Testimonies of how Christ broke your chains of bondage...

[cheech]

We would love to hear your testimonies on how God helped you beat your addiction or how he got you through your toughest moment. You must still be free of this addiction though.

So tell us how Christ helped you to break the chains of bondage and set you free from your addictions (remember...it's more than just drugs and alcohol...you can be bound to depression, anxiety, gambling, etc)!

[ChristsCourage]

I do have a question before I share my testimony: What's an appropriate amount of time before I can give my testimony?

[ChristsCourage]

Hello, ladies, and, gentlemen:

My addiction story begins on March 20, 2007, 5:11 pm: I started the topic For any and all addictions, please read, and, I told everybody that I decided to give up carbonated drinks. Well, I feel a few times, and people were sooooo encouraging to me to get back on the horse, and, try again, that I did. I kept falling over and over again, until Friday June 1, 2007: That night I decided to have a soda when we went out for supper that, I told myself that after this, I am not having another soda again. It was an uphill battle at first, that, I almost decided to give in for the last time, and, keep drinking soda for the rest of my poor Christian life. But, GOD told me that I needed to keep going. And, I am grateful that HE nudged me to keep going that I have made it my 15th day, and, going strong. I know thats may not seem like a lot, but, this is the longest I have gone with an addiction. So, if you have any questions, feel free to ask away. I did feel like with each day passing, that, I could go on, but, it was hard for me. I hope those of you who read this are encouraged by what I had to say. Stay strong in the fight for freedom. And, always remember: I will never leave you nor forsake you. Thank you, and, have a CHRIST filled day!!!!!!!

[cheech]

Sorry it took me so long to respond Dana...I haven't been on as much as I've wanted.

As for the testimony...many will have a difference of opinion on a time frame for giving a testimony. For me, if I can hold out 6 months I consider that good . It takes time to overcome things. Your testimony sounds good though and I'm sure it will be an encouragement to many .

[margoose]

I had a marijuana addiction for a couple years, but after I asked God to help me in my problems (read my testimony in Testimonies section) my girlfriend helped me get over it and I went without it cold turkey for 6 months, then I did it one last time (October last year) and I couldnt stand myself for a couple days and my girlfriend nearly left me, but decided that I needed the encouragement. I havnt done it since, and I dont want to.

[Kingsdaughter]

I hope this is in the right forum. I wanted to share how the Lord set me free from unforgiveness.
A couple of years ago the Lord started to speak to my heart about forgiveness and for the longest time, I knew what He was asking me to do, but I just didn't want to do it.

He wanted me to forgive everyone that has ever hurt me physically, mentally,and emotionally.
I put if off and for months, every time I prayed, the Lord would lead me to a scripture verse on forgiveness.

For a while I didn't have any peace and felt like God was distant, even though the bible says He will never leave you nor forsake you.

I was convicted by the Holy Spirit, telling me that I needed to deal with this sin of unforgiveness in my heart and that night I made a decision to finally deal with it. I was praying and said to the Lord " I can't do this in my own strength, you need to do it Jesus and I'm willing to forgive them now.

That same night I turned on the tv and there was a pastor on there talking about FORGIVENESS, coincedence? No way, that was the Lord's doing.

I got out my notebook and started taking notes. The pastor said to make a list of everyone in your past who has hurt you and I mean everyone. Then he said to put a chair in front of you(facing you of coarse) and pretend that person is sitting in the chair. ( I thought that this was silly, but I knew that the Lord wanted me to do it, so I did) then he said to go down the list one by one and tell that person how much they hurt you, and when your done,tell them that you forgive them and you release them in Jesus name.

I prayed and asked the Lord to give me strength to do this and I knew that He was there with me.
I went down the list, one by one, and I spent quite a bit of time on the first two people on that list. I was angry at first, then I cried..alot, but I did it, and when I was done I felt like a huge weight was lifted off of me.

The two months that followed, boy was the enemy and his demons working overtime, because the thought of all of these people kept popping up in my head and everytime the enemy would send that thought in my mind I would say " I have forgiven(the persons name) in Jesus name". or I would say " Lord cover my mind with your blood".

About six months later the Lord led me to pray for these people and I did. I prayed that the Lord would reveal Himself to them and that He would bless them, I actually was happy to do it, I felt joy in my heart praying for them. That's when I knew that I was set free, I knew at that moment that the Lord had broken the chains of bondage to unforgiveness in me.

