At Forgiving Forward, we believe that if you take people to the Cross of Jesus, they will find freedom. If you take them anywhere else, at best, they get an anesthetic. A Godly saint, who has walked with God for decades and has been in leadership of several significant ministries, gave us the greatest compliment when she said to me on the phone, “What I appreciate most about the Forgiving Forward material is that in every session, you point people to Jesus and the Cross. That’s what makes the message so powerful!” We are committed to never stop pointing people to Jesus.

Our late friend, Dr. Mike Wells, consistently taught, “There is nothing that the nearness of Christ cannot overcome, and nothing is overcome without the nearness of Christ.” Mike was an amazing counselor and we learned a lot from him. However, what made him so special, and the reason we periodically share his articles with you, was that Mike walked with Jesus more intimately than anyone we have ever met. Here is a piece from Mike that explains the importance of keeping Jesus at the center of our lives and our message. Enjoy!

If the Counsel You Receive can be
Followed Without Jesus,
is it Christian?

“For there is one God, and one mediator also between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself
as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.”

I Timothy 2:5-6

Many are confused by the counsel/discipleship they receive; I can understand why. The approach is delivered, and as we listen, there seems to be something amiss in our spirits, something missing in the approach. That thing most often missing is Jesus. In fact, much of "Christian" counseling and discipleship is not Christian at all. Many counselors are only baptizing the world's methods they learned at a university and adding a vague passage here and there in an attempt to make it sound Christian.

Take the topic of denial; given its definition, Jesus would appear to be one of the worst people in the world for being in denial. In the same way, many discipleship methods are nothing more than Buddhism baptized, with one list after another that could be achieved and followed by anybody. I could go on, but it would not help answer the confusion many have when hearing the latest advice on being set free. A simple way to judge the counseling and discipleship is to determine if the method includes Jesus, not in a peripheral way, but centrally, in its core.

Can the advice given be accomplished without Jesus?
If it depends on me, if it falls at my feet,
if it falls at the feet of others, then it is not Christian.

So much of what I hear can be done by anyone. Not so in abiding. Apart from Him we can do nothing. There is no need to talk about things done apart from Him, for we cannot do them. We cannot love, we cannot change, we cannot control our emotions, but we can choose Him and invite Him to be our love, our new life, and our peace. When Jesus is included in the method, that method has relevance for yesterday, today, and tomorrow; it is eternal. When He is left out, the methods are always changing, and what was needed for understanding twenty years ago is not needed today. Something is always being presented as new, when the old thing—Jesus and understanding His work—has not been understood.”

— My Weakness for His Strength, Volume Two by Michael Wells, Day 150.

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