Christian Living
A close friend visited my blog and was kind enough to give me a feedback; “wow, what a beautiful site you have there! everything is in its place, all well arranged and organized“. And I said; “thank you so much”. Then he asked; “can you make money from this thing?”. That’s when he lost me.
A young lady wrote me recently, she said she’d searched online all day for a Christian Counselor without success. And then she came across Talk with Grace Obomanu. She said from the moment she started reading through the page, somehow she knew she’s found what she’s been looking for.
From discussions with her it became obvious to me that this was a very devoted Christian, very committed in her local Church but who just needed to speak with someone else outside of her local assembly. During our first session I realized the Holy Spirit had woken me up 2 nights earlier to pray for her case….Wow! I’d prayed some very strange prayers and wondered why some of those words spilled out of my lips then, now I understand better. In her own words; ‘this was not a coincidence’. And I couldn’t agree more.
Before our first session, she asked about my fees/charges. I asked for an overview of her case, which she obliged. Truth is, I’ve never charged anyone for counselling before now, not that I had a strong conviction not to, but I just didn’t feel it was right. So I’ve been counselling for free for well over 6 years now.
And now, here is this young lady with a plethora of issues starting from childhood to teenage years, well into adulthood who was very eager to pay me in foreign currency. In the past, I always enjoy the surprise people display when I tell them ‘Talk with Grace‘ counsels free of charge 🙂 But honestly, this one was a bit tempting! Pay me in pounds?!!! 🙂 Thank God I quickly said to her “I’ll handle your case free of charge.” 🙂
The Lord is so gracious to me. I’ll always be thankful to the Father for the opportunity to counsel with this young lady. Six sessions later and she’s well settled in her local Church (against her initial consideration to move to another Church), she’s more committed to praying in the Spirit as well as making word-based confessions, she has a more positive view and disposition towards her past experiences which had become strongholds in her life for more than 30 years, and she feels totally liberated and hopeful about the future.
Praise God!!!
Should christian counsellors charge for their services/ministry work?
This has been a long debated topic. But probably the question that needs to be answered is; what kind of christian counselor are you? Is it a vocation for you or do you counsel as a part of a ministry work? If you majored in christian counseling as part of a training, then your orientation would be towards profit making and making a livelihood. Is this right or wrong? The Lord Jesus is at the Head building His Church 🙂 Now, if on the other hand you serve the Lord by providing counsel to people through the help of the Great Counselor (the Holy Spirit) and through wisdom from the Word of God, your orientation should also be different.
While I can understand that it isn’t cheap to own and run a counselling platform of any sort, here is what I eventually heard in my Spirit as I spent days thinking about whether I should have charged the young lady described above…..
.….freely have you received, freely give…….
Oh yes! I heard it so very clearly…..
And yes, I hear your questions about how to pay your bills, keep your site/office running, earn an income, etc?. Well, I am not in a position to tell you how to meet those, but here’s what I do know….that if the Holy Spirit reminded me to give freely the gift given freely to me, then God certainly has a plan to meet my needs and wants. Now, that’s my personal conviction and if you’re in a fix about this, talk to God about it, you will get an answer of peace 🙂
Should believers pay for a miracle, prayer, counsel, etc received through a minister either in a Local Church or in the Universal Church of Christ?
Let’s look at what Jesus said….
“So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?”
Luke 17:17-18 NKJV
Of the 10 lepers cleansed by Jesus in Luke 17, only one returned to give thanks to God. Jesus wasn’t exactly pleased about this, so he inquired about the other nine. However, He never asked the one thankful leper to go fetch his friends to come say ‘thank you‘
Jesus expected all 10 lepers to come back to say ‘thank you’ but He did not demand it.
So here are my thoughts, a well brought up Christian would return to appreciate a vessel through which a miracle was received, however, the vessel should always remember that; ..….freely you have received, freely give….
Be thankful for those that return to give thanks and do not forget to pray for those yet to understand how they should act.
My beloved friend described above insisted that she wanted to pay for my time, dedication and commitment towards our counselling sessions. Eventually I gave up, and directed her to the give channel in the homepage menu, and she did give an offering 🙂
“Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.“
Matthew 10:8 NKJV
