Page 73 - Overcoming Addiction

Him to lay down His life that we might be delivered. By His mighty power God
then raised Christ from the dead, and He has sent forth His Spirit that we might
become partakers of this same resurrection life. We have the dunamis (the
dynamite power) of God within our beings.
How then can we doubt when we are faced with the giants in the land? Do we
even begin to suppose that God will ask us to fight our battles on our own? Has He
not sufficiently proven that He will take up our part in the most extreme way?
Even as God assured Israel that He would give them the land of Canaan, and that
He would give them victory over all those who dwelt there, He has given the same
promise to you and I.
Because there is no reason for us to doubt Yahweh’s good intentions for us,
He is justifiably angry when we begin to accuse Him of a lack of caring. The
Israelites said, “Why is Yahweh bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword?
Our wives and our little ones will become plunder.” There was no foundation upon
which to make such an accusation against God. The complaint was totally unjust,
having its origins not in the truth, but in fear and unbelief which the people were
not ruling over.
Many Christians do not realize what a tyrant fear is. They have not
understood how much evil is brought about by allowing fear to remain in our lives,
unchecked and unconquered. Fear will lead men and women to make baseless
accusations against God, and it will persuade them to choose slavery to sin over a
life of righteousness. This is why God has declared that above all others, the
fearful will be the first to be cast into the lake of fire.

Revelation 21:8
But the fearful, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral,
sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which
burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

You may say, “I don’t believe I am afraid of my addiction. I do not
understand what fear has to do with it.” If you see your addiction as greater than
your ability through Christ to overcome, then you are not walking in faith, but fear
and unbelief. How common is it to hear a comment similar to the following, “I am
afraid that I am not able to conquer this area of my life”? I have heard such
confessions many times.
The Scriptures reveal that we will never be able to take possession of the land
of our flesh, we will never be able to drive out the enemies, apart from faith. We
must believe what God has said is true. We must put a greater weight upon the
promises of God than the report of our eyes and ears. Only those who are feeding
upon the Bread of Heaven will find this faith arising in their hearts.
Yahweh was so displeased with the response of the Israelites that He told
them that they would receive exactly what they asked for. They had said, “It would
be better that we had died in this wilderness,” so that is exactly the judgment He
brought upon them. Their own words sealed their fate.
In the next chapter we will look at the importance of guarding our lips
against speaking careless words of unbelief. I want to end this chapter on a
positive note, however. Rather than taking Israel’s history as a negative lesson, I