Healing Our Obsessions and Compulsions (OCD/Unwanted Thoughts/Struggles in the Mind)

hi everybody welcome mark - hey soos here and just want to take a few moments to share with you looking forward to getting back to our show this week we'll be broadcasting on Thursday but I wanted to take an opportunity I get a lot of input from people and feedback people search my website they are searching for topics or they're looking for help and I do a lot of work in helping people unlock some of their relationship struggles their identity struggles and also helping them to begin to unwind their thoughts I'm very big on helping people to get victory in their thoughts because as you think so are you and that is the whole existence of our life is based on the thoughts that we allow into our life the thoughts that we focus on the thoughts that we give the most attention to and I get a lot of feedback from people that are struggling and their thoughts I'm noticing that we live in a world that if I was to describe the struggle in people's minds there's a lack of peace there's a lack of groundedness there is a chaotic sense - people's minds where they're struggling to be able to Brown themselves in their thinking to nurture themselves in their thoughts and be able to recognize that hey everything is gonna be okay I'm okay and I'm going to be able to break through I have a hope for my future and I get a lot of I get emails written to me voice message message questions and especially around the arena of like obsessive kind of thoughts we're in a very obsessive-compulsive culture and I want to use that term because I've helped many people even clinically diagnosed OCD or helped people who haven't been diagnosed and and quite honestly I like to use certain medical terms or psychological terms or even diagnosed terms you know they use in the industry manual the DSM 4 you see up there big funky you know a super nerdy kind of book that describes many of the different mental Alisa I like to use those terms for a place of discussion to observe what culture is struggling with I get a lot of emails from people that are struggling with obsessions I have these constant unrelenting thoughts that I can't seem to shake or I have people that are struggling I have these unwanted thoughts and they are scaring the tar out of me and I can't believe I just had that thought when they become tormented over it or there are these repetitive thoughts over and over and over and over and again very heavy what I call religious condemning kind of thoughts where they feel like they have failed God they have messed up something in their past it just keeps haunting them haunting them haunting them haunting them good morning good morning welcome to the stream and these these unrelenting thoughts just keep pulsating and and working at them and they're like I can't seem to get free people writing to me that are imprisoned by their thoughts and some of you I'm posting this video as a way to kind of help respond to all those emails cuz I do my best to give feedback to people that I can and in the time that I'm allotted and sometimes I just put videos together to help address those issues or our podcast episodes and and these repetitive thoughts that people struggle with and then there's the aspect where people write to me and they're saying mark I think I've committed the unpardonable sin and they're tormented in these areas where they feel like they've done something or they've given in to a thought I remember ministering to somebody who locked themselves up in in in the and the mentals in not the mental institution they have different words for it now but in the psychiatric department of the hospital because they had felt they committed the unpardonable sin and it weighed on them and weight on their way down the matura meant to them so bad and so I wanted to take a few minutes to help people unlock what is with this OCD thing that's going on in our culture I'm not talking about just people diagnosed clinically I'm talking about people in everyday life it seems that our minds are lacking the piece that we need so therefore these obsessions are coming out these compulsions if you notice those two words they're very like extreme intense words obsessions people talk about I'm obsessed I'm obsessed and we live out of a place of compulsion you see the obsession creates a focus it creates a narrow focus that's repetitive over and over and over and over and over and over again and the way that thought works is that if you give attention to a thought repeat it and focus on it what that thought demands will begin to have a huge attention-getting focus in your life the more that you feed it the more that it will grow and that neuro pathway in your brain begins to form and what a lot of people don't understand is that when a thought is formed it can be renewed there's a process called neuroplasticity where it is the process of the brain letting certain thoughts die and letting new thoughts form but what we also don't understand is that that takes time no no matter how much you pray no matter how much work you do no matter how much you ask God to do miracles in your life thoughts take time to be renewed God created your brain to be wired in such a way that if it's hijacked it takes time to reset the wiring because your mind is very powerful God has set you that when you have thoughts that have been rooted in your system those things are meant to stay there so you can access them quickly quickly quickly quickly so that you can unconsciously or by default live in certain ways so for instance if you if you develop the habit and mindset of