Building the Sozo vision.

Last week we introduced Marion Daniels and the fledgling healing ministry God gave her, now known as Sozo Ministries International. The story continues…

God never wants his ministries to stand still or stagnate, and at Sozo Ministries International there was to be a dramatic transformation that would set it on a new path to a bigger future. For nearly 30 years they had ministered healing, deliverance and wholeness through Jesus Messiah.

During that time the Lord had given them a sincere love and respect for the Jewish Scriptures. For instance, teaching the benefits of the food laws in Leviticus and keeping a Sabbath had featured highly in their programme of instruction. But the overall impact of the Jewish roots of Christianity was missing until one highly significant day in 2006, when a Jewish lady sought Marion Daniel’s help.

Deliverance from Replacement Theology

During the prayer ministry it was revealed to Marion that what this lady was struggling with personally had a strong connection to her Jewishness, including to what the Jewish race as a whole has suffered from Gentiles over the centuries. Marion began to minister under the Holy Spirit from Romans 11 but as she did so she realised how much this was all new to her. God was using this ministry opportunity to minister to Marion also!

God began to open Marion’s eyes to what his ancient people had suffered in the past from many sections of the Christian Church and how a new freedom was needed here. She also realised how ignorant she was of the Hebraic roots of Christianity. Here was a real shock. How had the Church missed this?

God began to open Marion’s eyes to what his ancient people had suffered from many sections of the Christian Church.

Clearly a reassessment was needed, and so Marion began to explore this further through books and conferences, especially material by Derek Prince. She began to realise that her own ministry and that of Sozo had to take this seriously. The deliverers needed deliverance! The only way to renounce the effects of centuries of Replacement Theology was through full repentance. This also came about in a remarkable way.

Jewish Roots Ministry

The initial contact with the Jewish lady had opened their hearts to tentatively minister to others with a Jewish background and the first Jewish Roots Ministry Conference was planned. As their website testifies:

On that day, not only did the Lord minster to Jews but he also began to deliver the rest of us Gentiles from our anti-Semitic past. A deep conviction came upon us and we began to seriously investigate the Hebraic roots of our Christian faith. We discovered how the Church had deliberately severed these roots in the 3rd and 4th centuries and came face to face with the shameful history of Christian anti-Semitism and Britain’s own betrayal of the Jewish people during our administration of Palestine between the First and Second World Wars.

With repentance came the slow process of deliverance from Replacement Theology, which teaches the error that the church has replaced the Jews as God’s chosen people. As we grow the scriptures are coming alive in a new way as we lay aside our Greek mindset and allow the Holy Spirit to renew our minds to once more think biblically like Hebrews. The transformation has not always been easy. But it has been worth it. It has been a joyous homecoming to once again embrace our Jewish Messiah, to take our place as grafted-in members of the commonwealth of Israel, and to celebrate the Moedim, God’s appointed times, the Feasts of The Lord as kept by the Jews.¹

Here would be a new foundation for their existing ministry, one which would make the ministry stronger and enable Jewish people to come for healing and deliverance. The whole ministry team was taught about the errors of Replacement Theology, and came to repentance and a new understanding. With the leadership now in agreement, this was then shared with the whole congregation (available on CD from Sozo).

Provision for a New Building

Alongside this spiritual transformation and enlargement came the need for something more in the physical realm – a new and bigger building. To understand this part of the story it is necessary to go back in time.

From the outset, the ministry team had realised that it was important to always be debt-free. Whatever they required had to be affordable and paid for from the start. Trusting God for money and provision was the key to this.

As the ministry grew and developed during the 1980s the need for their own property became apparent. It was not enough just to hire the school at Romsey for bigger meetings. At first the solution was mobile homes and then a small rented office, all the while saving up for whatever the next opportunity would be. This turned out to be the chance around 1999 to buy part of an old pub, just one third of it, but enough to call their own. The school was still used for bigger meetings, but Sozo House was born!

From the outset, the ministry team had realised that it was important to always be debt-free.

Eventually this proved too small for their needs and once the opportunity arose to buy the rest of the pub they again sought God and the funds came in right on time. But the vision was still for more.

In 2013 the chance arose to buy Dunwood Manor Golf Club for the bargain price of £225,000. This not only offered just what was needed at the time in terms of offices and small meeting rooms but also had potential for further development in the future. As the money was already there, they bought it immediately and applied for change of use. Then a problem was discovered.

Also on the site were two residential bungalows, the owners of which could object to the application and block the necessary change of use. The only solution was to buy these also, but at normal residential sale prices, money which they simply did not have. But suddenly and unexpectedly, they received a legacy from someone who had been a supporter in the past but, due to advanced years, had not been in contact recently. However, she had not forgotten them, and nor had God! With the bungalows now part of the property everything could go ahead as planned and Dunwood Oaks became the new centre for Sozo Ministries International.

New Venue Now Open!

However, this was by no means the end. The original purchase of Dunwood Manor Golf Club site included a separate locker room with showers, something of great importance to golfers but no use to Sozo! But here was the further potential that the site offered: the chance to turn this into a large main meeting place and conference centre, making it no longer necessary to hire the school in Romsey. In fact, the best option financially and practically ended up being not to restore it as a separate building but to demolish, build new and join it on to the existing two buildings as an annexe.

Dunwood Oaks is now a major centre for healing and deliverance, and for Hebraic renewal.

The initial quote for this new build left enough money over from the legacy - even after the purchase of the two bungalows - that they could begin to finance this, starting with the dry shell. Faith and prayers would provide the rest. Inevitably, final costs exceeded the original quote but when a further £100,000 was needed this was raised in 8 weeks. Then continued generous giving after this came in to enable the final building to be upgraded and improved. The building was completed on time and opened early in January 2017.

As well as being the new venue for the Sunday meetings, up to 300 people can gather for conferences and to celebrate the feasts. Dunwood Oaks is now a major teaching and resource centre not just for healing and deliverance, but also for Hebraic renewal and the teaching of Jewish roots.

And to think it all started with a car accident!

References

1 Hebraic Renewal. Sozo Ministries International.

N.B. Marion Daniel and Sozo Ministries International are in no way affiliated to Bethel Sozo or the International Bethel Sozo Organization.