Theory of the Spiritual enlightenment counseling
This is the Christian counseling techniques using the Bible truth trying to help the patient to change their subconscious wrong assumptions in order to manage their psychological or mental disturbances such as anxiety, depression, anger or guilt.
The purpose of the treatment is to help the patients to come near God in spirit and in truth as the teaching of Jesus Christ in John 4: 24, to be able to be filled up with the Holy Spirit and hence having the peace, joy and love from the fruits of the Holy Spirit to deal with their anxiety, depression and anger symptoms.
Besides in helping the mental health patient, by practicing this technique can also help all the Christians to come near God, so it will help them in their pursuing of sanctification process. They will have love, peace, and joy in any kind of services as they have the ability to care for people, to preach gospel and to give counseling to people for their mental illness and healthy thinking.
According to the bible human being were made by God from dust and the breath or spirit of God so we should live in the way that we think, we like, and we act according to God‘s will and guidance. However according to the Bible truth the first couple Adam and Eve committed sin against God’s command and became Sinful and was abandoned to come near God which has caused a lot of problems in mankind due to the Sinful nature of the fallen men.
In order to satisfy their three basic needs for security, significance and relationship, they choose the wrong assumptions for living. Security need is the need to live a safe environment, to have sufficient physical needs, to be acknowledged. Significant need is the need to feel living a significant life, to be important, to be praised, to have values in living. Relationship need is the need to have an unconditional love from somebody, to have a good relationship with others, According to the revelation from the bible, God created human being with these three basic needs, then they should be fulfilled by God but not from materials or money, persons or things. However the fallen men chose these wrong assumptions of resources to pursue in living, hence they have chosen the way of living according to what they think, what they like, and what they want to fulfill these needs rather than what is right according to God’s will. Unfortunately this way of living as not from God’s will has never worked out well but caused problems in their living and relationship, which in return has given human being a lot of mental disturbances and illnesses.
The Christian counselors try to help the client to change their way of thinking, their way of likening, their way of acting according to God’s will then this will help them to recover from their mental Illness.
The cognitive therapy of Larry Crabb
This Spiritual Enlightening Counseling is an integrated self-Christian-counseling method. For the cognitive therapy, I adapted Dr. L. Crabb’s cognitive therapy prescribed in his “Effective biblical counseling” book with some modification. According to Dr. Crabb, there are basic needs for security, significant, and relationship love in humanity. God fulfilled all these needs before the fall of Adam and Eve (Gen. 1:28), and even now. Our security need is secured by God (Matt.6:33), our significant need is fulfilled by God (Romans 8:30), and our relationship need is also satisfied by God (Romans 8:38).
However, after committing the first sin of eating the fruits of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 3:6), Adam and Eve and their off springs have their own desire and standard of discerning the good and evil, so they have the wrong assumptions of the resources for fulfilling their needs in the daily living. Then they set up the goals to fulfill these needs.
Dr Crabb explained that the security need is the need for physical comfort, such as food, house, environment safety, and good health. Significant need is the need to feel living a significant life, to be important, to have pride and to set values in living. The relationship need is the need for love from somebody. Crabb said that the real security, significant and relationship needs should be fulfilled from God but not from money, persons, things or environment. However, the fallen men try to pursue these things to fulfil their three basic needs in order to live comfortably. Since they have chosen these wrong assumptions subconsciously, they have developed a way of living according to what they think, what they like, and what they want rather than what is right according to God’s will. Unfortunately, this way of living is not from God’s will so it will never work out well but cause problems in their life, which in return will bring the mental disturbances and illnesses.
There are three common psychological illness as described by Crabb. If there is a fear of failure for fulfilling of the goal then you can develop anxiety. If you think the goal is an unreachable goal, you can develop guilt or depression. If you think that there is an external circumstances block outside of yourself such as from persons, things or environment, you may develop either an anger or resentment feeling toward these obstacles.
For the treatment of these mental disturbances, Cognitive therapy is to change the wrongly basic assumption to be in line with the truth. The well-adjusted person is one who depends on God alone for providing his security, significant and relationship needs.
