"When this I shall die, then shall I know Whom am I."

These are words from the Spiritual Master and guru Paramahansa Yogananda. Taken in a christian context, it can be made to mean "Life in the Spirit." Let me explain, in it's proper context it means that when the ego dies, the soul will be fully United with Spirit! This has an even deeper explanation, the ego in a religious context is the non-spiritual aspect of our being. Being a spiritual person, the material aspect of our humanity is not bad, our flesh so to speak is sacred, for as a believer the Holy Spirit lives in our flesh, and the last thing to be redeemed is our flesh. To avoid heresy, let me say that the flesh is good, even though we are called to live in the spirit not our flesh, to treat the body with disrespect is suicide.

When we kill the flesh, or ego, it never fully dies this side of the resurrection. Even after death, the ego never fully dies. Another word for the ego is our personality, character, or soul. These are our identity, the ego is what gives you your personality, and wherever you spend eternity this non-spiritual aspect of your humanity will survive! It is wrong to overcome this by killing natural desires and manifestations of your human nature that are not inherently sinful. The flesh is to be protected and cherished, not abused in an attempt to resist sin. To live in the spirit we don't have to completely come out of our flesh, for if we did, we would be physically dead.

To live in the spirit means subduing the flesh, not killing it. As believers we are called to preserve life, not destroy it, the Spirit will lead you in this direction, if you are living in Him. Uncontrolled impulses are an example of living in the flesh, the more hostile you are to yourself and other people, demonstrates your inability to live in the spirit. The bible teaches Christians that if they are in the flesh they cannot please God, and will eventually die in their sins (Romans 8:13).

The emphasis is not on killing the ego, for it cannot truly die, for in the resurrection we will be spiritual as well as physical. (1 Corinthians 15:44, 49) This is Mike.

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