CRAVINGS - Why Do I Do What I Don't Want To Do? by Life Recovery, Inc.

Cravings – The Believer’s Dilemma By Marjorie Cole

FORWARD

There are as many reasons for “how I feel” as there are ways to deprive the body of what it needs. Poor relationships, contaminated and dead foods, lack of minerals and vitamins, etc. , do not even begin to top the list of things that can be wrong. Add to that the consequences of generational sin, social adversity, difficult living conditions, anxiety, poverty, stress, abusive relationships, and the constant exhaustion that comes from failure and hopelessness and we still have, at best, only a partial description of the bondage we can find ourselves in. This manual brushes the broad surface of addictions and our struggles to live life well in these earthen vessels within the context of spiritual warfare and demonic programming. I have made wide strokes which by no means tell the whole story. What it does offer you is a different way of looking at the spiritual battle that is going on inside of you, and makes deliverance a real part of your recovery. I pray you will take the time to read it carefully and that the Holy Spirit will use the words of these pages to direct your hearts and minds in truth to complete His work of liberation in you. At the end of various sections you will find other recommended resources that further develop or expound on, or lay a scriptural foundation for, the information presented in and throughout this manual. All of these materials can be obtained from Life Recovery, 763 785 4234 or by visiting our website at www.liferecovery.com.

INTRODUCTION – WHY SHOULD I READ THIS MANUAL TRAPPED How many of us are trapped into doing something we hate, determined to do something different, only to fail? We try again. We fail. We are stuck and the rut is getting deeper. Whether the goal is to stop using or to lose weight or to be good or get better, we seem to be caught in an insidious cycle of trying harder only to find it is never enough. We feel guilty and angry while our life becomes consumed and controlled by the cravings we seek to manage. We begin to live a mindless existence strapped to the torture racks of Hell: “I’ve got to, but I can’t.” We are held fast in the relentless grip of fear, feeling unsatisfied and unhappy, unable to do it right or to muster up the will power to change. We search for peace and rest like one lost in the desert looking for water. Armed with the negative list of past failures and a determination to change, we try again. “Confusion” finally convinces us all is lost and our search is hopeless. We conclude we have no choice but to keep on doing what we do or settle for what we see. Agreeing with, “It is what it is”, sets up a reluctant acceptance of things we cannot seem to change. The power of past experiences convinces us that nothing will ever change and “the way things are” becomes “the way things will always be”. So, what is the answer to life’s controlling habits? Is it a need for more self-control, discipline, or diets? Will more faith or more determination master the cravings that seem to rule our lives in so many different and subtle ways? For some, the battle may look like a struggle to overcome “their” addictions and obsessions. For others, it appears to be a call to perfection or a matter of taking responsibility. But is lack of “will power” what has rendered us helpless and cast us into such a sorry state of disgrace? Or could it be lack of wisdom and poor understanding that has kept us from the truth and left us stranded in this no man’s land of hopelessly continuing to do “the things I hate”? IF “DOING THE THINGS I HATE” DESCRIBES YOU, THEN THIS MANUAL IS A “MUST READ. The battle for your soul is more spiritual than you think and the war between God and Satan is more real than many would care to believe. God is for you. The Devil hates you. You must chose whom you will believe and obey. To chose life we must understand and war we are in. Whatever and however cravings present themselves, any battle to resist them can become physically exhausting and spiritually discouraging. Not clearly understanding our foe or attributing the internal struggle to our own flawed character and weak will can cost us the victory. Failure to understand the spiritual nature of even the most physical conflict will cause sure defeat in a battlefield where even our “own” thoughts and feelings cannot be trusted. The Enemy has tampered with everything to set up an ambush against our souls and hidden snipers along even the most well-traveled roads of recovery. Human need and adverse conditions create an situation for “Deception”to come in and offer us a solution to our problem. Every attempt we make to take back our lives on our own gives the Enemy another opportunity to establish his stronghold in us and secure his control of us. Human pain creates desperation. Along with this internal panic comes an endless parade of external and immediate “selfhelp” remedies and snake-oil medicines that mint for many, a hefty living at the expense of the afflicted. In every place we appear motivated to do something, the Enemy rallies to take the opportunity to assist us. Whether it is the desire to lose weight or to overcome an addiction or to see a breakthrough 1