The historical development of Psychology
Psychology Emerges as a Separate Discipline
During the mid-1800s, a German physiologist named Wilhelm Wundt was using scientific research methods to investigate reaction times. His book published in 1874, "Principles of Physiological Psychology," outlined many of the major connections between the science of physiology and the study of human thought and behavior. He later opened the world’s first psychology lab in 1879 at the University of Leipzig. This event is generally considered the official start of psychology as a separate and distinct scientific discipline.
The Functionalism of William James
Psychology flourished in America during the mid- to late-1800s. William James emerged as one of the major American psychologists during this period and publishing his classic textbook, "The Principles of Psychology," established him as the father of American psychology. His book soon became the standard text in psychology and his ideas eventually served as the basis for a new school of thought known as functionalism.
The focus of functionalism was about how behavior actually works to help people live in their environment. Functionalists utilized methods such as direct observation to study the human mind and behavior.
Both of these early schools of thought emphasized human consciousness, but their conceptions of it were significantly different. While the structuralists sought to break down mental processes into their smallest parts, the functionalists believed that consciousness existed as a more continuous and changing process. While functionalism quickly faded a separate school of thought, it would go on to influence later psychologists and theories of human thought and behavior.
The Emergence of Psychoanalysis
Up to this point, early psychology stressed conscious human experience. An Austrian physician named Sigmund Freud changed the face of psychology in a dramatic way, proposing a theory of personality that emphasized the importance of the（ unconscious mind. Freud’s clinical work with patients suffering from hysteria and other ailments led him to believe that early childhood experiences and unconscious impulses contributed to the development of adult personality and behavior.
In his book "The Psychopathology of Everyday Life" Freud detailed how these unconscious thoughts and impulses are expressed, often through slips of the tongue (known as "Freudian slips") and dreams. According to Freud, psychological disorders are the result of these unconscious conflicts becoming extreme or unbalanced. The psychoanalytic theory proposed by Sigmund Freud had a tremendous impact on 20th-century thought, influencing the mental health field as well as other areas including art, literature, and popular culture. While many of his ideas are viewed with skepticism today, his influence on psychology is undeniable.
The Rise of Behaviorism
Psychology changed dramatically during the early 20th-century as another school of thought known as behaviorism rose to dominance. Behaviorism was a major change from previous theoretical perspectives, rejecting the emphasis on both the conscious and unconscious mind. Instead, behaviorism strove to make psychology a more scientific discipline by focusing purely on observable behavior.
Behaviorism had its earliest start with the work of a Russian physiologist named Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov's research on the digestive systems of dogs led to his discovery of the classical conditioning process, which proposed that behaviors could be learned via conditioned associations. Pavlov demonstrated that this learning process could be used to make an association between an environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus.
An American psychologist named John B. Watson soon became one of the strongest advocates of behaviorism. Initially outlining the basic principles of this new school of thought in his 1913 paper Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It, Watson later went on to offer a definition in his classic book "Behaviorism" (1924), writing:
"Behaviorism...holds that the subject matter of human psychology is the behavior of the human being. Behaviorism claims that consciousness is neither a definite nor a usable concept. The behaviorist, who has been trained always as an experimentalist, holds, further, that belief in the existence of consciousness goes back to the ancient days of superstition and magic."
The impact of behaviorism was enormous, and this school of thought continued to dominate for the next 50 years. Psychologist B.F. Skinner furthered the behaviorist perspective with his concept of operant conditioning, which demonstrated the effect of punishment and reinforcement on behavior.
While behaviorism eventually lost its dominant grip on psychology, the basic principles of behavioral psychology are still widely in use today. Therapeutic techniques such as behavior analysis, behavioral modification, and token economies are often utilized to help children learn new skills and overcome maladaptive behaviors, while conditioning is used in many situations ranging from parenting to education.
The Third Force in Psychology
While the first half of the 20th century was dominated by psychoanalysis and behaviorism, a new school of thought known as humanistic psychology emerged during the second half of the century. Often referred to as the "third force" in psychology, this theoretical perspective emphasized conscious experiences.
American psychologist Carl Rogers is often considered to be one of the founders of this school of thought. While psychoanalysts looked at unconscious impulses and behaviorists focused on environmental causes, Rogers believed strongly in the power of free will and self-determination.
Psychologist Abraham Maslow also contributed to humanistic psychology with his famous hierarchy of needs theory of human motivation. This theory suggested that people were motivated by increasingly complex needs. Once the most basic needs are fulfilled, people then become motivated to pursue higher level needs.
