by Chris Boersma Smith | Jul 3, 2018 | 5 Gospel Keys, Deliverance, Empowering and Freeing Choices, Faith and Repentance, Forgiving and Forgiveness, Freedom, Healing, Holy Spirit, Individual Prayer Ministry, Unbound
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.
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.
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.
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!
by Chris Boersma Smith | Feb 12, 2018 | 5 Gospel Keys, Book Recommendations, Deliverance, Encouragement and Inspiration, Freedom, Holy Spirit, Individual Prayer Ministry, Unbound
Understanding How We Can Coooperate with God’s Plans
I recently listened to Experiencing God by Henry and Richard Blackaby and Claude King. This inspirational book is about the blessings and miraculous outcomes that come from:
- discovering where the Father is working;
- listening to how we might be called to minister alongside Him;
- confirming our call with the Word of God, the church, godly counsel, and circumstances; and
- acting on it in faith — that is, before all the “proof” lines up.
Interestingly, the authors point out that the call may not align with what we thought were our gifts or charisms! They convinced me of that with so many Biblical examples of people being called to areas where they lacked what seemed needed for the task—so then others seeing what God did through them would know the glory and success belonged to God and not to His servant!
God Is Using UNBOUND in Mighty Ways
It is absolutely clear that the Father is working through UNBOUND Ministry, the simple but powerful deliverance and healing prayer model that uses the 5 Keys to Freedom in Christ described by Neal Lozano in
Unbound: A Practical Guide to Deliverance. Those individuals who’ve been serving in our 5 Keys team’s UNBOUND sessions have seen healing and deliverance over and over again! (For example, see our
Testimonies.) Neal Lozano estimates that over 100,000 people were set free through UNBOUND last year. At St. Dominic’s Catholic Church in San Francisco, we have seen the Holy Spirit grow our team and bring about our priests’ enthusiastic encouragement and participation. They will even present talks at our
Live Free! UNBOUND Seminar on March 17th, 2018 (click to register — it’s free but donations will be requested that day).
Our Team Members Hear the Call to Minister Alongside God
Each one of our prayer team members knows or believes s/he has received the personal call to serve God’s people through this ministry. S/he’s received training and made him- or herself available to pray with those in need. Yesterday’s Gospel was about compassion for the marginalized, those in most need, and when we listen to the stories people bring to their sessions, and guide them through the 5 keys, we know we are serving those in dire need! We are obeying the Gospel! Prayer team members have also experienced receiving UNBOUND prayer themselves. They have read and studied the subject on their own. Five team members traveled to Philadelphia to attend and International UNBOUND Leadership Conference. Most have participated as a small Christian community, too, as we develop as a team and support one another.
Setting the Captives Free Is a Calling that Aligns with the Word!
As for confirming that the calling to serve in UNBOUND Ministry lines up with the Word of God: recent readings (like James 1:5-6) have emphasized asking for wisdom with faith that God will give it to us, because that’s His will and His promise! Openness to the Holy Spirit and the Wisdom the Holy Spirit imparts as we pray with people are essential to our ministry. As a team, we have been amazed at how the Spirit has used team members for great blessings despite our own shortcomings, especially when we acknowledge that it isn’t US that makes anything happen: we are inadequate and weak on our own but strongly used by the Lord as His humble servants! We are only expected to do what we can and leave the rest to God — that’s how the wall of Jericho fell, and that’s how people are set free!
There have been so many healings and deliverances from demons in recent weeks’ Gospels–indeed, in Mark 6, everyone who came and touched Jesus’ cloak was healed! We can’t literally touch His cloak, but we can do better than that — through the Eucharist we have him touch us from the inside, living in us. I am excited to remember that of those who came to Jesus with expectant faith, belief, confidence, and hope — ALL were healed! Psalm 37:5 says “Commit to the Lord your way; trust him, and he will act.”
Is This Ministry One for You to Act On?
Of course, more prayer and time in the Word can clarify whether the call is for you personally. If you need to discern more about your personal calling, please keep doing that; our team’s trainers can meet with you to help you on that (after April 7th).
If You Feel Called to Receive UNBOUND Ministry . . .
Here are your near-term options:
A. Make an individual appointment:
- Submit a Request for Individual Prayer Ministry on our website.
- We will respond and present some preparation guidelines and possible appointment times, usually for a two-hour session within two to four weeks, so you have time to prepare.
- Obtain a copy of Unbound by Neal Lozano (for sale at the St. Dominic’s Parish Office, Heart of the Father, or Amazon), and read the first half.
- Prepare and come see what the Lord will do for you!
B. Take advantage of our March and April events:
- Register for Live Free! UNBOUND Conference, a full-day seminar on March 17, 2018, that will help you understand the prayer model and begin your preparation.
- Sign up at Live Free! for a one-hour individual session on Saturday, April 7, 2018 (or, if those are booked up quickly at the event or you’d like a longer session or a different day, make an individual appointment, as described above).
by Chris Boersma Smith | Nov 8, 2017 | 5 Gospel Keys, Individual Prayer Ministry, Maintaining Your Freedom, Mindset, Unbound
Perhaps over the holidays you’ll be around family members who regularly behave in ways that annoy you. Maybe you’ll see people who mistreated you. You don’t want to fall into an old sinkhole and not know how to climb back to the freedom in Christ you’ve found this year!
