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What You'll Discover in this Episode:
144: Foundations in Biblical Counseling
Let's talk about the foundations of biblical counseling. How does the Lord deal with truth? How does He touch lives? How does He bring warning? What are the purposes when you study biblical counseling?
Hear from God and be counseled.
Every believer in Christ needs the counsel of God regularly. We want counseling for ourselves. We want God to counsel us His way. Receiving counsel is good specially if it’s from the Lord. The biggest thing that God does is that He counsels us. You are going to receive counsel from God if you are expecting it.
Be equipped to counsel others and be an instrument of God’s counsel.
Allow God to equip us a bit to give counsel His way. We want to learn to give counsel God’s way. We want to be approved unto God not unto man. We are all called to learn to give Godly counsel. Every Christian is called upon to give God’s counsel regularly. We are not called in the Kingdom of God to lean upon human experts but upon God. We need to ask the Lord to use us instrumentally to use us to share His counsel to others.
Be warned of humanistic intrusion into the church.
There’s always a minor theme of warning. These are warnings concerning counseling man’s way. Be willing to take notice of the corruption along the way. Matthew 16.
Equipping People for Biblical Counseling
One of the goals of Biblical Counseling Academy (BCA) is to encourage and help pastors (and those in ministries, preparing for ministry, and who want to administer more). Our heart goes out to senior leaders with how they deal with spiritual warfare, perplexities, and day-to-day surprises.
BCA was founded with this in mind – for people out there that want to hear God’s counsel, want to be equipped for counsel, want to be warned, and they want the Word of God speak.
What is Counseling?
Listen to the full episode and join the discussion!
“For I beheld, and there was no man; even among them, there was no counselor, that when I asked of them, could not answer a word. Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion.” (Isaiah 41:28-29) I was so thankful that you brought up that you’d be talking about the warnings, Jeff. In these later days, I sense an even greater subtlety in the enemy’s tactics to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). I don’t want to be one that offers “molten images” of wind and confusion. How can we be God’s instruments to disciple others if we are not willing to be discipled by the Wonderful Counselor for ourselves, or bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ? I find myself bringing my thoughts into captivity and obedience of Christ a lot while preparing to be a Biblical counselor because of all the books I have read, radio programs I have listened to, conferences and marriages retreats I have attended in the past. All under the guise of being Christian. Yet they were a blend. Thank God that He is uncovering those sinful beliefs so that I can recognize, repent and take responsibility to correct them with His Word.
I must confess I have fallen prey at times to “integration theology.” Early on in life and even before I got saved I was studying Psychology, philosophy and sociology. In retrospect, my studies were motivated by a desire for meaning and bedrock TRUTH in life. In my Junior year at UC Davis I got saved, dropped out of school and enrolled in a small AG Bible College. After being grounded in God’s Word I began secular employment while faithfully serving in our local church. However, approximately 10 years later I returned to school, finished my U/G degree in Psychology and masters courses in marriage family therapy.
In the intervening decades since, I have steadily grown to rely more and more on God’s Word both in my own life and in counseling others. However, in light of my studies thus far through BCA I have found that I (and the Christian Community) have retained a good deal of the vernacular and by extension the humanistic psychological flavor and mindset inculcated through my schooling and our current church culture, as well. BCA is a continuing reminder of the vanity, futility and impotence of all the psychobabble I thought would help both myself and those I desired to minister to.
We have freedom in Christ. Our hearts are free to read and understand the Word of God. We are to promote the Great Commission and our place is to be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit. We have the basis of truth in His Word.That is all we need as Christians to proclaim Christ. I like the thought of “living in the Word of God”. The Word of God is our basis of truth. It never changes. It is our map to use through life. For me the Word is my foundation in a world of confusion. The enemy is the author of confusion and the truth of God counters this confusion. The Word defends and enlightens.
It has been incredibly eye-opening; just in the last month or two of this course, seeing how many Christians (previously including myself) hold the belief that psychology and psychiatry, in terms of counseling, are superior or “actual counseling.” After hearing this episode, along with reading the book, I feel so much more grounded in the truth that God indeed is the true counselor. I know that I personally had been persuaded over the years that so how scripture wasn’t all that we need to address life’s problems. I don’t know how many times I heard the expression (and started to believe), “You can’t just throw a bible verse at it!” Or “We can provide some encouragement, but maybe they need to talk to a *real* counselor/therapist.”
