Our eternity consists of three components – our “before-here”, our “here and our now,” and our “here-after.” Considering each component of our eternity and their individual impact of the daily living of our lives cannot be neglected or discounted. These components are connected deeply, and each component has huge impact on the other components of our eternalness.
Our Creator and our Designer, our non-religious Father said this;
Before I formed you in the womb I knew and approved of you as my chosen instrument in my Kingdom. And before you were born, I separated and set you apart, consecrating you (for a divine purpose) I appointed you as a prophet to tell the nations about my goodness.
Jeremiah 1:5 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC) paraphrased
Our lives did not begin at our birth on this planet, or even at our conception.
We are an eternal spirit. We have no beginning and we have no end.
Our body has a beginning date and an ending date, but we will never die. The real us, the eternal us, our spirit, lives forever.
When we understand our design and the components of who we are, we know that our spirit is the real us. This is who we are forever. Our mind is who we think that we are. Our mind is programmable, and it is our charge and our pleasure to program our minds correctly so that we confirm and agree with who our Creator and our Designer says that we are. We then become who He says that we are, and we can and we will do what He says that we can. Our body is the temporary home of our spirit on this planet and is who we appear to be to other humans. Our body is not permanent, forever.
So then, where did we come from and how shall we live our lives because of these facts?
Our agreement for governance, the scriptures, provide understanding and direction.
16 Therefore we do not become discourage (utterly spiritless, exhausted and wearied out through fear). Though our outer man (our body) is (progressively) decaying and wasting away, yet our inner self (our spirit) is being progressively renewed day after day.
17 For our light, momentary affliction (this slight distress of the passing hour, time) is ever more and more abundantly preparing and producing and achieving for us and everlasting weight of glory beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparison and all calculations, a vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease !
2 Corinthians 4: 16,17 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC)
The Passion Translations says it this way;
16 So no wonder we don’t give up. For even though our outer person gradually wears out, our inner being is renewed every single day. 17 We view our slight, short-lived troubles in the light of eternity. We see our difficulties as the substance that produces for us an eternal, weighty glory far beyond all comparison, 18 because we don’t focus our attention on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but the unseen realm is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 The Passion Translation (TPT)
Here we are presented with a clear description of the difference between our temporary life in-time and the forever and eternal us, the origin and the foundation of who we really are forever.
Our body, the temporary us, begins to decline and to decay from our birth on this planet. Our spirit man grows stronger with each passing hour and is preparing for our next experience and the next component in our eternity – the “here-after.” This is when we return to where we came from. This is our Creator and our Designer’s plan for us; to be in His presence forever, experiencing unimaginable fellowship and communion.
16 They are not of the world (world, belonging to the world) just as I am not of the world.
John 17:16 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC)
In this usage the word from can be interchanged with the word of. Just as Jesus was not from this world, we are not from this world. Our lineage and our heritage are both rooted in eternity.
Next week, we will conclude the question “Where Did I Come From?” with Part 3 of this series.
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