This webinar tells you what to do and what not to do to help others overcome their addiction. It also clarifies what the problem is and gives God s complete and definitive answer for addiction.
If Christ is living in me and is my life and I m dead to sin and freed from it, why don t I act consistently like that? Why do I struggle with an addictive behavior? Why am I not living in the freedom and victory God has promised?
This is what we will be covering in this webinar. God does have an answer for your bad behavior and an explanation for it. Unless you understand why you fail and fall you will not be able to live free from addictive behavior. That is a major key to living in the freedom and victory that is yours in Christ. No one ever lives totally free from sin, even though God has provided us with the answer to do so (Christ in you). When you know and believe it (Christ in you) is when you live free from addiction. You won t live a sinless life, but you will live free from addiction.
A well-known Christian author & counselor said, Most people never change. This is basically true as it seems most people try to change by focusing on behavior. But behavior is not the root problem. We always act consistently with who we believe we are. Most Christians don t believe they are changed because they don t feel like they are and so do not act like they are changed. They are like the liberals that we say base their theology on their emotions and experiences. But we have done the same thing as we don t feel dead to sin and our experiences tell us we are not so we believe that we aren t dead to sin although the Bible clearly tells us we are.
Mike grew up believing he was insecure, inferior, inadequate and couldn t trust women. His wife was trustworthy, but he couldn t believe it & almost destroyed his marriage. His emotions were based on a lie he believed. If we live life according to our feelings our Christian life will be up and down - mostly down with little peace, joy and freedom. We live by faith in the truth, not by sight and not by feelings. We live by faith, not by sight. (2 Cor. 5:7 NIV) The gospel is that all our sins were put on Christ and He & gave His righteousness. (2 Cor. 5:21). When we understand the gospel is when we understand the truth that sets free.
A young man in Bible college told Mike he loved Jesus and had given his life to Him, but was in bondage to a drug addiction. He wondered why he struggled with something contrary to what he was supposed to believe in. The answer is that addiction is bondage and does not respond to logic & reason. As long as we believe our feelings tell us truth we will not be free. Until we know and believe who we are in Christ and that we are dead to sin and freed from it, then it will not make any difference what we do to try to change our behavior. When we believe our old self is dead and gone and Christ is our life our behavior will not be perfect, but our behavior will improve and addiction will be a thing of the past.
Everyone fails. Everyone struggles. The struggle is part of the journey to give up on ourselves and stop trying A big part of the problem is we re striving to shape up & do right. It ain t going to happen. You are never going to get your act together, but you have been set free and when you begin to believe that truth your behavior will change (but not perfectly). It is likely true that many Christians believe more of Satan s lies than they do of God s truth. We are not physical beings who have received a spirit. We must realize that we are spiritual beings who live in a body and we live by faith, not by emotions. Most Christians don t know who they are!
It seems a lot of us read Rom. 7:15 and stop there. It was my life verse for 18 years of my Christian life, but the answer is in Rom. 7. If we believe we are still the same old sinner and live in the flesh (though we are not of the flesh) we will struggle with sinful behavior. But if we know the flesh is not who we are we are on the road to freedom. An excellent little book on this is The Axe Laid to the Root by Fred Pruitt. You can get a free pdf copy of the 32 page book at http://thesingleeye.files.wordpress.com/2011/09 /book-the-axe-laid-to-the-root.pdf
Ever felt like that before. I have. Too many times to count. The only good thing about it is that it shows us what our true heart is. But the danger is we accept Satan s accusation and let it keep us down. Hannah Whitall Smith says that to grovel in our sin and self-pity is a worse sin than the original sin Don t take too long to confess and repent. If you don t realize that sin is forgiven and let it keep you down, you re saying the cross didn t work. When you mess up, thank God it is forgiven and praise and worship Him and go on with your life. Don t let the devil beat you and keep you down.
But doesn t the bible say my heart is wicked? Yes it does, but it also says you have been given a new heart I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. (Ezek. 36:26 NIV) We are under a new covenant. The finished work of Christ, tells us the old self was crucified, dead, buried and is no more. We have a new heart and the law is written on our minds and our hearts (Heb. 8:10). Christ lives in us and we are united with Him and are one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17). How could we have a wicked heart if Christ is our life and is living in us and we re dead to sin?
Yes, sin dwells in your body but your body is not who you are Bill Gillham said the body is just our earth suit, that allows us to function on earth. Your body is going to die, but you (as a spiritual being) are not. Jesus said whoever lives and believes in me will never die Then He said Do you believe this? (John 11:26). DO YOU? You were raised up with Christ as a new creation and He lives in you and is your life and you have eternal life. When we believe the truth that we no longer live, but Christ lives in us is when we begin to live free.
Flesh is primarily the memory patterns of how we met our basic needs apart from God. We are not going to improve the flesh and it is not going away while we live in this body It is usually what we default to when we are under stress & pressure. So if we realize that is not who we are, then we don t have to go with our feelings and act like the old self we were. They are just feelings and they are real, but we don t have to let them define who we are and determine how we act. The flesh does set its desire against the Spirit (Gal. 5 :17), but if we sow to the Spirit we will reap eternal life (Gal. 5:16). We crucify the flesh by faith when we believe who we are in Christ. It s all and only by faith.
