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The Healing Image

Published Date: November 2, 2012

By Lawrence E. Green, MAR, MA, MBA, PhD  (MAR, 1972)

Competent professionals always work from a template or image of what “could be” for those they serve.  A counseling approach based on relativism, or the premise that any template is as good as another, is incompetent.  Seasoned counselors know that a good template can often overcome their limitations, especially if that template is based in a Truth greater than their individual experience.

People have a divinely crafted template (God’s image).  God’s design is the best template for understanding and achieving a healthy life.  The closer we get to the Creator’s template, the healthier we become.  The triune God creates each soul with the desire and potential to reflect His image; understanding this divine template (image) can provide insights into servant relationships, adult competence and well-being, and wholeness and fullness (three measurable outcomes of healing).

As caring professionals, we need tools for knowing and reflecting (applying) that image to our lives and the lives of others.  Some tools are better than other tools for engaging the healing process.  The best tool:  The Word of God is the most authoritative and trustworthy written standard or guide for understanding and achieving that image which brings healing and wholeness.  It goes beyond the physical and the rational, and enters the holistic worldview of the supernatural.

Counselors are also tools.  Godly professionals (those obedient Christians who have learned to embrace and reflect God’s image) are better-equipped servants for healing than those who do not understand the holistic dimensions and power of the Word.  In harmony with the Holy Spirit, they can be guides to truth and healing.

Experiencing transformation in Christ is also a tool.  Knowing Jesus, the perfect reflection of the Father, is the most important factor for a healed life.  Any counseling approach that helps bring an individual closer to the image of Jesus moves them closer to healing.  As counselors, we know the importance of becoming lesser so that He can become greater in the lives of those we serve.

The Tri-Person Matrix® illustrated below, is a scriptural, holistic, diagnostic tool that can help professionals, committed to facilitating healing, guide individuals to wholeness and a reflection of Jesus in their lives.  It is a template for healing.  This tool affects both daily and life goals for the journey of living a healed life.  It can address the body, soul, and spiritual levels, separating them for growth and uniting them for fulfillment.  It can help professionals share the completeness of the Father (Creator), the congruence of the Son (Re-Creator), and the systemic wholeness of the Holy Spirit (the pure source of Creativity).

From blurred to blended:  Privileged to be one of the first two graduates in the new MAR in counseling (Wilmore, KY, 1972), the exciting messages of Dr.’s Mavis, Cessna, Stanger, Traina, and more, blurred in my mind, and challenged me to uphold the inerrancy of the Christian Bible and the centrality of Jesus in the pursuit of Truth.  They set me on the right path.  In the past 30 years, these voices have blended into a powerful heritage of practical truths for serving others in Christ’s name.  They convinced me of the power of Jesus, the Healing Image, for all who desire to seek its Truth.  Please use it and improve it as you like.  If you send me your email address, I will send you a complimentary “Image Cube” illustrating this powerful template. lawrenceegreen@gmail.com

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