Is there something hidden weighing you down? Might there be an unseen force tripping you up and causing frustration, or worse? Are you puzzled by dead ends in your life?

The answer could be: unrecognized soul ties.

As Hakeem Collins explains in a valuable new book, Unseen Warfare: Rules of Engagement To Discern, Disarm, and Defeat the Works of the Enemy, the Bible refers to such ties as a “silver cord” (Ecclesiastes 12:6-7), which is meant to give us nourishment and life — but “when it comes to illegal, toxic, ungodly, unhealthy, and illicit soul ties of the past and even present, each must be cut, burned, severed, snapped, broken, and shattered for Divine breakthrough and liberty.” Those “cords” we do not need.

Let’s allow Hakeem to explain it further — as he does so well with many spiritual issues throughout the book:

“In other words,” he writes, “severing a soul tie is imperative and a necessary step to take before you can move forward with your life.

“People are stuck in relationships because they are bound by the contract or terms of agreement established. It’s time to rip, tear, and burn the mutual agreement. It doesn’t always have to be both parties coming together to break it. One person can actually break free from the soul connection.”

Survey your life. Who has been in your past? Who is there now? Who may be secretly wishing you less than the best? Who have you worked with, entertained, been “friends” with, associated with in any fashion? Take it to prayer and let the Holy Spirit reveal what He will.

It’s not just with other people (relatives, friends, neighbors, romantic relationships, coworkers) that we can be “tied” down, but also with bad habits, imagination, wrong thinking (a big one this!), and addictions.

A first step is acknowledging and confessing — fessing up.

Be honest.

Search with sincerity.

It could be a cult you don’t recognize as a cult. It could be with falsity of any sort. It could be wrong ambition and desires. Free yourself!

Effective measures, says Hakeem, include “praying and/or fasting to sever the cord that was established and calling out their names in prayer to break the cord between you. I do prophetic acts when I pray by spiritually visualizing a cord being severed by calling out the person’s name and using my hand as a sword to cut the cord. I see myself cutting the cord and it is broken by faith.”

Cut the ties that (wrongly) bind!

“It may seem foolish at first,” wrote the author, a general Christian inspiration speaker. “I must say, you will know that an illegal, illicit, unhealthy, or ungodly soul tie is really broken when you start receiving emails, text messages, social media messages, unexpected phone calls, or start randomly seeing the person or anyone connected to them. When this happens, you must know that your prayers worked, and now it’s up to you not to reconnect. The enemy will test and tempt you to see if you are truly over this person and have moved on.”

Also critical: forgive. This, he says, “is the most powerful form of personal liberty and freedom from an ungodly soul tie. Forgiveness takes action and can be the most difficult step to take. In some cases, this might be because you feel that the other person in the bond should be asking for your forgiveness.

“To forgive is the most powerful spiritual warfare weapon to discharge because the enemy doesn’t want people to forgive and be set free.”

Join us in our upcoming on-line retreat; we’ll be praying such prayers.

If it is an addiction to alcohol, pornography, the occult, or drugs, remove any items, any paraphernalia,  photos, clothing, or notes related to the addiction. Action is required. Cleansing is essential.

“In modern-day warfare, the United States military sends drones into places to spy out the land and later sends an air patrol followed by ground troops to fight,” says the book. “Likewise, we must first discern what type of battle you are presently fighting and use the right weaponry to engage and defeat the works of the adversary.”

[resources: Unseen Warfare: Rules of Engagement To Discern, Disarm, and Defeat the Works of the Enemy and Michael Brown on-line retreat]

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