The Son's Search for the Heavenly Father
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 ponder the son's search for the Heavenly Father.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Son's Search for the Heavenly Father
"And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your
heart."Jeremiah, Chapter 29, Verse 13.
Brothers and sisters, ponder well the meaning of this story: "Where is my real father?" asked a son
who had long lived with a beloved aunt and uncle. He had spent most of his youth with them. He had
often heard about his father. While still a young child, he had been forcibly separated from his father
before he had sufficient time to know him. He had very vague memories of a time when he had been
with his father in a far, far away land. He had a vague recollection of his father being taken away by
the police, and his coming to live with his aunt and uncle. But now that he had become a young man,
he was determined to find his father even if he had to search the world wide.
After collecting all of his resources and the few meager clues, he embarked upon the long journey.
There were many obstacles and barriers to overcome, but he found that whenever he overcame them,
he always emerged even stronger and more dedicated than before. There were many pitfalls. Some
he fell into; others he avoided. He also found that the pursuit of one clue often provided many more.
But eventually the day came when all of his resources had been exhausted, even as his physical body
had aged during the long journey. Timed with this occurrence was the confrontation with the last and
final obstacle. The overcoming of this last obstacle would cost him everything that he had, including
his life. This was a supreme desire.
We, the sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father, also face a similar problem in trying to find Him.
We must find our spiritual Father. We have an earthly mother and father who have told us about our
spiritual heavenly Father. The idea of finding our heavenly Father often crossed our minds, but we
had no idea how this could be accomplished. But as the flow of time continued so did our desire to
find our heavenly Father increase in our minds and souls.
Many times we had attempted to begin the search, but was always frustrated in our efforts because
of faulty charts and maps. We were assured by our well meaning, but self deceived associates that
all those charts and maps contained the secret to finding our heavenly Father. Diligently, we studied
these maps and charts and accumulated quite a bit of facts about the heavenly Father, but few
meanings of the values of truth. Some of these facts were accurate; others were not.
After sorting out the erroneous facts about our heavenly Father, and after studying the true facts, we
still did not have very many true meanings, nor were we any closer to finding our heavenly Father.
When we were finally told that we would have to die and be born again before we could see our
heavenly Father, this was a paradox which we could not comprehend. If we died, how could we find
him?
After struggling with all this complex philosophy, we found that we still had very little spiritual
knowledge of the heavenly Father. True, we had acquired a lot of facts, but we realized that an
increase in the facts about a spiritual being does not equal an increase in knowledge of the same
spiritual being. What we needed was an increase in the knowledge of truth, rather than an increase
in the knowledge of facts.
Finally, we folded up all our maps and put away all the charts, and began to pursue truth. We began
to reflect upon the idea that if out heavenly Father were God, then inherent in that fact was the truth
that God had prepared a way for us to find Him, as well as to communicate with Him. This is so no
matter how impossible this truth appeared to be. And we further reasoned that all we had to do was
to ask to be shown the way, and the way would be revealed to us, and still further that we would also
be guided in that way. And since our minds could not comprehend these spiritual transactions, we
would insist that our minds accept by faith that these spiritual transactions were taking place.
And so we began as Jeremiah had counseled. We began searching with our hearts. And we did not
travel very far in our inward search before we ran into our guide, the Spirit of Truth, who is the way,
the truth and the life. And even though our material minds constantly troubled us with doubting
questions and constantly asked to be shown, we could only show our minds faith and insist that it
accept as proof the increasing spiritual fruits that manifested themselves in our ever-evolving
spiritualizing life as we traveled towards our spiritual Father, our souls becoming like Him in the
process. We assured our minds that one day it would know the reality of what it believed. Our Father
is spiritual, and our minds must await the day until it becomes spiritual. The mind must develop
spiritual insight before it can behold the spiritual Father.
Faith is the secret of our successful search for the heavenly Father, while the pursuit of the desire to
find the Father is the very highway that leads to the presence of the Father. And this desire leads to
the rebirth--being born again, through material death into spiritual life eternal. Always is this desire
to find the Father manifested in the outer life as unselfish love for our brothers and sisters. The
pursuit of this desire gradually makes us like the Father as revealed in His Son, Jesus, so that we can
recognize the same Father when we find Him.
This concludes today's message on the son's search for 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.
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By Dr. James Perry
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The Son's Search for the Heavenly Father
