"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Matthew 6:33

"What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." I Corinthians 6:19-20

"If ye walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments, and do them; then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be My people." Leviticus 26:3-4,12

Good morning, friends; and truly a good morning it can be to you!

Health and strength, success and wonderful happiness can be yours here and now! Of course I realize that there are some who hear my voice who are on their last leg, as it were; who have lived a life in darkness and in error, and who through ignorance or through carelessness have not only undermined their health, but they have ruined their bodies. I do not mean to say to such that I know of any secret, or magic pushbutton, to enable you to wake up on the morrow in surging health and strength, with the prospects of a 100 years or more ahead to live riotously.

When I say health and strength, success and happiness here and now, I intend that to apply to those who are still young enough to have a fighting chance, and whose health and strength have not been completely ruined. But to those who are not so young any longer, and whose health and strength is far from what it ought to be, I still have a word of hope and consolation. It is possible for you to establish the kingdom of God right here and now within yourself. And if then you commence to live accordingly, and have the patience to carry on, there is indeed a great deal that you can do towards rebuilding your body, and to again enjoy a measure of health and strength. Also, during this period of time when health and strength are being rebuilt, you can enjoy peace of mind and a fountain of joy uprising deep within. That is the heritage of the sons and daughters of Jesus Christ.

I told you last time that we can be the sons and daughters of Jesus Christ; that is, the children of God. And I showed you how the children of normally successful parents have all the good food they need to eat and all the good clothes they require to wear; they have shelter and protection; they play and are happy. And similarly we, when we are truly the children of God, we have all that we need to eat and what we require to wear and such shelter as we desire, as well as the mighty, protecting hand of God Almighty over us. I say, what more do we want, what more do we need, what more should we have? One of the troubles in the world today is that the people seek for much more than these requirements, and in their struggle for much more, they often get themselves into trouble or into grief, and, therefore, lose their peace of mind and happiness.

I much dislike to talk about myself, but recently I did have a few plain statements to make. Since I count on your kind indulgence, I am led to make a few more simple statements about myself and my life; not to talk about myself, but rather to illustrate what I mean by success and happiness, as the heritage of the children of Jesus Christ. I have all the good food that I care to eat, although that is not too much, because I find that one good meal plus one little snacky breakfast is usually all that I require. I have all the clothes I require to wear. They are more or less in keeping with the standards common to our day. I have shelter and freedom in a land of plenty. I know the profound depths of peace and great joy: what more could I desire? But when it comes to money, I have no personal bank account worth mentioning, in fact, there are plenty of people today if they had no more money than I could put my hands on, would suddenly suicide! But being a son of Jesus Christ, I know that whatsoever I need from day to day is going to be supplied. I do not question that; I know it! I receive several thousands of dollars every month, but that goes to pay for hired help and the hundreds of other items which enter into my service unto Jesus Christ, Who is my Father, my Lord and Master, my Friend and Redeemer and soon-coming King.

A modern man successful in business or a profession, might look upon my life and say, "That man is not a success." But in my own opinion, I am one of the most successful men who have ever lived! Why, or how? Because through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ me-ward, I have resurrected the Bible from entombment in ceremonialism; I have been enabled to make it live and talk to the average person. By the marvelous grace of my Father me-ward, I have set forth from the Bible much light, truth and marvelous revelation of treasures old and new. I have revealed the "signature" of God Almighty as opening the Book of Genesis to closing the Book of Revelation. I teach and demonstrate the kingdom of God here and now in my own personal life. These astounding facts I label as success. I know that my Lord and Redeemer liveth, and I know He is soon to return as my coming King, the Lord of lords and the King of kings; all these things build up to a deep and beautiful peace, and a joy uprising which nothing can disturb. Since the days of being a young and stupid kid, I have not known the meaning of as much as one moment of "illness." These facts which can be proven, I label success and happiness – even a success and happiness "out of this world."

Now I've said as much about myself as I am going to for a long, long time, but will concentrate on setting before you more and more detail, to enlarge and fill out your understanding of the kingdom of God for the here and now. When that you fully understand, then you too can be successful and happy, and you will also be strong and healthy, unless your health has been previously shattered. If it has been shattered, then you must be willing to apply yourself patiently to rebuild it. The human body is far more important than a big, expensive automobile. If you have such a car, and misuse it over a long period of time, then it will soon be a wreck, so to speak. When it has been abused, misused and wrecked, it will take time to rebuild it. Or it will call for a lot of money to pay someone else to rebuild it. And unless you have an awful lot of money, the labor or the cost of rebuilding that car, to get it back into its new condition, will teach you the lesson that such an expensive and highly complex mechanism requires very, very good care.

