October 18th, 1958 "The Family of God" Late Mr. N. Daniel
"Bring forth the best robe and put it on him." The prodigal son has come home. We have all come home. We have been prodigals. We have returned home to our Father and we find that our Father’s home has everything that once we wanted. It is in a father’s home that we find every need met. Our Father has prepared the best robe and the ring of authority and He has servants who will put on your feet the shoes that won’t let you sit still. You must preach the gospel. The robe may not fit you because you have shrunk a great deal. A sick man, when he puts on his clothes again, finds them loose. And this young man came back emaciated and the dinner also he may not have been able to really relish. It was too rich for he had been eating lately at the level of pigs. Some orphans, I was told, had been eating grass during a famine and became sick. So they had to have a stomach wash and they could not eat proper food straight away. Some of us find in our Father’s house too rich a food. Our spiritual senses have too long been satisfied with low things. We have just come home and it will take some time for us to relish good food and it will take time for us to grow and fit into the dress and the ring. Now it is loose and trailing on the ground. Some of us may be feeling that way. The prodigal son had been accustomed to sleeping on the floor. Jean Val Jean could not sleep on the comfortable bed offered by the Bishop. Some of us are not able to enjoy the marrow of the word of God. God is putting before us very rich food. It is not the food we ate before. No more the company we walked with. We have said to God, "We are sinners." To say that sincerely and truly needs experience. Do you feel your nature is so very different from the nature of Christ? Do you hate your own nature? Only when you hate your own nature, you can receive the divine nature. Do you have your pride? There is so much pride clinging to us still. Layer by layer as I remove it I still find there is pride.
Among Christians there is a general feeling, "We are all good." Who is a Christian? One who knows, "I am a sinner saved by Christ. I must be watchful. There is still sin in me." Unless you search your heart again and again you cannot enter into your Father’s house. There are some who can’t eat a full meal. Why? They are accustomed to eating very little. Their stomach is contracted. When you pray, very often you forget your authority. When you feel your need deeply the Father meets the need. God knows your need. I feel wherever I go angels are attending to my needs. Maybe you don’t fit into the Father’s house. Do servants bring everything to you? Here you find very clean talk, even among the servants. There is a spirit of love and cooperation, not abusing and blaming one another. Only sympathizing with each other. Every servant is willing to serve at all times. None says, "This is not my work." You don’t hear the grunts of the swine. One day you will relish nothing except the word of God and obeying the word of God. Nothing unclean is found in the Father’s house. You won’t like even one unloving word to escape your mouth. No unclean thought comes to you. You were once enjoying lower things. Christ has now raised you to a higher plane. John 17:8. Eternal words come into you. Eternal qualities come into you. They can’t be destroyed. In the heart of great saints, there were eternal thoughts. That is why you read their lives. The food God gives you is prepared in heaven. If you eat that, you will not easily fall ill. If you are eating and chewing it daily and digesting it spiritually, you will be strong. John 6:68- That is the honey from the rock. Are we accustomed to it? It is the food of angels. Deuteronomy 32:13,46,47. Do you feel it is honey from the rock? Psalm 119:103. If you are really converted, the word of God will be sweet. If it is not sweet, there is something wrong with you. The more you love it, the more strong you become. Very soon the servants find the commands you give and the command the Father gives are the same. (John 17:2-6) What is the name that He has revealed to you? It is a mighty name, a name at which Heaven bows and which angels adore. Your prayer must be answered when you pray in that name. Has the Holy Spirit revealed the power of His name to you? When somebody enters my house, "Why have you come here?" I ask. "Your son wanted me", he says. What can I say? I must agree to it when my son’s name is mentioned. Those who won’t agree with the Son will be with Pharaoh at the bottom of the sea and with Ahab and Sennacherib. He has revealed that name to you and me. He is purifying us. Why? That love may come out of us. When you are filled with the love of the Father, everything bows before you. Have you got the Father’s love? Once that love comes out of you, naturally the servants know "This son and the Father are one. Their orders are the same." The Father relegated His power to His Son and you can also share in it and represent Him. Until you become that, He is purifying you.
If you stick to the Father’s house, you put on strength. 1 Peter 2:9. You don’t want to go back to sin. 1 Peter 4:11. You will be an oracle to your parents. You have come to your Father’s house and His nature is coming into you. You are drinking the honey and eating the marrow. You now relish only clean things. The words that come out of you are prophetic. Why do you read St. Paul’s writings? There is no difference between His words and God’s words!
In my college days I was very much criticized. When divine nature- holiness and selflessness- is coming into you, how long can the world laugh at you? What is prophecy? Preaching the gospel. The dead will rise. Dead bones will come together. As you preach on they will put on flesh. You still continue prophesying and they will become an army.
Don’t sleep. You must fit into your dress, the ring and the shoes. People will see the Father’s love and His glorious nature in you. "I have given them thy name, thy Word, thy love- that they may be the children of their Father in heaven."