Biochemical Warfare: Moral Sabotage

by Steven Gledhill for FREEdom from MEdom Project…

Getting more specific about addictive thinking and behavior, it is necessary to examine how addiction hijacks the brain and mind under the control of the selfish sin nature. The GO system of the brain, with hedonistic impulsive intentions, is on a daily mission to satisfy whatever it craves. It is not overly bold to refer to the impulsive intentions of the GO systems within our brain chemistry as hedonistic. Some of the most respected, moral, and honorable men and women of godly integrity have fallen spell to the hedonistic passions of their sin nature and given in to addictive urges that have led to gross immorality. How many times have we heard about preachers, priests, pastors, musicians, government leaders, ministry leaders, husbands, and wives, who have forsaken everything of value to engage in sexually immoral behavior. How many marriages and families have been broken up? How many churches have been split apart? How many election campaigns have disintegrated? How many lives have been destroyed by moral depravity?

The article “Addicted to Me“ points out the similarities between what is said in the clinical field of addiction and recovery and what Scripture says plainly on the subject. 

Let’s review:

At the core of our obsession with self is a belief of entitlement. I want something, then perceive that I need the thing that I want, then proceed to do what I have to do to get it… and continue to do what I have to do to keep it, and to do what I have to do to get more of it. If I want to feel something (i.e., pleasure, happy) I will do what I have to do. It is the same for eliminating the thing from my life that I do not want. I will do what I have to do. If I don’t want to feel something (i.e., pain, sad) I will do what I have to do. It’s what we do. We can’t help ourselves. 

When we understand how the brain works—that there is a relationship between the ‘go’ centers of the brain and the cautionary, judgment centers of the brain, and that the ‘go’ systems are way more powerful than the judgment centers, which by the way are also governed by obsession with self—we can recognize the sensibility—the reality—of selfish sin. This relationship between these functions of the brain shape our values and direct our moral compass, the so-called inner voice.

Our inner voice, what you might say is the inner spirit or conscience of a person, is guided by the matter of selfish sin until we choose to surrender our desires, intentions, ambitions, and motivations over to the care of God. Until then, we are usually deceived by our own inner voice. It’s often said that on one shoulder is an angel and on the other is a devil, and there is this conflict inside of our heads between right and wrong, good and bad (evil). It’s said that we need to listen real closely to the angel so that we can make the good and right choices. The problem we have is that the “angel” inside of our head is also selfish. The other problem is that there is a real devil directing evil that the Bible says, “disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). So you look to the right and there sits your trusty angel inner voice, and you in your selfishness inquires as to what it might be saying. Then you look to the left and… “WHAT?” Another angel? Which is which? How do you know which inner voice to listen to?

Oprah Winfrey talks a great deal on her show about your inner voice; that listening to your inner voice (“the voice—by which I mean the voice of God within me, and within all of us”) is a kin to listening to the “whisper” of God from inside of you. Below is not one quote, but a series of quotes from Oprah that humanizes what she professes is God in the universe speaking to her:

“I am where I am today because I have allowed myself to listen to my feelings… I truly believe that thoughts are the greatest vehicle to change power and success in the world… Honesty comes from your natural instinct telling you when you are doing something, whether or not this feels right… I mean, I do every show in prayer, not down on my knees praying, but I do it before every show—a mental meditation in order to get the correct message across… I call it my inner voice. It doesn’t matter what you call it—nature, instinct, higher power. It’s the ability to understand the difference between what your heart is saying and what your head is saying… I now always go with the heart. Even when my head is saying, ‘Oh, but this is the rational thing; this is really what you should do.’ I always go with that little… feeling… So, that is my final lesson from the universe–you just do what you need to do, and stay on track.”

