The Biblical Christian Counseling Model declares that the only way for lasting change and the overcoming of addictions is by having an inner transformation that changes the individual from the inside out.This transformation begins with surrender to God through a heart-felt conviction of HIS Holy Spirit exposing the reality of sin in the person’s life.
Unless there is recognition of one’s own inner poverty and spiritual emptiness and a desperate outcry to God to fill that emptiness, the transformation process does not take place and the person will go deeper into the addiction or change only superficially while manifesting a different expression of the addiction.
An unsurrendered person, that is, a person who believes he can still control his substance use, or life for that matter, without relinquishing it to God, may stop the abuse of drugs or alcohol and believe that he is recovering on his own. This can be done without ever coming to terms with one’s own spiritual state, which includes all issues pertaining to the mind, will, and emotions. In such cases, although there may be a ceasing of the substance abuse behavior, no underlying spiritual transformation may have taken place.In that person’s deeper spiritual, emotional, and thought life, they retain the same destructive patterns, or strongholds that led to abuse or addiction in the first place. A behavioral makeover, without an inner spiritual transformation including a humble contrition and deep awareness of one’s own poor choices and behaviors eventually ends badly.
The Biblical Model in Contrast to the Disease Model
The Disease Model of Alcoholism was formulated by medical doctors who tried to take into consideration the genetic, psychosocial, environmental, pharmacological, and physiological factors in order to explain what alcoholism is.The need for a scientific model, to explain alcoholism, or any other addiction, is strongly felt in the medical community. No matter how often the disease model of alcoholism has been reformulated by scientists who limit themselves to the material realm while disregarding the reality of the spiritual realm, it never becomes a complete model based on theory that passes all the tests of scientific proof.Without taking into account the spiritual realm, which is largely beyond empirical measurement tools limited to our five senses, we are left with masses of results that defy explanation and often get swept under the rug. By eliminating the spiritual realm, many researchers and counselors in effect eliminate what has historically been shown to provide the greatest effectiveness in the recovery process from being considered as therapy tools.
The causal elements of the Biblical Model are:
1)The existence of sin as a causal gateway to the initial problem.The causal sin could be either caused by a perpetrator or received by a victim. If neither perpetrator, or victim turn to God for relief, neither will receive it, unless God sovereignly gives it.
2)God will allow the development of a state of deepening bondage (known as a stronghold rather than a disease) to form from which it seems impossible to escape on one’s own power to bring the individual to their wits end making them ready to receive His grace and redemption.
3)A state of spiritual bankruptcy accompanied by a feeling of inner emptiness that shatters all other attempts at denial is the place where most people need to go before they are ready to surrender their lives to Christ.
4)Followed by an outcry of one with a broken and contrite spirit for Jesus Christ to forgive, deliver, heal and restore.
5)The role of the counselor is to help the individual through this initial process and continue to help providing biblical wisdom and guidance along the way in to a future to spiritual, mental and emotional maturity.
The Problem with the concept of Sin and Treatment of it
The reason why the medical disease model is not acceptable to Biblical Christians is because it tends to do away with the reality of sin as an important component in addiction lifestyles and remove responsibility to make better life decisions from the individual.If we remove sin and responsibility all together, the road back to recovery is perilously limited.
There is a great misunderstanding about what the biblical concept of sin is and how it is part of the causal effects of substance abuse and addiction.The great misunderstanding is the idea that the bible gives us direction as to how to live a sinless life, it spells out what sin is so that man should know how to live.It is in the next sentence that the error occurs:Therefore, some fundamentalist groups steeped in unspiritual religious legalism proclaim that it is now up to man to choose and live a sinless life and pull himself out of moral degeneracy.The fallacy of this misconception (largely held in society as the Christian view by people who do not know the Bible and have not nurtured a personal relationship with Christ) is that the Bible does not tell us that it is up to us separate from a personal relationship with God and HIS power to live a sinless life.In fact, the Bible does tell us how impossible it really is for anyone to do so without a daily surrender to Christ as both our Lord and our Savior.
