Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed.  John 4:53

Exact mean to be precise as opposed to approximate.  God works in the exacts.  God’s timing is precise.  God will never be almost.  God is always accurate in His ways.  Because God is always exact, when we come to Him we are living in His exact moment experiencing Him fully.

In the fifth step we are asked to admit the exact nature of our wrongs.  We do not talk in general terms about what happened.  We don’t gloss over any of our past.  We dive headlong into the sin that has wounded us.  We are precise and accurate in telling the shame and hurt we have experienced.

God exist in the exact.  When we tell someone the exact nature of our wrongs we are entering God’s time and space.  It’s in the exact that we find that God was always present.  In the depths of our despair He was there.  Exactly in that moment and exactly in that place.  When we disclose our past we find God in the very moments we felt lost and abandoned.  God was always there.  Not almost or close to.  He was exactly where we experienced the most pain and felt the most distant from Him.

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.  Hebrews 1:3

Heavenly Father, you are here with me now in this exact moment.  You have been with me in every exact moment.  From the time of my birth you have been precise and accurate.  You never deviate.  You never waver.  Your love is constant.  Thank you for being with me in all the exact moments.  I surrender to you my inability to recognize how powerfully you exist in this exact moment.  I want to experience you fully in all the times of my life.  I pray all this in your son’s name, Jesus.

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Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.  Psalm 37:4

God desires for us to have relationship with Him.  God wants us to come to Him with all our brokenness.  The more we reveal our brokenness to Him and to others, the more we experience relationship with Him.

We confess our brokenness and where we were wounded to another person.  We take the risk to be vulnerable with someone else who is seeking relationship with Christ.  This vulnerability leads to humility.  With humility we  experience a deeper level of relationship with Christ.  This is where Christ’s healing starts to engulf us.

The fifth step is not a leap of faith.  It is a logical step forward.  We admit our wrongs and confess where sin has wounded us.  When we do this, we begin the process of restoration.  Freedom is the reward for vulnerability and transparency.  With freedom from the sin of our past we can be the people God intended for us to be when he created us.

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.  John 8:36

Father God, I come to you broken and wounded by sin.  All I long for is to be near you.  Take my life as it is.  I will delight in you.  Thank you for your beautiful Son and what he did to free me from the sin that would keep me from experiencing relationship with you.  I pray all this in your precious Son’s name, Jesus.

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It’s going to an amazing night of worship and celebration of Recovery through Christ at Celebrate Recovery Lone Star Cowboy Church.  

Friday night is Italian night.  Lots of Italian dishes including spaghetti, salads, garlic bread, and deserts.  Dinner starts at 6:30 so you want to get there early.

Then ACTS of Worship Band will be leading praise and worship.  It’s always a party when ACTS is in the house.  

Come out and help us celebrate what Christ has done in our life’s.  Friday nights are always a night to come and be a part of a group enjoys recovery.  

 Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!  Philippians 4:4 MSG

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Are you hurting? Pray.  Do you feel great? Sing. Are you sick?  Call the church leaders together to pray and anoint you with oil in the name of the Master. Believing-prayer will heal you, and Jesus will put you on your feet. And if you’ve sinned, you’ll be forgiven—healed inside and out.  James 5:13-15 MSG

For some of us faith comes easily. For others, especially if we have experienced betrayal, it may be more difficult. Sometimes we must exhaust all of our own resources in trying to overcome our addictive “disease” before we will risk believing in a higher Power. 

When Jesus was on earth he was renowned for his healing power. Crowds of sick people constantly pressed in on him. One day there was “a woman in the crowd [who] had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding, and she could fi nd no cure. Coming up behind Jesus, she touched the fringe of his robe. Immediately, the bleeding stopped.” Jesus realized that someone had deliberately touched him because he felt the healing power go out from him. When the woman confessed that she was the one who had been healed, Jesus said, “Your faith has made you well. Go in peace”  (Luke 8:43-48)

In order to recover we need to follow the example of this woman. We cannot afford to stand back, hoping for a “cure,” and avoid deliberate action because of our lack of faith. We may have lived with our condition for many years, spending our resources on promising “cures” without success. When we can come to believe in a Power greater than ourselves and have the faith to take hold of our own recovery, we will find the healing power we’ve been looking for.

