LifeLift

To change the fruit, (first) take care of the root— 🌳🌳🌳🌳   In this talk we discuss the topic of soul ties. Here’s why: Issues arise when we attach our hearts, for any reason, to the wrong place. When we do, bad fruit always emerges. When we connect our hearts in the right way to the right things, beauty emerges. 💙💙💙   Here are the main ideas of this convo: 👉 The “fruit” we see in...

Maybe it’s time to change the story in your head… … not to deny reality, or step away from it… … but so that you can, rather, actually see MORE of what ACTUALLY… You see, many times we see what we've already decided we'll see. In other words, seeing is believing, yes. But, often, believing is seeing. See how that works? —>> If you're looking for reasons why you'll get a bad outcome, you'll l...

We’re designed to grow by exploring the world around us. But, we bump into painful experiences as we do. So, we create (often unconscious) rules to protect ourselves from future pain. Some of the rules are functional (and help us), others are dysfunctional (and hinder us). In this talk I reference three rules of human nature, related to soul health, govern how we uniquely approach the world. Then,...

Physical therapy isn’t for the purpose of staying physically injured, it’s for the purpose of walking in health + wholeness. Emotional therapy is the same… Perspective: Emotional health (in fact, health in general) isn’t so much about what’s wrong with us as it is about what’s right- and walking into what’s even better. In our medically-driven, diagnosis-prone Western world we’ve been conditioned...

The power of the mind is that you see exactly what you’re looking for… True story- In the book Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior (now, think about that title!), Ori & Rom Brafman write about the effects of pre-existing beliefs and how they effect our ongoing belief patterns- even when confronted with new information to the contrary. They write about a visiting lecturer, a gues...

We tend to look at symptoms, but the Bible calls us to look at the root causes. So, yes, Jesus said things like, “You’ll know them by their fruit…” That is, you’ll know what kind of people they really are by what manifests around them. But, He reminds us that what you see on the outside- the fruit- is really an overflow of what’s going on beneath the surface. John writes about this in 3 John 2. He...

Two of the joys we most crave— freedom from guilt & shame and authentic community— exist in the place which seems scariest, the light. Those who are willing to “go there” discover true freedom comes not in hiding, but in realizing there’s nothing more to cover-up. ++++   For years— probably a decade or more— I was told I needed to share my story with others. “There’s power in it. And heal...

Over the past few months I’ve pondered 1 John 4:18 over and over. Here are two translations- “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love” (ESV). “Love never brings fear, for fear is always related to punishment. But love’s perfection drives the fear of punishment far from our hearts. Whoever walks...

Waiting, though hard, creates sacred space where great things happen. Waiting can be a time when God does something to you so He can then do something through you. Yes it’s a period when- many times- we wonder if God even sees us. Many times, even, we want to blame Him for what’s happening while we wait… If we’re going to blame God every time something bad happens, we also have to credit Him every...

Over the past few months it hit me: rest is part of the rhythm of life. In the same way that good music depends on the times when the instruments are NOT being played (think about it- if there are no “rests” the you simply have noise), so also does life depend on the times when we’re off. This is a principle that goes all the way back to Creation… We think of our days as daylight and then nighttim...

The Bible tells us, “God is _________.” Yeah, you can complete that sentence. Everyone can. “God is love” (1 John 4:8). We’re so familiar with the phrase that we forget love is both a commitment of unconditional covenant and it is an emotion. God, committed to us, is emotional, too. Throughout the New Testament we read truths like- Jesus was distressed with the Pharisees (Mark 3:5)/ Jesus was move...

The Bible communicates something astounding about Jesus: the One in whom was “life” was deeply acquainted with sorrow and grief (Isaiah 53:3). I’ve had my share of pain; you have, too. Somehow, when we connect with others who’ve been where we are, something resonates and hope is delivered… In fact, rabbis believed that when a story of redemption was told, the telling of the story carried the same...

We get enamored with external things- the things “out there.” The truth, though, is that the INSIDE changes before the OUTSIDE ever does. In fact, the greatness of what’s going on inside of you determines the altitudes you’ll reach in the world around you.  In this episode of the podcast, we take take the fifth (and final) rung of the ladder… Remember, with each rung we go higher AND closer t...

