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WHAT HURTING PEOPLE NEED
By Don Phillips
In this blog and the ones following I will share some of the tools and principles that I have used in counseling for the past 38 years. I will try to keep my blogs brief and to the point.
As I face the remaining years of my life, I am praying that God will use me to direct many more people to Him as the ultimate and only Source for healing and growth. I know that I am only a resource to direct them to the Source. God has called me to be an instrument of His healing power to help heal lives and relationships and to encourage pastors and church leaders. I hope to help my dear brothers and sisters to better counsel people. I will do this through my blogs.
I know that many of you, like me, are inundated with information. I will make my blogs as brief and helpful as possible. Here is my first blog:
WHAT ARE HURTING PEOPLE LOOKING FOR?
My prayer and passion as I minister to hurting people: “Father, as I counsel people, help me to be so yielded to You and so dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit, that more of you will flow out of me than myself.”
Deep in the heart of the hurting people, who come to us for help, there is a cry coming from their pain that may sound like this:
“When I struggle with life, I don’t want you to apply some psychological principles to my life. I want a wise, spiritual saint who can peer into my soul and direct me, through all that’s there, TOWARD GOD.”
Those who are hurting need someone to help them who know how to yield to the Holy Spirit and meet them where they are with the compassion and power of Jesus Christ, the Healer. They need someone who recognizes that they themselves are not the source of help but just a resource to direct them to the SOURCE. Will that someone be you?
Here are some of my favorite Scriptures relating to counseling:
“..and so nothing I said could have impressed you or anyone else. But the Message came through anyway. God’s Spirit and God’s power did it, which made it clear that your life of faith is a response to God’s power, not to some fancy mental or emotional footwork by me or anyone else.” (I Corinthians 2: 4, 5 - The Message)
“So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ. That’s why I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me.” (Col. 1: 28, 29 – NLT)
"The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He awakens me morning by morning; He awakens my ear to hear as the learned" (Isaiah 50:4).
Here are some powerful quotes from two of my favorite mentors:
“In a spiritual community, people reach deep places in each other’s hearts that are not easily reached. They openly express love and reveal fear, even though they feel so unaccustomed to that level of intimacy. If anything good happens in our conversations with each other, it will have more to do with who we are in Christ than what we say or do. It has more to do with whether I listen to and follow the Holy Spirit.” Larry Crabb
“Our life is full of brokenness– broken relationships, broken promises, broken expectations. How can we live with brokenness without becoming bitter and resentful except by returning again and again to God’s presence in our lives?” Henri Nouwen
May God help us all to be so intimate with Him that rivers of wisdom and the power of the Holy Spirit will flow through us to those who need healing, encouragement and restoration.
In future blogs I will provide the reader with some tools and principles that God has used in my ministry to bring healing to broken lives and relationships. Please feel free to respond to me at the email address below and ask questions.
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Don Phillips LifeCoachDon@att.net (408) 363-9547 www.drdonphillips.com
