79: Year of Breakthrough!

[00:07] Stephanie: Welcome to Deeper Walk’s on the Trail podcast. You are on the trail with father-daughter duo, Marcus and Stephanie Warner. I’m Stephanie, and I’ll be talking with my father, Dr. Marcus Warner, as we discuss topics that help you stay on the trail to a deeper walk with God.

[00:22] Stephanie: Season one, episode 79. What’s this? We have seasons now? Yes, we do. All right.

Hello, Father.

[00:32] Marcus: Hello, Daughter.

[00:34] Stephanie: Good to be with you. Happy New year. With the new year we are doing new things. We are about to launch season two of the podcast. What does that mean? Why a season break? What’s new? Should we tell them now or hold them in suspense?

[00:55] Marcus: I think we should suspend judgment on that. Let’s tell them now. So 2024 is bringing a new season.

[01:06] Stephanie: Save the date my friends, January 29. We are inviting you to kind of have a seat at the table with us as the podcast is growing into video. Now, the same podcast you know, and hopefully love, will still be. If you just want to continue listening to it on audio that is fine. But we are branching out into the video sphere and many opportunities will come with that. One of the things I’m looking forward to on YouTube is that you can make comments. We can interact with you directly. And it’s a really direct way of not only us being able to engage, but also listeners engaging with each other. And I’m excited for that. So why the 29th? Well, our upcoming series is going to be a wonderful follow up, next steps, and free resource to the Free conference that’s happening on January 27. And do you want to tell them a little bit about that?

[02:15] Marcus: Yeah. So we are calling 2024 a year of breakthrough. All of us have things that we struggle with in life. No matter how far you are in your journey there’s some area you probably would welcome a breakthrough. And so, what is that going to take? How do I put a plan together? How do we stay on that journey? So it’s very much in sync with the On the Trail concept. I’m going to be on that trail and at the end of the year I have a breakthrough in some area of my life. I’ve gotten further in that journey.

And so to make that happen not only is our podcast going to focus on the whole idea of the journey, we’re going to be taking a dive into the Exodus motif in the wilderness. Showing all these wonderful parallels and lessons that come out of the Torah related to our emotional healing journey. And just the idea of breakthrough in general. So I’m excited about our podcast series. And then honestly, I forget if the question was about the conference?

[03:20] Stephanie: The question is about the conference.

[03:21] Marcus: The conference itself is called Breakthrough – is that what it’s called?

[03:32] Stephanie: It’s called the Freedom Conference, the Breakthrough conference was in October..

[03:34] Marcus: I don’t know what’s happening, I’m just the president of the organization.

[03:38] Stephanie: It’s hard because you also have a book that is coming out in March called Breakthrough, and that is very exciting. I will have an announcement about that shortly. But let’s go back to the conference.

[03:52] Marcus: It’s going to be one afternoon, a Saturday afternoon eastern time. I think it runs from, I don’t even know?

[03:59] Stephanie: Yeah, we don’t need those details.

[04:00] Marcus: But it’s running Saturday afternoon on the 27th of January. And Chris Coursey is going to come from our friends at Thrive Today, and he’s going to be presenting on the role of community and breakthrough. And I’m a big believer that if we want breakthrough, one of the most important things we can do is make sure that we’re not alone on this journey, and that we are bonded to other people. So he’s going to be talking to us about the role of community in that.

[04:27] Stephanie: And I think he’s said he’s going to address having a lack of community as well, because I know that is a frequent concern. You’re talking about how important community is and I don’t have it.

[04:39] Marcus: Yeah, we’re going to address that. The other really key element to breakthrough, is growing a listening prayer walk with God where he can speak into wounds in our lives. So Dawn Whitestone is going to be giving us content on that. I’m going to be  giving a quick overview of what’s in my upcoming book, Breakthrough. About the whole process and the whole journey, and then with a specific focus on the spiritual warfare element. There are some things we’re never going to experience breakthrough in until we deal with the battle that’s involved with it. So we want to make important content like this free and accessible to people. And so that’ll be January 27, looking forward to it.

[05:19] Stephanie: Huzzah! And then after that, stay tuned for the video-I shouldn’t say switch because we’ll still be on audio, but we will be on video, and it’s very exciting.

[05:30] Marcus: Yeah, we’re still podcasting the normal way, but we’re adding video to it. So the same podcast, but now you can watch it or listen.

[05:37] Stephanie: Yes. And then my second announcement is, if you are interested in being a member of the launch team for the Breakthrough book, be watching my Monday emails, and Deeper Walk social media, for a link to apply for that launch team. All right, that was a lot of front matter.

