Sozo Healing (from the Greek σώζω, translated “save” or “deliver” and used 110 times in the New Testament) is described by Bethel ministry as “a gentle, yet powerful, tool for inner healing and deliverance” on their website (links at the bottom of this post). A friend asked me to look into this and so, always looking for an excuse to write, here are my thoughts.
Chesterton rightly observed that the difference between Christianity and Eastern mysticism is observable in their art: the fat Buddah sits with his eyes closed, peering within, while the emaciated medieval Christian mystic stares wildly about him as if in shock. In other words, the Eastern mystic looks within for Nirvana while the Christian gazes about looking for Christ.
Sozo healing certainly has some laudable goals, such as getting to the root of issues hindering your connection to the Godhead, or healing painful/traumatic wounds or memories. I think most Christians would be on board with these in principle, although the phrasing can be a bit off-putting. The issue is that Sozo healing locates the means of attaining these goals in an inward, mystical experience through which one is guided, instead of through faith in the finished work of Christ. In Sozo healing, it is through the imagination and emotional experience that healing is achieved, much like the Buddha finds Nirvana in his meditation.
But Scripture would point us away from ourselves. Peace does not come in turning within, but in looking without. The mistake that Sozo healing makes is the same one that modern psychology makes: they think the cure can be found in the same place as the poison. And while it is true that healing must happen in the places where we are broken, the Healer must not be the stuff of our twisted hearts.
Below are listed 4 goals that Bethel lists on their website, and below each is a Scripture to contrast the methodology of Sozo healing with Scripture’s admonition to look to the finished work of Christ on our behalf. What I particularly want you to notice is the absence of turning to imaginary encounters with God, but instead the continued emphasis of living presently in the reality of Christ’s finished work.
Goal 1 – Get to the root of issues hindering your connection with the Godhead
Col 1:20-22 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. (21) And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled (22) In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight.
Reconnect with each member of the Trinity and receive a fresh revelation of God’s love
Rom 8:35-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (36) As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. (37) Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. (38) For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, (39) Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Heal painful/traumatic wounds and memories.
Php 3:13-14 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, (14) I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Experience the life of freedom and wholeness that God has for you
Rom 6:11-14 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (12) Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. (13) Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. (14) For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
So, in short, I would strongly advise Christians not to engage in this kind of thing, as it tends to have more relation to the fat Buddha than the wide-eyed Christian.
https://www.bethelsozo.com/about
https://www.gotquestions.org/Sozo-prayer.html
https://versebyverseministry.org/bible-answers/does-sozo-healing-work
Nathan Writes 