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Show Notes
00:00:02):
Welcome to Hardship from Hope, Sally.
(00:00:06):
If you are just joining us for this episode, I'm so excited to introduce you to Sally Miller.
(00:00:14):
She is a wonderful woman who I've come to admire so much and Sally has a lot of
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expertise in inner healing prayer.
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Sally is also an author.
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If you don't mind, Sally, would you share about your book and
(00:00:33):
then we can just dive in and you can share your story and
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how you first learned about inner healing prayer.
(00:00:42):
Well, greetings, everybody.
(00:00:44):
I'm so glad to be here.
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About three or four years ago, the Lord just put it on my heart to write a memoir.
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I was not real happy about it.
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It's a very...
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a difficult thing to do, especially when it's around trauma.
(00:01:13):
But God was just so faithful in it.
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He provided a group of writers, like a little writer's group.
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And I had a love-hate relationship with them.
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I hated what they would say about my writing.
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But it was so helpful.
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And then I did an online little thing and my spiritual director actually is an
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incredible artist and she gave me some of her art for the cover.
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It's called Beyond Beautiful.
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The book is, but the art is called The Resurrection.
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And that's really what I feel like the Lord did.
(00:02:01):
in my story. I've read it, Sally. Your cover is beautiful and it's
(00:02:09):
a story that so many can relate to it really touched my heart and I
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will put a link to your book in the show notes for our listeners.
(00:02:22):
Would you like to share a little bit about how you first learned about inner the
(00:02:26):
inner healing process?
(00:02:30):
It's my story,
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of course,
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the way it plays in,
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but I was diagnosed about 35 years old with major depression,
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the kind where you can't get out of bed.
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And ensued doctors, drugs, psychiatrists, counselors, everything.
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My husband and I said I was depressed because I was sick.
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But the doctor said I was sick because I was depressed.
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So I changed doctors because I did not like hearing that at all.
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But this was the bedridden kind of depression.
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My worst memory was braiding my daughter's hair every morning for school from bed
(00:03:21):
because I just couldn't function.
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And eventually during counseling, I began to have memories of physical, sexual, and spiritual abuse.
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And then more and more just kept coming to light that I had no idea about.
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You talked about not having memories of childhood in your last podcast.
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And my friends would talk about when they were two years old, they did blah, blah, blah, you know.
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And I'm like,
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Wow, you know, I hardly had any.
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There were two or three that, you know, stood out, maybe a handful.
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Yes.
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From about three years old to 13.
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Yes.
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I really didn't have much at all.
(00:04:12):
I was conscious of the severity of my father's physical abuse.
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He was a very severe authoritarian man.
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but there was much more that I was totally unaware of and I got in some good
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Christian counseling for 12 to 15 years and it was pretty much once a week and
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sometimes twice got really expensive and I got better but I did not get well and I
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was determined to be well and
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And then God brought me to a counselor that was just beginning to use Inner Healing Prayer.
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And that's when I really began to get to the bottom of all that had happened.
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I mean, the 12 or 15 years of counseling prepared me for what I was about to enter into.
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Yes.
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But I spent about five more years
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Excuse me.
(00:05:23):
Again, once or twice a week.
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And it was pretty horrific memories.
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And I thought it was never going to end.
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But I finally convinced her that I thought I might be dissociative.
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And God gives children this incredible gift of dissociating mentally and emotionally.
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kind of leaving your body and watching what is happening.
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And that's why some memories can get into your unconscious and your fully aware of them.
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The marriage suffered three separations and it was awful for about 10 years.
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And the breakup actually in most marriages could be resolved if people would
(00:06:18):
address their own work,
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right?
(00:06:21):
Do their own inner healing.
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Your history is just being triggered by the other person.
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And that is unintentional, and often we don't even know that's what's going on, right?
(00:06:40):
Exactly, exactly.
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I had no idea, right?
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And it's interesting.
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He never did much counseling.
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I mean, he did some here and there, but he didn't do the kind of work that I did.
