Let’s ask the question first: Do we need God to be our therapist? We’re told in the Bible that the devil has deceived the whole world. In other words, all of us tend to think like he does at times. So if you look in the Bible, everything the devil has said and done, all the choices he’s made then, and stack that up against the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual – which is the diagnosis manual for all the different mental illnesses – it proves that the devil is mentally ill. He’s crazy. And, if we think like he does sometimes, what does that make us? 

Did you know that one of Jesus’ offices is Counselor? You could go to His counseling office when you need help. I hope nobody is offended by this. I used the word therapist in the title just to draw attention to the fact that, while God is God and He’s way more than a therapist is, He also deals very much with our mental health. So, let’s think about it from that point of view today. 

Let’s ask: What kind of counseling methods does God use? When I did my training for my counseling degree, I had to sort that out. I wanted think about what God says about mental health issues and what He says to us to fix them. And I also wanted to learn what the world had to say about it. It seems to me to believe that all the mental health and emotional difficulties that we have caused ourselves – there are other kinds of difficulties, right? You don’t cause a tsunami, for example, or the hurricane – the ones that we’ve caused ourselves are due to bad choices we make. God’s primary solution to that seems to be to start thinking differently. Let not your heart be troubled. Right? Have faith. Fear not. Love your neighbor. I mean, you can just go through the Bible and find that all the way through. Those are statements from God about what we should do. And they all have to do with changing the way we’re thinking. 

But how do we do that? How to do that is difficult for us. And that’s why we all need God’s help with this. Through His Spirit, He and Jesus Christ come and dwell in us. So, we don’t have to walk very far to get to the counseling office. 

One of the things I learned was, it seemed that, in my studies, that the mental health field also espoused genetics and disease as causes for mental illness. For example, alcoholism today is seen as a disease. I couldn’t, at first, reconcile these two views. But, as I began working with people, it started to become clear that there is not one field of mental health. There are two. They are opposed to each other, actually. 

There is one field that believes in mental health provided by medication. These people tend to believe most mental health issues are caused by genetics or disease, and the only thing you can do about is to kind of damp down the symptoms with medication. There are no cures with mental health medication. For example, schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder it’s believed are caused by brain malfunction with a genetic cause. So, born with one of these conditions, that usually manifest during late teens or early adulthood, often with the advent of some stressor, is one way they look at these things. Not that they think every mental health issue is genetically caused, but some appear to be. I would say, just looking at it, that could be true. Also, more recently though, a lot of research has been conducted on the effects of diet on mental health. There is something going wrong in our country. The results of research are frightening. 

It appears that autism, for example, can be related to a lack of metabolic health, as can be depression and anxiety – two major mental health issues. Metabolic health is a function not only of genetics, but also diet. It’s kind of a no-brainer, isn’t it? 

Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about. In 2024, a study was conducted that showed us that 47% – almost half – of US teenagers qualified for a diagnosis of diabetes. Around 1900, a doctor might have seen one child with diabetes during an entire career. So, what has changed? Well, high fructose corn syrup, multidextrin, processed foods, many more became a part of the US diet. Many of the food additives used today in the US are illegal in Europe, Russia, Japan, etcetera. It’s against the law to sell genetically modified food in Japan or Russia, for example. Many medications are also having a huge negative effect. The company that makes Ozempic, for example, is in Europe, but that drug is outlawed in the country of origin. So, they sell it here, thanks to government officials who are on the take. Research is pointing to paralysis of the stomach and digestive tract and a host of mental health issues that source from the digestive tract as well. So, that’s what’s out there to look at. 

On the other hand, I personally believe that much of our anxiety is how we think about life. Anxiety can be seen as the anticipation of loss. And we can say the same thing about depression. It’s about loss and how we think about it. But the fact that people express, in any of these mental health issues in our own unique way, is to some degree genetic. So, it’s complicated. But I do know what I’ve learned from my clients. 

