The Supreme Achievement
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 consider the meaning of the supreme achievement.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Supreme Achievement
"And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him." Genesis, Chapter 5, Verse
24.
Brothers and sisters, today we shall examine the supreme achievement of life, which is comprised
by the actualization of the final spiritual goal in our mortal life before passing on to the mansions
on high. This is the eternal decision to forever abide by the Father's will and bestows eternal
salvation. And all this is accomplished by wholeheartedly believing Jesus.
Now that Jesus has come, he has left his Spirit of Truth within us, giving us augmented spiritual
power to achieve spiritual goals. To whom much is given, much is expected. But still in this age, we
find so few really dedicated to doing the Father's will. We have many religious people. In fact it
would not be an overstatement to say that most of the world is religious in some respect. But their
religion is for the most part material and concerns the supposed faith influence of God in the
intervention of the material affairs of their lives and in the world. Associated with this attitude is the
belief that intellectual belief in God will bring about salvation. The pursuit of intellectual awareness
of supposed religious instruction is supposed to ensure divine salvation. Observe the nature of
prayers in the population and you will see that this is the case. This is the selfish intellectual response
to the spiritual urge taking up residence within and surrounding mortal man. When a true spiritual
response is made, it is usually assigned to some other cause. We don't realize that seeking true
spiritual responses to our moral and spiritual challenges is the very object of all religious striving.
There is an urge in all of us that propels us to respond to the needs of others in a loving and unselfish
way and to respond to this urge with the very best that we are capable. But for the most part this urge
is ignored. We see it breaking into the lives of the population in the best light when tragedy strikes,
and the population is galvanized momentarily. But this soon recedes as the population returns to
business as usual. Now we know that if individuals wholeheartedly follow this urge springing from
the deepest part of them, they will soon become conscious of the spiritual way of salvation. They will
soon know God's will because they will have become like it, and they will be well on the way to
achieving the supreme goal.
We know that doing the Father's will is the secret to achieving the supreme achievement. But this
goal, though spiritual, follows the same pathway as when we achieve any worthwhile material goal.
The fact that this is a spiritual goal does not invalidate the process of goal attainment. When we set
a goal, we are motivated to pursue it. The goal represents something valuable so we are motivated
to strive for it. But what do we mean by being motivated to strive for it? By motive we mean
purpose, our reason for achieving it. And motivation then becomes the power that propels the
motive. If our motive is pure and true, then all other things being equal we can achieve the goal.
However in the material realm, we must realize that material handicaps may prevent us from
achieving a particular material goal. But not so in the spiritual realm.
In the spiritual realm, no such handicaps exist other than the necessary passing of time for the factual
realization of the spiritual goal. The true spiritual realization becomes actual just as soon as the goal
is wholeheartedly embraced. Those who have achieved factual spiritual goals testify that the goal
was already a reality when they embraced it, but they did not recognize it at the time. When an
individual finally acknowledges God in his life, he says that he was there all the time, just not
acknowledged or realized. While there is always growth in the comprehension of divine values and
meanings, the basic values and meanings become immediately available, and the individual is
transported to a new plane of spiritual existence right there and then.
He has been translated into the spiritual kingdom of God. He has become a citizen of a spiritual
kingdom, a kingdom where there is only one rule for living and that is the rule of love. He has
become separated from his mortal brothers and sisters who not only factually remain in the material
kingdom as he does, but who do not enjoy citizenship in the spiritual kingdom. They have not yet
begun the conscious spiritual journey. And this new citizenship is realized immediately because of
the different value systems held and the different meanings that the spiritual citizens enjoy.
This stimulus to pursue this goal must have its origin in our desires, for if we are really desirous of
achieving something, then we will begin to mobilize all the powers of self. But when we set out to
achieve a spiritual goal, not only do we begin mobilizing the powers of self but we also mobilize the
powers of the divine self. This desire is efficacious in that it provides the motivation for the hot
pursuit of the divine goal. Such an individual with this quality of desire can be said to be on fire with
it. It totally consumes him, and no competing desire can survive the flames of the glory of this desire.
Desire is the force that start things in motion.
While our desire sets the whole process in motion, our faith keeps it in motion by providing the
energy and power to keep the desire aflame. Faith, the power of realizing this spiritual reality, now
becomes the mechanism whereby we are sustained among the rip currents of doubt and material
tendencies amid the delays of time for the factual achievement of the goal. If we exercise our faith
supremely, that is, be true to it, we will achieve the supreme achievement. We simply must
wholeheartedly believe that we can do it. And if we wholeheartedly believe we can do it, we will
increasingly make those spiritual decisions that will bring it about. The Spirit of Truth will empower
us.
Faith allows us to enjoy the values and meanings of another future spiritual existence now.
Remember, when such a decision of such high spiritual import is made, the Father's spirit looks
ahead to the future and considers it a fact, not being limited by time or space. The Father acts
accordingly, revealing the spiritual ramifications of such an decision. Faith is the force that moves
and turns the gears of the spiritual wheel of potential reality into the weave of spiritual actuality.
And next we must have an attitude of accepting and living the values of this future existence today.
We must follow Jesus, who went about doing good. In the material world, if we set a goal, for the
desire to really be effective we must visualize ourselves as all ready achieving that goal. The spiritual
world is no different. We must see ourselves everyday as already having achieved the supreme
achievement, we must see ourselves like Jesus, as active sons and daughters of the Father, whose
sole function spiritually is to allow the Father through His Son, Jesus, to reveal His nature through
us under all and any circumstances.
The assumption of this spiritual attitude is even more so because the values and meanings of the
future factual goal state are a present reality in our souls and minds. All that is required is for us to
acknowledge and embrace these values and meanings that have been given to us as a foretaste of
things to come. And when we do factually attain the supreme achievement, there will be a difference
in our outward appearance, a form change, but no change in the previous divine values and meanings
that we have accepted by faith while the growth cycle ran its course. After all, we are all children of
the Father, yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and no amount of growth can change that. We become
mature, but we are still the children of the Father.
And finally there is the total commitment to the supreme goal. There must be total commitment to
achieve a worthy material goal. And there must be total commitment to doing the Father's will, for
it is in doing the Father's will that the transmutation of divinity occurs. The persistent doing of the
Father's will can only make us like the Father as demonstrated by His Son, Jesus. This achievement
of Godlikeness is the accomplishment of the supreme achievement. Total commitment means being
willing to be and do all things necessary for the acquirement of the supreme achievement, the
acquirement of a moral and spiritual character like Jesus This is just another way of saying that we
should embrace and follow the truth whatever it is and wherever it leads. And one day in glory, when
we are actually transported to the new level of existence like Enoch, we will look back and wonder
how it all occurred. It happened so gradually and naturally that we will marvel at the Father's wisdom
and his goodness, and the divine love and mercy that made it all possible.
This concludes today's message on the understanding the meaning of the supreme achievement. 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 Supreme Achievement
