Knocking at Heaven's Door

In the last few months people in Listening Prayer Therapy sessions have had divinely granted visions of heaven or of a waiting place on the way to heaven. I am being drawn in to a sense of the nearness of heaven if we would open our imagination to divine inspiration and the presence of Jesus. These experiences are beyond what I imagined when I developed the "Peace with Heaven" prayer format.

A young man in a vision of heaven say the throne and said: "They rule with their heart and not with their minds." A nice confirmation of my comments of July 27th blog entry: 'Mission to Listen.'

One comment he heard was: "God does not tell you what to do or make you do anything (you are free ) as long as it is done from the heart with purity and out of a caring intention."

This young man described the joy that those in heaven have in helping others. There was great joy there. All held in common love and worship of Jesus. We take pleasure in serving Him. There were different groups singing gospel songs. Relationships were like spider webs of kindness to others that brought joy to themselves.

One interesting comment was that what you experience on earth is multiplied times 1,000 in heaven. That what you experience on earth depends on you perceptions and your perceptions are up to you. You choose to see things bad or good.

We choose whether we will enter the kingdom of heaven by our choices to live with empathy for others and to follow the Lords' rules. His rules give freedom.

In the last year I did a lot of work with a woman in crisis who was filled with panic, pessimism and depression. I believe that she was in a God-ordained life crisis to deal with pride, self-centeredness, control and people-pleasing. Session after session I confronted her pessimism - her tendency to see a situation as negative when it could as well be seen as positive - session after session.

Perhaps this was not necessary. Perhaps there is a prayer encounter that could deal with a person's pessimistic outlook.

CHALLENGE: Design such a prayer - an encounter with God that allows a person to submit their pessimistic perceptions and allows Jesus to replace them with His optimistic perceptions. Can you picture that? Let me know your ideas.

PS: On this blog permission to comment is by invitation only. Those who comment constitute a community - the HealMyLife community. This is a community of individuals who have been chosen and who chose to learn and apply Listening Prayer Therapy. Learning is experiential - sessions with me or close observation of such sessions.  If you have good reason to learn and apply this method, would be willing to experience it yourself, and would like to be part of this community phone (416) 234-1850, 1 877 854-3990, or E-mail me.      

 Come to my web site: healmylife.com  and there is an e-mail link there.

May you enter the Kingdom of Heaven, George <><

A Mission to Listen

Listening Prayer Therapy happens spontaneously at the heart level. However, it is blocked by too much analysis at the head level.

For listening to be successful the 'noise' in our heads must stop. Our doubts, questions and stream of thinking must be stilled.

Although our head does not need to turn off during listening, it must go into an observer mode. The prophet Habakkuk after talking out plainly to God - Chapter One - says, 2:1 - "I will watch to see what he will say within me."

After the resurrection of Jesus he appeared to two on the road to Emmaus who returned to Jerusalem that very night in the dark. They were told by the 11 apostles that "the Lord really is risen, and has appeared to Simon!" When they gave their report confirming this, Jesus Himself joined them. But they were startled and in fear. Jesus rebuked them in words that we need to speak to our heads: "Why are you disturbed and troubled, and why do such doubts and questionings arise in your hearts?"

Like the apostles our heads can get in the way of receiving into our midst the risen Christ. For example, my head full of theology may be busy doing theological thinking rather than listening to Jesus. My head head can be busy, like Martha, in the theological kitchen brewing up a theological discourse rather than sitting still, like Mary, at Jesus feet - listening to Jesus.
let your mind observe - see, hear and sense - what is happening, in this way you stay open and ready to encounter the risen Christ in your spirit.

One example of this in Listening Prayer Therapy is in Christian grief counselling. Take a look at the article on "grief and comfort" on www.HealMyLife.com.

The one command from the father heart of God to the disciples was: "Listen to my son, Jesus." At the mount of transfiguration God the Father spoke to the disciples: "This is my beloved son, listen to him." Can you agree to this command, this order from heaven? Can you honour your heavenly Father by listening to Jesus?

Such simple words. What a brief missions statement. The Father heart of God says to my heart: "Listen to my son, Jesus." My instructions are to listen to Jesus. And my response? "Yes, Lord."

