Live Free from Destructive Cycles & the Law
December 12, 2024 • Ray Leight, Doug Addison
In this special excerpt, Ray Leight shares insight on things he’s learned from counseling thousands of people. He unpacks destructive patterns and cycles and gives keys for freedom.
Below are some notes from our Partners-only Monthly Mentoring Session. These sessions have been recorded and you can access them by becoming a Partner today! Find out more at http://dougaddison.com/timeoff.
Ray Leight started the session by talking about some law-to-lawlessness cycles, and how to break out. He’s noticed that these things don’t apply all the time and there can be variations, but there are definitely patterns he’s observed.
Whenever we have law, there’s going to be judgment. Because if there are laws, you have to judge. That’s just kind of how it is.
Once you have judgment, that leads to comparison … because you’re judging what’s right, and you’re judging what’s wrong. Comparison is what we do in this society and culture. We also do this internally with our own behavior. Comparison always leads to punishment. And punishment always leads to isolation.
When isolation happens, it kicks you into a level of insecurity because you don't have the relationship anymore. Then, you don't have the connections and there's separation … and then insecurity. That leads to hopelessness and a sense of powerlessness. You might feel like nothing can be done.
Powerlessness leads to victimhood, and then once you’re a victim and you’re in that mindset, victimhood leads to hatred.
Once you have hatred, that leads to vengeance. And vengeance leads to lawlessness. You might even feel as if it’s justified. You might think, “What I’m doing now is justified, because of what was done to me.”
And then, since this is a vicious cycle, all that just leads right back to the law. The cycles repeat over and over again. We have all these different cycles in society, and we have them in our own lives.
These cycles happen because of trauma … and these cycles can become like this big, weighted train that runs through our lives, and that train is headed for a cliff.
These cycles are just heading us toward running over a cliff and falling off … And it's going to happen when you have those cycles.
It might not be some huge, entire-life destruction, but there will be destruction. Those cycles always bring destruction. It could be relational, or it could ruin your career.
Ray said that he’s seen this with people in ministry and he’s seen it all over the place. It affects careers, relationships, ministry, health—all kinds of things—to the point where it can even take you to actual death.
Whether it's extreme loss and trauma or a minor one, those cycles are going to lead to a traumatic problem … because they are traumatic in themselves.
When we’re living this way (trying to manage the cycles of being under the law and behaving properly) we are guaranteed to go into a lifestyle of fear, shame and guilt.
Ray mentioned the Garden of Eden and when Adam and Eve believed the lie, they manifested that lie into sinful behavior … It’s sinfulness that’s not productive or healthy. It’s not glorifying God, you or anything else. Those behaviors are manifesting from unbelief.
Ray said that if we don’t get to the [underlying] belief, we are never going to be able to deal with our behaviors.
When Adam and Eve sinned, they also started protecting themselves in fear, shame and guilt.
Whenever there’s a lie that we're believing, we are hiding in fear. We're covering ourselves in shame and we're gonna blame somebody for it—in guilt—whether we're blaming ourselves, others or God. There's going to be fear, shame and guilt when you have unbelief. This is guaranteed.
Ray said he’s seen these patterns thousands of times, and everyone’s patterns are a little different. He said that he has his patterns, and we all have ours. Everyone has patterns.
Next, Ray focused on talking about the two kingdoms. We can think about this like going back to the Garden of Eden … The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. That’s the beautiful one. And then there is the kingdom of this world …
The kingdom of this world is guilt, fear and shame, all in our own effort. We manifest what happened to us as children when we were abused—things and programming happened. As an adult, those emotions you’re experiencing … you’re manifesting them.
Other people cannot manifest fear, shame and guilt in you, only you can. People can do inappropriate things, or you could just perceive it wrong from the trauma you’ve had in your life … Those belief systems—that unresolved trauma—affects how you perceive your life.
The fear, shame and guilt that we're manifesting is destroying our lives. The root lies in the belief system of that—is that we’re under the law.
Ray said that there are millions of lies in each one of the categories of fear, shame and guilt.
Getting to the core themes of what those lies really are … When you’re dealing with shame, you’re going to feel like you’re not good enough (or as good as someone else) and you might feel as if there’s something wrong with you. You feel as if you have no authority and you’re powerless.
The core theme of guilt is that something is your fault, God’s fault or some else’s fault. This is one of the ways that the enemy tries to destroy us. He’s trying to steal, kill or destroy … He’s trying to steal your identity, kill your authority and destroy your community. He can do that by getting you to believe that you’re not good enough … that there’s nothing you can do about it, and it’s all your fault. That’s his agenda.
The enemy wants you to believe that you’re still under the law and not under grace. And when you’re stuck under the law, you become a “right-and-wrong robot.”
You stop discerning truth and hearing from God and you just follow the set of codes and rules, and you constantly have to decide if something is right or wrong.
Ray said that it is so painful to see people stuck in this cycle. He can get that way, he has friends who are that way and he’s seen ministries run that way. This destroys your ability to discern and hear from the Lord, especially when we believe these lies about ourselves. If we believe these things, we don’t feel as if we can trust ourselves.
People have the “right-or-wrong robot” kind of mentality where they’re no longer living in the spirit and getting revelation from God. And they’re actually living in the flesh by those set of rules and trying to manage those rules … and it's miserable!
This cycle causes people to go off the cliff or shipwreck their faith. There’s always fear, shame, guilt and judgment, and then the cycle starts again. This is never fun! It’s always painful, and Ray sees it a lot!
The lie that we’re still under the law tries to get us to perform and do the right thing. But to do the right thing, you’ve got to judge what's right and wrong instead of actually just discerning what God is telling you … and living out of the truth of who you are.
Next, Ray wanted to look at how to be healed of these things. It’s simple, but sometimes not easy because of the world’s systems and culture, and the religious, legalistic system that’s been going on for years.
Every culture is different as well as every society … These things are also working against us.
To be free of this, Ray pointed out Mark 1:15: The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.
The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel!
Ray said it is literally that simple—and this can change your life. This is not a “Hakuna Matata” kind of a thing, like “everything is just going to be alright.” Because Ray mentioned that Jesus perfectly believed the gospel and look what happened to him… But Ray said that you can have peace inside of you no matter what’s going on “out there.”
Ray said he doesn’t always have it … and he’s not in a lofty position telling us that if you try really hard, you can be like him—that’s not what he was saying—he’s struggling through all this, the same as us.
It doesn’t matter if someone is a famous leader or someone you respect, it doesn’t matter what stream of ministry someone is in, or what movement … We’re all dealing with junk! We’re all dealing with sinful patterns, behaviors and unbelief at some level.
But this is the key—repent and believe the gospel.
InLight Connection thanks Ray for sharing his heart with us.
P.S. Thank you to all of those who partner with InLight Connection and give on a regular basis. You are holding their arms up in the spirit right now, and they are truly grateful. For those who have not yet given, or it’s been a while, please consider giving now (or partnering monthly) … to help, just click https://dougaddison.com/timeoff/. Becoming a Partner will give you access to the upcoming guest speaker events. These meetings are POWERFUL!
Doug Addison is the founder and president of InLight Connection. Doug is a prophetic speaker, author and coach. He is known for his Daily Prophetic Words, Spirit Connection podcast and blog. He and his wife Linda live in Los Angeles, California where they are impacting the arts, entertainment and media industries.
