The TPM PROCESS can be defined as “intentional and focused prayer, designed to identify our lie-based core belief, leading to an authentic encounter with the presence of Christ, resulting in mind renewal and  subsequently a transformed life.” In this article we will examine the definition of the TPM Process in detail by breaking it down into three basic elements.

 

Element One: Intentional and Focused Prayer

The process of TPM in its most basic form is simply prayer—conversing with and listening to God.  It is applied with intent and with an expected result. In the context of this prayer, the person intentionally chooses to do the following:

• Focus on what he is feeling and take ownership for this emotion, while choosing not to blame others or his situation for what he feels.
• Focus on the emotion he feels while allowing his mind to associate to any related memory where he may have felt this same emotion before. This practice does not require the person to look for a memory, but rather it allows the natural process of association to occur.
• Let go of his defenses and other hindrances (referred to as solutions) he has erected that “protect” him from exposing and bringing into the light the lies he believes. (Solutions are behaviors such as blocking association, suppressing emotions, distracting oneself, presence of anger, etc.)
• Use memory to help the person to identify how he came to believe what he currently believes and why he came to feel what he is feeling. Doing this should help reveal his lie-based core belief.
• Acknowledge the lie-based belief he holds and offer it up to the Lord for His truth in order to find release from the lie-based belief, resulting in mind renewal that brings about subsequent transformation.

 

Element Two: Leading to an Authentic Encounter with the Presence of Christ

The aim of each ministry session is for the ministry recipient to encounter the person of Jesus through the presence of the Spirit and receive His truth and perspective. TPM is not an attempt to learn more about God, grow in biblical knowledge, be instructed in Christian living, or provide steps of action to take to perform better. TPM is intended to aid the person in an experiential encounter with Christ that results in the Spirit replacing the person’s lie with the truth. This is the persuasion of the Spirit convincing the person of the truth within his heart.

TPM assumes that Bible study and instruction for living a godly life are crucial for every believer, but it also recognizes that doing these things provides no guarantee of transformed living, apart from the Spirit’s intervention and illumination of the truth. It is obvious that unbelievers can memorize Bible verses and act godly and yet never experience true transformation. Gaining Bible knowledge is not the same as experiencing the truth. Experiencing the truth is relational, personal, and occurs when we encounter the living Lord, who is the Truth and ONLY as He persuades us of the truth within our hearts. This is the intent of TPM.

To say it more precisely, there is a big difference between our trying to conform our behavior to the truth as opposed to our being transformed by the truth. TPM seeks transformation not conformity. “Be not conformed to this world, but rather be transformed by the renewing of your mind…” (Rom. 12:2)

Without question, the Spirit can bring about this transformation through any means or method He may choose. TPM is ONLY a way,  but it is not the ONLY way we can intentionally and purposefully cooperate with God in this process.  Nevertheless, every believer should be experiencing ongoing transformation as they are coming into the awareness of the lies they believe and exchange them for the Lord’s truth. Whether we use TPM as a means to accomplish this or some other process, accomplish we must. If we are not being transformed into his likeness then something is wrong because this is the work that God is doing in all of His children.

So then, if a believer is not increasing in heart belief resulting in the undeniable presence of Christ living His life in and through him by the evidence of the fruit of His Spirit, then something is wrong. Every believer should be transforming into the likeness of Christ or something is not right.  If this is not occurring, the answer is not that the person try harder to be like Jesus. Transformation is not accomplished by trying harder, but rather positioning ourselves so that we may be persuaded of the truth by the Spirit. Many people are performing, trying to act like Jesus, but transformation is the only real evidence that God is at work. Any person, whether he is a believer or unbeliever, can perform and mimic Jesus’ behavior, and many do this.  This is not transformation. Transformation is spontaneously and effortlessly experiencing the fruit of the Spirit. This is solely a work of God. It is His fruit and not our own. We are called to “bear fruit” and not DO the fruit. (Col. 1:9-10)

Growing in Bible knowledge is important, but provides no guarantee of transformation.

Unless the Spirit reveals His truth within our hearts, the truth we may have intellectually learned, provides no guarantee of transformation. To know about God, but not to know Him, would fall short of what God intends for each one of us. Knowing about God is an intellectual feat, achievable by anyone who sets his mind to it. Knowing about Jesus and KNOWING Jesus are two very different things. Knowing Jesus transforms us.

The Apostle Paul expressed the desire to know Christ above all else. The knowing that Paul desired went beyond his knowledge about Jesus. To know Him was to experience Him and to experience “…the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Phil. 3:10). This kind of knowing is experiential and goes beyond the intellect. Paul said it this way concerning knowing the love of Christ, “…to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:19). I can intellectually believe what the Bible says about God loving me, but this does not mean that I know experientially with my heart that He loves me. Knowing the truth intellectually is important, but without heart belief, transformation will not follow.

 

Element Three: Resulting in Mind Renewal and  Subsequently a Transformed Life

When the lies a person believes are experientially replaced with God’s truth, the result is an immediate and radical change: transformation. Mind renewal brings about inward and outward transformation in the moment. The Apostle Paul declared this process when he wrote, “…be transformed by the renewing of the mind…” (Rom. 12:2). When a person has an authentic encounter with the Spirit, there will be a noticeable difference. Transformation will follow: always! When people encounter Christ in a TPM session, the lie they believed will no longer feel true and their emotional pain that the lie produced will be  replaced with the “…peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension…” (Phil. 4:7) This resulting peace is followed  by natural, effortless behavioral change—the fruit of the Spirit. If there is no transformation, there was also no mind-renewal. Mind renewal always produces transformation and the fruit follows transformation.

When people encountered Christ in the Gospels, their lives were changed either for the better or for the worse. The sick and sinners experienced Christ and became healed and transformed, whereas, many of the religious leaders who encountered Christ became more wicked.

Again, if the truth we possess does not produce effortless transformation—the fruit of the Spirit—something is wrong. Similarly, if the truth we hold does not feel absolutely certain and true, something is wrong there as well. We feel what we believe, and what we believe should feel true and bring forth effortless transformation.