Overcoming Addictions
The underlying factor behind addiction is a lack of love. The key to addiction recovery, therefore, is being full of love. Each of us needs a love that is full, constant, personal, and unselfish, and no one who needs something can be the source of what they need. So, if every person needs a love that is full, constant, personal, and unselfish, then no person can be the source of that kind of love. The only one who doesn’t need that kind of love is the One who is the source of that kind of love, and that is God. So, without God, it is impossible for anyone to be full of love and to overcome their addiction.
Everything you need comes from outside of you and must be brought inside for you to live. If it remains outside, even if it is very close to you, you cannot live by it. You can only live by it if it is brought inside. You need oxygen, and you can only live by that oxygen if you bring it inside by breathing. If the oxygen stays at your nose, you will die. It must get to your lungs, into your blood, and then to all parts of your body for you to live. You need water, and you can only live by that water if you bring it inside by drinking. If it stays at your lips, you will die. It must get to all parts of your body for you to live. You also need love, and you can only live by that love if you bring it inside. If it stays outside, even if it is very close to you, you cannot live by it. But how do you bring love inside yourself?
Taking Love
You are created to govern yourself from the inside, and not to be governed from the outside. God will not allow anything else to take over your self-government from the outside, and neither will God Himself take over your self-government. But you were also created dependent upon things outside of yourself to live and function by. Therefore, it is your own responsibility to take into yourself what you need. It is never someone else’s responsibility to take what you need and put it into you. If you need love (which you do) then it is your own responsibility to take the love you need into yourself. It is not anyone else’s responsibility to put that love within you. As God is the source of the love you need, it is His responsibility to make sure His love is available to you, but it isn’t His responsibility to take that love and put it into you. It is your responsibility to take the love into yourself by your own action.
Physically, you take in air by breathing, water by drinking, and food by eating. But you take in every spiritual thing you need (like love) by faith and trust. Everything you need has a source where that thing comes from, and that source is God. To take what God has for you, you must first bind yourself to God (by trust), and then take what He makes available to you and bring it into yourself (by faith). And only when what you need is inside of you can you live and function by it.
God has given everyone a measure of trust and faith, and everyone exercises trust and faith on a moment-by-moment basis. When someone tells you something and you believe it, you have just put your trust in the person and by faith have taken what they said and believed it. Now it is a part of you, and you live and function (or die and dysfunction) by it. When you get into your car and put on your seatbelt, you have put your trust in the manufacturer of the car and seatbelt, by faith you have taken the security that is promised, and you live and function in a state of security even if you have never been in an accident or needed a seatbelt’s restraint before. Your function is not dependent upon the seatbelt itself, but upon what you believe about the seatbelt. You don’t function by a seatbelt, but by the security you need.
But where does security (and every other spiritual need you have) come from? It all comes from God. He is the source of everything you need. The question is, does He love you, and can you trust Him? You can only take love from where you believe it exists, because it is by believing (by faith) that you take in the love you need. So, if you don’t believe God loves you, you can’t take any love from Him. And if you don’t trust Him, you can’t bind yourself to Him to take what you need from Him. So, if you don’t trust Him and don’t believe He loves you, you are stuck. And that is why the devil tries so hard to make everyone believe that God is not trustworthy and isn’t loving. If he can succeed in convincing us of this, then we have no way to be free, for freedom can only come from God. Freedom happens when we trust God which leads to dependence upon and surrender to Him.
Is God trustworthy? Just look at the sun. Can you trust that the sun will set today and rise tomorrow? Can you trust the sun will cross the horizon as it has every other day of your life? Yes. Why? It isn’t because the sun is trustworthy. It is simply a ball of burning gas in the sky. It is God who controls the movements of the earth, the sun, and every celestial body on a moment-by-moment basis. If God were to suddenly remove His immediate and purposeful control of all these things, it would all turn to chaos in a moment. The sun is faithful because God is faithful. God is so faithful and so regular and so organized, that His moment-by-moment regulation of everything that functions appears to us like impersonal laws. But there is a very personal, purposefully involved, and active God behind all things that function.
“‘For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but My kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace be removed,’ says the Lord, who has mercy on you.” Isaiah 54:10. “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments.” Deuteronomy 7:9. “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.” 2 Timothy 2:13. “But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one.” 2 Thessalonians 3:3. “For the word of the Lord is right, and all His work is done in truth.” Psalm 33:4. “Your faithfulness endures to all generations; You established the earth, and it abides.” Psalm 119:90. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” Hebrews 10:23. “Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6. “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23. There is plenty of evidence of God’s faithfulness.
But does God love you? What does He say? “I have loved you so much, that I gave My only begotten Son for you, that if you believe in me, you should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. “Yes, [put your name here], I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.” Jeremiah 31:3. “For when you were still an addict, before you ever did anything right, I died for you.” Romans 5:6. “Look at the scars in my hands. I have permanently etched you into myself. I will never forget you.” Isaiah 49:16. “I am the One who pardons your iniquity and passes over your transgressions. I’m not eternally angry, like you thought I was. I delight in mercy. I will have compassion upon you. I will help you overcome your addictions. I will take all of your sins and mistakes and throw them in the bottom of the ocean where you can never find them again.” Micah 7:18-19.