What a difference between knowing about Jesus and reaching out to touch him! because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”  Mark 5:28

Father God, I reach out to touch you.  I want more than to just be near you.  I want to feel your healing touch.  You are the creator of everything.  You created me with a purpose and you ordained me with your power.  I only want to serve and to testify to your healing.  My recovery is only possible with you and your healing touch.

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Your suffering is for that kingdom. God will do what is right. He will punish those who are causing you trouble. And he will bring relief to you who are troubled. He will bring it to you and to us when the Lord Jesus comes from heaven for all to see, together with his powerful angels.  2 Thessalonians 1: 5-7 (ERV) 

In Christ centered recovery, when we share our inventory with another it becomes obvious that not only did we sin against God and others, but we ourselves suffered injustice and abuse.  Its very disconcerting to unearth and share memories of where we were violated by others.  Whether we were neglected, stolen from, or suffered emotional and physical abuse, it is hard to see God’s plan in it all.  In the world we see evil doers triumph over the weak, the kind and the good. We’ve all heard things like “Nice guys finish last” and “No good deed goes unpunished” and even the worldly version of the golden rule “He who has the gold makes the rules”. Sometimes we want to lash out, seek revenge and to punish those that harm us, other times we sink into self pity, hopelessness and depression.

But God has a plan for our suffering, it is not in vain that we have struggles, his strength is perfected in our weakness, his glory is manifested in our humiliation, his grace is revealed in our sufferings. The master potter uses all types of injustice, suffering and trials to mold us and perfect us into the vessel he desires us to be. His beloved and precious vessel.

Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.   James 5: 10-11 

Dear Jesus thank you for allowing me in some small way to share in the suffering you suffered, to share in the injustices you endured, to share in the humiliation and mocking heaped upon you. I know this is part of your plan for making me into the person you want me to be, but Lord it hurts so bad and most of the time I can’t understand it. With hope and longing I look forward to the day when your work in me is complete and I see you face to face and fall into your arms for all eternity.  Amen.

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Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.  Philippians 4:8

God wants us to affirm the good in us.  When we admit the exact nature of our wrongs to someone else we grow and mature in the character of Christ.   The parts of our life we once looked on as shameful, we now see as a living testimony to the power and grace of God.  He has rescued us from the pit of our living Hell.  God has brought us into a place of restoration and peace.  

We need to affirm the greatness of God each day.  One way we do this is by seeing ourselves as we are in God’s eyes.  Son’s and daughter’s who are inheritors of His kingdom.  We were gloriously made in His image.  Just as God has dominion, so do we.  The world will tell us that we are poor.  In the eyes of God we are rich beyond measure. 

As we go through the fifth step we have to affirm that we are God’s precious children.  We praise God for everything in our life.  God uses everything to the His glory.  He uses the struggles we’ve experienced to be a light to others.  A shining beacon of hope for those who are beginning their journey with Christ in recovery.

 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;  1 Corinthians 15:43

Lord God, today I will affirm the qualities in me that are a reflection of your son, Jesus Christ.  I am a living testament to your love, mercy and glory.  I was gloriously made in your image and you confirmed when you made me ‘This is good.”  Use me to show the world your great handiwork.  I pray all this in your beautiful son’s name, Jesus Christ.

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“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it.  Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order.  Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”  Matthew 12:43-45

Admitting our wrongs to another person is vital if we are to grow and become more like Christ.  We submit to the will of Christ and confess all our past sins.  This allows us to empty ourselves of all the garbage that has been left stagnant.  When we clear out the garbage then there is room for Christ to full enter and inhabit our entire heart.

We have to remain in prayer throughout this process.  Writing a fearless moral inventory and then reading it to someone we trust can never be taken lightly.  We are emptying our very heart and it needs to be filled immediately with the Holy Spirit.  Prayer is extremely important at this stage.  We invite God in and ask Him to remove anything that would get in the way of Him completely taking over the space we have emptied for Him.

