Ask and You Shall Receive

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Ask and You Shall Receive

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 will ponder our lives as we seek to understand the meaning of “Ask and you shall receive.

And now, sit back and listen to today's message. 

Ask and You Shall Receive

"Ask, and it shall be given you: Seek and you shall find: Knock and the door shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh, the door shall be opened." Matthew, Chapter 7, Verses 7 and 8.

 
The lyricist sings: In the face of all her problems and troubles, she wants to
Think like Him
Talk like Him,
Walk like Him,
Be like Him.

Good morning brothers and sisters this morning we want to discuss the barrier that separates us from desiring divine value and receiving them. The law of the universe is “Ask and you shall receive.” Too many times in the face of trials and tribulations, we pray fervently with strong feelings and sometimes tears for spiritual help, often clothed in the raiment of material requests to be delivered from the difficulty. And this is not strange for we are material creatures locked in a material environment, but our petitions to the spiritual Father evidence our spiritual nature as well as our spiritual childhood status. As spiritual children we often confuse the realm of the spiritual with the material. But time will clarify these problems of immaturity. But the loving merciful Father understands the true desires of our hearts and floods our souls with his tender hearted mercies. And like children who don’t understand, we keep begging him to help us, failing to recognize that he is richly supplying our souls with whatever it needs for the struggle. But because we don’t recognize his ministry to our soul, since we are looking for material help, especially that help that will deliver us from the painful and emotional trying experience, we fail to realize conscious help.  

But at some point we begin to realize that we need spiritual consolation as well as the desire for material deliverance. It is at this point that we began to pray to “to think like him,” “talk like him,” “to walk like him,” and to be like him, for deep down in our souls, we realize that if we could be like him we could make short work of our troubles. And we are quite right in believing that, for indeed seeking to know the Father’s will is the secret to vanquishing all difficulties that stand in our way of achieving divine perfection.

But what is divine perfection in this mortal life that we are living? Is it a state intellectual and material perfection? Lets us look to the life of Jesus to guide us in our understanding. Jesus was born into the world just as you and I. He begin life as a helpless infant and had to be taken care of. He received nourishment, and grew from a child to an adult. He acquired knowledge and through experienced obtained wisdom. So far his material life is identical to ours. As he grew up to manhood, he suffered the ups and downs of life. He did not resort to any super material methods to live. When he was thirsty, he drink water; when he was hungry he ate food. When he was tired he rested and slept. He suffered disappointment, experienced sorrow as well as joy. He intellect was limited just as is ours. His life was truly human in all respects.

Lets us now consider his spiritual life. He ascended through all of the stages of evolutionary religion, just as we do. But the major difference between the religious life of Jesus, and ours was they he dedicated himself to doing the Father’s will, and he was consistently loyal to that decision, even when it cause him pain and suffering, and ultimately his material life. This consistent dedication and consecration to the Father’s will allowed him to make tremendous moral and spiritual progress, even to that progress of perfecting his character to the extent that he was able to perfectly reveal the heavenly Father to all of mankind and well as his universe. 

And after having acquired all of these spiritual values of perfection, he now stands ready to assist his mortal children in doing the same, to achieve perfection. He says that he is the way, the truth and the life. “Ask and you shall receive.” But why is that we ask but do not receive. James states it succinctly: “You ask and receive not because you ask amiss.” What Jesus offers is not material values. These values are inherent in our human existence. The Father’s rains on the just and the unjust, that is his material blessings are available to all regardless of spiritual status. Jesus offers spiritual values. It is these values that become available to us when we ask in faith. But we do acknowledge that it is a major step in spiritual perception, when we move from asking for material values to wanting to acquire spiritual values. But we must take the next step-the step of actually acquiring the spiritual values.

But even after we escape the pitfalls of asking for material values, we ask and still do not receive. We never receive the spiritual values because we do not acknowledge receipt of them. It is the acknowledgment of the receipt of the spiritual values that make them real in our experience. What is the reason for this? It is the lack of faith that prevents us from consciously acknowledging, recognizing and realizing the divine values. We must always make our request for spiritual values in the embrace of faith. Implied in this condition, is that when we ask we do receive. So when we are locked in a disagreeable moral and spiritual situation, and require the sustaining power of faith, trust, hope, patience and tenacity, wisdom, tranquility of spirit and divine stability while we make our way through the particular trial and tribulation. We must express the attitude and act as if we have received the spiritual values that we have requested which we do by acknowledging through the prayer of thanksgiving. What the true son desires, and the Father will, is.

Sometimes in a given situation, the problem is so complex, that the wisdom to evaluate it, and solve it eludes us. And this brings us to the most effective technique for receiving and apply the spiritual values to all of these problem requiring moral and spiritual values for their solution. The best technique for resolving this kind of difficulty is to visualize all spiritual values as being embodied in the Father’s will. Seek the greater and the lesser will be found therein. Thus we seek to know the Father’s will when confronted with any kind of moral and spiritual problem, that is to know the particular value or values needed for the solution. Armed with this dedication and consecration to the doing of the Father’s will, we boldly enter the fray with the faith consciousness of moral and spiritual victory.

In the process of receiving the divine values and meanings, we also begin the process of transferring our identity from the material self to our soul. This faith consciousness of operating from our soul ushers in the faith consciousness of spiritual invulnerability. Spiritual invulnerability equals fearlessness. When we operate from our soul, we have no fear because we know the divine spirit is the pledge of our spiritual indestructibility. Perfect love casts out all fear. 

We recognize that our physical mechanism is not us. While it may be the mechanism by which we manifest our life on the material level, it is not the mechanism of our life. The mechanism of our life is spiritual and is hid within the Spirit of Truth. The material body must give way to its temporal existence, but our spirit born souls transcend the fate of the material self by its identification with the divine spirit, the source of all that is true, beautiful, and good, even of eternal life. And so we move from wanting to think like Jesus, wanting to talk like Jesus, wanting to walk like Jesus, wanting to be like Jesus to the high exalted spiritual state of thinking like Jesus, talking like Jesus, walking like Jesus, and being like Jesus. We have actualized the spiritual potentials resident in our soul by asking and faith receiving them. We have truly become Jesus’ disciples for we love one another as he loves us. Let the mind be in you that was in Jesus.

This concludes today's message on understanding the meaning of “Ask and you shall receive.” 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!
Inspirational Messages of Light
By Dr. James Perry
Ask and You Shall Receive