Personality

Please read, "Individuality" first.

What’s right with some people? Why are people who are honest, open and sincere much more likeable and admirable than those who have attitudes or agendas, those who just refuse to go beyond the shallow end of the pool? At least they are to me, but they weren't always. When I was operating strictly out of individuality, I found them frightening and uncomfortable to be around. It is these people, the admirable ones, who are most likely operating out of personality rather than individuality.

Personality is much deeper then we can currently imagine. Chambers likens it to an island in the sea, where the island is simply the very top of a huge mountain. If you dove beneath the surface of the sea of individuality, you would get a glimpse of that mountain but would never be able to put it into proper perspective until the entire sea is drained, i.e. individuality is destroyed.

There’s another facet of personality that is important to know, and that is that personality is only complete when it merges with another personality. God made Eve because Adam was incomplete without her. I began to emerge from my sea of individuality only after falling in love with my wife. She began to break through the waves of falsehood, self-image, and constraints that I surrounded myself with and slowly my personality began to be revealed.  

This process also begins when the Holy Spirit comes upon a person. Individuality cannot merge with God, but personality can and, is indeed, designed to do just that. The love of your life may help to break you free from some of your individuality, but it is only the merging with Jesus Christ that totally destroys it and presents you complete and whole.

Love is the output of one personality merging with another. When you connect at the personality level, rather than as two individuals, love is the natural outcome. Connecting at the level of individuality is merely lust. There can be no love in a relationship where there is dishonesty; love requires truth, personality operates only in truth and individuality only in falsehood.

I invite you to go on a search and destroy mission. Search your heart for every part of your character that is less than honest and open. Search yourself for any sign of pride, fear, love of money, power or fame. These things come not out of personality but individuality and must be destroyed. This implies death to self, or more precisely, our right to our self. It is only when we die to our self and live for Jesus Christ that we will ever be complete and know real joy.