ACTIVATING GRACE IN THE FACE OF ADDICTION

Grace can be undermined in effect if we lack proper conception and comprehension of its nature, its enhancers and its inhibitors. A person can receive God’s grace and underutilize it.

Victory over addictions and destructive habits begins with basic understanding and a healthy acceptance of responsibilities. Addiction is not something that HAPPENS to a person; it is something that a person DOES. This is crucial. Take some responsibility for where you are at. We will eventually consider the role of satan and demons in the addiction web, but you have to take some responsibility first. No one becomes addicted to anything overnight, or suddenly and without their active initial cooperation. Before a practice or vice becomes an addiction, it begins as a choice. Someone only begins to lose control incrementally as his system not only ADAPTS to the destructive rhythm of the new practice (or habit) but also as her system becomesDEPENDENT on the rhythm of the practice that eventually becomes the addiction.

The behavior or practice which ultimately becomes the addiction, is initially under the person now addicted, within her control, before she eventually goes under it. It takes time and a process to come under the bondage of an addiction. Therefore, it often takes time and a process to break free from its hold. Occasionally, God intervenes in drastic ways, so that the full grip and influence of the addiction is shattered in a moment of encounter or visitation. Yet, the normal route to victory is often progressive and incremental.

THREE REGULAR GATES

There are gates through which the initial seeds that give rise to destructive habits are sown. The three frequently used gates are the EYE gate, the EAR gate and the FANTASY gate. What you see, gaze upon and watch, matter. What you hear and listen to also matters. Don’t put yourself in a place or situation that compromises your visual and auditory purity. When these two gates are charged by exposure to the perverse and immoral, the FANTASY gate is activated. So that beyond what you saw and heard, your imagination goes to work to improve and furnish you with further pictures and templates of what else you could see and hear that may not be physically available.

The imagination is incredibly elastic in its capacity to generate visuals as a means of augmenting what you saw or heard at a previous point. Guard your eyes and your ears. What movies you watch, what songs your listen to, what occasions and ceremonies you attend are all tributaries, contributing to the overall health of your soul and spirit. Sensual lyrics, music, and movies are slippery slopes. They will take you to unintended but inevitably ruinous destinations.

Biblical background and pathway to Victory:

Romans  6 (read whole chapter) 

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 

For one who has died has been set free from sin. (Rom 6:6,7)

Knowing this, that our old man is crucified withhim, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 

For he that is dead is freed from sin. KJV

The first handle in Romans 6 for our consideration is KNOWING.

Knowing is an epistemic posture that affirms, primarily affirms the status of our old man as crucified, in keeping with the operations of God in Christ Jesus, through Jesus’ atonement. Knowing is a deep-seated conviction in the heart of the believer that enables him to grasp what God has done for us in Christ Jesus with an assurance sustained by the consistently beaming brilliance of the testimony of God’s Spirit.

The process of KNOWING may begin by contemplating, reading, and studying the acts and processes of God in Christ Jesus for us, as revealed in the scriptures but the process becomes fruitful at some particular point and time-t, when revelation, divine revelation breaks through the barricade of the soul and becomes a living light in our spirit. There is a point where the Spi

rit applies this truth (of God’s great work for us) to the believer’s spirit immediately, without the aid of the soul. At this blessed point, Light breaks out in the human spirit, and a profound, sublime awareness of what God has done in Christ Jesus becomes intimately, and organically understood by the believer’s spirit. This is the moment, the glorious moment of KNOWING. And this is the first operation of God in our lives, if we will be brought into a spiritual state of conviction regarding any redemptive reality and if we will experience victory over the carnal nature in specific areas. 

ACTIVATING GRACE IN THE FACE OF ADDICTION & DESTRUCTIVE HABITS… Part – 2

BACKGROUND:

We now continue with our study on activating grace in the face of addictions & destructive habits… My focus in large parts here, just as in the first installment, will be on sexual morality. I will deal with other categories of addictions later. But in any case, the principles here are applicable in dealing with other areas of addictions.

Last time we mentioned the three regular gates and dealt with the issue of KNOWING. Now we will consider other fundamentals from Romans 6.

“Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 

Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” (Rom 6:11-13) 

RECKON

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The word RECKON simply means to ‘equate’ or ‘consider’ or ‘count’.

The instruction here is for double-reckoning. One, reckon yourself to be dead indeed unto sin, and two, reckon yourself to be alive unto God through Jesus Christ… The believer cannot enjoy the experience of victory over sin without engaging and appropriating these provisions. 