However, according to the intellectual MIND VERSION of the Bible, God the Father said: "This is my beloved Son. I would be honoured if you built a monument to Him on this mount, and many buildings to honour and talk about Jesus, and large theological colleges filled with big theological books teaching about my son, and if you held religious services in the name of my son where you sang to him and preached about him and you were very careful to come up with fresh thoughts about him and theologically accurate thoughts about about him and blah, blah, blah."

NOT!

Peter was not encouraged to build a monument on the mount. God is not honoured in all our sophisticated intellectual talk about Jesus. Our God and our Father asks us to talk with Jesus. He wants us to listen to Jesus.

"This is my beloved Son. LISTEN TO HIM."

This is the mission of Listening Prayer Therapy.

George <><

The Listening Attitude

Humility means I can learn. I have an open mind and heart.

Broken means my tears are close to the surface. My hard shell has been broken.

No longer attached to my agenda, I am dead to the power trip.

I can listen to you because I am not invested in how I look to you. I am not invested in my "Self Image." I am dead to 'image control.'

I am patient because I have given up my demands. Love does not control.

I can listen with heart and feelings because I don't have to get it right with my head. I have given up controlling through understanding. I don't seek more intellectual knowledge because I know that isn't how we see into the things of the spirit.

Creativity, spontaneity, passion, enthusiasm, fun, stories and imagination - these are loved by a child with good self esteem. Unless we turn and open up to the child within us we cannot see into the Kingdom of God. Life is not generated by being deadly serious!

The more Heaven's peace permeates my soul, the more I am able to be patient and wait for you to find heaven's peace for your soul. Wait upon the Lord. Enjoy the waiting station.

These attitudes make Listening Prayer Therapy fruitful.

George <><

Inner Healing Worship

Man's ultimate purpose, destiny and pleasure is to be in God's presence, in the throne room and to worship God. Our inner man, core person, our human spirit experiences this ultimate high by inner worship. My greatest reward as a guide in the process of inner healing is to be there when the inner person (inner child or spirit) of another experiences this breakthrough into inner worship in the presence of God.
I have recently had this experience: at a recent HealMyLife Seminar Tor-fre (name withheld for confidentiality reasons) experienced this ultimate life shaking and life shaping experience.
Also, in working with Swi-Syl (name withheld) her inner child - it was the six year old - was lead in a healing vision the ended up with a beautiful throne room experience. She was touched on the shoulder with a sword by Jesus on the throne - compare to being made a knight. He declared that her guilt was forgiven - compare to Isaiah 6. She found herself laying on the ground in front of the throne and touching Jesus feet. If you know Hebrew you will recognize the posture of worship.
Nothing can bring greater satisfaction to the heart of God and peace to the heart of man than to worship in gratitude for who God is and what He has done, except, perhaps, to guide the heart, spirit and inner child of another into the throne room experience.
To pursue this meditate and try the Prayer Format described on HealMyLife.com called peace with heaven.
May you seek and find real peace,
peace with and communion with God,
George <>

Introduction to the HealMyLife Blog

"Heal My Life" is a web log about Listening Prayer Therapy - the tools that I am developing for inner healing - listening to God for life transformation.

What is life transformation? Just as butterflies go through that miraculous change from caterpillars to graceful flying creatures we need to break free from old character patterns, unhealthy habits and addictions.

The tools of Listening Prayer Therapy enable a Christian therapist to facilitate the experience life transformation.

In this blog you will follow the development of my thinking regarding Listening Prayer Therapy. Last week I posted on my web site HealMyLife.com a rough draft of every article or method that I have published in some form over the last four years. There are 46 articles there. I need to edit how they appear there. This is where I am in the process.
You may just want to observe the process and listen in so that you will become familiar with me and this approach to inner healing. Listening in is allowed.
You may want to learn the method - the attitude, principles and skills involved in Listening Prayer Therapy. You are welcome to do so. Also read the articles on www.HealMyLife.com.
Real learning happens when we experience. You may choose to adapt the tools here for your own use, using your own judgment as to how they apply to yourself or others and taking full responsibility for the consequences. This is a good way to learn.
If you may want to teach others what you learn about Listening Prayer Therapy. I would say go ahead, however, but do not claim any authority to do so without participating in the processes that I have set up to familiarize people with my formulation of Listening Prayer Therapy. Before you lay claim to teaching my methods it is best that you consult with me and let me know what you are doing. I would like some assurance that you really do have the right spirit, follow my principles and know how to use my methods before you claim to teach others. So please contact me about that. Thanks,
Blessings, George Hartwell <>