Who Are We...Really?

[Samuel (Sandy) Sanders]

Who Are We…Really?

Let’s start with how we got here. Not the journey from the unity of seed and egg, but how our personal identity came about. I don’t have to tell anyone about this process, because we have lived it and are still living it.

Have we ever considered the word “experience?” It originally came from Latin meaning “out-expert.” Our experiences make us experts on what is outside us. This also implies that there is an “in-perience,” though we have no word for that as the opposite of experience.

Ephesians 3:16-19

That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened
with might by his Spirit in the inner man;

That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded
in love,

May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth,
and height;

And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with
all the fulness of God.

This is most definitely not in the three dimensional experience of the physical / biological body. Paul mentions four dimensions. Being filled with all the fulness of God is not in the three dimensional world. Neither is that which surpasses the knowledge that belongs to the love of Christ.

So, when it comes to the inner man, in this context, why should we think it is not in four dimensions?

Sitting beside the playground of Richland Elementary School, under first grade shade, a very serious thought came alive in my young mind. “I am here.” Of course, I had a name at that time, but the thought said, “I am,” without reference to my developing personality.

I found this memory buried somewhere under 68 years of experience with the outside world. Public school, college, rock bands, The Way International, over thirty years as a video engineer and projectionist for live events, musician, composer and songwriter over 50 years, husband and father, to name a few, all recorded in my subconscious.

Honestly, I can’t recall how the memory was re-membered. Perhaps, it found me, instead of me finding it. That certainly happens with subconscious memories of our experiences. It is a precious memory that lived in my subconsciousness way before the following 61 years of making and remaking an ever-changing personal identity.

What comes to mind is the Parable of the Prodigal Son. We all know it, but do we really know it? If the parable is consistent throughout, and I can’t imagine Joshua Immanuel not being consistent in his teachings, then we did not originate in this world. We came from the Father’s house into this world which offered things we thought were our inheritance, external to our true inheritance. When all that is “spent,” we find ourselves feeding unclean swine. But, the good news is that we come to ourselves and re-member who we were in our Father’s house.

We get up and start walking home. Quite a journey in itself, walking back each step of experience in this world and replacing our ever-changing personal identity with our eternal identity, “I am.”

This certainly goes against the grain of what we were taught by well-meaning teachers and the horrendous doctrines of “born into sin” instituted by the Roman Church, after the passing over of the apostle John, and the re-fashioning and re-purposing of those institutions through the Protestant Re-formation.

The Greek word translated “sin” simply means “missing the mark.” It is the aim that is important and what we are shooting at. It takes practice. Just like the 68 year practice of becoming an out-expert in the external world.

Through Introspection, we have work to do and it is a good work, bringing present day egoism
under the mastery of “I am.” This goes beyond meditation, but meditation, concentration and observation are important to help Introspection unfurl its wings.

Have we been strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man? What part of that inner man is weak that it needs strength, the mighty kind? If we don’t know, how can we make room for the work of the Spirit without first addressing the obstacle occupying the Spirit’s place? Introspection.

I will give you a personal example. I have enjoyed rising up, for lack of a better term, for about a year now. I’ve had worth-remembering “dreams.” Notable for my process. Not saying anyone else has to or trying to start another organization. Our so-called future in glory organizationally lives in the Eternal Now, within the very cause of God’s infinite love, absoluteness and being.

Very recently, I “experienced” what many people have called an ecstasy, of great and infinite joy. It has been life changing in my own process. But, when it didn’t come again after a couple of weeks, I noticed that my “dreams” were always about the work I’ve done for over 30 years. Every night, the same scenarios played out for me to view. What happened to the ecstasy part?

By the way, I have been unemployed since March because of the shutdown. Talk about forced retirement. What a wonderful time to spend on things of the inner man instead of the shells!

My present day egoism (human devil) decided how things had to go. My “I am” says, “I am not you and you would not exist without me. There’s more work to do in introspection to take off the shell of that 30 plus year identity. (No I did not hear a voice. Having found a memory of my “I am,” I have been mastering my shells of identity.

Ephesians 6:12-21

For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of
the body of Christ:

Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

That ye henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with
every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they
lie in wait to deceive;

But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him, in all things, which is the head,
Christ:

From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every
joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh
increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles
walk, in the vanity of their mind.

Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the
ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness (excess), to work
all uncleanness with greediness.

But, ye have not so learned Christ;

If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:

Those ancient words look differently to me now, by “experience.” Please forgive me for using the word experience for “in-perience.” But, you know what I mean. Getting out of the shells and becoming an out expert without them on.

Let us not be like the man of the tombs. He was enslaved among the memorials of his subconscious life. His identity was over 6,000 human demons accumulated over his lifetime, identified as Legion. Joshua Immanuel spoke directly and the human demons ended up in the unclean swine.

Hopefully, none of us have experienced the torture and brutality of a Legion of human demons we created for ourselves. Perhaps we are mostly alright as far as we know. The neighboring swine herders haven’t gotten involved. No one has tried to tie us up.

It is important to deal with these temporal identity shells to find ourselves naked and unashamed, revealing the light we really are.