Covenant Ministries of America​

Psychology is a gift and tool given to us by God to help other people. Jesus is called Counselor and said specifically that he came to heal the broken hearted. Furthermore there are more than a few examples of Jesus asking questions of others throughout Scripture. And sometimes he asked these questions to test people in order to help them to see where they were at in their own beliefs and thoughts! Jesus did not ask these questions in order to learn information from them, because he knew what was in their heart. The scripture says that there are differences of administration but its all of the same spirit who manifests wisdom, knowledge, faith, prophecy, etc through a person who desires these expressions of the love of God.

 

I've made no secret to my professors and to my fellow Christians that the reason I'm taking psychology is to combine what I know in Scripture with what I'm learning in psychology in order to better help people. And frankly, one of the main groups I want to help are those in church because there are thousands who want help and aren’t getting it, although that is starting to change. Often we throw out these pat little spiritual answers and make people feel condemned, shamed, or guilty for their emotional distress or psychological disorder. In worse case scenarios, we have accused innocent people of being stubborn, rebellious, or practicing witchcraft because they didn't change (or obey) according to our time schedule, or what we perceived as Gods time schedule. I've seen it happen more than once and it grieves me to no end.

 

Those of us in Christian, especially Pentecostal, circles have often been guilty of trying to force supernatural miracles on everything related to mental health. Nothing wrong with miracles, we all need them. Yet what's needed most for healing of the heart and mind, is someone spending long periods of time , sometimes months, with an individual to gently and compassionately lead them from suicidal depression, an anxiety disorder or some other issue, to a place where they can function normally in life. That activity is as much a work of God as praying for and seeing a blind person healed and having their sight restored. Its as much a work of God as prophesying, preaching, feeding the poor, and other works of ministry.

One form of psychological therapy is called cognitive behavioral therapy. I won't go into detail on that, but I will say that it is completely compatible with Romans 12:2 perfectly, which says be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Transformation of thinking and behavior is a process, its not instantaneous, which is another reason why we are encouraged to grow in grace, in Christ, and in love. (1 Peter 2:2; Eph 4:15; 2nd Pet. 3:18)

Growing in anything takes time, which requires patience on the part of the helper/counselor/pastor. I do believe that we have something called the fruit of the Spirit for just such situations. Something called long-suffering, kindness, gentleness, love.

You know, all that boring stuff that takes an investment of time on the part of the helper. (sarcasim intended).

Yet we try to demand perfect obedience almost from the time a person is born again, often not considering their lifes experiences that they bring with them as new believers. That is a little bit like giving the car keys to a baby 5 minutes after he is born telling him to go down to Taco Bell for dinner and feed himself. People who have been abused as children, bullied in school, abused wives, those with autism, or intellectual impairments; these all come to Christ as they are not as we wish them to be. Their behaviors may be a challenge but their hearts desire to be whole and complete is not much different than anyone else. 

 

I befriended a man in Galena,Illinois who born with an intellectual impairment, and who wanted piano lessons. At first I was a bit anxious to give him piano lessons because he seemed too angry and strange in my mind. But as I gave him lessons we would have talks about his life and interests. He had an encyclepdic mind in terms of music history. He knew who played which instrument in a band from the 1940's or any other era. I also learned that his poor self image and esteem were due to years of being ridiculed and rejected for his "retardation" as he put it. I came to believe that he was very intelligent but just processed things at a slower pace than others. He didn't ask to be born that way and certainly didn't ask to be treated so cruelly. I was able to encourage him during the time we spent together and helped view himself in a more positive light regardless of what others said about him. That man became on of my best friends until he moved back east with his family. He used to berate himself because he grew to believe what others said about him. He didn't like thinking that way and tried to stop but didn't quite know how. This was before I took any psychology classes, yet I was still able to help him. It just took some patience, kindness, and a belief that he was much more valuable than he viewed himself.

 

The gift/tool of psychology combined with God's wisdom can help those who are stuck in Romans chapter 7 when they are struggling with the same thing Paul did, "The good I want to do I don't do, yet the bad I dont want to do that's what I do." (ROM. 7:15-19)

Yes we can say thank God that we have victory through Jesus Christ.
But if we're going to be honest we know in our own life and in the lives of many other people that sometimes this victory never becomes a reality for them because it takes more than saying I have the victory. The word victory implies some type of effort to obtain this victory. It often takes gaining some understanding of why we do what we do and then applying the promises of God to that situation. Yet by applying the promises of God to a psychological dysfunction, we're simply doing what's done in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. We are empowering/teaching others in developing new thought patterns to change dysfunctional behavior. That may be over simplified but It's not really that complicated nor is it anything to be feared.

Again, if we will be honest, we know that, whether we go to a professional counselor, pastor, or whatever, there are times when we don't have answers for ourselves and we need help from other people

. 
Then we have the much more serious cases such as serial killers, domestic violence cases, and people who have been abused so badly as children that they develop what's now called dissociative identity disorder.

Additionally, there are cases where people develop brain tumors, experience brain trauma, or their brain was never fully developed at birth. There are psychologists that do research in cases like this to try and understand how the brain works to help future generations and to help develop therapies that help people have some semblance of a normal life.

If Jesus came to heal the broken heart and then said the works that I do you will do also, then it makes sense for Ministries to care about the psychological (mental) health of people.

 

Personally, I think every church should make it a requirement that their members watch a movie called , ‘A Beautiful Mind.’
It's a true story about John Nash, who had genius IQ yet developed schizophrenia. It was no fault of his own it was inherited apparently; a genetic disorder that is a real physical malfunction of the brain. It’s not demon possession in 99.9% of these cases. If someone is going to go with a diagnosis of demon possession, as the cause of an isolated case of schizophrenia, then they better be 150% right and hearing from God on that one or they will do more damage than good. 
In John Nash’s case, he didn't receive a miracle healing per se, but received help through the patience and love of his wife and through medication that enabled him to function normally.

 

I could write much more on this subject, but that's enough for now. I'll share more later as I set up more lessons.