him as a great
creator, or as just God, a mystical being. Living
somewhere out there in the great unknown. Just
spirit. Who ever heard of loving a spirit? I
couldn't love a spirit. That's the reason I know
that my Heavenly Father is more than spirit.
When I say that I love my Heavenly Father, when
I say that I love God, I don't mean that I am
loving a spirit. We're never told to love a spirit.
I cannot love some mystery, something that I
know nothing about. God to me is my heavenly
father. And as a heavenly father, I loved him
with even a greater and a deeper love that I
loved my papa and I loved him. But it was a natural
love in relationship between a natural earthly
parent and an earthly child. But there is something
about my love for my heavenly father that is
divine. He has imparted that love. And his love
for me is a divine love. Oh, it's so wonderful.
Paul saw it. Paul knew it. And that was the reason
that Paul said, oh, the mercy of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And who can fathom that mercy? And yet,
where would any of this be without it? And he
goes on to say, and the love of God. Who can
fathom God's love? for his own, for his children,
for you, for me. The love of one who is all -powerful,
who is eternal, all -present God. Then why should
I fear? Why should I be afraid? Thick love casteth
out all fear. And so I go forth and do what I
could not do of myself and in the natural. I'm
no longer afraid. I'm no longer depressed. I
have nothing to be depressed about. Millions
are living in defeat. That great depression.
That's the reason you run to a drugstore and
you get a pill for this and a pill for that and
a pill for something else. You try to overcome
this fear and this great mental depression through
pills. My friend, all on earth that you have
to do to get rid of your mental depression, to
get... rid of your anxiety, to get rid of the
fear that's mastering your life, is to get to
the place where you have the spiritual revelation
that the one all -powerful is your Heavenly Father
and He loves you. Yeah? It's amazing what fear
can do. It can cause literally a physical breakdown.
I believe that the main underlying cause of all
trouble is fear. Analyze that. If only you could
realize to some extent that omnipotent wisdom
is your living, loving Father, then most of your
fears would go. If you could realize it completely,
then every negative thing in your life would
vanish away. And you would demonstrate perfection
in every phase. Now you're beginning to see the...
object that Jesus had in mind when he placed
this clause first. My father. Dear Jesus, right
now, I'm doing the best that I can in these few
words to let that precious one see that you're
real. This relationship is real. Open their understanding
of this truth. For Jesus' sake, we ask. Now,
let's go a little deeper. Oh, it's so simple.
And yet so profound. Did you ever dream that
just two words could hold so much meaning? Oh,
sure. We say, my father. A million times I've
come into his presence and I've said, my father.
It's personal. But Jesus taught us to say our
father. Why? Remember the word? There is neither
Jew nor Greek. There is neither bond nor free.
There is neither chosen nor unchosen. Right here,
Jesus is making his second point. It ends all
of this idea about the spiritual. superiority
of any one group of human beings over another
group. No person is superior in the sight of
the Heavenly Father over another. I think that's
a good place to just pause and think of the truth,
a truth that's profound. And if ever there was
a day, if ever there was an hour when we needed
this truth, it's now. Here it is. There is neither
Jew nor Greek. There is neither bond nor free.
There is neither chosen nor unchosen. No man
is superior to another in the sight of God. No
group is superior over another. No race is superior
over another. God knows no such thing as race,
color, class, group. He has taught us to pray
our. He teaches that the thing that places a
man is the spiritual condition of his own individual
soul. And that as long as he is upon the spiritual
path, it makes no difference whatever to what
group he belongs to. or does not belong to. It's
an individual matter. It's a personal matter.
It's still not a matter of whether one is Jew
or Gentile. It's still not a matter of whether
one is black or white. It is still not a matter
of whether one is Catholic or Protestant. It
is what one has as an individual on the inside.
Know that he makes no exception whatsoever in
the prayer that he taught you and taught me to
pray. And if you have had that spiritual experience,
that new birth experience, you cannot say, our
Father, my Father, until first of all, you've
had that experience in accepting the Father's
only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, absolute deity
and absolute divinity. as your Redeemer, as your
Savior, and then this relationship is made possible
to you.