January 01

Testimony Time:- What are the main differences between Pastoral Care, the Healing Ministry and Christian Counseling and what are the basic principles that should underlie Christian Counseling? Pastoral care stems from the need of a shepherd to care for the sheep by ensuring they are fed through the duty of care. The duty of the Pastor does not stop there because it also involves the need to allow their dependence on his/her care during the time of trouble. His /her goal would be to place value on the flocks through care and where need be, to restore their body either by preventative and or prescriptive method so that they can be nurtured back fully into healthy functioning disciples. The laws established by God to govern human nature are flagrantly transgressed. As a result, sins set in and dependence on God’s attributes falls low. Life loses value as sickness sets in due to ill health. People also die young. Every Christian Ministry operates in the world that is viewed as sick to offer every hand that seeks relief succor in the area of the physical and Spiritual essence. The Healing Ministry in any Christian assembly therefore operates under this umbrella. Christian Counselling offers advice and encouragement based on the Words of God in an attempt to repair the present. The Counselors often needs to probe the past before meaningful advice can be given with regards to setting goals, resolving conflicts and also to explore the effects of psychological problems on any part of an individual. Mainly, their jobs also include restoring and resolving disputes between people. Although, these attributes are similar and also interwoven by nature. In Christian Counselling, there are some basic principles that are necessary for their success. Prominent among them are the need to know the overall process of salvation as it is carried out by the chief counselor which is the Holy Spirit. This will enable the client/counselor to deal with the complex nature that some cases may bring from time to time. The Bible offers so much insight as to how to go about it using just one Personality in the Bible in the name Jesus Christ. The root cause of the difficulty must also be identified in order to assist the client to overcome the issues with faith. This is because all counselling needs can be traced to some basic requirements such as need for love, security and the problems associated with low self- worth. The person also need to be taught about how to grow in his personal relationship with Christ and build faith that points to the fact that with God’s help, the problem has been overcome. Not only that, the client must be encouraged to take responsibility for his actions without blaming others for his/her low esteem or by simply reacting to what they do. Everything should be put into the care of God without murmuring. The client must also be assisted by taking the act of faith further by receiving the empowerment of the Holy Spirit through baptism because such move helped the disciples to effectively move into the supernatural realm and trust God beyond anything they are yet to experience. This was after they received the baptism of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. (Acts 2:4) Faith is required to be baptized by the Holy Spirit and the client must first of all be convinced in his own mind before this can be achieved. Above all, it is common that most client come into therapy totally caught up with the problems of this world like fear, abuse, addiction, rape, depression to mention but a few. They are to be taught the Biblical principles to overcome these problems. Specifically, it must be mentioned that it is impossible to overcome the lies of this world and the problems associated with it using his /her flesh or imagination. The needs of the client must be ascertained because without this step, a long time resolution cannot be assured because this same problem can re-assert themselves in another form. We have seen cases of addicts changing from one form of addition to the other because the root cause of the addition has not been diagnosed from the beginning; as a result, it makes eradication very impossible. However, all these stronghold of Satan can be replaced with the eternal truth of the Lord Almighty through prayers. More importantly, as Counselors, you need to have undergone counselling skills to be able to offer any assistance in this regard lest issues become more complicated. By and by, as counselors, you are not immune from receiving counselling as well because oftentimes, the job itself can throw issues that may require help in certain areas to the Counselors. Bibliography Aspects of Biblical Counselling- Tim Wilkinson Holy Bible- King James Version Faith Therapy by Dr Reiner Christian Counselling- Ellen G. White Publications Http://testimony-times.blogspot.co.uk http://timetoreachmyheart.blogspot.co.uk Just Checking into His Presence..