Counseling

 I majored in "Family Counseling" because I believed that I could help people with emotional problems with some mysterious knowledge that only a trained psychologist would have. That's right: I believed that counselors had secret knowledge which would solve my problems and in turn I could help other people lived functional lives!

However... and there are always many "howevers", there is no secret knowledge nor magical exercise which anyone has which can fix life for any person! I use the term "fix" because those who seek counsel have a broken something, be it spirit, pride, finance, relationship, family, sexual activity, or many other possibilities. Most often, broken emotions which need fixing are systemic. If one area of life is broken, most often most facets need fixed! For me the system which needed fixing was the family. My family was dysfunctional primarily to one member being drug dependent. Because one member was broken the entire system required fixing.

When a person counsels there are four possibilities: 1) self, 2) others, 3) evil spirits or 4) God. Respectively, these four are:

SELF: Psalm 5:10  "Destroy thou them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels..."

 OTHERS: Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly

EVIL SPIRITS:  Chronicles 10:13  "So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to enquire of it; 14 And enquired not of the Lord: therefore he slew him...."

 GOD: Psalm 33:11a "The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever..."

When people do self counsel they do what they want to do!

Proverbs 21:2  "Every way of a man is right in his own eyes..."

This is the easy way! If it feels good, do it! Where could a person possibly go wrong? The answer to that is "consequences".  There are always multiple paths in life and most people take the wide path. It's the one with the least restriction, at least perceived as such! When people want something the propensity is to steal. It takes resistance to not steal. Taking that of which the person has not labored is the easy path.

If one wants sex, the easy path is to look for those as willing to give as you are to receive. That path is wide and has always been. People of both sexes have a propensity to pleasure with another. Ask enough random people and soon a willing partner will be found. The hard path is to develop a righteous relationship and then engage in Holy Matrimony. Nowadays, that's the path least taken because it's too hard. The easy way is to tell oneself "It's alright! Go ahead and consummate without the commitment!" Furthermore, any unrighteous act is the easy path which most people take, but there are consequences!

Any sin compounds the ease in which the next sin is precipitated!

1 Corinthians 5:6b "Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?"

Leaven represents sin. When a person sins "just a little" the whole is leavened. The person then lives in iniquity. When one yields to temptation there is a problem with the lump being leavened throughout:

 James 1:14 "But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."

Therefore, sin is the result of counseling oneself! Sin is the easy route and the path of least resistance. In mathematical terms: Sin = Interest x Resistance.  Therefore, for Sin to remain constant, when interest increases, then resistance decreases! Another way of saying that is with Sin as Interest (temptation) increases our Resistance to Sin decreases! It's the V=IR (voltage = current x resistance) equation for our potential to sin! Self-counseling is unwise! That's why we are to develop relationships with mature Christian mentors!

Sometimes we counsel with others! There are two types of counseling when a second party is involved. It's righteous counseling and secular counseling. For the most part when others counsel it's from a secular standpoint. I have even heard Christians when married couples are in conflict, who recommend divorce. Although the Christian is the counselor, the counsel may not always be wise nor righteous!

Many turn to Ann Landers, Dr. Phil or even Laura Schlesinger. Wise counsel is not the hallmark of any of the three or any of the others. Dr. Dobson offers the best media counseling and even he has some secular propensities, for instance, self-esteem!

Ann Landers is "the ungodly" as Psalms warns against! Most often Ann Landers will advise against scripture. The path she counsels is the path most taken. It's the unrighteous path. In her view same-sex marriage is normal, shacking up is acceptable, fornication is practice for marriage, abortion is a mere solution to an unwanted person and on and on! People who seek the advice of Ann Landers may not be sick before, but certainly may be after doing what she says. This type of counseling is more entertainment than a science!

Evil spirits come from some counselors. They are called in Psalms "familiar spirits" because although angels of the dark, they disguise themselves as loved people who are trusted. Many people go to mediums and psychics for advice. Others perform or delay daily activities based on their horoscopes. Others use Ouija boards to speak with those relatives now gone.  Scripture warns against any counseling with familiar spirits:

Leviticus 19:31 "Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God."

Taking advice from the netherworld is not only stupid and irreverent to God, but it's dangerous. Who comes to you with a gentle voice and pleasant smile is likely an evil impostor of your deceased loved one! He or she will give you what sounds like wisdom from ascended masters, but it's a message from the devil which will eventually damn you.

The only other option for counseling is God. What he wills for you is to be found in scripture. No other process, method or model is needed. God is sufficient. This type of advice is called "Nouthetic Counseling" and means that one teaches from Holy Scripture what to do in life. It's not scripture and psychology (called Christian Counseling), but counseling solely from God's word. There are those even in the Christian community who disregard biblical counseling as incomplete because they see the need for secular aspects. I believe a mix between psychology and nouthetic counseling as being syncretism because there is another god before God involved in that a mix of counseling which places the secular over the Christian, or at least a side-by-side in an heretical mix!

I'm not saying that all psychology is heresy, because much of it is commonsense. However, I believe you'll find that the commonsense aspects are biblical as well and such practice should come from scripture, not from Freud, Jung, Skinner, or the hundreds of other non-Christian psychologists with their own ideas to what makes God's creation tick! If we want to know what makes the creation tick, we should ask the Creator what causes the ticking... and the mis-ticking!

When we're born there is an instruction book. It not only tells how and why humans were made, but what our purpose in life is to be. It tells how we can go wrong and how to fix it. It's author is the Inventor and Builder. The Doctor is his Son who has the same vein of knowledge that the Father has. The Good Doctor confers with the Builder for us and he fixes what goes wrong with what he built. This instruction book has information not only on how to fix us, but how to avoid going bad or breaking. The reader of this book, if he believes, will live a long and happy life! To avoid premature failure and extinction the wise reader of this book will take care to honor the Builder and his Son.

The reader of this manual will cleanse himself with the miraculous fluid offered by the Son. Although the cleaner is red, it cleans white as snow and once cleaned, a new lease on life is the result. Those who read and trust the instruction manual can provide many years of service. That's the readers major responsibility. He loves his work, his cohorts and his Builder. He cares for all three as he would himself and by doing so, he gets the benefit back.

Those who fail to use this manual, are doomed. It may be that they rust-out because they don't follow the wise instructions it takes to insure a long life-cycle and an eternal endurance. Those who counsel on their own, by others who mislead, or malevolent forces do so at their own peril. Be warned! Take precaution! Follow the manual!