An Introduction to the VeilWork Method
WHAT IT IS
The VeilWork Method is a prayer tool developed over the last 13 years in the context of working with hundreds of clients. The Lord gave the basic concepts to a team of us. I then went on to develop it into the tool it is today. It is a tool the therapist can use in a normal counseling session.
THIS TOOL COMES WITH A WARNING! it may uncover deep, even hidden, trauma or emotions. Clients may need professional help to process what is revealed. If you are a not a professional counselor using this material for yourself or with others in the body of Christ, you need to seek out your counseling pastor or some other professional therapist for supervision. It is vital that you use the material with prayerful discernment. These tools are a unique combination of the spiritual and the psychotherapeutic. It is just as important to have the Holy Spirit involved as to have a professionally trained person.
Each Veil is made up of several idols. I define an idol not just as something you might formally worship, but as anything that motivates your actions and attitudes more than your love for God does. In Luke 14:26, Jesus says if we are to be His disciples, we are to be motivated in our actions by our love for God, not the emotional issues and ties to people in our lives. The VeilWork Method defines those issues and ties and provides a way to let go of them.
The VeilWork usually fits in at the end of a counseling session. Sometimes it is not appropriate to do an idol if other issues are pressing. On the other hand, the idol may bring up some important things to process, and it would take two weeks to get an idol done. The main thing for the therapist is to integrate this as a tool from his/her tool bag, always meeting the client where he/she is. Once a Veil is started, it is important to finish it if at all possible. It will take 8-12 weeks to finish a whole veil. In addition to several idols, there is a fear and a root for each veil. These are prayed through in the same manner as the idols.
The amazing thing about the VeilWork is that the Holy Spirit uses it to reveal truths and bring healing at a level that the client often can't put into words. One young man I counseled was a construction worker who was not sophisticated emotionally. He would come in and say, "Let's do some more. I don't know what it does, but it helps."
We first used it with clients when we felt stuck. The Lord used it to get them unstuck. Then we discovered that it was a helpful tool for most clients. It added a dimension that was otherwise easily overlooked. At first we sent idol prayer pages home with the client to pray through on their own, but clients seemed to feel they missed something. It may relate to God's wisdom in telling us to confess our sins to one another, or just the need to share the pain and still feel acceptable.
WHY THE VEILWORK METHOD?
SCRIPTURALLY
The Scriptures talk about a veil covering Moses's face.
This veil was put there by Moses to hide the vanishing splendor of the glory of
GodÑMoses did it out of pride. We also hold onto our pride in our way of thinking,
and this hides God's glory. It blocks us from seeing the truth of who He is and
the truth of who we are in Christ.
We are told that the veil is removed through repentance (1 Corinthians 3:10-18). It also says that we go on as with unveiled faces to ever increasing levels of glory. Thus, as these veils are lifted, we are free to see more of the true nature of God, and we are able to more clearly see ourselves as God sees us.
The Holy Spirit is able to work as the individual submits to God. My philosophy is that if you repent of something you don't need to repent of, it won't hurt anything. The repentant heart is one that allows God to work.
Scripture tells us that as a man thinks, so he is. The New Testament tells us that Christ will renew our minds and give us the mind of Christ. This tool enables that process. When we are ready to say, This, Lord, is what seems right in my mind, but I want to know what you say, then God can work in a powerful way. God says in Romans 1:29 that when He gave men over to what seemed right in their own mind, they went into greater and greater darkness. The VeilWork Method is one tool that can bring the light of the Holy Spirit into the darkness of our minds.
It can help when other methods don't seem to work. It can help when someone is just seeking a deeper intimacy with the Lord, because it removes so many of the blocks we humans have developed to protect ourselves from intimacy. When we have been hurt and wounded, we begin to believe lies about what it means to love and to be loved. This tool prepares our hearts and minds to be able to hear truth that was previously blocked out.
CLINICALLY
The VeilWork Method is sound
clinically. It is rooted in psycho-dynamically oriented talk therapy that deals
with the unconscious. It challenges the client to own thoughts that he/she has
not recognized before. It also uses a lot of cognitive therapeutic principles.
To recognize how events led to thoughts that led to certain actions and attitudes
is a major part of the process.
I think of a 14-year-old I saw after she was traumatized by finding her best friend in the school gym locker room right after she had blown her head off with a gun. After several sessions, the client seemed to be doing well, but something was still troubling her. We did the Veil of Defiant Denial. In that process, God brought up many more subtle issues of the guilt and loss the client had felt. I was actually surprised to see how God applied this veil to the trauma the girl had just experienced.
