And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?  Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:  He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

Luke 6:46-49 KJV

The best advice to going deeper in Christ is Transparency.  Jesus said the verdict of men’s condemnation is that He, the light had come, and that men loved darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil (John 3:19).  They preferred to hide in the shadows rather than come forth and have their true selves exposed.

At the end of the Sermon on the Plain in Mark 6, Jesus said that the one who heard His words and did them was the man who “dug deep” and laid his foundation on the rocks.  The practical application of that is the progress of continually learning to trust on the Holy Spirit on every level for every thing.

In the topic of trying to restore men’s hearts, the first example occurs in Eden.

Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”

Genesis 3:9

The man said that he had hid himself because he was naked, so God asked him if he had sinned and eaten of the forbidden tree.  Going deep begins with sin.  If we have sinned, or are trying to cover up and hide because we have sinned, it is must be addressed.  You see, even in the New Covenant, living right is a necessity.  No wonder Jesus began His famous Sermon on the Mount saying that whoever breaks and teaches others to break the least of the commands shall be the least in the Kingdom.

The second case of “counselling” in the Bible occurs shortly after this.  After Abel had offered a better sacrifice than Cain, God came to Cain and tried to help Him, and warn Him.

Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?

Genesis 4:6

God’s advice was simple.  Do right, and you’ll be happy, and if not, sin is crouching at your door.  He must master it.  God saw Cain’s anger, and his fallen face.  When we do bad on some level, or something is not right in our heart, it will usually manifest in anger.  That anger can turn into contempt, scorn, and eventually murder.

Again, it should not surprise us that this is where Jesus turns.  The heart will usually turn to anger when something is amiss in the life somewhere.  Anger is a warning sign of something else.  In Cain’s place, it was the envy, jealousy, mixed with the inadequacy and rejection of not having offered an acceptable sacrifice.  And so, Jesus instructs us.

But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

Matthew 5:22

So, here we have the first two basic lessons for going deeper, whether it’s in a “counselling” realm, or in daily Christian life, the two first indicators given by Jesus are a life of lawlessness apart from Him and the manifestation of unjustified anger.  Both are universal, and both are the warning system we have, which, left unchecked, can destroy us.  This is the pattern of “the Beginings” (Genesis) and of the Sermon on the Mount.

From there, we see that mankind became corrupt through Genesis 6.  As corruption is in a system, we understand that is only the life of the Spirit that purifies the soul by obeying the truth so that we can love each other with a genuine heart.  The manifestations of adultery, murder, false oaths, and hatred run rampant where the Gospel is not present, and, as Jesus continue to instruct in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:27-42), the life of His Spirit lives above these things.

The way to go deeper is to realize these things, to let into the light and be recognized the deviation from pattern like Adam in the garden, and to allow the question of “Why are you angry?” to be asked to your heart when you’re in it.  The point isn’t a self effort, but a rendering unto the cross for cleansing.

As God gave Adam a skin of clothes to wear so that he would not be naked, God has given us the “skin” of Jesus Christ, so to speak, to wear.  We died with Him, and the life we live is His life, lived in us, by Faith (Galatians 2:20).

Why are we angry, and why has our countenance fallen?  Where are we?

If we let ourselves look at what we feel that is not the Maximumly Happy of the Beatitudes, and let the thoughts and intents of our heart come forth into the light of the cross, and allow the cross to do its full work in putting ourselves to death, we encounter His truth, His gospel.  We discover Him.

We find that we no longer live on the shifting sands of emotion and frail human flesh, but upon the bedrock of Christ Jesus inside us, and stand strong.  As God sees that we have heeded His words, and we are continuing to grow in His Word, as we stand and continue to stand, He can reward our faithfulness with more of Himself.  As we continue to let the truth of His Word cut us completely, we become completely free of all fear, all condemnation, and all shame, because we know it is not about ourselves, it is a gift of God.