Greetings once more friends everywhere!

What does it mean to be true to yourself? Let’s ask that same question another way: What do I mean by “true-self” and “false-self?” Your “false-self” has to do with the sin against yourself. That is to say, it’s an assault against your person as an individual and personality. In a previous post I said that sin is a “condition” not a specific wrong-doing. So is righteousness, it is a “condition” rather than a specific right-doing. It is the “condition” that spawns the kind of action that “condition” will allow. For example, the ocean is the “condition” which enables marine life to exist and live in the seven seas. So is the earth’s atmosphere as compared with the moon’s zero-oxygen environment. Jesus, through Herald the Spirit in us, brings the “Love condition” which generates righteousness. The devil, through man’s fallen and depraved “fear condition” generates sin. However, as far as the “true-self” and “false-self,” rather than sin in the general sense from which we are all saved through Christ as explained, this is the sin “condition” as it applies to your person. It is about who you are as a person that God desires to relate with as His sons and daughters.

The “False Self” – A Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde Personality (Wiki Commons)

This is the most grievous sin because its singular motivation is to attack your person – it is the sin of the “false-self.” Much like a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde complex pictured above, the “false-self” is a condition which engenders and bring futility and emptiness in your life. It seeks to destroy your true personhood in Christ – your “true-self.” It’s grievous because it is the sin of idolatry. It is an idol because it stands in the place of the “true-self” who is God’s gift to you. It is an idol because it seeks to destroy you. It’s insidious because ‘good intentions’ are wasted when a negative “condition” invariably negates and overturn it. As long as this “false-self” reigns in your life you become a time bomb which will in time self-destruct. The “true-self” reveals who you are in Christ. We relate and communicate with God through our “true-self.” The “false-self” cannot talk nor walk with God. Two cannot walk together unless they exist in the same “condition” in God’s divine Love. (Amos 3:3)

Jesus – the ‘Literal’ and ‘Personified’ “Word of God”

The Bible calls Jesus the Light of the world, He said, “I am the Light of the world. He that follow Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” (John 8:12) It is through the Light of Jesus shining in our lives that we are made to see the “false-self” – the fallen and depraved self who has been in control in our lives. Jesus is also “The Word of God.” John said, “In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word was with God.” (John 1:1-3) John further testified, “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit.” (1John 5:7) In the final book of the Bible, John further testified, “He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and His name is the Word of God.” (Rev.19:13) We are made to see the “false-self” through the Bible and the Personified Word of God, Jesus, through the Spirit’s work of sanctification.

“The Light of Life”

This is the purpose of the Word, “All Scripture (Word of God) is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” (2 Tim.3:16)  What did Jesus mean when He said, “we will have the light of life if we follow Him?” The light of life is a person’s gift, calling, and destiny in life. The light of life is the “true-self” which we receive as a gift from God and comes with its inherent calling and destiny. The “Word of God,” in both the literal (Bible) and Personified (Jesus) meaning, ultimately leads you to who you are in your “true self” in your gift and destiny. The Bible does not reveal your destiny specifically, but it is the means by which Jesus, the Personified Word, will reveal it to you in the Spirit – personally and miraculously. 

Personhood is About Trinitarian Reality

How do we relate with God? We answer that by asking how does God relate with Himself as a Tri-Personal Being? God relates within Himself through His Tri-Personal diversity and separate personalities as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Trinity exist in relational oneness in the bond of Love. “God is Love.” (1 John 4:8) Our human personality is made in the image of the Tri-Personal Being of God. God said at man’s creation, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Gen.1:26-27) We enter the “Triune Life” with and in God as separate personalities and relate with God in our individual personhood in Christ. What identifies us as a person is how Christ has gifted us – that’s our light. That is your “true-self.” When we say we relate with God in our personhood it means we enter His presence in our diversity through our unique and specialized gifts and destiny. God desires to relate with each of us as a “person” as He does within His Tri-Personal Being as the Father, Son, and Spirit. 

