There is a way back, and the way back to healing is with your connection to the Divine Father.
Wow, wow, thank you, thank you, choir. Ms. Christine, amazing. Thank you, give them another round of applause. Woo! UTC, Universal Truth Center. I am home. I am home.
I have to say thank you again. Beautiful music this morning. Needless to say, happy Father’s Day again. Happy Father’s Day to everyone. And I have to thank Reverend Charles for inviting me to be here today, especially given my family history. You’ll hear a little bit about it in a minute, but it’s quite interesting that I would be here celebrating Father’s Day. Anything is possible. I can tell you that anything is possible.
So thank you, Reverend Tanisha Rowan Ferguson. Thank you so much. Thank you for hosting me today. Thank you to the whole staff. Thank you to the choir ensemble, Kevin, the music. Everything is amazing, and it’s a wonderful, wonderful day. Also, the ministerial staff, thank you. There’s a lot going on here at UTC, and I want to thank everybody.
I also want to thank my teachers. It’s been a long road to home. It’s been a long road to home, and I’ve had a lot of teachers. Some of them are not here with us anymore. Reverend Tumpkin, thanks to her. Reverend Anna, who recently made her transition. And Reverend Lottie. That was my girl. That was my girl. I mean, Reverend Tumpkin was my girl, too. But Reverend Lottie, that was my girl.
And, you know, I think they’re here, right? They’re all here, right? Reverend Tumpkin’s like, yeah, go ahead. Olivia, Olivia. When she got mad, she said, Olivia. But I want to share with you that her son, Joe, today is delivering the lesson in the New York Center. So let’s send Joe some love up there to New York. I was messing with him. I was like, look at this. You never know. God works in mysterious ways.
So let me say this. Often when we look at each other, we make a lot of judgments, right? We look at people, we think all kinds of things about them, good and sometimes, and oftentimes, bad. But we really don’t know what people are going through or what they’ve been through or why they behave the way they do.
Most people who knew me, and I’ve been around here for a long time, it’s been over 30 years, and it’s been a process for me, but most people who knew me would never have dreamed that I lived the life that I did. They would never have dreamed. There’s only one person, and he’s online now, and that’s my friend, John. John used to be on the camera many moons ago, and he and I share a birthday, and so we became friends and shared a lot about our life history and healing. And I write about John in the book as well.
So as a result of my life, I’ve learned to be kind to every human as much as possible. And I mean that as long as it’s safe. When it’s not safe, it’s time to move away. But be kind. There’s no reason to be unkind. People are suffering a lot already. And this is what Edwin Gaines, I don’t know if some of you have been around long enough, but Edwin Gaines wrote the foreword to the book. And she was a character, because she read it, and she wrote and she said, you’ve learned to be kind and compassionate because of the things that you’ve been through. And that’s the lesson for all of us. Don’t watch somebody else suffer and add to their suffering.
New Thought saved my life
I’ll share with you, no shame in my game, that New Thought saved my life. And I mean that in multiple ways. At certain points in my life, I thought, what is the point? What’s the point of living in all this chaos, in all this pain, in all this suffering, in all this confusion? What could be the point? What kind of God does this? Isn’t that the question? Why? That’s always the question.
Despite all outward appearances, I felt hopeless. But guess what? I found hope in this teaching. I found hope. It also saved my life. New Thought also saved my life in another way. It helped me to find purpose and understand the reason for my existence.
I’ve been searching for many years. And I’m kind of a focused kind of person. And so when I get into something, I’m on it. And I was searching. I was driving all around South Florida trying to find the truth. I was looking for the truth. I’d seen a lot. I heard some gasps when she read Jehovah’s Witness, Catholic, Baptist, Fundamentalist. I heard people go, oh! And there’s a good reason for that. It is exactly as crazy as you think.
But then in the fall of 1994, Yvette Lawton gave me my Daily Inspiration. She gave me a Daily Inspiration. Some of you have heard this before. I had that Daily Inspiration, and I highlighted it, because I also like to highlight. Highlight it and write it over and over again. And I felt like, wow, this is something I could get behind.
