As with all information found in the PRINCIPLES and PURPOSE portions of this training, you are not expected to fully embrace all that is presented in this article. We do not expect the global Body of Christ to fully embrace all that we may propose in the PRINCIPLES and PURPOSE of TPM since this is our best attempt in theologically explaining the PROCESS (what occurs in a ministry session), and why we do TPM at all. Embrace what you can, hold loosely that which you are uncertain, and remain open to the possibility of a new way of thinking about some of what is proposed.

Whether you agree on all points of the PRINCIPLES and PURPOSE of TPM, you can apply the PROCESS portion of the training (the seven boxes and questions) and still call what you do “TPM,” as long as you do not deviate from the PROCESS protocol itself.

Paradigm Shifts Ahead

Some of the principles and concepts found in Transformation Prayer Ministry may require you to make some adjustments in your thinking. We hope you will give careful consideration to what is proposed and that you are able to make the shifts as needed.  We do not expect everyone will move over as far as we may be standing in our proposals, but we do ask that you give it some honest consideration.

What follows are some of the more significant paradigm shifts that are proposed in the TPM training. There are others, but they are less significant. This article will provide you with an introduction to each of those that we have deemed as major. These same paradigms, and a host of others, are expounded upon in other articles as well. This article is an introduction.

The very nature of a paradigm shift is found in it’s newness and even contrary frame of reference to what is presently held. I had to learn some time ago, that just because I was taught one thing and even wholeheartedly believed it, does not mean that it cannot be challenged and tested. Growing in any area of our lives requires we expand our understanding, let go of some of our long held beliefs and make shifts in our thinking.

For example, I was always taught that negative emotions such as stress, worry, fear, despair, feelings of abandonment, feeling overwhelmed, helpless, etc. were all bad things, “toxic,” and even demonic and needed to be denied, resisted and overcome. Today, I realize that this is not the truth. Actually the very opposite is true. Pain, both physical and emotional, was created by God and therefore, is good and serves a good purpose. It is not good that we live in these emotions, but it good to feel them when we do in that they expose what we believe. In TPM, emotional pain is view as our “friend” that points out our lie-based thinking and can move us in the direction we need to go to find freedom. Our pain can be trusted to point us in the direction of the truth. What I am describing here is a TPM paradigm shift.

This TPM training will propose many such paradigm shifts. You are encouraged to move slowly, listen well, try not to not arrive too quickly to your assumptions and conclusions about what you think we are saying, and consider the possibility of viewing some of your long held perspectives from a different slant.

Shift from Performance to Faith and Transformation

Many of the paradigms proposed in this training are related to faith and transformation (which are some of the primary components found in the Purpose of TPM). In TPM, faith in general is understood to be everything that we believe in our hearts with an absolute certainty.  This is both good news and bad news. Not all that we believe in our hearts is the truth: some of what we believe is falsehood. This means then that not all of our faith/heart belief is pure. Nonetheless, heart belief it is our “truth” and we believe it. This also explains why the Scriptures declare that our faith needs to be purified. The refining and purification of our faith is a central focus of TPM.

Sometime our ardent effort in controlling our behavior is mistakenly believed to be transformation. Performance-based spirituality is not transformation, but rather what anyone —believers and unbelievers alike— can do when they set their mind to doing it. There is much effort expended by many people trying to conform their behavior to the truth, when God desires that we be transformed by it. In TPM we seek to differentiate between transformation that is an outcome of faith and behavior that is an outcome of performance.

A person’s “good” behavior is too often equated with their assumed spiritual maturity. The truth is, behavior can be motivated by many things. It is possible that a person’s behavior is indeed flowing from the truth they believe in their hearts. Where this is so, this would be an expression of the fruit of the Spirit. However, “good” behavior -though it may look like the Spirit’s fruit, may in fact, be motivated by an impure faith; that is, lie-based thinking. If my “good” behavior is an attempt to be loved, noticed, affirmed, accepted, or to manipulate others, get something that I want or benefit my status, then it is less than pure and not from the truth. In TPM we are not concerned about behavior, but rather only genuine transformation that is totally a work of God that comes about when He persuades us of His truth within our hearts.

