Asking yourself "Who am I?" is an important spiritual exercise. Commonly the initial answers have to do with gender, roles, profession, religion, etc. However, when the question is asked repeatedly, and you allow yourself to go deeper and deeper into the answer, more and more of the story of who you are will start to fall away. You may even get to a point where you have no idea who you really are! This is paradoxically a really great place to be because in the state of not knowing, the higher mind of God can have an opening. We stop growing when we think we know who we are. We stop ourself from spiritually developing when we have a fixed rigid identity, with fixed limited beliefs.

Living in the question is a fertile place to be instead of providing yourself easy answers based on past conditioning. Give yourself permission to not know. Open and allow the space for Spirit to teach you the truth of who you really are. Enter into the mystery of God!

The ego, sometimes referred to as "edging God out," is the portion of our conscious mind that is logical, rational, and makes distinctions, discriminates, and judges in the world. The ego is also the finite, separate, and limited human mind. The ego is the ruler of this world. The ego tries to control and dominate the world to feel safe. It analyzes and judges saying "I am this and this but not that." The ego lives in duality, judging things as good or bad. The ego isn't inherently bad, as some think. It is only negative if it is cut off or separated from God, or separated from Love which is the powerful heart of God.

A spiritualized ego, or a mind that tries to connect to God without the inner transformation of the heart, can become radical, fundamental, and see only differences and duality. Neurotic narcissism creates god in its own image and is only in relationship to its own self and its own interests (its all about me; there is no we). A spiritualized ego will say my beliefs or religion is the only true one, and believes everyone else is wrong, bad, defective, or of the devil. When this is taken to an extreme, a spiritualized ego will go to war or kill those whose beliefs vary from theirs in any way.

The ego that is transformed by the Spirit of God in the heart is transmuted or transfigured into the faithful servant of God and spiritually develops into knowing and being the higher, deeper true self that can say the Father and I are one. "In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you" (John 14:20).

The true self is the unlimited, unconscious and superconscious mind (and the transformed conscious mind united in the heart) that is connected and one with God. "Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus" (Philipians 2:5).

The true self is the mind of the heart. It is not separate from God. The true self is one with God. It is nondual and is interested in the highest good for all, and rightly judges from a place of compassion, wisdom, and love. Jesus was the complete, whole human being who was the perfect example of the true self. This is why he said "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). No one comes to God, the true Self, or the higher self, unless you go through the heart and the body of the Son of God (we are all a part of the body of Christ Spirit no matter what external religion you may belong to). God is not found through the intellect! You must go through the body! Christ Spirit has never been born and never will die. It was the Spirit that was in Jesus and is in all of us, even though it is hidden and undiscovered in so many. It is the hidden splendor, the hidden treasure that can be found within.

So I ask "Who are you?"

"Truly, truly, I say to you, she who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will she do" (John 14:12).

Jesus was really emphasizing this message by repeating twice that this is the truth. If we are able to do even greater things than Jesus did while he walked the earth then what is stopping us, and what exactly are those "greater things?" A large part of what Jesus did was healing and letting people know that the kingdom of God was at hand or in the midst of us, not some external, distant future event. "Behold, now is the acceptable time" (2 Cor 6:2).

We have the ability and divine right, right now, in the present moment, to ask God to remove the obstacles to being one with God, ending the separation that we consciously or unconsciously created, and be made brand new. Our own mind is  the only thing that can stop us. We may not realize that we are inwardly controlled by old conditioning, limiting beliefs and thoughts, but if we turn to the Spirit and ask to be cleared of limitations, restrictions, and obstructions, the Spirit can bring to our awareness any places we are separating ourselves from the light of God.

"If you remain true to God, God will lead you straight through every barrier into the inner chamber of the knowledge of Himself; but there is always this point of giving up convictions and traditional beliefs" (Oswald Chambers)

Instead of looking at life, ourselves and others from a human point of view, through the conditioning of the world, parents, religion, authorities, and education, we can elevate our perspective to see from the higher view. "From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once regarded Christ from a human point of view...therefore, if any one is in Christ, she is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the NEW has come" (2Cor 5:16-17).

We are limiting God by our limiting thoughts and beliefs about God and what is possible. Expand your possibilities. Ask to see through the eyes of Christ. Start looking at yourself and others from the divine perspective. Jesus said "Come and See!"  What greater things can you imagine? What is stopping you?