Personal Note: Not everything out there reflects God's true heart towards His creation. God is not religious! He loves all and everyone is welcome and wanted. It's ok if you're not sure you believe in Him, like Him, if are really angry with Him, if you think He is doing a bad job, or if you think you are too bad for Him to want to talk to you. If you want to have an honest conversation with Him – He will welcome you! God really does love ALL and ALL are welcome.
TPM Explained (Transformation Prayer Ministry)
​
From the very beginning of our life our brain begins to gather and store information. It gathers from what we learn intellectually via teachers, books, etc. and from what we learn from our life experiences like car wrecks, betrayals, loss, abuse, abandonment, achievements, victories, etc. Our experiences are not just memories that lie dormant – they hold information that our brain is constantly assessing to help us navigate throughout life or interpret our current circumstances which in turn affects the choices we make, the paths we take, and the level of peace we have.
One example of our brain drawing from our experiences to guide us is when I was pregnant. My husband and I were going through baby names when he suggested a name that I immediately had a strong “NO!” towards! He asked why I didn't like that name, and I responded, “it was the name of a really mean kid in school.” I didn't have to think about it for a few days, as the information I needed was instantly there to help me along my way.
Gathering information in these 2 forms (intellectual and experiential) often causes us to hold 2 opposing beliefs at the same time. We can KNOW something to be true in our MINDS, but it doesn't FEEL true in our HEARTS. We can believe them both, but they are not equal in power. What we came to believe from our experiences is more powerful because it is not based on knowledge alone, it has emotion attached to it which we felt during our life experience. Therefore, when the brain pulls up all the information that it thinks is relevant to our current situation, our experiential knowledge carries more weight than our intellectual knowledge because it's the one that FEELS true. For example, someone can KNOW that elevators are safe. They have read all the statistics and understand how they work – yet as they try to get on one, they involuntarily begin to panic and break into a cold sweat. This is an example of where they have more than likely experienced a time in life where they felt trapped or learned that small spaces are dangerous. So, as they begin to assess taking the elevator, their brain pulls up the logical info that they are safe AND the experiential information that they are in danger (which also contains emotion from their earlier experience in life.) This causes them to quickly step off and take the stairs – justifying, “I need the exercise anyway.” Emotions attached to the beliefs we formed from the events in our life affect our current perspective more powerfully than our “knowing.”
As we are learning from those experiences, we are forming beliefs about ourselves or our circumstances which are not always accurate or true. Some common beliefs we can pick up about ourselves are I am less than. I am not enough. Something is wrong with me. I am defective, ugly, dirty, guilty, undeserving, worthless, unlovable, or weak. Beliefs about our circumstances may sound like this: I am powerless or helpless. This is hopeless. I am alone or I am going to die. All of these are lie- based beliefs. We have an enemy who lies to us. He comes to kill, steal, destroy, and condemn. What we came to believe in those early moments of our lives are not what is really true about us or our circumstances, but they FEEL very true to us.
When we believe these lies, they make us feel bad, and they produce painful negative emotions.
Our emotions or feelings are always reflecting what we are BELIEVING. If I believe I am less than, unlovable, alone, dirty, guilty, worthless, etc. – I will have the negative emotions these beliefs produce. If I believe I am valuable, capable, loved, or belong, then I will have the positive emotions these beliefs produce.
These beliefs are not a problem for our intellectual knowledge because it can be upgraded at any time. We get new information and so we change our minds - it's that easy; but it's not that easy to upgrade the beliefs we learned from our experiences. Those beliefs are PART of the events/memories of our life and stay intact in the memory. Therefore, our brain keeps seeing them as true and resurfacing those beliefs to give us the information to assess our current circumstances. So, when we have a bad day or get triggered all the good, we told ourselves intellectually seems to slide right off and we're back to square one feeling defeated, discouraged and stuck - because lie based beliefs bring painful or negative emotions.
Those negative emotions are a good thing! They serve an important purpose and are a built-in warning system telling us we are believing something that we need God's perspective on (truth) or we need Him to carry for us (truth based pain.) I don’t like pain, but it can be helpful to me. Example: If I am standing barefoot on hot concrete, I WANT the pain in my feet, which my nerve endings are producing, so that I am alerted that I am about to burn the skin off my feet causing me to take care of the situation. In the same way your negative emotions alert you when there is a lie-based belief in place so that you can seek the Truth and return to peace. Beliefs based on the truth bring peace, joy, compassion, love. Beliefs based in lies bring fear, condemnation, hopelessness and many other negative emotions.
When we don't address what our negative emotions are alerting us to, we develop coping mechanisms to manage these negative emotions such as eating too much or too little, using porn, pharmaceuticals, recreational drugs, numbing out, anger, avoidance, disassociating, obtaining more knowledge, hobbies, disciplined behavior, exercise, church activity and many many more. All are attempts at managing negative emotions without getting to the root of what we are believing, which actually governs these negative emotions. Coping mechanisms can distract us and comfort us for a time but they can't give us lasting peace and often end up making us feel worse. We were designed to operate from a place of true peace and fullness - from a place of rest, not striving to keep balance. For example, I can have just eaten a meal and be completely full, but find myself standing in front of the fridge looking for a snack. If we stop and think about what we were feeling right before we had the idea to go find something to eat, we often realize we are wanting relief from a negative emotion - feeling empty, stressed, lonely, overwhelmed, fearful, alone, hopeless, powerless, rejected etc. Eating is our attempt to find a solution to the negative emotions which have settled in our soul.
Your current pain/negative emotions/or negative behavior that you are experiencing right now in your life because of your circumstances is seldom solely being caused by what is happening in your present situation. More than likely, the current circumstances are stirring up (triggering) the lie-based beliefs you learned from your past experiences and they are magnifying the pain you feel now and affecting your current perspective.
