Section 01 – The Cause of Problems

Romans 15:17 to 20 says,

I have therefore something to boast about through Jesus Christ in those things pertaining to God.
For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, to make the Gentiles obedient, through word and deed,
Through powerful signs and wonders, through the [dynamic] power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about to Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.
Yes, I have so strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man's foundation:

To start off this teaching on counseling, I would like to begin by dealing with problems. We all have problems, but where do they come from?

Most of the time we cannot answer that question. Then we try to fix the problems and end up doing it all wrong. Sometimes when we try to do that we end up creating new ones.

Everyone has problems, and sometimes fixing our problems is kind of like cutting the branches off a tree. It seems like every time you hack one off, another one grows back.

In fact sometimes when you prune a tree it seems to grow even bigger. You end up going around and putting out fires all the time. You keep cutting off branches and they keep growing back.

You need to find out how to get rid of the tree, which is what we will be dealing with in this book. We will find out how to get to the roots of the tree and get rid of them. I will show you how to deal with problems in your life and how to get rid of them.

You might ask me,

Is it possible to do that?

Yes, the Word of God teaches that it is possible.

How to Identify Problems

Let's start by looking at the cause of problems. Before I move into it fully though, I want to ask you a couple of important questions.

1. How would you describe a person who does not have any problems?

2. What is the basic cause of our problems?

They are both million dollar questions, and they actually both have very simple answers.

Describe a person who doesn't have problems. It is quite simple. He is happy.

Do you know a happy person who has problems? I don't know anyone like that. If a person has no problems he is happy. And a person is happy because he doesn't have any problems. It is actually quite simple.

What then is the basic cause of all problems? It follows on from the last answer. It is anything that makes you unhappy. So all you need to do is get rid of everything in your life that makes you unhappy and your problems will be solved.

You Need Answers

It looks like a simple solution, but it is not so easy to do. How do you get rid of everything that makes you unhappy? Part of the problem is that you need to find out what is making you unhappy. You also need to find out why this is taking place.

Next you need to find out how that influence came into your life. You need to find out how you can deal with it and get rid of it, and how you can return to that state of happiness.

If you can get there, then life will be great and your problems will be solved. The trouble is you will likely be in heaven by then. Most people think that making it to heaven is the only time they will be happy.

You just need to listen to some of the songs they have sung in the past. They speak about just hanging in there, until one day we make it to the pearly gates and walk the streets of gold. Then at last we will be happy.

Life is miserable, and we just have to struggle along here under the load of difficulties and problems. But we have forgotten something very important. Jesus died to renew us and restore us.

How God Made Us

I want to begin by looking at the original creation. Let's look at how things were when God set it up in the beginning. Then we will see what happened, why it changed, and the effects that took place when it changed. In this way we can understand exactly what caused the problems to come into our lives.

In Genesis 1 and 2 you can read about how God created everything. You see how He spoke forth each stage of the creation starting with light. He looked down on everything that He had made and the Scripture says,

God saw that it was good.

God never made anything bad. The earth was perfect. Things were great and everybody was happy. That was the way God made it originally, but somewhere along the line something went wrong and it changed.

God made man with three parts to his being. I have taught this many times before and in many places, but I want to share it again.

This time I will show you a couple of things you may not have known before. When you understand the way God created us and made us, you will maybe grasp exactly why we have problems.

Functions of the Spirit

God made us to have a spirit, and He breathed part of His very own nature into man. He made man's body and breathed into him His own life and spirit, and He put three basic capabilities into man's spirit.

Creativity

He firstly put into man's spirit a creative ability. He gave man the ability to invent, originate or create things. Man is the only creation that has that ability. Animals do not have it.

Wisdom

He put into man the ability to exercise wisdom. What is wisdom? It is arranging your life with the future in mind. It is making plans and setting things in motion; approaching life the right way.

God built into man's spirit the ability to use wisdom. He could therefore create for himself a life that would be successful and happy.

Fellowship

God also placed into man's spirit the ability to fellowship with others. In his spirit is a desire and a yearning to reach out and touch another spirit.

Spirit reaches out to spirit, and God made us to have fellowship and communion in the spirit. He Himself was there to talk to man and to fellowship with him at the beginning when He made him.

Functions of the Soul

God made man with a soul. And in the soul He also placed three capabilities which would work with those in the spirit.

Intelligence

God placed intelligence into man. You would never say it when you look at some people. It may be well hidden but it is still there. Intelligence is the ability to think and to use the intellect to reason things out.

