Category — Addiction Recovery

What is Recovery? The word “recover” means to obtain again something that has been lost, or to return something to a normal condition. In order for something to be recovered, it must have already been in existence and in a particular condition. When, after it has been lost or damaged, it is returned to its former condition, it is said to be recovered. The noun “recovery” means the restoration or return to a normal condition after a damage or loss has been incurred. Redemption, and sanctification are God’s process of restoring humanity to their original state of completeness, and perfect communion with Him.

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What is addiction? Addiction is enslavement, to a substance, activity, or state of mind intended to fill a void that can only be filled by God. Addiction is precipitated by untrue views of God, our past, ourselves, and the world around us. Real recovery only occurs as we develop an intimate relationship with God, and he reveals to us what is true about these four areas.

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In today’s post I would like to cover the Helmet of Salvation. Ephesians 6:17 says, …take the helmet of salvation. The helmet was the part of the armor that protected the head, because while a soldier could sustain many injuries and still live, a head wound was usually a fatal blow. In the Spiritual realm I believe that the Helmet of Salvation is illustrative of the protection of the mind.
Satan consistently attacks the mind on two fronts first of all through attacking our assurance of Salvation, and through impure thoughts.

Assurance- If Satan can get you to doubt your salvation you may have many pieces of the armor, but you won’t get far in battle without being overtaken by fears, and doubts. Fear, and doubt are powerful enemies that are hard to overcome. So the best thing to do is settle the issue of your assurance before you venture out for one more day of battle. Let’s cover some ways to have assurance of salvation.

Realize God is the Prime Mover in Salvation- What this means simply put is that you didn’t have a thing to do with getting salvation so how can you lose it. The Bible says in Ephesians 1:4, “he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world” You are not an afterthought God has been planning on saving you, and securing you before the world even existed. Furthermore before you were saved you weren’t even looking for God Romans 3:11 says, “there is none that seeketh after God.” God is the one who seeks us out when we are running after destruction with all our hearts. John 6:44 Jesus said, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.” God draws sinful man through seeking after them, loving them, sending them messengers, and man never reciprocates till God initiates.

So you see God planned our salvation, sought us out to save us, drew us through love, and the Bible, and messengers. So how can you lose something you had nothing to do with? The Bible says in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” You see salvation is a gift of unmerited favor (grace) from God you didn’t earn, you can’t lose it.

God doesn’t change His mind- Romans 11:29 says, “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” That means basically God is not an Indian giver, it was His desire to give you salvation, and He’s not going to change his mind.

The Bible is written for us to be sure- The Bible says in 1 John 5:13 “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life.” The Bible was written so that you might know that you have eternal life. Not wonder, not doubt, not fear, not think, but absolutely know 100% sure that you are His.

Jesus promised to keep us secure- John 10:28-29 says, “…I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” You are absolutely secure in the hands of Jesus for all eternity if you have accepted His free gift of salvation.

The Holy Spirit lets us know were secure- Ephesians 1:13-14 says, “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” Ephesus was a city of much commerce especially for lumber transactions. So whenever a load of lumber was purchased it was sealed with a signet (a unique identifier of the owner) so that everyone could see who it belonged to.

The Holy Spirit dwelling within us is a sign to ourselves and everybody else that we are God’s children. Romans 8:16 tell us, The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. The Holy Spirit is constantly speaking to our spirit, and assuring us we belong to God. Furthermore the Bible calls the Holy Spirit His earnest payment for our salvation. An earnest, or down payment is used to show the seriousness (earnestness) of a buyer to complete a transaction. God has put a massive down payment on us, and He fully intends to finalize the transaction. So when Satan attacks our salvation we can look to the word of God, the character of God, and the Spirit of God for assurance.

Renewing of the mind- Another function of the Helmet of Salvation is the renewing of your mind. God is not merely content to save us from the penalty of sin, He wants to save us from the power of sin. This process is called sanctification, and one of the most powerful aspects of this growing to be more like the Lord is changing our thinking. I don’t know about you after years of meth addiction, and living in the World I had some pretty “stinking thinking”! The problem with that is that “as a man thinketh so is he.” So if I continue to repeat the same destructive thought patterns I will continue to reap destructive actions. Fortunately the Lord has provided three methods for thinking right.