The good news is, when the beliefs we formed in the past, change, so can the perspective/emotions we hold about our current circumstances in the present. This is why, even though what you are going through right now is very real and important, we want to go to the root - where our beliefs began.
​
For example: I was at a conference and walking with a group of people I had just met a couple days before. I was new and nervous. All of a sudden, I tripped and fell and rolled down a hill in front of everyone. It was an ugly fall. My shirt came up, my hair unruly and the only clothes I had to wear all day were dirty. Immediately, I rolled over and let out a loud belly laugh. I thought it was so funny, which shocked me! I knew that was not how I would normally respond. Normally, I would have been embarrassed and scolded myself – “Stupid! Watch where you are going!” As I contemplated the change in my reaction– I remembered that just the day before I had had my first TPM session where I dealt with shame. Even though I had often told myself the truth “I am a child of God, I am loved/accepted/an intentional designed part of the body of Christ - which I truly believed,” this information wouldn’t have been my first thought in the past. I would have had to remind myself of that over and over later. This time, my immediate response showed that there had been a change in my experiential learning that I didn't have to work at or think about – I was different – naturally-effortlessly. Truth was just there in a new way. The lie-based belief that I had my whole life no longer felt true because the information my brain drew from in my past had changed, therefore, so had my perspective about my current circumstances. The same truth I knew (intellectually) became “maintenance free” because my beliefs changed on the experiential level.
​
This is what the scripture describes as purifying our faith. God removes the impurities in the refining fire. We are pure, (we have Christs righteousness) but there are impurities in our beliefs (about God, ourselves, others, circumstances, the world) that when life heats up they are meant to come up to the surface (not be pushed back down and kept) so we can offer them to Him and let Him remove them.
So how does this happen? And how is it different from counseling that also looks at these same memories? Jesus truly is the Wonderful Counselor. His perspective of us is not only kind, gracious, and full of mercy, He loves and adores us! He is Wisdom and Grace, and able to carry the weight of the heaviest burdens. He is outside of time. He is past, present and future (because He created time and isn't limited by it.) So when you go back to a memory in a session and become aware of what you came to believe in that memory and ask Him how He sees it, not just quote a Bible verse (which is still important for intellectual truth) but actually have a conversation with God where we tell him how we see it and ask for His perspective, then we start to see things differently. He can give new thoughts or perspective to the part of your brain that holds your past experience and reveal to your truth that you didn't see or know originally at the time of the memory. This is always refreshing and brings peace and calm to our storms (traumas). Scripture says, “TASTE and SEE the goodness of God.” Taste/see are experiences not something you can obtain intellectually, and these experiences with Jesus will truly satisfy your soul, but only He can enter into the past and give you this new knowledge which affects the beliefs you formed about yourself or your circumstances at the time. The memory will not change, you will remember what you have always believed there, but it will no longer FEEL true therefore your brain will no longer pull up the painful lie-based information from your past experience it believed to be true. Now it will pull up the actual truth to assess your current situation. Our thinking is thus transformed, and our faith is purified as our intellectual knowledge and experiential knowledge come into agreement.
Many ask, “How do I know where my current negative emotions are coming from.” In TPM we pay attention to the natural neurological process that our brain is doing everyday. As we choose to focus on those negative emotions, they will automatically show us the root of where our beliefs began. It is kind of like blinking or our heart beating, we don't notice it's happening until we intentionally focus on them and then we are easily aware of them. By focusing on the emotion a connection to a memory will come forward.
Some ask, “Does this really work and last?” What Jesus does is permanent, but this doesn't mean we won't ever have other painful lie-based beliefs again. I have learned I have formed many lie based beliefs over the years. But thankfully God's desire is to refine us and free us and take us from glory to glory! My experience has been that, even though I have many lie based beliefs, I get more and more free and have less and less on my plate and know a deeper richer over all peace. So for me, as life happens, I become aware I am carrying another negative emotion which is bothering me and seems to be happening often. I take it as the next thing God wants to free me from. Often, I only need one session on a topic and other times there are several aspects to the issue I'm experiencing, and I have more than one belief causing me pain/negative emotions so I look at each of those, as well. I have come to feel such hope when those times arise in life because I've never had anything His love, grace, and wisdom couldn't conquer - if I was willing to address it. Sometimes I don't want to enter the battle and take back ground but more and more I have grown confident in His ability to walk me through the trials and tribulation of this life and give me His wonderful peace.
Things I love about TPM:
1. It's very private. The details of a memory are not necessary, only how you are feeling (the emotion) and why you feel that way (what you are believing.)
2. TPM doesn't require you to try to power through when you encounter difficult memories or difficult emotions. God can give us truth about the beliefs we hold about what would happen if we did face those memories or feel those painful emotions so that we can move forward toward the memory from a place of peace and calm.
3. I love how God is respectful of our free will. He never over powers us or forces us to move. It always amazes me how an all powerful God limits himself to what we choose to do or want during a session.
4. People can learn to do TPM on their own, too. I am happy to mentor anyone who wants to learn the process for themselves or help others through the process.
5. I have seen people set free from addictions, eating disorders, chronic grief, a lifetime of shame, depression, panic attacks, OCD, anger, etc. and their bodies begin to heal from no longer carrying chronic stress, anger, fear or painful beliefs.
I wish you LIFE, health, joy and deep lasting peace!!! Jesus died for you so you could have it too!!
Thank you for your time and I look forward to spending time with you!
Jubilee offers this as a free service to the community because we understand the important role emotions play in our overall health. There is a donation box available if you would like to support this effort.
​