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Dr. Crabb states that if you adopt the vision/goal stated above, “you will give up depending on your own competence. You will give up the pressure of having to make it happen, because you will know that you are out of your league.” How will knowing and believing this change the way you approach SoulCare?
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I don’t have to ‘make it happen.’ I don’t have to manufacture my own experience of God or someone else in a conversation. I can learn it and share what is in me with them. We can be both journey together and allow the Holy Spirit to form a great desire for God than anything or anyone else. It can begin to re-write our story into the story of Jesus. It’s really not in my power, but in God’s.
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Knowing and believing that I can give up depending on my own competence will change the way I approach Soul Care in that my dependence is totally on God. I don’t have to worry about my failure in providing soul care to someone because I know that anything I provide in my own efforts is far inferior to what God may provide. Whatever God does in a person’s life will be far superior to what I may try to suggest to “fix” a person’s problem. I cannot be competent in the many problems that arise in people’s lives. Relying on God’s competence will set me free from pressures that I have to make something happen for a person. My Soul Care approach will be totally dependent on God’s far superior abilities to help a person. My approach will be to help someone to seek after God and to help them to long for God’s presence and desires. Then a person’s difficult problem or situation can become secondary to the person’s desire to know God more intimately. To know that Jesus’ spiritual power is coming out of me in order to benefit the person I am trying to provide soul care to is incredibly compelling. God’s visions will always be far greater than my limited visions developed in my own competence.
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There will be dependence on the Spirit and a release from the fear of not knowing specific techniques. I will be free to listen, to know my friend, to hear what God is doing in me and in him. If I don’t have to be the answer, if I don’t have to fix anything, I am more likely to have desire for God stirred up in me and in my friend. God, as the moving force in our relationship, can use my friend’s problem and my inadequacy to work his grace.
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It’s comforting to know you are not doing it on your own. In fact, the key actor here is the Holy Spirit, not you as a Soul Carer. It’s also likely to protect us from making bad mistakes – assuming that my knowledge, skills and experience are error-free – which can lead to hurting other people and (yourself) walking away wounded.
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Knowing and adopting the vision and the goal of soul care will assist me to a)realize that only the indwelling Holy Spirit can guide the person to maturity, only the Holy Spirit will be able to to assist them to to nourish an appetite for Christ that is stronger than all of their other appetites. B)My prayers for the saved person and myself will be for us to obey God and leave all the consequences to him, Exodus 19:5. The pressure to see the situation solved according to me or according to my friend’s wishes, will dissipate as my appetite for a stronger relationship with God materializes. I will relax and leave the responsibility for the best out come to El Elyon / The Most High God. I will approach Soul Care by putting my absolute faith and trust in God, He is El Shaddai/ The All-Sufficient one.