We are still looking for the “I” that is the lord of the soul and spirit of man. Everything involved in conscious personality is related to the brain, but not originated by it. The brain can be the seat of thought without being the source of it!! “I” not only uses the brain, but “I” educate and fit it for its work!! The brain itself has no knowledge or thought-no power to originate either. The difference between the brain of a baboon and a man is in the being behind it. It is not the brain that thinks, remembers, wills, obeys, or intends. If one could dissect the brain all they would find was a mass of cells, nerve centers suffused with blood. If the same brain is dissected when this individual dies, one would find the same mass of cells, nerve centers suffused with blood!! What learned, what grew, what became more wise?? ‘I’ do not die, cease, where does the “I” go?? “I” am not the brain and the brain is not the “I” that is me, in fact “I” control, possess, and use the brain as though it belongs to me (as I do my right hand or arm while “I” am in the body) for it is mine, but I am not the brain!!
The “I” is not thought, feelings or emotions, either!! No, the real “I” is the conscious person behind all I do, is greater than my earthly tabernacle, and cannot be produced by mankind (and he has tried). All that is of my tabernacle is mine. “I” have been allowed to use, abuse, or destroy what God prepared me. If ‘I’ think, ‘I’ feel, if ‘I’ desire, ‘I’ plan, if ‘I’ want, ‘I’ make plans to obtain, yet the “I” remains the permanent thing behind everything. Though my body constantly changes “I” constantly fuel my life as though I own it!! This “self” that is within me has conviction, opinions, duties, and desires. It knows, has a consciousness of right wrong stored in it that allows “me” to make proper decisions!! The “I” is a permanent-behind –the scenes, separate pre-existent totality who wanted a place to belong!! This self has conviction: “I” will always be, live forever, and if ‘I’ claim the right Lord, ‘I’ will spend eternity with my one true friend, from whom “I” began. Paul writes about “a law written in our hearts” Romans 2:15, and the apostle John calls this “I” the light in every man. John 1:9 ‘I’ am not of this Earth, ‘I’ am from above!
The “I” is not the Soul! Adam became a living soul. Instead of saying I have a soul, I should say I am a soul, a living soul. The Supreme Spirit touched with His finger the body of Adam and the true Adam began to be. As an electric spark flashing into his body, Adam becomes a living soul. I know the soul is not the “I” for “I” can lose it!! “For what is a man profited; if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:26 Gaining the world loses the “I”. “I” am the invisible immortal being clothed in a material body in this stage of existence on the planet Earth. “I” am the emanation from God’s nature intended to live in harmony with Deity for “I” was born to serve the Lord!
Can the “I” be destroyed? If “I” have survived the rigors of physical child birth, emergencies untold, and sustained all subsequent changes of every part of the body-will the “I” not survive the putting away of the whole body at death?? You, “I” must live forever and ever-whether exalted or degraded in character or station, you or the “I” are forever, never can we get away from Life. Let the soul feel its own dignity, measure its own worth, and know its importance for look what God did to show its value, He gave His only begotten Son!! He created it, stamped it with His own image; redeemed it by the incarnation and death of Christ. Just what is the “I” that it means so much to God? God’s value which He set on the soul is without comparison. Who, what am “I”?