I had a fourteen-year-old girl once, who would look at the area rug that her feet were on in my office – she sat on the couch. She would trace the pattern in the carpet over and over and over again with her eyes. Well, that’s an obsessive-compulsive behavior. It was her attempt to reduce her anxiety. Up until she did EMDR, the only relief she got from her anxiety was with drugs. It didn’t reduce the anxiety. It just damped down the symptoms. As she progressed with her therapy – her EMDR – she stopped tracing and didn’t even know when it stopped. That means that her anxiety was not a disease or a genetic defect, because EMDR does not work for disease or genetic weaknesses. So, to state it simply, EMDR works on the way we think. So, she was perfectly fine without drugs when she got done with her therapy, because she wasn’t as anxious as she used to be. 

Anxiety is a good thing if what we’re anxious about is worthy of anxiety. But, when we’re anxious about things that don’t matter, or that we don’t have any control over, or aren’t important, that takes away from our enjoying our life. So, I’ve pondered why the disconnect in some mental health professionals and not surprisingly, it has to do with money. There is a lot of money in mental health medications. And when the drug company, that sells medications that doctors prescribe, offers them a nice two-week medical training program – all expenses paid – to Bali, or adds a wing on the hospital where they practice, there is pressure to prescribe their drugs. Or, when these drug companies buy, through corrupt pressure, a new diagnosis for the diagnostic manual, it becomes easier to go with the flow. 

So, do you think that doesn’t happen? Why then is there a new diagnosis that implies sex-change surgery for children? Think about that! There are some people who are going to have to answer to Almighty God for the evil that they create in the advocacy for the butchery of children. Once a person is confused about their sexual identity, they will never be a happy person until that confusion is eradicated. So, if they’re too anxious and depressed to come for therapy without drugs – I’m talking about my personal stand now on how I think about drugs in therapy – if they’re too anxious or depressed to come to therapy without drugs, they should come with the drugs they’re usually already on, do their therapy, and then stop taking the drugs since they won’t need them now, and get into the office and do their work – like the little girl I was telling you about. She stopped taking her anxiety meds before her therapy was even done, because she was feeling so much better. 

So, long story short, I’m going to go with God on this one. I try to help people learn how to think differently. I do use a therapy called EMDR to help root out what the Bible calls strongholds – things that are early onset in their lives. But I essentially work on helping people learn how to think the way God tells us to. It’s possible to think our way out of most of the anxiety and depression we have. Sometimes we need help with learning to think differently, and that’s where God comes in as our therapist. He offers to help us do that. 

I’ve recently stopped being a professionally licensed counselor. I’m now, once again, a pastoral counselor, but with twenty-five years of mental health counseling in my background. And, like I mentioned, I use EMDR to undo any past damage, and then, out of the Bible, help people learn how to think the way God wants us all to think. Having removed the past damage makes that much easier. Once they do that work, usually – once they think their way through everything – they don’t need me anymore. They can look to God for peace. So, God is their therapist. I believe He sends people to me sometimes, too, so I’m a part of His process in some small way. I feel somewhat insecure in my role in that, but I’m still trying to do my best. His diagnostic manual is the Bible. 

So, let’s learn how now to let Him do that for us. Let’s look at a scripture in 2 Corinthians 10: 3 through 5. Paul said:

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 – For though we walk in the flesh – that is, we’re physical – we are not waging war according to the flesh – it’s not a physical war. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh – hypersonic missiles and nuclear weapons are not the kind of weapons we use, because our warfare is not of the flesh – but have divine power to destroy strongholds – we’re going to talk more about that later. We destroy arguments – so an argument is a way of thinking about something, isn’t it? – and every lofty opinion – an opinion is a way of thinking about something – raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. 

So, God’s therapy is to start thinking like God thinks and to root out the ideas that aren’t the way He thinks about things. Paul uses the metaphor of a war – not that it’s violent, but that it’s an all-consuming effort. We could call that effort cognitive therapy. Cognitive has to do with your thoughts. See, He wants us to wage war on our cognitions – our thoughts – against ungodly beliefs – to take them captive and believe Christ’s way instead. 

