When considering a 'pentecostal approach' to pastoral counselling, two considerations arise. First, Pentecostals are ministry-related, and so 'counselling' in a Pentecostal setting will be overwhelmingly church-based rather than clinical. Secondly, to ask about 'pentecostal counselling' is to pose the question, 'What is the role of the Holy Spirit in the counselling situation?' This is a subject which is fraught with considerable difficulty because of the paucity of credible material to draw on.1 Most of the Christian writers who attempt to deal with the issue of counselling or therapy in the context of revelation and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit have eventually settled into either a doctrinaire position that cannot be distinguished from mere personal opinion, or an inflexible methodology that tends to contradict their intention to be led of the Spirit.2 As a result of this reduced field, this paper focuses on personal and biblical observations on a number of case studies.3 I have attempted to overlay this with an acknowledgment of current and historical attitudes to counselling and therapy as expressed by the various emergent schools of psychological thinking.
Only one thing is finally proved by this paper-the impossibility of dealing with an issue of this magnitude in a paper of this extent. It is obvious that an idea of this importance should be expressed more extensively and empirically than this paper will permit. In the absence of a major book on the subject, all that can be done here is raise a signpost pointing the way to a type of therapy and counselling that may supplement or substitute for much modern accepted practice, even in the Church.
Introduction
The necessity of providing professional counselling within the context of a local church or a Christian ministry is a relatively recent development. While this function has occurred in the historic churches for a considerable time, and within Evangelical churches for a generation or so, it is quite an innovation within most Pentecostal churches, particularly in Australia.
In fact, until very recently in the Pentecostal setting, counselling by professionally-trained psychologists or psychiatrists would have been anathema. It was seen as an intrusion of a worldly process into the Church at best, and an invitation to possible demonic activity at worst. Even the use of para-professionals on a church's staff was hardly more acceptable. Almost all counselling of church members was done by the local pastor, despite the lack of any specific training apart from his or her theological or pastoral studies. Pastors, merely by virtue of their office and calling, were expected to be able to meet all of their parishioners' needs, regardless of whether these were emotional, psychological, physical or spiritual.
Consequently, there have frequently arisen situations of desperate need that failed to receive effective attention or treatment. There is little question that people in modern societies experience emotional or psychological trauma or deficiencies that need to be addressed carefully and correctly. A trained counsellor is likely to be more effective in devising an adequate process for the situation than a local pastor untrained in the understanding of the deep needs of a 'client'.4 When the busy and diverse life of a local pastor is taken into account it is likely that a specialist whose time and energies are focused on those needing counselling will usually provide a better service.
Despite this, it should be noted that there have been many pastors who have been able to assist emotionally-troubled people to recover through both their preaching and pastoral ministry. The power of the word of God, the facilitation of personal prayer, as well as a compassionate listening ear coupled with wise advice, have often worked wonders in restoring people to emotional equilibrium. However, this has often been due more to intuitive factors, or the pastoral wisdom gained through experience, than to deliberate preparedness. Part of the task in the developing a field of 'pentecostal counselling, then, is not to dismiss this background, but to provide holistic models continuous with it. This means taking seriously Pentecostal understandings of human nature, and the continuance of spiritual gifts in the body of the Church.
Spirituality and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit's guidance and wisdom also needs to be taken into account in understanding why pastors without professional counselling qualifications may be effective in releasing people from emotional distress or bondage. It is this part of the minister's spiritual equipment and experience that I wish to explore in this paper.
In 1996, Dr Dan Montgomery, a Christian and a licensed clinical psychologist, spoke of his vision for the future of the interface between pastoring and psychology:
Let me share my personal vision for the role of the church in the Twenty First century. I foresee a worldwide movement among churches that emphasises the principles of God's psychology. Pastors will be equipped with adequate training in life span psychology and therapeutic counselling. Licensed Christian counsellors will serve on church premises. Small group ministries will abound, favouring a dynamic model of personal encounter, confession and prayer. Pastors will preach about the connection between spirituality and personal growth.5
While this glowing vision of the future holds out much hope, it is also vital to acknowledge the extent of emotional and psychological need existing in Australia at the present time. A report in the Sunday Telegraph (November, 2000), noted that there was a long way to go before this visions was realised in Australian society:
The popularity of antidepressants in Australia has tripled in the past decade, now rivalling the US, new research shows. The enormous national increase was second only to Sweden. The study published in the latest edition of the Medical Journal of Australia compared local sales to seven developed countries between 1993 and 1998.
Sweden had the highest reliance on antidepressants based on population, followed by France, Australia and the United States, Canada, the UK, Germany and Italy. More than eight million prescriptions were written in Australia, up from five million in 1990. Depression has risen from the 10th most common problem treated by GPs to the fourth. More than half of the sufferers were women.
Study co-author, Peter McManus attributed the enormous increase to the number of people now recognised with the condition. "Previously depression had been reported as under recognised and under treated", he said. "The increase is far more likely to reflect a greater awareness of depression with patients being more comfortable about coming forward for help, and doctors, particularly in general practice, being more willing to provide it," Mr McManus said government and community campaigns had reduced the stigma of mental illness.
