Admonitions When Seeking to Know the Father’s Will
Greetings and good morning, brothers and sisters. This is Dr. James Perry continuing with our series where we seek to explore the deeper meanings of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Over the years, the heavenly Father has revealed many revelations of spiritual truth to me, and I want to share them with you. This morning we seek to understand the admonitions when seeking to know the Father’’s will.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
Admonitions When Seeking to Know the Father’’s Will
"Jesus saith unto him,‘‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.’’" John, Chapter 14, Verse 6
Brothers and sisters, in today’’s broadcast, we shall consider some admonitions when seeking to know the Father’’s will. It is our desire that these admonitions will prove helpful to those whose eyes are bleary and strained and whose feet are weary and weak from seeking the Father’’s will. At what point does seeking the Father’’s will translate into finding and knowing? What are the factors that go into seeking, finding, and knowing? What is the role of faith? What helps us to realize that we have found the object of our search and are, in fact, doing the Father’’s will? How can we solve the paradox of continuing to knock upon a door that is already open?
What is the basis for the brothers and sisters discerning of the Father’’s will? We live in God and God also lives in us. He has given us his spirit, which is always with us. God is the best friend that we can have, and we should do our best to realize his divine presence. He is our number one fan. He guides and directs us through this life, but most of all he loves each and everyone of us. We are his children.
And if the Father lives in each of us, then discerning the Father’’s will is not some goal that’’s out of reach that we sigh and pine for; in fact, it is not further than a thought/desire away. And while knowing of the Father’’s will remains out of reach in an absolute, infinite, and eternal sense, the progressive pursuit of the Father’’s will is a reality for every faith child of the Father.
Because of the presence of the Spirit of Truth in our minds and the Father’’s spirit, it is no more of a mystery for us to know the mind of God than for us to be sure of the consciousness of knowing any other mind, human or superhuman. The divine spirit urges us to altruism, to think about others in loving and unselfish ways. The divine urge is realized in our conscious minds as the outward urge to love others.
Perhaps if we take a look at the difference between spiritual knowing and intellectual knowing, we can gain further insight into the progressive knowing of the Father’’s will. In general knowledge is defined as clear and certain perception; it is the awareness of information. Intellectual knowledge then is the awareness of the facts and the meaning of those facts. Spiritual knowledge is the knowledge of spiritual values, and the meanings of those values, even the supreme value--the heavenly Father. The facility that allows us to become knowledgeable of facts is the mind; the facility that allows us to become knowledgeable of spiritual values is the revelation of these values by the heavenly Father and the reception of these values by the soul. Mind is also the facility that allows us to comprehend the meanings of spiritual values.
The acquirement of spiritual knowledge has three parts. First there is recognition of the spiritual value, assimilation of the spiritual value, and finally the display of the spiritual value. This process is linked. Recognition must come before assimilation, and there must occur the display before the knowledge can be shown that it is a part of the soul. We don’’t really possess "knowledge and truth until we have demonstrated our ability and our willingness to impart this knowledge and truth to others."
The soul is like a sponge. Just as the sponge has inherent capacity to recognize and absorb water, so does the soul have inherent capacity to recognize divine values and absorb them, to assimilate them. And like the sponge the values having been absorbed by the soul can be squeezed out, displayed. The only factor conditioning this process is desire and will. The desire for divine values when approved by the human will is the mechanism for opening the pores of the soul so the liquid water of spiritual values can be absorbed. This is the assimilation process, and when these pores become saturated, the liquid water of spiritual values begin to ooze out, which is the signal for the soul to increase its capacity so that even more spiritual values can be recognized, assimilated, and displayed.
Now when we seek to know the Father’’s will, we are in fact seeking the divine values and transmuted meanings. But we should understand that beginning as children, the pores and the capacity of our soul are not at supreme capacity. Even so, having the status of children does not prevent the present capacity of our soul from being filled with the knowledge of the Father’’s will. In short, each stage of growth reaches a maximum before the next stage of growth begins. And each stage of growth is just as meaningful for a particular level of soul growth as with some soul operating on a higher level. We can only experience those values and meanings that are meaningful to us.
Our best example is Jesus, who demonstrated the process of seeking to know the Father’’s will from the beginning of human experience to the end of all human experience--death. As we observe his life, we take note that at each stage of growth, he became more knowledgeable of the Father’’s will and displayed that knowledge until he achieved perfection of the knowledge of the Father’’s will. We all beheld his matchless display of the Father’’s will in the loving acts of mercy he demonstrated. He deferred his slightest wish to the Father’’s will. When Jesus sought the Father’’s will, he was in reality seeking to know how the Father would respond in a given moral and spiritual situation. He was seeking to know the character of the Father and to display that character in the moral and spiritual problem.
In his seeking, he was not trying to find out what the Father wanted him to do; rather, he was seeking to know the Father’’s character and thus make his decision based upon the character of the Father. In his seeking, he sought insight, wisdom, and courage. He sought to know the truth of the situation and to know what value he should be displaying in his decision. He sought the courage to act when it was time to act and the restraint and patience when it was not time to act. He sought wisdom so that the decision would be wise as well as right, and he sought for the simultaneous manifestation of justice and mercy, fairness. We must recognize that seeking the Father’’s will is the process of becoming like he is and subsequently making decisions based upon his divine character.
And it is our precious faith that makes all of this possible, for without faith we would never desire the revelation of divine values by the Father, much less act upon those divine values. It is our faith that sustains us throughout the struggle to attain divinity of status and perfection of spirit. And it is our faith that tells us that we have found God and are in the process of gaining knowledge of the Father in response to the seeking.
"If we truly want to find God, that desire is in itself evidence that we have already found him. Our trouble is not that we cannot find God, for the Father has already found us; our trouble is simply that we do not know God." And as we continue with the process of seeking and finding him and knowing him, the display of him becomes greater and greater in the form of the fruits of the spirit. And we become more and more like him each time when we seek to know his will. And finally our faith instructs us the that door is open, and instructs us to "come on in and enjoy the divine values and meanings."
This concludes today's message on understanding admonitions when seeking to know the Father’’s will. We hope you find something in this message to ponder and pray about as you go about your day.
Until next time, this is Dr. James Perry.
Your Kingdom Come; Thy Will Be Done!
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By Dr. James Perry
Admonitions When Seeking to Know the Father’s Will
