The Journey From Self Consciousness to Divine Consciousness
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 ponder our lives as we seek to understand the journey from self-consciousness to divine consciousness.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Journey from Self Consciousness to Divine Consciousness
". . . Without faith, it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Hebrews, Chapter 11, Verse 6
Brothers and sisters, in today’’s broadcast we consider the journey from self consciousness to divine consciousness. We shall examine the role of faith in this transformational journey. We know that when it comes to comprehending spiritual reality, we must rely upon our faith. Faith is the tool that we use to make actual a spiritual reality that we are desirous of obtaining, a spiritual reality that is potential. We are told that Jesus prayers were effective because he believed. Not only did he believe but he believed with his whole heart. And this persistent and consistent faith allowed him to conquer his material mind in one short life. And now that he has ascended on high, he has left his Spirit of Truth to guide, assist, and empower us to do the same.
How do we believe with all our hearts? What is it that prevents us from believing with our whole heart? Jesus has said that we who have entered the kingdom of heaven have only one battle, and that is the battle against doubt. We also know that our doubts are strongest just before they crumble. Jesus has said that he is ““the way, the truth, and the life,”” that he is the way to the Father and that no one comes to the Father except through Him. So then if Jesus is the way to the Father, then we must rely upon him to take us to the Father, to journey from self consciousness to divine consciousness. And how do we do this? How do we follow Jesus from self consciousness to divine consciousness? To answer these questions, it may prove helpful to review some important points that may help to clarify the journey from self-consciousness to divine consciousness.
Self consciousness means that we are conscious of ourselves; divine consciousness means that we are conscious of the heavenly Father. In making the journey from self consciousness to divine consciousness, we must distinguish the factors that are associated with self consciousness from the factors that are associated with divine consciousness. All of the things that are associated with ourselves is self-consciousness. These include all of our purely selfish impulses, desires, urges, and emotions. Divine consciousness includes all unselfish impulses, desire, urges, and emotions that are true, beautiful and good. But the greatest manifestation of divine consciousness is the quality of love, the unselfish desire to do good to others. Now these qualities are associated with our growing and spiritualizing selves. We want to be consciously aware of divine love, for divine love in our minds and souls is the presence of God, the heavenly Father. The heavenly Father is living love.
Our journey towards divine consciousness begins with submitting our wills to the Father’’s will, as revealed in His Son, Jesus. Jesus and the Father are one. The Father is present in Jesus, so whoever has seen Jesus has seen the Father. The Spirit of Jesus is in our minds and souls. And since this spirit has lived this mortal life and made the journey from self consciousness to divine consciousness, it is able to guide and direct us to our destination of divine consciousness. When we think about doing the Father’’s will, we think about the life of Jesus, and this life was a life of loving service. So to do the Father’’s will, to become divinely conscious, is to follow Jesus, to dedicate our lives to lovingly serving each other.
Now this journey from self consciousness to divine consciousness is done with our hearts. We are desirous of achieving this divine conscious so that it is just as natural for us as is self-consciousness. And we see that when we are self conscious we don’’t require any special preparations or any special environment; it is natural. In an analogous way, we want to develop divine consciousness so that it appears natural as well. In order to do this we are going to have to make these divine qualities part of our souls. By making these qualities apart of our souls, we become like the Father. To be like the Father is to know Him, to be conscious of Him. Our minds and souls become filled with the divine presence, with the presence of divine love. When we want to personalize this divine presence, we visualize Jesus, who is the personalization of the Father’’s love.
The only way we can accomplish the journey from self to the divine self is by and through faith: by simply believing with our whole hearts that we can achieve this transformation. Our faith is driven by our desire. And when our desires become supreme, then we align ourselves with the spiritual law that states whatever the true son desires, and the Father wills, is. Our desires have become supreme when there are no competing desires. When our loyalty is total towards the Father’’s will, the spiritual law of love, then have our desires become supreme. As we make these assertions of supreme desire and supreme loyalty, we are transformed into the image of Jesus, and we share his consciousness of the Father.
Increasingly divine consciousness becomes greater and greater in quality so that it soon becomes just as natural as our own self-consciousness. And all of this is made possible by our faith. By acting as if we are divinely conscious, we become divinely conscious. And this is where the stumbling block of doubt must be overcome. Doubt insists on anchoring ourselves to material reality. It does not recognize a potential state, only the actual state. It does not recognize a spiritual reality. But the way of faith is to recognize the potential state and then act as if it is so. Thus we faith-assume that we are divinely conscious, and faith forthwith makes it so.
If we separate all the material considerations from our faith assertions, we remove the objections of doubt, for if doubt has no substance to work with, then there is nothing to make us doubt. Doubt becomes effectively disarmed. Thus we see that if spiritual values are the object of our faith, then this is an area in which doubt cannot gain a foothold.
But the work of purifying our faith is difficult. The spiritual nature is evolving within our material minds. As we continue with our material struggles, we become so hard pressed at times, that we seek for help in resolving them, especially the ones that seem to defy solutions. We seek help from within and without. The Father provides spiritual help, and the material self obtains material help for the solution of its material problem. So, as we continue this spiritual journey from the self to the divine self, we must continually eliminate any material considerations. And while we can use the spiritual drive to turn the material drive of life, we cannot directly interpose the spiritual drive towards the solution of material problems. The spiritual drive can furnish us with hope, faith, trust, endurance, patience, and all of those qualities that are necessary for us to continue the material struggle, all the while furnishing us with the overriding quality of love that eliminates fear from our struggles and provide us with the quality of spiritual invincibility
So whenever we need some spiritual quality in our efforts to do the Father’’s will, including the consciousness of the Father’’s love, which is the love of Jesus, or the consciousness of the Father, which is the consciousness of Jesus, we just act as if we have them and forthwith will faith transmute them from the potential state to the actual state. Our faith will grasp them if we only believe that we have them.
How do we move from doubt to faith? By a simple act of desire and will. If we really desire our will grasps faith, and faith will reach down and grab our souls and elevate them to the level of the new spiritual reality. Finally, when it comes to the values associated with our being faith sons and daughters of the Father, we can rest assured that the Spirit of Truth will guide us into appropriate values. All that remains is for us to desire and faith-grasp them.
This concludes today's message on understanding the meaning of the journey from self consciousness to divine consciousness. 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
The Journey From Self Consciousness to Divine Consciousness
