The Modern Church and Mental Illness
- Frank Tallerine
- Jan 6, 2021
- 8 min read
Updated: Jan 7, 2021
Coming out of the woods into the Light
“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You,
because he trusts in You.”
Isaiah 26:3 NKJV
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV
This is a subject that has repeatedly knocked on my door and then run off and one which has, in the past, caused me no small conflict. Many times, seeing so many struggle with the problems of mental anguish and wanting to scripturally address such things, I have been met with statements, such as: “well, you’re not a doctor” or “you don’t understand...these are sicknesses” or even “you don’t believe in these things, therefore you can’t address them.” So let me begin with some clarification. No, I am not a doctor, I’m not even a doctor of divinity, however I am a saved man, a preacher of many years, and I do believe in the Word of God and in His power. In addressing these issues I am not speaking about mental insufficiencies, such as birth defects or things that have hindered mental growth. One can be simple-minded or even have a child-like mind and still embrace God. Our brain is a muscle and can be damaged, yet here when we are speaking of the mind: we are speaking of the heart, the personality and the very essence of a person.
Satan has done much in these last days to attack the minds of believers, the onslaught has been relentless at times. As the church has become weary in her battle, and faith has slipped, she has adopted the ways of the world. The wisdom of God has been replaced by the philosophies of the psychiatrists. The power and deliverance of the Holy Spirit has been substituted with a plethora of drugs. If you are a believer and you yourself are on drugs for depression and mental anguish, do not be offended and do not give up. There is hope.
Still, these things must be addressed. There is a significant difference between a broken body and a broken heart. If one has a broken leg, God can certainly heal it, but one would be foolish in not yielding to the wisdom of the doctor and letting that leg be set. Additionally, administering drugs to help with the pain of an operation, or ease the pain right afterwards is a blessing and can further the healing process. Nonetheless, a broken heart is a spiritual matter. A mind distraught over trauma and tragedy cannot be operated on. To be quick to dispense drugs to mask a broken heart or an anguished soul is to simply heal superficially and to put off the inevitable. I put it to you that it is because the church has lost hope that we’ve let so many of the ways of the world in. The church has her grand edifices, Hollywood-production music and impressive education systems but she is filled with broken-hearted people, broken marriages and too many alleviating their pain with opioids or even alcohol, while saying it is their freedom to do so. Now we have a new generation of Christians coming up, embracing the legalized-marijuana culture, finding no fault with it because they’ve watched so many in the church drink, saying “marijuana isn’t as harmful as alcohol.” This question begs an answer: “What are the anti-depressants, alcohol and marijuana for if Jesus is enough?” I say Jesus is enough, He has always been enough and He will always be enough.
I do not write these words without sympathy, life can be tough, in fact cruel at times and our hearts can take a pounding. Throughout the Book of Psalms, David voices the heart of the every-man. He speaks of his soul being crushed, his heart being broken, and of his confusion at times; yet every psalm finishes with his praise to God. This is not because David was schizophrenic, rather he was a real man, who really hurt, and could be real before his God; he trusted his heart in the hands of a loving Father. I myself have known tragedy in my life, broken-heartedness, as I’m sure many of you have. Yes, I’ve been depressed at times, meaning I’ve been pressed down, as Paul said he was “pressed down but not crushed” in II Corinthians. Oh how Satan knows how to go after each of us in specific ways. It’s one thing to say that the pressure is on when you feel the enemy pushing-in upon you, yet for the true believer the witness of the Spirit is there. Though our bodies may ache and our minds suffer, the Spirit abides in us. If our spirits bear witness to God’s truths, why do we end up saying “Oh he/she is in depression,” labeling it, as if giving ourselves some semblance of control? They may indeed be depressed, however to label it as a medical condition simply for the sake of classification, so it can then be treated with drugs, is fruitless. It is not a medical but a heart condition, to be healed by the cross and the love of Jesus.
Trials and pressures are nothing new, many of the men of old in the Bible were pressed beyond their reason. Joseph was imprisoned, Moses was on the backside of the wilderness for many years, Jeremiah was alone, forgotten and despised at times. There were the tragedies and trauma of Job, and the anguish the mother of Jesus must have suffered at the sight of her son’s crucifixion, just to name a few. The Bible is clear: we will be tried by the fires of afflictions, through the trials of tragedy, by disappointments and confusion at times, but faith says “He reigns.” We are not simply talking about a mental-state here, some self-help book on feeling happier or a podcast that has you quote scriptures like a mantra. We are speaking of the Spirit of God that indwells in the believer and become one with the believer, apart from his emotions, mind and heart. As the heart and mind is yielded to Him, then he or she will come through the fires. This is not to say we ignore our emotions, however we are not to be guided by them. To quote A.W. Tozer: “you may have emotions and no faith, however if one has faith he will have emotions.”
