Spiritual Consciousness of the Heavenly Father's Spirit
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 grasp the spiritual consciousness of the heavenly Father's spirit.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
Spiritual Consciousness of the Heavenly Father's Spirit
"Jesus answered and said unto him, ‘‘If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will
love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.’’" John, Chapter 14, Verse 25.
Brothers and sisters, if one happened to be out in the jungle, one might observe a hungry tiger
preparing to kill another animal for food. The tiger identifies the object of his attack, and his body
makes certain physiological changes, and his mind goes into operation as to how to attack and kill
his prey. But the tiger is not consciously aware of any of these changes. His prey, when confronted
with the threat, also goes through certain physiologic changes that are designed to help him escape
if possible. He runs to get away from his attacker. This is the function of mind. But he is not
reflectively aware of these changes. He does not have a sense of his impending death, nor does any
thoughts of survival enter into his mind. He is conscious of what is transpiring, but not self
conscious.
Now if a human being happened to be the object of the tiger's attack, he would also go through all
the stages of being prey to an attack, with one exception: He would experience a different kind of
consciousness than would the hungry tiger or the tiger's prey. The hungry tiger sees you, and begins
that set of actions that will kill you. Now even though the hungry tiger is using his mind and is aware
of you as being suitable for his meal, he is not aware that he is aware. There is no reflection involved.
He is only concerned with the present. His mind does not project beyond the moment. You are also
conscious of the tiger, and your body automatically make certain adjustments that are you are not self
conscious of.
When the body perceives a threat, it automatically prepares for the flight or fight response. But as
these preparation are made, you become aware that you are going to be attacked, and most likely
killed. In a instant of time, all kinds of thoughts run through your mind, and you are aware that you
are aware of these thoughts. You are aware of self, whereas the animals are not. In addition to being
aware of the past and present, you are also aware of the future. That is why you can know that the
tiger is going to kill you. But there is another example that can demonstrate the difference between
self consciousness and consciousness.
Lets say you have a habit of blinking your eyes and curling your toes when you are stressed, a habit
you developed long ago unconsciously. As you were presented with the stimulus of stress, you
immediately began to blink your eyes. On one of these occasions, someone asked you why you did
this. You replied that you were not aware that you blinked your eyes or curled your toes when you
came under stress. But from that moment on whenever you came under stress, you consciously knew
that you were blinking your eyes and curling your toes.
Consciousness always implies that you are aware of your environment, and this consciousness
always causes you to respond in some way, though it may be a reflex response (if you accidently
touched something that very hot). You would quickly pull your finger away from the hot stimuli
without having to think about it. Self consciousness always implies some degree of reflection and
subsequent recognition of the stimuli. And now we move on to considering consciousness and self
consciousness of the spirit of the heavenly Father.
We have a divine spirit living in our minds, the spirit of the Father and the Spirit of Truth, and
exhibit a response to these spirit long before we become self conscious of them. There are two
phases of the consciousness of the divine spirit. First there is conscious recognition and then self-
conscious recognition. The conscious response to the divine spirit would be similar to the person
who blinks his eyes and curls his toes when presented with a stressful stimuli unconsciously. The
self-conscious response to the divine spirit would be similar to the person who recognizes that he
is blinking his eyes and curling his toes when presented with a stressful stimuli.
In our minds there are two sets of impulses related to our desires and urges. One set of impulses is
purely selfish; the other set, unselfish. Purely selfish regards are human, and unselfish regard for
others are divine. We recognize that the desire to be unselfish, to love one another has its origin
within the divine spirit. We understand this to be the case from the life Jesus, the Son of God who
revealed the Father to mankind by his loving and merciful service.
Now prior to becoming self conscious of these divine emanations, we are confronted with the
necessity to choose them over our own impulses. And we choose them even though we are not aware
that in choosing them we are demonstrating our consciousness of the divine spirit. If this were not
the case, than we could not choose them, but we do. There are lot of examples of brothers and sisters
who are loving and kind, and are not aware of the real significance of this choosing. Many of them
have become discouraged. If they could only become conscious of the meanings of these impulses,
then they would have a different attitude to the stimuli of life. If they would only realize that this is
the Spirit of Jesus within them activating them to choose the Father's will, they would not grow
weary in well-doing just because they were thwarted in their efforts to do good. While in the flesh
Jesus went about doing good.
Our task here today is to make the jump from being merely conscious of the divine spirit to
becoming self conscious of the divine spirit. And though this may seem daunting, it is easier than
might be expected. Remember the example above of the individual who blinked his eyes and curled
his toes when confronted with stress. He had to be told that he was blinking his eyes and curling his
toes before he became self conscious of the habit. Eventually he may have discovered this for
himself, or he may not. Some individuals never become self conscious of certain behaviors. It is
Jesus' spirit, the Spirit of Truth, that reveals to us that the desire to love and serve others is the
manifestation of the Father's spirit. And we receive this self conscious revelation when we faith
accept Him. We are mightily moved to self-consciously discover that these divine impulse in our
minds and souls are the work of the Father's spirit through His Son, Jesus.
Such a one who has faith recognized the divine spirit has embarked on the path to obeying the
Father's eternal command: To be perfect even as He is perfect. And finally such a one proceeds
through life with the attitude of someone who is self conscious of having the all-powerful, all-
merciful and all-loving Father living in their mind. Such a one gladly displays the fruits of the spirit
in ever -increasing brightness.
This concludes today's message on understanding the meaning of grasping the spiritual
consciousness of the heavenly 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!
Consciousness of the Heavenly Father's Spirit