And then one day, I get to the back of the book. And despite every place that I had driven, I don’t want to leave you guys over here out, every place that I had driven, the Universal Truth Center was five miles away. Right here. Five miles away. And then she gave it to me in the fall of 1994. And in February of 1995, I walked through those doors. And I had my first service. And you know what I thought? I have been saved. I felt that I was saved.
And I came to everything that was offered. True or true? Was involved in everything that I could be involved in. And learned everything that I needed to learn for my salvation. It’s not coming. Nobody’s coming to get you. You got to go get it. That’s the salvation. If you haven’t taken a class, take a class. And most importantly, I was involved, I was learning, I was doing everything. But I was also giving. I was also in service. It’s the law of giving and receiving. That changed my life.
We celebrate the father energy in all of us
Now today’s Father’s Day. It’s such an amazing thing to celebrate the masculine energy. That’s what we’re celebrating. And I want to say two things about, you know, because we have Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, right? We’re at a place in human existence where a man can have mother energy. And a woman can have father energy. Yes, I said it. I said it. All right, I said it. So we celebrate the father energy in all of us.
The other thing is, the biological function of becoming a father does not make you one. I’m just saying. So we want to celebrate fathers, stepfathers, adoptive fathers, all kinds of fathers. Because just because you can do it, doesn’t make you one. Okay?
And the other thing that goes with that is that, you know, before we always thought there was one function in life. And that was to reproduce. Guess what, people? Everybody here is not here to reproduce. People have other things to do. So just reproducing is, it’s important, but it’s not it. It’s not everything. There are enough of us. There are enough of us. At one point in human existence, you know, we might have worried. Right? But right now, several billion of us later, we’re good. We have other things to do. Okay?
Now, we’re New Thought metaphysicians, right? New Thought people, New Thought Christians, and all that kind of jazz. So we don’t just want to look at Father’s Day in the material sense, on the earthly plane. We want to look at it in the metaphysical way. Right? Don’t get freaked out by metaphysics. It’s just beyond the physical, beyond what we can see, beyond the manifest world. Everything underneath is the underpinning to what we see in the material world. So what do we look at? Let’s look at the Divine Father.
Divine Father. And today, we’re celebrating Divine Father, but we know it’s Father, Mother, God. And I love that about New Thought, because this was, you know, I have theories. God bless my husband. He knows I always have theories. He’s wonderful. He supports me. Thank you, baby.
So, my thing was, in thinking it through, I couldn’t see how God could be just a man. Right? If you’re a man, and then you just create a man and a woman, but you’re only a man. I think it has to be bigger than both. And then some. And then some. Right? So in New Thought, when they said, Father, Mother, God, I thought, boy, these people have something. And that is a key. God is bigger than just a man, and bigger than just a woman. It’s got to be bigger than both.
So, the big deal, I said to myself, I can do this lesson, and there are a few points that I could give them, and then everybody could go home. Right? Real quick. Here’s the deal. God is not a man in heaven, far away, in a white robe, sitting on a stone throne. Here’s the other part of that. God is an energy. The Bible says it. God is spirit, and he that worship, he or she, that worship him, must worship him, it, in spirit. God is an energy.
Now, this is super important, because guess what? We are like God. If God is an energy, then we are an energy. And that energy, this is us, this is us, well, let me rephrase that. This is God, and this is us. Never, ever separate and apart from it. This is us. This is us, and this is God. Never separate and apart. So, God is an energy, and we are an energy.
Everything is energy. Everything is energy. Even the food that we eat is energy. You eat low energy food? You eat food that’s not charged with divine energy? I’m not saying anything, I’m just saying. Fortunately, in New Thought, we’ve come to know God as that divine love energy. Always accessible. Always connected. It’s us. It’s us. That is the teaching.
So, we want to acknowledge the Divine Father. And I looked for what people like Ernest Holmes, and Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, and H. Emily Cady, what they said about what God was. And if you don’t know who I’m talking about, take a class. Emma Curtis Hopkins, all those people, and what did they say? What is God? And what is the Divine Father? They say, God is universal, infinite spirit. And they describe it as a power and a presence. That’s what God is.