The 1995 Australian National Health Survey showed the number of people reporting depression had nearly doubled compared with the earlier survey in 1989-90. Professor Gordon Parker from the School of Psychiatry at New South Wales University said one in 16 Australians met the criteria for clinical depression."6
This dismal picture underlines the necessity for developing a means of ministering to the emotionally disturbed, the dysfunctional and the depressed in order to fully carry out the ministry of Jesus. Pentecostals fervently believe that Christ's words are as much for today as for the first century:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.7
In this first declaration of His ministry mandate, Jesus specifically attributes His supernatural ability to the empowering of the Holy Spirit. He also established the type and parameters of His ministry-setting captives free and healing broken hearted people. One translation states that He would:
send forth as delivered those who are oppressed, who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity.8
The scope of this paper, then, is to explore the possibility of spiritual therapy that is dependent on supernatural knowledge, and is coupled with the power of the Holy Spirit to bring about rapid or instantaneous change in a person who could be classified as an emotional or spiritual captive. What would the goals of such a ministry be? The following suggest themselves:
1 To restore a person to their full function and potential.
2 To uncover the cause of psychological or spiritual damage
3 To reveal God's purpose for the client's future.
4 To supernaturally equip the counsellor.
5 To manifest the glory of God in the therapeutic situation
6 To achieve true repentance and relationship with God.
Two kinds of knowledge.
Although there is obvious merit in many of the emotional therapies that have developed over the past century or so, my focus in this paper is to enquire into a type of ministry to emotionally needy people that is dependent on supernatural resources. It is clear that the general type of knowledge used by most therapies may be defined as 'sense knowledge'. All that any human knows of him/herself, others and the world around comes through utilising and reflecting on data provided by one or more of the five senses. These are the optic sense (sight), the otic sense (hearing), the olfactory sense (smell), the tactile sense (touch), and the palatal sense (taste). These unique facilities make a person 'world conscious', and in respect of counselling, they provide valuable information to the counsellor about the client.
For example, a counsellor may visually observe that the subject is restless, ill at ease or perspiring. His hearing sense may detect a tremor or strain in the voice that might be an indicator of tension or stress. The subject may recoil from the counsellor's compassionate touch suggesting that they are uncomfortable with either the counsellor or the environment, or that they may have had negative experiences with the touch of others. Yet while this information may be relative to the needs of the client it will not provide empirical knowledge to the counsellor.
All of our natural consciousness comes through these senses and the Lockean reductionism underlying most therapies frequently reduces humanity's relationship with God to this level. If He cannot be seen He is not to be believed.9 Even biblical knowledge can be reduced to the level of sense knowledge-that of learning, logic, indoctrination without the actual experience of God, or a relationship with Him.10 But a Christian epistemology must hold that theological study under the impulse of the human mind alone is both dangerous and an aberration of genuine truth. If it is true that God's Word cannot be effectively received apart from His own delivery of it into the human mind and spirit, such a Christian view points to the idea that divine knowledge would be profitable to the counsellor.11
Distinct from the knowledge derived from the human senses and the ability of the human mind to process that information through logic, correlation and analysis there is another kind of knowledge available to the Christian counsellor that should be defined as 'revelation knowledge'.
When a person is born again their spirit, which was formerly dead to God12 begins to function again, and its various faculties are progressively restored to a correct operation, energised and directed by the Holy Spirit.13 Without a correct understanding of the various parts of man's nature the ability to exercise the faculty of revelation consistently or effectively will be impeded. Underpinning such an understanding is, of course, an anthropology, which among Pentecostals holds that human individuals are made up of three major parts-a spirit, a soul and body.14
Body (soma)
In my pastoral experience, this area of life tends to dominate most Christians, and there is a consequent effect on their ability to receive revelation from God. Their life is attuned to the desires, feelings or needs of the flesh with a concentration on circumstances, symptoms or visible effects. The body does not, and cannot live in the unseen and visionary realm of revelation. If it does not see or feel a thing, then it does not perceive or believe. The body is motivated by the immediate and the temporal as interpreted by its five senses. This creates an effective enlightenment epistemology, regardless of the intellectualised belief that may be held by a person 'about' God and His nature.
Soul (psyche)
The mind of man is not the source of revelation either. It is the arena of logic, analysis, rationalism, will?power or emotions. It is in this area that human thinking (which Paul refers to as 'fleshly' thought) as opposed to spiritual thinking is generated.15 The soul must be carefully controlled if the person is to truly be open to divine revelation.
Spirit (pneuma)
It is in this area of the human personality that divine revelation occurs. The redeemed spirit of man contains three primary parts and it is by the development and expression of these faculties of the spirit that, in the Pentecostal schema, revelation from God is conceptualised as being received and utilised.
These faculties are: Fellowship, Intuition and Conscience. In brief these areas of the human spirit function together to enable the receipt of divine insights that will assist the Christian counsellor to subject the function of his worldly-oriented body and mind to the ideas of God.
