A SAD STORY OF NO HOPE
Many innocent people are dying by their own hands due to the utter hopelessness they find themselves in when after years of psychotherapy and medication they just get worse and see no more hope. They have truly come to believe that the best way to end it is to end it. Many others land up in poverty after medical insurance has been exhausted, their homes are taken back by the banks, they have lost their jobs because they just cannot function anymore and all of this because they have come to believe a lie that they are suffering from some mental disorder for which there is very little hope.
PEARLS OF WISDOM
The trouble is that very few secular counsellors really understand and believe God’s warning about the words we utter, even loosely. Every word we speak is either destructive or detrimental or uplifting and life-giving. Even more so when one is a professional counsellor who is qualified to give advice and guidance in connection with life’s issues. When one is a medical practitioner to boot, the words the patients hear have an even greater effect and impact on their beliefs. The book of Proverbs is loaded with many pearls of wisdom which warns us to guard our speech. Here are a few Scriptures related to this discussion.
“When wisdom enters into your heart, and knowledge is pleasing to your soul, judgment shall keep you, understanding shall keep you, to deliver you from the way of the evil man, from the man who speaks wicked things.”
“In the multitude of words, sin is not lacking; but he who holds back his lips is wise. The lips of the righteous feed many but fools die for lack of wisdom.”
“He who breathes truth shows forth righteousness, but a false witness deceit. There are those who speak like the thrusts of a sword, but the tongue of the wise heals. The lips of truth shall be established forever, but only while I wink is a lying tongue.”
“Deceit is in the heart of those who imagine evil, but to counsellors of peace there is joy.”
“A [self-confident] fool has no delight in understanding but only in revealing his personal opinions and himself.”
PUT GOD TO THE TEST
I remember once counselling a medical doctor who was addicted to Pethidine. His medical training convinced him that there was no real cure firstly and secondly that he would face terrible withdrawal should he try and stop. He had been under the care and supervision of a senior psychiatrist who was also a director of psychiatry at a leading state medical facility. The counselling lasted until late into the night which of course brought on withdrawal. When I could see that he was in desperate need of a fix, I challenged him to put the words of God to the test. If anyone calls upon the name of Jesus for salvation God would grant it. He did and I laid hands upon him in prayer. The next moment he went down to the floor of his consulting rooms as if hit by a bolt of lightning. He sobbed like a little boy for quite some time and when he got up afterwards he was a changed man. Early the next morning he woke me by phone, highly excited and asking what kind of magic we worked on him. He was expecting to go crazy from withdrawal but instead, he was full of energy and peace. This man is a very proficient pathologist and drug-free whereas at the time the medical board wanted to revoke his license due to addiction.
CALL UPON JESUS
In order for God to get the glory He chooses to use instruments that in the eyes of the world have the least credentials to do the job. In our case He uses ex-addicts with no medical, psychiatric, or psychological training, to address an issue that top experts in those fields have no real solutions for. It is so simple when we look at our problems from the Divine point of view and do what the Manual on Life prescribes. Just call upon the name of Jesus Christ the Savior and He will set you free from the bondage of sin. In the war of Words, God will have the last say.
DR KRIGE AND HOUSE REGENERATION
This adapted content was extracted from If not Rehab…what then? by Dr Ado Krige, the Founding Director of House Regeneration, a South African drug rehabilitation centre offering a comprehensive discipleship training program. By applying principles of Biblical Therapy, using the Scriptures to teach, rebuke, correct, and train in righteousness, House Regeneration counsellors show anyone who has suffered from addiction how to fully understand why they do what they do and how to bring their belief systems in line with the Word of God.
