Page 78 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 11

Forum “Guidance

Through the
The blessings and problems: Holy Spirit
I really find there are many blessings when we rely on the Holy Spirit in
counseling and therapy. Sometimes we get a revelation from the Holy During the
Spirit about a client. The question is then: Do we reveal it to the client Counseling
during the session or do you wait? Often we think that we have to reveal
it immediately. If it is truth it can wait until it is appropriate. or Therapy
What does it mean to be led by the Holy Spirit in counseling? Often Session:
people have in mind when they mention their perception of the Holy
Spirit´s activity that it is an experience of feeling and intuition- we can Blessings and
“sense” the Spirit´s movement. If the Holy Spirit is present He can do
more powerful things more than what we feel. Our feelings may not be Problems”
the primary way to perceive it. Our feelings can lead us astray and they
may not be the truth such that our emotional experiences are more hints
of some other factors at play other than the Holy Spirit´s work.
There is a danger to identify our emotions as sure signs of the Holy
Spirit’s work. Jonathan Edwards in his book – Religious Affection 1746
wrote how easily affections—necessary though they are—can be misgui-
ded (Religious Affections By Jonathan Edwards, 1746). Their fervor is no
certain sign that the Holy Spirit is the one at work. Emotions are maybe
not sure sign of the Holy Spirit at work.

John Frame a theologian and philosopher has said (the Doctrine of
Knowledge of God):

We need to see things from 3 perspectives - triperspectivalism:

• Normative –which has to do with God´s revelation, his standard of
truth, his authority
• Situational – facts and circumstances of the world
• Existential – human expectations, our perceptions, feelings and our
experiences of God

He says:
„Every item of human knowledge is the application of God´s autho-
ritative norm to a fact of creation by a person in God´s image. The
existential perspective is the most natural frame of reference for under-
standing the leading of The Holy Spirit in counseling. You cannot have
one perspective without the others. They depend on each other.“

So what he means is that we can only see things from a limited perspecti-
ve at a time. God alone sees and knows everything from all perspective at
once. This is the only way to know perfectly. We humans know in parts.
When it comes to understanding the leading of the Holy Spirit in coun-
seling too much emphasis is on the existential without taking in to ac-
count by the normative and situational. This will lead to errors.

Another error is being out of step with the Holy Spirit because we have a
narrow and nearsighted view of what the Holy Spirit is doing and want.
So let us strive after to become counselors/psychotherapists that are led
by the Holy Spirit and not only by our feelings and perceptions.

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