“…Giving them a headdress instead of ashes, The oil of rejoicing instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, The planting of Yahweh, that He may show forth His beautiful glory.” (Isaish 61:3 LSB)
Our church service today was led by about 50 men and women who have been set free from the spirit of addiction. These folks are participants in a recovery program at a place called Bethel Colony of Mercy here in my area. But for me? This wasn’t just a celebration for them, it was a time of reflection and celebration for myself as well. It’s been so long ago now for me, that most of the time I don’t even think about that part of my life. It was my old life.
But God’s mercies are new every morning, and when I am reminded of my old life, as I was this morning in church, I don’t hesitate to give God all the thanks, honor, glory and praise for pulling my feet out of the miry clay almost 30 years ago from the spirit of addiction that had a hold on my life. I am truly humbled when I tell someone I used to be addicted to alcohol, and they tell me “I can’t even picture that.” Thank You Jesus!
What Are You Addicted to?
My addiction was alcohol and the whole bar life and every dysfunctional, ungodly thing that went along with that life. I was a mess – until I met Jesus! Until one morning, truly before I even surrendered to Him, He was already pursuing me and delivered me from that addiction … just…like…that. While it took me 9 more months to truly realize that it was Him Who freed me, and not my own self, I still knew something good was supernaturally happening in my life.
You see, some in the addiction and recovery community will stand firm on believing that addiction is a disease. A disease you are doomed with the rest of your life. The first part I can agree with – that it is a disease. It is a sickness of the spirit, soul and body, but just like a lot of other diseases, through Jesus, you can be healed from it.
Therefore…I don’t agree with the second part of their belief – that you are doomed the rest of your life to be stuck with this disease called addiction. At best that’s a conventional medicine way of thinking – “you’ll always have whatever the disease might be, but if you put your trust in us, the medical profession, (or worse) the pharmaceutical industry, we will be here for you for the rest of your diseased life.” At worst, that’s a crutch way of thinking – an excuse to not change course. That is one beef I have with Alcoholics or Narcotics Anonymous – part of their meeting protocols is to stand up and say “hi, my name is _____ I’m an alcoholic (or addict).” Causing the person to own that label! One of the things I always talk about regarding our spiritual health, and that is to watch the words we speak out loud. The enemy loves to run with those negative words we speak about ourselves and turn them into reality. Do NOT own those diseases, and labels you have been given – including an addict! They simply are not truth! Start speaking LIFE over yourself, not death and destruction. No matter what the labels and words.
I am here to testify to you today, as are the folks from Bethel Colony of Mercy, that you are not, doomed the rest of your life with this disease called addiction. But just like with every other disease, God can, and will heal you, if you let Him. Your part is to surrender it over to Him and walk out your life moving forward “as if,” the rest is up to Him. He tells us His burden is light, and His yoke is easy and to give all of our cares, not just our addictions, to Him.
Addiction doesn’t mean just an addiction to alcohol, or even drugs. This pertains to any addiction – shopping, eating, sugar, pornography, internet, gambling, T.V. – anything that we dedicate our time, money and attention to over our love and adoration to Jesus is an addiction. If you find yourself in even the slightest bit of panic if someone suggests to you to surrender that idol to Him, to lay it down – forever – you probably have an addiction problem. See my blog “Do You Unknowingly Have Idols in Your Life?”
What about food and/or sugar? I believe this is probably the greatest “hidden in plain sight” addiction there might be. Just take a look around at our American population these days. Almost certain, if you are obese, or even over-weight, a component of your weight challenge with this is addiction to food – or more accurately “food like substances.” We most likely aren’t addicted to real food, but the ultra-processed foods, the foods with empty calories.
Truthfully, addiction of all kinds is running rampant in our society these days. The revenues from the pornography industry were greater than Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook combined. Can you imagine? In fact, with these statistics, addiction to pornography is probably much higher than addiction to drugs and alcohol. Again, I ask, “what are you addicted to?”
How Do You Know You Have an Addiction?
Addiction throws our entire wholistic life out of balance. When we are walking in addiction, everything else in our life takes a backseat to our priorities. It will throw our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health out of balance. We may be spending all of our income on our addiction – income that should be going towards the basic necessities in life as well as providing for our families. All of our time, or even the majority of it, is dedicated to whatever we are addicted to. We start ignoring even the basic selfcare things like bathing, eating, going to work etc. We ignore our responsibilities. We think about that thing we are addicted to constantly. Everything else in life takes a back seat to our addiction of choice, as we plan our lives around that addiction – including our thoughts.
Addiction almost always has an emotional root tied to it. There is a reason you have gravitated towards that addiction – what hole or void are you trying to fill with that addiction? Most likely it is the void that only Jesus can fill.
Recognize that there is a spiritual root to addiction as well – this is an area that we have opened the door of our souls to and invited the enemy to step in – unknowingly of course. But have no doubt – this is an easy door that the enemy is always keeping an eye out for – he loves to walk through those easy doors that we give him access to.
In my book “Are You Being Deceived About True Wellness” I have a section in there about addiction, but I also talk about trauma=stress=inflammation. There almost always is trauma of some kind – perhaps so deep-seated you may not even be aware it exists – unless you intentionally seek it out – that is tied to our addictions. And there is a whole other chapter in the book dedicated to inflammation and how it impacts our physical health, including our brain. One thing I can say about addiction being a disease, is that all diseases, including addiction, have an inflammatory component tied to it.
Again, addiction impacts our whole health – mental, emotional, physical and spiritual.
The Good News?
Jesus came to set the captives free! You do NOT have to live with a spirit or disease of addiction the rest of your life. You can be freed from it. How do you heal from the disease called addiction? Surrender it over to Jesus! He is the Healer, He is the Deliverer, and He IS Freedom! If He did it for (and He DID!), He will do it for you! And maintain a healthy balance with your wholistic life – mental, emotional, physical and spiritual.
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