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Infidelity can be likened to a flood that gradually creeps into a farmer’s field. If not dealt with appropriately from its commencement, it can result in great disaster. Like a tsunami, the flood comes in bringing everything that destroys: contaminated water, debris, dead animals and dangerous living creatures such as crocodiles, alligators, snakes or fire ants. Eventually it can destroy everything, leaving the farmer bankrupt, disappointed and hopeless. Following the flood, after the land has been drained of toxic water and cleared of dangerous creatures, dams and trenches are put into place to protect the area from future floods.

Although adultery can potentially wreck a matrimonial relationship, a marriage can be completely restored following an infidelity. It can become stronger than it was before, with deeper intimacy, more passionate love, trust and commitment with healthier boundaries. The process of recovery can become a teaching tool to many who have experienced bewilderment, agony and pain.

Marriages will survive infidelity when couples have a genuine desire to recommit and go through the full process of restoration. It is by no means a quick-fix task of just saying, “I’m sorry. I was wrong. I won’t do it again.” The process requires time, a confidential and trustworthy environment, full disclosure, forgiveness, acceptance, compassionate nurturing, unconditional love, patience and God’s grace.

Usually a void in the relationship is the cause of infidelity. Ideally this void should be made known and filled with a measure of compromise by both partners. If the void is not addressed in time, the enemy will come in like a flood; but with God in the middle, the parties can experience complete restoration.

In young adulthood I was involved in an accident that seriously injured my right leg. During the process of healing, the doctor implanted a steel plate to hold the bones together. He assured me that my leg would never be broken at that place again because of the reinforcement that had been added. When infidelity takes place in a marriage, the marriage is broken; but when proper principles are applied in the process of restoration, a marriage can become infidelity-proof.

There has been an assault on marriages since incident with Adam and Eve in Garden of Eden. It continued through the ages but escalated since the beginning of world war one in 1914, when thousands of men went to war and most of the remaining, along with women had to work rotating shifts in factories manufacturing war missiles. It was at this point loneliness, infidelity, separation, divorce, and homosexuality started to rise drastically. Now with gay marriages being legalized it will become worse. Christian Counselors, Clinicians, Family Therapists and Lay Helpers in the churches and communities will be increasingly active until Kingdom comes.

Couples need to protect the integrity of a Godly marriage, by making special efforts to enrich their relationship. Communication, conflict resolution, roles and responsibilities, meeting each other needs and money management are the main areas where development is needed.
Healthy communication is being honest, transparent, listening, hearing and understanding each other. Resolving conflicts comes through respectful, informed dialogue with arrivals at Godly decisions that will be of the best interest of the family, rather than blow-up, clam-up or being passive. In this industrialized, capitalistic and narcissistic society, it has become what is referred to as a rat race society; hence, there is need for roles and responsibility of each spouse to be revise and established. Next, as humans, we all have spiritual, emotional and physical needs. One of the purposes of marriage is to help meet the needs our spouse. When these needs are not met, some turn to alcohol, overeating, infidelity etc., all of which are cancerous to marriages. Lastly and most important is managing finances. Some will spend until their several credit cards are exhausted and the bank balance goes in the red. Unwise spending will gradually cause strain and stresses, which can eventually break marriages. Couples who prepare themselves by learning the primary skills of preserving a healthy marriage before or even after they say I do will end up enjoying a harmonious marriage.
Many of us have gone into marriages with without proper preparation and expecting the ideal. However, when the honeymoon is over and rubber hits the road the marriage starts to wobble and in some cases end up in the ditch. The phrase “a stitch in time saves nine” which was reference by Thomas Fuller in 1732AD and may have been around long before that, is still true today, but it starts with both spouses accepting reality and humbly work together to bring resolve.
As fruit tree needs regular care of watering, pruning, fertilizing and purging of weeds to stay healthy and fruitful so is every marriage. At Emerge Christian Counseling Center in Toronto, with adequate training, modern tools of technology, gifted talents and help of the Holy Spirit we are able to diagnose the areas of marriage that needs development and we help enrich marriage relationships.