So, what do arguments and lofty opinions look like? Well, I’m going to get specific in a way that you may never had heard before – at least, from me – something a bit new. It might be offensive to some of you, but we’re just going to let the chips fall where they may. The battle against opinions, arguments, beliefs, strongholds that are not true – that’s what the battle is about. 

Let’s get specific – some wrong beliefs about God that I’ve heard in my office and elsewhere. God doesn’t exist. I forget who it was – it was a Russian author – said, “Without God, all things are permissible.” You’re really off the rails if you don’t believe there’s a God. There’s no hope for you – at least, in this life. So, how do we solve that problem? Well, we go outside at night and we look up. Or, we watch ants crawling around on the ground. Or, we look at a butterfly. Or, we study biology or astronomy. 

Another one is, He’s a cruel monster because He allows us to suffer. He doesn’t care about us is another one – doesn’t love us. He’s punishing us. We tend to think some of these things when we’re in a trial, don’t we? I think most of know that none of those things are true. And yet, you can catch yourself thinking them. 

He also – the devil – uses wrong beliefs about you. You are unlovable or unloved. You’re defective in some way. You’re weak. You can’t do what God wants you to do. You’re damned to hell for the sins you have committed. What a discouraging thought that is. You’re on your own in the world. No help. No support. Just weakness – not knowing what to do. God’s not there. 

Another one is, if you want something, it’s alright to get it, no matter what you have to do. I mean, there’s a lie for you! And yet, a lot of people believe that in the world today – that don’t have God. Those people are called the children of disobedience. We’ll look at that scripture later. You can create your own reality and it’s true for you. That’s another good one, right? You can make up what you want to be real and true. 

Then, there’s also a third category: and that would be wrong beliefs about others. Anyone who doesn’t give me what I want is evil and deserves punishment. Another would be, no one cares about me as much as I care about others. Or, just nobody cares about me, period. None of these things are true. They’re all lies. Even if there’s not another human being that cares about you, God does. And He’s the one that matters. So, that’s all lies. And these, literally, are some examples of what the Bible calls the fiery darts of the wicked one, that we’re told about in the Bible. 

Now, the word strongholds was used by Paul. Those are beliefs that are deeply entrenched. There’s a brain researcher and child advocate, named Bruce Perry, who is all over early interventions for children who are at risk in any way. That’s because he knows that early experience is more formative than what happens later in life. We might not even remember the event, but it still can have an effect on us. I think we all know this. As the twig is bent, so grows the tree. But Dr Perry knows that from brain research. He knows the mechanics of it, so to speak – how it happens. Another branch of science – the attachment scientists – also know this from research. I’ll give you an example of something that they say. Those folks who believe a broken relationship can never be rebuilt, who give up on relationships, believe that way because, when they were very young, there was nothing they could do to gain their parents’ connection. They tried and tried, and they cried and cried, until they believed it would never happen. 

So, how do you suppose that belief, embedded in infancy, affects a person’s attempt to relate to the world and to God? Well, Bruce Perry, because of his knowledge of how the brain works, and all the attachment theorists advocate for early interventions for kids who are troubled. The earlier you can get them, the easier it’s going to be to resolve the issue, because those early traumatic events that occur in a child’s life – or neglect – those things are hard to root out sometimes. 

Now, the attachment theorists and Bruce Perry – brain researchers – they’re not the only ones who believe in early intervention. The devil believes in it too. And he’s a master at it. I mean, where do arguments and lofty opinions come from? Where do all these negative, weakening, discouraging, untrue strongholds come from? 

