Principles of Biblical Counseling

Principles of Biblical Counseling

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Principles of Biblical Counseling

BASS 2015

Biblical Counseling brings healing to hurting Christians. All Christians are counselors when we interact with each other. Knowing the principles of Biblical Counseling will help us be more intentional and effective when we speak truth and grace into each others lives. Focus will be on the 'Put On/Put Off' and 'One Another' exhortations found in the New Testament.

As lay Christians take on the mantle of counseling each other, they will bring spiritual health to their churches and help for their leaders because effective Biblical Counseling alleviates the burden of counseling currently borne by church leaders.

Based on Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands

Paul David Tripp

Do saved people need counseling? Yes.

Hebrews 3:12-14 12Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

~ Living in community, we are called to hold each other accountable and encourage each other so we run the race and finish it well.

Proverbs 4:23

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

“Insofar as a person is unlike Christ, chaos will erupt in his or her life.” Stuart Scott

There are two main causes of trouble in our lives. They are either ordained by God to test and strengthen our faith or they are brought on by our own thinking and choices.

Start with Heart – Remove False worship, Be Steeped in the Word (Biblical thinking follows), Obey and Live in Community (Biblical living supported by the church)

~ Don’t staple fruit to a dead tree – Paul Tripp

~ Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. God will take care of the iceberg (sin) and gives salvation, strength and peace for eternity.

~ Counselee’s greatest need is salvation. Every crisis is an opportunity to seek salvation.

~ Paraphrasing Augustine – they will have no rest till they find their rest in God.

~ Only God can transform the heart. We cannot do it.

God’s Response to our heart issues

Ezekial 14:3 These men have set up idols in their hearts

Ezekial 36:26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Psalm 115:8 (Ps 135 15-18) – Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them

We must examine our hearts and submit to the transformation by God. We must call each other to recognize our need for transformation.

Struggles in the Heart

Paul Tripp – What rules our heart will determine how we respond to both blessing and suffering.

James 4 describes the struggles in our heart.

God’s Agenda –

John 17:20“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,

21that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

22The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,

23I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

TRIPP : A Christian who counsels represents the King

  1. The message of the King

~ What does God want me to communicate to this person? His truths, His goals.

  1. The methods of the King

~ How does God bring change? How does He respond to people, their problems, their needs?

Resources – 1. Christ, 2. salvation following repentance, the gospel, 3. the Holy Spirit, 4. your friendship and counsel, 5. the church.

  1. The character of the King

~ How can I faithfully represent God’s character and redemptive work.

  1. Why does God do what He does? His love, His purposes.
  2. I must not hinder His work. Examine my own heart always.

TRIPP

  1. Love the counselee as God loves them. Be faithful. Ask God for the ability and skills.
  2. Know God and Scripture. Salvation and sanctification are His work, done His way for His eternal purposes.
  3. Speak God’s truths faithfully, kindly and appropriately into their life.
  4. Encourage and help them do something with what they are learning. “Insight alone is not enough.” Hear the truth and then live by it.

1 John 3:2-3 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies Himself as He is pure.

No one escapes trouble and suffering in this life. No one. Man was born to trouble, the psalmist says. But for the child of God the suffering is in the context of God’s plan for GREAT good both in this life and the next. How pathetic it is when we suffer but have nothing to show for it!

There are many ideas, books and movements that can change your thinking. But there is only one God, book and Holy spirit will change your nature and eternal destiny (John MacArthur). He is not going to neglect your wellbeing in the here and now.

However His plans and ways are not our own. He may or may not change your circumstances but He will change you.

Practical Steps :

Know the Word

Fast and pray

Put On / Put Off(Sanctification) - Handout

One Anothers(Community) –The Christian life is not to be lived alone. (Handout)

With the Counselee :

~ Enter their world

~ Identify and acknowledge their pain

~ Listen for heart issues

~ How do they think of themselves?

~ How do they think of God?

~ Salvation is our model for relational ministry (TRIPP).

Start at the Cross and keep your eyes on eternity.

Adoption/Justification – Sanctification – Lifelong Process of Change

  1. God will protect you from their sin and yours. Pray for Christ’s love and protection to cover both of you.

Gal 6:1 Restore gently …but consider yourself lest you also be tempted.

  1. Offer Christ as the living example. Keep Christ central.
  2. Christ identifies with us in our suffering (Hebrews 2)

We identify with fellow Christians in their suffering and ours. The source of pain may be different but pain is pain!

  1. Suffering is for a purpose for the child of God.

~ He brings them for a purpose

~ He will be with us and help us every step of the way

~ Our faithfulness in suffering brings Him glory

~ It refines us

~ It brings us closer to Him

~ It brings out the best in the church, if we respond biblically.

Counseling Sessions

  1. Data gathering
  2. Interpret through the lens of Scripture
  3. Identify where change needs to occur
  4. Admonish when necessary
  5. Confront besetting sin, place them in front of God

(Nathan and David)

  1. Keep the gospel in mind
  2. Speak the truth in love
  3. Be committed
  4. Expect change
  5. Have an agenda/goals
  6. Be flexible when the Holy Spirit leads
  7. Clarify responsibility – who is responsible for what? Clear roles?
  8. Give them the gift of loving accountability. It doesn’t have to be you. The church and other believers can help.
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