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Counseling 101

" . . . I heard you refer to obsessive/compulsive disorders on your radio program," the woman wrote. "That's a problem I have. I feel that I must spin around precisely three times and flip the light switch once before leaving the house, especially when I'm nervous about something. Do you think you can help me?"

Dr. Bill Gillham, described this incident in his article, What is Christian Counseling?*, where he expounded on how we can best respond to most cries for help. Basically, Gillham wrote, there is no way to really help this woman using the typical worldly methods which would only make the soul feel more in control. But, rather, he recommended simply proclaiming God's way through the Spirit of Truth - and set the person free from themselves to find their true identity in Christ.

Read Luke 4: 18-19 (Amplified), when "The Counselor of All Counselors" came to the moment to hang out His shingle for counseling and said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the good news to the poor; He has sent Me to announce release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send forth as delivered those who are oppressed [who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity], to proclaim the accepted and acceptable year of the Lord, the day when salvation and the free favors of God profusely abound."

Counseling 101 is about hiding in the Spirit of Truth and delivering the good news to any person trapped in dysfunctional behavior. It is about, (1) preaching the good news, (2) announcing release, (3) delivering the oppressed, (4) proclaiming God's favor.

In the workplace, people are drawn to a person whom they feel has it together, someone who can actually smile and present a positive outlook in most circumstances. Consequently, as a leader, you may find yourself in a position of "counselor" to those with whom you work and you become the dumping ground for mountains of problems.

Here are some guidelines:

1. Never become someone's source of decision making!
2. Find a way to support without sheltering.
3. Learn to share without interpreting.
4. Demonstrate caring without becoming the caretaker.

1. Recognize that she has no right to sit in the chair which only God is to occupy.
2. Claim her death in Christ at Calvary (Galatians 2:20), and that she has no right to be in control.
3. Appropriate her identity in Christ, relaxing in the security of His unconditional acceptance of her.
4. Begin to look to God, rather than to her feelings, as her barometer of truth. (This woman is allowing a part of her that can't even think to control her.)
5. Recognize that Satan is controlling her by feeding obsessive thoughts to her mind, using first-person, singular pronouns.
6. Appropriate Christ's indwelling life, trusting Him to express His Life through her to face Monday morning. (Will Christ have to obey the obsessive thoughts from Satan's agent, the power of sin, to spin around three times and flip the light switch before "feeling secure" enough to leave the house?)
7. Begin to renew her mind that she is resting in Christ's strength and ability, not in hers.

Ellene Meece lives in Meeker, Colorado and works with her husband in their natural resource company while running her own online store, Grandma's Treasures Online. Currently, she oversees the marketing for the FMIN Workplace Leaders Network.

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