Soul ties can also happen when we place our hope in an authority figure or idolize the person. Whenever we idolize a person, we give a piece of our soul to him.
Unhealthy soul ties will cause us to become dependent on a person. This will affect our relationship with God as we’re now dependent on a person to lead us instead of God.
That’s why people often walk away from church disappointed with the leaders they’ve idolized when they discovered that they’re just as flawed.
Sometimes church members end up having stronger soul ties with their leaders more than with Jesus. This kind of soul tie will cause people to look to people or the church for their needs instead of depending on Jesus.
This will cause church life to become toxic and harmful. When people’s main focus is on a human leader or the church itself, eventually they will treat the leader and the church on a human level instead of a godly one.
Conversations will center around people or the church. Church will be expected to meet needs that only Jesus can. Pastors will be expected to become everything and anything.
3 for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world? 4 When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting just like people of the world?
5 After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us.
1 Cor 3:3-5
Distrust of authority figures is oftentimes a result of broken soul ties. This can carry on to other places. That’s why when we have this broken soul ties, we tend to struggle with the same issues wherever we go.
We can keep switching churches or jobs but the issues we have with authority figures will be the same.
The sin of an authority figure in our life can also affect us in many ways. There are churches that have been devastated by the sins of their leaders due to the soul ties that the church has with its leaders.
Other times what initially seems like a God honoring relationship can turn into a harmful soul tie when the focus becomes more on the person and not on God.
“Is there anyone else that you need to forgive?” Julie asked.
Sarah paused for a few minutes as Julie prays for her. During this time, the Holy Spirit brought to her attention another person that she needs to forgive.
“He was a pastor that I respected and looked up to. During my time at his church, I placed my faith in him more than I did in God. But I was so hurt by some of the things he said to me. I kept thinking of him as the perfect spiritual leader…”
Sarah had a soul tie to her pastor because he was such an authority figure in her spiritual life and during her time there, she would depend on him for her own spiritual well being. She listens to all of his messages, attends most his meetings and even supports all of his initiatives to a point that he became the main focus in her spiritual life.
After their relationship soured, she moved on from the church with a damaged and unhealed soul tie. That has affected her view of pastors and church until today. This was a situation where she has to forgive him and break the damaged soul tie that she carried with her.
Soul ties with a spiritual leader is a common issue that many of us face. Due to a fatherless spirit within us, we look up to a spiritual leader to become that person that we need.
As Sarah go through the process of healing prayer, she was able to slowly break the soul ties of her past and begin to become whole again. The fragmented pieces of her soul were slowly restored through inner healing prayer.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in people.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in princes. -Psalm 118:8-9
What about you? Do you place your trust in God more than in people and leaders? Do you spend time hoping that a leader will come to your rescue or do you spend time waiting for God? It does not mean we don’t need people to help us. What it means is God is our main hope and no one else can take His place.
We can honor and love people but not worship them. We can pray for them and encourage them but when we worship them, we’re depending on people to fill that area in our life that only God can do. This will only lead to disappointment and disillusionment with people over and over again.
That’s why when we go to a church because of a person that we look up to, we usually walk away hurt when they let us down.
When our focus is on God alone, He will not let us down. To do this, sometimes we have to start releasing the harmful soul ties that we have with our leaders and learn to strip away the sense of unhealthy dependence that we have on people.
It does take some wisdom and balance here as we need to discern between what’s harmful and what’s not. It’s harmful when it causes us to depend on people more than on God. But it’s not harmful when it leads us to depend on God more than on people.