Barreirs Preventing Translation
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 the barriers preventing translation.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
Barriers Preventing Translation
"By Faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God has
translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God." Hebrew,
Chapter 11, Verse 5.
Brothers and sisters, we know that being translating is the result of actualizing all of the potentials
of the soul that are possible in this life. So in another sense we could just as easily say that we are
going to look at the barriers that prevent maturation of the soul. The soul has to mature to the point
whereby it is able to become one with the divine spirit. And we can also immediately began to see
that once we enunciate the barriers, we can also know how to remove them. By doing this, we can
take the chains and shackles off the growth process of our souls. Now we also know that demolishing
these barriers once identified can be a daunting task. But we shall also show how this task can be
overcome.
But first of all, let us review what we know about the soul. We know that the soul comes into
existence with the first moral decision that is made by the moral free will. This is also the occasion
of the arrival of the divine spirit, that spirit that is to become one with our souls. Now this soul is the
actual recreation of ourselves except this is not a flesh and blood creation. This soul will portray all
of the values and meanings that were worthwhile in our life on earth. The Father's spirit will recreate
every worthwhile counterpart of our lives. The soul is the part of us that can know truth, beauty, and
goodness and respond to divine love. This soul is the part of us that knows God and can become like
God. In fact it is actually this soul that is the son of God. The soul is destined for spiritual perfection
and is destined to stand in the embrace of the Father on Paradise some day. But this soul comes into
existence within the material mind and is also subject to the dictates of the material mind. This soul
craves to worship but is subject to our free will choice. Now let us look at and examine the barriers
that prevent soul maturation.
Lack of Living Faith: During the early development of the soul, the presence of the Father's spirit
must be accepted by faith. Faith is the technique whereby the soul knows the Father. This living faith
is the way in which the soul actualizes its potentials. Without the exercise of living faith, the self will
not recognize the divine values of truth, beauty, and goodness, and certainly will not respond to them
(that is, to embrace them as the standards of living). Without living faith, the soul cannot be sustained
by the Father's love as it marches on through the difficult experiences of life, experiences that are
designed to reveal to the soul those values of truth, beauty, and goodness, the grasp of the meanings
which constitute growth. Without living faith, the soul becomes like a straw in the wind.
Failure to Develop a Spiritual Purpose for Living: During the early days of the soul while in the
flesh, it is dominated by the mortal nature. But the soul which longs for permanency in the face of
change soon finds that the material values and meanings are temporary and do not satisfy the soul.
The self under the guidance of experience soon discovers that the spiritual values and meanings are
superior to the material values and meanings. Here, the decision is made whether to pursue a spiritual
purpose for life. And it is here that many falter, for if the goal for soul maturity is not made, than there
can be no hope for achieving it since the self will ignore the supreme standard of living and continue
to pursue the evanescent values and meanings of material living. This is also the failure to seek to
attune the self to the divine spirit.
Failure to Initiate and Maintain a Constant Relationship with the Father: When we refuse to
yield to the spiritual values and meanings of life, then we fail to initiate and maintain a constant
relationship with the Father. Without this constant relationship, there exists no opportunity to
consciously appropriate the divine values and meanings which constitute growth. The soul must
become like a little child so that it can be taught. Prayer and worship are the chief tools for
maintaining the relationship with the Father. When this relationship is maintained on a consistent
basis, then is the Father able to lead and direct the soul through the conflict between material reality
and spiritual reality in order to secure it to the anchor of divine values and meanings. It is during this
process of communication that the soul comes to really know the Father, and the Father's will for it:
to be perfect even as the heavenly Father is perfect.
It is during this process that the trust in the Father's goodness grows. The soul more and more
becomes aware of the Father's love for it and begins to depend more and more upon Him. Here is
received moral and spiritual strength to continue the struggle to grow and develop. Here within is the
inner self strengthened so that the purpose of life is maintained despite the fleeting attractions of the
material world.
