Power of Perfect: The Perfect Work of a Perfect God

By E. Palmer Cobb

The truth contained in the Power of Perfect is information that gives you the power to change. Many of us have a poor self-image and see ourselves as being less worthy than we really are. We have carried those negative self-images over into our spiritual self-image. We have a negative picture of how we think God sees us. How do we change this negative view of ourselves into a positive spiritual self-image? To change, we must understand fully how God sees us. To see ourselves as God sees us, we must use the Word of God to reshape our self-image and create that new positive picture of ourselves. We can begin to live life as God intended. God did a perfect work in us. Knowing what that perfect work is and believing it will allow us to act on it That is the Power of Perfect.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: May 17, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512718485

E. Palmer Cobb

I gave my life to Christ sitting alone in my living room on July 4, 1975, Independence Day. Since that time, I progressed to a Sunday morning teacher and later a singles ministry leader, and along the way I earned a degree in ministry. Through all my time of teaching, I realized I was always teaching new believers or spiritually undeveloped Christians. I kept going over the same concepts, and I am amazed at how many “older” Christians do not understand or realize what Jesus did for them on The Cross. I think it is my purpose in life to write what I have learned and pass it on to others. If what I have written helps one person to change his or her life to become an effective Christian, then it will be worth it.

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Power of Perfect

The Perfect Work of a Perfect God

E. Palmer Cobb

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Copyright © 2016 E. Palmer Cobb.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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Bloomington, IN 47403

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5127-1849-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-1850-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-1848-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015918308

WestBow Press rev. date: 5/16/2016

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1 - The Power of Perfect

Chapter 2 - Perfect

Chapter 3 - Perfect Forgiveness

Chapter 4 - Your New Beginning

Chapter 5 - Foundations

Chapter 6 - The Perfect Foundation

Chapter 7 - Saved by Grace (The Big Picture)

Chapter 8 - How We Are Made Perfect

Chapter 9 - The Meaning of In

Chapter 10 - The Atonement

Chapter 11 - He Made Me Righteous

Chapter 12 - He Made Me Sinless

Chapter 13 - Perfectly Justified

Chapter 14 - He is My Propitiation

Chapter 15 - He Made Me Holy and Blameless

Chapter 16 - Sanctification: The Process

Chapter 17 - Jesus Fulfilled the Law

Chapter 18 - Power of Perfect and Tithing

Chapter 19 - Let’s Talk Some More About Giving

Chapter 20 - The Power of Perfect and Worship

Chapter 21 - Your Focus is the Key

Chapter 22 - Dealing with Sin

Chapter 23 - Continuing in Sin

Chapter 24 - The Power of Perfect and Trials

Chapter 25 - The Power of Perfect and Blessings

Chapter 26 - The Power of Perfect and Prayer

Chapter 27 - Power of Perfect and the Holy Spirit

Chapter 28 - Our Purpose: Class 101

Chapter 29 - The Overall - Underlying Purpose

Chapter 30 - The Power of Perfect and Satan

Chapter 31 - The Power of Perfect and Authority

Chapter 32 - Today’s Political Climate

Chapter 33 - Final Comments

For further reading

What is the greatest power on earth?

Could it be lightning, an earthquake, a tsunami,

or an atomic bomb?

Or perhaps should I ask who is the

greatest power on earth?

God, the one who created the earth,

He is the greatest power on, in and above the earth.

He is the one, who created the earth,

the heavens, the stars, the universe,

the galaxies and beyond.

God, who created all those things,

also created something very unique,

He created a new

PERFECT CREATION IN YOU.

Comprehending what that new creation is will transform

you into the Christian He wants you to be.

You must understand the Power of Perfect inside you.

The power that will change your life

Preface

This is my simple revelation from God. I call this ‘my revelation’ because it something that continuously burns in my soul. The Holy Spirit inspires many people to teach or preach to reveal something about God. I can only imagine they felt like I feel on this subject. Every day I would think about it. Every day I read the scriptures and this book is the results of what I see, something that never goes away, something that only the Holy Spirit could place in your heart and then fan the flame.

