Are You Operating in Perfection?

So, we know that people aren’t perfect in the sense that they are not without faults and shortcomings. Many people secretly don’t like themselves because they don’t know how else to be. And let’s face it, people hurt people and can live in a constant state of offense. All of which is a… Weary existence.

But my heart is so overwhelmed by the beauty in people. I don’t even think they can see it in themselves. The kingship, the royalty, the importance and magnificence in people. How significant we are but we discount ourselves and those around us. That’s one thing that hurts to see… And to feel when it’s done to me. To discount the anointing in someone…

Last year I briefly taught a small group this subject on a Wednesday night.  We genuinely FEEL love for our brothers and sisters in Christ but the way we think of them is carnal. The powerful words in our mouths that we utter against them become Discount Tags! Marking something too valuable for a price tag, but assigning them a value (where we think they should be) and marking them down when they fail.  Doubting the blood bought power within them!

We can’t be so familiar with people… Those that we’ve seen in their less than regal state… That we can’t see Christ the hope of glory in them. It’s not easy… To do… But we become PERFECT when we do.

The perfect I’m referring to is the Greek word found in the New Testament Teleios. It means complete (particularly due to growth in mental or moral character). In other words, maturity. We have to love each other with agape love (a more familiar Greek word) which means love feast and it originates in God! This love also seeks to bring about someone’s good, not sparing rebuke. This love sees who someone CAN be and then speaks that, they pray for THAT. When one falls, this love encourages toward righteousness (hence the part about not sparing rebuke). This love DOES reserve healthy boundaries when violated. You don’t have to remain in someone’s company to love them with the heart of God. Pardon my blanket statements. Perhaps we can explore healthy boundaries at another time.

My husband and I are intercessors.  Our prayers would be FUTILE and WORTHLESS, a complete WASTE of time if we did not believe God for the REDEMPTION and DELIVERANCE….  of God’s people.  None of us are God, we don’t know the outcome of a life. But God never gave us the authority (though He may reveal it to us)  to decide for ourselves IF someone could or would ever turn their lives around or change for the better. We don’t get to determine if that will EVER happen or not.  This is why we have no right to condemn others.  Judge their works and fruit as it is applicable…YES, but condemn them… NO.

We are familiar with 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; [5] does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; [6] does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; [7] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

So the question is my friend… Who are you discounting? Are you diminishing yourself?  Who have you lost hope for? Who can you no longer bear? How are you praying for others….  And are you praying for others?