The Meaning of the Trust of Faith
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 trust of faith.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Meaning of the Trust of Faith
"For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith." Romans Chapter 1, Verse 17
We hold theses truths to be self-evident because we have experienced them.
Brothers and sisters, when the time had come for the tragic mortal end of Jesus, the apostles were in emotional disarray. They sensed that their concept of the kingdom as they held it in their minds and souls was about to go up in smoke despite Jesus’’ constant reiteration that his kingdom was not of this world. No matter how difficult or unpleasant the situation, they had to walk by faith and not by sight. They would have to maintain faith in Jesus, that he was able to finish the work he had begun, that they would see him again.
We know that at some point in our journey, we undergo a similar experience. We are unable to see our way clear and must progress by faith. And this ushers our minds into the arms of faith, where we experience "that troublesome predicament”” where we always know less than we can believe.
We must trust the outworking of faith. We must surrender all to the power of the Father through His Son, Jesus. Just as he progressed by faith during his earthly life, so must we.
But how do we put our trust in faith? How do we know when we have surrendered all as opposed to being overwhelmed and giving up? How do we know when we are guilty of procrastination, equivocation, insincerity, problem avoidance, unfairness, and ease seeking? Just what do we do when we can’’t see our way clear in this life?
Sometimes we can better understand a problem if we look at the consequences of what happens when the problem is not satisfactorily dealt with--when we fail to exercise our trust in faith. When we fail to exercise complete trust in faith, we lose confidence in the divine way and no longer absolute depend upon the Father. We no longer commune with him, no longer seek his will. We lose hope of eternal salvation and give in to the selfish urges of life, that sad predicament that displays to the universe that we have declined survival beyond mortal life. It signals that we no longer desire eternal life, that we no longer desire to see that which "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard”” no longer desire to know that which has not entered into the heart of man ““the things God has prepared for those that love him." But most of it signals that we have no further desire to see the Father in eternity. And since we have lost trust in faith, we go for the gusto, with the motto that "we only go around once." Having embraced this attitude, other negative and increasingly soul-destructive attitudes follow.
When we fail to exercise trust in faith, we fail to pursue progressive ethics and morals and revert to animalistic tendencies. Following on the heels of the lack of trust in faith is the loss of the trust in the goodness of God in the face of bitter disappointment and crushing defeat. This signifies the loss of faith in spiritual reality and attempted dependence upon purely material realities and ultimately soul death.
Having lost faith in the goodness of God and our ultimate vindication over the material level of existence, we fail to generate profound courage and confidence in the face of natural adversity and physical calamity. And it naturally follows that since the loss of faith in the goodness of God, there is loss of the inexplicable poise and sustaining tranquility despite baffling diseases and acute physical suffering. Along with these is loss of the power to maintain a mysterious poise and composure of personality in the face of maltreatment and the rankest injustice. No angels will depict the picture of "behold, the man" to the universe. Not trailing behind but right up there beside the loss of spiritual composure is the loss of divine trust in ultimate victory in spite of the cruelties of seemingly blind fate and the apparent utter indifference of natural forces to human welfare.
Furthermore, the loss of trust in faith opens us to the loss of belief in God. We lose the ability to withstand withering attacks of logic and intellectual sophistries against the reality of God. We then move on to relinquish any hope of our soul surviving mortal death and give in to the deceptive teaching of false science and the persuasive delusions of unsound philosophy. Having destroyed our foundation for spiritual living, we succumb to the crushing overload of the complex and partial civilization of which we are apart. Having been overwhelmed by the crushing overload of civilization, we enthrone selfishness as our God and allow altruism to die in our souls. This is the loss of the divine spirit. After sustaining the loss of the divine spirit, we do not believe in, nor do we seek or expect, any kind of divine guidance, and acknowledge sin and evil to be an intrinsic part of human nature and seek to pass human laws that will eliminate or control them. Finally we signify the loss of our spiritual potential by the loss of the desire to worship God.
The spiritual journey that is to transform us from material creatures to spiritual creatures must be made by faith. Faith is the only way that we can accomplish this. Therefore, we must place our supreme trust in it, in order to avoid being locked in the material state, which is completely devoid of spiritual values and meanings. We must maintain our supreme trust in faith in order to follow the divine plan for our lives. We must surrender all to the Father. We must submit our wills to the Father’’s will. And when we have gone as far as we can go according to our human and finite understanding, we must not give up but submit our wills to the Father’’s will.
When we have come to the end of human and finite understanding, how do we submit our wills to the Father’’s will? Let us distinguish the difference between giving up and surrendering totally to the Father’’s will. When we give up, we cease to pursue the desire for divine perfection. We cease to grapple with the moral and spiritual problems of life. We lose the desire to continue to struggle. We fail to realize the all those values and meanings that make life meaningful are found and revealed in the struggle. It does not matter that we may have hit a brick wall of moral and spiritual mortar, but we must be willing to struggle on. We must never cede defeat in the moral and spiritual arena. When we give up, we lose sight of the divine spirit’’s radiation of hope-that quality that declares a better day awaits us. We refuse to allow hope to sustain and pull us through the struggle. After all, the struggles of life are temporary but their spiritual values and meanings are eternal. They will always be a part of our souls.
When we surrender totally to the Father’’s will, we submit our wills to his will in the moral and spiritual arena and agree to abide by the guidance of the spirit of truth in our moral and spiritual relationships. And we do this by adhering to these three principles of truth: "first, recognition of the fact of the sovereignty of God; second, belief in the truth of sonship with God; and third, faith in the effectiveness of the supreme human desire to do the will of God--to be like God."
Although we may not be able to overcome the material challenges of the material life, when we surrender our moral and spiritual wills to the Father’’s will, we have already won the victory. When we surrender to the Father’’s will, we don’’t mistake inaction for delays made necessary by either the need for rest and recharging of our minds and our spirits or by the necessary delays of time and the handicaps of space. When it is time to make a moral or spiritual decision, the Father will act. When it is time to pursue a change in direction, the Spirit of Truth will open the door of opportunity, saying, "this is the way, walk in it."
And when our material life collapses around our heads, we will rise like the phoenix. We may go down but our trust in faith will never go down: it will always remain intact when we submit to the Father’’s will. We will continue to worship him, no matter the material outcome, for we know that he is good. Our trust in faith will empower us so that we can "calmly stand by while our fondest ambitions perish and our keenest hopes crash; we positively know that such catastrophes are but the redirecting cataclysms which wreck one's temporal creations preliminary to the rearing of the more noble and enduring realities of a new and more sublime level of universe attainment."
This concludes today's message on understanding the meaning of the trust of faith. 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 Meaning of the Trust of Faith
