Sin is addictive. All sin is addictive. Everyone is born with many addictions to sin. Through life, more addictions are added. All addictions hold us back spiritually. All sin is either stepping or slipping off of the constricted and narrow way that leads to the genuine and absolute fullness of life. Whatever is not of faith is sin. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word (Greek: rhema = utterance) of God.

Addictions are caused by seeking to get satisfaction in something that cannot possibly satisfy. We know, from God speaking to us through Scripture, that we will be satisfied when we awake with His likeness. When we take any step toward being more like Jesus, we have a measure of satisfaction. This is real satisfaction. It doesn't cause addictions.

Addictions are caused this way. Satan makes phony promises of satisfaction. He claims that something will satisfy us. It could be money, sexual sin, drugs, alcohol, parites, friends, successes, popularity, clothes, or you name it. Each of these give you a little of something that feels like it could lead to satisfaction, but they all leave you hungry and thirsty for real satisfaction. So you go back to them, over and over. That is a deepening addiction. A slot machine is designed and built to take your money by giving you a little bit of change back every once in a while and promising the big payout if you are lucky. So, you put a lot of money in and get a little back until you are bankrupt. Every addiction works this way.

God hates addictions. He hates what addictions do to the people He loves. God does let you know His Holy Will. Because He wants to set you free from your addictions, He speaks into your conscience, your innermost mind/soul, to tell you that something is wrong in your life. If you keep ignoring it, you can find yourself with a seared conscience, unable to get direction from God any more. When God speaks to you by disturbing your conscience, pay attention to Him immediately. He is trying to set your free from your addictions. (some caveats about hearing God's Voice)

The struggle against addictions is very simple. Who will you listen to and obey? It is the same struggle that went on in the garden of Eden. Adam and Eve decided to listen to Satan speaking through the serpent rather than listening to their Creator and believing Him. They brought the sin addiction to every human being who has been born since.

Anything that we do to bring satisfaction that cannot possibly bring satisfaction will lead to addiction. Drugs bring addictions because they promise satisfaction but cannot deliver it. Tobacco, alcohol, anger, fear, and self-serving sex bring addictions for the same reason.

Here is an example: God created sex for only one place where it is blessed. That is in a marriage life-long commitment between one man and one woman. Without that commitment, it is not blessed. People seek pleasure and satisfaction outside of marriage and end up in addictions. That's why open marriages never can receive this kind of blessing. Those who enter into marriages without making a full commitment to being faithful or to staying together no matter what happens will never receive this blessing. Shacking up is cursed by God. Every perversion of God's order for marriage is disgusting to God. Every one of them causes addictions. God hates addictions because of what they do to the people He created and loves.

When a woman exposes herself to a man or in any way tries to lure a man using sex, she is knowingly trying to convert herself into a pleasure object, a thing to be used, rather than a person. When a man looks at this with desire, his mind is changed. Rather than seeing women as persons who are created in the image of God, he objectifies them as mere things to be used for his pleasure. This addiction affects all of his dealings with women. This is the power for evil that pornography holds for addicting both men and women. And much of our media is now given over to some form of pornography and objectifying both men and women. Society permits dress that is really pornographic in nature. Only Christ can set a person free from these addictions.

How to be set free from addictions

Don't minimize the sin: All sin is addictive. So everyone is addicted to some sin. Even followers of Christ do not totally follow Him--they have sin. The Christ in them doesn't have sin, but their fleshly nature has no holiness and is in slavery to sin. They find themselves addicted in repetitive sin, crying out to be set free. Sometimes they say that the sin makes not difference. It's not a terrible sin. But all sin is terrible. All sins cause addictions. Satan will tell you that it isn't all that important. The Holy Spirit will tell you that it is important. The walk with Jesus is a walk of listening to Jesus and not listening to Satan. Don't hang between two opinions. Don't be double-minded. Direct your will toward the Voice of God. Listen to Him.

Find the trigger: Getting free from an addiction is a difficult thing, since Satan doesn't want to let God. There are things that trigger the addiction. Note what those things are. You can see the urge coming from a distance then before it sweeps you along with it. When the trigger appears, look to Jesus right away with a will to do His will.

Choose Jesus: God speaks. God directs. He brings Scripture to your memory. The Holy Spirit talks to you through other Christians and through your conscience. God speaks. Satan speaks too, through magazines, TV, dirty jokes, off-color speech, people who speak by his evil spirit (who seem very nice, by the way), the occult, and many other ways. These are ways Satan tightens his addictive grip on you. This is a battle for your mind/soul. It is the battle for your mind. It is a life and death struggle. Who will control your mind, Jesus or Satan? Turn your will to follow Jesus and listen to Him.

