Some forms of ministry don’t go deep enough. They fail to go to the root of an issue – the cause and effect of what is happening on the surface of a person’s life. In our attempts to help a person, if we do not address the root issues, we leave people with the root still intact and still causing ongoing damage.

One of the most notable verses that speaks to these root issues concerns finances: “For the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil” (I Timothy 6:10). 

The word “root” means to discover the internal cause, origin, or source of what is happening on the surface of someone’s life. The deeper, motivating root is what causes a life to fail. Greed or a lack of generosity will cause a person to always feel the need to grasp for more and use any means available to get what they want, even if it hurts or destroys other people. We are seeing this play out in real time in some of the leadership in the Church where  unchecked greed has attached itself to sexual sin and domination, which are part of “all sorts of evil.

The same word for “root” is seen elsewhere in Scripture, “See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many” (Hebrews 12:15). If we fail to discover and understand what is causing a person’s bitterness, we won’t offer them a complete healing.

Those who attempt to bring healing to a person can rely on surface solutions that can only manage an issue, but not bring the deepest form of healing. These modes of counseling are only surface salves that miss the deeper wound. 

Any salving attempt to bring healing apart from discovering the root issue is only a managerial solution, leaving the root hidden and untouched by the Spirit. It’s easy to understand why this happens because we want the pain of people to go away so they can feel peace, but the root remains. 

None of our salving attempts will get to the root of why something is manifesting in a person’s life. We need the Spirit’s help to find these roots. In the process, the Lord may reveal a sin that has not been previously identified, confessed, or a root of bitterness that has been allowed to remain unchallenged. When these roots are discovered, the Lord will redeem that broken area and bring forth a healing that only He can provide.