The challenge is to lose yourself (flesh) to find yourself (spirit), by accepting the contradictions inside your own heart and mind. There is the original you and a version, of you, modified by sin.
If you can defeat the ego, the pride and the need to be right. If you can find a way to repent, especially when it is inconvenient. The moments of pushing past the limits of your flesh, will birth a new you.
The denying of your flesh is like travail. Producing a new version of who you are will be painful and laborious. In the end, beholding the new life always makes the efforts worth the pain.
The new you is stored in MY protected realms and it is found on other side of victory to your carnal nature. As you release the fear, the pain and the trauma the real you can emerge.
Ephesians 2:8-10
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
I Might Be a Prophet 