Pathway to Perfection
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 pathway to perfection via the Spirit of Truth.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Pathway to Perfection via the Spirit of Truth
"Jesus said unto him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father,
but by me.'" John, Chapter 14, Verse 6.
Concerning the journey: Keep going as long as you can. Keep going until you run out of gas, and
then get out and push.
Brothers and sisters, there is a pathway to perfection and guidance for this pathway. This pathway
to perfection and of guidance along the same is the spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of Truth. The path of
life literally is the pathway to perfection, and it begins when we make the first moral decision, when
we demonstrate that we know right from wrong. "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the
ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Man became
a moral being. The Father placed his moral law within the soul of man. This first moral decision is
simultaneous with the arrival of the Father's spirit. This moral self consciousness (the soul) since the
bestowal of Jesus is immediately surrounded by the Spirit of Truth.
The pathway to perfection consists of many moral and spiritual experiences. And as you might
imagine, the social and the material environments conspire to create situations that force vigorous
moral choices by the soul. As the soul makes moral and spiritual decisions, under the tutelage and
guidance of the Spirit of Truth, it grows. It makes great strides towards obeying the Father's mandate:
Be perfect even as I am perfect. Each time the soul makes a moral choice, the divine spirit invades
its fibers more and more. As the soul continues to make moral choices, under the transforming power
of the Spirit of Truth, it soon enters the spirit phases of its growth where the decisions though still
moral are of spiritual significance. Transcending the duty mandate in the soul with the service
mandate accelerates the growth of the soul, causing it to be born again. The soul becomes conscious
of the truth, beauty, and goodness of the Father's love. Now the character fruits of the spirit began
to increasingly manifest themselves as the soul takes on the "image of His Son" through the Spirit
of Truth. The character fruits of the spirit are love, faith, goodness, gentleness, temperance,
meekness, long suffering, joy, and peace.
The growth of the soul is experiential. This growth is reflected in the expansion of the
comprehension of ever increasing divine values and meanings on ever increasing levels of divine
reality made possible by the growth multiplier, the Spirit of Truth. This is a matter of recognizing
and including divines values while at the same excluding temporal values of evil. As the soul is
incomplete, thus allowing for growth, it tends toward evil in its early orientation. It naturally follows
the path of least resistance. The fact of the possibility of the soul having two conflicting desires
within itself is potential evil, even though this possibility is necessary for the soul to choose. The
soul cannot choose without having an alternate choice to choose from. As the soul matures, its ability
to recognize and choose the ever increasing values of good eventually includes all supreme values
of goodness, while forever excluding temporal values of evil.
The Father's spirit has the ideal plan for the soul's development, but because of circumstances, a lack
of cooperation, and often times active defiance, the Father's spirit must use collateral experiences.
These collateral experiences invariably entail greater trials and tribulations than the original plan.
The soul soon learns that when it takes a different path than the one selected by the divine spirit, its
journey becomes increasingly difficult when compared to the pathway of righteousness. "The way
of the transgressor is hard."
This feedback instructs the soul during its early days so that it increasingly stays on the pathway
selected by the divine spirit and guided by the Spirit of Truth. With the Spirit of Truth providing the
template for the character of the Father (the Son is the revelation of the Father's character) and the
divine spirit providing the power for the growth of perfection, the soul increasingly achieves
perfection of character. As time goes on, it begins to approach the character of the Sprit of Truth.
Each day the soul becomes a little bit more like Jesus, the character of whom was demonstrated
when he walked the earth as a man among men and is now demonstrated by the Spirit of Truth since
his ascent to the Father.
Using the very environment, social, moral and physical, as stimuli for choosing good over evil, the
soul grows as the interaction of these influences provide the necessary stage for choosing. As the
soul chooses good over evil, it not only grows but becomes aware of goodness on higher and higher
levels. This discernment of goodness on higher and higher levels occurs, and the potential for evil
decreases more and more. The experiences of life allow the Father's spirit to extract the potential
divine values and meanings from these experiences made actual by the need of the soul to experience
a higher consciousness of the Father through his Son in the face of the unremitting travail.
The soul frankly requires more and more of the Father's goodness, his truth and his beauty in order
to succeed in the grueling experience of achieving spiritual perfection. The divine values and
meanings are made available as the soul struggles with the pain, suffering and disappointment
brought to it by the mission of adversity. Finally in the fullness of time, the soul only exudes the
fruits of the spirit in its moral and spiritual reactions. It has obeyed the Father's mandate to be perfect
even as He is perfect. The Spirit of Truth has guided the soul along the pathway to perfection and
has finally set the soul free from the distressing battles with evil.
This concludes today's message on the pathway to perfection via the Spirit of 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.
Inspirational Messages
By Dr. James Perry
Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done!
Pathway to Perfection
