The Validation of Spiritual Faith
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 validation of spiritual faith.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Validation of Spiritual Faith
"And this is the Father's will which hath sent me that all which he hath given me I should
lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day and this is the will of him that sent
me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and
I will raise him up at the last day." John, Chapter 6, Verses 39 and 40.
Brothers and sisters, there is a spiritual reality that exists, a reality that this material reality
is only a shadow of. There is a reality that transcends the logic of the mind, a reality that
transcends the sensitivity of the material senses. There is a reality that transcends the limits
of the emotions. There is even a reality that transcends the moral sense. This reality can only
be known and experienced through faith.
Spirit exists before and beyond mind. Mind cannot reveal these realities of the spirit though
the spirit can use mind to reveal the meanings of them. The spiritual problem originates
because mind perceives its mortality and at the same time craves to survive it. But no amount
of logic or material effort can solve this intolerable suspense, the suspense of knowing that
each day brings one closer to the ultimate material fate-death.
Religious faith is a valid force even though its associations with intellectual concepts may
be erroneous. Religious faith only gives a consciousness of the possibility of survival of
mortal death. In and of itself, it does not give conscious instructions as to how this is to be
accomplished. Religious faith grasps the concept of survival and the concept of God, but the
truth of these concepts must await divine revelation. This was done 2,000 years ago when
the divine Son, Jesus, assumed the form of the human and revealed the true concept of
religious faith, survival, and God. He revealed that God was a Father to His mortal children
and that God was love. He revealed that God desired us to live our lives in the flesh even as
Jesus lived His life in the flesh. Jesus experienced the beginning of the spiritual life in human
experience up until the final spiritual life in human experience.
The life of Jesus reveals the beginning of spiritual faith to the consummation of spiritual faith
in human experience. He reveals the way that man may escape the pitfalls of unguided
spiritual experience. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father
except through Him. No one can comprehend the true relationship that exists between us and
the Father except through Jesus. Any attempt to attain the Father in human experience
without Jesus is doomed to failure. Jesus, the perfect divine Son of the Heavenly Father,
having taken on the form of the creature and demonstrated this relationship from beginning
to ending, is able to perfectly guide the creature from the consciousness of servant to the
glorious state of divine sonship, from that state of deadly fear of the heavenly Father to
glorious affection for the heavenly Father. He guides the servant through the born again
experience where he presently boldly declares that he and the heavenly Father are one. The
road map for all this guidance is the Spirit of Truth, the same spirit that guided the human
Jesus in his glorious conquest of the perfected relation with His divine Father.
Every believer in Jesus knows that the Father is love. All the personal relationship qualities
that exist between the Father and his children may be derived from this supreme, ultimate,
and absolute quality. And this is truth, beauty, and goodness. When the concept of the
relationship with the heavenly Father is divested of material qualities, then may the child of
the Father proceed with the assurance of the truth of His relationship. This relationship with
the Father does not impart unearned knowledge or wisdom to the believer. Just as an earthly
child must grow in his understanding of his earthly Father, so must the spiritual child grow
in his understanding of the heavenly Father. What is established by faith in Jesus is the
absolute certainty that the relationship exists, that God is indeed the Father, and that the child
is indeed a child of the same heavenly Father. Also provided is the guidance in this
relationship. As the child proceeds in his earthly experiences, he grows in the knowledge of
the Father.
This relationship is early manifested by the fruits of the spirit. This occurs because the
spiritual technique of knowing the heavenly Father involves a reflective technique whereby
the quality of the depth of the perception of the Father's character is reflected by a change in
the very character of the child who perceives the Father. Thus it follows that the greater the
perception of the Father's character, the greater the change in the character of the one who
perceives the divine character. The Son is able to reveal the full character of the Father to the
soul, even though the soul may not be able to fully appreciate or comprehend this revelation,
or may not be able to fully reveal this character in his outward life. This is so because our
capacity to grasp spiritual ideals is not limited by our ability to actually implement this
revelation in the outward life.
