About the Author

Tim Swanson knows first-hand that the Bible is true and that Jesus Christ is King and Savior. God gave Tim an alive heart and faith in Jesus Christ two days after his 20th birthday. Ever since then, Tim’s life has been purposeful, changed and forgiven.

When God called Tim from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, He gave him a mission to help young people and adults learn about Jesus and learn how to live truth-filled lives. Tim is passionate about helping people live free from addictions.

Tim’s wish for you is that you would have a life full of forgiveness and peace. He wants you to have all of the truth you need to fight evil and live a life of friendship with God.

He’s written this book so that you can live a life authentic for a child of God. Tim wants you to live emancipated and victorious.

Copyright Information

This book is copyrighted by Tim Swanson © 2013. All Bible verses are from the New King James Version and are copyrighted Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Cover design by Jason Jacobs at RenderQuick: www.RenderQuick.com.

This book may not be reproduced without written permission from the copyright holder.

1st Edition: 2013

ISBN: 978-1-63068-191-3
www.DoTheTrue.com
Like the Facebook page: http://goo.gl/sYzPw

Glossary

Trinity: God has always existed and there is only one God. This one Being is unique in many ways, including that He is the Trinity. God is one Being who is three Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Justification: Forgiven and considered guiltless in God’s courtroom because Jesus Christ absorbed all of your sin and gave you His perfect record of obedience.

Sanctification: The process of the Holy Spirit changing your desires and behaviors to match your spiritual DNA. The Holy Spirit changes you from the inside out and sets you apart for His special purposes.

Introduction

Breaking your addictions requires you to do several actions simultaneously. If you aren’t 100% ready to live out these critical components, you might as well drop this in the trash. But, if you are sick of your sin and are ready for a life of victory, then read on, my friend.

What you won’t find in this book is a bunch of juicy stories of sin or personal anecdotes. Just, flat out truth. Frankly, your sinful nature doesn’t need any more fuel. Sound like something you need? Read on to discover the ingredients for a life of victory. I’ll give you the ingredients and it is up to you to write the recipe into your own life.

The Truth Ingredients

Truth Number 1: Your Thinking is Messed Up.

Truth Number 2: Without God, You're Dead.

Truth Number 3: It's Not About You, It's About Jesus

Truth Number 4: Slice and Dice

Truth Number 5: Set Your Mind on Things Above

Truth Number 6: Building a Lifestyle

The Truth Ingredients

(Table of Contents)

Truth Number 1: Your Thinking is Messed Up.

Truth Number 2: Without God, You’re Dead.

Truth Number 3: It’s Not About You, It’s About Jesus

Truth Number 4: Slice and Dice

Truth Number 5: Set Your Mind on Things Above

Truth Number 6: Building a Lifestyle

Your Thinking is Messed Up

Humanity was created by God for the purpose of glorifying Him and enjoying Him forever. This is the foundational truth that you have to understand, if you are going to escape addiction. We were created by God with the purpose of showing how amazing He is through our thoughts, plans, actions, accomplishments and relationships. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, decided to redefine their purpose and that destroyed us. The curse that we live under is that all of humanity is born spiritually dead towards God. This results in a universal pursuit of self-glorification and self-enjoyment. For about 6000 years, we have been addicted to… ourselves.

Your refusal to live out your purpose to glorify God and enjoy Him is called sin by God. From birth, you and I have been actively fighting our purpose and have been by our very nature under the anger and justice of God. We have lived our lives for the purpose of gratifying ourselves and pursuing our will, not the will of our Creator.

You should no longer walk (live your daily life) as the rest of the Gentiles (unbelievers) walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. Ephesians 4:17-19

In our natural state, our minds are mistaken and we are separated from God. We are ignorant and blind in our spirits. In short, we don’t want to live God’s way and we think we are right. We eventually get so that we are past having any conscience about living in sin and we are slaves to our sinful natures.

Inside of you lives an entity called your sinful nature or your “flesh.” Your flesh is always only interested in serving itself. It hates the idea of bowing to God as Creator-King and living a life in submission to Him. If you are an unbeliever, you feel the same way as your sinful nature. To sum up, you’re born with a sinful nature and a dead spirit towards God. That’s pretty bad. But, until you know your situation accurately, you can’t make progress towards a life of victory.

You’re Toast video: http://youtu.be/xvLzFJ97lew

Without God, You’re Dead

You He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved). Ephesians 2:1-5.

God makes you alive. You can’t make yourself spiritually alive. You have to submit to the fact that God is in control and that you have to ask Him to make you alive. That’s the kicker.