Choice

God put into man the power of choice. He didn't make man like a robot. He gave him the power to choose his destiny and to regulate his life the way he wanted it to go.

Feelings and Desires

God also placed into man feelings and desires. This was designed to give him some motivation, so that he would do things that made him feel good. He would do things that had risen in his heart in desire and work with the capabilities of the human spirit.

Why did God do it? It was to produce a happy life. This is what He wanted man to have and how He made us.

He gave us in our spirits the ability to create a life. And He gave us in our souls the ability to take the functions of the spirit and to use them to make a happy life.

Functions of the Body

God gave us a body, and there He also built in three natural functions.

Self-Support

He built into the body a function of self-support, where the body would take care of itself. God made it a fun thing. He made it so that we would enjoy eating and doing things that were pleasurable.

Food is a beautiful thing. Perhaps you look at a fat person and say,

You're just a glutton. We can see why you are so fat.

Well don't you eat?

Yes, but I don't just live to eat.

So do you just eat bread and drink water every day?

No, God gave us beautiful things to eat, as well as beautiful things for the body to use. We can put on nice clothing and wear jewelry and all sorts of things that make the body comfortable.

Defense

God built a self-preservation or defense mechanism into the body so that we do not get harmed. We automatically protect ourselves from hurt. Nobody is so stupid as to let someone throw a stone at him, then just stand there and say,

Oh, here comes a stone. I wonder what's going to happen.

It is built into us to defend and to protect ourselves from harm.

Reproduction

God made another fun thing for us. He made the body to reproduce itself. That is better than food sometimes isn't it?

Don't act so spiritual now. God made sex to be enjoyed, not just for procreation. He made it a pleasurable thing. It is a gift from Him and He made us to enjoy it.

God made man so that he could take the capabilities in his spirit and add to it the capabilities in his soul. He could then take the functions of the body and build them all together to make a happy life.

The Wrong Picture

God wanted man to have a great time. But a person would swear that the Lord made a mistake, the way people are preaching these days.

They want to walk around miserable and give up everything that is in this world. They want to give up the pleasures that God has made for us, go on diets all the time and control their passions.

Yes there is a place to control these things. But God made it originally so that we could build them all together. They could all flow and function perfectly together without any discord, conflict or unhappiness. We were meant to have a life of contentment.

Just imagine this picture for a moment. You go off somewhere to a paradise and just enjoy life to the full. You relax, eat, sleep and make love all day. That would be paradise wouldn't it?

Sorry but that is not exactly the way it was. There was a bit more to it than that.

It is great to go on holiday or to go on honeymoon, but you cannot live like that for the rest of your life. You would get bored to tears, because happiness involves a lot more than that.

Keys to Happiness

God wanted man to take all of these capabilities and qualities that He had given to him. Then He wanted man to put together three main areas which are the keys to happiness. Without these three things, happiness cannot exist in our lives.

Possessions

The first thing God wanted man to do was to accumulate possessions. Perhaps you are thinking,

But I thought the Scripture teaches us that we should not covet or desire things?

God made things and He gave them to Adam and Eve. He said,

There it is. It's all yours; help yourself.

God made us in such a way that it becomes natural for us to desire the things that we own and that belong to us.

I want to ask you this question now. Could you imagine going through life without any possessions?

You might say, Well if you were a saint you would.

I don't want to insult anybody. But I would say you would be foolish to go through life denying yourself the very things that God created for you.

Jesus did not walk around without things. He had everything that He needed in order to do what the Father had called Him to do. He had people helping Him all the time.

He didn't walk around naked because He had clothes. He didn't walk around without money because He was usually giving to the poor all the time. And if He needed a boat there was one available.

Whatever He needed was available to Him. Of course He was the Lord of creation, and He could make use of everything that was around about Him.

Our Creation

The whole creation that God made was made for man. God gave it to us as our possession. We are meant to possess this earth.

There is enough wealth in this earth for every single person, including the millions in China, India and all the countries that have such a big population.

There are millions to go around and plenty for everybody to have enough. This is contrary to the popular belief that the earth is becoming overpopulated.

The problem is all the wealth is being hidden by a few people. It is being kept away from those who really need it. There is more than enough wealth in the world to meet the needs of every person.

It is the way God made it. And let's face it, if you don't have possessions, what is life about? Can you imagine life without shopping? It would be terrible.

Perhaps you think that I am being very unspiritual here. But tell me, could you honestly be happy living in four walls with nothing else? Could you be happy sleeping on the floor?