Renewing- Romans 12:1-2 says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
The first step to right thinking is really two steps present yourself to God, as a living sacrifice, and two stop letting the thinking of this age cloud your mind. In presenting ourselves as a sacrifice, and literally dying to self we are then yield to the Holy Spirit who can clean, and change our minds.

The second verse could literally be translated, “stop letting yourself be molded to this age” you see Satan wants you to think like him, and he uses the media, books, etc. to shape your thinking. Stop it! You have a choice, and the only place you should be getting your thought from is the Word of God let it renew you mind.

Rejecting- Just because you get saved doesn’t mean all of your destructive thought patterns, and satanic lies you have believed disappear. Sanctification is a process, and God does the work, but we do have responsibilities. These responsibilities involve our will because everything you believe you have chosen (the will) to believe. In that same vein God has said that we are to cast down every thought pattern that does not conform to the Word of God. Paul says, to only think on things that are lovely, just, pure, virtuous, praise worthy, and of good report. In other words if its ugly, unjust, impure, evil, criticism, or bad news reject it outright it will only perpetuate your destructive thought patterns. As we willfully reject bad thoughts, and accept good thoughts God changes are thinking patterns

Receiving- One of the best ways to think correctly is to just receive, or yield to what is already true of you. 1 Corinthians 2:16 says, “…we have the mind of Christ” not we are getting the mind of Christ, not “Lord, please give us the mind of Christ” we have it right this very moment we just need to yield to what is already true. Galatians 2:20 tells us that Jesus Christ wants to live His life through you, and that includes His mind. The wisest, and smartest man to ever live wasn’t Solomon it was Jesus Christ, and His mind is available to you if you will just yield to what the Bible says by faith. I know that Will Fowler’s best thinking led me to become a 112 pound meth addict, living in a truck, running from the police, and a restraining order from my family. God’s thinking on the other hand has led me to Bible college, career, ministry, a beautiful family, etc.

So let’s put on the helmet of salvation today, and let the Lord give us assurance of our salvation, and new non destructive thought patterns.

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In today’s post I would like to cover how to find grace in God’s eyes through looking at the life of Noah. Noah lived in a time of universal darkness, an yet he obtained grace in God’s eyes. Before we start what exactly is grace? Well first of all grace is not mercy, mercy speaks of not getting the punishment that I deserve. Grace however speaks unmerited favor, or getting blessed when I don’t deserve it. You see we never deserve God’s blessings, but that doesn’t mean we should walk in a position where we deserve His punishment. I call the difference walking in Grace or walking in Mercy. For instance there have been times when I was walking in known sin and God has chosen to not punish me, but bless me that’s mercy. Other times I’ve had a clear conscience, and awesome walk with God and He blessed me I still didn’t deserve it, but I was not deserving punishment either. You see both ways can be blessed but God’s mercy only extends so far before His holiness kicks in, and you get what you deserve.

In the following passage we’ll discuss one man who walked in Grace, and the whole world which walked in mercy. God describes the situation this way,

² That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. ³ And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. ⁴ There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. ⁵ And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. ⁶ And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. ⁷ And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. ⁸ But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. ⁹ These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

So to best understand how to obtain let us first look how Noah’s generation failed to obtain grace.

Making Soulish Choices- The Bible says in verse 2 that the sons of God (God’s people) saw the daughters of men and found them attractive. Every decision in our lives should be led by the Spirit of God, and not in our soul (mind, will, and emotions). These men decided that rather seek God’s will for their mate that they would choose based on their souls. These women are what I want (the will), I think their pretty (the mind), and resulting product of our relationship is I feel (emotions) good. Because these men put their soulish desires above God’s desires they failed to obtain grace, and were instead walking in Mercy.

