How Is Your Soul?

Hey, this is Tim, and welcome to the Student Life Podcast, where we explore the everyday challenges and big questions of life through a biblical lens while navigating the realities of a secular world. Enjoy. Hey yo, what's up? So I'm your host Tim Pratt Jr., and I actually have released this episode and I took it down because it felt rushed. It didn't feel authentic, and I didn't want to do that. So I'm switching the title. For those that might have heard it, I believe it was something along— I, I forgot literally the title that I gave it, but, but this one is going to be, uh, How Is Your Soul? How is your soul? Pastor Greg Crochell, I believe Pastor Judas Smith, us So many people have written about this topic. It might even have newer books coming out on it. And not just them, like a lot of people. But I wanted to kind of talk about it through a book I read. I believe it was Strengthening the Soul of Ministry and then How's Your Soul by Pastor Smills. And a while back, as I was going through my notes after a counseling session, I really— and Wholeness by Torrey Roberts. So a combination of those and wholeness, and then just through living life in the scriptures, of course, I just started to ask God for direction and more so trying to lean in and asking myself that question more. Now, I might say this again at the end, but what I'm trying to, trying to get at here is that I don't want you to see this through the lens of if you don't feel healed in all areas, that you shouldn't be leading, that you shouldn't be leading your family, you shouldn't be leading the ministry, you shouldn't be leading on your job, you shouldn't be serving in any capacity. Because all of us are followers or servers to some degree, and we're all being influenced and we're all influencing to some degree. But what I'm saying, that I believe that there's nothing wrong with slowing down and asking the question more, how is my soul? In other words, how is your soul? Again, I— this is not a— like, this is not me trying to accuse you of or making you feel guilty if you do feel like it's areas in your soul that are left unchecked or that God hasn't dealt with. But it's an invitation to allow him in, and not just God through a vertical sense and through the power of the Holy Spirit, because Jesus loves us, but it's also through community. Through the right community, the right people that you should prayerfully seek out and ask God to show you, and invite them in as well, because it's Jesus and community. All right, so with that being said, um, one of the— again, one of the most honest questions, one of the most honest questions is the title itself. We can ask ourselves before we ask, hey, how is the ministry going? How is the teaching and preaching going? How is the leadership going? How are you showing up in your family? How are you showing up in your kids' life? How are you showing up in the community in the context of what you do? Whether— how are you showing up in your job? Before we ask that question again, I've said this and I know it's redundant, but I don't think we ask it enough. Maybe it's just— it's me. It's simply, hey, how is my soul? How is my soul doing? Not about salvation, not about formation at this time, although this formation and this salvation and formation is important. But not, not those right now. I want to talk about leaning into the areas, the fragmentation of our soul. And although we know that justification is instant, justification is instant, salvation, what God, what Jesus did when we go up there, a lot of times as believers, as we come into the A lot of us respond at altar call, but you can really, really respond anywhere. The invitation of discipleship— the invitation of discipleship, uh, is more common within the local church, or going up and saying, do you want to be baptized? Like all these things, I'm not getting into that, but really you can receive Jesus anywhere, as long as you truly, truly believe it in your heart. And, and you believe in your heart. Because some people can confess and not believe it in their heart. So again, I'm not going around public confession, but we, we really want to believe this. And Jesus talks about the mind, body, and soul, and the heart— mind, body, soul, and heart. And you know, he wants us to love him with all of that, with the whole being. But the only reason that's possible is because he first loved us. And one, like, what I'm— I guess what I'm trying to articulate here, people, is that when we maintain a fragmented soul and we think just because, like, hey, I've been justified, I'm saved, I have accepted the salvation, the plan of salvation for my life, it's instant. That sanctification, that sanctification is a process. Formation is an ongoing process until we reach our glorified bodies. So salvation Like, we have been justified. Salvation— this is, this is something again that we receive. Instance is we're only saved by grace through faith. We're only saved by grace through faith. It's nothing that we can do to earn salvation. Nothing. It is a gift because Jesus Christ paid, paid