An Interesting Opportunity!

Like you, I am in the midst of the “new normal,” while praying that it will soon pass. As the old preacher said, “It didn’t come to stay, it came to pass.”

Yesterday I went into a Walmart for the first time since March to get some reading glasses but found that I couldn’t check out at the automatic checkout lane. The machine wouldn’t accept my debit card! Finally, after multiple tries, I got the attention of one of the clerks. She came over, I showed her what was happening, and she asked, “Does your card have a chip? If it does you will have to stick in the lower slot.” I tried that and it worked fine! After six-plus months, I had forgotten how to use my debit card. It’s that bad.

As you probably picked up from this little story, I haven’t gone out much. I get to pick up the preordered groceries at Walmart and get up into the mountains once or twice a week if it isn’t too hot or raining. The Blue Ridge Parkway is always a treat. Yesterday Carol and I had dinner at a Peaks of Otter picnic spot down by a stream. It was beautiful and even cool. That was delightful. See, my life is just about as exciting as yours is. ?

What I have been doing is working. Spiritual Interventions, Inc. has a beautiful new website. Check it out if you get a chance at www.spiritualinterventions.org! Thank you to a dear friend who had it constructed for me. It is much better than the old one.

My second book, Transformative Encounters: The Intervention of God in Christian Counseling and Pastoral Care (InterVarsity Academic Press) has gone out of print after seven years. I have purchased the printing rights from the widow of my co-editor and am starting to work on revamping the book. It has chapters written by a large number of distinguished therapists who focus on therapies that require the active participation of the Holy Spirit. I am going to self-publish this book as I believe that it has too much good material in it to have it disappear just yet. This project will probably take several months to complete.

Two months ago, I also left the Wyndhurst Counseling Center. After 45 or so years of doing standard counseling, I decided that I couldn’t do that anymore. I had enough. So, I asked to be released from my contract. My boss of ten years graciously released me. I had been there longer than anyone else in the practice. A couple of weeks after leaving I started getting contacted by folks who wanted to talk about their situations, primarily short-term counseling with a spiritual focus. Suddenly I was talking to more people on Wednesdays than I had been seeing at Wyndhurst. God is good!

In March, when we stopped doing face-to-face deliverance because of the Covid-19 outbreak I wasn’t sure if deliverance online was going to work. I loved the face-to-face sessions, plus I wasn’t sure that the Zoom sessions would work. Well, I was wrong. As far as I can tell, the online sessions are just as effective as the face-to-face sessions. People are still be changed, still being set free from demonic spirits, and still referring their friends. We still work on Monday evenings at 6:00 p.m. EST and on Tuesday afternoons at 1:00 p.m. EST. I currently have one slot left in October and have started booking clients in November. I also have about ten people who have decided to wait until we can start doing face-to-face deliverances again.

What is also interesting about this change in technology is that suddenly I discovered that I had an international deliverance team. I have team members from Texas, Illinois, Ohio, Florida, Virginia, and even from Canada. I am able to do what has also been closest to my heart, namely, to train other people. Some of these folks have joined us once or twice a week and are learning how they can do deliverance too. They are learning hands-on. They have a regular role in our sessions. It is exciting for me to see them grow and it is encouraging for them to see their skills and faith grow.

This presents an interesting opportunity. If you have any interest in learning how to do deliverance and would like to receive some training, would you please let me know? Now, I am not looking for some folks who just interested in sitting in one a deliverance or two (though they might do that to determine whether this is something for them). I am looking for additional team members. This will require a regular commitment on Monday evenings or Tuesday afternoons. If you are invited to join the team you will be able to see God move powerfully in the lives of others. It really is exciting to see God do exactly what he said he would do in the Scriptures, but today. It is what we do!

I hope you are all doing well and staying safe. I pray for you daily. Please pray for us as well.