Alcoholics Anonymous Teaches Us to Reckon Ourselves Alive to Sin

"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:11)

Jesus accomplished a perfect work at the Cross, and this work accomplished manifold, manifest victories for everyone who believes on Him.

Part of a life of growing in grace is learning more about all that Jesus did for us at the Cross!

One of the most profound and yet still misunderstood or not even known victories? That when Jesus died on the Cross, we died with Him. We received a new life in Him:

"For Christ, who is our life ..." (Colossians 3:4).

Part of that legacy is that we are dead to sin! There may still be sin in my flesh, but I have a new life, His life in me!

"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8:2)

Whatever feelings or thoughts that may course through my flesh, those thoughts and feelings are not me. I am a new creation in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17).

For the longest time, I was still seeing the sin in my flesh as something that I had to own, take account for, and control.

How can I take control of something that I am dead to? Exactly! This revelation has brought me unparalled peace. Thank you, Jesus.

Now I look at how I was brought into such terrible bondage, and in large because of the perverse lies of the cult that is Alcoholics Anonymous.

AA teaches people that they are born alcoholics, and that there is no cure. What a crock! Alcoholism is the abuse of alcohol, a lust of the flesh like any other.

And there is a reason why this perversion is pervasive in others:

"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." (1 John 2:15)

We need a massive revelation of the Love of the Father! This love is God sending His Son to die for us, to be our mercy seat, and to the life through which we live! (1 John 4:9).

What an incredible love!

Why would I be defined by my sin! I am defined now by His Son!

"Herein is love perfected among us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4:17)

That's our new identity! That is our new self! I am not an alcoholic, a homosexual, a thief, a criminal, an adulterer, a sinner. We are made the righteousness of God in Christ! (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Consider how Jesus referred to the woman who had been caught in the act of adultery:

"When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? 11She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more." (John 8:10-11)

Jesus did not call her "sinner, adulteress, bad girl, evil woman," etc. He called her "woman." He restored her dignity. In fact, before Jesus gave her the gift of no condemnation, He had stooped down to her level (John 8:6) and wrote out the crimes and perversions of the religious leaders who had attempted to trap Him.

How marvelous and wonderful is Jesus. He takes away our sin, gives us the gift of righteousness, no condemnation, and restores us to dignity in Him.

Alcoholics Anonymous teaches people to reckon themselves alive to sin, to stay in their flesh, to assume that they must take control of their bad thoughts and feelings. That perverse lie leads to the Romans 7 experience, in which Paul admits that the good he wants to do, he does not do. The evil he wanted to avoid, he ended up doing. At the very end, he cries out in despair:

"24O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24)

"O wretched man that I am!" Man's problem is not what he does. It's who he is. We are dead in Adam. But when we believe in Jesus, we are made alive in Christ, and thus dead to sin!

Alcoholics Anonymous is evil. They teach people to see themselves and everything they do through the lens of their sins, their failures, their addictions. That is wrong! God our loving Father sees us in Christ, and we are dead to sin. We may still have the flesh, the sin principle, the sin life in our bodies, but we do not have to be overcome with sin:

"Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness." (Romans 6:18)

We are free from sin! It does not define us! This revelation is so wonderful, so powerful! And yet even to this day, the Church does not teach this, does not preach this!

And there's more to this.

For the longest time, I used to think that I had to take care of bad thoughts, bad memories, bad responses. When someone offended me, or when I felt fear in my body, or anger rising up, I constantly felt that I had to do something about it. If someone offended me offhand by saying something, a sense of shame used to well up in me, as though I should have, could have, would have said something to correct that rude remark.

Those pressure points of "should have, would have" are all forms of condemnation. Today, because I know how complete God my Daddy loves me, even accepts me, those slights, those hurts no longer bother me. When we are established in His righteousness, indeed no weapon can prosper against us.

None! No one can say something, anything that could offend us. Even if temper rises up, even if lustful feelings emerge, even if we want to see more or hear more than we should, the love of Father rushes right in, and all that hurt, hate, and harm melts away.

