The Clock Principle

The Clock will tell you what to do next.

This is an important principle and should be applied as needed during a ministry session. It is simply stated as, “Look at the clock before asking the EMOTION Box Question.” How and when is this applied? Obviously this principle does not apply when the session is just beginning. However, later in the session, after having worked through the TRANSFORMATION Box and you are about to ask the Emotion Box question, look at the clock to see how much time you have left. You do not want to ask the person “What are you feeling right now?” or other variations of the EMOTION Box question, unless you have time to do another whole session. The EMOTION Box questions should NEVER be used to see if something happened or not in the TRANSFORMATION Box.

It is a temptation for some ministry facilitators to rush in and ask the person what he is feeling after offering up the lie to the Lord. The reason they typically do this is to see if something happened or not. The problem with asking this question here is that it cannot provide dependable information. The only test to see if something happened or not, is the TRANSFORMATION Box question, “Does it still feel true that…? What we are looking for at this juncture is whether the lie still feel true or not, and not if the person feels differently.

The presence of or the absence of negative emotion is NOT a test of anything. It is very common for a person to receive the truth and the lie not to feel true, but yet, still feel negative emotion. This simply means that there are other lies still triggered.

The EMOTION Box question, “What are you feeling now?”— is designed to remind the person to connect with his emotion and to focus on it. It is not intended to be used to determine if something happened or not. The presence of negative emotion does not mean that something did or did not occur, but only that there are still lies triggered. This is why we need to look at the clock to see whether we have time to continue with prayer ministry after having asked the TRANSFORMATION Box question.

The Goals of the “Emotion Box”

Reviewing the Purpose of the EMOTION Box

The EMOTION Box is designed to accomplish several goals. 1) to determine if there are other lies still triggered, 2) to remind the person to connect with or feel what he is feeling and 3) to focus on his emotion so that association might engage. Again, asking the first question in the EMOTION Box (“What are you feeling right now?”) is NOT a test to see if truth has been received, but only to determine if there are additional lies still triggered. This is why you want to look at the clock before asking “What are you feeling right now?” lest you open up another full session.

Without question, if there are no lies presently triggered, the person will say something like, “I feel peaceful, calm, resolved, etc.” However, if there are other lies present, they will report that they still feel bad. This may lead them to believe that nothing happened in the TRANSFORMATION Box when in fact something may have. The only test used to determine if the specific lie presented to the Lord has been resolved in the TRANSFORMATION Box is by asking, “Does it still feel true that…(the lie)?” If the lie no longer feels true the person will need to see and acknowledge this shift in his or her thinking. This is important so that, if when he examines what he is feeling and discovers that he still feels bad, he will not conclude that nothing occurred.

You may to call this to the person’s attention by asking him if he recognizes the shift in his thinking by pointing out how he believed “XYZ” just moments before, and now this no longer feels true. Only the Holy Spirit can accomplish this.

After having asked the TRANSFORMATION Box question, and before you do anything else, ask yourself, “Do I have time to do another full session?”  You should not ask the EMOTION Box question until you look at the clock. To ask the EMOTION Box question is to potentially expose additional lie-based beliefs requiring another entire session. It is a mistaken notion to ask this question for the purpose of testing if transformation has occurred.

Ministry Facilitators who rush head long into the EMOTION Box without considering the time factor, typically do so because they are feeling an uncomfortable emotion themselves. Their own lie-based emotion is driving them to make sure the person is free of all their bad feelings. This is not a good motivation.

What about the remaining pain?

Some ministry facilitators may be concerned that all the memories the person passed through as well as the memory of their current story, may still feel painful to remember. Their concern is based upon believing that absence of emotional pain is an indication of transformation. The truth is, an absence of pain can mean many things. It could be successful suppression, inner distraction, or some form of self-medication. The absence of pain is not a true test of anything. However, the question, “Does it still feel true that…?” is a reliable test. Only the Holy Spirit can cause a lie to no longer feel true and make the truth feel true.

Of course, if all lies that were triggered are resolved with the truth the received, then the person should experience peace. Nevertheless, if the person reported that the lie in question no longer feels true, then the ministry session has accomplished its purpose. The person needs to see that the lie that he reported feeling true has changed in belief. Where the lie no longer feels true is the transformation we are looking for. Remaining pain is merely the indication of other lies still believed. Peace will follow truth, but where lies are triggered, pain will follow these lies.

Here is where training the person concerning the principles that relate to emotion, memory and belief are crucial. The facilitator’s primary role is to equip the person in the knowledge of the PROCESS, PRINCIPLES and PURPOSE of TPM, more so than helping them find freedom from a lie or two. They have their entire life to work on their remaining lies. Being equipped for this journey far out weighs this.

The Goal of the Ministry Session

The goal of the ministry session is NOT to assure the person has freedom from all the lies he or she might believe, or that there is no pain felt when remembering all memories that surfaced in the session –including their current situation. The purpose of every session is twofold: 1) to move forward and identify each lie as it is identified, one-by-one, and deal with each in order. Sometimes a person may not have any memory to surface during a session, and yet they may identify many solution beliefs that were hindering them from moving forward. Any lie – whether core belief or not – is a lie that needs to be replaced with the the Lord’s perspective. 2) Most importantly, the purpose of the ministry session is to educate the recipient so they can become independent and apply TPM as a lifestyle. Remember that you are the mentoring facilitator and they are the mentee learning all that there is to learn about TPM. “Teach your students well…”

Out Of time

A common problem reported by many facilitators is that they run out of time in a ministry session. This is manageable as the facilitator comes to realize that mind renewal is a lifelong journey that cannot be completed in any single session. We accomplish what we can as we deal with each lie that is exposed in its time. If the ministry facilitator feels anxious or driven to get more accomplished, then this is something for which he or she should take responsibility and seek out their own freedom. Every ministry session should be governed by the presence of the Lord’s peace. “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts…” (Col. 3:15) Where there is an absence of peace in the facilitator’s facilitation, something is amiss.

It is important to know that mind renewal is a lifelong journey. As long as we believe lies we will predictably feel whatever we believe. The goal of the session is not pain resolution, but rather lie identification and mind renewal with an expected outcome of transformation –the fruit of the Holy Spirit. As the person receiving ministry understands that his pain is because of his belief and not because of his life situation, he is more free to intentionally deal with the real root cause; belief. As the facilitator learns to manage the session more effectively, the time factor will become less of a problem, the use of the “Clock principle” can be a help.

Watch the clock!