Page 101 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 5

Church Traditions for a Christian Psychology

Incarnational Reality saves us from the illu- The Person of the Therapist
sory nature of evil. Apart from Christ, we are
under the power of sin and death and the web of To be saved, to become a Christian, is to be-
illusions that fuel self-pity, envy, fear, and hate. come incarnate of Christ. “We must therefore
Evil has no capacity to create, but only to twist open every door of our being to this Presence,
and distort what God (the only Creator) has to our God. It is then that we are healed in
made. In Christ’s Presence we are given “po- spirit, in intellect and will, and in our intuiti-
wer to recognize and hate the delusion - and to ve, imaginative, and sensory faculties. And it
walk away from it. And we are given the power is then that we as healers, as channels of God’s
to accept the true center and walk into it” (HP Love and Presence, literally carry Christ into
p. 84). My counseling practice has become in- the lives of others. This is what conversion is –
creasingly focused on helping my patients abide the ongoing process of being filled with Christ”
in Christ. In a sense, my definition of psycho- (Real Presence p. 61). God’s renewing life within
pathology has become anything (any diseased strengthens our will to choose to yield to Him
feeling, compulsion, attitude, etc.) that turns each day. “It is only by remembering that ‘Ano-
one back toward the illusory self and away from ther lives in me’ that we can die daily to that old,
Christ. Christ’s presence grants us His wisdom false, usurping self, and that we continue to be
and knowledge and save us from the illusions drawn ‘further in and higher up’ into the life of
generated by evil. “It is dangerous to live out God” (Real Presence p. 74). I will focus much
of the compulsive, illusory self - that center of of this article on the person of the therapist, be-
pride, inferiority, fear, and pain, the hurting, cause we have the great privilege of being ves-
unhealed childish attitudes within. We are of- sels through which God will love His world.
ten told to accept that self. We are not to. The
‘child within’ is healed, accepted, and integrated Celebrate our smallness. “Your inadequacy is
into our being as a whole. But we must die to your first qualification” (Healing Presence, p.
its misconceived attitudes and illusory self, for 21). The reality that we abide in Him, the Un-
we cannot abide in Christ there” (Healing Pre- seen Real, allows us to know and take comfort
sence, p. 87). This separation of light from dar- in our smallness. Our dedicated scholarly work,
kness, of good from evil, is another central tenet advanced technical training, and on-the-job
of Leanne’s ministry that widened the channel learning from our patients is of great value. But
for God’s healing power. our knowledge and skill cannot be our source
of hope. When I tell a patient with confidence,
Incarnational Reality empowers our ministry. “this can be healed,” my certainty does not arise
“Christ in us, His people, at once gives us ac- from an inventory of my resources. I am not a
cess to the mind and power of God” (Healing master but a disciple. I am not first an expert,
Presence, p. 114). We have the Holy Spirit as but one who is (apart from God) inadequate.
Gift, and the gifts of the Spirit of discernment, Knowing and accepting ourselves as such al-
power, and inspiration. God has also generous- lows us to depend on God, to open our ears for
ly poured into each one of natural gifts that aid His voice. Apart from God I recognize that I am
our counseling work. In our openness to the powerless to meet the needs that my patients
authentic Christian supernatural, we “should be bring to our sessions. As someone who entered
of all men the most practical, the most down- this field with grandiose expectations of myself,
to-earth”, for Christ indwells us and we submit I now experience great joy in leaning with all I
our will, reason, intuition, and sensory-feeling am on my Father’s adequacy. My only require-
being to His rule. “To do this is to become a sac- ment is to trust Him and practice His Presence,
ramental vessel that wafts continually the sweet and He truly is the one who does the healing
aroma of the gifts and fruits of His Presence; work.
those that have to do with Christian man’s ways Practice the Presence. “The practice of the Pre-
of being, knowing, willing, and doing” (Healing sence, then, is simply the discipline of calling to
Presence, p. 125). mind the truth that God is with us.

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