For the record, while Oprah listens for her inner voice that is at its core selfish and drowning in a belief of entitlement, she has said a thing or two that are right on the money and most appropriate for this article: “If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough… What God intended for you goes far beyond anything you can imagine.” The problem for Oprah is the problem that I have and that you have. We are selfish and therefore confuse our naturally selfish instincts, thoughts, and feelings with what is best for us in the moment. Because our inner voice is so loud, we become unable to hear the authentic “whisper” that is really God. So much of what Oprah is saying is that being self-reliant is sufficient. The Apostle Paul stated that only God’s grace is sufficient.

To keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NLT)

One other thing Oprah Winfrey is quoted is saying is, “Because the truth of the matter is, we are all the same. And I know that. I really know that. And I think people sense that.” When you consider all of the evil in the world, it all emanates from the same place: a core belief of entitlement. I am, and you are, fundamentally selfish; self-interested; self-absorbed; self-motivated… you get the idea. Even Barack Obama stated while running for President of the United States, “I was so obsessed with me and the reasons that I might be dissatisfied that I couldn’t focus on other people… I trace this back to a certain selfishness on my part.”

My brain betrays me. It drives me to go when I need to stop. It drives me to go faster when I need to slow down. It also aims to protect me at the time when I should take a risk. It will stifle me into being lazy when I need to get up and go. My thoughts, my feelings, even my natural instincts will fail me when I trust solely in me. My sense of morality and core values are easily compromised when presented with circumstances that on the surface do not appear dangerous. A drink or two is not necessarily a bad thing. Jesus drank wine with his friends and family, likely even with sinners when he miraculously turned water into very good wine at a wedding reception, or perhaps when he spent time in the home of a notorious sinner named Zacchaeus. The problem is that between the inner workings of my brain and my selfish sin nature, I am driven to excess with what might appear to be a good thing in moderation. I will at some point lose control since I was not really in control in the first place. I am simply not aware of that since I am in denial until I hurt bad enough from the outcome of excessive actions.

Addiction is most obvious when it is alcoholism and drug addiction; when the alcohol or drug dependent person is neglecting and/or abusing a spouse and/or children; or is sacrificing marriage and family, professional life, physical and mental health for the sake of gratification through that addiction. Other forms of addiction may be equally dangerous. An addiction worthy of concentration is sexual addiction, which can be brutally obvious or incredibly subtle at its onset. Sexual addiction is as dangerous to polluting values and moral sabotage as any other cycle of addictive thinking and behavior since it is used to gratify one’s core belief of entitlement.   

Sexual Addiction

Sexual addiction is destructive on so many levels in part because it is often misunderstood. The tendency is to consider sexual addiction as a matter of sexually deviant behavior that is only occurring in a smaller select portion of society. Sexual addiction is confined to the pedaphile, the rapist, and the rest of the sexually abusive molesters lurking in the shadows. So false! Once sexual addiction is understood, it brings to light the sexually addictive tendencies in most adults; in particular, adult males. Perhaps even more than alcohol and drug addiction, sexual addictions are responsible for the deterioration of a person’s value system and moral judgment. Like all addictions, once a person ventures into the rituals, behavioral practices, and the culture of sexual addiction in its various types and forms, it becomes extremely difficult to turn back to life before the addiction. When you go there, you typically stay there, and go deeper and deeper into its clutches until you’re over your head in depravity and moral deviance; from the internet to the private room somewhere. 

The problem with attraction, lust, and romantic ‘love’ is that it revolves around brain chemistry. Thoughts of lust will cause the release of a very powerful chemical in your brain chemistry known as phenylethlamine. Once this chemical is released it leads to the sense of compulsion and drive toward sexual activity. When a person aroused is not allowed to follow through sexually, we have what we know to be sexual frustration. Whenever there is brain activity of a manic nature—a natural high, so to speak—coming down from the high can be quite difficult to the system to the point of feeling painful. Lust and sexual activity bring on that sort of euphoric high. There is another kind of sexual addiction at work in the minds and lives of God-fearing people. It is what some experts refer to as ‘love’ addiction.