Your dead spirit and your sinful nature are in total agreement on this one: Never submit to God. That’s why your rescue doesn’t originate from inside of you. It originates from God. He wakes you up and draws you to Jesus Christ to be made spiritually alive and to be forgiven. Do you want to be woken up? Start reading the Bible and start asking God to help you.

You need God’s truth to see yourself as a rebel in need of forgiveness. Pray for faith to personally depend on Jesus Christ to have absorbed the penalty for your sins. When the Holy Spirit does spiritual surgery on you, you’ll be given the ability to live your God-given purpose. It isn’t until you are given an alive spiritual connection with God that you can know freedom from sin and your addictions. God giving you this alive spirit is called being born again. When you are born again, you are instantly justified. Your dead spirit, that used to rule your body, mind, will and emotions, is replaced with your alive spirit. The dead, sin-loving you is gone and the alive, God-loving you is now you. If this has happened to you, you know it. In the past, the dead you always agreed with your sinful nature and wanted only to love and serve you and possibly humanity. Now, the alive you wants to love and serve God and hates living in sin. Your sinful nature remains but you are no longer required to obey it.

Stop! Examine yourself. Which are you? Alive or dead towards God? Be very honest.

The only way to become spiritually alive and to be forgiven of your failure to glorify God and enjoy Him is to go to Jesus Christ. The Bible says that it is God the Holy Spirit who makes you alive and gives you faith in Jesus Christ. The key to becoming an alive Christian is to find out everything you can about Jesus Christ. God uses you learning about Jesus from the Bible and in church to give you an alive heart and dependence on Jesus as your King and Savior.

- - - - -

Just in case you don’t know, the good news boiled down into three sentences is: Jesus is God the Son. Jesus Christ is God who became human and paid for eternal death for His people in one day. The Bible says that if you depend entirely on Jesus Christ as your King and Savior that you will be forgiven and have a new life. Oh, and you are a wicked rebel whose only hope lies in being given this life and forgiveness.

The Jesus Heart video: http://youtu.be/J6BuCBYk8hY

It’s Not About You, It’s About Jesus

Forgiveness probably won’t deliver you from your addictions. If you want to find freedom from your sick addiction, you have to do business with Jesus Christ at the foot of His cross. The Bible says that when Jesus Christ died, he died for the sins of His people. It also says that Jesus Christ became sin for those hours while He was suffering on the cross. In order to understand how this impacts your addictions, you need to know a few facts. The cross isn’t just about forgiveness. Here’s the baseline information that you need to know:

1. Adam gave away the right for humanity to live spiritually when he rebelled against God. All of humanity plunged into eternal spiritual death and became slaves to the king of death, Satan. Satan uses the justice of God against us. In our natural-born state, we belong to the king of death. We serve him daily. Our sinful nature and our dead spirit choose only to serve Satan. That is why rebelling against our Creator doesn’t bother us until we are made alive inside.

2. Jesus Christ is God and therefore is inherently worth an infinite amount. Jesus Christ is also 100% human and is able to represent His people. Just like Adam, Jesus Christ is our representative. His decisions can affect our destiny.

3. You need to get this fact: Jesus Christ sucked up eternal, infinite justice and wrath from God for His people’s failure to live out their purpose in life. He ate their spiritual death by dying in their place. Since Jesus Christ had perfectly lived out His purpose to glorify God and enjoy Him, Jesus was innocent and not deserving of death. That is why Jesus Christ became alive again on the 3rd day.

4. Now! Satan probably thought that he had rights to Jesus Christ when Jesus died. But, Satan found out that he didn’t because Jesus was sinless and of infinite worth. When Jesus Christ rose again, He started handing out alive spiritual hearts to thousands of people. He earned the right to do this because He had swallowed the spiritual death and sin that was rightfully ours.

5. Last fact: For all of the people who Jesus Christ has given alive spiritual hearts to, those people no longer have to serve the king of death, Satan. They have a new king that they want to serve and are able to serve, Jesus Christ, the King of Life. The Bible says that these people are now servants of Jesus Christ. They no longer have to obey their sinful nature.

You need to stop and pray about these five facts. If you don’t know these facts to be true for you and if you aren’t depending on these truths, you are in big trouble. You are still owned by the king of death and breaking your addictions will only be based on your human will. You will simply switch your addiction to something else that pleases your dead spiritual heart.

