The Faith Beyond Trauma Podcast

Establishing Boundaries by Faith- Don't Let the Enemy Use You Against You

• Pastor Reggie

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We explore how worry and anxiety shape hidden boundaries and how faith redraws those lines through prayer, thanksgiving, and embodied praise. We challenge inner vows born from pain, practice presence over multitasking, and give God our best, not our leftovers.<br><br>• walking by faith vs sight as present-to-future vs past-to-present<br>• boundaries as perimeters shaped by pain or by belief<br>• inner vows and strongholds that grow from temporary hurts<br>• Mark 4 on shallow roots, distractions, and stolen seed<br>• silence, peace, and learning to be present<br>• prayer sequence: ask, thank, praise with your body and voice<br>• Cain and Abel: heart behind the offering<br>• feelings as signals, not drivers of decisions<br><br>

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome back. This is Pastor Reggie. Thank you so much for allowing me to spend some time with you on this Sunday. Let's pray. Father God, we love you. We thank you that this is the day that you have made. We get to, we choose to rejoice and be glad. We thank you, dear God. Your mercy are new every day. And then as a result, dear God, new mercy greet us on this day, dear God. Despite what the enemy wants to remind us of what we have done, you give us constant reminds what your son has done for us, Father God. So because the price paid on Calvary's tree, dear God, we are, we can, and we will live healed, living set free of dead, doubt, worry, stress, and fear. By grace through faith, Heavenly Father, you will manifest your good, please, and perfect will in the spirits of the body. By grace through faith, by your divine enablement, Father God, we can live lives, dear God. We can live healed. We can't live delivered. We can live free, Father God. Praise the Living's traumatic experience. Thank you, God, for that. As opposed to God, walking down, we can be vessels of freedom to so many other people. By the blood of the Lamb, the word of our testimony. Thank you for how you're moving. Thank you, dear God, that nothing is impossible. So we believe for the impossible, dear God. We shall see the impossible this day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So I put out, we talked about this past night we're together, worry and anxiety. And as we, as I thought about where to go next, um I admittedly uh was looking at the trends, how it did online, both the downloads, the bus route, as well as the videos on YouTube. Thank you so much for liking, subscribing, downloading. We're up to 100 views, honestly, on both platforms over the last two weeks. Amazing work. Thank you so much for your love and support. Let's keep going. We also have an international download. Somebody in Canada, Dear Lake Canada, thank you so much. So we can say we have an international podcast. Thank you so much for what you've done, and the best is still yet to come. So as we look through that, I wanted to continue the conversation about worry and anxiety. And let me just circle back to a series we did a couple, I want to say last year, maybe two, one, maybe two years ago at this point, remember. Entitled Don't Let the Enemy Use You Against You. Do not let the enemy use you against you. So we're gonna upload those while adding a fresh twist started there. Okay. We're continuing to talk about boundaries. And as we set these boundaries, we want to kind of camp out a little bit more in worry and anxiety. Boundaries established by faith, or boundaries established by worry and anxiety. So just a quick recap. Our theme verse is 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 7. For we walk by faith and not by sight. Different translation. We pattern our lives, or we live by faith, or believing, and not by physically seeing. That's what sight means physically seeing. The way I think, I like to expand sight, physical seeing to past tense, what we have seen or have experienced. So we pattern our lives by faith or by what we see currently or have seen, past tense. And just by off top, we see different tones. Faith is present to future tense, sight is past to present tense, or I like to say, the present limitation of prior, sometimes traumatic experiences. So you can add, you can live by faith, or you can be imprisoned by what you limited by what you see or have a previous experience. Going a step further, the word live by, walk by is peri potateo. In the Greek, it's a combination of two words, peri and potato. The word peri in particular, I've taken the creative liberty. Um, it's it's the word we get the word perimeter. So we establish the perimeter, or I say the boundaries, because a perimeter is a boundary. If you go make a perimeter, whether you're on your honey or on your on your property line, this is the boundaries of this location. We establish the perimeter or the boundaries of our lives. We can do so by faith, which is present to future tense, or by sight, which is past to present. Far too often we establish