Love Addiction

Attraction can have a similar effect, biochemically speaking, as lust. There is an increase in adrenaline and cortisol, hormones that work to activate the natural stress response to the feelings of attraction for someone. Elevated heart rate, the anxious heat that comes on, combined with dopamine and serotonin activity sends one off to the races during attraction. Adrenaline and cortisol are the same stress hormones that build when triggered by anger, jealousy, and rage; that if left in an elevated state can cause so much anxiety and stress it can lead to health problems. So when someone’s sexual advances are rejected, or when someone gets their heart broke, or when someone is simply dangling in anticipation of seeing their love/sex interest, stress levels can be such that the person can’t eat, can’t sleep, can’t focus on tasks, etc. In the absence of their “drug”, the love/sex addict can experience biochemical withdrawal contributing to their stress. 

Researchers agree that at the onset of attraction is high levels of dopamine, the brain chemical (neurotransmitter) that triggers the sensation of pleasure and reward. Helen Fisher of Rutgers University has stated, “couples often show the signs of surging dopamine: increased energy, less need for sleep or food, focused attention and exquisite delight in smallest details of this novel relationship”. It turns out serotonin levels are lowered during attraction, which apparently allows for the obsessive thinking about the object of attraction. Dr Donatella Marazziti, a psychiatrist at the University of Pisa (Italy), discovered through the blood samples of twenty couples in a research study, that serotonin levels of new lovers were equivalent to the low serotonin levels of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder patients. When partners sharing their intense attraction express themselves sexually to one another, there are even more hormones at work. Oxytocin is the powerful hormone released during orgasm between two people that evokes the powerful bonding experience. The hormone vasopressin is released in couples that evoke the feeling of commitment between partners. 

What is the point of all this brain chemistry stuff?

The point is that once “we go there” it becomes increasingly, seemingly impossible to end the thing once it’s started. People go from attraction to attachment, even when they are married to someone else. When, biochemically speaking, we have built up tolerance for our spouse, and all that surging biochemical stuff seems to have settled down, the new attraction—forbidden love—triggers the surging neurotransmitters and hormones and one is internally off to the races again, dared to express oneself externally. The issue, of course, is that we are targeting someone other than our spouse/mate with all this biochemical attention. The scope of internal indulgence and external expression can then range from masturbation to marital infidelity to deviant psychosexual obsession and sexual depravity.

We hear that so and so left their spouse and their children, losing everything, for an affair that lasted three months until all the energy was sapped out of that forbidden relationship. “How could he do that to his wife and children?” “How could she turn her back on her kids like that?” “They seemed to have such a good thing going.” “How could that pastor do that to his family and his church?”

One can be known as a man or woman who loves God and serves God with their lives, and still yield to the addictive urges that reside in each one of us. King David of the Bible is one who lived to serve God, proclaimed by Scripture to be a man after God’s own heart. Yet he succumbed to the biochemically-driven urges when it came to sexual addiction to the point of deviant depravity. David was guilty, at the very least, of conspiracy to commit murder and “legal” forms of adultery, to be with the women he desired. Plus, he was a king with all of the power that came with being king. Imagine what that did for all of the chemical activity in his brain? This is not meant to be a shot at an Old Testament icon and ancestor Of Jesus, any more than earlier remarks were meant to bring down Oprah or the President, but rather pointing out that even the most well-intended people can and will yield to the scientific reality of the human mind and body in combination with the spiritual reality of selfish sin. This is the very essence of our MEdom condition.   

Devout men and women of God, who love God, throughout time have struggled with the issue of sexual addiction and love/relationship addiction. Contrary to what some might say, this aspect of addiction is a brain problem that leads to some awfully sick choices that suggests that it is wrought with disease. However, people with the sex/love addiction disease are not exempt from responsibility and consequence. The diabetic and the heart patient not only needed intervention at one time for their disease, but if they continue in patterns of behavior that contributed to the cause and severity of their disease they will experience logical consequences that prove fatal. As sex addicts continue in patterns of behavior that perpetuate the severity of their disease, the consequences they experience could prove fatal in terms of relationships, family, career, and even their physical well-being.      

