Breaking Unhealthy Soul Ties: Do Your Relationships Produce Bondage or Joy? by Bill Banks, Susan Banks

wile or method employed by the enemy in gaining a “place” within the individual. He would love to so bind an individual with soul-ties that he is unable to respond to the Lord’s call, or to feel ineligible or disqualified to respond.
    Satan Perverts Godly Soul-Ties
    Unfortunately, we frequently hear of the downfall of ministers through sexual sins. What we have discovered with regard to soul-ties helps in understanding and explaining this prevalent phenomenon. When any man attempts to help a woman, or when a minister counsels a young divorcee, soul-ties often form. On the woman’s part there may be soul-ties of dependency and of looking to the one who is providing assistance and godly wisdom as her male counterpart, or head, fulfilling the role voided by her absent husband. There are other factors but this serves to illustrate her potential vulnerability.
    On the male part, there can be a familial soul-tie as that of a father to daughter, brother to sister, pastor to member, teacher to pupil, or that of friend to friend. These are all godly forms of relationship. However, if the man and especially the pastor, is not on guard (and is unfamiliar with the potential dangers of soul-ties) he is vulnerable to crossing the line. If he does, he allows these godly relationships to become something distorted. The danger is that the loving spiritual ties which already exist may merge into carnal . Then the friend-to-friend tie becomes a lover-to-lover tie. A knowledge of soul-ties helps us to be on guard against crossing the line. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.
    Pastor Win Worley encountered and cast out a spirit that identified itself as a “good soul-tie breaker.” Satan opposes and seeks to destroy all good soul-ties, especially those in marriage, or within the Body of Christ. Pastor Worley observed that there were seven spirits that seemed to be in subjection to and working with the “good soul-tie breaking spirit.” Among them were fear of rejection, fear of hurt, deception, dependency, mistrust, hate, and jealousy.

    As we have seen, through the reality of negative soul-ties, and through the inappropriate choices we make in relationships such as misplaced affection, we enter into deep-rooted bondage. Perhaps you are not sure if you have fallen into one of the traps which have been mentioned. In the next chapter we will describe symptoms commonly experienced by those ensnared in unhealthy soul-ties. Use this information as a diagnostic tool to evaluate the condition of your own soul.
    2 These are certainly not the only roots of demonic activity; for example, someone can inherit a spirit of alcoholism.
    3 I have written a book on the subject, Ministering to Abortion’s Aftermath . Available at www.impactchristianbooks.com
    4 A letter which is particularly illustrative of the soul-tie element in multiple personalities is reproduced in the appendix.

4
Side-Effects of
Unhealthy Soul-Ties

    The symptoms negative soul-links produce underscore the urgency of defining the unhealthy soul-ties that may exist in one’s life, and the necessity of being free from them.
    When one is tied to the wrong person, certain common side effects are observed. They will include some of the following:
Loss of individuality and self-confidence .
    Tendency to think of oneself in terms of relationship to someone else, accompanied by inferiority and a lack of competence.
Loss of clear thinking in decision making .
    Double-mindedness, the inability or shirking from decision making.
Loss of peace
    The presence of fear, worry, anxiety, or nervousness especially around other people; feeling of being pressured, or under stress to always please the other person.
Loss of the ability to really love others .
    The presence of anger and resentment.
Loss of spiritual liberty and personal freedom .
    Accompanied by guilt and condemnation and by feelings of being smothered or constantly restrained.
    In addition, a person who has become vulnerable to the