The Function Of Counseling
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God has a plan and purpose for each of us. This is a clear Biblical truth. Therefore, the function of counseling should be to cause the counselee to know God's plan and purpose, and to help them receive it, submit to it, and walk in it. For it is obedience to the will of God that results in the full manifestation of His saving grace.

When scripture asks, "Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?" (Romans 11:34 NASV), it reminds us that God's plans will supersede all of mans' plans. Again it says, "The Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations; He frustrates the plans of the peoples . The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart from generation to generation" (Psalm 33:10-11 NASV).

Given that God holds in His heart desires, plans, and purposes for His people, the purpose for counseling is to see God's will comes forth in their lives. Counseling that elevates the will of the counselor and his particular counseling philosophy and psychology falls short. So too does counseling that elevates the will of the client. Any kind of counseling that does not seek the will of God as revealed in Scripture falls short of the mark set by the Word of God.

Thus a counselor's job is to discern and minister to the client what God's will is for them. The counselor's prayer must be that God would fill him "with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God" (Colossians 1:9-10 NASV).

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