“No man,” so a saying goes,’ “is perfect”. It is unfortunate that we do not know the exact author of this statement. Perhaps, the author would have done us some good by telling us the import of this cliché. The statement as it stands is grievously ambiguous. I wonder whether the author meant that s/he knows “no man (person)” who is perfect, or a person can never be perfect. If s/he meant the first meaning, the statement may be right. On the other hand, if s/he meant the second meaning, s/he is in a sincere and sore error, and must be corrected rightly. It is a sad commentary that many people have accepted this cliché as if it’s their daily bread. There are numerous perfect people on earth today, and you can be added to their number if you wish. History bear accounts perfect people like Jesus, Enoch, Joseph, Daniel, Mary, Stephen and so forth. There are many of such today! This piece will put into your hand the key to enter the kingdom of perfect persons.
There are three categories of people on earth - natural persons, carnal persons, and spiritual persons. Natural people (like an atheist) do not believe in the existence of God or anything about Him. To them, it is foolishness to believe in the “so-called God” or receive gifts from Him. Natural people therefore they do not know God or His gifts because such gifts are spiritually discerned. As a result, they depend on and use only their natural senses and understanding in everything they do. Besides, they may use every means to achieve their objectives or to be successful. Therefore, natural people are not perfect because they usually use diabolic and crooked means to be successful. It is worth noting that success may be good or bad. Successful natural or carnal people have bad successes. True success is a product of good success. Carnal people on the other hand, believe in the existence of God. More often than not, they eagerly seek God’s blessings and gifts in a wrong way, or with a wrong motive. They may be worldly people or people who claim to have received Jesus Christ as their only Saviour and Lord. Worldly people for example seek for the wealth of God but despise or ignore the Word of God. They are the so-called smart people. Certainly, worldly people are not perfect people because they do things in a wrong way, or for a wrong reason. However, some carnal people may seek for both God’s wealth and Word. Mostly, such persons have received Jesus as their Saviour and Lord, after believing in Him. They may be church-goers and tongue-speaking. Besides, they boast and claim to be Christians. Unfortunately, these carnal people do not understand nor know God (as the God of lovingkindness, judgment and righteousness). These people may for example know God as a kind and loving person, but never as the just and righteous God. To God, such people are robbers. They live in sin yet they are always clamouring for His blessings. Thus they are the care-free Christians or, say, the babe-Christians. Speaking modestly and soberly, they are the immature-Christians. Speaking bluntly and frankly, many so-called Christians are in fact carnal people. Carnal-Christians are unspiritual, envious, and act like mere men (people) - thus they act carnally. In addition, strife, and divisions are common among themselves, not among them and unbelievers (carnal or natural people or both). Strife and divisions are their hallmarks. Truly, truly, carnal-Christians are not perfect people. They are good-and-bad people. In other words, it is practically very difficult to say that they are bad, or good. God is their ultimate judge!
The last category of people on earth is the spiritual people. Spiritual people have the divine mandate to rightly judge all things, yet they themselves are rightly judged by no person. In other words, spiritual people are blameless before God, although natural and carnal people may wrongly blame or judge them. They are “the touch-not” anointed people. You dare touch (despise, insult or wrong) them at your own peril because God always fight their battles for them. A key example is Moses, the deliverer. Mariam, his sister, criticized him at her own peril. God mercifully plagued her with leprosy although Moses did respond to her carnal or destructive criticisms. Spiritual people have God’s seal of approval and endorsement upon them because they understand and know Him. In other words, they know the mind of Jesus Christ who instructs them. They are the sheep of God. Thus, they know and hear the voice of God. Unlike the goat-Christians (carnal-Christians, the disobedient and hypocrite), sheep-Christians fully follow God and obey Him totally, no matter what! Sheep-Christians rightly feed at the pasture (wealth) of God. They seek the wealth of God through the right way-Jesus Christ. The pathway of the right way is the truth. The right way only leads to the life. Any other way leads to either physical or spiritual death, or both. “There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are ways of death.” Put more elegantly, the ways of natural and carnal people lead to death, which may be physical or spiritual. They are spiritually dead because they do not rightly relate with God. Thus they neither understand nor know Him. Natural and some carnal people for example do not know why God is one person but functions as three persons. Consequently, they may superficially be serving the Almighty God by depending on their natural senses and knowledge. No wonder they are always living defeated and pitiful lives. Their lifestyle attracts only their fellow natural or carnal people, never God! However, both natural and carnal people can become spiritual people. Spiritual people were once upon a time, natural and carnal people.
Spiritual people know that they can only serve the Almighty God in this dark world by fully and totally depending, and relying on Jesus (God’s Word) and the Holy Spirit (God’s comforter) to draw superior power to live both higher and victorious lives on earth. Through Jesus and the Holy Spirit, spiritual people manifest love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithful, gentleness and self-control. That is why no person, except God, can rightly judge spiritual people. But spiritual people have the mandate to judge all things. They are perfect!
It takes humility to be a perfect person. Humble people are teachable. Teachable people are discoverers. Real discoverers have learnt not only to believe in and depend on the Almighty God and for that matter Jesus Christ (God’s unadulterated word), but also to yield fully to the Holy Spirit. People who yield totally to the Holy Spirit are humble and teachable. The Holy Spirit is the potent combination of God’s Spirit and Word (Jesus) on earth. Spiritual people do and say only things the Holy Spirit has commanded them to do or say. Thus they know, understand, and obey the commandments of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, spiritual-Christians are perfect people. Which kind of person are you? Are you a carnal-Christian or a spiritual-Christian?
Richard Obeng Mensah, author of If You Think of Your Opposition You Lose Your Position.
borncapy@yahoo.com/www.richard-obeng-mensah.blogspot.com
