Mat 5:48
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Ah Perfection!
The word every one cringes at. It is a common teaching throughout the Body of Christ,
"Nobody is perfect, once you are in these bodies you will sin"
Yet the scripture plainly instructs us to be perfect. The Salvation Series, especially part 8 shows clearly why we can be perfect.
Rom 6:6-7
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
The old man is our bodies before salvation. According to Romans 7, it had the law of sin working in it, that when we would do good we couldn't because evil was present. At salvation that old man was destroyed, so that sin could be removed from it. The destruction here speaks to a literal death of the body, so that it can be born again.
Eph 4:22
22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
The scripture teaches us that we have put off the old man. This simply means that upon receiving the Holy Spirit our souls were taken out of the old man, so that it could die (Jam 2:26). The body was then freed from sin, and cleaned by the circumcision of the flesh.
Col 2:11
In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
The body was circumcised, i.e cleaned from sin by the removal of the spirit of bondage (the devil) that dwelt in it (Rom 8:15). The soul is then placed in Christ who then raises up the dead body by His spirit. It is at this point that we are declared saved and filled with the Holy Ghost.
Rom 8:11
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Now we are not in the flesh but it is Jesus who is in the flesh, however our souls are dwelling in Him (Rom 7:5, Rom 8:8-9). Jesus is the new man that our souls have been baptized into. In other words, our souls have put him on.
Eph 4:22-24
22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
The new man is the Holy Ghost inside of a body - the new man is Jesus Christ (the Word made flesh). Other scriptures refer to the putting on of the new man as:
Gal 3:27-28
27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female:for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
1Co 1:30
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
Now it doesn't matter the gender, race, nationality, etc of the flesh, because all are Christ. Many do not believe or understand that our souls have put on the literal man Jesus Christ. He is the one that is walking the earth, we aren't, our souls just happen to be in Him. This is the awesome plan of Salvation - Christ is in our flesh, and it is our hope of glory.
This is why the scripture says be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect - we can be perfect because Jesus is perfect and we are in him and he is in our flesh.
THE PROOF OF PERFECTION
Salvation ought to be seen from the perspective of Christ being in us, rather than from us here on earth, with the help of the Holy Spirit. The first perspective allows us to see salvation as the literal living, moving, breathing Christ Jesus and we are in Him, witnessing His life.
Some thing we ought to think about is, if Christ is in us, what is He doing?
Something that we must embrace about our salvation is the reality that Jesus is in you living the same life that you are. He is a part of your family, He goes to work with you, He goes to school with you. He is literally living your life. Jesus lives when we are obedient to the Father.
Jam 1:13
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God:for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
For the full explanation of the scripture above see Setting the Perspective of Christianity
Jesus in us cannot sin, and He cannot be tempted with sin. In this case when He is living our lives, if temptation approaches He will always stay faithful to the Father, even if we choose to sin.
2Ti 2:12-13
12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him:if we deny him, he also will deny us:
13 If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful:he cannot deny himself.
If we consider sin, and go into sin, even though He is in us, and are in His human body, He will never agree with sin. He will always abide faithful to the Father, because it is His commission to glorify God on the earth. So lets say, I have an enemy. The scripture tells me to love my enemy. Therefore Jesus (who is in me) will always love that enemy no matter what he/she does. Lets say I (meaning my soul) begin to despise and hate that enemy, even though I do, the Jesus in me never does. He is abiding faithful to the Father in us.
Therefore when we look at it, if we have the Holy Ghost, Jesus knows our life. In fact He is living that same life as you, the only difference (if any) is that He is remaining holy at all times to the Father. When we examine our lives, there may be some temptations, some persecutions, some enemies and we may think, how does God expect me to walk holy in the midst of these? We say we cannot live holy in the midst of these things and God knows our heart. Because we think that way we allow ourselves to sin and displease God.
Herein is the proof of perfection manifested. Even though we examine our life and give ourselves the leeway to fall at times, there is something we ought to consider. Listen what the Holy Ghost said to me:
"The practical proof of the perfection message is the conscience. The conscience speaks the life that Jesus desires to live in and through you. No matter how hard your life may get or how hard it becomes to stand, in the sight of Jesus sin is not an option. I speak of Jesus in you. He has been faced with the same temptations that you have been, because He is in you when you face them, but His response is always righteous and pleasing unto me. He remains faithful to me in you even when your soul goes into sin. He cannot sin. He voices His heart and decisions through your conscience. It doesn't matter how hard things get, your conscience will never permit you to sin. If you had a dual nature there would come a sin and a point that the conscience would excuse, but He excuses no sin. Perfection therefore is simply when you obey the voice of Jesus in you. When you do, you get the opportunity to watch him and his sinless nature manifest through you. He has already overcome sin and no matter whose body he is in, he will never sin and he will never use it to sin. Now if any man sin he is drawn away by his own lust, not because he had to but simply because he overrode his conscience to go after sin"
Wow, well there you have it. The conscience is the practical proof of salvation. The conscience shows us practically, why and how we can be perfect. When we obey Jesus, He will live through us and manifest His power of holiness.
There may be times when the soul becomes discouraged or weary, however look at the work of Christ within us.
Rom 8:26-28
26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities:for we know not what we should pray for as we ought:but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Jesus prays for us in and through us. When we pray in tongues, that is Jesus praying unto the Father on our behalf and we hear Him pray. It is when we allow Him to pray for us, that we will be strengthened even as He was strengthen in the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus knows the will of God, and He knows the desire of our souls. Once we can come to the place that our prayer is - nevertheless not my will but thine be done - then He will strengthen us. He is in us and is willing to suffer again through us, but he only will be given that opportunity if we allow Him to.
I promise you however, that if you allow Him to glorify Himself in you, you will experience the power of the Comforter and in turn be glorified yourself in the Millennium.
- His Apostle
Kareem Flowers.
- 12:19
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