The Validation Process
Your Kingdom Come; Your Will Be Done!
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. In today’’s broadcast, we explore the validation process of two-way conscious communication with the heavenly Father.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Validation Process
"If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though you believe not me, believe the works: That you may know, and believe that the Father is in me, and I in him." John, Chapter 10, Verses 37 and 38
Brothers and sisters, we know that when we communicate with the heavenly Father, this process is subjective. There is no way that we can objectify these communications since they take place within our minds and souls. There is no separate mechanism that the divine spirit uses for expressing himself. Therefore he must use the minds that we have. So there must be some mechanism that allows us to differentiate the thoughts of the divine spirit from our thoughts. There must also be some mechanism that allows us to proceed with confidence that we have in fact received conscious communication from the heavenly Father via the divine spirit.
We know that the Father reveals himself by nature. Therefore some degree of likeness must exist between us and the heavenly Father. We are the Father’’s children. We are thus qualified increasingly to understand him and to discern his attitude towards certain issues we bring to his attention. When a child is young, he does not know his earthly Father well. It takes time before the child is able to recognize his father and then even longer before he really comes to know him. When the child arrives as this knowledge, he knows what kind of attitude his father has toward certain issues brought to him. And since he knows his father well, he knows what the answers to his petitions are even before he asks his father and even before his father answers him.
The period between recognizing his earthly father and knowing his father is very similar to a child who recognizes that it is going to get a shot and dreads the encounter. The child, however, does not recognize what the shot will do for him. It takes times to bridge this gap in understanding. When understanding has increased, the reaction to the shot is different. This is analogous to recognizing the divine spirit and coming to know the divine spirit. When we come to really know the heavenly Father via the divine spirit, we know what his attitude is towards the issues we bring before him. His attitude is always of love, patience, mercy, and forgiveness--divine goodness. That is the framework that forms the basis of all the answers to our petitions from the heavenly Father.
Prior to coming into knowledge of the heavenly Father, which is knowledge of truth, we may request many unwise things like a small child, which he wisely denies. But in this very process of being denied these unwise requests, we gain knowledge about him. The knowledge of the Father is obtained in the process of becoming like him. Conscious knowledge of the Father casts out all fear and dread from our minds and souls. If we are in communication with him, we not only recognize his presence but also recognize his power. And this power assures us that he is able to protect us from all real harm and danger and his great love for us ensures that this power will be used for our well-being. We are precious in his sight. He will not allow even one strand upon the heads of our soul to be harmed. The Father’’s grasp is all encompassing.
After we come to know him, through his Son, Jesus, we engage in adult communication, and these communications of truth can be consciously validated. Our adult communications with the Father entails the problems associated with our becoming perfect even as he is perfect, and with the problems associated with serving our brothers and sisters. The imperfect environment is the stage upon which the needed moral and spiritual stimuli unfold to perfect our characters as well as the need to serve our brothers and sisters. Our guardian angels use this environment to maximize the moral and spiritual stimuli that bring out our hidden moral and spiritual potentials. And they never let up until we achieve that perfection of character and spirit, for as soon as we master one set of moral and spiritual challenges, they present us with even more difficult ones to overcome. And if we fail to grasp the divine values and meanings of these moral and spiritual encounters, they present them to us over and over again in the guise of different scenarios until we do grasp them. They are persistent in their efforts to train and enlighten us.
In this way, we are continually presented with progressive moral and spiritual challenges that assist us in unfurling our moral and spiritual potentials. This ceaseless manipulating of the moral and spiritual environment, even the material environment, ensures that we will talk with the heavenly Father in our desperate desire and need for moral and spiritual guidance and in the demands of brotherhood placed upon us by the compelling needs of our brothers and sisters.
As we consciously enter into the presence of the heavenly Father, making a conscious decision to talk with him, we should use every day language. Due to the work of the guardian angels, we have complex moral and spiritual problems that we wish to understand, gain insight into, and ultimately solve. This is best achieved by having regular conversations with the heavenly Father just as we would with another human being. This practice helps us clarify our thinking and understand the nature of the problem and insures that we are talking to him about things that really matter to us, things that have presented themselves as barriers to our achieving divine perfection.