True Transformation is Effortless

True transformation is effortless and a fruit of the Spirit, whereas, performance —trying to act like Jesus, or conforming our behavior to the truth— is achieved by self effort and discipline. To the degree that we struggle to do the truth through self-effort and discipline is an indication of an absence of heart belief in the truth. The very fact that we struggle reveals that we are fighting against what we already believe that is contrary to the truth. This is what James the Apostle referred to as an impure faith or double-mindedness. (Ja. 1:8) When we hold the truth intellectually and yet believe something contrary to this same truth with our hearts we will become like a “wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.” (Ja. 1:6) TPM is focused upon identifying heart belief that runs contrary to the truth that is hindering the effortless expression of the Spirit’s fruit. Transformation is “bearing” (Col. 1:10) the fruit as opposed to doing the truth.

Again, since not all of our faith is pure it is in need of refinement. A purified faith is the outcome of God replacing the impure faith we harbor with His truth. When God persuades us of the truth in our hearts, this truth becomes our purified faith. Even though the lies we believe create all manner of problems for us throughout our lives, the real problem is not the lies we believe, but rather the fact that we do not know the truth. To the degree that God persuades us of the truth within our hearts, all problems are solved.

This exchange can only occur the Spirit persuades us of the truth and convinces us of its reality. As this occurs “faith to faith” (Rom. 1:17) we will experience the spontaneous outflow of the fruit of the Spirit through our lives. We will no longer have to try and “do the fruit” but rather we will be the fruit. We will become people who ARE loving, joyful, peaceful, kind, good, gentle, faithful, and self-controlled as opposed to performers. This transformation is not a one-time experience but again, “faith to faith” —truth by truth. We will be transformed as our faith is made pure and our minds are renewed by His Spirit.

Paradigm Shift 1:  The Emotion Paradigm

As was said earlier, pain was created by God and therefore, is good and serves a good purpose. In TPM pain is viewed as our friend and can be trusted to accurately point out what we believe.

• All emotions are good, even when they feel bad. God created emotion; therefore, emotions are good and beneficial. Negative emotion is NOT a problem to be fixed. It is necessary for the solution to the real problem since “we feel whatever we believe.”Do you want your foot to hurt when you step on a thorn or your hand to hurt when you pick up a hot plate? Of course you do. Does this pain feel good? Not at all. Is it good? Indeed. Otherwise we would cause damage to ourselves. In a sense, our pain protects us.
• In TPM we often say, “We feel whatever we believe.” This implies that no person or no thing is the cause of anything  we feel. What we feel is an outcome of the interpretation we give to our situation and is based upon what we believe. For some people this seems illogical when they consider their spouse, their work situation, their financial struggles, their unruly children, etc.

• Believing  other people and things cause us to feel what we feel implies we can never feel differently unless the world around us changes. If it were true that our situation dictated our emotional status, then our belief  would remain fixed unless or until our situation changed.  This idea is a paradigm shift for some people. Blaming others or the current situation is much easier to embrace, but if what I feel is caused by what I believe, then this requires that I do something.

• When we feel negative emotions, we are being alerted to the presence of a lie-based belief (except in very rare occasions when the emotion is actually truth-based.) When we learn to attend to this God-created warning system, we can benefit, as this means our lie-based belief is being pointed out.  However, obtaining the benefit will require that we let go of blaming others and things for what we are feeling.

Paradigm Shift 2: Suffering – Life Crisis and Troubles

What crisis or trial did we not survive. Each of us have made it through ever difficulty that we have ever encountered. In fact, we are where we are today because we made it through every trial we thought we would never survive. With this being said, getting through our times of difficulty should not be the goal, but rather our objective should be to reap the benefits that God intended for to experience by having passed through His refining fire?

• Suffering is not something to simply endure or attempt to avoid, as it is a necessary means through which God accomplishes His work within us. Crises and difficulties are not something to endure and try to get through, but rather opportunities for refinement and benefit. Crises and difficulties are the refiner’s fire purifying our faith/belief. Unless we discover the benefit in our trials and tribulations, we will be doomed to repeat them over and over and never reap the benefit.
• Our crisis and other life difficulties need to be re-framed as God’s refinement of our faith. Whatever is not pure will come to the surface when the fire heats up expressed through whatever we feel.
• The bad things that happened to us in our past are not the reason we feel bad today. The hurtful things that happened to us in life are not the source of our troubles. We always feel whatever we believe.
• The emotional pain we feel is the outcome of how we came to interpret what we experienced and of what we continue to believe. If we make “what happened to us” the reason for our present difficulty, then there is no hope for freedom, since we cannot change the past.  However, if we are able to view emotional pain as a good thing that moves in the direction of freedom, we can pass through it into the truth and peace.

