Overcoming Addictions Under Heavy Temptation

Overcoming Addictions Under Heavy Temptation

“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

1 Corinthians 10:13 (KJV)

I had so many addictions in my life. When God freed me of those addictions, He had to pull me out of my previous lifestyle and placed me in a world where everyone there was trying to get sober and had no access to drugs. I had to go through detox and get rid of all the junk in my life.

Overcoming your addictions and the heavy temptation in your life, you have to change your environment, who you’re associating with, and who is speaking into your life. You may have to get a new phone number. You have to change your world! Because if you are suffering from an addiction, you will live in an addicted world. You have to break away and separate yourself.

1. Addiction of Pornography

“I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know you know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place.”

Revelations 2:1-3 (NIV)

Pornography is a common struggle for male and females. To overcome this temptation, you have to have accountability. In the past you had to go into a special store and go behind a black curtain for pornography. You were pretty much considered a pervert or a weirdo. Nobody wanted to be associated with that. However, in this day and age the enemy has access to God’s people through their phones and that will take you from your first love. If that is your addiction then you need to be held accountable. Find somebody you can trust to help you in that area.

2. Addiction to Unhealthy Relationships

I believe it all comes down to prayer and the Word of God. But you also need to have a support system in place to overcome these unhealthy relationships. Look at the story of Joseph in the Bible. A woman came against him. She wanted to have sex with him and when he resisted she attacked him and literally ripped his clothes off him. He did the right thing and ran from that woman, he ran from that temptation. Whatever the temptation is run for the hills! Then you ask God for help to get out of that temptation.

“But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.”

Deuteronomy 4:29

God is saying here from your place of bondage if you seek Him, you will find him. Temptation had come and Israel yielded to it and their sin brought death which is bondage. It doesn’t matter if you have fallen from your first love, or if you have fallen into bondage, you can turn it around today and chase after God. The beautiful truth here is if you draw near to God, He will draw near to you.

3. Diligently Seek God

David diligently searched for God. That is a lifestyle! I didn’t have that lifestyle. I diligently sought drugs every day. It was a lifestyle. My addiction went from drugs to the presence of God. You have to go after God the way you went after your addiction. If you do this diligently you will become a giant killer! This is the switch God wants to make in your life today.

You may have been diligent for a season but then you stepped away. You need to go back to God. Don’t allow condemnation to hold you back. Adam and Eve fell and God showed up in the Garden asking them where they were at and they were hiding in their shame. God was still looking for them. Some of you are embarrassed for falling back and you need to return to God, back to church! God is not finished with you. But you have to diligently seek the Lord. He rewards those who diligently seek Him.

David’s soul thirst for God, his body longed for God in his dry and weary land where there was no water. Then he sought after God in the sanctuary and gazed upon His presence, His power, and His glory. Don’t live another day dry! Don’t live another day with cares! Don’t live another day with bondage! You don’t need to live dry and weary. You can live with passion, fire, and energy. This comes from the presence of God.

You’re not just going to get into the presence of God. You have to fight to get there and then fight to stay in His presence. It is not automatic. It is a battle with your carnal body that doesn’t want to pray. Your carnal body doesn’t want to spend time with God everyday. Sometimes when I am praying, and it’s a busy season, it takes up to 20 to 30 minutes just to clear my mind. After a while you will break through what I call the ‘carnal realm’. That is when you will enter into that holy place where His presence is; where He gives joy and answers, and your burdens are handed over to Him.

“Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”

Isaiah 55:6-7

The secret to life is in the presence of God. Every fear is broken in the presence of God, when you diligently seek Him: torment, dread, depression, oppression. All of these fears will sap your energy, creativity, and strength. The presence of the Lord is the fullness of joy. David said in Psalm 34:5-6 that those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy.

“One thing I have desired of the LORD, that I will seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.”

Psalm 27:4

4. Freedom In Your Healing and Deliverance

God has a purpose for every area of your life but you have to grow so you can manage it. We learned in the story of the prodigal son he wasn’t developed enough to handle his inheritance. God and His Word develop you to a point where you may handle it responsibly. He is changing your bloodline. In my family there was alcoholism, drug addiction, divorce, early death, curse after curse after curse. But because of God, His Word, and His Message, the bloodline in my family changed.

Final Thoughts

I was delivered from demonic possession in my life. Although God changed my bloodline through salvation, delivered me from the demonic, through the power of His message He taught me how to stay free. However, the enemy is still relentless. He is always looking for access back into your life. The way you block the enemies’ access is by diligently seeking God’s presence and developing that first love.

You may have a big calling on your life and you strayed away from your first love. You get back on track by diligently seeking His presence. This is the secret to life!

If you begin to lose ground in the area of your first love, you find your way back through diligently seeking His presence! This is how I continue to stay free and remember my first love.

I always make God number one in my life!

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About Pastor Jason

Jason Lozano leads Freedom City Church in Whittier, CA and pastors a global multi-cultural church with thousands of members. His church has one goal and one vision: To Bring God’s Freedom To This Generation.

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