Seven Boxes each supplied with specific questions

The process of TPM is the system or protocol that is followed during a prayer ministry session. It is the same whether a person prays with a facilitator or by themselves. The process follows a standard format during each session. This includes the seven “Boxes” and the use of the specific questions outlined in the teaching. There is no need for the facilitator to be creative by coming up with a new process or creating new questions of his own.  Should he or she ever feel a need to do otherwise, then he or she is missing something. The process has been revised, tried, and tested for many years –since 1995– and though it is not a perfect system, it appears to be very reliable and consistent.

Knowing Where you are on the Map

An analogy used to explain the different working parts of the process is what is referred to as the TPM “MAP.” The MAP identifies the seven possible locations a person may be during a ministry session. Since there are only seven possible locations on the MAP that a person will ever be in any given ministry session, becoming lost in a session is unlikely, or at least,  less likely to occur. These seven locations are; Emotion, Memory, Belief, Truth, Transformation, Solutions, and Anger.

Each location has its own specific set of questions to be asked when the participant arrives in each one. Only the questions assigned to that specific location should ever be asked.  These seven locations are the same as the seven “Boxes” used to explain the process in other articles and videos. Nevertheless, both analogies represent the same information, direction and specific questions.

No Reason to Get Lost

If the facilitator –or the person on his own- knows where they are on the MAP (or what “Box” they are in), they will know the next question to ask. Since the process is always the same, there are really no sessions that are more difficult than others.  If a facilitator believes that he is having a “difficult” session, this  is an indication that he or she has lost their bearings on the map. When you know where the person is on the map you should know what to do and exactly what question to ever ask.

The Seven Map Locations

Five of the seven possible locations (the “boxes”) make up the predictable path most sessions usually  follow (that is when there is no hesitancy or resistance to move forward to identify  core-belief.) In ministry sessions where resistance or hesitance to move forward are present, the person will inevitably move to either the Solution or Anger Box –or both.

These initial five locations (boxes) are; Emotion, Memory, Belief, Truth and Transformation. However, it is common (expected) for people to visit the other two locations —Anger or Solution— but this is not a given. There are sessions that flow from Emotion Box through the Transformation Box and never visit the Solution Box or Anger Box. Most sessions will eventually pass through the first five locations unless the person spends the entire session in either the Solution or Anger “Boxes.” Again, all people will eventually pass through the initial five “Boxes”, but not all will spend time in the Solution or  Anger Box.

Nevertheless, it is possible that a person will move to the Solution or Anger locations (Boxes) at any juncture during the ministry session.  He can be in any “Box” and immediately move to either of the other two. When this occurs, these two locations have there own specific questions to be asked. The three questions found in the Solution Box are referred to as the “De-Solution Tool”. When either a solution or anger surfaces during a ministry session,  the session will stop moving forward. Do know that the only reason that a ministry session ever stops moving forward is because of something the person believes about moving forward. The “De-solution Tool” will help when this occurs.

(Hint: A common place where ministry facilitators sometimes lose their way is failing to recognize when the person has moved to the Solution Box during a ministry session. When a solution is engaged, the session will stall out. Learning more about the “SOLUTION box” will serve you well.)

The Process without the Principles and Purpose
will come up short of the fuller benefit.

If we only have the “tool” –that is, the process– and do not understand the principles and purpose we will be found lacking. Without understanding all three components, we may mistakenly view the process as a means for resolving emotional pain, and therefore, assume that emotional pain is a problem to alleviate as opposed to being a necessary and vital part of the overall solution.  When this is the case, T.P.M. tends to become the “Troubled People’s Ministry” administered by a “specialist” for the emotionally needy as opposed to a “life-skill” that all people can learn and apply.

When emotional pain is viewed as a problem to be solved as opposed to being a part of the overall solution process, we become myopic in our perception and shortchange ourselves from attaining the greater benefits this ministry can affords us.

However, as we understand God’s purpose in refining our faith and renewing our minds, and as we are diligent to learn the TPM principles and how to implement the ministry process, we become positioned to intentionally and purposefully cooperate with what God is doing moment-by-moment bringing this all about. God has a purpose and a plan and invites us all to participate. We can participate with him as we choose to “… work out [our] salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act to fulfill his good purpose…”  for “… we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.“ (Phil. 2:12-13, Eph. 2:10)

So then, as we apply the TPM process, all that occurs in a ministry session should be based upon the principles of how God designed the mind to work, and be fully grounded in the purpose of our cooperating with God “… who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Phil. 2:13)

The following two areas of study will pertain to the PRINCIPLES and PURPOSE of TPM.  As we have learned, the PROCESS is what we do in a ministry session; the seven boxes and assigned questions. The PRINCIPLES are the foundation stones that support and explain the PROCESS protocol; why we do what we do. The PURPOSE is why we do TPM at all. These next two areas of study are vitally important for both the Mentoring Facilitator as well as the Mentee. Without these two areas of information, TPM will be falsely understood to be a ministry for resolving people’s emotional pain. TPM is not about resolving pain, but faith refinement, mind renewal and genuine transformation.

IMPORTANT NOTE: What is proposed in the PRINCIPLES and PURPOSE section of this training is our best attempt at explaining TPM from a practical, neurological, and foremost, from a biblical perspective. Although we believe that what we offer here can prove beneficial, we also realize that not all members of the Body of Christ will agree on all points in the PRINCIPLES and PURPOSE. We encourage you to embrace what you can and hold loosely what you are unsure of, but give genuine consideration of what is proposed.

That being said, if you find that you do not agree with all that is proposed in the PRINCIPLES and PURPOSE, know that you can still effectively apply the PROCESS of TPM. When you are studying the PRINCIPLES and PURPOSE section,  There are probably many paradigm shifts you will have to make within this training. Even if you cannot embrace all that is taught in the PRINCIPLES and PURPOSE, it is imperative that you follow the TPM PROCESS protocol exactly as it is taught, or else, please do not call what you are doing Transformation Prayer Ministry.

Continue with PART TWO – The  PRINCIPLES of TPM 

Return to the PROCESS LEVEL ONE MENU