PROSPERING IN OUR SOUL
▪ Strategically building of lives.
▪ Teaching is repeating until the lesson is learned.
▪ You must be willing to become the teaching!
▪ Your RELATIONAL OUTCOME will be determined by WHAT YOU BECOME!
▪ You’re gonna have to submit your ear to things that will prosper your soul.
▪ There’s deficiency in our souls, where our prosperity should be residing.
▪ 3 John 1:2 (KJV) 2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
▪ We prosper in harmony with our renewed soul.
▪ Our soul dictates where and how we live! (mentally, physically, socially)
▪ We are better than how we’ve been living!
IGNORANCE ABOUNDS
▪ We must stop making people monsters because you reaped the fruit of their relational ignorance.
▪ Most hurt is unintentional and comes from a place of ignorance.
▪ We just DON’T KNOW “how” to relate and love.
▪ We must be continually taught “how” to love.
▪ God created us with a desire for relationship with him and others.
▪ At our core, we are relational beings that desire to relate with other people.
▪ Relating is the capacity to establish a healthy emotional connection with another person.
▪ Healthy = beneficial; wholesome; good for you
▪ Emotional = expressive; demonstrative; sensitive; responsive; passionate; considerate; intelligent
▪ Relating yields closeness, affection, acceptance, consideration, support, inclusion, joy, etc.
▪ It doesn’t matter our personality, accomplishments, beliefs, etc., without solid emotional relationships, we will suffer sickness of the soul.
▪ Sickness – disease, disorder, malfunction, weakened
▪ Soul = thinking, choosing, feeling, emotions, intellect (understanding), imagination
▪ Without proper relationship with God AND people we will not live the fulfilled life we desire.
WE MUST BE TAUGHT HOW TO COMMIT TO LOVE
▪ When I say I love someone, it means I have decided that I am going to walk through better and worse life with them.
▪ It means I AM COMMITTED!
▪ This does not mean we don’t speak the truth, hold accountable, etc.
▪ Prov 27:6 …faithful are the wounds of a friend
▪ We each need people who love us, who are committed to us despite our imperfections.
▪ There is no such thing as love without commitment.
▪ The measure of one's love is found in the depth of his or her commitment to others.
▪ When someone withdraws their commitment to a relationship, they withdraw their love.
▪ i.e., I used to love but I was hurt, I used to serve but they did me wrong, etc.,
▪ It is not one's commitment that grows cold; it is their love.
▪ Matthew 24:12 …the love of many will grow cold
▪ Every time we refuse to forgive and keep record of wrong done to us, our heart becomes cold toward the person and God.
▪ You may not like what someone has done, but you do not have an option to stop loving them.
▪ LOVE IS OUR ONLY CHOICE!!
▪ We need to overcome our hang-ups about commitment, for no one will attain the fullness of God's purposes on earth without being committed to imperfect people along the way.
STOP THROWING PEOPLE AWAY
DENVER NUGGETS: Graphic
ANT ILLUSTRATION: National Geographic, Christie Wilcox, 2/13/18
Ants Are the First to Rescue and Heal Their Wounded Companions
▪ they carry their wounded home after a raid(attack)
▪ study finds.
▪ Back in the nest, ants take turns caring for their injured companions, gently holding the hurt limb in place with their mouthpiece tentacles and front legs while intensely “licking” the wound for up to four minutes at a time.
▪ The licking helps to prevent infection
▪ They systematically nurse their wounded back to health
▪ It’s a mature/sophisticated treatment of the injured
What happened to the injured ants once their comrades helped them below ground?
▪ They saw that once in the nest, the ants carefully examine injured companions, searching them with their antennae more than twice as often as healthy nest-mates.
▪ This behavior was crucial:
▪ 80% of experimentally injured ants died within 24 hours if kept by themselves.
▪ But if cared for by their nest-mates, only a 10% died.
Critical Care
Frank discovered that injured ants release a pheromone that acts like a signal flare, alerting the other Ants that there’s a man down.
