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| Freedom in Christ Ministry books by Neil Anderson and Mike & Julia Quarles |
How
We Get Into Bondage and Why We Don't Get Out
1.
Our greatest needs are to be accepted (loved) and have worth (value).
This is what drives us to do what we do. It is the motivation behind all
behavior. God made us that way and
His design is that He will meet all our needs when we look to Him.
2.
As we grow up, have problems and go through life we get messages about who we
are. At first they are only feelings about ourselves, but they quickly
turn into what we believe about ourselves. It is the way we see ourselves
and who we believe we are.
3. As a result we all develop a
false identity about who we are. This
false identity comes from the world (family, environment, hurts, trauma), our
flesh (ways we try to live life in our own resources) and the devil, who
constantly accuses us and tells us lies about ourself, God and what we need in
life. It shapes all of our life and everything we do.
4.
We begin to try to meet our needs for acceptance and worth the best way that we
can -- in our own resources (flesh). As a result we develop ways of
living as we attempt to cope, escape, defend ourselves, succeed (or avoid
failure). These
are flesh patterns or ways that we learn to live life independent of God.
We develop these patterns based on how we perceive ourselves, what we believe
about God and how we think life works.
5.
A flesh pattern is simply a way that we have learned to meet our needs
independent of God. All of us have them because none of us were born
Christians and none of us look to God to meet all our needs all the time.
We wrongly think it is just the way we are. One of Satan's biggest lies is that
what we do determines who we are.
6.
Some of these ways (flesh patterns) are unacceptable such as irresponsibility.
Some of them are very bad such as drug and alcohol addiction. But
some of them are acceptable such as perfectionism and driven to succeed. We need to know that anything that we
do to meet our needs apart from God is flesh.
It could be good, right, noble and even spiritual, but if we are trying to meet
our needs instead of looking God, it is flesh.
7.
Some of these ways develop into strongholds such as drug addiction which causes
a lot of problems in our lives. As we seek help, more than likely the
counsel is to focus on the wrong behavior and try to change it. This
is the reason we don't get free. The
root problem is not the behavior. The root problem is the misbelief
behind the behavior. As long as a person believes lies about himself he
will never get free, no matter what he does.
8.
Alcoholism, addiction, eating disorders, etc., are not the problem. The
problem is the lies we believe about who we are that causes us to try to meet
our needs in our own resources. The reason we don't easily give them up is that the way we
meet our needs for acceptance and worth is the way we find life and identity.
It is deeply ingrained in us.
9.
When a person learns that they are not a failure, an addict, unloved, insecure,
inferior and guilty -- BUT are forgiven, accepted, competent, complete,
righteous and secure in Christ, they will begin to change and experience
freedom. A
person who understands who they are in Christ will not engage in
self-destructive, addictive behavior as a life style.
10.
The reason few are finding freedom is that they are trying to change their
behavior. They may be trying to change it through spiritual disciplines, but
that is nothing but Christian behavior modification (legalism). A person
will always act in accordance with how they perceive themselves.
www.freedomfromaddiction.org/Truths
