Faith Grasping Truth
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 how faith grasps truth
.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
Faith-Grasping Truth
"Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God ."First John, Chapter 3, Verse 1
Brothers and sisters, in today’’s broadcast, we seek to gain further insight into faith-grasping truth. We know that God is Truth. Without faith it is impossible to please him, impossible to grasp Truth. "Therefore truth can never become man's possession without the exercise of faith. This is true because man's thoughts, wisdom, ethics, and ideals will never rise higher than his faith, his sublime hope. And all such true faith is predicated on profound reflection, sincere self-criticism, and uncompromising moral consciousness. Faith is the inspiration of the spiritized creative imagination.”” The greatest truth we can experience in this life is the experience of being the faith sons and daughters of the heavenly Father. "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God."
But how do we realize such a truth and all of the privilege and responsibility that accompany it? How do we learn to appreciate the truth that we are sons and daughters of an infinite, eternal, and absolute God? How do we get our minds and souls around the truth that the Father’’s spirit actually lives in our minds and souls? How do we learn to communicate with the Father’’s spirit that lives within our minds and souls? What are the pitfalls, the intellectual hazards? How can we really know that we are sons and daughters of the heavenly Father? What are the assurances?
To faith-grasp the truth that we are the sons and daughters of the heavenly Father, we must purify our faith so that it is purely spiritual. We are the spiritual sons and daughters of the heavenly Father, and therefore we must understand what a spiritual son and daughter is. In the material world, we are the offspring of our material mothers and fathers, and we show forth their combined character. In the spiritual world, we are the offspring of the heavenly Father, and we show forth his character. Now in order to show forth the character of the heavenly Father, we must sincerely want to do this, must want to do the Father’’s will, for the display of the Father’’s character is the doing of His will.
Reflection is required in order to attune our will to the Father’’s will, for the Father lives within our minds and souls. "The divine spirit makes contact with mortal man, not by feelings or emotions but in the realm of the highest and most spiritualized thinking. Remember the Father is the Thought God, and His Son is the Word God or the expression of the heavenly Father. Therefore what leads us Godward are our thoughts and not our feelings. To make contact with the divine spirit is a supreme achievement and requires supreme effort on our part. Every effort we make is rewarded by the divine spirit reaching down to us. Ponder this quote: "Man does not achieve union with God as a drop of water might find unity with the ocean. Man attains divine union by progressive reciprocal spiritual communion, by personality intercourse with the personal God, by increasingly attaining the divine nature through wholehearted and intelligent conformity to the divine will."
Sincere self criticism is necessary to purify our motive because "the divine nature may be perceived only with the eyes of the mind. But the mind that really discerns God, hears the indwelling Adjuster, is the pure mind.”” "Without holiness no man may see the Lord." All such inner and spiritual communion is termed spiritual insight. Such religious experiences result from the impress made upon the mind of man by the combined operations of the Father’’s spirit and and the Spirit of Truth as they function amid and upon the ideas, ideals, insights, and spirit strivings of the growing sons of God.
Uncompromising moral consciousness is required to further purify our faith, for we are entering into partnership with the Father. We have been given the high privilege and responsibility of revealing the heavenly Father through his Son, Jesus, to our brothers and sisters. Just think of it, brothers and sisters. The high, holy, eternal, loving and merciful Father waits to manifest himself to us and through us to our brothers and sisters. To be manifested to His children and to those who don’’t know him, those who ask where and who is God, He depends on our doing His will. It is a solemn and joyful betrothal to accept this responsibility. And once we have done the inner work of reflection, all that is required to make this a living spiritual reality is for us to wholeheartedly believe with all our hearts and souls that we are a revelation of the Father through his Son, Jesus, thus proving that we are indeed his sons and daughters.
How do we avoid the pitfalls on our way to achieving such a magnificent goal? The biggest pitfall is the failure to realize that the doing of the Father’’s will, and thus the revelation of His character, is spiritual. We must seek to do the Father’’s will, not seek to have the Father do ours. We can see the error of this seeking to have the Father to do our will right away. Our will is material, and if we seek to have the Father do our will, there can be no revelation of the Father through us since the Father is spiritual.
We must resist the intellectual tendency to want to be shown, to want to marshal material logic to prove that we are sons and daughters of the Father, that we are indeed revelators of His loving and merciful character. We must not allow the failure of the material mind to find satisfactory proof that we are spiritual sons and daughters of the Father. We must avoid the pitfall of material fallacy: If God is our father, then why does he not deliver us from these difficult material problems? Why won’’t he directly supply our material needs?
As we traverse the world with its material difficulties, our material minds become filled with doubt as we suffer on and on. Sometimes we are filled with such material anguish and such emotional turmoil that we don’’t know which way to turn. We feel as if we are nailed to a pin cushion with no way to get off. And still our emotions rage on, seeking relief.
Year after year we battle this material life, and our ships remain at sea. Our hope is strained as we watch the smoke of our material aspirations go up the chimney of disappointment. We stand by while these trials and tribulations, those destroyers of material peace and harmony wreck, havoc in our material lives. There is no denying that this happens. But none of these material upheavals have ought to do with the spiritual revelation of the Father except to serve as a backdrop for the glorious revelation of His spiritual character. During these same trials and tribulations, those destroyers of our temporal peace and harmony, something greater and wonderful happens.
Amid these occurrences the character of the spiritual Father shines. While it may happen that the human nature can be pleasant and agreeable when the storms of life usher in a period of tranquility, no human nature can reveal the fruits of the spirit under such distressing conditions unless he is subject to the Father’’s will. The human will that is consecrated and dedicated to doing the Father’’s will, will continue to reveal His loving and merciful character no matter what the material self is undergoing. Such an amazing display of the fruits of the spirit is of itself spiritual proof that we are the sons and daughters of the heavenly Father and are engaged in revealing the glorious light of His magnificent character against the dark background of pain, suffering, and material disappointment.
Such dedicated and consecrated sons and daughters remain in continuous communication with the Father’’ spirit and His Son, Jesus, through the Spirit of Truth. And this spiritual communication always reveals the particular aspect of divine goodness that is needed in any given situation, showing love, patience, mercy, and forgiveness in the exact proportions needed, directed at the brother or sister singled out by the Spirit of Truth and brought into effective contact by spiritual helpers. Indeed such a one is one with the Father through His Son, Jesus in spirit.
This concludes today's message on understanding how faith grasps truth. 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; Your Will Be Done!
Faith Grasping Truth
Inspirational Messages of Light
By Dr. James Perry