Look at EVERY significant turning point in your life- the good ones AND the bad ones. Most of them probably have MORE to do with a RELATIONSHIP than any other factor… Someone believed in you… Or someone steered you in the wrong direction… Someone called forth the greatness in you- or shared with you an amazing idea that TOTALLY transformed your outlook on an opportunity…  Or someone else woun...

Everyone seems to ask it these days- it's a "buzz word" that few of us really unpack. In this session we unpack the "why," putting it in the context of everything you do... PEOPLE that know WHAT they want to do get further than people who don't have a clue! And people that understand HOW to do that thing... well... they go higher, still... Yet those who go the farthest, the fastest... and endure.....

We’re all busy. It’s almost a #HumbleBrag in our culture to actually BE busy. I mean, no one actually LIKES being so busy that they can’t keep up with what’s going on, but we carry our jam-packed calendars around like badges of honor.  That can be a HUGE problem with it comes to pursuing your dreams.  You see, dreams require time. Concentrated, high-octane time. Some of your “best” time....

The first step in living any dream is to decide what that dream is. Sounds obvious, right?  I mean, how are you going to go ANYWHERE if you don’t first have a destination? My wife and I go on a date every week. Sometimes, we get into this debacle… perhaps you’ve been there:  “Where do you want to eat?” “I don’t know. Where do you want to go?” Suggestion made.  Reply = “Anything...

One of my favorite events of the year is coming up, so I'm taking a short break from the Redemption series. Advance arrives every 5-7 months, depending on the time of year, and is designed to empower men to move from where they are to where they’re destined to be. It’s not a retreat… it’s an Advance.  In this episode I’ll tell you a bit about what we do and how…  And introduce you to the...

Paul encouraged us to not stray from the simplicity that is found in Christ. His thought was, well… we tend to make things infinitely more complex. We tend to move towards complex religious systems. Jesus, on the other hand, came to make things easy. Follow me here… Moses received the Law- ten commandments which, in Hebrew, were expressed using only ten words (they have a far more economical langu...

The Bible outlines a few contradictory things about us- things that we need to hold in tension. First, everything that happened to Jesus has already happened to us. We were crucified with Him, we died with Him, and we were buried. We also arose with Him AND we’ve been seated with Him in Heaven.  That means that, right now, we’re “here” and “there” at the same time. This is our current experie...

There’s a rabbinical tradition that says Moses’ burning bush was always burning. Or, at least, that it had been burning for quite some time before Moses stumbled upon it. Furthermore, tradition says that God was there and was READY to speak the entire time. It was only after Moses stopped and “came in close” that God reveals Himself to him…  (In the same way, it's believed that God is always...

There are two kinds of healing. At least.  This may sound strange- even in Heaven we'll choose health + healing.  (For definition purposes, I refer to "healing" as something God does AND "health" as something you do, OK? Just to keep the terms straight... Anyway...) Think about it. Health + healing was available in the Garden of Eden AND we see the "leaves of the tree are for the healing...

Jesus marvels at great faith, but a lack of faith never restrains Him. Somebody told me this more than once: "If you don't have enough faith, Jesus can't move." I've even seen this belief used to blame people for their own lack of healing, lack of provision, lack of other good thing their Heavenly Father is supposedly holding back from them. Simply because they don't have enough belief? Is faith r...

Somewhere, we bought the line that poverty is noble, that sickness is a blessing, and that Heaven is when things really start happening in our favor. Yet, a quick look at the Father of our faith shows us something radically different... In fact, Paul writes that one of the reasons Christ redeemed us was "so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles..." (see Galat...

Salvation isn’t just Jesus’ name (the name Jesus / Yeshua literally means “He saves”), it’s what He does. Furthermore, Jesus not only saves us FROM certain things, He also saves us TO an amazing life.  The word in the New Testament used for “save” is sozo (this part of the Bible was originally penned in Greek). That word means far more than being “saved” from sin, though. The word is used to...