My family of origin, circa 1968: six people I love and hope to gather with this Thanksgiving!
If you’ve been through UNBOUND prayer, you’ve declared people and their actions forgiven in Jesus’ name. You’ve renounced the patterns you responded with that were influenced by unclean spirits. Unclean spirits, unhealthy habits, harmful words that you once took to heart, and lies you used to believe—these were commanded out of you with authority in Jesus’ name. You gave thanks, were blessed, and had new truths proclaimed to reinforce your identity in Christ and as a child of the Father. Hopefully, you left feeling loved and much freer and closer to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
IF THAT SOUNDS LIKE SOMETHING YOU’D LIKE TO EXPERIENCE,
CLICK HERE TO REQUEST AN INDIVIDUAL UNBOUND PRAYER SESSION
I’ve just returned from over three weeks in Florida with my parents and sister during a medical crisis. During that stressful time, I backslid into a spiritually unhealthy pattern, so I have some thoughts to share with you!
I’m an UNBOUND prayer leader, and I’ve been set free in Christ in increments. The first time came through deliverance prayer before I learned of Unbound. It healed my relationship with a daughter and loosened my perfectionism and need for other people’s approval. Later I was set free through an Unbound session, after forgiving very deep hurts I’d buried for a decade. Then at a Freedom in Christ Conference, I profoundly experienced the heart of the Father.
During those weeks in Florida I was grateful to be able to help. I enjoyed seeing loved ones, watching baseball with my Dad like I did as a kid, praying with both parents, faith-sharing with my Mom, and all that. However, I saw myself falling into old snares, including:
- extreme attempts at people-pleasing, approval-seeking, and criticism-avoidance;
- fear of reprimands and of not being good enough, and repeating the lie that “I can’t do anything right;”
- judgmentalism (received and rendered);
- taking refusals of my offers of help as rejection;
- being under the illusion that I had some control;
- self-accusation, self-criticism, self-justification, and self-absorption; and
- not living in the present but buying into guilt, regrets, worry, fear, obsessive thinking, and insomnia.
My usual Quiet Time was eroded, I got no real exercise, and only briefly did I pray with a 5 Keys Prayer Card like the ones we give out after UNBOUND sessions. I was very aware of my sinfulness, yet I knew the struggle could also help others if I grew from it and shared it honestly.
Here are the 7 steps that got me out of the sinkhole:
- Journaling: I wrote about my thoughts and feelings, what triggered me, what I didn’t like, and what worried me. I concluded that my responses were a sign to me that my freedom is fragile and needs T.L.C. I also put myself in other people’s shoes and wrote how I thought they were feeling during the tough time we shared, since everyone was dealing with shock and stress.
- Spiritual Reading: Once home, I caught up on daily readings I’d missed, liturgical and devotional. Jesus Always (by Sarah Young) reminded me not to attach my sense of worth to my performance. What others think of me is really none of my business, because only God sees us as we truly are—far from perfect but radiantly clothed in God’s perfect righteousness. In addition, because we’re precious to the Lord who delights in us, we should refuse to condemn ourselves. When you’re dissatisfied with something you’ve said or done, this book says, talk to Jesus and ask him to sort out what is truly sinful and needs to be confessed. Also, since pride is a deadly sin, it suggests that being humbled is a blessing.
- Conversational Prayer: Repentance and statements of faith, in my own words, were followed by asking for help taking my thoughts captive to Christ and increasing my desire and discipline for more time in God’s Presence. Listening, I heard (once again) that Jesus delights in setting us free, and the Holy Spirit helped me list everything I needed to confess and renounce.
- 5 Keys Prayer: Having completed Key #1 (repentance and faith), I worked my way through out-loud declarations of forgiveness of everyone and everything I’d journalled or identified (Key #2), including self-forgiveness (the hardest part for me). I then renounced out loud all the unclean spirits and lies on the list from my Conversational Prayer time (Key #3). I commanded them out in the name of Jesus (Key #4). And I prayed a Father’s Blessing (Key #5) and my daily novena to the Holy Spirit. At this point, I again felt free, thanks be to God, but I had more to do to.
- Additional Reading and Reflection on Relationships: I read and took notes from a booklet I got on a retreat, Elf-help for Dealing with Difficult People, by Lisa O. Englehardt, illustrated by R W. Alley. This gave me some practical ideas, along with The Anatomy of Peace: Resolving the Heart of Conflict by The Arbinger Institute—a fabulous book on how to improve all your relationships by honoring your own sense of what’s right and seeing others as persons like yourself, with needs, wants, and feelings, rather than as “objects.” After all this, I focused on how to make better choices “next time” to get out of mindsets that are not loving others as myself. I grew in compassion and identified how I contributed to upsetting situations. I resolved to be more understanding, loving, and honoring next time, so as to have a heart at peace and a clearer conscience.