Associate with Satan’s People- The prophet Amos astutely observed, “how can two walk together except they be agreed. The Bible describes our relationship with God in the terms of a marriage. In fact were often charged to Know God, the word know is yada in hebrew, and ginosko in greek they both speak of a warm, intimate, familiar knowledge ie Adam knew his wife, and she conceived. So given this marriage relationship how do you think you can stumble into the prayer closet, or Church with the stench of another lovers cologne, and expect to recieve God’s continued blessings. These men of Noah’s time were more concerned with the pleasures of sin for a season than getting to know their God, and because of this they did not find favour.

Resist the Spirit’s Voice- In verse three God declares that His Spirit will not always strive with man, but his days would be 120 years. God was saying these people are resisting, and I’m fighting them (striving) like little children. Then God says my mercy will extend 120 years, whoa that’s a lot of mercy, but eventually it came to an end. So those of you who are complacent who have been living in sin for months or years do not confuse God’s mercy for his grace. You may say, look I have a great house, good family, nice car: God’s is obviously blessing me. God’s mercy will not bless you forever your maturity is far more important to Him than you prosperity. Stop fighting the Spirit, and start walking in Grace.

Meditate on bad things-
Imaginations speaks of the brains tendency to store everything we perceive visually into our memory as images. As we think these images are played in the minds eye and combined to produce thoughts. Evil images produce evil thoughts good images good thought. These combined images which produce thoughts are then meditated on to produce action.

Example a man who murders his parents. He recalls visual images of his parents abusing him or something similar these visuals are framed in the mind through logic and reasoning however twisted to conceive a thought. This thought is then meditated upon till it produces action ie killing his parents.

So what is God saying in Genesis 6:5 that caused him to destroy the earth, and wipe out mankind? That man was visualizing, and recalling evil stored images that were framed in the mind through logical processes to conceive evil thoughts which led to evil action.

The word continually is the key it shows to what extent these evil thoughts were meditated on in the Hebrew continually is Kol Yom or literally whole day. These evil thoughts were their meditations all day every day leading to continual wicked action that led God to destroy the world. So you may say well it’s only thoughts, but according to the Bibles, “as a man thinketh so is he” wicked thoughts lead to action. God’s mercy will not extend forever start thinking right thoughts today. In the next post we will discuss how Noah walked in grace, and not mercy, and was blessed by God.

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In this series of posts we have been covering the military power structure of Satan’s kingdom, Paul said “we are not ignorant of his devices.” So we are not endeavoring for an unhealthy fascination with demonic activity rather we just want to be “wise as serpents” as we are warring against “The Serpent”. In Ephesians 6 Paul says, For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Spiritual wickedness in high places - This phrase could literally be translated Religious wickedness in the heavenlies. These are what i like to call pious or religious demons these are those demons tasked with preventing salvation, or hindering religious growth through the means of false spirituality. Let’s cover a few of the methods Satan uses to kill, steal, and destroy through religion.

The first group that Satan wants to hinder is the unsaved, and he does this by peddling false religion. A quote from CS Lewis’ Screwtape Letters is instructive,”The safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” Thus these religous demons use a variety of methods to send the lost to hell lets discuss a few.

Cults- These religous demons are masters at getting men to blindly follow a variety of cults often tailored to their own culture, or ideals.

False Religions- These demons are masters of imitating light and ensuring man just barely misses the mark. 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 says, 13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. 14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

Pluralism- Using buzzwords like tolerance and unity these demons convince men that all roads lead to heaven.

Religious Fanaticism- By inciting religious fanatics to acts of hatred, or violence these demons are able to convince people that God is not in existence, or that he is evil. Examples include the crusades, Jihad, the Inquisition, Bombing abortion clinics etc.

