To Look with the Eye of 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 what it means to look with the eye of faith.
To Look with the Eye of Faith
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Hebrews, Chapter
11, Verse 1
Brothers and sisters, in today’’s broadcast we look with the eye of the faith to the final mastery of
doing the Father’’s will while in the flesh. We have the parameters; we know what is required to
master the Father’’s will. We have our marching orders: We have been commanded to "be perfect
even as the heavenly Father is perfect." And being loyal, dedicated, and obedient we have responded
to this command given to us by our Father in loving kindness and mercy. The Father has been with
us all the time, guiding, directing, and encouraging us to grasp divine values and meanings.
Sometimes these experiences have been emotionally trying and physically difficult, but we have kept
our eye of faith upon the Son, who has cried and continues to cry, "This is the way." Let us ponder
this material analogy.
Once there was a child born into a loving family. One day he was sitting on a chair beside his father
listening to one of his favorite stories when he noticed his Father’’s shoes on the floor beside his.
His Father’’s shoes were so large when compared to his small shoes. And he asked his father when
he would be able to wear shoes as large as those. His father smiled at him and said ““as soon as you
are able.”” The child did not quite understand the answer, but since his father smiled when he said
it, he felt that it would not be too long.
He made up his young mind that one day he would wear shoes just as large as his father’’s. Each day
he put his shoes next to his Father’’s, making note of how much progress he had made. At first, it
seemed a slow, hopeless task. His feet were so small and his father’’s feet were so large. He
wondered if he would ever be able to grow to where he would be able to wear his father’’s shoes.
But he looked within himself and looked a year ahead and saw that the size of his shoe had
increased. His ability to look ahead and believe he would continue to grow was what was actually
causing his growth. The faith that he had in his capacity to grow caused him to gradually fill that
capacity.
But as the child was now five-years-old, he entered school and began his formal intellectual training.
His mind continued to develop and his body continued to grow. One day while in school the teacher
did a scientific experiment which inspired his faith. She got seven glass beakers of different sizes
and sat them on a table so that everyone could see them. Since the child was sitting in the front, he
could see exactly what was going on. Before starting the experiment, the teacher told them that she
wanted them to observe what happened, and then explain to her what they had observed. She filled
the glass beakers with water about half full and then she placed a dropper full of ink in each beaker.
When the ink hit the water, it immediately began to spread until all the water was colored with the
ink. The child observed and was able to explain it to the teacher. He concluded by saying that it did
not matter how small or how large the beaker was, the ink colored the water completely. Later at
home, before he fell asleep after listening to his favorite story, it occurred to him that perhaps his feet
would be like the ink that colored the water. From then on he would put his feet in his father’’s shoes
each night and see how much they had grown.
As time passed, he grew and so did his feet. More and more his feet were able to fill more of his
father’’s shoes. The time came when he realized that after an additional year, his feet might
completely fill his father’’s shoes. He looked forward to that time but kept practicing by stepping
into his father’’s shoes each night. One night he was sure that his feet would fit perfectly inside his
father’’s shoes. All he had to do was exercise his faith and attempt the fit, and that is exactly what
he did that night. He was overjoyed to see that his faith was justified--he had accomplished his goal.
And now the time has arrived for us to take our place beside the Father and walk in the shoes of his
Son, Jesus. We have grown, been trained, and are ready, though we still lack the final faith decision.
Our faith is primed, geared up, ready to leap towards divine perfection according to the will of our
heavenly Father. We have learned the technique of submitting our wills to the Father’’s will. In every
crisis, we have exclaimed ““not my will but your will be done.”” We have learned to master every
moral and spiritual problem in this life by submitting ourselves to them we have mastered them
through love, patience, mercy and forgiveness. We have learned to avoid ““procrastination,
equivocation, insincerity, problem avoidance, unfairness, and ease-seeking."
Through prayer, worship, and loving service, we have grown through all sizes of spiritual shoes, and
stand ready to wear the last size of spiritual growth. We have weathered the "emotional casualties--
conflicts, unhappiness, and uncertainties””--and have emerged with emotional maturity. We have
overcome "discouragement, worry, and indolence" and have emerged with moral maturity. We have
avoided intellectual hazards, for as much as we have delighted and delight in the philosophical
excursions of our faith, we have kept our faith purely spiritual. We have solved the great problem
of religious living by "unifying the soul powers of our personality by the dominance of LOVE." We
are in fact representative of the Father through His Son, Jesus, and we can say this because we love
each other and because this is the Father’’s will. We have taken advantage of the Son’’s Spirit of
Truth by submitting and executing our wills to the Father’’s will through Jesus. This practice has
compensated for the immaturity of our souls and--as it were--has allowed our souls to fill the shoes
of spiritual maturity.
We have learned the technique of problem-solving by correlating past experiences, with the
projected future consequences of a possible solution. In this way our decisions have escaped from
the purely present and have taken on eternal significance. "Successful living is nothing more or less
than the art of the mastery of dependable techniques for solving common problems. The first step
in the solution of any problem is to locate the difficulty, to isolate the problem, and frankly to
recognize its nature and gravity. The great mistake is that, when life problems excite our profound
fears, we refuse to recognize them. Likewise, when the acknowledgment of our difficulties entails
the reduction of our long-cherished conceit, the admission of envy, or the abandonment of deep-
seated prejudices, the average person prefers to cling to the old illusions of safety and to the long-
cherished false feelings of security. Only a brave person is willing honestly to admit, and fearlessly
to face, what a sincere and logical mind discovers." We have grabbed the bull by the horn and
successfully wrestled it down to the ground and made it cry "uncle." We have learned to be patient,
to be long-suffering, to be morally and spiritually brave.
In spirit we have escaped from the problem of incomplete growth. Like the ink, the Father’’s spirit
has been completely diffused in our souls. The values and meanings of divine sonship in the flesh
as revealed by the Spirit of Truth, we comprehend. We are in the business of showing forth the
Father’’s matchless character through his Son, Jesus. Our faith tells us that we are ready to assume
the final stage. We are ready to put on and wear the final size of the spiritual shoe.
This concludes today's message on understanding what it means to look with the eye of 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.
Inspirational Messages
By Dr. James Perry
Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done!
To Look with the Eye of Faith
