The Faith Relationship
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 meaning of the faith relationship.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Faith Relationship
I may wake up here or there,
but I will wake up-the Soul!
"And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should
lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day." John, Chapter 6, Verse 39.
Brothers and sisters, our faith relationship is characterized by absolute knowledge on the Father's
part, and faith knowledge on our part. This situation exists no doubt because of the infinite, eternal
and absolute consciousness of the Father, and only a faith growing consciousness on the part of our
souls. Our soul's attitude must always be one of faith-knowledge, at least while it is in the flesh.
Therefore must we grasp the presence of the Father by faith which floods our minds and souls. Our
souls are in the process of acquiring knowledge of the Father. Its very growth is predicated on this
knowledge. It is no mere metaphor when it is said, "always will we know Him because we trust
him."
Doing the Father's will is the secret to the process of acquiring knowledge of the Father. This process
imparts knowledge to our souls because it in effect transforms our souls into the image of the Father.
We consciously desire to do the Father's will but unconsciously do it. That is, our souls are not aware
of the process of transformation, and always must faith and trust stand for this ongoing process. It
is a mystery how the Father transmits knowledge of himself to our souls. This is not intellectual
knowledge or mind knowledge. Neither is it idealized knowledge, but it is spiritual knowledge. Mind
knowledge comes from the idea of God, and the facts concerning his nature and attributes. Ideal
knowledge comes from the recognition of the soul-stimulating values that emanate from the Father,
but spiritual knowledge is the degree of conformity to the Father's image, the image of his Son,
Jesus; it is the finite recognition of the divine spirit itself and is always in direct proportion to the
degree of Fatherlikeness, the degree to which our characters have become like Jesus, who is the
personal revelation of the Father.
Why is it this way? In eternity spiritual reality always realitizes as the thing itself. As in the case of
wisdom or any divine value, it is always personalized. That is a person becomes the very
personification of the value. When the Father's spirit indwells (which is the knowledge of itself) our
minds and souls, it accomplishes the same thing except that it occurs in time and space. In this case,
being finite and being indwelt by Father's spirit which is absolute, this process of becoming the
absolute value itself can never have an end. From a practical point of view, this means that the
recognition and knowledge of the Father goes on forever. Always will our souls continue to become
more and more like the Father.
The Father is absolute and therefore utterly ignores time and space; therefore his presence in our
souls becomes indistinguishable from the soul. The Father and his sons are one. The Father's spirit
weaves itself into the very fabric of our souls, and no one can tell where the soul begins and where
the Father ends. So intertwined are the two together that it requires faith to recognize the Father's
spirit. This process of intertwining the soul and spirit in time and space is accomplished by moral
and spiritual decisions. Every time we make a spiritual and moral choice, the process of intertwining
the soul with the spirit continues just a little bit more. Perfection of this process occurs when the soul
and the spirit become one, when our souls become so much like the Father, we become eternal like
the Father.
So then faith knowledge of the Father is in an analogous way similar to gaining knowledge of any
individual. There is mind knowledge and there is the knowledge of experience. The mind knowledge
comes from the factual knowledge of the individual. Experiencing spiritual knowledge comes from
actually interacting with the individual and observing his character first hand. Such interaction is the
knowing of that individual. In other words you come to a knowledge of how the person can be
expected to behave in any given situation or any given circumstance. To thoroughly know the
individual means going through these experiences with him. Knowledge of the Father is no different.
Experience with him is the only way to acquire spiritual knowledge of his character. Factual
knowledge can be acquired without experience with his character, but such knowledge does not
transform the soul.
As time goes on, the soul comes more and more able to recognize the Father's spirit. The eyes of the
soul can only recognize the Father to the degree to which it has become like him. As the soul
continues to become like the Father, its recognition of the Father increases. This recognition of the
Father by our souls is by faith. And as our faith increases, recognition of divine urges also increases.
We become increasingly skilled at recognizing the divine urges from our purely human urges, as
these urges become integrated into our souls. When this process is completed, our souls lose all
desire to respond to the universe in a selfish manner, but seek to identify with the divine spirit and
manifest these urges out into the universe in an unselfish manner. And we all recognize that these
urges are true, beautiful, and good, truly Fatherly loving.
This concludes today's message on understanding the meaning of the faith relationship. 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 Faith Relationship