March for Life – Personhood Now! Banner in Front of The U. S. Supreme Court, (Wiki Commons)

“I No Longer Live…”

The “false-self,” which cannot exist with God, must be put to death by the Light of Jesus’ Person so we can receive our unique and individual gifts in the personhood of our “true-self.” Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” (Gal.2:20) This must become as important to us as life itself, because God cannot relate with the “false-self.” For example, how did Joseph communicate with God throughout his life? Through the dream God gave Joseph as a boy. His boyhood dream which revealed his “true-self” was his gift from God. It was his dream that kept Joseph going through the thick and thin of life. One of the gifts which came with his “true-self” was His ability to interpret dreams. That gift is what jettisoned Him from his prison cell to the throne of Egypt. (Gen.40 & 41) And it was His “true-self” revealed in the dream which kept him connected to God. So, your gift in your “true-self” is the language of communication with God. That’s why the most grievous sin is to continue to live in this idol of your “false self” which will not and cannot communicate with God. How do we receive this gift of our “true-self” in Christ?

“True-Self” Rebirth in the Holy Spirit

Jesus told the disciples after His resurrection that they were to wait for the promise of the Father. The “true-self” comes with this promise. He told them not to leave the city, but wait for the promise. He told them don’t do anything, don’t go anywhere, but wait for the promise. “Then He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” (Luk.24:45-49; also Isa.53; Zech.12:10; Psa.16:10; 22:1, 7-8; ) What was the gift given to them? It was the gift of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. (Acts 2) And it was the Spirit which gave them the power (gift) to preach the Gospel with unnatural courage, and without fear or favor. The promised gift of the Holy Spirit comes with the revelation of your personhood in Christ in your “true-self.” (John 16:14) The Spirit is the gift of the miraculous life in believers. The Spirit is the personification of the gift of the “true-self” in you. The “true-self” holds the miraculous life the Spirit brings. You are now the ‘temple’ for the Spirit to do the work and will of God. Paul said, “For the Kingdom of God is not in word but in power.” (1 Cor.4:20)

Jesus makes us understand what the role of the Spirit is – it is to reveal our “true-self” in Christ, the Word, Listen, “When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth (including your “true-self”). He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify Me because it is from Me  that He will receive what He will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is Mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from Me what He will make known to you.” (John 16:13-15) This life we live in the “true-self” is lived in miraculous manifestation of the Spirit’s power. It is He who orchestrates our lives so that “all things will work together for good” in life, no matter what we face. (Rom.8:28)

Gentle Dove – Symbol of Holy Spirit and God’s Love, Romans 5:5 (Wiki Commons

Thought for this Blog: The “Bridge-Builder” Platform!

To receive a gift and offer it in service to God essentially means one becomes a priest. The word priest has so much religious connotations to it that it has lost its true meaning. We generally think of priest to mean a person who performs religious rites, like church and funeral services. But the original derivative of the word comes from the Latin pontifex which means “bridge builder.” God has called us to be “bridge-builders” for Him in our relationship with the Triune God, mankind, and creation. We are made “bridge-builders” through our gifts and calling. Listen and meditate on what Peter has to say in this passage, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood (blessed with gifts as a bridge-builder), a holy nation, a people to be His very own and to proclaim the wonderful deeds of the One who called (gifted) you out of darkness (“false-self”) into His marvelous light. (“true-self”)” (1 Pet.2:9)

“Bridge-Builder”: The Intervention;                     The Builder                                     The Artist/Potter

The gift of the priest (bridge-builder) does not necessarily have to be religious in nature as many assume. This is made clear by how God has blessed each and every one of His children with variety of gifts in mankind. From a housewife to a business entrepreneur, from a plumber to a scientist, from an artist to a botanist, God made us all beautiful in our diversity as bridge-builders. The point is, whatever the gift, we have a platform to proclaim this wonderful message to all we are given opportunity to proclaim our Father’s Love. To proclaim His plan to give us back our lives which Adam sold down the river. It is the good news of how everyone has a better hope for a brighter future in their “true-self” in His Son, the second Adam. I sincerely hope you see every reason to give up your “false-self” and receive your “true-self” from Jesus. All it takes is to receive Him and give Him your life.

Blessing:

Until we meet again in my next post, may the blessing of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you today and give you strength for authentic creative Triune Living as a Bula man-river.*

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to write me in the space provided below, or email me on bulamanriver@gmail.com.

Kiang                                                                                                                                                                  (Your Servant in Christ) 

*The “Bula man-river” is the metaphor describing the union of man with the Love of the Triune God flowing in humans, making possible the “Triune Life” – the source of the miraculous life in man. Man is the “riverbed” and the Spirit is the “living waters” that cover him and flows to all in his valley (destiny). (John 7:37-39)

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