The Wisdom of the Father's Love
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 ponder the wisdom of the Father's love.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Wisdom of the Father's Love
"Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and that getteth understanding, for the merchandise
of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof better than fine gold."
Proverbs, Chapter 3, Verses 13 and 14.
Brothers and sisters, we should seek wisdom in all our prayers, and she will guide our footsteps into
righteous living all of our days. Wisdom is the spiritual quality that allows us to obey the Father's
mandate: to be perfect as He is perfect. We can acquire wisdom by two methods: Wisdom can be
learned directly by listening to the voice of wisdom, or wisdom can be acquired by being forced to
hear the voice of experience. In the former, wisdom is acquired by and through the experience of
others. In the latter, wisdom is acquired by going through an experience without the benefit of how
and when--in reality, trial and error.
We can compare the voice of wisdom to one who needs an automobile tire and goes down to the
appropriate store and buys one. The voice of experience can be compared to one who needs an
automobile tire, but instead of going down to the store to buy one, sets out to find a rubber tree with
the intent of making a tire from scratch.
Those who do not love truth scorn the voice of wisdom. When and if we ignore the voice of wisdom,
we demonstrate our ignorance. When we ignore the voice of wisdom, we allow our emotions and
desires to dominate our decisions without considering the feasibility or cost of what we propose to
do. When we exhibit such short sightedness, we ignore the experiences of other people who have
made similar decisions. In error we fail to realize that if something really has merit, or is worthwhile,
it will emerge from all critical observation with the same merit. Only error fails the test of critical
examination.
Brothers and sisters, the Father loves all of His children and each of them. There are no favorites.
Each child is loved as if he were the only child in all creation, and this love is infinite in magnitude
and eternal in duration. Wisdom functions in the bestowal of the Father's love. This love is unselfish,
reflecting the nature of the Father. The Father is unselfish. His personal reality is the personification
of His Son, while His acts are the personification of the Spirit.
The decision by the Father to distribute reality in this way has far reaching consequences. The Father
is the source of all personal reality. Love is from the Father, but this love is personalized in the Son
and bestowed in the Spirit. Thus in our practical lives, the Son makes the Father's love personal
while the Spirit makes the Father's love real. Because of this interdependence, the Father's love can
only be experienced by us as we allow this love to flow through us to some other sister or brother.
The Father loves us in and through each other.
In the arena of forgiveness, the wisdom of love is shown forth; that is, forgiveness is not real unless
we forgive those who have wronged us. The persistent consciousness of pain and sorrow in our heart
is the result of our failure to fully forgive those who have inflicted injustice on us as well as the
refusal to repent of former misdeeds. The two are related and cannot be separated. It requires
brotherly love to forgive those who have wronged us and seek our forgiveness, but it requires
Fatherly love to forgive those who have wronged us, but who never seek such forgiveness.
Thus, it is seen that the removal of pain and sorrow from our hearts requires the amazing display of
Fatherly love. This arrangement of forgiveness springs from the uniqueness of the Father's love for
each and everyone and the unity of the Father. If it were possible to receive forgiveness from the
Father without extending forgiveness, a situation would exist in which there would be no love among
the parts, only love for the whole. Such a situation of reality is contradictory and violates the unity
of the Father.
The unselfishness of the Father requires that His manifestation through us be unconscious. Self
consciousness implies an ulterior motive. Divine goodness is bestowed for its own sake. There are
no ulterior motives. Divine goodness is the natural outworking of an infinite, eternal, absolute, and
moral perfect being. While it is true that the desire to do the Father's will is conscious, the
outworking of that desire is wholly unconscious. This is the providence of faith. It requires faith to
live this arrangement, for when we are conscious of doing the divine will we are in fact doing the
human will. When we are conscious of the supreme desire to do the Father's will, then the Father's
will is unconsciously done.
This concludes today's message on understanding the wisdom of the Father's love. 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 Wisdom of the Father's Love