Cognitive Psychology
During the 1950s and 1960s, a movement known as the cognitive revolution began to take hold in psychology. During this time, cognitive psychology began to replace psychoanalysis and behaviorism as the dominant approach to the study of psychology. Psychologists were still interested in looking at observable behaviors, but they were also concerned with what was going on inside the mind.
Since that time, cognitive psychology has remained a dominant area of psychology as researchers continue to study things such as perception, memory, decision-making, problem-solving, intelligence, and language. The introduction of brain imaging tools such as MRI and PET scans have helped improve the ability of researchers to more closely study the inner workings of the human brain.
Psychology Continues to Grow
As you have seen in this brief overview of psychology’s history, this discipline has seen dramatic growth and change since its official beginnings in Wundt’s lab. The story certainly does not end here. Psychology has continued to evolve since 1960 and new ideas and perspectives have been introduced. Recent research in psychology looks at many aspects of the human experience, from the biological influences on behavior to the impact of social and cultural factors.
Today, the majority of psychologists do not identify themselves with a single school of thought. Instead, they often focus on a particular specialty area or perspective, often drawing on ideas from a range of theoretical backgrounds. This eclectic approach has contributed new ideas and theories that will continue to shape psychology for years to com.
The history of counseling
The history of treating mental health concerns can be traced all the way back to the ancient Greeks, who were the first to identify mental illness as a medical condition, rather than a sign of disgruntled deities. And while their understanding of mental health treatment wasn’t always spot on (bloodletting for psychosis anyone?), they did recognise the value of encouraging words.
Most people however trace modern-day psychotherapy back to Sigmund Freud in the 1800s. While working as a neurologist with ‘neurotic’ patients, he came to the conclusion that mental illness was the result of keeping thoughts or memories in the unconscious. He developed methods which involved listening and providing interpretations that would bring these memories and thoughts to the surface.
Freud’s work, alongside apprentices such as Alfred Adler, Otto Rank, Karl Abraham, Snador Ferenczi and Carl Jung, led to the development of psychoanalysis and psychodynamic therapy.
Carl Jung was a close colleague of Freud’s, but left to pursue his own theories and methods. Jung’s work drew on both Adler and Freud’s theories with many of his ideas still largely recognised today, such as archetypes, persona, collective unconsciousness and introvert/extrovert personality types.
During the 1950s, another approach was developed - person-centred therapy. Carl Rogers (influenced by Adler and Rank’s work) looked into the transmission of warmth, genuineness and acceptance from therapist to client.
Originally called ‘client-centred’, this approach avoids some of the more complicated constructs of psychodynamic therapy and is at the core of many current counselling practices. Other approaches also started developing under what became a new branch of psychotherapy, ‘humanistic’.
Also in the 50s - and then in the 60s - came some more developments in the psychotherapy world, predominantly in cognitive and behavioural approaches. Albert Ellis developed rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT) in the 50s and Aaron T. Beck developed cognitive therapy in the 60s. The combination of cognitive and behavioural approaches lead to the development of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), an approach that is now widely valued.
Today there is a range of therapeutic approaches available. Many sit under these three umbrellas:
The three basic needs
According the research of psychology, it has been known that all human beings have three basic needs in order to live. They are security, significant and relationship needs.
Security need is the need to live a safe environment, to have sufficient physical supplies and health.
Significant need is the need to feel living a significant life, to be important, to be praised, to have values in living.
Relationship need is a need to have love from somebody.
According to the biblical revelation, the real security, significant and relationship need of love should be fulfilled from God but not from money, persons or things.
However the fallen men try to pursue these things to fulfil their three basic needs in order to live comfortably. Since they have chosen these wrong assumptions subconsciously they have developed a way of living according to what they think, what they like, and what they want rather than what is right according to God’s will.
Unfortunately this way of living is not from God’s will so it has never worked out well but caused problems in their life, which in return has given human being a lot of mental disturbances and illnesses.
The church and counseling
The function of the church traditionally is helping the members to grow spiritually in the process of sanctification. According to Psychologist Larry Crabb, there have been two services in the church for a long time although people do not recognize them as the work in counseling. He explained that they are the level one and level two counseling services as shown in the following classification.