This is so wonderful. This creates so much peace! I LOVE IT!

I Was Troubled About Something, Then He Answered

I used to feel shame about the way other people treated me.

If people treated me badly, and I felt that I had done or had not done what I should have done, then I would feel so bad, so condemned.

This condemnation was quite powerful in my life. When I realize how strong this sense of shame can be, it helps me to understand why sexual abuse is so damaging. My children who have been molested grow up thinking that they had done something wrong. "It was my fault. But what did I do wrong? What should have I done? What do I need to do next time?"

All of that thinking is wrong--all wrong.

If people hurt me, or did not hurt me, if people shamed me or did not shame me, the grace of God does not stop flowing towards me.

This is no longer a life of my having to get back at others. This is no longer a life of striving to think, feel, do the right things in order for God to work in my life. You know what all of this internal gymnastics amounts to?  Frustrating the Grace of God.

Paul writes to the Galatians, the church which was being seduced into going back under law:

"20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."

This is not a joke, this is not a game, this is not a mental trick, or a fantasy. Christ lived in Paul, and Christ lives in each of us who believes on Him (Colossians 1:27; Colossians 3:1-4)

Then Paul writes:

21I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Galatians 2:20-21)

We are not made right with God based on our works. We are righteousness before God because of His grace, because of what His Son did at the Cross:

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Jesus became sin for us, and we were made THE righteousness of God in Him. He lives in us, and we live in Him. We are so one with Christ Jesus, that John the Beloved would write:

"Herein is love perfected among us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4:17)

Paul even writes to the  Ephesians:

"For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones." (Ephesians 5:30)

We are part of His literal body! YES!

So, there were times I would be troubled by the wrongs that people were doing to me. I would sometimes pray: 

"God, help me to bear my boss!"

or

"God, please help me figure out what I am doing wrong."

Or

"God, how can I fix this situation?"

The focus was always on ... myself. What did I need to do? What had I done wrong? How could I get my thoughts and feelings in check?

All of this was frustrating God's grace. What He needed me to do, what He needs me to do, what He urges all of us to do is ... to let Him live through us.

No condemnation in Christ! Stop trying to be a good boy, and let God make us all real boys and girls, in that His life flows through us!

YES!

I found myself still being assaulted by these bad memories of a contested event I had attended last month. I was so angry, fearful, shameful about what had happened to me. I remember sitting in the room where all these conflicts were taking place. I kept asking God to "give me wisdom" as to what I should do."

There is no reason to act like that. There is no reason to feel any kind of shame, either.

When I look back at the incident, whether I did the right thing or the wrong thing, the biggest handicap will always be ... condemnation.

"I should have done this ... I should have done that."

No! A child of God no longer lives in those categories. We live under an open heaven, within the New Covenant, receiving the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness!

YES!

This condemnation emerged in other ways, too, in these sense of pressure, imposition: "What are you going to do about this? What are you going to do about that?"

This kind of internal dialogue was all too common in my life. Today, I have learned that it's no longer about what I do, but letting God do through me. It's about literally allowing him to have the wheel and let Him drive.

This is not a game, and this is not a joke. This is a reality!

I was troubled about the challenges in my life. But it was not about me trying to meet the challenges, but rather letting Christ in me greet the challenges and win them over!

The memories of those moments would come back to me, too. I couldn't figure out why the remembrance of those events would make me angry one day, but not make me angry the next day.

The answer has come to me today--Thank you, Jesus, who IS MY WISDOM!:

I would feel condemned about those memories, that I had to do something about them. But there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus is my life, and I do not have to do anything about them.

I do not have to "watch my back" anymore, for:

"He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber." (Psalm 121:3)

and

"For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways." (Psalm 91:11)

These are not empty promises to make us feel good. This is GOD at work!

All this time, I had been trying so hard. All this time, I was constantly playing emotional whack-a-mole with my feelings.

