More on Spiritual Insight
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 more on spiritual insight.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
More on Spiritual Insight
"Jesus answered and said unto him, 'if a man loves me, he will keep my words: and my Father
will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him.'" John, Chapter 14,
Verse 23.
Brothers and sisters, since the Father and his Son, Jesus, have come to live in our minds and souls
through the Spirit of Truth, they certainly can communicate with us. When we communicate with
another human being, we are in the habit of using verbal communication, but we are also aware that
we communicate a great deal more that is nonverbal. When the Father communicates with us, he must
do so in a spiritual manner, through the values and meanings of truth, beauty, and goodness as these
are united in love. The revelation of the Father's love in and through our souls is communication.
The Father maintains a fatherly relationship with us; he communes with us. With His spirit He also
guides and directs us through this life. The fact that we are not conscious of this guidance does not
nullify it. We receive the Father's guidance and direction unconsciously. There are many reason for
providing guidance in this manner. Since guidance is spiritual, the Father works through our value
system. He slowly elevates and subtly changes our value systems, which has the conscious effect of
altering our decisions and, therefore, changing the course of our experiences. The Father also works
through our minds. This is done using the altruistic urge--the urge to unselfishly minister to our
brothers and sisters. Because we are dealing with an urge, we must learn how to intelligently translate
our altruistic urges into wise decisions.
Because of our partial self understanding and our tendency to misjudge the purpose of having
experiences, it is wise to withhold knowledge of impending events in our lives. We have the tendency
to anticipate and procrastinate. That is, if we think an upcoming experience will be pleasant, we might
jump the gun, as it were. If we perceive an experience as distasteful, we tend to procrastinate. The
Father is eternal, therefore the past, present, and future are always present to Him in the everlasting
now. Since the Father ignores times and space, guidance can only be provided in the present. But
since we human beings exist in time and space, we must grow in our ability to perceive His presence
and guidance, which is always available.
We must grow in the knowledge of truth. But even so, the instruction and guidance provided are
always perfectly suitable for the growing spiritual child. Just as human parents give age-appropriate
instruction and guidance to their children, so does the heavenly Father. The exception is that His
guidance and instruction are absolutely perfect, so perfect that it requires faith to recognize it. Much
of the confusion concerning guidance and direction from the Heavenly Father is due to the perfection
of His counsel and to our unconscious reception of it. Conflict might arise if we were to consciously
receive guidance and instruction from our heavenly Father.
Sometimes the failure to discern His guidance is due to that fact that the course we have decided on
is not the right course for us. It is not the Father's will, so of course we go on to act without perfect
direction, until some cataclysmic event blows us out of the water, allowing us to reorient ourselves.
We pray and pray for guidance and direction and feel they are not forthcoming or comprehensible.
But this is the assessment of immaturity. What Father, even the earthly father, would ignore the cries
of his children for help and guidance? At the same time, no worthy earthly father would give a child
false guidance and erroneous direction. The Father gives only positive instruction, and this positive
instruction moves the child away from error and evil into the paths of truth and righteousness.
Since God loves us absolutely as His children, we must conclude that when we petition Him for
guidance and direction, that petition is itself proof that not only does he hear us, but He has already
responded to our request even before we have asked Him. As with any wise father, the answer to the
request is often modified so that it meets the true needs of the growing self. Remember, children have
to grow up, and this is just as true for spiritual children.
It is often amazing that when we grow up as mature adults, we begin to view reality the way our
parents viewed it. Our decisions and attitudes about life and problem solving are very similar to theirs.
This is because we have come to know their point of view as a result of the time spent under their
influence. The same thing happens when we seek to know the Father. As times goes on and as our
minds and souls continue to remain under His influence, we come to know Him. Once we come to
know Him, we also know His will. The next step is for us to consciously acknowledge our dedication
to doing that will. A consequence of dedicating ourselves to doing His will is that our prayers are
always answered. Because we seek only His will in our spiritual and moral affairs, and because of the
Father's power, every desire subject to His will is actualized, subject to the delays of time and the
handicaps of space. In his ascent from the human to the divine, Jesus learned very early to submit his
will to the Father's will, and this was reflected in his prayer ending, "not my will, but Your will be
done."
As we follow the example of Jesus, our beloved Lord and Savior whose Spirit of Truth reveals the
Father, we should always submit our will to the Father's will, and every prayer should end the same:
"not my will, but Your will be done." Such an attitude will assure us that we are indeed doing the
Father's will since it is His will that we do His will. Such an attitude will be manifested on the outside
by the fruits of the Spirit, which are love, faith, goodness, gentleness meekness, temperance, long
suffering, joy and peace. Within us, we will be filled with the divine light of worship and the positive
consciousness of His divine presence.
More and more our thoughts will approximate the divine thoughts, more and more our decisions will
be reflective of His will as we draw closer to Him, until that day we realize that we are indeed His
sons and daughters. Then there is no need to wonder if we are doing His divine will: we shall have
become the personification of that will in our life. And being sons and daughters of the heavenly
Father, we can reveal Him to our brothers and sisters through our Lord and Savior, Jesus, who is the
way, the truth, and the life. The realization of all this insight is through and by faith that the heavenly
Father gives us so that we can know Him. The Father is love, and we realize this love as we love
others unselfishly and wisely.
This concludes today's message on understanding spiritual insight. 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!
More on Spiritual Insight