in our relationships, the world system has a plan. The diets and the “do more” recommendations of those touted to be the experts have given us countless ways to enhance our sex life, lose body fat, and eat the sugar-laced delicacies of the privileged without gaining an inch. Avoiding the consequences of indulgence have sold millions of magazines and TV Ads not to mention memberships in special weight-reduction clubs and the purchase of special low calorie, high calorie, low carb, high carb, high caffeine and caffeine free foods and fads and exercise gadgets and, and, and… until the only sensible solution is to STOP!! IDENTIFY A FEW OF THE LATEST GADGET OR GIMMICK OR DIETS ON “HOW TO...” THAT HAVE CAUGHT YOUR EYE. _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ The quest for happiness has been linked to “feelings” for centuries. Life becomes wrapped up in looking for happiness as defined by success, as defined by security, as defined by having enough money. And the bottom line on a “Wonderful Life” is, “it’s all up to you”. Less fat, more money, less work, more play, less pressure, more things; you can have it all if you just want it bad enough or work for it hard enough. But wanting, and having all we want, have ultimately only left the “seekers” “suckers”. The pursuit of a beautiful body and the possession of material objects have only left us with a deeper sense of personal discontentment and spiritual emptiness. We’ve gotten tangled in the happiness trap trying to avoid the pain of life. Others might still be trying to tell themselves they are happy already, denying they have any problem at all. Or they try to manipulate the problem to provide for themselves an excuse not to change. We rewrite our standards to redefine “acceptable” to be the “new normal”, making what was not acceptable now acceptable, and the new “truth” our standard for judging ourselves, our health, and our world. We swing back and forth between denying the problem and becoming obsessed again with trying to overcome it. We spare no expense to defeat once and for all the thing controlling us, only to fall in the throes of another struggle to stay free. CAN YOU IDENTIFY WHERE YOU ARE ON THE VICIOUS CYCLE OF LIFE? _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ All of this striving only leads to more restlessness and dissatisfaction, which, ultimately, becomes the big distraction in making my life all about me! Even though deep inside - we know that our lives are to be “all about HIM” how many of us have turned a deaf ear to the cry in our spirit thinking, “I will, but not just yet”? First “I’ve got to: finish losing this weight, or get through school, or get that promotion, or settle down, or wait until the kids graduate, or…” . It all sounds a lot like the excuses that those invited used in turning down the king’s invitation to his son’s wedding. SO, WHAT EXCUSES ARE WORTH USING THAT RISK THE LOSS OF OUR OWN SOUL?! 2

“CRAVINGS” – THE MANUAL “Cravings” takes a look at the world of cravings and the struggle to control those cravings from a Biblical perspective that embraces the concepts of spiritual warfare and demonic intelligence. Cravings are not new to modern man. Resistance and man’s struggle against the wiles of the Devil go back as far as the Garden itself, making Eden the most fitting place to begin our search for freedom. Craving is defined as a strong desire to have something - to demand to force, through devious means. The power of the lie behind cravings began with the Serpent’s dialogue with Eve to arouse her curiosity to know what was on the Forbidden Tree. How could something so forbidden be so bad when it looked so beautiful? The Enemy used her desire to “know more” hoping she would desire to know more than she already did, which, as it turned out, worked out in his favor. Humanly speaking, we are often pulled more deeply into a situation in our very desire to avoid it. The same is true with the desire to satisfy an urge. We get caught between the urge to satisfy a craving and the need to resist it. We are torn between self-indulgence and self-control, and often spend ourselves trying to quit doing something we do not seem to want to give up. The paradox which locks us in a vicious circle of failure and addiction and indecision is maddening if not downright debilitating. HUMANLY SPEAKING, WE ARE NOT THE ONLY ONES WITH A PROBLEM Romans 6-8 sheds new light on the two-fold dilemma God faced after our Fall: how to satisfy the forfeiture of life demanded by sin and the constant presence of sin in the lives of His children. God’s solution to the first problem came in the giving of His Son to die. Our participation in His death on the Cross came by accepting His death as the substitution for our own. Through repentance we were disconnected from the demands sin made on our life. Baptism became the symbolic expression of the new spiritual agreement which qualified us, through His resurrection, to be born again, birthed into new life. The death of Christ fulfills death’s demand that the “soul that sins shall die”. He paid the wages sin had demanded. Through His death we were redeemed (bought back), translated out of the Kingdom of Darkness and repositioned in the Kingdom of His Dear Son (Col. 1:13). The Prince of Peace has rescued us from the grip of the Prince of Darkness, offering freedom to “whosoever will”. Life and freedom were now again made available to those who would choose to believe God. God’s second problem was how to deal with the internal effects of sin and its power to corrupt from within. God’s solution to the second problem is deliverance. Deliverance is His solution to the internal programming which operates inside of us as the “body of death”. Deliverance and sanctification, its counterpart, were sent to dismantle the strongholds of demonic control that held us hostage to do the Devil’s bidding. Lies form the basic structure in the strongholds. The Strongman uses them to control us. Lies had replaced the truth of God’s Word. We had been reprogrammed by sin. Paul recognized the severity of the takeover of our souls (the flesh) in his lament when he cried out, “I am sold under sin” (Rom. 7:14). Though it may not at first have been apparent, some sort of deal has been made here. Paul realized that sin had made him, along with his first parents, the purchased possession of the Devil. The evidence of that transaction was in the very sin he found resident inside himself that kept him doing what he hated. 3

