by Chris Boersma Smith | Dec 3, 2018 | Encouragement and Inspiration, Forgiving and Forgiveness, Overcoming Obstacles, Transformational Breakthroughs, Unbound
Body detox isn’t just a fad; for many, it’s become a necessity. We’re learning that our world is filled with toxins, from food and water, cleaning products, and the air we breathe, including the polluted air that comes over from mainland China. It’s mainstream knowledge that these toxins can cause disease and that it’s important to purge as many toxins as you can from your body. Similarly, there are pollutants to our spiritual well-being that eat away at our souls. If you’ve heard me speak on freedom or on creativity, you already know I’m on a crusade to help people go deep and root out whatever blocks their creativity (which I see as reflecting the image and likeness of God) and inhibits fulfilling their God-appointed mission in life.
Fear. Depression. Overwhelming stress. Anxiety. Compulsive people-pleasing. These have become so commonplace that we tend to ignore them until they escalate to threaten our health, our relationships, and our authentic selves. Through my e-book, Freedom from Hurts, Fears, and Unhealthy Habits: 5 Keys to a Free, Peaceful Life with More Creative Energy, I encouraged readers to use specific spiritual tools to forgive and be healed of lingering resentments, faulty thinking, and resulting habits that interfere with being fully alive, more joyful, and more creative than ever. Freedom from Fears was especially geared to women who value creativity but who may not have been exposed to the spiritual detox work described here for Catholic and non-Catholic Christians, based on five key points supported by what Jesus taught in The Lord’s Prayer 2000 years ago. Surprisingly, only in recent years have ministries developed step-by-step approaches to make this kind of spiritual cleansing easily accessible, and lay people are now helping people experience clean hearts and spirits across the US, Europe, Africa, Australia, and South America, most nobably through the Unbound model of prayer ministry.
The book focuses on how detoxing the spirit—which includes cleansing the heart of resentment, bitterness, and unforgiveness—relates to The Lord’s Prayer, verse by verse. And it also tells some of my personal story and the journey from lamenting a relationship impasse through several kinds of training in detoxing the spirit.
The e-book also offers fun and practical tools to help you break through creativity blocks. Before I devoted myself completely to UNBOUND ministry, I called myself a Spiritivity Coach because I believe in the intimate connection between Spirit and Creativity, each enhancing the other. Accordingly, this e-book presented favorite techniques to help overcome roadblocks and cleanse your spirit of whatever lingering hurts or false beliefs hold you back. I emphasized the powerful blending of spirituality and creativity, because inspiration and execution sourced from deep within draw from a limitless supernatural well. Imagine a retreat where the Holy Spirit and Hildegard von Bingen meet Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the book, Big Magic. And, wow, what excites me with that combo is that we can all have access to not just magic, but miracles!
I define creativity very broadly. It can involve the arts, business, or a service profession. The creative process is in play whenever you do something innovative in a way in which you’re expressing yourself as the unique being you are. I believe we all come from the Creator and thus we are all creative.
The e-book, Freedom from Hurts, Fears, and Unhealthy Habits, was recently included in our Inner Healing Black Friday Bundle and will be offered again soon.
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 | Jun 18, 2018 | Deliverance, Freedom, Healing, Holy Spirit, Transformational Breakthroughs, Unbound
I’d like to invite laity and clergy to read this post from Heart of the Father Ministries, which has trained our 5 Keys to Freedom in Christ team and spread the awesome ministry of Unbound across the states, provinces, and nations! Please check out this post and pray for the ministry!
http://www.heartofthefather.com/resources/blog/opportunities-for-new-growth
For an individual Unbound ministry session at St. Dominic’s, please visit our Unbound Ministry page to learn more, and submit your request for a private appointment.
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 | Feb 1, 2018 | Deliverance, Encouragement and Inspiration, Gratitude, Healing, Maintaining Your Freedom, Unbound
Look at the Instant Pot’s success!
