Is Using AI as a Life Counsellor Okay?

The short answer is we should rely on the Holy Spirit and scripture to discern how we use AI, our thoughts and intention. But how does that actually look in daily life?

Admittedly, I use AI regularly. As a solopreneur, it helps me organise my thoughts, plan, proofread, and improve the flow of my writing. Each blog post still takes time to write, but the time required has reduced significantly.

In many ways, AI has been a helpful assistant. But this is also where discernment begins.

Over time, I noticed myself using AI beyond productivity. I input conversations to check for potential scams, even when I already sensed something was off. I asked AI to analyse patterns to help me gain clarity. I even used it to make sense of why certain conversations left me feeling unsettled and how to respond better.

Slowly, I realised I was blurring the line between running to God and running to generative AI.

Is it a Matter of Speed? Or the Faith In Divine Timing?

I was reminded of a story I learned in primary school, the Chinese idiom 拔苗助长 (ba miao zhu zhang). It tells of a farmer who was eager for his crops to grow. Wanting faster results, he pulled the young plants upward, believing it would help them grow more quickly. Instead, he destroyed them at the root. In Scripture, we see this same truth repeated in many ways: growth cannot be forced without harm.

The Bible reminds us that while we may plant and water, growth itself belongs to God. “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6). Spiritual formation unfolds in seasons, not shortcuts, and there is “a time for everything” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). Jesus Himself described growth as a gradual process: “first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear” (Mark 4:28). What appears to us as delay is often patience at work, as God is “not slow… but patient,” allowing space for repentance and transformation (2 Peter 3:9).

This learnings stayed with me because it mirrors a temptation I see in myself. Wanting instant clarity, instant resolution, instant understanding. Yet formation, whether spiritual or human, does not work that way.

God is not slow in the way humans think of slowness. Scripture reminds us that His timing is marked by patience and mercy, not delay. He is “slow to anger” and abounding in steadfast love (Exodus 34:6). His patience is not absence, but grace, allowing space for repentance, growth, and transformation (2 Peter 3:9).

What we often label as slowness is where roots are formed. In the same way, quick reels differ from a full sermon, and both differ again from the quiet work of devotional reading, where Scripture is read slowly and personally.

Waiting before God, sitting with Scripture, remaining in prayer without immediate answers, these are not inefficiencies to be avoided. They are the very places where understanding takes shape. Just as a plant needs time underground before fruit appears above, spiritual growth often happens quietly, unseen, and over time.

AI offers speed, and speed has its place. But when speed replaces patience, and resolution replaces formation, we risk pulling at roots that were meant to grow deep.

Discernment, then, is not about rejecting tools, but about trusting that God’s way of forming us is neither rushed nor random. It is deliberate, patient, and full of mercy.

A Moment That Made Me Pause

One day, while scrolling, I came across a short reel from George Janko. A guest shared that every morning he inputs a verse from Proverbs into AI and asks it to explain the verse to him.

At first, it sounded efficient. Even wise.

But George responded with a gentle caution. He warned him to be careful not to make AI the medium instead of the Holy Spirit. His concern was not about using technology, but about dependence. When spiritual understanding is outsourced too quickly, a tool can quietly take on a role it was never meant to hold.

I realised I had often been reaching for clarity before reaching for prayer. I was not intentionally replacing God, but I was bypassing the slow work of discernment.

That reel became a quiet checkpoint for me. One simple question surfaced and stayed:

Who am I turning to first?

Knowledge Is Not the Same as Understanding

Scripture draws a clear distinction between knowledge and understanding. We are cautioned not to lean on our own understanding, but to trust the Lord fully and allow Him to direct our paths (Proverbs 3:5–6).

AI is efficient at delivering knowledge but not wisdom. It can explain concepts, summarise ideas, and present logical conclusions. But biblical understanding is formed through obedience, humility, and lived experience.

This is why stories matter so deeply in Scripture. Jesus did not teach primarily through definitions or explanations. He taught through parables, inviting listeners to wrestle with meaning over time (Matthew 13:34). Even the disciples often did not understand until they had lived through failure, waiting, grief, and restoration.

Some truths cannot be grasped without being lived.

Forgiveness is understood differently when we have been deeply hurt. Trust takes on new meaning when certainty is removed. Faith matures with trust in God's promises and character. These realities are not processed quickly. They are walked through.

This is also why a live sermon often carries more weight than a summary. A preacher does not merely deliver information. They speak from a life shaped by Scripture, carrying conviction, testimony, and spiritual authority. The pauses, the emphasis, and the presence create space for the Holy Spirit to work in ways a summary cannot replicate (Romans 10:17).

An AI summary may provide the message, but formation often happens in the listening.

AI reflects the data it is trained on. It carries bias, dominant narratives, and layers of interpretation. In this way, generative content can resemble the game Chinese Whispers (aka Telephone). A message is passed along, and with each retelling, small changes are introduced. Over time, what reaches the end can sound very different from the original.

When Scripture is filtered through commentary, summaries, cultural lenses, and now AI, the distance from the source can quietly grow. This does not make these tools wrong, but it does mean they must never replace returning to the Word itself.

This Is Not a New Struggle

As I reflected further, I realised this tension did not begin with AI.

Even before tools like AI existed, I relied heavily on commentary books and secondhand interpretations. I repeated quotes as if they were Scripture itself, often without slowing down to study the context. One of example is the familiar saying, “money is the root of all evil.” Without the full phrase “the love of money,” the meaning shifts entirely (1 Timothy 6:10). That small omission made me feel guilty to gain monetary blessings from God that delayed me from God's mission.

Over time, encountering Scripture this way left me confused and spiritually unsettled, not because the Bible was unclear, but because I had not gone to the source myself.

The medium has changed. The temptation has not.

Guardrails I Am Learning to Practice

These are a few practices I am learning to return to, slowly and imperfectly:

• I ask whether this tool help me walk more closely with God?

• Have I read the Bible directly and consistently?

• Praying first and inviting the Holy Spirit to guide understanding (John 16:13)

• Using AI to assist, not to replace discernment

• Memorising Scripture so the Word dwells within, not just externally (Psalm 119:11)

• Slowing down and resisting the urge for instant answers, remembering that love is patient (1 Corinthians 13:4)

A Closing Reflection

AI is a powerful tool. But tools were never meant to shepherd the soul.

Discernment is not about rejecting technology. It is about ordering our dependence rightly. When speed replaces stillness and clarity replaces communion, we may gain answers but lose formation.

For me, the question is no longer whether AI is useful. It is whether it is quietly shaping who I am becoming.

And that is a question worth sitting with, slowly, before God.

The Holy Bible

Scriptural references include Proverbs 3:5–6 (trusting God rather than leaning on our own understanding); 1 Corinthians 3:6 (recognising that growth belongs to God, not human effort); Ecclesiastes 3:1 (affirming that growth and formation unfold in God’s appointed seasons); Mark 4:28 (describing growth as gradual and ordered, not forced); Exodus 34:6 (revealing God’s character as slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love); 2 Peter 3:9 (reframing perceived delay as divine patience and grace); Matthew 13:34 (highlighting Jesus’ use of parables that invite reflection and lived understanding); Romans 10:17 (emphasising that faith is formed through hearing); 1 Timothy 6:10 (clarifying that it is the love of money, not money itself, that leads to harm); John 16:13 (affirming the Holy Spirit as our guide into truth); Psalm 119:11 (encouraging the internalisation of God’s Word); and 1 Corinthians 13:4 (reminding us that love is patient).