Well even the four walls are a possession, so you are not allowed that either. Sorry you will have to sleep outside in the streets. The streets are also a possession, so you had better just go and sleep in an undeveloped place that is not built up.

You see you cannot go through life without possessions. God made it that way.

Sense of Achievement

The second thing that we need to make us happy is achievement. We need to be accomplishing or achieving something. Is that selfish? Paul didn't seem to think so. He said,

I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me.

Paul was basically saying,

Christ has accomplished a lot of things through me. I've done many things and accomplished much in this ministry. I am not bragging about it. The Lord did it through me, but I have done something.

Would Paul have gone to so much effort if he never accomplished anything? Would he bother to have made such an effort if he never had success?

What is life without achievement? If you are not achieving anything, what are you putting your efforts into or aiming for? You need to have a goal; something to do.

Adam's Job

I want you to know that both Adam and Eve had a job to do. She had that horrible job of bringing up children. Sorry ladies you are still stuck with that one. It is the price to pay for the other fun things.

Adam did not sit around doing nothing all day. He had a job to do. Why? It was so that he could have a sense of accomplishment.

God made all the animals and brought them to Adam. He didn't just come to Adam and say,

Adam, this is what you have to do. This is what each animal must do and what they must be called.

God gave him a goal and said,

Adam, I have a job for you. This is a tough one, but I know you can handle it and I trust you with it. Do you see all of those creatures out there? I want you to give them all a name.

Have you ever tried to name all the insects? I can't even remember the names I learned in biology, but Adam gave a name to every single one. That was a challenge; a tough job.

How do you remember which name you gave to which one? Just take a whole bag full of items and try and remember all of them.

I remember playing a little game called 'I Pack My Bag and In It I Put…' You keep putting more and more things in your bag and you have to try and remember everything you packed into it. It gets a bit tough when the numbers get a bit big.

But here was Adam giving names to all of those creatures. How did he remember that he called that striped thing a tiger? Why did he call it a tiger in the first place? I don't know, but what an achievement it was.

When he had a look at the garden, he saw what a beautiful condition it was in; how everything was laid out nice and neatly.

Do you think Adam was analytical? Perhaps the garden was all in order and line of sight? Maybe he was creative and artsy, and he liked them all scattered around and in different colors. We don't know what it was like.

I think Eve had a little rose garden of her own there. Whatever it was like, Adam and Eve had something to do so that they could have a sense of accomplishment in doing something in life. That is what makes life worth living.

Take a person and remove any sense of achievement, goal orientation or challenge in life, and what are they living for? They are just sitting around all day.

They may have lots of goods, but they are just sitting getting fat. They may have lots of money to buy things, but what for? What are they going to do with them?

You see it all leads to something. What are you aiming for in life? You have to be aiming for something. It is what keeps you going, or you might as well sit down and die right now. There is nothing wrong with having aspirations. It is the way God made us.

Acceptance and Recognition

The third thing that is absolutely vital for happiness in life is acceptance and recognition. When God made Adam and put him in the garden, He made all the animals. He brought them to Adam and Adam made friends with them.

Do you know the wonderful thing about animals? They accept you just the way you are. It is so easy to make friends with an animal, especially those that are friendly like dogs.

I don't like cats so we won't talk about them. But animals are lovely creatures. They accept you readily and accept your love open-heartedly.

God came down to Adam and He was there to fellowship with him. He was there to give that spirit to spirit fellowship. It was great, but it still was not quite enough.

Adam needed another human spirit to commune with. He needed to touch another human spirit, so God had pity on him or He was mad at him. I don't know what His motivation was in bringing the woman on the scene. You can decide that for yourself, but the Scripture tells us this.

And God said, It is not good for man to be alone.

So God said, Man needs some problems in life.

He went and took a part of man out of him and made a woman. He did it so the man could get his blood pressure raised a bit and have something to get excited about in life.

That gave him a goal and an acceptance. Now he wasn't only being accepted by the animals. He was being accepted by a fellow human being as well as the Lord.

There was a oneness and caring for one another; each one recognizing their role and their place. Man was in control of the creation. The animals recognized him, and they knew that he was in control and in authority.

Eve also knew her position. This was being in insubordination to her husband, right? No, each one knew their position and their role. Each one could recognize one another and accept one another the way they were.

Life was wonderful. They had everything they would ever need. They had a goal in life and something to achieve. And they had someone who accepted, recognized and cared for them. It was paradise.