Mt. 5:48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

If God is your father, then you must become perfect like your father.

Ro. 8:23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

A day appointed by God is coming when God will adopt all humans who are perfect as His eternal sons. Anyone who wants God to include her/him in the adoption of the sons of God must become perfect.

What does it mean to be perfect?

Being perfect simply means to become like Jesus—in holiness and in power.

1Jn. 3:2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
1Jn. 3:3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

When Jesus comes to rapture the adopted sons of God to heaven, these adopted sons of God will be exactly like Jesus. Anyone who hopes to be included in the sons of God must be moving towards perfection, by purifying her/his self.

Is it possible to become perfect?

If Jesus says, “Be perfect!”, then it is possible. God will not give us an impossible command. Of course, one would wonder why no follower of Jesus today is perfect and why not even Christians of old were known to have been perfect. Is Jesus’ command to be perfect really achievable?

He. 11:39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.
He. 11:40 God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

He. 11:39-40 is saying that people of old that were faithful to God could not receive the promise of adoption as sons of God. The reason is that it is only together with the end-time Christians that they could be made perfect—in the land of the dead. This means that until the end-time people of God attain perfection in the land of the living, faithful people of God of old cannot be adopted as sons of God.

The beginning of end-time perfection

Da. 12:9 He replied, “Go your way, Daniel, because the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end.

God sealed the secret of perfection until the time of the end. When Jesus begins to open the seals of Revelation 6, the secret of perfection will be released. The reason why this topic is being presented here is because the time has come.

Ez. 36:22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone.
Ez. 36:23 I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.
Ez. 36:25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.
Ez. 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
Ez. 36:27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

Ez. 37:1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones.
Ez. 37:4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!
Ez. 37:7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone.
Ez. 37:8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
Ez. 37:9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’”
Ez. 37:10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet — a vast army.

Ro. 11:15 For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
Ro. 11:16 If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.
Ro. 11:17 If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root,
Ro. 11:18 do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.

Perfection will start with Israelites in diaspora. The rejection of Jesus as the messiah by the remnant Jews in Israel, descendants of Jews that were exiled to Babylon, led to their rejection by God. Other groups of Israelites had been previously rejected by God due to idolatry; the Samaritan Israelites were the first group to be rejected by God (2Kings 17 and 18), followed by the Israelites that went down to Africa (Jeremiah 44).

Israel is the root of the Church. The rejection of the last group of Israelites opened the door for gentiles to be included among God’s people. When God accepts the Israelites back, it will lead to the resurrection of God’s people. In fact, the first set of people to attain perfection and then resurrection will be Israelites (the firstfruits—the 144,000, Re. 14:1-4). It is only after the elect of Israel has been made perfect that the rest of the Church will have the opportunity to become perfect—through the ministry of the firstfruits.

Zep. 3:9 “Then will I purify the lips of the peoples, that all of them may call on the name of the LORD and serve him shoulder to shoulder.
Zep. 3:10 From beyond the rivers of Cush [That is, the upper Nile region] my worshippers, my scattered people, will bring me offerings.
Zep. 3:11 On that day you will not be put to shame for all the wrongs you have done to me, because I will remove from this city those who rejoice in their pride. Never again will you be haughty on my holy hill.
Zep. 3:12 But I will leave within you the meek and humble, who trust in the name of the LORD.
Zep. 3:13 The remnant of Israel will do no wrong; they will speak no lies, nor will deceit be found in their mouths. They will eat and lie down and no-one will make them afraid.”