The Need for an Underlying Spiritual Transformation
In this life we have we to choose which way we will walk and who we will trust.Some people choose to walk their own way and trust themselves only.They believe that they can pick themselves up by their own bootstraps in a way that will bring lasting recovery.This belief, according to the Biblical Model is doomed to ultimate failure because it puts the human intellect in the place of God and attempts to do only what God can accomplish.
The Biblical Model says that unless a person is given new life by God, he/she will not have within them the power that is needed to break addictions.People must turn to a power greater than themselves in order to enter in to the spiritual transformation process.
The Biblical Model warns of the existence of many powers greater than the individual and of the fact that many such powers do not have the quality of benevolent love toward the individual that God has in mind.Therefore, the individual should call upon the “Highest Power,” not who they conceive that power to be but who the “Highest Power” conceives HIMSELF to be.The bible says that God’s ways are higher than our ways, and HIS thoughts are higher than our thoughts.Unless a person is humble enough to admit that his own concept of God may not be big and powerful enough to break the bondage in his life, he/she will still be in the driver’s seat, driving in the wrong direction.
The Initial Surrender
When people finally come to their wits end, they come to the largest crossroad of their life.One direction leads to ultimate death and destruction and the other to eternal life, including recovery and abundant life in this life.At this crossroad if the choice is made to surrender to God, the “Highest Power”, in the name of Jesus Christ, a new spiritual dynamic takes place in the inner person.The Bible says that the person’s spirit is reconnected to the Holy Spirit and new life begins to flow.It is because of this new life that now lives within the surrendered person that the spirit of love, power and a sound mind begins to move and regenerate the person from the inside out.
A New Addiction in Christ
God created man with an innate dependency upon HIM built in.So long as man lives his life dependent upon God for spiritual nutrition, his soul (which includes his mind, will and emotions) thrives.However, as soon as man disconnects himself from God, the spiritual nutrients cease from flowing and his spirit begins to whither.In this condition man becomes a soul without a spirit to lead him into the truth and the restorative power of God.Having a dying spirit and being disconnected from God, a person naturally turns to other things to put in the place of God and function as the driving force of his/her life.The person is deceived into thinking that he/she can find fulfillment by turning to other things that may meet their felt needs for a season.Things like casual relationships, drugs & alcohol, shopping, gambling, seeking riches, fame, the approval of man, or any other thing (seemingly good or bad) that can be used to take the place of God, become the driving motivations of life until they lose their appeal and have been exchanged for the deep inner emptiness of a God shaped void.
The Bible says that all addictions that do not sow to the spirit ultimately end in destruction and death, but the one addiction that sows to the spirit brings abundant life and life everlasting.The Bible describes the spiritual dynamic that takes place deep within when we confess that we are hopeless sinners and ask for God’s provision for our redemption into new life.God’s provision for the redemption of man cannot be comprehended by our carnal human intellect; only our God given spirit could comprehend the truth of it.This provision is laid out in the gospel of John, which says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life." John 3:16
What we believe or do not believe in life carries huge spiritual power.It is believing in the work that Christ did on the cross, namely, sacrificing His life for ours, that brought about the spiritual dynamic of the Holy Spirit and His overcoming power entering our spirits and giving us new life starting from the moment we first believed.
From that moment of our first belief, we got hold of the only addiction that God intended for us to have, an intimacy with the person of Jesus Christ.It is an addiction giving us a new life in Him and His new life in us.
At this moment of new birth, we are re-attached to the source of life that we have been alienated from all preceding days of our lives. Now the nourishment of God streaming through our soul gives a dynamic of overcoming power we never had before.However, this new connection with the person of Jesus Christ needs to be maintained daily. If it is not maintained daily (if HE does not become our new addiction), it is possible for us to fall back into old addictions that take us out of God’s light into places of old darkness.Those places of old darkness may be our old alcohol or drug addiction, casual sex partner addiction, gambling addiction, spouse abusing addiction, child abusing addiction, shopping addiction or any other addiction that would ultimately destroy our lives and the lives of those around us.
