All Tied Up (Study Guide by Michael Todd)
- The soul is made up of three distinct parts: the mind, the
will, and the emotions. Your mind is how you think, your will is
what you desire, and your emotions display how you feel.
- Soul ties happen when someone allows his soul to
become attached to someone or something that has the power to affect him.
- Marriage is a godly soul tie. If you are married,
God wants you and your husband or you and your wife to be connected on a soul
level, satisfying each other spiritually, mentally, and emotionally, and
working to fulfill each other’s desires for as long as you both shall live.
- Sexual partners outside of marriage is one of the
greatest means the Enemy has of blocking purpose and destroying lives.
- Every
time you get out of bed belonging that a person you are not married to, it is
not over when you leave the room. You are joined physically, and by default,
your thoughts, emotions, and desires have become intertwined. Later on,
feelings of guilt and shame might cloud your perception, and the same
temptations and urges are bound to return.
- Unrighteous relationships set you back in your
relationship with God because sin creates separation.
- Healing relational damages takes up your time and drains
your energy. Unhealthy soul ties are always easier to create than break.
- The illegitimate soul ties from the past are hindering us,
and we need to learn how to cut them and get free if we are going to make
progress toward our aims.
- Even
if you are single, in a way, you have “married” everybody you had sex with.
- Casual sex is also cause-ual sex – it causes a bond to be
created.
- God
has made sex so powerful that every time you have sex with somebody, you are
not joining physically through that action; you are joining emotionally through
the intimacy created, and you are joining spiritually because you are two
people each with a spiritual nature inside you. You are “marrying” someone
without the covenant. A connection is formed, with a strong soul tie.
- When a woman loses
her virginity, blood is shed. It is supposed to happen when she gets married.
It is supposed to be a sign of a covenant of marriage being fulfilled. But when
a boyfriend takes her virginity while they were dating, her blood is a sign
that a false covenant has been created. The same soul-tie thing happens every
time one of them has sex outside marriage: each one is making a counterfeit
marriage through sex.
- Biblically, a couple were married when they consummated
the relationship physically. God recognized a marriage was real when a man and
a woman had sex. That made the covenant official.
- The reason why it is so important for you to understand the
power of even so-called casual sex is because there is no condom for your
heart.
- “What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose
your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” Matthew 16:26
- The only way to practice SAFE sex is within the sex
container: the covenant of marriage.
S is for sacred. There is a
reverence for something that is sacred. It is considered holy, set apart, and
not just frivolously given away.
A is for anointed. If
something is anointed, that just mean it has God’s stamp for approval, and God
loves sex! He created it Himself and thinks it is awesome as long as it is
happening between a married man and woman.
F is for faithful. God
remains faithful to us, so we should strive to remain faithful to Him and
reciprocate that character to those we commit to in the relationship.
E is for exclusive. Sex
should be between one man and one woman.
- There is no condom for your
heart. Having sex outside marriage affects the core of your being, and there is
nothing you can do to stop it. When you are in covenant, this connection forms
a godly soul tie and produces beautiful intimacy, but when you are not, it
produces dangerous detours.
- Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the
course of your life. Proverbs 4:23
- Sex outside of marriage not only violates the relationship
we are supposed to exclusively have with our spouse; even worse, it violates
our relationship with the Lord.
Warning:
- If you are pulling over to pick up a hooker, Christ is a
part of the solicitation.
- If you are having sex with a bf/gf or a friend with
benefits, you have taken Chris with you into that bed for sex.
- If you are sleeping with someone who is married but not to
you, Christ is right there with you as you defile the marriage bed.
- If you are watching porn, Christ is sitting beside you,
and the reflections from the screen are hitting His face.
- If you are engaging in some kind perversity, Christ knows
exactly how you are distorting His design for creation.
- If you are taking advantage of someone who is too weak,
too young, too drunk or drugged, or too mentally to consent to sex, Christ is
there for the assault.
- You
cannot separate sex and Savior. Christ will be there.
- When
you are having a good time in bed with somebody you are not married to, is God
having as much fun as you are? Is He as comfortable in that position as you?
Christ is not enjoying it; He is just enduring it. United to you out of love to
redeem you from the very brokenness you are creating.
- The best thing is not to create a soul tie in the first
place. Do not even get into a relationship where it is going to tie you up and
hold you back and pull you down.
- Run.
Not walk. Not stand there pondering what to do. Not toy around with sin a
little and try to see how far you can take it before you really get in trouble
and have to react. Run from sexual sin.
-
Sexual sin is an assault weapon to your purpose, and you need to break it off
immediately so that you suffer as little damage as possible.
- If you are currently involved with someone who is standing
in the way of your purpose and involving you in stuff Christ does not want you
to be a part of, running means running away from the relationship. You need to
end it.
- You will never be able to change the fact that you were
once physically united with a person in your past, maybe many persons. Your
heart and your spirit were affected by the experience.
How to Cut Soul Ties
- Call
it. Do not romanticize and act like it was the best thing that ever
happened to you. It is robbing you. You need to call it what it is: a thief.
Thieves are not friends.
- Confess
it. God cannot heal what you do not reveal. Calling it to yourself is one
thing but confessing it to someone else is another thing.
- Cancel
it. How long do you want to be trapped?
- Cast
it. “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7
The comfort that you have from cutting a soul tie is that
God cares. He really cares. He is not standing in heaven saying, “I told you
so.” He is right there with you, cheering you on. He is proud of you. And now
you have given Him permission to empower you to live a better life, a life free
from harmful soul ties.
When we cast our cares, that practically means that we
throw off our concerns to God through prayer. Prayer is just talking to God.
Tell Him honestly how you fell and what you need from Him.
- Your number one soul tie is with God. Leverage your unity
with Him and seek His power. It is explosive power. Death-defying power.
- You may not be able to get your improper sexual habits
under control, but God can get them under control for you if you allow Him.
- Maybe
you have tried to break your soul ties. But have you tried Jesus?
- Sex has power – but God has more power! Your unwanted soul
tie is not too strong.