Zep. 3:9 is about the perfection of the saints. Zep. 3:10 shows where this perfection will begin. Perfection will start with the Jews in Africa. In the mid-1990s, some white evangelists were holding Christian conferences towards the end of December every year, in the city of Port-Harcourt, Nigeria. They said, “Nigerians, the whole world is waiting for you!” they said that they saw the map of Africa positioned like a gun in the hand of God. Nigeria is the trigger of the gun and South Africa is the barrel. They explained that a great revival will commence in Nigeria. Through South Africa, the revival will go worldwide. By early 2002, I wondered why Nigerians that are ridiculed by the whole world will become the chosen ones, God made me to understand that it is the Israelites in Nigeria that are being referred to. Incidentally, the Israelites in Nigeria have bad reputation in Africa (Ez. 36:22-23). The Israelites in Nigeria are the ones being referred to in Zep. 3:10. Perfection of the people of God will begin with them.

Zep. 3:11-13 talks about Jews worldwide, who will ultimately be gathered to the land of Israel. The Jews to be seen in Israel by the time Jesus returns to rule the world from Jerusalem will definitely be meek and humble, like Jesus. I pity Jews who reject Jesus Christ; they will not be among the remnant Jews, by the time Jesus returns.

Lk. 19:27 But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be a king over them — bring them here and kill them in front of me.

The mechanism of Perfection

Ep. 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
Ep. 5:26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,
Ep. 5:27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

In order to make perfection possible, Jesus Christ gave himself up as sacrifice of atonement for our sins. Those who put their faith in Jesus are then cleansed by the washing with living water (Holy Spirit) through the word. The end result of this process is that the people who successfully go through the process become perfect and ascend to heaven—the rapture.

In Ez.36:25-27, quoted previously, the perfection process begins with sprinkling of clean water (baptism of the Holy Spirit). This is then followed by the Spirit moving the person going through the process to follow God’s commandments and to be careful to keep the laws of God.

In the valley of dry bones of Ez. 37:1-10, the process that led to resurrection began with the prophet prophesying the word to the dry bones. This is then followed by the prophet prophesying to the breath (the Spirit) to enter the bones that had put on flesh.

I can therefore say that the process of perfection begins with identifying with the death of Jesus Christ for our sins. This identification is carried out through baptism in water. Water baptism into Jesus Christ unites a person with the death of Jesus Christ; the person dies with Christ. The water baptism being talked about here is not the one a person did when s/he knew nothing about Jesus dying for our sins, but the one done when a person decides to identify with Jesus death for our sins. Jesus himself says, “Whoever believes and is baptized.”—Mk 16:16.

Ro. 6:3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death?

Ga. 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

The next stage in the process of perfection is to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. All it takes is praying for it. The prayer can be done either by an anointed minister of the gospel or by the person that wants to receive the Holy Spirit.

Lk. 11:13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

Ac. 19:5 On hearing this, they were baptised into the name of the Lord Jesus.
Ac. 19:6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.

Now that the Spirit of God dwells within, the final stage in the process of perfection is for the Spirit to cleanse the person through the word.

Ja. 1:21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
Ja. 1:22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
Ja. 1:23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror
Ja. 1:24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

The Christian must get the word of Christ planted in her/him. The word can save the Christian from all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent in the world through the Holy Spirit. The Christian must often use the word as a mirror to look at her/his self and notice how filthy or evil that s/he is and then go to the Holy Spirit in prayer.

Nu. 20:2 Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron.
Nu. 20:6 Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and fell face down, and the glory of the LORD appeared to them.
Nu. 20:7 The LORD said to Moses,
Nu. 20:8 “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so that they and their livestock can drink.”

The Holy Spirit in you is the Rock. Speak to the Rock. The Rock in you is Christ (Anointing) in you. Speaking to the Rock is what real faith in Christ is all about.

Holy Spirit of the Most High that is in me, put to death in me the sin of . . . Make me dead to this sin. Transform me by renewing my mind, so that the thought process that leads to this sin will not go through in my mind again. Great Spirit, make me to become like Jesus Christ in holiness, meekness and humility. I pray in the name of Jesus Christ.

This last stage of the process of perfection must continue until the adoption of the sons of God.

2Co. 13:11 Finally, brothers, good-bye. Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.