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Key Thought for this session:

“Ultimately I can go only one of two ways — which path do I take?”

We also talked about the needs of our souls. We gave some examples of soul needs. Specifically, we looked at the needs of the soul for Purpose, Joy, Hope, Freedom, Esteem and Belonging. We asked the question, “How do we satisfy these needs of our soul?” We saw that the carnal identity person thinks that his soul’s needs get satisfied primarily by the things he or she does to control the circumstances around them. The carnal identity person seeks to gain (or earn) the things they desire through some system of fair exchange. On the other hand, a spiritual identity person seeks to get the needs of their soul met by seeking them as undeserved gifts from someone who has the power and desire to meet those needs—and the ultimate gift giver for this mindset is a gracious, all-powerful, uncondemning God.

The corollaries here are that the Carnal identity person thinks the needs of the body should receive the highest priority, whereas, the Spiritual identity person seeks to get his or her soul’s needs satisfied primarily by spiritual things that are bestowed on them from above; these Spiritual identity people also tend to see the earned physical satisfaction of the soul’s needs, as a counterfeit temporary solution, and therefore as a form of idolatry.

Because the Carnal identity person is focused on earning the satisfaction of their soul’s needs for things like purpose, joy, esteem, these people tend to think the primary reason for laws to exist is to make the system of equitable exchange “fair” and predictable. In contrast, the Spiritual identity person thinks the primary purpose of laws is to show us how to be successful—in other words, laws are seen as a guide graciously given to help us understand how things are supposed to be.

So now let me ask you how YOU prefer to think about the best way for YOU to get the needs of your soul met.

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