Category: Soul Help

We can lose connection with our soul in the normal flow of life, especially in intense times.  Taking time and making the effort to re-connect is vital to our well-being.  I’ve had the privilege of traveling, being with family, welcoming a new granddaughter and anticipating a new grandson.  So my focused reflection time is delayed this year.  I’m re-posting last year’s video and guide for those who have asked.

Take time for your soul!

Hindsight 2020

Jackie Scott PCC

Can your soul have a stroke?

When the flow of “life blood” is interrupted, it prevents needed sustenance to our very well-being. If emotional numbness, moral weakness & confusion and lack of balance are any indication, I think our souls can have strokes.

Living in a formerly repressive society, where anything could be twisted into offence against the ruling party, I surmise there had to be a lack of soul blood, a masking of oxygen, a clamping of vessels to the soul. It became a massive, irreversible stroke. It didn’t work the way they schemed.  It smashed, repressed, stunted and killed. Seeming good intentions annihilated freedom, beauty and reason. That began 100 years ago.  We live in the aftermath.

Yet…I detect similar leanings in my home country today!

In the repressive society, freedom of speech was a non-entity, let alone initiative and creativity of thought. Fear ruled. Anything deemed ill-spoken could have been judged against the accepted narrative with harsh consequences.

This is sounding way too familiar…

If caught up in faulty logic and subjective interpretations, a view (that doesn’t fit into a preferred narrative) is dismissed, this is a major loss.  Where is the equal playing field? A gradual shift in belief, sloppy indifference to philosophical foundations, letting pleasure and comfort lull to sleep, moves the subtle shift to a massive rift.

“Freedom of speech [saying what I think might be wrong or might be needed] is the oxygen of liberty.”  

“…where only the permitted narrative is tolerated then…you know what a diminished life this is going to cause.”  Heather Higgins

America with its government from the people, responsible to the people, is founded and built upon hearing what the people think. That is what has continued to bring about change and progress; rather than imposing unreachable seemingly virtuous ideals that bring inevitable destructive results.  (ex. Open border)

These pernicious ideas squelch some and megaphone others, rather than holding everyone to the same rules or the same treatment.  Where is the reason and accountability when there can’t be robust debate, healthy disagreement and respectful dialogue?

Let’s beware of our souls succumbing to the unhealthy habits of communication that lead to soul strokes!

How can our communication enhance dialogue even when there is disagreement?

 Listen to Peter’s words to people living under the repression of the Romans and the persecution of the Jewish leaders of their day.

“…even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.”  1 Peter 3:14-16

We need Him for this!

A great book to help in navigating difficult conversations with truth and love:

I Beg to Differ by Tim Muehlhoff

1 min. video

There are many good spiritual trainings, teachings, and materials available now, but without follow through, walking it out, or making it your own…it’s just a “notebook on the shelf”, as professor Howard Hendricks said.

For personal & leader development, I’ve crafted a way to take a deeper dive into walking out things we have well situated in our heads but haven’t yet settled into our hearts… let alone our bones! I’ve written a journey facilitator’s guide.

For the 1st anniversary of my book publishing, I’m offering a free pdf of this guide with the purchase of my book Your Life is Re-markable. From now until Sept 12, just send me a screen shot of your purchase & I’ll send you the guide!

If you’d like to join a journey group or explore facilitating one, Contact me at soulfit.us Let’s get this stuff into our bones!

What is a journey group?

Journey Coaching  –   Jackie Scott MA, PCC

-A small group journey together to unearth deep-seated beliefs that affect our lives and to give insight to walking in love and freedom.

These sessions are done by invitation for those committed to going deeper in exploring their lives and spirituality over a period of 10, 90-minute sessions.

PURPOSE:

• identify a growth area in my life where God wants to work;
• recognize the lies that I have lived by regarding that area
• work with God to uproot those lies and plant His truth.

“Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.” Psalm 51:6  

These sessions include:

Taking a look (Ps. 139:23, 24)

• It’s Biblical to “work” on ourselves
• We need to choose to work with God on ourselves
• The enemy is prowling yet God’s power over him is our hope

 Probing our lives (Lam. 3:40) 

Beginning to hear our self-talk

 Digging deeper into our patterns and beliefs (1 Tim. 4:16)

 Life journey lines/early foundations/arrows

 Innermost Being (2 Cor. 10:4,5)

Fighting the lies/renewing our minds

 Battle Within (Ephe. 6:10)

 Walking in the Spirit/recognizing the schemes of the enemy

 Overcoming (Rom. 8:37)

 Misconceptions of God and self/scripts from our past

 View of God & self

We are being transformed into the new self (Ephe. 4:24)

Transforming (Rom 12:1,2)

 Setting our minds on the Spirit/going to the hard places (Gal. 5:1)

 “Plunder” and Purpose (1 John 3:8)

 Keeping our freedom from slavery to our old ways

 Celebration & Resilience (Exodus 15)

 Life Planning, Resilience and Self-value

Gordon McDonald in his A Resilient Life p. 98 says:

“… We carry within ourselves all our yesterdays, the experiences and influences that have happened from our birth to this present moment. These yesterdays can powerfully affect today, the right-now and dominate our relationships, our choices, our view of ourselves, and even our understanding of God. If our yesterdays are in a state of good repair, they provide strength for today. If not repaired, they create havoc.”

Responses from recent groups:

“This journey group gave me the motivation and support to unearth deep lies and to begin to allow God in to redeem and restore. That is what I want more than anything; to walk in a way that is beautiful to the Lord… I know that I will get nowhere by continuing in the lies that I have identified. I wrote some of the claims or stakes that I am working on believing in my heart. I feel that my heart is often stubborn and slow to accept truth and often more comfortable hanging onto negativity or arguments to support old lies. But it is a journey and I feel that these messages of truth are slowly penetrating.”  

“It has guided and encouraged me in heart changes that I would not have done alone or without the wisdom from others who have experience walking with the Lord. I didn’t know what I was missing! Having your eyes opened to blind areas in your life is hard but having a spiritually mature coach gives you permission to look into those areas with confidence God won’t abandon you during the process.  – the prayers have opened my heart to communing with God in ways I have not known before and it’s been something I have shared with others each week. Practicing and doing them together has been a huge encouragement – despite how vulnerable it makes me feel. Hearing others talk with God and how they relate with Him gives the group a connection I don’t think would be there otherwise.”  

 “It gave me a renewed ability to focus and straighten my priorities on what needed to be worked on. It opened my eyes to my own life and past and hurts that impact me on a daily basis and gave me the ability and opportunity to reflect on my life and who I am. It has opened my eyes to things from my past that need to change to bring me closer to the woman that God has made me to be.”

Facilitators’s Guide

Preview

Looking from the window of our apartment, I feast my eyes with layers of the Tien Shan mountains silently

singing handiwork, ever new. The first, foothills green with growth, anticipating the morning light; the next layer curiously peering over, dark and withdrawn.  The following layer foreboding and fervent in stance with streaks of white hinting depth of wisdom and beauty; the next covered in a crown of white with gleaming robe that speaks great mystery reaching heights unseen, spotlighted by the morning sun.

These layered peaks are like the layers of truth before me on my lap in the open Book speaking life-giving words in the medley of Psalms 25 through 29:

• Lead me in Your truth; You are the God of my salvation (even in this confusing time)
• The one who fears the Lord will be instructed (I need to engage to be instructed)
• The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him (teach me to fear You only and to hear You)
• Your lovingkindness is before my eyes (in so many ways)
• My foot stands on a level place (even among life’s steep passes and rocky valleys)
• Let me dwell with You and behold Your beauty (especially when the world is ugly)
• The Lord is my strength and my shield, my saving defense. (in the midst of difficulty and disappointment.)
• The voice of the Lord is powerful and majestic. (Towering over all of life’s circumstances like the layers of mountain abundance.)

 I wait for the Lord.  Wait before Him attending and receiving.

Peaks from His word feast our floundering souls!

quarantine – a state, period, or place of isolation…

Our souls need a space, free from distraction, expectations, chatter and the noise of life.

Often, it seems, God’s answers come through limits.  He has now imposed a global limit on us. And as always with Him, it is out of love for us and jealousy that we might settle for less.  He knows where other paths will take us.