If you do know Jesus Christ as your King and Savior, you now have the right to live free from your addictions. You can begin the process of saying no to your former masters, Satan, the world and your sinful nature. You are ABLE to do this because your King has given you eternal life and you are free to choose to live out your purpose.

Jesus Trail Video: http://youtu.be/Ry7W7NaUYQw
River of Jesus: http://youtu.be/O4hvdBFlbQY

Slice and Dice

If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. Matthew 5:29-20

The Bible teaches that a real Christian cannot continue in a habitual sin because that is incompatible with his new nature. Instead, he must live a lifestyle that is compatible with his new bought-and-paid-for-by-Jesus nature. Also, the alive Christian has God the Holy Spirit living inside of him. The Holy Spirit’s job is to change your desires and help you live out God’s purpose for your life. The Holy Spirit is the nuclear engine that powers purity into your life, which is probably why you are reading this book right now. You are sick of your addiction because it is incompatible with your alive spirit and with the Holy Spirit. Sure, your sinful nature loves your addiction. Your sinful nature schemes behind your back and organizes your activities and time to ensure that you partake in your addictive behavior. But, your alive spirit hates your rebellion because your sin is anti-Christ. The Holy Spirit hates your rebellion because your sin is anti-God to the core. If you don’t feel this way about Jesus Christ then you probably are still dead in your rebellion against your Creator. In this case, you need to read the New Testament through and beg God to give you an alive heart and complete dependence on Jesus Christ as your King and Savior.

This is going to be one of my most practical chapters. Brace yourself and pay attention. Your life is filled with self-absorbed input. TV, books, newspapers, games, social media, work, sports, hobbies and friends are all in agreement: You need to be happy. If you aren’t happy, there is something wrong.

Dissect Your Reality: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5

Everything you believe is probably messed up and infected with humanism and self-centered beliefs, just to let you know. Even the things that you think are scientific or Biblical may be skewed towards a man-centered belief system. You have to take your thinking to the Bible. You have to take your thoughts, feelings and philosophies to the Being who emanates truth: God.

Reduce Your TV, Movie, Video Time: Your sinful nature receives power and energy from any form of sin that you allow into your environment. You may not have a media-related addiction, but the heavy flow of energy is sucking the life out of your alive spirit. Ungodly media is a hell-spawned vampire that you willingly allow to suck your spiritual life. Take a look at your music lyrics and pretend that Jesus Christ is sitting next to you when you connect up to media.

Target Times, Places, People: Addictive actions need time and opportunity. Jot down the times and places when you do your addictive behaviors. Where are you when you do these anti-Christ behaviors? Your sinful nature is constantly running in your subconscious adjusting your plans and activities so that you will end up in the time and place where your habitual sin has been given freedom to live. You have to identify that time and place and kill the sin. Is there someone that you are always around when you do this destructive behavior? Be very honest with yourself. Your sinful nature will tell you that this is silly and not to bother. Take a stand and be your own person. Make your list now. To get started, you must target those times and deliberately replace the activities. You must change your patterns of life and cut enabling relationships so that your addiction has no place for rest and relaxation. Listen! Replace your addiction with God-honoring activities.

Adopted Into God’s Family video: http://youtu.be/LreIfRpQbtc
Finding Change in Chicago video: http://youtu.be/Oe9Ww08oG14

Set Your Mind on Things Above

Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians 3:2

Your Vision Statement

What is your reason for existing? How are you planning on glorifying God with your life and enjoying a relationship with God in the process? Take a few minutes of prayer and ask God to show you what He wants you to be doing with your life. I’m talking about the big picture here. Write down some ideas about what you want to accomplish in your life. Over the next few days, I want you to craft a vision statement for your life. You’ll need this vision statement to help you decide which activities you want to focus on to replace your addictive behaviors. This overarching theme for your life will be your compass for deciding how you spend your time, money, energy and resources. Right now, you are spending time, money, energy and resources on your sinful nature by catering to its vision statement. Your sinful nature’s vision statement is to glorify itself and Satan and gratify itself forever. Right now, your sinful nature’s vision for your life is your default. You must take dominion over this area of your life. Your goals and your vision for your life must dictate your activities.

Here are a few of steps for creating a vision statement:

1. Write down people and activities that God has laid on your heart.

2. Jot down your skills and talents.

3. In 12 words, write down the topic sentence for your life. Who and what?

Examples:

“I use my mechanic skills, cheerful outlook on life to bless others.”

“We teach, mentor, disciple young people in life skills and God’s word.”

“Hospitality for others, training my children in God’s word, encouraging my church.”