COUNSELLING: An individual, couple or family needs counseling when their lives are being disrupted by know or unknown issues. These issues may have its origination from the individuals prenatal, infancy, childhood, adolescent, teenager, early adult hood stage or later years of life. People suffer in different ways based on the inward injuries they experienced. These injuries may be manifested in harmful outward behaviors, such as, anxiety, anger, fear, coarse language, perverted or unacceptable behaviors, depression, avoidance, addiction, low self-esteem, identity, abnormal conflicts or marital issues, etc. The object of counseling is to educate, encourage, restore, enrich and enable people, to experience healing and wholeness in their life. This will come about when trust, honesty, transparency and confidentiality are in the core of the relationship between the hurting party and a trained compassionate, professional Christian counselor.

COACHING: Coaching is a continuous, transparent, personal relationship between the coach and his client. Here the client wants to make changes in his or her life in order to maximize their God given potential. Coaching explores the dreams, hopes and fears of the person and focuses on the actions their client needs to take towards their goal. A coach comes along side his client, meets him or her at whatever stage they are in life and help them find new paths towards their vision. He does not advise or tell the client what to do, but asks the right questions to help his clients get the answers and direction based on who God created them to be. A Christian coach is prayerful, friendly, fair and firm and holds his clients accountable to their endeavors until their dreams and possibilities become reality.

Personal intimacy is built when we go further than just knowing about someone, to experiencing them in personal way, by hearing and experiencing each other responses directly. This will happen by spending quality time together, listening, observing and sharing. The same is necessary in establishing a personal intimate relationship with God.

By merely attending church services once per week and the returning of tithes is not enough to build a personal intimate relationship with God. Building a personal intimate relationship with Him requires honest desire, disciplines in our effort, inviting the Holy Spirit to live in us, reading the bible on a daily basis, and yielding the to promptings of the Holy Spirit in our hearts .

The spending of time in prayer, communing with God is vital. As blood is to the body so is communication to any relationship. We must begin honoring adoring give Him praise for his grace towards us. These are followed by sharing, challenges, fears, and faith etc. Then we make our desires know to Him. Bearing in mind that transparency and humility should always be the attitude of our hearts. He will not be angry with us if or when we fail, but will be kind, compassionate, understanding, forgiving and willing to help us in areas of our need . The writing of a daily journal, recording our requests, His verbal responses directing us what to do, and the results of prayers, will be of great help in confirming the reality of our personal relationship with Him.

Reading daily, portions of the Bible, starting with the Gospel of John, and continuing to read the New Testament will help us to keeping within the range of hearing and being sensitive to His Voice. As we continue to read the Bible we will also get to know the truth about our self and Our Heavenly Father. We will get to understand His mind, the way He thinks and responds in all situations in life.
Quality time must be spent with Him, being to be still, quiet in our spirit and mind and by faith listen to what The Spirit of God is saying to us, and try to grasp what He is saying to us in light of what we read in His written word.

The attendance of a weekly worship service at a Bible teaching church with focus on worshiping Him in spirit and truth is necessary. Accepting the teaching from the pastor with an open heart and trying to filter from the messages what God is saying to us very important. Establishing a working relationship with the local church and building relationships with other mature Christians, who can encourage us as we seek to develop a relationship with Him, will help.

By trial and error we will increasingly experience a personal intimate and eternal relationship with God.

Loneliness has been referred to as the world’s most common mental health problem. It is one of the most universal sources of human suffering. People in all walks of life, experience it regardless of the culture, class, race, or sex. It is a condition that affects all ages at some season in their life and can be temporary, seasonal or never ending depending on the manner on which it is dealt.

Loneliness involves feelings of inner emptiness, isolation and intense longing for relationship, though the environment in which the lonely lives is conducive to and facilitates the opposite. There may be multitudes of lively people compatibly around with lots of fun activities , still they are lonely and find it difficult to get involved in the Joys of life and society. They can be living in the best country the world, in the largest cities with the brightest lights or the most exotic beach, but still suffer. The lonely feels left out, unwanted, rejected or misunderstood, saddened discouraged, restless and anxious, with the desire to be recognized and needed by at least some one. They usually have low self-image, lack self-confidence and fear rejection; hence they do not have the courage to initiate or build relationships.

