INDIVIDUAL MINISTRY
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, and freedom to prisoners.” Isaiah 61:1
1. Bring good news to the afflicted.
Through our ministry we hope that
each individual experiences that God loves them, that He cares about their
problems and needs, and that He empathizes and validates their suffering and
pain. Jesus knows and cares about our
problems and pain because He bore them on the cross, “Surely our griefs He
Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried.” (Isaiah 53:4) Jesus died on the cross carrying our
afflictions in order to take our suffering and pain and give us His abundant
life in exchange. Jesus wants to save
our spirit for eternity and also wants to save every part of our life now while
on this earth, as we bring each aspect of our heart and soul to Him in prayer. He does this through the
ministry of the Body of Christ in healing prayer.
2. Binding the brokenhearted.
Through growing up in the daily
fallenness of the world, or through traumas, the hearts of individuals
are broken. Broken pieces hold pain such
as fear, sadness, anger, shame, rejection, abandonment,
and feelings of being unaccepted, unwanted or unloved. These painful feelings are
repressed and disowned because it has not been acceptable to express them. Instead they are internalized causing internal pain,
leaked out at inappropriate times, or allowed to subconsciously influence their
actions; all three of which injure relationships causing more pain. The biggest problem is that these disowned and
painful parts of the heart are not being brought to God to receive the healing
He longs to give them.
In order to keep
the painful feelings hidden and protected, most people develop a system of living
out of false selves, coping mechanisms, or addictions. These false selves, coping mechanisms, and addictions
are generally based on false beliefs that contradict the truth given us in
Scripture. The greatest false belief
underlying all three is that the individual can depend on him or herself,
rather than depend on God for help and healing.
Our
ministry depends on the Holy Spirit to reveal to the individual the childhood
or current pain, coping mechanisms, addictions, and untrue belief systems that
God wants to heal at this time. We
facilitate this process by helping people go over their life story and by bringing
awareness to the broken parts of their heart that we can hear which they may
not be aware of. As the memories,
painful feelings, coping mechanisms, and belief systems are brought to
awareness, we help the individual bring them to God in prayer and ask Jesus for
healing in each of these areas of their hearts.
We discuss the false beliefs and bring the truth of Scripture to the
painful parts and coping mechanisms of the heart. This process (really the
process of sanctification or spiritual formation) helps each person to develop
a deeper relationship with Jesus and a life-style of dependence on Him as Lord.
3. Proclaim liberty and freedom
Once the broken painful parts of
the heart, false selves, the coping mechanisms, and false belief systems are brought
into balance under the Lordship of Jesus, the true Self can be set free…free of
the pain, free of internal anguish which leaked out at inappropriate times, and free
to make more conscious, healthier choices in everyday life. The true Self can
be free to be all that God had envisioned for them before the creation of the
world. Unlike false selves, the true
Self is able then to experience intimacy with God, to walk in the Spirit and
flow with the gifts of the Spirit, and to fulfill God’s calling on his or her
life. In prayer, we ask the Holy Spirit
to fill the true Self, to strengthen it, and to grow it into all that God wants
for him or her to be. We also provide
some exercises to strengthen the Self.