Not only was I set free from unforgiveness, but from bitterness and anger too, because they both stemmed from that.
Now I am quick to forgive, because I know if I don't, that root of bitterness will spring up in my heart and I don't want that to happen. I will not let unforgiveness take my peace and joy again. He that is in me is greater than he that is in the world!
So that's my long story. Thank you Lord Jesus for what you have done for me.

[Manasseh's Warrior]

Great testimony!!

[elsa]

Thankyou for sharing i tried to send my thread to you but am new to the sught and so it is a new thread and tells about me and my presant strugle to forgive thankyou and shalom elsa

[Kingsdaughter]

Thank you Elsa, I found your thread and I'm going to snd you a pm. I believe you will be able to access your pms in a week. I will pray for you elsa and I will be looking forward to hearing from you

KD

[Lonman]

My biological father left after I was born so I never knew him, I learned later that he had been a life long alcoholic, and he died from long term alcohol abuse damage to his body. My mother was also a heavy drinker and smoker, and she partied almost every night. She had remarried a man who also had many addictions in his life, including being very angry, violent, and abusive. After my mother divorced my abusive stepfather, she partied for days at a time, and left us alone with no food. She died late one night when a drunk driver hit her head-on on the freeway when she was driving home from a bar. My stepfather died a short while back from a heart attack due to being a chain smoker for so many years. Plus I have many close family members that have had their lives either damaged or destroyed because of addiction problems. Addiction stole just about everything and everyone important to me while growing up and it left me very damaged.


As a teenager, I experimented with various drugs, I smoked, drank, and played with addiction as many teens do. But I remember that when I drank alcohol, the world seemed to be made right for the first time in my life. The only problem was that I would always drink more and more until I got drunk. I quit drinking when I became a Christian and entered the military at age 18. I married and had two children during this time. Around the end of my marriage, I could sense that my wife was not happy and wanted to leave, she was a practicing secret bulimic and very depressed most of the time and it seemed like she was not satisfied with anything no matter what I did to help her. I could not handle all the pressure and strife so I decided to try to escape it all through drugs, pornography, and alcohol, which of course was the wrong way to deal with it. I should have trusted God, but fear and idolatry ruled my life. After my wife left she had an affair with a young man and then got a divorce. My wife married this man who later molested my oldest daughter so my ex-wife hid the children for years in order to keep me from finding out. I really went down the tubes after all this because I missed my kids so much and I felt really bad for my part in the failure of my marriage. I just wanted to not feel pain anymore so I used different types of addictions to get me through a day, and to fight off the constant nagging sorrow and depression that I felt.

I remarried eventually to a woman with a lot of addictive behaviors and habits just like myself. Besides a few normal addictions, she had a serious rage problem and would at times go into violent rampages. Her father had been a murderer, and violence seemed to be passed down to her. I started smoking and heavily drinking during this time and things went downhill quickly. The pressure just seemed to grow and grow until my drinking started to get out of control. I had been in the Air Force at the time and my addiction problems started to seriously affect my job performance and threaten my military career. My binges would last longer than I wanted, and I couldn't show up for work. I ended up being AWOL and was demoted and punished several times. I had to scrub chairs with a toothbrush in front of the very people I used to supervise, and pull weeds at the front gate of the Air Force base where everyone could drive by and see me. The humiliation and shame was constant and nearly unbearable. My rank changed so much that I could have put my stripes on with velcro. Those that I used to manage and mentor now looked upon me with disgust and disdain. It was the most horrible and demoralizing experience of my life. I then went through two treatment centers, and 11 detoxes in 1 year. I went into detoxes regularly with .43 to .48 blood alcohol levels, and almost always, once I started drinking, I could not stop. I was an alcoholic without a doubt. The drug counselors even made bets that I wouldn't live through the weekend.


The military made me go to 3 AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) meetings a day. I also had to go to my Commander's office twice a day to take antabuse (a drug that is supposed to make you violently ill if you drink), but I drank on it anyway, and didn't get very sick which must have been God's grace. After completing the military in-patient alcohol recovery center program, things seemed to have one last glimmer of hope, but I soon relapsed once again. I was "released" from the military with an honorable discharge because of all my good years of service, but basically I was kicked out of the military because I was an alcoholic and could not stop drinking. My second wife got a divorce as well and we parted ways for good. Life seemed to calm down a bit after this, but I felt about as low as a person could feel. I felt hopeless and depressed and just wanted all the pain to be over. Even suicide started looking pretty good, but I didn’t want to take the risk of going to hell if I did it.