We’ve always got to go back to the scriptures, to the Word of God, not back to: the latest Christian trends, Freudian or Jungian thought, or even the Christian mystics, but to Jesus Christ Himself. When He encountered a demonic force, He overcame it with the Word. He could discern between what was demonic and what was a troubled soul. If Satan got a foothold in, He dealt with him. If it was simply a matter of the heart, he dealt with that. Such as the rich young ruler who held on to his riches or the woman at the well and her five husbands. He brought peace by His presence, deliverance by His power, and purpose through His love. If we are in Jesus, and subject to the power of the Holy Spirit made available at the birthing of the church, it would be a dishonest conclusion to arrive at modern Christian psychiatry today. This is not to say that it is wrong to study the mind, or to desire to understand it; but the answer is always the cross. A psychiatrist may understand your problem, might even dig around the roots of it, but only the cross can heal.
“He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted”
Luke 4:18 NKJV
If there is bitterness, only seeing the cross and forgiving is the answer.
If it is disappointment and discouragement, only yielding to the cross
and submitting to His will is the answer.
If broken heartedness, then only believing the words of
Jesus spoken in Luke Chapter 4 is the answer.
If it is loss, it is only by realizing that faith in Christ can
always bring gain out of loss.
Remember Job.
We are living in a time of unprecedented advancements in medicine: life can be prolonged, diseases cured and physical suffering at times alleviated, but only the cross heals the broken-hearted. The more our nation turns from God, the more humanism heralds that man is the answer, yet man has no answers. The more one is guided by emotionalism and selfishness; the more fear, depression and distress will increase. In the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses is explaining the blessings and the curses, and what it would be like for a people who turned from God. “Among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of your foot find rest but the Lord will give thee a trembling heart, failing of eyes and sorrow of mind” (Deuteronomy 28:65 KJV). With all our advancements, even in this big city of Houston, with one of the largest medical centers in the world, our society is still filled with trembling hearts, failing eyes and a sorrow of the mind. There is good news, however, for every hurting soul that truly wants an answer and for every sanctified saint, sorrowful for the moment, God promises to heal. He will not heal superficially; if we are willing to yield, to truly open our hearts and ask the Holy Spirit to search us, to apply the scalpel of truth and the healing salve of God’s mercy, healing will come. God may use a specific word, a specific circumstance, His council, but He can and will do it.
“He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.”
Isaiah 53:5 NKJV
There is no loss, no broken-heartedness, no trauma, no distress that our Lord and Savior Jesus did not feel and does not understand. He not only sympathizes but He possesses the power of healing.
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV
Oh precious saints, God invites us to pray, to bring our supplications. That means getting honest with complaints and pains, let Him know about them. Thank Him, not in some formulaic way but in faith, knowing that He will do it and God’s peace which goes beyond anything which we can imagine will keep our hearts. Let us thank God that the Holy Spirit adds the phrase “and your minds” in Philippians. God will keep our minds, He will do it, God can do it. You are not beyond hope. You are not damaged goods. God desires to heal you. Believe, and God will heal you. In the 1950s God awakened His church to His healing power, untold thousands were healed of physical ailments in the ministries of Oral Roberts, Jack Coe, William Branham and A. A. Allen. That generation needed healing and God met those needs.
In the 1960s and 70s there was a cultural revolution, drugs invaded the middle class. A generation had questions and many of the answers they received were fallacies. But Jesus answered and we saw God move and many young people come to Christ, they were even labeled the “Jesus people.” Their hearts were healed and filled. Now there is another generation, poisoned by despair and despondency; a lack of hope and cynicism marks them. Their souls are tortured and their minds beset with anxiety. Nevertheless, the same Jesus who came to open the eyes of the blind, who told the paraplegic to take up his bed and walk, who called Lazarus from the tomb, says to you “I will heal your broken heart, I will settle your soul, I will touch your mind.” While chaos and confusion abound all around you, you can walk in peace. Not through positive thinking, or self-affirmation but through the work of the cross: through repentance, yielding, believing and receiving. It is not a cliché, it is not just a statement thrown out to make you feel better, but a scripturally based, experience-realized truth; Jesus is enough, He can and will heal.
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