A Road to Freedom

Table of Contents

Part 1: Emotional Restoration

Part 2: Spiritual Restoration

Part 3: Physical Restoration

An Introduction (Chapter 1)

To many people, life seems and is unfair! Many things happen to us that are undeserved. Sometimes, life sucks but the good news is that we don’t have to be sucked in. These events, hurts, traumas and disappointments impact our daily life in many ways. They may manifest themselves in our lives as fears, anxieties, inappropriate behaviour, depression, relationships difficulties etc. and mostly we are unaware what the initial cause is. None of us really choose to suffer, but suffer we do. What I have set out is a path we can follow so that we may be free from the effects of the past that impacts the present. Come with me and let us explore this journey together. I have been there and I know the freedom it offers.

Many people come to me for counselling to solve their problems. They ask, "Can you help me?" My reply is always, "No, but I do know the One who can!

The diagram showing the impact of our physical needs, guilt and fear

A Case Study

I was counselling a man in his thirties. His current condition was that he was unable to hold down a job. Invariably, he would disappear and drink himself into a stupor. We had worked through a number of other issues, when one day he recounted how he had an emotional breakdown while training to become a chef. He felt that Master Chef was particularly hard and abusive towards him. He agreed when I suggested he should forgive Master Chef. I suggested he close his eyes and ask the Holy Spirit to help him to forgive by ‘putting him in Master Chef shoes’”.

It was less that 3 minutes when he opened his eyes and kept blurting out, “He loves me!” After a while he told me that the Holy Spirit showed him, that Master Chef considered himself a failure and because Master Chef “loved” him, he didn’t want him also to become a failure. Master Chef didn’t know any other way of training except by being harsh and demanding. I asked my client, “Can you forgive Master Chef?” He looked at me smiling and said, “I have already forgiven him from the bottom of my heart!”

Understanding the spiritual Kingdoms (Chapter 12)

In chapters 3 and 8, we briefly talked about the fact that we are spirit, soul and body and that we have roots of iniquity. We will now take a deeper look at the spiritual component. Generally, western society places more importance on intellect rather than on the spiritual. The main reason being that it is difficult to quantify the things of the spiritual realm . There are two ways that we may understand the spiritual realm more, and that is by believing the stories of others or by experiencing it ourselves. This immediately leaves us with two problems. Firstly our personal experiences may be disregarded as a figment of our imagination, especially when others discredit the...

A time to take stock (a question and answer self-study)

1. Was I continually subjected to harsh words? yes / no

2. Did I take on responsibility beyond my years? yes / no

3. Was I subjected to manipulation and control? yes / no

4. Did I experience a shock that left me feeling numb? yes / no

5. Did I experience continual rejection as a child? yes / no

7. Was I abused emotionally, physically or sexually? yes / no

8. Was I forced to take part in something ugly? yes / no

9. Did I attend meetings that made be feel uneasy? yes / no

10. Do I feel dead inside? yes / no

11. Was I bullied, threatened or tortured? yes / no

12. Was I continually taunted or teased? yes / no

13. Am I adopted or fostered? yes / no

14. Did I willing take part in any occultic rituals? yes / no

If you answered, “yes” to any of the above questions there is a strong possibility that you may have a damaged spirit.

The suggested prayer of Repentance

Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I come to you and confess that I have wrong attitudes and a wrong way of thinking about (issue). Please forgive me from my wrong attitudes and wrong way of thinking. I ask that you, by your Holy Spirit in me, would open the eyes of my heart to see things from your perspective . Give me your revelation about (issue) so that by a new understanding my attitudes and thinking are changed.

Lord, I thank you for purifying my heart.

Amen.

The Back Cover