How to Realize the Divine Nature
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 discuss the realization of the divine nature.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
How to Realize the Divine Nature
"Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness. " Hebrews, Chapter 12, Verses 9 and 10
Brothers and sisters, in today’’s broadcast, we discuss the technique whereas the divine nature is recognized, appropriated, and realized. We know that the Father and Son lives within us for the scripture tells us that they do, at least for all those who seek to do the Father’’s will. Reflect upon this quote:"If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.””
In our discussion today, we seek further insight into the values and meanings of the divine nature. And we hope that this discussion will inspire us not only to acknowledge their divine nature, that the Father and Son are living within us, but to boldly claim their presence as intricate part of our lives. We want to distinguish the human nature from the divine nature, and having done this we shall show how the divine nature is realized. This task is not as difficult as it may appear at first glance. To help us grasp these ever-increasing spiritual meanings and their eternal implications, we shall contrast the human and the divine nature, By doing this we shall be able to elevate our minds to the faith threshold of divine values and meanings, where we shall manipulate these values and meanings and cause them to yield new meanings.
There are several steps involved in realizing the divine nature. First, there is the recognition of the distinction between the human nature and the divine nature. The human nature is the egoistic self--all the impulses, desires, and urges of the self. The divine nature is all of the impulses, desires, and urges not associated with self. The human self is selfish; the divine self is unselfish. The divine nature unselfishly loves, seeking the best for others; the human self loves selfishly, seeking the best for itself. The divine self regards each man as a brother; the human self sees only a blood relationship as brother. The divine self is characterized by a set of values founded on love and service and is inclusive, receiving the greatest joy from unselfish service. The human nature, on the other hand, wants to be served and receives the greatest joy from being served.
The divine nature is characterized by spiritual qualities such a love, faith, goodness, meekness, temperance, gentleness, long suffering, peace, and joy. The divine nature is true, beautiful, and good. It seeks to transform the human nature into the divine nature. These qualities being of a spiritual and eternal nature, they exist within the self regardless of what transpires in the material world. The human nature, however, is characterized by material qualities such as impatience, doubt, anger, hate, evil, arrogance, excessiveness, turmoil, and anguish. These qualities may appear to be ameliorated when things are going well, but as soon as the tides of adversity come, they emerge in full force.
With both of these sets of qualities within the human, it remains for the human to choose which nature it will assimilate. Choosing gradually transforms the human nature into these divine qualities, where divine love reigns supreme and mercy is extended to all. With both sets of qualities operating with the human nature, it requires faith to believe that the divine qualities are indeed divine. Even when revelation reveals that these altruistic qualities are divine, it still requires faith to believe it. Faith, then, assumes supreme importance for realizing the divine nature.
Because there is no separate mechanism for manifesting these qualities, it can be difficult to recognize them. From the human perspective, without the exercise of faith, it would appear that the human nature is schizophrenic were it not for the fact that these divine qualities are subservient to the human nature. They urge but never dominate without the free will choice of the human. The human will is supreme in that it is the sole arbiter of which values it will choose in any given situation. Long before the human is self conscious of the differential nature of the divine urges, it will be choosing. But what happens to make the human self realize that it is in fact choosing the divine nature?
The realization of the divine nature proceeds in this fashion. As the will of the human natures continues to choose the values of the divine nature, their meanings in the conscious mind, and these meanings are inherently satisfying and long lasting. This is contrary to the material meanings derived from the material values of choosing the animal nature. These divine values and meanings, though they do not change the material aspects of life, do add transcendent meanings to these purely human activities.
The experience of divine values and meanings soon leads to the desire to choose them all of the time. As difficulties increase, the material self, protesting against using its energies in this way, begins to ask for moral and spiritual power to choose the divine nature, to choose the Father’’s will. It soon dedicates itself to doing the will of the Father through His Son, Jesus, and the fruits of the divine nature become increasingly consistent. And as the ever-accumulating values and meanings register in the mind, the self realizes that it is in fact experiencing the divine nature.
This realization comes about because a recognizable change has occurred in purpose and attitude. The self knows that it has decided to do the Father’’s will since this is a conscious choice, and the ramifications of that choice are evident. It now has in its experience the proof of choosing the divine nature. And even though the human nature is always present, it is subordinated to the divine nature when it comes to making moral and spiritual choices, as was demonstrated by the divine Son, Jesus, who always submitted his human will to the Father’’s will. And whereas prayer is sustaining in that it anchors the self to its choice of the divine will, worship gives the self the assurance that it is indeed partaking of the divine nature. The worship experience increasingly reveals to the self that it is becoming more and more like the divine nature. It is the worship experience that allows the self to realize its divine nature. By the act of faith, the self recognizes, chooses, and realizes the ramifications of choosing the divine nature, to become like the divine nature, to become one with it in spirit even as the material nature continues to coexist with it.
This concludes today's message on understanding how to realize the divine nature. 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!
How to Realize the Divine Nature
Inspirational Messages
By Dr. James Perry
