Be Holy for I Am Holy

God has commanded Christians to be perfect, because He is perfect (Be Holy for I Am Holy).

And the more and more we try to do this, the more and more we should realise we cannot be made perfect by ourselves.

When Moses went to do God’s will at first he was a great failure (Exodus/Acts). He killed a man. And ran away for 40 years. But when returning, he also made additional excuses. I am pretty confident, 90% or more of people reading this have never murdered anyone and ran away from God’s calling on their life for 40 years. That was far from perfect. Quite the opposite. But God still used him to do one of the biggest deliverances in Israel ever.

The reason I mention this, is because there is a basic application of this for you to see.

We serve a perfect God. And it is easy to think everything you do must be perfect. But we must remember, we are not God.

I know several people who I would class as perfectionists. They find it extremely hard to put something into the public atmosphere which is not their best. So unless for example, they felt this article was written perfectly, they would not submit it.

It would stop them from writing a book, because they might feel like they do not know how to write a book perfectly.

Do you know when I wrote my first book (Walk in the Spirit), I had never written a book before? But I opened up a word document and prayerfully started typing. I just typed the words as I was led by the Spirit. I am not claiming the book came out perfect. There are times even today (even in this article), where fear might try to get the best of me and I remove something I believe I should write. But I pray I am bold enough to write what I believe God wants me to write in Jesus’ name.

There are some things which God demands to be done to a high order. For example, the priestly garments, or Tabernacle, God showed Moses how to make in the Book of Exodus. But who was wearing those garments? Aaron and his sons who were not perfect. Another thing…Who came to make sacrifices at the tabernacle?

I do not know of anyone in the Bible who God used or called to do something great (not including Jesus), who was asked to do their greatest tasks recorded on day 1. God takes people from where they currently are and if we trust him, he will elevate us to places we may not even see at the time. 
If you follow through the most famous names in the Bible, one place shape or form, the Bible details how they missed the mark, and it usually was early on in their journey. But that does not mean later in life we may not falter. Regardless of the situation, keep your faith in Jesus, not yourself for perfection.

If being perfect, or doing perfect acts was all we ever allowed to have power over our life:

• The red sea never would have been parted.
  

 

• Abram would not have become Abraham or have Isaac for a son.
  

 

• We would not have the Torah.

 

• You would not be reading this article.

 

Moses did miracles, not by himself, not by his own power, but the Bible references in Exodus “The rod of God”. Moses was humble and drew to God. He did not think that he could receive perfection by himself.


I was watching a Christian Live streamer recently and the ‘rich young ruler’ came up. The ‘rich young ruler’ is the guy, famous for approaching Jesus and claiming to have kept the whole law since he was a child. This reminded me of some of my early years as a Christian, when I was devout. When I would be disgusted with people’s sin. When I felt personally offended, like these so-called Christians had sinned against me…(The creator of the universe).


I was a pharisee!

And it took a big humbling for me to realise it!

I am not saying the rich young ruler was a pharisee (someone who judged others but never judged themselves by the same standard). But Jesus used one example to shatter his whole belief.

Jesus did not accuse him of lying, so I will not. Jesus said “If thou wilt be perfect, go [and] sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.” (Gospel of Matthew). Give up everything. Go and distribute it to the poor. THEN COME AND FOLLOW ME!

He was so close to perfection.


God has made this ever so clear in recent weeks as I’ve drawn closer and closer to God. I have begun to realise how much of an unholy person I am if left to my own devices. I do not want to make the same mistake as the ‘rich young ruler’. Who had the opportunity to reach perfection. And walked away in sorrow at the home straight.

As much good as I find myself doing, I still fall so short of God’s perfect nature. When I look at God and then look at what I am doing. I think about the times I want to write something like this. I know this will impact you if you follow it. Or record Bible teaching videos that will help Christians understand the Bible better. And help them apply it to their everyday life…Or not posting or recording videos and resting. But I throw that on the backburner, to enjoy watching a video that can show me how to make more money. Or teach me the tricks to obtain more subscribers on my Youtube channel(s). Things that serve me.

