The Will of 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 gifted me with many revelations of spiritual truth, and I want to share them with you. This morning we seek to understand the will of the heavenly Father.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Will of the Heavenly Father
Jesus said, "And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone 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, Verse 40
Brothers and sisters, we share some additional insights into the will of the heavenly Father. The will of God is infinite, eternal, and absolute. But this will is personalized in his Son, Jesus, who reveals it to us. To do the Father’’s will, therefore, is to believe in Jesus. He who has seen the Son has seen the Father. "It is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me." Jesus reveals the Father to our souls.
These souls come into existence when human beings make their first moral decision. First, what is a moral choice? A moral choice is a choice that’’s made between good and evil. When we choose the good, then we make a moral choice. This choice spiritualizes our minds and souls and allows us to survive this mortal life. A decision occurs when the human being is confronted with the choice to make a selfish decision or an unselfish decision. When he chooses unselfishly, he makes his first moral decision. This is the first decision to do the Father’’s will and is reflected in the creation of the soul. Thus, from that moment on, every time a moral decision is made, it is a decision to do the Father’’s will. In order to do the Father’’s will, we must make moral choices. Let us consider why this is so.
To continue to exist in the universe, we must do the Father’’s will: we must demonstrate the ability and the power to choose over right from wrong, good over evil. This is essential in order for the Father to go into partnership with us. And it does not take too much to visualize what would happen if the Father went into partnership with us and we could not choose his will because we could not discern right from wrong. Thus, the Father does not initiate partnership until we demonstrate that we can discern right from wrong by actually choosing right.
But "free and inexperienced intelligence cannot possibly at first be uniformly wise. The possibility of mistaken judgment (evil) becomes sin only when the human will consciously endorses and knowingly embraces a deliberate immoral judgment." Now we gain some insight into sin and evil. Evil apparently is the inability, the lack of maturity, to perfectly choose the Father’’s will, and this apparent inability only becomes sin when the soul reaches the point where it knows what the right decision is but consciously chooses the wrong decision. This is rebellion against the Father’’s will, an unwillingness to abide by the divine law.
Now since evil is a measure of immaturity, an inability to perfectly follow the Father’’s will, the only cure for such a problem is maturity of the soul, where it can perfectly follow the Father’’s will. This is similar to a child who is learning how to walk. It takes some time before the child can learn to walk without stumbling or falling. As the child develops, he soon reaches a point where not only can he walk without stumbling of falling but he can run as well.
Now we know that all moral decisions are decisions that involve reflection and thought. So evil is an unreflective and thoughtless act. Moral decisions require choosing good over evil, and this means the ability and willingness to entertain (potential evil) an alternate choice. Let’’s consider this example. A person is confronted with something that he wants or wants to do. The person who stops and thinks about whether he should make this decision is considering the choice of good and evil. He may initially say, I think I want to do thus and so, but then after further thinking, he says, no, that is not right. And having discerned the right thing to do, he makes the right decision. As we can see this involves thinking, reflecting, and discerning the right choice.
And in other cases, after going through the process of making a decision, a person may discern that the decision although appearing to be right may not really be wise. He has been able to look back to the past to discern the present impact of making such a decision. He declines to make a decision that otherwise he would make. Thus, we see that moral decisions are not only right but they are also wise. The person who does not follow this process instead follows the inclination of his selfish nature. He chooses what is most desirable at the moment, disregarding how it may affect others. This is evil.
Moral decisions that multiply allow the soul to grow to where it can discern moral realities and spiritual realities as well. This is similar to a fetus being in the womb. The fetus receives everything it needs from the mother while there but remains wholly unconscious of its experience. When the baby is born, a whole new reality awaits him, one that eclipses life in the womb. He becomes conscious and can begin to consciously enjoy material realities. Likewise, when the soul is born, it begins consciously to experience the realities of the spirit. The soul becomes born again.
Having been born again, the soul now recognizes the presence of the Father’’s will. Unselfish urges, desires, and the impulse of goodwill towards others——love--is the presence of the Father’’s will. The soul now begins to respond to this divine affection by allowing these desires, urges, and impulses to flow through him to his brothers and sisters. The decision to do the Father’’s will has the sure effect of gradually transforming the soul into the image of the Father’’s Son, Jesus. As these accumulating spiritual qualities become a part of the soul, the decisions of the self become reflective of these qualities, which is the will of the heavenly Father.
This is why the decision to do the Father’’s will is the decision to become like God; having become Godlike, moral and spiritual decisions reflect the character of the Father as revealed in his Son, Jesus. We can’’t do the work and then become righteous. Rather must we become righteous by faith in order to do the work. This distinction is very important because it means the difference between a self-seeking ego and a God-seeking ego in submission to the Father’’s will. The good works of a self-seeker only bear social fruits--no changes occur in the moral or spiritual character; the good works of the God-seeking ego in submission to the Father’’s will produce spiritual fruits, and a change occurs in the moral and spiritual character. Social fruits are quantitative; spiritual fruits of the will of the heavenly Father are qualitative.
This concludes today's message on understanding the will of 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.
Your Kingdom Come; Your Will Be Done!
The Will of the Heavenly Father
Inspirational Messages of Light
By Dr. James Perry
