A Holy Spirit–led journey to the root of the issue
SAVED.HEALED. DELIVERED
What is Bethel Sozo?
Bethel Sozo is a unique inner healing and deliverance ministry founded by Dawna DeSilva & Teresa Liebscher. By dealing with (not dwelling on) hinderances from the past, people experience a deeper connection, awareness of, and intimacy with, their heavenly Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit. In personal encounters with Jesus, and through the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit, root causes are identified, removed, and replaced with new life.
This happens in a safe environment that respects and honours the individual. Greater freedom comes when.
Wounds are healed • Strongholds are broken • Truth replaces lies
In this way, people walk free to move forward in their Kingdom calling & destiny. Bethel Sozo is not counselling nor is it directive. The main focus is the individual communicating with and hearing from God for themselves – even when that has not been their previous experience. It does not create or encourage dependency, rather it empowers the individual to walk free and powerful.
To describe SOZO in just a few words, we could say that it is a ministry of healing, freedom, and restoration — healing your soul, freeing you from life-distorting lies and strongholds in your mind, and restoring your connection to the triune God.
To describe SOZO in just a few words, we could say that it is a ministry of healing, freedom and restoration – healing your soul, freeing you from life-distorting lies and strongholds in your mind, and restoring your connection to the triune God.
‘For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (sozo).’
Rom. 10:9
FAQ: How did SOZO come into being?
In 1997, several seminars with the healing evangelist Randy Clark were held at Bethel Church in Redding, California. He had sent some of his teams to Bethel in advance to teach the people attending the seminars how to pray more effectively for healing during the events as well. Part of that training was a prayer model of ‘deliverance’ from Argentina. This is how the first SOZO tool came to be, based on the ‘Ten Steps’, a format developed by Carlos Anacondia’s deliverance pastor, Pablo Botari, for setting new converts free. The tool is known today as the ‘Four Doors’.
Dawna DeSilva, co-founder of the Bethel SOZO Ministry, and one of her friends attended this training at Bethel. Afterwards, they began to use the concept of the ‘Four Doors’ when they prayed for people. When they saw how effective this tool was, and how people were being set free by it, the ‘SOZO Ministry’ was born. Beni Johnson, intercession pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, placed Dawna in charge of SOZO, covering her with the prayer shield of the church and releasing her to expand and mature this newly formed deliverance ministry. As the Bethel SOZO Ministry developed, other tools were added to the mix that have helped people to be healed and released from the lies and wounds the enemy used against them in their past.
In 1998, other churches and organisations started inviting the Bethel SOZO Ministry to come and share with them what they had received from God. They thus began travelling to train and equip other churches, and enable them to start their own SOZO Ministries.
Over the years that followed, the ministry extended into many other countries, leading to the establishment of the International Bethel SOZO Organisation to equip leaders and assist in the spread of the SOZO Ministry.
What does the word SOZO mean? – Meaning of the word in the Bible
Strong’s Concordance defines the meaning of the Greek word ‘sozo’ as follows: to save, deliver, make whole or restore, heal, be whole. The word ‘sozo’, or one of its grammatical forms, is used over 100 times in the New Testament, especially whenever Jesus heals someone, be it physically, emotionally, or spiritually. Sozo, then, is the ‘full package’ of salvation, healing, and deliverance that Jesus came to give people!
Rom. 10:9 – For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (sozo).
Luke 19:10 – For the Son of Man came to seek and to save (sozo) what was lost.
Matt. 9:22 – Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Daughter, take courage! Your faith has made you well (sozo)!” And the woman was healed at that moment.
Luke 8:36 – And those who had seen it reported to them how the demon-possessed man had been healed (sozo).
What happens in a SOZO?
A SOZO often brings about greater change than years of pastoral counselling. With pastoral counselling, you sometimes just don’t get to the root of the problem, but simply keep revolving around the symptoms. In SOZO, the symptoms play a less important role. God uncovers the root and helps to get rid of it. The decisive factor here will often be forgiveness and renouncing life-distorting lies that we believe.
A SOZO session takes around 1½ to 2 hours and is led by trained ministers. The person leading the session (the ‘First’) speaks with the person receiving the SOZO (the ‘Sozoee’). A second person (the ‘Second’) assists the First by praying and by relaying to him or her any insights that God gives. The Sozoee is asked to focus on God and ask Him questions. The person leading the session helps the Sozoee by wording these questions for them if necessary. Every session is different and you never know which direction it will go in. But there’s one thing we always find: God is faithful and He never lets us down!
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