The Perfect Spiritual Response
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 perfect spiritual response.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Perfect Spiritual Response
Jesus said, "I am the vine; ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same
bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." John, Chapter 15 Verse 5.
Brothers and sisters, in today's broadcast, we shall consider the feasibility of outwardly manifesting
the inside image of the Father through His Son, Jesus.
Albert Einstein is considered by some to be the great scientist of all times. His way of solving the
material problems of science was to do a thought experiment, and then see if he could then reproduce
the results of that thought experiment in the outside world. His greatest achievement, the "Theory
of Relativity," was in no small part due to his imagination of what it would be like to ride a beam
of light. In this thought experiment he tried to see how the state of things would change if he were
indeed observing this state from a prospective of riding a light beam. After he had grasped the
concept, he then went on to develop the math that would allow it to be tested in the outside world.
Our task today is similar but spiritual. Closer analysis should reveal that we have been in effect doing
this kind of experiment in the spiritual realm more or less all along, though we may not have thought
of it this way. Through our thoughts and desires, we have been endeavoring to be more self
conscious of the things of the spirit and thus be more effective in our ability and capacity to manifest
the inside image to the outside.
Whatever else we pray for, the key feature of our prayers should be that we are empowered to
represent the heavenly Father through His Son, Jesus, who is on the inside, to our brothers and
sisters, who are on the outside. We must be clear about what it means to represent the Father and
what the effects are of doing the same. The Spirit of Truth defines what conduct is suitable and
acceptable to the Father: It therefore is the means by which we represent the Father. We identify the
divine presence in our mind by the unselfish desire to love; the experience of love is faith, trust, and
assurance.
With the Spirit of Truth enshrouding our souls, the impulses emanating from our souls are reflective
of the Father's character when we desire to manifest him. We refer only to spiritual phenomena.
When we assay to represent the Father, we reveal his loving and merciful, matchless character to our
brothers and sisters. This unselfish manifestation of spirit becomes thoroughly integrated in the
material acts that we perform. In short, the manifestation of the Father is not quantitative (how many
acts) but qualitative (the quality of what we achieve).
Perfection of quantity is not possible in the world that we live in. That is, we may not be able to carry
them out perfectly. When viewed in retrospect, it is seen that the response to our material efforts are
at times less than perfect. And we see no way around this difficulty because perfection of quantity
is related to time and space, and these formidable barriers make perfection of completion at this time
impossible. What we must focus on is the quality that we put into any given task. As time goes on
the coordination of time and space becomes increasingly a reality.
Though we have little control over how material activities manifest themselves, we do have control
over quality. We can allow these activities to be the means by which we reveal the Father, or we can
allow them to drive us back into our material nature where our responses are usually selfish. We can
pray that, despite the pressures of the moment, we can maintain an attitude of patience, love,
empathy, and mercy. We can maintain the supreme desire to represent the Father through His Son,
Jesus.
Our desire is the assurance that we are representing the Father's character to our brothers and sisters.
Desire is a compelling urge that is related to doing the Father's will. Thus, whatever we truly desire,
and the Father wills, is. If we desire to do the Father's will, that desire is itself proof that we are doing
the Father's will in any given situation; that is, we are revealing the fruits of the spirit. There are three
levels of desire, the first of which is slight. Here, the object of personal desire is greater than the
desire to do the Father's will. In the second level, there is a 50% desire to choose the Father's will
in the face of other competing desires. And the third level of desire is manifested with no competing
desires other than to do the Father's will. This supreme level of desire is a perfect revelation of the
fruits of the spirit, the Father's character.
Thus we see that the Father's image can be manifested on the outside simply by desire and faith, the
supreme desire for this translation and the wholehearted belief that it is occurring in response to our
supreme desire. Consider this analogy. When you enter a dark room by turning the switch, light
comes on. The circuit and the power were already there. The only thing remaining was the switch.
When the switch was closed, the current flowed through the circuit to the light bulb, and there was
light. In a similar but spiritual sense, the power and the circuit to manifest the light of the Father's
love through the light of our characters is already present. All that is required is to close the switch,
to supremely desire to manifest the Father's character. And once you desire the Father's will to flow
through you, the circuit, the Spirit of Truth, becomes complete, and the light of the Father's love
floods the light bulb of your character, radiating this light of love and mercy to all within its range.
Finally in this thought experiment where we see ourselves as perfectly manifesting the Father's
character through His Son, Jesus, on the inside buttressed by our supreme desire and activated by
living faith, there appears the perfect response on the outside.
This concludes today's message on understanding meaning of the perfect spiritual response. 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 Perfect Spiritual Response
