Hope Mangiafico (00:00)
Bye, I'm Hope.
Nikki Humphrey (00:01)
Hi, I'm Nikki. Welcome to Equip Fellowship, where friends become family through Christ. We're two Jesus loving friends on mission to share personal stories, resources, and real talk about our triumphs, breakthrough, struggles, and setbacks. Why? Because we believe you are called to live victoriously, and we are here to equip you with Holy Spirit led tools and strategies to strengthen your faith.
Hope Mangiafico (00:14)
. .
Nikki Humphrey (00:29)
Transform your mindset and walk boldly into God's promises because here's the truth. You have been given great and precious promises by God. So grab your coffee, lean in and let's
grow together. It's time to step into everything God has for you.
Hope Mangiafico (00:51)
Yes, and one of those ways to step into it is to be able to know how to love like God, which is kind of a mind-boggling concept, but it's the title. It's what we were given by the Holy Spirit, and it's actually pulled from John 15-12 where Jesus says, this is my commandment.
that you love one another as I have loved you. Now, this is a commandment from Jesus, but it feels like an impossible one to fulfill, at least for me. And that is because partaking in continual restoration through Christ is needed for our entire lives. So this episode is about the restoring of our souls, AKA addressing what specifics have come into all of our lives.
that are blocking our ability to love like our father.
Nikki Humphrey (01:47)
So good. This is gonna be such a transformative episode, Hope. I think not just for you and I, but everyone listening today, because it's so easy to love like Jesus. And I don't even, or God, we don't even come close to how he loves us. And even the people we love and cherish the most, we don't come close to loving them as well as God could ever love them. And so if it's that hard to love like-
Hope Mangiafico (01:54)
Yeah.
Right.
Guess.
Nikki Humphrey (02:15)
for the people who are close to us. How much more difficult is it to love like God those people in our lives who hurt us, who caused us harm, who don't make us feel good when we're around them. So I can't wait to dive in this and see what the Holy Spirit brings up to address us.
Hope Mangiafico (02:39)
⁓ Me neither and it's like you're so right like even the people that you absolutely like are like I absolutely love them like we're nowhere close but even still Jesus like love them how I have loved you and it's like so it's possible What that's exciting? so I'm looking forward to jumping into this today and just kind of kind of a cool thing that helped me connect these dots to
was really neat that last week you briefly just dropped a little nugget about how fractured our souls are and that's actually a big component of this whole conversation, this whole barrier, this wall, if you will, that keeps us away from the ability to love like God because we've been through stuff, right? As you said, like people have heard us, things like that. I'm really, really stoked. And that actually leads to how
felt like it was presented to me by the Lord is like it's a multiple step process, not like, this is so hard. But before we can even dive into what happens to our souls, why is that so important? The good stuff that I'm so pumped because I expressed my excitedness a little bit last episode when you dropped that little nugget. ⁓ You first have to realize that the first step
is giving your life to Jesus to begin partaking in that restoration. And if you're listening to this episode, you're probably like, yeah, I love Jesus, but I just had, I felt it very heavily on my heart to emphasize, are you willing to let him all the way in your life as your Lord and savior? Because if you're not willing to be surrendered to him as Lord, you can't love like our heavenly father.
our lord.
Nikki Humphrey (04:26)
⁓
And this goes hand in hand with what you just said, Hope. If you don't believe that God loves you well,
Hope Mangiafico (04:38)
Yes.
Nikki Humphrey (04:40)
we can't love other people well. So many people block God's love or they believe that they're too damaged to be loved by Him. And we've talked about that in episodes in the past, but we have to acknowledge that because without that, none about, nothing that we're going to talk about today will matter.
Hope Mangiafico (04:48)
Yes.
Yes.
Yes, exactly. And we've talked about that many times. You're right, Nikki, because it's like love your neighbor as yourself and you can't love yourself if you can't encounter the Heavenly Father's love. And so that was really the first step. So maybe that takes a load off your back right out of the gate of like, okay, yes, I'm surrendering all, you are my Lord, let's rock and roll. And that then leads into
understanding the significance of the soul. So, Nikki, I know this is something that you also are really good at teaching and just like defining the soul. What are fractured, like how does our soul fracture? What are fractured soul parts? And what makes it such a significant part of our journey? That's where the meat of this conversation lies.
Nikki Humphrey (05:51)
Yeah. And I think for everyone, this is just coming up like a lot of times our soul gets fractured before we even realize what's happening. Something that happens in our early childhood that fractures our souls, an event that happened that we didn't think was of significance, but it really was. We kind of just brushed it off or pushed it down.