And as they talk about it in terms of fatherhood, they say, the attributes include love, guidance, and protection. Those are the attributes of the Divine Father. And it gives us some clues for the men who are fathers, or those in a father role, or those having to give father energy: love, protection, and guidance. And I know we have some amazing fathers in here. I’m not calling any names because I don’t want any trouble that I forgot to mention, you know, XYZ, XYZ. We have some amazing fathers. People that I’ve met here at Universal Truth Center, my friends that I know, family members who are great, great fathers.
Things buried alive never die
But, you know, sometimes a lot of men get a bad rap about being absent fathers. And while there’s no excuse, I can tell you there are reasons. There are reasons. I look at, and if you check out the book, there’s a whole chapter which was also inspired by a conversation I had with Miss Yvette. There’s a whole chapter. You know what the name of the chapter is? Things Buried Alive Never Die.
And the reason it’s called that is because it’s about what happens when people who are descendants of the enslaved in the transatlantic slave trade don’t heal. And how some of the families, and in this particular case we’re talking about the men, how some of the men bring some of that generational trauma down the line. And in the book I talk about all the research that’s been done about DNA that actually says your DNA can be altered by traumatic experiences.
Now, nobody gets a pass, because if you have an issue, you are divine, and you can fix it. You took the words right out of my mouth. That’s the good news, is that if DNA can be altered in a negative way, DNA can be fixed. And if you know who you are and who you are connected to, then you know what to do.
Another group that’s been affected by a lot of challenges are the Native American people. A few years ago we actually went to a reservation, and you can see the suffering. So when people go, well, I don’t know what’s wrong with them. Well, I know. Well, we don’t have an excuse, because we have tools available. There’s no excuse, because you can heal. It’s your choice.
I want you to know that there is a way back from all of this. I’m not telling some people anything new. Whatever your drama is, today I’m here because I wrote this book, For the Love of My Father, which was about that trauma for me. But there’s a way back, and the way back to healing is with your connection to the Divine Father. It’s the connection to the Divine Father.
The kingdom of God is within you
So, you know, the scripture that we read today, and I’m going to give you a few other things that Jesus, Yeshua ben Joseph, by the way, known by Reverend Tumpkin as the revolutionary, itinerant Palestinian Jew. Anybody remember that? Revolutionary. Palestinian. Itinerant. Moved all the way around. Jew. That’s who it was. We call him Jesus because that’s the anglicized, right? But his name is Yeshua ben Joseph.
Okay? And in terms of this connection that we have with the Divine and how Jesus saw the great thing, we saw Abba. Abba is like Daddy. He had a good connection to the Divine. And so let’s look at the scriptures and what he said about the connection. I can do nothing without the Father. That’s a quick summary, right? Only through God am I able to do certain things. I and the Father are one. When you see me, you see the Father. And another one, Luke 17:21. The kingdom of God is within you.
Now, the most exciting and interesting thing about these scriptures is that Yeshua never said, these only apply to me. He didn’t say, only when you see me, you see the Father. Did not say it. And I got one better for you. In John 14:12, he’s quoted as saying, we have the ability to do greater things than he did. When you see me, you see the Father. Can do nothing without the Father. I and the Father are one. That means everything he said about him is the same about you.
You all are still here? You all should be running out the door. I can’t believe you’re still here. You should run. We should be running. This is amazing. You know, I always think, I can’t believe they left that in there. Because you know, when they were slicing and dicing and changing and rewriting, I would think that they said, we can’t let them know this. Greater things, not only will you do what I did, water to wine, wake up dead people, heal sick people. Greater things than that will you do? What is he saying? Why are you still here? You should be gone. You should be on fire. You should be on fire.
This is what we are dealing with, people. It’s supposed to come off the pages of the book and become alive in you. Every single one of us, no exception, no distinction, is a physical manifestation of God. God, energy, force, spirit. We are a manifestation of it.
