Certain people refuse to go for counseling while others go, but reject the counsel they are given even when this is what they need to deal with challenges. People refuse or reject counseling for the following reasons:
(1) SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS — The feeling or belief that one has no problems, a foolish idea indeed.
(2) SELF-DECEPTION — The belief that it is of no use seeking advice from anyone.
(3) SELF-CENTREDNESS — The tendency to focus on one’s self alone without reference to anyone else.
(4) SELF-GLORIFICATION — The practice of praising one’s self even when there is no need to. This is the Lizard complex; a reference to the folklore of lizard that fell from a high Iroko tree and shook its head several times in an act of self-congratulation for surviving the ordeal.
(5) SELFISHNESS — The act of never wanting to share anything with others, whether good or bad.
(6) SENSE OF SECRECY — The tendency of not wanting anyone to know anything about you.
(7) SENSE OF SHAME ARISING FROM SIN — The tendency to stew in one’s shit even when its smell is everywhere.
There is no challenge you are currently facing that cannot be dealt with by recourse to the wealth of the Spirit of Counsel. This Spirit can manifest through you or anyone He chooses to use. The challenge is the ability to recognize the vessel through whom the Spirit of Counsel may be manifesting.
Sometimes people reject the Spirit of Counsel because He is manifesting through an unnatural vessel. Take the case of John the Baptist for instance. He was a man through whom the Spirit of Counsel manifested to bless tax collectors, scribes and soldiers. Luke 3:10-14 says,
So the people asked him, saying, “What shall we do then?” He answered and said to them, “He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.” Then tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Collect no more than what is appointed for you.” Likewise the soldiers asked him, saying, “And what shall we do?” So he said to them, “Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages.
Unfortunately, the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel He gave by the Spirit of Counsel because of his unnatural appearance. John was like “a reed shaken by the wind”. He was “a man not clothed in soft garments”. He did not live in a king’s court. But Jesus said he was more than a prophet; a messenger sent before his face, a counselor indeed. Luke 7:29-30 says that when “all the people heard” Jesus and what he had to say about John as a counselor, “even tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God for themselves not having been baptized by him”.
Go to whoever walks by the Spirit of Counsel even if he is like “a reed shaken by the wind” or a man no “clothed in soft raiments”. What you need is divine counsel, not looks or appearances.