Hope Mangiafico (06:03)
Mm.
Nikki Humphrey (06:20)
and didn't think twice about it. It's all these little wounds, little traumas, little things that happen, choices that we make intentionally cause our soul to fracture, to splinter, to break. So it's a combination
Hope Mangiafico (06:28)
Yeah. ⁓
Nikki Humphrey (06:37)
of a lot of things that cause our souls to fracture, our choices, our actions, things that were done to us.
Hope Mangiafico (06:40)
Yeah.
Nikki Humphrey (06:47)
things that were said to us and we weren't even in the room.
Hope Mangiafico (06:47)
Yeah.
Hmm Yes, yes Yes Yeah, there's a lot. There's a lot there. ⁓ now before even diving deeper into that Nikki Something that I think I have seen this may not be true for every listener, but I have heard in different teachings and different realms that
Nikki Humphrey (06:56)
it all has impact, things that were said to us in our womb.
Hope Mangiafico (07:21)
there sometimes tends to be an interchangeable ⁓ use of soul and spirit and they're not the same thing. And I wanted to emphasize that so we can actually define the soul because what you said is absolutely true, but still it's like, well, Nikki, Nikki, what is it that is doing all this running away and fracturing when things are happening? Like, what is it, right? What is my soul? Because it's not your spirit.
⁓ And I think your introduction to that just a couple moments ago is really good because, you know, the beautiful bow on top of a definition of it, your soul is your mind, your will, and your emotions. ⁓ And all of those things, if you pause, you're like, ⁓ what Nikki said makes sense then, because those were the things that shut down or overthink.
or had a response to someone, It's your mind, your will and your emotions. That's your soul.
Nikki Humphrey (08:27)
And just a visual image, when our soul is fractured, I picture God as the big magnet that he can pull all those fragments together, the big ones, the small ones, even the microscopic ones. So if you are thinking, I'm too fragmented, my soul is too far gone, it's not ever too far gone to pull you closer to God. God's like,
Hope Mangiafico (08:37)
Yeah.
Nikki Humphrey (08:56)
When you are most broken, when your soul is the most fragmented, that's when I become the most powerful. It's easy, just like it's easy to love like God when things are easy. But when things are hard, that's when things get magnified, and we'll call it magnetized, to pull you closer to God.
Hope Mangiafico (09:17)
⁓ that's so good. And that's so true. And that's why going back to step one of making him Lord over your life is in that breaking and that magnetizing time. ⁓ If he's Lord over your life, you're going to see
that movement and that bringing together. is the natural fruit of this journey called life. And he's such a good father because he knows that to Nikki's point, even before you're born in the womb, things are happening. Even before that, this isn't all about what Hope did, what Nikki did, what you as a listener did. It goes back for generations. You know, it's a...
It creates this divide that just gets bigger and bigger and then you're carrying so much when there's already this massive gap. And so it doesn't begin with you, but the exciting part is, is that you have the chance to get a better understanding and to say yes to this bringing together with God being this massive magnet. And it is a beautiful journey. And it's wild to think that it is rooted in this.
that we have the ability to love like God. I honestly don't know if my natural brain can even comprehend this concept, to be honest.
Gosh, it's like when he gave me that title and it had to do with basically soul fragmentation and soul wounds, I'm like, I don't get it, guys.
Nikki Humphrey (10:49)
Thanks.
Hope Mangiafico (10:52)
Get it? I just wanted to put that out there.
Nikki Humphrey (10:53)
because
And I keep bringing it back to like even the people we love the most at times it's hard to love them. But God sees us in the curly cues and our mistakes and our dysfunction and his love never changes. It's consistent, it's steady, it never falters. And I think like even when we're making our mistakes and stumbling and bumbling about like he loves us even more I feel during those times.
Hope Mangiafico (11:02)
Yeah.
Yeah.
I could see that.
Nikki Humphrey (11:24)
I know Ursula,
Nikki doesn't love like that. I'm like, hmm. ⁓
Hope Mangiafico (11:27)
Right.