Sabotaged by Addiction

The moral sabotage that occurs through the experience of alcohol and drug addiction is also encouraged by biochemical warfare. Drug addicts will do whatever they have to do to experience that high. So parents are stunned and shocked when their sons and daughters steal from them to obtain alcohol and drugs (including cigarettes since nicotine is about the most addictive drug that exists). For 15-20 years their sons and daughters have been these model God-fearing, even God-loving kids and then… WHAM! These beautiful children turn evil having been turned on to drugs.

The sole purpose of alcohol and drug use is to stimulate the pleasure, reward, relief center of their experience. What does every drug there is do? Drugs increase dopamine levels and people feel better. From that cigarette to that drink to that drag on a pipe to that hit of something; it is all about that dopamine rush that is the euphoria of the high. Husbands and wives will leave their spouses for that high. Mothers and fathers will neglect, abuse, and even abandon their children for that high. Students will go from academic achievement to academic failure for that high. Professionals will risk their careers for that high. Clergy and health professionals will risk their credibility, reputation, and license to practice for that high. Finally, not only will drug addicts steal and lie and what not, they will kill either because they are high or to obtain what they need to get high.

Even men and women and teenagers who genuinely love and worship God end up compromising their faith because of their addiction. The same is true of eating disorders and food addictions, gambling addictions, technology addictions, and so on. Once you accept that the biochemical systems of a person have been hijacked by addiction, you can understand why morality is so fragile because of addiction. Why does impaired brain function always direct us down a road of destruction? Well, that is the result of our selfish sin nature working in tandem with the self-minded brain to establish a culture of discontent that is unsettling and discomforting, to say the least.

“Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away.  These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.” James 1:14-15 (NLT) 

I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin. Romans 7:21-25 (NLT) 

Paraphrasing John 8:32-34: Jesus said, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” They responded, “Set free from what? We come from good families. When were we ever slaves?” Jesus answered, “The moment you gave into your selfish thoughts and desires, you became a slave to them.” 

One not need ask, “How could she let it go so far with him that two families were destroyed?” or “How could he hurt his wife like that with a prostitute?” or “Why can’t he quit drinking?” or “Why can’t she just stop popping pills?” or “When will they have enough stuff?” I suppose these are all fair questions but it certainly helps when we understand the combination of biochemical condition and process, and the selfish sin nature that are working together to erode the moral fiber of our being. Once we are enslaved by addiction we are helpless, powerless to do anything about it on our own. It is all about me. I am addicted to me. This is MEdom. This is where we live.

It is important as we consider the applicable means for recovery from our addiction that we pursue the model Jesus himself gave us for recovery. The Bible tells us (Hebrews 4:15) that we have an advocate in Jesus who sympathizes with our weakness in that he was tempted in all aspects of his human experience, yet without sin. So, was Jesus tempted sexually? All I’ll say is this: if Jesus wasn’t tempted in every aspect as a man, then he cannot relate to the sexuality of my human experience as a man of flesh.

Consider that Jesus at the height of his ministry was an icon—a hero—with throngs of people, including single women, following him from town to town, and even to remote places to be near him. My guess is that there were a number of occasions when women sought a deeper relationship with Jesus. When the woman caught in adultery was brought to Jesus, he did not look at her while she was naked. He doodled in the dirt while addressing her accusers. Mary Magdalene may have indeed been in love with Jesus. She loved Jesus and worshiped him as a man of authority. Mary, it could be said, was the thirteenth disciple, considering how close she was to that group. My guess would be that Jesus, the man, was quite fond of Mary and could have easily felt deep affection for her. We will never know if Jesus prayed for help and strength as a man not to become distracted from his purpose by his human feelings and desires, also triggered by chemicals in his human brain.

