A Frame of reference and explanation

TPM is not just a process for helping us to identify the lies we believe and position ourselves to receive the Lord’s perspective, it is also a body of principles that explain why we do what we do in a ministry session. These same principles carry over outside of the ministry session and provide us a frame of reference for viewing and understanding life.

What follows shortly are some of the basic concepts that make up a portion of the principles of TPM. These and more are expanded and discussed in other articles. As we discover and understand the many principles that support the TPM process, the ministry session will become more effective and progress more smoothly. If TPM is only viewed as a process of ministry, and the principles and purpose are not understood, much benefit will be forfeited.

Also, and more importantly, as we learn how God has designed our minds to work, the purpose of memory, how painful emotion benefits us, how our past is not our problem, that no one is causing us to feel anything we feel, and as we realize just how invested God is in refining our faith, renewing our minds and transforming our lives by using our life difficulties; these principles can become a guiding force motivating us to seek His freedom.

As has been stated, if our motivation for administering TPM is simply pain reduction, then we will typically not seek ministry unless our pain becomes more than we can bear or we will perpetually suppress it using our “go-to” pain management solutions. When this is the case, we will inevitably forfeit the daily opportunities God has allotted for mind renewal.

There is a grander picture that is paramount that we must see, if we are to fully reap the benefits that this ministry offers. As important as the PROCESS is for helping us to identify the lies we believe, the PRINCIPLES and PURPOSE are paramount for explaining what we do and for providing us a clear purpose for why we do TPM at all. Understanding the PRINCIPLES and PURPOSE of TPM can motivate us to pursue deeper levels of freedom and truth. Faith refinement and mind renewal that produces genuine transformation, is a higher calling than alleviating pain. If pain reduction is our motivator we will only benefit from TPM when the pain becomes more than we can stand.

“Some of” the Principles

SOME OF the basic principles that we will explore in this training (that will be discussed in greater detail in other articles) include –but are not limited to:

• Emotional pain was created by God and serves a valuable purpose, and therefore, is good even though it may feel bad.
• It is not good that we live in lie-based negative emotion, but it is good that we feel badly when we believe lies. Without the pain, we would continually walk in deception without any warning system.
• Our current situation is not the source of our emotional pain. We feel whatever we believe. Therefore, our situation does not dictate our emotional response; rather our emotional status in any given moment comes from how we interpret what is happening through our current beliefs.
• No person or thing causes us to feel anything that we feel. Therefore, blaming others, things or God for what we feel keeps us in an endless loop without any hope of finding freedom.
• We do not feel badly in the present because of what may have happened to us in our past. If our memory were the source of our pain, then there is no place for freedom since we cannot change the past.
• Memory helps us to answer two important questions: 1) “How did we come to believe the lies that we currently believe?”  and 2) “Why do we feel what we feel?”  Without the memory of where the lie was established, we will typically blame the current situation or people in our lives for why and what we are feeling.
• Memory does not contain the lies causing us our pain, nor does memory produce any measure of emotional pain. Memory is simply what we remember and not a problem causing us any present difficulty.
• When we know the truth in our hearts, our lies will be displaced and we will no longer feel any painful emotion when we remember life events, since we will view them through the “lens” of truth as opposed to those of lies.
• No one –not even ourselves can talk us out of the lies we believe in our hearts other than the Holy Spirit. Only He can cause the lies to stop feeling true.
• We can easily change what we intellectually believe, but only  the Holy Spirit can change what we believe in our hearts. Unless God persuades us of the truth we cannot know it other than with our intellect.
• We can believe the Bible intellectually and yet the words of it’s truths may not feel true to us.
• We can believe one thing with our intellect and simultaneously believe an opposing belief with our hearts. When this is so we will find ourselves in a state of double-mindedness. Therefore, we can memorize the Bible verse that declares God will provide all we need (intellectual belief) and yet still worry and stress over our finances (experiential core-belief).
• Transformation Prayer Ministry is focused upon identifying lie-based heart belief that stands in opposition to the truth we know with our intellect creating double-mindedness.
• Our life difficulties and crisis are a primary means through which God exposes our lie-based beliefs and the context in which He can grant us His perspective. Whatever we believe in a time of crisis, trouble or difficulty will rise to the surface though our emotions. Our emotions provide an accurate picture of what we believe in our hearts since we feel whatever we believe. Because this is so, we can trust our emotions to expose the lies that we believe.
• Much of what we define as spiritual could be equally accomplished by an unbeliever. Trying to live like Jesus is the same as a Buddhist trying to live like Buddha: both are performance driven and are neither spiritual or by faith. God is looking for transformation (what He is accomplishing in us) as opposed to controlled behavior (what we do.)
• The fruit of the Spirit is not a “to-do” list to accomplish. For example, self-control is a fruit of the Spirit; but controlling our behavior is not a fruit, rather a an outcome of our own doing.
• Conforming our behavior to the truth is not transformation, but merely self-effort and determination. Transformation is the outcome of the Spirit changing us by the truth.
• Conforming to the truth requires our continual effort and maintenance to sustain it, whereas, transformation requires no effort on our part to maintain since it is a outcome of God’s work and the fruit of the Spirit.
• Our performance-based spirituality does not impress God. He is not interested in how well we are doing, but only in the transformation that He alone can bring about. All believers possess the Holy Spirit; therefore, each should produce the fruit of the Spirit. If not, it is an indicator that there is something askew.

TPM is not a mystery or an un-explainable process.

You will encounter these same principles throughout this training as well as many others not mentioned here. It is the principles that give us a proper understanding about TPM and how and why it “works.” TPM is not a mystery or an un-explainable process. It is not about hoping God might do something, but rather working in harmony with what God is already doing. It is based upon how God designed our minds to work and our willingness to choose to move in the direction of God’s freedom. This is why the system is the same for all people.

The TPM PROCESS is being successfully used all around the world in various cultures, religious denominations and social settings. The principles make sense of it all.

You will now want to proceed to the PURPOSE section of this portion of the training. As stated, you will return to these principles over and again in other articles, but the listing here is a good place to return for review.

Continue with PART FOUR – The PURPOSE of TPM

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