Fellowship with God through worship, prayer and submission to His known will results in a developing love and confidence toward God.16 This environment then produces sensitivity to God's mind that is assimilated into the human personality as intuition. This kind of knowledge is divine revelation and is the very foundation of a Christian's life. Jesus said that "revelation" is the rock on which His Church is built.17 Out of fellowship with God there comes an understanding or revelation of God's purpose and strategy that will enable the counsellor to transcend his mundane abilities of analysis, deduction, correlation and reason.
While all of these activities are legitimate and necessary they are limited without being enhanced by revelation. The third area of the redeemed spirit is conscience, the arbiter of what is the highest and the best, rather than a worldly dominated mind (or common sense). The conscience bears witness to the truth and judges what is right and best rather than merely producing condemnation for anything deemed wrong.18 In a redeemed person the conscience should either caution or approve the direction to be taken or the counsel to be given. The key to the function of revelation in a Christian counsellor's ministry is the development of a keen sensitivity to the heart of God and His desire for the person being counselled. The Psalmist suggests that anyone who establishes vital communion with God will receive revelation. God Himself will provide the worshipper with His desires and will impart His plans into their heart.19 Paul told the Roman Christians that they did not even know what to pray for effectively, but the Holy Spirit enabled them by praying through them according to the will of God.20
Having recognised this facility within a redeemed personality-whereby God acts to impart knowledge that transcends the five senses of the human body-it is necessary to demonstrate the supernatural components of this revelation.
Biblical Case Studies
In the main, the Bible seems to indicate that two supernatural charisms of the Holy Spirit are given to enable those who depend on Him to minister to the emotionally troubled or oppressed. The first is the Gift of the Word of Knowledge.21 This is defined by Horton as: "the supernatural revelation by the Holy Spirit of certain facts in the mind of God".22 The biblical narrative makes it evident that the point of such a revelation is that the one receiving it could not otherwise have access to those facts by normal processes of observation and learning, at least at that time.
A superlative example of this supernatural enablement is evident in Christ's conversation with the Samaritan woman. "You have had five husbands", he tells her, "and he whom you now have is not your husband."23 This immoral woman was a case study in dysfunctional behaviour. It is more than just interesting that Jesus did not engage in regressive therapy, guided imagery, or empathetic counselling to uncover the point in her past where such deprivation occurred that she would now seek to compensate for it. Nor did he employ the techniques of transactional analysis by urging the woman to love herself, or discover the hidden drives of her inner life.
Instead, He supernaturally exposed the main issue in her life, and this very discovery was the means by which she was set free from a repetitively destructive lifestyle. Supernatural knowledge applied to her situation became the means of restoration. She could have tried to convince herself that, "I'm OK",24 yet until she confronted her true state, there would not be any real or lasting change. The word of knowledge applied to her personally by the Lord Jesus instantly broke the chains of her emotional bondage, and her dependence on serial relationships for temporary satisfaction.
The second supernatural gift is the discerning of Spirits.25 It gives supernatural insight into the secret realm of spirits. It reveals whether spiritual oppression is the core issue, and the kind of spirit that is active in, or tormenting a person who is manifesting some level of unusual or uncontrollable impediment or emotional disability at the time. By this operation of supernatural knowledge or power the true source and nature of any supernatural manifestation, whether divine or demonic, may be discerned. It is not natural insight or discernment, but discernment of spirits.26 It does not depend on the observance of spiritual or emotional phenomena-though such phenomena may exist and bring about the need for counselling situations-but rather functions by revelation. It is used primarily in bringing deliverance to people whose lives have been invaded by evil spirits to the point where they are incapable of transacting their own recovery, even with the help of a skilled counsellor.
Although there are occasions in Scripture when this gift is operated without an accompanying deliverance, it is normal practice in Pentecostal circles for the discerning of a spirit to lead to exorcising it. In some cases there is a need to discern either the type of spirit or its means of entry before it will leave. It should be understood that it is possible to detect the presence of a spirit, and even in some cases to determine its type without the operation of this miraculous gift. However, this kind of deduction does not generally lead to deliverance. The father recognised his son's problem,27 but had to seek a ministry that was empowered by the Holy Spirit before the boy could be delivered.
The Gift of Discerning of Spirits operates not in the human mind, but on the level of spiritual intuition. It is a direct revelation, as with 'words' of Wisdom and Knowledge, it is a partial sharing of God's omniscience. Sometimes the person ministering will become suddenly aware of the name, number or nature of the evil spirits that are controlling or troubling the oppressed person, and be empowered with authority to command that the sufferer be released. This type of therapy may thus cross between two realms-that of inner or emotional healing, and that of deliverance from the activity of an evil spirit.
Contemporary Case Studies
Case 1: Anne
Core to the Pentecostal understanding is that those things which were possible in the ministry of Christ are models for us to follow today.28 Consequently, this study would not be complete without some contemporary case studies. Not only do these act as points of resonance, linking first and twentieth centuries, but hopefully they will provide data for others to use in further research.