- Sacraments: I made an appointment and received Reconciliation and went to a nice, quiet daily Mass.
- Gratitude: I thanked God for the circumstances that diminished my pride, for we are to give thanks always and for everything. I thanked God that my imperfect performance reminds me that I’m a wounded catalyst for the Lord’s healing and deliverance. I thank the Mighty One who is so awesome that my failings won’t hamper God’s plans to set believers free. And I give thanks because as I was in the midst of that spiritual battle, I saw it for what it was and knew that Christ had already won the victory for us!
How might the 5 Keys Prayer Card or these steps help keep the THANKS and the MERRY in your holidays?
by Chris Boersma Smith | Jan 23, 2016 | 5 Gospel Keys, Freedom, Healing, Individual Prayer Ministry, Lies, Life Stories, Mindset, Overcoming Obstacles, Renunciation
Most women lie to themselves, and that awful habit is a stoppable form of self-imprisonment!
They often tell themselves one or more of these (or other) unhealthy thoughts:
- I’m not good enough
- I’ll never amount to anything
- I don’t belong or I don’t fit in
- Nobody cares about me
- I have to do it right or be right
- I’m not seen or heard unless I mess up
- Something’s wrong with me or I’m not normal
- I’m a bad mother/grandmother/daughter/spouse/partner/sister
- What I want doesn’t matter
- I can’t do anything about it
- I have to do everything myself
- God won’t help me or God’s getting back at me
Where do these lies come from?
Typically, false beliefs have their roots in some incident or dynamic that goes way back, perhaps to childhood.
Take my 6th grade report card story, for example. As my fellow 12-year-old classmates and I put on coats to go home one report card day, we showed each other our grades–As, Bs, Cs, and Ds in the main subjects; V for Very Good, S for Satisfactory, or N for Needs Improvement in the behavior category.
Looking at my report card, classmates exclaimed, “Wow, you’re gonna clean up! Do your parents give you a quarter for every A?” I had straight As, and it was in the 60s.
“No,” I said, “I’m going to be in big trouble.”
Sure enough, that night my parents grounded me for weeks, because I got an N in Paying Attention. That day reinforced my belief that nothing I did was good enough, a LIE that kept me stuck in crippling perfectionism for decades. (Of course, the irony is that my paying-attention skills did need improvement — not so much to understand the subject lessons, but simply to be a better listener.)*
Awareness, Improvement, Steps to Overcome, and then Freedom
I became aware of the compulsiveness of my perfectionism through personality assessments, by loved ones pointing it out, and from my spiritual directors. When I was in Spiritual Direction School, I had some Aha’s and started lightening up a bit. In Kaizen-Muse™ Creativity Coaching training, while I was writing my first book, my perfectionism came up again. I began consciously lowering my expectations of myself and realizing what a burden and barrier perfectionism had become. Shortly thereafter, in doing Heart Work and Spiritual Cleansing with Convergence™ and UNBOUND ministries, I renounced and became (mostly) free of the lies that I’m not good enough and that I always have to do things right or be right!
If I were still trapped in perfectionism, I wouldn’t dare to express concepts like this on a blog or to teach the concepts I share in my teleclasses. I’d be waiting until I’d read all I could on each subject and had “perfect” posts and teaching outlines—a day that would never arrive. Instead, I accept that only God is perfect, and that in yielding to the Holy Spirit as I write, teach, or make quilts, God can work through me. My weakness becomes an instrument for God’s grace to flow through. Daring to rely on this is what I call Holy Boldness. And I believe that every day we can all sow Holy Boldness into the art of life, however you interpret that!
Being free of those lies has opened up so much good, and so much creativity, that I can’t wait to help others get freed of their lies, too—whatever form those lies take!
The good news is that, whatever your habitual lies are, they don’t need to plague you any longer! You can break out of the prison of those false beliefs. You CAN get past the lies, forgive whatever hurt or pain that may have led to them, and put on a mindset of new beliefs to replace those lies!
Where You Can Get Help
Read Unbound by Neal Lozano, the book that came out of 30 years of experience in using the 5 Keys approach to healing and deliverance. After you’ve read the book and reflected upon your life’s stories and who or what still breeds hurt, resentment, bitterness, ill will, etc., set up an appointment to receive individual Unbound prayer ministry. You’ll typically meet for 60 to 90 minutes with a prayer leader and an intercessor who will pray with you, listen to your story non-judgmentally, confidentially, and with an ear to you and to the Holy Spirit, so they can guide you through the 3 Keys and help you unlock the door to healing and freedom in Christ. If you’re in Northern California, please visit our ministry page and complete a request form.
Note to Mom:
*My mom reads my newsletter, so to her I say: “Hey, Mom, you know I’ve long ago forgiven everyone involved in that little story, and I ask you to forgive me for telling it again! In fact, I’m grateful it happened, because it demonstrates how seemingly minor and inadvertent things can have unintended consequences and can become some of our best teachers. You’ve also been one of my best teachers! I love you!”
