The Bible, Wisdom and Human Nature
Waverley Model, the above principle can potentially be applied when working in any of the five areas of functioning, thereby providing a flexibly creative ethos through which the goals of phase three (resolution) may be attained.
The Holy Spirit and change In the introductory chapter to this book, it was stated that a Christian model of counselling must address the issue of the process of change in relation to the activity of the Holy Spirit. Is the Spirit inevitably involved in transformation toward health? If this is so, is the role explicit or implicit? If explicit, what form might this take regarding processes and/or techniques and interventions? In answering these questions, general conceptions regarding the Holy Spirit (top level) will be followed by an attempt to seek their application to the counselling process (bottom level). The focus will centre upon the ‘work’, not the ‘person’ of the Holy Spirit. Williams states the issue of the identification of the Spirit’s work as one of revelation: ‘how is God heard or seen to be present to the human world?’180 In its broadest biblical conception, the Holy Spirit sustains all life: ‘the breath of life’ (Gen. 6:17). In the Old Testament context of creation, the Spirit connotes all life as a gift from God, and thus can be given or removed according to God’s will. From this perspective, the Spirit is implicit in the existence of all life, ie the Spirit is essential to life everywhere, including a therapeutic encounter in all its nuances. This principle of life being a gift from God and therefore everything which is alive being God-dependent not only relates to the creation narratives, but is echoed throughout the whole of Scripture with non-life (death) beyond the ‘edge’ of the Spirit. The psalmist therefore fears God taking the Spirit away from him (Psa. 51:11); Job grasps the fact that: ‘In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind’ ( Job 12:10). In relation to human beings in particular, Yong makes the helpful connection between a ‘foundational pneumatology’ (the Spirit’s presence and activity everywhere in the world – including natural, cultural, social, institutional and interpersonal dimensions) and imago Dei in so far as 132
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