Now, I understand that not only am I dead to sin (Romans 6:11), but that any tremor or temptation is no longer me, and that I should not feel condemned in any way.

In fact, sin in the flesh has been condemned ALREADY! 

"2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Romans 8:2-4)

Jesus is so good, so wonderful! How can we not love Him?! Jesus did a perfect work!

More Things That I am Finally Learning

I look back on an unjust action which had taken place last year.

I remember feelings so shocked and fearful. I could not understand what was happening, and there was such a sense of fear and terror.

Really, it's not right to use those terms, since I was not being attacked by a wild animal or anything.

Today, I realize why I was feeling the way that I was feeling. I felt that if something bad was happening to me, it must mean that "I did something wrong."

Yet we are no longer under law in Christ Jesus. We are under grace.

This idea that God punishes us with bad outcomes, or that we have done something wrong to deserve unfair outcomes--that is not where we live now.

Even when we sin, even when we fall, even when we fail--grace superabounds.

This is a bad habit which many of us still hold onto. We think that bad things should not happen to us because we are obedient children, doing what we are told, following all the rules.

Grace is not for people who deserve it, or who deserve anything. Grace is for those who do not deserve it, and if we are honest, not one person deserves anything in this life.

We all deserve death, but even while we were still sinners, God our Father sent Jesus His Son to die for us!

"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

It's really amazing, but so true, that I had to get out of these terrible habit of automatically thinking that I had done something wrong when something bad happened to me. Any sense, any trace of condemnation must be rejected, cast aside, cast out.

Do we not believe what Paul wrote to the Romans?

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1, NIV)

Jesus does not go away, does not put pressure on me, does not shame me when I fail.

What He does instead is ... give more grace!

"But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Romans 5:20)

and

"But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble." (James 4:6)

Let's be humble. We need to stop thinking that there is something that we are doing, or that we have avoided doing, that brings in God's favor into our lives. So much of our doing frustrates God's being in our lives, working in and us through us.

For the longest time, I was striving to figure out what I did or not did not do that was bringing such great things to happen to me.

The truth is, it was God blessing me the whole time. He was sending good my way, and all I had done was ask. It was not about what I had done to get God to move. It's that God had always been moving, and I just learned to rest in Him.

The larger revelation which has allowed all the other revelations to break forth in my life? Jesus! He is alive. He is not some mind game, some figment of my imagination. He is not someone who is here today, gone tomorrow depending on my thoughts, feelings, or moods.

Jesus! I love you so much, I never realized how real, how active, how ALIVE you are! Thank you for bearing with me all this time!

He Is My Life, and Now I Am Dead to Sin

This is so exciting.

This is so, so exciting!

Jesus is my life. He is alive. He is taking care of me every day of the week, every week of the year.

It's not about controlling my flesh anymore. The flesh is not me.

I can't believe it has taken me this long to understand that Jesus is my life.

I do not have to correct my "feelings" or thoughts.

They are not me.

This is not a life of trying to be good, trying to be bad, trying to be anything.

This is Jesus, my life!

Wow!

For the longest time, I wrote about this

Whenever I had fears, worries, hurts, I kept thinking that I had to do something about them. I would focus on ignoring bad thoughts and feelings, but then I would get focused on "What do I do now?"

Today, Oh Happy Day, Today!

Thank God for Pastor Joseph Prince!

Thank you, Jesus, for Pastors who have the resolute courage to announce who we are in Christ Jesus!

Check out these revelations, right from God's Word:

"Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 9Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6: 8-11)

We are dead to sin.

It's not who we are. There is still flesh, but it is not us.

I have received Himself, I have received His Life.

I am part of Jesus!

"For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones." (Ephesians 5:29-30)

This is no joke. This is not a game, this is not a mind-bending trick.

I am in Christ, and Christ is in me. We are inseparable.

I am part of His body. This part helps to explain:

"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4:17)

The thing that he has really caused all of this to come to such wonderful fruition is that I was so busy looking at my thoughts, my feelings.

