Spiritual Recovery from Addiction

In this book Pastor Blaine MacNeil explains how in the beginning God created Adam, he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and Adam became a living soul. In addiction the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve snorted drugs into their nostrils or inhaled the smoke of drugs into their lungs and were re-created living addicts. Addiction is a poisonous spirituality. For salvation Jesus said we must be born again or born of the Spirit. There is a parallel process between salvation from sin and deliverance from active addiction. In John 20 Jesus breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit" and he breathed on them. What is left unsaid is that in their culture, in that day, they inhaled Jesus' breath. For the sinner this is being born again. For the addict this is also the beginning of recovery and deliverance from the drugs they inhaled.

My daily devotional is unlike most others in that it is more educationally focused. It provides a deeper understanding of who we are as addicts and what is necessary for a sustained, lifelong recovery. It offers spiritual exercises that work to strengthen us. It explains the scriptures as they apply to becoming an addict, living the life of an addict and how to live as an addict in recovery.

The foundation of my devotional explains that in the fall addiction entered into the world and became a problem when the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve inhaled drugs into their lungs. As has been said, when the first man was created, God formed him out of the dust of the earth and made him into his own image. God breathed into his nostrils the breath-of-life and Adam became a living-soul. Parallel to the birthing process that gave life to Adam is the pathway to addiction. First, we were created in God's image, but because of drug use we were re-created into people whose loyalties were devoted not to God but to the demigod of drugs who ruthlessly ruled over our lives. In addiction we inhaled the smoke of marijuana, meth or another drug and we all became living-addicts. The drugs we abused gave us the equivalent of a toxic second-birth. In our recreated lives as addicts we acted out in the image of the toxic drugs that we had taken into our lungs.

We have a fallen, sinful old nature, sometimes referred to as our old Adam or our sinful self. Our sinful nature on drugs is like giving our old sinful-self steroids. Drugs turn us in the worst version of ourselves. They take our fallen nature from evil to a new level of loathsome behavior, into something deeply wicked. In contrast to that the spiritual pathway to recovery runs parallel to the path of salvation. Being born-of-the-Spirit is a critical message in this book. Just as Jesus died to forgive us of our sins, so also his redeeming death frees us from the terrible grip of addiction. In Christ we receive a new and sinless nature. To recover from active addiction an intentionally devout and structured life is needed, one that is lived in surrender to God. Further, I offer solid Biblical explanations that give an understanding according to God's plan for how we should be living our lives out.

I have shared this message one on one with other addicts who are in treatment, as well as in chapel sermons. In virtually every case it has had a profound impact on their understanding of who they are, who they became in their addiction and who they may become in their recovery. The impact of this Biblical view of addiction and recovery is far reaching. It strengthens us in our recovery and propels us forward in our spiritual hunger for God. It provides a firm foundation for a life-long sustained recovery from active drug addiction.

In order to recover from that life of addiction another birth was necessary to replace the poisonous lives that the smoke of the drugs created in us. We all need to be born-of-the-Spirit of God, which is what makes recovery possible.