Hi, this is Shawn Maguire with a new vision counseling dot. Live, a place where we help you discover what better looks like for you and then equip you with the tools to create it. You know, we’ve been talking a lot about different areas of life that we can help you to improved and move forward in. And you know, it had been in Oklahoma City where I live and practice, OKC Christian marriage counseling, trauma counseling, anxiety counseling. So many times we run up against this issue pretty much every single time. At some level, this is present and it’s critical voices. So today the podcast, episode number 33 and we’re going to talk about critical voices and how to stop them. You know, many of us for our entire lives have struggled with having these voices in our head that just criticize us when we go to when we were younger.
Maybe this is where you’re at now. If I would go to ask a girl out, it would say, these voices would say, she won’t say yes, you’re not good looking enough. You don’t have enough money. She’s too smart for you. You’re not good enough. At sports or you’re not popular enough. These voices were just haunt me until I started realizing that all these voices are not from me, not I did not have to entertain nor listen to these voices. You see, I believe that when we are born, we were given three names. The first name that we would all agree on easily, you know is your name. My name is Sean. I full name is Sean Lee Maguire. Now think about what your name is. That’s the name of your parents gave you. Now the other name is the name that God gave you. So one of the names that God gave me was beloved, somebody who is valued, cared for and matters.
It’s worth dying for. That’s a name that I, as I got older and really sought him, he was still at upon me and and real in a very real way. The other name is the name of Satan gives you. Now this is one that’s not talked about often, but I can tell you from my own life, I was born out of wedlock to a single mother who was 19 and I felt unloved. Like, I didn’t fit in and misfit can I, you know, the island of misfit toys and Rudolph the Christmas movie, I felt like a misfit. Like I never really belonged and that wasn’t worth fighting for. So that’s how I live my life and that’s the voices in my head capitalized on that. And that’s the way that the devil really defined me for much of my life that I had to fight against.
So the first part is really you discovering that all of these voices that are critical in your mind, they’re not just from you, they’re from the devil there from either your parents, cause they give you a name, but then they treat you in certain ways and out of the ways that they treat you, you’ll come to understand who they see you as. So you may see yourself as a clown, you may your see yourself as the golden child, or he may see yourself as the not golden child. And then of course you typically fight and are bitter towards the golden child if you have siblings. And so these voices, they begin to inform how we make decisions. They define what we do with our days, what we do with their lives, what we try now, there’s a scripture in the Bible it talks about, there’s a lot of scripture that talk about take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ.
And there’s a big reason why because without really going for God’s best and letting him define us, gravity’s at play. And in a fallen world, we will always gravitate towards the negative or gravitate towards thinking negatively of ourself because we have a survival mechanism as well that since the fall we look around to find threats in our environment and then we try to alleviate them through running away, hiding or fighting him. And so realizing that guys, we’re not just up against a voice in our head. We’re up against an a real spiritual battle over our mind and our hearts and our lives. So who’s defined you? Because if you realize that God’s defined you, your parents have defined, you can see all I say, then now you have a choice. Because information is opportunity. And through the taking these opportunities, you can create change in your life.
And in the lives of the people that you love. Now think about it this way. If there’s a strategy by a devil to define who you are through these critical voices there, wouldn’t it stand to reason that got us a strategy that you can step into to overcome it because of the devil’s trying to replace the DNA that God wants you to the Vat of with these voices. Not just add too, but he really wants to replace the narrative of your mind in the store through and then if you can replace the narrative of your mind, then it can infiltrate the story of your life. Now this is wild if you really start to understand this because if he can get in to your mind, then he begins to have access to the way your body feels. He has access to the way you’ve experienced emotions.
He has access to the literal way that you see the world and the way that when people treat you certain ways, good or bad that you experienced this. And it was very obvious in our society today in America that so many people run towards being offended and then they hide from taking responsibility. It’s so sad. They’re so quick to criticize others because they’re living out of this lie that the devil spun in their mind, that it’s everybody else’s fault, that the world has done them wrong and that people have done them wrong and the rich man has taken advantage of the poor man or something like that. And that keeps them stuck and it creates a caustic and toxic environment for not just them, but for their relationship, for their kids and for any place they work and for society at large. So a better move is to go back and see that there’s a real devil that wants to take you out and he doesn’t want to just take you out because he knows if he takes you out, he can take your relationship, how he can take out your family.
It’s very strategic and he does this to replacing the voice that God wants to have in your heart and your mind with his voice. And then he deceives you into thinking that it’s your voice and the longer you live, the more that voice sounds exactly like your voice because over your lifespan, the longer you live, that is the voice that it is. You know, part of the treatment of therapy and OKC Christian marriage counseling or walking people back through releasing them from their traumas or the areas of life that have they’ve suffered early on is to identify is it a male voice or is it a female voice? And then how old is that person sound? And we get really specific on and it’s very interesting, really fascinating from me as a position has a Christian counselor seeing the way God helps people navigate through these seasons of hurt and the lies that they’ve been trapped in.
And the amazing part is when they discover that, wow, this isn’t my voice. Like all these are not just thoughts coming from my head. They actually have an origin in hell by a strategy to try to take, not just me, but they took my parents out. They took my sister output, but now they’re trying to get the same, started to take me out. I have a choice and it’s so empowering to see people identify that God has a plan, he has a purpose, and he has a method through the Bible and through inviting people like me as a OKC Christian marriage counseling counselor or somebody like a pastor or a friend or even a family member, depending on your circumstance, to walk with you through this to be free, and you do that through starting to replace these voices because when, when when you start to do that, it’s going to feel awkward because you’re native voice has become the voice of hell of you’re not good enough.
