On The Trail Podcast

What does the Roman Empire teach us about the context of “adoption” language in the New Testament? What are the practical realities of this adoption? In this episode, we look at what it means to be a child of God.

4 Keys to Understanding Your New Covenant Identity in Christ: You are Pardoned by God, Adopted by God, made a Citizen of the Kingdom of God, and given a new Title: Saint. In this episode, we unpack what it means to be pardoned by God.

Who does God say you are?    We've been talking about who the world, the flesh, and the devil say you are. This week we’re moving into the Kingdom perspective! What is the New Covenant, and how does it inform not only how we understand our own identity but God’s as well?  We’ll be taking […]

Are you believing a lie about yourself? About God? We’ve been talking about how the world, the flesh, and the devil try to shape us. In this episode, we look at how the devil uses deception to affect our identity.

What pockets of pain are shaping you?    No one goes through life without experiencing pain, and that pain comes in all shapes and sizes. We can have pockets of pain from the bad that happens to us, from the absence of the good that we need, and from the way we compare ourselves to […]

How do the Kingdom and the Kosmos inform our identity? The Kingdom teaches us how to see reality, God, and ourselves as God sees. In Christ, the Kingdom gives us our New Covenant identity.  The Kosmos involves the world, the flesh, and the devil working together to give us an identity. In this episode, we […]

You are not beyond repair. There is hope for you and for your children to grow and repair your identity formation for your whole life. Last episode we talked about attachment-based identity. This episode, we’re pushing into the hope of joyful identity, looking at childhood development and the possibility for growth and repair in adults.

From our brain's perspective, identity is always relational. Our brains work from right to left, from attachment to beliefs. As we embark into this identity series, we begin with an understanding of how attachment affects our identity. In this episode, we look at Scripture and brain science, digging into the fascinating idea of how the brain […]

Time for a new series! We’re looking at personal identity formation from brain science and biblical realities. Why does identity matter? How did God design us to form our identity? What does the Bible teach us about our identity? What can we do to overcome obstacles and repair holes that keep us from living out […]

Anxiety, VCR, Community, Joy – We cover it all in this episode based on your questions as we celebrate one year On the Trail together! We have gifts for you in this episode, including 1 month free of Learning Library Premium. Visit the Online Learning tab at our website and use code “streamfree” when you […]

What story is your brain telling you? Is it true? In this episode, we wrap up our discussion about the joy elevator and the pain processing pathway with a closer look at the brain’s narrative engine.

“Show, don’t tell” is the thing to remember for resolving pain stuck at Level 4 of the pain processing pathway. In this episode, we start celebrating OTT’s 1-year anniversary, and we camp out on level 4 of the pain processing pathway. 

When the joy elevator in our brain gets stuck, our pain isn’t able to fully process. In this episode, we continue to unpack the joy elevator and the five levels of the pain processing pathway. 

Sometimes the joy elevator in our brain gets stuck and our pain isn’t able to fully process. In order for suffering to keep from becoming traumatic, our brains need to process the pain at all five levels of the pain processing pathway. In this episode, we begin to unpack the joy elevator and the pain […]

It’s no secret – negativity robs our joy. Toxic thoughts can imprison us in unpleasant emotions. How do we get free and return to joy? In the next phase of our joy series, we’re discussing some of the brain science of toxic thoughts and strategies for how to replace them.

When emotions are dragging, there is an amygdala to soothe.  In this episode we finish our discussion about how to tame the amygdala and return to joy when we find ourselves trapped in one of the big six negative emotions.

We’re continuing our joy series with a little brain science. When something triggers the amygdala as “personal,” it sends out a signal of good, bad, or scary. If bad or scary is signaled, it triggers one of six emotions: sadness, shame, disgust, despair, anger, or fear.  For the next two episodes, we are talking about […]

Would you describe your inner world as joyful?   Whether conscious of it or not, most of us live out of an inner world of fear or joy. Last episode we talked about tearing down that inner fear house. In this episode, we are talking about building an inner joy house. Building a joy house can […]

Let’s tear down the house of fear and build a house of joy. Last episode we introduced Joy Bonds. Our brains are designed to run on the fuel of joy, but they can default to fear. In this episode we’re looking at the counterpart—fear bonds. 

A joy-filled life is possible. Let’s talk about how to cultivate one. Marcus says two words blew up his old paradigm: Joy Bonds. His old paradigm said belief + choice = transformation, but what about joy and attachment?  We’re starting down a new trail for the summer where we explore the transformative nature of joy, […]

Did your ancestors open the door to the devil?  We are wrapping up our series on the acrostic SOUL-L, which looks at five common areas where the devil claims ground in our lives and how to reclaim that surrendered ground. Today’s episode addresses lineage. Sometimes the enemy has permission to work in our lives because of the […]

Can believing a lie give the devil permission to my life? We are in the midst of looking at five common areas where the devil claims ground in our lives and how to reclaim that surrendered ground. Today’s episode looks at lies we believe. The devil is the “father of lies” (John 8:44). When we […]

We are in the midst of looking at five main areas where the devil claims ground in our lives and how to reclaim that surrendered ground. Today's episode looks at unforgiveness. The remedy for unforgiveness is forgiveness. In this episode we talk about what forgiveness is and what it is not. 

If sin is like leaving your front door unlocked for the enemy, the occult is like throwing open the garage door and hosting a block party. We are in the midst of looking at five main areas where the devil claims ground in our lives. The goal is to help us know where to revoke permissions and […]