“The Coronavirus pandemic is a vivid reminder that God can change the global equation overnight, whenever he wants to.  The curtain of predictability is ruptured, and people are awakened to larger realities.  Amid the uncertainties, we who know the Lord have a “great door of opportunity” to minister to others and proclaim the mercies of the gospel.”  Steve Richardson

Borders closed, gatherings banned, schools on-line, distancing required, meetings canceled, plans on hold, travel in question, investments plummeting

Like He’s backing us into a corner

Like He wants some attention, or maybe full attention!

Like He has something important to say to us

Like there’s something essential at stake

Like we’ve gotten used to putting our hope, our security, our attention in many other places.

Like our love for Him has grown lukewarm and He’s finding a way to kindle a new flame.

Even with life slowing down externally, we can keep a frenzied anxious state internally, in our souls. How can we accept our limits and draw near to Him?

Perhaps even a half hour of planned, creative silence, holding your soul and its anxious thoughts before your God could give telling insight.

“When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your consolations delight my soul.”

Psalm 94:19

As He said to His people right before sending them into exile because of their refusal to turn to Him:

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.” 

Jeremiah 31:3

His faithfulness shines brighter in the context of uncertainty. (DS)

Share an insight you receive from some silence before Him!

So, this website got hacked over a month ago and after trying to figure it out in frustration, connecting with web dev people, asking a lot of questions, getting better security, and of course paying some $, we’re back on line!

Made me think about our souls. (Are you surprised?!)

How insidious are our enemy’s ploys to gain unauthorized access to our souls when we hardly know it.  We open our souls up to malware by giving in to sin, by holding onto bitterness, un-forgiveness, pride or you name it. We have no idea how far-reaching our sin is, even when it is forgiven. “God is forgiving, but sin is not” John Mark Comer

There’s a schemer intent on our destruction, so any way he can find to get in, he’ll take.

“…so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.”

2 Corinthians 2:11, NASB

The scheme Paul mentions in this verse is one of finding where there is un-forgiveness that somehow opens the door, allowing “malware” in to mess with the soul. No wonder God is so adamant, so often, about staying away from sin.  It’s just bad for us, bad for those we live among, bad for our future.  That’s why turning from sin is such a strategic move toward wholeness.  It’s taking back the authority over evil we have as believers in Christ, who has all authority.

What area of your life is ripe for a soul hack?  Maybe some extra security is in order.

     We can’t “end the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to” but we can take up arms against the hacker and scan our souls for malware and close the holes he’s getting through.

Take a serious walk with the Spirit through these passages to check yourselves for malware and get some extra security against the enemy!

Soul scan: Galatians 5:16-26

Soul security: Ephesians 6:10-18

 “The story of your life is the story of a long and brutal assault on your heart by the one who knows what you could be and fears it.”

Waking the Dead, John Eldredge

So, this website got hacked over a month ago and after trying to figure it out in frustration, connecting with web dev people, asking a lot of questions, getting better security, and of course paying some $, we’re back on line.

Made me think about our souls. (Are you surprised?!)

How insidious are our enemy’s ploys to gain unauthorized access to our souls when we hardly know it. We open our souls up to malware by giving in to sin, by holding onto bitterness, un-forgiveness, pride or you name it. We have no idea how far-reaching our sin is, even when it is forgiven.  “God is forgiving, but sin is not” John Mark Comer

There’s a schemer who is intent on our destruction, so any way he can find to get in, he’ll take.

“…so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.” 2 Corinthians 2:11, NASB

The scheme Paul mentions in this verse is one of finding where there is un-forgiveness that somehow opens the door, allowing “malware” in to mess with the soul. No wonder God is so adamant, so often, about staying away from sin. It’s just bad for us, bad for those we live among, bad for our future. That’s why turning from sin is such a strategic move toward wholeness.

What area of your life is ripe for a soul hack? Maybe some extra security is in order.

We can’t “end the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to,” but we can take up arms against the hacker and scan our souls for malware and close the holes he’s getting through.

Take a serious walk with the Spirit through these passages to check yourselves for malware and get some extra security against the enemy!

Soul scan: Galatians 5:16-26

Soul security Ephesians 6:10-18

“The story of your life is the story of a long and brutal assault on your heart by the one who knows what you could be and fears it.”

Waking the Dead, John Eldredge