1. Wonderfully Free...no going back!
A 31-day devotional journal to follow up your Bethel Sozo
If you’ve had a Bethel Sozo, this book is for you.
A Sozo can be a significant encounter with God. But what happens afterwards? It can be surprisingly easy to return to ordinary life and gradually lose sight of the things God showed you during your ministry time.
Wonderfully Free...no going back! was written to help you continue the journey.
This 31-day devotional journal is designed as a companion to the truths and insights you received during your Sozo. Each day explores an aspect of living a Sozo-enriched life, with Bible verses to read and reflect on, suggestions for prayer and response, and plenty of space for your own thoughts and reflections.
Don’t let your Sozo become just a memory
One of the most valuable things about a Sozo can be the opportunity to hear from Father God, Jesus and Holy Spirit for yourself, but revelation needs to become part of the way we live.
Wonderfully Free allows you to keep thinking about what God showed you, to revisit the truths you received and to continue the conversation.
You can work through it day by day, at your own pace, allowing the material to become part of your continuing journey with God.
What will you find?
Each of the 31 days includes:
a short devotional thought;
relevant Bible passages;
suggestions for prayer and response;
space to record your own thoughts and reflections.
It isn’t intended to replace the Sozo you have received.
It is intended to help you make something of it.
A companion for the journey
The response from Sozo guests and practitioners has been particularly encouraging.
Readers have described the book as a valuable follow-up to Sozo, helping them remember what God said, process what they experienced and continue pursuing greater freedom. One reader described it as helping to keep the details of their Sozo fresh and making the book their own personal journey.
If you’ve had a Sozo, don’t simply put it behind you.
Take the opportunity to keep going.
Wonderfully Free...no going back!.
2. BECOMING WHOLEHEARTED
A Journey into Authenticity
What does it mean to become wholehearted?
We tend to think of the head and the heart as being in competition. Perhaps the head should rule the heart because rationality is sensible and dependable; or perhaps the heart should rule the head because life becomes more spontaneous, exciting and authentic when we follow our feelings.
Becoming Wholehearted explores another possibility.
What if we could develop a rich relationship of trust with our hearts, allowing our head and heart to work together rather than allowing either one to dominate?
That is the starting point for this 31-day journey into authenticity.
But there is a problem
Our hearts can be wounded. Life happens to us. Our experiences can affect the way we see ourselves, other people and God. They can leave us carrying fear, shame, rejection, disappointment and beliefs that aren’t true.
So before our heads can fully benefit from what our hearts carry, our hearts may need healing.
And that is a journey in itself.
Wholehearted isn’t simply whole-hearted
There is a distinction worth making. To be whole-hearted is to be completely committed to something. To be wholehearted is something different. It’s about becoming increasingly integrated and authentic as a person; it’s about learning to listen to what is happening within us without simply allowing our emotions to run our lives.
It’s about becoming increasingly able to bring what is happening in our hearts into relationship with God.
31 days to explore
Each day offers something to think about and explore.
The aim isn’t to give you a formula for becoming wholehearted. It’s to encourage you to become curious about your own heart and to consider what God might be showing you.
You’ll probably discover something you hadn’t recognised before, you’ll certainly find yourself challenged.
You will find healing.
The journey towards authenticity begins with becoming honest about what is really going on inside us.
3. CONNECTING WITH HEAVEN
Sozo on the Prayer Line, or anywhere else
What if you could help someone hear from God for themselves in just a few minutes?
Sozo is fundamentally a ministry of relationship and communication. It is about helping people engage directly with Father God, Jesus and Holy Spirit and discover what God wants them to know.
Connecting with Heaven explores how the tools and principles of Sozo can be used when ministry happens on the prayer line — or anywhere else.
The title may be a little long.
But it says exactly what the book is about.
Using Sozo tools beyond the conventional setting
Many Christians want to help other people through prayer.
But when someone comes carrying emotional pain, fear, trauma, rejection or confusion, what do you actually say? How do you help without taking over? How do you pray with someone rather than simply praying for them?
And how do you create space for them to hear from God for themselves?
These are some of the questions behind Connecting with Heaven.
Sozo isn’t about having all the answers
The person facilitating ministry isn’t the source of the answers. The aim is to help the person receiving ministry engage with God.
That means listening. Asking questions. Being attentive to what God may be saying.
And trusting that God wants relationship with His people.
The book takes the principles and tools we’ve learned through years of Sozo ministry and considers how they can be used beyond the traditional 60/90 minute session.
Who is it for?
It will be particularly useful for Christians involved in prayer ministry who want another way to help those coming for prayer.
But the underlying ideas are broader. If you’re looking for a way to help anyone, Christian or not, at the front of church, in a park, on a train, wherever you are, to receive prayer for any emotional hurt they’re carry, this book will teach you how to use Sozo tools to do just that.
4. STARTING OUT
Preparing Yourselves for Marriage
Helpful, frank and searching questions to ask yourselves before saying, “I do”.
One of the biggest choices most of us will ever make is the decision to get married. Yet, apart from the frantic months of wedding preparation, many couples do surprisingly little to prepare themselves for the marriage itself.
We think that’s a mistake.
Starting Out was written specifically with marriage preparation in mind. It isn’t simply a book telling you what marriage should look like. It’s designed to get you talking to each other and, together, talking to God, involving Him in your discussion.
Think. Share. Discuss. Pray.