I kept thinking that those feelings of fear, angry, resentment, lust, etc. -- those were "my feelings" that I had to do something about.

Today, Oh Happy Day! I realize now what has been preached to me all this time.

Of course I can declare "Don't be bullied by your body." We have a body, but the body is not who we are in full. I am a spirit, I possess a soul, and I live in a body, a body which will one day be fully redeemed. AMEN!

Why has it taken me so long to get this?

Because I kept trying to be the righteousness of God in Christ, when I already was the righteousness of God in Christ.

Paul writes this powerful revelation clearly in the past tense:

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

He--God the Father--made (past tense) Jesus sin for us -- that we might be made (not "become", not "will become" but past tense "be made"--the righteousness of God in Christ.

I am not trying to be righteous, and when I declare that I have been made the righteousness of God in Christ, I am declaring a fact. I am renewing my mind to the truth of God's Word (Romans 12:1-2).

As long as we refuse to reckon ourselves dead to sin, as long as we continue to believe that the sin in our flesh is still something that we have to deal with, then we are declaring that Jesus somehow did not complete a perfect work at the Cross.

But that is simply not true!

Now, what was happening in my life, and what happens in the lives of many Christians, that they end up in the Romans 7 experience?

They keep trying to fix their flesh, not reckoning themselves dead to sin. They still try to keep the law, thinking that the Ten Commandments are a standard to live by, when in fact they are a standard which no one can keep, showing us our dead-in-trespasses state, and thus our need for the Savior!

"Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." (Romans 3:20)

and

"Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." (Galatians 2:16)

Paul could not have been clearly:

"23But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 24Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." (Galatians 3:23-25)

Jesus is our Life, and it is a life of walking in the Spirit, not the Flesh:

"3For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3:3-4)

and also

"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." (Galatians 5:16)

So, when there are feelings of wrath, rage, lust (works of the flesh), we are to reckon ourselves dead to those sins (Romans 6:11), and to the sin in our flesh.

It's not something we have to do anything about it!

HALLELUJAH!

He Cares for Me

"6Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: 7Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." (1 Peter 5:6-7)

My parents did not believe that God cares for all of us actively.

They simply did not believe this.

They did not know the love of the Father.

They did not know that Christ Jesus is our Savior, our Shepherd, that He is watching out for us, and that He is moving in and around in our lives.

It has become more and more apparent to me that that is why my father worries about me, and why my mother was so full of cares.

They did not believe that You are caring for me in every way. They saw a big, wide world, and they saw themselves as brought down under the circumstances.

They felt abandoned. They did not know that they were "cared for" by a loving Father, a loving Savior.

This is quite a profound revelation for me, and it helps me to understand why my father worried about me so much. He refused to let go, and he even broke the law to keep tabs on me. All of that is wrong.

God is really big enough! He cares for me. I wish that my father and mother believed that God cared for them, too.

This is a really new, really different, even somewhat challenging revelation for me. All of my life, I kept thinking that I had to put out the fires in my mind. For the longest time, I had believed that I had to take care of all the challenges, all the difficulties in my life.

I did not see You big enough, Lord Jesus. I did not see You as someone who not only can take my cares, but cares enough for me to keep casting them to you.

This has taken me so long, but I am so glad for all the troubles that I had faced. They got me to the place in which I cast all my cares on you. I have no fears, no worries, no cares. I see you as ever present, not going away, never getting overwhelmed or burdened by my cares.

You care for me, Lord Jesus. Thank you! YOU CARE FOR ME!

I used to worry about how I would feel, or what I might struggle with in the future. I used to worry about what I would do if I was pushed to feel a certain way, or I was tempted in some fashion.

Today, I understand the fullness of the rest which the writer of Hebrews talks about:

(Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." (Hebrews 4:11)

A friend of mine shared with me earlier today that I have indeed entered into His rest. I see you taking care of everything for me, Lord Jesus. This is really incredible, and I am so happy. Thank you again!