I will admit that as a Christian, I was rather tentative about studying Byron Katie’s teachings. I just assumed that Katie would be from a New Age background and would use all sorts of airy-fairy New Age terminology, such using the term “Infinite Intelligence” instead of God.
I was rather keen to try The Work for myself. I found that on Work website there was enough information to be able to try this method for myself and put it to the test. I just thought to myself that if I could get results from The Work, I could just ignore most of Byron Katie’s teaching and incorporate the very basics of Inquiry into my own belief system.
I was amazed that as soon as I started my first session of The Work – I was off like a rocket! Revelation just flowed from my heart as I asked the four questions. As predicted by users of The Work: I really took my time with question 3 – “Who are you with that thought?” When I asked that question, I really took the time to see who I was with that wrong belief. I then found myself approaching the turnaround in a way that felt natural and easy for me. I was keen to try this process with other beliefs, and found that I got the same astonishing results.
The Work and Christianity
Another remarkable thing I found about The Work was that I found that my Christian knowledge came into consciousness! For years I had been struggling with prayer: it seemed that even when I wanted to pray, my mind would just go blank.
I studied Christian Word of Faith teaching, namely Kenneth E. Hagin, for about ten years. I found that after struggling with Word of Faith for several years, I just could not seem to get it to work for me. Word of Faith teaching ascribes the positive confession of verses of scripture as a means of claiming blessings from God. For this reason, Word of Faith teaching is sometimes called by its critics, “Name It and Claim It”.
Not everything about Word of Faith is bad; in fact, I believe it has revolutionised modern Christianity by proving that the power of faith as experienced in the early church, is still available to us today.
What is not so favourable about Word of Faith teaching is that it puts an emphasis on healing, miracles, power and prosperity. Obviously, it is not a good idea for a neurotic Christian to get his hands on faith teaching as it will create a massive distraction to seeking peace through the assurance of righteousness with God through faith in Christ.
The Christian knowledge that came to me during The Work was partly from Word of Faith, but it was merely giving me the assurance that God was good and would meet my needs – not that He would make me rich and give me specific things that I mistakenly thought I needed. I also found that my grace teaching came to my awareness: I was reminded that I was right with God apart from my own efforts, conduct and external circumstances.
From this perspective: I could see that The Work was a valuable tool for me to use – even if I could use it only for the purpose of bringing the Word of God to my remembrance.
The 20 Minute “Rule”
My first inquiry sessions took about 20 minutes from first question to final turnaround. I have found that with most strong beliefs, I usually take about 20 minutes. I don’t know why this is and I certainly never plan it that way: I just seem to take around 20 minutes. I have also found that there are times when I take about 30 minutes, but that is usually when I get a bit stuck or my mind starts to drift a little. There are also times when I only take about 5 or 10 minutes with a Work session: this is usually when I am re-working a previously strong belief, or I am working with a mild belief.
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