Notice that there really isn’t any room for self-esteem or self-gratification in a vision statement. Vision statements are about how you use your gifts and calling to bless others as the hands and feet of Jesus Christ in this spiritually dark world. In doing that, you won’t have time for addictions and worldly pursuits.

Your Identity

And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. Romans 6:18

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! 1 John 3:1a

If you are an alive Christian who trusts in Jesus Christ as your God and Savior, you are now free from having to obey your sinful nature. You are now a slave to righteousness. Your will has been set free from having to say yes to sin and you are now empowered to choose to live God’s way. You are free to live out the purpose you were created for, to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. As an alive Christian, you have also been adopted into the family of God. God the Father has sent the Holy Spirit to live inside of you. The Holy Spirit is the One who rewires your thinking as you read the Bible. The Holy Spirit is the one who reconstructs your conscience so you start to feel bad about your sin. The Holy Spirit gives you power to kill your addiction. (You may be wondering why I’m saying “alive Christian” since, by definition, there is no other type of Christian. This is because many people ignorantly call themselves Christians when they are still spiritually dead. I want you to distinguish whether you are a true Christian who is spiritually alive inside towards God.)

Family Resemblance

As a child of God, the Holy Spirit starts you on a remodeling plan where He begins to rip out your old rotten structures and rebuild you with new. Through this process, you begin to take on the family resemblance. You begin to behave like Jesus would in your various life situations. This process is called sanctification. It is the work of the Holy Spirit as He changes your desires, helps you define your vision statement and empowers your choices for good. As a nonChristian, you had the family resemblance of the world and Satan’s family because your will was always defaulted towards self and humanism. As a Christian with an alive spirit, your default is to obey God. This is why your addiction is so out of character for you. It doesn’t match your identity. Instead of letting your sinful nature dominate you, defy and destroy it daily and start acting like a child of God. You are in charge. You don’t need to roll around in the muck anymore because you are a child of the King, not a street person living in the slums. Look at your life now. Do you have some family resemblances from God’s family showing themselves in your life?

The Fight is On video: http://youtu.be/RZKNSI1i8yY
Car Wreck video: http://youtu.be/KvEcsQW-TB0

Building a Lifestyle

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:8-10

When you are living in your addiction, you are building a false life. You are tearing down your real life and replacing it with a false reality. Look at your life like it is a building that God has designed to reflect His amazing character. The Bible says in Ephesians that God chose Christians, from before He created the universe, to be recipients of His love and forgiveness. God has prepared good works for His children to do. What is your vision for your life? How do you decide what to spend your time, money, energy and resources on? Using your talents, relationships and work, God intends for you to live your life doing His good works. Every time you say no to your sinful nature and yes to God’s good works, you build another brick in the wall between your addiction and you. Over time, the wall becomes so thick and so strong that you eventually are delivered your addiction. Simultaneously, the lifestyle of God-planned works that you replace those wicked actions with build up a God-honoring structure. You become a monument to God.

Where to start?

1. On your knees. Take your addiction to the cross. Addictions that are sexual create spiritual bonds which need to be confessed to God and broken by Him. Ask God to show you all of the sins you need to confess and start writing. Then, go through the list and confess them. You can live in bondage to the memories and you can live addicted to the fantasies. All of this dirty laundry has to be dumped out on the floor of God’s throne room and exchanged for forgiveness, peace and a clean break from the past. Don’t overcomplicate this prayer. And, don’t give up on this prayer until you receive forgiveness and peace from God. Take every thought, sin, and past bondage into captivity and give it to Jesus Christ in prayer. Don’t give up until you get the answers you need.

When God answers your prayer and forgives you or gives you power to not sin, it is an undeserved gift. When God gives you a gift you don’t deserve, it is called grace. For example, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God…” Faith, salvation, new life, repentance, new desires, hate for sin, power to make Godly choices, and the will to rebuke your sinful nature are all gifts from God that you don’t deserve. Like going to the faucet to fill a glass of water, you turn on the faucet of prayer and God pours undeserved power, faith and forgiveness into your heart and mind.

2. Prayer. Take every thought captive to Jesus. Pray with other Christians and pray by yourself. Prayer can be a simple plea for help or it can be a detailed list of needs. In Luke 11, God the Son teaches us how to pray. As He’s talking about prayer, Jesus tells a story about a man who is persistent in asking a friend for some bread. In the story, Jesus makes the point that persistence pays off when praying to God and that God is good and gives good gifts to those who are persistent in prayer.