Therefore, with this understanding we surrender to Christ and turn to His guidelines on how to live and promises of redemption from our addictions and blessings for our new life in the future.We read His book and find out about the plan that He has specifically for us as He begins to speak to us through it.
The Central Significance of Bible use in Christian Counseling
The strength of the Biblical Model is found in the Christian’s belief that every word of it understood in the context of the whole bible is true, inerrant and infallible.The Christian receives it as the impartation of God’s truth and the only reliable plumb line to measure against their thoughts and feelings that are often unreliable for making decisions as to what actions and behaviors to take through life.
The Description of God
Unlike other religion’s holy books, it does not describe God as the cosmos into which we ascend, or comprised of the pantheistic idea of many gods, but instead we see in the Old and New Testament, the Judeo-Christian concept of God the Father.Only in the Judeo-Christian Bible is HE shown as the all powerful, all knowing, omnipresent, benevolent God who created us as an object of His love, and knows the condition of every hair on our heads, every cell in our bodies, and every thought in our minds.Unlike other religion’s gods, in spite of our sin, the Judeo-Christian Bible describes our God as the Almighty One who offers forgiveness and restoration to all who turn to Him and humbly receive the Messianic promise of the Old Testament, and the Messianic fulfillment of the New Testament.Unlike the god’s of other religions, HE alone wants to commune with us and has a plan for our lives if we turn to HIM.HE does not call us to a militant martyrdom, though devoted Christians have been martyred because of being persecuted for their faith.HE does not command us to read HIS Word and live it out in our own power.No human being can do that.But HE gives HIS Word (the Bible) to us as a mirror to show us how far we have fallen from who we were created to be and how impossible it is to live a holy life. But HE also shows us in HIS Word that with HIS life working in us daily HE gives us the overcoming power to live a life pleasing to HIM and the power to take any of us out of even the deepest of bondages.Though our lives are never perfect this side of heaven, our faith in HIM covers a multitude of sin and puts us in right standing so we can have relationship with HIM.It is through this relationship that deliverance healing, recovery and character development come.We can love God and walk in HIS ways because we get to learn that HE first loved us and empowered us to walk in the light and out of whatever bondage held us captive.
The Conveyance of God’s Promises
A Christian Counselor who knows God’s Word (the Judeo-Christian Bible) has access to the promises of God that are crucial if one stuck in addictions of any kind is going to have the hope of lasting restoration.
The following promises and many more are given to those who enter in to a personal relationship with the Messiah who was prophesied throughout the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New Testament:
We are adopted as sons and daughters of God.
We have inherited a legacy of blessing.
We have been given the power to overcome our addictions.
God has a plan for each of us.
He transforms us from the inside out.
He delivers us from evil.
He gives us inner peace and joy.
He strengthens us through trials and tribulations common to all mankind.
He provides for our every true need.
He exposes our sin and restores our soul (mind, will, and emotions)
He exalts us when we humble ourselves.
His power is strong enough to deliver us from the most severe, long lasting, and deepest of addictions.
To those who turn to Him and determine in their hearts to walk uprightly He promises victory through the difficult battles of life.
He promises the giving of spiritual gifts effective in helping others who desire to turn to God and be delivered and restored from their addictions.
He reveals to the person coming out of their addictive lifestyle the true identity they were created with and destroys to old self-image that kept the person in bondage.
He reveals their true purpose in life.
He puts a new uplifting song in their heart.
He takes us back to all the places of our shame and turns them into His glory.