Starting Out is both a teaching manual and a platform for thought and conversation.
As you work through each chapter, you are encouraged to consider questions about your beliefs, experiences, expectations and the life you’ve lived so far. Then you talk about them together.
These are the Thought Stops.
At the end of each chapter come the Sozo Stops — opportunities for both of you to ask Father God, Jesus and Holy Spirit what He wants you to know.
Why ask difficult questions before you get married?
Because marriage joins two lives together, and we don’t arrive at marriage as blank sheets of paper. We bring our experiences, families, expectations, assumptions and hopes.
We also bring our disappointments and our ideas about money, sex, children, work, faith, family and relationships.
Some of those things will be obvious to us. Some won’t.
Starting Out creates a safe opportunity to begin talking about them before they become surprises inside your marriage.
You can work through it yourselves
The book can be used by couples on their own or alongside someone helping them with Marriage Preparation. It is also proving useful to married couples as a refresher and a way of starting conversations that may otherwise never happen.
And it forms the basis of our Marriage Preparation ministry
Our Marriage Preparation programme uses Starting Out as its manual and starting point. We offer a series of sessions by Zoom, tailored to the couple — typically four, six or eight sessions depending on what is appropriate.
5. GOING DEEPER
A devotional for couples wanting to go deeper with God and each other
Marriage needs more than a good beginning. A solid marriage needs firm foundations if it is going to thrive over the years. Yet many marriages begin with little more than a longing for security, companionship and someone to share life with.
How much do we actually know about each other’s experiences, values, expectations and purpose? And how often do we really talk about those things?
It’s never too late to go deeper
Going Deeper provides 40 daily topics for couples to read, think and pray about and then unpack together. Each day offers an opportunity to be vulnerable; to talk at a heart level; to listen, and to discover something new about each other.
And then, together, to bring what you’ve discovered before Father God.
Conversations that matter
The questions and discussion points are designed to open up conversations that couples need to have, not necessarily because something is wrong, but because knowing each other more deeply is part of building a strong marriage.
Some conversations may be easy. Others may be challenging. Some may uncover differences you hadn’t realised were there.
That’s not necessarily a problem.
It can be an opportunity.
Going deeper with each other — and with God
The aim isn’t simply to improve communication. It’s to encourage couples to grow together spiritually as well as relationally.
Each day gives you space to think. Talk. Listen. Pray. And discover more about the person you’ve chosen to spend your life with.
Who is it for?
It’s for couples at any stage of marriage who want to go deeper.
You don’t have to be struggling. You don’t have to be in crisis. You simply have to want more. More honesty, understanding and intimacy. And more of God.
6. STANDING FIRM… LIVING FREE
A 31-day devotional journal for those receiving inner healing
Has life wounded you?
Perhaps your basic needs for love, acceptance and encouragement weren’t met. Or maybe you were made to feel stupid or inadequate by your parents or at school.
Perhaps an adult mistreated or abused you, or there was something else that left a mark.
These are just some of the experiences that can distort our self-image and cause us to believe lies about ourselves — lies that are completely at odds with God’s intentions for us.
If so, this book is for you.
A companion for inner healing
Standing Firm… Living Free is a 31-day devotional journal for those receiving inner healing. Each day explores another aspect of God’s compassion and love for you. There are Scriptures to consider; suggestions for prayer and response, and space to write your own thoughts and reflections.
It gives you time to stop. To think about what is happening. To consider what God may be showing you.
And to begin to unpack some of the things that have shaped the way you see yourself.
From wounded to standing firm
Inner healing isn’t simply about understanding what happened to us; it’s about discovering what God says in the midst of it. Perhaps you’ve believed for years: “I’m not good enough.” “I’m not lovable.” “I’m on my own.” “There’s something wrong with me.”
Standing Firm… Living Free is designed to help you go deeper into your healing journey and begin to live from a different place.
The existing description puts it beautifully: the book is intended to help the reader “unpack and go deeper” into their ministry or inner-healing journey and become foundational as they move forward into a new life with God.
7. SOZO FOR COUPLES
The perfect accompaniment to every marriage
What happens when a couple receives Sozo together?
Sozo is normally experienced individually, but relationships are important, and sometimes the things affecting one person inevitably affect the marriage.
Sozo for Couples is a ministry we developed to enable a couple to receive Sozo together, so that they can overcome problems and enjoy greater freedom and wholeness in their relationship with God and with one another.
The Sozo for Couples manual is the practical resource for those who want to learn and practise this ministry.
Taking Sozo into the marriage
The manual takes the tools and principles of Bethel Sozo and applies them to a couple.
If you’ve experienced Sozo yourself, you’ll know how powerful it can be to hear God speak directly into the things that have shaped your life. Now imagine what can happen when a couple is able to explore those things together. Not simply as two individuals. But as husband and wife.
The Sozo for Couples approach
The purpose isn’t to put one person on trial. It isn’t marriage counselling, and it isn’t about one partner diagnosing what is wrong with the other. It’s about creating an environment where both people can hear from God. Together.
The ministry is designed to help couples overcome problems and discover greater freedom and wholeness in their relationship with God and with each other.
A manual for practitioners
The Sozo for Couples manual is a how-to manual for Sozo for Couples practitioners. It takes the Bethel Sozo tools and applies them within the context of a couple’s relationship.
A ministry we developed
Sozo for Couples is not simply another Sozo variation that we happen to offer.
It is a ministry we developed.