How did Jesus survive temptation? He admitted that he did not on his own have the authority to do anything (John 5:30)—I’ll presume “anything” includes resisting the temptation to give in to his human desires, feelings, and urges; he believed in the authority of Father God to supply him the authority for whatever God purposed for him to do; and he committed to trusting, not in himself, but God by turning over his will for his life to live according to God’s will in His care.

Continue exploring what it takes to live by the ABC principles for recovery that works by continuing through the FREEdom from MEdom series of articles by clicking on the ADMIT, BELIEVE, and COMMIT categories along the right hand column.. Pray for the strength the way Jesus did to live out your recovery God’s way into a mindset and lifestyle that is indeed free.  

Are You Under the Influence?

by Steven Gledhill for FREEdom from MEdom Project…

I can to some extent control my acts. I have no direct control over my temperament. If what we are matters even more than what we do—if indeed if what we do matters chiefly as evidence of what we are—then it follows that the change which I most need to undergo is a change that my own direct, voluntary efforts cannot bring about. —C.S. Lewis

The Bible tells us that there are two influential forces at work in the lives of us humans. There is the flesh, and then there is the Spirit. The flesh is our human nature under the controlling influence of human desire. The Spirit is the Spirit of God, under whose authority we are all subject. God created you and me as human beings with human desire. God did not intend for human desire to be impure and corrupt. However, since we are created with free will, and considering that we are not God, we are vulnerable to temptation in our flesh, and will give in to temptation and fall prey to sin. That, my friends, is a fact. Another fact is that our sin will kill and destroy us.

So God, in His infinite wisdom and compassionate grace, from the beginning has given us the way out through a relationship with His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life…” When under the controlling influence of the Spirit of Christ, we are able to access the power of God in our life in such a way as to be completely transformed into someone that willingly chooses to love God and serve Him. Under the influence of the Spirit of Christ we have been blessed immeasurably. So then, why don’t we live in the experience of immeasurable blessing , transcendent peace, and unspeakable joy—joy so amazing one cannot put it into words?

Even the Apostle Paul identified with this dilemma. He said on the one hand that he had learned the secret of being content (Philippians 4), while having discovered the principle of this life that he was miserable under the control of sin, stating that he was a slave to sin (Romans 7). Paul would go on to say that it is God’s grace that is sufficient in his weakness (2 Corinthians 12). He wrote quite a bit about the battle between flesh and Spirit (Romans 8). The ‘S’ in the word Spirit is capitalized since it refers to the Spirit of God in the person of Jesus Christ. The human spirit is still flesh consisting of both the strongest of desire and the full weight of its conscience. The frontal regions of the human brain that affects judgment and caution can be easily overrun by the influence of human desire and motivation. That is why Paul wrote that he tends to do what he does not want to do, and does not do the thing he wants to do. In other words, when as a servant of the Lord, he wants to do good and right, he inevitably does what is bad and wrong.

There is an Oprah Winfrey episode from 2005 with actress Tracy Gold. Tracy had been drinking at a barbeque with friends. When it was time to go, the decision had been made that Tracy would drive her husband and three sons home since her husband was too drunk to drive. At about the 20-minute mark on the ride home, Tracy lost control of the vehicle and it rolled several times down the embankment of the highway. The baby in the carseat was unhurt. Another son, had cuts and bruises. Her oldest son, sitting in the back of their SUV, was thrown from the vehicle and suffered a broken collarbone. Her drunken husband broke his neck. An officer was quoted as saying, “It was a horrific accident; it’s lucky no one was killed.”

It turns out that Tracy Gold’s Blood Alcohol Content was twice the legal limit in the State of California. She’d been drinking here and there for five hours and still had at least four drinks in her system at the time of the accident. Tracy said to Oprah (paraphrasing), “You always say to listen to your inner voice. I obviously was impaired. I don’t drink and drive. Had I listened to my inner voice I would not have drove that night.”