peace and you're able to cultivate that peace your brain is intended to be wired in such a way that you can access that peace constantly without sitting there and going I am at peace I am at peace you just access that it's a fruit of the Spirit now being hardwired into your system and what obsessions do is they cause us to have to live at this intense level and it's great to have passion I love people that are passionate but our passion has turned into obsession a lot of our terms are very addict Laden terms where people say I'm obsessed with this show or they may say I'm obsessed with god I'm addicted to Jesus and so what we do is we take we take our addictions and we throw them into all the arenas that were involved in so we may not be a drug addict but we may be an addict in the arena of our work we may be an addict in the arena of relationships or maybe an addict in the arena of our thoughts the thing that I want people to understand who struggle with obsessive thoughts unrelenting thoughts these black-and-white kind of thoughts I committed the unpardonable sin or is there is an addiction root to these OCD kind of thinking's the addiction is not necessarily pointing to a habit like a cocaine addict has been has been conditioned in his or her mind to need that drug to try to achieve a dopamine rush to compensate for the lack of how they feel about themselves of their own self hate their a lack of worth or stress the issues that they battle and struggle with looking for love well a person struggling with obsessive kind of thoughts has an addict stronghold inside of them that has chosen to look to obsessing over a thought over and over and over again they've been conditioned in that those of you that struggle with OCD kind of things I want you to search your family history and see are their addictions in your family tree alcoholism drug abuse sexual addictions and sometimes they're hard to trace and understand because so many of our families hid their addictions underneath the surface we hid everything and then we get into the church and we kind of go oh it's all under the blood but we never want to talk about it and to me it's it's it's not under the blood if it's under the carpet you know if we're always hiding things and keeping them out of you and not allowing ourselves to be open so there's there's a lot of shame in having these obsessive thoughts because they're addict Laden they're very heavily filled with pulsations to draw you in and it doesn't allow you to get out of it and then it creates compulsions compulsions are it could be you have to act on it you know there's OCD people that have to clean their hands wash their hands ten times over and over turn the locks during the keys did I you know repetitive did I you know leave leave the light switch on or something like that right I have to constantly clean myself over and over again but the compulsion can also be I have to figure out these thoughts and a lot of you that struggle with obsessive kind of thinking you're constantly trying to figure these things out you feel that that is the solution to your problems and the problem is you get deeper and deeper and deeper into a ditch she's like did I commit the unpardonable sin you're dissecting it or did you know you have these unwanted thoughts that are going and you're trying to figure it out figure out figure it out and the more you figure it out the more you immerse in it and the more you make matters worse the enemy knows that he can give you a thought and if he can give you a thought that you pay attention to and this is why I really am passionate about helping people understand their thoughts we don't understand where thoughts come from you can have a thought that comes from God you can give you a thought speak to you in your thinking it often comes as though it's your own thought it comes in your own inner dialogue but you can have a thought from the enemy and that's why we need to be able to discern to have a discerning of spirits to have an ability to take thoughts captive it's our responsibility we have to understand that the enemy can give you a thought but if he can give you a thought that you're afraid of he's now got your attention he has now got your focus because he hits you with something and that could be as simple as something's gonna happen to you or you're gonna get a disease or maybe you have a decision you're gonna die are you gonna get hit by or or you're gonna do something to your children or a mental picture that is completely unwanted and if we're not discerning the thought that comes by you'll think it's your own thought I've helped many people that have gone out on a Ledge of making radical decisions not good ones ruining their families changing or leaving their marriages changing relationships all out of an obsession of a thought they had for a lover or a person or a thing or a situation that they did not discern and they said well this just might this must be the way that I feel so I gotta just act on it and they don't recognize you can have every thought in the world it doesn't mean that's who you are do we understand that the spiritual war that we're all facing is in the arena of thoughts it's in the arena of thinking that's where spiritual warfare 101 comes down to what's the predominant world of thinking that you're meditating and focusing on because what you give your attention to becomes your focus what you focus on is what you'll give your energy to and that's what will manifest in your life and so the enemy knows you if you can give you a thought and it gives you a thought that scares you or gives you a thought that is that is