Counseling 6.

 

Why I love this ministry approach

First of all, I am not giving you advise and good counsel, I am helping you discover the best counselor you could ever ask for, who wants to be there for you no matter what happens in life. If you can grab onto the process, you'll be able to tap the Holy Spirit's shoulder for all sorts of other issues in your life. Getting God to show up and speak to a person is life-changing, and will do far more than you or I could do in just giving them good advise and sound scriptures. That is because the Holy Spirit speaks to their heart, while we only speak to their mind and hope that it makes to their heart, which it may never because of all the hangups, roadblocks, and guardian lies that stand in the way.

One of the things that I really think sets this ministry approach apart from other methods I have used is the precise and deliberate "getting to the root" approach. I love how deliberate and precise this ministry approach is. We aren't just handing our pain to Jesus, we're figuring out why we are holding on to our pain, then we give it to Him becomes effortless. We don't just give our anger to Jesus, we figure out what that anger is doing for us and dissolve that lie. Then giving the anger over to Jesus becomes natural and much easier to do.

We tell people that they need to forgive, but why is it that process is so difficult? Why is it that forgiving people is like pulling teeth? Because their anger, hate, and resentment is doing something for them, and until we get to the bottom of that, it may be very difficult for that person to truly let go of the charge that they hold against their offender. Some people can push through and forgive without this step, but I think for most cases, it's a necessary step that many of us need to take. When we have a hard time forgiving, it is because we believe something about letting go of the charge that we hold against our offender. We may believe something like, "If I forgive, it means they are right!" or "If I forgive them, they will just do it to me again" or "If I forgive them, they will get away with it!" Resolve these types of lies behind the unforgiveness, and letting go of the charge they have against that person becomes effortless. Keep in mind that there may be multiple lies holding unforgiveness in place, just like multiple lies can hold other types of negative emotions in place. You may resolve one lie and they feel better, but still experience hesitancy to let go in such cases, you keep working at it by going after those other lies.

My question is, if there's a lie(s) holding that person's unforgiveness in place, how do you expect them to totally get freedom from their resentment, hate, etc., without dissolving that lie or lies which are keeping it in place? Even if they do push through and forgive, they often re-visit that unforgiveness a week later, because the problem at it's root has never been solved. My goal is to bring you to a place of effortless victory not teach you to battle it every 2 weeks each time your anger problem is triggered!

In my opinion, the anger problem isn't resolved until the lie that is causing that person to hold on to their anger is resolved. I'm not saying it cannot be resolved through other ministry methods, but this approach I am sharing with you has been the most effective that I have ever seen. If the anger problem keeps showing up weeks and months later, then there's a root which is still pulling at that person. They may have seen some breakthrough during a ministry session, but if they still get triggered in that area, something is remaining that needs to be dealt with.

Like with this ministry method, I like to test other ministry methods with the 1 to 10 scale question. If we've dealt with anger, when finished doing ministry, ask them a question like, "I know you've received a measure of breakthrough, but on a scale of 1 to 10, do you still feel even some anger toward so and so for molesting you at age 5?" If there's anything left, the person has not received complete freedom in that area of their life. Now, I'm not discounting the freedom and breakthrough they have received, and many times we don't have the time to dig all the way down to 1 on the scale. But I'm not quick to claim total victory until that person is at a 1 on the scale. I think we're too quick to claim total victory, only to have that person fail again 2 weeks later.

The fruit of this type of ministry, both in my experience and others I know who are also involved in this type of ministry, is nothing short of life-changing. It is truly an addicting type of ministry, that keeps you coming back for more, and believe me, we all have a lot of heart-beliefs that need addressing! This is the most freeing, healing, and comforting type of ministry I have ever encountered personally. Don't get me wrong, I am passionate about casting out demons, and am not writing that type of ministry off because it is much needed as well. They are both very important and crucial components of the healthy early church lifestyle.

