In 1993, Neil T. Anderson released his book titled “Bondage Breaker.” Somehow, I found the book in paperback. I read it, and a year later, I read it again. Much of its content still enlightens and encourages me. It was and is an important book in my spiritual development. I do not have to agree with all a person writes to profit from what God is doing through them.
If you look up the book on Amazon, this is what its description says: “Learn about Satan’s plans to ruin your Christian life, and discover practical and effective ways to fight back. Understand what ‘spiritual conflict’ means, and how you are involved. Best of all, experience the freedom God wants you to have in your life.”
My soul is the essence of me. It is who I am. My flesh contains my soul and is vital to serving my Creator. Both are important. That’s why there will be a Divine moment in the future when our “departed” souls are reunited with our resurrection bodies.
Neil helped me more than anyone to begin to understand what a “soul” is. My understanding is not complete! It may be flawed. In fact, I am confident that it is flawed. I just don’t know where or in what way. The people who sound like they have “THE” soul facts down to scientific facts are most often self-assured and self-confident, or in a word, (at least a little) arrogant. Their verbiage usually turns me off. I have a hard time being close to a believer who has built their brick-and-mortar theological house to live in and abandoned the difficult adventure of pressing on toward the horizon.
(Two other books that have helped on the journey of discovery are “The Pilgrim’s Progress” and “The Great Divorce.”)
Neil suggests that our soul has three parts: thinker, doer, and feeler, or mind, will, and emotions. Essentially, when the feeler is allowed to be the driver, chaos is as perpetual as our next breath. To make a bad situation wors], Evil is free to roam about in our minds, offering its “logical” remedies for our maladies.
Our minds get confused with all the options boiling in a cauldron of confusion. That confusion leads our wills to settle on less-than-advantageous solutions to bring about the calm we long for, which we were actually created to live in. Our normal daily life has an inherent, albeit often faint, fragrant aroma of death and decay. We feel the confusion as weariness, fatigue, restlessness, irritability, and the like.
God came to us, as one of us, with a soul just like yours and mine, to give us a way to live in the abundance of a healthy soul, no matter what the circumstances of our daily existence. In addition, He provides a steady protection from the storm of Evil assaults that disturb our vitality.
When a person allows their soul to be encapsulated by God’s Grace, things change. Not necessarily our circumstances, but our perspective on our circumstances. The work of Jesus, his life, death, and resurrection, is the persistent positive influence of the Holy Spirit that forms a bubble of protection around us. The apostle Paul calls this bubble “the whole armor of God.” (See Ephesians 6.)
He says we are to put it on daily. That suggests that our wills play an essential role in our living above our circumstances. It is not a “one and done” kind of thing. Living is meant to be an adventurous exploration kind of thing. That mindset makes life an adventurous exploration of the will of God, the extraordinary experience of realizing the coming of the Kingdom of God, seeing His will being done on earth just as it is in heaven, thereby hallowing His name. (See the Lord’s Prayer, Matthew 6.)
Only those who fight Evil in the bubble of God’s grace will see victory. Only they will know the peace that cannot be understood by the world. Only they will walk in the confidence of the joy of the constant contentment of becoming what and who they were created to be.
Soul work is hard work, very hard work! Do not lose heart, my friend! Find the other Kingdom combatants around you and be an encouragement to them, and be open to their encouragement for you. That’s the way God planned it.
I have one additional thought, but will not elaborate on: the state of our soul health roughly falls into three dynamic conditions: Putrefied, Purified, and Petrified. Just give this idea time to grow roots in your mind.
May I suggest Psalm 19 to you? Here is the 14th verse:
May the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable to you,
Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.
Photo – An evening landscape in April 2026. Taken just outside Nevada’s Valley of Fire State Park heading to Zion National Park.
Baldwin Heirlooms 