After more than 50 Unbound sessions, our 5 Keys to Freedom in Christ team has seen the Lord do amazing healing and deliverance. Yet not everyone who comes for Unbound ministry gets set free, as they were hoping, or they don’t Stay Free, doing what’s needed to hold onto their freedom.  Prayer, preparation, and personal responsibility help first or second-time Unbound recipients get the best possible results. 

What can you hope for with Unbound ministry? The majority of those we’ve prayed with have received freedom for which they’ve been very grateful, if not astounded! We’ve seen healing physically, mentally, and emotionally, as well as spiritually. Relationships have improved. Self-loathing and self-criticism have been curtailed. Depression and anxiety have yielded to peace and trust. Shame and guilt have been overcome! Always, a lot of forgiveness happens, which can be miraculous even if that were the only outcome! On the other hand, we’ve shared some disappointment when forgiveness and relief are the “only” fruits of a ministry session. So we’ve thought about what makes the difference.

I’ve needed more than one ministry session myself. The first time I experienced deliverance and freedom, I’d prepared my Need to Forgive List very thoroughly and I did receive an amazing feeling of freedom and healing of relationships. But I hadn’t yet heard of or read Unbound and there were important behaviors, attitudes, and past occult experiences that I didn’t know to bring to the session. A year later, after having studied the book and attended two Freedom in Christ Conferences, I was set free of deeper emotional pain (at a short session during a conference). The more I learn, the more often I use the 5 Keys on my own and turn to my teammates, too. Freedom is a process, and there is always more to receive—addressing new material that comes up with deeper reflection and/or sharing parts of our story that we hadn’t brought up before.

Prayer – Yours and Ours

Our Unbound team rarely says No to a request for ministry, but we sometimes feel prompted to say Later. We review requests for ministry and pray to discern if the timing is right, and if there’s a good fit between the person and members of the team. At times the Holy Spirit alerts us that an individual’s unusual situation or experiences call for a prayer leader with expertise we don’t have. Scheduling is complex; our team members are volunteers with jobs and commitments that affect our availability, so appointment times and staffing are not conducive to scheduling exactly as some people request. We urge those seeking ministry to pray and trust that the Holy Spirit is at work in the intake process to influence the timing and the composition of the prayer team that will minister to you, often for reasons only God knows for sure. We trust that the Lord orchestrates it all. 

Before you make a prayer request, ask the Lord if now is the time — if you’ll have time to prepare, who’s in your life to support you, and whether you’re ready to take personal responsibility, possibly give up some unhealthy choices, and follow through. Motivation is another factor: why do you want to make an appointment? Have you learned enough about Unbound to be making an informed request? Are you being drawn to it prayerfully?

If you’re looking for ongoing support from us because you don’t have Christian friends with whom you can share your faith and struggles, it’s probably not the time for Unbound in your life. Unbound teams are not in a position to offer ongoing support. Rachel Lozano explains that the enemy’s desire is to isolate people, so Unbound encourages everyone to first find healthy, loving Christian fellowship. We are not created to live alone but in relationship, and once we become free, we need relationship to stay free.

Preparation

Abe Lincoln said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” The proportion of prep time to ministry time is generally significantly higher in successful Unbound sessions!

Preparation begins with reading Unbound: A Practical Guide to Deliverance by Neal Lozano, available at the St. Dominic’s Parish Office, at Heart of Father Ministries in book or MP3 form, and at online suppliers. Ideally, you’ll have attended a Freedom in Christ Conference or Live Free! or read the first half of Unbound even before requesting ministry, so you know about the Five Keys and how they work in a session.

Once you have an appointment, re-read the first seven chapters of Unbound prayerfully, marking up the book or taking notes. Notice what stories stand out to you, which you relate to, or the description of dark influences you’d previously thought were “just part of who I am” or that “sound like the way it was in my family.” Ask the Lord to give you personal insights. We provide Preparing for Ministry – Personal Reflections to guide you in preparing. If you’d like to go deeper, or if you’ve had a previous session and didn’t get the freedom you hoped for, we offer Deep Reflection Questions. Don’t leave your prep to a few days before your session. You’ll benefit from using these Reflection documents over the course of at least several days.

Personal Responsibility

We know that it’s the Holy Spirit and the prayer recipient who actually do the work during ministry sessions. The prayer ministers are trained to come alongside and coach you through it, but God and you are the key players!

Your freedom depends on YOU — Freedom is God’s will for all His children; but God has laid out how to attain it, and it’s your choice as to whether you will do what it takes to Become Free, and then to Live Free and Stay Free. If you’ve taken on the identity as someone possessed or if you’re involved in the occult, you’ll need to be ready to let that go. You are NOT powerless over evil spirits, but if you believe you are, you will be. You may have been victimized, but you won’t stay a VICTIM if you’re willing during your session to renounce the victim spirit and take back the authority and power you’ve given away or had taken from you.  You’ll need to be open to repent of your sin, to stop making excuses, and to stop blaming others. “For each will have to bear his own load” ~Galatians 6:5 (NIV).

The preparation process and the ministry itself help with all of this. But it’s very important for you to count on yourself. Prayer and diligent preparation, your words during the session, and your belief are the most important factors. We provide guidance, resources, experience, trained listening and coaching, prayer and love, but you are ultimately going to need to surrender to the Lord, trust the Lord, open yourself to the Lord, repent, forgive, and renounce, believing that the Lord will do for you what Jesus promised:

“Whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing” — healing the sick, driving out demons, and setting free the oppressed —”and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”  ~John 14:12. 

After your session we’ll talk to you about how to win the continuing battle for your mind. Again, you’ll need to pray and to take responsibility, learning from a talk we recommend and applying the described techniques to Stay Free. This is why we sign our emails with the whole process: Become Free, Live Free, Stay Free, and then we hope you’ll also decide to give back by serving others, which we call Give Free!