Course

Love The Lord course

1. Contents | What does the Love the Lord course cover?
2. Maturity of faith | Do I need to have a certain level of faith to take this course? 
3. Prerequisites | Are there any prerequisites I should be aware of?
4. Duration | How long is the course?
5. Format | What is the format?
6. Homework | Are there homework assignments and how much time will they require from me?
7. Number of participants | What is the minimum and maximum number of people accepted into this course?
8. Small intake | Why do you accept only a small intake of participants each year?
9. Couples | Is it beneficial for couples to do this course together?
10. Frequency | How often do you hold this course each year?
11. Cost | How much does it cost?
12. Results | | What can I expect to gain from the Love the Lord course?
13. Instructors | Who teaches this course?
14. Focus of the course | How is this course different from other Bible studies or teachings?
15. Number of sessions | Why does the course require 14 sessions?
16. Prayer ministry | Is renewal prayer compulsory after I finish the course?
17. Signing up for prayer ministry | How do I sign up for renewal prayer after the course?
18. Follow-up courses | | Are there any other courses I can continue with after Love the Lord?
19. Support | Who supports this ministry financially and who are your sponsors?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Testimony 1 – Love The Lord course

I took the Love The Lord course back in April 2019 because a close friend had highly recommended it. 

Initially, I thought many things in the book were not relevant to me. My parents are Christians, all except one of my grandparents are/were also Christians. We are a very loving family, we never did those occult things at home. I was really just blessed to have that growing up and to be honest, I had it pretty easy. I was positive that I did not have any childhood hurts / trauma / generational curses that I had to deal with. 

But to my surprise, the course and my renewal prayer brought to light some things in my heart that I had to deal with that I was not aware were there before. 

One of the things was that despite having gone to church my whole life, I had a very warped view of what God is like. I saw him as a strict, disciplining father. If something bad happened to me, I would tend to think that God is trying to punish me for something that I did. For example, a few years back, I had to get surgery done, and I thought that God was trying to punish me, perhaps for dating a non-believer at the time. I really resented God for it. I do still struggle with this image I have of God sometimes, but when I find myself falling prey to these lies from the enemy, it is really helpful to go back to the basic truths I learned from this course about God’s character and my identity in Him. 

So when I pray now, I try to start with praising God for who He is, and it also helps me to fix my eyes on Him, rather than my problems / desires / wants.

The relationship with a non-Christian that I mentioned earlier lasted for almost six years and had a profound impact on me. In fact, I was still dating him when I took the course. When we got to that chapter about ungodly soul ties, I just wanted to skip it. I almost skipped class that week because I didn’t want to face the topic. What I didn’t want to hear at the time – but also turned out to be true – was that yoking with a non-believer is serious because it has an impact on your soul. 

In hindsight, it was a toxic relationship, filled with anger and negativity, even though he was willing to go church sometimes, God wasn’t in our relationship. Eventually, we broke up a few months after the course and I cut ungodly soul ties with him and felt a change in my heart. It’s a bit hard to describe except that it is sort of a sense of lightness. 

People around me also commented that I became happier, more relaxed, and less easily irritated.

The other discovery that I had from taking the course, which was the biggest surprise to me, was that I actually resented my sister. My sister was born with a disability, she had a pretty tough childhood, being bullied in school. She struggled academically and had some anger issues. I didn’t think my parents were playing favourites but naturally, they had to spend more time on her growing up, not only dealing with these issues, but also going in and out of the hospital, and taking her to physiotherapy because of her condition. 

All these years, I never really blamed anyone. I thought that it was logical that my parents had to spend more time on her. At the same time, I never had a good relationship with my sister. I couldn’t put my finger on it for the longest time, but we just didn’t get along. This always bothered me too. We were like strangers living under the same roof.  

So during my renewal prayer session, my prayer counsellors were pretty convinced that there were things that needed to be dealt with when it came to my sister. I was a bit frustrated with them at one point – I was like, “Guys can you stop harping on this point, I don’t resent or hate my sister, or blame my parents. She has a disability, that’s what they had to do.” But because they were so insistent, I sort of acquiesced, and was like, “Fine, I don’t think there is anything there but I’ll repent anyway, just in case.”

The strangest thing happened when I started to verbalise my emotions towards her. The Holy Spirit revealed to me that deep down, I felt neglected and hurt growing up. I also thought that she made my parents’ lives very difficult when she was younger. It was heartbreaking for me to watch, especially watching my mom. And because I felt that my feelings were not justified, I suppressed them. That resulted in bitterness and resentment. 

In my renewal prayer, I was guided to see my sister in a different light. Instead of seeing her as burdensome and angry all the time, I was able to see her how God sees her – she was happy, carefree, and very lovable.