a impulse or that is strong or floods your system you'll be so overtaken you won't discern you won't recognize he's there speaking in your thoughts you won't take a captive and you won't take your peace and so these obsession this obsessive thinking that we lived in creates these very narrow focused intense focus and then the compulsion which is fear driven that's where fear comes in - then - then cause you to have to act on these thoughts or to sit there in an inner torment over the thoughts that you have so when I help people in their obsessive kind of patterns or OCD kind of stuff I have to first help them deal with the addiction aspects of their life and this comes back to the desperate unmet need to be loved in their life it may be the traumas in their life that have shocked their system and so they look for certain things to to feel calm and so they used these obsessive thoughts and they follow these trails to try to calm themselves or in their hearts they've not been settled in the love that father God has for them you see the solution to our chaotic thinking is resting in the love that God has for us but we don't have a reference for it you see even when I help if I help somebody who's a drug addict or an alcoholic they have no reference for how to access love so they turned to the counterfeit they don't know how to love themselves and because we don't know how to love ourselves we look to these thoughts we've been conditioned to just then obsess over our thoughts or obsess at work or obsess at school or obsess over our ministry work and we have no groundedness we have no balance our lack of balance is revealed in these constant obsessive thinking worlds that we live in and one of the things is that right now the the trials and stresses people are going through our fairly intense we're all going through areas I am going through stuff you guys are all going through stuff that's intense and if we don't know how to nurture ourselves we're gonna be open season because nurture is the calming effect of love nurture is the voice says everything's gonna be okay nurture says you're gonna be all right you you have what it takes to overcome you're gonna be able to step through nurture is a work of the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit comes to nurture us to comfort us to remind us of what the master has spoken to remind us of the words of Jesus to give us life of the Living Word and breathe into our lives that we may rest in the Father's love that we may know the father's heart for us so that we can be filled with his comfort you see all torment of the mind comes down to first John 4 that says he who fears has not been made perfect in love because perfect love cast out fear the perfect love is the love of father God mankind's love has aspects of it that's diluted where it's not the full power that love has that's why we're we're all struggling in our journey because what we really need is we need the love of Father God to come in and touch those areas of our hearts so that we can be settled relational settling is the key to our obsessions and many people who struggle with and I do session after session after session with people in this area is that they have very black-and-white thinking about the relationship with God very black-and-white thinking about where they've wronged God and have a record of it and they're condemned about it and they feel like I've done this and it's created all this problems in my life and and there is this if I mess up or if I if I go to this play it's it's it's a it's a mind binding arena of thought that keeps us imprisoned and and perfect love comes in to say you don't have to be obsessed in your thoughts and your black and white thinking you don't have to have a list of all your screw-ups or or all that all the things that you need to do to fix many people interact with their relationship with God in a very black-and-white way God what is this what's happening what's the ten things I need to do I'm either a hundred percent right or a hundred percent wrong you see either does you see even in the black and white thinking we hear the addict kind of mindset coming in we they're all in or I'm all out kind of stuff now passion many people that that struggle with these at a kind of thinking or addict patterns are very creative very passionate people and there can be some of the most powerful people on the planet but they must learn to be rooted and grounded in the love that God has for them otherwise you're going to live out of these compulsions and fear will drive your life I help people with obsessions to say you know what the first thing you need to do is face the fear of the thoughts that you have if you're not afraid of the thoughts that you have you begin to diminish its power folks you gotta understand that you could have every in your lifetime you'll probably have every crazy thought imaginable come your way you got to recognize that it doesn't mean that that is your own thought and it doesn't mean that that's who you are and the moment you begin to face the thought and say you know I'm not gonna be afraid of you you no longer need to give it a focus because many of the thoughts that come against you to torment you need to just come in through the radar and pass right on by and just keep on going but if you're afraid of it that thought won't pass through and just keep on going because that's what you need to often just tell the enemy you don't need to stand up in warfare and in the name of Jesus no you just need to go you know what fear I'm not listening to you anymore so you just come on through and just pass on by it's I'm