Coming Home Counseling

How does addiction work with the soul of a man? Why do we crave or desire to overeat and drink and take drugs that we know harm our bodies? What creates this drive to fill a need that is so strong we will continue to overeat and overtake alcohol or a drug?

First we need to look at what the soul is. Most are in agreement that it consists of the mind, the will and the emotions of a person. The emotions of a man are very powerful and can overcome the logic of the intellect which is does on many occasions. The intellect know sofa the danger yet the power or desire or the craving overrides the logic of the man. Paul talks about this in the book of Romans on how he does the things he doesn’t want to do. He knows they are wrong but does them anyhow. Why does this happen? What causes these emotions that are so strong they violate the law and will try to destroy the very temple of God that we are.

The scriptures speak about leanness in the soul. The opposite of leanness of course is fatness and the bible talks about having a soul that is fat and satisfied. So if we could satisfy the soul and have it filled it would make sense that the body wouldn’t crave and desire overeating and overdrinking.

Let us look at this and see if this lines up with our topic. I have been journaling with scripture for about 3 years. Every day for at least an hour. It is very interesting where this ends up. So this morning I use this scripture out of Isaiah 26:20 “Come my people, enter into your rooms, and close the door behind you: Hide for a little while. Now I add Matthew 6:6 “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret and your Father who is in secret will reward you. So this is what the Father said.

“Close the door behind you and seek the face of The Holy One, seek Him as you would gold and silver. As you would pursue treasure seek me for I am worthy. David, I am worthy, far more than silver and gold and treasure. I am of great value. I am the pearl that is brought for a great price. One greater than Daniel is here, One greater than Solomon, One greater than Jonah. I am the one who fills you deepest need and satisfies your desire. I fill and feed your soul with fatness. When you soul is filled with me you won’t crave drugs or overeat. Obesity is trying to fill an empty soul. Drunkenness is the same. The soul that is lean craves and desires and wants to feel good. When you feel empty you try to fill the void with alcohol, drugs, food or sex. They all work to some extent but the side effects are terrible and it is sinful which is why guilt always follows the infilling. Lord, where are the scriptures that talk about filling of the soul and satisfying our soul?

Psalm 36:7 “How precious is your loving-kindness OF God. And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of your wings. 8: They drink their fill of the abundance of your house. (They drink of the fatness is another version) And you give them to drink of the river of your delights. For with You is the fountain of life. In your light we see light. There are three things to look at here. The abundance of the house, the river of delight and the Fountain of life. Psalm 63:1 Speaks of the same thing. “My soul thirsts for you, my flesh yearn for you. David is saying it is really you he thirsts for and his flesh needs you not food or drugs. Verse 3 says “Because your loving-kindness is better than life, my lips will praise you. (Now here is something, he says the loving-kindness of God is better than life. Isn’t this what we are after is life and feeling like living. And he says the loving-kindness of God is better than life. “My lips will praise you So I will bless you as long as I live, I will lift up my hands in your name. Verse 5 (As I do this, as I praise him and bless Him and lift up my hands) My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness and my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.

Psalm 65:4 “How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to you, to dwell in your courts, We will be satisfied with the goodness of your house, your holy temple. And then here comes the overflow, the abundance, the infilling of the soul so that the emptiness is filled up to overflowing.

Psalm 65:9 “You visit the earth and cause it to overflow. (That is us He visits) You greatly enrich it. (Enrich is not just satisfaction it is filled with richness and wealth) The stream of God is full of water. (Here is the Living water which comes from the throne of God and the Lamb) You prepare their grain, for thus you prepare the earth. Psalm 65:10 “You water its furrows abundantly,(the furrows are the ditches that run toward addictions of the wrong kind, the furrows of the brain that know what button to push, The living water floods the brain and digs new furrows, fills in the old habits. You settle its ridges. (all high places, chips on shoulders, resentments carried for years, unforgiveness, bitterness, All ridges are smoothed down and made level. You soften it with showers,(Here come the rain of the Holy Spirit) You bless its growth. You have crowned the year with your bounty.(loving-kindness) And your paths drip with fatness. The pastures of the wilderness drip, and the hills gird themselves with rejoicing.

