KHANDIE'S KORNER - "June 2, 2003"

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Timely Insights into God's Word from Khandielese Reyes

I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.This Weeks Message- (scripture taken from King James Version)

"BE YE PERFECT"

“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.  But I say unto you, LOVE your enemies, BLESS them that curse you, DO GOOD to them that hate you, and PRAY for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.  For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye?   Do not even the publicans do the same?   And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others?  Do not even the publicans so?  Be Ye therefore Perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is Perfect.”  (Matt 5:43-48) 

“This I say then, WALK in the SPIRIT, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would”  (Gal 5:16-17)  Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And WALK IN LOVE as Christ also hath LOVED US, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour.”  (Eph 5:1-2)  

For many, when they consider the word “perfection”, they immediately began focusing on the outward in one’s physical appearance, speech, level of education and such.  This twisted and carnal notion of perfection begins in infancy for the child who was born with all it’s physical members and senses is considered “perfect”, while a child who may have been born missing limbs, without sight or hearing is considered by most to be “imperfect”.  Man’s idealism of perfection is not that of the Lords, for when He speaks of perfection, He speaks of inward “completion”.  Perfection, if you will, of the SPIRIT and not that of the flesh. 

The Lord says here in the book of Matthew: Be Ye therefore Perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is Perfect.  It should be quite obvious that he’s not speaking of perfection of the “flesh”, since God our Father is “Spirit”, thus if we are to be perfect as HE, our concentration should then be on the INWARD and not the OUTWARD.  We can go all the way back to the beginning of the creation of man where God says: “Let us make man, in our image and in our likeness…”   Well, the image of God is “Spirit”, thus the ONLY part of man that was created in HIS image is the “Spirit” of man, the very LIFE of man, for without the “Breath of Life” (spirit), man is then just dead flesh.  Yet, even knowing this, many still attempt to please God with the flesh in the manner of speech, of prayer, of WORKS and the like,  and yet with the flesh we cannot please our Father, since in our flesh there dwells NO good thing.   It is the spirit that searches out the deep things of God, NOT the flesh.  It is the spirit that desires to follow Christ and heed to the commandments of our Lord, NOT the flesh.   The flesh is at constant war with the spirit seeking to ALWAYS do those things opposite of the will of God, thus how can we even begin to attempt to please him with the flesh, and leave the spirit man idle?  Judge for yourselves, for many of us rise in the morning with good intentions of doing EVERYTHING perfect that would be pleasing to The Father, and yet before we can even begin our daily tasks,  the flesh enters in with a thought or action and before you know it, we’ve done something displeasing in the sight of our Lord where then, self condemnation follows and we are then consumed with guilt and quickly make the  promise to ourselves and the Lord,  tomorrow we’ll start again and this time, our ways of perfection will be right.  This is foolishness, and for this reason many have left the church having not been taught the Lord’s true definition of “perfection”,  thus having failed over and over again with trying to do it themselves, they view it as impossible to live “perfectly” before the Lord and sadly return back to their old ways. 

Let us understand clearly that trying to please the Lord with our “flesh” is not only foolish, but arrogant.  It is foolish, because to attempt to do so on our own will only lead to failure and it is arrogant because we attempt to do so WITHOUT the help of the Holy Spirit.   We are in essence saying, “I can do this by myself, I don’t need any help, all it’s going to take on my part is a strong will to do the right thing, I can be perfect….”  Here’s the problem with this way of thinking, it’s all about SELF… IF it were possible that we could do this ALL on our own, then we would have no need for Our Father’s most precious Holy Spirit.  But, the Lord allows us to see, through the wickedness of our OWN flesh that it is NOT possible we can live perfectly before him WITHOUT the help, the guidance, the instruction, the leading of HIS HOLY SPIRIT.   One may say that they have and do live perfectly before the Lord and give examples such as situations where they may have been faced with persecution and treated most unkindly by many throughout their lives, and yet they’ve not spoken a word in anger to those who’ve hurt them in return.  But this is not perfection, for although a word of anger was not uttered, what was and IS in the heart?  Though one may have not spoken, the heart may be harboring resentment, bitterness, anger of which the LORD KNOWS as he knows the thoughts of every one of us.  Again, it’s not about the flesh, but about the spirit.   It is not what we appear to be “outwardly” but WHO WE TRULY ARE “INWARDLY”. 

So, what am I saying?  Am I saying that it is impossible that we could live our lives perfectly before the Lord?   Absolutely NOT!  For if it were impossible, the Lord would not have given the command to do so.   It is impossible when we try to do it ourselves for we are relying on our OWN strength, our OWN abilities and thus we will fail since we are limited.   BUT…..it is absolutely, positively POSSIBLE to live righteously before the Lord when we SURRENDER  to the power of the Holy Spirit, and ALLOW Him to live THROUGH us doing ALL the work for us, even in our speech.  The work it will take on our part is to simply YIELD, to stop trying to do it ourselves and acknowledge that we are NOTHING without Him and can DO NOTHING without Him.  To let HIM perfect us and stop trying to perfect ourselves.   He’s not looking for perfection of the flesh, but COMPLETION of the Spirit. 

When we let go of SELF, and open our hearts to RECEIVE the gift of HIS SPIRIT, The Holy Spirit will then do a good work in us, enabling us to live perfectly before the Lord for it will be HE doing the work and not ourselves.   The key to it all is letting go of SELF!  When we walk in the spirit, allowing the Holy Spirit to do ALL the leading, then our flesh has NO CHOICE but to submit and follow for to put our flesh under subjection to the Spirit, is to YIELD to the PERFECTION of HIS HOLY SPIRIT.  Only through our surrender can we fulfill his command: Be Ye therefore Perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is Perfect.  Remember that it is not through our flesh perfection is obtained.  It starts from WITHIN, perfection begins in the spirit!

I love you all so very much. Have a blessed week in the Lord and remember: Whatever we do, do ALL for the GLORY of GOD, who ALONE is worthy of the GLORY and the PRAISE!

May the peace of the Lord be with you today and always…….

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Daughter & Servant
   of the Lord God
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Find true peace now.
Find True Peace Now

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