Some of us are incredibly good at suppressing our pain and true feelings that are buried deep within our hearts we've spent a lifetime denying how we really feel because we felt it was necessary for survival. If we didn't bury our pain, we would have gone nuts a long time ago. But that's only a temporary solution, and is not good in the long run. We pay a price for buried pain, and we pay for it daily. We lack peace and joy, we lack the joy of being alive, we fear things we should never fear, we worry about things that Jesus told us not to worry about, if we suddenly were faced with a life-threatening condition, we wouldn't be ready to meet the Lord because we don't feel confident in our relationship with Him. The list could go on and on. One of my ways to describe it is your quality of life suffers greatly. You fail to enjoy the simple things because you are tormented by you buried pain. The truth is that you cannot truly bury your pain, you can only deny it, and that only gives you limited relief from it. The only way to truly get peace in your heart is by resolving those faulty beliefs of the heart which are keeping that pain in place. Something that is pretty cool with this type of ministry, is that after some people have been healed of a deep wound, say when they were raped, they will go back to that memory just to feel Jesus again because when He showed up during ministry, He so healed their wound that the old once-painful memory serves as a testimony of what Jesus did for them. Tell me that isn't genuine healing taking place, when you can revisit the most painful experiences of your past, because since then Jesus was there and it made a world of difference for you! That is just the opposite from any ministry that teaches you to forget the past and push aside the pain. No, you get real with Jesus and invite Him into that place of deep hurt, get healing like you never thought possible, then watch as the wound is so healed that it serves as a testimony of the Lord's goodness that you actually desire to revisit! THAT my friend, is what real emotional healing needs to look like! And that is exactly what the Holy Spirit desires to do for each and every one of us if we will get real honest about our heart beliefs, and deal with the hang-ups that stand in our way of hearing His voice.

Where to go from here

I have learned a lot from Ed Smith and his ministry style which is called Theosphostic Prayer Ministry. I do not claim to teach Theosphostic ministry, but many of the principals I use originally came from his ministry. If you want to learn more and take this to the next level, I would encourage you to look into his training materials. As with any other ministry that I have learned much from, I cannot endorse everything they teach or believe. In this case, Ed Smith doesn't believe that the casting out of demons was meant to continue post-resurrection. I may not agree in that area of his ministry but when it comes to the core of his ministry, he brings some of the most life-changing ministry to the body of Christ. I absolutely love Ed Smith's ministry as it has changed my life, healed some of my deepest wounds, and has changed the way I minister inner healing. I am forever grateful!

What about casting out demons?

Why do I believe that the casting out of demons was intended to continue post-resurrection? There are several scriptures, but one that is very clear on the matter is found in Mark 16, where Jesus appeared to His disciples AFTER His resurrection, and He instructed them to go forth into all the world, and preach the good news to every creature, and one of the signs that would follow those who believe, is that they will be casting out demons:

"And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe In my name shall they cast out devils they shall speak with new tongues..."
Mark 16:15-17, KJV

Jesus was absolutely clear that the casting out of demons would continue post-resurrection, because this great commission was given AFTER He rose from the dead, and just before His final departure.Another example is found in Acts 8, where Philip went about casting out demons in public where they came out manifesting and screaming, and because of these public exorcisms, many came to know Christ:

"Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed. And there was great joy in that city."
Acts 8:5-8, KJV

I just recently dealt with a case where I tried this ministry approach, and ran into mind control spirits. The person I was ministering to was talking about suicide and extremely irrational I couldn't even reason with them until after we dealt with spirits of mind control. Once we walked him through dealing with those spirits and casting them out (he felt them physically releasing from him as we were casting them out), he was back in his right mind and ready for inner healing ministry. The difference that dealing with the mind control spirits made was day and night. It reminded me of Jesus dealing with the legion of demons and afterward he was clothed and in his right mind:

"And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid."
Mark 5:15 KJV

On the same token, casting out demons doesn't necessarily deal with the lie-based beliefs of the heart, and therefore it's like I said earlier, both ministries have their place. My heart is to get people freedom with whatever means is necessary. I've dealt with spirits behind cancer, brain tumors, etc. and they just need to be driven out. If they need inner healing, let's do that. If they need a spirit cast out, let's get it over with. Just don't take up a victim mentality and think that casting out a demon will solve all your problems. Deliverance ministry must be combined with taking responsibility for our actions and choices in order to be fully effective and allow the person to remain free from their bondage.

Some closing thoughts

I like to refer to this type of ministry as getting to the point of honesty, where Jesus is so ready to speak to us about the things we struggle with. In America we have become very skilled at burying our pain and living a life of bondage because we deny how we truly feel about things. Our minds (logic belief) will so often write off what our hearts truly believe, and therefore we live out the pain of that lie. Almost all of us suffer from the things we believe, namely about ourselves and about God. Our minds would never agree that we're stupid, but perhaps our heart believes that because one time when we were in school, a teacher belittled us and the other kids laughed. Getting to a place of honesty and owning the lie is the key to solving the problem. As long as you remain in denial about how your heart feels, you will never be truly free of the pain that those beliefs carry.