On The Trail

4 Keys to Understanding Your New Covenant Identity in Christ: You are P ardoned by God, A dopted by God, made a C itizen of the Kingdom of God, and given a new T itle: Saint. In this episode, we unpack what it means to be pardoned by God.

Who does God say you are?    We've been talking about who the world, the flesh, and the devil say you are. This week we’re moving into the Kingdom perspective! What is the New Covenant, and how does it inform not only how we understand our own identity but God’s as well?  We’ll be taking the next several episodes to dig deeper into the richness that is our identity in Christ, laying out the practi...

Are you believing a lie about yourself? About God? We’ve been talking about how the world, the flesh, and the devil try to shape us. In this episode, we look at how the devil uses deception to affect our identity.

What pockets of pain are shaping you?     No one goes through life without experiencing pain, and that pain comes in all shapes and sizes. We can have pockets of pain from the bad that happens to us, from the absence of the good that we need, and from the way we compare ourselves to others.  The world’s wounds affect our beliefs about ourselves. In this episode, we press into how the Kosmos tries...

How do the Kingdom and the Kosmos inform our identity? The Kingdom teaches us how to see reality, God, and ourselves as God sees. In Christ, the Kingdom gives us our New Covenant identity.  The Kosmos involves the world, the flesh, and the devil working together to give us an identity. In this episode, we begin unpacking the Kosmos with a look at how the world and the flesh conspire to trap us in...

You are not beyond repair. There is hope for you and for your children to grow and repair your identity formation for your whole life. Last episode we talked about attachment-based identity. This episode, we’re pushing into the hope of joyful identity, looking at childhood development and the possibility for growth and repair in adults.

From our brain's perspective, identity is always relational. Our brains work from right to left, from attachment to beliefs. As we embark into this identity series, we begin with an understanding of  how attachment affects our identity . In this episode, we look at Scripture and brain science, digging into the fascinating idea of how the brain forms its perception of self through  three faces .  ...

Time for a new series! We’re looking at personal identity formation from brain science and biblical realities. Why does identity matter? How did God design us to form our identity? What does the Bible teach us about our identity? What can we do to overcome obstacles and repair holes that keep us from living out of our true identity? We’ll be looking at these questions and more as we embark into th...

Anxiety, VCR, Community, Joy - We cover it all in this episode based on your questions as we celebrate one year On the Trail together! We have gifts for you in this episode, including 1 month free of Learning Library Premium. Visit the Online Learning tab at our website and use code “ streamfree ” when you check out.

What story is your brain telling you? Is it true? In this episode, we wrap up our discussion about the joy elevator and the pain processing pathway with a closer look at the brain’s narrative engine.

“Show, don’t tell” is the thing to remember for resolving pain stuck at Level 4 of the pain processing pathway. In this episode, we start celebrating OTT’s 1-year anniversary, and we camp out on level 4 of the pain processing pathway. 

When the joy elevator in our brain gets stuck, our pain isn’t able to fully process. In this episode, we continue to unpack the joy elevator and the five levels of the pain processing pathway. 

Sometimes the joy elevator in our brain gets stuck and our pain isn’t able to fully process. In order for suffering to keep from becoming traumatic, our brains need to process the pain at all five levels of the pain processing pathway. In this episode, we begin to unpack the joy elevator and the pain processing pathway. 

It’s no secret – negativity robs our joy. Toxic thoughts can imprison us in unpleasant emotions. How do we get free and return to joy? In the next phase of our joy series, we’re discussing some of the brain science of toxic thoughts and strategies for how to replace them.

When emotions are dragging, there is an amygdala to soothe.  In this episode we finish our discussion about how to tame the amygdala and return to joy when we find ourselves trapped in one of the big six negative emotions.

We’re continuing our joy series with a little brain science. When something triggers the amygdala as “personal,” it sends out a signal of good, bad, or scary. If bad or scary is signaled, it triggers one of six emotions: sadness, shame, disgust, despair, anger, or fear.  For the next two episodes, we are talking about how to tame the amygdala and return to joy when we find ourselves trapped in one...

Would you describe your inner world as joyful?   Whether conscious of it or not, most of us live out of an inner world of fear or joy. Last episode we talked about tearing down that inner fear house. In this episode, we are talking about building an inner joy house. Building a joy house can also be thought of as growing resilience. This episode recaps the ABCs of Building Bounce and introduces an...

Let’s tear down the house of fear and build a house of joy. Last episode we introduced Joy Bonds. Our brains are designed to run on the fuel of joy, but they can default to fear. In this episode we’re looking at the counterpart—fear bonds. 

A joy-filled life is possible. Let’s talk about how to cultivate one. Marcus says two words blew up his old paradigm: Joy Bonds. His old paradigm said belief + choice = transformation, but what about joy and attachment?  We’re starting down a new trail for the summer where we explore the transformative nature of joy, and we hope you’ll join us!

Did your ancestors open the door to the devil?  We are wrapping up our series on the acrostic SOUL-L, which looks at five common areas where the devil claims ground in our lives and how to reclaim that surrendered ground. Today’s episode addresses lineage. Sometimes the enemy has permission to work in our lives because of the doors our ancestors opened to him. Sin has generational consequences.  W...

Can believing a lie give the devil permission to my life? We are in the midst of looking at five common areas where the devil claims ground in our lives and how to reclaim that surrendered ground. Today’s episode looks at lies we believe. The devil is the “father of lies” (John 8:44). When we believe Satan’s lies over God’s truth, it’s like shaking hands with the devil and saying, “You are right,...

We are in the midst of looking at five main areas where the devil claims ground in our lives and how to reclaim that surrendered ground. Today's episode looks at unforgiveness. The remedy for unforgiveness is forgiveness. In this episode we talk about what forgiveness is and what it is not. 

If sin is like leaving your front door unlocked for the enemy, the occult is like throwing open the garage door and hosting a block party. We are in the midst of looking at five main areas where the devil claims ground in our lives. The goal is to help us know where to revoke permissions and use our authority to reclaim that surrendered ground. These five areas can be remembered with the acrostic...

For the next few episodes we are looking at five main areas where the devil claims ground in our lives. These five areas can be remembered with the acrostic SOUL-L: Sin, the Occult, Unforgiveness, Lies we believe, and Lineage. Today's episode gives the overview of these five areas and then starts unpacking Sin.

Satan thought he had defeated Christ at the cross only to discover that Jesus had completely flipped the tables on him. Christ is Victor.  At the cross, Jesus Christ disarmed the principalities and powers and canceled the debt against us (Col. 2:14-15). This victory is the foundation of our freedom and our authority in Christ. What does it look like to have this authority?  In our current series,...