The Life Model: Living from the Heart Jesus Gave You: The Essentials of Christian Living

This book was so helpful to me. It really helped me understand why I think and act the way I do at times. IT was a great guide! I recomend this book for anyone who is going through inner healing or for those who suffer with DID! HIGH RECOMMENDED!!! Great book for counselors too or just anyone who wants to help those who are recovering from trauma. This book is a blessing!

'The Life Model' is a clear concise way to look at your life, and find out where you're "stuck" so you can get "unstuck." I recommend this guide. It is a valuable resource to determine how "mature" you are, and what you need to work on, to become more whole.

I am overjoyed to have come accross this book. I will always have a copy in my library. In summary, the Life Model is a model for helping people achieve maturity, through trauma healing and recovery using godly communities and counsellors. The author states that each individual can maximize their God given potentials (living from the heart Jesus gave you). However, because we live in a fallen world, things happen to us along the path of maturity (traumas) that keep us from achieving our potentials. Each individual needs a nourishing community to mature properly, where the natural community (family and early childhood influences) have failed, the individual requires healing and recovery. God provides this healing and recovery through a few channels: - Godly counsellors that identify the traumas, bring biblical teaching about the situation and pray with the person - A godly community to provide the nourishment the individual needs to grow - Healed individuals providing life and nourishment to others in need The authors state that a mature person is well able to cope with the challenges of life, handle difficult tasks, help others and still maintain the joy of the Lord.

I have 2 copies of this book, and I refer to them and lend them out frequently. I and many others whose opinion I respect have found the truth in this book to be consistent with the Bible and life changing. It is primarily about growing in emotional maturity which is sorely needed in our world and our church today. It teaches us how some of the lacks or hurts we have from childhood affect us today, but more importantly, God's plan for healing those wounds through mature relationships and prayer ministry. I can testify that it works as I have grown in emotional maturity, now I am able to more consistently live from the heart Jesus gave me (which is also living biblically) and better minister to those around me. The information on changing fear bonds to love bonds is also been life changing for me. How many times in the Bible does God tell us not to fear, and the LIFE Model provides tools to help us move in that direction. I know this material fairly well from these experiences and more during the past 1.5 years: I have been to 2 week long Thrive seminars that are based upon the LIFE model, questioned Jim Wilder and others about it, read Jim Wilder's Living with Men (much more detailed), and I am part of a Belonging group in which a small group lives out these principles. As my Belonging group told me recently, I am transformed, more mature, more compassionate, more peaceful, more able to minister God's love to others. I use what I have learned from Life Model everyday in a variety of relationships. I am better able to connect with others and minister to them whether it is a personal or a ministry situation. And yes, I was a fully functional member of society before, professionally and personally. But it took courage to look at the weak spots in my maturity and address them. In addition to being based on the Bible, the LIFE model is solidly backed by brain science. The LIFE model primarily involves enhancing the right brain (emotions) and stresses relationships. This is especially needed in our culture which is left-brain dominant, valuing and emphasizing thinking and doing over connecting and relating. I am an educated person,trained to be discerning and an independent thinker and I am very serious about comparing what I read to the Bible. I recommend the Life Model and I thank God for leading me to it. I have seen this truth transform, redeem and restore people and relationships. This balanced book is focused on God, and the healing and freedom and joy Christ came to bring us. Being more healed and free and joyful is part of being more Christlike, which enables us to better serve others with His transforming love and power. You can find out more information at lifemodel.org and thrivetoday.org. At the LIFE Model site, you can look for a church in your area that applies these principles. It would be most helpful to get in a LIFE Model or Belonging small group.

This is one of the best, most helpful, books I have ever read. It talks specifically about how we overcome the wounds of childhood, either through our family of origin or through healthy community. It is a powerful statement about the healing power of God in Christian community. This is one of those books I keep buying and giving away because it is so good.