Tool Chest

Tool: REPLETION

This exercise will help your heart to stay grounded as we work to refresh your database, and restore your heart terrain. I hope it will become a normal part of your life.

It’s a game-changer!

Plan a time when you can arrange to enjoy something pleasurable for each of your five physical senses together at the same time. During the experience, focus on what you are feeling from your senses, not on texting or other distractions. FEEL it. Embrace the experience. Be fully present for what you are experiencing.

You can read what others have done for their Repletion exercises, and some of the fruit they experienced here:

https://www.cynthiaharris.org/brainideas/repletion

If you are willing to post about what you did and how you enjoyed it, feel free to do that as well. My hope is to build up a large number of suggested experiences that others can draw from.

When you go to post something, it will pop up a sign-in box. Just sign in with your name (however you want it to appear) and email, and then click on “Continue as Guest.” You do not need a password.

Have fun with it! That’s the whole point!

Tool: WALK AWAY

Remember Isaiah 36. The king wisely told his men not to answer the enemy.

Here is the key - when thought temptations come, or you are under some other form of spiritual attack, it doesn’t usually come as words or a logical thought. It comes as feelings; emotions that can be very strong.

With an onslaught of enemy emotions aimed at your heart, it becomes confused and emotionally tired. This can also happen when you are in a place that has a negative spiritual presence.

Remember in situations like this, that the only thing that matters is your alignment. You are aligned with the Lord. He knows it, and you know it. So just mentally say, “No!” and sidestep whatever the emotional turmoil is.

Don’t try to answer, argue, analyze, or refute whatever is coming at you. Just reaffirm that you are aligned with the Lord Jesus Christ, and then move on. Do something external, physical, concrete, and unrelated, and allow your mind to move on to everyday, matter-of-fact ideas.

If it feels like you need something more forceful, or you need to repeat it, you can just say, “I will not partner with that. I do not choose that. I reject that,” or whatever phrase works for you.

The idea is to stay completely clear of whatever emotional scenario is being offered, because your heart will tend to reach out and connect with emotional ideas, even if they’re not true.

A simple reaffirming that you already are aligned with God, rather than emotional battling, helps your heart to find the fixed point, God’s heart, so that the compass of your heart can pull you in the right directions.

Tool: DELIGHT

For this exercise, begin a log of the tiny (or large!) daily delights that the Lord has loaded into your day. Begin looking for them actively. Use a means of recording them that also delights you!

All day, everything you experience is specifically designed for you. The sunrise. The sunset. That song. That bird. That comment by a coworker. Woven into your day next to the challenges and irritations are tiny little things that God deliberately planted to bring you delight. Begin teaching yourself to find them and lean hard into feeling the delight.

Tool: Fortress of Belonging

Keep a comprehensive, detailed list of all those in your lifetime who have been glad that you exist. (Don’t forget God!) Keep the list handy, and let your spirit & the Holy Spirit pop people into your mind all the time. Include “small” things, like the checkout person you smiled at, or the waitress that you gave an extra tip to, the elderly person you held the door for, etc. It can include people who have already gone to heaven, like grandparents. They are very glad that you exist!

All of these people & God affirm that you exist in God’s purposes, and that it is very good that you are alive today. You are exactly who you are supposed to be. Your story is aligned with God’s story.

Regularly speak out loud some of your list, and declare out loud that God’s delight in creating you now overwrites any effects of anyone else’s residue. Ask the Lord to cleanse every trace of the spirit of murder from your heart, and saturate every aspect of your heart with God’s delight in you.