I had become a Spirit-filled Christian at age 17, but still I had serious problems with addictions and I couldn't understand why God didn't just miraculously set me free. My life seemed ruined beyond repair, then early one morning I had an experience with the Lord that changed everything. He spoke to me about some things that would soon happen, and I felt hopeful again for the first time in a long while. I then became a licensed minister and went to California and worked with a fellow minister there. We ran a home for the addicted and homeless outside of Disneyland, and we lived with about 35 drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes, and homeless people in a 3-bedroom home. The ministry workload, problems and relapses of the people living there, and counseling sessions were non-stop. I felt overwhelmed and quickly went into a state of overload. The fellow minister I worked with there drank and encouraged me a few times to drink as well thinking that maybe I could control it with God's help now I guess. I started to think that maybe I had indeed been healed of my addiction problem, so I gave drinking another try. Dumb move. The problem was still there, and I started getting drunk just like before. This period of time was so disheartening because I just didn't know how to get free from my addictions. I had tried to quit things so many times, but I always just ended up addicted to some new destructive thing. It was certainly baffling to me to be sure. But at the end of my striving, God stepped in to help me.


I went to Canada and got married to a wonderful Christian girl whom I had known while I was ministering in California. The Holy Spirit then began to work with me there and show me how to get free from addiction from the inside out. He showed me why I used substances (pleasure idols) for comfort and protection, and He took me back to the roots of my pain and fear that I was trying to deaden with drugs. Day by day, and little by little, I noticed that I was finally able to let something go without replacing it with some new addiction. I noticed that as He walked me through and healed all my old emotional pain that I didn't need all the "pain relievers" anymore like I used to. There had been so many lies sowed into me as a child that had created deep roots of fear that had kept me deceived and bound as an adult. I learned that the only way to freedom was acceptance of my addictive physical condition, and complete surrender to God's plan to help me, and heal me. God progressively set me free from my addictions one by one until I was finally free and no longer running to some new addiction just because things got tough. His way worked.

Now I have been free from all addictions for a number of years now, and I am so glad I don't have to go through all the hard work and stress of practicing an addiction anymore. I have a lovely wife and a great marriage of over twelve years, and I feel great physically, mentally, and spiritually. I am also glad that if I died tonight, that I would not have to worry about seeing all the terrible things that I used to do plastered up on a big screen for me, the Lord, and everyone else to see during my life-review judgment. I'm glad that I don't have to worry about going to hell should I die anymore, and I'm also glad that there is no longer anything blocking my fellowship with God, or His ability to use me in the Earth. I’m also glad to be free of all my old emotional pain. Your problem may be impossible for you to fix alone, but it is not impossible for God to fix if you are willing to surrender to His plan fully and unconditionally, and to just cooperate with Him. He has helped many people with worse addiction problems than you, believe it or not. God loves you so much more than you can see right now my friend. Jesus said that those that hunger and thirst after righteousness would be filled. That means that God has a specific plan just for you to set you free. You just have to truly want it from your heart, and then allow Him to lead you though it. I promise you that if you really want to be free from your addiction problem, then God will help you to get free. God loves you "as is", but He loves you too much to leave you broken and enslaved to addiction. And with His help my friend, you will stay free from addiction for good this time. Lonnie Mackley


MT 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

[Kingsdaughter]

Oh Praise the Lord Lonnie!!! What an amazing testimony of the Lords power in your life. An amazing testimony of His love for us! Amen brother!

[DanDMan64]

Cheech, I've been waiting for a few months to post here until the "six month" rule was fulfilled.

As you know from other postings at other threads, I was one who struggled with porn addiction for several years, "actually since about age 10", and even though I called myself a "Christian" for most of that time, I often stumbled with this problem and felt undeserving of God's grace and useless for His service.

It was on or about the last week of August of 07 that I had a "re-encounter" with Christ and decided to try once more to try to "kick this bad habit" once and for all, and I'm happy to say today, that even though I've had some close calls, I've managed to stay away from porn and my walk with Christ is getting better and stronger every day.

I want to give credit where credit is due and therefore I thank God the Father, His Son Jesus and my wonderful Counselor The Holy Ghost for showing me the way to beat this thing, and my praise and adoration go out to Him for being faithful to His promises and helping me realize that indeed, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me".

This website was very instrumental in His plan to help me get back in "the straight and narrow", as I met many wonderful brethren and "sisteren" who were used by God to edify me either by giving me advise, or by allowing me to be used by God to edify them as best I could, and I apologize to anyone whom I might have hurt or offended during this process as, I was trying to get-up and walk again after a long time of spiritual slumber.

I know the battles will still come my way, but I praise God I have red the end of the book, and I know we have already won the war, and by His grace and through His power I have faith I will continue to persevere till the end and claim my salvation, as long as I keep my eyes focused on my Lord, and continue to not get distracted by the lies of the enemy.

