Wounded hearts, souls, and minds are at the root of addictions!
Hope and healing through God’s truth!
Most addictions, fetishes and deep toxic distorted self-thoughts are rooted in emotional abusive (including verbal/physical abuse) wounds that occur in childhood. Proverbs 18:2 (NKJV) 21 “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit”. The fruit of the tongue either speaks life into a person’s heart, soul, and mind, or the fruit (words/actions) speak death.
All people are born sinners fallen short of the glory of God. We all need salvation of the new birth transformation (Acts 2:38). The newborn baby is extremely vulnerable to how they are nurtured emotionally and physically. When a baby is loved and nurtured in a healthy environment throughout his/her life, he/she will enter into adulthood with a sense of emotional healthiness. When a baby is neglected (other than the basic needs being met) and abused in any form continually, he/she will enter into adulthood with deep emotional wounds that affect the heart, soul, and mind.
The heart, soul, and mind (Greek definitions of these words overlap one another) is the inner self where a person thinks, feels, makes decisions, volitional will and process happenings in life – the physical brain is the processor/computer. The Wonderful Counselor says, Proverbs 23:7 (NKJV) 7a “ For as he thinks in his heart, so is he”. A person’s words/actions reveal what is in the heart. The emotionally wounded person feels worthless, helpless, hopeless, unlovable, etc. Loving God, loving self and loving others will be a rocky road because of the toxic view of self. Salvation removes sin from the heart, but salvation does not remove life’s experiences or wounded emotions. Healing for emotional wounds comes through the transformation power of God’s Word (Romans 12: 1-2). A new babe in Christ must be taught how to replace toxic thoughts with God’s truth. When we know God’s truth, it will make us free!
Salvation removes sin from the heart, but salvation does not remove life’s experiences or wounded emotions. Healing for emotional wounds comes through the transformation power of God’s Word (Romans 12: 1-2). A new babe in Christ must be taught how to replace toxic thoughts with God’s truth. When we know God’s truth, it will make us free!
Our value is not based on our performance, pedigree or position in life! God is no respecter of persons. God creates all humanity – He is our Creator! God so loved the world that He gave Himself in the flesh as Lord Jesus Christ on the cross – He is our Savior! God performed as Creator and as Savior – it was not our performance. God’s love is unconditional. The wounded heart struggles with being able to understand and take ownership of God’s unconditional love. It can create a distorted Father-God concept. The question, “If my earthly parents were unloving and abusive, how can I trust God as my heavenly father who I cannot see?”
When an emotionally wounded person (who is saved, but still hurting) discovers a fetish or an addiction of any sort, the addiction works as a short-term pacifier. As soon as the pacifier action is ended, the brain says, “I want more of that ‘feel good’ feeling.” The more the pacifier is used; the physical brain creates new pathways desiring the addiction. The repetitive participation in the addiction creates physical brain damage. This creates a double need for healing of the emotional wounds with the continual use of the addiction plus the guilt because of the sin issue of the addiction or fetishes. When a wounded person is willing to go through the greater pain of change than to remain in the pain that is the same, emotional healing is guaranteed by exchanging the toxic thoughts with God’s truth that transforms the heart, soul, and mind. It is allowing God to do ‘exploratory spiritual surgery’ of the heart. The New Testament letters
When a wounded person is willing to go through the greater pain of change than to remain in the pain that is the same, emotional healing is guaranteed by exchanging the toxic thoughts with God’s truth that transforms the heart, soul, and mind. It is allowing God to do ‘exploratory spiritual surgery’ of the heart. The New Testament letters were written to the church to inform believers who we are in Him. We must take the toxic thoughts captive and replace with God’s truth (2 Corinthians 10: 4 – 5).
Paul wrote to the Corinthians – 2 Corinthians 5: 17 – 21 NKJ – “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” The word new is defined (Strong’s #2537) “New, unused, fresh, novel. The word means new in regard to form or quality.” Salvation makes us a new creation in Christ – we must refuse to allow the pain from the past to define who we are today in Christ (Romans 8:1-2). In my 25 years of counseling as a Certified Pastoral Counselor, I’ve been a conduit of God’s truth to witness the transformation of thousands of saved people who exchanged their emotional toxic thoughts with God’s truth that enabled them to break the chain of the addiction. We are God’s chosen generation, peculiar people = special treasure, His royal priesthood and a holy nation (1 Peter 2:9) because of His love shown to us by Him becoming the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world (Romans 13:8).
Healing of the wounded heart, soul, and mind includes understanding the power of forgiving others the abusive emotional pain. We can only forgive the emotional pain. We cannot forgive the abuser’s sins. The abuser must go to God and ask for his/her own forgiveness. God is the one who died for our sins. Through the power of God’s Spirit, it is possible to forgive the emotional pain to be set free from the events of the past. We must choose to forgive. We must choose to do the work of the healing process. We must take ownership of God’s truth defining self with the understanding that we have great worth because of God – He is our Creator and Savior! We can do nothing to make us worthy of His love! Jesus paid it all on the cross!
It is possible to overcome any type of addiction or fetish. We must allow God’s love and truth to penetrate the heart, soul, and mind. God’s commandment is that we are to love Him with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength – allowing God to control our thoughts, feelings, and actions. God’s desire is for all of us to surrender everything to Him for His glory!
I provide counseling nationwide by phone (636) 448-0121 and Skype/Facebook video messaging worldwide as long as a person speaks English. Go to: www.carolclemans.org and read ‘about ministry’ page that gives details of counseling, teaching for churches/conferences and complete bio.
It is my heartbeat to be the conduit of God’s truth through teaching, counseling, and writing. God’s desire is for everyone to be saved and emotionally healed being set free from toxic thinking by His truth. I pray that church leaders will become hungry to become healing helpers for the saved wounded people. Uneducated church leaders can add to the emotionally wounded person out of ignorance by saying, “You just need to pray more.” Prayer is absolutely part of the healing, but the true transformation happens through the power of God’s Word (Romans 12: 1- 2) replacing toxic thoughts that create feelings with defining who we are in God through His wonderful, powerful Word!
Carol Clemans, Certified Pastoral Counselor, Certified Christian Life Coach, Certified as a Sexual Addiction Recovery Facilitator, Bible teacher. www.carolclemans.org – bio, 375+ articles, teaching CD’s & DVD’s, book: God’s Design for Marriage softcover or eBook: amazon.com. Ministry ref: Pastor Daniel Batchelor of Dupo. IL. Carol is married to Rev. Harold Clemans 47 yrs., Bible teacher 50+yrs., Certified Pastoral Counselor 25 yrs., mother/grandmother 42 yrs.