You don’t matter. Or when you’re in a situation where God’s wanting you to take some risks to make some new relationships. Let’s say you go to a new church or you’re starting new Bible study, or you’re moving to a new neighborhood. Well, the devil is going to want you to, to not reach out to your neighbors, to not invite them to a Bible study or maybe just even a coffee or dinner. He’s not going to want you to reach out and your new place of employment to talk about faith, talk about your relationship with God, or to even make moves towards opening your heart to see if people are available for real and authentic friendship. He’s going to want you to think they don’t have time for you. He’s going to want you to believe that you don’t matter or that you’re dumb. And then the more you open your mouth and what people are going to discover, yeah, he’s pretty dumb or she’s pretty stupid or she’s not as pretty as I thought because once I get really close, uh, she’s not so great.
Whatever that narrative for you is God wants to replace it with his narrative of scripture. No, the Bible says the heart to guard your heart above all else because it’s a source of life and you know the heart and the mind or intrinsically connected. I mean obviously, right? You’re one, your spirit mind and your body and your body is all connected and, and we’ve talked about the heart a lot in the, you know, the armor of God in Ephesians six talks about wearing the helmet of salvation and that’s basically saying that you’re replacing whatever this world and the lies of the enemy of spun through it with what God says. That’s why it’s a helmet and it covers your mind. It protects from these arrows of critical voices that would be and to infiltrate and destroy you. I know in Edmond, Oklahoma City where I work and live, so many people find this valuable and they have a connection point to God because we do live in the Bible belt.
But you could live in Tulsa, you could live in Florida, you can live in Hawaii. You know, I see through OKC Christian marriage counseling and through individual counseling as a Christian counselor, people get set free when they realize these truths to be inherent, not just in my life for a few select people’s lives that we see in counseling, but all over the world. This is the strategy of the enemy uses fill the helmet of salvation looks like renewing your mind through the washing of the word of God. So finding scriptures that exactly, exactly relate to your issue of low self esteem or your issue of being anxious around other people because you’re afraid they’re going to discover who you really are and you’re not happy with that right now and really identifying with in your mind that when you put on the Christ part of you and you put on the image of Christ and you see yourself as a child of God, then you are empowered to live out of what he’s done for you.
So you know that when God looks at you, he doesn’t see somebody who’s made all these mistakes or you know, had sex before marriage or drink too much or married the wrong person. He sees his child because of what Christ has done. You have that intimacy with God, your father, and this begins the steps of stepping into a new relationship with other people because you have more confidence based on what he’s done and not what you’ve messed up and in your life, and then you choose. No matter how wrong it feels to replace the, I can’t do this, they’re going to find out that I’m not as smart. My company’s thinks I’m smart, but they’re going to discover if I take this risk in this new promotion, that I’m not that smart, they’re going to fire me, I’m going to lose my house, my family is going to fall apart, and it goes all down hill because those are the critical voices that you’re fighting against.
The great news is God knew this and he’s made a way through scripture, and you say, Sean, that’s just not sufficient for me. I’ve been a Christian my whole life and these voices still haunt me. You know, maybe you’re the person that needs to reach out to your pastor, reach out to a friend, maybe read a book, or maybe you’re the person that needs to reach out and seek professional help through Christian counseling. Great News, our team at noon, there’s and OKC Christian marriage counseling. We’d love to partner with you. You can reach out through a variety of ways. You can go to our Facebook page and New Vision Counseling Okc, same as true if that’s her Instagram handle as well. A great way is through our website, New Vision counseling debt live. We have a team of marriage counselors that do marriage counseling, premarital counseling, individual counseling, and they all do Christian counseling and we marry biblical principles with cutting edge counseling techniques to jump into your story with you today.
Now you may say, I don’t know the next step. I’m just scared. I don’t know exactly if I have enough money. I don’t know if I, at the time, I don’t know if I’m, I have the confidence to start OKC Christian marriage counseling. Listen, we do our best at Joan, you and your story wherever you’re at today. And our mission is really to help you discover what better looks like for you and then equipped me with the tools to create it. And that means we can join you at any point of your story if you’re willing to take that next step and contact us today. And something else that you can do this has been impactful for you is share this with your friends, your Google reviews. Really let people know that you can trust. And that means a lot to me personally because I want to have as much of an impact on us, so many people as I can.
That’s why I’m doing these podcasts. Here’s one of my friends are Sean Copeland and another one, Clay Clark said, you’ve got to do these podcasts. You are, you are gifted in an area to inspire people and see, you know, 10 people a day or however many people you see a day is not really enough until they’ve encouraged me to start doing this. And I’m encouraging you to share this with other people, whether you ever come to see us individually or as a married couple or for pairing, whatever it is, or maybe you just listened to our podcasts or read the information we put out. We just want to serve you and help you to see that you don’t have to stay stuck where you’re at today. And you know we’ve done a lot of podcasts as number 33 super excited about it and I can’t wait to hear more of the stores when people come back and share what God has done through this.
And the same is true of you. You’ll never step into the space that God has for you. The only space that you alone created by God uniquely it can occupy if you don’t take his hand and let him set you free from these critical voices. Because look, he says that the devil is the accuser of the brother and he accuses us day and night. Brothers and sisters accuses men and women day and night. Guys, there is a solution. There is an antidote. It’s God’s word. It’s got the people. It’s not doing this alone. So today’s your first day, I believe in you. I know God made you for more. Today’s your day. We’re going to reach out and you’re going to start that process of getting all the inheritance God’s got for you. God bless, and until we talk again, create an amazing day.