Spiritual Victory Through Faith
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 spiritual victory through faith.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
Spiritual Victory Through Faith
"As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans Chapter 8, Verses 36-39
Brothers and sisters, in today’’s broadcast we share with your further insight into spiritual victory through faith. Some of us who have begun this spiritual journey remain on the beachhead of salvation, afraid to move into the ever-increasing values and meanings of spiritual progress. They have become stuck and are not making the spiritual progress that they should be making. Even though they have been forgiven and accepted salvation they remain shackled to the "attitude of regretting the past, whining over the present, and vainly hoping for the future." We suggest to those of us who are recalcitrant that this chronic yearning can only be eliminated by boldly launching forth and seizing the prize of divine perfection by the force of faith. Some of us waxed mighty when we were serving under the banner of evil, but now that they have entered the kingdom of Heaven, they continue to remain stalled on the beachhead of spiritual growth. They appear to lack the desire and faith resolve to move on to explore the deeper meanings of divine sonship which the Father through His Son, Jesus, has given them. They refuse to go forward in the exploration of the endless love that the Father bestows upon us. Ponder this quote: "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we shall be called the sons of God.””
They have become filled with doubt concerning the values and meaning of divine sonship. Some of them even refuse to acknowledge that they are divine sons and daughters of the heavenly Father. While they freely acknowledge that God is their Father, they appear to have extreme difficulty with the other end of this proposition: Namely that if and only if God is their Father, then they must be His sons and daughters. The only other way out of this dilemma is the other proposition: That since God is not their spiritual Father, therefore they are not and cannot be sons and daughters of the Father. But none of us will take that way out, and so we appear to be trapped, trapped between the truth of our spiritual natures and the doubt of our material natures, floundering like a fish out of water.
When our beloved Father took on the human form and walked the paths of this life, He admonished us: "Be you therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." Even though this is an incredible command/invitation given to us, it is straightforward. There is no ambiguity in any of its parts. But some of us have great difficulty in accepting this magnificent truth. Even though this truth is not any more difficult than accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior. These truths mean the same thing. Some of us have gone so far as to attempt to redefine this command, while others seeks to postpone it to a latter stage of existence. But why would Jesus, the creator of the universe, now fully conscious of his divine pre-existence, continually repeat to us to be perfect as the Heavenly Father is perfect? He did not use the phrase "become perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." "Be" means now; "become" means later.
What kind of perfection was Jesus referring to when he commanded us to be perfect even as the Heavenly Father is perfect? Was he referring to intellectual perfection or physical perfection? No! Jesus referred to the perfection of our spiritual and moral characters, which we receive by faith when we enter the Kingdom of heaven and abide by the Father’’s will. Jesus’’ command to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbor as ourselves is both moral and spiritual. Whereas we don’’t have perfect control over the environments that we live in, nor over the intellect or body, we do have perfect control over our ability to choose the Father’’s will, to love God with all our hearts and to love our neighbor as ourselves. When we submit to the Father’’s will we have perfect control over our moral and spiritual decisions. When we are confronted with a moral or spiritual decision, we must choose. If we choose the Father’’s will, then we choose to be perfect even as the Father is perfect, for we have made the perfect choice.
Now our experience has shown us that these choices are progressively difficult but we know that we have the power to choose our will or the Father’’s will. We can choose to make the selfish choice or we can choose to make the unselfish choice. We are constantly being confronted with the command to love God with all our hearts and to love our neighbor as ourselves. In the face of the increasing difficulty of moral and spiritual choices, since there is spiritual and moral motion here, in order to keep up with the forward moral and spiritual motion, we must strive to be perfect even as the Father in heaven is perfect.
Now we know that the soul has potential for divine perfection on this sphere. The soul can in the face of increasing difficult moral and spiritual choices choose the Father’’s will, to be perfect even as the Father is perfect. We can liken the unfolding of these increasing moral and spiritual potentials to squeezing toothpaste from a tube. An unopened tube of toothpaste is filled to the rim. A filled tube of toothpaste represents the potentials of the soul. As we squeeze the tube, starting at the bottom, we propel the toothpaste out of the tube. The toothpaste that is propelled out of the tube represents the actualized potentials of our souls. Now we see that force must be applied in order for the toothpaste to be propelled from the tube. As we examine the tube, we see that the flow of the toothpaste can only occur in one direction. The flow of the toothpaste is blocked on all sides except the opening at the top, and as pressure is applied the toothpaste moves through the only opening that is available.
Likewise with the potentials our souls: because they are hemmed in on all sides, the only way they can proceed is towards God, toward divine perfection. We must use the force of faith to actualize the potentials of our souls. The circumstances of life and the incompleteness of the soul form the walls of its containment. And like the toothpaste where the most efficient way to remove all the toothpaste from the container is to apply pressure at the bottom of it, the most efficient way for the potentials of the soul to unfold is to apply pressure at the bottom of it. In other words the moral and spiritual decisions increase in difficulty as our souls gains experience. But this whole process of activating the potentials of the soul requires that we enter the kingdom of heaven by faith, that we submit to the Father’’s will, to be perfect even as the heavenly Father is perfect.
We must acquire divine righteousness, divine perfection, by faith. Only then can the beautiful fruits of the spirit flow though our souls consistently. Only then can we conquer the ever- increasing moral and spiritual challenges that we are presented with. And as these fruits of the spirit flow through us, our spiritualized minds comprehend the meanings of these spiritual values as they come forth in response to the increasing moral and spiritual challenges. And as these values and meanings continue to perfectly flow through our souls, they become the experience of living in the kingdom of heaven, the "personal experience of realizing the higher qualities of spiritual living; that these realities of the spirit experience are progressively translated to new and higher levels of divine certainty and eternal grandeur." All of this marvelous moral and spiritual perfection is to be had through our faith--by simply accepting the command to be perfect even as the heavenly Father is perfect.
This concludes today's message on understanding spiritual victory through faith. 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; Your Will Be Done!
Inspirational Messages
By Dr. James Perry
Spiritual Victory Through Faith