Persistence in prayer is a problem for many because they are used to getting everything they want quickly. The sinful nature has gratified itself for many years. If God doesn’t answer you right away, your sinful nature will attack you saying, “See! God doesn’t pay any attention to you. You’re just talking to the ceiling. You deserve better than this!” The point of prayer is that we are submitting to our King and Creator, asking for help, knowing that He will answer us and give us good gifts at just the right time.

There seem to be several basic types of prayer in the Bible. Some prayers are like conversations with God that can go on throughout the day. Other prayers are quick pleas for help, while some prayers are more thoughtful. In Matthew 6, Jesus gave a pattern for thoughtful prayer:

A. Thank and appreciate God for his qualities and blessings in your life.
B. Ask for things that directly relate to the many people becoming Christians and living Godly, pure lives in the midst of this sick and twisted world.
C. Depend on God for what you need every day. Ask for diligence at work, faithfulness to your family, food on your table.
D. Confess your sins and ask for forgiveness.
E. Request strength to forgive and to kill the sinful nature.
F. Protection from temptation, your sinful nature and Satan.
G. End your prayer with thanks for God’s power in your life and the lives of others.

When you pray, you are connecting up to a huge pipeline or conduit of grace. Like all precious commodities, this grace must be purchased. It is free to you, but was purchased with the pain, shame, blood, and death of God the Son. That is why many Christians end a prayer by letting God know that they are praying in the name of Jesus. If you go to God in prayer on your own merit, He won’t listen to you. If you go to your Dad in Heaven with Savior Jesus at your side, you will be heard.

God likes to hear our prayers and He likes for us to pester Him in prayer. Some would say persevere in prayer. But, I say pester with a purpose. Be the squeaky wheel, the respectful squeaky wheel.

3. Read your Bible. The Bible is a second main pipeline by which God pours undeserved energy, peace, truth, perseverance, trust, respect for God, patience and healing. Whatever you need in your journey into this lifestyle of LIFE, you can find by reading the Bible and praying. If you need an alive heart, 1 Peter 1:23 says that God the Holy Spirit uses your interaction with the Bible to birth that alive heart in you. If you need the ability to depend on Jesus Christ to take away your sins or to help you fight your sinful nature, Romans 10:17 tells you to get into the word of God. If you need your evil habits washed out of your life and replaced by a lifestyle of serving God, John 17:17 and Ephesians 5:26 let you in on a little secret: Fill your thoughts with the Bible and God will launder your life.

The primary purpose for reading God’s Bible is to equip your mind for action. You must ask God to rewire your worldview. You need to be making decisions on absolute truth. Read every day. Go to church constantly. In the Bible and in a Bible-teaching church, you will find absolute truth. This truth will impact your emotions, thoughts and actions. Your sinful nature loves that you run around believing a bunch of half truths. This gives your sinful nature a lot of control over your mind and your actions. It also leaves you open to demonic thoughts. Your weapon against the sinful nature is to sift through your thinking and discard the lies based on the truth in God’s word.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17

As God the Holy Spirit uses the Bible to reprogram your thinking, you will see your power over sin increase. You have to reprogram your thoughts about who you are with and without Jesus Christ. You have to reprogram your thoughts about who God is.

4. Target and replace. Cut the time with your sin. Replace that sin with activities that fit under your vision statement. This is probably the easiest thing to do and yet hard to stick to. I want you to think about when and where you sin. Do you sin when you drive to the market to get milk? Instead, drive to the grocery to get milk. Do you eat poison when you check your email on the computer? Only check your email in the living room. Is your phone your porn portal? Keep your phone in the kitchen and download some software for when you’re at work. You get the point. Target the time you sin and replace that time with a Godly activity. It doesn’t have to be a spiritual activity, just an activity that isn’t feeding your sickness.

5. Don’t be your sinful nature’s toy. Stand up to your sinful nature. You know when you will sin. Cut that person out of your life. Cut that activity. Stop going to that place. Only use technology in public places. Lock your phone in your safe. Change jobs. Work six days a week. Don’t go to bed until you’ve worked hard enough to be tired. Shower in the morning. Go to church often. Apologize to people you sin against until you stop sinning against them. Turn off your TV. Stop pouring the visual sewage into your psyche. It’s time to stop the inflow of strength-sapping filth. It’s time to stop arranging your schedule and travel so that you can conveniently submit to your sinful nature’s beck and call. It’s time to rise up and be true to who you are, a child of God.