I contend that Tracy Gold did listen to her inner voice. There lies the problem. Tracy said that she does not drink and drive. She knew she was impaired. Intellectually, she knew not to drive. In her conscience she knew not to drive. However, it was her deepest desire that ultimately had the greatest influence over her decision to drive even though it’s safe to say she had at least 8-10 drinks that night (she’d likely metabolized five by the time she had tested positive for alcohol). She knew not to drink and drive, yet she risked the lives of her husband and children as she rolled her vehicle down a hill. It was her inner voice—her self-centered ‘me’dom desire that insisted that it would be too much of an inconvenience to find another option to get home that night. It would be embarrassing to her and to her children to have a cab roll up after the party. It would be a hassle to go back to get the vehicle the next day.

Tracy Gold was under the influence of alcohol, but even more than that, she was under the influence of her own self-centered desires and motives. The point here is that we must understand that our inner voice is selfishly corrupt wanting what we do not have and wanting more of what we do have. Under its influence we continually give in to its power. Look at what James writes about it.

“For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.” James 3:16

We are under the controlling influence of our inner voice. Our inner voice is not only selfish, it’s ruthless. The saying that we hurt the ones we love the most is true. Tracy Gold and her husband risked their children’s lives that night. Alcoholics and drug addicts will sacrifice their families to get high. Adulterers will risk their marriages and families to get the high of immediate sexual gratification. Spouses will yell and abuse one another, even in front of their children to get that high of immediate gratification that comes from raising one’s voice (increased dopamine and serotonin levels). As families, we argue and fight with each other until we get what we want. Our inner voice convinces us that we can and will get what we want if we fight hard enough for it. When as a parent you try to tell your child, “You think that is what you want (immediate but small picture) but that’s not really what you want (big picture),” you are trying to persuade your child that what they think they want is the lie told to them by their inner voice. Later on down the road, when the child sees life more clearly having experienced bumps in the road—sometimes severe and brutal; they will realize that what they thought they wanted they never wanted, really, now that they know what they know now. But until our kids see things more clearly, instead of listening to you, your kids will heed the passion of their inner desires and leadings of their inner voice, make foolish decisions, and pay the price.

“What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.” James 4:1-3

This truth was articulted so well by Pastor Fran Leeman (LifeSpring Community Church, Plainfield, IL) when he spoke of how, when we pray, we tend to think we know what we want and pray to be blessed according to what we want. The best of God’s blessing in our lives comes from when we come to completely trust Him and seek to be blessed as He sees fit for us. What do you believe about God—really believe about God? Do you pray, asking God to bless you with everything He wants and has for you, according to His purposeful plan for you?

Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”? But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “ God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” James 4:5

There are differences in how this Scripture is translated. I chose the New King James Translation since it makes my point. It is obvious that the human spirit, or inner voice, is full of envy and lust and by nature is in conflict with its maker. If, when considering the NKJV translation, we are able to comprehend, to the extent that we can, that the Spirit of Christ alive in us “yearns jealously” for you and for me to be in the kind of relationship with Him that we submit ourselves under the influence of His authority, He can and will bless us immeasurably. You parents out there yearn jealously for your children. You yearn for your kids to heed your teachings and to do and be what proves to be provident and prosperous long-term in the big picture. We need to let God be at work in transforming our inner voice by rearranging how are brains work (Romans 12:1-2). God promises to take us where only He can, beyond even our wildest imagination. If only we would trust God and the leading of His voice, instead of being led by the nose listening to our inner voice speaking on behalf of our lustful, greedy, covetous, and even vengeful passions and desires.

The kind of transformative work that God wants to do in our life is beyond what we would even think to want or ask for. Even when God helps us out of difficulty and pain He wants to do in us so much more, for our benefit. I have included here a passage from C.S. Lewis, from his book “Mere Christianity”. Let the revelation and power within this passage sink in and resonate with you as he elaborates on Christ’s words when He said, “Be ye perfect”.