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Level one counseling (Counseling by Encouragement or Emotional Counseling): The fellowship in the church encourages each other, which helps to reduce the emotional distress and sadness. This level 1 counseling is usually carried out or involved by all members of the church.
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Level two counseling (Counseling by exhortation or Cognitive Counseling): Teaching of the Bible truth helps the members to adjust the thinking of the mind and subconscious thinking so as to reduce anxiety and worries. This level of counseling is traditionally directed by the church pastors, Deacons, and Sunday school teachers as they are the matured Christians with a broad familiarity with Scripture.
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Level three counseling (Counseling by Enlightenment). This level 3 counseling requires the counselors to be trained with psychological knowledge to look underneath the wrong behaviors in order to find out the wrong thought and the wrong subconscious assumption of needs. They teach the clients to correct these wrong subconscious thoughts for the cure of the deeper, more stubborn, and complicated problems.
These three levels of counseling can be integrated into local church structure to make the church becoming a counseling center to help the community around in the treatments of the non-organic mental and emotional illnesses, and through this service can bring people to know God.
Siang-Yang Tan and Eric T. Scalise considered the lay counseling service as a legitimate church ministry as God called all Christians to serve one another (Ephesians 4:1-16). God has also given a new commandment to all Christians to love one another as He has loved us (John 13:34-35), and one way to show Christ-like love to fulfill the law of Christ is to bear each other’s burdens (Galatians 6:2). This indicates that God wants Christians to have a bearing or restoring ministry. This restoring ministry involves counseling in its broad sense.
In order to set up a lay counseling as a health ministry in the church, Abigail Rian Evans in her book “The healing church” suggested a practical way of setting this up. She said that although the pastor may be the one who needs to raise the awareness of the congregation concerning the need for a health ministry, it is important at the start to engage all the church members. This will involve planning together, recruiting and training volunteers, raising the necessary money, and setting realistic goals in a time frame. The pastor will serve in numerous ways, but the most important task is to build coalitions with community groups, or even with government agents. All of these need vision and persistence.
Larry Crabb. Effective Biblical Counseling, 163-191.
Siang-Yang Tan and Eric T. Scalise. Lay Counseling: Equipping Christian for a helping ministry (Michigan: Zondervan, 2016), 28-35.
Abigail Rian Evans. The Healing Church, 176-190.
The structures of human personality
The human personality is divided into three areas: the mind, emotions and the physical body (Figure 1). Human behaviour is formed by the influence of these three areas. For example, if the behaviour of the human is mainly influenced by thoughts (intellect) then he is a rational person (males are the majority). If the person's behaviours are more affected by emotions, the person is called an emotional person (females are the majority). If behaviours are completely controlled by physical preferences, then they are called barbarians (criminals who have no self-control, or drug addicts, etc.).
As already mentioned in the theology session, sin tempts people to commit crimes through these three areas of the human personality. Sin is seducing people away from the principles of conscience, or the standard of the law to commit crime.
The aim of this Spiritual Enlightening Counseling is to look after these three basic components of the personality of humanity. This counseling is also concerned of enlightening the Spirit inside of our Christian as illustrated in the figure 1, which is the central faith of all Christians. The process of enlightening the Spirit will be described in the spiritual formation in chapter 6. If our Spirit is renewed daily, it will protect our mind, emotion and body not to be tempted by sin.
There is a scientific evident of the existence of these three elements of body, mind and emotion nowadays. We can see the anatomy of external body and internal organs from the surgical dissection, so nobody will argue for the existence of our physical body. With the development of the human scientific technology such as genome, proteome-based medicine, brain scanning techniques such as CT, MRI, rCBF, PET, SPECT, and microscopic neuroscience, the scientists know that the limbic system, prefrontal cortex, and temporal lobes are the most important sites to control emotions and behaviors. They found out that the neurotransmitters are the chemicals, which direct the nerve to talk to each other, and convey the thoughts, emotions and behaviors. All these findings confirm the existence and correlation of the mind, emotion and behavior.
But long before the discovery of this by the scientists, the psalmist and prophets in Psalm 16:9, and 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 already inspired by the Holy Spirit to reveal of these three elements in our personality.
