Recently, a young man contacted me through the internet, and asked me about my next book, and wanted some pointers on how he could beat drug addiction. I will be giving this young man some of my views on drug addiction, and recovery in the next few blog posts.
First, I think it is important to establish a “global context” for the problem of drug addiction. A global context will allow us to see the big picture, and help us navigate through the maze of drug addiction.
When thinking of drug addiction what framework guides our thoughts? Do we see drug addiction as a disease? A biological phenomena? A neurological phenomena? What we believe drug addiction is, will influence how we attempt to overcome it.
Drug addiction, at its core, is a spiritual problem. And I do not use the word, “spiritual” as a concept tag, which points to principles that are beneficial for us, and our community. I use the word, “spiritual”as a tag that points to our ontology. In other words, for me, “spiritual” refers to our state of being, and the realm in which we have it.
The Scriptures point to the philosophy of substance dualism, and it is in this sense that I use the word, “spiritual”. There are two categories of “stuff” in the philosophy of substance dualism: Subjects and objects. We are a spirit (a subject), who lives in a body (an object).
The spiritual realm is the realm in which all subjects dwell. There are two camps in the spirit realm: Yahweh’s camp, and Satan’s camp. Without exception, every spirit dwells in one of these two camps.
The spirit realm is real. It is more real than the realm of objects, because the realm of objects (the physical universe) came out of the spirit realm, when Yahweh (the Subject) spoke it into being.
Thanks to Adam, we are all born in Satan’s camp. Our spirit man is a slave to Satan, and his demons. Thanks to Yeshua (Jesus), we can escape from Satan’s slave camp, and enter into Yahweh’s camp to live as kings and priests. This message is the essence of the gospel.
The spirit realm and the physical realm converge in order to fashion the human body, and the human soul. The spirit man lives in this body, and functions in the physical realm through this soul.
Yahweh puts every human spirit in a body, which is confined within the physical universe in order to test it, and refine it. Currently, we are all in Yahweh’s testing, and refinement arena. Yahweh is testing each one of us to see if we will choose to follow Him, and submit to His refinement process, or choose to remain in Satan’s camp.
Our primary spiritual problem is that we have not submitted to Yeshua, and allowed Him to remove us from Satan’s camp. Hence, we continue to do Satan’s will: We love the world, build up our pride, please our physical bodies, and feed our eyes what they crave.
If, when we hear the gospel of the Kingdom of Yahweh, we submit to Yahweh’s King (Yeshua), His Spirit comes to live in our earthly body with us. When Yeshua’s Spirit joins Himself with our human spirit, He removes us from Satan’s kingdom (camp), and places us in His Kingdom (camp). If we do this we have passed the primary test.
Yahweh gives us all the opportunity to submit to King Yeshua, and if we do not submit to Him, before we leave our physical body, and the arena of testing, we will remain in Satan’s camp forever. And, this is real bad, because Satan has made his camp in the depths of Hell!
Passing Yahweh’s primary test is the most important thing in life.
Passing Yahweh’s primary test is also the first step in recovering from drug addiction. When Yahweh removes us from Satan’s camp, He recreates our spirit, and gives it the desire to please Him. This intense desire to please Yahweh, and live according to His instructions is the hallmark of a Christian, and it is the force that keeps him or her striving towards the goal of His high calling.
When Yahweh removes us from Satan’s camp, some of us, leave drug addiction behind, and never return. These “lucky” people get delivered immediately. The rest of us “poor souls” have to submit to the painful refining process, and grow out of drug addiction.
Why does Yahweh deliver some from drug addiction immediately, and walks with others, and grows them out of drug addiction, over time? It’s because Yahweh has an eternal assignment for each of us, and He knows which refinement process will equip us to fulfill it.
In the posts that follow, we will examine the refinement process, and how we can cooperate with it in order to overcome drug addiction. The refinement process is the secondary test, and our eternal rewards depend on how we perform in this phase of our testing.
Don’t be ignorant of Satan’s devices; he uses deception to keep us in his camp, or keep us living in bondage even though we have escaped from his camp. A strong deception of our day is this: Satan offers a refinement process, which promises freedom from addiction. And Satan has clothed his program in God garb to make it look Godly.
Of course, I am talking about A.A., and N.A. These programs consist of a set of “spiritual principles”, which are beneficial to you and your community. If you live by these principles, you may indeed overcome drug addiction, but you will nevertheless, remain in Satan’s camp.
A.A. makes the same mistake that the religious people made in Yeshua’s day. In Yeshua’s day, the Jewish leaders placed Moses ahead of Abraham, and tried to know Yahweh through their works. Paul told these men that they had to submit to Yeshua to know Yahweh, and enter His Kingdom. The same is true for A.A. members.
A.A. without Yeshua is a ticket to Hell.
A.A. with Yeshua is just another form of bondage.
Don’t be deceived. Refining yourself with a set of spiritual principles will not bring you into Yahweh’s Kingdom so that you can know Him. There is only one way into Yahweh’s Kingdom, and only one way to know Him. This is the way: We must pass the primary test.
Follow
I love your blogs!!!
I have been in and out of AA and NA since I was 18. At times my experiences have been positive and sometimes not so positive. I dont like the fact that you cannot mention Jesus for the fear of “scaring” someone away. My question is how do you feel about Celebrate Recovery? In this ministry the glory is given to Christ. But, the same 12 steps are used in CR that are in the other programs. The only difference is that Jesus can be freely talked about and accredited for recovery.
About 10 years ago, I went to a couple of Celebrate Recovery meetings. They spoke of Jesus freely, but fell into the “church trap”. Here is what I mean: They didn’t want to take action and do what is required, they talked about recovery as if Jesus was going to do it all for them. Jesus has already done everything that He needs to do to set us free, we must take action to activate what He has already done. Other than that, it was a good program. I don’t remember it being based on the 12 steps, however. Seems like it had 8 principles to live by, which were based on the beatitudes. Maybe they changed it up. Nevertheless, here is the point: most any program that causes a person to trust in Christ, is far, far better than A.A. or N.A. Here’s why. In A.A., a person is told to surrender to a god of your own understanding, it could be any of the gods that the world religions promote, or a doorknob, if you choose to reject the gods of the world religions. Once you surrender to a god, or a doorknob of your choosing, then you can apply the spiritual principles of A.A. in your life and recover. Common sense tells us that since these spiritual principles work, irregardless of which god or doorknob we choose, that it is the spiritual principles that bring recovery, and not the god or doorknob. But, the person is encouraged to believe that since he surrendered to the god of his choosing, that god is responsible for his recovery. (If a person seriously believes that a doorknob is his god, then he is either a new ager, who believes god is everything, or he is an atheist, but nevertheless, he can still recover through the spiritual principles.) Now, A.A. is a worldwide organization, and different people in different parts of the world understand god differently. So, some choose allah and some choose Buddha, and guess, who gets the credit for their recovery? Does A.A. magically lead them to Jesus without mentioning Him? No, of course not. Allah and Buddha get the credit for their recovery, and their belief in their false gods are made stronger, as a consequence. In these cases, A.A. leads people away from Jesus, into Hell. Why would a christian want to be involved in a belief system that does not promote Jesus, and will cause many to end up in Hell? If the Bible is true (and, of course, it is), there is only one name by which we must be saved, and that is the name of Jesus, and we are not going to mention His name in public because we may scare somebody?
Why keep our light hidden? I can’t be apart of a system like this, because what fellowship does light have with darkness? What good have we really done if we help someone get clean without leading them to Jesus?
Stick to the programs that promote the Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Word of God, and take action to clean house, and the One True God will set you free of drugs (and endless meetings), forever.