While at Bible College, I met a young woman (let's call her 'Anne') who had to leave College before her graduation in order to care for her terminally ill mother. A number of events then occurred in her life within six months while she was still in her early twenties:
· Anne's mother passed away at the young age of fifty-three.
· Four months after the graduation of her College year, she married one of her former classmates (let's call him 'Michael').
· They immediately moved interstate and were both far removed from family.
· They entered into the ministry on a bi-vocational basis. In reality this meant working at two full time jobs.
· Anne soon became pregnant.
However the couple both appeared fairly well adjusted to all of these events, including Anne's grieving for process her mother. The resilience of youth, rather than any specific therapy, counselling or external emotional support, seemed to provide them with emotional equilibrium.
The couple moved house four times in their first year of marriage. Their first child was born the next year and a few months later they moved again, this time to plant a church in a small provincial city. Michael was twenty-three and Anne was twenty-two. There they were strongly resisted by the other churches in the town, including a major literature campaign directed against them. No one attended their new church for three months. Michael suddenly became ill and needed urgent surgery. While all of these events were occurring, they report that they consecutively experienced a number of amazing miracles that caused their church to grow dramatically. Soon after this, their second child was born. All of these events beginning with the death of Anne's mother, happened between late 1961 and the end of 1964.
There is no question that the first two and half years of their married life and ministry were fast paced and tumultuous. They both seemed to be coping, and none of the above incidents could be identified as a cause for the situation that began to occur in Anne's life by the end of 1964. Any professional counsellor would have taken their life style and experiences into account in assessing her emotional distress and growing inability to cope with life. At a superficial level of assessment there was certainly enough stress and challenge to provide a case study. However in retrospect it does not appear that any one of these, or even their cumulative effect, was responsible for the trauma that Anne became subject to.
Although she had experienced some emotional difficulties prior to the birth of their second child, Anne now began to experience panic attacks in which she believed that she was dying, or would die very young. She would sometimes leap out of bed in the middle of the night screaming that she was dying. When she lay down, it felt as if she was suffocating, and the feeling of impending death became so strong that she feared to sleep.
This emotional trauma developed into extended periods of deep depression that eventually began to run into one another until her life was largely controlled by the fear of dying and the associated emotional trauma. At this point it would have been natural to draw the conclusion that she was suffering from clinical depression. A professional would almost certainly have prescribed antidepressants or other medication that would speed her return to a limited level of normal function.
This condition continued and worsened over a period of years, despite the couple's efforts to solve the problem. These efforts included prayer, fasting, counsel from many of the leading Pentecostal ministers in the country, and their faithful perseverance. Like the woman with the issue of blood,29 however, Anne was 'nothing bettered' but rather grew worse. The advice she received from all of the pastoral counsellors tended to be the same: "You should read the bible and pray more". However she was faithfully doing this as much as possible, and yet was not showing any signs of improvement. In fact this spiritual search for a solution may have contributed to the problem. A sense of guilt and unworthiness began to creep upon both of them. They assumed there was something wrong with their spirituality since Anne was not improving despite all attempts to follow the advice of their mentors.
Her condition appeared to be an emotional one but it had a negative effect on her physical life as well. She experienced loss of energy and felt many times as if life was draining out of her, causing weakness and inability to cope with family responsibilities or the care of three young children.
During these dark years no professional counsel was sought except from their doctor, and then only at the very beginning of Anne's unsettled emotional period. There was never any thought of engaging a psychiatrist to assess her situation. At the time this was not an option for a Pentecostal minister. It would have been a clear admission of defeat, and the utilisation of non-legitimate means of treatment among their peers. To their knowledge no other minister in their circle had been treated by psychiatrists, or even professionally-trained counsellors.
They finally reached a point where it was impossible to continue in ministry. Michael was also being affected by the suffering that Anne was enduring and felt personally disqualified from ministry. Since he could not help his wife how could he offer hope to others? He resigned from the pastorate and planned to take a break to try and recover some equilibrium without the pressure of ministering to others. It was at this point of desperation that supernatural help came their way.
At the end of 1969 Anne and Michael attended a Christmas Campmeeting at Burleigh Heads without their children. It was hoped that this change of environment, and a few days of rest, would lift her spirits. However they had hardly arrived when Anne plunged into a very deep depression. She could not get out of bed and did not want to meet people or eat. Michael began to despair about her likelihood of recovery and return to normality.
The speaker at the Camp was a preacher from New Zealand who was functioning in an unusual anointing of the Spirit. Not long before his ministry had been marked by the raising of a man from the dead through the power of God. His preaching ministry was inspiring and significantly different from most of Michael and Anne's ministerial colleagues. His message seemed so charged with power and authority that the effect reminded Michael of the reaction of the people to Jesus ministry:"He speaks as one that has authority and not as the scribes and Pharisees."30
In desperation, Michael spoke to him after the morning session. He said, "I believe I can help her. Bring her to our room after the evening service and my wife and I will minister to her." This was the first time anyone had offered to do more than give routine advice. It was also the first time that they felt that they were dealing with someone who was actually able to do something effective for Anne. He spoke confidently and authoritatively and throughout the day they were both in hope of help.
