A SHORT INTRODUCTION
What is Sozo?
Watch this brief introduction to Individual Bethel Sozo and the heart behind the ministry.
Perhaps you’ve heard of Sozo.
Perhaps someone has suggested that you try it, or perhaps you’ve arrived here with absolutely no idea what a Sozo is. That’s fine.
Let’s start there.
Bethel Sozo is a prayer ministry designed to help you develop a deeper relationship with Father God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and to discover freedom from things that may be getting in the way of that relationship. It is not counselling; it isn’t about someone telling you what God thinks you should hear and it isn’t about giving you a set of answers. Instead, Sozo gives you an opportunity to engage with God for yourself.
So what actually happens?
A Sozo is a time of prayer in which one or more trained Sozo facilitators help you explore your relationship with God. Rather than simply talking about God, you are encouraged to talk with Him. You may explore questions such as:
What do you believe about God? What do you believe God believes about you? Is there anything getting in the way of your relationship with Him? Are there things from your past that are still affecting the way you live today? What might God want you to know about those things?
The facilitator isn’t there to tell you the answers. They’re there to help you discover what God is saying.
It’s about relationship
At the heart of Sozo is a simple idea: God wants relationship with you. Not merely religious belief, nor simply knowing the right things about Him. Relationship with Father God, Jesus and Holy Spirit.
Sozo provides an opportunity to explore those relationships in a way that can be both surprisingly simple and profoundly significant.
For some people, it is the first time they’ve experienced God as genuinely close and interested in them; for others, it brings freedom from beliefs or experiences that have been affecting their relationship with Him for years.
What can Sozo help with?
There isn’t a standard list of problems that a Sozo is designed to fix. People come for many different reasons. You may feel stuck; you may struggle to believe that God really loves you; you may find it difficult to trust Him. You may carry things from your past that continue to affect you. You may struggle with shame, fear, rejection, unforgiveness or other things that seem to have become part of your life.
Or perhaps you can’t quite put your finger on what the problem is. You don’t necessarily have to know. Sometimes the most useful place to start is simply by asking God what He wants you to know.
Sozo isn’t counselling
This is an important distinction. Bethel Sozo is not counselling. A Sozo is a prayer ministry.
That doesn’t mean counselling isn’t valuable. It can be enormously helpful, and there are circumstances in which counselling is exactly what someone needs. That’s one reason Wonderfully Free also offers Wonderfully Free Sessions, which combine Sozo and counselling.
But they are different offerings.
If you’re looking specifically for Sozo, you’re looking for a prayer ministry centred on relationship with God.
And if you’ve never done anything like this before?
That’s probably more common than you think. You don’t need to know how to pray in a particular way. You don’t need to be experienced in hearing God. You don’t need to know the Bible backwards, and you don’t need to have everything worked out before you come.
The facilitator’s role is to help you, and you remain an active participant throughout. The aim isn’t for someone else to have an experience for you, it’s for you to encounter God for yourself.
What about difficult things from my past?
Sometimes, as you talk with God, things emerge that you haven’t thought about for years; sometimes they are things you have tried very hard not to think about. A Sozo can provide an opportunity to bring those things into God’s presence and discover what He wants you to know about them.
That can be deeply freeing, it can also be emotional. We don’t promise that every Sozo will be easy or that every problem will be resolved in one session. What we believe is that God is interested in the whole of your story — and that He wants you to experience increasing freedom and wholeness.
How long does a Sozo take?
One of the things we’ve discovered through years of ministry is that freedom doesn’t always require a long session. Sometimes something that has troubled a person for years can be addressed surprisingly quickly. At other times, there is more to explore. A single session usually lasts between 60 and 90 minutes, we then suggest that it takes about a month for the truth of what God has told you during that session to settle and make a difference. Some people then come back for another and more sessions. Some people have just the one, we’re all different.
We don’t want to make the length of a session the measure of its effectiveness. The important thing is what happens between you and God.
What happens after a Sozo?
There isn’t necessarily a dramatic ending. You may simply leave with a new understanding of something and a record of the good things you’ll have heard from God during the session. You may feel lighter. You may have discovered something about God that changes the way you see yourself. You may have something to continue exploring.
Or you may find that something which has troubled you for years no longer has the same hold over you. Freedom is often a journey rather than a single moment. A Sozo can be an important part of that journey.
Is Sozo for me?
Only you can ultimately answer that. But if you want to explore your relationship with God, if something seems to be getting in the way of freedom, or if you simply have a sense that there is more of God to discover, a Sozo may be worth exploring.
And if you’re not sure whether Sozo is the right thing for you, that’s OK.
Want to know more?
EXPERIENCES SHARED
What people have said
“Many thanks to you both for a wonderful Sozo. I was wiped afterwards and had to go and lie down and sleep for a few hours. While I think I grasp the gravity of yesterday’s work, I will undoubtedly learn more of its true extent as I revisit the attached document and work through Wonderfully Free. I want to praise you for the professionalism and sensitivity you showed throughout our session. Thank you again so very much for being a mediator.”
“I have had a series of Sozo sessions now. In my first session, it became clear that I felt a deep sense of weariness and loss due to going through a very traumatic past 3 years, resulting in my buying into a negative internal narrative that led me to believe that life is just hard and that there was no end to drama. Honestly, I had lost the ability to dream about the future. Now, after a number of sessions, I have had a very personal breakthrough regarding my perspective on how the Father sees me, how He hears my ‘cry of desperation,’ and how He understands my heart beyond what I could imagine. I was able to reconcile deep pain when it came to relationships with certain family members and really express anger that I had been suppressing since childhood. This was a painful and messy process, but exceptionally liberating. I dealt with disappointments, disillusionment, performance, striving and all the judgements I had made. Holy Spirit highlighted how I had partnered with lies regarding my health and the ungodly belief that I was not needed here and that it was probably best that I be with Jesus. Writing this now seems so crazy to me because as soon as I repented for buying into this lie, I felt life being restored to my whole being. Today I CHOSE life!!!!!! Finally, after a lot of deep inner healing, I was able to engage with ‘body ministry’, which was incredible in that I was able to hear my body for the first time. It was permitted to have a voice and express her pain, her needs and where love was needed. Word curses were broken over specific places in my body, and clear words of knowledge were given by Holy Spirit, which gave clarity on how to pray and fully receive healing. I walk away from these sessions now full of hope and trust that a deep work has been done in me. I’m learning to express my needs and emotions for the first time in my life and have become exceptionally good at creating healthy boundaries that, at times, even surprise me. I have a fresh perspective on the future and have begun to dream again. So grateful for this incredible tool that leads us to wholeness!!!!!”