not afraid of you that's the way you defeat a bully as you stand up and say I'm not afraid of you anymore I'm not afraid of this thought I'm not gonna be tormented in myself anymore now once you face the fear of it and you extract the fear of that thought you recognize it's just a thought the enemy can give me any thought he wants it's just a thought doesn't mean that to me isn't me that's who I am now the exercise is beginning to heal ourselves in our obsessions and letting God ground us in the love that he has for us grounding us in the love of the Father grounding us in the love of nurture grounding us in the ability to love and accept ourselves that's why I'm so passionate about this book that I wrote about God loves me and I love myself you see when you learn to love yourself you learn to settle yourself in your thoughts so that you're not crazed and having to figure out all these thoughts and focus on them love has a settling effect a calming effect Holy Spirit comes in with nurture to do what to to comfort us and people that lack nurture in their lives have a hard time accessing the Holy Spirit and many of their nurture wounds come out of their brokenness regarding the relationship with their mother because our mothers were were designed to manifest nurture in an extremely powerful way fathers manifest nurture too they were intended to manifest nurture there's something special by the way a mother emotionally helps us to learn to recover from our wounds and Jesus he looked at you overlooked the city and he said all I long to gather you you know as a as a as a as a hen gathers her chickens that's nurturer Psalm 91 you dwell so the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty I'll come under his wings I'll find refuge in him that's nurture and see we're in this place of a buzz gotta get stuff done gotta go gotta go gotta go gotta do nothing stupid stuff happening in my schedule and we don't know how to settle ourselves because we lack nurture and our hearts are pulsating and crying outgoing you've got a deal with this nurture issue and then we get obsessive and then we get compulsive in our thoughts and then we're like even people I help they're obsessed with their strongholds they're obsessed with like their issues and they got amount of chart here's all the things I'm working on here's another thing and it's great to have discernment of what you're struggling with but at some point you have to start begin focusing your attention on the great love that the Father has for you because his love is settling his love opens up for grace God's not engaging his children in black and white thinking he is a God of grace he's a because what is Grace it's an invitation of God's favor but it's in relationship anytime you get stuck in that black and white thinking you're out of relationship you're out of you're out of relationship engagement I don't mean you're out of relationship with God you're out of relationship as a focus and God needs to enter in such a way in your heart and he goes just sit down and just enjoy me you trying to figure stuff out enjoy me I want to I want to manifest my enjoyment for you I want you to feel my heart for you I want you to settle in to the peace that I have for you see I believe that we're in massive warfare these days and it's the warfare of thoughts and it's the warfare of love all of our spiritual warfare our struggles and thoughts in our minds I create all these cascading battles that we have in our life come down to love how we feel love from God do we feel love from other people and do we feel love for ourselves and so I've written an article on OCD stuff I'll put a link to it in this I also have a teaching series that you can get ahold of for overcoming anxiety disorders where I go into all kinds of stuff of anxiety OCD all kinds of areas if you're a monthly partner with us you actually get that whole teaching series in your membership login and also post a link to this book because this is going to help you to begin to dissect why we struggle to calm ourselves in our thoughts because we don't know how to love ourselves and so even in our words what I invite people to do is in in in your obsessive patterns you need to go in the opposite direction you need to settle yourself because what we often do is ramp up our lives to the noise that we hear and we have to move ourselves in beginning to train our minds our physiology to come into a state of peace the dot is my protector he's watching over me because what we're manifesting is a lack of being able to cultivate that it's because our hearts are broken in Jesus came his mission to show us the father to heal the brokenhearted and just because I said yes to Christ did not solve all my broken issues in my life this is a journey of learning to engage God layer after layer after layer and letting him heal the areas of my heart that need more of his love so I hope this helps you hopes it encourages you today I wanted to send this I'm gonna be doing more videos like this throughout in addition to the show that my wife and I do want to do more stuff like this so send me your thoughts write to me at mark at DeJesus I'm sorry mark at mark DeJesus not come so it's just mark ma RK @ and then spell my name mark DeJesus dot-com send me your thoughts and I look forward to just engaging you more and helping you into freedom god bless you guys talk to you soon

Channel: Mark DeJesus

Views: 6,084

Rating: 4.9634705 out of 5

Keywords: OCD, Obsessive, Compulsive, Thoughts, Struggles of the Mind

Id: lA0PFxwnOiI

Length: 25min 5sec (1505 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 04 2017