for it in the flesh. He was fully God and fully man. So I want to make sure we get that right before, before we move along into this. Okay, but Philippians tells us to work out our salvation. Not work for it. But I believe what Paul was assuming, that salvation, although it is real, it is real but incomplete in the outworking. So here it is, we have to have a tandem relationship. God has called us, he has invited us in to partner with him. It is a tandem relationship with— through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are consistently being renewed. Romans 12, renew the mind. Again, this is an ongoing thing. Proverbs 4:23, guarding our heart. So I would encourage you to like search out these scriptures— Romans 12, Proverbs 4:23, Romans 12:1-2— and then read them in their totality, in the, in the context of the Bible, because I don't like cherry-picking verses. But Colossians 2 says that— and we're going to be pretty scripture heavy here, more normally than I really am It, it talks about this: as we receive Christ, we should walk in him. This is basically being rooted, is built up in the things of Christ. Christ wants to establish us. So again, this is tandem relationship. We're not doing this to earn anything, we're doing this because we are in him. I, I like to say like this in my notes, uh, we can be saved and still have areas of our soul that are fragmented. Unhealed and untouched. In other words, hey Lord, I'm saved, but I'm not going to give you full access and full range of the areas that I don't want to deal with. And that could be trauma-based, it could feel like— it could be a whole lot of things. It could be because we just haven't been taught, we haven't talked to the right people, we haven't submitted ourselves to the right counsel. And let's be clear, this is not a denial of salvation. This is not a denial of salvation. I can go and— I believe 1 Corinthians 9 Um, yeah, 1 Corinthians chapter 9, I believe. Um, oh man, what verse is that? When Paul— essentially, when it's the passage of scripture when people talk about becoming all things to all men, and a lot of people use that to justify sin behavior, and that's not what Paul was saying. But in that context, I, I personally believe in my studies that Paul was not talking about— when he was talking about being disqualified from the work of the ministry, I don't believe— I believe that was the disqualification from the work of the ministry, maybe holding certain positions, not salvation. We said discipline my I, I don't believe— I believe this was like discipline. Hey, I'm going to make sure that I'm, I'm doing everything I can because I don't want to disqualify— I don't want to disqualify myself from the opportunity to continue to preach the gospel like this, to be influential in people's life. Because what good is your influence if you're not living up to what you're saying? So again, this is, this is not a denial of salvation.. It is actually an affirmation of sanctification. It's that, uh, affirmation of formation. Like, again, this is ongoing and we have to consistently do the work. See, this is why I want to slow down with this one, because the last one, again, just— it was extremely rushed and I just— I felt convicted and I never want to get in a place of just getting, uh, content out. So one of the things that I believe we have to really address is when leaders or people in general fall. I don't believe all these people are evil. I don't— all inclusive, I don't believe we're all evil. I am giving space that we are human, and when we don't deal with areas, these areas don't necessarily stay private. They don't stay, um, locked away just to us. They multiply. And a lot of times, I believe it's the easiest way to start walking in self-deception. Now, some people probably are just evil. I'm gonna call it what it is. But I believe most people that are striving, it's that they think they're doing a good job at compartmentalizing when they're not. I've been guilty of it. And this is why I have certain things in my life now, um, like checks. Like, again, I call them disciplines. Some people say spiritual disciplines, and that's fine. I don't have a problem with— I think it's just semantics. But I have disciplines in my life, uh, and then I'm consistently refining to help me. Uh, it's not— it's because, listen, like, legit, I don't trust me at all. If I'm left to my own devices, I can be the worst. And so I need to power of the Holy Spirit, but I also have disciplines. I do certain things to help ground me in that. Again, I'm not doing those disciplines, uh, to earn anything. I'm doing them as an invitation to make sure that I do stop, pause, and invite— like, again, invitation, sit, present, stillness with other people that can really help me, that God has, you know, shown me. Again, you don't want to talk to anybody. So again, moving along. Is that, uh, you know, in Luke 6:45 it talks about out of the abundance of heart the mouth speaks. Jesus, in that sense, was tying inner life to outward impact. Jesus was tying inner life to outward impact. So in other words, what