The authors begin with exploring our very beginning, coming out of the womb and needing healing. Pregnancy lasts some 9 months and alot happens in and to the family during that time which effect the unborn baby! They start with the subject of adoption, but everything they write about applies to all of us, adopted or not.
The book analyses incarnational Wounds and Sins such as Utero Encounters, wounds from feeling rejected, and Anorexia, Dyslexiia and child abuse. It goes on to explore Sicknesses and Sinful Conditions of the Spirit, such as Depression and Spiritual Imprisonment. Then on to Spiritual Sins, such as Occult Involvement, Spiritual Adultery and Idolatry. In conclusion, it deals with Things Which Impinge Upon and Wound Our Spirits, such as Generational Sin, Grief, Frustration and loss and Dwelling Within a Sinful Group.
All quotes below come from John and Paula Sandford’s book Healing The Wounded Spirit.
“In the womb, every adopted child has in his spirit experienced rejection from his natural parents. He has absorbed all the elements of his environment: the fear, tension, uncertainty, anxiety, guilt, shame, confusion, hatred, anger and pain of his mother. He lacks the security of being invited nurtured, supported in love and welcomed into the world. Before he sees the light of this earth he may be confused already about his identity, his right to live, his belonging. He may already have a sense that “something must be wrong with me or my parents would not feel the way they do.” He may be bound with lies: “I’m ugly, unlovable” “I’m a burden, a threat, a mistake.” “I’m crud.” “No one will receive me. “ While in the womb he may have been reacting in his spirit with resentment, tightening up in defensiveness, punishing with aggressive anger or withdrawing in fear or rebellion against life Certainly rest and trust are neither burn nor formed in him. The same wounding experiences and reactions to them may be registered in the heart of a child whose natural parents decide to keep him.”
All ministry is based on prayer!
When we pray for the wounded spirit of an adult, we do not pray without his consent for specific changes in his spirit. It is an invasion of privacy to mess around with the insides of another who must stand presently in relation to the LORD and be held accountable for the condition of his spiritual life.
Praying for a baby or an adult. Healing the wounded spirit.
Whether you are praying for a baby or an adult, the reality of Jesus’ affecting the spirit of a person is made possible through prayer for the innermost being of the tiny child inside the one for whom you pray. Jesus Christ is not confined to the dimensions of time and space. He can identify with and heal the spirit of a person at any time, past, present, or future. Our entire life is an open book to Him. Therefore it is a simple matter for Him, when we pray asking, to identify with a wounded spirit all the way back to the time of conception. When we have asked Jesus to make this identification, we speak the comfort, reassurance, and affirmation of the LORD directly to the inner spirit of the child.
Ministry is in the fresh meeting and presence and power of the LORD.
Ministry to another must always be fresh meeting in the presence and power of the LORD and by His leading. Our participation in that encounter is primarily to connect the person with Jesus, and to participate with Him in enabling the person to recognize and eliminate the blocks (at whatever level) the life the LORD would lavish upon him
In our ministry we have observed that as a child grows he will-unless the transforming power of the LORD intervenes-tend to interpret each succeeding experience in the light of what he has already perceived life to be, and according to the way he feels about himself. His woundedness has clouded and colored his spiritual eyes.
It may be that what we think we see as reality is not objective reality at all, but only a projection of the way we have learned to view life from our very beginning. We can have no new perspective until we have been set free from the first binding influences of our early perception which set the mold which shapes everything that pours into us.
The first six years of our life are our foundational years. By the time we are six the structure of our character is formed. By the time we are ten that structure is set in concrete. That is why there is the necessity for death and resurrection when we come to Jesus. That is why we must be born again.
There is not one of us whose life was formed wholly on solid rock foundations of perfect parenting. Most of us made some sinful reactions to the good parenting we did receive. Fractures in our early foundations, caused either by wounding inflicted upon us, or by our sinful responses to events in our lives (or how we perceived those events), weakened our ability to stand in time of trial or in the face of crisis.
Thoughts on Generational Sin
Sin and it effects may descend through family lines. We call that “generational sin.”
John and Paul state that generational sin come to us in several ways.
First we may inherit our propensities to sin through our genes. Not only physical, but personality and behavioral tendencies as well. Which are not our fault or the result of our sin!
John and Paul Sandford in their prayer counseling ministry would also ask their counselees about recurring patterns in their family line (going back as far as people could remember) about divorce, suicide, sexual abuse, child abuse, depression, occult involvement, and domestic violence.
Paula states “When we pray for the wounded spirit of an adult, we do not pray without his consent for specific changes in his spirit. It is an invasion of privacy to mess around with the insides of another who must stand presently in relation to the LORD and be held accountable for the condition of his spiritual life.“
Prayer is the key to all healing!
In conclusion I highly recommend Healing The Wounded Spirit.
More similar Resources by John and Paula Sandford
It gives detailed instructions on how to pray for and with our loved ones!
Read the reviews on Amazon or other sites.
Very good review! Sounds like a very helpful tool for meaningful prayer for a hurting self or friend.