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Love Potion #9

Have you ever seen the movie, Love Potion #9? In this movie, when someone drinks the love potion #9, suddenly, they see the world through “rose-colored” glasses. After imbibing these chemicals, a person sees the beauty in the world, and they also see the beauty in whomever happens to be in front of them. This quickly leads to trouble. The chemicals in the potion cause the person to perceive a reality that does not exist—one that is more palatable to them—, and unfortunately, they also cause the person to interact with the reality that does exist, wrongly.

These people live in a pliable artificial reality that is embedded in an unbending absolute reality. The differential between the artificial reality and the absolute reality creates strain and tension, and the only way that a person can manage this strain and tension is by increasing the dosage of the love potion in order to bend the artificial reality even more, while making minor adjustments to how they interact with the absolute reality. At some point, however, there is a break. The spiritual, emotional, physical and relational tension and strain between absolute reality and artificial reality becomes too great. Absolute reality crushes artificial reality in order to eliminate the stored up strain and tension. This pent-up energy is released and transformed into another form of energy called, consequences.

These consequences are negative, but they can either create or destroy. On the one hand, when a person looks at the consequences of his or her behavior and accepts the fact that he or she has not interacted with absolute reality, rightly, and does not enter into their “artificial reality of choice” anymore, the consequences create a new life for him or her. On the other hand, when a person refuses to acknowledge that he or she has interacted with absolute reality, wrongly, and continues to enter into their “artificial reality of choice”, the consequences destroy his or her life.

Sound familiar? It should sound very familiar to addicts and alcoholics.

Drug addicts ingest chemicals. The chemicals disrupt the person’s neurotransmitters in his or her brain. As the neurotransmitter balance is disrupted, the brain modules begin to interact with each other differently, which causes a change in consciousness—–a change in the way that person perceives his or her self and absolute reality (the external world),—- producing an artificial reality.

As a bonus, when the addict ingests chemicals, the mesocortical limbic system, a brain structure involved with motivation and reward processing, is flooded with dopamine (the feel-good neurotransmitter), producing a rush (an intense sense of pleasure and well-being).

A similar thing happens when we bond with others and experience love. As we bond with others and experience love, our brain produces a hormone/neurotransmitter called, oxytocin. As oxytocin binds with its receptors, it triggers the release of a wave of dopamine that floods the mesocortical limbic system, which is why bonding and love feel good. It is also why we become addicted to it.

Some scientists think that addiction is the byproduct of the brain’s love system. According to this view, we are seeking the sense of pleasure and well-being that comes from being loved and nurtured. Nevertheless, most scientists agree with the concept that addiction is a byproduct of the brain’s reward center that responds to natural rewards that are necessary for our survival. The bottom line is that addiction is the misuse of the natural reward/love system that God designed into our brain/body complex so that we could survive.

So you might as well face it…..you’re addicted to love.

Addicts are addicted to a love potion (a drug) that allows them to escape from the confines of absolute reality in order to live in their artificial reality. This is what the addict has deemed to be rewarding for him or her and so this is what makes them feel good and what drives their behavior.

God created our brain, and He allows us to place values on our experiences. The prefrontal cortex is where we assign these values. The prefrontal cortex interprets each experience. In the past, if we have assigned an experience a positive value, then the interaction between the prefrontal cortex and the mesocortical limbic system produces a rush of pleasure. Thus, we want to repeat the behavior that generated the experience, so we can get the rush (get high). This is why the people on the TV show, Strange Addictions can eat dirt or cigarette butts and feel pleasure, and get addicted to it.

Conversely, when we have an experience that we have assigned a negative value to, the interaction between these two brain regions produces feelings of displeasure and disgust. Thus, we avoid the behavior that generated this experience. This is why my son will not eat chocolate cake. When my son was little, he ate some chocolate cake and became violently ill. Consequently, now he refuses to eat chocolate cake because he does not want to be violently ill again. He has a strong aversion to chocolate cake that you cannot reason him out of because the experience triggered the fear center in his brain and created a semi-flashbulb memory that overpowers his rational centers.

