Articles01/02

A Brief Overview of the Kylstra Inner Healing model

by Steve Cadman MSW 

.com US$ Restoring the Foundations: An Integrated Approach to Healing Ministry

.co.uk GBP Restoring the Foundations: An Integrated Approach to Healing Ministry

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            I have found the Kylstra Inner Healing outline to be particularly helpful in a number of ways. In their manual "Restoring the Foundations", they have probably the clearest explanation I have read about why & how the Old Testament Law & the Sins of our Fathers' still apply to & affect us. Their key point is that God has made provision for us in the cross of Christ related to these ancestral sins, but that as with physical healing we must bring each instance (issue/category/sub component) of these sins to the cross one at a time, not globally all at once as we would rather do. As was done in the Old Testament, we only need to confess the sins of our ancestors, not repent of them. We only need to repent of our own sins. 

           They have a very useful 2 page check off list of categories & sub components to be used in tracking possible open doors into our lives from both our own & our ancestors past unconfessed sins. It includes categories of possible curses coming down the pike that include the occult, false religions, infirmities/diseases, sexual, addictions, financial, violence, unbelief, fears & another 19 emotional categories.  Each of these categories is broken down into a number of related sub components that can be checked off. 

            I find it very useful to fill in the Kylstra family tree form going back 3 generations & then to start looking at family sin/curses patterns both in one's own experience & in that of siblings, cousins, uncles, aunts, great uncles, great great aunts, etc.. These issues won't be in every person in the family line, for reasons we don't fully understand (the free will determination of some, etc.), but there will be recurrent themes popping up throughout the broader family, coming down the generations. It is interesting that patterns do begin to emerge once you put the time & effort into following this through & digging for information from living relatives about deceased ancestors. In this sense it parallels the professional counseling / counselling generational mapping of Murray Bowen. 

            I've found that most, but not all, relatives will cooperate with this process once they're convinced that it is not to dig up dirt to satisfy curiosity but instead is part of a process to deal with patterns that may be affecting us. Obviously with non Christian relatives & even with some who are Christians, discretion needs to be used in not necessarily getting into how spiritual darkness, etc. may take advantage of these past sins & curses to afflict or tempt us more intensely in certain areas. It is probably wise to research emotional, physical & relationship patterns with non Christian relatives without reference to sin at all. The main point of this is to get information, not to be "spiritually politically correct"  in how we say things in order to make a point. The obvious risk here is losing their cooperation by being insensitive to their feelings about how things are addressed. 

            The Kylstras also have another check off list related to Ungodly Beliefs (lies) that we have about ourselves, others & God. Combined in these groupings are both of what John & Paula Sandford describe as judgments/expectations & vows. I have found it more useful to rate these items from 0-10 for both the past & present (separately) in our lives, rather than just checking them off. This catches more exactly any past presence of these types of thinking in our lives, which we may tend to minimize in the present or that may merely be lying dormant until times of stress or related triggers. 

            The Kylstras have a good list of prayers related to confessing our sins & those of our ancestors. They have an emphasis on prayers of protection & leading to be used each time before trying to fill in the above check lists. 

            I believe that the most important contributions from their model is their thorough rationale & dealing with the effects of ancestral sins on us, & how spiritual darkness interlinks as groupings (multiple strands, not usually singularly) woven into the different related sub components of the broader sin/curses categories (a cord of 3 strands is not quickly torn apart : Eccl. 4:12). Their emphasis on following God intuitively in the varied & different ways He chooses to unravel these strands is pivotal. He needs to be Lord of the changing how's & when's of this process, not us in our tendency to become comfortable with the familiarity of spiritual formulas. 

            Ordering the Kylstra manual can be done through their web site link &/or phone number listed in our web site underResources/Books/Inner Healing. 

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