At the interview, he did not ask Anne or Michael any questions, or probe into her mind seeking for a catalyst of her emotional distress. Instead he worshipped the Lord and then prayed for revelation and supernatural insight into the cause of her condition. In less than five minutes he stopped and said to Anne: "This condition began during the birth of your first child." As soon as he said this both of them suddenly saw that this was the cause of it all. Anne had almost died during that birth process. Her waters broke on Saturday but the baby was not delivered until Monday. As the doctor was anaesthetising her so they could perform a forceps delivery she began to scream, "I don't want to die, I don't want to die."
There was no way that this minister could have known any of this, and his exact pinpointing of the origin of her distress struck them as obviously supernatural. He then prayed a short prayer of deliverance and commanded a tormenting spirit of fear to cease troubling her. Within moments she was completely set free of the fear and depression that had dominated her life for the previous seven years. She was instantly filled with joy and began to laugh, and in these brief minutes was completely restored to total normality.
Anne was later to testify to thirty-one years without a single re-occurrence of this fear or depression. She was delivered by the use of two spiritual gifts-the Word of Knowledge and exorcism through the gift of Working Miracles. 31
Assessing the Assessors.
Anne's situation would have been a classic case for psycho-analysis, or the application of one or more of the prevailing psychiatric therapies. However my reading of the literature on Christian counselling32 has not convinced me that any of the suggested routines would have successfully restored her to full function, either on their own or even in combination. Freudian psychoanalysis with its emphasis on the conscious and unconscious parts of personality and infantile sexual repression33 may not have assisted in this case. The discovery of the origin of her deathly fear by the minister was supernatural. In retrospect it seems that the very supernatural nature of this revelation was at least part of the process of her deliverance and restoration.34
While some schools of psychiatric counselling and therapy overlap or complement each other, some are diametrically opposed to the practices of their former mentors. Victor Frankl, when in a Nazi concentration camp, came to reject the Freudian philosophy that he had been taught, declaring it to be a lie. He noted that even under the most awful suffering from the Nazi experiments on his body he always had a choice. He could seek meaning in every situation, and believed that anyone who could seek purpose (why) was never at the mercy of the (what).
He came to believe that Freudianism was a lie because it was based on the study of sick and neurotic people instead of healthy, creative and effective people. Frankl learned not to go to his memories but to his imagination and conscience.35
One of the major schools of psychological theory is that developed by Dr Albert Ellis of the Albert Ellis Institute. Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is a humanistic, action-oriented approach to emotional growth, first articulated by Ellis in 1955, which emphasizes individuals' capacity for creating their emotions; the ability to change and overcome the past by focusing on the present; and the power to choose and implement satisfying alternatives to current patterns. Among his prominent publications A Guide to Rational Living, and How to Control Your Anger Before It Controls You.36
Recently I had the opportunity to have a number of in-depth discussions with a practicing psychologist who attended one of my Faith seminars. He was intrigued with my teaching on faith, and advanced the idea that much of what I was teaching fitted the (RET) Rational Emotive Therapy and its derivative-(CBT), or the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy models that he prefers.37 Although Albert Ellis, a non-Christian and an avowed humanist developed the initial idea, the psychologist in question felt that it uses scriptural terms and principles by employing the facility of the needy person's speech to modify both their emotions and behaviour.
A highly simplified explanation of this theory posits that if an emotional sufferer can be taught to speak in wholesome and positive terms about their life and circumstances there is a possibility that their attitudes will be significantly adjusted, and positive speech will produce a positive experience. It is based on the idea that getting a person to synchronise their speech with their hopes and dreams creates a positive effect. In this instance using the right speech is key to developing right thinking rather than the reverse. The use of such scriptures as:
A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.38
Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.39
For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile.40
are considered supportive of the idea that behaviour modification begins with modifying the language of the emotionally disturbed or dysfunctional person. There is no doubt that positive speech tends toward a healthier environment and attitude than negative and disconsolate expressions. In the view of the psychologist who promoted this theory to me there is also considerable evidence to show significant recovery of people who have learned to speak what they wanted themselves to be before they could see any evidence of it.
Whilst being a strong supporter of Christians committing themselves to this type of speaking/thinking, I am also pragmatic enough to recognise that there are some people who are incapable of either doing this effectively, or who need another factor to trigger release before they are able to employ positive speech.
Ellis proposes that the human psychological response is predicated on four factors:
A = Activated Event
B = Belief
C = Consequences
D = Dispute
In simple terms these propositions may be illustrated as (A) You kick my leg, (B) I believe you meant to do this, (C) Consequently, I now dislike you. However later on I may be presented with an alternative possibility-the kick was a sheer accident. Now I will need to (D) dispute both (B) my previous belief about the kick, and (C) my attitude, thus restoring my response toward you to normality.
The key to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Rational Emotive Therapy being effective is that the subject can in fact be rational or cognitive about their situation. Wherever the cause is not obvious, or un-explained by new information or responded to coherently, some other means of therapy will be needed to enable the client to respond to the facts.