So two more scriptures in Isaiah talk about filling up a lean soul and satisfying the desire of the thirsty and hungry craving. Isaiah 26:6 “The Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all His people on this mountain. A banquet of aged wine and choice pieces with marrow. And refined wine. (You don’t want to miss this one, it is already going on.) Psalm 23 says He prepares a table in the wilderness and the call is out to come to the table and eat and drink with Him. One scripture talks about the banquet and all the invitations are sent out and some of the folks couldn’t come. They had some other things to tend to. Most didn’t have time to come to the table and spend time with The King of Kings.

Jeremiah 31:12 “They will come and shout for joy on the height of Zion. And they will be radiant over the bounty of the lord. Over the grain and the new wine and the oil, and their life will be like a watered garden, and they will never languish again. (No more needing drugs alcohol or overeating of food or immoral sex) Verse 13: Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old, together, For I will comfort them and give them joy for their sorrow. I will fill the soul of the priests with abundance or saturate them. And my people will be satisfied with My goodness declares the lord.

So what does this look like: It is the word of God and it works. You can’t make it happen but He watches over His word to make it work. So don’t try to trump it up with soul power, because you can’t do it, but He can make it happen. So here are the words that need to be spoken out loud and then lets check and see if you soul is indeed filled with overflow and no longer crave or desire the drug of choice.

I take refuge in the shadow of your wings, how precious is your loving-kindness Lord, I drink of my fill of the abundance of Your house, I drink of the River of Delight, I take of the Fountain of Life and drink of His goodness, I will declare that my soul is satisfied, filled with marrow and fatness and my lips will praise you and bless your Holy Name. You do visit me and cause me to overflow with living water and you water my furrows and frowning, you settle all my ridges and hardness of soil, You soften me with showers and bless me with growth. I am radiant over the bounty of the Lord, My life is like a watered garden and I will never languish again. My soul is filled with abundance and I am satisfied with the goodness of the Lord.

First was the Crossover and now is the Passover. The Crossover was to take us to the other side. To get into the boat and to go through the solitude to the other side where Christ is. Now the Passover comes from Isaiah 26:20 “Come my people enter into your rooms and close the door behind you. Hide for a little while until indignation runs its course or another translation says it passes over.” Isn’t this a familiar thought, indignation is still going on and Isaiah is saying it is a good idea to enter into your room until this passes over. Verse 21 says, “For behold the Lord is about to come out from His place to punish the Inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.”

This is repeated in the New Testament as a first hand scripture coming from the Lord Jesus himself when He is instructing His disciples on how to pray.

Matthew 6:6 “When you pray go into your inner room, close the door behind you and pray to the Father who is in secret and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

The original Passover comes out of Exodus 12:13 “The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” Do you suppose that the Lord is still punishing the inhabitants of the earth today? Do you suppose some Christians get in the way and are not hiding in their rooms until indignation runs its course? I wonder if this connects with the word in Revelation that says “Come out of her my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues.” Revelation 18:4, 5, “for her sins have piled up as high as heaven and God has remembered her iniquities.” Sounds like our nation today.

Matthew 23:37 , another first hand scripture, Jesus speaking himself, saying, “How often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.” They were unwilling to enter into their rooms and pray for a little while because they didn’t have time. They had things to do and places to go. They had to feed the dog, answer the phone, go to work and make money, don’t just sit around go do something. Well they did and a whole generation fell. Matthew 23:38 “Your house is being left to you desolate.” They thought that we could enter into our rooms and do the prayer thing later. They didn’t know that this wasn’t a suggestion but a command by the King of Kings.

Notice how well this goes with Psalm 91. “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.” Sounds like going into the inner room and closing the door behind you. And verse 4 He will cover you with His pinions just like Jesus said He would cover them like a mother hen covers her chicks. “And under His wings you may seek refuge”. Do you think that some of the diseases today like dementia, cancer, high blood pressure, and heart diseases could be coming because of not obeying what Jesus was telling us to do? Hide for awhile, enter into your room, and put the blood on the door posts of your home. Exodus 12:23 says, “For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to smite you.” And here is an interesting thing that sometimes we miss. “You shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and you children forever.” This is not a suggestion from the King this is a command from the King.

