Addiction Healing

By Destroying Deceptions

This article on addiction healing is an introduction to "Matters of the Heart," our free eCourse for spiritual growth and emotional transformation.

How Can Addiction Be Healed?

Addiction healing is a very real work of God on our behalf. But it usually takes more than receiving a healing prayer for a person caught in the hard bondage of addiction to gain and maintain their freedom. We also have to learn how to fight back! With addictions, as with all other kinds of emotional or spiritual bondage, there is addiction healing and addiction overcoming.

On the side of overcoming additions, we have to learn how to fight the good fight of faith (see the article Overcoming Addiction). On this side most of the work seems to be ours—though it is greatly aided by God as we call on Him for rescue and guidance (Jeremiah 33:3; Romans 10:12). We could call this learning to walk in the basic Christian disciplines, learning to embrace the cross, and learning to fight spiritual warfare. There is a lot to learn on this side! And it is all very necessary for us to walk in. But it is still like clearing weeds —the same weeds—over and over again.

On the side of healing addictions, there are things that we can do that are a lot more like digging the weeds up by their roots. This is the work of inner healing and is very dependent upon God to accomplish it. And yet there are still things we need to do for God’s healing to take place. First, we have to bring the wound in our heart to God for mending. This is huge. The real problem isn’t the addiction, but the pain that lies inside our wounded heart. It is always things that need mending deep inside which bring addiction upon a person and then hold it in place—never the substance alone.

Addiction healing takes place as we bring our past wounds to the Lord for mending (see Mending the Broken Heart). But it also takes place as we allow Him to expose the “lies” and half truths that the enemy has sown in our hearts. Such false beliefs are very painful, they give power to the negative emotions which torment us, and they subvert our ability to make good choices (see Spiritual Strongholds).

There are three main lies that the enemy uses to bind addiction to Christians: the lie of the idol, the lie of the wounded heart, and the lie of the distorted image (please see our No More Idols! )  for a fuller treatment).

1) Through the lie of the idol, something (often a substance) is offered to us by the enemy along with a promise that this will mend us of our pain and actually enhance our life. It is a lie! It only seems like it will help us; it actually is designed to destroy us. But something in us keeps buying into that false hope.

2) That something is rooted in the lie of the wounded heart, which keeps the person in bondage thinking that the problem is “out there” and that the answer is “out there” also. It’s not. It is in a heart so broken it desperately needs a great love to heal it.

3) And that is where the lie of the distorted image comes into play. Only the revelation of the Father’s great love can mend such a broken heart, but a distorted image of God keeps the one bound running from God (like Adam did), rather than to Him—in the crunch times.

Satan is a liar from the beginning (John 8:44). His lies are very convincing and once they have had a chance to impact our feeling system, they become powerful strongholds within us-- the hidden roots to the power that binds us. However, as we recognize Satan’s deceptions and break our agreements with them...

We see God healing addictions—by pulling the weed out by its roots!

Interested in Going Deeper?

Consider taking our free eCourse for Healing. We have designed a complete series for personal transformation, "Matters of the Heart," to help Christians gain emotional freedom and inner healing. In all there are 24 Main Healing Lessons and 24 Head to Heart Guides to help you bring your heart to God and receive His Great Heart for you in return!