Keys to Transformation

These teachings provide keys of understanding for the equipping of students at Elijah House Ministries Keys to Transformations Courses. We come to understand: Why we and others behave the way we do. Why we experience difficulties in our lives and relationships. We have choices. There are solutions. How in the power of the Holy Spirit we are helped and enabled to help others.

Course Goals:

1. Keys of understanding

– why we and others act the way we do

– why we experience difficulties in our lives and relationships

– we have choices, there are solutions

– how, in the power of the Holy Spirit we are helped and enabled to help others

2. The Opportunity to begin implementing what is modelled during the course:

– Sharing of God’s unconditional love through prayer & relationships

– Proclaiming freedom through confession, repentance, restitution and forgiveness.

– Listening and discerning the direction of the Holy Spirit.

– Basic Ministry skills: interviewing, active listening, prayer and ministry group dynamics.

– Ministering to one another according to the Word of God in the power and sensitivity of Jesus through the Holy Spirit.

Introduction to Keys to Transformation

Unit 1

RESTORING FOUNDATIONS

Course Topics Include:

(1) Biblical Basis– Matthew 24:35 – “Heaven and Earth will pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” Elijah House is built up on the scriptures and the keys God has given us through His Holy Word. This topic is the biblical foundations of the Keys to Transformation series & Prayer ministry through Elijah House.

(2) Ingredients of Christian Prayer Ministry – This lesson is an overview of the healing process. In it, we look at the cental ingredients of the process itself as well as at the work of a Christian Prayer Minister to help bring about sanctification and transformation in people’s lives.

(3) Bitter Roots – There is a depth and power to our judgements and when bitter root judgments are formed (usually in early childhood and long forgotten) they become driving forces behind recurring patterns of trouble and/or destruction in our lives. Both Judgments & Expectancies can rob us of the abundant life Jesus came to give us.

(4) Hearts of Stone & Inner Vows – Hearts of stone form usually in early childhood as a defense to pain. Inner vows can give further rise to, and further cemented by judgements, expectancies and inner vows, making us lonely – even in the midst of friends.

(5) How we See God– In order to have true fellowship with others and with God, He has to pierce or melt our hearts of stone. In our fallen condition, we are like medieval knights in armor, peering out through the slits in our helmets to slash and poke one another, secretly wishing that the other fellow would open up so we could really meet him. Until we begin give up our armor and walk out the process of healing, we will remain distant from others and from God – unable to see Him for who He really is.

(6) Honoring Father & Mother – The law of honoring affects our lives powerfully and completely. For prayer ministers, the absolute reliability of Gods law is protection against deception (Hebrews 4:12). Through the Holy Spirit and the Word, we help people recognize the excuses, rationalizations and “smokescreens” they use to justify sin.

(7) Accomplishing Forgiveness – This lesson makes the necessity of forgiveness clear. We will learn how resentment becomes lodged in the heart and, once entrenched, requires a work of Gods grace to be removed.

Completion of unit 1 is a requirement of the KTT series. Once completed, you’ll then be eligible to attend any of the other units in any order.

Unit 2

DARE TO TRUST

(1) Repentance + Restitution – God has given us the gifts of repentance and restitution in order that we might be healed of the wounds caused by sin. Without them, we would suffer as both victim and offender, with no hope of release. This topic provides understanding of what true repentance and restitution are.

(2) Performance Orientation – Our mind and spirit may know the free gift of salvation, while our heart retains its habit of earning love by performance. There is a way to escape that trap.

(3) Parental Inversion + Substitute mate– Some of us grow up taking care of our parents, rather than vice-versa. This can cause all sorts of bad fruit in our adult lives. This lesson discusses how to heal the effects of taking on a role that was never our own.

(4) Basic Trust – Basic trust is the fundamental building block of all human relationships and is accomplished within the first mental year. A break in the first mental year causes a break all through life. You will learn how God can heal this wound and how to build strong foundations of trust again.

(5) Identifications of Love – On our own, we are not capable of loving as God loves. When we try to love in our flesh, we limit love’s expression. God wants to bring our versions of love to death on the cross. This teaching is about identifications of love. These identifications are ‘packages’ of specific words, gestures, actions and attitudes that we deem to be love. Formed from childhood, these ‘packages’ are idols that define and limit our idea of what true love is; they almost assuredly deny us the full joy of giving and receiving it. When we demand our identifications of love from those around us, we defile the very relationships we value most. God desires to bring freedom to both receive and express His love in its many forms.

(6) Recognition of ‘Fruit to Root’ Patterns – All Christians desire to minister to others, but for some the desire springs up from unhealthy motives. In this unit we teach about the root systems of your fruits (both good and bad fruits) and how to keep all motives of ministry, pure and according to the will of God.

Unit 3

FAMILY PATTERNS

(1) Prenatal & Childhood Issues, Part One – This lesson presents both the scriptural base and modern research supporting the idea that what happens in the womb can affect us throughout life. Inner healing can repair the harm that has been with us from the beginning of our days.