Jesus is saying, that truthfully nothing is really hidden. We might go a long time with thinking that we're, we're massaging it again and we're just very skillful. But Jesus is like, no, eventually it's like what's in you is going to come out, it's going to have an impact on people. And this is the thing, sometimes it's a solid impact. It is like, it could be things that my kids can be like, okay, thank you, Holy Spirit. We can think we're showing up one way with good intentions, but then when we sit and ask people and they'd be like, no, you're not really coming off like that. Especially in leadership. And people not always going to challenge you in leadership. That's just the reality that you have to understand as a leader. That's why you have to have other people in your life. And this— I mean, you might say this sucks because, yeah, I get it, biblically we all should hold each other accountable and be submissive to one another in proper context. However, most people aren't. Most people are terrified of leaders. And sometimes too, leaders, especially in a secular sense, when people kind of can play with your livelihood you're, you're not comfortable in saying anything. And so I've had to really like educate myself and learn how to challenge up and challenge authority because I didn't want to sit with that. But there's a way to do everything, but that's a whole nother episode for another day. So again, we can go to the back of the book of Proverbs where it talks about as water reflects face, so the heart reflects the person. Again, all of this, James talks about this. We go to James 1. We go— James is a pretty short book, like, I would highly encourage, uh, highly encourage you to read it. But essentially, like, greater influence brings greater responsibility. I'm gonna say that again: greater influence brings greater responsibility. Why? Because impact travels. It travels further. So this is one thing I always say, again, not trying to go around is for everybody, but in leaders. I can sometimes tolerate a solo contributor doing something, not saying that they can't be deceitful and, and cause influence and havoc somewhere else, but I, I can deal with that. I still will deal with it. I'm not saying I have patience for it and let it run ravage, but I am more quicker to deal with a leader because there's a lot of times you are influential over a group of people. Now again, I'm gonna deal with it on all levels, just as I would hope somebody would deal with it if it was me. But I'm just saying, like, I do move when I— when people are in influential seats. So most of the time, again, hear me, most of the time I do believe that the intent is good when we're trying to navigate. But when we have fragmented souls, they do not stay private, especially in leadership. And I'm not always just talking about in the context of a ministry. I'm saying just think about your family, think about your spouse, think about dating. Think about in your friend— your friendships, you're on the work. Like, it's not always just in the context of leadership. Remember I said all of us are leading and following, all of us are influencing and being influenced. So when these things aren't dealt with, the— even though the intent is good, I truly believe in my heart the impact isn't. So like, for example, I'm like in my therapy session, uh, with my counselor It's kind of like things like this. Unhealed fear, a lot of times it becomes control. Unprocessed pain becomes harshness. You're really harsh, but you think that you're being stern. You think that, um, like how you talk— no, you're harsh. You're, you're, you're, you're, you're very, uh, mean-spirited, for lack of better terms. But going back to the, to the unhealed fear, Okay, no, you— that's not you trying to right the ship or keep things, uh, and overseeing in context. No, you, um, you're a control freak. Your wife feels it, your husband could feel it because it can go either or, um, your, your kids feel it, people that you report to you. You are a control freak because you have unhealed fear. You still say, but you're control freak. You still say, but you harsh. And we can get into the fruit of the Holy Spirit, but untouched pride— here, here it goes— untouched pride, unprocessed pride, people not inviting people in, it just becomes spiritual language of manipulation. Spiritual language for manipulation, because you're really prideful. And then you try to put spiritual language on it and then quote verses out of context, and then now we're here. Because again, at the end of the day, it's a fragmented soul. So I like— I, I, I think that we really have to take some time and invite the presence of the Lord in. Of course, I understand we have the Holy Spirit, but I'm saying getting still and getting with someone, a more mature believer, that's not here to expose us to just point out everything that's wrong with us, but you want to get with somebody again that is equipped. And if you need a count— a biblical counselor, I would say, or a Christian counselor that, that has a higher view of scripture but also understands, uh, the