Man was created for relationship and not to be alone and lonely. Relationships have been one of the major contributing factors that contribute to the fulfillment of the destiny of our lives. Shortly after God created Adam He said it is not good for man to be alone, so he made a suitable helper. They were to maintain a personal intimate relationship with God, with each other and be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. Adam became very ambitious tending the garden leaving enough room for Eve to be lonely. Satan sneaked in the gaps of loneliness and was able to have an influence on Eve so as to eat the apple. They both ate the apple, broke intimacy with with God and sin placed even a larger gap between man and woman. Hence the birth of loneliness.

Though rarely discussed in scriptures, we can see loneliness took a hold of Noah, Moses, Job, Nehemiah, Elijah, Saul, David, Jesus, John, the apostle Paul and still it’s like an increasing plague in today’s society. The increase of technology where most people live on the web, computer or television, rather than interacting with live human beings in the life of society, has contributed in a greater way. Loneliness drives people to all kinds of perverted and relationships. We can see human effort to solve loneliness through alcoholism, rape, divorce and fornication homosexuals, workaholics, exhibitionist behaviors, vacation trips, shopping malls racking up their credit cards, diverse addictions, etc. Loneliness can be found more prevalent older and single people.

There are several causes of loneliness. It can emerge in times of transitions in times of their life, when people have to move for various reasons from city to city due to employment or education, different developmental stages in life, when children have to move out of their home, broken relationships, divorce and separation . Psychological ailments also bring on loneliness. Low self esteem, where people see themselves the wrong way, shyness and inability to communicate, self defeating attitudes, anger of bitterness of some past disappointment fear and situational and spiritual causes.

Loneliness can be overcome by first admitting the problem. However because of pride and lack of knowledge of its subtleness and danger most people fail to deal with it. With proper probing the causes and the lonely being honestly transparent the true cause of loneliness can come discovered. Next the lonely must be brought to see themselves the way they really are through God’s point view and not the way they see themselves or society or their circumstances make them feel. Next, the appropriate steps need to be taken to increase their faith and trust in God, their thinking has to be changed to the way God thinks about them.

Further, they need to get guidance in developing self-esteem, learning social skills and be encouraged to step out and getting into the life of society. They need to be encouraged to take risks and reach out to the right people in a healthy environment, where the chances of rejection are lower and acceptance is greater. Though not perfect the church is where the people are more accepting, forgiving, patent, and tenderhearted tolerant and helpful. For this reason it can be a safer place where the lonely can start overcoming loneliness. Still other groups which offer similar help.

We are living in an imperfect world, alongside imperfect people. The foods we eat, the air we breathe, the water we drink are all polluted.

The numerous world systems — capitalism, socialism, communism, democracy, apartheid, liberalism, humanism and others — are flawed. They help a little but do work against humanity as a whole.

Added to our disadvantage, the Bible declares there are evil invisible forces upon the earth led by Satan. He is referred to as “god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4). This means he initiated and is in control of the world systems.

One of the ways he comes to us is as “an angel of light” (2 Cor 11:14). He has been deceitfully destructive from the beginning of time and is the “father of lies” (John 8:44). He may use ninety-nine truths to float one of his lies. He is described as our “adversary” “roaring lion” seeking whom he may devour. (1 Peter 5:8) “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”

Lions are worldwide admirable celebrities. Thousands travel to national parks and zoos to admire this majestic creature yearly. In the parks in Africa, during the day tourists hunt them down with their cameras as they roam freely in the parks.

Yet these deadly cats by nature are potential man-eaters, though they lie unconcerned, and appear harmless under the trees during the day with their families as people pass them by. In the night they hunt, destroy, and devour the same men whom they ignored during the day.

Lions are the most disciplined and highly strategic hunters, and stick diligently to their rules, which has allowed them to survive millions of years. No wonder they were likened to man’s greatest enemy. (1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”

Our young and innocent men and women are gunned down by street gangs fighting each other; our young women are raped, and pimps and drug dealers prowl our city seeking to befriend our young. 9-11 also tells us that we are living in a wilder, colder and dangerous world; we need to be more “sober and vigilant” in order to overcome them. A park ranger in Africa discovered that the victims of these night killers have violated at least one or all of the five rules of survival in the wilder world when killed.

We can draw a parallel of each of these five violations as rules of spiritual warfare.

