A missionary lady had endured emotional problems on the field that had negatively impacted her ministry and that of her husband. They had left the field after almost 20 years, and she came for help. In eliciting her history, she said her father had told her as she was growing up that she was not worth her salt; and, of course, this is the way she felt. At the end of the session, the counselor told her: “Your earthly father says that you are not worth your salt; your heavenly Father says you are worth His Son. Now which will be the basis for your identity from this point on–salt or Son?” As she had previously understood her identification with Christ intellectually, the Holy Spirit used this to make it real experientially. She lost her life based on salt and found her new life based on her being in the Son of God. God transformed her life that day, and they returned to the mission field to complete what they had started.
He was a pedophiliac who had been arrested and had been in psychiatric treatment for molesting young girls and was a voyeur while having excessive sexual relations with his wife. He was not a Christian and didn’t intend to discuss spiritual things. However, he accepted the Lord Jesus Christ in the first interview and subsequently understood his co-death and co-resurrection with Christ. During his fourth interview 3 weeks later, he was asked, “How are the compulsions regarding the young girls?” He replied, “They are gone”. To the query, “What else is different”, he said “Now, I see women as something besides sex objects”. “What else?” He had slept in the previous Saturday morning for the first time in his life. “What else?” His wife had awakened him for physical relations the previous night and he was caught up for the first time. About a year later, his brother called and asked what was done to his brother; he was given the answer that the Holy Spirit had done something–not the counselor. He stated that he and his brother had had a conversation for the first time in their lives–after more than 30 years.
She had had multiple abortions and marriages and was having rage attacks; she and her husband were afraid she was going to harm their child. She had been addicted to alcohol and drugs but had been dry for several years. Though she was a Christian and had been through various types of therapy, including recovery, she had not resolved the internal conflict of a lifetime. When she came for spiritual counseling and the first interview came to a close, she spontaneously said, “Let’s kill me off!”. Whereupon the counselor replied,”O.K. Let’s”. She knelt and surrendered her life to the Lord Jesus and claimed by faith her death and resurrection with Christ; when she arose from her knees, she was free and had victory in Christ. Her husband reported that he had a new wife, and she is still walking in victory almost 8 years later.
He was married and had children and also lived in homosexual sin. When a young man threatened to report him, he sought help by attending a conference on the exchanged life. He found victory during the first day and was set free from homosexuality. About a year later, he brought his wife to another conference where he was interviewed before the whole group. As he related the details of his new life, his wife asserted that she had a husband for the first time.
A lady was paying medical bills in 17 directions at the same time and had the entire medical community stumped as to how to treat her physical ailments. At this point she read The Ins and Out of Rejection and much of the repressed material began to surface. Both she and her husband thought she was losing her mind, and she called for an appointment. The counselor explained the way of freedom through the Cross, and she privately decided to allow the Holy Spirit full sway in her life. One day when she was alone, the Holy Spirit brought back to her mind a hurtful event from her past which had been repressed. Once she was able to process it and forgive those involved, she was free of the effects of this particular event and began to feel better physically. There were a few other such occurrences; and, finally, the major one was surfaced by the Holy Spirit that had been repressed more than 30 years. Once she dealt with it, she was free and her physical symptoms disappeared. Prior to this, she had been almost unable to go at the end of the day and was certain she was going to die.
He had been depressed for 8 years and was on medication for clinical depression and for headaches; he was addicted to the headache medication. His psychiatrist was going to administer ECT if he didn’t improve in two weeks. At the end of the second spiritual counseling interview in two successive days, he completely abandoned his life to the Lord Jesus Christ and claimed by faith his death and resurrection with Christ. When he returned the next day, he had no depression for the first time in 8 years. In talking to him almost 10 years later, he had not had a significant depression.
She was a chronic mental patient who was treated by psychologists and psychiatrists for 20 years, both out-patient and many stints in psychiatric hospitals of up to 7 months duration, including ECT and insulin-shock therapy. Her husband said they had spent more than $50,000 in pre-1970 dollars on medication alone, to say nothing of doctors and hospitals. She was down to skin and bones and was on 8 heavy tranquilizers a day and heavy sleeping medication at night. Her husband said that she literally could not write her own name before the Holy Spirit met her. The spiritual counselor had seen her three times the previous year when she declined further sessions. About a year later, she called on the phone and the counselor confronted her very directly with the claims of Christ on her life. She broke into tears and found victory in Christ that day. Within a month, under medical supervision, she was off her tranquilizers and sleeping medication; within 3 months she had gained 17 pounds. When her opthamologist examined her he was astounded; it was the first time he had ever seen her when she did not have tension in her eyes. (She had found her father, a suicide, when she was 16, and had her first breakdown at 18 and another at 30 when she began the rounds of various approaches to therapy.)
A pastor had experienced 3 heart attacks and was out of the ministry because of them. He had won people to the Lord, planted churches and could study the Bible in Greek and Hebrew. However, the conflict caused by his parents’ divorce and being abandoned by both at age 12 had never been resolved. When he was in his late 60’s, he came and found victory in the first interview, finally discovering what freedom in Christ was all about.
She was in her early 20’s and was anorexic. She was down to 60 pounds when she came for counseling. She found victory in the first interview and had gained 10 pounds by the time she came for her third session. When asked what she did when she encountered the situation with a loved one that had oriented her toward anorexia, she said, “I just look up and praise the Lord for the negative circumstances and rest in my Lord”. About a year later, the counselor attended her wedding.
A Christian man’s heart was beating regularly at 100 beats per minute and 150 in panic attacks. After 4 or 5 sessions, he was lying in his bed one night and his pulse suddenly dropped to 70; he thought he was dying! He called his wife to take him to the hospital, and she said, “What are you going to tell the doctor? Your pulse is normal? He will send you to a mental hospital!”. As the Holy Spirit dealt with him in a crisis, some of his other symptoms left at the same time.
A lady had planned suicide by taking a bottle of pills and throwing herself off a mountain; if the fall didn’t kill her, the pills would! However, she decided to read some in The Ins and Out of Rejection before she implemented her plan. In the book, she read the statement that said that suicide was the epitome of self-centeredness; she couldn’t make this fit with her rationale and came off the mountain for a counseling session. She “lost her life” at the Cross and dealt with the issues that had driven her to the brink of suicide. She wanted to get rid of herself and did in the right way–appropriating her death and resurrection with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Submitted by Dr. Charles Solomon of G.F.I. (http://SolomoNet.org)