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And we were both coming out of it.
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horrible stories, just horrible stories.
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So anyway,
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when I got with that counselor,
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she had started doing the inner healing prayer,
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like I said,
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just beginning.
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And so I kind of tracked with her.
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and we kind of grew in it together.
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But that was probably my basic introduction to it.
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Thank you.
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That's a lot of time to go through that journey and walk through that journey.
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But it would never end.
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Yes.
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Never.
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That's when I told the Lord I had
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More tears in a bottle than anybody else.
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Wow.
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Yeah.
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What are the components of inner healing prayer?
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And how do you believe it differs from other methods that are used to help with trauma?
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Okay.
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I had, you know, cognitive behavioral therapy that 12 years.
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I even had some EMDR.
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And they were all helpful, you know.
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to a point, but then I would plateau with all the counselors.
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I would just hit this place where they couldn't help me anymore.
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And talk about discouraging.
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That was discouraging.
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But the elements are, I'll kind of go through the steps of it, but it's simply as a caregiver,
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You're being fully present to a person and positioning them to present them to the
(00:09:00):
healing power of Jesus,
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right?
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And hear from him for themselves.
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And that's how the healing takes place.
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It's paying attention to what he is doing.
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and allowing him to do the healing the way he chooses.
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And that's so different than most counseling.
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Like when I did it with people,
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I would never ever suggest anything or lead them or guide them in any ways that I
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was thinking.
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Because only he knows what the person needs and can bring the healing in the
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emotional space where they experience the trauma.
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So that's kind of introductory.
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But there's six steps that I would work through with people,
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which is a whole seminar,
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by the way,
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or a whole training that people go through.
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But I'll just be brief and highlight each one.
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So the first step I imagine,
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I help them imagine a safe place in their imagination,
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which is a sacred imagination.
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And they can be there alone at first and just get comfortable.
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It can be an imaginary place or a real place that they just love to be.
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Mine was always a waterfall and a brook
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And I'd be sitting beside it in the grass or on a rock or something.
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A lot of people had the ocean.
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I did.
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Mine was the beach.
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Yeah.
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So you imagine that safe place.
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And then if they want to, if the person wants to...
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I ask them if they want to invite Jesus into that place.
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And some people will not.
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Oh, that's interesting.
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Yeah, they don't feel safe with Jesus.
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So I ask them maybe if they see like a lamb or something, a flower that would represent his presence.
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And they can usually do that.
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But then...
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When they're ready, I ask him to tell them his thoughts toward them in that place.
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And it is always,
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every time,
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the sweetest,
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gentlest,
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kindest voice of love,
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of compassion,
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encouragement,
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just what you would imagine his heart towards them.
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And there's lots of silence in a session,
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uh,
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because the person is listening and I'm just sitting there while they listen.
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But,
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um,
(00:12:16):
at that point I might ask if there was a recent event,
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uh,
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where they were,
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had an overreaction or an underreaction.
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And I would ask Jesus if he wants to highlight an emotion that happened recently.
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And I want to emphasize that about paying attention to your reactions.
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Because if your reaction is not equal to an event, you can know your history's been triggered.
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Right?
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Yes.
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You might have an overreaction is what we think of, but you also might have an underreaction.
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I would always shut down.
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Just go silent, get safe, whatever I needed to do away from the situation.
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I could never talk it out or write through in the moment.
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So I asked the Lord to highlight the emotion that came up in that event.
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And then the question becomes, when was the first time they felt that same emotion?
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And would Jesus help them to go back to that place where they first felt that emotion?
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And sure enough,
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two years old, four years old, 10 years old, something of that same emotion happened.
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And for me, I actually had memories in the womb.
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Wow.
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Yeah.
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Because even in the womb, you have an awareness of your surroundings, like hearing people fighting.
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Yes.
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Noises, yelling, stuff like that.
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And you take that into your spirit, right?
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So we go for that root place where they first felt that.
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And then...
