7.What is "that which is perfect"?.

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The fullness of the Father and the fullness of the Son dwelling eternally in the saint through the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:23)

And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. (Ephesians 3:19)

The Pentecostal gifts of the Spirit are necessary for bringing us to the place where we can receive that which is perfect. However the ministries and gifts of the Spirit are incomplete and temporary. They are, as we have stated, means to an end.

That which is perfect is the full development of the new covenant.

During the present age we cannot see Christ. We have been born again, but all of us are at various levels of the formation of the Divine Life within us. All our gifts and ministries are fragmented glimpses of the Glory of God as we labor in the Master’s vineyard to the best of our ability.

Some of our efforts are mixed with pride and self-seeking. Some of our understanding of God is correct and some is incorrect. We struggle onward through the valley of the shadow of death. No doubt God is more pleased with our progress than we are because He understands the pressures of wickedness and rebellion that attempt to crush every effort we make toward righteousness.

Unbelievably great rewards will be given to the saint who will serve God faithfully with a pure heart in the present hour.

As Christ is formed in us and dwells in us we receive an increasing amount of the Divine love. The light becomes greater, the way a bit clearer. Our understanding of God and His purposes is enlarged. Our instincts are sounder, and guidance comes from within us (although we never are to cease watching carefully in prayer, for Satan strives continuously to deceive us).

Before the way becomes clearer there may be a long period during which it appears almost impossible to find the Lord’s will or to gain understanding of what is happening to us. Years of uncertainty and perplexity may accompany our transition from being a Spirit-filled person (the feast of Pentecost) to being the dwelling place of God and Christ (the feast of Tabernacles) (John 14:23).

When Jesus returns from Heaven, at the time of the first resurrection from the dead, the victorious saints will be raised to meet Him and will receive a transformation of their bodies such that their bodies are like His body.

They will be assigned their posts of service to the nations of the earth. The love of Christ for those nations will be given to them. They will not minister by partial anointings of the Holy Spirit but will be part of the Servant of the Lord on whom the Spirit of God abides without measure.

In that day the saints will see the face of Christ and will know and understand all things just as today they are known and understood by the Lord.

They will see the face of Christ because they will be working with Him in administrating the affairs of the nations of saved peoples of the earth.

They will see the face of Christ because the Father and He will be dwelling in them in the fullness of Divine love. This is the spiritual fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:34). This is "that which is perfect."

The ministries and gifts of the Spirit are as the Lampstand that illuminated the Holy Place of the Tabernacle of the Congregation. "That which is perfect" speaks of the Shechinah, the Glory of God that lighted the Most Holy Place. The Lord Jesus always walks in the fullness of God, not in fragmented ministries and gifts.

At the end of the thousand-year Kingdom Age the Church of Christ, the Wife of the Lamb, will descend from the new heaven and be established on the new earth. Every inhabitant of the holy city, which is the Kingdom of God, will know the Lord. They will not each teach his neighbor because from the least to the greatest all will know the Lord.

There will be no temple in the new Jerusalem. The reason is that every member of the Bride of the Lamb will see the Face of God Almighty—a state of glory so exalted we can by no means conceive of it. This is the highest fulfillment of "that which is perfect." This is the fullest expression of the working of the new covenant. This is the fullness of Divine love, the love that will be carried throughout the creation by the members of the Church, the Bride of the Lamb, the Body of Christ.

God’s love shall never fail until the new Jerusalem sheds the light of the Glory of God and of the Lamb throughout every corner of the new earth.

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