SOZO - Saved, Healed, Delivered Summary
Briefly write what the whole book is about and why the author has written it. (Imagine the author will read this and would say, “Yes, this is the main point(s) of my book.) The authors Dawna DeSilva and Teresa Liebscher set out to provide readers with tools and dynamic ways to build stronger connections with God. With these tools one has the ability to break lies, addictions and hinderances that keep one from living an abundant life and fully pursuing ones destiny and calling. This book was filled with stories of people who were transformed through a SOZO experience. It presents many tools and techniques and thought provoking questions that are useful for personal transformation or when ministering to others.
Briefly outline 4 major points of the book as the author presents them including page numbers. “ Throughout Scripture, we see each member to the Godhead providing specific needs. Whereas Father God tends to provide protection, provision, and identity, Jesus offers companionship and communication. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit provides comfort and instruction. “ This sentence from page 34 sums up what I felt to be the most insightful message of the book. That our relationships with parents, siblings and friends colors how we understand the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. My first three points will be looking at those parallels. My fourth will be to look as some of the tools presented and how they might be useful additions to ones ministry tool belt. 1. Father : From our earthly Fathers we should experience protection, provision and gain a understanding of our identity. Sadly this relationship is often broken in some way and leads to disfunction in how we relate to the Father. It is hard for someone who has been abandoned by their father to see God has being there for them. Those who have been abused often have issues with protection and don't view God as safe. The provision aspect often affects how we feel about finances. “ A person may have an excellent sense of identity, yet a complete dysfunction in the realm of finances. Someone may believe she is worthy of protection but have no grid for how God see her. Whatever the client needs, the SOZO minister’s duty is to partner with God to bring those needs to him, expose andy wound, dispel demonic attachments, and facilitate an exchange of those lies for God’s truth”. Pg 79
2. Son: How we relate to Jesus is often colored by how we were treated by our siblings and friends. “When a friend or sibling hurts our feelings, especially in our formative years, there is a chance that a lie from the enemy can develop. Resolving this issue in a safe environment can remove destructive patterns that seek to interrupt God’s purpose.” Pg47 The Presenting Jesus tool is often helpful for people who have trouble connecting to Jesus. After discovering a lie that has been believed the SOZO ministers would pray with the person to have Jesus show them the truth and to reveal where Jesus was at that point in time. Often they gain a totally new perspective for what happened. Jesus offers communication and companionship if we have been teased or bullied or called names by our friend and siblings we may feel Jesus will also treat us in a similar fashion. “Over and over, we see Jesus heal hurts, remove lies, and exchange those lies for truth. Connecting people to Jesus as friend, companion, and savior opens the way to clearer communication between themselves and God.” pg 53
3. Holy Spirit: “We have found that when a mother is absent from hers children’s lives though their early years, either physically or emotionally, they are often confused whether or not they can expect to have their needs met. They can easily transfer these feelings onto their understanding of the Holy Spirit.”pg 90 I had an ah-ha moment in realizing that while I am moved by the Holy Spirit and have no trouble relating to Holy Spirit as teacher, I have trouble feeling and I have a lot of limiters on emotions. It had not occurred to me prior to reading this book that my relationship with my mother could color my connection with Holy Spirit. I realized that I needed to forgive my mother for not being one to physically touch or to hold or hug or comfort. She is also a great stuffer of emotions. I needed to forgive and receive the exchange for greater truth, revelation and healing.
4. Tools: The Father Ladder was the main tool presented in this book. Basically it is a step by step approach to helping people realize that things they learned and believed as a result of their family and friend relationships effects how they view Father, Son and Holy Spirit. “The first institution God created was the family. This unit represents the function of each member of the Godhead - Father God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit (see Gen. 1:26) When family members fail to fulfill their roles the resulting pain and confusion can easily transfer to our understanding of God, Jesus and Holy Spirit.”pg 83 I think the most compelling aspect of the ladder image is of one moving upward spiritually as those relational hinderance lies are broken off a person allowing them to climb to new heights in their relationship with the Godhead.
Other tools presented were Colored Lenses and Crafty Suggestions which deal with lies that we have grown to believe that have become so much a part of us that we don’t even realize they exist and influence how we behave. The tool called the Four Doors deals with areas of sin in our lives. The idea is based Ten Steps to Freedom by Pablo Bottari. “This tool is used to identify strongholds in a person’s life and to bring needed deliverance from demonic bondage. According to Bottari, a person’s physical, spiritual and emotional issues can be traced back to the opening of any one of these four door: fear, hatred/bitterness, sexual sin and the occult.”
