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 will ponder our lives as we seek to understand the meaning of the face of the heavenly
Father.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Face of the Heavenly Father
"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God
and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love." First John, Chapter
4, Verses 7 and 8.
Brothers and sisters, love is the face that the heavenly Father turns towards us. When He smiles on
us, we are filled with faith, love, trust, and inexpressible hope. This smile is so great, profound and
sublime that it causes us to dare to be Godlike, to be like His Son, Jesus. The response to the Father's
smile of love is the birth of our souls. Our born again souls penetrate the divine truth of the Father's
love, appreciate the divine beauty of the Father's love, and enjoy the divine goodness of the Father's
love.
The divine flavor of the Father's smile of love within our souls appear in our conscious minds early.
The qualities of faith, hope, and trust are the earliest urges to appear; later the urges of patience,
mercy, and forgiveness appear followed by joy, peace, gentleness, meekness, and temperance. These
qualities are the instruments of truth of the Father's love, the quality that defines the relationship
between the heavenly Father and His children.
When we recognize this love in our souls, we recognize it in other souls. We are astonished by this
love since we are unable to discover the reason why we deserve to be loved so divinely unselfishly.
When we fully acknowledge this love, it causes us to love one another, to also acknowledge the
common struggle that exists among all our souls--the struggle to obey the Father's command to be
perfect even as Jesus is perfect. The consciousness of this truth inspires our souls to aide all other
souls in accomplishing this mighty achievement. We aide others souls by constantly loving them
wisely and unselfishly, divinely. When viewing this magnificent struggle to attain the divinity of
Jesus by our souls, it is extremely difficult to resist the desire to do good to others.
Faith is the recognition of the Father's love in our souls. It appears in our conscious minds in
response to the thirst for truth and the hunger for righteousness in our souls. It is manifested in our
conscious minds as the desire and willingness to believe His Son, Jesus.This faith is the pledge of
our heavenly Father to us, and is the assurance that our developing souls will achieve the perfection
of His Son, Jesus. The faith consciousness of the heavenly Father's love in our souls gives us that
peace which passes all understanding. It causes our souls to cry, "though he slay me, yet will I serve
Him." "Perfect love casts out all fear."
Hope is the response of our soul to the living faith of the Father. It is our supreme expectation, the
expectation to become like the Father's Son, Jesus, despite our human frailties. Hope is the spiritual
rope that pulls us towards the perfection of the Father's love. It will not allow us to give up "the good
fight." It sees the spiritual future and brings the reactions of that future to the present.
We also experience trust in our souls as a response to the faith of the Father's love. It is the result of
our souls realizing our growth towards the perfection of the Father's love. We are not yet what we
would like to be, but thanks to the glory of the Father and His Son, Jesus, we are far from how we
use to be. We can look back over our partnership with the Father and see that we have become more
loving than we were at the beginning of our partnership. Trust is the consequence of our experience
with the Father's love. As our heavenly Father constantly reveals truth to our hungry souls, our souls
develop trust in the face of the Father's constant dependability. "You can't make me doubt Him, I
know too much about Him."
We also perceive spiritual goodness in our souls. This spiritual goodness is apart of the Father's love.
As our souls contemplate the character of the Father as revealed in His Son, Jesus, and contemplate
our relationship with Him, a relationship which is overflowing with patience, mercy, and
forgiveness, our souls becomes filled with the consciousness of goodness. "Taste and see the Lord
is good."
Brothers and sisters, patience is the hallmark of a trusting soul. It is a result of realizing that the
Father may not come when we want Him to, but he is always on time. When we are patient, we have
learned that it takes time to achieve the perfection of the Father's love. Patience allows our souls to
submit to the Father's will even though our rebellious flesh may strain to disobey the truth. By
consistently choosing the Father's will in every situation, we keep our fleshly natures restrained and
are able to actualize the potential of perfection wrapped up in our souls without unnecessary delay.
We also experience mercy--the diminished desire for material reality coupled with the increased
desire for spiritual reality as well as its revelation. Only the progressive acquirement of eternal
spiritual reality can prevent pain, sorrow, and disappointment, even failure. The quality of mercy
often appears in our material minds as compassion, a desire to alleviate the suffering of our brothers
and sisters.
Forgiveness is another quality that our souls experience. Forgiveness is a state of change that takes
place in our souls in response to our desire to shift our supreme loyalties from the material to the
spiritual. This shift is very important; our souls becomes what it identifies with. To break the
shackles of material identification requires the Father's change---forgiveness. Forgiveness is clearly
related to mercy, while mercy is the natural outworking of patience. The reception of forgiveness in
our souls creates a consciousness of forgiveness in our minds, which we manifest in turn by
forgiving our brothers and sisters.
Joy is the response of our souls to the beauty of the Father's love. It persists even in the face of
various material changes. It persists in the face of life's bitterest disappointments and unhappiness.
Nothing can rob our souls of this spiritual quality, for our souls know that no matter what happens,
nothing can harm or cheat us out of eternal life. This joy, this pleasure, is so profound and
intoxicating that our souls bubble over with it. Consequently, we are moved to share the beauty of
the Father's love with our brothers and sisters by bestowing his boundless love, untiring patience,
endless mercy, and unthinking forgiveness. This joy and righteousness in our souls is the prelude to
peace.
Spiritual peace is the result of divine righteousness, of being in right standing with the Father. "The
wicked flee when no one pursues." By faith, self righteousness has been replaced by divine
righteousness. This awareness of spiritual peace signals that we are truly living the Father's will. No
matter how much turmoil may be occurring around us or in our lives, nothing can shake our feeling
of assurance that somehow, someway all is well within our souls--that we are continuing to make
progress in acquiring the righteous character of the Father, as demonstrated by Jesus.
Gentleness is the result of pursuing love, faith, and goodness. This gentleness is a reflection of the
Father's goodness in our souls. The Father is never harsh or rough. He gradually and almost
imperceptible unfolds the potential of our souls. That is why we cannot see our growth from day to
day. There are no rough or tight spots in our souls' growth, no uneven rapid growth spurts. Rapid
growth is suicidal, while stagnation is its death knell. When we experience the Father's gentleness,
we manifest this same quality to others.
Meekness--humility--brothers and sisters is the result of living intimately with our heavenly Father,
who is so powerful, awesome, large, and absolute and yet is humble, wise, tolerant, and loving. Our
heavenly Father is so meek that he humbly subjects a part of Himself, His will, to ours. This has such
a profound effect on the character of our souls that we faithfully display meekness to our brothers
and sisters.
Lastly brothers and sisters, there is temperance--balance. The Father is such a balanced personality.
His symmetry is absolute and unified. The beauty of the Father's love is infinite and eternal. Our
souls are so impressed with this unification and harmonization of the character traits of the Father,
as revealed in the Son, that in our outward lives, we constantly seek to unify our characters with his
love, to take on the image of His Son. And all of this happens because the Father of love smiles upon
us.
This concludes today's message on the face of the heavenly 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 Face of the Heavenly Father
The Face of the heavenly Father
