When ministering to others, it is helpful to follow a sequence of steps. Though it is sometimes advisable to follow a different ordering, the following sequence seems to be the most useful with frequent repetition of steps three through five. That is, in any given ministry session should involve several interviews (step 3), each of which is followed by the development and implementation of another strategy (step 4) and more authoritative (step 5) before the session is finally concluded. The following ministry model is taken from my book, Deep Wounds, Deep Healing.

Step 1: In prayer, invite the Holy Spirit to come in a special way. The Holy Spirit is always with us and in us. Indeed, one important part of our pre-ministry praying should be to ask for a new infilling of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 5:18 commands us to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit. But in addition to his constant presence, we see from Luke 17 that he comes in particular ways for special purposes. We need him to provide a number of specific things in each ministry event. Among them are:
a) to lead and reveal his ministry during the session;
b) to empower whatever happens;
c) to give us the right thoughts, ideas and words;
d) to provide protection from the Enemy for everyone involved, plus all of our families, friends and personal affairs both during and after the ministry session.
This initial prayer time should be followed by continual silent prayer by all involved during the remainder of the session. It is good for them to keep their eyes open when they pray, to avoid missing the many clues that come from observing what is happening with the person being prayed for.

Step 2: Bless the person. Bless the person with such things as peace, freedom from fear of embarrassment, openness to whatever God wants to do, and whatever else the Holy Spirit leads you to say. Often, the person receiving ministry is extremely ill at ease, sometimes to the point of shaking, fearful-not knowing quite what to expect. Blessing the person with peace usually takes care of such things. If not, you may want to spend more time in prayer, or in sharing your own or another’s experience, to bring trust and calmness. High emotion usually blocks the working of the Holy Spirit. Bringing in calmness and trust is, therefore, an important part of these first two steps.

Step 3: Interview the person. During the interview, we are looking for information that will aid in the healing process. It is helpful to remember that God seems to prefer to lead us through ordinary means rather than extraordinary means whenever possible. An ordinary interview, then, is usually quite important in the process of bringing a person to healing. While we ask questions, however, we need to be constantly listening for information from the Holy Spirit as well. A major key to successful ministry, then, is to listen to God as we listen to the person.
As we start the interview, we should expect God to honor our request that he lead. His leading will usually be through guided “hunches.” Some people seem to think that it is important to distinguish which information comes from oneself and which comes directly from God. I think such attempts are both unnecessary and potentially distracting. If we ask God to lead and he does lead, what difference does it make where he pulls the information from? Information that God pulls from our experience is just as much from God as that which he gives us directly. He freely mixes both types as we minister.
There are several possible starting points as we seek to discover what to deal with first. The most obvious starting point is to check out the problem that brought the person to you. This will usually be some surface-level difficulty, but it has roots at a deeper level in the person’s life. As we ask questions concerning that issue, it is usually important to look for indications of a deeper problem.

Often there have been unpleasant, abusive or at least misunderstood childhood experiences that provide the roots for the present problems. Seamands points out that “…children learn a language of relationships long before they learn a language of words. And the painful memories of unhealthy relationships often cry out so loudly that they interfere with learning the new relationship with God.”
Family relationships are often involved. It is, therefore, often good to question the person concerning his or her relationship with father, mother, siblings, grandparents, and others. Relationships with authority figures and peers often need to be explored as well. Much damage occurs in school experiences.
Another frequent source of emotional damage is illness. If the person has been separated from parents in a hospital situation, the result can be intense feelings of abandonment that produce considerable emotional and spiritual disruption in the individual’s present life.

