An Excellent Spirit

This is the second article now, and this article is going to be on an excellent spirit.

Daniel 6.3 says, “Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him, and the king thought to set him over the whole realm.”  

He was preferred. This means to distinguish himself.

Daniel distinguished himself. He stood above the others. He stood out.

He was a very outstanding person, and the reason he was so outstanding was because he had an excellent spirit.

So in this article, I want to talk about two things, an excellent spirit and perfectionism, and how much they differ. Many people think that an excellent spirit is perfectionism, but this is where they are completely wrong. So first, I want to start by talking about perfectionism and how different that is than an excellent spirit.

Perfectionism comes out of our pride.

Perfectionism is something that a person will show by their outward behavior and performance, but an excellent spirit is something that starts within their deepest part and then flows out through a heart of worship.

• A spirit of excellence will set realistic expectations, but perfectionism sets unrealistic expectations. They live in a non-reality. An excellent spirit looks to God to enable the person.

• Perfectionism looks to self to accomplish their goals. An excellent spirit is connected to the source of life, which is God. Perfectionist people are bound by their own high standards or the high standards of another person.

• An excellent spirit will always focus on doing their best, but a perfectionist will want to always be the best. An excellent spirit will look at competition and challenges as a tool to help them to grow.

• A perfectionist is threatened by competition and challenges. An excellent spirit desires that his life is pure on the inside, and so what he does is measured by the motives of his heart. A perfectionist measures his life by the goals he sets and not the process in getting there.

• An excellent spirit is disciplined because he is compelled by what choices he makes. A perfectionist is disciplined if he's fulfilling his goals.

• An excellent spirit does not allow mistakes to bother him as long as he has the right motives. A perfectionist is hyper-conscious of his mistakes.

• An excellent spirit recognizes that he needs support and he needs to be accountable to a team. A perfectionist is extremely focused on what he needs to do to accomplish his goals.

• A perfectionist tends to procrastinate. He suffers from extreme guilt, and he sees things only in black and white. A perfectionist does not trust others to support him.

  He wastes a lot of time because he wants to do everything perfectly and he never wants to make mistakes.

• A perfectionist is very hard on himself. An excellent spirit is full of grace for others and himself.

• A perfectionist does not like criticism from others. A perfectionist is prone to depression and anxiety. A perfectionist tends to put things off because things seem to get overwhelming to him. A perfectionist is emotionally guarded and does not let walls down so they can have difficulty in relationships.

• An excellent spirit realizes that he will not win every battle, and he's okay with that. An excellent spirit realizes how much it depends on the grace of God.

• Perfectionism is usually rooted in the fear of failure, and it demands flawlessness.

• An excellent spirit is rooted in personal growth and an inner determination to be undefiled from the corruption that is in this world.

• The motivation behind perfectionism is the fear of failure, and the need for approval.

• The motivation behind an excellent spirit is driven by love and has a desire to learn and bring value to others.

• Flexibility with perfectionism is very rigid and any deviation from the flawless plan; their flawless plan, is seen as a failure.

• An excellent spirit is flexible and mistakes and setbacks are embraced as learning opportunities.

  
  

  The end result of perfectionism is burnout, anxiety, and procrastination.

  The end result of an excellent spirit is satisfaction, energy, and long-lasting results.

  The focus of perfectionist is an obsessive focus on the flawless outcome.

  The focus of an excellent spirit is on continuous improvement, learning, and heart attitude.

 A perfectionist creates a bad atmosphere where they go. They release a heaviness because their standard is above what is normal, and it's too high, and it is very defiling. So often, someone living under perfectionism is defiling in the way they think, the way they speak and the way they act.

The main thing about an excellent spirit is it has to do with something inside of a person called their spirit. Not their soul, not their mind, and not their body.

It's their spirit. And so, if I have an excellent spirit, now my whole life will come into order because I'll be living out from my innermost being. In John chapter 4, it says that God is a Spirit, and he's seeking people to worship him in spirit and in truth.

It's very, very important how our spiritual life is. Many, many nations around the world have a great need in their spiritual life, and because of the spiritual life lacking so much, factories are shutting down, companies are shutting down. It's unbelievable.

This is especially true in Germany. In Germany, in the first eight months of this year alone, 2026, 127,000 businesses have closed down.

In Germany, they have one of the highest rate of sick days.

It's very high. It's over 20 days of sick days a year per employee on the average.

In America, they have two to three sick days a year, and they have 25% of their working adults who miss zero days a year.

So, like I said, Germany has more than 20 days of sick days a year. The mental health days have risen 47% in Germany since 2014.

In 2024, German workers took an average of 22 days of sick leave, which is among the highest levels internationally of any nation. I propose a cause of all these sick days to be a lack of spiritual life. Some large companies are hiring people to deal with marital problems in their employees, mental problems, physical, emotional, spiritual problems, and they're finding that they're saving a lot of money.

The more they can keep their employees healthy, the more money they save as a company. But this is what the Bible teaches.

It's real clear that how our spirit is, is how the body and the mind and the soul and the outer man is going to react according to how our spirit is.

In Proverbs 14.29, it says, He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding, but he that is hasty of spirit exalts folly.

In Proverbs 17.22, “A merry heart does good like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones.”

In Proverbs 15.4, “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.”

Proverbs 15.13, “A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of the heart, the spirit is broken.” So when my heart has sorrow, my spirit is broken.

In Proverbs 16.2, "All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirits."

In Proverbs 16.18, "Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall."

There are many scriptures that emphasize the extreme importance of keeping our spirit healthy. So spiritual life is a major key to the marketplace.

Spiritual life is a major key to the home and the family. Spiritual life is a major key to society in general.

Here's some more Scriptures.

Proverbs 16.32, “He that sloweth the anger is better than the mighty, and he that rules his spirit than he that takes a city.

Proverbs 17.27, “He that hath knowledge spares his words, and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit.

Proverbs 18.14, is a real important scripture. “The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, his sicknesses, but a wounded spirit who can bear.”

Now here's some other translations.

•  The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a broken spirit who can bear.

• The spirit of a man sustains him in sickness, but as for a broken spirit who can bear it.

• The strong spirit of a man sustains him in bodily pain or trouble, but a weak and broken spirit who can raise up or bear.

• A person's spirit can sustain him when he's ill, but a crushed spirit who can bear it.

So it's real important how our spiritual life is as far as life in general.

Your spirit is a key. Proverbs 25.28 says he that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls.

Proverbs 29.23 says a man's pride will bring him low, but honor will uphold the humble in spirit.

We have an enemy and his name is Satan, and he wants the world to think that their spiritual life is not important. That your spiritual life is only something that should be put into a building and looked at on Sunday. In other words, an excellent spirit is something ridiculous.

Focus on taking medication for depression. Focus on increasing your ability to learn in your mind. Strengthen your body, etc.

Do not focus on your spirit. That's what the enemy of our souls, which is Satan, wants us to believe as a people, and it's absolutely false.

Daniel was preferred above all the others for one main reason. He had an excellent spirit. Now, Paul said in Romans 1.9, God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son. And then Luke 1.80, the child grew and waxed strong in spirit and was in the desert till the day of his appearing to Israel.

That was John the Baptist. In Luke 2.40, the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him, and that was Jesus Christ. So, the spirit is actually the main component of a person that's going to determine how much success he will have in life.

It will depend on one main thing, and that is his human spirit. So, an excellent spirit is when we focus on our spirit and we grow our spirit. We become strong in spirit, and we feed our spirit, and we maintain a health within our spirit. The spirit could be the missing ingredient to the problems of life?