Yeah. No, you're probably that's kind of, guess, that concept where you hear people always talk about for the glory of God. Well, he probably it's like you can almost feel that encounter with his love when you're fumbling more because he does get more glory from it. And so it's this cool thing again that we can't fully understand in the natural of like
his love and his character for us just grows because the glory is growing in all these situations, which is wild. Yeah, I can't add on to that because it's beautiful. So actually, here's something cool. So God, we're made in his image, he is spirit, right? And we know we got our bodies, right? And then in between, the soul.
and lives there. And I wanted to emphasize that because sometimes we hyperfixate on the spirit aspect, right? ⁓ Our spirit man, making them strong, reading the Bible, which feeds the spirit man, which is very important, but it also feeds the soul. And the soul is a really big gateway because it is that quote unquote middle man between your body and your spirit. ⁓ And
to Nikki's point in the beginning explaining life and from the womb and all through life. Our soul is what has controlled our actions for our lives. Now in a perfect world where we're not under the fall and we're not, I don't even like saying that, but in a perfect world where we are like no longer attached to any kind of sin and bad behaviors, our spirit would be leading our soul. So we would not be driven by those emotions, by those thoughts, by the
seeds planted by the enemy, but that's not how it's been. Maybe that can be in the future for us, but we're not talking about the future in this very moment. We're talking about how we got here, right? And so that's really important to take note of is like the reason this is here, the reason why we have the ability to allow Jesus to restore us is our, excuse me, our soul has controlled our
every moves, our choices, like you talked about, Niki, was our choices that ⁓ contributed to this great divide ⁓ between our ability to love like God and to encounter his love.
Nikki Humphrey (14:06)
So good.
And I just want to say this again, no soul. Every soul is redeemable.
Hope Mangiafico (14:20)
Mmm.
Nikki Humphrey (14:22)
I was once told that my soul would never be redeemed.
Anybody who that's ever been spoken over them that your soul is not redeemable that is a life in the enemy every single soul throughout humanity can be restored period
Hope Mangiafico (14:45)
That's crazy. That's crazy. And again, that's a perverted teaching. ⁓ There's been so much of that. And at the end of the day, some of the fractured soul parts has actually happened through a means of protection. And so by God's design of protecting you, he allows
again, outside of my understanding, your mind, the ability to dissociate, for example. If God created you, if you believe that he created you, then to Nikki's point, every part is redeemable. ⁓ You're not too far gone. And we talked a million times about you not being your choices, right, and your past mistakes. But keep in mind that like,
could make me cry just thinking about it. And I know, Nikki, you can attest to this too, with your own stories, like my mind had moments of feeling like it can never be redeemed. My will had moments where it felt like it can never be redeemed because I felt like I had no control over what I was doing and my emotions don't get me started.
Nikki Humphrey (15:54)
Yeah.
Hope Mangiafico (16:09)
Like if I'm being honest, I didn't realize that I authentically thought but it never came out of my mouth. That I think I had a core belief of, well, that's just how I've always been.
Nikki Humphrey (16:22)
Yes.
Hope Mangiafico (16:23)
And I honestly, Nikki, just had that revelation that I authentically believe that in here, but it never came out of my mouth.
That's very interesting. ⁓ And that misaligns you with the father because they are not things that reflect him.
And we were made in his, we are made in his image.
Nikki Humphrey (16:47)
It is, and then when you think that you're not what you've done in the past or your soul that's fragmented can't be redeemed. You can't love well. You can't love yourself well. You can't love others well. You can't love God well. You can't accept love from God, other people, people that you're close to. It all makes it impossible.
Hope Mangiafico (17:10)
Yeah.
And I would like to mention this without going deep into it because I'm not an expert to be able to talk on it. But let this be some fuel to your fire to get you excited, to let the magnet of God bring you together. For lack of better terms, again, I'm not expert, the enemy uses fragmented soul parts for, again, lack of better term, energy.
And think about that, we've talked about how the root of all yuck, of mistreatment, all of that, is the enemy. So wouldn't it be like the enemy to try and knock you upside the head, turn you into a million pieces, and then he takes those million pieces and then compounds them for what he believes is his own glory? Homeboy doesn't realize, like, he is truly, like, he's done so. He's part of a losing team. But he thinks...
that he's part of a winning team every time a bad event happens and he has the ability to make us respond a certain way and we get that fracturing. And I wanted to emphasize that because while you use that illustration that Nikki said of seeing God as this magnet, let it be that you also correlate that image of taking fuel away from the enemy and saying, no, no, no, you are not messing with me anymore.
You're not messing with my family, my future family, my past family. Because again, like I mentioned earlier, it didn't start with you. There's a reason why we have a bloodline. There's a reason why you go to the doctor and they ask you family history. You are the first human on the face of this planet, right? There's other influences on you. ⁓ So picture you coming together and just taking all the power of the enemy away from him. Because that's how he actually likes to operate.
is soul fragments, which is really weird and I know it is, but I had to tell that truth because it's the truth.