Drug addicts live in an artificial reality of their own making, because they are uncomfortable in the absolute reality that God has placed them in, so they can grow spiritually. This is rebellion, because we refuse to submit to God’s authority and deal with life on life’s terms. It is witchcraft, because we seek to change absolute reality with our minds. It is sorcery, because we use chemical potions to try to change absolute reality. It is idolatry, because we put our trust in the chemicals rather than God.

Here is my point, addiction is not a disease. Addiction is not a breakdown or a misfire of the human machine that we have no control over. Addiction happens when we make a choice to misuse the human machine and place values on things that we have no business valuing. Addiction happens when we do not accept life on life’s terms. Addiction happens when we refuse to bow to God, and bow to an experience that is rewarding. Addiction happens when we drink the love potion # 9.

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Soul Prosperity

In our day, it is common for preachers to tell people that if they bow their knee to Yeshua (Jesus), He will make them wealthy. These preachers have turned The Gospel of the Kingdom into a worldly prosperity gospel.

Often, these preachers use 3 John 1:2 as the foundational verse in their worldly gospel. In this verse, John says to Gaius, who was a Pastor of an assembly that John had established, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”

In essence, the preachers say something like this, “The Apostle John said that his primary concern for us was that we would prosper materially and be healthy….and he said that we would prosper and be in health, in accordance to how our soul was prospering. So, bow your knee to Yeshua and He will cause your soul to prosper….and then you will be healthy and wealthy.

Is this what John had in mind when he wrote to Gaius? Well, let’s see.

When our mother gave birth to us, we entered into Satan’s kingdom. Then, Satan and his crew began to shape and mold us for their purposes. As slaves in Satan’s kingdom, our task was to think and act in ways that advanced the kingdom. Satan and his crew used the lust of our flesh, the lust of our eyes and the pride of life, to control us, and we were powerless to resist.

Yahweh (The Father) allowed Satan to lord over us. As we followed our lord, Satan, we broke Yahweh’s commandments and went against His will. Since, Yahweh created the universe, and He knows how we should interact with it, when we go against His instructions, we suffer unpleasant consequences.

The unpleasant consequences help us see that we are headed in the wrong direction, and that we need to make a course correction. We sense a terrible leanness in our soul, and we know that there has to be more to life. When we reach this point, and are looking for a way out, the Holy Spirit calls us.

The Holy Spirit arranges for us to hear the Gospel of the Kingdom. As we hear the Gospel of the Kingdom, and learn of King Yeshua, the Holy Spirit offers us the gift of repentance, and He gives us the grace to accept this gift. If we make a choice to accept the gift, and bow our knee to the new King, King Yeshua, then we leave our old kingdom, and enter into a new one.

Through the agency of the Holy Spirit, King Yeshua, comes to live in our heart. Since the King has set up His throne in our heart, our body, soul and spirit become His dwelling place. In other words, the King establishes His Kingdom in us, and consequently; we enter into His Kingdom.

As we reject our old king (king Satan), and stop advancing his kingdom by thinking and acting like him, and we worship our new King (King Yeshua), and advance His Kingdom by thinking and acting like Him, we find what was missing. We find peace, wholeness, success and contentment.

In other words, our soul prospers.

We have to fight to keep this peace, wholeness, success and contentment. We fight because, physically, we live on the earth, and Yahweh has allowed Satan to rule over the earth for now. However, spiritually, we are seated in Christ, at the right hand of the Father, in Heaven. The world pulls on us one way, and Heaven pulls on us the other. The soul is caught in the middle! Siding with the world brings leanness to our soul: Siding with Heaven prospers it.

This is what John was saying to Gaius. “Gaius I know that you are shunning the ways of the world system, and that you are seeking to do the Father’s will by fulfilling your calling as a Pastor; therefore, the Lord is prospering your soul. I pray that the Lord would also prosper your life, and keep you healthy so that you can fulfill your calling.” In other words, I pray that the Lord would prosper you and keep you healthy so you can succeed as a Pastor.

