‘ “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.” ‘ Matthew 12:43-45
When the Lord grabbed hold of my heart, I returned to the church and entered the recovery program, Celebrate Recovery, as a participant. I was suffering from anger which can be just as harmful as alcohol or drug addiction.
As I worked through this Biblical-based recovery program, my life changed, and with the help of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and by God’s grace, I became a leader in the program, helping others with their struggles.
There were wonderful non-judging people in this program who were there to support my walk, pray for me, and be there if I found myself challenged by the struggles I may have been facing. I pray for these people every day. I could see Jesus in their hearts.
There were two things that amazed me about working in that ministry:
- I was amazed and in awe of seeing broken people entering this program. They were addicted to drugs, alcohol, or pornography, and when they first joined, I would think, “WOW, this person needs some real work.” Keep in mind I wasn’t judging them. And to my amazement, God started working in these broken lives, which were recovered. Marriages were restored, and the stronghold of addiction was gone. I witnessed a real miracle in the lives of others.
- The second thing that amazed me, and not in a good way, was the people who were doing so well who relapsed after progress and ended up being in worse shape than when they first entered the program. And they never came back to complete the program.
One of the things that my sponsor made clear to me as we started was that he wasn’t going to chase after me. I thought this was interesting, but I realized how important this concept was as time progressed. If I genuinely wanted to be restored, I would be there.
I attended a Celebrate Recovery meeting the other day to support a man I have known through the church who was doing his testimony. During the meeting, they handed out chips for certain levels of success in the recovery process. When a specific color chip was called, and no one came forward, those in attendance would say in unison, “Keep coming back.”
‘Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. ‘ Colossians 1:21-23
The key to successfully recovering from any struggle in our lives is to continue to come back.
You may ask yourself, “John, come back to what?”
Keep coming back to the only source that can make any true and lasting change in your life: the Word of God and being around other Godly people.
There is a difference between the two cases of my amazement that I experienced in the recovery ministry.
One is regeneration, and the other is reformation.
Reformation means the action or process of reforming an institution or practice.
Regeneration means the action or process of regenerating or being regenerated, in particular the formation of a new creation.
‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! ‘ 2 Corinthians 5:17
The challenge I see with the second group that drops out of the program is that their lives start improving. They begin to see that they can get through this, but they give credit to the change to themselves, and they start to become self-sufficient.
There is reformation, but there is no regeneration.
They miss a meeting here, and they skip the small there. They stop meeting with their sponsor. They rekindle their relationships with those from their past. And they start to frequent their old stomping grounds.
The problem is this path leads to relapse instead of recovery.
When we submit to the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we are made new. Our old thinking becomes outdated. We consider ourselves based on what the Bible says about our identity instead of what the world says we are.
Let’s see how this works with our key verse from this post:
“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order.
Broken, we enter the program and proceed through the steps. The principles start to affect our lives. Our circumstances start to change for the better. We feel better about ourselves.
We start to straighten out our thinking, our minds become clear. Our house starts to become orderly. We start to become proud of OUR efforts.
We start to think that we can miss a meeting here.
We stop meeting regularly with our sponsor.
Why not? After all, we’ve come this far, right?
Some of our old thinking starts to come back in. We can call that the impure spirit. And that thinking starts to intermingle with our “new” thoughts.
Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first.
We start to return to the old places we used to hang out in. The old people who would enable our old behavior, like the “new” us, but deep inside, they resent our newfound faith and will start working on us. They may say, “You used to be fun to hang around with.”
So our minds will go to things like, “Well, one beer won’t hurt, right?”
And you throw your hands up in the air, saying, “This recovery stuff doesn’t work.”
But when we submit ourselves to the regenerating work of the Lord’s Spirit, our will lives change and it will never return to what we had in the past.
Heavenly Father, I pray that this message will find those who need to hear it.
I am thankful for your regenerating work in my life, and I pray that I am an outward expression of the Spirit living in my heart.
I pray for those who do not know You. I pray that You will work in their hearts and give them the faith to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
I am thankful for Your amazing grace, mercy and forgiveness.
In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray, Amen!! 🙏❤️