The human body is far more complex and important than the best automobile every built. It is the masterpiece of God's handiwork. He wants, He expects us to take care of it because it is the temple of the living God. That is, the spirit indwelling every human body was begotten by God Almighty, Who is its Father. Therefore, it partakes of the divine substance of God Himself. Therefore, the human body is called, in the Bible, the "temple of God" (I Cor. 3:16, 6:19). Because it is so wonderfully constructed, and such a marvelous mechanism, God expects of His children that they should take proper care of it; that it should not be abused, that it should not be misused, that it should be fed the proper food and drink, instead of perpetually loaded with poisons. Therefore, I repeat, that those who are up in years, with shattered health and a ruined body, should be willing to learn their lesson by patient steps in rebuilding their health and strength.

Now let us get back to our basic concept, which is, I have shown you, is that we – as the children of God – have God as our Father; and, therefore, have an inheritance in riches beyond the capacity of man to compute. And as His true children, we are happy because we know that nothing less than the hand of Almighty God provides for and protects us.

Recently I made the cryptic statement that the word "God" means the same as our English word "keeper." That can be easily established from the Bible, although it takes quite a little bit of time, since there are a great many passages which must be carefully studied. History shows us that the semi-intelligent people of ancient days had "gods," as they were called – gods without number, almost. There were gods of harvest, there were gods of wine and agriculture, there were gods of fishing and hunting, there were gods of war, and gods of fertility – today we call it sex. The beliefs common in those days were that if man would and could appease those local deities, gods of this or gods of that, then that so-called "god" would see to the person's success in that particular field. As for instance, a god of wine would give them a big grape yield and barrels of wine. Put into simple words, those gods were "keepers" in their particular field; at least so they were supposed, or believed, to be.

In the fullness of time, the Creator of heaven and earth, even of the very universe, revealed Himself to the one man Moses. Indeed He had revealed himself previously to such as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but not until the days of Moses did He reveal Himself as the one and only true God, the Creator of heaven and earth and the Law-giver unto man. Clearly did He say to Moses, concerning Israel, that if they would keep His commandments and observe His ordinances, that He would be their God (Lev. 26:3-12). There are several passages in the Scripture which say the same, although through different Prophets at various times.

I ask you to stop and think about those very words: the conditional statement that if they would keep His commandments, He would be their God. You cannot reconcile that statement with the average man's understanding of the word "God," that is, as the Supreme Being and Creator. The fact of a Supreme Being and Creator has nothing to do with man's keeping the commandments of God, or his disobeying the injunction by the Lord. That Being still remains the Supreme Being and the Creator of heaven and earth. Wherefore, I say that it was impossible for that Supreme Being to use the word which has been translated into English "God," in the statements where He did use it, if that word means `Creator,' or a `Supreme Being.' If you will take the time to study up on the numerous passages in the Old Testament, you will find that we have only one word in the English language which answers to the way that the word is used, and that is our word "keeper."

Now, if you know that Being as your God, that is, your "Keeper," then you can truly start singing and start shouting; and you can start laughing! If you were still a youngster today, and knew that you had as your earthly father the smartest man on earth, the wisest man on earth, the richest man on earth, the most powerful man on earth, the kindest and best man on earth, would you not have plenty of reason to be singing perpetually and shouting with joy?! Therefore, if you know the living God as your personal "Keeper" (having been born into the kingdom of Jesus Christ), then you have as your Father the ever-living God and Savior, Who is all-wise and all-powerful and owns the very universe. Therefore, you can truly start singing and shouting for sheer joy of heart, and this day set your foot on the glorious road to a real success and happiness you never dreamed was possible.

Because man has been blinded by the false and lurid light of Lucifer (did you know that name means `light-bringer'?), having been led by the Devil to believe that the finished work on Calvary was all for another world and a distant tomorrow, man has entered into such a struggle for existence in the present world, that he has lost his spiritual balance. THAT is not the Will of our Heavenly Father! As yet we are but little children (spiritually speaking). As our Father, it is He Who wants to lead, to counsel and to guide us; it is He as our Loving Friend and Father Who has prepared for us in abundance for the HERE and for the NOW – just so soon as we will HEAR His Voice and place our hand in His. But because we have been fooled into believing that the work of redemption on Calvary was all for a future world in the mists of an uncertain tomorrow, we have entered deeply into the psychology that it is up to US to make our every stupid decision, and to kill ourselves in desperate struggles as we meet the consequences of our foolish decisions.

It is our FATHER Who wants to GUIDE His children – if only they are willing to HEAR His Voice and be conformed to the Laws of that spiritual Kingdom He established for us – in His work of atonement on Calvary.

When this Heavenly guidance we accept, THEN are our feet directed into ways of success and blessings without measure. THEN does a deep peace settle into our soul and our joys overflow.

To further help every listener to enter upon that JOYway to greater success and happiness, I have prepared a booklet under the name of Destiny: Create Your Own! Available from our Store.

Ask, and you shall receive!