(2) Prenatal & Childhood Issues, Part Two – This lesson explores the conditions, symptoms and healing of several common in-utero experiences, how they affect us in later life, and how to bring healing.

(3) Generational Sin – Sometimes prayer ministers exhaust every trace of personal sin in an individual, only to find great trouble still besetting the person’s life and family. The trouble may originate from causes outside a person’s own guilt or sinful nature, descending instead through family lines. We call this ‘generational sin’.

(4) Denial – Central to our healing is willingness to be known by ourselves and others. God calls us to “walk as children of light” (For the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth, Ephesians 5:9, NIV). When we live in denial, we walk in darkness and untruth, and cannot fully receive God’s healing power.

(5) False Refuges – When we are hurt or in danger, we seek out places for comfort and protection. Many of them do not truly provide protection or comfort but are just places to hide from the truth. We become accustomed to running to these places rather than seeking the Lord’s protection and comfort. In this respect, they have become false refuges.

(6) Rightly Expressing Emotions – We are often taught to believe that certain emotions are wrong. We repress, hide, or deny them, instead of accepting them as God-given messengers. This lesson reveals how to bring emotions into the light, process and truly resolve them.

Unit 4

AUTHORITY TO OVERCOME

(1) Deliverance & Inner Healing – This lesson shows how demons take advantage of root issues, and how dealing with roots lays the groundwork for casting away demons. It also lays out principles for effective and lovingly administered deliverance.

(2) Personal & Corporate Strongholds – Strongholds, both personal and corporate, are formidable obstacles to the healing process, for they are deeply embedded in our minds. Strongholds have lives of their own. This teaching examines the origin of strongholds, and the part the mind plays in blocking our relationship with God. Scripture offers us a model for entering into warfare against the strongholds that hold us captive as individuals, as groups, indeed as entire nations.

(3) Spiritual Captivity – Unlike one who spiritually slumbers, a person in spiritual captivity is still able to sense the life around him, but because of inner vows that distance him from life, he feels as if a wall separates him from direct participation. In this lesson, we explore the symptoms, and how to bring a person out of captivity.

(4) Slumbering Spirit – Spiritual slumber is a condition in which a person is unable to attune himself to God and others, access creativity and inspiration, maintain emotional perspective, thrive in the midst of illness, and live from a working conscience. To avoid pain, some people make inner vows that shut off these abilities. This lesson explains the symptoms of spiritual slumber, and how to reawaken the spirit through inner healing.

(5) Healthy Relationships to Authority – No-one except Jesus has exhibited both perfect submission to authority and perfect leadership. We have all failed in both submission and leadership. This teaching deals only with our issues and attitudes towards those in authority over us. We will outline how history and Satan have worked together to destroy proper respect for authority, how that has affected us, and what Scripture says about proper submission even to those who abuse authority.

(6) The Wounded Burden Bearer – This lesson explains how to bring healing so that burden bearers are lifted up, not weighed down, as they carry to the cross in prayer only those burdens which only God places on our shoulders. Healing the wounded burden bearer requires prayer for healing of the wounded spirit, as well as teaching and training in the gift.

(7) The Blessing of Burden Bearing – Burden bearing is the first calling and primary labor of every Christian, and the key service through which we may come into the fullness of relationship with God. This lesson focuses on the joy we can receive through the gift of burden bearing and intercession.

Unit 5

RELEASED FROM HEARTACHE

(1) Ministry Skills – We will explore the approaches needed to promote love, respect, and healing. As prayer ministers, we enter what God is already doing in the person’s life, connecting with them heart-to-heart – tuned in to truly hearing and understanding their heart—with the help of the Holy Spirit. We will also look at the interview process and show how open-ended questions allow people to express themselves more fully. We may see bad fruit in the person’s life to whom we minister, but we need the Lord’s help in determining what is “ripe” and ready to deal with in prayer.

(2) Addictions – This lesson brings insight and understanding about how inner healing can remove the roots of this devastating problem. Those who minister to persons with addictions know how prevalent it is, even in the church.

(3) Healing Life’s Common Sexual Experiences – We often over-react, or under-react, to the sexual behaviors of our children. All sins are not equal; Jesus made a clear distinction between greater and lesser sin. Handled improperly without understanding, the common sexual experiences of childhood and adolescence can wound deeply and lead to greater sins in adulthood.

(4) Emotional Abuse – Arbitrary, inconsistent, or abusive parental discipline can damage the emotional well-being and security of a child and destroy the natural sense of justice that God imparts to our being. This lesson explores healthy and appropriate forms of discipline necessary to raising children and explains how the effects of bad discipline can be healed.

(5) Shame Part 1 – We will discover how shame affects us in our individual lives, our families, our churches, our generations and cultures.

(6) Shame Part 2 – We will explore how to recognize what shame does and the many symptoms associated with it.

