Bethel Sozo first came to the UK some 16 years ago. Since day one it’s been described and known as an inner healing and deliverance ministry and whilst over the years there have been changes, the essence of what a Sozo session comprises has remained much the same. What’s changed, quite separately to Sozo, is the perception of who needs inner healing and what for.
It’s potentially a significant shift and one we should build on, but before we look at this let’s first agree on a definition of inner healing. Dr Google more or less agrees with itself on this one; it tells us that inner healing is, “ the process of dealing with the sinful reactions and false beliefs that get lodged in our hearts during the painful episodes of life” and whilst this is perhaps a slightly lightweight description of a ministry that can help address the despair and dysfunction of deep trauma, it will do so as a general overview. So if that’s what inner healing is for, then who needs it?
We’d suggest that it’s here that perception has, thankfully, changed.
15 years ago, when we first started to help set up Sozo teams, a common way of thinking was that inner healing was for those whose life was, one way or another, in a mess; it was for those carrying a blockage that was stopping them from moving forward in life, faith or both. Churches took on Sozo as a ministry for those who ‘needed it’, rather as they’d set up a food bank.
I’m not sure that way of thinking doesn’t still linger but, thanks perhaps to the more American acceptance of getting outside help from counsellors and dealing with our ‘stuff’, inner healing has become more mainstream and less ‘hidden’ and, as a result, a great deal of the unwillingness to seek outside help has gone…but we want to suggest to you that there’s far more to the way we should be thinking about inner healing and Sozo and here’s why:
In Romans 12:2 we’re told, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind”. This begs two questions: What needs to be renewed and how do we do this? What needs to be renewed? Well, not least it’s those “sinful reactions and false beliefs that get lodged in our hearts during the painful episodes of life”, and, if we’re honest, it’s a call applicable to all of us…
…and how,? You’ll no doubt have lots of answers: read your Bible; pray; declare biblical truth; train your brain to recognise negative thoughts and replace them; worship, focus on God, they’re all good answers, but there’s more! You see, each one of these may, piecemeal, make a difference, but they’re far from the complete answer.
What is then? Well, what could possibly renew our minds more than hearing God tell us how He sees us and who we are, and believing it? Surely this renews our mind in a way that nothing else can. Isn’t that our experience with Sozo?
And that’s the change in perception we need. Sozo and indeed any inner healing should no longer be thought of as a one-off session to clear a blockage, but rather as divine bleach. Inner healing should be seen as a life-long process of becoming the person God made us to be, transforming our minds in accordance with what we hear from heaven so that we come to see ourselves exactly as He does.
The truth is that everyone needs inner healing. We are all on a journey. Far from being a ministry reserved for the truly troubled, Sozo should be an integral and regular element in our spiritual growth as Christians. What do you think?