The phrase ‘just be you’ is usually spoken in the context of telling someone not to conform to every norm and not to live a life trying to please everybody. While this is sage advice, the advice only ends positively only if we know who we truly are. Now, we cannot answer the question of ‘who we are’ until we know what we are.
The scripture reveals to us that ‘what we are’ are spirit beings. We know this because God, who is spirit (John 4:24) decided to make us in His image (Genesis 1:26). Seeing that we are spirit beings, this means that this body is simply a garment that cloaks our true nature. And just as a garment shows wear and tear over time, the physical garment of our body also deteriorates over time.
Light-bulb moment: The man in the mirror is not the real you; the real you is hidden.
This hidden person inside of you is not like your body which changes over time. The spirit only has two states of existence – it is either dead or alive. Therefore, the first question you have to ask yourself is this: Am I dead or am I alive?
If you do not know the answer to this, then consider that it is the Holy Spirit that gives life (John 6:63). Hence, any person without the Holy Spirit is spiritually dead. Such a person cannot ‘live’ their identity for they are not even alive. How does the Holy Spirit give us life? He does this by taking up residence within our spirit when we accept Jesus as our Lord and savior. When He does this, He seals our spirit with His Spirit (2 Corinthians 1:22) so that our spirit and His Spirit become inseparable. Here is what it all means:
Light-bulb moment: Our living identity is given by the Holy Spirit and is found in the Holy Spirit
Since ‘what we are’ is spirit and ‘whose we are’ is the Holy Spirit’s, the only we way can ‘just be us’ is to live by the Spirit. The moment we stop living by the Spirit is the moment we become imposters! As imposter, we no longer as who we are but have started acting like someone else!
Remember the ‘You are not you when you are hungry’ snickers advertisement on television where the teen turned into a grumpy Liza Minnelli when hungry? It is just like that with us when we do not live by the Holy Spirit. Living without the influence of the Holy Spirit is akin to starving ourselves of life. It makes us grumpy and cranky; we begin to act like who we are not. In truth, we are no longer controlled by our true selves (who are identified with the Holy Spirit) but are controlled by our hungry flesh.
Light-bulb moment: The only way to ‘just be you’ is to live by Spirit. If you are not being you, then you are being whatever your flesh (your senses as impact by things and people) wants you to be.
So then the question is this: Are you being you or are you acting like who you are not? Today, choose to be you! It is so much more difficult trying to be someone else anyway. Furthermore, whomever you are trying to become is not as good as who you are! If you have been running away from yourself, I want to encourage you today to stop, look inwards, and rediscover who you truly are. I promise that you will love yourself!
SuperChamp 