Non-life-threatening injuries:
When no help was in sight, injured ants made a beeline for the nest. But when nest-mates were near, they stumbled and fell, appearing “more injured” as a way to attract aid.
Even when Frank doused the injured ants with the rescue pheromone, their companions still left them behind.
WHY?
It wasn’t that the healthy ants refused to rescue the gravely injured ants.
The dying ants refused to cooperate, flailing their legs around when probed or picked up, forcing their helpers to abandon them. This surprised him.
“In humans, when critical care is necessary, the decision of who will receive help is made by the doctor:
With ants it's exactly the opposite, the decision is made by the wounded.
Mortally wounded ants were mostly left to die.
This ensured they didn’t waste their resources caring for lost causes;
Injured Ants that recover continue to fight, despite their lost limbs.
APOSTLE PAUL TEACHING THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH ABOUT LOVE
In the midst of teaching on spiritual gifts, the Apostle Paul dropped this chapter on Love.
He wanted the Corinthian believers to remember that having gifts is not the measure of maturity, the demonstration of love is.
The best way to understand each of these is to see them in the life of Jesus.
Put Jesus and your name in place of Love.
i.e., Jesus suffers long and is kind; Jesus does not envy… and make it through the whole chapter.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 / NLT, NIV, MSG, AMP
TRAUMA IS PREVENTING US FROM PROSPERING IN OUR SOUL & HAVING HEALTHY EMOTIONAL CONNECTIONS WITH PEOPLE
(See Trauma Notes)
We are all products of trauma!
▪ Trauma has a major part to play in our current relational poverty.
▪ Trauma comes from basic needs not being met (early years)
▪ Trauma effects our soul (which was not in the born-again process)
▪ Trauma breaks the heart and sometimes declines healing
▪ Trauma hinders our commitment to love (demonstrate)
▪ Trauma expresses itself in unhealthy, damaging and destructive ways
▪ Trauma will cause you to pretend and dysfunctionally function
▪ Trauma will have you sabotaging the relationships with the people God sent into your life
▪ Trauma will have you assuming God and people don’t love you
▪ Trauma will have you trauma bonding with people and calling it love/covenant
▪ Trauma brings past experiences into healthy/loving spaces
▪ Trauma carries with it a strong spirit of Rejection!
▪ Trauma is the interruption of an intended flow/purpose/natural intent
▪ What has happened to you?
ALL TRAUMA IS UNIQUE (not always big, sometimes subtle)
▪ Emotional abandonment; not feeling that you’re seen or heard
▪ Rape, molestation
▪ Witnessing drama, dysfunction, or the trauma of others (parents fighting, etc.)
TRAUMA TRUTHS
▪ Trauma can trap you in your development and stop you from living your fullest life
▪ Functional spaces/environments expose where your trauma/dysfunction hides!
PRAYER IS NOT ENOUGH!
▪ Not in the context of god’s ability
▪ But in the context of your awareness of you???
▪ Exodus 3 – righteous cry out and ive heard your affliction, im coming down to deliver you, through moses
▪ Trauma happened through a person; healing will come through a person!
▪ Discipline yourself to not do what your trauma has trained you to do.
▪ Don’t let the enemy isolate you, pull you away, cause you to run away.
▪ God puts the lonely, hurt, abandoned in families.
YOUR FEELINGS ARE FACTS, BUT NOT TRUTH
▪ They are legitimate, but not the truth re you
▪ The Word is truth – identify with that
BE OKAY WITH YOUR HEALING JOURNEY!
▪ Because we want the pain gone…
▪ We sometimes make decision out of that pain that are not the best
▪ And we cause more pain/issues
▪ Counseling/therapy is a method/form/avenue of healing
Jesus the Counselor
▪ One of the names of Jesus is counselor, Please sit with him
▪ Do you want to be made whole?
▪ Whole = nothing missing, broken, everything he said is experienced in your life
JESUS HEALS TRAUMA
Healing/Wholeness is possible only to the degree you’re willing to participate!!
John 5:1-6 AMP do you want to be made whole
Psalm 147:3 KJV he heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds
Luke 4:18 anointed me to heal the brokenhearted
▪ Strategically building of lives.
