The Failure to Launch
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 shared many revelations of spiritual truth to me, and I want to share them with you. This morning we discuss the problem of failing to recognize, choose, and execute the Father’’s will. We seek to understand and hopefully gain some insight into this vexing problem.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Failure to Launch
Jesus said, "A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you." John, Chapter 13, Verse 34
Brothers and sisters, we know there are many who espouse doing of the Father’’s will, but something happens to derail the process of recognizing, choosing, and executing it (we call this ““failure to launch””). Before we begin our analysis, let us briefly review the three phases of doing the Father’’s will.
Recognition: The first step in doing the Father’’s will is seeking and recognizing his will. This will resides in the form of the divine spirit within our minds and souls. It manifests itself as the altruistic urge, the urge to be unselfishly concerned with others. This spirit works through love--the unselfish regard for another. Since divine things have to be loved in order to be known. This quality of the divine will allows us to separate the urges, desires, and thoughts from the purely human thoughts since the human urges, desires and thoughts are selfish. The love of the divine will, the desire for knowledge of the divine will, forthwith results in recognizing and knowing the Father’’s will. The Father’’s will is love.
Choosing: After having recognized the Father’’s will, there remains the task of choosing it (as opposed to choosing our will) in any given moral or spiritual situation. Here the impulses, urges, and thoughts of the Father’’s will are packages wrapped in truth, wisdom, and experience and made ready to be executed in our lives.
Execution: Finally after recognizing and choosing the Father’’s will, we are now ready to execute it, to have will act upon the subjective experience and transform it into an actual objective reality. Consider this: Will is that manifestation of the human mind which enables the subjective consciousness to express itself objectively and to experience the phenomenon of aspiring to be Godlike. But executing the Father’’s will without the restraints of wisdom and regard to truth is error. To avoid this, we must look to Jesus.
The divine Son, Jesus, when incarnated as a human being, showed us how to perfectly recognize, choose, and execute the Father’’s will. So the best way to recognize, choose, and execute the Father’’s will is to look at the life of Jesus. His instructions were that we are to love one another as he loves us. He said if we did this, all of humanity would recognize us as his disciples. Jesus’’ Spirit of Truth surrounds the souls of all his children. And this spirit is unerringly sensitive to truth. So with our minds and souls surrounded by the Spirit of Truth, we are in a position to perfectly execute the Father’’s will. All we need do is seek to know it when we are confronted with a moral or spiritual situation.
When we do recognize the Father’’s will, and when the moral and spiritual situation is compelling, something prevents us from choosing and then executing the divine will. Why is this? Let us consider this material analogy.
When we wish to travel from one point to another point in our automobiles, there are several steps that have to be taken before we can begin our journey. First we must start the vehicle. At this point the vehicle is ready to go, but it will not move unless we shift it into drive. So it is with executing the Father’’s will. Unless we act on it with our own will, the Father’’s will cannot be chosen or executed. We will be deprived of having the wonderful experience of allowing the Father’’s love flow through us to bathe a brother or sister.
““All true love is from God, and man receives the divine affection as he himself bestows this love upon his fellows. Love is dynamic. It can never be captured; it is alive, free, thrilling, and always moving. Man can never take the love of the Father and imprison it within his heart. The Father’’s love can become real to mortal man only by passing through that man’’s personality as he in turn bestows this love upon his fellows.””
Now we are ready to begin our analysis of the breakdown in executing the Father’’s will. Sometimes when we are confronted with a moral or spiritual decision, we do not take the time to stop and reflect on the moral and spiritual stimulus presenting itself for resolution. We are sometimes so preoccupied with self-interest that divine interest does not register. And this happens even in the face of praying to do the Father’’s will. The Father’’s will is not a magic wand. We must actively choose it for it to become a reality in our outer lives. So choosing the Father’’s will must always be uppermost in our minds as we proceed through the situations and circumstances of life. This we accomplish by our supreme dedication and consecration to doing the Father’’s will.
But dedication and consecration can only be effected by a thorough understanding of what we are dedicating and consecrating our wills to. It is easy to say "not my will, but your will be done." But to actually mean it is a horse of a different color. To move from an intellectual decision to a spiritual decision in respect to the Father’’s will is not easy, but it can be done if it is our wholehearted desire. So the reason for not choosing and executing the father’’s will is our lack of complete dedication to doing the Father’’s will. "Such animal vestigial traits as procrastination, equivocation, insincerity, problem avoidance, unfairness, and ease seeking are inconsistent with dedication and consecration to the Father’’s will.””
The failure to recognize the Father’’s will occurs when we lack the desire to seek it. Divine things have to be loved in order to be known. Sometimes we fail to recognize the Father’’s will in a given situation because the moral and spiritual stimuli are beyond our present level of growth. (This was the case for some but not all during the shameful period of human slavery in our country.) This can be satisfactorily addressed only by continuing to seek to know the Father’’s will. This practice enlarges the capacity to discern the Father’’s will. This brings about the "born-again experience," where the Father’’s will is recognized. Prior to this event, the soul is subject to error. The failure to recognize the Father’’s will nullifies the ability to choose and execute it since we cannot choose that which we do not recognize and cannot execute that which we can’’t choose.
The failure to choose the Father’’s will in the face of recognizing it ushers the soul into the potential realm of sin, the conscious refusal to choose the Father’’s will. This is a dangerous state for the soul to be in for habitual sinners can easily become iniquitous--the ability to recognize, choose, and execute the Father’’s will is eternally lost. While sinners can be forgiven, still having the power to choose the Father’’s will, no such status applies to the iniquitous soul since he has lost the ability to seek forgiveness. The soul in this case has met with its demise.
Finally we confronted with the reason for failure to execute the Father’’s will. The failure to execute the Father’’s will can be laid to three reasons: error, sin, and iniquity. The majority of the cases where the Father’’s will is not executed is because of error. This is due to ignorance of the Father’’s will and represents the unconscious violation of the Father’’s will. The second reasons lies at the foot of sin. In this situation, there is a conscious violation of the Father’’s will. In this situation the soul is intoxicated by its free will and forsakes its moral and spiritual obligations. And finally the last reason can be assigned to the doorstep of iniquity. Here we witness the vanishing control and destruction of the soul. This is eternal damnation.
In summary, the failure to launch can be avoided by a whole-hearted dedication to supreme values, to the Father’’s will. This makes the soul sensitive to the moral and spiritual stimuli that call forth the recognition, choosing, and execution of the Father’’s will.
This concludes today's message on understanding why we fail to do 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
Your Kingdom Come; Your Will Be Done!
Inspirational Messages of Light
By Dr. James Perry
The Failure to Launch
