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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 shared many revelations of spiritual truth with me, and I want to share them with you. This morning we want to explore some further insights into the process of the mastery of life.

Now sit back and enjoy the message for today.

 
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"Jesus said 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

Don’’t moan and groin over your troubles and difficulties. Your troubles are the whips of life that drive you forward to seek solutions, and difficulties are the obstacles of achievement, the overcoming of which is responsible for everything in you that is true, beautiful, and good.

Brothers and sisters, life contains many moral and spiritual challenges that cry out to be mastered. They even call us by name, saying "I am for you. I dare you to come out and take me on." And if we ignore these taunts, they just cry all the more louder, making such a moral and spiritual ruckus that they drown out our tranquility of mind and spirit. We realize that if we want to return to a state of moral and spiritual rest, we must take them on. Our greatest moral and spiritual challenge is to acquire a moral and spiritual character like the heavenly Father, as revealed in his Son, Jesus. Jesus issued this challenge to us, for didn’’t he command us to be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect?

We know that whatever the Father wills and the Son desires shall certainly come to pass. But since each has free will, it is optional whether we take this command seriously or ignore it altogether. But before we can make such a decision, we must first recognize there is a decision to be made. We know that the perfection command is a spiritual one——it transcends the intellect. There must be some way to transmit this command to our souls despite the handicaps of the material mind. There are many who have not even heard of this command intellectually; while there are countless others who don’’t intellectually understand it.

 
Since this is a spiritual command, it must be written on our hearts. As Jesus says, "For this commandment which I give you this day is not hidden from you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, who shall go up for us to heaven and bring it down to us that we may hear and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, who will go over the sea for us to bring the commandment to us that we may hear and do it? No, the word of life is very near to you, even in your presence and in your heart, that you may know and obey it."

 
So how does the spiritual command to "be perfect even as the heavenly Father is perfect" manifest itself since it is located within our hearts and in a form that we can know and obey? By the urge and drive to master ourselves and our environment. This drive is unremitting, and it continues in the face of increasing difficulty. To obey this command to be perfect even as the heavenly Father is perfect, the potential for doing so must be present. So how do we begin this process?

 
Mastering the moral and spiritual aspects of life is an individual effort, though members of the group benefit from the labors of the individual. The hallmark of spiritual development is service. Since spiritual development is spiritual we must use spiritual methods for achieving it. In the moral and spiritual arena of life, we grow towards and ultimately achieve moral and spiritual perfection by making moral and spiritual choices. We actively begin this process when we are confronted with a situation that requires us to make a moral or spiritual decision. "When reason once recognizes right and wrong, it exhibits wisdom; when wisdom chooses between right and wrong, truth and error, it demonstrates spirit leading." But the nature of these moral and spiritual decisions increase in complexity, and we must seek the Father’’s help to solve them. "Every human being very early experiences something of a conflict between his self-seeking and his altruistic impulses, and many times the first experience of God-consciousness may be attained as the result of seeking for superhuman help in the task of resolving such moral conflicts."

When we seek the Father’’s help, we become aware of his presence and begin to consciously strive for perfection, for we become aware of the image of his Son, the pattern that our souls emulate. We now begin to realize often for the first time that we are to become like the image of the Father’’s Son. And having done that, we begin to strive for moral and spiritual perfection. This is not the self-righteous striving of self-seeking but rather the righteous striving of seeking to know and execute the Father’’s will.

 
To insure that we have adequate moral stimuli to promote the making of higher and higher moral decisions, the Father has given angelic helpers to stimulate our moral and spiritual choices. "Seraphim are mind stimulators; they continually seek to promote circle-making decisions in human mind. They do this, not as does the (divine spirit), operating from within and through the soul, but rather from the outside inward, working through the social, ethical, and moral environment of human beings."

"Seraphim function as teachers of men by guiding the footsteps of the human personality into paths of new and progressive experiences. To accept the guidance of a seraphim rarely means attaining a life of ease. In following this leading you are sure to encounter, and if you have the courage, to traverse, the rugged hills of moral choosing and spiritual progress." As we follow this leading of the seraphim, making those ever increasingly difficult moral and spiritual choices, we unfold the potentials of moral and spiritual perfections in our souls. Our characters begin to approach the pattern of the "Image of his Son."

As we continue to climb the rugged hills of moral choosing and spiritual progress, we eventually reach the top of the last hill. When we do, we will have mastered this life morally and spiritually. We will always choose that which is right, and we will always love each other as Jesus loves us.

 
This concludes today's message on gaining greater insight into the mastery of life. 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
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