▪ Teaching is repeating until the lesson is learned.
▪ You must be willing to become the teaching!
▪ Your RELATIONAL OUTCOME will be determined by WHAT YOU BECOME!
▪ You’re gonna have to submit your ear to things that will prosper your soul.
▪ There’s deficiency in our souls, where our prosperity should be residing.
▪ 3 John 1:2 (KJV) 2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
▪ We prosper in harmony with our renewed soul.
▪ Our soul dictates where and how we live! (mentally, physically, socially)
▪ We are better than how we’ve been living!
IGNORANCE ABOUNDS
▪ We must stop making people monsters because you reaped the fruit of their relational ignorance.
▪ Most hurt is unintentional and comes from a place of ignorance.
▪ We just DON’T KNOW “how” to relate and love.
▪ We must be continually taught “how” to love.
▪ God created us with a desire for relationship with him and others.
▪ At our core, we are relational beings that desire to relate with other people.
▪ Relating is the capacity to establish a healthy emotional connection with another person.
▪ Healthy = beneficial; wholesome; good for you
▪ Emotional = expressive; demonstrative; sensitive; responsive; passionate; considerate; intelligent
▪ Relating yields closeness, affection, acceptance, consideration, support, inclusion, joy, etc.
▪ It doesn’t matter our personality, accomplishments, beliefs, etc., without solid emotional relationships, we will suffer sickness of the soul.
▪ Sickness – disease, disorder, malfunction, weakened
▪ Soul = thinking, choosing, feeling, emotions, intellect (understanding), imagination
▪ Without proper relationship with God AND people we will not live the fulfilled life we desire.
WE MUST BE TAUGHT HOW TO COMMIT TO LOVE
▪ When I say I love someone, it means I have decided that I am going to walk through better and worse life with them.
▪ It means I AM COMMITTED!
▪ This does not mean we don’t speak the truth, hold accountable, etc.
▪ Prov 27:6 …faithful are the wounds of a friend
▪ We each need people who love us, who are committed to us despite our imperfections.
▪ There is no such thing as love without commitment.
▪ The measure of one's love is found in the depth of his or her commitment to others.
▪ When someone withdraws their commitment to a relationship, they withdraw their love.
▪ i.e., I used to love but I was hurt, I used to serve but they did me wrong, etc.,
▪ It is not one's commitment that grows cold; it is their love.
▪ Matthew 24:12 …the love of many will grow cold
▪ Every time we refuse to forgive and keep record of wrong done to us, our heart becomes cold toward the person and God.
▪ You may not like what someone has done, but you do not have an option to stop loving them.
▪ LOVE IS OUR ONLY CHOICE!!
▪ We need to overcome our hang-ups about commitment, for no one will attain the fullness of God's purposes on earth without being committed to imperfect people along the way.
STOP THROWING PEOPLE AWAY
DENVER NUGGETS: Graphic
ANT ILLUSTRATION: National Geographic, Christie Wilcox, 2/13/18
Ants Are the First to Rescue and Heal Their Wounded Companions
▪ they carry their wounded home after a raid(attack)
▪ study finds.
▪ Back in the nest, ants take turns caring for their injured companions, gently holding the hurt limb in place with their mouthpiece tentacles and front legs while intensely “licking” the wound for up to four minutes at a time.
▪ The licking helps to prevent infection
▪ They systematically nurse their wounded back to health
▪ It’s a mature/sophisticated treatment of the injured
What happened to the injured ants once their comrades helped them below ground?
▪ They saw that once in the nest, the ants carefully examine injured companions, searching them with their antennae more than twice as often as healthy nest-mates.
▪ This behavior was crucial:
▪ 80% of experimentally injured ants died within 24 hours if kept by themselves.
▪ But if cared for by their nest-mates, only a 10% died.
Critical Care
Frank discovered that injured ants release a pheromone that acts like a signal flare, alerting the other Ants that there’s a man down.
Non-life-threatening injuries:
When no help was in sight, injured ants made a beeline for the nest. But when nest-mates were near, they stumbled and fell, appearing “more injured” as a way to attract aid.