RULE # 1: AVOID NIGHT TRAVEL

Lions are nocturnal hunters; it is at night that they are most sensitive and become most accurate and deadly in the pursuit of their prey. In the day most of them sleep duped with their fillings of the previous night. In Africa, the killing of people by lions is done mainly at night, especially the refuges who travel alone to escape being captured during the day.

Avoid spiritual darkness and stay in the light in all that you say and do. Go into only to try to save or help someone out, and be well prepared to defend yourself if attacked. Never enjoy any dark thing while there. Always remember…“God is light and in him there is no darkness” (I John 1:5B).

RULE # 2: NEVER TRAVEL ALONE

Travelling alone in the wilder world is equivalent to a death wish. It is the single opportunity that a lion exploits and attacks. Always prepare for warfare by enlisting true and experienced prayer warriors that are experienced in the areas of your battle.

In Proverbs 24:6 God says “for waging war you need Godly guidance, and for victory many advisers.”

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 “ Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble”.

RULE # 3: ALWAYS TRAVEL WITH WEAPONS

Always travel with the best weapons available that you can afford. Remember David used a slingshot and God went along with the stone to destroy Goliath. God can give you victory also with the least you can afford.

One must fight offensively and defensively. We must put on “ the whole armour.”

Paul in Ephes. 6:10 “In conclusion, strengthen yourselves in the Lord and in the power which His supreme might imparts. 11 Put on the complete armour of God, so as to be able to stand firm against all the stratagems of the Devil.”

RULE # 4: NEVER EXPOSE YOUR WEAKNESS

The wise saying of the old is “never let them see you sweat.” Interpreted appropriately, it means never show your weaknesses to your enemies. Spiritually, this means that we confront or face our enemies in faith of what God will do for us. Trying to face this spiritual world with our own strength is fighting a losing battle. The world and the God of this world is too powerful for us alone. Our greatest strength is the power of the Spirit of God through Christ our Lord and deliverer.

Psalm 27:1–3 “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.”

RULE # 5: NEVER RUN AWAY IN FEAR

Lions nearly always become defensive, and sometimes when confronted. Predators are always confused with confrontational behaviour with their victims. It causes them to check their aggressive assault even at the last possible moment, giving the possible victim a moment of opportunity.

We must never run from challenges in fair (Prov. 25:26), though avoiding in advance when a fight is risky (Proverbs 27:12 ) A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished.

We must confront evil treats in the power of the Holy Spirit. 1 Peter 1:5-10 “ God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole. I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.

You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don’t see him, yet you trust him—with laughter and singing. Because you kept on believing, you’ll get what you’re looking forward to: total salvation. The prophets who told us this was coming asked a lot of questions about this gift of life God was preparing.

INCORPORATION OF DISCIPLINES

1. Seeing Clearly: As helpers we must not always spiritualize everything. Jesus was never more frustrated but with people like these (Matt 23:1–6), fighting demons that don’t even exist or are not even around in many situations when the people they minister to need medicine or treatment of a different kind. On the other side, there are those who can only see the cause from the natural side and never see the effects from a spiritual or psychological dimension. They never acknowledge the war in the invisible world. An effective helper will expose the needy to spiritual and natural agents of healing together with the right mix to bring healing.

2. From Defeat to Survival: In many situations, survival is a great gain and far better than living in bondage of anger, addiction, and sinful behavior and dividends thereof. Sharing in these victories gives great satisfaction and fulfillment as helpers.

3. From Survival to Surfing. Believing Christians will not settle for just survival, they will rise up and press towards what God has promised and prepared for them. They will settle for nothing less than the winning warrior. They will live and die for the purpose of freedom. Though the cost is high, they will spend their time and money in the personal choice of freedom. In this God rejoices.

4. The Choice of Discipline: This is where we come face to face with the personal choice of discipline. In other words, this is where the rubber hits the road. Will I humble myself to the disciplines of God’s will for my daily pursuit in life; will I cease to pleasure myself in “works of the flesh” or will I allow death to come to it daily by the power of God’s spirit and other agents of help? Will you go all the way for wholeness? If you chose to embrace gods will, the reward is a life of fruitfulness in all dimensions as God intended.

There are seven vital keys to be applied in Christian counselling to in order to facilitate, healing, reconciliation and restoration. They are biblical and universal. Surveys reveal that the success rate of Christian counselling is remains at a high level of 85 percent. In order to maintain or increase this level of fruitfulness, these factors must be incorporated in every practice.

