Jesus-The Way to the 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 seek to understand the meaning of Jesus being the only way to the Father.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
Jesus-The Way to the Father
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: No man cometh unto the
Father but by me." John, Chapter 14, Verse 6
"Show us the way, Jesus, to that precious blessed land." If we will follow Him, Jesus will
lead all who are true of purpose and honest of heart to the land of their true desires and
deepest hopes, the Kingdom of Heaven. To begin to follow Jesus, we must first make a
consecrated choice to follow him, to do the Father's will. He cannot lead us into all truth if
we do not choose this. If we follow Jesus sometimes or under certain conditions we will not
make much progress in entering that blessed land of faith, trust, hope and divine
righteousness. We must follow Him in the winter time of sorrow as well at the spring time
of joy; we must follow Him in the fall of disappointed hopes as well as in the summer of
ecstatic successes.
On our way to the Kingdom of Heaven, we must traverse many jagged cliffs of
disappointments and barren deserts of sorrows, but Jesus leads us successfully through each
one of them. We must exercise faith and trust in Him when we come to those painful barriers
between ourselves and the promise land of spiritual joy where the Father's love reigns
supremely. If we turn back when the earthly values and meanings begin to crumble and
before we fully grasp the eternal values and meanings of the Father's love, we surely will
experience delay in reaching that blessed land of joy and righteousness. Jesus is the way!
Brothers and sisters, it is futile for us to attempt to penetrate the wisdom that allows and
requires sorrows and disappointments as necessary to complete the journey of acquiring the
perfection of the Father's love, but here are a few thoughts to ponder:
How can we learn to love the truth of the Father's love if we have never experienced the
sorrows and disappointments that result from choosing error? How can we learn to love the
compassion of the Father's love if we have never lingered in need of it? How can we learn
to love the patience of the Father's love if we have never suffered the consequences of
impatience? How can we learn to love the mercy of the Father's love unless we have been
in that sad predicament where we needed mercy? And how can we learn to love the
forgiveness of the Father's love unless we have lingered in the sorrowful darkness of being
unforgiven for a misdeed?
And how can we learn to choose the light of the Father's love unless we know the spiritual
blindness of dwelling in the darkness? How can we learn to pursue the goodness of the
Father's love unless we have drunk the bitter vinegar of evil? And how can we learn to love
the beauty of the Father's love unless we have gazed at the ugliness of evil?
But how do we follow Jesus? How do we follow the leading of the spirit. Brothers and
sisters, to follow Jesus is to follow His Spirit of Truth. This Spirit of Truth surrounds our
minds and souls and it always reveals the truth of the Father's love. This is always a spiritual
experience. It can never be reduced to a neat stack of facts. Only when it remains spiritual
can it nourish our souls and spiritualize our minds. Facts cannot quench the thirst of our souls
nor satisfy the hunger of our unspiritualized minds. Our minds and souls are only adequately
satisfied by the living waters of truth.
Brothers and sisters, to follow Jesus requires spiritual faith. We must believe that he can
transform us into the image of Himself, the personal revelation of the Father. When we begin
to faith follow Jesus, he modifies our purpose for living. He gradually shifts our purpose
from self aggrandizement to an unselfish interest in others. As we pursue this unselfish
interest in others, Jesus imbues it with the Father's love. Our faith should always be trusting
and childlike, but not childish. We should trust him as a small child trusts his parents. As we
pursue this unselfish purpose, Jesus continues to subtley change it so that it becomes more
and more divine, more like the Father.
As we pursue this divine purpose, we will be constantly amazed at the ever-increasing new
meanings and values emerging out of old meanings and values of the Father's love. We will
be thrilled by this experience of eternal life, this experience of realizing never ending divine
values and meanings. We will be astonished as we gradually begin to view our sisters and
brothers differently. We will be pleasantly pleased as feelings of antagonism and irritation
are replaced by feelings of sympathy and patience. We will be gratified at the ever
heightening awareness of the Father's love in our minds and souls as we faith commune with
the Father. And we will know that Jesus is the way to the Father's love.
Brothers and sisters, we can expect the urge to unselfishly love each other to grow stronger
and stronger in our minds and souls as we cross the threshold from the human self to the
divine self. The appearance in our consciousness of higher meanings and values of the
Father's love is the evidence that our minds and souls are becoming progressively spiritual
and that we have at last entered the land of the Kingdom of Heaven, while in our outer lives
we unconsciously becomes more loving, more patient, more merciful, and more forgiving
of our sisters and brothers.
This concludes today's message on understanding the meaning of Jesus being the way to 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!
Jesus-The Way to the Father