If freedom and the power of the Cross were to be fully implemented, the agreements made with sin would have to be broken at a personal level. Failure to void that contract would leave us under the control of Satan. When Christ died on the Cross, He paid the full asking price for our freedom. That freedom was intended to include a full internal recovery of all that was lost as well as the external transfer of citizenship. He whom the Son sets free is free indeed. But even after the deal had been done, and the work of Calvary was finished, the enforcement of the contracts and the transfer of the titles are still a matter of an individual’s decision. Personal decision and free will play an intricate part in determining how the victory of Calvary will be appropriated in each individual life. The purchase price has been paid. The deal has been done. The temple property has been bought back by the kingdom of Heaven, so why are we, like Paul, still continuing to experience “Doing the things I do not want to do?” (Rom.7:15). If we have been set free by Christ, then sin in any form including bondage to an addiction or being controlled by cravings, is only evidence that we are still experiencing “the body of death” as Paul calls it, operating within us. The presence of that bondage in no way cancels out the effectiveness of the Cross or God’s power to save. It merely emphasizes the extreme importance of our willingness to receive the grace of God to appropriate Calvary’s victory in our personal life. If that be true, then weight loss and the overcoming of a debilitating habit becomes more than a superficial matter solved by will power and dieting. The struggle to defeat cravings lies buried deep at the core of our spiritual being where the first need for the truth is our need for deliverance. FREEDOM FROM GOD’S POINT OF VIEW The “Cravings” manual makes a case for surrender. It addresses our need for freedom from God’s point of view and yields some real solutions to our addictions. Each of the sections, “Eat What I Give You” and “Cravings and Control”, cover a different aspect of not only the rules of eating and obeying, but also the power of the internal programming that controls many things we are caught doing that we do not want to do. Part I of the manual reviews God’s instructions on what to eat and the spiritual consequences of not obeying His instructions. Eating food and the kind of food we choose to eat become a more spiritually critical issue than we have been led to believe. Part II underscores both the biological and the spiritual power of food and the eating of it as they relate to will power. Though at first glance they look to be merely physical activities that carry no moral weight, the Bible identifies food and eating as extremely critical spiritual activities which place them as the unlikely center of the battle for human conquest and spiritual warfare. This section takes a look at the war between cravings and control and the Biblical groundwork laid in Romans 6-8. It examines the heart of the human problem as the struggle between “doing the things I do not want to do” and “not doing the things I want to do”. It allows us to examine the intricate operation of our physical bodies and the inter-connectedness with our souls at a deeper level. It allows us to consolidate the spiritual truths of God’s Word with the biological operations of our various members (organs, etc.) to understand more fully how the Kingdom of Darkness has invaded our lives at every level - including eating and addictions - to destroy the work and purposes of God. 4