You Have Been Purpose-Built To Succeed.
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You Have Been Purpose-Built To Succeed.
Have you ever felt a heaviness of heart—like you were dragging around some kind of heavy baggage not knowing what was inside of it?
Have you ever felt as if you were drowning in a quagmire of mental clutter, stress, hurt, loneliness, or fear—fuzzy headed, indecisive, not being able to think straight—or simply felt emotionally bankrupt—or like something had a spiritual lien on your soul?
Have you ever felt waves of despair crashing against your mind, or that for every one step forward you end up taking two steps back—circling, yet stagnate, bumping up against walls, blind?
Sounds like a nightmare, doesn’t it?
If you answered “maybe” to any of the above, perhaps you are suffering from some type of emotional bondage or unhealthy spiritual attachment—or what I call a “soul tie.”
The first step in liberating your soul is making the decision to do so.
If you are here reading this, I congratulate you on taking the time to invest in the life of your soul. You are already on your way to creating a stronger, fitter, better you. Believe me when I say that when your soul is fit and strong, everything else about you will become better and stronger!
It amazes me how little we are willing to invest in the most important asset we have--the one asset that governs everything else we experience in this life.
The minutia that ties up our souls is one of the most misunderstood things keeping us from running with purpose and certainty. Experiences, events, habits, relationships, desires, and objectives, even spirits, continually ensnare our souls holding us back from moving confidently forward in the direction of our dreams.
In his award-winning book, Renovation of the Heart, Dallas Willard wrote, “The hidden dimension of each human life is not visible to others, nor is it fully graspable even by ourselves. We usually know very little about the things that move in our own soul, the deepest level of our life, or what is driving it.”
We must ask ourselves, “Why do I do the things that I do?”—“Why do I keep attracting the people I really do not want, and repelling the people I do?”—“How can I break negative cycles?”
We must be willing to be honest with ourselves, have the courage to be circumspect, look around, take heed, and ask the difficult question of what within our own life is causing our circumstances—or determining the experiences we have with other people.
Now more than ever, at this time in history, we must “lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).
The weights that tie us down not only keep us vulnerable to sin, but also cause us to inappropriately respond to life’s challenges and adopt entire sets of behaviors that keep us stagnated and going around in circles. These negative patterns prevent us from fulfilling our dreams and cause us to abort our purpose until we eventually die with the seeds of massive potential still locked up within us.
Not only that, but when we are unable to break free from the junk cluttering our soul life, we keep those around us bound up as well. We become part of the problem rather than the solution. We are among the blind leading the blind. Jesus asked His disciples, “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into the ditch?” (Luke 6:39). We are the hurting that hurt, and the disappointed that disappoint.
In my years of interacting and observing people, it has become glaringly apparent that most folks are generally oblivious to how their decisions and thought patterns affect those with whom they interact on a daily basis and vice versa—let alone how everyday words and decisions affect their own destiny. This is heart wrenching to me.
I have spent my career as a civil servant, educator, and minister observing the debilitating burdens people carry who have been hurt or negatively affected by the words or actions of others, as well as their own.
The fact is, all of those negative actions and reactions are simply the outcry of hurting souls—a cry for healing and restoration—a desperate plea to be freed from the weights and bondages that have tied so many of us to continual defeat, failure, and despair. It is a self-perpetuating process the enemy has spun into perfection incarcerating the souls of humanity in prisons of offense, resentment, and unforgiveness.
I have come to the conclusion that most of the junk cluttering our souls has to do with the experiences we have had, or are having, with other people.
It all began when humankind first chose to walk away from a healthy relationship with God and to relate instead to the god of this world paying fatal attention to his deceptive propositions. Since then, we have observed generation after generation of deteriorating healthy relational ties, and as a result, the strengthening influence of unhealthy soul ties.
We have become an increasingly self-centered people, pursuing the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life—experiencing deceptive measures of success without ever fully maximizing our potential or fulfilling our purpose--and hardly ever do we do either with any real power or inner peace.
Many exit this earth prematurely while others are plagued with sickness and disease, or feel exiled to an inferior standard of living with its perpetual cycles of defeat and failure, or fall victim to self-sabotaging and self-destructive behaviors.
Many never realize there is a direct correlation between where they are now and every decision they have made in the past.
Destiny moves at the speed of decision.
In other words, the life you are living—the state of your relationships, the joy and peace you are experiencing, or the sorrow and pain all find their root in the decisions you’ve made up until now. Your life is simply a representation of the sum total of your choices —choices that either enslave or save your soul.
Think about that for a moment.
Ultimately, you are only one decision away from changing everything.
One decision can change the trajectory of your life.
You are always only one decision away from living the life of your dreams!
From here on out, make certain everything you say or do is aligned with the Word of God. James wrote, “be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22). Why? Because it is by choosing to do and not just hear the Word that you are “able to save your souls” (James 1:22).
Yes, it is up to you to take charge of your soul!
For the next forty days, I will show you how to detox your soul and renew your mind so you can break free from the decisions that are keeping you from going around in circles. I will take you on a journey through the realm of your soul and the territory of your thoughts, and walk you through the mechanics of harnessing the power of your words and the extraordinary force of your actions.
You may have been handed a bad deal from the day you were born, but I am here to tell you that does not have be your final epitaph! The goal of this 40 Day Soul Fast is to guide you through the process of discovering who you really are, assist you in the examination of all your objectives and relationships, and thrust you onto a new path of success and prosperity.
My highest calling and greatest reward in life is launching you into a new level of victorious and joyous living by establishing you in the knowledge of the truth of God’s Kingdom—knowledge that will set you free regardless of the unfortunate events, decisions, or relationships you’ve been bound by in the past.
Jesus promised his disciples, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). The truth will set the real you—the divinely created you that has been held captive—free from the limitations of your unsaved, enslaved soul!
Let’s get started unlocking the real you!
Mark 8:34 MSG:
What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?
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