Suppose you were building a concrete driveway. You would have to use components like sand, cement, water and crushed stones of variable portions. If you omit one of these, even if the others were more abundant, you will have a faulty driveway, which soon will sink or crack. With this in mind, here are several key ingredients that must be present in the process of therapy and counsel.

1. GOD

The first key is God. He is the source of all that pertains to life. He heals the broken hearted and binds up wounds; He has great power and knows all things. He created us and knows how to fix our brokenness and relationships when we find our tangle in a predicament (Psalm 147:3–5). As counsellors, our roles are twofold. First, we ourselves look to God for the help, wisdom and resources needed. We humbly ask for those things we don’t possess to help His hurting children. Second, we also point those we are helping to look to the Source and help them get God in the broken areas of their lives. Our loving heavenly Father helps the helpee and the helper. He will find a way even where there seems to be no way in every predicament and make all things work together for good. (Isa. 43:19,Rom 8:28)

2. RELATIONSHIP

Healing, growth and change requires healthy environments for relationships to flourish. God designed the process of growth and healing to include the presence of acceptance, love, support and encouragement of other people. We were not meant to go through hurts, brokenness and injuries of sin alone. We need God and His people. Individual and marriage counsel, therapy, small groups, healthy connections and healthy churches are some of what God uses to bring about wholeness and healing.

3. TRUTH

Truth plays a vital role in the restoration process. It is simply defined as what is, or what exists, in reality. Truth is light and does much in bringing people out of the darkness of depression, addictions, relationships struggles and character issues. Jesus said “…you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” When Jesus prayed he asked, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” Through the Bible, God teaches that the absolute standard of truth comes from His word and the person of Jesus Christ.

4. PLAN OR PATH

In our field we refer to a treatment plan. The bible simply uses the word path (Proverbs 15:24). The path of life for a wise person leads upward in order to turn him away from hell below. The path to healing and wholeness is a step-by-step process. God can do miracles where things happen immediately, but with purpose He chooses to use the process of healing.

5. OWNERSHIP

Success in counsel depends largely on ownership in the process. God’s treatment and design consist of a division of labour. He does His part. The counsellor also does his or her part and the counsellee does his or her part. God never fails to do 100 percent of His, and counsellor and counsellee must give 100 percent as well.

6. FORGIVENESS

Forgiveness heals and reconciles personally and relationally; it plays a major part in all area of life. Forgiveness opens the door of grace for the right relationship, both vertically and horizontally. Jesus said in Matt. 6:14 “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. Jesus said in Matthew 6:14-1514 “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. 15 But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins. Proud, arrogant or inconsiderate, people do not want to forgive. But humble and wise people do. The scriptures declares in James 4:6 “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble”. Paul in Ephes. 4:32 declares “ Be kind to each other, sympathetic, forgiving each other as God has forgiven you through Christ.”

7. TIME

Healing, reconciliation and restoration are processes and it that takes time. They are is not immediate or instant. There are seasons and stages of within which fruitfulness comes . Time cannot be skipped but however minimized based the grace of God and the hearts of those involved. God’s process of wholeness and sanctification is progressive. Jesus said, in Mark 4: 26-28 “The kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seeds on the ground [27]. He sleeps at night and is awake during the day. The seeds sprout and grow, although the man doesn’t know how [28]. The ground produces grain by itself. First the green blade appears, then the head, then the head full of grain.”

All of us have experienced traumas of some nature earlier in our lives, and some have not been resolved. Unfortunately, it affects us in our current life and relationships. They may have occurred in prenatal times or some time in the frame of the developmental stages of our life. Life’s traumas, if not dealt with appropriately, can restrain us from functioning at our full potential. Consider our phobias: fear of intimacy, heights, public speaking, driving, fear of confrontation, etc. These are few of the many causes that make us cower from great opportunities that come our way in life. It makes us feel like a house divided, as we remain prisoners by the fixation of ordeals in the past.