There are teachers who only teach about finances. Others teach only about healing, another about faith and another about grace. Many teachers focus on only one topic. This is my one topic, who and what you are in Christ. From my viewpoint, of course this is the most important topic of all. What happened to Jesus on the Cross and what happened to you when you accepted Christ as your savior? There are many good books out there on the same topic. My revelation is not the same information reworded just to sound different but a different presentation. I believe that it is a simplification of all that Jesus did for us.

The Apostle Paul often refers to the phrase the doctrine of Christ. Nowhere does he say specifically what the phrase meant. I believe it was to sum up what it means to be in Christ into one simple phrase, the all-encompassing work of Christ in us. My revelation about being in Christ is a simple phrase that will be easy to remember. I do not intend to write a long theological essay. You could write thousands of pages on being in Christ if you wanted to take the time. I believe the Bible is the complete essay on the subject and is sufficient if you will study it.

I gave my life to Christ in one denomination and later changed to another denomination. Each one had their own doctrines and beliefs, some were contradictory, some agreed. Doctrinal beliefs can often put a barrier between you and a full revelation of the truth in God’s word. If you hear a doctrinal interpretation of scripture from a denomination’s pastor or teacher, you may accept it as the only interpretation and not study the Word to find deeper meanings. I do not say that all denominational teaching is wrong but the spiritual truth may go beyond what a denomination might believe.

Later, I studied the Bible apart from denominational teachings. By not having men’s interpretation to influence me, it opened up the Word in a completely new light. I could read the Bible for what it said, not what someone said it said. When you study only the Word, it can free you up to hear what the Holy Spirit is trying to say to you.

I pray that once you have read this book you will see that this teaching is part of every book of the Bible. The teaching condenses down Being in Christ into a single phrase that you can use every day. When you are going through tough times or trials, you can remember this one phrase and let it remind you of who you are in Christ.

I am a person of simplistic ideas. I want to cover the main points and quickly move on to the next topic. I do not want to spend time in the many extra details that do not focus on the main idea. The real details are in the scriptures. I have written much of this book the same way to keep it as simple as I can. I expect this teaching will make it more exciting to read the Bible as you research what I have written. I challenge you to search the Bible and find the details for yourself. Knowing who you are in Christ and your spiritual abilities are key foundational concepts to living victoriously as a Christian.

When I write I try to be simple. When describing the sky a novelist would write a full page of beautiful words to tell you all about the sky. I would simply tell you ‘the sky is blue and there are some clouds’; now let’s move on to the next subject. Actually, I do a little more than that but not a lot.

Credits: I want to give credit to Pastors David and Shirley Gregory who gave me the opportunity to teach and develop these ideas and the Holy Spirit who used them to help create this book and the people who sat though my teachings and sermons as they were developed.

I also want to thank Tracey Smith who took the time to edit this book and gave me encouragement to make me feel this is all worthwhile.

Introduction

Every day we see advertisements for self-help books, teachings and internet products on how to make our life better. We all want to change something. If we could only change _ (fill in the Blank) _ life would be better, but life is not perfect, not even for Christians. We fail at something every day. We hurt people we love. We are caught up in bad habits, addictions, negative thoughts, anger and other various and sundry evil things. However, God provided a solution for all of this. I call this solution the Power of Perfect.

The truth contained in the Power of Perfect is the information that gives you the power to change. Many Christians I have met have a poor self-image and see themselves as being less worthy than they are. A self-image problem is having a negative picture of how we think other people see us. Our parents, teachers and friends helped to create an image of who we think we are as we were growing up. How they related to us helped to shape how we see ourselves. We are a composite of the many pictures our relationships painted in our brains. All of the people contributing to shaping our self-image picture had their own problems and self-image issues. They passed on to us many of their personal issues and we accepted them as our own.