Nikki Humphrey (19:17)
And it hurts when the enemy does that because it's like the pulling away of us, our soul, our body, our mind, our spirit away from God. And it's so redemptive because God presses in to those broken places and pulls us back.
Hope Mangiafico (19:24)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, I see like you're saying like it's pulling you from your true identity, which we love talking about your God given identity. again, I keep going back to this divide. So as he's able to pull those apart through different events in life and damper your beliefs on your will and your emotion, your ability to control your emotions and your sweet little mind that he loves to attack all the time.
He knows man, if hope doesn't know her identity, man, I am winning. Not permanently winning, but you know, we have a war and there's these little battles. And he's like, I'm winning, I'm winning this battle. And so let's say, hey, I wanna shrink the divide. So you know, you're like, I made Jesus Lord.
I'm understanding the soul significance of this is kind of where life lives is in the soul, right? For lack of a better term. We're not operating the spirit realm, hanging out with God. We are here in the body, but our body is not doing its own thing. It's controlled by something in between, which is the soul. So we have to decide like, are we ready to shrink, shrink that divide? Because what we decide to do moving forward, I'm gonna say moving forward from today, from this episode.
is we can either strengthen the divide and make it greater, which is that opposing force, right? The opposite end of a magnet, if you will, or we can shrink the divide. And that divide shrinks through letting God shine a light on areas of our life. And instead of ignoring these areas, or one that really strikes a chord with me and I realized in the last week, is someone saying, I'm working on that.
Instead of just working on it, AKA doing it all by yourself, let's begin the journey to uproot it right here, right now, immediately. And when I say immediately, it doesn't mean it's gonna be rapid. Gosh knows, Nikki and I have emphasized that, I believe, through our own stories and sharing things. But it does mean we continuously remind the kingdom of darkness and God that we want nothing.
to do with the things that have continued to pull us away, to separate us from our true identity, from the love of the Father, and from being able to be His love to other people. Because remember, it is possible. And as Nikki said, all souls are redeemable. Every part of you is redeemable. So it may feel overwhelming. And if it does,
I just wanted to emphasize that at least what I felt like was on my heart ⁓ from the Holy Spirit is like, we'll just cover basic things that run deep in all of us since the very beginnings of the Garden of Eden. There's just some basics that are almost like an open door ⁓ for then that continual restoration that you'll let Jesus do if you're willing. ⁓ And we can, you know, go through each one of those. I felt like the Lord wanted to like pick some terms and Nikki, you might get some terms too.
and give examples of them if anything comes to mind and then just in agreement together say like, don't want them anymore.
Because that's how you become that conduit of his love coming out of you.
Nikki Humphrey (23:08)
Can I just say something about what the enemy likes to do with love? He really loves to pervert it. He wants our love to be filled with pride. Like we get to choose who we love and we get to choose who we give it to. And it's just, he wants to distort it. So we become like the power of who we love and how we love. And we are like our own mini gods. And this is how we...
Hope Mangiafico (23:12)
Yeah, please.
Mmm.
Nikki Humphrey (23:38)
We show it by some people are deemed for our love and some people we will completely block out from love. So the enemy will distort it. He wants us to love but on different terms than the way God loves us.
Hope Mangiafico (23:55)
Well, funny enough...
on the small list that I have, the first one of saying no, I don't want anymore is pride. I'm not even kidding.
Nikki Humphrey (24:07)
you
Hope Mangiafico (24:09)
And you you did a great job opening up to that word because it is one of those things that is actually sneakier. Like, yes, if you look at the world right now, right, we got Pride Month, we got different things. Like, that's a bluntly obvious pride because it's spelled out right in front of your eyes. But don't be deceived into thinking because you're not doing that, that you aren't doing like Nikki said, and you're picking and choosing.
who deserves your love or who deserves, and it's not even your love because at that rate it's broken love. But who deserves your energy or whatever. these are, we're not, that leads to a perversion of boundaries as well. ⁓ We have to come from all of these from a place of a healthy mindset that understands just like you said, Nikki, like what, how God defines something.
how he loves is what you said specifically, that loving like him, ⁓ that's the key.
And pride, pride is even like, to be honest, I think sometimes, like I said, we don't wanna ignore these areas. Sometimes ignoring something's a little bit of pride, because you don't wanna admit that it's in you or you've dealt with it. Or even sometimes simply saying, I'm working on it. Because if you're saying you're working on it, it means you're trying to muster up the strength, because you're not willing to surrender it, because you're being self-sufficient.
