THE FULL COUNSEL OF GOD, Part 3: War and Deliverance
Dr. William Wattenbarger, The Joy House Counseling Center, January, 2025
In Part 1, evil was presented as fact; it is the antithesis of good. It is personal; it bears the name of Satan. He is purposeful and powerful; he acts with intent to deceive and persuade. He is perverse, calling good, evil, and evil, good. Lying is his game.
Part 2 suggested ways the Enemy uses to tempt us away from God. It only takes a well-crafted lie to deceive, or perhaps a willingness to be deceived. We humans have been given the knowledge of good and evil. We are, by design, moralcreatures, caught in the battle between truth and lies.
In this Part 3, we discuss Christian Counseling as deliverance, which is spiritual warfare. But first …
Humanistic Psychology. What is widely known today as just “psychology,” is the legacy of humanism: “man is the measure of all things.” It is the world’s answer to spiritual needs without an almighty God. It is said that only man has the authority to define good, evil, true, false, right and wrong. The purposes, goals and methods of counseling are limited to the philosophies and cultures out of which they emerge. Morality becomes a system of socio-cultural mores. In this theological void, anything goes. Answers and outcomes become fluid.
Consequently, our image of counseling consists of the ways and means of humanistic psychology. Generally, one seeks counseling expecting empathy, advice or techniques to solve problems or feel better, or to placate someone else who thinks or mandates that we should. Counseling takes on the recognized forms: insight or psychotherapy, information sharing, values clarification, meditation, medication, and behavioral changes. There are many skill-training approaches for improving communication, coping, emotional release, anger management, anxiety reduction, negotiating, self-advocacy, self-care, marital bliss, assertiveness, boundary setting, etc. etc.
These techniques can be helpful as far they go, but without the benefit of transcendent morality, leaving one spiritually exposed to the Enemy of God. Moral relativism is precisely the “big lie” which is the focus here.
Biblical Psychology. Christian Counseling is founded on the biblical view of the mankind and the world he lives in. The moral domain is solely God’s, as is all correction, counsel and deliverance. God desires a close fellowship, sometimes described as a “union,” with mankind. Rest for the human soul is only found in Him. Given that humans are assaulted by evil players in subtle ways, how is this deliverance to be delivered? What part does the counselor play in it? What will it require of the client?
God’s Character. The really good news is that God can be known! Scripture reveals God as more than a lawgiver. He, like the devil, is personal and purposeful. Unlike the devil, God is righteous, holy and all-powerful. He is the essence and the origin of everything that Satan perverts. Other vaunted titles of God include Creator, Father, Word, Redeemer, Sustainer, Provider, Guide, Counselor. Other attributes of God include loving, enduring, long-suffering, gracious, forgiving, restoring, sovereign, wise, merciful, just, and so much more. These are more than propositions for our agreement and consent. They refer to His substance, His essence, the “stuff” He consists of. Miraculously, He reveals Himself to us in words, WORD and Spirit.
The Bible also reveals God as Spirit and Truth (just ask the Apostle John). Those who worship Him must do so in spirit and truth. TRUTH is spiritual and personal in the same sense that Jesus is the WORD. They live, transcend, exert power, accomplish purposes and uphold absolute morality. We can call this, God’s will: that His character and blessed sovereignty be absolute and manifest in the whole of His creation and the lives of his beloved.
God at Work. The entire Biblical record from Genesis to Revelation reveals God’s unbroken pursuit of mankind. We know God in this great record. The Scriptures are not fiction, they are history. The writers were witnesses and heirs to His mighty works. We have their testimony. In this testimony we find laws, promises, and prophecies for the ages. We can know how God works! We can know the things He has done and promises to do! And much more.
We can know His heart for us, His desire for us, His reasons for the choices He makes and the things He does. We know His very Spirit because He is with us. Jesus teaches and heals and restores us because it is His Father’s will. He dies for us and He lives again – for that too is His Father’s will. He stands before the Father as our advocate and commissions the Holy Spirit to guide and empower us in our Father’s service. God will not be satisfied with our mere escapes from hell-fires; He wants us holy in His own righteousness. He chooses us, as the body of Christ to our generation, to build His Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
Deliverance.
Christian Counsel purposes to help the client move ever closer to an experience of God’s Presence in the context of their own experience.
Many words have been written in this article so far. The reader probably already “knows” all that has been said about God’s character and work. These truths are in every devotional guide, sermon, Sunday School lesson, Bible reading, and book written by a Christian. We, as Christians, know these truths, they express our doctrine, but do they express our experience? As doctrine they serve little purpose. As a validity check on how our fellowship with God should be, they are priceless. If these words have not become OUR testimony, we have missed their point.
Deliverance is to be rescued from captivity. Jesus came and the Holy Spirit was given to set free those who have been held away from God by Satan. We read about deliverance from illness, demons, false doctrine, and even death. Deliverance from sin and uninspired living may not recognized; these are called salvation and sanctification.
