The Barrier to Faith in the Heavenly Father
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 barrier to faith in the heavenly Father.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Barrier to Faith in the Heavenly Father
Jesus said, "Verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto
this mountain, remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be
impossible unto you." Matthew, Chapter 17, Verse 20.
Brothers and sisters, the Father is spiritual and must be worshiped in truth and spirit. From this
statement of record, we must derive our relationships with the spiritual Father. It is true that we are
the Father's children but the relationship is a spiritual one. This is so because the Father is the creator
of our souls. The Father's spirit lives within our minds and souls and guides and directs our souls in
their journey through this mortal life. The Father's spirit reveals truth, beauty, and goodness to our
souls and minds. The degree of our reception depends upon the spiritual status of our minds and
souls, our ability to comprehend spiritual meanings and values.
Our minds and souls initially are not likely to be very advanced in spiritual standing, and therefore
must most of these mighty spiritual transactions occurring in the our embryonic souls and material
minds long remain unrecognized and unacknowledged. Therefore must the reality and validity of
these transactions rest upon the solid unshakeable foundation of spiritual faith. Faith is the conscious
possession of minds and souls given to us from the spiritual Father. It grows in direct proportion to
our use of it. The growth of faith is predicated upon its use and not upon the accuracy of its forecasts
as they are acted upon by the material mind. In short, the fact that there is error in interpreting the
leading of faith does not handicap the growth of faith. When a child is first learning to walk, the fact
that he makes errors does not in the least handicap him from learning to walk eventually. In fact,
those errors are used to make adjustments in his performance. Shortly thereafter, he walks perfectly,
even runs. Our faith eventually grows to such magnitude that it invariably excludes errors.
But even so, there is much error that can be eliminated from our faith forecasts even in the days of
the flesh. Faith is a purely spiritual quality and validates our relationship with our spiritual Father.
Therefore the values and meanings that result from these relationships must of necessity be wholly
spiritual. This relationship that exists between us must be increasingly reflected on the outside
through our relationships with our brothers and sisters. Such relationships are characterized by loving
service, tolerance, mercy, and forgiveness.
It is helpful to us who must live in an environment of constant change, accidents, and imperfections
to consider ourselves as being perfected in and through this environment. We must cease to identify
the Father's watchcare with the status of our material life. Our material life is mortal. Insisting on
believing that faith in the Father will prevent detrimental things from happening in our material lives
is the chief obstacle to having absolute faith in the Father's goodness. We have been given a material
body for use while we live on earth. It is designed so that we can function on earth. It is through
living this life that our souls are created. Our more enduring souls live their first life in the material
mind. In a very short time relatively speaking, the soul soon outgrows its first habitat and needs a
different kind of vehicle to continue its growth, just as the human embryo soon outgrows the uterus
that serves as its first place of development.
There must exist some mechanism for allowing the soul to move on to a higher level of functioning
when it has gone as far as it can go in the material life of its origin. This mechanism for freeing the
soul is mortal death. It is this precious and enduring, soon to be immortal soul that the Father
absolutely protects. No soul has ever been lost or ever will be lost that is placed in the loving Father's
hands for safekeeping. Jesus said, "the Father gave them to me, and no one can pluck them out of
my hands." We should view this life, with its many trials and tribulations, even with its urges of self
preservation, as just one of a series of lives stretching across time to eternity, where we will achieve
perfection of mind and spirit.
We, the children of the Father, should focus on those spiritual qualities that arise in our minds and
souls as a result of our trials and tribulations. We should gain experience in ministering those
qualities of love and mercy to our brothers and sisters, who also share our trials and tribulations. We
should increasingly learn to differentiate spiritual values from material values of life. We should
learn to render to Caesar the things of Caesar and render to God the things of God. Concerning our
material life, we should do everything that is humanly possible to improve the quality of it. But when
all of our efforts have been exhausted, we should possess our souls in patience and look forward with
ever increasing hope and expectation to the more glorious life awaiting us after we have sincerely
run this race and fought the good fight of faith. We should not become discouraged because there
is always tomorrow, and one of those tomorrows will sooner or later usher us into the light of a new
day, even the eternal life of ever increasing divine values and meanings.
This concludes today's message on understanding the barrier to faith in the heavely 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!
The Barrier to Faith in the Heavenly Father
