The Secret
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 unravel the greatest secret hidden from the mortal mind since the world began. We reveal the key to this secret.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Secret
"Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began." Romans, Chapter 16, Verse 25
Brothers and sisters, let us explore some other secret that has also supposedly been hidden. We live in a material age, where spiritual and even moral values are ignored or downplayed. This is the age of material discovery, and it narcotizes millions and millions of people, blinding them to spiritual realities. Mankind now purposes to be the measure of all things. We have removed God from the equation of life; when he is put back into the equation, he is made in man’’s image. Still the desire remains in our souls despite our material accumulations that we wish to somehow survive this mortal life. The greatest desire of human beings is not the desire for material blessings but immortality. And the greatest secret is how to accomplish this.
Herein is the weakness of the so-called secret that unveils the law of attraction. No law of attraction can reveal the secret to surviving this life. The ““universe”” cannot bestow eternal life on an individual. The universe and God are not the same. The universe is effect; God is the cause. The laws of the universe are not self-created; they are created by God, and these laws are consistent with his will. Thus, the laws of spirit, the laws of mind, and the laws of things are all under his absolute control.
This so-called law of the universe is reminiscent of the Lucifer Rebellion when Lucifer declared among other things that God did not exist; that gravity and energy were self-existent; and that eternal life was inherent in the universe. It maintained that worship of the Universal Father was unnecessary. "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, ‘‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.’’"
The law of attraction maintains that whatever is focused on becomes a reality. Thus, if you desire wealth, all that is required is to conceive of wealth, believe that you have it, and forthwith will it appear in your life. If you desire to be free of debt, conceive of yourself as being free of debt, and forthwith will you become free of debt. This so-called law of attraction supposedly applies to all areas of the material life, including relationships.
While it is true that faith is essential to bring about a change in the material world, without knowledge or effort, no change occurs. Without faith, no effort is made to convert potential reality into actual reality. The laws of the material world are fixed. Anyone who takes the time to discover and apply these laws can bring about material changes within the boundaries of these laws. Thus, if we desire great wealth, there are laws governing the acquirement of wealth.
Missing from this law of attraction is the necessary effort required to bring it about, not to mention the wisdom of bringing things into one’’s life that may be harmful. Fulfilling immature desires can only lead to disaster. It is also true that things that are not earned are not appreciated. Since we are experiential beings, we have to experience a reality before we can know it; only in the arena of spiritual faith can we know a reality before we experience it. Divine things have to be loved in order to be known.
Those who have made some progress in this life, who have earned a measure of character development, who have earned a measure of God-consciousness and who are looking for an easier way should be mindful of this: "Mortal man earns even his status as an ascension candidate by his own faith and hope. Everything divine which the human mind grasps and the human soul acquires is an experiential attainment; it is a reality of personal experience and is therefore a unique possession." It is the result of choosing truth over error, choosing goodness over evil, and beauty over ugliness, of choosing love over hate, the Father’’s will over the human will.
If it were possible to return to an earlier stage of life before the problems of life began to multiply, would you return there? But before you leap headlong in saying yes, consider that you return without any of the positive attributes you acquired along the way. The difficulties of life presented stimuli that we responded to and so doing we acquired positive growth. Would you sacrifice the wisdom that you have acquired just to be free of the problems at this stage? This wisdom has only been acquired from wrestling with failure.
Would you sacrifice your acquired level of God consciousness that has been developed in response to the stimuli of the problems of life that drove you to seek for a closer relationship with the heavenly Father? Would you sacrifice your character growth towards divine perfection because of the current problems you are wrestling with? This growth towards divine perfection has only occurred because of your choosing right over wrong. In short, would you sacrifice all of the progress, materially, intellectually, morally and spiritual for the sake of having a so-called problem-free life? This is precisely what would happen if the stimulus of the progress of life were to be removed. Without the stimulus of difficulty, there could be no growth. So don’’t moan and groan over your troubles and difficulties. Your troubles are the whips of life that drive you forward, seeking solutions. The difficulties of life are the obstacles of achievement, the overcoming of which is responsible for everything in you that is true, beautiful, and good.
The so-called law of attraction if it worked would undermine the whole process of obeying the Father’’s eternal command to be perfect even as he is perfect. If the universe and God were the same, if there was no personal God in existence, there would be no existence, certainly no hope of surviving the mortal life. This so-called law of attraction if it worked would doom all experiential creatures. This so-called secret if it were true would be the secret to self-destruction. There could not be any exercise of faith, no creative imagination, for they would not arise: there’’d be no need to find solutions to problems. Without a need for a certain quality, no quality can appear in our experience.
The law of attraction attempts to explain the interactions of life, but the explanation is flawed. It is true that things can become a self-fulfilling prophesy. But that is because of the decisions that the person makes. The person who says that things will never get better fails to exercise his faith and make decisions that might move him forward. And then things do not get better. While it is true that as a man thinketh in his heart, so he becomes, it is so because the pattern of being, the image of God, is located there.
When we conceive of a thing, we conceive of that which is potentially real. When we believe (exercise faith) that which we have conceived, then we have started the process whereby we mobilize our effort to bring it into existence. Faith is the link between the potential and actual. It is the wheel that changes potential realities into actual ones. And when we achieve that which we have conceived and believed, we have applied effort. Nowhere in this process is there something coming into existence because of wish fulfillment. Conception is not wish-fulfilling.
And so we see that the so-called law of attraction is nothing more than another form of humanism--the attempt to define, create, and express reality without the source of reality, the Definer, the Creator, and the Expressor of all reality. Humanism can never solve the problem of surviving the mortal life. That is a secret beyond its power to grasp. Survival only comes about from the worship of the heavenly Father through his Son, Jesus, who gives eternal life to all who believe in his name.
This concludes today's message on understanding the meaning of the secret. 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 Message of Light
By Dr. James Perry
The Secret