The second group these religous demons are after is Christians if an individual accepts Christ they then attempt to keep them from experiencing the abundant life available to them. Another quote from Screwtape is illustrative, I note with grave displeasure that your patient has become a Christian. Do not indulge the hope that you will escape the usual penalties; indeed, in your better moments, I trust you would hardly even wish to do so. In the meantime we must make the best of the situation. There is no need to despair; hundreds of these adult converts have been reclaimed after a I brief sojourn in the Enemy’s camp and are now with us. All the habits of the patient, both mental and bodily, are still in our favour.
“Surely you know that if a man can’t be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighbourhood looking for the church that ’suits’ him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches… The search for a ’suitable’ church makes the man a critic where the Enemy wants him to be a pupil.”
“But here, as in everything else, the way must be prepared for your moral assault by darkening his intellect. Men are not angered by mere misfortune but by misfortune conceived as injury.”

These religous demons have an agenda to keep you from your birthright as a Christian, and to prevent you from being a light to unbelievers. Let us talk about some of the many ways in which Satan deceives Christians.

False Doctrine- These religous demons peddle in extremes such as hyper-calvinism, hyper-dispensationalism, double inspiration etc. These extremes get us focused on anything other than our realtionship with Christ, and sharing His message.

Division- These religous demons would rather see Christians fight to the death over doctrinal nuances than see our world won to Christ. They use things such as the Bible version issue to turn brother against brother in bitter spiritual civil war.

Tares- In the parable of the wheat and tares we get a clear illustration of these religious demons work through unbelievers in the Church. The field that is planted is the world, the wheat is Christians, the tares are unbelievers. The Bible says that Satan plants the tares, or literally he places unbelievers in the Church. The tare was a weed that looked like wheat, but would produce sickeness, and death if eaten. Be aware that there are false Christians in your Church that look like believers, but Satan can use them to bring about Spiritual death in your Christian life.

Hiding our Gospel- We are God’s chosen method for winning the world to Christ so one of Satan’s primary objectives is to hide our gospel. 2 Corinthians 4:1-4 says, 1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; 2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Satan will use a variety of methods to hide your Gospel including:

Indifference- “Their homeless, or another race, or social standing”
Poor Testimony- “If that’s what a Christian is like I don’t want to be one”
Fear- I’m too afraid to speak for Christ I wouldn’t know what to say”

In conclusion let us be aware that Satan’s minions are engaged in a 24/7/365 aerial assault for the souls of men they will use any means necessary, political, personal, philosophical, or spiritual do not underestimate them, and do not fear them for they are under our feet in Christ.

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In my last post I covered the first two parts of Satan’s military hierarchy. The first being those demons in charge of bringing Satan’s agenda in the political arena, and the second being personal demons in charge of families, and individuals. Today I would like to cover the third level of Satan’s hierarchy Paul says in Ephesians 6:12, For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Rulers of the darkness of this world- This phrase in the original is actually one word kosmokratopas which literally means world rulers of the darkness of this age. In the Bible the word Kosmos translated word is often used to refer the the world system. Which is to say the prevailing thought, customs, or philosophy amongst unbelievers this is in distinction to God’s kingdom which operates on different philosophies. So I like to term these demonic rulers as philosophical we could call them rulers of the prevailing dark philosophy of the age. These demons are in charge of spinning how man kind thinks for surely if you can change a mans philosophy or the way he thinks it will change the way he acts.

I believe there are several ways in which these rulers peddle their philosophy of death to the world. A primary way is certainly the educational system in our world, whether the prevailing thoughts they are espousing are seemingly close to God’s thoughts, or diametrically opposed Satan is equally happy. For close only counts in horseshoes, and hand grenades but not in true spirituality. If Satan can sell a counterfeit philosophy to a non-believer he can prevent him from entering a relationship with God, and likewise he can prevent a believer from deepening intimacy with Christ.