God is a gentleman and will never enter our hearts until asked.  God gave us free will and we invite Him into our heart without it being an obligation or duty.  As soon as we ask, God enters and we are changed.  God then takes us to places we never imagined at a speed we never thought possible. Get ready, God is about to take you on an amazing journey.

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Proverbs 4:23

Father God, come into my heart.  Fill me with your Holy Spirit.  Don’t allow a moment to pass that you are not present completely.  My heart and soul longs for you.  Nothing can fill my emptiness buy your presence. All this I pray in your precious son’s name. Amen.

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He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.  Psalm 147:3

God is the great healer.  He heals us in ways we never imagined.  When we are in recovery for a moment, we look back and see that God did a huge work in healing our broken life’s.  Relationships, jobs, health, finances, and even our purpose in life have all been transformed.  We begin to see the plan that God has always had for us.

But healing is not one sided.  God asks us to take responsibility for our share of the healing.   God will make a way for us to be healed.  It’s up to us to take action and be proactive in our own recovery.  Just like a physical therapist has the knowledge to get us back on our feet after an accident or illness, so God puts us in the positions to be healed.  We have to actually do the work necessary for the healing to occur.  

God can and does instantly heal people.  But a greater healing occurs when God, in His perfect wisdom, allows us to go through the process of recovery.  This struggle helps us to develop perseverance, and perseverance allows us to develop character.  The very same character needed to carry the message of hope and healing to a broken world.

By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.  1 Corinthians 6:14

Father God, you have the power to heal.  I know that by going through the process you have set out in the 12 steps that you will transform me into a new creation.  You will take me and guide me as I learn and discover your true nature.  You are patient and will allow me the time I need to experience the process of your true healing.

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If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.  But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. James 1:5-6

Before we came into Christ centered recovery we believed the worst about ourselves.  Many of us thought that we were not deserving of anything good.  Yet we still maintained a huge amount of entitlement.  And even with all our entitlement we thought of ourselves as the lowest form of creation.  Many of us thought of ourselves as worms.

Then we came into recovery.  We went to meetings and heard a new message.  We heard that Jesus loved us so much that he was willing to die for us.  The message we now heard was that Jesus came to bring us new life and to transform us into a new creation.  We were told that we were special in the eyes of God.

There is a problem that occurs when, for years. we believe we are worms and suddenly we start hearing that we are special.  We still have the old beliefs about being a worm and now have a new belief that we are special.  What many of us come away with is a new belief that we are very special worms.

Confessing to someone we trust everything that we wrote down in our personal inventory enables us to get past the old belief of being a worm.  We are no longer what we once were.  We begin to see ourselves the way Christ sees us.  The process of writing an inventory of our life and then reading it to someone else frees us from all the old ideas about who and what we are.  Now we are free to be what God intends for us to be.

Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. James 4:8

 Heavenly Father, through your love and mercy I know now that I am your precious child.  I am worthy of your love and the promises you have given.  I want to live in your presence and know that nothing can get in the way of how you see me.  

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No one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by observing the law, rather through the law we become conscious of sin.  Romans  3: 20   

As we share our inventories with God and another, it becomes obvious that we have not keep the laws of both God and man. As we verbally pour out our hearts and reveal our innermost flaws and twisted thoughts, we become acutely conscious of our sins. We may feel an overwhelming sense of guilt and shame.  It is very unnatural for us to tattle on ourselves, it goes against our sinful human nature.  It’s like filling out a police report or testifying in court against ourselves.  By this time we should have come to terms with the fact that our real problem is self. We put our self before Christ and we always come up short.

We become acutely aware that even by trying our hardest and doing our best we will never attain the righteousness of a perfect God, and neither will anyone else. The good news is we need only to faithfully admit and reveal our sin.  God is faithful to grant us His righteousness, through the sacrifice of His son, our lord, Jesus Christ.  He forgives every sin that we confess.

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that comes by Jesus Christ.  Rom: 3:23-24 

Lord God, thank you for giving me the law to measure my sin by.  Thank you for sending and sacrificing your son Jesus to pay for my sins. Release me from the bondage of sin and self as I confess my sins to you and another.

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