There is a correlation of these three elements. When we worry in the mind can cause the agitation behavior and tiredness in the body, this then can lead to anger, or depression emotion pending on the outcome of the behaviors. Sickness in the Body can irritate the mind to become worried and can lead to depression. When we wake up one day feeling blue due to low serotonin, which can make your mind worry and decide not going to talk or to work for the day. This is the natural correlation cycle and when one of the element is unhealthy and is not coped appropriately, it will become a mental and emotional sickness. If you know how to adjust in one of the trouble element by appropriate counseling, you can stop the mental and emotional illness.
The correlation among these three components
inside of our personality:
The worries in the Mind cause the anger, or depression in the Emotion which will make you feel tired, sick in the Body then these discomfort of the body will in turn irritate the mind to become more worried, and depressed and so on ..............................................
This is the vicious cycle and never stop by itself unless you know how to think logically with your Mind to comfort the Emotion and your Body sickness will improve.
The best way to guide your Mind to think logically is the cognitive behavioral counseling (Spiritual Enlightening Counseling).
Ref. Larry Crabb. Effective Biblical Counseling, 86-109, 132-134.
Timothy Clinton and George Ohlschlager. Competent Christian Counseling, 134-139. 140-146.
Neil T Anderson. Christ-Centered Therapy: The practical integration of Theology and
Psychology (Michigan: Zondervan, 2000), 100-104.
What are the emotions?
According to the research, one in five (20%) Australians aged 16-85 experience a mental illness in any year. The most common mental illnesses are depressive, anxiety and substance use disorder. These three types of mental illnesses often occur in combination. Almost half (45%) Australians will experience a mental illness in their lifetime.
In the book "Discovering Psychology" by Don Hockenbury and Sandra E. Hockenbury, an emotion is defined as a complex psychological state that involves three distinct components: a subjective experience, a physiological response, and a behavioral or expressive response. In addition to trying to define what emotions are, researchers have also tried to identify and classify the different types of emotions. The descriptions and insights have changed over time.
In 1972, psychologist Paul Eckman suggested that there are six basic emotions throughout human cultures: fear, disgust, anger, surprise, happiness, and sadness.
In the 1980s, Robert Plutchik introduced another emotion classification system known as the "wheel of emotions." This model demonstrated how different emotions can be combined or mixed together, much the way an artist mixes primary colors to create other colors.
In 1999, Eckman expanded his list to include a number of other basic emotions, including embarrassment, excitement, contempt, shame, pride, satisfaction, and amusement.
However, based on the research of the connection of emotions with facial muscle response, some emotions are present for the same feeling, the scientists pared down the number of irreducible emotions to just four: happiness, sadness, anger, and fear. Beyond this, they argued, the more complex variations of emotion have evolved over the millennia under numerous social and cultural influences.
According to Dr. Jerry Crabb, he considered only three problem emotions from most of the personal difficulties; they are guilt (sadness, depression), anxiety (fear), and resentment (anger).
Ref. “Very well mind: how many emotions are there”, Updated on July 01, 2021, https://www.verywellmind.com/how-many-emotions-are-there-2795179.
Crabb. Effective Biblical Counseling, 127-128.
Three common emotional disturbances
There are three common psychological illness as described by Crabb if the three basic needs of security, significant and relationship are not fulfilled.
If there is a fear of failure for fulfilling of the goal then you can develop anxiety.
If you think the goal is an unreachable goal, you can develop guilt or depression.
If you think that there is an external obstacle to block your needs from fulfillment such as from persons, things or environment, you may develop either an anger or resentment feeling toward these obstacles.
Ref. Crabb. Effective Biblical Counseling, 132.
4 happy chemicals in the body
Here are the main happiness chemicals in your body:
• Endorphins Primarily helps one deal with stress and reduce feelings of pain
• Serotonin Mood stabiliser – wellbeing, happiness
• Dopamine Pleasure – Motivational role in brain’s reward system
• Oxytocin Bonding – Love and trust
The power of sin
Human being were made by God from dust and the breath or spirit of God (Genesis 2:7) so we should live in the way that we think, we like, and we act according to God‘s will and guidance (Gen. 1:28). However, the first couple Adam and Eve committed first sin against God’s commandment not to eat the fruits of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 3:6). When they listened to the lure of serpent about eating the fruits of the tree of knowledge of good and evil to be as wise as God is, they were tempted. However this thought of wanting to have wisdom as God and to be significant was their desire before they committed the real act of eating the fruit, therefore it was not the sin yet as there had not been a commandment or law about coveting (Romans 7:7). However, this thought of Eve revealed that there is a desire of the human being wanting to have the wisdom as God to discern the good and evil by themselves. This desire could happen because when God created Adam, He gave His own breath (Spirit) to him. It means that God gave His free will (Genesis 1:1) attribute to Adam when he was made. Therefore, the humanity obtained the free will to do whatever they want to do, but they have to bear the consequence of their action (Ezekiel 3:17-21, Acts 20:26-27).