6. Live your purpose. A life lived for God doesn’t leave time for sin. Organize your life so you don’t have time or opportunity to sin because you are too busy with the duties of your family, the family of God. 2 Timothy 3:16 says to be instructed in righteousness. This means to live what is right. Wisdom is to know and obey God’s commandments. God has a special purpose for you. Your vision statement will help you with this. Start simply. Give your day to God in the morning. He has specific good works planned out for you. Fill your life with a lifestyle of finding those good works and doing them, not for your own sake, but to show the heart and character of Almighty God to those who are watching. Be a mirror for the character of God and enjoy your God. Do you have interests and hobbies? Give them to Jesus. Purposefully, live your destiny, to glorify God and enjoy Him in every moment of your life.

7. Be the church. I didn’t say go to church. Be so ingrained in your local Bible church that you are almost part of the structure. You must find a church where people are humble and accepting of sinners and really committed to Godly living. In your church, develop relationships with your elders and pastors. Without vomiting graphic chunks of information all over everyone, explain to your elders that you have a serious addiction. The early Christians kept one day separate for God. And, they spent many other days together praying, preaching and building relationships. Be in church every Sunday. And, be in church many other times throughout your work week. Be in church. Be the church.

8. Relationships. Your lifestyle of living a Godly life must include friendships with like-minded Christians. Obviously, these must not be people who will create opportunities for you to practice your addictive behaviors. You know what I mean! Relationships will help to replace the void where your addiction used to live. Jesus says that if you don’t fill the void where your addiction lives, it will come back in full force and you’ll be worse than before. As part of your new lifestyle of repentance, you must fill that void with relationships, most importantly your relationship with Jesus Christ.

9. Have Christ-dentity, not I-dentity. Find your self-worth and gratification in pleasing Jesus Christ and in living as a child of God. Whether your addiction is self-destructive, self-gratifying, or directed toward the destruction of others, you have to attack the core issue: you love yourself and you want to use twisted garbage as a means for finding meaning for yourself. Don’t work on have a positive self-image. No! Work on having an accurate Christ-image. Find soul-satisfying meaning as a CHRISTian. That’s what you are designed to do.

10. Talk to your Spouse. If you are married, talk to your spouse and be honest. For example, tell your spouse the category of sin that you are addicted to. Don’t tell all of the names, dates, websites, fantasies, situations, dramatic moments, cravings that make up your history of addiction. You should tell those details to God in prayer. Your spouse only needs to know the category of sin that you are addicted to. You need to ask for forgiveness if that sin has betrayal woven into it. Again, you don’t have to pour specific images into his/her soul. Just be honest and take responsibility for the hurt that your addiction causes. Ask for help. He/she can probably help you avoid the times and opportunities for your addictive choices.

11. Isolate and Kill Your Addiction. Reallocate all energy and time going to your addiction towards God-honoring activities. Starve out your addiction, metaphorically. If you are infecting your fiancé, boyfriend/girlfriend with your addiction, put some distance between you. Number 11 is tied closely to numbers 4-6. It’s time to get serious. Give 100% to God and 0% to your sinful nature.

Building With A Blueprint video: http://youtu.be/xzg3tJkxKGo

Dear Reader,

Right now, you may be thinking a number of things, one of which probably is that you’ve never read a book that actually helped you stop your addiction. Sure, you could follow the recipe that I’ve outlined, but would it really work? I’ll give you the bad news, and I’ll leave you with the good news.

The bad news is that your sinful nature thrives on fatalistic thinking. It loves to keep you prisoner with thoughts like, “It’ll be just a matter of time before I sin again. I’ve tried before and failed. Yes, just a matter of time.” Can you relate to this? Resist the lies and take control. No, you don’t have to obey your sinful nature. No, returning to your addictive behaviors is not inevitable, which leads me to the good news!

Assuming you have spent the time necessary to find forgiveness with Jesus Christ and get an alive spirit from the Holy Spirit, there is really great news in store for you! Your life has been measured out by God, with every inch of it marked out for a Godly work. There is a battle for your time, energy, money, and resources. Satan and your sinful nature want you to waste your life. God and your alive spirit want you to live out your purpose in life. So… the truth is that the one calling the shots in your heart, head and emotions is the… ALIVE YOU!! You are alive and equipped by God to build a victorious, God-glorifying, history-changing life of victories and successes. Be intentional about every moment. It is a lifestyle – replacing addiction with a life of truth. You know the truth, now go do it! Do The True!

Sincerely,
Tim Swanson
www.DoTheTrue.com
Beat Your Addiction video: http://youtu.be/YMfQouDqdhs
Death Row video: http://youtu.be/bR6Udt0pZcE