The Growth of Divine 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 growth of divine love in our souls.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Growth of Divine Love
"No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit." First John, Chapter 4, Verses 13.
Brothers and sisters, in today’s broadcast, we discuss the growth of divine love in our souls. The first step in this growth of divine love in our souls occurs after we have been born of the Spirit. We know that prior to our being born again, we were not supremely concerned about loving one another as Jesus commanded us. And this was because, “except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” He can not comprehend the wisdom of the way of love. All he knows is the selfish desires of the flesh. But after we are born again, obeying this command becomes our supreme passion.
After we are born again, we are no longer servants of God, but have become exalted sons and daughters of the Father, and have begun the process of perfecting his love in us. As we can see, this involves a growth process. But even though, the perfection of the love of God in our souls requires a growth process, the fruit of the spirit begins to flow though our souls just as soon as we are born again. We might be spiritual babes, but we are recognized as being sons and daughters of the heavenly Father for “the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” When we are born again, we become new creatures; this recreation of ourselves is our souls, and our souls have the intrinsic power to respond differently to our moral and spiritual environments than our carnal natures.
And when the Spirit observes this new creature responding to the moral and spiritual environment according the Father’s will as revealed by the Son, Jesus, it along with our spirit, the creator of our souls testifies that we are indeed the children of God. And though these spiritual transactions escape the grasp of the material mind, they are very real, as verified by way the new creatures begins to respond to spiritual stimuli, and begins to bear the fruit of the spirit. “The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, temperance, and meekness.” And we bear witness with our material minds that these spiritual qualities were lacking in us before we were born again.
But to further clarify the meanings of these spiritual transactions to our mind, let us consider the material analogy of the conception and birth of a material baby. When the mother becomes pregnant with her child, long before the baby is born, she acknowledges that she is carrying new life, a life that will be born into the world soon. And she prepares herself and her environment for the day when this child will be born into the world and begin a separate existence apart from herself.
Finally the day arrives when the infant child is born into the world. It comes into the world, not complete, but with the necessary reflexes that will allow it to survive until it is mature enough to understand the things it must do to survive. Now this baby though immature looks just like any other human being. It has all the physical features of a human being, though they are not mature enough to be of use at this stage of its development. But we all recognize that this baby is human, and we treat him as human. We invest great time and care in this child because we recognize his future potentials.
This period of the baby incubating in the mother’s womb is similar to the incubating soul in the mind. It is conceived by the spirit and the material mind. At this time, the soul only knows moral realities. But it is growing. As it continues to experience moral realities, choosing good over evil, it approaches the day of its birth, the born again experience. Finally the day arrives when the soul is born agin. It arrives not in the mature form of the adult son or daughter of the Father, but all spirituals beings recognize the potential of this newly born soul. This soul arrives with the ability to immediately begin to satisfy his thirst for righteousness and his hunger for truth, the spiritual qualities that will allow it to develop to full maturity.
During this period of growth, the soul increasingly has the desire to become like its Father. It observes what the Father is doing through his Son, and seeks to emulate him. At first his ability to emulate his spiritual Father is incomplete, just as the infant child efforts to emulate his earthly parents are incomplete at first. But as the new spiritual sons and daughters of the Father continue to grow gaining experience, a new element is added to their efforts to emulate the spiritual Father, and that is the element of spiritual wisdom. More and more their loving acts of service and mercy are conditioned by his forecasts of wisdom which is acquired as a result of disappointment and reflection upon that disappointment. More and more the quality of the fruit of the spirit deepens in their souls, reflecting the ability to more and more model their souls into the image of the Son. And as this spiritual growth continues, our souls eventually becomes perfected, and this is the perfection of the love of the heavenly Father in our souls, and also a reflection of the perfection of our relationship with the heavenly Father through His Son, Jesus.
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” We will be perfectly reflective of the “Image of His Son.”
This concludes today's message on understanding the meaning of the growth of divine love in our souls. 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 Growth of Divine Love