So these are just some examples of how sneaky that can be.
It is not to be condemning. I really want to emphasize that whole concept too of like not condemnation and then it's not to be overwhelming if you're like, well gosh, I feel all three of those. Well, that's not the point. The point is that today is the day that you say, dude, I don't want pride anymore. I want it to be removed. what? Bam, thank you, Lord. But that removal of pride comes back a piece of my soul. The magnet.
Nikki Humphrey (26:09)
That's right.
Hope Mangiafico (26:11)
draws a piece of me back.
That's what this is about. So I know for me I'm saying, uproot pride in my life, get it out in the name of Jesus. I don't want it anymore and I break any agreements that I've come with that, that has kept me from you and my ability to love other people like you, in Jesus' name.
The second one I had, Nikki, so you opened the door to pride. I just love that so much. The next one, which I've talked about recently on an episode and it has been a continual thing because it is layered, is selfishness. Now, these words that we're using just as an FYI, I talked about how they run deep in us because they're from the beginning, from the garden. And I want to encourage and remind
you as a listener that the fall happened because the fallen Lucifer, our enemy, brought these things forth. so pride doesn't feel good to admit to. Selfishness doesn't feel good. But guess who is the king and the father of all of these things that we're listing? It's him. And that's why step number one was so important that you want to be you want to be aligned with Jesus as your Lord. Because as we talk about pride and selfishness,
They are not you. It's just all that damage and fracturing made them feel like you, but they belong to another. I really wanted to emphasize that because I got really upset with how selfish I have been and I have a tendency to be, but it's because of that fracturing, like Nikki has said, ⁓ and rooted in fears of not having enough, fears of losing.
everything. You know, those have, they have legit reasons. But just because the reasoning's legitimate doesn't mean we want to keep holding it longer and continue to work on it. No, no, No thank you is what I say to that.
Do you have any examples?
Nikki Humphrey (28:19)
So when you're saying like selfishness, I kept hearing it differently than my spirit. I kept hearing self protection.
Hope Mangiafico (28:24)
Okay.
Yeah, it's the same thing. Exactly. Yes.
Nikki Humphrey (28:29)
We've been hurt, so we put up these walls
to protect ourselves. And when we put up walls, we become selfish because we only become self-focused, navel gazer. We don't look up. We're just trying to muscle our way through life. And that's selfish, but that's, we're protecting ourselves. It's not how God created us to be, but that's the only way sometimes that we could survive in the fallen world.
Hope Mangiafico (28:37)
Yes.
That's it.
Yes, I couldn't agree more with that. could, everything that has self in front of it in general,
It comes from stuff happening to you and the problem is the fruit is that navel gazing. That's the problem. And guess again, who is the king of being self-absorbed? It's not God or he went and made us. It's the enemy, the kingdom of darkness. And know that
There is grace for your self-protection. ⁓ God knew it's what you needed to survive in those moments. And I know we've already kind of hit the nail on the head on this one, but I find that I can find myself getting upset with myself that, you know, all these years later, right, I'm still wanting to self-protect, self-preserve, that's the other word I was thinking of actually, and just release.
So just coming to agreement that like we don't want it anymore in the name of Jesus and actually to Nikki's point about self-protect, we release, we loosen that grip of selfishness and open it up for Jesus to come in and lift our gaze. Yeah, that was good, Nikki. We don't want it.
Nikki Humphrey (30:17)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
That's right. Yes.
Mm-mm.
Hope Mangiafico (30:31)
That leads to the other one, which is bitterness. I never dealt with bitterness, so you won't talk about that one?
Nikki Humphrey (30:39)
⁓
Hope Mangiafico (30:41)
Literally just kidding. I have a journal entry from two weeks ago.
Nikki Humphrey (30:45)
I was gonna say
this word has come up many, many times, many times over and over again.
Hope Mangiafico (30:50)
Me too. Me too.
Nikki Humphrey (30:57)
It's a doozy because.
Hope Mangiafico (30:59)
It's a
doozy, yes.
Nikki Humphrey (31:02)
It doesn't feel good to have a root of bitterness because when we carry around that bitterness, it keeps us in bondage with everything that is negative associated to that situation, circumstance, event, person. when I look at my root of bitterness, it's dark and it's twisty and it's gnarly and it's
Hope Mangiafico (31:28)
Hmm.