In the case of Anne, she was constantly exposed to preaching and teaching on faith and right speaking. On many occasions she was able to make faith declarations from the Scriptures, and orient herself towards a positive mindset. However this was ineffective in bringing about a release from her recurring emotional distress or a restoration to normality. The 'panic attacks' would come despite all of her efforts to pray, read the bible or make a positive confession. It is clear now that her situation was outside the range of these means to assist her. She needed a ministry that was empowered by the Holy Spirit to discover the point of her pain, and then supernaturally deal with it through the authority of Jesus' name.
Pneumatic Counselling
Case 2: Obedience
This type of ministry to oppressed or troubled people could be defined as "Pneumatic Therapy"-the application of the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit to release people who are captives in their thinking and emotional behaviour and to restore them to full normal function. It is totally dependent on both the Holy Spirit's revelatory enabling of the counsellor to supernaturally discover the cause and nature of the sufferer's situation, and the empowerment of the counsellor to bring about a virtually instantaneous release. In Anne's case this is exactly what happened. Once she was set free from her trauma and fear of dying she was able to employ a positive speech and modify her behaviour to line up with the scriptural view of herself.
During a long ministry, I have been personally enabled by the Holy Spirit on many occasions to bring about immediate change in the lives of oppressed people through the facility of revelation. One of these occasions was quite amazing to me in that it involved a lady who was a chronic client-a person who had gone from church to church and exhausted every pastor and counsellor with her emotional and spiritual dysfunctionality. She had begun to visit our church and asked to be counselled. On the first occasion that I interviewed her she soon began to exhaust me. The litany of her troubled life was both frustrating to me and filled with hopelessness for her. She had just said to me, "I've been like this for many years and I suppose I'll be like this for the rest of my miserable life."
Right at that point I distinctly felt an impression from the Holy Spirit about something in her life that had never been discussed or even alluded to in any way during the interview. The word "foundations" kept being impressed on my mind so I quietly asked the Lord what this meant and revelation of her situation came clearly to me.
I said to her, "You have never been baptised in water because you have been wilfully disobedient about this issue for fourteen years". She was startled and said, "Who told you?" I explained that I did not know this naturally but that the Holy Spirit had revealed it to me. The "pneumatic diagnosis" was absolutely correct. She had grown up in one of the historic churches but had been converted in a crusade conducted by one of the evangelical churches fourteen years before. At that point she had been confronted by the need for believer's baptism by immersion. Although convinced of the validity of this, she had refused due to her associations with her traditional church.41 She had never connected her emotional state to her spiritual disobedience, but the Holy Spirit brought it to light in a way that psychological methods could not have.42 Within a few days she had been baptised in water, and became one of our faithful and stable members without any manifestation of the emotional and spiritual upheaval that had characterised her life prior to this. It is hard to imagine that any form of psychological inquiry into her life and circumstances would have uncovered the locus of her instability, or proposed an accurate 'cure'.
Case 3: Michelle
The range of 'pneumatic therapy' is not confined to actual counselling or conscious and deliberate ministry. Once this spiritual approach to emotional and psychological sufferers is embarked on it will become increasingly apparent that the counsellor is dealing with, and acting on behalf of He who is called both "Almighty God, and the Wonderful Counsellor."43 The term used by Isaiah to describe the Messiah as one who will provide counsel is specifically and consistently used by Isaiah as well as other writers of Hebrew scriptures to denote the supernatural power which is associated with this function. The word he uses for 'wonderful' is the Hebrew term 'pele' which is used of 'signs and wonders'.44
It is important to note this divine and supernatural activity since there are numerous documented cases of people with aggravated emotional and psychological distress who have been restored to normality by a personal intervention of the 'Wonderful Counsellor'. Among many such cases I have been involved in, that of 'Michelle' (not her real name).
In 1993, Michelle became seriously affected in both her body and mind and her condition was eventually diagnosed as 'anorexia nervosa'. Many reasons were advanced for the occurrence of this disease but each diagnosis was not matched with an effective solution. Despite all the best efforts of Michelle's family-which included hospitalisation, the constant care of a psychiatrist over a two year period, the loving support of her family and ministerial counselling and prayer-she continued to lose ground against the dread disease. The doctors finally showed her that if her BMI45 continued to fall she would certainly die and they gave her a benchmark weight at which point the process to death would be irreversible. However her BMI fell four kilograms below this mark. Her body was like a skeleton and her mind was erratic. She was a desperately needy young mother whose mind was unable to function rationally. She could not care for her husband, her children or herself. They had to leave the ministry because of her condition but even this drastic change in lifestyle did not bring about a recovery. She was only kept in a reasonably passive and stable state by constant medication. By the end of 1994, Michelle was starting to reach out to the Lord after eighteen months of the loss of all spiritual desire. Nothing much was happening at an observable level but she was at least orienting herself to the One who could help her when no-one else could.