This free will or desire to have the same wisdom as God to discern good and evil is related to the need of being significant, which is the normal need of human being created by God, along with the need of security and the need for relationship. At that time, Adam and Eve was living a perfect environment with security, and relationship, they were also very smart as they had ability to rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the creatures that move on the ground (Gen. 1: 28), therefore they should feel significant under the guidance of God. However, this will or desire of wanting to be significant which led them to have the sinful behavior of eating the fruits, which was the original sin of humanity in the human history.
From the above incident, we can see that the free will and the need to be significant of humanity jointly make the potential for human being to commit sin as happened to Eve and Adam. We can call this potential sin as the self-centred mind for discernment of good and evil. This potential sin of human being turns into sin once it becomes a thought, a feeling, or an action to fulfil their security, significant or relationship needs without the approval from God. The approval from God is the standard written in the conscience (Romans 2:15), and in the law (Romans 2:12). Anything is sinful if it is short of glory of God or it is not in the will of God (Romans 3:23). No wonder why the Bible says, “There is no one righteous, not even one;” (Romans 3:10-12), because it is so easy for human being to turn the potential sin “self-centred mind for discernment of good and evil” to become a real sin when they are not obeying God’s standard.
This self-centred mind for discernment of good and evil has become obvious in action after Eve and Adam ate the fruits. They started to have their own standard that naked body was not good, so they sewed the fig tree leaves together for making coverings for their naked bodies (Gen. 3:7) and they tried to hide from God when God called them (Gen. 3:10). This desire has led them to commit the original sin by eating the fruits, but now became a real thought and decision, their own standard of good and bad in action. Neither God nor they considered the naked body as a bad thing before the incident of eating the fruits of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:25), but after the incident. Why was it? It was because from the influence of that evil tree named the knowledge of good and evil. Why the tree was evil because God said to Adam and Eve when they ate it they would surely die (Gen. 2:17). After they ate the fruits of the evil tree, the evil force of the tree make the self-centred mind for discernment of good and evil of humanity becoming irresistible will of them (Gen. 3:22). This evil will must be the inheritance sin, which inherits to the off springs (Gen. 4:7, Psalm 51:5). This evil tree is opposite to the good tree of life in the Garden of Eden, which gives life to whom who eats the fruits from it (Revelation 22:2). This is the important point to remind Christians who are saved by Jesus Christ’s blood on the cross, so their inherited sin cursed by the evil tree is cleansed out of their body (Hebrews 9: 14, 2 Corinthians 5:17), and they become new persons, the children of God (John 1:12). However, they have still the free will, and the desire of wanting to have the ability as God to discern the good and evil by themselves as Eve did before the fall. This desire of being significant by own effort, not by the reward from listening to the guidance of God was the big failure of Eve and Adam, and it can be the common sin of the believers. This has happened in every church causing the division in the ministry as everybody wants to be important and significant. This self-centred mind for discernment of good and evil as God has become the sin now according to the tenth commandment, which stated coveting in the mind is a sin (Exodus 20：17). In fact, the self-centred mind for discernment of good and evil is an arrogant sin with an extension to other sins against God’s will (Romans 1: 28-32). This arrogant sin is the commonest sin, which causes the war among the nations competing for being the empire in the world, and the fight in the family to be the head of the family etc. That is also why Jesus taught and emphasized to the disciples to learn his humility and gentleness in heart (Mathews 11:29) because He knows that it is the big temptation of humanity to be important, to be significant. Throughout the revelation in the bible as mentioned in the “narrative dialogue of the two angels” in the Appendices, God tried to stop people of having this self-centred mind for discernment of good and evil by making hardship for them to help them becoming humble, not so arrogant as such, and had to turn back to God for salvation.