Receive Faith: You need to receive the faith of God to overcome addictions. Human faith and effort will not work to overcome the sin nature and all its many addictions. You need the faith of God that is a free gift. This is the kind of faith that comes by hearing the word (Greek: rhema = utterance) of God. You need to hear His Voice. When you hear His Voice, listen intently to Him even though other satanic voices are calling to you with very loud, noisy shouts. Addictions seem to have a life of their own and they speak loudly. Receive His faith and believe Him in what He is telling you to do. It may be to walk out of a movie or to turn off TV or to read your Bible. Whatever it is, do that.

Receive Grace: Grace is the power of God by which He does His Righteousness through you. God tells us, through the Bible, that His faith gives us access to His grace. His grace does the works through us. If there is any good that is done, it is done by this grace. Yield to the Holy Spirit. Yield to His grace and let Him do whatever He has directed you to do. Yield the members of your body to righteousness, the righteousness of God.

Yield to God: You see that your part is to yield to God's Spirit. You can't resist Satan on your own. He owns our fleshly minds and has great power over the fallen flesh. That is why we must die to self and live to Christ.

Die to self: When you obey God in this way, a part of your mind dies or, more correctly, is transformed into the mind of Christ and Satan has less hold on you. You become more like Jesus and less like Satan. Satan has less hold on you. This is not a quick process.

Become holy: You can't become holy by your effort. Holiness comes when you let the Holy Spirit control you and when you let grace do the works of God through you. All of that starts with hearing God's Voice and ignoring Satan's voice. It is by grace through faith. Holiness is the transformation to be like Jesus. Some people try to become holy by self effort, but they just become holier-than-thou self-righteous people without any true inner change.

While righteousness is something that God's grace does through you, holiness is something that you become because of righteousness. Righteousness puts you into the presence of God. You cannot be in God's presence without being changed in some way. Each time you submit to the grace of God, yielding the members of your body to Him, ignoring the urgings of your own body and the evil spirits that have you in slavery, you become a little bit more holy.

Be redeemed: Redemption is the setting free of Satan's slave. All human beings are born as slaves to Satan. We can't set ourselves free. While righteousness is something that God's grace does through you, holiness is something that you become because of righteousness. Righteousness puts you into the presence of God. You cannot be in God's presence without being changed in some way. Each time you submit to the grace of God, yielding the members of your body to Him, ignoring the urgings of your own body and the evil spirits that have you in slavery, you are set free a little bit. This is the salvation that sets you free from slavery to sin.

The role of the church: Discerning the Body of Christ is key. You know that you have Christ in your heart, your innermost mind. And you know that everyone who follows Christ has the same. They have been born into the Kingdom of God. They are called out of the world and into the Kingdom. The word, church, means called out. It is important that you see Christ in yourself and in your brothers and sisters.

When anyone speaks by the Spirit of Christ, you need to acknowledge the Christ, not the person. Christ has spoken to you. When Christ speaks to you through your conscience or by bringing Scripture to mind, you need to acknowledge who has spoken to you. When God speaks, He speaks a vision of hope into your conscience, your innermost mind. He gives you a vision of Himself, both the Head in Heaven and the Body of Christ on Earth. It is as James, the apostle, said. You are looking as if into a mirror. You see yourself and how you fit into the room. This mirror is the perfect law of liberty. You don't see your fleshly nature or anyone's fleshly nature. You see the Christ in yourself and your brothers and sisters.

Perceive with your eyes the kind of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God: therefore the world does NOT know us, because it did NOT know Him. Beloved, now we are the children of God, and what we shall be has not yet been made obviously visible: but we know that, when He is plainly recognized, we become like Him; for we see Him as He is. * And everyone who has this divinely inspired expectation in them purifies themselves, even as He is pure. Whoever wanders from the path that leads to the absolute, genuine Life also does lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness. And you know that He is made visible to remove our tendency to wander from the path, and in Him is no tendency to wander from the path. 1 John 3:1-5

But even to this day, when Moses is read, the veil is laid over their innermost mind, but when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. *  Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled faces, seeing as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are transfigured into the same image from glory into glory just as by the Spirit of the Lord. * 2 Corinthians 3:15-18

This is not easy. You will become discouraged, so you need to keep God's vision of hope before you constantly. Spend time with Him so that He can speak to you. Read the Bible so that He can speak to you through the Bible. Fellowship with true Christ-followers so that He can speak to you through them. Expect miracles so that He can speak to you.

See also, What Causes Addictions