The Lord knew us before He laid the foundations of the earth. The Lord laid out a path for us to walk down, and He preordained the good works that we should accomplish. The Lord called us according to His plan and purpose.

Our soul prospers when we know Yeshua. Our life prospers when we find the path that Yeshua has preordained us to walk, and we walk it with Him. It’s all about Yeshua and His path for our life, that is, it’s all about Yeshua and His calling on our life. When we walk our path with Yeshua, He will supply everything that we need to fulfill our calling. So do not seek prosperity, seek Yeshua and to fulfill your calling, and prosperity will be added unto you!

Yahweh loves to prosper His people. However, Yahweh is more concerned about our character, than He is about our comfort. Character is forever; comfort is temporary.

In Proverbs 1, Yahweh says, “The prosperity of fools shall destroy them.” Consequently, Yahweh is limited in how much He can give us materially. We set the limits on our material prosperity when we refuse to mature spiritually and obey Yahweh’s commands. So when we mature spiritually and obey Yahweh, we open the door so that He can bless us with more material things.

So is there a relationship between our soul prospering and our material prosperity? Absolutely! Does this mean that if we mature and obey Yahweh, He is obligated to bless us with material prosperity? No! Remember, Yahweh calls us according to His plan and purpose and He will supply all our need.

We all have different callings. Hence, we all need different things to fulfill our calling. Yahweh calls some people to be major givers and so He builds their character to ensure that they can support the weight of wealth. Then, Yahweh gives these people the gift of giving. These people support the work of Yahweh’s Kingdom and make it possible for others to fulfill their callings.

Yahweh blesses us with material prosperity according to His will, not ours.

So do we have a part to play in material prosperity? Absolutely! Yahweh promises to bless the work of our hands, which means that we must work. Yah has told us to plant seeds in His Kingdom so His Kingdom will release a harvest into our lives. Yah wants us to trust in Him to supply all of our need. Most importantly, Yahweh wants us to mature spiritually and obey Him.

So will everyone who gets born-again get wealthy? No!

Well, what about our health?

In Proverbs 18:14, Yah says that a strong spirit will sustain a man in his sickness. When we walk out path with Yeshua, our spirit prospers. When we have a strong prosperous spirit, our spirit will minister life to our flesh. When our flesh gets ill, our spirit will help our flesh recover. Since Yeshua came to prosper our spirit, He said that by His stripes, we were healed.

So is there a relationship between the prosperity of our soul and our health? Absolutely! Does this mean that if we bow our knee to Yeshua, He is, then obligated to heal our body? No! Remember, Yeshua is the Lord, and He calls us to fulfill His purpose, and He is more concerned with our character, than He is with our comfort. He heals us according to His plan and purpose.

So do we have a part to play in healing? Yes! We must eat right and exercise. We must forgive others. When we sin, we must confess our sins to one another to open the door for healing. We must look to the Body of Christ for healing because that is where the gifts operate. We must seek Yahweh’s gifts and believe that He has healed us. Most importantly, we must find our path and walk in it with Yeshua. Remember, Satan tried to kill John, but he could not because he had not fulfilled his calling. Likewise, if we have found our path, and are walking it, Satan can not kill us until we fulfill our calling.

So will everyone who gets born-again be healed? No!

Do I believe in healing? Absolutely! Yah healed me. Do I believe in material prosperity? Absolutely! I have everything I need to fulfill my calling, and more. Do I believe that all we have to do is get born-again and send a check to a preacher, and Yah will prosper us materially? Absolutely not!

What does all of this have to do with recovery? Well, I am glad you asked, because soul prosperity is just another name for recovery.

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The Disease Myth

When I was 13 years old, I remember going to the doctor and him diagnosing me with a disease. I left the doctor’s office that day feeling like a victim. I had a painful, life-altering condition that I had done nothing to acquire, and there was nothing that I could do to escape from it. It was a hopeless situation.

