The Search for the Heavenly Father

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 search for the heavenly Father 

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

The Search for the Heavenly Father

"No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is
perfected in us." John, Chapter 4, Verse 12

With weary feet, we march and we march,
With bleary eyes we search and we search,
But he still remains out of sight and reach.
He has yet to be found.

Brothers and sisters, in today’’s broadcast, we shall explore the problem of the search for the
heavenly Father. We shall approach this problem the way that we would approach any problem of
trying to find someone. We shall use a material example and from there we shall proceed to the
spiritual process of searching for and finally finding the heavenly Father. 

Let us suppose that we wanted to find a human being. Now how would we go about such a task?
First I think that before proceeding on our adventure, we would first determine if the person really
existed, determine if he did exist that he was still alive. Having satisfied that criteria, the next thing
we would do is gather information about him. We need to have some means of identifying him once
we have found him; otherwise we would not recognize him when we found him. He could be right
in our midst, even sitting right beside us or down the street, and we would be oblivious to his
presence. For purpose of illustration, let us assume that the individual that we want to find is also
desirous of finding us, and is in fact in search of us. And though the process of finding someone who
does not want to be found is somewhat more difficult, the technique is the same.

Now lets begin a systematic search for our person. In this world of many races and ethnic groups,
we need to know where he sits. What country does he live in? Is he a male or female? Is he young,
middle age, or old? Is he tall, short, or average height? What is the color of his eyes? What is the
color of his hair? Is he healthy or sick? Does he wear glasses? Does he have any physical problems
that might alter the way he walks? Does he walk with a cane or is he in a wheelchair? How does he
speak? Does he speak fast or slow or average? What is the tone of his voice? 

Now what about his social habits? Is he married, single, or divorced? Does he have any children?
What kind of work does he do? Does he smoke cigarettes or use alcohol? Does he have any
addiction problems? What are his religious affiliations? What church or religious institutions is he
a member of? Does he belong to any social clubs?

Now something about his character. Does he keep his word? Is he reliable and dependable? Can he
be trusted? Is he courageous or cowardly? How does he respond to adversity? Does he tend to be
optimistic or pessimistic? Is he reflective or frivolous? Does he have a good sense of humor or is he
dour? Does he hold a grudge? Does he wear his feelings on his sleeve?

Now having gathered all of this information, it is fairly simple to find this person. We can start with
his known address, and if we are lucky we will find him there. If he is not there, we can
systematically explore the information we have about him. Using various search techniques, we can
find him fairly easily, though some time may be consumed as we check out all of our leads. But since
he is also trying to find us, we should find each other fairly quickly.

Now having found the individual there is a process to know him. We have acquired lots of
information about him, but we must transfer knowledge about him to knowledge of him. The two
are not the same. We must, for want of a better phrase, "get to know him." And we do this by
spending time with him, establishing a relationship with him, where we become intimately involved
in his life, and observe how he responds to his life. This takes time but will eventually lead us to
complete knowledge of him. He is a finite individual--that is, he has limits; he can be thoroughly
known because we are similar in capacity and status. We both are mortal and material. Surely a finite
personality can completely know another finite individual. 

Now that we have set the stage, we are prepared to search for the heavenly Father. When we begin
our search for the heavenly Father, the desire to find him is the proof that we have found him. The
heavenly Father being an eternal being is not limited by time and space. Therefore does our desire
for him bring an instant response. The Father is love. The Father is present within our souls, but we
must get to know him. We must find out what he is like——what His character is and what our
relationship to him is? There is only one way we can get to know the Father and that is through his
Son, Jesus. The reason for this is because Jesus is the personal revelation of the Father. No one
comes to the Father except through His Son, Jesus. 

Fortunately for us, His Son, Jesus, lived among us and revealed the Father to us. As we study the life
of Jesus, we find that he was a human being just like me and you. He hungered and satisfied it with
food; he was thirsty and satisfied that thirst with water. He tired and rested. In all respects, he was
just like us, except he was the Father incarnate. The Father is a spirit. It was in and through his
routine activities that Jesus revealed the Father. He revealed that the Father was loving and merciful.
These qualities of the Father permeated all of his activities. He taught us that we were the children
of the Father, and that the Father desired us to worship him in truth and in spirit. He went about
doing good. And when he had finished his mortal life here, he left behind his spirit to continue to
instruct us in our relationship with the Father. To get to know the Father, we must spend time with
him through His Son, Jesus. 

By spending time with Jesus and obeying his command to love one another as he loves us, we
become like him and the Father. We have to become like the Father in order to recognize him
because we are dealing with spirit, spirit is quality, and quality cannot be recognized unless there is
similarity. In our material example, remember, we were able to find and know the material person
that we were looking for because we were just like them; spiritually the same principle applies. We
must become like the Father in order to know him. All who find the Father find the Son first. And
this is the endless flow of love and mercy to our brothers and sisters. As we allow love and mercy
to flow through us, we come to know their source——our spiritual Father.
This concludes today's message on understanding the search for the heavenly Father. 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. 


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The Search for the Heavenly Father