Assessing My Current Status

When you schedule an initial free consultation with us, it’s time for getting to know each other and sussing out the issues you feel you need help with and our recommendations for ways to move forward.

One tool we like to use in this discovery phase is our fill-in-the-blank summary statement. I share it now in case you’d like to get insights into your own life. In brackets, I’ve included a few of the ways these spaces can be filled in.

Although I’m currently in a stage of [PARALYSIS, POVERTY, INJUSTICE, BITTERNESS, OPPRESSION, PTSD], I look forward to having more flow or justice in the area of my [MARRIAGE, OCCUPATION, STATUS, DESTINY, HOPES & DREAMS]. I blame the spirits of [DEVOURING, WELFARE, JEZEBEL, PYTHON, ABUSE, SELF-HATRED, COMPARISON, ADDICTION] for sabotaging my relationships with my [PARENT, EMPLOYER, COMMUNITY, SYSTEMS]. I sense God primarily through [VISIONS, DREAMS, SONGS, NATURE, NEWS, BOOKS]. He has given me everything I need for life and godliness, including [CREATIVITY, PERSEVERANCE, HOSPITALITY, JOY, INHERITANCE, BIRTHRIGHT, FAVOR, GRACE, FUNDS].

At the initial session, we also like to ask about your place within your family of origin, your spiritual walk, and whatever is bothering you about life. Some of you only know that something is wrong, and you aren’t thriving the way you should. It’s also helpful to point out the treasure — the good stuff — God has packed into your family line and you.

We can help you figure out the right questions, so the Lord can guide you to the right solutions. He and we are so glad to meet with you!

🐳 Jonah as Holy Satire

Sometimes when you are feeling uncomfortable, God is nudging you to move toward some good that he has for you. Here's the fresh news of how we found ourselves in that exact situation.

Sensing a Lack of Peace. Last weekend, we were struggling with a lack of appreciation about a particular temporary situation at our beloved home church. We decided it would be best to keep our bad attitudes away, and not muddy the waters of what God wanted to do with the congregation that Sunday.

Moving toward Peace. After consulting our iPhone map, we visited a sweet church plant mere blocks from our home, which delivered us a gift that we couldn't have foreseen. In fact, it was the clear fulfillment of a promise made several years ago. Back then, the Lord had provided an answer ("Part 2") without explaining the background context ("Part 1") for it. Through the preaching of the sermon at this church, I was finally able to connect the dots into a complete picture.

"Part 2" Came First. A couple of years ago, I'd had a dream about a Nineveh-like zombie situation, where I saw a scroll that said, "Part 2: Son of the Dawn Walker." This threshold guardian keeps us from passing through certain important milestones in life. From that dream, I sensed the Lord was telling me (1) this entity was empowered by love, not defeated by it, and (2) the protocol of ministry was somehow (???) related to Nineveh. (Anne Hamilton has a whole series of important books on "How to Deal With..." various threshold guardians, but she hasn't mentioned this one.)

"Part 1" Came Last Sunday from the sermon at the new church! I had never heard before that the book of Jonah was written as a satire about about two groups that would never have agreed under normal circumstances. But the Lord showed that reconciliation was possible, at least temporarily. Somehow, I realized this was the piece of the protocol I'd been missing for this particular perverse entity controlling Nineveh. With this entity, the rules get flipped on their head. In any other situation, you want to approach with love first, but Jonah delivered a purely wrathful message with no hope oracle: “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” The King immediately issued his own call to a strong show of repentance with the hope that "God may relent and change his mind." In the face of that repentance, God did indeed change his mind, and calamity was averted.

As the Ninevites discovered, it's never too late to make a turnaround. Baby steps and small habits to build. Get it before it expires here: 👉 https://gift.lifeafter40.com/estuary

I called to the Lord out of my distress, and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.
But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the Lord!
-- Jonah 2:1,9 (NRSVue)
(Jonah's prayer from the belly of the fish before being delivered.)

