The Reality of the Soul
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 reality of the soul.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Reality of the Soul
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Hebrews,
Chapter 11, Verses 1.
Brothers and sisters, the declaration "not my will, but your will be done" signals the attitude of a soul
that has found the Father in spirit. The Father's finding of the soul is signified by the desire of the
soul to find God. In fact the Father is the source of this desire. When this desire erupts in the soul,
the soul never rests until it finds the Father in spirit. Throughout the mind's doubts, the soul
continues its search for the Father. As the material mind points out the never-ending material
problems inconsistent with human existence and welfare, the soul continues to look to the Father for
help. This is reflected in the conscious mind by the material consciousness of praying for material
help.
The soul continues to pray, continues to search for the Father through this material phase. And even
though during this phase the soul does not yet recognize the leading of the Father, it continues to
pray, the quality of the prayer being gradually changed. This is reflected in the material mind by the
request for strength and endurance. The material mind prays that the spirit Father will give it what
it needs to overcome the material obstacles in its path. Still the soul continues to pray and finds itself
conscious and aware of being in the spiritual kingdom. This represents the state of the soul being
born again. Now the prayers of the soul and mind begin to approximate each other, as the material
mind begins to pray for the fruits of the spirit. The soul shows its consciousness as it begins to
induce the self to behave in the characteristic spiritual manner, for the fruits of the spirit are love,
faith, goodness, gentleness, meekness, temperance, long suffering, peace, and joy. The soul causes
the self to increasingly reflect these qualities in the very face of the inconsistencies of mortal
existence.
The soul continues to search for the spirit Father, now being able to recognize the leading of the
spirit, and this is reflected by the prayer of thanksgiving. The soul begins to feast on the goodness
of the spirit Father, and enjoys the liberating freedom of truth, and is thrilled with the pleasure and
satisfaction of the beauty of spiritual reality. And again all of this is in spite of the material
inconsistencies of life. Such a soul cries that God is good.
As the soul continues to feast off the divine goodness, a peculiar thing happens: the soul becomes
aware that it wants to become like the spirit Father. It acknowledges everlasting dependence upon
the Father for all things, meanings, and values. It forever submits its will to doing the Father's will.
This constitutes true worship and is expressed in the material mind as adoration, loyalty, and
faithfulness toward the spirit Father.
Now the soul has found the spirit Father and begins to take on the qualities of eternity. And though
the soul remains a being of time and space and suffers the handicaps of space and the delays of time,
its decisions increasingly reflect eternal qualities. The self that is fully dedicated and consecrated to
doing the Father's will has escaped from the isolation of making a decision. He searches his past
experiences for wisdom and seeks to forecast the effects of such a decision on future events. As he
continues to live, he looks farther into the past and projects further into the future. For each year of
wisdom that the soul is able to gather from experience, the Father matches by an equivalent amount.
Thus for a soul that has forty years of wisdom, the Father doubles this. This is a manifestation and
proof of the Father-son partnership.
The Father has no awareness of past, present, or future. He is an eternal being. The past, present, and
the future are forever in Him, as are all things, meanings, and values. An absolute being in
partnership with a finite being eventuates a quality of thought that ignores time and space. The
decisions of such a partnership, while not being absolute, absolutely transcends the finite. And the
comprehension of all of this in the face of temporal material reality constitutes the reality of the soul.
This concludes today's message on the reality of the soul. 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 Reality of the Soul