God is not put off by your addiction. He knows that you aren’t addicted because you want to be. He knows that you are a slave of the addiction, and He is here to help set you free. Does God personally condemn you for participating in your addiction? Would you condemn a slave for continuing to work as a slave when they don’t know how to go free? Of course not! And neither does God. Yes, your addiction hurts you and others. No, you cannot take that addiction with you into heaven to tarnish that perfect environment. Yes, addictions must be overcome in this life. But they aren’t overcome in the context of God reprimanding you, frowning upon you, being frustrated with you, and barely holding back His lightning bolts of vengeance upon you. No! Never!
God loves you. He died for you. He yearns to set you free. He is not angry with you for being addicted. He feels sorry for you being in the position that you are in. And He made provision for your situation already. “But God demonstrates His own love toward [me], in that while [I was] still [a sinner], Christ died for [me].” Romans 5:8. “For God so loved [me] that He gave His only begotten Son, that [if I believe] in Him [I] should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. “If [I] confess [my] sins, [You are] faithful and just to forgive [me of my] sins and to cleanse [me] from ALL unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9. “[You,] Lord [are] merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. [You have] not dealt with [me] according to [my] sins, nor punished [me] according to [my] iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is [Your] mercy toward [me]; as far as the east is from the west, so far [have You] removed [my] transgressions from [me].” Psalm 103:8,10-12. “Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? [You do] not retain [Your] anger forever, because [You] delight in mercy. [You] will again have compassion on [me], and will subdue [my] iniquities. You will cast all [my] sins into the depths of the sea.” Micah 7:18-19. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” Ezekiel 36:26-27. Take these verses and write them down. Go over them again and again. Memorize them. Believe them, because these are God’s promises, and He is faithful.
When you are tempted to give in to your addiction, that is simply a sign that you need love, just as suffocation is a sign that you need air. So, when you are tempted, breathe—take those promises of God’s love for you and recount them, believe them, accept that they are for you right now. And when you believe, the love is yours, and it satisfies your longing so that you don’t have to try to cover the ache with your addiction. You are free for the moment (until you need to “breathe” again). Instead of seeing temptation as something bad that brings you guilt and condemnation (something that causes you to separate from God and use or do what you shouldn’t), see it as a reminder of your need of God’s love—to come to God and “breathe in” His love again. Instead of temptation being something that drives you away from God, use it as a reminder to run to God and be filled.
Relapse
Rarely does someone begin this process of turning to God instead of their addiction without relapses. Relapse is very common. Don’t beat yourself up because of it. A child, when it is learning to walk, always falls. How many times it falls in the process of learning to walk varies with each child, but a parent will give their child the freedom to fall as many times as it takes in the process of learning to walk. If the child has been in the process of learning for 10 years and is still not able to walk, there is an obvious problem. But, if the child is progressing so that they fall down less often, get up faster, and can handle more and more difficult terrain, it’s okay. That is part of the process of learning to walk. And the same is true of learning to trust in God and fill up on His love rather than trying to “fill” the void with the addiction. If you beat yourself up (or get beat up) every time you fall, you will fall hard, stay down a long time, and not be very motivated to get back up. But, if you recognize this is just a part of the process of becoming free, then you don’t fall so hard, don’t stay down so long, and are more motivated to get back up, because you know God is not there to beat you up, but to help you get back up.
God is your friend, not your enemy, in this process. He wants you to be free. He died so that you can be free. He is cheering for you. He encourages you when you get up to stay up. And when you fall down, He encourages you to get up again by His strength. Trust in Him and let Him set you free as you cooperate with Him in that process of freedom.
I have found it helpful to know how I can be free from the guilt of my past, and for that, I recommend you watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7TreoF9hgU&t=19s
Total Surrender is Key
Freedom comes when you trust God and are willing to follow His leading in your life, no matter what that looks like. You have come to the point where you must be free, no matter what—where you are willing to face, lose, give up, do, or experience anything that God asks you to if that is what is necessary for you to be free. You must be willing to be free at all costs, even if that means you die in the process. When freedom becomes the primary objective of your life, you will be willing to face all the things you were never willing to face before—the loss of relationships, reputation, job, finances, comfort, etc., that kept you lying, hiding, pretending, and relying upon yourself to be free. Then, the greatest gain for you will be freedom, and you will pursue it without anything else stopping you, for you always go after the greatest gain. For more on this topic, I recommend this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD0P7vsWb0k&list=PLLD0iQG5_nHSOVGsSetkQ7CmHptF3QRtC&index=7
When you are ready to be free, you will let others know about your problem so that you can have help being free. You will admit that you have a problem and that you need help. You will be transparent about your addiction, not hiding it, lying about it, or minimizing how bad it actually is. You will accept (and/or ask for) accountability partners to help you along the pathway to freedom. And if there are restrictions laid upon you (giving up control/access to the finances, adding accountability/blocking software to computers & devices, cutting off certain relationships, not patronizing certain businesses, getting rid of substances and paraphernalia associated with their use, deleting accounts, etc.), you will submit to those restrictions, knowing that they are for your good. And you will see your life turning around and taking a new direction—one you always hoped for but long ago lost confidence that you could obtain.
