I have found that no matter where you go, you will find that people are the same. Although some may be richer or poorer to a certain degree than others, they all have one thing in common – they ask themselves these two questions (in some form or another), “Who am I,” and “What is my purpose?” What this tells me is that most of us do not know the meaning of life. Until a person can answer these two questions, he/she will not find contentment in life. Of course most believers reading this book know that the answers to these questions are somehow found in Jesus, but many may not know the answers specifically.

To answer the first question we can say that we are children (offspring) of God, or as Jesus called us, branches of the vine. In the writings of the Apostle Paul we are called the temples of God, vessels, servants or slaves, and the bride of Christ. What do all these terms have in common? They all describe people whose meaning in life is found in another. They describe people under the submission and authority of another – individuals whose lives, exist within the confines (control) and dependence of another.

Either we are children of God or children of the devil. Either we are the branches of the true vine (Christ) or the branches of the false vine (Satan) – the temples of God, or the temples of the devil. Either we are vessels filled with the Spirit of truth, or vessels filed with the spirit of error. Either we are servants/slaves of righteousness (Jesus), or servants/slaves of unrighteousness (Satan). By now we should be getting the message that we are really not our own, and that our free will in reality is only within the confines of the will of the master who owns us.

God created man in the state of innocence for the purpose of allowing him to choose whom he would serve. God is love, and love freely gives all things including the choice to receive Love (God). But Satan in his craftiness deceived the first humans into choosing to disobey God not realizing that to disobey God was in essence choosing Satan. Satan could not tempt Adam and Eve with riches, fame or fortune, because God had given them dominion over all the earth. Adam and Eve had everything.

Therefore the only bait that Satan could tempt them with was the enticement of being as God knowing good and evil. For man to be as God without God was really saying that man was independent. This is what Paul refers in the book of Romans chapter one as “the lie,” which in reality is the illusion that man could be sufficient in himself whereas God created him to be totally dependent on Him.

It is from this one lie that every sin was birthed. Therefore man was deceived into believing that he could be self-sufficient – independently of God (the same lie that Satan himself is deluded by). The problem was that no one and nothing is independent of God. Paul in writing concerning Jesus makes this point plain in the epistle to the Colossians. “For it was in Him that all things were created, in heaven and on earth, things seen and things unseen, whether thrones, dominions, rulers, or authorities; all things were created and exist through Him [by His service, intervention] and in and for Him. And He Himself existed before all things, and in Him all things consist (cohere, are held together)” (Colossians 1:16-17 AMP). Let me say this again, “everything and everybody is dependent on God whether they know it or not,” (this may be hard to believe) including the devil. The truth is there is only one independent and self-existent being anywhere and that is God (Jehovah – the self-existent one who reveals Himself).

Therefore blinded with the cloak of deception, man cast his lot with Satan, thus making Satan his master. For instead of Adam becoming as God (self-sufficient and independent) as Satan had promised, he and all of mankind became sin-indwelt slaves of the devil. In John 8:44 Jesus shed light on this when He said to the Pharisees (which is also applicable to all of fallen man); “You are of your father, the devil, and it is your will to practice the lusts and gratify the desires [which are characteristic] of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a falsehood, he speaks what is natural to him, for he is a liar [himself] and the father of lies and of all that is false” (AMP).

Mankind separated from God is not independent as they think, but are one with Satan and filled with his life and nature. Non-Christians are so deluded by Satan that he operates in them in a way so subtle and natural, that that they think that it is them who are in charge and managing their lives. They think that the desires and lusts that control their lives originate from their own human nature, but Jesus said differently.

Jesus said as he spoke to the Pharisees; “You are of your father, the devil, and it is your will to practice the lusts and gratify the desires [which are characteristic] of your father.” In the epistle of I John 3:12 God’s word tells that we should love; “not as Cain who was of the wicked one.”

The Holy Spirit also tells us in Ephesians; “AND YOU [He made alive], when you were dead (slain) by [your] trespasses and sins In which at one time you walked [habitually]. You were following the course and fashion of this world [were under the sway of the tendency of this present age], following the prince of the power of the air. [You were obedient to and under the control of] the [demon] spirit that still constantly works in the sons of disobedience [the careless, the rebellious, and the unbelieving, who go against the purposes of God]. Among these we as well as you once lived and conducted ourselves in the passions of our flesh [our behavior governed by our corrupt and sensual nature], obeying the impulses of the flesh and the thoughts of the mind [our cravings dictated by our senses and our dark imaginings]. We were then by nature children of [God’s] wrath and heirs of [His] indignation, like the rest of mankind” (Ephesians 2:1-3 AMP).

Mankind apart from God is “following the course and fashion of this world,” which indeed as is written in John, “.. is under the power of the wicked one.” The sinners obey and follow the prince of this world because they are under his control. The point that I am making is that man was never his own, nor will he ever be.

God’s plan for mankind was that they eat of the tree of life and to be filled with His life and love nature, but it was of necessity that they choose to do so because God is love, and love must be received. It is very important that we understand that we were never created to be independent creatures managing our own selves, nor were we created to be robots. We were created as branches of a vine having no life of our own – created to be filled with the life of God, and thus we live and express His life in our humanity. Until we know this, our lives will forever be on the endless treadmill of frustration and failure. We will be as it were branches that are severed from a tree, yet trying to produce fruit. But life that is necessary to produce fruit on the branch does not come from the branch but from the vine, and apart from the vine the branch is dead.

This analogy is the way our relationship is with Christ. The Apostle Paul gets to the heart of this matter in I Corinthians 6:19-20 and asks the question; “Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received [as a Gift] from God? You are not your own, You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for, made His own]. So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body.”

These scriptures tell us that we are the habitations of the Spirit of God, and that He (God) is glorified by living in us. He is the very essence of our lives, and as we remain receptive to Him, He expresses His divine nature in and through us (see Galatians 5 – fruit of the Spirit).

The pressure is taken off of us when we realize that we can not imitate Jesus’ divine life through our human efforts (i.e. trying to live the Christian life and to be like Jesus in our strength). For the Christian life is lived; “[Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight” (Ephesians 2:13).

All God requires of us is to receive His Spirit and life, and thus He is glorified in His Son who is in us. The reality of knowing that we are not our own in itself is a solid foundation for faith for us to reckon upon the Holy Spirit to have His way in us making it possible for the Him to work all His will and purpose through us.

God’s word also tells us in Romans 6:12-13; “Let not sin therefore rule as king in your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies, to make you yield to its cravings and be subject to its lusts and evil passions. Do not continue offering or yielding your bodily members [and faculties] to sin as instruments (tools) of wickedness. But offer and yield yourselves to God as though you have been raised from the dead to [perpetual] life, and your bodily members [and faculties] to God, presenting them as implements of righteousness. For sin shall not [any longer] exert dominion over you, since now you are not under Law [as slaves], but under grace [as subjects of God’s favor and mercy] (AMP).