Salvation. Christian counsel purposes to free the captive client from the chains of crippling guilt. If a client struggles with sin and guilt, the job becomes evangelical. Salvation is the work product of what God has done for us through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Counsel goes to conviction, confession and repentance. There is no magic and it cannot be scripted. The counselor is there to witness real redemption by a real Redeemer. Making God’s forgiveness realmay take time and require arduous exploration of the underlying transgressions. Making it “easy” or quick would be the devils’ do.
Sanctification. Christian Counsel purposes to install Spirit-filled living to the saved. After salvation, sanctification starts. One must be actively surrendered and in pursuit of God’s presence in one’s life. This is when all doors are opened, the Holy Spirit moves-in and the Savior becomes Lord. This is where surrendering and submitting become the clients new way of life. This is when the biblical witness becomes the clients witness and God’s Truth becomes their story.
Spiritual War. Christian Counsel purposes to edify the Church; to energize God’s delivered children to the building of His Kingdom of Heaven on earth. This is the reason for the war. Satan is defeated by the indwelling Holy Spirit! But God is not done. He has bigger ideas. He is building a kingdom on earth as in heaven. The purpose of the Holy Spirit is to provide manpower to this process. His people are essential to this work and He delegates His authority to them for it. One must identify with Christ’s building His Church. Challenging? Dangerous? Joyous? Yes!
Greatest Hits.
What follows is a loose, somewhat random, assembling of observations and favorite teachings. They are offered prayerfully in the hope that the reader might see or hear a new thing.
Much of the Bible’s advice for daily living is given to describe what life is like when one is saved, sanctified and enlisted in the Army of God. They serve as a kind of self-evaluation, “how am I doing?” Sadly, the great revealing of Scripture is too often missed or converted into a gigantic, uninspired to-do list! A dear friend calls this “Christian Performance Anxiety.” It’s exhausting.
When asked why Christians complain that their lives are not as blessed as they should be, another friend, and mentor, quickly answered, “Well, Bill, they haven’t been filled with the Holy Spirit yet.”
As a counselor, I’m not here to win an argument. I chafe at proof-texting. This practice fails because it replaces the WORD with words. If one does not already share in the experience, the words do not carry the meaning out of which they come. Proof-texting verges on shaming, “you should know this already …”
I prefer Beatitudes. Jesus began His great sermon with a description of a frame of heart and mind which is necessary if one is to understand the rest of the sermon. These Beatitudes include humility, a painful awareness of one’s moral poverty, modesty, a desire for righteousness, mercifulness, a pure heart, peacemaking, and a willing acceptance of persecution when it comes. Know anyone like that?
God sent His Son out of compassion. There is no condemnation in Christ. Start each day fresh with God and then get to work. Enjoy!
Discipleship is not doing all the things we are told church-people do. Discipleship is not a study or program. Discipleship grows directly out of a desire to follow, listen, pray, serve, give, witness, minister, and endure.
In his letter to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul uses the image of the armor of God. We are told that our war is not against our fellow humans but against spiritual powers, principalities and authorities. We are also told that salvation, faith, righteousness, preparedness, Truth and the Holy Spirit equip us to stand against the designs of these enemies of God (spiritual warfare).
In Galatians, Paul gives us a picture of our new selves in Christ. When the Holy Spirit enters in, He brings a full basket of perfect fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. God gives us His character to feast upon. We cannot grow these for ourselves. They only come when delivered by the Holy Spirit.
In Philippians, Paul gives the most beautiful rendition of how he chooses to live his life in Christ. (Verse to verse, Philippians may be the most quoted work in the Christian Bible. I advise my clients to read this Book regularly and out loud.) In his closing, He says, “whatever things are just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous or praiseworthy – meditate on these things.” Now, that is good advice! These are another reflection of God’s character in us.
Jesus says we should judge not or else be judged likewise. This translates right down to the sin of fault-finding. Fault-finding may well undercut more Christian witness than any other sin. Charles Stanley called fault-finding, “sand in the shoes.”
We are to forgive 70 times seven. That means always. Who does that? It takes a Holy Spirit to forgive everyone, everything, every time. But that’s the deal. To release the grievance is part of being born again! The past is replete with abuse, and so is the future likely to be, but right now (in this moment), the Holy Spirit is passing through. Stop complaining or you will miss him.
We are told to take up our crosses. This is usually taken to mean we must be willing to suffer, and so we must. But that is not all it means. Jesus’ cross was the instrument of suffering by which our sin debt gets paid. Our cross is that instrument of suffering by which our lives and deaths become redemptive for others. It is part of our witness. Not all suffering is the same.
Pray. Pray in your closet. Pray constantly. Without prayer we are on our own. Start with an appeal to the Father in glory and ask that His will be done. This is the spiritual war. All the weapons in this war are deployed by prayer. We must be right with God or things just are not right.
When we see/do something God wouldn’t do, or hear/say something He wouldn’t say, rebuke it! That’s the Devil. That’s spiritual war.
Take care how you say things. The Devil is in the grammar! God gives every person a direct line. Do not allow our thinking (language) to position anything between yourself and God. Nobody else can prevent your experience of God, except you let them! Love the Lord, answer His call, and all things will work out as they should (Romans 8:28)