[06:03] Marcus: We don’t usually have quite that many announcements, but this is a pretty big deal.

[06:07] Stephanie: It is. And we do have content. So as you said, at Deeper Walk, 2024 is our year of breakthrough. We pray it will be a year of breakthrough for our listeners as well. So, Father, what do we mean by breakthrough?

[06:23] Marcus: All right, so one of the things is there are three levels of breakthrough that all of us are looking at. One has to do with pain relief. I’ve just been beaten down by the same thing over and over again, and it’s really wearing me down. Maybe I have an anger issue. I would really like a breakthrough with my temper or my despair or my shame or the way I beat myself up. I mean, there’s something going on here, and I just would like a breakthrough here because I need pain relief.

And so sometimes we do things just to help the pain. But at a second level of breakthrough is root issues. And this is really what Deeper Walk has been all about throughout our history, helping people get to the root issues that are driving that pain, so they can get ongoing relief and not just temporary relief. But we also realize there is a third level of breakthrough, which is related directly to our maturity development.

And one of the things we see a lot in addiction recovery is people switching addictions. They get free from their smoking, but they take up marijuana. They get free from the marijuana and they start overeating and put on a bunch of weight. And so one of the reasons for this cycle of just sort of switching addictions, is that they’re not also growing their level of maturity, and learning the skills that are necessary to go from infant to child to adult and so on. So when we talk about breakthrough, we talk about all those things.

We are talking about how I really want to beat this thing that’s been beating me for so long. I want to get at root level issues, the things that need to be resolved. And I want to start working on moving to a higher level of maturity in my personal walk, because that’s the ultimate breakthrough. The ultimate breakthrough is being able to move to a new level of maturity.

[08:13] Stephanie: So what I hear you saying is that breakthrough isn’t just, “Aha!.” I have my one breakthrough and everything is solved. And if I could just get this one thing fixed. Everything will be okay. Will you address that myth?

[08:27] Marcus: Yeah, there’s a myth. I think the big myth in the breakthrough thing  is that I’m going to have a dramatic experience, and after that everything will be okay. Because sometimes you hear stories of like, I got rid of this demon and all of a sudden all my addiction cravings went away. Or I had this inner healing experience with Jesus and all of a sudden everything was different. And that does happen. I mean, I’m not saying it doesn’t happen. But the model of one major experience giving me all of the breakthrough that I need is probably more of a myth than a reality. It’s always a journey.

So what I tell people is that in any given healing journey, you may have a thousand breakthrough moments on that journey. And because I had a breakthrough here and I had a breakthrough here, and I had a breakthrough here. So it’s like I could advance in one area and fall back in another area. And so that’s why there is this constant need to be on a journey and to be growing in our maturity as we dive into this. So while I believe that there are major breakthrough things that can happen in a moment of time, the ultimate breakthrough we’re looking for almost never happens just in a single event.

[09:35] Stephanie: It’s a breakthrough journey.

[09:36] Marcus: It’s a journey.

[09:38] Stephanie: So are there any common obstacles that people tend to face? Either there would be a solution they’re not thinking of, or it’s just they’re not even thinking about it as an obstacle? Is this something that you could help bring to light in the breakthrough journey?

[09:55] Marcus: Yeah. So I look at the five common obstacles that are related to the five engines that drive our emotions. Sometimes people are fixated on one or two of them and so they miss the other ones. So those engines are spiritual warfare, and listening prayer where we’re interacting with the Holy Spirit. And then the three physical engines are the body, our beliefs, what we’re thinking, and then our bonding or our attachments with people. And what I find is that a lot of us get really fixated on one or two of them. We’re all in on the physical solution to this. Like what supplements can I take? What medicine can I take?

[10:37] Stephanie: How do I find exercise better?

[10:39] Marcus: And that’s fine, that’s all good. But there are other engines that drive that. Some of us are all in on beliefs, and we’ve been taught that if you just change your beliefs, everything will be taken care of. And it’s a major engine. It does play a big role in that, but it’s not the only thing going on. And then our attachment is a huge driver of the bonds that we form. Like a lot of us live with fear bonds and don’t know how to turn those into joy bonds. And it’s even a foreign concept to us that it’s possible to begin living with freedom from the fear bonds in our lives. The common obstacle is that usually one of these engines is not getting dealt with.

[11:20] Stephanie: Cool. So how about some practical first steps for people? I know that you just described five engines, so there are probably just as many branches, plus.

