How to Become the Father’’s Representative
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 to become the Father’’s representative
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
How to Become the Father’’s Representative
Jesus said, "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that
ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to
another." John, Chapter 13, Verses 34 and 35.
Brothers and sisters, in today’’s broadcast we shall discuss how to become the Father’’s
representative through His Son, Jesus. This sacred honor of becoming the Father’’s representative
has been made possible now for over 2000 years, since Jesus, the Son of God who was the Father
incarnate, revealed the technique to mankind. And in various degrees of light, there have been many
who have represented Him, though admittedly the shadows of evil have blocked out the light
intermittently. We shall examine the possibility of perfectly representing the Father in heaven.
We know that as we look at ourselves and other brothers and sisters who are desirous of doing the
Father’’s will in some measure but have not yet made that desire supreme, most of us don’’t realize
that our desire is not supreme. And why should this be? Certainly the desires of the soul should be
available to the conscious mind, and they are. But the supreme desire of the soul is spiritual, while
the supreme desire of the material mind is ordinarily material; this is where the difficulty lies.
In trying to perfectly represent the Father, there is somewhat of a paradox at play that can be
compared to a person who is addicted to smoking cigarettes or any other addiction where the self has
become dependent on something outside of him to satisfy deep inner needs. A person who smokes
cigarettes and cannot stop still he recognizes the harm and danger he is subjecting himself. All
around him, he sees friends and neighbors who are suffering the consequences of tobacco use. The
most deadly of these consequences of cigarette smoking is lung cancer. And it has been said truly
that smoking cigarettes is death on the installment plan since it takes many years for cigarette
smoking to kill its victim.
Intellectually, the smoker knows that he should stop smoking because it is not good for him. He
believes that he should stop but says he can’’t. And the reason he says he can’’t stop smoking is
because the effort to do so will make him a nervous wreck which has happened on previous attempts,
or he will gain a lot of weight which he can’’t stand. And when he tries to stop, the craving is
overwhelming, driving him back with a vengeance to smoking more than he was before he attempted
to quit. Now all of this may appear that the individual is incapable of giving up the deadly habit, but
such is not the case.
When talking to other people who have successfully stopped cigarette smoking, they suffered none
of these side effects. When having this discussion of stopping cigarette smoking with one of the
brothers, he simply said, "people say that they can’’t stop smoking, but they can. I stopped smoking
and drinking without any side effects, and neither have I had any desire to smoke or drink since I
stopped. I just made up my mind to stop, and I stopped." And this has been my experience of talking
with people who quit and remained tobacco free. They had no side effects when quitting smoking,
and have expressed no desire to return to that deadly habit. And now we have arrived at an important
insight which will not only give us insight into the problem of stopping smoking but also into the
problem of perfectly representing the Father through His Son, Jesus, to our brothers and sisters.
When the brother said he made up his mind to stop smoking and drinking, he required no self help
programs. And why was this? The self help programs tend to reinforce the decision that was made
to stop smoking or drinking, and the results are mixed. But the person who stops smoking or
drinking or gives up any detrimental habit reaches deep down inside of himself and commits every
fiber of himself to overcoming the habit. When he does this he loses the desire for the devastating
habit. When the desire is lost, then there is no underlying force compelling the individual to do that
which he says he does not want to do. We can see a common human predicament in this: The good
that I would do, I do not, and the evil I would not do, I do.
When anything becomes a supreme desire, rather it be smoking cessation or something else, nothing
can stand in the way of actualizing this desire if it is humanly possible. In other words, if it is
bonafide reality and there are human resources to bring it about, then nothing can prevent that desire
from actualizing. It then becomes obvious that this has become a supreme desire, one that
overshadows all other considerations. It does not matter how bad your nerves are shattered, how
much weight you gain, or how severe the cravings may be, none of these can defeat a supreme desire
born of being truly honest with yourself. And we are all familiar with the experience of rising to
challenges when we have truly believed and dedicated ourselves to some material enterprise.
Nothing could defeat us for we were prepared to give our all to achieve the goal.
In representing the Father through His Son, Jesus, a similar process occurs. Almost all of humanity
recognizes the superiority of the Father’’s way, but most fail to recognize that they should be one of
those who chooses that way. This is a disconnect between the will of the mind and the desire of the
soul, or between the human will and the divine will. In moving from the human will to the divine
will, all obstacles that stand in the way of reaching that supreme decision and actualizing that
supreme desire fall by the wayside. No price is too great to pay to obtain the pearl of representing
the Father. Anxiety, depression, self pity, feelings of low self esteem, urges for personal recognition,
self-aggrandizement, and material and selfish goals as the supreme objective of living, all of these
things fall by the wayside in the ascent from material self to the divine self.
Here we see that there is a great price to be paid for the privilege and honor of being the Father’’s
representative, but it is worth every penny paid of self sufficiency and selfishness to gain divine
sufficiency and unselfishness. In representing the Father’’s moral and spiritual character, sincere
reflection is required, and a sincere and complete dedication to representing the Father must be had,
lest the material mind self deceive the individual into thinking that his will is the Father’’s will.
Every decision must be subjected to the Father’’s will; that is, divine righteousness and spiritual
loving must transcend every selfish desire, impulse, and decision. When making a moral or spiritual
decision, the self must always be sensitive to the moral and spiritual urges of the Father, pausing
enough to be able to recognize and choose the divine will. Otherwise, the human will chooses itself,
justifying or rationalizing that choice. It may even convince itself that it has chosen the Father’’s
will. But we all know the difference between the ideal and the idea. We know when we have chosen
less than the best, regardless of justification or rationales.
Having paid the price of dedication to the Father’’s will, and having recognized the Father’’s will
through the divine Son, Jesus, the believer is now ready to learn how to perfectly execute the
Father’’s will. The divine Son--in the form of his Spirit of Truth-is the power and the know-how.
We begin this spiritual educational process through prayer and worship to learn how to intelligently
execute the divine will. As we try to execute the divine will, we recognize a certain deficiency of
wisdom and skill within us. As we reflect upon the outcome of this attempt to represent the Father,
we receive that divine wisdom and skill that allows us to more perfectly represent Him in our next
encounter. And as this process continues we become deeply involved in understanding ourselves,
our brothers and sisters, and the world in which we live. We move away from the selfish and
parochial viewpoint and begin to take on the universal point of view.
With faith as our anchorage and worship illuminating the Father’’s character, we move with
unshakeable confidence into the brilliant spiritual light that we shine upon our brothers and sisters
without interruption. This spiritual light brings with it the supreme satisfaction of living, and the
supreme awareness of the Father through his Son, and the irrepressible knowledge of divine oneness
with Him. It brings that peace that passes all understanding, and a spiritual joy in our soul that is
unquenchable and unspeakable. We know that we know that we are representatives of the Father;
after all we can be nothing less, having become active sons and daughters of Him.
This concludes today's message on understanding how to become the representative of the Father.
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!
How to Become the Father’’s Representative