Being warned of humanistic intrusion into the church reminded me of a phone conversation I had about a year ago. Through a mutual friend I had a license professional counselor that owned a counseling clinic that wanted to talk to me. Both people attend the same church. This counselor was super friendly and is really involved in the church he attends. His website said he specializes in Biblical Counseling however; this conversation had a strong hint of integration at best.
I want to rest in what God is saying and not be confused by what man is saying. I think it is easy and automatic to give our own opinion, or repeat the opinion of our culture, but I think we should always be giving God’s opinion, from scripture. Always no matter what context we are speaking in. No matter how strongly we feel, about our opinion, change the subject and be a channel for God’s wisdom. Our opinion leads to death, God’s opinion leads to life.
Amen to that, Charles! when we allow God’s Word to RICHLY dwell within us Col. 3:16 we are ALWAYS READY to give a reason/defense for the hope that lies within us, yet with gentleness and reverence 1 Pet, 3:15
Thank you Pastor Jeff for the continual encouragement in this podcast. In our walk with the Lord we can easily become comfortable and let our guard down, allowing intrusion into our spiritual walk. In this day in age, we are watching this generation conforming to the flesh and this is where a lot of Christians are lead astray because they are focusing in on the world theories, counsel, and philosophies. Our filter to the world is our bible filled with God’s truth. As we invite the Holy Spirit to dwell in us, we allow the Wonderful Counselor to use us as His own.
It is disheartening how easily I become comfortable allowing intrusion in. Especially, with what seems to be an endless number of distractions around us…. around me
Amen. Holy Spirit please use us. And help us to be fit for serving the Lord. Rooted and grounded in the sufficient Word of God.
I do find much frustration in the books written disguised as “Christian” when they really promote non-biblical advice. There are so many out there, and it is so easy for an author to take a fragment of scripture and run a mile with it in the wrong direction. Whats worse is when people take in the advice as biblical and treat it as such, it can do so much harm and be difficult for them to unlearn. The same can be said of church tradition, I grew up in the Dutch Reform church. There are so many well meaning people, but the discussions are almost always about subjects completely unrelated to doctrine. Much of it was superficial non-sense about image instead of the heart. It took a long time for me to see that God is full of grace, and that my salvation does not depend on my work ethic and ability to follow the rules.
Once more there are so many wonderful things spoken in this podcast. What stuck to me is that we can easily focus on God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Word, but we neglect the Holy Spirit. This makes me think of John 14:15-17. This speaks of the Holy Spirit being the Helper to those who believe. It tells us that the Holy Spirit dwells in us. I have read some of these “Christian self help” books in the past, and I remember feeling awkward reading some of these. I know it was the Holy Spirit warning me that what I was reading was not of the Word. Yet, every time I read the Bible, I can come across a scripture I read a hundred times, but the Holy Spirit reveals something new to me at the exact time I need it. We can never get enough of God’s word.
Angela, I could not agree more with this. So many Christian glance over the Holy Spirit and do not truly know the power. As God blesses us with the knowledge, understanding, and power of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit convictions are revealed promptly or even immediately.
There were several great points in the podcast but two stood out for me. The first was our need for counsel. So often we get wrapped up in dealing with the issues of others we forget our own spiritual well being. Many times while I have been counseling others I have heard the Spirit speak to me using my own words to convict me and or grow me. The second point that struck home for me was the comment about hearing Jeff’s heart for pastors. I was a police officer for thirty years but I can tell you that being a pastor can and often is more stressful than being a police officer. Counseling and pastoring is about soul care and that has an eternal significance that law enforcement doesn’t carry. Thanks for the constant reminder of who is the counselor. I will end this with the comment that Jeff made, “If you know the Bible you are competent to counsel.”
I agree with your statement that we often get wrapped up in helping others with their issues that we forget to take the time for our own spiritual well being. It’s during those times that we become worn down and tired. There has be an intention everyday to be in the Word and in prayer. We cannot help others if we ourselves are in a spiritual famine ourselves.
