by Enrique Zapata
How should we advise? How do I determine and ensure that my council is the Council of God? In other words, how can I give the right advice for a given situation? To answer these questions, the article provides three fundamental factors that every counselor must consider when he does his homework: the dependent nature of man, the standard of measurement, and theological systems.
The seriousness of the problem is manifested when we think that we are God’s representatives and that not only will the counselee be judged for handling the situation, but we, the counselors, will also be judged. The truth is that if the person follows our advice, it will affect his entire personal life, as well as his relationship with God and with others, and this influence can persist through the years, and even into eternity.
So how should we advise? How do I determine and ensure that my council is the Council of God? In other words, how can I give the right advice for a given situation?
The man, a dependent being.
We must understand that, from the beginning, man depends on the advice or information he has received to make his decisions and thus live. God made man as a creature dependent on external revelation or communication. If we examine human life, we find that the way we live is very little determined by our instincts and is almost totally determined by our environment (family, friends, culture, etc.) and by our perception. The problem is that, many times, that information and that training are deficient and lack truth and wisdom. This means that the person is not in a position to relate and behave correctly with himself, with God, with others or with his environment.
It is not, as some assume, that God has already placed in man all the necessary resources so that he only had to discover and develop them.
We could say that sin entered man because he followed attractive, albeit false, advice and rejected God’s advice.
Since then, a great battle has been going on for the heart and mind of man, to see if he is going to be independent or dependent on God and His counsel.
But how should man live in dependence? In essence, he must do so according to what Jesus stated in Matthew 4:4, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” The importance and depth of these words are of great value to us as counselors. Satan prompted Jesus to take the problem into his hands and solve it with his own resources. This would have produced the defeat of Jesus. Instead, He depended on God and His Word (order, advice, teaching, etc.). With this, Jesus taught us that a person’s own life depends on God, on what God says, and not on what one can do for oneself or material things. In the real problems of life, the Devil encourages man to face the problems and solve them by his own means, which would result, figuratively, in man having his bread, but without life.
Many counselors today, had they counseled Jesus, would have said, “God gave you the ability to solve that problem. So he uses that ability and fixes the problem for you.” Any advice that leads man to solve his needs or problems independently of God and his plans implies rebellion and is diabolical in its essence. Yes, many times it provides satisfaction or a temporary solution but, in the long run, it hinders life. In Isaiah 50 (a chapter counselors should study using multiple versions), he says in verses 10 and 11: “Who is there among you that fears the Lord and listens to the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and lean on his God. Behold, all of you kindle a fire, and surround yourselves with torches; walk by the light of your fire, and of the torches that you lit. This will come to you from my hand: you will be buried in pain. God directs the person who “walks in darkness”, who “has no light”, to trust in the name of Jehovah and lean on his God, and not to light a fire, which means to make his own light or solution to remove the darkness or the problems in which it is involved. When a person or counselor fabricates his own solutions and follows his own advice, God tells him: “This will come to you from my hand: you will be buried in pain.”
That is why verses 4 and 5 speak of the servant of the Lord receiving from Him, every day, the tongue of a wise man and wisdom to be able to advise people who are in different situations. This passage speaks of the importance of the servant of the Lord being in an intimate communion with the Lord, receiving from Him, every morning, the appropriate instruction. “The Lord God gave me the tongue of the wise, to know how to speak words to the weary; he will wake up morning after morning, he will awaken my ear to hear like the wise. The Lord God opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, neither did I turn back.” Obviously, the great key to being a Christian counselor is daily learning the words of the Lord.
But God’s ways and advice are often very different from ours. The Christian council should not be called that if it does not learn or agree with the Council of God.
There are those who say, “but all truth comes from God, no matter what the source.” While it is true that all truth comes from God, not everything that others call truth really is. Right there is the deception. This is where we, as Christians, have to distinguish between real truth and crooked, partial, or deceptive truths, which have the “appearance of wisdom” but are not (Col. 2:23).
On many occasions we are too ready to accept anything, just because doctor so-and-so said so. However, we laugh at the Christians of other centuries, who held that the world was flat, saying that if they had read their Bibles they would have believed the opposite. But they had simply accepted as true what others claimed to be scientifically true. Today, we proceed in a similar way in many areas of counseling.
Measurement pattern.
All truth must be approved by the quality control that is the Word of God. When a concept or theory contradicts the Word of God, we first have to make sure that we are correctly observing, interpreting and applying the Word of God, and that we are not falling victim to traditions or misrepresentations in biblical interpretation.
Second, when we are sure that we are correctly interpreting and understanding what the Word of God says on some subject, we must be faithful to the Word of God and measure every idea and concept with it. One cannot be faithful to God without being faithful to his Word, rejecting everything that contradicts God, however interesting or pleasant it may be.
Third, we must be very cautious with theories, novelties and speculations. Each new psychological school offers new explanations and solutions, but another one soon emerges to criticize it. “All flesh is like grass, and all the glory of man is like the flower of grass. The grass dries up, and the flower falls off; but the word of the Lord stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:6-9). We must not reject science, but learn to examine everything, retaining the good. (I Thess. 5:21). That requires a conscious and constant study of the Scriptures, in order to have a firm and adequate frame of reference, a guide that marks what is right. It also requires exercise “for those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil” (Heb. 5:14). There are many Christian counselors who spend hours and even years studying some school of psychology, trying to learn it for later application, but spend little time studying the Bible, God’s manual for man’s problems. There are some who, assuming that the Bible is not good for studying engineering, assume that the Bible cannot be claimed to be good for studying psychology either.
Here is a fundamental question: what and to whom does the Bible speak? Does it only speak of spiritual truths that have nothing to do with the life of man? No, it was precisely given to develop and form man.
“All Scripture is inspired by God, and is useful to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in righteousness, so that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly prepared for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:16). It is true? Yes! So what does this verse teach us?
The Scriptures are inspired (guided, controlled) by God and are useful (the proper instrument).
What is the end? May the man of God be perfect (mature, emotionally healthy, complete, with all his parts well adjusted), fully prepared for every good work (fit and able to be used).
As it does? Indoctrinates and teaches the principles of life. It convicts and convinces of the mistake, makes the person admit it, correct himself, straighten up and stand up. Instruct in justice, discipline and exercise for a righteous life. What does this verse teach us? That precisely the Bible was given, inspired, by God as a guide and instrument to teach man how to live with God, with other men and with himself. In other words, the Bible is man’s instruction manual. In it we find everything that God considers necessary to bring man to function properly.
Our problem as counselors is that, in most cases, we do not study it properly, which results in the inability to advise well. It may be that we have learned many truths from the Bible, but very little about how to apply them. We need to study them in light of their application and begin to develop a whole practical theology of counseling, go back to our Bible and study it for how to use it in this ministry.
Theological Systems.
We could say that there are two ways of studying the Bible (or theologies): horizontal theology and vertical theology.
HORIZONTAL THEOLOGY
truth, truth, truth,
Here we see an accumulation of truths, side by side, with little application.
THEOLOGY
VERTICAL
TRUE
App
practice
On the other hand, here, in vertical theology, we see that studying theology is not a mere accumulation, a mere collection of principles, but that the truth is followed by its immediate application.
For example, horizontal theology develops that God is holy, pure, separated from sin; this is seen, in the Old Testament, in the way the Tabernacle was built, etc. On the other hand, vertical theology studies that God is holy, and that being so –apart from evil– he is not going to help us to do evil even if we pray asking for his blessing on our own paths. Or also, since God is holy (He is away from evil and will never think of doing us any harm) we can trust…