How to stop an addiction?
The only
way to overcome an addiction is through the power of God and your own will
power. Whenever we pray to the Lord asking for help, God helps us and it is through
the finished work of Jesus Christ. When Jesus died on the cross, he took with
him all our problems, infirmities, sicknesses and addictions. When He died,
Christ said, “it
is finished” (John 19:30) meaning if we have being praying for
healing, we are already healed. If we have being praying for a breakthrough,
there has already being a breakthrough. If we have being praying to overcome an
addiction, we have already overcome it. The word of God declares in Isaiah 53.5
that by his
(Jesus’s) stripes (wounds from the whipping) we are healed. The
“are” is in the present tense meaning when you ask for change from God, you
have already received it.
Having
said that, you might be saying to yourself but how come I am still addicted?
How come I am still doing what I am not supposed to be doing? I can’t feel the
power of God at work in me. Where, where, where is that deliverance? The word
of God says in John 20:29 that blessed is the man who does not see, but believes. Again, the word of God says in 2 Corinthians 5:7 that we live by faith and not by sight. The word of God also
says in Mathew 21:22 that anything you shall ask in His name (Jesus name) believing,
you will receive.
With these
scriptures, you will see that the power of God is already at work in us. Jesus
death on the cross made way for the power of the Holy Spirit to work in us. It
is finished Jesus said meaning the power of God is now at work in our lives. As
I write this now, it is at work. As you are struggling and looking for answers,
it is at work. This means that the moment you pray and ask God to help you, you
tap into the available power at work.
When the
word of God says we live by faith and not by sight, it means that by faith, we
see ourselves set free and delivered. Furthermore, when it says we live not by
sight, it means that we don’t dwell on the present situation and say we are
enslaved to it. No, we rise up and say we are set free. We see ourselves
breaking through and moving forward. When we do that, the power of God is made
alive and real in our lives.
When the
word of God says blessed is the man who does not see yet believes, it means
that, though you may not feel it and see the power of God at work, you believe
it and by believing it, you are blessed and when you are being blessed, it
means that you are set free, healed, delivered and your prayer is answered.
This is
the basic principle of the power of prayer. When you pray, you live your
prayer. This means that after you have prayed, you live your life positively
and in a way that makes your prayer a reality. For example, you might be
praying to get a job. So after praying, you don’t just sit there expecting the
job to come to you or expecting some kind of angelic visit bringing you your
answer. No, you have to go and look for a job. Because you have already prayed,
God has already secured a job for you. You will be surprised at how real and
good God is when you finally get the job.
Likewise,
when you pray and ask God to break-away from an addiction, for example,
pornography, you must live in a way that makes that a reality. If you have been
so accustomed to sitting in-front of a computer screen looking at porn, you
have to stop that by watching good Christian teachings or videos, reading the
bible or doing something that reflects and shows that you have broken away from
it. Because you have already prayed, you will see that the more you do that,
the more that desire and hunger for porn dies away and eventually to a point
where you will hate it. That is the power of God at work.
Our
addictions will only return to us when we allow them to. God has nothing to do
with them but it is us who have everything to do with them. When we pray and
ask for deliverance, the power of God is at work in us. The power of God is
upon us and we live in the realm of that power. There is only one thing so
powerful that even the power of God will not be able to stop and that is our
decision or choice to sin. God created us to be powerful little human beings
and it is that decision-making power that makes that possible. There is only
one thing that God has no control over and that is our decision. We either
choose good or bad. By choosing good, we are on the winning circle with God. By
choosing bad, we are on the losing circle with satan.
To really
understand the statement of God having no control over our choices is to see it
this way. In a person, two things are at work. The first one is God’s power. The
second one is our power (decision/choice). Our decision is the only thing that
God has no control over. It is the only thing that can move us out of God’s
power and into our own destruction. That is the reason why when want to commit
sin, God does not show up and say “hey son or daughter, what you are doing is
wrong, I’m gonna give you a smack”. When you want to sin, you can freely do it.
God cannot stop you because God has given you the power of decision-making. He
is not a dictator to force you to love him and serve him. Those are things we
should be doing out of love and reverence for Him.
We can
only go back to our addictions if we choice to. God has nothing to do with it.
The moment you are delivered from your addiction, satan is crying to have you back.
Actually, the addiction is satan himself. Again, it is not satan’s fault that
we get hooked up with our addictions again but it is ours. It is always our
fault. We are always at fault and not God and not satan. Satan only presents
and we choice either to accept or reject. We are the ones responsible for going
back to our addictions.
Having
said that, we must never forget that we are a child of God. He created us. He
formed us. He loves us and wants the best for us. Though we were lost, doomed
and heading straight for hell, He sent His Son Jesus to die for us. He couldn’t
afford to see the children whom He dearly loved perish. That is why He saved us
so that we can have eternal and abundant life. Yes, right here on earth before
we go back to heaven.
The bottom
line is satan is a loser. He has already being defeated and his time is coming
when he will be tormented in hell for eternity. How can we always go back to
our addictions or in other words to satan who is a loser and by going back, we
also become a loser.
We are a
set apart, set free people by the power of Almighty God through the power of
the blood of Jesus and the great Holy Spirit. We are healed, we are delivered,
we are saved in Jesus name. Our addictions have being broken, our diseases have
being healed, and we are made prosperous in Jesus name.
In order
to break out from an addiction, you need:
- God’s power
- Your power (will and decision)
You cannot
overcome it on your own. You need God and God needs you so that you can
overcome it. God is real and living and His power is at work every day. Satan
has being defeated therefore; you and I must live a victorious life. We cannot
be a slave to him. Remember, God is always there to help so run to him when you
need it.