[11:36] Marcus: This is why it is challenging to offer clear next steps, because next steps might be different for everybody. I will say that there are a couple of universals though, all five of these engines are going to have to be addressed sooner or later. And if there is one thing that I find, it’s that it is very difficult to grow if there’s nobody on the journey with me. I’ve got to find allies who are on a common journey that we can interact together with this. And I will say the more isolated that I am, the harder it is to even fathom where I am  going to find somebody who will do that. Now, I know personally through the years I’ve had people who’ve tried to make me their whole community. Like, just rescue me Marcus you’ve got all the answers. You just take care of me. And I can’t be the community for people, and there has to be a way to build that.

So some people are like, well, I can’t start there because I just don’t have any options. But we’ll talk about that. And Chris is going to have some practical things in his presentation. For others, I would say the easiest place to start is combining listening prayer in your thought life, and beginning to ask God, would you show me one lie I am believing? And I’d say that’s the clearest next step for most people. God, would you just show me one lie I’m believing? Or another way to look at this, I gave this assignment to a lady a long time ago that seemed to be very effective for her. Every morning you ask God, what lie does Satan want me to believe today? And put it in writing and then ask God, what’s the truth that you want me to believe instead? And start transforming the belief engine. I find that that is often a really good place to start.

[13:25] Stephanie: And being mindful of taking your thoughts captive throughout the day. Are there any tapes that are playing? Are there any automatic negative thoughts?

[13:37] Marcus: Exactly. I was just talking to somebody the other day, and he had just kind of discovered this idea. He was super excited about the reality that most of us spend our lives beating ourselves up for things that the devil is doing to us, and we don’t recognize the difference. And I remember Neil Anderson gave a really good illustration of this. I’ll just share it here. He said, imagine your backyard has a fence around it and the neighbor has this really mean attack dog. And so you’re very careful to keep that gate closed. But one day you leave the gate open and sure enough, their dog comes in, and bites you on the leg. What do you do? And he said, too many of us Christians, are like, yeah, we’ve opened the door, we’ve let sin in, and now it’s biting on our leg.

And what we do is we beat ourselves up. It’s like, stupid idiot, what are you doing? Why did you leave the gate open? We beat ourselves up and don’t do anything about the dog. He said, what we ought to be doing is kind of beating the dog off of our legs, and getting him out of there and closing the gate. And we spend way too much time beating ourselves up for our failures and not nearly enough time actually dealing with the enemy, and what the enemy is doing to keep us in bondage.

[14:51] Stephanie: Well, and what you were just describing there would be a crisis moment. So in the crisis moment, you’re fixing the problem first. Then once the problem has been fixed, you’re like, okay, how do I make sure that problem doesn’t happen again?

[15:02] Marcus: Yeah. Which is still not by beating yourself up. Like, if I ever do this again, I’m going to really hit myself hard. That doesn’t make any sense.

[15:09] Stephanie: Right. It’s like, that’s a gate I shouldn’t open.

[15:13] Marcus: That’s a gate I shouldn’t open. Yeah.

[15:16] Stephanie: All right.

[15:16] Stephanie: Well, as we are coming toward the end of our episode, do you have closing thoughts? Maybe not only to wrap up today, but to inspire toward the future ahead?

[15:25] Marcus: Well, I would just say that I’ve been a Christian for sixty years. I prayed the sinner’s prayer at my mother’s bed when I was three years old.  So I’m now sixty three years old and I’ve been on this journey a long time, and I don’t think there’s any such thing as arriving. Even Paul says, not that I have arrived, not that I have attained, but I press on. I think there is always a growth edge in every one of our lives. Part of this is pressing into God and asking, where is my growth edge this year?

And I think a good, maybe first prayer for some of us is, Lord, would you show me where the growth edge in my life is this year? So that you and I can be talking about that growth edge as the year goes on? And let God help you pick out where the area of breakthrough is that you’re looking for, instead of just assuming that you know what it is up front. So that would be my encouragement. Ask God to show you where the growth edge of my life is that you want me working on in 2024. And let’s partner together and see if we can’t experience a greater breakthrough this year.

[16:32] Stephanie: Excellent, Huzzah! Thank you so much, my father. And thank you all for joining us on the trail today. Deeper Walk exists to make heart focused discipleship the norm for Christians everywhere. If you’d like to support this cause, you can become a Deeper Walk Trailblazer with your monthly donation of $25 or more. And if you want to keep going deeper with us on your walk with God, please subscribe to the On the Trail podcast, leave a review and share with your friends. Thanks again.

We’ll see you back next week. And Happy New Year!