Even when Frank doused the injured ants with the rescue pheromone, their companions still left them behind.
WHY?
It wasn’t that the healthy ants refused to rescue the gravely injured ants.
The dying ants refused to cooperate, flailing their legs around when probed or picked up, forcing their helpers to abandon them. This surprised him.
“In humans, when critical care is necessary, the decision of who will receive help is made by the doctor:
With ants it's exactly the opposite, the decision is made by the wounded.
Mortally wounded ants were mostly left to die.
This ensured they didn’t waste their resources caring for lost causes;
Injured Ants that recover continue to fight, despite their lost limbs.
APOSTLE PAUL TEACHING THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH ABOUT LOVE
In the midst of teaching on spiritual gifts, the Apostle Paul dropped this chapter on Love.
He wanted the Corinthian believers to remember that having gifts is not the measure of maturity, the demonstration of love is.
The best way to understand each of these is to see them in the life of Jesus.
Put Jesus and your name in place of Love.
i.e., Jesus suffers long and is kind; Jesus does not envy… and make it through the whole chapter.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 / NLT, NIV, MSG, AMP
TRAUMA IS PREVENTING US FROM PROSPERING IN OUR SOUL & HAVING HEALTHY EMOTIONAL CONNECTIONS WITH PEOPLE
(See Trauma Notes)
We are all products of trauma!
▪ Trauma has a major part to play in our current relational poverty.
▪ Trauma comes from basic needs not being met (early years)
▪ Trauma effects our soul (which was not in the born-again process)
▪ Trauma breaks the heart and sometimes declines healing
▪ Trauma hinders our commitment to love (demonstrate)
▪ Trauma expresses itself in unhealthy, damaging and destructive ways
▪ Trauma will cause you to pretend and dysfunctionally function
▪ Trauma will have you sabotaging the relationships with the people God sent into your life
▪ Trauma will have you assuming God and people don’t love you
▪ Trauma will have you trauma bonding with people and calling it love/covenant
▪ Trauma brings past experiences into healthy/loving spaces
▪ Trauma carries with it a strong spirit of Rejection!
▪ Trauma is the interruption of an intended flow/purpose/natural intent
▪ What has happened to you?
ALL TRAUMA IS UNIQUE (not always big, sometimes subtle)
▪ Emotional abandonment; not feeling that you’re seen or heard
▪ Rape, molestation
▪ Witnessing drama, dysfunction, or the trauma of others (parents fighting, etc.)
TRAUMA TRUTHS
▪ Trauma can trap you in your development and stop you from living your fullest life
▪ Functional spaces/environments expose where your trauma/dysfunction hides!
PRAYER IS NOT ENOUGH!
▪ Not in the context of god’s ability
▪ But in the context of your awareness of you???
▪ Exodus 3 – righteous cry out and ive heard your affliction, im coming down to deliver you, through moses
▪ Trauma happened through a person; healing will come through a person!
▪ Discipline yourself to not do what your trauma has trained you to do.
▪ Don’t let the enemy isolate you, pull you away, cause you to run away.
▪ God puts the lonely, hurt, abandoned in families.
YOUR FEELINGS ARE FACTS, BUT NOT TRUTH
▪ They are legitimate, but not the truth re you
▪ The Word is truth – identify with that
BE OKAY WITH YOUR HEALING JOURNEY!
▪ Because we want the pain gone…
▪ We sometimes make decision out of that pain that are not the best
▪ And we cause more pain/issues
▪ Counseling/therapy is a method/form/avenue of healing
Jesus the Counselor
▪ One of the names of Jesus is counselor, Please sit with him
▪ Do you want to be made whole?
▪ Whole = nothing missing, broken, everything he said is experienced in your life
JESUS HEALS TRAUMA
Healing/Wholeness is possible only to the degree you’re willing to participate!!
John 5:1-6 AMP do you want to be made whole
Psalm 147:3 KJV he heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds
Luke 4:18 anointed me to heal the brokenhearted