humanity side of things. Not that humanity supersedes the spiritual, but I'm saying understand, because a lot of times we are like— we pray for people and we send them out with no tools. We, uh, this person has a porn addiction, they don't know how to stop, they have an adultery addiction, like, and they, they want to stop, they don't know how. And we give them, as my counselor said, we give them all tools but not how-tos. Sometimes you have to take extreme measures because you just don't have the discipline. Ouch, I'm talking to myself too. So that's the reality. So it's again, but it's not always because people are bad, it's, it's because the soul was never tended to— thank you, Holy Spirit— it's because the soul, our soul, was never tended to properly. We swept things under the rug. We came up, we bucked and shouted. People laid hands on us, people prayed for us, all sincerity, I believe. But just because we sincere, we can still be wrong. Just because we sincere, we can still be misguided. Just because we sincere, we can be still misinformed. So we want to learn how to tend to our soul. Let me tell you something, This ain't pretty. It's not, it's not pretty. This stuff is, is messy. But Jesus, man, in the midst of it, it ends up becoming beautiful because now you can reach others. You can reach others because why? You've done the work. And we have to stop thinking like we've done the work. So again, another thing that I want to just kind of point out real quick is that I'm a very— and this gets into like a post I seen Um, but let me look before I go there. Let me get here. So in the Bible, it talks about, uh, to hear is to obey. To hear is to obey. So in other words, God says that if you're not obeying, you didn't hear me. That, that's, that's where— that's what Jesus is saying. And in this part right here, if you don't hear nothing else I said, this is really, really where the work is done at. If you think about the title of this episode, How's Your Soul? James 1:22-25, again, it talks about hearing without doing isn't necessarily immaturity. I'm paraphrasing it. James calls this self-deception. Many of us have took that view and say, well, oh no, you're just immature. I'm gonna encourage you to go read it, but James said no, you are walking in self- deception. And we said that earlier. We can find scriptures where it talks about some remain unskilled because they haven't practiced obedience. I believe that's in Hebrews 5. Again, I'm paraphrasing it. I'm literally paraphrasing it. But then in John, John 14, Jesus ties love, obedience, and presence together. So here it goes. This is very, very important here. This is very important from a biblical standpoint. You can't separate hearing and obeying. We do, but the Bible doesn't. Hear me, we do, but the Bible doesn't. So if we aren't obeying, we're not really hearing. We're not, we're not listening. It's kind of like, what's the— I mean, I might butcher this, but when people say, oh yeah, yeah, I heard you, and then someone said, well, clearly you weren't listening to me because you didn't do what I asked. So again, it's like, but God is saying, okay, like, look, if you— whatever you go— if you're not obeying it, you didn't really hear it. You thought you heard it, but you didn't. And so I believe this is more about posture. We hear with our ears, we don't hear with our heart. Oh, thank you. That's the— oh, thank— that's good, Holy Spirit. We hear with our ears, but we don't hear with our heart, because it has to resonate in our heart. It does. And this is the thing that again. Oh yeah, this is what it was, because I saw this post about how we're learning the language of healing without doing the work, something like that. It went viral. I seen a lot of people sharing it and commenting on it and giving commentary, and I agree with a lot of commentaries out there. But this is what I want to lean in and just say real quick: we may know the language of healing, but if we have not done the work, we don't actually know it. I am pairing this in line with scripture. That's all I'm doing. We may know— a lot of fact, better yet, we might think we know the language of healing, but if we are not leaning in and doing the work, we don't actually know it, because all we can do is speak from a regurgitated standpoint. This is not condemnation, this is honesty. Again, this is not condemnation, this is honesty. This is holding up the mirror that all of us need to look in, because a lot of us preachers and teachers Again, Jesus already dealt with this. Some of us might say, well, see, this one listen to them teachers anyway because they don't be living it. Okay, you shouldn't follow them, you really shouldn't, because Paul did say follow me as I follow Christ. But however, what Jesus is saying too, remember what he said— I'm not taking these things out of context— with the Pharisees, uh, that was my watch, I don't know, it picked up. But what Jesus was saying was, um, hey, listen to them listen to what they say but don't do as they do. But in other accounts, he dealt— I mean, we can go to 