Is Mental Health Treatment Compatible with Christian Faith?
by David K. Bernard
Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript)
Kind: teaching

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--is-mental-health-treatment-compatible-with-christian-faith
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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yes it is appropriate for christians to seek assistance for mental health so let me discuss this mental health is a complex subject i'm not a professional i will say we have many professional apostolic united pentecostal counselors for our credential ministers and their families we have points of refuge.com and we also have a network of counselors as an endorsed organization of upc i call the center for apostolic counseling where people can can get a united pentecostal or apoc person who is a professional licensed counselor and they can seek help so we have to understand that some problems are caused physically so physical issues can for example a brain tumor can affect a person's personality and their judgment now we always believe in divine healing so whether somebody has cancer or heart trouble or anything else we pray we ask god to heal we don't believe it's wrong to seek medical attention because the way i look at it all healing ultimately comes from god so even if we go to let's say we have cancer we pray god heals us problem solved but let's say god doesn't heal us so we go to a doctor the doctor does surgery removes the cancer well still we're depending on the body to heal itself the surgeon doesn't actually heal the body the the surgeon takes away the forward element or the dysfunctional element but we're still depending on the body to heal itself and to recover and that healing is a design of the body that comes from the creator which is god so even in the case of surgery we're praying for god to heal and we're expecting the human body as created by god to get back on track and heal itself and for god to assist and we pray for god to assist the surgeons so i use that example to say we understand that uh physical healing comes from god but it's not wrong to seek physicians or medication in order to aid the process of the body healing itself well let's take the next example let's say someone has a mental illness you go to the doctor you find out it's caused by a brain tumor the surgeon takes out the brain tumor and the person is healed so yes god could heal directly through a miracle which sometimes he does but if he doesn't would it be wrong to get treatment for that mental illness of course not now some mental illnesses are not so clear-cut some it may be a chemical imbalance in the brain or we're not exactly sure what but but medication or certain physical remedies can help so i when i was a pastor i worked with people who had bipolar disorder people had schizophrenia i saw them baptized in jesus name filled with the holy ghost people with autism some uh aspergers or are on the spectrum where they could communicate some who couldn't communicate and we found that medication often helps so lithium for example it seems maybe it restores a chemical balance in the brain so someone who has bipolar disorder can take lithium and function normally but then sometimes they would say well i feel so good i think i'm healed i threw away my medication and then the next week they crashed and so i would tell them look if you feel god's healed you go to the doctor and get it confirmed and maybe if you're on medication get a plan of weaning off of it so that you can because even if you are healed sometimes your body is used to certain medication and just taking yourself completely off of that can cause problems and so still work with your doctor to verify the healing and or to have a plan of weaning off any medication you no longer need so that's another example of a mental illness that's highly treatable of course there are other mental illnesses that seem to be totally psychological in nation nature but even then going to a doctor can help eliminate physical causes or in some cases the doctor can help you regulate it so someone's suffering from severe depression now i don't ultimately think that medication is going to be the answer and i certainly don't advocate just going and getting prescription pills for whenever you don't feel good and whatever but sometimes if a person is so dysfunctional can't function normally a medical doctor can give them appropriate meditation to get themselves back in balance so then they're able to benefit from the cognitive therapy that is the counseling and the spiritual uh counseling that they ultimately need but sometimes they're so distraught and so mixed up and so confused that you can't even hardly have pastoral counseling because of their situation and so sometimes a medical treatment can be a temporary bridge to get their life in order where they can profit from biblical teaching and biblical counseling now even then i say we pray throughout the process because god can deliver so i believe there's a role for a medical doctor i believe there's a role for a professional counselor ideally apostolic or at least someone who is bible based or fully respects biblical values and of course there's always a need for a pastor as a pastor what i did as our church grew at first our church was small i developed relationships with counselors in the area that i talked to them and made sure they would respect our values but then as the church grew we were able to get professional trained counselors within the church and then i would partner with them i would usually provide the initial pastoral biblical based counseling and if it's an ongoing situation of relationship issues or child abuse a lot of times people have severe emotional problems because of a past life of abuse and most pastors while we can pray for them we can share biblical teachings we can share our password experience we don't have the time or the expertise to invest in helping them unravel the severe abuse and so that's where a trained counselor in these issues can help them what i call cognitive therapy which is a secular term but that's very compatible with using the bible and in partnership with the pastor i would get permission from the person that the counselor would share uh relevant information to me not all the details but share their progress so we could work together to help the person in a holistic way and i so i found i found many people profited from that so i do believe there is a role for a medical doctor in certain cases i do believe there's a role for a biblically based counselor with cognitive therapy not all the psychoanalysis and frauding in psychology there's some sometimes associated with that and then of course there is a role for the pastor now some things are primarily caused by sin in people's life and maybe they're depressed or emotionally distraught because they persist in sinful behaviors and so no amount of medication or therapy is really going to address that until they address the root cause so there's always going to be need for preaching teaching pastoral guidance and counseling dealing with sin there's also the reality of demonic oppression and possession which you you need the discerning of spirits but sometimes the devil needs to be cast out and so i've personally on the one hand i've dealt with people with real mental illnesses i've also dealt with people who who had real spiritual strongholds or oppression or even demonic possession so that's where you need a multi-pronged holistic approach with an apostolic church a spirit-filled church and the power of the holy ghost many things will be taken care of by episodic preaching apostolic teaching pastoral guidance prayer but there is a place for trained professionals to help with specific problems so if someone is struggling mentally and emotionally i think they should talk to their pastor but there are certain cases where yes i would recommend going to a medical doctor a psychiatrist who is actually a medical doctor and or there may be a role for professional counseling to assist them with life issues and life problems and i would say overall it all has to be saturated with prayer and i believe that sometimes god gives an answer instantaneously miraculously i i've personally dealt with people who were suicidal or who were in a mental hospital god delivered them from suicide god delivered them from severe depression i have many testimonies in my newest book reaching austin people who were healed of mental illnesses are delivered from serious mental conditions so i absolutely believe in that but just as i would say with physical healing we pray first foremost and always for god to heal but if there's an ongoing issue it's not wrong to seek professional help and in fact a professional a doctor or professional counselor may be a good partner along with the pastor to deal with the total needs of the person and we might wonder why is it always so clear-cut and we don't always know the answer but we we're a member of the fallen human race so we do have um illnesses and diseases that weren't god's original intention and so if you've got some kind of a condition it it has to be addressed and and also because of whether it's people's sin or the their the family they're raised in there may be various components and while there might be a definite issue of sin which there needs to be rep repentance and deliverance that life can have altered the can it could have altered the person physically mentally there's a lot we don't know about the brain but it seems like even the brain can be wired in a dysfunctional way repeated sin let's say drug addiction can actually alter the brain so even though we can say the cause of sin the cure has to involve something changing in the brain whether god heals them miraculously or whether they go through a process of medication or surgery or retraining to actually change the structure of the brain that's been affected by the sin or the abuse and so it is a complicated subject but i do believe that god is giving us answers and if we'll trust the lord i think he will lead us and as i've said i have many examples that i could give and that i have written of god's delivering power