The Channel of Love
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 meaning of the channel of love.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Channel of Love
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: No man cometh unto the Father but be me." John, Chapter 14, Verse 6
Brothers and sisters, in today’’s broadcast we share some further insights into the meaning our relationship with the Heavenly Father. As we have been commanded to be perfect even as the heavenly Father is perfect, the perfection of this relationship is the supreme spiritual goal of the mortal life. We seek to duplicate in our experience what Jesus accomplished did in his. As Jesus perfected his relationship with the Heavenly Father, we seek to do the same with Jesus’’ Spirit of Truth.
We know that the primary barrier preventing us from perfecting our relationship with the Father is the error associated with our understanding of this relationship and thus our proper function within it. Our understanding of a relationship determines the kind of decisions that we make on behalf of that relationship. To help us grasp the fundamentals of this relationship, we shall use a material analogy.
Once there was a fellow who was fascinated by sports. He wanted to know all about sports. He wanted to know the ins and outs of sports so he subscribed to the Sports Channel. The Sports Channel is on the air 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and broadcasts nothing but sports. Programs featuring basketball, football, soccer, baseball, to name a few, are to be found on this channel. This channel not only broadcasts these games but also provides an in-depth analysis of the games. It also teaches the fundamentals. If one is desirous of knowing how to play these games, there are lessons for that provided on the channel. And from time to time they even show programs about the administrative aspects of the show. Here was found information about the management of the programs, and one might be surprised at the vast number of people who were employed to make such a channel work. There was absolutely nothing about these games that could not be found on this channel.
But unbeknownst to him, his interest in sports was not pure. He himself did not realize this at first because he had such a great interest and attraction to sports. It was only later when he began to get involved in the nuts and bolts of the program that he realized that his interest was really not supreme. He kept watching and watching for some other kinds of programs to be shown on this channel, but he was always disappointed for nothing was ever shown but sports and programs related to sports.
As time went on, he began to want to see such programs as The World Turns and All My Children. But no matter what time or day or night he tuned into the Sports Channel, the only programs on were sports and sports-related information. He was not to be deterred; he kept up his search, trying all times of the day and night to see if something other than sports was shown. He was disappointed.
Finally he realized that if he wanted to watch something other than sports, he would have to turn to a different channel. Yes, he loved the sports but not enough to watch them continually. He realized that his commitment to sports was not as great as he thought. So one day he finally turned the channel back to such programs as As The World Turns and All my Children. And he would watch the soap operas for awhile, and then when he got tired of doing that, he would watch the Sports Channel. And he would go back and forth until one day he realized that this made it impossible for him to become an expert in sports or to keep up with the ongoing sagas of the soap operas. A decision had to be made. After serious contemplation, he finally made up his mind to become an expert on sports. And now since this was really what he wanted, all of his energies were now devoted to learning as much as possible from the Sports Channel.
We see, then, that if we want to become an expert at something, it requires all of our loyalty to that endeavor. Half-heartedness will not do. If we want to have a spiritual relationship with Jesus, the only relationship that is possible in this life, then we must refrain from looking for anything other than the spiritual aspect in this relationship since nothing else will be forthcoming. When we attune our wills to the Father’’s will, the program of love and mercy will begin to flow through us. Only information related to the program of love and mercy will ever come from this channel. The Father’’s programs from time to time also provide revelations of truth, beauty, and goodness.
If we have a fit of nostalgia and want to watch such programs as The Times of Evil or The Evil of Time ,we will not find it on that program of love and mercy that is being broadcast by the Heavenly Father. Neither will we find such programs asThe Value of Not Showing Mercy or The Value of Not Forgiving our Brothers and Sisters. It is futile to look for other programming on the Father’’s channel. His channel is on 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And no matter what time of day or night we tune into it, the program will always be the same. And if we want to watch these programs we will have to turn to another channel. But the danger in going back and forth is that we may lose all interest in the Father’’s program. If we truly want to become an expert on the Father’’s love and mercy, then that desire must become supreme over all other desires. We must dedicate ourselves accordingly.
We must increase our loyalty to supreme levels, and we do this by prayer and worship. When ever we feel tempted or feel that we are being drawn away, we must seek to know the Father’’s will. Prayer is the technique for learning how to recognize and execute the Father’’s will, not a technique for trying to obtain another program on the Father’’s channel. It is entirely true that once we align our will with the Father’’s will, then all of our prayers will be answered. But this will be because we are on the right channel, and all the programs of love and mercy will be forthcoming.
And since Jesus said, that if we love one another as he loves us, all will know that we are his disciples, it therefore follows that we must continue to bear the fruits of the spirit. In fact, when we are tuned to the Father’’s channel, "When there exists this living connection between divinity and humanity, if humanity should thoughtlessly and ignorantly pray for selfish ease and vainglorious accomplishments, there could be only one divine answer: more and increased bearing of the fruits of the spirit on the stems of the living branches. When the branch of the vine is alive, there can be only one answer to all its petitions: increased grape bearing. In fact, the branch exists only for, and can do nothing except, fruit bearing, yielding grapes.”” And this is why the Father removes those branches that are unfruitful, and prunes those that are fruitful.
"The true believer exist only for the purpose of bearing the fruits of the spirit: to love man as he himself has been loved by God--that we should love one another, even as Jesus has loved us." And once this union is finally aligned, perfection of the relationship will exist, and the fruits of the spirit will flow uninterruptedly.
This concludes today's message on understanding the meaning of the channel of love. 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.
You Kingdom Come; Your Will Be Done!
The Channel of Love
Inspirational Messages
By Dr. James Perry
