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James 5: 7 & 10 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. The very first step in any recovery program is to submit to God...admit to Him that you are powerless over, fill in the blank, what ever it is that you just can't stop doing, whether it's alcohol, food, porn, cigarettes, another person, being in control, you name it. Keep in mind, that if there's a name for it, someone's already done it, and the only shame is being ashamed of what you've done. The devil thrives on fear, guilt, shame and lying. In that environment he's snuggly and happy, and you are not. There's one step here that James leaves out that Jesus and Paul make clear that we must do, and that's to cast out the strong man, put on your armor and don't take it off. You can't resist the devil very well when one of his minions is there in your head fighting you all the way with thoughts that sound like this: you already had 1, might as well go ahead and have as many as you like now; or, you loser, you'll never be free from this; or how about this one, this is just the way I am, and I'm just gonna hafta accept myself for who I am, or how about this one: I ate so much of this cake or container of ice cream, that my family will freak out, I'll hafta finish this one off and go buy another so they won't know. Those are all lies straight from the pit of hell. When you have an issue with anything you can't put down, you have an addiction, period. So many people are social drinkers then something clicks in their body and they can't drink socially any more. They believe that if they quit drinking for awhile, that they can go back to drinking socially. Nope, it doesn't work that way. When that switch went off, that was the open door slamming shut to your prison. According to Dr Henry Wright and the Be In Health principles, the spiritual root of addictions is an unloving spirit, you don't love yourself. Jesus described it perfectly in Matthew 12: 43-45 He describes how when the unclean spirit is gone out of a person, he wanders thru dry places seeking rest and finds none. Then he decides to go back to the house he was thrown out of and finds it swept, clean and empty. Then he goes and brings 7 more with him that are worse than he is. That person is worse off than he was to begin with. Notice that the house is clean and empty. Once you decide you're done and don't wanna participate with that yucky addiction, you MUST cast out the strong man. I've seen many many people who quit drinking or drugging, yet they smoke like a chimney, stuff their faces with doughnuts or get involved in a relationship. All they've done in that case is change seats in the Titanic, the strong man is still there just manifesting in another form. You MUST then pick up your spiritual tool box and get to work. That's how you keep the house not just clean, but filled. Then, you can resist the devil and he flees. Nature abhors a vacuum. If you aren't working a recovery program, you will return to your addiction, or you'll be mean as a snake as you "white knuckle" your way thru abstinence. That's aka sodriety. The big book of AA teaches that resentment is the number one cause that people go back to their addiction. Be In Health teaches about bitterness being the main doorpoint for other yucky pucky's to come back in. That's what the 4th step is all about. Finding out who you're mad at, what they did, and what you did as a result of it. I see so many sponsors say that their sponsee must write down what the person did to hurt then in 10 words or less. What a joke! You can't have suffered abuse for years and express all your hurt and resentment towards that person in 10 words or less. That's why I see people going thru the steps over and over. If there's still one single yucky puck in there that didn't get puked out, it'll remain there with the door open for the rest of them to come back and bring 7 more worse than the ones that were puked out. That's why in the 12th step, it says to help someone else and apply these principles to EVERY area of your life. At Be In Health, the last "R" is Restore someone else. You can't just remain in one place. You're either part of the problem or part of the solution. You're either getting help or helping someone else. Thank You Papa God for revealing to me Your More Excellent Way of living. I know, Papa that I haven't arrived, I'm a work in progress, I still have a long way to go, but because of Your grace, I'm not where I was before.

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. We as Believers make a choice and submit ourselves every day in order to Grow Spiritually. God is a Loving Father and knows whats best for us. 1 Peter 5: 8-9 Be alert and of sober mind. You enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him , standing firm in the Faith, because you know that the Family of believers throughout the World is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

We cannot serve both the world and God.

Submitting myself to God is the best thing that I or anyone else can do. By so doing I know that I will not only be doing His will but be in His will. Therefore, when I am tempted He will always provide a means for me to escape.Hence I am able to resist the devil who will run from me. Hallelujah! Praise You Lord! I'm yours Lord.

Two definite directions given by God: (1) Submit to God and (2) Resist the devil. Dear Lord give me the strength to do Your will. I submit myself to You and with Your power I will resist the devil and his schemes/lies.

this is so true i,ve seen nights when my mine begins to wounder i,ll start singing praise and worship songs to my God and my mine becomes clear and the next thing i know i,m asleep.

Recently I stayed at a motel room that gave me the "creepy crawlies". Odd noises in the night indicated a possibility of some kind of spirit presence. Maybe it's purpose was to ruin my sleep there because it kept waking me up. At one time it pinched me, which jolted me awake. Later a hand grabbed my face which of course woke me up. I actually wasn't afraid. I resisted and rebuked it at which time it released me. As it did so I heard a strange sound not with my ears, but my spirit. I lay there for a few seconds in surprise. Then I spoke: "Whatever spirit is here, I cast you out in the name of Jesus... begone!" The room was completely quiet after that.

This chapter seems to describe just how "bad" believers can be when they are still immature in the Lord and have not learned to walk in the Spirit and are still conformed to the world and not transformed (by the renewing of their mind). Romans12:1,2 ...we need to present your bodies to God (submit).