Strategic Discipleship

March 5, 2026
Overcoming Sovereign Self
All Things New: You Are Not Your Body!

Here is a NEWSFLASH! that we must keep in the forefront of our thinking if we are to respond aptly to the circumstances we face in the classroom of life: You are not your body, and your body is not the real you! We have previously made this statement, but here we emphasize this Truth in relation to our ability to perceive the Eternal Realm. It is impossible to overemphasize this truth because this world’s system under Satan’s rulership presses so forcefully and continuously against our consciousness that it is impossible to remember without frequent reminding, and difficult to hold in the forefront of our thinking even with frequent reminding. So, the questions are, “If I am not the body that stares back at me from the mirror every morning, then who am I?” and “Which me is me, that is, the REAL me?” Those are great questions that will take you a lifetime to answer. Why? Simply because while your body/vessel deteriorates as you age, your Precious Life is a work in progress that has nothing to do with the shell in which the real you resides. You do not equate the airplane in which you are riding with the vacation you are taking, do you? You do not confuse your car with your trip to work or school. The conveyance is not the commute, the machine is separate from the driver, and the shell is separate from the hermit crab, even if the two are symbiotically joined for a time. And, as a component of the Kosmos system under the rulership of Satan, the body is a component in a schema that supports the enemy’s values of Self-expression, and of a kingdom where his lying, killing, and destroying (John 10:10) are woven into the fabric of existence.

When engaged in God’s discipleship process, the real you is transformed in the Presence as the Holy Spirit tutors us. The real you was and is a heart, soul, and spirit being present in the Eternal Realm before it was incarnated in a terrestrial body. There is much Scriptural reference support for the foregoing when one begins and reads from the assumptive position that we did not begin to exist as a spiritual being when our father’s s***m and our mother’s egg came together to form our flesh vessel. In the language of the metaphor, we presented a few pages back, the art, the sculpture that resides deep within our old man—covered by excess slag of ISS that the Holy Spirit chisels away (sometimes painfully!)—is slowly and artfully removed until the real us, the potential us, is revealed. And, when the Sculptor has fully accomplished His work and declares, “It is finished” (in our Last 15-Minutes!), the real us will look like Jesus…or not, according to our cooperative embrace of the discipleship process. Overcoming the illusions of this world to uncover the real me—the “Precious Life me” that exists in the Eternal Realm—is the Artist’s work at issue in discovering your True Identity.

Scripture gives us further clues to the mystery to trace back to reveal the original source truth concerning the nature of our existence in this T/S/M world. One such truth is Colossians 3:1-4:
1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sit-ting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
Here is the paradox—the “Christ in you, the hope of glory” mystery (Colossians 1:27)—that only believers experience: While we are seated with Christ in heavenly places, we are simultaneously present in a body in the classroom of T/S/M life! It is inaccurate to think that believers are confined entirely to one dimension or the other at any one time. Because we are immersed in the world system and so dependent on our five senses for navigation and communication, it is really difficult for us to visualize being one in spirit with Christ (1 Corinthians 6:17)–as we currently are—and yet encased within a shell composed of flesh in this T/S/M dimension—as we also currently are. It is a paradox that frequently stumps us. It does not feel like we are two places at once, but part of the spiritual maturing process is to learn to adjust your feelings to the facts! The actuality of our dual position is not opinion or even spiritual interpretation; it is a Scriptural fact confirmed by very specific language.

“Your life…hidden with Christ in God” tells us explicitly that our life source is not in the physical being that occupies space and breathes oxygen in this world. The REAL you is animated (sustained and given life) by spirit, not by blood. The real you does not exist solely in this T/S/M reality but is currently simultaneously seated with Christ in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6) as well as wherever you are in this world as you read this! Your real life is hidden with Christ in God. The real you has already experienced the spiritual death of iniquity and separation, and now, is being raised to life again by the regenerative washing/work of the Holy Spirit. Though we cannot remember it because of the veil of the flesh, the real you existed before the world began, and will continue after this T/S/M training and testing environment has served its purpose and is ended. If you are a believer, the real you will be present at the Judgment Seat of Christ and will be judged for what has been done with the resources He has made available to you. At that point, the real you will be an integrated, assimilated member of the Bride of Christ, and rule beside Him as a joint heir of the Kingdom—or not. These are difficult paradoxes and concepts to contemplate because they are other-worldly thoughts. But other-worldly does not mean “imaginary.” They are more real than the “reality” we currently experience by our senses because—as we have discussed—the Eternal dimension True Reality is superior to what we experience as T/S/M reality and will always trump our experience here.

