Bill Gillham
Founder of Lifetime Guarantee, an
Exchanged Life discipling ministry in Fort Worth, Texas
“…I heard you refer to
obsessive/compulsive disorders on your radio program. 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?”
Would you throw up your hands at how to
help this woman and send her to a “professional”? That’s what I felt like doing, even after I’d
completed my doctoral studies in counseling.
I knew what the textbooks said, the techniques and procedures to use,
but I also knew that the success rate for treating folks who were struggling
with this behavior was far from encouraging.
I would have felt helpless, hopeless, inadequate.
Her problem is not uncommon. So what would you do with the woman who wrote
this letter? Would you see her problem
as light years beyond the abilities of a pastor or layman in the church?
Okay, let’s say that the therapist we
refer her to is a believer. Since he
knows Jesus, is even perhaps on the church staff, the therapy will be
Christian…or will it? Does a Christian
mechanic use Christian oil and grease?
When we use the word Christian
as an adjective, we imply the skills and techniques – even the results – of the practioneer are Christian. This is a mistake. Ever used a “Christian mechanic” who left a
lot to be desired as a craftsman? It is
better to describe him as a “mechanic who is a Christian.”
I would have no problem using the
services of an unsaved, skilled, orthopedic surgeon to set my fractured
hip. When I submit myself to his knife,
I’m more interested in his surgical skills than his theology. But submitting myself to a counselor who uses therapy developed by
the minds of lost mentors is dramatically different. “Christian” counseling must counsel the soul
with techniques generated by the Spirit of God; counseling which is not
Christian counsels the soul with techniques generated by the spirit of this
world. Attaching scripture to such
counsel does not make it Christian in that the goals of these two therapies are
diametrically opposed. Holy Spirit-led
therapy seeks to lead the soul to abandon all hope in personal strength unto
total reliance upon Christ’s strength, while secular therapy seeks to lead the
soul to greater autonomy (alas, even with “God’s help”!).
Biblical counseling seeks to lovingly
cut the believer’s fleshly water supply off and lead him to tap into the
“rivers of living water” (Holy Spirit) within; the world’s therapy seeks to
prime the flesh’s pump to get it “flowing” again. Biblical counseling is simply a matter of
discipleship. This hurting sister must
give up trying to be “in control” and “walk in the newness of life” which is
hers in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:4); she must learn to experience her new
identity, that she is “a new creature” in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).
And who is best equipped to help her
discover this? The “professional” who
seeks to help her “stand on her own two feet”?
No, my friend…this dear, hurting woman needs to discover the marvelous truth
that Paul discovered…”when I am weak, then
I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). God’s strength through her weakness can be hers by
appropriating the “life [that is] hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians
3:3). This dear sister needs to be
discipled. She does not need to learn
self-help skills to overcome her behavior.
A “discipler” with no world-system training, but who experiences and is
able to disciple others into experiencing God’s rest (Hebrew 4:1), is the
therapist who can lead her, by God’s grace, into this victory.