Paradigm Shift 3: Spiritual Warfare Paradigm

• Spiritual warfare is not needed in a TPM ministry session since the person is not a victim of demonization. The person is always the executive in control of what is happening. If this is not so, then demons have the ability to make people do that which they do not choose to do, or at least allow to happen. This would mean demons can violate free will, which they cannot. Demons cannot violate our will or force a manifestation. This means people are not controlled by demons but only by their own belief and choice. Any and all demonic manifestations that might arise in a ministry session are passing through the willing compliance of the person receiving ministry. ALWAYS.
• Satan is our enemy, but he still belongs to God and serves a divine purpose.  He, as well as all of the demonic forces, are God’s property and serve His purpose.
• Demons are primarily “lie detectors” that point out the lies we believe. They want to stir up our emotions because they hope we will address our pain through some sinful action. Not only are they lie detectors, which is a good thing, but they can be our “problem solvers.” They will happily provide you a shortsighted solution to the emotional pain you feel.
• Demonization is typically caused either by ignorance or the acceptance of it as a solution to a perceived problem. When we do not know that demons cannot force their will upon us or make us do anything outside of our willing participation, then they are free to create havoc in our lives  due to the our  ignorance of this fact. People sometimes unknowingly use demons to resolve their perceived problems and bad feelings.  When this is the case the demon is a ‘SOLUTION” and should be dealt with like any other solution using the De-solution Tool.  Whichever the reason behind the demonization, truth resolves both issues.

Paradigm Shift 4: Sin and Behavior

• Sin is always a concern in the believer’s life and should be constantly avoided. However, when we consider sin to be the root of all problems, we can become stuck in a cycle of “Confess, repent, adjust behavior, and perform.”  We must never forget that the remedy for sin is not “trying to overcome it,” but living in the truth that it has already been taken care of through Christ. “… thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:57).
• Sin is often our feeble solution for the emotional pain we feel.  Suppressing and distracting ourselves with physical pleasure, activities, relationships, etc. are often sinful remedies for the pain we feel. Also, sin is often an expression of our inner pain which we are projecting onto others. If we fail to identify the lies we believe that cause us to feel what we feel, overcoming the subsequent sins may prove difficult. If our sin is the solution and we remove the solution, we are left with the problem. This is why it is difficult to get people to let go of vows they have made. All vows are solutions to some perceived problem held in place by a lie-based belief.
• Sinful behavior is a problem but not one that is to be addressed in a TPM session. Since behavior is often either an expression of or a solution to the negative emotion one feels, emotion and belief are the primary focus in the ministry session. If indeed the sinful behavior was a solution to the pain and the lies are replaced with the truth, the sin will probably take care of itself. If we do not have a problem,  we will no longer need a solution.

Paradigm Shift 5: Transformation Versus Performance

• Victory is not something we are striving for, but something we have been given in Christ. Victory and battle cannot co-exist.  The absence of victory and the presence of struggle is the exposure and evidence of lies believed.
• In areas where we experientially know the truth, we can walk in effortless victory. Performance is not spiritual. Performance is the cornerstone of all other world religions, but it does not accomplish transformation.
• Transformation is the expected and effortless outcome of having our minds renewed by the truth (Rom. 12:2). However, this mind renewal goes far beyond gaining additional knowledge regarding the truth. Any person, believer and unbeliever alike, can increase in this knowledge and yet not experience transformation.  Transformation only occurs when God grants us His truth in our hearts (Eph. 1:17-19). When we know and believe the truth with our hearts, we will be transformed by it. Too often we confuse our efforts in trying to conform our behavior to the truth with actually being transformed by it. These are two very different concepts.  Transformation is solely a work of God and not accomplished through the control of our behavior.

• The fruit of the Spirit is the evidence of transformation, and apart from transformation, we cannot experience the fruit of the Spirit.  The fruit of the Spirit is God’s fruit and is the natural and expected outcome—end result— of God’s transformation in the life of of the believer. It is not a listing of behaviors we are to try to emulate. Trying to act like Jesus does not produce the fruit, but only produces an outward performance.

• God is not impressed with our performance. He is looking for transformation. God is impressed and pleased with that which flows from faith/belief for “… without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him” (Heb. 11:6).