From the findings of the psychology as described later in the psychology section, this self-centered mind for discernment of good and evil has made people setting up the wrong subconscious assumption of needs, which in turn has caused all the mental, emotional and behavioral disturbances. All these wrong thought, wrong emotion and wrong behaviors are sins as they are not the will of God.
Furthermore, since Adam and Eve became sinful, and was abandoned to come near God (Gen. 3:24), and bore cursing from God (Gen. 3:16-19), which has caused many physical, emotional and mental problems in humanity. Eve was cursed by God to have sorrow, pain, hardship, and distress on bearing children and to be under the dominion, rule, and control of the husband. Adam was cursed by God to have a sorrow, heavy manual labor and toil life in living, and to take a dominion power to rule over wife.
The original sin or iniquity, or action contrast to God’s way with the consequence of having the inheritance irresistible will of the self-centred mind for discernment of good and evil as described above is the core of all sufferings and disharmony in human relationship. Sin crouches at people’s door and desires to control people; it made Cain the elder son of Adam and Eve to commit the first murder crime in human being’s history by killing his younger brother Abel because he was jealous of God’s praise on Abel’s offering but not on his (Gen. 4:8). He was so angry that he killed his brother. This first crime recorded in the bible showing the correlation of the mind, emotion and behavior.
The modern self-esteem movement is to encourage for fully expose and express of this self-centered mind of discernment of good and evil in order to obtain the good self-esteem status. This is highly against the biblical teaching of submitting ourselves to God’s
Barker et al., ed., The NIV study Bible, 8. (Note: From now on I will quote the verses of the bible in the text instead of using the foot note throughout this dissertation as the same version of the bible is used)
Ref. Larry Crabb. Effective Biblical Counseling, 61-62.
James Strong, John R. Kohlenberger III and James A. Swanson, ed., The strongest Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance Of the Bible (Michigan: Zondervan), 1444.
Jay E. Adams. The biblical view of self-Esteem, Self-Love, Self-Image (Oregon: Harvest House Publishers, 1986), 17.
Spiritual formation ( The sanctification process)
When a Christian accepts the gospel and to accept Jesus Christ as his savior, the Holy Spirit enters in him as a seal of the promise of the eternal life (Ephesians 1:13). This is the process of justification, in which a sinful human is made acceptable to the Holy God. After the process of justification, Christian has to strive with effort to put off the old self and to grow their spirit to obtain the Godly characters in order to be worthy of being called the son of the Holy God (Ephesians 4: 21-32). This is the process of sanctification or spiritual formation in psychology.
Mark R. McMinn stated that the spirituality is Christian’s personal character obtained from spiritual disciplines. It is an experiential and private growth from cooperatively interact with God.
The Spiritual formation take place in our Christian life after the salvation. The salvation is not the end but the beginning of the spiritual life. Spirituality is a lifelong developmental process.
Apostle Paul in Romans 8:5-6 stated that the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace, and the true Christian life is the life in the Spirit. New Testament described the encounter between God’s Spirit and the human spirit is a fundamental aspect of the Christian experience (Galatian 5:17).
In order to grow our spirit and become a Godly Christian, we have to strive to love God and not the world (1John 2:15). We have to worship God or come near God and to be away from the world.
This sanctification process involves the daily study and meditation of the biblical truth and spending time in building up the personal relationship and our faith (Hebrews 11:1) with God in prayers. The most important part is to put into practice of our faith in the daily living by helping people in need at home, work and community (James 2:17).
How do we come near God to improve our relationship with God? Our Lord Jesus taught us the two ways to worship God or to come near God in the book of John. The daily living way for worshiping God in John 4:24, and the devotional way to come near God by prayers in John 6:56.
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The daily living way to worship God.
“God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24).
Rick Warren said that to worship God in Spirit and in truth is our purpose in life. Christians have to study the Bible, and Christian articles to understand God’s word, then to practice the biblical truth in the daily living. This is the common way to come near God or worship God in truth.
Christian also need to worship God in Spirit. The common practice of this kind of worship is the Sunday worship in the church. In the worship, we call upon the name of the Lord to pray, sing hymns, read bible verses and then listen to God’s words in the sermon. This is the worship in spirit as we worship God in the name of Jesus (Matthews 18:20).