the perimeters or the boundaries of our lives based on painless to present tense things. And so these present limitations become are really defense mechanisms in time. In the moment, it was prudent. Your body was meant to protect itself. But the concern is if we don't go back around and address those defense mechanisms, then what happens is those what protected you yesterday limit your tomorrow. If not properly addressed, what protected you yesterday, what honestly, if I'm being completely honest with you, got you to this present moment. They're meant to be things that are used in the moment to keep you from falling, to protect you. But too often we build permanent instructions, permanency based off of something that's temporary. We make permanent decisions. This gets back to Anna Vows. We make permanent decisions after temporary experience. What do you mean? You have um temporary, let's say, relationships, first one comes to mind. You have a temporary experience and it's negative. And so now what happens is you take that temporary negative experience and you paint with a bright brush permanently for the future. All men, all women. Why? Because you got hurt by one man or one woman. So you make permanent vows. You you tell yourself, hey, I will not, I cannot, I da-da-da, I will never, but then you find experiences or other voices that reinforce this, this what this hurt, this pain, this traumatic experience. And as a result, as opposed to being allowing the love of God or going to people who can support your healing, deliverance and freedom, you bury down in it and you nourish and cultivate the atmosphere to where this hurt honestly begins to develop and begins to become, if we're not careful, a stronghold for the enemy. Because if you look at deliverance and healing, a lot of times most deliverments will tell you this is based on traumatic experiences. And so, because of that access door, Mark chapter 4 teaches us the way he's the enemy of X. You go there. So the enemy hits you in different ways, and he's coming for the word. So, what he's trying to do is he's trying to remove the word from your lips and from your action, from your mind, to where we won't think about ways to meditate on to where we won't obey it. So, Mark chapter 4. It says, the farmer plants the seed by taking God's words to other. The seed that fell in the footpath represents those who hear the message only to have Satan or the adversary or the enemy come at once to take it away. The seed of rocky soil represents those who hear the message, immediately receive it with joy. But since they don't have deep fruits, they don't last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God's word. The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who you heard the message, but all too quickly, the message crowded out by the words of this life, the lure of wealth, and desire for other things, so no fruit is produced. How the enemy attacks. He calls problems or persecutions, afflictions or persecutions for believing God's word. He causes us busy. Some of us we're just so busy that what happens is we don't have physical time. In my conversation, that's been quite interesting. I mean, people really do not have physical time to read, physical time to pray, physical time to sit in the quiet with God. And some of us, that is the most disturbing place that you can be. In a quiet space. I gotta have something the white noise. I gotta have this, I gotta have that. So as a result, you sitting in the silence is honestly deafening. It's more scary for you to be in a place of silence. And sometimes, most times, silence represents peace. So if you were in a place, let's say if you Jesus went to the way the mountain tops to pray. It's a difference between being in the city and being out in the country. So if you're out in the country, you may hear maybe animals or you may hear nothing. For some of us, we're so used to noise, chaotic noise, both externally and internally, that having no noise feels wrong. Being at peace feels great. But honestly, that's how God leads you through his peace. But if we don't have time to steal, stand still, stand still. Then it becomes difficult. Alright? The question is, Reggie, how do I do that? How do I get there? My mind is always racing, or I'm always hearing stuff, I'm always da da da da da da da da da. Okay. Stand still. Most of the time, the ministry of presence is lost among a lot of people. Because we're so used to multitasking that being in the moment and being present in the moment is something that's really quite difficult. Some of us, we're physically here, but we're not emotionally mental. We can't, like that song, I just want to feel this moment. A lot of us, we don't feel a moment. What we do is we land, think about making it happen, then we don't get to enjoy the moment. And so you may be physically there, but emotionally, mentally, you're on to the next. But God is like, hey, I need you. So how do we do this? And be in the present moment. How do I do that, Raj? Okay. Part of it is through prayer and praise. Psalms 100.