Now, there are a few little things that happen when you come to planet earth. We come, we’re pure divine energy. You see it in the little babies. They’re so cute and divine and wonderful. They’re like literally glowing, right? There’s like just energy balls, just delicious, beautiful. However, traumas and challenges happen to us all. And by the way, sometimes people think, oh, it doesn’t happen to rich people. Right? Because we think, some of us think that the money is going to be the thing. Right? No, not so. Everybody has challenges because we all come in.
And I think, you know, this is how I figured out the game. I think this is the game. You come in as divine beings, but then you forget. As soon as you get here, you forget. And the ultimate part of the thing is to decide that you’re going to do the work to remember. That’s the whole game. In many spiritual teachings, including New Thought, you know what it is? You know what the statement is? You guys know this one. The primary cause of suffering is forgetting of our divine nature. Take that and smoke it. Stop forgetting. How about that? Like I have friends and people and they’ll say, well, this happened to me. I know. Well, stop it. Yeah.
Forgiveness, a pill to take like your life depends on it
So once you understand how this game works, what’s stopping you from working on your divine connection? The key. So this was the other thing that I could tell you and you could leave. Absolute, without a doubt, unquestionably, forgiveness.
A lot of stuff has happened to you. A lot of stuff has happened to me. A lot of stuff is happening to people right now. Very, very, very challenging things. The only way, no matter what they did, we don’t really care why anymore. We could care if we wanted to stop something, but if something happened, why is not going to change it? Well, the only thing that’s going to change it is doing the forgiveness work. And there’s a chapter in the book. It’s called Forgiveness: A Pill to Take Like Your Life Depends on It. For real. For real.
No matter what’s happened. You want to open that connection to the divine. You want to be in that frequency. This is God. And this is us. I’m using this as an example. But if you’re under the burden of anger and resentment and guilt and shame, you’re out of alignment with that vibrational frequency. That’s the only way that you can get right. I don’t care who did it to you. It doesn’t matter. You are divine. And your job is to get into alignment with the divine and forgiveness of everything and everybody. Yeah, breathe deeply. It’s the only way.
So staying in alignment is why we pray. It’s why we meditate. It’s why we do all the spiritual work. To figure out how to get in alignment with the divine and how to stay there.
I forgive you, daddy
So I want you guys to know that I loved my father very, very much. I thought he was cute. And he was, you know, he’s kind of like, he’s a black guy. He’s kind of Latin and just really, you know, like that. Maybe a little bit like me. Just a cool guy, but he was a terrible father. Terrible on all levels, on all accounts. If you haven’t gotten the book, please get it. You’ll be like, it was beyond words.
Okay. So let me tell you one story. So I didn’t see him for 10 years at a time. Let’s see. So one time I decided I’m gonna go see him. But anyway, I go visit him, right? I fly over there to visit him. And Eric, my son, most people here know him. He’s little. And we come in and he’s sitting in a chair. And, you know, I was always very, I always immediately went to daddy. I could be like 50 and I’d say daddy, you know.
So anyway, I come in and I say, hey daddy, da, da, da, da. And now there had been a lot of drama. There was the other woman, there was this, there was that. All kinds of different things. And now it’s maybe 20 years later and I’m sitting there with him and the other woman walks in.
Now I haven’t seen her from the time I was 17, right? But, you know, there’s a lot of crazy and a lot of drama. I mean, I was 17, whatever. But anyway, somewhere in my programming, they said this is the other woman, right? So she walks in and she walks over to me like we are friends. She walks over to me like she and I are like this.
And I had been in Universal Truth Center. I had taken all kinds of classes and done a lot of work, people. And that woman walked over to me and I was like, I mean, I was what? And I hadn’t even thought about it. I had not thought, I hate you. I had never thought that. And then to make things worse, still in my crazy mind, I looked at my dad who was like, right? Right? And I, you know what I said? I said, that’s the woman that took my father away from me. Like from nowhere. There it was. I had never thought that consciously. It just came out.
