The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of truth teaches and guides us into all truth (John 14:26; 16:13), which includes psychological truth. The Spirit produces the fruit of the Spirit, as we see in Galatians 5:22–23: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. When the Spirit is involved in Christian counseling, we can expect that the therapist will evidence such fruit toward his or her clients and that the outcome of the therapy will be a person who is more and more exhibiting Christ like fruit. Because we know that the Holy Spirit inspired God’s Word, we can be certain that the Spirit will never contradict the truth of Scripture when interpreted properly. This means, for Christian counselors who are abiding in the Spirit, that they can be certain that the Spirit will enable their work to be consistent with the moral and ethical aspects of biblical teaching.
As Christians we understand that the Spirit is essential to life and ministry and we are commanded to be continuously filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18). To be filled with the Spirit is to yield to the Spirit, allowing the Spirit to take control and shape us to become more like Jesus and to empower us to do the works of Jesus—which can include counseling. As we are in tune with the Spirit, we are given spiritual gifts that enable us to be fruitful in the area of counseling. The spiritual gifts that are most salient for counseling include exhortation or encouragement (Rom 12:8), healing (1 Cor 12:9, 28), wisdom (1 Cor 12:8), knowledge (1 Cor 12:8), discerning of spirits (1 Cor 12:10), and mercy (Rom 12:8). Spirit can empower the Christian therapist to discern the root of the client’s problem through the gifts of knowledge and wisdom (1 Cor 12:8). The Spirit can also provide spiritual direction as a therapist and client participate in more explicit integration by using Christian practices such as prayer or engaging Scripture. Third, of course, the Spirit can touch a client and bring powerful experiences of grace and healing at any time during the counseling work. This may be gradual or occur during “quantum change” when epiphanies bring about sudden transformations. Sometimes this happens when the therapist makes use of inner healing prayer with those patients where it is appropriate and there has been informed consent. Fourth, the Spirit can assist the Christian therapist to discern the presence of the demonic. While this is a controversial topic in some areas of Christian integration, I have written that one of the spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit is discerning of spirits (1 Cor 12:10). The Spirit will not only enable the Christian therapist to discern these spirits and make differential diagnoses between demonization and mental illness, but will also help the therapist know when prayer for deliverance should be a part of the therapy or whether a referral to a pastor or prayer ministry team is also called for. Finally, the Spirit is involved in deep spiritual transformation of both client and therapist into greater Christlikeness as they participate in the spiritual disciplines with the Spirit’s help and enabling. Some of these disciplines may be practiced in the session and some may be given as homework assignments between sessions.