Some people tend to think this means, “Unless you are perfect, I will not help you”; and as we cannot be perfect, then, if He meant that, our position is hopeless. But I do not think he did mean that. I think He meant, “The only help I give is help to become perfect. You may want less, but I will give you nothing less.” Let me explain. When I was a child I often had a toothache, and I knew if I went to my mother she would give me something which would deaden the pain for that night and let me get to sleep. But I did not go to my mother—at least not until the pain became very bad. And the reason I did not go was this: I did not doubt that she would give the aspirin; but I knew she would also do something else. I knew she would make me go to the dentist the next morning. I could get what I wanted out of her without getting something more, which I did not want. I wanted immediate relief from pain, but I could not get it without having my teeth set permanently right. And I knew those dentists. I knew they started fiddling about with all sorts of other teeth which had not yet begun to ache.

When you live under the influence of Jesus Christ in your life He is like the dentist. When you are submitted to the transformed life under His influence, God will go beyond the place in your life that aches. He will “fiddle about with all sorts of other teeth” because He knows that these are places that need His touch or they will become even more infected until you cannot move because of the pain and difficulty. What God does is take the things that are old and dying, and transforms them into something new and full of life, beyond what you even know to want for yourself.

C.S. Lewis (“Mere Christianity”) borrows a parable from author, George McDonald, and wrote the following:

Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on. You knew these jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage; but He is building a palace. He intends to come in and live in it Himself.

The command “Be ye perfect” is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do something impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command… If we let Him—for we can prevent Him, if we choose—He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful, but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 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, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:16-21

When the day comes that you and I actually get this, there is no telling the extent to which we can experience God’s full blessing personally, in our families, churches, communities, and nations. This is the essence of ‘me’dom recovery and to truly experience freedom. Do you know God today—I mean, really know Him? As we let go of what we cannot control (Admit), come to fully know God (Believe), and submit to the controlling influence of His Spirit (Commit), we will be transformed and renewed; re-energized in the experience of His immeasurable blessing, transcendent peace, and unspeakable joy.

Take a few minutes and pray that God reveals to you the truth of what you have just read, and that He empowers you to let go, believing that you can make it, with the courage to do what He communicates to your will to do.

Work out your own salvation (recovery) with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:12b-13 (NKJV)

Scratch the Itch

by Steven Gledhill for FREEdom from MEdom Project

We live in a social culture that promotes the “It’s all about me” ideal. The fact is that it has been all about me and all about you since Adam and Eve. Their sense of feeling dissatisfied led to their self-centeredness. The Bible’s three letter word for self-centered ambition is sin. The Bible instructs that we are born into a culture of sin. In other words, we are born into a world subject to the law of sin and with an inherited predisposition to sin dating all the way back to Adam and Eve. The Bible also teaches us that we sin when we have knowledge of our sin—essentially coming into awareness of right and wrong, good and bad, moral and immoral. The Apostle Paul uses the parallel of the law, the commandments to Moses, as a barometer by which to gauge our knowledge of sin.

Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in God’s sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Romans 3:20 (NKJV)

He writes that this law is a good thing since it helps us to know the difference between right and wrong. But then Paul makes the point that the more we know the difference between right and wrong, good and bad, the more aware we become of how much more we are choosing wrongly and behaving badly.

But sin, even the appearance of sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. Romans 7:13 (NKJV)

This makes sense. We learned the law of sin when Adam consumed knowledge in the Garden of Eden. Paul also said in Romans chapter seven, “For sin seizing the opportunity by the commandment—which was to bring life, deceived me, and by it killed me.” The commandment originally was access to of all the fruit—meaning to enjoy all of God’s provision and blessing, do not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God allowed Adam and Eve to possess and eat of all of the fruit in the garden, giving Adam and Eve total access to possess everything that was his,but but to eat of the tree of knowledge was certain death. They had it all and then wanted the one thing they could not have. God has given us so much in this life, yet like Adam and Eve, we so often choose that which is unhealthy and destructive. We’ve even been warned of the danger and risk of unhealthy lifestyle choices, and yet we pursue risky and dangerous lifestyle activities anyway. When we learn what hurts, why do we still do it?

