Get Basic Training
I would like to share with you some practical advice about how to start an Unbound ministry team in your area. This advice contains some of the best practices that ministry teams have found to be helpful as they were getting started.
Study and Receive Ministry for Yourself
The best place to start is to read Unbound: A Practical Guide to Deliverance and watch or listen to the Unbound: Freedom in Christ talks on CD or DVD. When you are ready to receive ministry, find someone who has experience and ask them to minister to you. Our website hosts a Network of Unbound ministry teams who are willing and able to pray for you; perhaps you can find a team near you. The experience of receiving ministry and knowing what it is like to be interviewed and led through the Five Keys of Unbound is an essential piece of your personal preparation for ministry.
Believe that God has a Plan
God has a plan and He wants to use you. If you have received ministry and your life has been changed, God might lead you to share this gift with others. If you have the desire to share this ministry with others, then you can trust that God will make a way for you to serve. Do not judge or disqualify yourself based upon your evaluation of your abilities, but trust in God’s power that flows through us in our weakness. Having confidence in God’s ability to lead you is the foundation for you to move forward.
Get Connected
Are there other people around you who have a passion for helping others find freedom? Find others who share your dreams and begin dreaming together! Pray for each other and discuss who you might want to invite to be a part of the training process. Let your pastor or leader know that you are seeking the Lord about how to share Unbound ministry, and listen to their guidance.
Pray and Fast
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. -Philippians 4:6
Whenever you perceive that God is calling you to some purpose, it is important that you act upon what you believe by responding to God in prayer. Prayer helps us to yield to God and express the desires of our hearts to Him.
The foundation of every ministry needs to be prayer. Start with, “Lord show me how you want me/us to pray? Are you inviting me to fast?”
In 1996, I helped lead a city-wide event in Philadelphia. There I learned how to approach deliverance in a non-confrontational way. At the end of the event, we had a follow up evening of praise, worship, and preaching. The message that night was about the ministry of Jesus described in Luke 4:
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and he went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the sabbath day. And he stood up to read; and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written,
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
I knew clearly that this passage was God’s assignment for me, and for anyone who is called to Unbound ministry. Setting the captives free is the ministry of Jesus! The preacher that night invited us to consider doing a 40-day juice fast. After the meeting, a friend of mine told me that he thought we should fast together. With my two close friends and my wife, we discerned that we should go for it. We began a season of seeking the Lord for 40 days, praying and fasting.
Someone asked me why we were fasting. Honestly, I did not really know. I was just trying to obey, and I wanted to see God’s glory released, so I said, “I’m fasting for revival.” His plan was bigger than I could have imagined.
Earlier, during the city-wide event, someone had declared that what took place at that event would go out to the world. I had only a vague sense of what this could mean. I just wanted to see God’s love touch the world as it had touched me.
At the end of our fast, I had no big revelation or fresh promise from God. I felt satisfied that I had obeyed, and that God had accomplished what He wanted to do. It was from that point on that Unbound ministry began to develop. It happened so naturally that it took me years to see the connection between the fast that God chose for me and the launch of this amazing work that continues today through you. Looking back, now I can see clearly how strategic that time of prayer was.
If you want to see Unbound ministry come to your church, ask the Lord about how He wants you to fast and pray for a breakthrough.
During a season of prayer and fasting, our awareness of God becomes greater, for He becomes our sustenance. Our natural thoughts and fleshly desires become tamer. As we say no to the flesh, our dependence on God grows. We learn to say yes to God and discern His whispers. If it was not for my friend who invited me to fast with him, I may never have said yes. There were no heroics on my part. Only a yes when the Lord invited me.
The beginning of an Unbound ministry team in your area starts with you submitting yourself to God’s will in prayer.
In the Father’s Love,
Neal Lozano