The prevailing philosophy of the age for last 500 or so years can be divided into two categories modern thought, and post-modern thought. Both are seemingly very different but have the same core lie, “since man is basically good and constantly improving if we can just “x” then we will usher in a utopian era.” While both approaches have the same foundation they both took a different road to get there. Modernity started at the end of the dark ages with events like the Renaissance, the Reformation, and later the Enlightenment when men became convinced that if they could just discover absolute truth, and apply it universally that we would experience a new utopian era of human perfection. Lets look at some of these failed attempts at absolute truth:

Humanism- a philosophy that overemphasizes the dignity and worth of man, basically man is basically good, and getting better all the time ie. the Industrial Revolution, Enlightenment etc. Through reason, and logic man will constantly improve until he ushers in utopia. Satan has used this philosophy to send millions to hell for if man is basically good he surely doesn’t need a God to interfere.

Materialism- the view that the material world is all that there is; there is no existence beyond the present life.

Naturalism- the view that all things have a purely natural cause, especially the origin of the universe and nature.

Agnosticism- the belief that God may exist but there is no way of knowing him logically, or with the senses.

Colonialism- Is basically the thought that since we have the absolute truth we have some sort of “manifest destiny” to conquer, colonize, and convert all peoples to our version of absolute truth. Satan used this prevailing thought to kill millions of indigenous peoples, who had never heard the true gospel.

Evolutionism- says that through constant struggle, the fittest survive. The best are selected out to reproduce, and through this process beneficial traits accumulate to propel us to higher stages on the evolutionary ladder. Though not often stated, the goal of the evolutionary process is envisioned as a humanistic utopia, in which war, disease and poverty are vanquished.

Racism- This says that basically if we could breed a pure human race, and subjugate or destroy inferior races we can usher in utopia. This is just the natural outgrowth of evolution, a system that has always bred racism. This is the foundation for failed systems such as the slave trade, and Nazism which was endeavoring to build a masterrace.

Communism- Had as its basic premise if we can harness collective synergy of masses of people through removing private ownership, and individual achievment. We can usher in an era of no poverty, war, or other problems that man had faced to that point. Satan used this system to destroy millions of lives, and to hinder the gospel.

This brings us to postmodernism which began to show its face after the second world war. The youth culture looking at these systems of absolute truth, and realizing their utter failure to bring anything but war, famine, and death decided to start formulating a new system. This new system was based on unity, tolerance, and acceptance. College campuses arrested with violence against “the man” (authorities who represented absolute truth). The basic tenet of post-modernism is, since there is no absolute truth we just all need to get along, and get together, and we will usher in a new era of utopia.

The fall of the Berlin wall was the coffin nail in man’s search for one absolute truth as mankind realized these systems were not viable. Lets look at some of the major philosophies of post-modernism:

Tolerance- don’t judge anyone’s moral behavior, no matter what it is, because there are no absolute standards of behavior. Christians are viewed as intolerant because we believe that God has given us certain laws, which if not followed will lead to moral chaos and decay of society.

Diversity- the fact that there’s biological diversity in God’s creation is extended to mean that every type of belief and morality is equally valid; we need to have every type of aberrant behavior or special interest group equally represented to avoid any hint of discrimination.

Multiculturalism- all cultures and religions are equally valid; no one of these is better than any other; therefore there is no such thing as absolute truth, but all beliefs are subjective.

Relativism- This is the notion that there are no absolute standards of behavior, because what’s wrong for you may be perfectly normal for someone else. Moral relativism says that it’s okay to do anything you want as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone.

Pragmatism- since there is no absolute objective truth if a particular philosophy works then its good.

Situational Ethics- since there are no absolutes, or black and white the situations one is placed in determines the right course of action.

In conclusion neither of Satan’s systems has brought us any closer to a utopian society. There is only one truth and His name is Jesus Christ, and one day in the millenium He will in fact usher in a utopian society, and bring peace on earth. In the mean time let us reject the “prevailing spirit of the age” being peddled through professors, scientist, the news media, and the internet.

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Today I saw a former RU Men’s Home student at a local men’s addiction’s home he is running. He gave me a full tour of the facility which is basically 16 guys packed into a Church till they buy a men’s home. I have often Prayed for Jesus, but this was the first time I knew that he was doing well. The point is that we really can’t judge who’s goona make it or who’s saved. God is working in peoples lives, and it will surprise us when we realize all of the fruit that remains.

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