It is this lack of or absence of control in our core discontentment and dissatisfaction that leads to our shift in focus. Adam and Eve were focused on the work of God in the world until they became aware of their discontentment that rendered them dissatisfied with what they were, what they had, and what they were doing. Their purpose radically changed from living to please God to protecting their own interests and satisfying themselves. The problem was that, according to this principle of scratching their itch, they would grow increasingly dissatisfied, always more and more itchy.

Scratching our itch is our obsession as human beings. As long as we’re dissatisfied we’ll itch. As long as we itch we’ll scratch. Perhaps President Barack Obama said it best when asked about his greatest moral failure at the Saddleback Presidential Forum, August 16, 2008.

“What I trace this to is selfishness on my part… I was so obsessed with me and the reasons that I might be dissatisfied that I couldn’t focus on other people… When I find myself taking the wrong step, I think a lot of the times it’s because I’m trying to protect myself instead of trying to do God’s work.” 

Our obsession with ourselves is indeed our primary addiction. What we will discover is that, like Adam and Eve, the more we pursue control according to our understanding of what we need to be comfortable, the less we depend on God, and the less we are committed to doing his will in our life, therefore creating greater separation from God. We will discover that the less we live our life God’s way and endeavor to living life our own way, the more we learn one way or another that our way does not work.

It is insufficient and impractical to live according to our own set of expectations, values and standards of morality. Our morals and values are tainted. They are flawed because they are shaped by so many other people throughout our maturation process and social culture whose own morality and value standards are tainted and flawed. This sequence is bent on its own destruction, yet it goes on. In our search for pleasure, and in time, relief from the discomfort of unmet expectations, we tend to continue in destructive patterns of behavior. We become consumed with somehow getting things under control. The net result is the increased severity of our illness from addictive patterns of behavior and the resulting chaos. Our chaos and conflict becomes amplified and we become sicker because our efforts to fix things continue to be infected by sin.

The core issue of sin is its addictive quality. It takes over as it becomes full-grown and we become slaves to it. Eventually circumstances are impacted enough that we experience increasing discomfort in our dissatisfaction. We hurt badly enough to either pursue help or begin to lose one thing after another that is important to us. Unless we seek help to recover from our problem, we invariably experience loss.

Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full grown, brings forth death. James 1:14-15 (NKJV)

What about this problem of sin? What is it to continually and habitually choose a thing or a behavior that inevitably leads to greater discomfort, loss, destruction, and ultimately death? The clinical world refers compulsive lifestyle patterns of behavior as addiction. We are obsessed with what dissatisfies in order to achieve satisfaction and overcome discomfort. It is the driving force that distracts us from focusing on the person who has the ability and the resources to change everything that detracts us from what is truly fulfilling. I’ll say it again: I am addicted to me, and you are addicted to you.

Addiction is our repetitive surrender to habitual patterns of behavior that render us defective in the very core of our being. Our brains get reprogrammed to the point that the slightest stimulation leads to compulsive thought and feelings that drive our behavior. This is the harsh reality of the problem of addiction. Let’s do the math. If addiction is the result of surrendering to that which is physically, cognitively, behaviorally and spiritually unhealthy, then the solution to the problem of addiction is surrendering to that which is physically, cognitively, behaviorally and spiritually healthy. Since addiction is at its root the surrender to that which is ungodly, then recovery from addiction must be the surrender to that which is godly. Therefore, addiction is a spiritual problem desperately in need of a spiritual solution.