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What's important is,
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I mean the memory's important,
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but what's more important is what you came to believe about yourself,
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about others,
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or about God in that memory.
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And that's huge, just really huge.
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And most of us take in lies.
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about ourselves about others or about god in that place but there's also things
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like pronouncements something somebody spoke over you like you'll never amount to
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anything yes right you're stupid whatever it was um and you can also be carrying a
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burden
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Right?
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A burden that you're not meant to carry.
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Like, especially if you have a single mother, you might become the spouse in a marriage, right?
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Yes.
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And that's a burden you're not meant to carry at all.
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In my situation, I felt responsible for my little brother.
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Okay, so you had to parent him.
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I felt that I did
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Out of those beliefs, you know, you might make vows also.
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Like, I vowed to never be like my mother.
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But out of those beliefs, vows, lies, burdens...
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whatever, you develop a strategy to do life.
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And so my strategy was if I was perfect enough, I would not get hurt.
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What a hard thing to live up to.
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Well, I could do it until I was about 35.
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Right.
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And then
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It's a gift from God to let it all fall apart, right?
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To not be able to do it anymore.
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So we're dependent on him.
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But once we've identified the beliefs in the process again,
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I say a prayer with the person and we break off the lies.
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So I just say a prayer like I break the lie that
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blah, blah, blah, or I break the vow that I'll never be like my mother.
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And I pray some other things in that prayer, but they just repeated after me.
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And after we're done breaking it, the healing comes when I ask him to reveal truth about
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in the place where they came to believe the lies, the vows, the pronouncements, whatever it was.
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And he always, every single time, and I've met with, I think, at least 100 people over the years.
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It's exactly what they need to hear.
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And see, I could never come up with that on my own.
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I could tell them.
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what they should believe, right?
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And it might be the right thing, but when they hear it from Him in that place, it is profound healing.
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And only He can do it.
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And I say it's like having a foundation of building blocks.
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So each one is a lie about pronouncement, strategy, whatever.
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And you pull them out and you replace them with truth.
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Right?
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And then you have a foundation of truth.
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I love that.
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That's so true.
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It's exactly what it is.
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So that's kind of a brief overview of the process.
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And it's hard work for that person, isn't it?
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Very.
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I call it emotional surgery.
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Because you can come out of there just wiped clean.
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Yes, I remember that feeling just being exhausted.
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Exhausted.
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Because there's a lot that you're just digging through and a lot of pain that
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you're sharing with the Lord and that one other person.
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Yes.
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But it's so freeing.
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It might take you a couple days to recover.
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Yes.
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And sometimes...
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When it's really a significant session or memory or whatever, I ask them to commemorate it somehow.
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And they'll always know how they want to commemorate it.
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I mean, God will show them, like, buying a little something.
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Or if you're an artist, just painting something.
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will remind them yes that was then that's a beautiful idea. So
(00:20:21):
who benefits from inner healing prayer and can you expand on that a bit? I
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really literally say everyone
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No one got through childhood without some kind of trauma or dysfunction at least.
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And I also just say we are all on a spectrum.
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Might be mild and not much there but might be real severe.
(00:20:54):
Yes.
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Yeah, I would agree with that.
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Everyone does have some level of trauma.
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I mean, the science backs that up.
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There are so many statistics about it.
(00:21:07):
It's interesting because children raised in homes where trauma exists as part of
(00:21:14):
daily life will typically have multiple forms of trauma—
(00:21:21):
adverse childhood experiences and the way that it impacts their lives is it's
(00:21:28):
incredibly significant whether we're talking about emotional mental health or
(00:21:34):
physical struggles there's just so much. Are there
(00:21:45):
any final thoughts you would like to share with the listeners?
(00:21:51):
Well, I want to say that the very best training is receiving for yourself.
(00:22:00):
Yes.
(00:22:01):
Right.
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Which we both have.
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Yes.
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That's the best training to help someone else.
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There's a couple organizations that I recommend.