“If I am not my body, what—and who? —and where? —exactly is the real me?” It is tricky to attempt to precisely define an other-worldly being in T/S/M terminology, but we are compelled to try because “He has put eternity in [our] heart[s]” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). “Eternity in our heart” is the “evidence of things unseen” that confirms our spirit-life origin and presence in the Eternal dimension in Eternity past—including our co-existence at the time of The Rebellion, even though we cannot remember it. “Eternity in our heart” is the shadow of recall that causes the internal longing for the Father’s Kingdom we once knew and loved, yet forsook. It is the mysterious Scriptural clue, the documentation that confirms our “other-worldly” origin. We have “eternity in our hearts” because we are out of Eternity as a life source, and intuitively (for believers) know that we will return to it (see John 13:3). With our “born from above” (John 3:3) entrance into this T/S/M world, we brought with us an endemic glimmer of shrouded mystery that only our hearts can know. Deep within we know that we are strangers and foreigners here: We do not belong, nor do we intend to stay or feel at home in Satan’s stolen kingdom, having been liberated from bo***ge by the precious Blood of Jesus.

The real you is the being comprised of the eternal heart, soul, and spirit that dwells temporarily in the vessel that looks back at you in the mirror. It is the part of you that gets out of this world alive when your body is used up. David and Solomon called this existence your “Precious Life”:
• Psalm 22:20, “Deliver Me from the sword, my Precious Life from the power of the dog.”
• Psalm 35:17, “LORD, how long will You look on? Rescue me from their destructions, my Precious Life from the lions.”
• Proverbs 6:26, “For by means of a harlot a man is reduced to a crust of bread; and an adulteress will prey upon his Precious Life.”
John gave us two quotes of Jesus’ words that give us a strong context for considering our “five-senses-versus-belief” evaluation which truly manifests as a T/S/M “of this world” existence versus our Eternal Realm home dimension origination:
• John 6:36, “But I [Jesus] said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe.”
• John 20:29, “Jesus said to him, ‘Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’”

“Believing” is a response to “faith” in this T/S/M world, not vice versa. And “faith” is “the assurance of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1) existing in the Eternal dimension. Believing is our internal response to the fact of Eternal Realm faith. So, when we read that it is our faith that overcomes the world (1 John 5:4), it is in the context of S.E.E.ing (Seeking the Eternal Essence) at work in T/S/M) by our spiritual senses (the Real Us) that which exists in the Eternal Realm. That sight creates faith and elevates Us above the clutches of the flesh and this world’s system. That is why our faith is foolishness to the world system and its earth-dweller citizens: They are unable to detect the faith of the Eternal Realm because they are not “born from above” (again, John 3:3), therefore they are unable to believe. In other words, unless one is born from above, he/she lacks the “Kingdom-detection equipment,” without which they are unable to “enter into or take possession of” (Greek, εἰσέρχομαι [eiserchomai], John 3:5). To embrace Faith is the response of our Precious Life to the True Reality of the Kingdom and is realized in the realm of our spiritual senses—particularly in our “eyes of understanding,” but also in other spiritual senses as well (see All Things New: A New Navigation System later in this chapter).
Seeing is not necessarily believing, and neither is believing necessarily seeing because seeing and believing are disparate acts that in their pure form are not intended to be mixed (John 20:29). They are “comparing apples to oranges,” primarily because seeing is a function of the kingdom of this world by the exercise of our five senses (which do not exist in the Eternal Realm and are therefore an illusion germane to this world (see Chapter 6, The Illusion of Our Five Senses), and S.E.E.ing (and the resultant belief) is a function of our spiritual sight (i.e., “understanding,” Ephesians 1:18) in the Eternal Realm. So, the pertinent question that the Holy Spirit asks us is, “Who are you going to believe, Me, or your lying eyes?” Even for the Church, the most difficult factors of discipleship to embrace are those that contradict the physical world and our five senses, and that present paradoxes so foreign to our T/S/M experience.

Our favorite definition of “genius” is, “The ability to hold two seemingly-conflicting thoughts in your brain at the same time yet consider them equally true.” It took a genius (Papa) to design and craft such a magnificent system to fulfill His Redemption purpose. It takes genius on our part to embrace the truth of the Scripture, especially when it is not confirmed by our five senses. And it takes the genius coaching of the Holy Spirit to reveal our True Identity “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10) by the “eyes of [our] understanding” (Ephesians 1:18).