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The devotion way to worship or come near God.Apostle John recorded of Jesus teaching in John 6: 56 regarding this practice.
“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. “
This would not be a physical practice by eating Jesus’s physical flesh and physical blood but rather a spiritual practice in prayer.
Drink Jesus blood is the confession of our sin to Jesus and then to repent it, He will forgive our sin and we can come near Him through the repentance.
Eat Jesus flesh implies taking Jesus’ teaching or truth into our being as John 1:14 reveals Jesus’ flesh is the word or truth. However, Jesus mentioned here of the absorbing his truth is through the way of the prayer, not just by our mind or behavior as we have mentioned in point A above. In the prayer, after we repent our sins and are able to come near God as the process of drinking Jesus blood mentioned above, we can ask the Holy Spirit to fill us up. This will bring the fruits of the Holy Spirit into our spirit and we are also able to understand the biblical truth more effectively, and are able to practice the truth more practically through the help of the Holy Spirit. This is the effective way for sanctification process through the prayer.
In summary, Jesus said to worship him by truth is to use our mind to understand his words and to practice the truth in our daily deed, then to worship him in Spirit is to have the church worship, and in our devotional quiet prayer time to build up the personal relationship with him. This second part of worship is the most important thing in order to grow our spirituality.
The above two ways of worshiping God in the Spirit and in truth help us to grow our spirit to become a matured Christian in the spiritual formation or sanctification process.
Youngblood et al., ed., Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary, 721.
Youngblood et al., ed., Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary, 1126
Mark R McMinn. Foundational Christian Counseling: Psychology, 10.
Timothy Clinton and George Ohlschlager. Competent Christian Counseling, 118.
. The purpose driven life: What on earth am I here for (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002), 65-67.
The sanctification process
This sanctification process involves the daily study and meditation of the biblical truth and spending time in building up the personal relationship and our faith (Hebrews 11:1) with God in prayers. The most important part is to put into practice of our faith in the daily living by helping people in need at home, work and community (James 2:17).
How do we come near God to improve our relationship with God? Our Lord Jesus taught us the two ways to worship God or to come near God in the book of John. The daily living way for worshiping God in John 4:24, and the devotional way to come near God by prayers in John 6:56.
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The daily living way to worship God.
“God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24).
Rick Warren said that to worship God in Spirit and in truth is our purpose in life. Christians have to study the Bible, and Christian articles to understand God’s word, then to practice the biblical truth in the daily living. This is the common way to come near God or worship God in truth.
Christian also need to worship God in Spirit. The common practice of this kind of worship is the Sunday worship in the church. In the worship, we call upon the name of the Lord to pray, sing hymns, read bible verses and then listen to God’s words in the sermon. This is the worship in spirit as we worship God in the name of Jesus (Matthews 18:20).
-
The devotion way to worship or come near God.Apostle John recorded of Jesus teaching in John 6: 56 regarding this practice.
“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. “
This would not be a physical practice by eating Jesus’s physical flesh and physical blood but rather a spiritual practice in prayer.
Drink Jesus blood is the confession of our sin to Jesus and then to repent it, He will forgive our sin and we can come near Him through the repentance.
Eat Jesus flesh implies taking Jesus’ teaching or truth into our being as John 1:14 reveals Jesus’ flesh is the word or truth. However, Jesus mentioned here of the absorbing his truth is through the way of the prayer, not just by our mind or behavior as we have mentioned in point A above. In the prayer, after we repent our sins and are able to come near God as the process of drinking Jesus blood mentioned above, we can ask the Holy Spirit to fill us up. This will bring the fruits of the Holy Spirit into our spirit and we are also able to understand the biblical truth more effectively, and are able to practice the truth more practically through the help of the Holy Spirit. This is the effective way for sanctification process through the prayer.
In summary, Jesus said to worship him by truth is to use our mind to understand his words and to practice the truth in our daily deed, then to worship him in Spirit is to have the church worship, and in our devotional quiet prayer time to build up the personal relationship with him. This second part of worship is the most important thing in order to grow our spirituality.
The above two ways of worshiping God in the Spirit and in truth help us to grow our spirit to become a matured Christian in the spiritual formation or sanctification process.