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus that— no, we again, we go to James. That still doesn't give— so that still doesn't give leaders out. What's that? What Jesus said that he, he, he actually acknowledged they teaching, and I guess it is good to teach and you don't have to live it. No, that's not— Jesus was dealing with the audience because they were asking what the to do. So he was saying, yeah, what they teaching you, listen to that, obey that, but just, just don't live as they do. Personally, I'm not— if, if I'm not gonna— no one can lead me that's not willing to walk this thing out. I'm not talking about imperfections, I'm talking about faithfulness. We all get it wrong and miss the mark, but there— when we really study our Bibles, we know when a leader is really striving to live it. When we are really pursuing healing and wholeness, we know when a leader is Trust me, we do. You do. But you got to dig in that word, man, and then you got to do the work in community and find the right people. So there are certain leaders that, like, right now I tell my wife all the time, like, if I wasn't, uh, up under my, uh, going to under my dad, or, you know, uh, working with my father-in-law and helping support and being up under those ministries, um, and just say, even if it was them, like, straight up, like, if I see things and it's just like, okay, you're not going to confront this, or I can't have conversation with you and you're gonna weaponize the Bible. And like, no, but especially like up here, if I'm up there, I don't get— when we can be there 6 months, 2 years, if I start seeing you move in a consistent habitual direction that's not biblical, I'm out. I'm out. I'm not gonna bad talk you or anything like that. I'm out. And I would want people to do the same with me. Get away, because I'm telling you, I'm probably gonna mess up a lot of stuff. Get away. Because I made that decision to habitually practice that. That's a— again, there's a difference between we get it wrong, we miss the mark, between a habitual posture of denial, a habitual posture that we just won't confront things. Like, we have to stop and we have to grow up. Like, in, in movements and things like this, like, it's just petty stuff. Who is going to be more mature enough to lead someone? But when both of us petty, was like Man, oh, I digress. But that, but that's where we have to really be. Like, we just can't learn the language and say things and say clichés and all this type of stuff. Like, uh, I, you know, like, like, prime example, I start myself. Do you really? Do you really? Because you, you say you start with yourself. I say that, I'm so— I'm using myself. So it's like, Tim, do you really start with yourself? Because every time I see you, every time it gets hot in here, it don't seem like you start with yourself. It really seems like you start with everybody else before you even get to you. Like, so again, we can say one thing, we can know the language, but, but when God allows certain things to take place, he's going to show— all he's going to do is just allow it. And then it starts happening. Wait a minute, how they move don't match what they say, so apparently they don't really know it. That's all I'm trying to say. It was a long-winded way to get there. So, so I just really want you to really like just part with that. If you don't get nothing else, this is where it's really at. So again, I appreciate that post for going viral and a lot of people adding commentary to it. But, um, I'll just on this note, like I say, with teachers of the gospel, with all these tools out here, AI tools, Logos like has been out, of course a lot of AI tools has been out, it's just really, you know, more accessible to us. But I'm saying, no matter how they are an excellent communicator, if and how, no matter how much they can prophesy or whatever you want to call it, words of wisdom, break the word down with a fraction, uh, no matter how much they can perform the gospel. I don't care if they can hoop you out your seat and hoop you into a shout or whatever, it does not matter because I don't put none of the two. I don't have a problem with people that teach really good and go behind the letter, and I'll have a problem with people that know how to really navigate and communicate very, very well, especially with the hoop. I don't, I don't get into that. Just preach truth and make sure you're living it. But what I will say is this: even all of us are, can become subjected to this if we're not careful and leaning into the word of God and being consistently renewed and repentant. And the repentance is a changed mind. It's not a 360, it's a 180 in our thinking. I'm changing my thinking and pointing back to Christ. So what I'm trying to say is this— help me, Holy Spirit— is that in all of that revelation that you quote unquote have, if you are not striving to live it, I do not believe that you know the deep things of God. And I'm not talking about deep to just be like, oh, look at me, like I know all— no, no, I'm talking about I don't believe God really reveals anything to you. All it is is surface