Nikki Humphrey (31:31)
taken such a, it's like the taproot, know, the taproot of the tree is like the strongest root that grows the furthest down. When I was in bondage to bitterness, everything that was coming forth out of me, to me, every thought, every action, everything had a sprinkling of bitterness on it.
Hope Mangiafico (31:39)
Hmm. A sprinkling. I like that because it sounds like, not that big of a deal.
Nikki Humphrey (31:57)
But when it's the root of your whole system, for me, it threw everything off. And when I realized that, I think it was like three years ago, I was like, that makes so much sense.
Hope Mangiafico (32:14)
Yeah. So actually my last journal entry on bitterness was Not very long ago. So was truly kidding. ⁓ And honestly, someone else had to put a mirror up to me because I have been dealing with bitterness for a long time too. And I thought, okay, like that root has come up a long ways, but I guess it had not been fully removed. So that sprinkling was still in there. I really like that you use that terminology because sprinkling will kill.
just as much as anything else that's dark and heavy and gross will.
Nikki Humphrey (32:48)
And anything good that was coming in my life was sprinkled with that bitterness. So I wasn't feeling the full manifestation of God's love. I was tainting it like, God's love a little bit of bitterness on top, you know.
Hope Mangiafico (32:56)
Yes. Yes.
Yes.
Nikki Humphrey (33:05)
and
it blocks connection with him.
Hope Mangiafico (33:10)
It really does. It's interesting,
Proverbs 14, 10, I don't have it written out, but it says, heart knows its own bitterness, which I thought was really interesting. So what I put was like, that means it feels it intimately. And I think that's why it's that root, like you're talking about like that main root line, because the heart is like our center.
And so that's what that scripture is saying is like, it knows the bitterness. It feels all the yuck from it, even if like we're missing that mind heart connection kind of thing. And in Job, it was interesting. I wrote that Job walks slowly because of bitterness and he asked for God's restoration. So Job actually, people know the story of Job, right? They think it's such a beautiful story of restoration because it is, but he admits.
that he was walking slowly because he was bitter and he needed God's restoration, which I thought was a really cool scripture. And there was another part in the Bible where there was this man that a prophet was able to say, hey, you're wrapped up in bitterness. It said like the gall of bitterness.
and that was keeping him from something. So it's exactly like you said, Nikki, it's preventing the full manifestation of what God has for you. You can be wrapped up in it. ⁓ And the last thing that I had, and I felt like this is important to mention is,
Bitterness is holding onto offense, hurt, deep anger and resentment due to unfair or hurtful experiences. It encompasses both anger and hate. It is the life is unfair belief.
And I feel that.
So if we take what Nikki shared and I shared, and we talk about bitterness, we can come in agreement, if you want to come in agreement, say yes, I agree, that we want to remove this banner over our lives that we're saying life is unfair. We want to, along with declaring that we don't want it anymore and we surrender to Jesus, we want to rip up that anger that's attached to it, right? That deep resentment, that hate.
the offense that we continue to pick up. We rip it all up. All of it up, including that big root. What's the term for that big root, Nikki? The taproot. We're saying, nah, get it out in the name of Jesus. Get it out and we want him as our tree of life and the banner over our heads.
Nikki Humphrey (35:41)
Taproot.
Hope Mangiafico (35:59)
And there's three more. The next one we don't have to deep dive into because we have an entire episode on. But the one that he gave me was Shame. And like I said, we have a whole episode on that. But Shame actually originates in the garden. ⁓ When they realized they had no clothes on, they were shameful. This is not an original thing that has separated us from the love of the Father and being able to love others.
⁓ And this is one that just like all the ones that we talk about but Nikki and I have emphasized, it's got a lot going on with it. ⁓ But it goes back to believing something is inherently wrong with us. We are the problem. ⁓ And so let's just say get shame out of our lives in the name of Jesus. We are not broken. We're redeemable. Like Nikki said, all souls are redeemable.
And so you may have done something, but it is not you. You're fearfully and wonderfully made, Nikki quotes that often on this podcast. And the Father has a final say of who you are and what you're gonna do. So we say no more in the name of Jesus.
Nikki Humphrey (37:10)
In of Jesus.
Hope Mangiafico (37:11)
And we have rebellion, which rebellion's a big word ⁓ that I would have never said I would have ⁓ displayed until I realized rebellion can be something that's just like ignoring God or what he's saying. Or saying, nah, not today, God.
Nikki Humphrey (37:40)
Yes.
Hope Mangiafico (37:42)
What do you think?