FINANCIALLY
The reality is that this tool added to your tool box can enhance your client base
and does produce income. Most clients will go through at least three of the Veils.
This takes at least 35 sessions. If you charge $80 per session, that is $2,800.
Again this is one tool to be used in conjunction with basic counseling techniques.
Where this tool is being used by counselors, the word of mouth about its power often leaves them with a waiting list. I also get calls from people wondering if I know anyone in their area who is doing the VeilWork.
HOW IT WORKS
The core of each idol is a group of judgments, a way of thinking about that topic. There is a booklet, Finding Freedom Through Forgiveness, that talks about judgments in detail. I define a judgment as a thought, statement or conclusion that is either motivated by or results in an emotional reaction--or would for most people.
The following is a list of the nine steps that provide a thorough dealing with the judgments we make. An example is given to help you to understand how to apply the steps.
Step 1. Forgive me for my anger and resentment I feel toward You, Lord, my parents, my siblings, my spouse, my children, all those who have caused me to feel ................
Here you fill in the blank with whatever you feel when you think of the wrong that has been done to you. You can also add the names of any specific individuals you feel have hurt you.
For our example you might fill in the blank in this step with "that I am not as important as others, that I don't count."
Step 2. Forgive me for judging that ............... . Here you put the thoughts, statements or feelings that keep playing in your mind.
An example would be:
Forgive me for judging that my parents:
1. Didn't give me the attention I needed.
2. Favored my brother.
3. Gave him more presents than I got.
Forgive me for judging that my parents:
4. Disciplined me more harshly than they did him.
5. Let him get away with things.
Forgive me for judging that:
6. I need more attention now from my wife or friends to make up for the lack in the past,
7. I am not as valued or valuable as my brother.
8. I have to try to prove I'm as good as my brother.
9. I have to prove I'm better than others so maybe they will value me, etc.
Step 3. Stir Your grace within me that I might forgive You, Lord, my parents, my siblings, my spouse, my children, all of those who made me feel that I am not important, that I don't count. You put in the same list from number 1 above.
Step 4. Stir Your grace within me that I might forgive the debt I feel I am owed because of the wrong that was done to me.
Step 5. Stir Your grace within me that I might release the sense of entitlement I feel to ................... Here you look at what you feel you are entitled to feel, do or have because of your having been wronged. To follow our example you could fill in the blank with "prove I'm better than others in order to gain the recognition and attention I need."
Step 6. Forgive me for my pride in my woundedness and struggle that feels as if it is more than others have endured ( or more than others have had to put up with). Even if at a conscious level we think this isn't true, we often feel this at some deep inner level.
Step 7. Stir Your grace within me that I might forgive myself for being caught in these judgments. When we begin to understand the impact of our behavior and our judgments on others we may have a tendency to condemn ourselves. This keeps us from being stuck in that condemnation.
Step 8. Lord, destroy the fruit of these judgments in my life and my family's life even for the future generations. The judgments follow the family line if the pattern isn't broken.
Step 9. By Your grace, Lord, enable me to desire Your blessing to be manifest in the lives of all those who have hurt me. Here you might want to specifically list what hurt from number 1 above or list the people from number 1 above.
These judgment steps can also be used independently to deal with current everyday situations in our lives.
THE REST OF THE STORY
If we have made judgments, we have most likely, even at an unconscious level, made vows. We make a decision within ourselves of how it is going to be. When we make vows, we reap the fruit of the vow by becoming locked into that behavior and the extreme opposite of that behavior. Our conflicting thoughts and actions are evidence that a vow has been made even if we don't remember making the vow. It is important to break these vows in order to let God reveal Truth to us.
Idols cause us to do certain things and require a sacrifice from us. To remove the Veil, repentance regarding these things is necessary. We also deal with the idol symbol that drives one to 'worship' this idol. This is like the calf that was held up in the wilderness. We bind and cast out all evil spirits or influences connected to the idol. We do a washing in the water of the Word. The client is sent home with a follow-up prayer. We usually do not send the client home with a copy of the whole idol because too many of the people who want a copy are the type who want to work too hard at making the changes. God is the one to really make the changes when they are submitted to Him. The follow-up prayer is sufficient to facilitate that.
Especially if the client is praying the Veil Binding Prayer between sessions, you will often find that the issues he/she struggled with during the week have prepared him/her to see the truths in the next idol to be done.
HOW DO I LEARN MORE?
The truth is that the VeilWork Method can't be fully described here, but it is a powerful tool. It is explained more thoroughly in the Manual, a necessity if you desire to use the material.