The Assurance of Doing the Father's Will
Greetings, 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 assurance of doing the Father’’s will.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Assurance of Doing the Father’’s Will
"For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." Romans, Chapter 14, Verse 17
Brothers and sisters, in today broadcast we examine the proof of the assurance of doing the Father’’s will. Jesus said, "Not every one that saith unto me, ‘‘Lord, Lord,’’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, ‘‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in they name and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works?’’ And then will I profess unto them, ‘‘I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.’’" Jesus said that by their fruits shall you know them. Jesus is the vine and we who do the Father’’s will are the branches. Every branch that does not bear fruit shall be removed, and every branch that does bear fruit shall be pruned so that it bears even more fruit.
The removal of the branch from the vine signals that the believer no longer desires to do the Father’’s will. He has broken the faith seal that aligns his will with the Father’’s will, and no longer do the fruits of the spirit flow through him. This vine has become dead and is consequently removed. When the vine is bearing fruit, it is pruned so that it can bear more fruit. And this pruning takes place because the vine is alive and the fruits are flowing through it. But the maximum amount of fruit is not flowing. The vine that is alive must produce to its fullest capacity; thus does the Father removes those selfish obstacles from the vine so that it can produce at the fullest capacity. We know that the assurance of doing the Father’’s will is the spiritual fruit that flows through us. Consider this material example that will help us further grasp the assurance of doing the divine will.
"Perfumes are fragrances that are made from the oils of rare plants. These perfumes are made by extracting them from certain plants that have tiny sacs that make and store the substance that give them their pleasant odor. These substances are called essential oils. Essential oils taken from flowers petals are used in the most delicate and expensive perfumes. Plants whose oils are used extensively in perfumes include cinnamon, citronella, geranium, jasmine, lavender, patchouli, rose, rosemary, sandalwood and tuberose. Much essential oil is extracted from plants by steam distillation. The first step in this process is to pass steam through the plant material. The essential oil turns to gas, which is then passed through tubing and cooled to make it liquid."1 Each one of these fragrances has a distinctive odor and when applied to the person and combined with their own scent produces a unique and very pleasant and attractive fragrance. Experts can tell immediately whether the scent is derived from the various ancestors of the perfume. For example, an expert can tell whether the perfume is derived from jasmine or sandalwood.
There are some other unfavorable scents also. "The skunk is a small furry animal with distinctive black and white markings. It’’s known for the foul smelling liquid it sprays when frightened or in danger. The odor remains for days on whatever it has been sprayed upon. This sprayed liquid called musk comes from a pair of glands near the base of the skunk’’s tail. The animal can spray accurately as far as 12 feet. Before it sprays it gives a warning by stamping it front feet and by hissing or growling."2 This is a very disagreeable odor, and it most certainly repels those who smell it. Now we move to the spiritual parallel.
Often things that are unseen can be known by their outward effects. Whether visible or invisible everything has certain characteristics when interacting with certain objects. Gravity, for instance, cannot be seen, but we know of it because of the effect that it has on material objects. Spiritual matters also have a certain effect, and we can know of their reality by the way in which they manifest themselves. Faith is an invisible force, but we know of its existence because of the way that it reacts with us. It requires a certain level of understanding in order to comprehend the effects. For example, we all experience the effects of gravity long before we understand the intellectual aspects of it, and we experience the effects of faith long before we understand the intellectual aspects of it. We are seeking to intellectually understand an internal process that we have no conscious intellectual access to, so we must look at its effects internally and externally.
Sin is the deliberate and conscious rebellion against the Father’’s will. It is unlike evil, which is an unconscious violation of the Father’’s will and constitutes ignorance. What is the assurance that the sinner is sinning? The sinner has free will. He knows what he is doing. He is aware of the Father’’s will but chooses to consciously deliberately rebel against it, to violate it. The assurance that he is doing this is his conscious choice to do it, and the outward ramifications of his acts are like the odor of the skunk. It is very unpleasant and most will avoid it. No one wants to be around a sinner’’s influence unless he is a sinner himself. "Birds of a feather flock together." No fruits of the spirit flows from a sinner, one who chooses not to do the Father’’s will.
And just as the sinner can be assured that he’’s sinning, the assurance of doing the Father’’s will is based on the fact that the Father’’s will can be known, chosen, and that there are consequences for choosing that will, without and within. The paramount factor in human choosing is fact of desire. Desire grows out of the value system. We seek to actualize those things that are a part of our value system. Furthermore, the things that are more important get chosen more often than those things that are not as important. Those things that are supremely important get chosen above all else.
When we desire to choose the Father’’s will, we are basically deciding to choose the Father’’s attitude, his value system as opposed to our own (unless of course his value system has become our own). Now the Father’’s value system, the Father’’s will, exists within our souls and minds alongside our purely animalistic value system. And since it exists in plain sight, as it were, it can be known. Since both of these systems exist within us, we can choose one as well as choose the other. This depends on what we desire most. Our faith allows us to actualize our desires by choosing. We must have faith: we must believe that we can choose a desire by our will. Without faith, we will never attempt to actualize our desires by choosing. Faith makes itself known by empowering our desires and wills. And we know that this is true as evidenced by trying to choose something that we have no faith in.
When we make a choice in the material world, we forever change what was before. Things can never be the same again. It may be a small change, the effects may not even be noticed, but they exist nonetheless. The change is just as real as changes that result from making a greater decision. In the spiritual arena, when we make a spiritual decision, we also make a change in the spiritual world which changes it forever also. It can never be the way it was before. We have progressed in time and space, have moved forward and have changed. This change occurs within and has external ramifications. On the inside, when we choose the Father’’s value system, the repercussions of such decisions forever changes us. It makes us a little bit more like the Father, and a little less like our material selves; that is we become more spiritual and less material.
On the outside, we become like differing perfume fragrances. The spiritual fragrances of love, faith, goodness, gentleness, temperance, meekness, long suffering, joy, and peace radiates from inside of us. And like the material fragrance, each one of these spiritual fragrances when combined with our personalities radiate with a unique quality. As experiences unfold, each requiring a different fragrance or sometime multiple fragrances, those who are experts at detecting the basic fragrances and their combinations, those who have been born again and therefore schooled in the various combinations of spiritual fragrances, can tell right away whether or not a fragrance is of love or of faith, goodness, long suffering and so forth. The assurance of doing the Father’’s will rests on the display of the fruits of the spirit. As these spiritual aromas spread from our souls, the ability to detect them becomes the assurance that we indeed know, desire, and choose the Father’’s will.
This concludes today's message on the assurance of doing the Father’’s will. 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
1,2: The World Book Encyclopedia
Your Kingdom Come; Your Will Be Done!
Inspirational Messages
By Dr. James Perry
The Assurance of Doing the Father's Will