SPEAKER_01:

Merged two scriptures together, so please forgive me. Verse 4.

SPEAKER_00:

Enter to his gates with thanksgiving, and into his course with praise. Give thanks to him and bless the king James or praise his name. Now, Philippians 4 6, which if you hang out with me a little bit, you know this is a scripture that we beat up on a lot. Because there are very few passages in scripture God tells you how to actually think for you to do with your mind. This is one of the very few. Philippians 4 6. Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. In your place of prayer. Tell God what you need, thank him for what he's done. So if I put those two together, if I could. Enter two gates with Thanksgiving. It starts off with prayer. And we end this prayer with giving thanks. We go tell him what tell him what we need, thank him for when he's done. Then as we get to that Thanksgiving, your Thanksgiving creates an atmosphere of praise. Now, praise is can be equated sometimes to physical, it's physical, it's a physical activity to physical exercise. So it involves you physically using your body to adore, lift up, give him the honor that he's due. And so now think think about this. If you're beginning to spiral and you allow your mind to not reject that, but to incorporate that. Because what happens is the body is meant to protect itself. It's trying to make sense of everything. And so if you have something that is kind of pulling you away, well, start to kind of lean into and investigate it. Is this something that is of God? Or if it's not of God, take it to God. Cast it down. Alright, so let me then back it up. Let me back it up. Alright, so you have this thing. You first of all tell God what you need to do about it. First of all, talk to God about it. Now, this prayer with your lips. This prayer is saying it loud enough so you can hear yourself say it. I'm not saying you gotta scream and yell, but at the same time, sometimes that's what you may need to do a little bit. You turn the volume up, we've gotten too comfortable. Or praying in my mind to the point where now we don't use our physical body as the evidence. A lot of times the evidence is the proof of something to be real. So if you're writing a knowing therapy, is okay, I recognize this, this, and this as evidenced by what they said, right? Or what they did. So it's something we can observe. So the evidence of your faith is what you say and what you do, it's in your actions. Yes, you can have thoughts, but I don't know whether your thoughts are distorted or in line with scripture until I look at the fruit, the physical manifestation, your words and actions of what's here. Same with God. Pray, release, speak these things out loud, involve our body more in the sacrifice. Romans 12.2. Be no longer formed to this world, but be transformed by renewing looking. I'm sorry, Romans 12.1, not 12.2, Romans 12.1. I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto the Lord, which is your reasonable servant. And the NLT. And so did brothers, I and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Your bodies. What are you doing with your body? What have you done for God lately with your body? Do we not realize 1 chapter 6, verse 20, 19, 20? Your body is a temple of God. Therefore, glorify God with your body. Too many times we separate the mind and the body to where God only gets our thoughts at times. He may get some of our thoughts. But how do you glorify God with your body? Yes, the sexual purity. Yes, cool. I will give you that. That's a huge one, actually. But what about lifting up your hands and giving praise? The fruit of your lips. What do the fruit of your lips tell God? What about you know your acts of obedience? Once again, using your body as the evidence of what you're doing. And it serves a dual purpose. It also makes you focus on the here and now. Because our minds, once we get triggered, we begin it's a form of disassociation to the present moment. We begin to step back because now your body is being flooded as if you're back in said moment. So mentally, you're not even here anymore. You're there somewhere. It kind of works in the same way in the spirit. I was taken up by the spirit until you're not even here. That's in a positive way. So we have these spiritual experiences to where we're face to face with God. But once again, to set that up, we got to be here, be present. Being here and now, use your body to give them praise. Use your body to give them thanksgiving. Use your words to thank him. If you forget, spend some time writing some stuff down. You can do electronic, of course. Something to give God thanks for. And then take that into your place of prayer. Tell him what you need. Thank him for what he's done. Then give them some praise about that. Hear now. In the moment. Feel the moment. Be present in the moment. Because because we haven't been able to be present, a lot of times we drift. We drift. But we want uh Abel blessing, but we give God a Cain offering. Cain and Abel back in Genesis. They were worshiping God. They were praising God. They were bringing him tithes and offerings, they were bringing him their sacrifices. Cain was a man in the field. He was a farmer. Abel was a shepherd. And it wasn't their vocations that made it. It's the heart behind their offering. Abel took time, look over his flock. I need the best. I need the best because God gave me his best. Cain, I can do this today. God rejected Cain's offering because it wasn't his heart went behind it. God wants first place in our heart. He wants your best. He wants you to focus. He wants you to think about how when worship in service of him. So it means he wants more from us. Is God an afterthroat or forefront of your mind? So he rejected Cain's, but bless Abel's. It wasn't what they gave, it's the heart behind their giving. Or literally the thought that counts. Cable's blessed offering, God was afterthought. Abel's gift, God was the primary focus. What is God in your life? Is he an afterthought? Or is he the center of your the whole universe for lack of better term?

SPEAKER_01:

The Bible says my focus on the spirit is a grace and peace. But don't allow the enemy to use you against you.

SPEAKER_00:

Don't allow him to take your thoughts, to influence your thoughts. And first of all, they become prison. Things that limit your future growth and the things of God and thus your future growth on this earth. Don't allow him to cause you to disassociate from here now that you never feel, never enjoy the moment. Because too many times we're trying to avoid feeling when God gave you feelings for a reason. He gave you feelings for a reason. Not to be controlled by them, not to be led by them. Oh, we're not led by feelings, but to have them to locate where you are in this moment.

SPEAKER_01:

Having feelings is part of the human experience.

SPEAKER_00:

Because God has feelings. Don't grieve the Holy Spirit. New Testament, Old Testament, I'm a jealous God. So he has feelings. Jesus will. So it's his favorite verse when she's saying her grace. Jesus will. Amen. He has feelings. He had emotion. He was moved with compassion. So having feelings is being human. Nothing wrong with that. It becomes problematic, is when those feelings drive you. When you do things based on a feeling. Be angry, but CNN. Out of your anger. Don't make rash decisions out of your stress. Don't make decisions out of your fear. Don't make decisions out of your worry. Don't make decisions out of your doubt, your wavering. Don't make decisions out of your fragmented identity. No. Mm-mm. Have those feelings. Experience those would bring those things to the presence of God. We'll talk about that next. Don't allow the enmity to use you against you. I don't know how we got here, but thanks be to God. Lord God, you receive the glory from this. May this bring you glory. As we allow you first place and first and foremost, in our life, you be glorified, Father God. You be glorified in our lives. In our lives. Not only in our inner sanctuaries of our hearts, but through our words and actions. You be glorified. In Jesus' name. Amen.