One thing I want to encourage you is that a lot of these changes that I have experienced did not take place during the course, or right after the course, or even right after my renewal prayer. In fact, I was a bit disappointed after my renewal prayer because I’ve heard so many amazing testimonies of miracles that took place during the prayer session and visions being brought to light and what not. Though I did have that revelation about my sister, I didn’t see any immediate results in other areas. 

In hindsight, I think the reasons for that could be 1) my arrogance in thinking that I didn’t need the renewal prayer, and I was just going through the motions 2) unbelief / scepticism that I will see some sort of breakthrough, or maybe 3) just simply the timing wasn’t ripe yet. 

For me, the renewal of my heart and my mind took place more gradually and that could be the case for you too. I found myself going back to the truths that I learned in this book. I became more aware of how the enemy tries to lie to me and when I’m faced with spiritual attacks, I recognise them and I have a better handle on how to tackle them. 

One of the most positive things that came out of this course was that afterwards, I was placed in a group of sisters who also took this course and we meet twice a month. It’s kind of like a sisterhood, but it’s more intimate. We are very honest with each other about everything good / bad / ugly, even the temptations and sins that we struggle with. It really helps that we all understand the same principles and we speak the same language – as in, if someone hasn’t taken this course, they won’t really understand what “cutting ungodly soul ties” is, for example. 

I’ve been very blessed to have these girls to walk together with, and they even encouraged me to get baptised. I went to church all my life but I kept putting it off until earlier this year. I finally took the leap and was baptised with one of the sisters from this group.

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Testimony 2 – Love The Lord course

I have been a Christian for two decades, but many of those years, I was just a churchgoer, not seriously committing myself to the Bible, to church, nor to God.

Only when I had children did I begin to think of how I wanted to raise the kids differently. I knew I wanted them to know God personally, but that would require me to do the same too, and so I began the journey of finding out who God was. My kids and I began Bible Study Fellowship. I served in the Children Ministry as well as the worship team at church, and I would attend weekly Life Groups, participate in outreaches, mission trips…everything. But marital, parental, and extended family relationships were all a struggle for me.

I had heard of Love the Lord (LTL) from a couple of friends from church and how it helped them so much. They attended it every Sunday for 3 hours for 14 weeks. It sounded so intense. When my church elder suggested I take the course, I thought he must think there was something wrong with me. I was under his tutelage at church for 10 years so he knew where I was spiritually. He said the course would change the way I look at many things and that it would hasten my spiritual growth. He said that the commandment is to “love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength”, but what does that mean? The journey in LTL will help me to know what hinders me from an intimate relationship with God. I trusted his recommendation and without considering too much, I went ahead, in July 2021, with full confidence that this is where God wants me to be.

Love the Lord taught me that my parents are the first people who teach me what love is and more often than not, their expression of it may be corrupt. For me, the way my parents loved on me was very practical, uncommunicative, and neglectful. They had both been through World War II and lived with very limited resources so they did the best they could under the circumstances. But how we view our parents could manifest into how we see God, and that is just not who God is. I also recognized that if I learned what love is from my parents, then as a mom to a tween and a teen, I have the same authority and impact. I am relieved that this self-awareness prompts me to love on them in a different way, one that hopefully reflects the love of our Heavenly Father.

Growing up, I had very few friends who I truly confided in. I did not have mentors or any other kind of guidance. Relationships were shallow and unsatisfying. I now know that every time my mom said ‘no’ to a wish I had (to learn ballet, to learn piano, to have a sleepover, to attend my high school graduation party), or each time I got rejected or ridiculed or bullied, a layer is added upon my heart. And after repeated hurts day in and day out, well, you have a pretty big onion, filled with layers and layers of pain and anger. God desires and is able to give me a new heart by peeling away one layer at a time. LTL is an inner healing prayer ministry that is scripture-based—every week, the scriptures reveal a deep and overwhelming love that God has for me.

When people dismissed or looked down on me, I would make an inner vow to work hard to be better than them. My mom was overprotective and controlling when it came to my education and social life—I made a vow to never be that kind of a mother with my future children. LTL taught me that all these inner vows became our ungodly truths and strongholds, which we need to be free of, if we are to live and love freely.

Each of our days is filled with so many words and thoughts. How do we test whether these words and thoughts come from the Holy Spirit or from the enemy? Knowing the difference is critical because it drives our actions toward flesh and death, or toward peace and life. LTL showed me how to recognize the difference and how to break the built-up patterns, so that I can take captive every thought and make them obedient to Christ.

One of the breakthroughs experienced during LTL was how the Holy Spirit convicted me in my seventh week of the course to stop yoga cold turkey after practicing it for twenty-plus years. Though many have questioned, warned, and urged me to abandon yoga years ago due to its roots in Hindu idols, I continued and convinced myself that it was purely exercise and stretching and that I do not partake in the meditation nor chanting portion of yoga. I now know I was deceiving myself and that I was unknowingly honoring the Hindu gods, which grieved the Holy Spirit. When we say our allegiance and commitment is totally to God, our lifestyle and choices should reflect only that. Nothing more, nothing less. The most incredible miracle which happened right after I made this decision to stop yoga was that my irregular heart palpitations I had been experiencing for more than half a year also stopped.

