Last night as I was drifting off to sleep I heard the Lord say he desires to break the yoke of perfection. I saw some struggling under this yoke that presents and disguises itself as “good and right”. However the root of it is performance and the fruit it bears is stress, anxiety, pressure and eventually burn out!
Holy Spirit reminded me of something he spoke to me one morning last year, “No where in my word have I commissioned you to strive for perfection, but rather only My REST”. Oh how his voice is like the running waters that calm and heal the soul.
Perfection motivation can be very hard to recognise as it presents itself as wanting to “do the right thing” or “be the best I can be”, and we can think we are “doing what God would want us to do” or “behave how God would want us to behave ” but really we can find ourselves doing life in our own strength and efforts, which at the end of the day creates burn out and is primarily rooted in FEAR! Fear of what people think, fear of failure, fear of judgement, fear of rejection, fear of the future, fear fear, fear!.
The Lord is Jealous over His people and is yearning for them to walk closely and intimately with Him. I feel the Lord is shifting His people’s mentality and drawing them higher to be led by His Spirit and Walk in the Spirit. “Not by Might nor by power but By HIS SPIRIT”! The foundation of truly walking by the Spirit is being rooted and grounded in His Love, because those who are “led by the Spirit” by definition, are the “sons of God” and are no longer slaves to fear but have received the “spirit of adoption” whereby we cry Abba Father. (Romans 8:14-15)
Perfection in God’s eyes is not the same as we see it. To walk “right” is to walk by faith (Hebrews 10:38). Righteousness is simply doing things God’s way and the Word says that His ways are higher and His thoughts are higher (Isaiah 55:9). Proverbs 14:12 says a mans way may seem “right” in a his own eyes but the end thereof is death!!!! Romans 8:6 talks about the mind of the flesh (sense and reason without the Holy Spirit) resulting in death, but the mind of the Spirit is soul peace. There we have it again. Whatever is not of peace is rooted in fear.
Perfection is not righteousness, and God doesn’t need perfection to move, to empower, or to fulfil. He only requires faith. Faith is trusting what God has said to be true. It takes humility to trust God and to do life by His Spirit. That is why IT IS NOT PERFECTION BUT RATHER HUMILITY THAT DRAWS HEAVEN. He gives more and more grace to the humble. Those that rely on Him as their dear necessity and seek to do things Gods way will encounter the shift they are longing for.
Perfection can be a road block to a move of God, because our focus is aligned with earthly thinking. PERFECTION SEEKS TO PLEASE MAN BUT HUMILITY SEEKS TO PLEASE GOD.
PERFECTION DOES NOT EQUAL EXCELLENCE.
Sometimes we think by striving for perfection we are operating in a spirit of excellence, which is simply not true. A spirit of excellence does not require perfection to be excellent. God has a spirit of excellence but yet chooses to use imperfect man. He uses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise.
Our gatherings do not need a perfect venue, with perfect people with the perfect attire, with the perfect lighting, with the perfect sound, with the perfect worship sets, with the perfect sermon that goes for the perfect amount of time, with the perfect lingo that doesn’t offend ANYBODY, for the HOLY SPIRIT TO COME IN POWER!
In actual fact PERFECTION FOCUS CAN BE THE BIGGEST HINDERANCE TO A MOVE OF GOD AND REVIVAL.
The bible says that the “fear of man is a snare” (I think I will save that writing for another post). But in actual fact seeking to please man will cause us to be imprisioned and really not living and achieving what our hearts really desire.
Striving to enter the rest simply means to uproot those wrong foundations of fear and anxiety that can lurk in our hearts and surrendering them over to our beautiful saviour who is ever ready to bring healing to the soul. This radical action will result in us being out of our comfort zone, ( yes we can be comfortable serving fear ), but it is an act of true humility in demonstration of faith which will attract heaven to your situation and bring deliverance, shiftings and more importantly rest and peace.
Striving for perfection in order to find peace will always leave you bitterly disappointed and depleted.
YOU CAN LIVE A LIFE THAT IS NOT PERFECT AND HAVE PEACE!
Lord open our eyes to those things that we serve that are not in alignment with your perfect will. May we enter the rest.