The promises listed above just scratch the surface of hundreds more imparted through study of the scriptures.The important thing to understand about this aspect of the use of the Bible in counseling is that through the interaction between the Holy Spirit led counselor and the person he/she is counseling, a beautiful spiritual dynamic is taking place that is not found in secular counseling.This dynamic starts in a room containing three persons:The person needing counseling, the counselor and the Holy Spirit.God’s promise to the counselor who knows the Scriptures and has the Bible living in his/her spirit is that He will guide the counselor and bring to his/her awareness the things that need to be said during the interaction between them.God will not leave the one coming to HIM through the counselor in a lurch, and HE will not leave the counselor wanting for the words that God intends to be imparted.
Counsel more accurate than the best of human wisdom
This kind of counseling that relies upon the trustworthy leading of the Holy Spirit in conjunction with the living Word of God is able to reach and break the power of the deepest inner strongholds caused by the wounds that we encounter through life.The intellect that God has given us is a gift from God but many tend to abuse it by putting it into the place of God.The counselor must understand that no matter how good we think our intellect is, it cannot take the place of the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit who works in conjunction with the intellect properly and humbly submitted to God.
When the counselor has nurtured a rich prayer life and enjoys intimacy with Jesus Christ (which the Biblical Model sees as a requirement to be an effective counselor), the Holy Spirit is always present as a guide in that counselor’s interaction with the person he/she is there to help.The counselor understands that cookie-cutter counseling theories and techniques do not offer the depth and fullness that the ministry of the Holy Spirit does through the counselor who trusts in Him.
Revealing the Problem
While secular counselors believe that it is up to them to discover the issues of their client based upon the knowledge they accumulated through a humanistic education process, the Biblical counselor knows that the Holy Spirit reveals the true problems in the order that they are most needed and able to be resolved.As the Holy Spirit surfaces the problem through the interaction between counselor and client, He reveals aspects of the person’s life that only God can know about; aspects that are unique to the individual and go beyond the limited understandings that personality theories can provide.
The Case of John:Receiving the Truth that set the Captive Free
When the Holy Spirit reveals the problem and the true issues in a person’s life, He also reveals the key truth that will set the captive free.An example of this dynamic is seen in the case of John who had a problem with alcohol.In counseling, John told the counselor that over time he felt his wife distancing herself from him and didn’t know why.As John spoke of his relationship with his wife the counselor allowed him to discuss all aspects about his feelings pertaining to their relationship.At one point John explained to the counselor that he feared that the same thing that happened to his parents leading to their divorce would happen to him and he would lose his wife.The counselor knew that the Holy Spirit was surfacing the existence of a pivotal stronghold that needed the application of God’s healing power and truth.
Now that the counselor and his client became aware of the stronghold that gave power to the despairing mindset that kept the person in bondage and alcohol abuse, they began to pray together to break the power of that stronghold.If the truth of scripture were to be applied without first the revealing of the problem and prayer to break the power of it, the sharing of the God’s Word as it applies specifically to the client may have fallen on fallow ground and not taken root in the person’s life.But the Holy Spirit through the prayerful counselor applied the power and insight that was needed to break the stronghold. The insight and wisdom of God’s Word, transcending even the best of human wisdom, took root. A process of recovery emerged with a transformational effect that may not have taken place any other way.
The counselor began to reveal truths of scripture to his client that the person never new before.By the leading of the Holy Spirit, he revealed the biblical truths that:1)Love is an action given unselfishly and not just a feeling. 2)A critical spirit poisons a relationship but kind words restore it.3)It’s a good idea to not let the sun go down on our anger.4)It’s a bad idea to worship a spouse in the place of God.John learned from the counselor the scriptural truth that if God is in the first place of worship by both parties to the marriage, than God binds them together in a more certain and steadfast love than even the best love of a godless marriage can do.
In John’s case, the counselor, moved by the Holy Spirit, shared these specific scriptural understandings with the client.The focused prayer broke the power of the stronghold containing the lie that the same thing that happened to John’s parents was destined to happen to him and there was nothing he could do about it.With the power of this lie broken, he was able to do something about it and not repeat the generational divorce pattern passed down by his parents.
