“Traveled?” Doug wagged a thin finger in the air. “Nay. You speak of your journey as if it has already happened. There is no accuracy in your use of the past tense. The path of joy and freedom has not yet been traveled. It has only just begun.”
Doug smiled at each of them. “Yes, you’ve had a taste of freedom, but only a taste. There is a banquet awaiting you. And you’ve all been invited to the head of the table.”
AUTHOR’S NOTE
ON THE WRITING OF SOUL’S GATE
ONE OF THE MOST FREQUENT QUESTIONS AN AUTHOR GETS is, “How do you come up with your ideas?” The answer is, myriad ways. for Soul’s Gate, the story came from a friend and me sitting in our shorts around a fire, brainstorming ideas. once we got going, the story came in a flash. The basic premise was laid out in under half an hour.
And the place we brainstormed? Well Spring. Yes, the ranch is real. i took some liberties and embellished in a few areas, but since the foundation of the story was formed there, my friend and i both thought it would be intriguing for Well Spring to play a large role in the novel.
Soul’s Gate didn’t start out as a book about the spiritual battle that ebbs and flows all around us—and i still don’t think of it in those terms. i see the book as a novel about freedom—which is the reason Christ set us free (Gal. 5:1). freedom is the aspect of Jesus i love to explore and dwell on the most; that he desires us to be everything we’ve been designed to be. That he longs for us to be free of our fears, to be free to love with abandon, to be free to step into our destinies with confidence and abundant expectation.
But in writing a story about healing and freedom, there isn’t a way to avoid writing about spiritual warfare as well, given the fact we have an enemy whose goal is to steal and destroy that freedom. And writing a story about freedom isn’t entered into without resistance.
This novel was my most difficult to write yet by far. That shouldn’t have surprised me. While Rooms addressed spiritual warfare, Soul’s Gate takes it up a notch. A few notches.
The enemy of our souls has done a brilliant job of making Western man believe he only exists on TV shows and in movies or in churches that have plunged off the deep end. He doesn’t want followers of Jesus to believe demons are real and that they can wreak real havoc in believers’ lives. But the enemy is real and has a specific goal for your life: destruction, whether you believe in him or not (see 1 Peter 5:8; John 10:10). And much of what followers of Jesus accept as “that’s just life” is a calculated attack on their thought life, emotions, and circumstances.
A novel like Soul’s Gate does not assist the enemy’s wish of keeping his deception quiet, so I was hit hard. I’ve experienced spiritual warfare over the past twenty-five years—in some cases in a very direct way—but I’ve never had it go on as long and as intensely as during the time I wrote this novel. Which I take as good news. To me this means Soul’s Gate will likely bring freedom to readers, and that is an exhilarating thought.
But as I’ve already said, the point isn’t the war. The point of Soul’s Gate is the freedom available if we’re willing to fight, and my hope is you’ll come away from reading this novel with more freedom than when you started.
Also, I’d be remiss to leave you with the idea that writing this novel was drudgery. It wasn’t. There were many moments of pure joy: When scenes popped into my mind fully fleshed out and all I had to do was write them down. When one of the characters would do something I wasn’t expecting and I got the chance to watch his actions unfold. (Yes, it’s true, novelists are simply scribes more than you know.) When my editors or publisher would throw out an idea and I instantly knew it would improve the novel.
My guess is some of you are wondering if I believe the ideas presented in the novel can really happen, so I’ll answer that briefly. Yes, I believe they can. In fact, a number of the incidents in the story come from true-life experiences—some from my life and some from friends of mine. I’ll allow you to decide which ones really happened and which ones sprang from my sometimes fertile imagination.
With regard to our spirits traveling inside the souls of others, no, I don’t believe that’s possible. But then again, I am only a man and I haven’t quite figured God out yet—I’m assuming you haven’t either—so maybe we should say it is possible in one form or another. I do know we can pray more intensely and more deeply for each other than we often do.
In the end I hope the story entertained you, made you press deeper into Jesus, and gave you a glimpse into the vastness of his love.
To your freedom and his glory,
James L. Rubart, Spring 2012
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
TO MY BRO, DR. HARRY LEE KRAUS, FOR KEEPING ME inside the lines with regard to medical accuracy.
To my smartest friend, Dr. Randall Ingermanson, for pointing out the shaky spots in my physics and giving me grace to stray into gray areas when I chose to.
To Ruth Voetmann, for your wonderful way with brainstorming.
To my prayer team, for carrying me through the warfare that came in the course of writing this novel.
To my team at Thomas Nelson, for your skill, hearts full of passion, and friendship.
To my editors, Amanda Bostic and Julee Schwarzburg, I want to be as amazingly talented as you someday.
To my publisher and forever friend, Allen Arnold, the playground was better than I imagined.
To Darci, Taylor, and Micah, for seeing me through the journey of writing another novel.