(00:22:15):
Nationally, it's Terry Wardle and his Healing Care Ministries.
(00:22:21):
Another one is Deeper Walk International.
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I got training through both of them.
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The Navigators locally actually do a two-day seminar and I got training there too.
(00:22:38):
And Renee Skruitzky with Soaring Wings, she's also local and I mentored her in the process.
(00:22:49):
But she's someone I really trust.
(00:22:52):
But the main reason for doing it is your intimacy with Jesus.
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Yes, yes.
(00:23:01):
I absolutely agree.
(00:23:04):
During inner healing prayer was the first time I ever admitted to him that I was angry with him.
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And that took a lot of...
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To work through.
(00:23:18):
Right.
(00:23:19):
But it does draw you so much closer.
(00:23:21):
And when you see him able to reintegrate those parts of you that really used to be
(00:23:29):
all one,
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it is miraculous.
(00:23:32):
It is.
(00:23:33):
Right?
(00:23:35):
Right in front of your eyes.
(00:23:37):
It's such a privilege to sit with someone.
(00:23:40):
Tammy and just...
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Yeah, it's just so humbling.
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His heart is to remove anything and everything that hinders, blocks, or interferes with that intimacy.
(00:23:58):
And so that's why I could say it was a gift that he allowed me at 35 not to be able
(00:24:04):
to continue to function in the perfectionist performance strategy,
(00:24:11):
right?
(00:24:12):
Yes.
(00:24:12):
Right.
(00:24:14):
And I always say he wants to speak to you more than you want to listen.
(00:24:20):
That's wonderful, and that's true.
(00:24:24):
We have to slow down intentionally to listen.
(00:24:28):
And if you're miserable, that's not what God has for you.
(00:24:33):
There's so much help, hope, and healing available.
(00:24:37):
Just pursue it, and he will lead you where you need to go.
(00:24:41):
I didn't know where to go for help, but he did it for me.
(00:24:47):
And he came to bind up the brokenhearted and set the captives free.
(00:24:53):
And when I cried out, he more than met me.
(00:24:59):
He comes looking for the ones that... Scripture tells us he will not snuff out a candle, right?
(00:25:08):
Yes.
(00:25:09):
And he will not break the bent reed.
(00:25:12):
Yeah, that is truly his heart.
(00:25:15):
And people like you and me have experienced his restoration in our lives.
(00:25:24):
I just want people to know that's there for them.
(00:25:28):
Thank you so much for sharing about that.
(00:25:31):
You're very welcome.
(00:25:32):
I'm going to plug in those links about healing so people can reach out to those
(00:25:39):
different resources you shared.
(00:25:43):
So look for those on the Substack podcast if you're a listener.
(00:25:48):
And would you like to
(00:25:52):
finish up by praying for our listeners today?
(00:25:55):
Sure.
(00:25:56):
Thank you.
(00:25:57):
Yes.
(00:26:02):
Well, Lord, I just know that you see the listener today.
(00:26:11):
Lord, you see the lost sheep and we are all lost in one way or another.
(00:26:23):
And so thank you that you seek out each and every one,
(00:26:30):
each and every individual,
(00:26:32):
Lord,
(00:26:33):
that your heart is toward them and your heart is for them.
(00:26:40):
And you want to accomplish great and mighty things,
(00:26:44):
Lord,
(00:26:45):
and help them to walk in their purpose,
(00:26:49):
what they were born for.
(00:26:52):
for what you have planned for them, Lord, and that abundant life is available to them.
(00:27:01):
So thank you.
(00:27:04):
Thank you for Tammy and her heart to bring this podcast to others and help those who are hurting.
(00:27:13):
In Jesus' name, amen.
(00:27:15):
Amen.
Reads and Resources
Beyond Beautiful by Sally Miller
A Guide for Listening and Inner-Healing Prayer: Meeting God in the Broken Places by Rusty Rustenbach
Healing Care Ministries with Terry Wardle
Healing Care House with Renee Scruitsky
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