My God is not like this.


The more and more I think about this, the more and more I realise how much love God has for us. Because he is perfect, he commands us to be perfect, and he knows in advance, we will never be made perfect left to ourselves.

So when I failed to realise this around 8 years ago, God allowed certain events in my life to Humble me drastically. What events? Perhaps we will discuss these at another time.

But today as my relationship is growing more than ever before, I do not need or want (🙂) the humbling. Not because I am perfect. Because I trust in the one who is perfect and do not have that pride guiding me anymore.

So If God commanded us to be perfect as Christians. But we can never become perfect as Christians. What is God playing at Israel?

“If thou wilt be perfect, go [and] sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.”

Perfection is attainable! How?

In the places you lack, in the places you fall short. Jesus covers the cost. For someone like the ‘Rich young ruler’ he did not want to let go of his possessions because up until this point, he thought he was perfect in God’s eyes. But where he lacked and could not pick up the slack, this was not the end. He was not condemned because he was not perfect. He was shown the way to perfection in God’s eyes.

THROUGH JESUS.

This is not a license to sin. Just because God is ever-gracious, it does not mean we should abuse it. But at the same time, we should not fall into the trap of thinking we are perfect and can do everything by ourselves because we cannot. It is about biblical balance. The more mature I get in God, the more I realise I want to be better. And you should too. You should strive to be a better example of Christ, every single day.

It only makes sense if you truly believe in Christ and want others to change too does it not? Be an Example!

So when I find myself being selfish, thinking of myself first, I commit it to God in prayer (I advise you read last month’s article to see my article on prayer). When I find myself speaking in a way I should not, I pray to God to make me slow to speak. And that God can make a way to learn more and more how to control my tongue.

Recently I recorded a video which was about not making excuses and being focused on God. When it came to editing the video, the auto-focus was on and it was a blurry video. The sound of the auto-focus going in and out of focus was all the way through. Do you think I posted it?

I did…I swallowed my pride of thinking, people will think this guy does not produce good materials. I said, people will hear it fine and because they can hear it well, they would still get blessed. It was not perfect. But a perfectionist would take something they believe God wanted them to teach and because some things went wrong during application, they would delete it. They would stop someone from getting blessed because their possessions were great and they did not want to lose them.

I recently was doing live streaming and felt deep conviction to change because I was creating a show rather than focusing on what God wanted me to do.

• Everything had to be a certain way
  

 

• I must say certain things at certain times 

 

• I must make money while doing it 

 

• If the visuals did not look good or I could not be asked to set up my “Studio” equipment I would not livestream 

EVERYTHING NEEDED TO BE PERFECT. BECAUSE I WANTED TO SHOW PEOPLE I WAS PERFECT AT THIS.

But I was not perfect. It was an act. It was a show.

The substance was not the main problem, the source was.

I started thinking about Jesus, and when he preached parables or gave the sermon on the mount. Did he care if his hair was freshly cut, or if he was wearing his Jesus is Lord apparel for perfect ad placement? The things I was concerned with were not important to God, they were important to me.

As I focused more on God, my first thought was no longer, how do I look. John the Baptist came wearing camel skin and a leather girdle and was in the wilderness eating honey and locusts (Gospel of Matthew). But his message was powerful. He focused on the most important thing first.

I do not try and focus on what looks good first anymore. I try to focus on, is this something God wants me to say for example. Or will this line up with the Bible if I do it?

So the big spiritual danger of trying to trust in myself would have been eternal damnation. But I trust in Jesus’ perfection, not my own and believe because of this God will welcome me into eternal life. The ultimate loss is our life in eternity.

And I pray you won’t be like the ‘Rich young ruler’ who literally walked away from perfection. But that you walk right into him and stay in him.

His Yoke is Easy. His Burden Is Light!

Israel Ikhinmwin