Hope, Healing & Freedom Podcast: Episode 198
TRANSCRIPT
Did you know that RTF is a resource that you can use on a daily basis that will help you deal with major issues in your life, but it will also smooth out the smaller bumps in your road? In today’s podcast we are going to talk about looking at life through the grid of RTF and how that can help you in your daily walk with Jesus. Come along and let’s get rid of some of those pesky bumps from your road of life.
I’m Lee Whitman from Restoring the Foundations and I welcome you into this Hope Healing and Freedom podcast. If you listen to these podcasts on a regular basis, you know that I am a big fan of RTF. Not just because Cindi and I are the Executive Directors of RTF, but because what we have learned from RTF has drastically changed our lives. We had been pursuing healing and freedom for many years before we were introduced to RTF. We had tried several different healing ministries in an attempt to improve our walk with Jesus. And to be honest, we didn’t think we needed RTF because we thought we were pretty free, thank you very much. When we went through the ministry of RTF it was because we were also in training to become RTF ministers and part of the training was receiving personal ministry. Afterall, we didn’t need ministry because we were already pretty good, thank you very much. When we received RTF ministry, we realized that there was much more freedom available for us because RTF dealt with the roots of a problem rather than just dealing with the symptoms. It was life-changing! Our marriage went from good, to really good. Our level of peace went from pretty free to much more freedom. We now experience much more freedom than we even thought was possible. And the thing that has helped us the most is what I want to talk about in this podcast. RTF teaches how to maintain your freedom and how to even gain more freedom and healing. Let me explain.
The ministry of RTF is wonderful for helping people get free and healed from the things that can affect them in life. It is an amazing and effective ministry process. But RTF is also a fantastic way of helping people maintain their freedom and even to gain more freedom by doing self-ministry. RTF is also a wonderful discipleship process. When you experience RTF ministry you are taught how to use RTF as a discipleship tool. If you look at life through the grid of RTF, it will help you not only maintain your freedom and healing, but it will also help you gain more freedom and healing in your life. What is the grid of RTF? I am glad you asked. RTF is effective because it integrates several ministry aspects into one ministry process. By ministering to these different aspects in an integrated way, it brings deep and lasting results. These different aspects of the ministry are what we call the grid of RTF. The grid of RTF is a lens that you can look at life through. Hopefully I can explain.
The first thing that happens when doing RTF ministry is a person fills out a written questionnaire about the issues, they want to receive ministry for. This questionnaire is actually part of the grid of RTF because the person is asking Father God to help them know what the roots of their issue might be. RTF doesn’t just deal with the symptoms of an issue; it deals with the roots. God begins to show the connection of these roots that go all the way back to their ancestors. The first aspect of the grid of RTF is recognizing that many if not all of our struggles have a root in our generational lines. We were teaching a Hope Healing and Freedom seminar a few weeks ago in which we introduce the ministry of RTF. At a break following the section in which we taught about generational curses, a guy came up to me and said, “I never realized that the sin I am struggling with actually came from my parents and grandparents who also struggled with that sin.” Exodus 20:5 says that the sins of the father are passed down on the children for three or four generations, putting pressure on the following generations to walk in those same sins. Part of the grid of RTF is to look at your family line when considering some of the issues you are dealing with in your life. I was raised in a family that dealt with shame. I believe that part of it started with my grandfather, (my dad’s dad) who was a businessman in Michigan during World War 1. He was ashamed of being full blooded German, so he changed the way we spelled our name from the German spelling to a more English spelling. As Exodus 20:5 says, his shame was passed down to my Dad who passed it down to me. This pressure to live in shame was broken off my life through RTF ministry, thank You Jesus! There are too many other types of generational curses that come down from our ancestors to mention them all here but let me reference a few of the more common curses. Fear is a very common curse that comes down the family line putting pressure on people to walk in fear when they really don’t know why. Sexual sin is also something that is inherited putting pressure on the following generations to walk in some type of sexual sin. We have never ministered to a person who struggles with some type of sexual sin that we could not point back to an ancestor who opened the door for sexual sin to come into the family blood line. Control is another common sin that almost always has come down the generational line. I could list many others, but the point is that when you look at the issues or even the bumps in your road, the place to start is by looking at your generational line to find the root that is putting pressure on you.
