Stop Digging The Ditch You Keep Falling Into - Agency Part Two

There’s a point in every battle where you’ve stabilized after the first hit and you finally have space to choose your next move. That’s the moment we focus on here: shifting from being acted upon to acting with spiritual agency. If you’ve ever felt like a negative habit, an anxious thought loop, or a dull “I’m fine” season keeps pulling you away from God, this episode will show you what's happening and give you a path forward.

We unpack how entrenched sin and negative spiritual strongholds form as prisons in layers over time. It often starts small with intrusive thoughts, then turns into entertained ideas, repeated mental rehearsals, and behaviors that break your own moral code. The most dangerous layer is the identity lie: “This is just who I am.” We walk through real-world examples including anxiety that stops you before the first step, hidden habits that turn into dependence, and spiritual apathy that quietly drains desire and discipline.

Then everything pivots to hope in Jesus Christ. Strongholds feel permanent, but they aren’t. We share a six-step counteroffensive strategy for overcoming sin and breaking negative beliefs: identify the target, expose the lie, replace it with truth, interrupt the pattern, build a new pattern through consistent habits, and invoke covenant power through worship and spiritual support. If you want practical repentance, Christian mindset help, and a clear plan for addiction recovery and spiritual growth, this is for you.

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Transcript

The Moment To Counterattack

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There's a moment in every war when you've survived the initial strike. And now, rather than just focusing on survival, you've stabilized your aircraft, regained control, and although the enemy is regrouping to come in again, you've created space to not just be acted upon, not just defend, but to attack. Now comes your moment to turn the tables, turn the tide. It's time to counterattack. Welcome to Todd Talks, Spirit by Design, where I help you increase your ability to listen to the spirit and act and not just be acted upon. Today's episode is part two in our discussion about agency. In part one, I gave you a checklist to prepare you to act and not just be acted upon. Often there are things in our life that, for one reason or another, continue to pull us away from our connection to God. In other words, there are your favorite vices or entrenched sins, your favorite sins that you don't necessarily want to repent of. Not that we mean to, but they're entrenched in our lives. What are these sins? Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10 5, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God. What he means there is that anything that pulls you away from or weakens your connection to God could be in term could be termed an entrenched sin or favorite sin. We're not talking about mistakes, we're talking about systemic failures, reinforced thinking, repeated behavior, spiritual conditioning. I've repeated the scripture often that the natural man is an enemy to God and has been from the fall of Adam. Entrenched sin is where the natural man digs in. He digs those trenches. Now we're not talking about mistakes, as I said. We're talking about ditches that Satan wants you to dig. He wants to get you to build these trenches, or as I will refer to them throughout this episode, strongholds of negative negativity or darkness. These sins that push us away from God. He doesn't do it through massive one-time mistakes. No, he's much craftier than that. He gets us to construct our own prison layer by layer, and there's a pattern to what he does. Let's identify five layers that slowly build this spiritual prison over time. First, thought intrusion. Every sin begins with a thought. Temptation, fear, doubt, intrusive little thoughts come into your mind. At this point, you still have control. You can change your thinking. But what happens? We don't just notice the thought. We just don't notice it. It's there. It comes in. And that brings us to the next layer where we entertain the thought. You don't just notice it, you embrace it and think long and hard about it and bring it back. You tell yourself, maybe it's not that bad. Third layer, repetition. You don't just have a one-off thought that you notice and entertain. No, you continue to revisit the thought until it becomes a pattern or habit to think about. Revisited, replayed, reinforced in your mind. Those repeated thoughts lead to the fourth layer. Your thoughts turn into behaviors. They turn into actions. The more you focus on doing something that goes against your moral code, eventually you end up acting on those thoughts and breaking your moral code. The fifth evolution in this is the stronghold that forms in your mind. The idea that this is just who I am now. I can't change. Woe is me, I'm terrible. These strongholds of negativity in your mind are rooted in a belief, a negative belief about yourself. And when Satan gets you to that point, he has you bound in chains and he laughs as he drags you down to hell. So let's talk about a few real-world type case studies. Case one, the thought loop of anxiety. A person begins with a simple fear. They have an idea to start something new. Maybe going to the gym, maybe starting a business, maybe just putting themselves out there on social media. The fear that forms, what if I fail? This thought appears as if out of thin air, and the mind grabs hold, hears it, replays it, feels it, fears it, and begins to believe it. All before taking the first step. Eventually, they've talked themselves out of even starting. That first step is always the hardest because once you get stuck in that negative thought loop, that negative stronghold, you eventually get to the belief that I am an anxious person. And the negative stronghold is formed. Case two, the hidden habit. Whatever the habit might be drugs, sex, rock and roll, pornography, tobacco, marijuana, pride, doom scrolling, whatever