The Father reveals his love undiluted to our soul, but the revelation of this love in our
outward life is subject to the delays of time and the handicaps of space. From a practical
point of view this means that our judgment will be imperfect, and our wisdom insufficient,
thus creating evil. Divine love is a free revelation but wisdom must evolve. As the spiritual
child operates in the spiritual world, it cannot at first be uniformly wise in its judgments. It
must deal with the fact of incompletion, and always does this create the problem of evil. Evil
must fall across the path of the child as he goes from the stage of imperfection to the stage
of perfection. The experience with evil allows the divine Son, Jesus, to impart instruction to
the spiritual child made possible by the experience with evil. Each encounter with evil allows
for a more full revelation of wisdom, and sharpening of the judgment of such a one.
The problem of evil and error need not enter into the inner life of the spiritual child if he
relies completely upon Jesus in his relationship with the heavenly Father. Jesus reveals to the
soul that conduct which is most acceptable to the heavenly Father. But the child should keep
in mind that Jesus can only reveal that to him that has meaning and value, that is, he can only
reveal that which the child's experience has equipped him to appreciate.
In ascertaining the relationship with the heavenly Father, faith must ever be the reality of the
standard that one uses in realizing this progressive relationship, and Jesus must ever be the
standard by which one judges the accuracy of that relationship, or the truth of the
relationship. What the spiritual child cannot do for himself, he must rely upon others to do
for him. The Father gives the spiritual child faith to cross the barrier from the material to the
spiritual. There exists a barrier of doubt that prevents the full functioning of this faith. But
even this doubt serves a purpose, even as a mountain serves a purpose in training the muscles
of the person as he climbs up upon it. And when he climbs up this material mountain, he
demonstrates by the very act that he is strong enough to climb it. Likewise the spiritual child
who overcomes the mountain of doubt not only strengthens his hold on faith, but also
demonstrates by climbing it, that he has reached the spiritual side of reality. When the
spiritual child's faith grows strong enough he will cross the barrier from the material to
spiritual level of life. Doubt is progressively overcome as the child experiences progressive
spiritual reality.
The love of the heavenly Father for his mortal children is real before, during, and after all
experiences, but to the spiritual experiential child, this love does not become real until he
experiences it. The realization of this love is linked to his spiritual experiences in life, as he
loves his brothers and sisters as he has been loved by the heavenly Father. Faith has the
power to make real a reality that does not appear real. By simply believing wholeheartedly,
spiritual reality becomes real to the consciousness of the believer and demonstrates the power
to influence him.
But this believer's conception of faith is not at first wholly accurate, and it must be subjected
to the guidance of the Spirit of Truth, in conjunction with experience with the Heavenly
Father. As the spiritual child develops, he more and more understands the nature of his
relationship with the spiritual Father. He understands that it is the influence of love that the
Father surrounds him with as he grapples with the realities of his material life. A loving
earthly father is not able to shield his child from the vicissitudes of life, but under the
influence of this love, the child is inspired to master the elements of life. Divine love does
not shelter one from the material realities of life, but it comforts, inspires, and empowers one
to meet all this sometimes difficult and painful experience with a spirit of love and mercy.
Divine love gives an assurance to the believer that it will grow and survive for the purpose
of finding the heavenly Father, whose love he has tasted in time and whose person he will
actually find in eternity.
Who can validate faith? Who can validate the change from the status of servant to son? Who
can validate the assurance that the son will survive mortal death and emerge into eternity?
Who can validate the reality of the spiritual experience? Who can validate the love of the
heavenly Father and the mercy of His divine Son? Who can validate that the Father and his
spiritual child are one? Who can validate the reality of the eternal life of the spiritual child
even while he trudges the mortal life in the flesh?
No material proof can validate that which exists before it does. No intellectual proof can
validate that which exists before it. No emotional proof can validate that which exists before
it. No moral proof can validate that which exists before it. Only spirit can validate spirit, and
only the spirit can instruct a spirit. The presence of error and evil in the life of the believer
may be used as proof by the nonbeliever that divinity in humanity does not exist, but the
spiritual child uses his mastery and escape from evil and error as proof of enjoying a divine
relationship.
In the final analysis faith is validated by its fruits in human experience. Under the guidance
of the Spirit of Truth, the faith filled soul manifests the fruits of the spirit in his life in ever
increasing quantities and qualities. The believer is conscious of his grasp of progressive
divine values and meanings. He is aware of his growth from incompleteness toward
perfection. He is aware of his ever increasing desire to do the Father's will, and the
corresponding development of his spiritual character, a character dominated by divine love
and overwhelmed by divine mercy.
This concludes today's message on understanding the validation of spiritual faith. 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 Validation of Spiritual Faith