So then I came back to Universal Truth Center. I was like, and in the book I talk about, you know, making lists, right? Make a list of the people you need to forgive. Like make a list. I was like, I had checked that off and I had checked that off. And now look at this mess, right?
So anyway, many years go by. And I do more work and whatever the case is, and I go back. But this time when I go back, I say to myself, oh, I’m not going there. I’m not going back, right? I’m not going back because I just don’t want this drama in my life. God is something.
So I go to visit this man who is a tailor in the town where I’m from. And he sees me and he says, are you going to go see your father? Just like that. I said, no, no, I’m not going over there. I just think it’s better for me. But you have to go see him. And he said, no, no, but you know, what, what, what, what? Wait, hold on a second. Let me get the phone. My father’s name was Louis. She said, and he, Spanish guy, but he’s kind of Caribbean. Louis, I have somebody here for you.
So I said, guess what I said? He put me on the phone just like that. I said, hello, daddy. You know what my father did? He cried. And he didn’t just cry. He wept. And he wept the whole time. He wept. It’s okay, daddy. I’m okay. Everything’s okay. And wept and wept and wept the whole time.
Anyway, we wrapped that up. And the guy looks at me and says, are you going to go see him now? No, no, no. Well, but you can go into it. I went, I go, I walk in the door. And by this time, my dad wasn’t well. And I walk in the door. And he started crying. And he cried the whole time.
But guess what? I was bitter, right? I was bitter because the lady came in and I said, I am not having a confrontation. And I just sat there. And then, because humans are what we are, she came and sat right in front of me. So, eventually, first she said, I don’t know why he’s crying. I thought to myself, I do. I do.
So anyway, I turned my back to her and faced my dad who was sitting in a chair right here. And I turned my back. And something said to me, it’s now or never. And I looked at him and I said, I forgive you, daddy. And he leaned back in his chair. And that changed my life. I took the teaching. I lived them. I cleared my pathway to the divine. To allow divine energy to flow.
We always have access to God. It is always at hand. It is always within us. It is always all around us. You know what? In the Islamic culture, what they say is closer than your neck vein. It’s closer than your neck vein. Can you imagine? If you really believe that God was right here at all times. You know, you wouldn’t do half the things you normally do. But also, you would know that you have direct access.
You can have a healing and you can lose your healing
I know there are a lot of people here who have daddy issues. Whether you’re male or female. I realized that my dad, the things that he did, said that he was broken. And in Louise Hay’s book, You Can Heal Your Life, she talks about how you can look at your father, or for that matter, at your mother, as that little child, whatever it is that happened to them. And you can help to heal them. And in turn, heal yourself. I was able to say to myself, I’m sorry that you went through whatever you went through.
It’s difficult for those of you who are fathers who may have missed the mark. If you missed the mark, you know what that means? Sin. If you missed the mark, you can make it better. You can ask for forgiveness. You can forgive yourself. You can try to make it right. I want you to know that you should try. If you’ve missed the mark, you should try. I would have rather my father have tried than he not try. I would have rathered he try.
Now, I want you to also know that sometimes you can have a healing, right? You can have a healing and you can lose your healing. And the reason you lose your healing is because at the moment of healing, you come into a divine energy. Right? And you can be like this. And be in line with divine energy and get a healing. And then what happens? You lose the energy. Right? And then, whatever it is, you might be back out of alignment.
I knew that I had a permanent healing with the issue, and I have many issues, by the way. If you go to my website, I list them. This is only one. These are the issues. But anyway, I knew that I had a permanent healing with regards to this issue when I had a dream about my father.
And in the dream, he’s kind of there and he looks a little bit like he’s unhappy and a little bit like he’s a little bit down, like, you know, I didn’t do the right thing in that kind of way. And it seemed to me in the dream that he was trying to get me to say something about him. Like, oh, I can’t believe you did this. You know how you get down on yourself and you want a beating? You know that? You want a beating, right? Because you know you’ve done wrong.
Now, I’m better. I’m even better now than I was the second trip. I’m better. So, here’s the deal. In the dream, I looked at him and I said, I love you, Daddy, and you’re never going to hear anything different from me.