All sin and bad behavior is a result of unbelief. We don t believe God can meet the need and we look elsewhere to meet it It is nothing but deception and when you believe a lie you believe Satan and That is the basis of every bondage and every addictive behavior Of course there is no help in reason or emotions The only way we crucify the flesh is by realizing the truth that the old sin-loving sinner was crucified and is dead and gone (Gal. 5:24) And that Christ is living in us and is our life and we re one Spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17). You don t feel like it? So what? IT S THE TRUTH! BELIEVE IT! RECEIVE IT!!
We will NEVER get our act together, but we are one with Christ and He is our life We are complete in Christ and you can t get any more together than that We re not saying that the devil made you do it and you re not responsible. Of course you are. But by faith you believe truth. But it is not to grit your teeth and try not to sin. It is to believe the truth that you don t have to get your act together as Christ is your life and you have all you need to live in freedom. Your responsibility is to respond to His ability Christ in you. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us. (Eph. 3:20 NIV)
If we set our mind on the things of the flesh, it will result in death, but if we set it on the Spirit, it results in life, joy, freedom & peace You will never feel dead to sin and freed from it, but SO WHAT? You are. It is the truth. So, how do we believe the truth? It is not done by gritting your teeth and sucking it up. It is done by believing the TRUTH (Jesus) in you. It is done by faith. It is a matter of the heart and the Spirit, so it is not a matter of your resources. But by knowing, believing and trusting that Christ lives in you and is your life, regardless of how you feel or how you have acted in the past That s GOOD NEWS! REALLY GOOD NEWS!!!
When you understand, know and believe this truth, you will be FREE. WHY? BECAUSE THE TRUTH IS YOU ARE FREE. YOU CAN T GET ANYTHING ELSE THAT WILL MAKE YOU MORE FREE. YOU HAVE IT ALL. YOU HAVE JESUS AND HE IS YOUR LIFE AND IS LIVING YOUR LIFE. BELIEVE IT! RECEIVE IT! YOU NEED NOTHING ELSE. DO YOU NEED MORE THAN JESUS???!!! You do not have a sin nature. You are a new creation with a new nature a divine nature, the nature of Christ.
Of course if you don t believe you re dead to sin and you depend on yourself you will spend a lot of time misbehaving, sinning and messing up So, what makes you sin? It is when you believe lies and Satan influences you to sin. Only one thing causes you to sin DECEPTION! When you sin you are going against your true nature. You have been deceived and are believing a lie about who you are and what you need. BUT THE ANSWER IS CHRIST IN YOU, WHO IS YOUR LIFE, WHO IS ONE SPIRIT WITH YOU AND YOU ARE ONE WITH HIM (Col. 1:27, 1 Cor. 6:17). It doesn t get any better than that!
You absolutely must know that you are not a physical being who has received a spirit You are a spiritual being who lives in a body, no matter what your feelings are telling you Christ is in you and though the body is dead (unresponsive to God), the Spirit of God lives in you We live by faith and by the Spirit put to death the bad deeds of the body We do it by faith believing that we are dead to sin We are children of God and the Spirit of God is leading us. This is not something to do, but believe that God is doing what He said He would do Instead of living in bondage to the flesh we can live according to the Spirit and live in freedom
This is who you are. You are Spirit. Christ is your life. You are one Spirit with Him. Forget about how you feel, what you have done, how you have messed up. The past is past. You have been redeemed from it. If we could just understand who we are and what we have in Christ we would be so free it would amaze us. Don t try to do anything. Just believe the truth. Cease from doing and rest in Him. Don t look for evidence or proof in your behavior and feelings. You won t find it, DON T BE AFRAID, ONLY BELIEVE!!!
St. Augustine said this 1500 years ago. How could this be right? How could it not be right? Who are you and what do you really want? Steve Brown tells the story of his daughter who registered for a college course and the teacher gave them all the requirements and the daughter felt there was no way she could fulfill them and asked her Dad to go with her to drop the course. They went to the Jewish teacher and after listening to the girl, the teacher said, What if I told you that no matter what you did, I would give you an A, would you take the course? The girl said yes took the course and actually made A s on all the tests. You have aced the course. You are God s beloved child with whom He is well pleased. No matter what you do, you can t mess it up.
Your past has been taken care of. Your future has been taken care of and is assured. Should we worry about the present? Is Christ in us worried about the present. Can you trust Him? All our problems have been taken care of and we spend too much time worrying about them What if you could really believe the truth of who you are and what you have in Christ? How different would life be? How exciting, liberating, fulfilling and joyful would it be??!! It has already been provided for you. It is a done deal. IT IS FINISHED!!! Hasn t God told us He is working all things together for your good (Rom. 8:28)? Do you understand you are really free!!!
To know how free you are is simply to understand the finished work of Christ. It is to understand that our old self was crucified with Him, is dead, buried and no more & that we no longer live, but Christ lives in us whether we feel like it or not. It is to know that you are dead to sin and freed from it. It is to know that you and Jesus are one and you are perfectly righteous and free. You are complete in Christ and cannot get any more complete than that. It is to understand the basic gospel that God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21).
Next session we will take a look at why forgiveness is essential for your freedom from addiction you and is actually an act of spiritual warfare that frees you from the power and control of Satan.
Vernon is the computer guru and Mike has a D. D. (a Doctorate in Drunkenness)