Faith Realization
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 meaning of faith realization.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
Faith Realization
"But without faith, it is impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God must believe that
he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Hebrews, Chapter 11, Verse 6.
Brothers and sisters, the Bible defines faith as "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen." What are its qualities and how does it function? Faith is a quality that's harder to
define then it is to experience. What are the realities that faith reveals and how do we validate them?
How are the objects of our faith realized in our present state? And why must we use faith to obtain
our spiritual goals? As we live this material life, we are in somewhat of a unique situation in that we
have a potential spiritual nature that is unfolding alongside the material nature. While our potential
spiritual nature can be come a reality, the very nature of potential means that it is not an actual
reality. To our material minds, the spiritual state appears hazy and unreal while our material state is
absolutely real to us. So the question is how can we convert our potential spiritual state to an actual
reality? How can we achieve both states in this short material life?
Faith is given to us by the heavenly Father. The divine spirit that lives in our minds floods them with
spiritual faith. We might conceive it as being our assistant, our powerful helper in achieving spiritual
goals. Faith is like a microscope. In the material world, the microscope makes visible things that
would ordinarily be invisible to the human eye. Likewise, faith makes real that which would
otherwise be incomprehensible to the material mind. Faith converts potentials into actuals. But
subsequent to this, faith is still required in order to experience spiritual realities.
Though real, faith realities are paradoxical in that all experience is subjective. There is no way of
demonstrating a faith reality to the objective world, though the consequence of experiencing faith
realities are objective, that is the character reactions are clearly discernible to the objective world.
Second, faith realities exist alongside the subjective interpretation of objective reality. And third,
even though faith has actualized a potential spiritual reality, faith is still required to experience it.
Faith realities have to be loved in order to be known; whereas material realities have to be known
in order to be loved.
Let us look a little closer at this apparent paradox. The material mind being attuned to material
realities has no basis to know a thing unless it can first comprehend it. Without the visualization of
the thing, there is no basis for it to be considered even a reality much less loved. Faith realities
operate at a level beyond the material mind. Faith operates with spiritual potentials of the material
mind, which is the soul. Since all faith realities are potentials from the soul's perspective and only
actualized through faith, this potential reality must be desired (loved) in order to be known. How can
this be? The only consistent answer is that the soul must have the ability to know and love a reality
on the potential level, thus actualizing potential reality. This is not strange since the soul is the joint
creation of the material mind and the divine spirit, a spirit that is both actual and potential. Thus it
would seem that the ability to know potential realities is also shared with the soul. This phenomenon
is demonstrated when we plan for a future event that has not materialized, but nevertheless is real
to our consciousness (for example, planning for the education of offspring).
Now let us examine some faith realities. The primary faith reality is the heavenly Father; and all
other faith realities are derived from him. The second faith reality is our relationship to him: we are
his sons and daughters. The final faith reality is the interaction of this relationship. This being whom
we know as our spiritual Father is absolute, eternal, infinite, wholly spiritual and bestows his spirit
to live in our minds and souls. This reality is actual as well as potential and so is his divine spirit that
indwells us. This spirit can operate with potential reality as well as actual reality. This is
demonstrated when we decide to do the Father's will while still living in the material state. The truth
that God is our Father is a faith reality, as is sonship with him, and as are the qualities that define the
relationship. The primary faith reality of the Father is love and its derivatives of truth, beauty, and
goodness.
And now we come to the difficult aspect of faith: realizing faith. There are three stages of faith
realization. Faith realization can be abrupt or it can be gradual. In the spiritual sense faith realization
is subjective; that is, there is a subjective event that causes a subjective realization linked to an
subjective reality. In other words, the whole process is spiritual. But this spiritual process causes a
change in our reaction to the objective outer world. Let us now look at the faith realization of God
our Father. How do we realize that God is our Father? We realize that God is our Father by realizing
that we are his sons. By wholeheartedly believing this truth, it faith consciousizes, and we soon
launch upon the high seas of ever increasing meanings extracted from the value realization that God
is our Father. This deepening of the value and the ever increasing meanings of this value is the
subjective spiritual proof that brings about increasing changes in the way that we relate to the outside
world. And our increasing change in the way that we react to the outside world is one of divine
assurance, peace and joy. Our reactions to life are always hopeful, while on the inside we are filled
with trust for the Father's goodness. Thus we see that a response to a subjective stimulus (the Father's
spirit) caused an objective response to the outer world, and this whole process that is continually
repeated is the faith realization of the Fatherhood of God.
Now how do we faith realize divine sonship? We faith realize divine sonship by wholeheartedly
responding to the guidance and direction, the spiritual impulses emanating from the Father; the ever
deepening relationship with our Father which not only creates the indelible consciousness of the
Father, but also creates the assurance that we are indeed sons of the loving Father. And we respond
to the Father's love by becoming like He is and radiating this love to the outer world in the form of
loving service. And here again we see the phenomenon of response to a spiritual stimulus causing
an objective response to the outer world.
Now how do we faith realize the relationship between the Father and his sons? The relationship of
the heavenly Father with us is one activated by love and mercy; guidance and direction; revelations
of truth, beauty and goodness. Reflecting in faith on these qualities make the relationship real to our
consciousness. Now this relationship is not static but is constantly changing. We are changing in
response to greater and greater capacities for knowing and making reciprocal responses to the
Father's stimuli. As we grow and understand more of his character, we become more like his
character, thus changing our objective responses to the outer world. And again we see how, in
response to a subjective stimulus, we provide an objective response to the outer world.
Living faith is the force that stabilizes all spiritual achievements; living faith is what makes the
reality real to our consciousness. Living faith empowers us to assume the prerogatives of the values
that we have embraced. We use living faith because there is no other way by which we can
experience spiritual realities. It is like asking why does 1 + 1 = 2. It is like asking why we need air
to breathe. It is a basic law that grows out of the realities that exist.
When we embrace the value of divine sonship using living faith, we act differently, our attitude is
different, and our reaction to the outer world is different. And our conviction is unshakeable.
Emotional upheavals may come and go; physical calamities may temporarily daze our material
consciousness, and the sea of adversity may swamp us, but through it all, the spirit consciousness
of who we are remains undimmed. We are sons and daughter of the Father!
This concludes today's message on understanding the meaning of faith realization. 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.
Inspirational Messages
By Dr. James Perry
Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done!
Faith Realization