Here is another scripture that sheds some light on this. Exodus 26:26 “I will not put any of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians, for I the Lord, am your healer.” Does this say that you will not get the diseases of the world? No cancer, no dementia, no flu, no colds, not even the big “A”?

Oh come on and get real, you mean all these diseases are punishments for the iniquity of the world and they weren’t meant for the Christians?

Psalm 91 seems to be pretty insistent on this same topic. “No evil will befall you nor will any plague come near your tent.” And in verse 5 you will not be afraid of the terror by night or the arrow that flies in the day; of the pestilence that stalks in darkness or the destructions that lays waste at noon.” The story of World War I talks about a military officer named Whitley who insisted that all his men under his command were to memorize the 91st Psalm. It goes on to state that they went through three major battles in the war without a death when the rest of the troops lost up to 60% of their men in these battles.

In our military there is a term called “friendly fire” which is our own people accidentally killing another person. I think there are many Christians who are dying of fire that wasn’t meant for them and they got hit because of “fire” that was meant for the world. So let’s get some answers. Matthew 26:26 “Take eat this is my body.” This is the Passover lamb. Exodus 12:21 “Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, Go and take for yourselves lambs according to your families and slay the ‘Passover Lamb.’” 22 “You shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts: and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning.” So when your dog barks, the phone rings, the voices tell you that you have to go and do, tell them that you need to go into your inner room and pray awhile because you do not want the diseases of the Egyptians.

In the book of Mark Jesus does an interesting thing.

Mark 4:35 “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was: and other boats were with Him. So I guess we can imagine that the crowd was bothering not only Him but the disciples, I would suppose there was much activity and stress and all the things that go on when there is a large gathering of people. In Mark 6:31 He repeats this somewhat when He says, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while. For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. They went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves.”

We know some about how the brain works. We have a left side or hemisphere where we reason on things and problems, it is the linear side, logic, intellect, and reason dwell there and then there is the right side of our brain or the right hemisphere where the creative side, intuitive sides, emotional side as it is and also where we hear the voice of God. What is interesting is the next scripture on crossing over to the other side. Matthew 14:22 “Immediately He made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He sent the crowds away. Verse 24 now speaks of the problem of the crossover. “But the boat was already a long distance from the land, battered by the waves, for the wind was contrary.” The minute you leave the left brain where all the logic is and try to cross over to the right brain the fight starts. The winds pick up, “What are you doing?” Where are we headed? Logic has to be in control. It has to know everything. Why are we doing this? This doesn’t make sense. Why would you leave a perfectly good place and cross over to another place that is unknown. The good news is in verse 25 is that He met them in the middle and verse 32 “When He got into the boat the wind stopped.” Another passage states that they immediately went to the other side.

Here are some more scriptures that take you over, or take you into a better place. Deut. 12:10 “When you cross the Jordan and live the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security.” He doesn’t say if you cross the Jordan He says when you cross it. Isaiah 55:1 “Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and you who have no money come buy, and eat.” Come buy wine and milk, without money and without cost. This is a crossover scripture. You come to the waters, the river of life. Matthew 11:28 “Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Now we have two choices with what was just said. We can read it and logic it, intellectualize it, discuss it further or we could practice what Jesus was saying. Change only comes about in the right brain through experience. If you don’t experience it nothing much happens. So we take a pen in hand like the ready writer in Psalm 45:1 “My heart overflows with a good theme, I address my verses to the King. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.” We first of all write the scripture that says “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while. They went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves.” Now as you write with your hand your left brain is occupied with writing (it is distracted from reasoning) and low and behold the right brain is free to picture this as you write. So you Come away, to a secluded place, and rest, in the boat, you are crossing over to the other side by themselves. Now you ask the right brain an emotional question. What does it feel like to cross over into this place? Try it out.