You don't put band-aids on cancer. And you don't give human wisdom to spiritual issues. Dr. Tony Evans says human insight won't fix spiritual problems. Only God's Word has the power to restore.
His textbook, The Scriptures, is the best tool. for healing wounds. of the soul. This is the alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans.
When something's wrong in your body, you go to a doctor. But when the pain is deeper, when it's in your soul, Dr. Evans says there's another kind of help you need. Today, he explains how the Bible functions as a powerful tool for spiritual counseling, diagnosing the root causes of our struggles, and guiding us toward healing. Let's join him as he begins.
Often what you feel may not be the same thing that's wrong. Your symptom may be simply symptomatic. of something much deeper.
So you go to the expert. to diagnose Identify and correct. The pain in your body.
Well, that's one type of pain that needs to be fixed. But a lot of us feel okay in our bodies, but we are hurting in our souls. The soul is your unique personhood, your unique personality. The study of the soul is called psychology. It is the It's the study of the soul.
Created by God. The art, the science of psychology seeks to Address soul apes. Pain of the life. That needs to be corrected, that evidently the person who has the pain has been unable to correct themselves. Biblical counseling is when a Christian uses the word of God as the foundation for diagnosing and addressing what another person needs to know.
to bring healing to their soul. It is amazing what the Bible thinks about itself. For example, David says in Psalm 119 verse 23, he says, I meditate on your words and he says, and your testimonies are my counselor. When I go to your word, I get counseling. Paul told Timothy that all scripture is inspired of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction, and righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
That is, that the Bible would provide him what he needs. To enable people to be corrected, to be reproved, to be directed, to know what the right thing is that they ought to do. But God who authored the soul Who has written about the soul? seems to think he is the best solution for the soul. That he can both diagnose Identify, address, and correct.
pain in the soul. We could list them. We could talk about anxiety or discouragement. or depression. Or addictions.
or frustrations. or family relationships. And on and on and on and on and on and on and on. We could go forever. In identifying specific ones, my particular purpose today is to say that the foundation Out of which Healing for the soul must come.
must be rooted and grounded and based on the solidness of scripture. Have you ever gotten a ladder? Yeah, I was uh one of my lights went out, sir. My outside lights went out. And the bulb needed to be changed.
So I went to my garage and I got a ladder to. to climb up and change the bulb. The problem is There was no solid foundation. for the latter to rest on. Plus there was an incline.
It was an incline with no solid foundation, but my problem was too high for me to get to on my own.
So I went to get my ladder because my ladder could get me up there. But what I miscalculated was the importance of my foundation. I was trying to climb a ladder on a shaky foundation. to solve a problem that I couldn't get to on my own. I did the best I could.
I studied that thing, I worked that thing, I tried to find the most solid spot, and step one was okay. I was okay on step one. You know, I think it was a 12-step ladder. On step one, I was fine. I was holding my own on step one.
I got to step two. I thought I was pretty good. But step three on got shaky.
Okay. Cause the further I thought I was getting to my solution. the rockier my situation got. Until after I thought, I thought I was almost there. I thought I finally had reached the light.
I had finally arrived to the place where I could change my dark situation in the light and the whole thing tumbled over. And I came crashing right back to the ground. It wasn't because the steps were bad. It was because the steps. We're resting on the wrong foundation.
Many people to solve the issues of life. go to this step program and that step program and they may have good steps. But the question is, what kind of foundation? Is it sitting on? Because it may appear to work for a while.
And you may appear to be getting a little bit closer to the light. But if it's not resting on the right foundation You can discover in a very discouraging way. That you needed something more solid to be resting on God's view of His own words. Is that His textbook, The Scriptures. is the best tool for healing wounds.
of the soul. We know them, we felt them. We've experienced them. And he says his truth. His word must be the foundation for the healing of whatever the pain is in your life.
I'm told you ladies. put on foundation when you or preparing to get made up. Because without it Stuff won't stick.
Well, you can go get all the information in the world. But it won't stick. if it's not resting on the right foundation. With that said, what is our problem today? There is a problem.
We have more. counseling today than we've ever had in the history of the church. In fact, it has become an enterprise. It has become a major profession. And yet People seem to be getting worse.
Problems seem to be getting worse. Needs seem to be getting worse. What's wrong? Good people. Many giving great advice.
But what? is wrong. I would like to suggest. That what many have settled for is Christian counseling. That's not also Biblical counseling.
Now, not everybody. Many Christian counselors are biblical counselors. But unfortunately Mini. Christian counselors are satisfied. Because they are Christians, because they know a few Bible verses.