To reckon yourself to be dead indeed to sin, you need to come to terms with the implications of the specific bloc of events in the atoning labours of Jesus, particularly, His

a. Passion (wound, bruise, chastisement, stripes)

b. death,

c. burial,

d. resurrection,

e. ascension and

f. glorification.

Each of these events has signification for the believer with regards to her deliverance from the government of sin and all its vile consequences. A believer is to reckon or consider, or judge, or count himself dead indeed to sin because of what Jesus has done for His people. If you don’t know those relevant acts of God in the liberation protocol, your confidence may be compromised in the face of confrontation by the sly hordes of darkness.

Acquaintance with the facts and the implications of the Passion (wound, bruise, chastisement, stripes) death, burial, resurrection, ascension and glorification of Jesus procures for the believer a triumphing degree of boldness to stand firm in seasons of trials, and seasons of temptations unto seduction.

Broadly, Jesus was wounded for our transgression, therefore purchasing for us both pardon for our, and power against transgression. He was bruised for our iniquities – legally absorbing in Himself the consequences of our iniquities and crushing iniquity’s legal claim over us. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him implies that by the very act of being punished for offences He did not commit and by the crown of thorns placed UPON Him, He pulled the rug from under the harbingers, agents and purveyors of condemnation, guilt, shame, anxiety, worry, and all forms of psychological malady.

More, it is by the stripes of Jesus that we are healed. The whip that tore through his subcutaneous tissues is the enacted metaphor of the defeat of all forms of mortal maladies (sicknesses and diseases). Nothing that He suffered was pointless. Each class of torment during His passion was a distinct, category-specific act in the overall salvific project. Each form of torment was the physical embodiment of the spiritual price He paid to achieve specific mercies for Adam’s fallen race. Let me repeat for emphasis: Nothing that Jesus suffered was pointless.

Reckoning yourself dead indeed unto sin implies you consider yourself LEGALLY dead to sin and all its power because of the deliveries of Jesus’ atoning work sketched above. Legally speaking, you died with Him, you were buried with Him and you were resurrected with Him. The power that effected His resurrection is the death defying, grave conquering, corruption annihilating dynamite of God. Resurrected life is the higher life – superior to the subdued sin-bound, addiction-infested reality inherited from Adam. Considering yourself to be this person, to be this gloriously blessed and elevated, redeemed believer who is legally beyond both the jurisdiction and legal hold of sin and its hydra-headed manifestations is the second provision for deliverance, in our study.

On the other hand, you also need to reckon or count yourself alive unto God. You have to admit to yourself that by virtue of your spiritual standing as a redeemed person, your spirit is legally alive and responsive to God’s righteous economy through the Spirit. To consider yourself alive unto God is equal to counting yourself legally present in, not absent from God’s immediate pavilion where His power and grace flow unabated. You see, if you are alive unto God by reason of your response to Christ’s atonement, you need to admit this reality, you need to CONSIDER yourself as such. Consequently, you are absent from Satan’s corner and non-existent as far as his evil impulses are concerned. But more, count yourself as alive to God – that is as one who is open, receptive to the flow of God’s divine life and sustained by same.

A major operational word in this venture is the word: LEGALLY. God has achieved your deliverance legally and spiritually, but like every verdict pronounced by a Judge, certain corresponding actions need to be taken in order to appropriate and experience such verdicts. Reckoning or considering yourself in the light of the exact legal realities God has actualized for you is how you bridge the gap between what God has done for you legally and spiritually on one hand, AND your experience here and now – in this present, natural world of taste, touch, sight, flesh and blood.

Consider yourself (reckon yourself) as one who is dead indeed to sin: beyond sin’s capacity to touch, task, tickle and animate… CONSIDER yourself alive to God, as one with senses finetuned and responsive only to the frequencies of God now.

You can read this out loud:

I know I was crucified, and I died with Christ. I know I have been raised into newness of life with Christ. I live now a resurrected life on the other side of dying with Him. I am a new creature. I consider myself, I reckon myself, I judge myself as one who is dead indeed, not just in words and theory but dead indeed to sin. I am not available to and for sin. As far as sin is concerned, I am dead. Sin has lost me. But I reckon myself, I consider myself as one who is NOW alive to God from the dead. I am in a brand-new world. I am a brand-new creature. I live after the order of my new creation ecosystem in the spirit. Because I agree with God in considering myself to be legally and spiritually like this, so shall my experience be – henceforth. Amen!