The cultivation of a person's identity, cumulatively~ over time, results in the formation of one's persona. This persona is the fundamental basis from which someone thinks, feels, and acts (lives).
For this reason, an impaired personality (viz., a dysfunctional person) remains necessarily and existentially 'lost' and until that person can find himself, he remains incapable of being truly happy, healthy, whole, and holy. This leads to the pitiful phenomena of a person being estranged within his own existence. This possibility may sound strange but is, I believe, a common reality for a large portion of society, Christian or not.
However, the one who has plumbed the depths of his haunted self, when guided into the light of selfhood by the truth of God's Word & Spirit, ultimately (and progressively) finds himself. This liberating reality infuses such a person with a profound sense of identity. It is this (and only this) transformed individual who is able to shrug off the insecurities and limitations of the empty self to finally begin to become all that God has made him to be.
Show me a person like this, and I will show you a man (or woman) of profound power and personal presence. This is where God wants to transport all believers, but most are (apparently) too fearful of their haunted and misunderstood humanity or are too in love with the illusion of godless liberation to ever be truly liberated.
"For where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" 2 Corinthians 3:17