level, and it's somebody else's stuff, and you're just taking it and you're learning how to massage it and do certain things, but you really don't know it because you have not become one with it. That's for all of us. So again, so, so Psalms 23, Psalms 23:3, again, when it talks about him restoring our soul, this restoration— I believe it's, yes, Psalm 23:3— this restoration precedes leadership. Hear me, this restoration precedes leadership. He leads me. Like, everything is about doing the work. It— we have work to do. I, I, I, I, I, man, this is gonna be a strong word, but I hate this mystical understanding of weaponizing the Bible and the Holy Spirit as if we don't have to do anything, we don't have to confront anything, we don't have to face anything. Now, I don't want us to go to one extreme, all on other extremes, say, well, I'm just suck, I might as well not do thing. Why did God even create me? I might not be here. That's the devil talking. That's the enemy talking. That is not of God. That is not of God. Because in Christ, listen, man, you are more than enough. In Christ, in Christ Jesus, you are more than enough. But what I am saying is that we have to do the work so we can make sure that we're reflecting him the way he desires to be reflected. He knows the way we're wired. He knows, he knows all this. But even in that, the way that we're wired, the way that we process things, the way that we do things, He wants us to submit that into him, and that's a continuation of work. And I just think that the local church today, or the universal church— not everybody, but a lot of us— we don't like the work. We don't like the work. Like, venting— when you're so— when you need to vent and you say, oh man, somebody asked you, how's your son? It's like, I just got to get this out. Okay, you keep venting about the same thing. Do you want venting to be the destination, or do you want healing to be the destination? Hear me. Do you want venting to be the destination, or you want healing? Because the only way healing is going to be the destination, you're going to have to give somebody permission to tell you what it is. Yes, vent, I want you to open up, but what are we going to do with that venting? Like, we, we have to, we have to ask that. We have to ask that because, like, the Bible is clear— again, paraphrasing it— that we may prosper in all things as your soul prospers, as our souls prospers. So soul health, again, it, it shapes external fruit, the fruit of the Holy Spirit. If we want the fruit of the Holy Spirit, it has to be cultivated. It, it has to be. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit, yes, is there, but to know someone is consistently filled with the Holy Spirit, you should consistently see the fruit. So again, this is where I return. This is where I kind of come back down to. Before I ask, how is my ministry? How is my leadership? How am I showing up in my family life? How am I showing up in work? How am I showing up in my community? Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. How about I ask, how is my soul? Lord, help me. God, how is my soul? Show me what it looks like. Show me the areas that I need to deal with. Show me the areas that are fragmented that I'm not addressing, because that's where I want to lean in. I'm gonna— Lord, I'm gonna write them down on a piece of paper, and I'm gonna like, man, I haven't dealt with this. I'm seeing this within me. I keep seeing this repetitive behavior. And then I'm going to pray and I'm going to ask God for forgiveness. Because let's not confuse forgiveness with healing. Because a lot of us, we're walking in forgiveness but we're not walking in healing. Holy Spirit, you on it today. He about to preach, man. No, no, I'm sorry, he's not about to preach to me. He— I'm about to preach this thing because of how he's ministering to me right now. And I'm seeing myself like in real time. But thank you, Holy Spirit. Thank you. Because this is the thing. A lot of us are walking in forgiveness. We have been forgiven, but we are not walking in healing. We're not. And listen, you are forgiven, but also through community. James, I believe it's James 5:16, talks about confessing to one another. Okay, we can find other— but what is that? Is again helping sit with people, and through praying and communion, communing with God and with other people people, something started to take place. And I just believe the power of the working of the Holy Spirit through that. I don't know, it might take a month, it might take a year, and it could take longer than that. I don't know, that's between you and God and how he sets that up and, and how the Holy Spirit navigates that thing through other people. But again, do not confuse forgiveness with walking in healing. So again, I'm gonna ask you, I'm gonna ask you this question: And you already know it. How is your soul? Thanks for joining me today on the Student Life Podcast. And remember, learning never stops and wisdom grows as we seek truth in both scripture and life. And until next time, keep walking faithfully and thinking deeply. Be blessed.