An interesting side-effect of sozo

I’ve talked quite a bit about having gone through sozo ministry a few months ago. Sozo is the Greek word for “saved, healed, delivered, totally whole in Christ”. In the process, I also gained the revelation of the Kingdom of God and all that means for the believer.

If you read over my posts here and on radical-reformation.org from the past few months, you’ll get an idea of the transformation God’s done in me. It’s so huge, He had me change my name because I am so totally different from what I was. Years of therapy couldn’t do this. I couldn’t have gotten myself here. This is the work of the Lord. The process is not easy – when you’ve believed a lie all your life, you tend to think of that lie as truth and the tendency is to fight for it…even when you realize that it’s a lie! It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Harder than childbirth, quitting drugs, quitting smoking, and being in jail*… all rolled into one! But so worthwhile, I recommend it to everyone, and am preparing to begin ministering sozo to others (probably in the fall).

One very interesting side effect of all of this… I am now an auditory learner.

I have always been an incredibly visual/kinesthetic  learner. If I could see it, touch it, or do it, I could learn it. Reading and hands-on have been my primary methods of learning throughout my whole life. And I “couldn’t” learn from listening without an incredible level of effort. Lectures in college were dreadful… one reason I learned to type so fast is so that I could transcribe notes during the lecture and read them later. Sermons were a little easier because I could read the associated Scripture, take notes, draw pictures of concepts… but still, learning this way has been an effort my whole life. Listening to something in-person was hard, but listening to a podcast was just about impossible… even if I focused my entire attention upon listening, and even if I took notes, I just didn’t seem to get anything out of it.

A few months ago, all of a sudden, listening became effortless. Suddenly I can listen to a podcast with no visual cues whatsoever… I can even do other things while listening and still get the message. (In fact, I’m listening to Ryan Wyatt preach as I type this!)

This is a totally unanticipated side effect…it wasn’t something we addressed in ministry… but since “wholeness” is the entire goal, I suppose it’s part of the territory! And so now, in delight, I’ve been downloading audio books and listening to podcasts. If you want some good, meaty stuff to listen to, hop on iTunes and download the sermon of the week from both Bill Johnson and Ryan Wyatt (and, soon I hope, from New Day).

In the process of sozo and discovering the Kingdom, I commented that “If on Earth as it is in Heaven” is to become a reality for us, we have to get “I can’t” completely out of our vocabulary. There’s no “can’t” in Heaven.” … I had said, “I can’t listen”, and I couldn’t… but “can’t” is gone now. Jesus said nothing would be impossible for us… we tend to look at Great Big Things (and then rationalize excuses for why “we can’t”)… but I think that “nothing” is an all-inclusive statement. It includes small things and big things… because God really cares about the small stuff.

*why harder than jail? It’s easier to be bound than to be free. Great freedom demands great responsibility.