In the middle of 1995 my wife and I took Michelle to the Assemblies of God National Conference at which Rodney Howard-Browne was the minister. The tangible presence of God in the meetings was far beyond the previous experience of most people at the conference. During one of the morning meetings the glory of God was manifested so strongly that all human control of the service was lost for about forty minutes. The entire congregation were on their feet in the middle of the preaching, shouting and praising God. It was one of the most significant times of God's manifested presence I have ever experienced.
During this glorious invasion Michelle fell to the floor. No-one had touched her, prayed for her or ministered to her in any way. She was literally under the glory of God for the next two hours. When that overwhelming visitation of God was completed she got off the floor totally healed. From that moment on she did not take any further medication prescribed by her psychiatrist. Her mind was instantly restored to normality, her eating habits were reversed and the body weight quickly came back to normal. Three months later she decided to attend the psychiatrist for his opinion of her. Though a Christian himself he was intrigued with the miraculous change in her entire persona. He told her that she was completely healed and would not need further treatment. He also said that anorexia nervosa is like alcoholism. The sufferer will live with the disease forever and at best they can only control it through medication and counselling. Michelle is living proof of the power of the 'Wonderful Counsellor' to intervene personally in the lives of those who seek Him.
Conclusion
There may be merit in utilising the varied psychological tools that have been developed in the past two centuries to enable people to discover their emotional impediments. It is worthy of note, however, that despite a massive attempt in Western society to incorporate psychiatry and psychology into the mainstream of medical and emotional treatment, that mental disease and trauma is increasing rather than the decreasing. As noted above, the use of antidepressant drugs in Australia has escalated and depression has risen from being the tenth most common problem treated, to the fourth most common. In the past year more than four thousand sessions of the controversial electroconvulsive therapy were conducted in Victoria alone.46
Some therapies have actually hurt or destroyed people. The Chelmsford Hospital in Sydney conducted experiments with deep sleep therapy in the 1960s and 1970s. The NSW Royal Commission found that Dr Harry Bailey's therapies led to the deaths of more than forty patients. Survivors included prominent Australian show business figures such as Toni Lamond, Bobby Limb and Stevie Wright.47
In this environment there is certainly a case for the development of a training program that concentrates on "Pneumatic Therapy". The ministry of Jesus is proof positive of the ability of the Holy Spirit to identify the actual cause of human distress and to restore the sufferer to complete normality. It would be of immense profit to explore how sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and the employment of revelation can be utilised in more effective ways, even if this is only applied to those within the churches who have emotional or spiritual liabilities.
Notes
1. Eg. Most of the available books on Spiritual Warfare are either populist rather than biblical or theological in style or reflect a pragmatic hermeneutic. One 200 page book on this issue contains less than two pages on discernment of spirits and then only expresses a personal opinion. F. Hultgren, Prophetic Insights Into Spiritual Warfare, Carollton TX: Frank Hultgren Ministries, 1994.
2. Some of the techniques proposed as spiritual therapy are more akin to the dream and guided imagery of Freudian psychology. Charles Kraft's teaching on Inner Healing suggests the use of imagination to perceive Jesus present or taking the subject back to the womb. C. Kraft, Defeating Dark Angels, Tonbridge, Kent UK: Sovereign World, 1993, 150-151. M. Cohen, The Divided Self, London: Marshall Pickering, 1996, 120. The methodology interpretation of dreams as a method of psychological evaluation and therapy is arbitrary and could be interpreted in a totally different way by another counsellor.
3. The extensive use of case histories is accepted practice within the professions of psychology and psychiatry. On this basis I tender a number of examples that have been personally observed as indicators of the possibility and that counselling and therapeutic methods can be inspired and enabled by the Holy Spirit. To dismiss their content by assuming that they are merely psychological in nature and outcome is to enter into contradiction-case studies provide data, and psychology (in order to be considered empirical) must attend to all the hypotheses which arise from them, even if propositions such as the spiritual nature of the world are beyond the normal sphere of theorizing.
4. The appropriate term for a person seeking the help of a counsellor varies with the approach, and the implied professional nature of the relationship. The term 'client' implies a commercial relationship which may be inappropriate in the pastoral setting assumed by Pentecostalism, but will be used here in the absence of a better alternative.
5. D. Montgomery, Beauty in Stone, Nashville TN: Thomas Nelson, 1996, 160.
6. Sonia Milohanic, Sunday Telegraph (Sydney), 5/11/2000, 35.
7. Luke 4:18 KJV
8. Luke 4:18, Amplified Bible
9. Thomas declared that he would not believe that Jesus had been raised from the dead until he was able to verify that by the use of both his optic and tactile senses. John 20:25. Locke's great work is the Essay on Human Understanding (various editions).
10. Paul warned the Corinthians in his second epistle that reducing the bible to the level of history or philosophy robs it of its power: 'The letter kills but the Spirit gives life." 2 Corinthians 3:16.
11. 1 Corinthians 2:14: 'The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.' Calvin also held that the true knowledge of the Word of God only came alive under the illumination of the Spirit of God: "Those whom the Lord favours not with the direction of his Spirit, he, by a righteous judgement, consigns to the agency of Satan. Wherefore, the Apostle says, that "the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine into them." And, in another passage, he describes the devil as "the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience," (Eph. 2: 2.)" Calvin, Institutes, 4.1, H Beveridge (transl), London: Bonham Norton, 1599.