Unit 6

FREE TO CHOOSE

(1) Praying to Release Trauma – Trauma comes in many forms: physical, loss, betrayal, etc. This lesson defines trauma, explains why some people are more susceptible to it, and reveals how to pray to release it.

(2) Cutting Free – In this lesson, we will look at the principles of leaving and cleaving. We will discuss these principles in the context of spiritually and emotionally leaving our family of origin and/or former position in order to step into God’s call for our life. This subject is handled in three different areas: ministry, salvation, marriage and the family. In all three we are taught the principle of cutting free from the past.

(3) Healing the Sexually Abused – The sexually abused often live with a barrage of emotions that keep them in bondage to the wounds of the molestation. This lesson explores the aftermath in the adult life of a child who was molested, and shows that through inner healing, any wound, no matter how deep, can be healed.

(4) Sexual Addictions – You will learn how to bring people to forgiveness of self and others, inspiring in them a desire to seek support and accountability which ultimately restores them to the Father.

(5) Profile of an Abuser – Offers a general description of the history and character of a potential sexual abuser. Those who fit many aspects of this profile, but who have never become abusers, should praise God and ask Him to heal areas of vulnerability by the power of the cross. Those who seek to minister to abusers may begin to respond with increased understanding and compassion, not to excuse their sin, but to be prepared to help them to deal with it at the root level.

(6) Care & Feeding of the Personal Spirit – God intends to transform our inner man (our soul). He will not put a new patch on the old garment of our character; it must die and be reborn. But our personal spirit never dies, although it does suffer the wounds of daily existence. God promises to heal these wounds, and He asks us to honour and care for our spirit as a precious and eternal gift.

Unit 7

LEAD BY THE SPIRIT

(1) Resurrection Side of Healing – Honouring father and mother involves more than forgiving them. We need to see not only the bad they have done to us, but who God designed them to be, and learn to maximize that without minimizing our own pain. This will cultivate in us a heart that can honour others in all of our relationships.

(2) Overcoming Fears – We will cover the different kinds of fears and those who are susceptible to them. We will talk about healthy defences against fear and about the role love plays in building those defences. We also will present appropriate methods of ministry for simple and complex phobias, general anxiety and panic attacks. We will also look at the limitations of prayer ministers in dealing with these issues.

(3) Depression – In an earnest desire to help, well-meaning Christians unknowingly have caused torment, rather than eased suffering. If we are to truly help, we must be sensitive to the unique characteristics and ramifications of this painful condition.

(4) Grief – Major loss invokes in us intense emotional suffering, or grief. In this lesson, we will review the process of grieving, to see how we get “stuck,” unable to move through the stages of grief and beyond into acceptance and healing. Also included is a special focus on how to understand and facilitate grief in children.

(5) Burnout – This lesson discusses the physical, emotional and spiritual conditions associated with burnout. We’ll explore its causes and possible prevention and specify what is needed to help bring healing.

(6) Boundaries – We will look at boundaries from a biblical point of view and we will also approach the issue of boundaries from the perspective of both the prayer minister and the one being ministered to.

Unit 8

CLEAN + EFFECTIVE PRAYER MINISTRY

(1) Spiritual Adultery – When allowed to continue, spiritual adultery inevitably leads to physical adultery. This lesson outlines how this happens and how to bring healing. It also gives guidelines about what to do when spiritual adultery occurs in the prayer ministry relationship.

(2) Ties that Bless or Bind – The relationship between the wounded and those who minister healing to them is the subject of this lesson. The inevitability of closeness and intimacy between prayer ministers and those to whom they minister requires a close look at some common pitfalls. Inappropriate attachments, dependencies and the confusions of transference relationships are discussed at length, and insights are offered to help manage these conditions and respond in godly ways.

(3) Spiritual Rebellion – It is not sin to desire relief from painful or difficult circumstances; this lesson is not about such things. Rather, it speaks to the way we reject our lives and ourselves, thus rebelling against the God who has made us. We are all in some degree of spiritual rebellion. We are all angry at God, and in need of being reconciled to Him. This lesson will identify the attitudes which indicate the problem and discuss the fruits of this sin in our lives.

(4) Healing the Effects of Occult Involvement – All occultism is a turning to other powers. In this lesson you will learn the damaging effects caused by occult involvement and how to bring healing and freedom.

(5) Common Errors in Ministry –This is a lesson in awareness. Prayer ministers must continually practice rigorously honest self-examination, as we come before God with our gifts, knowledge, and healing abilities. This lesson describes some of the many ways in which prayer ministers can act outside of the will of God.

(6) Sealing Our Healing – This lesson illustrates numerous disciplines by which we can maintain our healing and further develop our relationship with the Lord. These, along with classic spiritual disciplines, will strengthen new and healthy structures to replace old and sinful patterns in our lives. The process of prayer ministry would be incomplete without instruction and support in this area.