We may have wrestled with the problem and exhausted our capacity for resolution, so we go to the Father and tell him about it. In doing so, we listen to the Father as he speaks through our thoughts, desires, urges, and prompts. The Father provides us with the ideal solution by revealing the truth, beauty, and goodness of that situation. As we continue to talk with him, gradually our understanding becomes clear, we gain critical insight. We become convicted of the best way to proceed with the solution of the problem, and even though we may desire a different solution, our faith and trust admonishes us to heed the Father’’s wisdom in resolving the problem. Having received the answer, we then seek the wisdom and courage to implement it.
When we implement the solution and observe its outworking, our communication with the Father becomes validated. It may take some time for the solution to bear fruit. And even though the emotions may churn and the material nature may strain at the bit, the sense of moral and spiritual satisfaction that result from implementing a righteous decision of love justifies the wait that comes from the delays of time and the immaturity and stubbornness of the other parties involved. Remember the path of our moral and spiritual perfection runs not through the emotions or the satisfaction of the material nature but runs through our moral and spiritual natures.
In another situation, due to the vicissitudes of life and being subject to them, we may feel harassed and unsure about our status as we continue to repine in the cyclones of disagreeable experiences. We know that the way of the transgressor is hard, and despite our desire to do the Father’’s will at all times, we may feel that we have unintentionally strayed off of the path of growth, the path of moral and spiritual challenges. At such times we consciously enter the Father’’s presence and relieve our emotional reaction to our moral and spiritual burden. He has said, "Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give your rest." We share with him our concerns and insecurities, our fears, our hopes, and dreams, and our desire to always remain subjected to his will.
The Father speaks to us with words of encouragement, reaffirming that we are indeed his children and that we are pursuing his divine will, becoming like he is. After refreshing conscious contact with the Father, we gain assurance, confidence, hope, a more determined attitude to see the situation through to its end, and we gain the peace and joy of the spirit. The Father tells us that even though we may feel like we are not going to make it through the experience, he assures us that we will. He tells us that our emotional reactions have no effect on our continuing to do his will. The doing of his will is only conditioned by our supreme desire to do that will.
Being spiritual children, like earthly children, we may need to be constantly reassured. And we can go to the Father as often as we like or need to; we will find him patiently waiting for us. And with loving regard and care he reassures us until we finally get it. His ears are always open to our cries, and his compassionate voice stands ready at all times to reassure us. When we feel like we lack sufficient power due to the strain of moral and spiritual struggle, we go to him to have our minds and spirits renewed. If we need a little push to get over the moral and spiritual hump, he provides in just the right amount grace to help overcome the moral or spiritual obstacle that may be blocking our path to achieving divine perfection.
Since we really desire to serve our brothers and sisters, we need to understand them to recognize what they truly need to assist them in becoming perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect. Often times we fail to understand our brothers and sisters because petty misunderstandings arise that block out the refreshing light of brotherly love. The Father delights in removing evil shadows that block out the light of brotherhood, so when we go to him, seeking to restore the light whether we be at fault or the other at fault, the Father fills us with the light of forgiveness and mercy to shine on the obscuring shadow. The Father delights in working through you and I to minister to his other children.
We should go to the Father and ask him to show us what our brothers and sisters with whom we interact truly need and empower us to wisely supply those needs. If we have this conversation with the Father, he will give us the insight to understand them, and he will show us their true need and empower us to meet those needs. And if we have difficulty learning to love our brothers and sisters, the Father will empower us to love them, by first helping us to understand them, become friends with them, and finally to love them. When we perform these acts of loving service and mercy, our communication with the Father becomes validated.
After confronting and overcoming our moral and spiritual obstacles, we will have our final conversation with the Father in the flesh, and he will ask us if we are ready to make the supreme effort and achieve the supreme victory. We will answer, yes, and subsequently with the power of the Spirit of Truth, we will shift our wills out of the low gear of the current state into second gear, accelerating to a higher level of moral and spiritual perfection. From there, we’’ll move into third, where we sustain our speed of moral and spiritual perfection and then race into eternity, where we experience the supreme validation.
This concludes today's message on understanding the validation of spiritual communication. 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 of Light
By Dr. James Perry
The Validation Process