Okay, I’m going to ask you to think about something in a specific way, because we’re going to use that way later to think about how God wants us to think. So, the way we’re going to start thinking is, when we want to follow the money – you’ve heard that phrase, right? When something’s awry, you want to figure it out, you follow the money. Here’s an example: In the United States – now everything I’m going to say here can be proven – now, if you’re listening to the wrong channel on the news, you may not know some of these things, but if you’re a wise Christian, you don’t just listen to ABC. You listen to ABC and some of the podcasters that can say things – they don’t have a boss, so they can say things that are different. In the United States, we were told to untested vaccinations by one specific drug company – among several, but I’m referencing this one company’s behavior – and that company had set a record for, and has been fined billions of dollars by the US government – for dishonesty in advertising. They bought false research and presented it as proof that their medications in the past worked. So, why would our government do that? Why would they? Why would they do business with a company that has been fined billions of dollars because of their lies? Now, the vaccine that we’re talking about today – that was not tested – was to deal with a disease that came out of a Chinese lab, funded by the US – that can be proven. That’s not a conspiracy theory any longer. There’s hard evidence of that. So, how did that happen? What was the reason for it? Now, this company we’re talking about also secured a contract with the US government that allowed them to keep the results of this mass vaccination of millions and millions of people secret. Now, when you catch your kid with their hand in the cookie jar, and they tell you, “I’m getting it for you,” we can see through that, can’t we? So, think with me. 

Why did the people that ran this drug company feel the need to purchase, from our wonderful elected officials, freedom from punishment for their deeds? I mean, if they thought their vaccine was so great, why did they need to be protected when people discovered what happened when you took their medications? So, let’s figure it out. Who’s lying? I hope that we didn’t just fall off a turnip wagon somewhere, but how did all that happen? What was the motive for all that dishonesty? Well, you know the answer already. That company made billions of dollars. And you can stack it up with every statement I made about their behavior and you can see why they did what they did. It also says something about the quality of the medication. So, follow the money. 

Now, some of you might think I’m talking about politics, but I’m not. I’m talking about what God warns us about. We’re supposed to watch what’s going on in the world, not bury our heads in the sand. God tells us the love of money is one root of evil. So, follow the money is a good way, in some cases, to learn what’s good and what’s evil. He thinks about the rich using their money to take advantage of the poor. It’s all through the Old Testament, especially. He warns us that, as events move toward the end, we will need to be aware of something spiritual that will go on. I’m going to read that to you now. It’s in Ephesians 2:1 and 2. 

Ephesians 2:1-2 – And you were dead in the trespasses and sins – in the past, before you converted – in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Got that? 

So, we used to be naïve to what was going on, but now are not supposed to be. And one of the things that God says causes evil is the love of money. So, follow the money is a godly way to think about what’s going on when something suspicious occurs. 

Now, the sons of disobedience are godless. They have no moral standard. That’s why they’re disobedient. They will do whatever will give them the money they want. There are a lot of people who aren’t converted yet that aren’t that way. So, these people – the sons of disobedience – they’re in a special category all their own – not one that you’d want to be in. But they don’t care about anyone but themselves. So, that was just an extreme example of how we can answer the question, “How is it that all anti-God, evil, hopelessness, lies, etcetera run wild in the minds of all people in the world?” It’s because of the devil. 

Now, here’s a more straight forward way to avoid being fooled. Follow the truth and follow the lies. 

We just had a national election. Did you listen to the political debates on TV about what both sides said? To do that, you had to listen to at least two different sources to get both sides. If everything you listened to came from ABC, or you only listened to Joe Rogan’s podcast, for example, you’re going to hear clear differences. So, you can listen to both sides and you can tell the truth – who’s making sense, who’s lying, who’s genuine, who’s deceitful, who’s a phony, who’s open. Just step away from all your preconceived political loyalties you’ve followed all your life, and listen like God tells us to listen – for truth and lies. What’s going to happen is, you’re going to find some truth on both sides and some lies. But it’s easier sometimes to discern who the liar is – the one who lies the most. 