Don’t we all love to get a glowing recommendation from someone affirming the good that our products or services have produced? While thanks are wonderful, positive word-of-mouth advertising shows the greatest appreciation and is the most effective marketing. Let’s talk up God, far more than everyone is talking up their Instant Pots!
Let’s do some spiritual witnessing!
A spiritual testimony is a personal declaration of what God has done for you. Gratitude with thanksgiving helps God raise other people’s interest level. It can be the doorway for bigger, better things for you and for those who hear your testimony.
When you receive Unbound ministry, you’re encouraged by Neal Lozano, Heart of the Father Ministries, and by our 5 Keys to Freedom in Christ team to write down what God did for you. It needn’t be a long essay fit for publication, though it could be! It may simply be responding to our request for an evaluation, and keeping a copy for yourself. It could be notes in your journal or in your computer or smartphone or in social media about what took place, how you felt before, during, right after, and/or upon later reflection. Whatever works for you! Having written down the important experiences is very strengthening, and helps as your memory fades. It can be especially strengthening to read what you wrote later, in a difficult time prior to your next breakthrough. (Yes, it’s common to have ups and downs in our spiritual lives, with multiple breakthroughs as we grow in holiness and intimacy with God. At times like that, looking back can uplift you.)
Questions to Ask in Coming Up with Your Testimony:
The following questions were written by Neal Lozano (in his Unbound Companion Guide) to guide you in preparing your testimony, but of course, you’re encouraged to personalize your testimony as you tell the story of God’s action in your life:
- What has the Lord done in my life through the UNBOUND message?
- What truths has the Lord revealed to me?
- What sins (or bad habits or addictions) have I overcome by God’s grace?
- What enemies or lies have I renounced that I now refuse to fellowship with?
- How has the Father revealed His love to me as His son or daughter?
- What blessing is He whispering to me right now?
You might also ask:
- How do I feel now that I have forgiven a person, an action, an omission, or hurtful words that wounded me?
- How do I feel as a result of telling my story and having it listened to with love and without judgment (if you experienced that, which is always the intention of UNBOUND ministry teams)?
- How do I see my UNBOUND experience affecting my life going forward? Has it already made a positive difference?
How Might I Share My Testimony?
- Send your testimony to the UNBOUND team and let them know whether it’s just for their edification or whether it might be shared (anonymously or otherwise) to help others — this can be done with an evaluation form, an email, by letter, or by recording (even on voicemail), or by taking a video of yourself speaking about your experience and sending it to the team who ministered to you.
- Allow the person doing a follow-up with you to take notes and share some of your story, after getting your approval.
- Share your testimony with others you know, perhaps in your family or among a small faith community — without going into too much detail, except perhaps to a few very well trusted believers or a spiritual director or confessor.
Tips for a Moving Testimony
First, your testimony should be personal.
- You could share what the Lord has revealed to you about lies you believed and the truth the Lord has imparted to you.
- You could share what sins you’ve overcome by His grace, or whom the Lord has led you to forgive (maybe even for what).
Second, it helps most if your testimony is specific and concrete.
- If you’re willing to share some details of previous bondage and specifically how the Lord has released you, others will be able to relate to your story and your words will bear good fruit for the Lord.
Do It, Because Jesus Asks Those He Heals to Witness to Others!
in Mark 5:1-20, Jesus cast out the demon called “Legion,” which had possessed a chained, cave-dwelling, screaming man in Gerasenes. At the demon’s request, Jesus sent the evil spirit into a herd of swine, which then ran off the cliff into the sea. The healed and now free man wanted to follow Jesus as he traveled around preaching, healing, and delivering others from evil. But Jesus wouldn’t let the man join him, because Jesus had greater work for the man to do than just being his follower. He said, “Go home to your family and announce to them all the Lord in his pity has done for you.” Jesus wants us to tell our story and pass on the miracles and healings that transform our lives!
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?