Nikki Humphrey (37:43)
I think rebellion is so it's we do it probably more than we can even count on a day. It's those little things that we do that go against our father, his will his plan for us, like going into the curlicues making a choice. hijacking the plan, thinking a thought about somebody that's not necessarily nice, you know, it's just like that those small acts of rebellion, they add up. And it's
Hope Mangiafico (37:49)
Mm.
Hijacking the plan.
Nikki Humphrey (38:13)
Not that we have to walk around continuously correcting ourselves. The more we grow, the more we get in alignment with God's plan for us, the less it happens and we become more aware of it while we're doing it. So we're going to repent and we're moving on. But there's nothing Satan loves more than somebody who's rebelling against God because that's what he did. So when he sees those big and little acts of rebellion in us, he's like, hmm, they're on my team. They're on my high five.
Good job. So we have to be aware of that. what are our thoughts, our words, our actions, all of it, our emotions. Those all can be small acts of rebellion against our father God.
Hope Mangiafico (38:44)
Yes.
Mmm.
Wow, you did so good with that. I couldn't agree more. Ew. We ripped that up and we say we are not on your team, ⁓ that's so good. You did so great with that. So yeah, we don't want acts of rebellion sprinkled throughout our lives, through our choices. We don't want for a second.
Nikki Humphrey (39:08)
That's right. No.
Hope Mangiafico (39:25)
to give the enemy a thought that we are on his side.
Hmm in the name of Jesus no no Now the last one that I had is lying
And again, these words came up through, I believe the reason the Holy Spirit gave them to me is they were traits of Satan, just like you were saying. ⁓ Scripture says he's the father of lies. And I'm pretty sure we've all lied. Not just as children who are innocent and know what they were doing, although you do know what you're doing even as a child, but you're not held as responsible as a grown adult. But like, exaggeration is lying. And I was the queen of exaggerating. And I realized it was almost a self-
protection mode that I was operating in.
Nikki Humphrey (40:14)
And the root of that is pride.
because you wanna be right or you want to elevate yourself higher than you actually are. I see kids do it all the time.
Hope Mangiafico (40:27)
Yeah.
Yeah, not wild.
And I'm trying to think of other faces that lying has because it's also sneakier than you realize, especially here's the truth about all traits that we're talking about, but I find I have seen in people's lives is to be true once you do it once. You don't even catch it after so many times. It just comes right out.
Nikki Humphrey (40:57)
And I've seen people lie so much that it almost becomes truth to them.
Hope Mangiafico (41:02)
It does. I've seen that too.
Nikki Humphrey (41:04)
Like they
tell the same story over and over and over and over again. And you're like, I know that's a lie, but they think it's real. They think that that's how it really happened.
Hope Mangiafico (41:15)
because we have the ability to store our realities. We can either choose it by what we say or other people, that's how other people's words have such an impact on us. It can be a distortion that we start to believe. And I couldn't, I could not agree with that more, Nikki.
Nikki Humphrey (41:20)
Mm-hmm.
And especially when people are in codependent relationships with other people, they co-sign the lie and they believe it too. You see this sometimes when I'm working with families, it's just like, they're both believing the same lie as if that event thing, whatever, actually happened.
Hope Mangiafico (41:46)
and
Nikki Humphrey (42:00)
And it's that whole distortion that the enemy uses. The other person thinks they're loving the person so well.
Hope Mangiafico (42:06)
Yes.
You saying that just made me think of something.
Well here, you tell me your thoughts. We won't even Google it. I was trying to figure out what the definition of lying is. That's okay. We can say we agree with this and the Holy Spirit gives it to us.
Would this be lying if we try to write the ending too soon and predict what's happening or what will happen without waiting on God to actually show up and do something?
Nikki Humphrey (42:41)
It's an act of disobedience.
Hope Mangiafico (42:43)
Mm-hmm.
Nikki Humphrey (42:47)
It's only lying if we are speaking out what we think is going to happen, if it hasn't happened yet.
Hope Mangiafico (42:53)
So, like, do you think projecting into the future with your words, maybe? I don't know. I'm trying to... I'm having a hard time putting into words, but I feel like there's a sneaky door that line has crept in that many of us have not been made aware of.
Nikki Humphrey (43:11)
Well, it can be disguised in many things. And like I first said, lying, a lot of people do that because of a pride thing. So a lot of people will say things like, I'm going to be X, Y, Z. You know, we learned this when we were in our network marketing days. Like, I'm to do X amount by this time with this many people. And we're speaking it out. And that wasn't the truth.