And because they go to church. But somehow That has made them an adequate surgeon of the soul. In the Bible Personal Pain of the soul comes from Three sources. In the Bible. First, they can come from Organic illnesses.
Physical problems in the body that have psychological or soulish impacts. But remember the body is one of the three parts and and if it's based physically That means you need a doctor you need somebody who can medically address the physical cause for the soullish pain In the Bible? Another cause for pain of the soul is demons. The Bible regularly relates demonic activity to pain of the soul.
Now, if your problem is a demon. You're gonna need a little something, something, something more. Then does your average Christian counselor. If your problem is a dinghy. The third.
reason that these issues exist. That is. Sin in the life of the person being counseled. that they have committed. or sin committed upon them by others.
In other words, child abuse. The child may not have sinned, but they're bearing the psychological paying a parent who sinned upon them. These three areas. Create. The need For soul help.
Or soul pain, which requires help. If it's physical, then you need a doctor. You need someone who can address the physical need.
However, if it's demonic, or caused by your sin or the sin of someone else or something else. That it's going to need A biblical response. applied in the context of a loving person. Dr. Evans says when emotional and spiritual wounds linger, it's often a sign of a deeper issue, one that needs more than surface-level solutions.
He'll talk more about that in just a moment. First, though, the message you're hearing today is part of Tony's inspirational series called The Benefits of Scripture. In these six powerful lessons, Dr. Evans unpacks what the Bible does for us, from giving direction and victory to producing spiritual freedom, blessing, and life itself. It's a compelling reminder that Scripture isn't just information, it's transformation.
We'd love to send you this complete six-part audio series as our thank you gift when you support the ministry of the alternative. And as a special bonus, we'll also include the Tony Evans Bible Commentary. A comprehensive resource where Tony walks through every passage from Genesis to Revelation, exploring the context, explaining the background, digging into the deeper meaning, and showing how to apply what you learn. This exclusive package will only be available for a limited time, so visit us today at tonyevans.org to make your donation and request, or call our resource team anytime at 1-800-800-3222. I'll repeat that contact information after part two of today's message.
Here's doctor Evans once again. What is our problem? I'm gonna. Get to the bottom line here. problem today with why we have Soul pain.
That never heals. They tell you, if you got a sore that won't heal. You might have cancer. One of the signs of cancer, they say skin cancer is a sore that does not heal. What happens if you have a soul that does not heal?
When your soul has now been infused with the Spirit of God. How can God Almighty? Be active in my soul and my soul never heals.
Well, I'd like to suggest that one primary reason is because we have an unholy mixture.
Somehow, somebody has come up with a concoction that has suggested that if we mix a little human wisdom. With some divine wisdom. We'll come up with a new elixir. to heal the soul. If we get a little bit of man.
Mix him with a little bit of God. Stir it up real good. Apply it to the soul need of the person. that somehow That's gonna work. I'd like to conclude that's an unholy mixture.
James 3 says there are only two kinds of wisdom. There's the wisdom from above. and the wisdom from below. There's the wisdom from God. And it's very interesting, he says in James 3, he says, And then there is the wisdom of this earth, and he says, and the wisdom of this earth, man.
Is demonic? And straight from hell. He equates human wisdom with being Straight from hell. A lot of us are going to hell. to get help from heaven.
Now, isn't that a contradiction? You can go to counseling that either ignores, misuses, or minimalizes the word of God, and you can get stuff that makes you think you're okay. I'm okay, you okay. You feel better? Don't you feel better?
Don't you feel better? And you may feel better. You may actually feel a lot better. But unless the word of God has acted like a hammer. and become a fire.
It will be discovered. That it was masked well, but it wasn't addressed at all. Until you have dealt with the spiritual cause. or the spiritual reaction to the spiritual cause, you have not dealt with the root problem. The Bible says uncontrolled anger.
It's a sin. The Bible calls it a sin. Any counseling that doesn't treat that. has not dealt with the root problem. By because of the sin.
And you can trace this thing down. to virtually every soul sickness. That is not being controlled by a demon or controlled by physical anatomy. to either my sin or the effect. of somebody else's sin upon me.
Our problem is We don't want God's solutions to what's wrong. What we want is humans to make us feel better. about how we're dealing with it. Any? Spiritual?
Christian Who knows how to use and apply the word? is competent to counsel. Galatians 6 says, Brethren, even if a man is caught in a trespass. You who are spiritual, restore such a one. The Holy Spirit Takes the word.
Enlightens the heart to bring restoration. to the hurt. It is the job of the councillor to get the councilloree to understand. to accept responsibility. For whatever they need to accept responsibility for, and to respond.
properly to the word of God. Once that foundation is laid, everything else becomes extra and bonus. barring the fact that it's an organic problem. which don't need medical help. or a demonic problem which is going to need Extra supernatural help.
