Set Free to Live Free: Breaking Through the Seven Lies That Women Tell ThemselvesSample

Day Two:  Stages of Freedom

Stage 2: Activation—Change Is Hard Work and It May Involve Sweat

The emotional ties with the past that we need to cut can be painful, causing us to resist the discomfort of change and remain in familiar areas. Activation energy is the push that causes you to gravitate toward a new way of thinking, a new way of living. Activation energy moves you toward the promises of God and away from the mental ties that bind us to lies. It sets in motion a series of events that have the potential to transfer positive, life-giving energy back into the dying areas of your life.

Stage 3: Transition—Stretched to the Max but Rebounding with Grace

Feeling stretched to the max? Which will it be, crash or rebound? The transition state is like a pit. It is the place where you face a choice. After illumination, either you will gain the activation energy to climb out of your mental pit or you will remain in your current position. If mental ties have kept you in a holding pattern, now is the time to reassess. This is the pivotal stage and the one in which the greatest resistance will occur. It will involve stretching, but there is grace to rebound. Now is the time to learn the rhythm of grace.

Stage 4: Expulsion—Dynamic Interference Required

Interference blocks your ability to receive a clear signal from the external source. It halts the ongoing momentum produced by the force. It’s like a mental gatekeeper that deciphers whether something is worth holding on to or if it should be expelled. The deciding factor is, how does it move you? Does it move you toward a happy, fulfilled life, or does it cause condemnation, guilt, or shame? Scripture, worship, prayer, and positive affirmations are all forms of interference that can break the restricting power of false beliefs. 

Stage 5: Detachment—Cut the Ties (Snip, Snip)

Some things are meant to be lost. You cannot destroy what you will not confront. Blunted emotions, lack of joy, lack of energy, fear, and anxiety are all by-products of mental ties. As God’s plan of freedom opens to you, it weakens the status of negative mental ties. Each spiritual promise snips away at binding thoughts and allows movement toward a happier life. 

Ask God to personalize your understanding of each stage of freedom as you move forward. Which stage of freedom do you believe has been your greatest obstacle?