At their next session Pastor Cortez begins the discussion: Last week I told some stories about inner healing—healing troublesome memories which can years later mess up one’s thinking and believing and behavior. Here are some guidelines I’ve prepared, which I give to fellow pastors or lay counselors, to help you pray for yourself or someone else. Brent and Edna respond with Cge, thankyou!
- Preach and/or meditate on John 21. Jesus’ cooking fish over a charcoal fire would have stirred Peter’s recollection of denying Jesus by a charcoal fire. Bad memories need to be faced. And then the three-fold words of exhortation—“Feed my sheep…lambs….sheep” —replaced in Peter’s mind his onerous three-fold denial.
- 1. Have a preliminary meeting with the disturbed person. There you will pray a general prayer, and ask him/her what their problem is, how long they’ve had it, and how it’s affected him/her. Then you should ask them to keep a confidential journal, in which they write down the events which may have traumatized them, and their reactions. Their writing should be free-flowing, and uncensored, so all the thoughts and feelings can come out. Finally, ask them to pray about their issue(s), and you set a date for the inner healing session.
- Pray with your prayer partner for the person and the upcoming ministry.
- When you meet with the person next time:
- Have an opening prayer. Read the John 21 account of the healing of Peter. You might also invite them to think of the inner hurting child like the prodigal son returning to the Father’s welcoming, accepting arms, and not be bothered by some inner judgmental ‘older brother’.
- Find out what the person learned through keeping a journal of past events/feelings.
- Ask, “What is the most disturbing event or situation?” Also, “Is there anyone whom they have trouble forgiving, but ought to?”
- Ask them to simply picture the most troubling scene. Then ask them to invite Jesus into it, to do whatever He wants, to heal it.
- As the Holy Spirit leads, you pray also, and speak out any words of knowledge or prophetic insights, and ask Jesus to totally heal any other troublesome memories which could trouble the person.
- Ask the person to forgive whoever harmed him/her. If they have trouble doing this, there may be an additional negative memory, or something else they have trouble accepting. Ask them to imagine themselves accepting (not approving) this bad thing,
- Ask them to continue keeping a journal of thoughts and feelings, in order to make sure the new experience, and outlook, is really grounded in their psyche.
- Finish with a prayer for continued courage and insight, as they try to ground and integrate their experience and new insights—their healing—into their everyday lives.
After explaining these points, as needed, Cortez encourages the couple to prayerfully look inside themselves, both of them, and then pray, asking Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, to reveal anything that has been wrong, inside each of them. He then closes with a prayer, and says See you next week. Meantime, if you need any help with this, don’t hesitate to call me at 424-7769.
