The Real You

“Who are you?” I bet your response was your first and last name, right? If I were to dig a little deeper you would tell me the name of your parents, where you live, and what school you go to. If I dug even deeper, you would tell me the friends you hang with and the fun stuff you’re involved in. All those things define who you are on the outside, but who are you on the inside?

Did you know that whether you are a believer or not, you were created in the image of God? The Bible says that God is a spirit. If God is a spirit, that must make you one too. The real you is a spirit, you have a soul and you live in a body.

The story in Genesis chapter 2 is about Adam and Eve eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The serpent, who was the devil, had told Eve that if she ate of the tree she would not surely die. It looked like he was right. She went right ahead and ate of that tree and did not fall over dead. She found herself still standing there. Was God a liar? No, the Bible says God is not a liar, but the devil is the father of lies. The devil tricked her.

You see, Adam and Eve were created to live forever. When they ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the spirit of life in them became the spirit of death. Death entered the human race and spread to all men (Romans 5:12) and man became a sinner. With sin came death and now what was designed to live forever would experience death. With sin came separation from God because God couldn’t look on sin. There had to be a sacrifice that would take care of the sin problem. The first thing God did was to provide a blood covering for Adam and Eve’s sin (Genesis 3:21).

From that time on, there were blood sacrifices to cover man’s sin until God sent Jesus. God loved us so much that He sent His only Son to shed His blood on our behalf. He was the final sacrifice. He shed His blood for all of mankind and didn’t just "cover" man’s sins (Old Testament), but He took them away (John 1:29). When we accept His sacrifice, we become saved or what the Bible says, “born again.”

When you become born again the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in you (and you in Christ). You are wall to wall Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:9-12). You change into a different person. You’re like a caterpillar that transforms into a butterfly. You become a totally new creature in Jesus. The old things about you pass away and you become brand new. It’s still you, you’re just completely different. You look the same on the outside, but you’re totally changed on the inside. The Spirit of God actually lives in you!

A caterpillar crawls around and eats whatever it is that caterpillars eat, but when it becomes a butterfly, it no longer eats the same food, nor does the same things. It doesn’t even look the same. It is completely transformed. It is born again into a new creature. That is similar to what happens to you. You were once without the Spirit of God. When God moved in, you became a new creature, the old you (sin nature) passed away. The new you is able to live free from your old lifestyle because you have the Spirit of God inside you!

So, why is it, if you are like a butterfly and a new creature in Jesus, that it still appears like you are the same old you doing the same old junk you did before you were saved? What is the problem? Why do you struggle with bad habits and bad thoughts? You know the kind I’m talking about. The thoughts that if other people knew you had, you’d be ashamed.

The problem is you are still feeding on caterpillar food. You see yourself as unchanged. It has to do with your thinking. You have to line your thinking up with the Word of God. You have to, on purpose, see yourself the way God sees you and say about yourself what God has said about you (Romans 12: 1, 2). If you don’t change the way you think, you will continue to act like you always do. You will stay in the same rut doing the same old stuff you did before you were born again. You don’t magically change, it takes effort on your part to choose right thoughts and kick out the ones that are contrary to the Word of God.  

The blood of Jesus was like ransom money. He bought you back and put you in right standing with God. The Bible calls that righteousness; it says you were made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. At the same time the Holy Spirit moved in, God also placed you in Jesus. God saw it just as if you were the one that died on the cross

(Romans 6:6, Galatians 2:20). You became full of love Himself. The only reason it doesn’t appear that way to you is #1 – you may not have understood it enough to know it and #2 – it has a lot to do with your thinking and coming in line with God. If you see yourself as always having a problem and “I can never change,” you won’t! You know the old saying, “You are what you eat.” It’s the same saying for your spirit, “You are what you think.”

When God placed you in Christ, you became a whole new creature. You have a new disposition and a new mind. Here in Indiana, we show cattle. When you get a show calf in for the first time, often they start out resistant and even somewhat nutty, but as you work with them, over time, they settle down and become quiet and easy to handle. In the process of teaching a calf to accept the halter and walk, we also begin working with their hair by combing, brushing, and blowing on them. What else are we doing besides working hair? We are renewing that calf’s mind. We’re causing that calf to understand that we’re not out to hurt it. Once it understands, it settles down and begins to trust us. Its whole disposition changes. Why? Because we renewed its mind. We changed that calf’s thinking from being scared and timid to relaxed and trusting.

It takes time to renew your mind just like it takes time to halter break a calf or train a pig to walk with a whip. Generally it doesn’t happen overnight. Neither will your mind be renewed overnight. You have to, on purpose, set aside time to focus your attention on the Word of God, just like we have to, on purpose, set a time each day to go to the barn and work with our animals.

The more you align yourself and your thinking with God, the more you will experience Him. It’s not that God is keeping things from you, He’s actually trying to get them to you.

A New and Living Way Questions or Comments?        Hint: Use Ctrl + F to search this document