Prayer Team
If you would like to be a part of our PRAYER TEAM, please send your name and email address to [email protected] and we will add you to our team. We are grateful for all who have volunteered and are always looking for more prayer warriors.
Ministry Updates
New Paradigm Camp Meeting!
We are going to have our first ever New Paradigm Camp Meeting September 20-24, 2023, at our property in Cabool, Missouri. More information will come as the details are finalized, but keep those dates in your calendar.
Group SessionsJoin us Monday evenings from 6:30-8:30pm Central Time for our group sessions on Zoom. The link for each meeting is: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87592054012, which will be the same link for every subsequent group session. The last group session for the year will be on December 19, and they will resume on Monday, January 9. If you can’t join the meetings in person, you can watch them later on our YouTube channel HERE.
Pump Houses & Driveway
Our old pump houses / well houses were rotting, so we purchased some pre-made ones from a local Amish company. They needed to be lifted in place, so in the process of getting equipment to install the pump houses, we had a ditch made next to our driveway to keep the water from washing ruts through our driveway with every storm, and had a number of stumps dug out that have been in our way. God is so good!
Lessons From Covid
Lessons From Covid is a 11-part series that Dr. Sandoval developed to look at what happened in the Covid pandemic from a scriptural standpoint. The 17 lessons outlined in these 11 presentations are important for us today as we consider other infections, future epidemics or pandemics, vaccine mandates, and other coercive measures of enforcement that will recur in the future and how we are to relate to these things from a scriptural standpoint. Lessons From Covid is now available in HD on flash drive, with 9 hours of video, 11 presentations, and all the PowerPoint slides and PDF files for the entire series—all for only $45 (with free shipping in the US). To order yours, please email us at [email protected].
Counseling or Health Consultations
If you are struggling with personal, relationship, or health challenges, we are available to counsel with you. Virtual appointments can be scheduled through our website at https://npmin.org/appointments
Scheduling Seminars
If you would like to schedule Dr. Sandoval to speak for your church or community, you can contact us at [email protected]. Schedule soon, because he is already booked through 2023 and is taking appointments beginning in March, 2024.
Upcoming Events
2022
December 9-11
Dr. Sandoval will be speaking about mental health and New Paradigm Ministries at the Seventh-day Adventist church in Melbourne, Florida.
December 28-January 1
We plan to have a booth at the GYC conference in Phoenix, Arizona, so stop by and see us.
2023
January 11-15
Dr. Sandoval will be speaking at the Pearland International SDA Church in Pearland, Texas.
January 17-22
We will have a booth at the Adventist Agricultural Association’s annual meeting in Glen Rose, Texas, and would love to see you there.
January 23-28
Dr. Sandoval will be presenting a week of prayer at Eden Valley Institute in Loveland, Colorado.
March 17-19
Dr. Sandoval will be speaking at Oklahoma Academy for a health/mental health weekend.
April 14-16
Dr. Sandoval will be speaking at the SDA Church in Augusta, Georgia.
April 28-30
Dr. Sandoval will be speaking at the SDA Church in Bowling Green, Ohio.
May 11-12
Dr. Sandoval will be speaking for Wildwood Health Retreat’s Diabetes Seminar in Wildwood, Georgia.
May 20-21
Dr. Sandoval will be speaking at the SDA church in Landsdale, Pennsylvania.
June 28-July 2
Dr. Sandoval will be speaking at the Red River Camp Meeting in Stanton, Kentucky.
July 24-30
Dr. Sandoval will be speaking for the Family Camp in Pearland, Texas.
August 2-5
We plan to have a booth at the international ASI convention in Kansas City, so come see us.
August 30 – September 2
Dr. Sandoval will be speaking at the MEET Ministry camp meeting in Huntingdon, Tennessee.
September 20-24
Plan to join us in Cabool, Missouri for our first New Paradigm Ministries camp meeting!
September 28-30
New Paradigm Ministries plans to join the North American Outpost Centers International leadership retreat in Rapidan, Virginia.
November
Dr. Sandoval plans to be in Brazil promoting the Law of Life book, which has been translated into Portuguese.
Donate
If the Lord is laying it upon your heart to support the work of New Paradigm Ministries financially, we would be most appreciative. Your tax-deductible donations can be given via check to:
New Paradigm Ministries
Cabool, MO 65689
14527 Berry Rd.
Or you can donate on our website HERE.