THIS MINISTRY MODEL SECTION IS QUOTING FROM DEEP WOUNDS…AND A SHORT CASE BEGINS HERE IN THE EVENT YOU WANT TO USE A DIFFERENT CASE – .
Such a trauma occurred in the life of a woman I’ll call Charlene. At the age of four, Charlene was left with a babysitter while her parents went on vacation. They did not tell Charlene they were leaving, perhaps because they felt she was too young to notice their absence. At any rate, this left a deep wound in Charlene, a feeling of abandonment that she carried into adulthood and for which she needed deep-level healing.
We are looking for events in a person’s life that may possibly relate to present problems. We are also looking for attitudes that underlie his or her response to such events, attitudes that can be healed by the Holy Spirit. We look especially for attitudes toward self, others and God. They are frequently signaled by the presence of such emotions as unforgiveness, bitterness, anger, a critical spirit, self-rejection, fear, inadequacy, unworthiness, worry, anxiety, control, domination, depression, discouragement, rebellion, guilt, and shame.
It is usually a good idea not to spend more than five to ten minutes at a time in interviewing those we pray for. If we spend longer, we are likely to forget things when we turn to prayer. It is ordinarily best to interview for a short time, then go on to the following steps, “looping back” later to get information before going on to pray over another set of issues. A typical ministry session, then, consists of several interviews followed by several prayer times before the session is over.
It is of the utmost importance that we be loving and non-condemning as we interview. Responding to our questions can be a frightening experience for the person; we are entering his or her secret life. We also need to keep careful control over our motivation for probing. Curiosity has no place in a ministry session. We need to remember that our object is ministry, not uncovering fascinating data.
I often quote a West African proverb to my clients in this regard: “When it’s time to bathe, don’t try to hide your belly button.” That is, if they sincerely desire healing, they must be willing to reveal the most secret parts of their experience. However, I also tell them I don’t need to know all their garbage. If they want to hide certain details from me, that’s okay. But they need to recognize that if God has brought something to their mind, it should be dealt with, even if simply between the person and God, without me knowing the details.

Step 4: Develop a tentative strategy. Once we have enough information to enable us to begin the move into prayer, we need to seek the direction of the Holy Spirit. This is the step at which we decide what kind of prayer or other activity we will do next. We usually do this silently so that the session flows from interview into ministry. The information received during the interview gives us clues as to where to start and what to do as we go along. All we need to decide at first is where to start. The Holy Spirit will then lead us on from there, even if we do not start with a clear idea as to what is to follow.
Often, the first thing the Holy Spirit leads us to do is invite the person to forgive everyone who has hurt her or him. Sometimes individuals will need to confess sin or renounce all opportunities they have given the Enemy to gain power over them. Often intergenerational curses or self-curses need to be broken. On occasion, demons need to be challenged, though it is usually best to do this later on in the session.
Though I present below a possible order of ministry, let me warn the reader against planning any set pattern; instead, follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:25 tells us, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit” (NIV). Often the Spirit will lead us to do much of what is listed below, but in a different order. Often he will lead us to skip certain parts or to lump together several experiences of the same type, so we can deal with them all at once. Frequently the Holy Spirit will guide the sessions by bringing suggestions to the person’s mind, rather than to ours. In any event, do not fall into the Moses mistake by following the same pattern in each session-unless the Spirit guides you to do so.

Step 5: Engage in authoritative prayer. This step is the ministry proper. Having learned enough about the person’s life to suspect which areas need to be dealt with and having worked out a tentative strategy, it is now time to pray through the issues and to bring God’s healing to the person. Remember that we are working with God in authority over the situations, not begging God for something we’re not sure he wants to do. As Jesus did, we speak healing, we don’t beg for it.
A typical sequence might go something like this:
1. Intergenerational. Treat any suspected intergenerational problems such as spirits, emotions, or sins that may have been inherited. Though such problems oftgen need to be dealt with specifically, sometimes a general prayer such as, “I break the power of __________
in Jesus’ name” will suffice.
2. Prenatal. Treat any suspected prenatal problems such as emotions and attitudes passed on by the mother before birth. If the person’s mother had one or more miscarriages, deal with these early in the session. As a part of dealing with prenatal matters, it is often helpfpul to use the back-to-the-womb exercise, which is discussed in another chapter.
3. Early life. Treat early life experiences such as birth, disease, accidents, and relationships with parents or siblings. Picturing Jesus in these events or putting the cross of Jesus over them usuallly brings healing.
4. Later life. Move through later childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, dealing with such things as school experiences, friendships, sexual developent, sexual relationships, emotional relationships, work experiences, accidents, and deaths of family members and friends. In each part of the process, it is usually healing to invite Jesus to bring difficult experiences to mind and to invite the person to picture Jesus there when they occurred.

Step 6: Use post-prayer counseling. The person’s will is at least as important after ministry as during ministry. Just as none of the healing could take place without the active participation of hte person’s will, so healing cannot continue without ongoing cooperation. Though the power of the Holy Spirit during ministry releases the person from the roots underlying dysfunctional habits, the habits themselves usually have to be dealt with on a continuing basis. The person needs, therefore, to work earnestly on the replacement of the old habits with new ones. And this takes will-power.
Often the people we minister to expect all their problems to end once they have been prayed for. This is seldom the case. Usually they will need to continue on their own to work on their habits. A good way to start the post-ministry counseling, then, is to bless individuals with the strengthening of their will. Here we should point out the need to resist Satan when he returns to bring back the same old problems or to deceive them into thinking nothing has changed.