The Broken Hearted

A few months ago, a respectable sixty-five-year-old grandmother came into my office and in tears confided that she was non-orgasmic throughout her marriage of forty-five years. She testified that her spouse had been a great husband, father, provider and priest of their family. Unfortunately, without fail, every time she tried to find pleasure with her dear husband, perplexing and painful memories and emotions would flood her mind. At the age of ten, she was sexually assaulted by her uncle, and at twelve she was raped by her cousin nine years her senior. Feelings of pain and humiliation of the past surfaced and haunted her. She had been robbed of blessings of intimacy, fulfillment and security that come through marriage love. For all of her adult life up to that day she has lived with this torment.

Another case that seems to be simpler but with devastating effects is a young man of twenty who has been deprived of adequate love from his dad who is a travelling evangelist, and he turned to homosexuality in pursuit of comfort and security of Daddy’s love.

Since the fall of Adam, we have lived in an imperfect world with imperfect people. I believe all of us suffer consciously or unconsciously from some kind of issue that hinders from experiencing God’s best. In John 10:10, Jesus warns us that “The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

As a counsellor, I have heard many unimaginable sad stories. I can’t help but lament with God’s people and work with Him to help bring restoration and healing to them.

The Healer

Our Chief Counsellor Healer, Jesus Christ, said in Luke 4:18 that he came to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recover of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. Luke 8:43-44 tells us that there was a woman in the crowd who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years. She had spent everything she had on doctors and still could find no cure. She came up behind Jesus and touched the fringe of his remnant, and immediately the bleeding stopped.

Psychologists, medical science and great anointed and zealous preachers of the gospel have brought much help and healing. Sometimes the help some folks receive is likened to Band-Aid treatment to terminal illness. Some of us have only learned to cope with issues. Christian psychologists agree that in most cases mental and physical ailments are basically symptoms of a wounded heart and only the intervention by the Spirit of God will bring healing and restoration from within.

Jesus continues to say in Luke 18:27, “the things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” Perfect restoration comes only from the perfect one.

We have seen the broken minded in institutions, the homeless on the streets, the single people who are afraid to get married, the rapists who were deprived of a wholesome life and not adequately socially developed to engage in relationships in a healthy manner, the homosexuals, the prostitutes, and the pedophiles. Habits that we cannot quit, and fail to admit, patterns we cannot stop, addictions, weaknesses manifest, anger that flies out of the unconscious and subconscious and deep dimensions of our heart. We have seen these catastrophic circumstances even among the “redeemed.” Much of our ugliness comes out of broken places of our hearts and are cries from within for healing and relief.

There is something about all these predicaments; there is something inside that is compelling people to do things that they do not want to do. Paul said in Romans 7:19–20 “For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. [20] But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.”

The Stream of Deep Restoration

Jesus, in his deep eternal love for His people, declared in Matthew 13:15 “For this people’s heart have become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn and I would heal them.” He speaks of the state of man and is offering to heal us. Let’s look at some of the broken people he healed. The blind saw, the deaf heard, the lame leaped and jumped, the skin-corroded leper was cleansed, the hemorrhaging of the woman stopped. The prostitute thought pattern and behaviour changed, she was healed emotionally and eventually restored to live a normal life.

Let’s try to understand what Jesus was trying to communicate. “Here, look — this is what I am offering you. Not only your body, but also MOST IMPORTANTLY your heart (Spirit/Mind), which includes our emotions and will. He is saying that He’ll deal with the ghosts that jump out conveniently from the framework of our minds to paralyze us psychologically and emotionally, and steal the more abundant life that we can experience through the healing touch.

Remember, Jesus was not a fanatic, nor was He a fool; He was not a profit or teacher. He was not Elijah, John the Baptist, nor was He Solomon. He is the Alpha and Omega, the creator of all things, without Him nothing was made. He is the wonderful counsellor, the Mighty God, our everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. He was not a liar and always spoke the truth; in fact, He was the Truth. He said that he came that we may have life and live more abundantly. Who will you believe? What will you believe? As we believe so it will be to us. Inner healing and deep restoration is for us today.

Trained Spirit-filled counsellors are able to help people find the issues of the past that rob them of life today. Help them make themselves vulnerable to God The Holy Spirit who alone can perform spiritual surgery that will affect the whole man. He will visit with us in our past, meet us in the pain or predicament, help us find the source of our problems, accept the fact from God’s perspectives, forgive ourselves and those involved, receive our healing and experience deep restoration.