Hope Mangiafico (43:20)
it
Nikki Humphrey (43:38)
It wasn't true for me, it wasn't true for you, it probably wasn't true for most people in the room. So yes, that was a lie.
Hope Mangiafico (43:44)
Seeing that's interesting because you're thinking you're just doing some goal setting and didn't hit it. That's interesting.
And let's also say that we do not give permission for white lies either. What a stupid concept. A lie is a lie is a lie. So yeah, we don't want lying in any way, or form. We want to move with every step of our being with the Holy Spirit. And every time he says to move, to move. Every time he says, hey, this is your goal, then that is the goal that I have. It is not a self-made goal.
We don't want that in the name of Jesus. And to Nikki's point, this is attached to other things we talked about. That's why pride was first. Most things go back to that because that's exactly what made Satan fall and made him rebel. So those were the main ones. Pride, selfishness, bitterness, shame, rebellion, and lying. And what I would encourage you to do is to take each of these to the Father and then ask if anything attached to them needs to be addressed.
Because we did this and I will tell you by speaking out and saying you don't want it There's that this empowerment that comes with that of realigning yourself with the Father ⁓ But it's it's an open door. This is just the beginning of the pruning for you ⁓ But the beautiful thing of this is this does begin ripening the fruit of the Spirit so your love Joy peace patient kindness gentleness self-control. This is the beginning
And with that also comes the healing of your body because remember the soul is between the spirit and the body. So when you're addressing all of this, your body changes and we've talked about that briefly, but I wanted to emphasize that. And that's what makes this extremely exciting is these are yucky things because they belong to a yucky entity. ⁓ But we have to go back to the fact that Jesus said this was a commandment to love others.
how God has loved us, how he has loved us, which means it's possible, but it comes with a purifying.
a refining, a pruning, or a ripping up altogether the taproot. And it is a journey.
Nikki Humphrey (46:06)
and it being a command, I encourage everyone to journal with God about how are you currently loving? What areas in your life could you love more like God? Who have you heart in your heart to that could use some godly encouragement, a spark of God's light in them?
Hope Mangiafico (46:12)
Hmm.
Hmm.
Nikki Humphrey (46:36)
We're not telling you to like in our episode on forgiveness, we're not telling you if it's a closed door that got closed, keep it closed. If that person is unsafe for you, keep away. But sometimes there's a hardening and we don't even realize why our heart was hardened towards somebody. so journal with your father. What does it look like to love like you God? Like I said before, what areas do I need to work
Hope Mangiafico (46:48)
Yeah. Yeah.
Nikki Humphrey (47:04)
on?
Areas am I doing extremely well? He'll tell you that too. He doesn't always just give loving corrections. He wants to encourage us and keep us going. You know, if we're doing something right, he's going to give us our kudos to keep it up.
Hope Mangiafico (47:19)
That's a good reminder. That's a really good reminder. And journaling makes it feel more, at least in my opinion, ⁓ just easier altogether.
to receive the kudos, to receive the loving correction. Like it's just easier because you're, I guess because it causes you to focus on just like one part, one thing. And you know, as Nikki's saying what she's sharing about journaling and asking the Lord questions, the beautiful thing of like asking God questions and him, you know, asking him like, where has my heart been hardened or where can I love someone else a different way or a new way is that's welcoming into you more love that looks like him.
And so there will be less room for the stuff that we're like, we don't want in our lives. And that's a really big thing that I didn't do when we were going through those words is like, when you're like, I don't want it, you do need to replace it with something. So take, like Nikki said, take these to the Father in Journal and that will allow you to be filled with the things that look more like him.
Which also means you're looking more like him, which also means you're getting back to your original identity.
and letting that magnet bring you back. I really love that visual.
And you know, in 3 John 1-2, it says, Beloved, I pray above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers. It all hinges on how's your soul doing. So if you want to keep it really simple, get that journal and say, God, how's my soul today?
and let him bring it back piece by piece.
and make less room for the stuff that was never meant to be yours to begin with.
Nikki Humphrey (49:13)
Amen. I think that'll do it.
Hope Mangiafico (49:15)
That'll
do it? Awesome.
Nikki Humphrey (49:19)
If this episode challenged or encouraged you, would you share it with a friend who might need a reminder of God's love? When we spread his love, we multiply his kingdom. Until next time, remember you are equipped, you are loved, and you are called to love like God.
Hope Mangiafico (49:36)
Mmm. Amen. Until next time.
