Courtesy Photo from Set Free Ministries
USA (MNN) — Set Free Ministries is doing exactly what its name says: setting people free.
SFM works with those seeking Biblical counseling for things like depression, addiction, and more. What they do differently is target the heart, the soul. And it works.
SFM executive director Dean Vander Mey explains, “The soul is made up of the mind, the will, and the emotion. And so what happens is people get hurt, they get sinned against, they have anger, they have shame, they have guilt. They hold that in, and when they hold that in and don’t express it, that leads often times to depressed emotions.”
Vander Mey gives the example of King David and his sin with Bathsheba. “It’s through that exposure of sin that King David can repent and then he writes Psalm 51: ‘Restore to me the joy of Your salvation…then I will teach sinners Your ways.’ In other words, God was going to use Nathan to expose King David, King David was going to repent, and then he was going to use the rest of his days to help others be set free because he understood captivity.”
Today Vander Mey sees a lot of people dealing with this same captivity in the USA. “We have a lot of people who faithfully attend church, but they’re compromised with the adversary.”
Compromising with the adversary always compromises the spirit. “That compromise…affects us emotionally,…and it distorts our thinking. And then our physical bodies begin to react to that suppressed emotion and some of that shame or that guilt and that darkness.”
(Photo courtesy of Set Free Ministries)
Furthermore, this compromise is a spiritual battle. It’s a battle of lies that bury themselves deep within us and affect our physical and emotional health. Vander Mey sees a lot of evangelism and conversions happening, but not a lot being done to disciple the new and aged believers. Because of this, he sees a lot of fear when people bring up spiritual warfare.
How is freedom possible? Through Jesus Christ.
“In Isaiah 61…([Jesus]) read these words, ‘The Spirit of the Lord has anointed me, to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted. He has sent me to open the eyes of the blind and set the oppressed free and to declare the year of the Lord’s favor.’ …. That is the mission statement of Jesus. Nothing has changed…. The Holy Spirit is still doing that work today. If you’re broken hearted, if you feel oppressed, if you’re spiritually blind and you want to be set free, then Jesus is the answer.”
SFM is based in West Michigan and encourages those outside the area seeking counseling to contact them to connect with their linked ministries. To learn more about SFM or to ask a question, please visit their Facebook page or click here.
We would like to be connected so as to see how we can be trained in order to help our people here in the DRCongo to be set free.
Please let us how?
Thank you and waiting to hear from you soon.