In fact, you even need spiritual people to tell you whether it's just personal sin or whether demons have shown up.
Okay, I'll do this.
Now here's the problem. We think being spiritual doesn't mean telling the truth. Bible says, if you're going to help somebody, Ephesians 4, you must speak the truth with love. 'Cause lying. Look, you don't want no doctor telling you, well, yeah, it's a bump, but don't worry about it.
This bump been there for six months. It's growing. And he's talking about don't worry about it. Yeah. You need the truth.
You need them to tell you. This might be cancer. We need to biopsy it so we can hurry up and find out, so we can determine the best approach to take to fix it. To tell me I'm okay when I'm not okay is lying to me. To tell me it's not my fault when it is my fault is lying to me.
To tell me don't worry about it when I ought to be concerned about my response to it, that is not telling me the truth. Which means you have left me to my soul pain. And what we have today are a lot of Christians who like lying to each other. in the name of counseling. You cut your leg, you go to the medicine cabinet.
You you rub it on there. It's gonna smart. This goes stain. But that thing is good news, not bad news. That means the medication has attacked.
The source of pain and if you just hang in there for a little while. You're going to discover that the pain was worth it. The doctor says you need surgery. You can't go around telling me he don't like me. Because if he liked me, he wouldn't be wanting to cut up on me.
Can't nobody who loves me want to cut me? That's what criminals do. They cut people.
Now you gonna cut me and love me? No, if you got a disease, cutting you is the most loving thing to do. And if you have a sin. Cutting you. Is the most loving thing to do.
Because until we get that out of there, The healing can't take place. You don't put band-aids on cancer, and you don't give human wisdom to spiritual issues. This is at the root. I'm just trying to deal with the foundation here. When the Spirit mixes with the Word through the mouth of a loving counselor, what you have, 1 Corinthians 2.13 says, is the mind of Christ.
A biblical counselor never justifies the sin. They always seek to justify the sinner. If it's their personal sin. Biblical counseling. People who take God's truth.
And show concern for another who's hurting. But in a way, that addresses the roots. Because they are in link with the Holy Spirit. How do you know whether you're in link with the Holy Spirit? You're in link with the Holy Spirit when God's word is dwelling richly within you and you are resting on his power to change the person.
Or change you. And how do you know when you've been helped? You'll know it. Because the Bible says the fruit of the Spirit is. The opposite It's opposite to the deeds of the flesh.
And a lot of those things that are in both of those lists. are the major counseling issues most people deal with. The author says, when the spiritual part has taken root. Then you'll have new fruit. There'll be transformation.
There won't just be, I feel better. You'll be different. Dr. Tony Evans, showing us that God's Word brings real help. And that's not just relief.
It's change. He'll return to wrap up today's message in just a moment. First, though, if today's lesson has inspired you, you'll want to get a copy of Tony's full six-part series, The Benefits of Scripture. It takes you deep into what the Bible does for us, from giving direction and freedom to producing victory and spiritual life. And as a special bonus, along with this teaching series, we'll also include the Tony Evans Bible Commentary, an easy-to-use resource that walks you through every book of the Bible with clear, practical teaching and helpful insights.
Both resources are yours with our thanks when you support this ministry with your donation. Visit tonyevans.org to make a request while this limited-time offer is still available, or call us at 1-800-800-3222 to connect with our resource team. Again, that's tonyevans.org or 1-800-800-322. Yeah, yeah. There's more to life's struggles than meets the eye.
Dr. Evans says many of our battles are really spiritual in nature, and the only way to win is to fight with spiritual weapons. Tomorrow, he'll explain how God's Word equips us for victory in the invisible war that shapes our visible reality. Right now, though, he's back with this closing observation. You can never, never, never say you can't do something he says you can do.
Because now you're joining the devil, God, you're a liar. I said I can't. God says you can't. Then if I can and I'm not, I'm not doing something. And what I'm not doing.
Is dealing with the material. with God. without a mixture of man. That is man's perspective, human wisdom. I'm mixing the two.
I'd like to suggest that you try not mixing. The true. And go hard. After the full application and obedience to his revelation regarding your situation, relationship. Emotional.
Yeah. Yes, check with the doctor to make sure it's not organic. What if this is downright Being hateful. You and your wife fussing and cussing at each other all the time. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that's not, that's not, that's a work of the flesh.
That's a lack of self-control. That's a lack of gentleness. That's the fleshly work of anger. See, something else is going on there that's spiritual at its core. And the word of God is not dwelling richly.
May God enable us to Take the scriptures a little bit more seriously. And not mix it with stuff that contaminates its power to work.
