God's way of doing things is to perfect for us and this perfection, God's righteousness, lives within us in our deepest inner being, our heart, the centre of our Spirit filled desires. Lu.17:21 says, " Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." Dare you believe it, God's way of doing things lives within you? That's where the choice begins!

Mt.22:14 says, "for many are called, but few are chosen." This verse tells us that God calls many, but few choose to follow the path of the perfect life and are chosen vessels, God does the calling and we ultimately do the choosing. This chosen path is a condition of the heart, not our human mind and is highlighted by a hunger to walk pleasing to God. God said of King David, that he was a man after God's heart. 1K.11:4 says, "Solomon's heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father." So we can be sure it's not a matter of our worldly wisdom. It's not even a matter of always doing the right thing, as we know David killed Uriah because of Bathsheba. He committed murder yet his relationship with God was restored through his repentance and God's grace. It is a matter of the heart's priority being to please Him. The Bible says in Mt.6:33, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Even when we deviate from the perfect path God is able, if our heart is right, to restore us back as He did with David. Unfortunately the murder did permanently affect David's ultimate destiny, He wasn't allowed to build the temple even though he produced all the materials and the design. He had to delegate that to his son Solomon. David walked through a great deal of heart ache with his family as a result of not walking the complete and perfect walk with God. There will be consequences to many of the wrong choices we make in disobedience to God's leading in perfecting our walk with God.

What amazes me is that David wasn't aware of his sin. Nathan had to confront him and bring correction. Many times we are blinded by our fleshly thinking and selfishness. Self is the problem, the flesh and our ego wants it and we must satisfy the flesh. What a selfish world we live in. The generation we live among is full of selfishness, "It's my right!" we hear so often, the right to do what I want. There's no self restraint. Our walk as Christians must be different, always about pleasing Him first. What a fullness we live in when we take our eyes off our needs and receive Gods fullness, "added unto us".

Jesus is our perfect example of walking God's perfect way where ultimately self was dealt with. He kept saying, "Not My will, but Thine Father." It is possible to walk that way. Enoch did. He walked with God and he was not. That's the ultimate.

Paul in Romans puts the whole thing in focus. Chapter 8 talks about us walking in communion with the Spirit of God, daily listening to our father's voice and walking in His love. The Holy Spirit was sent to enable us to walk a perfect walk with God, to make it possible for us to live in the perfection of a relationship with our heavenly Father. When we look at ourselves and what we can do we fail. When we look at Him we overcome our flesh and failure and rise into victory. Romans 8:13 tells us, "For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." If we walk after the Spirit we are changed into the likeness of Jesus and our sonship begins. What we found so hard for us before is suddenly made easy. The anointing He gives us makes us more than conquerors.

It's so exciting, coming into a Father-son relationship with a life-giving God, knowing His constant presence of love surrounding and keeping us, His still small voice deep within, guiding and showing us the truth about our self. What seemed so totally unattainable to our human mind suddenly becomes reality as we stand and see God's plan for our life unfold before our very eyes.

Alan Churchill Editor