To Jesus, I love this ride you have me on.
READING
GROUP GUIDE
1. What are the themes you saw in Soul’s Gate?
2. Which character could you most relate to? Why is that?
3. Because Reece was taken out by the enemy when he was younger, he doesn’t live out of his true strength for many years. Have you done the same during a period of your life?If so, explain.
4. Marcus’s heaviest burden is regret. Do you have regrets in your life with which you’re letting the enemy weigh you down? If yes, how do you deal with that?
5. Because of Brandon’s childhood, he’s felt worthless most of his life. Can you relate? If yes, has God helped you combat that lie by telling you how worthwhile you are? How did it happen?
6. Dana has felt abandoned and alone since she was a little girl. Have you ever felt like that? Why? Has anything helped you overcome those feelings?
7. During their time at Well Spring, God gives Dana and Marcus a new name and Brandon gets a name a bit later. Has God ever given you a new name? What is it? What does it mean to you?
8. In chapter 22, Reece implies it might be possible for demons to be inside Christians. Do you think this can happen? Why or why not?
9. During the scene in the church, Marcus sees how the spirit of religion can weigh people down, even though the pastor of that church is a good man. Have you ever experienced anything like this in your own life?
10. Throughout the book, Reece introduces ideas that might seem beyond far-fetched, among them, instant teleportation and God making a person unseen by others. Do you feel these things are possible today? If so, why? Have you experienced or heard of these types of things happening? If you don’t think they’re possible, why not? They happened in the Bible, so could they still be happening today?
11. Spiritual warfare is one of the central themes in Soul’s Gate. Have you experienced spiritual warfare? Do you believe it’s real?
12. It’s obvious the deeper Reece, Marcus, Dana, and Brandon step into freedom, the greater the attack of the enemy. Have you seen this play out in your own life?
13. In chapter 40, Brandon is prayed for in a way not commonly seen. They listened first for the Holy Spirit to speak. Have you ever prayed this way? What happened? Is it something you’d like to try?
14. Our hope is Soul’s Gate will draw you deep into the freedom that is in Jesus Christ and show you new ways to pursue the life that is in him. If that has happened, what are one or two things you’re going to
do or explore further going forward?
AN EXCERPT FROM ROOMS
What can you ever really know of other people’s souls—of their temptations, their opportunities, their struggles? One soul in the whole creation you do know: and it is the only one whose fate is placed in your hands.
—C. S.LEWIS
BY THE TIME HE ARRIVED AT HIS OFFICE, HIS BREATHING steadied and his focus shifted to the letter from his great-uncle that sat on his teak desk. Micah picked it up and flopped into his black leather chair. The yellowed paper was probably white once, though the fluid script looked as crisp as if it had been scrawled yesterday.
The envelope it came in had been sealed with wax, the outline of a lion’s head distinct in the dark-blue paraffin. Micah leaned back and stared at the name above the return address. Archie Taylor. Definitely strange.
Archie was his great-uncle whom he knew less than a paragraph about. He’d been dead since the mid-nineties, and Micah had never met him. Archie had made quite a bit of money and hadn’t married, but the rest had always been a mystery. Until Micah’s late teens, he hadn’t known Archie existed. When Micah had asked, his dad only said Archie was odd, a man to stay away from.
Micah opened the letter and wondered once more if it was real.
September 27, 1990
Dear Micah,
You are likely shocked to have received this letter as we never had the opportunity to know each other. The reason for the letter will surprise you more.
I have asked a friend to mail it when you turn thirty-five or when you acquire enough financial resources that you no longer need to labor. Consequently, if you are reading this letter before reaching your thirty-fifth birthday, you have already made a significant amount of money, which is sometimes a beneficial occurrence at a young age but usually is not.
If my instructions have been carried out, a home was built during the past five months on the Oregon Coast, four miles south of Cannon Beach. I designed it for you. I assume by this point you’ve asked yourself why I would choose to build this house in Cannon Beach of all places.
You likely already know why.
Because it is time to face your past.
It is time to deal with it.
My great desire is that the home brings you resolution and restoration, and if the builder followed my directives, I believe it will. It will certainly—if you’ll forgive the cliché—upset your applecart if you allow it. The home is all you.
Your great-uncle,
Archie
P.S. There should be a key enclosed with this letter as well as a card with the address.
Micah reread the last line and frowned. “The home is all you”? Typo. Must mean all yours. He leaned his head back till it hit the back of his chair. His dad was right. This guy was a whacko.
Face his past? His past was dead. Buried. Forgotten.
And it would stay that way.
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
Author photo by Christophoto, Bothell, WA
JAMES L. RUBART IS A PROFESSIONAL MARKETER, SPEAKER, and writer. He lives with his wife and sons in the Pacific Northwest and still believes he’s young enough to water-ski like a madman.
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