Repentance Alone Will Not Break It
"Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." — Matthew 18:18
The Reason People Stall
This is the single most practically important lesson in this section.
Even if you repent of the sin you committed with the other person — thereby cancelling that sin's legal right — the unholy soul tie remains as a separate legal right until you break it as well.
Two things were created. Repentance addresses one. It does not address the other.
This explains a scenario that repeats constantly: someone works through this material with real diligence. They repent of everything they can identify. They see genuine improvement — and something remains, stubbornly, in a specific area.
They conclude the process failed, or that they missed something, or that they are a special case.
They are none of those things. They dealt with the sins and left the ties intact.
The Illustration That Makes It Clear
Consider a woman, a committed Christian, addicted to cigarettes. She had tried everything and still smoked three packs a day.
She had followed this process faithfully. She repented of every sin God brought to mind. She repented specifically of smoking and of damaging her body. She was thorough and sincere.
And she still could not quit. Something kept inciting her to smoke.
Then a pastor asked her a question nobody had asked: "Have you broken the unholy soul tie with the person who taught you to smoke?"
She said no. It had never occurred to her.
He asked if she could remember who taught her. She could — a babysitter, when she was ten years old, who taught her to smoke and gave her her first pack of cigarettes.
He guided her through breaking that tie and asked God to remove the spirit of addiction.
She walked out of his office and never smoked another cigarette.
What to Notice
Her repentance was genuine and it was not enough. Nothing was wrong with her repentance. It simply addressed a different legal right.
The tie was with someone irrelevant to her adult life. A babysitter from decades earlier. Not a person she thought about, resented, or had any relationship with.
She had been ten years old. She was a child who was taught something harmful by an adult. Yet the tie existed and had to be broken.
Nothing about the addiction pointed toward the tie. She could not have reasoned her way to it. Someone had to ask the right question.
Point to Ponder
Nothing was wrong with her repentance. It just was not the key to that particular lock.
Verse to Remember
"Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." — Matthew 18:18
Question to Consider
For each thing I cannot shake — who introduced me to it?
Today's Practice
Ask the question that was asked of her, about every persistent thing in your life.
Who taught me this?
Who gave you your first cigarette, your first drink, your first drug? Who showed you pornography for the first time? Who taught you to lie, to steal, to manipulate? Who introduced you to the thing you cannot stop?
Write down every name you can recover. Many will be from childhood. Many will be people you have not thought about in decades and who mean nothing to you now.
Their current irrelevance is irrelevant. The tie does not depend on whether you still care about them.
Add every name to your soul tie list.
Tomorrow you will break them. Today, make sure the list is complete — because a tie you never identified is a tie that stays.
Prayer
Father, I have repented and repented and some things have not moved.
Now I understand why. There is a second kind of right that repentance does not touch, and I have never dealt with any of them.
Show me who introduced me to the things I cannot shake. Bring back names from childhood — people I have not thought about in thirty years and who mean nothing to me now.
Make my list complete. And prepare me to break every one of these. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
She repented of everything and still smoked three packs a day. It was a babysitter she had not thought about in thirty years.