Counselor

“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever.”

(John 14:16 HCSB)

There have been many times in the middle of a counseling session I’ve thought, “Boy, this person really needs a counselor!” This is when I take comfort in the fact that Jesus is the Wonderful Counselor (Is. 9:6). I’m just someone a person can relate to while Jesus does the real work. I’m simply, as author David Seamands puts it, “a temporary assistant to the Holy Spirit.”

Through the inward work of the Holy Spirit, Jesus heals the brokenhearted, lifts up the downtrodden, sets free those who are in bondage, and consoles the grieving (Is. 61:1-3). He is the God of all comfort who comforts the depressed (2Cor. 1:3; 7:6). He has promised to counsel us with His eye upon us (Ps. 32:8).

He counsels us with the testimonies of His Word (Ps. 119:24). Also, He has given us the Holy Spirit, a Counselor “of the same kind as He,” to lead us into all truth (Jn. 14:16; 16:13). This truth sets us free, and whom the Son set free is free indeed (Jn. 8:32, 36).

The fact is that we are all temporary assistants to the Holy Spirit. God strategically places us in other people’s lives and He uses other people in our lives. We are called to encourage one another and to build each other up (1Thess. 5:11). We are instructed to comfort, teach, admonish, and exhort one another (1Thess. 4:18, Col. 3:16; Hb. 3:13). We are also called to restore each other and to carry one another’s burdens (Gal. 6:1-2). All of these things are what counselors do.

You may not be a professional counselor; but you have the Wonderful Counselor living inside you. He may use you today as His temporary assistant in someone else’s life. Your role may be to lend a listening ear, show an act of kindness, or to simply empathetically hurt with someone who is hurting.

Whatever your role, know that the Holy Spirit is working through you. Jesus sent you at just the right time because He saw somebody and thought, “Boy, that person really needs a counselor!”