The focused application of scriptural truth, pertaining to John’s specific need, laid a foundation of truth that John could stand upon and live out in his future.John and his wife grew into a deep intimacy with one another, and John put alcohol out of his life.
Personality Theories and Counseling Techniques
The shortfall of personality theories and counseling techniques taught at colleges and universities today is that they could never pin point and reveal the specific problem the way that the Holy Spirit can.Still, professional Christian Counselors are required to learn the same theories and counseling techniques as secular counselors.Many of these theories are intellectually creative, interesting and useful for organizing people into theoretical categories.These theories are diverse and often conflict with one another making them more of an art form than a science.Above and beyond the twenty or so historical theories of personality commonly taught at the college level, there are thousands more being generated every year by doctoral candidates who are required by their dissertation committee to produce original research that generates new theories.
These theories can be confusing to the counselor who desires to know which knowledge is going to be most helpful in the establishment of their counseling perspective.Most secular counselors deal with this ever-increasing confusion by becoming “eclectic” and picking whatever theories fit their belief system for the moment.If truth is relative, which it is not, this method would pose no problem.However, the fact is that many of these creative theories, though they are intellectually stimulating, not only oppose one another, but the Word of God as well.
To the Christian counselor, the Word of God is fact, not theory.The Christian counselor knows there are certain unchangeable principles of life that are dependable and apply to everybody. Unlike the fleeting changes of mind found in human thought, the Bible says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.His principles for healthy living and recovery from addiction never change even though new symptoms, diseases, mental illness categories, prescription drugs, new programs, models and theories continue to appear.God’s prescription for inner healing, addiction recovery, and lifestyle change, applies to everything pertaining to man’s mind, will, emotions, soul, and spirit today as well as it did 2000 years ago.
The Solution provided by the Biblical Model
The central motivating force of a person’s life must change from scrambling to feed an addiction to being nourished and fed through a relationship with Jesus Christ
Read and meditate upon the Word of God (the Bible) for the renewing of your mind. The Bible will shed the light of God’s truth upon those places within you that have caused destructive and distorted beliefs and lead to the changing of inner attitudes that have kept you in bondage. For example, the deep-seated notion that one is doomed to repeat past failures is changed to, with the power of Christ who strengthens him, he can do things he has never been able to do before. Another example is the notion that says he will never amount to anything. This can change to the thought that now he is a man with new purpose and direction trusting God to lead him in the way he should go. As we read the Bible daily, we give God Himself the chance to speak to us about our own lives.
Seek more of God in prayer and ask Him for direction and wisdom.
Humble yourself and discard foolish pride.
Do not escape difficult periods of life until you have a peace and a release to go through another door. It is in our difficult periods of life that God works on us the most.
Seek fellowship with others who are also on an upward journey seeking more of God in their lives.
As hard as it may be, the person who is on a recovery journey and seeking more of God in their life needs to distance himself from people who have no desire to seek God and would want to pull the person back into an addictive, self-centered lifestyle.
Find a wise counselor or friend who you can trust to whom you can make yourself open and vulnerable. God will use this friend to speak much needed truth and healing into your life.
Be honestly accountable to godly friends who care about you.
Forsake all pretense and image building activities. God exalts the humble but resists the proud.
Trust and obey God. Do not go ahead of Him or lag behind. Do not try to manipulate your circumstances or the people around you. In prayer seek to know where HE wants you and seek to remain in that place until HE has completed the work that needs to be done on you for that season. HE is the author and finisher of our faith. HE is the potter and we are the clay. The clay does not tell the potter how to pot. We must be still on that potter’s wheel and know that HE is God.
We must take captive our thoughts and bring them in line with the truth of God’s plan for our lives. We get to choose what we meditate upon, will it be on the seemingly hopeless mess we made of our lives or will it be on the plan that God has for our lives?
