The Real You: Unveiling the Hidden Person of the Heart

Introduction

Did you know that your voice and the shape of your ears are just as unique as your ingerprints? You are no accident. You are God’s creation, His unique design. The Bible says you are fearfully and wonderfully made.¹ God not only created your body uniquely, He created your spirit and soul with potential for greatness you haven’t even dreamed of!

Life has many obstacles and various challenges, as I’m sure you know. The circumstances of life oftentimes seem overwhelming and the disappointments crushing. My father died when I was eight years old. I received the shocking news of his death, not from my mother or a sibling, who might be able to comfort me, but from a neighbor as I was sitting on the steps of our home in The Projects. I sat there alone and cried, without anyone to explain to me how or why my daddy died. I will never forget the pain I experienced that day.

I grew up in poverty, without a dad. When I became a teenager, I battled severe depression. Condemning and defeating thoughts bombarded my mind. I happened to have relatives on both sides of my family who were in mental institutions and at one point; I thought I too was going to lose my mind. The devil painted a very bleak picture of me in the same depressed and defeated condition as some of my relatives.

I had become a Christian and I truly loved God, but the devil was trying his best to stop God’s plan for my life. I’m so thankful for the prayers of my pastors, my mother and others. I believe the help and revelation that I received, and that I’m sharing with you in this book, came to me as a result of their prayers.

Victory in my life began when the Holy Spirit revealed to me that I was a spirit. I began to understand that the negative thoughts coming to my mind were not me. As a teenager I was reading my Bible one day, and I suddenly got a revelation of Hebrews 4:12: For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. I suddenly understood that there was a distinct difference between my spirit (the real me) and my soul (my mind, will and emotions). From that point, I knew that I could choose which thoughts to think. I will never forget the joy I experienced that day! Gaining an understanding of spirit, soul and body set me free, changed my life, and set me on the course God had planned for me.

I also began to discover who I was in Christ, which unlocked the New Testament for me.² I’m writing this book because I believe God has a wonderful purpose for your life and He wants you to discover it and live it. He desires for you to experience a fulfilling, satisfying, and abundant life. He created you to be victorious! The insights I share in the following chapters helped me overcome my fears, insecurities, disappointments and even demonic oppression. I am confident that you too can overcome any obstacles life may have thrown in your way when you discover… the real you!

¹ Psalm 139:14

² See my book, The Master Key

CHAPTER 1

YOU ARE GOD’S DESIGN

Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. (Genesis 1:26-28)

God is the Designer and Creator of mankind. In the first chapter of the book of Genesis we discover that God created three classes of life: plant life, animal life and human life. God didn’t say, Let Us make the trees in Our image. Nor did He say, Let Us make animals in Our image. God said, Let Us make man in Our image. The next verse says…male and female He created them. So, when the Bible uses the term man, generally speaking, it refers to mankind (both male and female).

Plants don’t have bodies or souls, but they are a form (or class) of life. Animals have bodies and souls (intellectual and emotional qualities); yet they are another class of life. What is it that sets man apart from plants and animals? The answer is, man is a spirit, created in the image and likeness of God.

The Hebrew word translated God in Genesis 1:26-28 is Elohiym, which is actually the plural name for God. The Amplified Bible says, "Let Us [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] make mankind in Our image..." The scriptures reveal that God is a Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit were all at work in creation. God said, Let Us make man in Our image. Since God created man in His own image, man must also be a triune being. Man was created as spirit, soul and body.³

God Forms Man’s Body

The time came when the Lord God formed a man’s body from the dust of the ground and breathed into it the breath of life. And man became a living person. (Genesis 2:7 TLB)

Before God created man, a mist came up from the face of the earth and watered the ground.⁴ This mist made the dust of the earth into pliable clay for God to form man’s body. Like a potter creating a vessel, God formed man’s body.

In the book of Job, the oldest book in the Bible, Elihu says to Job, I am the same as you in God’s sight; I too am a piece of clay. (Job 33:6 NIV) The prophet Isaiah speaks of God and man in the same manner: "But now, O LORD, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand." (Isaiah 64:8) Interestingly, science now confirms that the human body consists of the same basic material and chemical elements found in the soil of the earth.

After forming man from the dust of the earth, God breathed into Adam the breath of life. The Hebrew word translated breath is ruach, which also means spirit. Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath or spirit of life, and man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7 AMP) Again we read in Job, The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life. (Job 33:4) In the book of Numbers God is referred to as the God of the spirits of all flesh; (Numbers 27:16) Zechariah 12:1 says that God forms the spirit of man within him; in Ecclesiastes 12:7 we read, Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it. The Bible clearly teaches that the spirit of man came from the breath of God.

The substance of man’s body came from the ground, but the substance of man’s spirit came directly from God. God, who Himself is Spirit⁵ and the Creator of the universe, breathed out of Himself into Adam. When God breathed the spirit of life into Adam’s clay mold, he became a living being or a living soul. He arose to conscious life and received understanding. But there is a spirit in man, And the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding. (Job 32:8)

Man did not evolve from plants or animals; he is the crown of God’s creation. When it comes to the origin of man, evolution is a man-made theory that has never been conclusively or scientifically proven. The ape-man myth has missing links that have never been (and never will be) found. It actually takes more faith to believe that everything, including man, evolved out of nothing (or from chaos) than to accept the Biblical account of creation and God’s design. If you dare to search the Scriptures with an open heart and mind, you will discover they hold the keys that unlock the mysteries of life.

God’s Original Intent

Adam was created in God’s image as a