My experience has been similar, when my walk with God is lacking, my selfish nature shows pretty quickly. There is not any helping others at that point, it will completely lack any sort of sincerity. In fact when I am distant I cannot stand to hear anyone at all, any measure of grace is miles away. But that is how I can tell that God’s love is flowing through me, I do not have any fake love running in me. If it isn’t there it isn’t there and that means I need to pray about whats going on in my heart, and humble myself before Him.
Serena, thank for the reminder of 2Corinthians 4:8-9. We always want to be aware that God is with us through our counseling. He will equip us for what we need to say. We always want to glorify God in what we are saying. Allow God to be the counselor.
Be aware of self-help books. They are not from God. My brother once listened to Tony Robbins. I tried to explain to him, that this man could not help him. Only God could. Finally, he got it. He is now a believer and reads the Bible instead. Thank the Lord!
I agree Velma and Jeff mentioned this in his podcast. Self-help books are sometimes disguised as Christian books and people accept what is written because it was in a Christian bookstore. These books cause more harm because they do not point the reader to Jesus Christ as the answer.
Exactly, I am sure that everyone has already heard the best way to spot a counterfeit is to be exceedingly familiar with the real thing. It works with money it works with the word.
Thank you for these 4 purposes for us to jot down and remember who is 1st and why. I completely agree that we too need counsel, someone pouring into us. I think that modern Psychology has made it so that counseling is only for the “weirdo’s, psychotic or deeply depressed” but that is simply not true.
It reminds me of 2 Corinthians 4:8-9
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
Sometimes we too need counsel, some Godly advice and encouragement.
The Lord is always the counselor & we put HIS vessels. Waiting to hear from HIM, being equipped and asking for the Holy Spirit to lead us and give us guidance and discernment. I am looking forward to what you spoke about Jeff, when you talked about the gifts of the Spirit.
Serana, I couldn’t agree with this more! Our only objective in life is to only be used by Him. As we serve in Christ we overlook the spiritual encouragement we could be sharing with ourselves, pastoral staff or fellow believers. Yet the are always seeking to encourage others, we can be an encouragement to them as well.
Thank you pastor Jeff for the summary reminder.
It’s both depressing and liberating thinking about the influence of humanistic psychology especially in Western culture. I recently resigned from a position as a CBT therapist. Humanistic psychology fails to go to the heart of the human condition – our need to repent of our sin and our need for a saviour – the Lord Jesus. In other words it fails to point out that we are incapable of saving ourselves!
But, perhaps, worse than that it can cover over our failures and gives them names that excuse our failures; once more hindering us from turning to God in repentance and receiving the forgiveness, grace, mercy and sanctification that only He is capable of offering.
Ann,
When you were a CBT therapist did you see any change in spirit from the person being counseled? I am asking in a general sense, and just have a curiosity to know at each sort of counsel how people respond. It is was a great summary podcast for us to keep into our fore fronts the purpose of Biblical counseling.
Dear serena great question. I should be clear that when counselling I was working with mostly non Christian’s or at least it was in a secular setting. And that I worked mostly but not exclusively with anxiety “disorders”.
Were there changes in peoples thoughts and behaviours? Absolutely. Most definitely.
But here’s the problem. Secular counselling never goes to the heart of the problem.
In my opinion it offers superficial modifications, but it doesn’t indeed can’t change the heart or core beliefs that a person holds about themselves. Only God can do that.
Also the standards by which it offers change are mans truths which are completely relative. Gods truth is absolute.
Specific example. The world says social anxiety is a fear of judgement so the solution is to think better of yourself.
God says fear of others is a snare. Pr 29.25. And that as a believer we are to no longer fear the judgement of others. 1 cor 2.15. Instead we are to have a healthy reverential fear of God. Pr 9.10. So one points to self the other points to God. I hope that’s helpful.
Ann-Louise,
I am sorry my response is so late. Thank you for sharing, you are so right in the fact that secular counseling never goes to the heart of the problem or hurt that the person is dealing with. Thank you for including reference scripture as well.
In the secular work place it can be difficult for a Christian. I applaud you for placing your beliefs over the secular workplace. Praying for God to use you in a powerful and life changing way.
thank you I really appreciate your prayers Donald.
I commend you on this change you have made. You are so right when you say that the worldly counsel can actually make us feel that we have an excuse for our failures. There is no excuse, there is only one answer and that is our need for a Savior and the healing mentally and physically that only He can give.
I completely agree! Well said