A word of advise for anyone still struggling with any addiction; Getting through it is a Team effort, and if you're truly sincere about beating your particular brand of addiction then you have to do your part in staying away from those things that entice you to betray The Lord, and be aware of the snares the devil will try to lay down for you and don't fall into them, claim the blood of Jesus which is a mighty weapon, and call out to the Father when you feel the weakest and let Him carry you through, be constantly aware of His presence and acknowledge that there's never a time when you're ever alone.

I don't know what else to say, other than staying close to The Lord and living life one day at a time is key, among other things He will reveal to you as you get into His word, (another key).

Never Give-up, never surrender!

[Kingsdaughter]

A wonderful testimony brother Dan. I am reminded, by your story, that we are in a spiritual warfare and that our weapons are not carnal, but mighty in God to pull down those strongholds in our life. the enemy does indeed seek to kill, steal, and destroy. Praise God that He that is within us is greater!!!!! May the Lord continue to strenthen your faith in Him and I break the chains of addiction in Jesus Name and by the power of His blood. Amen.

[Slug1]

Tell People

I have been asked lately, “How do you give it all to God and then leave it there at the Foot of the Cross?”

Our discussion was about sin that we struggle with. We all struggle and if we don’t, we’re just blinded or refusing to admit it. Many give their sin to God and don’t sin that specific sin anymore. They place it at the Foot of the Cross and leave it there. I look at it this way… we all walk a path that God has placed us on and along that path are struggles, some that we allowed and some that God has placed before us. The struggles that God places before us are not sin but instead are tribulations to help us learn, develop, and mature so I won’t elaborate on these at this time.

The struggles that “we” place before ourselves are usually something we’re doing that is sinful and separating us from God. Thus the struggle as we are convicted by the Holy Spirit that we are doing something wrong or holding onto something that is causing the struggle. I could list examples but it would be endless as we all have our own specific struggle(s).

So how do we “truly” give a struggle to God? So completely that we don’t take any portion of it back. For me, I have failed in doing this in the past concerning a sin covered by two words that we find in the Bible… Sexual Immorality.

Failure to give up this sin brought me to a place that God wanted me. Broken and crying out to Him, right at the Foot of the Cross where He wanted me to “truly” leave the sin.

That day I was led to this scripture: Proverbs 3:32

32 For the perverse person is an abomination to the LORD,
But His secret counsel is with the upright.

As I wrote in my journal (yeah, I journal), “I grieve as I read the first part but I now fight to be upright!” I fasted that day and in the evening I placed myself once again before God with my wife and some close friends as witnesses. I was led by this: James 5:16

16 Confess your trespassesto one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

I prayed to God and laid myself bare before God and confessed it all, nothing was held back from that deep dark closet I had always refused to fully empty out. I had in the past, picked and chose what to give to God and this kept satan’s foot in the door to open later and restock the shelves.

I then received prayer from all with me that evening and I was delivered from my sin and it was “truly” left at the Foot of the Cross.

So, all this testimony you had to read through to reach the whole point of this blog. As I stated earlier, how do you give it all to God? Then, how do you leave it there?

Well, for me and I pray that this helps others out there understand how God will turn our struggles, even our sin into something GOOD! My struggle with addiction to fantasy lust and masturbation has enabled God to use me to minister to others who are presently suffering from this and various other sins dealing with pornography… Sexual Immorality.

But the main question is how am I able to leave this sin at the Foot of the Cross after so many years of being bound and chained by it? Good question and the easy answer could have been, “Because I gave it to God and I meant it that final time.” This didn’t satisfy even my need to understand. So I prayed and God answered me quite clearly…

“Tell people, confession, testimony, allow your failure to be known and be used by Me to help other people and I will use up everything you placed at the Foot of the Cross and there will be nothing left for you to take back”

So, this is how I “truly” left that sin at the Foot of the Cross and I have not taken it back. This is why I am so open about this and remain… free!

Edit: The full testimony is located here: http://bibleforums.org/showthread.php?t=177345

[HisLeast]

As I wandered through dangerous territory, I stopped to smash something beautiful. He took hold of me, hauled me to the very brink of Destruction. There he held me suspended over the dizzying drop to horror and oblivion and let my feet dangle uselessly. Then he set me down on the safe side, swept up the pieces of something beautiful that I shattered, placed them in my hands and very sternly pointed back to the road I should have been walking on.

I'm still walking there, but I'm holding the pieces of that something beautiful while they heal back together.