I would have to frequent the doctor’s office and take my medications from now on, in order to live a decent life. I went along with the doctor, and things grew worse. The medications messed me up even more and complicated my life. The disease became a part of my identity (a part of who I was). My life was filled with physical, emotional and spiritual pain. I went through Hell on earth. I had nowhere to turn. So, in desperation, I turned to the Lord. Thankfully, the Lord Yeshua (Jesus) healed me!

Today, that chronic, incurable disease, and all the pain it caused, is a distant memory. I have taken off that identity, and it is no longer a part of who I am. Now, there are a few consequences of the disease, and the medicines, that I have to deal with daily, but these issues don’t define or discourage me. Most importantly, I do not sit around and talk of that disease and how bad my life was when I had it. Diseases have a spiritual and emotional component to them. I believe that if I were to sit around and think about those things and talk about them all the time, I would create an environment that could possibly rebirth the disease in my body. Consequently, I refuse to do that.

I have moved on with my life.

During the time I was suffering with this physical, emotional and spiritual pain, I turned to drugs. If I could use a particular drug to escape from my painful reality, I did. I quickly became an addict. I took on the identity of an addict, and my whole life revolved around drugs.

After about 20 years of drug use, my life was a train wreck spiritually, emotionally and physically. I went to rehab, and the doctors told me that I had a disease…………the disease of addiction. I left rehab feeling like a victim, who would have to struggle to keep his disease in remission for the rest of his life so that he could have a decent life. The doctors prescribed AA meetings and told me that I had to take my medicine to keep my disease in remission. Unfortunately, I believed the doctors.

I wanted to get free because it was too painful, and too complicated, to be an addict. I could not shake my identity as an addict, however. I thought of myself as an addict. I told myself that I was an addict. I surrounded myself with addicts. I talked about my life as an addict. I listened to others tell about their lives as addicts. My life now revolved around my identity as an addict and keeping my disease in remission. It was too much for me to handle so I returned to the drugs.

After about 7 years of this Hell, in desperation, I turned to the Lord. The Lord Yeshua gave me a new identity “in Him”. I was no longer an addict, I was now a saint of the Most High! I thought of myself as a saint. I told myself that I was a saint. I surrounded myself with saints. I talked about myself as a saint. I listened to others tell about their lives as saints. My life now revolved around my identity “in Christ”, and walking in it. Consequently, today, I am completely free and very blessed!

I have moved on with my life.

Here is the truth. Addiction begins as a choice. Choice grows into an obsession. Obsession grows into a compulsion. Choice, obsession and compulsion culminate in addiction. Addiction is not a disease that we have no control over. Addiction is the misappropriation of our free will, which has spiritual, neurological and biological repercussions that result in a bondage of the will.

A person gets out of addiction the same way he or she gets into it: He or she makes a choice to get free. Once a person makes the choice to get free, then they need to isolate themselves from the chemicals in order to diffuse the biological compulsion. After the biological compulsion has been diffused, then, the person has to do some spiritual and cognitive work in order to change their neurology and tear-down the strongholds in their mind (diffuse the mental obsession).

The myth that addiction is a disease sets people up for failure by giving them an identity that they have to war against for the rest of their lives. Even the strongest of warriors gets tired after a while, which is why most people will eventually relapse in AA. We must take responsibility for our choices and acknowledge that we have misused our spiritual, neurological and biological resources in a desperate bid to escape our everyday reality by chemical witchcraft. We must repent.

We must repent from our witchcraft, sorcery and idolatry. We must turn to the Lord with our whole heart and accept our identity in Him and take off our old identity as an addict. Only then will we reach the summit of Mt. Olympus and see the Oracles, who have spun this destructive myth.

The Lord healed me of a terrible physical disease, and He also reordered my spiritual, neurological and biological system so that I could live the abundant life. The Lord will do the same for you if you will believe Him and renounce what the Oracles have told you, or you can go on believing the disease myth.

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