The Revelation of Spiritual Values

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. Brothers and sisters, in today’’s broadcast we shall examine the nature of and process for receiving spiritual revelation.

And now, sit back and listen to today's message. 

The Revelations of Spiritual Values 

"Howbeit when he, the Spirit of Truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak." John, Chapter 16, Verse 13

We know the spirits of the Father and His Son, Jesus, live within us. This has been made of record. Jesus said, "If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and make our abode with him." Jesus said many things while he was living in the flesh, but regarding he and his Father, he said that if we love one another as he loved us all men would know that we were his disciples. And if Jesus and the Father are living within us, then they can reveal themselves to us. But we must remember that these are revelations of spiritual values--the values of truth, beauty, and goodness united in love as they pertain to our sonship status with the heavenly Father through his Son, Jesus.

 
At the end of John’’s Gospel, he said, "Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.”” Since we were not there, we could not know all the things that Jesus said and did. But Jesus did say that when he sent the Spirit of Truth into the heart of the believer, ““He will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak." The Spirit of Truth reveals truth to our souls and minds. He does not reveal factual knowledge. Factual knowledge is something that we discover with our material minds. When Jesus stood before Pilate and said that he bore witness to the truth, and everyone that is of the truth hears his voice, Pilate responded by asking, "What is truth?"

Now we must answer this question because truth is what the Spirit of Truth reveals. In our human reactions we define truth as that which is real, not a lie. When we ask someone to tell the truth about a matter, we are asking them to tell what the relationship is between him and the matter under consideration. For example, if we ask whether someone murdered another, we are asking him to tell us what his relationship was to the act of murder. Did he do it? Truth defines a relationship that exists between things. Jesus bore witness to the truth. He was the personification of truth. He embodies the relationship between himself and the heavenly Father, the Son of Man and the Son of God. And this relationship between him and the heavenly Father is perfect. The Spirit of Truth reveals the relationship between us as sons and daughters of the heavenly Father. Eventually this Spirit of Truth will lead us into the full understanding of the relationship between us and the heavenly Father just as it did with Jesus, who entered the world as a helpless infant completely devoid of knowledge of his relationship with the heavenly Father and who grew to that high state of realization where he declared that he and the Father were one, that whosoever had seen him had seen the heavenly Father.

But the Spirit of Truth can only reveal within our souls only those values and meanings Jesus revealed when he lived the mortal life. The Spirit of Truth gradually reveals the relationship (truth) between us and the heavenly Father us as we make moral and spiritual choices. As we choose these values, they become part of our souls and we increasingly take on the divine nature.

Jesus, the Son of God, having lived the mortal life from birth to death, having captured all of the divine values and meanings from birth to death, is now in position to relive his life through each of us by revealing these same divine values and meanings to us from our birth to death. During every step of our moral and spiritual growth, the Spirit of Truth reveals divine values and meanings to us. While it is true that most of us do not take the time to reflect on them, nevertheless they remain, awaiting the opportunity for us to discover them. As we experience the circumstances of life, the Spirit of Truth selects moral and spiritual values to emphasize, depending on the stage of moral and spiritual development that we are traversing.

 
Thus, as it were, God lives in us, through us, and experiences with us and as us during each stage of our mortal existence. Thus we have access to all the values Jesus had when he sojourned in the flesh, all those spiritual values and meanings that he discovered during his life in the flesh where he ascended from the purely human consciousness to God consciousness. And this is how the Spirit of Truth leads us into all truth: It actually contains all of those divine values and meanings of Jesus’’ earthly life and reveals them to us as we make moral and spiritual choices, as we seek to duplicate the divine perfection that he demonstrated during his earthly life.

 
Spiritual revelation is the process whereby we receive the divine values and meanings and incorporate them into our very being, obeying the Father’’s command to be perfect even as he is perfect. We seek and we find. And now we can also see the righteousness of the Father’’s command to be perfect even as he is perfect. He has given us all that we need to accomplish this tremendous feat. First, he has given us a moral nature, where we can choose good over evil and truth over error. The values of the good, the true, and the beautiful are sponsored by the Father’’s spirit and interpreted by the Spirit of Truth. Next, he has given us his spirit to reveal the values of goodness to our souls; third, he has given us the Spirit of Truth to interpret these values as well as the power to choose them.

Thus when we are confronted with a situation that requires a moral choice, a choice of choosing good over evil, we discern the two choices, one sponsored by the human nature and the other sponsored by the divine nature. We begin making these choices as soon as we develop a moral nature and the power to choose. This begins around five years of age, when the Father’’s spirit takes up residence in our souls, and the Spirit of Truth surrounds our souls and begins the process of self-revelation. And now we can see how the Father through his Son, Jesus, lives through us. Every time we make a moral choice, choosing good over evil, we choose the Father’’s will; as we choose the Father’’s will we progress morally and spiritually. But the Spirit of Truth has added a new dimension, a new quality to our lives. It imparts new prerogatives to the soul. It allows the soul to live the heavenly life while still living the life in the flesh. This Spirit of Truth causes us to be born again. But this time, rather than being born of the flesh, we are born of the spirit and are now able to see the Kingdom of God, with all of its divine values and meanings.

Though we have the spirit of the Father and the Son living within us, many of us refuse to make use of these powerful spiritual influences. We do not consistently choose the higher values that appear in our minds and souls when confronted with suitable spiritual and moral stimuli. We do a series of ingenious accommodations with them, accommodations designed to avoid choosing the Father’’s will. And these self-deceptions are expressed in the form of "procrastination, equivocation, insincerity, problem avoidance, unfairness, and ease seeking." 
These same brothers and sisters who are not dedicated to doing the Father’’s will contend that no human being can achieve the moral and spiritual perfection of Jesus as he lived his life in the flesh. What a travesty of misunderstanding! How can we pronounce something impossible of achievement when the Father has commanded us to do so? How can we pronounce something as being impossible without even trying? "With God all things are possible. We should cease to waste time in debating whether such a feat is possible; rather should we dedicate our will to doing the Father’’s will and see what happens.

 
So few of us achieve moral and spiritual perfection as demonstrated by Jesus because we simply refuse to follow him, to do the Father’’s will. In order to make consistent and continuous moral and spiritual growth, we must dedicate and consecrate our will to doing the Father’’s will. The proof of this dedication to doing the Father’’s will is our sincere desire to do so, our illumination by worship on the inside, and the continuous translation of these values through prayer in the form of the external fruits of the spirit. As the revelation of spiritual values continues, our souls are elevated higher and higher, even to the heights of divine perfection.

This concludes today's message on further understanding the process and nature of the revelation of spiritual values. 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 Revelation of Spiritual Values