So following personal truth and lies of the people that I have worked with, and my own struggles with truth and lies, is what has led me to identify the lies that we believe that tear us down and the truth that builds us up in God’s image. 

But there’s even another way to focus on it to make even more sense. Here are some questions we need to ask: Who is it that wants to kill all human life and has orchestrated genocide programs all through human history, when millions have been killed through the ages? Who does that? Who is it who hates humanity because humans are going to inherit from God what He wanted most? Who is it that would love to make us all so sick that we’re all diabetic by the times we’re eighteen? Who is it that weakens the nations of the world? Who is it that weakens the nations? That term weakens the nations – straight out of the Bible. And there’s a name attached to it. You know who it is. Who is it who has spread the worst kind of evil and suffering all over the world with one weapon – lies? Starting with Adam and Eve, right up until the this present day. 

The people who serve him and these evil agendas are like fish hooked in the lower jaw. The hook is the money, gained in any way, no matter who is hurt. And the one who has them on the line is the devil. They think they know better than everyone else. Yet, it turns out that they’re the ones that are gullible. They’re children of disobedience. Blind to what’s going on in the spiritual reality of God. It’s pitiful, really. 

So, how do we change arguments and lofty opinions and strongholds? How do we root them out of our lives – all that stuff that the devil projects into us from the times we’re little? Well, it does not happen by fiat. Well, part of it does – at the end. But right now, while God is in the process of perfecting us, it is a process. It happens by the process He’s working. 

Here’s something else that’s important to understand in John 1:17. We’re told:

John 1:17 – For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 

God has armed us to fight against the lies of the devil. He’s given us the truth. And we need to be on that like a honey badger on a lion – just all over it. Jesus clearly told us that the truth will make us free – free of the devil’s lies, free of sin. So go back and think about that list of I gave you earlier. You can clearly see that they’re all lies, can’t you? The problem comes for us when we discover that we still cling to some of those lies, even though we know they’re not true. We find ourselves thinking that way over and over. Those are the strongholds Paul was talking about, I think. 

So, what do we do with them? Do we sink into guilt over our weaknesses? Or, our failures, or our foolishness, our mistakes, our embarrassments? Who would love for us to do that? See, that’s where grace comes in. Even to put ourselves down because we’re weak is a lie the devil tells us.

Listen to listen in Revelation 12:10 and 11 – John said:

Revelation 12:10-11 – And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him – they have conquered the devil – by the blood of the Lamb – by the blood of the Lamb. They know that they’re covered by Christ’s blood. And the weaknesses they have and the failures they make are all covered by Christ’s grace. So, no need for discouragement. Right? 

Right. So, we still get discouraged though, don’t we? But there’s more to the story. Also, it’s not just that the blood of the Lamb is what allows them to conquer the devil. It’s by the word of our testimony, for we love not our lives unto death. In other words, in the face of the devil’s threats, we stand up for God and stand up for what we believe about Him – with the truth! There is a theme running through all of this. And that is, God’s people love the truth! We conquer the devil’s evil lies by the blood of the Lamb, by the grace of God, and by being brave in Christ – by knowing what Christ did for us. 

So, even though we know better, we still struggle and so here’s a scripture that we can look at. It’s in 1 John 5:18 through 20.

1 John 5:18-20 – We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God – that’s Jesus – protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. The evil one does not touch him! So, what does that mean? Well, while we’re learning to quit sinning, Jesus Christ – the only one born of God – right? – protects us from the devil’s accusations. When he accuses us, God goes to the books to look and see if He can find that sin, and it’s not there! It’s gone! Continuing on in verse 19: We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. So, we’re different from them. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true – that means that we know the truth – in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. 

So, even though we’re weak, we know the truth and are not fooled by the devil. Because though weak and sinful still, God has draped His blanket of grace over us to protect us from the accusations of the devil. God gets pretty expressive about this. He says that while we’re learning how not to sin, our sins that we commit in weakness, are cast as far away as the east is from the west. That’s pretty poetic, isn’t it? And, as we do battle against his lies, we are protected from the devil. So, God is going to win the battle of our hearts with His truth and grace placed in us by the mind of Christ, who, as Paul said, is the hope of glory.  

