Ambiguity and 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 ambiguity and the Father’’s Will.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
Ambiguity and the Father’’s Will
"And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O, my Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." Matthew, Chapter 26, Verse 39
Brothers and sisters, in today’’s broadcast, we share with you some insights about ambiguity in the face of the desire to do the Father’’s will. Currently the whole world but especially our country is locked in an economic disaster. And this disaster had its genesis in greed and selfishness, the failure to do the Father’’s will.
Every day, thousands and thousands of individuals lose their jobs. It is at such times when doors appear to be slamming shut and no doors appear to be opening as the economy slides down into its watery grave that we surely need divine guidance. And even though measures are being taken to stop this slide, they don’’t appear to be effective. This is because confidence in the system has collapsed. There is a danger that the whole system will collapse, bringing about world wide disaster and unspeakable suffering, even the disruption of our civilization. It is, however, during times of grave danger that great strides can be made in our never-ending quest to discern and execute the Father’’s will.
We would like to gain some insight into doing the Father’’s will in the face of ambiguity. We know that in the material realm, when we are dealing with objective reality, while the consequences of the choice may not be clear, the choice itself, being objective, is clear. While it may not be apparent whether we should go to the left or right, it is clear that there is a choice available. In making material decisions, the object of the decision is clear, though wisdom may be lacking to make a wise decision. Choosing material decisions are based first upon the desire to choose, then followed by will, which acts on the material decision. Though it may not appear to be so, there is a similar course to making spiritual decisions.
Though the decision that we are making is spiritual, we wish to coordinate this decision with the corresponding material decision that has presented itself for action. A helpful rule to keep in mind is that, though there may be ambiguity in selecting the decision and in the extenuating circumstances, there should be no ambiguity in our desire to choose the Father’’s will. How do we coordinate the two dissimilar realities? The Father’’s will is spiritual; the need to make a decision presenting itself is material. We know that one aspect of the Father’’s will is our progressive growth. And we also know that increase in our status can only come about as the result of being confronted with ever-increasing difficulty in the decisions to be made. So that even though we desire to make a spiritual decision, it is also the Father’’s will that we make material decisions that will enhance our level of functioning.
Keep in mind that self-actualization involves the material, emotional, intellectual, moral and the spiritual realms. The emotional aspects of making progressive decisions causes uneasiness, worriment, anguish, anxiety, and sometimes downright despair as the self struggles to accommodate itself to the new reality looming large upon the horizon like a tornado poised to unleash its destructive power. When solving the material aspects of a problem, it is helpful to keep in mind these words of admonition: "Successful living is nothing more or less than the art of the mastery of dependable techniques for solving common problems. The first step in the solution of any problem is to locate the difficulty, to isolate the problem, and frankly to recognize its nature and gravity. The great mistake is that, when life problems excite our profound fears, we refuse to recognize them. Likewise, when the acknowledgment of our difficulties entails the reduction of our long-cherished conceit, the admission of envy, or the abandonment of deep-seated prejudices, the average person prefers to cling to the old illusions of safety and to the long-cherished false feelings of security. Only a brave person is willing honestly to admit, and fearlessly to face, what a sincere and logical mind discovers."
But how do we deal with these immature responses to the problem of living? How do we move from the emotional attitude of fear which prevents us from seeing the truth; and how do we replace the uneasiness, the worriment, the anguish, the depression, the despair with something better? How do we become brave? How do we learn to make decisions based upon reason, logic, and wisdom rather than on our emotional attitude towards the problem? We know that at the very heart of our difficulty lies the fear that we will be harmed or diminished in some way. Whenever we perceive a threat to our well being, the survival drive kicks in, that drive that prepares us to survive at all costs, and this drive has as its main weapon fear.
But there are better ways of dealing with the threats to our well being. We are mortal, and the threat, be it physical, emotional, economical, social, are very real to our consciousness as we have experienced them time and time again. And we must admit that on some occasions our fears were justified. The thing that we feared did actually happen. But something greater also happened; after adjusting to the new status, we discovered that we were still intact. That we were still the same person, after making those physical, emotional, economical and social adjustments, perhaps a little wiser. Integrity is the manifestation of our spiritual nature. It is the projection of our divine spirit through our souls, telling us that everything is alright, that though the waters of adversity overflow us, they cannot move us if we embrace the forecasts of our spirit which say that we are sons and daughters of God and therefore indestructible.
So the task for us is to foster these forecasts of love and mercy emanating from the Father of mercy; to somehow, someway identify with them and allow them to infiltrate all our activities. In short we want the energies of the spiritual drive to turn the mechanism of material achievement. In this life we are often faced with ambiguous situations, situations in which we are not sure how best to respond. We know that in any given situation, we should make the choice of the highest value, but sometimes the recognition of the highest value is not very clear. What we want to do in every situation, especially those situations that are saturated with ambiguity, is to seek to know the Father’’s will.
Now we are entering the realm of faith and trust. We are told that "always will we know Him because we trust Him." Thus it seems that to know Him we must trust Him, and the more we trust him the more we will know him. Therefore to know him supremely, we must trust him supremely. The only way we can learn to trust Him is to have a need to trust him, and thus are brought about those experiences that require trust, those very ambiguous experiences that causes us so much emotional turmoil. And since we are desirous of trusting him more and more, we should welcome those experiences that call forth trust, those experiences which in truth cause us to rely supremely upon him for our safe conduct and guidance through this and all levels of existence.
We should persistently seek the Father’’s will at all times. And even though the situation may continue to be ambiguous, our supreme desire for His will assures us that when it is time to make a decision, we will choose the Father’’s will. So when worry rears its head in our emotional life, we should seek to know the Father’’s will rather than worry. Worry cannot change the situation, but seeking to know the Father’’s will can and will. It changes our focus. Instead of being paralyzed by fear, we should seek to know the Father’’s will. When we are filled with anxiety and dread, we should seek to know the Father’’s will. And we know that this practice is difficult to implement consistently from a conscious point of view, but every effort to seek the Father’’s will is successful.
And as time passes the consciousness of this process increases, and we will find to our everlasting satisfaction that all of those emotional dragons such as fear, anguish, worry, despair, uneasiness will steadily fall by the wayside as they are replaced by the eternal emotional attitudes of the Father--those attitudes of assurance, faith, peace, joy, hope, trust, love, and patience, and the assurance that with God absolutely everything is possible according to his will. And what is his will? The Father’’s will is for us to become Godlike, to be like his Son, Jesus, and having thus become like him, to make the God-like decision. And every Godlike decision is true, beautiful, and good. And though the ambiguity may remain from the human point of view, time will clarify these clouds of doubt as the Father’’s will, like a giant breeze, blows and scatters them, leaving behind the beautiful sky of truth.
This concludes today's message on understanding ambiguity and 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.
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Ambiguity and the Father's Will