Refusing to Cooperate with the Spiritual Helpers and Other Spiritual Ministers: Now it should
be apparent that there is a vast network of spiritual assistants whose job is to arrange circumstances--
spiritual, intellectual, social, moral, and even physical environment--so that the soul is presented with
the appropriate stimuli to bring forth the slumbering potentials of spiritual values and meanings. And
you might wonder how you can cooperate with something that you are not aware of and cannot see,
but such cooperation is not only possible but essential to the growth process. These spiritual beings
and spiritual forces are like catalysts that speed up the spiritual and moral reactions that without their
action would hardly take place at all, or would take so long as to make the whole scheme of reaching
maturity in one short mortal life impossible.
We cooperate with these spiritual agencies by first of all being consistent and being sincere. We can
begin to see how consistency is necessary to be in tune with the experiences that have been arranged
for us. Often times when we are not consistent, we miss valuable opportunities to acquire divine
values and meanings because we are not where we are supposed to be at the time we are supposed
to be there. We can also see that sincerity is essential, because after all the effort is made to set the
experience up and to align ourselves with it, the whole process goes no where unless we are willing
to put our shoulder to the load (that is, to do our very best in the experience). We cooperate with them
by going through the various experiences that they have arranged and doing the very best that we can.
Sometimes this may mean being patient and tolerant in the face of an impatient and intolerant
situation.
Becoming Discouraged and Giving Up: During the fiery trials of life, sometimes the self becomes
overwhelmed with all kinds of problem--interpersonal, physical, emotional, moral--and the self can
see no way out of this morass. All of its struggles with the material aspects of life become marginally
successful or downright failures. And sometimes this is compounded by feeling sorry for ourselves.
Sometimes we tend to shy away from those brothers and sisters who can inspire us and encourage us
to keep going, not that they can end our suffering or the duration of it. And sometimes we are
abandoned by our brothers and sisters. Sometimes we allow all of these material difficulties to fog
our faith vision, and we lose sight of the values and meanings that are being evolved out of these very
experiences for our growth. We must continue to keep our faith vision clear by the constant attitude
of insisting that nothing of spiritual value is lost. The greater the degree of separation between what
should be and what is, the greater the spiritual value and the greater the comprehension of the spiritual
meaning.
Looking for Material Counterparts to Our Spiritual Experiences: This one is similar to the one
above with the exception that we should be looking for the spiritual counterpart of our material
experiences. When there is such divergence between the ideal and the practical, we cannot often see
the material counterpart of our spiritual striving. It would be nice if everyone that we embraced
responded to our spiritual display, but more often than not, the brothers and sisters living in darkness
cannot see the light. Stated another way, if we are looking for our brothers and sisters who are still
in darkness to reveal the Father's love to us rather than our focus despite our material difficulties to
reveal the Father's love to them, we will surely be disappointed.
Not Being Dedicated and Consecrated to Doing the Father's Will: The failure to dedicate and
consecrate ourselves to doing the Father's will can only result in failing to achieve our goal of soul
maturation. This is essential to traverse all of the rigorous experiences that must be traversed in order
to gain the essential divine values and meanings of growth, growth that is essential in order to be one
with the divine spirit. In all circumstances, in all trials and tribulations, our final attitude must always
be, "not my will, but your will be done." This decision allows the Father’s will to function rather than
our own. There is a way that seems right to the immature ease-seeking soul, but that way leads to
disaster rather than to the progressive levels of righteousness. We must trust the Father to lead us and
allow his Son to guide us. The way to victory is not the way of a straight line. The way is curved,
reflecting the nature of all righteous reality. Divine reality is not linear but circular (elliptical). It is
only by following the Spirit of the Son, the Spirit of Truth, that we can successfully negotiate the
elliptical nature of reality. Without that guidance we cannot negotiate the curve of reality. We will
leave the track and travel out to unreality-evil, sin, and inequity. The Spirit of Truth is unerringly
sensitive to divine truth.
This concludes today's message on understanding the barrier preventing translation. 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
Barriers Preventing Translation
Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done!