LTL has been so beneficial not just for myself but being armed with the knowledge of how we are all shaped by our parents’ warped expression of love, our accumulated hurts and offences, soul ties that have not been cut from the occult, ungodly places, and idols, I can be in a better position to walk with and empathize with others in their brokenness.

A bonus from taking the LTL course is being able to share with a group of ladies during the fourteen weeks, intimate details of our struggles and burdens. The leader shares openly, which encourages us to also be open, honest, and non-judgmental toward one another. We strengthen and edify one another.

So, would I recommend this course and who would I recommend it to?

The answer is absolutely and it is for anyone who is wanting to take his/her relationship with God to the next level, reconciling with Him on all offences—past and present, known and unknown to you—so that you can engage and partner with Him intimately. Whether you are a new believer or have been a Christ-follower for a long time like me, there is still so much to learn about yourself, about God’s love for you, and be blessed and enriched by this course.

Having been a believer for two decades, I thought I understood God and that I was a seasoned Christian. I had the right intentions, the godly outlook and though pride would set in from time to time, I was overall on good terms with God. But God wants so much more than just to be on good terms with me. LTL taught me that God wants to reach to the deepest part of my heart, get to my core and cleanse me from the inside. There are no prerequisites for this course—just an open, humble, and trusting heart, ready to be healed and transformed

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Testimony 3 – Love The Lord course

I grew up in a Christian home but was never interested in having a personal relationship with God. Going to church and attending Bible studies were just rituals to me. Therefore, I gradually drifted away when I got older and started living my own life. Believing in God was the last thing on my mind as everything else, such as my career and relationships, seemed so much better and more worth pursuing.

However, God never left me. He called me back in December 2014 and I got saved in my own flat. I simply repented and asked God to come into my life. The joy from my first encounter with Holy Spirit was an overwhelming experience that I had never felt before. God has been shaping and moulding me through various situations since then. I will never be able to understand how faithful and patient God is to me despite all my failures and flaws.

When I first heard about the Love The Lord course from a sister from church, I wasn’t actually interested that much, thinking that it would be similar to other Bible courses I had taken before. However, another sister encouraged me again a couple of months later, so I thought this might be God trying to prepare me for the next chapter of my life.

The 14 sessions of commitment wasn’t easy. However, I’m thankful I made up my mind to pursue it week after week. Topics like the occult in my family or soul ties were new to me. I didn’t think about them much at all because I felt they had nothing to do with me. To my surprise, I realised that I was exposed to occult rituals growing up whenever I visited my relatives who believed in Japanese Buddhism. Some parts of my family used to chant multiple times throughout the day.

The renewal prayer session after the course was very thorough. It uncovers any aspect of one’s life where the enemy could have a stronghold or where an individual has opened doors to him, even unknowingly. This ranges from occultic involvement, soul ties, relational or demonic influences, ungodly mindsets, and a raft of other things one wouldn’t normally think about.

Although I was initially apprehensive during my prayer session, I quickly became relaxed. The Holy Spirit led the session and He gave me freedom from the areas where the enemy had an influence in my life. I felt lighter and freer afterwards – physically, mentally and spiritually.

For example, the Holy Spirit reminded me of scenes of my family chanting when addressing the occult. The prayer counsellors asked me to repeat some key words in the prayer process, but I found that I couldn’t follow them. I could think of the words in my head but my tongue refused to say them. I found that peculiar as I’ve never experienced anything like it before. The counsellors kept on praying and pushing through, binding the work of the enemy. Then, I was finally able to release the prayer words. What this showed me (and I hope my readers may also understand) is that we can have things influencing us that are unknown to us. These need to be brought into the Light of Jesus for these influences to be broken.

I also noticed that since I started the course that a few spiritual gifts were more evident to me. For example, God appears to be speaking to me through dreams about future events. I have become quickened and sensitive to different spirits as well. But most importantly of all, my personal walk with the Lord has dramatically improved where I have much more freedom and faith in His promises. I have since continued to seek to be continuously filled with Holy Spirit because of the example our Lord gave in;

Luke 11:24-26 When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and  the last state of that man is worse than the first.”

A house swept clean and not filled can always be repossessed by those influences that I was delivered from.

I would recommend this session to others but I would add that before doing so, that one truly seeks the face of the Lord ensuring that this is the path that He wants one to take. This is something I did for myself. Remember that God wants all of us to prosper. And a part of prospering is healing and deliverance that starts in our soul.

3 John 1:2 Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.