The second aspect of the grid of RTF is to look for lies that you might believe. We did ministry with an older African American man who believed that he could never get ahead. I immediately thought he must have been taught that by white people, but as we delved into this lie, he realized that the source of the lie was not from white people who were trying to keep him down, but rather from older black men who convinced him he could never succeed. Out of their hurt and personal experiences they put their generational curse on this young man. Praise God that during our time of ministry with him, God broke that lie and showed him that he indeed has already succeeded. When looking at the struggles you are having one of the main places to look is for lies you might believe. These lies come from many different sources, some even come from your church. I grew up in a church that taught that God helps those who help themselves. I no longer believe that lie. God helps the helpless, not just the strong. The good news is that we could not save ourselves, we were helpless. We could never be good enough or do enough to earn God’s salvation, so God sent His Son to save the helpless. Praise God! The best way to discover a lie you believe is to ask God to reveal the lie to you. He is willing and able to show you what you believe so that you can break the lie and receive His truth.
The next aspect of RTF that is needed is to get healing for the wounds in the heart. I’ve heard it said that there are two kinds of people in the world. Those who are hurt, and those who are hurt worse. The good news is that Jesus came to heal the broken hearted. Luke 4:18 says, “He has sent Me to heal the broken hearted”. Places where your heart is broken are a landing strip for the enemy to use that hurt to oppress a person. These hurts cause a person to believe lies about themselves, about other people, and about God. Often these hurts cause a person to feel anxiety, fear, hopelessness, and many other feelings. But again, the good news is that Jesus is really good at healing the broken hearted. When we ask Him to show us where the hurt came from, He is so good to take us to the place where the hurt began so that we can get that hurt healed. We have done ministry with hundreds of people over our 15 years with RTF, and the way that Jesus heals the broke hearted is so personal and unique. He knows each of us intimately, so He knows exactly what we need in order for our hearts to be healed. He does not use a cookie cutter method, or a one size fits all method. He meets each person in a way they can receive His healing touch.
The fourth aspect of the grid of RTF is to remove the demonic influence from our lives. The demonic only has the ability to oppress us that we give him. When we remove the generational curses, and replace lies with the truth, and allow Jesus to heal our broken hearts, we take away the demonics legal right to oppress us and it is quite easy at that point to make them leave.
Along the way there are a few other parts of the grid of RTF to consider. Word curses are very powerful. Word curses are word spoke by someone in authority in our lives that set into motion something that will go on from generation to generation until we apply God’s solution. For example, it is not uncommon for people to say things like, “Everyone in my family are angry people.” What those words do is give the demonic realm a tool to use against that family. Those words have power and we have an enemy who will energize those words to use them against you and make them come true. Word curses come from three different sources. They can come from other people to you, “You will never succeed in life”, or they can come from you to other people, “You always make bad decisions”, or words we speak about ourselves, “I am stupid”. Word curses can also be things we think about ourselves that we don’t speak out loud. These words have power and need to be broken. Isaiah 54:17 says, “No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which accuses you in judgment you will condemn.” I love that verse. We have the power to condemn words that are spoken against us, and by doing so, the weapon formed against us does not prosper.
Another aspect of the grid of RTF are to break ungodly soul ties. A soul tie is an emotional and spiritual connection with another person. Soul Ties are created through close intimate relationships with another person or through any sexual contact with another person, including your spouse. A Soul Tie can be a Godly soul tie, which is a God designed connection with people like a spouse, a child, and even close intimate friendships, but they can also be ungodly soul ties which need to be broken. Ungodly soul ties can be with people who have an unhealthy type of control over another person, which usually includes manipulation of some sort. Ungodly soul ties cause a person to lose their ability to act on their own free will and need to be broken. If you have someone you cannot say no to, you may have an ungodly soul tie with that person.
As you can see there are many ways that RTF can help someone smooth out the road of life. If you are listening to this podcast and recognize that you might need some help getting rid of some issue in your life, please don’t hesitate. Go to restoringthefoundations.org and click on the Get Ministry tab at the top of the page to find ministers in your area. It is easy for us to settle for second best by not dealing with the little bumps in the road. Don’t wait for those little bumps to turn into major potholes. Ok I might be taking the road analogy a little too far. My point is: Don’t settle for less than what Jesus died to give you!
PRAYER
Father God, You are so good to give us the tool we need to live in freedom and healing. Thank You for Chester and Betsy Kylstra who faithfully put RTF together. Would you guide us to step into the authority we have been given and step out of any places of bondage. Thank You for helping us smooth out the road ahead.
Thank you for joining us on this week’s Hope Healing and Freedom podcast. We hope you have been blessed. We look forward to being with you again next week.