Spiritual Reality
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 will ponder our lives as we seek to understand the meaning of spiritual
reality.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
Spiritual Reality
"Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the
sons of God." 1 John Chapter 3, Verse 1.
The Father's love is the greatest of all spiritual realities. We may experience this spiritual reality in
our souls daily by loving our neighbors as ourselves, thus demonstrating that we love the heavenly
Father. And this love is true, beautiful, and good.
Being experiencing sons and daughters of the Father, we must experience this love as it flows
through us. So we see right away that when we refuse to love our neighbor as ourselves, we block
this flow of love to our souls and thus our neighbors. As we grow, we discern more of the Father's
love as our capacity and appreciation of it expands. We learn to love more and more of our
neighbors. Thus we must discover the Father's love in our everyday moral experiences. The
discovery that each of us is loved is the result of being loved by our Father.
The discovery of love--its truth, beauty, and goodness--is the result of living according to the highest
possible understanding and wisdom that we posses at any given moment and always is this to choose
the Father's will over our own. When we choose to love, we choose the Father's will.
The indwelling of our minds and souls by the Spirit of Truth is the secret to perceiving spiritual
reality. The Spirit of Truth (which is the spirit of Jesus) reveals these realities to our souls. When we
unselfishly love our brothers and sisters, we remain willing to forgive our enemies and stand ready
to assist them. We are then perceiving spiritual reality.
We are being loved by the spirit Father through His Son, Jesus, as is demonstrated by our unselfish
love for others. A person not experiencing the Father's love will never love unselfishly and certainly
will never love those who mistreat him. The idea of forgiving his enemies is not worth mentioning
in this case. He would view such a course of action as foolish and unwise. And so it is that the things
of God appear foolish and unwise to those who do not know the Father. Those who know the Father
enjoy the supreme satisfaction of knowing that we are pleasing the Father by our unselfish loving
behavior. We worship Him in truth and in spirit.
We who know the Father's son perceive the truth of His love when we declare that nothing of
spiritual value is ever lost. We are willing to exercise patience and calmness when the things we
value disappear from our lives. We go right on trusting in the goodness of the Father's love. We who
are the sons and daughters of love remain hopeful, never discouraged or despairing. We who are the
sons and daughters of light resist all temptations to trust our own desires and personal preferences.
We may be heartbroken and saddened by the rapid unfolding events, but we soon realize that these
events signal that it is time to seek a higher loyalty. We the children of joy know that the Father will
heal our hearts, bind up our wounds, and wipe the tears from our eyes.
We the sons and daughters of the Father perceive the beauty of the Father's love when we look back
and see how all the things that happened to us have worked out for good. We marvel at the beauty
of the Father's love when we stand in awe of his wonderful wisdom to make us in the image of his
son, to be the sons and daughters of God as well as the sons and daughter of men. We marvel at our
oneness of the Father through His Son Jesus.
We the sons and daughters of goodness perceive the goodness of the Father's love when we finally
realize that not only does he loves us, but that he loves everybody else also. We experience the
goodness of His love when we realize that the Father has given us eternal life, that the Father has
waited patiently for us to mature and allow His precious love to flow through us without restraint.
We perceive the goodness of the Father's love when we realize that He has shown us mercy when
we have fallen on our selfish faces, that the Father has lovingly forgiven us repeatedly when we have
turned away from His way, and have allowed the goodness of the Father's love to cause us to repent
of our misdeeds and to forgive our brothers and sisters of their misdeeds.
This concludes today's message on understanding the meaning of spiritual reality. 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!
Spritual Reality