People need to learn to claim the power of the Holy Spirit over their own problems in the same way we have claimed such power during the ministry session. All Christians have the same Holy Spirit and the same privilege and authority to claim his power at any time. They must learn to take this authority on their own in order to prevent further attacks from the Enemy.
I remember a woman who came to me with severe neck and back pain related to her relationship with her husband. When she dealt honestly with her problem before the Lord and experienced his freeing power, she was healed. I warned her, however, that the Enemy usually brings the pain back in an attempt to deceive one into believing that nothing has happened. So I told her that whenever the pain returned, she should simply assert her authority by telling it or the Enemy to go away.
A week later she reported that the pain had indeed come back several times. Each time, though, she commanded it to go away and it did. “Amazing!” she exclaimed.
In addition, we all need to engage regualrly in spiritual disciplines that enable us to grow and be renewed in mind and spirit. We are commanded to be transformed through the renewing of our perspectives and attitudes (Rom 12:2). For those in the process of getting healed at deep levels, this usually involves replacing destructive mental “tapes” with messages that fill their minds with “things that are good and deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable” (Phil 4:8b; see also Eph 4:22-32).
They should, furthermore, be spending time alone with God in prayer, meditating on God and the things of God, picturing themselves in Jesus’ presence (for example, on his lap, in his arms, or walking together). Bible reading is crucial. It is, however, important to learn to read the Scriptures more to hear God’s voice than just to get new information. In addition, those seeking wholeness need to give much attention to participating often in praise and worship, both alone and in groups. Satan doesn’t like praise and worship music and has great difficulty doing his work when praise and worship is going on. We can play praise music in our homes and automobiles as a means of waging war against Satan. The more we fill our minds with praise and worship, the less he will be able to tempt and otherwise harass us.
Another important part of growth is to learn and to express love and blessing toward ourselves. As John Wesley once said, “Self-love is not a sin, it is an indisputable duty.” As children of the King, we are princes and princesses in the kingdom, chosen by him and given an inheritance with Jesus (Rom 8:14-17; Gal 4:6-7; I Jn 3:1-3). It is good to advise people to learn to thank God for themselves and to bless themselves, especially any parts of themselves they don’t particularly like.
Neil Anderson, in his book Victory Over the Darkness, is particularly helpful in this area. Neil contends that “No person can consistently behave in a way that’s inconsistent with the way he perceives himself.” If this is true, we all need to align our self-perception with God’s perception of us. For “self-worth is not an issue of giftedness, talent, intelligence, or beauty. Self-worth is an identity issue. Your sense of personal worth comes from knowing who you are: a child of God.”
The support of others is important in the healing process. Ministry sessions provide “spurts” of healing. Individual and small-group support is, however, crucial to undergird the slower continuing process of healing and growth. Close relationships with people who have served on the ministry team are often very helpful. It is furthermore, important that ministry team members be part of a caring church.
Finally, it is usually a very healing thing for counselees to begin ministering to others. We are healed for our own sake. But we are also healed to help others, especially those who suffer in the same areas in which we have been helped (2 Cor 1:4). Freely we have received, freely we are to give to others (Mt 10:8).
For further information on the steps of this ministry, let me recommend both John Wimber’s excellent presentation in Power Healing, and my own in Christianity With Power.

CONFIDENTIALITY
Prior to ministry we need to let those we minister to know that what they share will be confidential. Much of what they share can be intensely private. They need to know this information will not be shared. This is probably why most people do not come for ministry. We have to treat that information as though it was our own.
Many people we come into contact with would appear to be living a successful Christian life and may be in leadership. That does not rule out the possibility that their lives were once in disarray. Those of us who write and teach in the area of deep-level healing are tempted to share publicly about how the Lord has moved in various ministry situations. It is valuable in teaching others. When using illustrations, I have been careful to disguise the ministry situations so that no one can identify the person involved. I’ve done this even when given permission to use the material.
It is best not to share illustrations from close to home unless you generalize it or give the impression the ministry happened somewhere else. On some occasions I’ve learned the subject of an illustration I plan to use is going to be in the audience I’ll be speaking to. For times like this it is important that the disguise work. In the event that someone recognizes their story, apologize immediately. It is important to treat others in a way that you want to be treated.

References:

• Seamands, Healing of Memories, 9.
• Neil Anderson, Victory Over Darkness (Ventura Calif: Regal, 1990), 43.
• Anderson, Victory Over Darkness, 34.
• Kraft, Deep Wounds, Deep Healing, 94-103.