12. "You who were formerly dead in trespasses and sins have now been made alive unto God." Ephesians 2:1.
13. "he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit." 1 Cor 6:17,20; "that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit." John 3:6.
14. This is known as the Trichotomist theory of human personality. An alternative view of humanity's make-up is that he is a dichotomy or only two parts consisting of body and a combined soul/spirit. Thispaper will accept the Trichotomist position.
15. Paul defines the natural mind as being opposed to God. "The natural mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" Romans 8:9
16. Romans 8:4.
17. Matthew 16:15?17.
18. "if our heart condemn us not then have we confidence toward God." 1 John 3:21?22; "my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost." Romans 9:1
19. "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart". Psalm 37:4. In other words-God will impose His desires and attitudes on those who sensitise their hearts to Him.
20. Romans 8:26.
21. I Corinthians 12:8
22. S. Horton, The Gifts of the Spirit, Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House,
23. John 4:18, RSV
24. T. Harris, I'm OK, You're OK, New York NY: Harper and Row Publishers, 1969.
25. I Corinthians 12:10.
26. John Widdas and Peter Mockford, Prebendary and Curate at Tamworth UK respectively rightly observe that this gift is sometimes illicitly used for a witchhunt in the church. Instead, the gift is for healing and wholeness and must not be used to humiliate another person. J Widdas and P Mockford, Lighting From Heaven, Eastbourne Sussex, UK: Kingsway Publications, 1993, 92.
27. Mark 9:17.
28. John 1:50; 5:20.
29. Luke 8.
30. Mark 1:22.
31. I Corinthians 12:8, 9.
32. L Crabb, Effective Biblical Counselling, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan 1977; Gerald Egan, The Skilled Helper, Pacific Grove CA: Bocks/Cole, 1986; Cohen, The Divided Self; M G Gilbert, and R T Brock, The Holy Spirit and Counselling, Vol II, Principle and Practice, Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson, 1988; D Allender, The Wounded Heart, London, UK: CWR, Nav Press, 1990.
33. W E Sargent, Psychology, London: The English Universities Press, 1965, p23,69: "Freud, who was chiefly concerned with the unconscious mind as the storehouse of mental causes for nervous breakdown, maintained that there is a striving in the unconscious, and that the same mental laws are at work here as on the conscious level."
34. It needs to be stated that the idea that a Christian person can need deliverance from the influence of an evil spirit is controversial. Many churches believe this is impossible without there being a clear case of apostasy or indulgence in wilful sin by the victim. Others feel that there are various stages of demonic influence a Christian. Dr Lester Sumrall outlines seven stages 1)Regression, 2)Repression, 3)Suppression, 4) Depression, 5) Oppression, 6) Obsession, 7) Possession. L Sumrall, Exorcism, Green Forest AR:, Green Leaf Press, 1994, 173-192.
35. Viktor E. Frankl, Man's search for meaning: an introduction to logotherapy, part one translated by Ilse Lasch; preface by Gordon W. Allport. 4th ed. Boston: Beacon Press, 1992 (repr. Many editions).
36. Albert Ellis and R A Harper, A guide to rational living, Englewood Cliffs,N.J.: Prentice-Hall [1961]; Albert Ellis and Raymond Tafrate, How to control your anger before it controls you, Secaucus, N.J.: Carol Pub. Group, c.1997.
37. Although Ellis is credited as the father of CBT there is some evidence that a variant type of Cognitive Therapy was developed out of RET by Dr Aaron Beck. His theory is based on the idea that if patients can be taught to be more accurate in the way they interpret situations they can be helped to feel better about them. J Y Young, and J S Klosko, Reinventing Your Life, New York NY: Dutton Books, 1993, pp. 10-11. See Michael E. Bernard and Raymond DiGiuseppe (eds), Inside rational-emotive therapy: a critical appraisal of the theory and therapy of Albert Ellis, San Diego: Academic Press, 1988.
38. Proverbs 15:4 (KJV)
39. Proverbs 18:21 (KJV)
40. 1 Peter 3:10 (KJV)
41. This was not a question of doctrine or ecclesiology, but of her own walk with God, a walk founded on disobedience to her own conscience and fear of the opinions of others.
42. She had become a forgetful hearer of God's word as identified by James in his epistle to the twelve scattered tribes (James 1:22-25). He asserts that a person who receives a challenge from God's word and fails to respond to it in obedience will not only reduce their relationship with God to an ineffective level but will also affect the function of their own personality-they will 'forget' what type of person they are.
43. Isaiah 9:6.
44. Isaiah 25:1; 29:14; Exodus 15:11; Psalms 77:11,14; 78:12; 88:10,12; 89:5.
45. Body Mass index. This is a formula based on bone structure and height to determine the range of normal weight.
46. Tanya Taylor, Herald-Sun, 20 November 2000, 11.
47. Tanya Taylor, Herald-Sun, 20 November 2000, 11.