A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.

Luke 6:40

In this life of hungering and thirsting for the Lord, when will it ever be enough?  Jesus answers this clear enough:

A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master.  It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign the members of his household!

Matthew 10:24-25

It is enough to be like him.  For the slave to be like the master.

The Kingdom of God is at hand.  If it was 2000 years ago, and the Kingdom had come upon those witnessing Jesus, it is here now, only more (Isaiah 9:7).

Jesus welcomed the people, and taught them of the Kingdom (Luke 9:11).  He gave instructions on how to live in the new Kingdom He had brought.  He instructed on the door, the worth, the cost, the dynamics.  He demonstrated its power.  He warned of living any other way.

Jesus’ gospel was the Gospel of the Kingdom, of which He is the only entrance.

I have no interest in an attitude of perfectionism.  Even Paul wrote saying he thought he had not yet attained to all that he could, but he pressed on (Philippians 3:12).  But, whatever the goal of “perfection” is, we do not even see the real “perfect” yet, for no one is good except for God Himself.  What we imagine as perfect is in itself so imperfect, that it is laughable.  It may actually turn out that we are called to is yet still something higher than what we even yet imagine!

Yet, the way forward is not performance, it is through submission.  It is found in worship and hunger.  No man has ever perfected himself, but what _IS_ impossible with man, is possible with God.

John wrote in 1 John 4:18 that he who fears is not yet made perfect in love.  If we try to be good, we fail, yet if we do truth (John 3:21), we come into the light.  When we do truth, we expose ourselves, and our motives, because we have nothing to hide.  And, in repentance, in humility, in simple, trusting faith in the Lord, He sets us free.

The light come in.  Our countenance changes.

Suppose we want to change our behavior in a certain area.  Perhaps we could apply a little effort, and see ourselves change.  But, for anyone who has ever attempted to live right, to make the right choices all the time, it is usually recognized before too long that things don’t always respond immediately the way you want.

As any attempt at discipleship demonstrates, positive change can be a lengthy process of development and re-training.  Yet, whatever the length of time required, Jesus trained his apostles in three and a half years to a level a self-sustaining maturity.  And, that was before any of them had the Holy Ghost living within them.

But real change comes from within.  Out of the heart, the mouth speaks; it is the wellspring of life.  Jesus said that it was out of the heart that comes evil thoughts, adulteries, thefts, murders, and every evil.  In the days of Noah, God sent the flood because every thought and intent of man was continually towards evil all the time.

Real change comes as we are changed by Him.  When we make ourselves vulnerable to Him.  When we let Him cleanse and purify us with His holy fire, His Word, His Presence, and His Spirit, we are changed.  His life comes through, and manifests in us.

If we attempt to change ourselves (outside of refraining from blatant, obvious sin, as much as possible), we are not truly living out of the depths of Christ.  He may use some of it, yet, if the motive at the heart-level is based out of fear, rather than love, we have accomplished no lasting change.  The effort of the Christian should be light and easy (Matthew 11:30).  When we learn to expose ourselves, reveal ourselves, “tell on” ourselves, and humiliate ourselves before God, He lifts us up, even before men.

If you are filled with light, with no dark corners, your whole life will be radiant, as though a floodlight were filling you with light (Luke 11:36).  This is the simple answer.  Where is there still darkness within you?

The saddest part of this, today, is there are few ministers that are willing to sell it all.  Jesus was the light while He was here in the days of His flesh.  He was the perfect man, with no darkness.  Simply to be in His Presence, if you were willing, your would have been convicted of your sins.  When He was around demons, they reacted–violently!  Where there has been little gospel light, it is up to the individual to seek God continually to find out what actually IS pleasing to the Lord (Ephesians 5:10).

If we want change, the problem is the darkness.  It is the fears, the closed places, the places where God is not fully inhabiting with His brightness.

The life of David demonstrates this.  He loved God, and yet, for a short period, he lost his mind.  He saw a naked woman, sent for her, committed adultery with her, got her pregnant, and had the husband set up to get killed in battle on purpose.  Whether you draw the knife yourself or not, or simply intend on it happening through the hand of someone else, you are still guilty.  And, after all this, David still managed to remain functioning.  Nathan the prophet had to come with a story to get the king to convict himself (2 Samuel 12).  “You are the man!” Nathan exclaimed after David condemned the man.  He couldn’t see his own sin until he saw it from a different perspective, in the language of his own heart.

David indicts his own iniquity (Psalm 51:5), and says it was in sin that he was conceived (he was the fourth generation from Rahab the harlot, and the third generation from Ruth, the Moabitess).  In his soul was a corner of darkness that until then he had not discovered.  It most likely had appeared many other times in lesser forms that were “controllable”, but one day, when he saw a Bathsheeba bathing, something clicked, and something “else” took over.

But, in Jesus, as we stay in his light, and come further and further into His Gospel, the darkness can no longer stay.  Even though we may make mistakes, the light continually exposes us, and, if we let it, cleanses us from the inside.  We are changed, because He changes us.  We are free, because He makes known to us His truth.

When we have died to this world, when we have loved Truth with all our hearts and souls, when we have let Him come in and give us His heart, our every delight and motivation becomes rooted in Him.  Our entire identity and personality becomes centered upon the one thing that matters, His heart, and we live with every thought and desire satisfied in His love and presence.

When we allow the light to come in, we see that the reason for our struggle is our self and our own desires.  We cannot live without desires, and simply shut them off, for that would destroy our very self.  But, to be satisfied on the divine satisfaction, to be consoled only with the heavenly consolation, and comforted only by the holy comforter, means we live a life without fear.  We live in the center of the light it only gets brighter, as it is written:

With you is the fountain of life; In your light, we see light.

Psalm 36:9