Who Are You?

1 Identity Crisis

Chapter 1 Identity Crisis

Creation

A few years ago upon graduating from college, I remember playing a few Michael Jackson tracks to get me in the mood for the day. It was a Friday and my schedule was pretty full so aside from coffee, I needed some music to fuel me up. The songs played on for about a half hour. "Boom-tap, Boom-tap, Boom-tap, Billy Jean is not my lover". Who is it, Thriller, Earth Song; you name it, I played it. By the time I was finally finished listening to the king of Pop, I was so recharged for the day and ready to tackle every obstacle that would present itself. Each task that I had on my schedule was completed in about half the day allowing me to be extremely productive. At the end of the day I thought to myself, "why is music so powerful?" What is it about this invisible substance of beautiful, majestic sound that can go deep into our innermost part and allow us to become so energized? The answer is because we obtain one of the most valuable possessions in this World – our Soul.

When God created us, he knew that we would need something to guide us in this life to do what we need to do to survive. Before I dive into what this 'something' is, let's first look at the words I and Us. What are "we"? Who is "us"? What do we mean when we refer to ourselves as "I"? When God formed Man of the dust from the ground, He breathed into his nostrils and man became a living soul (Genesis 2:9). When we use specific pronouns to describe ourselves, no pun intended, we need to understand what specifically it is that makes us I, we, and us. The breath that God blew into us were our spirits. We are Spirit beings, we possess a soul, and we live in a body. Knowing this information is the foundation to allow oneself to understand the I. I am spirit. You are spirit. We are Spirits.

We as spirits are much stronger than we realize because most times we perform based on how we feel or how our outside circumstances allow us to decide. This power of decision takes place in our souls and also includes our ability to reason, think, act, and feel emotion. Our personalities reside within our souls as well. So on that day when I had to listen to Michael Jackson tracks along with my daily cup of joe, what I was really doing was rejuvenating my soul – or my internal battery which in return allowed me to perform at my maximum potential. The coffee energized my body.

Whenever we are attracted to someone, this is actually satisfying to our souls in some way or another and causes our body to react. The heart may beat faster, we may break a sweat, or our hormones may begin to go a little wild and so forth. I refer to the soul as an internal battery because that is exactly what it is. Compared to our dominant being, the spirit, the soul can get weak if not cared for and nurtured properly. The soul is where emotional trauma, mental illness, and poor self-image takes root. Medications for these unfortunate conditions are in abundance throughout the world which may help to treat reactionary effects, but cannot completely cure the condition of the mind. Am I against someone taking medication for conditions they may have throughout life? Absolutely not! Many people have performed endless nights of research to create remedies for various ailments that people face today. My goal here is to point out the fact that once we have proper knowledge of the soul and why we feel the way we do at times, it can be reversed if we focus on how to rebuild and nurture this sacred gift that God has given us. We as Spirit beings have an internal source of restorative power that can revive our souls and bodies back to their original states that God had ordained them to be in. The key here is understanding what the soul, or mind, really is and the power it has in our lives. This is the first step.

Newton's 3rd law of motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is a strong representation of how our souls and bodies communicate with each other. One of my favorite influences, the late Dr. Myles Munroe performed one of the most illustrious examples of this intense communication during one of his sermons. He simply had 3 volunteers from his audience stand in a spaced out line. The first person represented the Spirit man, the second represented the soul, and then the body thereafter. He then goes on to explain how the spirit communicates to the soul and the soul in return communicates to the body. While in tune with God, the spirit man may tell the soul (through perception) that it should be doing one thing – or should think a certain way. If the soul is in line with the spirit man, then it thinks accordingly and acts out it's thoughts through the body. When I saw this sermon I was completely amazed at how God intricately designed our being and it all made sense. Think about it – everything we do (our daily routine, our meetings with friends and family, our plans for the future, etc.) is directed from our mind (soul) and in return our bodies achieve that which it is directed to do from this source. This is why it is extremely important for us to meditate, pray, and focus on positive things. Doing so will allow our Spirit to transfer the right energy to our souls which then the body will follow thereafter. Let's look at our threefold makeup the reverse way now.