it is, you name it. If you occasionally indulge, it can become a pattern. Then it becomes a dependence. Take a pain pill addiction. It starts out necessary for pain. Then you continue to use it, hiding the habit until it becomes a pattern and an addiction. You don't actually need it. Your mind needs it. You can't even realize that you're stuck in this pattern. Suddenly, your I've got a handle on this, or I can quit whenever I want, becomes I need this to cope. And once again, you're stuck in the enemy's stronghold. Case three, spiritual apathy. This is a subtle but strong trench that we get dragged into. There isn't a major sin that we commit, it's just no urgency in our spiritual activities or life, no hunger for a better life or a more spiritual life, no fire or passion inside. You repeat the words, I'm fine, I'm fine, just as I am, I'm fine. I hate those. I'm fine. Everything's fine. This becomes a fortified position because change is hard. Change requires effort. And when you are in the negative stronghold of apathy, you don't have the energy or desire to improve, and you don't care even about yourself. Your physical and spiritual self deteriorate. Now that I've identified some of the strongholds of negativity, apathy, darkness, sin that threaten to take away your agency, your ability to choose, what can you do about it? Here's where everything changes. When you look to Jesus Christ, Christ's power can break down even the greatest stronghold of sin. Is not my word like as a fire and like a hammer that breaketh the rock? Jeremiah 23 29. The negativity, the darkness, the pull of the temptations, they feel like they're permanent. These strongholds make you think that they're impregnable, but they're not. I bet all of you know someone who has overcome an addiction. The effort and the humility it took to break that addiction show that these strongholds are not permanent. You can break them. How? Through Jesus Christ, through faith and humility, subverting our desires to Him. Through Him, lies can be shattered, chains can be broken, and identity can be rewritten. But there's a condition. Always those pesky conditions. You must be engaged in the counteroffensive. That's the condition. You must be engaged in the counteroffensive. You can't be a passive observer of your life when you're trying to get out of the stronghold of sin or apathy. So here is a six-step counteroffensive strategy that you can use to exercise faith and utilize works together to overcome. Step one, identify the target. Whenever going on the counteroffensive, you need to know your target. Ask what thought keeps returning, what behavior feels automatic? Where do I feel stuck? You can't destroy what you can't or won't name. Name your problem. The first step in fixing the problem is recognizing that you have and are part of the problem. Step two, expose the lie. Every negative stronghold is built on a lie. We've showcased some already, but for a refresher, I can't change. This defines me, or God has disappointed me and won't help me. John 832 states, The truth shall make you free. Find the lie, root it out into the open. Step three, replace the lie with truth. This is a critical step. Your brain is always moving, always thinking. You can't remove a thought, you have to replace it. For example, the lie that I am weak, I can't do it, can be replaced with the truth, I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me. Philippians 4 13. Truth is a weapon, use it or lose it. Just like learning a language, use it or lose it. Same goes with truth. Step four, interrupt the pattern. When the urge hits, pause, take a breath, breathe, and begin to pray. Then immediately do something different. Temptations are succumbed to because you entertain them. You stay in the location of the temptation. Change your path and do something different. Break the cycle. Break the cycle early. Step five, build a new pattern. I was speaking with my son Mac today about building new habits. It's pretty simple. You just have to start and be consistent and keep it simple. In this case, daily repetition of truth and action. In the case I was talking to Mac, going on the walk for 30 minutes a day. Then, after our discussion after he left, I went and took a walk for 30 minutes. Actually, I walked for two and a half miles and about an hour and a hour and fifteen. But that's beside the point. I wanted to set the example. You have to take the first step. To build a new pattern, you take the step. Daily repetition of truth with action. Rewire your mind through establishing healthy, spiritually strengthening habits. Step six, invoke covenant power. Go to the temple more. Take the sacrament weekly. Ask for priesthood blessings. And in exercising your covenants, President Russell M. Nelson taught, the power of God will be manifest in your life. Remember, you were not you're never alone in this battle. Angels stand ready to help you, to defend you. God stands ready to support you. Jesus stands ready to heal you. Do these things, and your faith and works will make it so that the blessings of heaven cannot be withheld from you. Let me repeat that. Your faith and works will make it so that the blessings of heaven cannot be withheld from you. There is a law irrevocably decreed in heaven upon which all blessings are predicated. When you do the work and exercise faith, blessings will come. This will enable your counteroffensive to be successful. Remember, you were not sent to Earth to just manage sin. You were sent to overcome it. Those negative strongholds, they may feel permanent, but they're not. They're not eternal. Through Christ, lies fall, chains break, minds change, and souls rise. Therefore, the mission is clear. Identify the stronghold, expose the lie, replace it with truth, act in power, and take back everything that the enemy stole from you. Stay tuned next time for part three. This has been another episode of Todd Talks Spirit by Design. Share, subscribe, subscribe so you never miss an episode. Leave a five-star review if you'd like. And as always, have a blessed day.