Blessing you to receive deliverance from what is distressing you.

🥧 R&R on Memorial Day

Did you have a relaxing Memorial Day weekend?

Dorothy and I have been grinding away for too long, so we did some lighthearted activities to mix things up. 

• saw a movie at the theater: The Devil Wears Prada 2

• had a friend over for lunch

• took a walk

• checked out the church 3/4 mile from our house

• poked our noses into another friend's life

• tasted a sour cream lemon pie o-my-goodness-so-good (and scored the recipe!)

A change of pace felt nice.

I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.
He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.
— Psalm 40: 1-3 (nrsvue)

Blessing you to receive a new uplift, security, and song.

🔑 The Heart's Impact on Life

The physical and spiritual heart is such a powerful organ, operating automatically without conscious determination. The heart shapes our actions according to personal and tribal (ancestral) beliefs, perspectives, opinions, vows, agreements.

When these were formed originally, often after enduring a trauma, they seemed helpful to keep body, soul, and spirit operating according to predefined parameters. But as you grow older and more mature, you find that you have less wiggle room to make nuanced decisions and choices.

For example, if your family has the impulse to pick fights, or zero in on love interests that don't make sense, or spend money and resources without an eye on the budget, there could be some personal or tribal (ancestral) vows and agreements keeping you stuck in that groove no matter how much your mind insists otherwise.

Susan Bowman's books about the heart help clarify how this keeps you in lockdown and how to get free of those emotional and behavioral constraints. Her books (so far!) are The Quiet Heart, The Performing Heart, and Spiritual Realities and the Tribal Heart.

Blessing you to break out of all financial, attitudinal, and behavioral constraints!

📖 Sneak Peek into Lukewarm No More

YOU are creative. You are made to create. You are made to co-create with God.

So if you want to go deeper:

• be still and listen

• journal your feelings

• paint a picture

• write a poem

• make it into a song

• teach a class

• write a book

Dorothy and I are cut from the same cloth. Although our personalities and redemptive gifts are completely different, we both wound up becoming English majors, writers, and lyricists.

So it was only natural that we would compose a book together. We weren't looking to find an idea to write. Instead, the Lord began downloading ideas. It was a slow sprinkling at first, then became a deluge, so much that we're scrambling to get those thoughts and practices down on paper and out to you -- while continuing our day to day work of ministering to those climbing out of trauma.

Our first book, Lukewarm No More: Drawing on the Extravagant Mercy of Jesus to Heal and Deliver, will come out in due time. We've got a full first draft, and we are fleshing it out to add more thoughts, stories, illustrations, examples. Here is a sneak peek of the section that introduces ourselves and the book:

We are Susan and Dorothy, a mother-daughter ministry team. We began full-time work together in inner healing starting in 2019, after Susan completed the work for her HeartSync certification and qualification, and was ordained and commissioned for ministry. Dorothy also achieved qualification status in HeartSync and began a study of Hebrew and Greek in order to better comprehend the scriptures; she is a licensed minister. 

Over the years we have learned from the teachings of many other deliverance ministers, equipping us to tackle issues of healing and deliverance from several angles. The Holy Spirit began to reveal new things to us to apply in ministry. In exploring and developing those nuggets, we became pioneers ourselves. We are now confidently ready to share and teach those unique insights and strategies that have stood the test of time.

This book has been several years in the making. The idea gradually dawned on us over time as the Holy Spirit kept highlighting Jesus’ letter to the church in Laodicea, found in Revelation 3. Dorothy shares her story of how this discovery yielded a simple way to gain a substantial measure of healing and deliverance. Between ourselves, we called it the “Laodicean Process.”

This process is about (1) peeling off shrouds as agreements with death and survival and (2) appropriating Jesus' ingredients of life, so you can (3) move into the abundant life of thriving. 

Blessing you to be the youiest you that you can be!