The role of the Holy Spirit in the Christian life is change. Biblical change that is directed toward doing what is honoring and pleasing to God. In other words, the Holy Spirit’s role is sanctification in the life of a believer. The Holy Spirit empowers the believer to put off the old ways that are displeasing to God by replacing them with new righteous ways (cf. Eph. 4:22-24, Col. 3:8-10, put off-put on passages). This is not simply behavior modification, but sanctification. This is crucial to understand when it comes to counseling. Counselees will be caught and entangled in old habits that must be replaced by new ones. Replacing habits can only be accomplished by the Spirit working in and through the life of the believer.
Christians cannot solve problems on their own. It is the Holy Spirit who works within the Christian to do what is pleasing to God. The counselee and the Holy Spirit work together to solve problems. The counselee is not able in his own wisdom and strength to obey the Word of God. It is also unbiblical to tell the counselee that he must wait on God to do everything. There is a role for both
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It is the Holy Spirit who works through His Word so that both the counselor and the counselee obeys God’s commands. The main purpose of the Holy Spirit working through His Word is to change the lives of His people. The Holy Spirit enables His people to conform to the image of Christ by teaching, conviction, correction, and disciplined training in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:14-17). The counselor is to make clear to the counselees that the Spirit works through the Scriptures. There is no biblical warrant for mysticism. There is enough in the Bible for us to study, know, and apply for more than a life time. There is no reason to seek extra biblical revelation because God has given to us everything He wants us to know. There are strong warnings in the Bible not to add or take away from Scripture (Deut. 2:4; Rev.