There’s a lot at stake her for each of us. From what we are as miserable weak human beings to eternal beings. Glory. God the Father and Jesus Christ actually come in our weakened state and take up residence in our minds by the outpouring, as David wrote in the Bible, His generous Spirit. He frees us to take up battle against the devil’s influence in our lives. 

How are we to do that? We’re finally down to that – how to do it. We always have one of those parts in LifeResource. We don’t just tell you what to do, we show you how to do it. It’s as simple as deciding to think truth instead of lies. And it’s as hard as disputing the lies that come to our minds over and over again – to dispute those, sometimes 10,000 times a day, if necessary. 

I was talking to a small group of church folks one day about the belief of the Orthodox Church that I just learned about – their belief about what the church is. I learned this from an Orthodox priest. I asked him how the church in Russia came back to life immediately – the minute the Soviet Union collapsed. And he said, “We believe the blueprint for the entire church is implanted in everybody – every single member. So, they’d have to kill all of us to kill the church.” And then I said, “What if you were that one person who was left? I’m talking of the church people now. Would you know what to do? We looked at each other and said, “No.” They were believing lies straight out of the heart of the devil. We know who would want us to believe that, don’t we? That’s not true. God says specifically – He tells us not to be afraid, because He will put His words in our mouths to know what to say when the time comes for it to be said – not until. He did that once with a jackass. Remember? An ass talked to Balaam – he talked to communicate with him. So, if He can do that with an ass, He can do it with any of us. 

Now, I was listening to a man on YouTube a few days ago. He was so articulate. His logic was so airtight. So smart. And I just thought, “If I ever had to debate that guy, he would demolish me.” Way too smart for me, except for one topic. If I had to stand up for God against him, I would know what to say. God promises us that.

So, the devil wants us to be afraid – to doubt what God is willing to do through us. And yet, we keep quoting the scripture, With God, all things are possible. So, we have to quote that enough to ourselves until we actually believe it. When we quote it to ourselves is when we don’t believe that’s possible. We say, “That’s a lie.” We dispute the lie. “I can’t do this for God.” Yes, we can! Because with God, all things are possible. We might not be able to do it, but the reality is, we don’t have to. He’s here with us now. 

So, is that true? Or, isn’t it? Are you a lover of truth? Or, do you put up with lies – especially the ones about yourself?  If it’s true, then God’s direction to us is to set our minds on the things of God, rather than on the things of the earth – our human desires, our doubts, our guilt. 

Let’s look at this scripture – it’s our marching orders for those of us who are in the army of God. 

Colossians 3:2 – Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. The King James uses the word affection, instead of mind. Love the things of God more than the things of this world. Love God and the truth – the truth He gives us freely with His whole heart. 

So, if we do that, we have an ironclad promise from God. It’s in Psalm 91:14. This is God talking here. 

Psalm 91:14 – Because he holds fast to me in love – He’s talking about you there, because you hold fast to Him in love – I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him – implied because, “He’s calling me by name. We’re friends. We know each other.” I will be with him in trouble – I’ll have his back. I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. 

So, if we hold fast to God’s truth, He will hold fast to us. He will teach us what to say when we need to say it. And He will help us learn to think the way He thinks. He will drive the devil with his lies out of our hearts and cover our sins with His forgiveness while we learn to live His way. 

So, what do you think? Is really loving the truth on any topic, where and whenever God shows it to us…. Are we ready for that? Is it about seeking God’s channel and turning off the devil with his incessant stream of lies? Is it about setting our minds on the things of God? That’s really the name of the game. After all, if you’ll think back, that’s the promise we made to God when we converted. So, we’ve probably known these things all along, but we need to practice them and follow them. If we do that, things are going to go our way.