Addictions

Addictions Definition – the fact or condition of being addicted to a particular substance, thing, or activity. Like words: dependency, craving, habit, weakness, compulsion, enslavement

The root cause and progression of addictions.

·         Failure of the parents, especially the father failing to say “I love you” in the womb, as children, and beyond.  May have not wanted the pregnancy or the timing was wrong

·         Unloving spirit enters the child

·         Immediate rejection and abandonment

·         Feeling unloved, not worthy to be loved

·         Angry because they do not feel like they are loved by father or parents

·         Turn to addictions to fill the unloving void that can never be filled with addictions

Addictions Part 1

If you do not know how to deal with the stresses of life that can bring hopelessness and despair (depression, Proverbs 12:25), you can develop an addiction by continually attempting to soothe or comfort yourself rather than resolve the source of pain.  If you cannot stop a behavior by simply choosing to lay it down, you may have an addiction.  It does not matter what it is.  It might be pornography; it might be drugs; it might be food; it might be gossip or television.  It might be an ungodly relationship.  Many people are in relationship with someone, not because they are best friends, but because they have a need.  Almost anything you can think of can be an addiction.  The enemy's kingdom uses many mechanisms and knows how to control you with your needs.  Addictions are common to every nation, every race, every culture, and every economic status. 

 The foundational root of all addictions is the unloving spirit.  Most often it is the result of the father not saying “I love you” as we were growing up.  God appointed the fathers to be the spiritual head of the family, 1 Corinthians 11:3 But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.  This is a great responsibility of the father who are tasked in the Bible to nurture their wives and children.  Most of the husbands/fathers put this responsibility on the wife/mother.  At this point, fathers/ husbands are out of God’s order and the family is out of order.  This is exactly what satan wants.  Men, who is the go-to parent in the household?

Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

Addictions are rooted in the need to be loved.  You stand complete in the gospel by accepting God's love and receiving the love you need for yourself.  Accept who you are in the new birth once and for all.  Love God, love yourself, and love others.  Be complete in that love and you will never need to find love in any of the wrong places.  But because your enemy knows that if he can get you into a place where you do not feel like you are loved by God, or that you do not love or like yourself, and you are not sure about your neighbor, then he can get you to start looking outside for a "fix." 

 When you do not love yourself or when you do not except who you are, the first thing that happens in your body chemistry is a dip in your serotonin levels.  When you have a serotonin deficiency, you do not feel right physically or spiritually. The enemy knows there is no way you can increase your serotonin level unless you take a drug because you are in chemical imbalance.  Doctors and pharmacist know you can take a drug that is a serotonin enhancer to make you feel good.  Then you become addicted to the drug which serves to create a chemically altered state of consciousness or false peace.  Your enemy caused the problem without your realization or consent.  He will begin to engineer thoughts to ensure you will take steps to enter the various areas of counterfeit fulfillment.  If you take your peace with God, yourself and others, the hypothalamus will recognize your fulfillment and signal the brainstem to release and increase serotonin values.   This causes your spirit and your body to come into balance again so you feel more complete.  Addictions are found in people that are separated from love.  When someone is struggling with any type of addiction, that person has been spiritually bewitched away from the simplicity of the gospel, which is love.

The force behind addictions, every single time, regardless of the type of addiction, is the need to be loved...the need for a dopamine rush, or a chemical adjustment that is not from God.

 Addictions Part 2

God has created you so that when you love Him, love yourself, and love others, your body releases the proper hormones and neurotransmitters to make you feel good.  God gives you a chemical "fix" coming out of obedience to Him.  That is why pharmakeia and drunkenness are called works of the flesh.  It is a substitute for your relationship with God and the peace that comes from that relationship.  That is why it is a sin.  It is an altered state of consciousness to avoid pain.  I would like to help you understand the invisible kingdom that is behind addictions and how to begin to get free.

 Luke 11:21-22 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. 22 But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils.

This is talking about some type of individual who is strong, who is armed, and who is in control of his house or his palace, so thereby his goods are protected.  This is a statement of Satan's control over a human by a kingdom.  Understand that the "palace" is a human being.  Understand that the strong man, in the case of addiction, is the principality of the Unloving spirit that is controlling that human's life.  Answering to this principality are countless other spirits reinforcing its power in that life.  People in addictions have another kingdom operating through them and they are not in control of their "palace."  They have another lord working within them that is stronger than they are. 

Some of the armor in the addiction personality profile are the addiction itself, craving which draws you to what you are addicted to, forgetfulness, and a refusal to face reality.  People who are in denial and will not face their problems are highly addictive or addiction prone. The alcoholic has more denials, more cruelties, more hardness, more pride, more arrogance, more self-guilt, more self-hatred, more shame, more self-pity, and suicide then the non-alcoholic, and many of these addictions are inherited in the family tree.  There is also a pre-disposition to fornication, adultery, pornography, incest, and molestation.  This is the armor of Luke 11.  This is the stuff that the strong man of addiction is counting on to keep him in place in the person's life so they cannot overthrow him, and he controls them in their need to be loved.

 What is behind the addiction personality?  The need to be loved!     

Addictions Part 3

Some of the spiritual, and eventually psychological, battles of the soul can foster addictions.  Addictions do not occur just because a person has taken a drug.  They have taken the drug because they have a problem.  There is a kingdom set up to bind them.  Many people have made quality decisions to stop the addiction, but they have not been delivered from the spirit of addiction.  They still have the same spiritual problems.  It is an unloving, unclean spirit that will not let them accept God's love, will not let them be at peace with themselves on this planet in the new birth and will not let them give and receive love from others like they need to.  The armor that feeds it must be dismantled.  It is not just a matter of conversion; it is a matter of restructuring their entire spiritual personality by removing the armor that has become part of their lives spiritually and psychologically.

 The need to be loved is built within us from creation.  The ability to give and receive love is part of our creation.  But because of the breakdown in our families, we have not loved God, ourselves, or each other. We try to nurture ourselves and it is being driven by the need to be loved.  The sucking reflex of eating, of something touching the lips, has a nurturing effect.  Not many people understand the depths of this need.  It is difficult to walk away from addictions while still feeling unloved.  When a person tries, there is something called cross addiction, where they lay one addiction down and pick up another addiction.

 A person must choose their freedom or their bondage.  God has given us the ability to choose so we must understand how to defeat the strong man behind addiction.  A person must understand that it involves recognition, taking responsibility, repentance, and they are going to have to take a stand no matter how much their body is pitching a fit.  It takes 28 days and a change in a person's heart.  We can get rid of bad habits by making new good habits.  The Bible says choose this day what you shall have, blessings or curses, life, or death.

Addiction Prayer:

Father God, in the name of Jesus I pray out the unloving spirit and fear of not feeling loved.  God loves me; therefore, I will love myself.

This prayer must be declared out loud throughout the day and God’s promise of healing will bless you.

For God so loved the world (us) that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore, choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;

Hopefully some insight has been gained through this teaching so that God can provide a foundation for people to walk away from their addictions and be of service to others to help them walk away from their addictions.