Thoughtfully explain one main strength (or point of agreement) with the author.
We hear the success stories of people who have been healed or set free in some form or another. Why doesn't everyone get free? What do you do with the difficult hard to deal with folks struggling with unimaginable pain from trauma and abuse. We have become a society even as Christians that want the quick fix pill to make everything better. We want to persist in our lifestyle and often times can’t connect the dots to behaviors and practices that are undermining our greater desire for wellness. We just want the pain to stop and more often we will settle for simply numbing it or finding ways to distract our selves from the things we don’t want or know how to to deal with. Too many people stop at salvation and never receive the healed and delivered part of the message of Jesus. I love the that on the back cover where it states “Salvation is not simply a ticket to Heaven. It is abundant life that begins now… and continues forever.” I see a lot of believers who are just holding on in their personal struggles waiting for the Rapture to wisk them out of it all. They have developed a ‘Come Lord Jesus because my life really sucks’ kind of mentality and somehow think in a twinkling of the eye God is going to take a bedraggled bride and remove the spots and wrinkles when we are told repeatedly to be over comers. I think we risk becoming like the man in the parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-30 who did nothing with what he had been given and in the end lost everything.
Write down some of your favorite
sentences in the book.
“Whether from fear or inconvenience, many Christians fail to pursue a personal relationship with God. Without a passion for and a close companionship with the Godhead, their ability to influence others is decreased. Like the cover lamp in Jesus’s parable, they are unable to function as designed.” Pg 35
“If you partner with a false truth, chances are you do not even know it exists. Mose lies exist at a subconscious level. It takes God, revelation through the Bible, or a safe individual to point out a lie;s existence.” Pg. 111
“Pastor Kris Vallotton of Bethel Church states that the devil flees difficult battles because he lack the fruits of the Spirit, specifically patience. Therefore, one way of usurping his attacks is to simply with him out” pg 186
“ A stronghold is broken via the process of forgiveness, repentance and renunciation.” Pg 158
“To live successfully as a son or daughter of god, we must partner with His victories mindset. To do this, we must equip ourselves as powerful individuals.” Pg 1126
In what way did this book impact your life as one who transforms cities? How will you be different? It has given me some useful tools such as the Father Ladder, Colored Lenses, Crafty Suggestions, the Four doors, Repentance and Exchange, Shifting Atmospheres. I will begin to work to use these tools on myself to deal with my own brokenness and will look for opportunities and ways to share them with others.
What challenges(s) have you been given by the Lord to implement some of the strategies in this book? The back cover of the book states that you will receive. “practical tools to deepen your relationship with the Triune God - Father God, Jesus and Holy Spirit. Victory strategies to help you disarm lies, break harmful patterns, achieve spiritual atmospheres, and access the often - un reached realms of abundant life. Keys to experience inner healing by breaking addictions, overcoming obstacles and walking in sustained deliverance. These are all valuable in the work of discipling people. I suppose I am still formulating what my Massage and Wellness practice encompasses. I my massage practice I see people burdened down by stress and physical pain and often there are deeper issues that could be dealt with. I find myself wondering about scope of practice at this point and if this would cross over into counseling, which is beyond my scope of practice. Sometimes the hour of quiet time on the massage table is as healing to the mind and spirit as the massage is to the physical body. I believe as I continue through this school that God will help me to understand how this all could become some sort of creative Wellness Center that uses tools like these found in this book along with other coaching tools and the arts to allow people to express and process in a safe environment. I think I might want to make individual worksheets or booklets of some of these ideas because most people don’t have time to read a whole book and allow the Holy Spirit to lead them onward as they journey greater wellness for mind, body, soul and spirit.
My Concluding Thoughts
There may have been some spiritual warfare around the reading of this book for me. I had a hard time getting into this book. I found myself irritated by the many references to the Father Ladder prior to its introduction in chapter 5. I was annoyed that I had to wade through four chapters of stories told through dialogue to get to the Father Ladder. I don’t know if the intent was to build suspense - it really didn’t work for me. Part of it may have been that I had to put Sharon Murphy’s Transforming the Land book aside to read this one. I had been powerfully impacted by the first three chapters of Sharon’s book and then got to experience a Transformation session. Its gentle breakthrough and approach to deliverance left me wanting more. While I am glad to know about SOZO and will keep its tools handy I would have rather spent the time on Transformation which is available for us to be a part of here at the International Healing Rooms. I am however glad that I pushed through because the book really was full of a lot of helpful tools and the insights.
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