We have carried those negative self-images over into our spiritual self-image. We have a negative picture of how we think God sees us. We think God’s view of us is the same as how other people view us. We see ourselves as weak, lacking in abilities, guilty of many sins and failures, not worthy of love or attention except for negative attention. We see ourselves as undeserving of God many blessings. We think we are less qualified than other Christians are, that God loves others more than us. We watch as others are blessed and we think that God does not love us as much as He does them. We think we deserve punishment instead of blessings.

How do we change this negative view of ourselves into a positive spiritual self-image? The way to change how we see ourselves is understand fully how God sees us. To see ourselves as God sees us we must use the Word of God to reshape our self-image then we can begin to create a new positive picture of ourselves. We can begin to live life as God intended for us to. Other people will see us differently if we have a correct spiritual self-image.

So how does God see us? The work of Jesus, his death, burial and resurrection, changed us into a different person. The work of Jesus Christ changed us inside and made us perfect in the sight of God. The Power of Perfect reveals what Jesus did and how God sees you now. To see yourself as God sees you is transformational. Understanding and believing what God has done is life changing. It will change how you relate to the people around you. It will change how you make decisions in daily life. Things you once thought you were not adequate to do, you can now do. You can begin to believe in yourself because you can believe in the work God did in you. You will see the world in a better light because you will realize the light inside you is greater than the world outside.

The Power of Perfect shows you the steps of how God changed you and he made you a completely different person, a new person, a new creation. Lining up your thinking with what God thinks about you transforms you. You will live the transformed Christian life.

Chapter 1

The Power of Perfect

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father, which is in heaven, is perfect. Matthew 5:48 KJV

I was thinking of how to respond to some door-to-door religious (cult) evangelist about to knock on my door, and it occurred to me that they needed to know that God expects us to be perfect in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. We have to be perfect in everything we think, do and say. From the moment we are born to the day we die, we are required to be perfect. Perfect in righteousness, holiness, and everything we do. If people were to understand that you must be absolutely perfect to be with God, maybe they would realize that they do need a savior, a redeemer, someone to cleanse them and make them acceptable to God. That is what Jesus did.

Can you picture yourself waking up in the morning and being perfect? Imagine being perfect the way God would wants you to be perfect. Can you picture what would you be like? How would you act? Can you create in your mind the feelings you might have? Imagine the feeling of not having to worry about sin, what you did last month, last week, or even yesterday. Imagine being free from guilty feelings each time you try something and fail. Imagine not having the negative feelings of shame and unrighteousness, or being haunted by your past every time you tried to fellowship with God. Imagine waking up and feeling free and clean inside, no emotional dirt, no mud and no slime. Imagine being free of the fear of failure. Would you believe that what you can imagine could become very, very real?

If you believe being perfect is an unreachable dream, I am here to let you to know God does not want it to be unreachable. He made it all part of his project to rescue man by putting you in Christ.

Most Christians think God saved them because He loved them and wanted to give them eternal life. That God’s amazing grace is his way of letting you off the hook for what you deserve. They believe that Jesus came to die for them so they would have forgiveness of sin and have eternal life. This is true, but God’s vision of why He saved you is much greater than that. The salvation experience is so much, much more. Before the beginning of time, God had a plan not just to save you from sin but also to make you perfect so you could be a part of fulfilling His bigger plan for the whole world. Yes, he died for you and took away your sin, but He also gave you His righteousness, He sanctified you. He made you Holy. He declared you justified. He did all this so you could be all that he designed you to be. The Christian way of life we are to live is all about Him, His wants, His purposes, His desires and His plans for you. You are important to Him; you are an important part of how he wants to change the world for Christ. He does not focus on your failures, misdeeds or sinful nature. He is aware of those things, but more importantly, He focuses on what He has made you, ‘perfect’ in His sight and what He wants to do through you. You need to focus on this also. This should be your goal, to see yourself as God sees you. See yourself as God has made