The 12 Step Christian By Minster Speed

This blog is for my brothers and sisters in the 12 Step communities. I've noticed that most 12 steppers that profess Christianity spend their time seeking spiritual growth on Facebook through pictures and cliches or traditional "saying".  

Sorry my brothers and sisters but the bible doesn't have pictures you can click and share to receive spiritual growth or oral psycho-babble that brings frothy emotional appeal which moves you emotionally.  I suggest you spend less time on Facebook, and more time studying the Holy Scripture.

If you really want to understand the plan of God for your life He said you would have to read and study His word.  God said "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God". Romans 10:17.  This is why He sends a preacher.  To speak, teach and reach through His word.  This is the only way to build faith.

You don’t build faith through trials and tribulation.  If this was the case we would all be spiritual giants.  Trials and tribulations build patience (James 1:2-3) but only if you are being faithful while you’re going through them.  This is why most people remain spiritual babes when they ought to be mature soldiers.  They can’t stand on God’s word when they are experiencing life’s troubling moments.

God said His word was alive.  It is the only living book ever written through men moved by the Holy Spirit of God.  God then built mankind on a system of growth in the body, mind, spirit, and soul so that we would be able to be spiritually reborn and mental renewed by His word.

You need to ask yourself the question: Are you built for this?

If not one single person agreed with anything posted on my page, books, or blog site I would die knowing that I received my calling from God and that my recovery from alcohol and drugs was not necessitated upon Salvation in Christ but faith in a power OUTSIDE of myself.  This could include anything such as meetings, service work, or any creative force that could help me get me out of myself.

Do you need to be Saved to go to the hospital? Do you need to be Saved to have brain surgery?

Then trust me when I say that just because you’re clean and sober does not mean you have found God.  It's a shame to get sober and go to hell when you die!!! When you found sobriety you got sober and being sober does not mean you found the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who worship Jesus the Christ.

After my initial decision to get help in recovery, it was intimated I would find God if I sought after Him.  People, places, and things were not sufficient enough to initiate spiritual growth.  I was a Christian and indeed only the Creator could suffice.

God has never changed.  He is the same God as He was before I got sober, He is the same God when I got sober, and He is the same God after I got sober.  The only one that had to change was me.  I had to conform to His ways to receive His promises.  I had to change everything!!!

Many of you Christians left your first love for a 12 step god that not only you created but one that you control and one that allows you to do, be and act anyway that you deem allowable in your imagination.  And listen to this…with no consequences as He is only a loving God. He doesn't offer any punishment or corrections at all.  How delusional is that?

The bible says in Romans 1:21-22 “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened”.   22Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

In Revelation 3:19 the bible goes on to say “I correct and discipline those I love, so be serious and repent”.  Only a terrible parent would offer a child a sick version of love that brought with it no corrections or consequences.

I hear you parrot the non-believer in the rooms stating you chose to call God (by the title) God, when God states in John 15:16 "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you".

 Stop speaking like a non-believer.  God says, “There is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof is death”. Proverb 14:12.  You don’t have the power to choose God.  The bible says “ No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: John 6:44

 My hat is off to you.  How can your finite mind understand an infinite Christ without knowledge of who He is through Holy Scripture?  The bible says in Isaiah 55:9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts”.

Even the Co-Founders of the 12 Step program appeared to understand the significance of who God through Jesus Christ was, and were not afraid of that gospel.  Listen to what Bill W the Co-founder wrote.

Despite all the protests that Bill Wilson never wrote of Jesus Christ, and despite those who have spurned Bill’s statement about the “Lord” and “cure” on page 191 of the Big Book, most don’t realize the truth of what we found and recorded in our recent title, The Conversion of Bill W. See link below.

http://www.dickb.com/aaarticles/Alcoholism-Could-Be-Cured.shtml

Now, thanks to a phone call with an assiduous A.A. history researcher and friend on the East Coast, our attention was called to a letter Bill wrote—dated 1940—and published in the A.A. General Service Conference-approved book, As Bill Sees It (New York, NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1976). Thanks to our friend. And blessings to the readers.

Page 114 As Bill Sees It

No Personal Power

“At first, the remedy for my personal difficulties seemed so obvious that I could not imagine any alcoholic turning the proposition down were it properly presented to him. Believing so firmly that Christ can do anything, I had the unconscious conceit to suppose that He would do everything through me—right then and in the manner I chose. After six long months, I had to admit that not a soul had surely laid hold of the Master—not excepting myself.

“This brought me to the good healthy realization that there were plenty of situations left in the world over which I had no personal power—that if I was so ready to admit that to be the case with alcohol, so I must make the same admission with respect to much else. I would have to be still and know that He, not I, was God.”  LETTER, 1940

Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob never intended for this circus to take place in the 12 Step program and it is showing in our 3% success.  In the beginning the program recovery rate stayed between 91% and 97%.  There are many who remain clean and sober and show no spiritual growth beyond their sobriety which has cause many to state that this beautiful program does not work at all.

See Article below:

AA wrestles with its own True Roots and Spirituality.

These sober people lord and flaunt their TIME and CLEAN DATE as if it was something they had the power to pull off when everyone knows that “there is only one that has all power and that one is God” Pg 58/59 Big Book. Everyone knows that "TIME is not an indication of spiritual recovery."  I truly believe this has resulted in a satanic confusion in the rooms between those who have misused the Big Book and those who are illiterate and confusing others.  Anyone found worshiping Christ will find complete and utter intolerance.

I know there are many who will never accept Christ and that's your choice.  My ministry has always been an Inreach Ministry and I'm speaking to the ones that God has called according to His mercies and grace.  I am not afraid of the 12 step community of non-believers.  I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  He has given us a second chance and we should not take this lightly as God has a side to His character that demands justice. 

Personally I cannot understand why churches rent space to Alcoholics Anonymous? Are churches really that desperate for money that they need to allow a group that cuts against the grain of their own beliefs, within their walls? Especially with regard to Christian based churches; The AA of today should be an affront to Christians everywhere.  

One would think that the AA concept of God would be enough to have most Christians kicking AA to the curb.  Today's AA view of God is that of self design.  A God created out of your own imagination.  For example, if a person decided to make their god Satan and they felt that the teachings of Satan should guide their life this is perfectly acceptable.

I sit in utter disbelief at so called professing Christians who are turning away from Christ for a creation within the confines of their own minds.  But there are worse issues regarding AA than just theological conflicts. Another major issue for a church should be the fact that many AA members are very hostile towards churches. They have sayings that mock organized religions:

"Who needs church; I get everything I need in AA."

"Church is for people looking for god, AA is for people who have found him."

"Church is for people who fear hell; AA is for people who have already been there."  Trust me there will be a reckoning and you will find that Hell indeed exist and you will find yourself there...SOBER !!!

If I belonged to a church that catered to a AA group I would be insulted by these statements. Lessons such as this highlight the fact that AA members think AA is superior to church. Not just superior, but condescending to the churches members.

There is no Salvation outside of Jesus Christ. Being sober in the 12 Step program does not mean you are saved and will rest in the presence of God in the thereafter.  

The 12 Steps were never intended to replace Salvation through Christ.  They were design to bring about recovery from alcoholism.  No person in their right mind if they had a broken arm, upon arrival to the hospital would change their god, and risk their salvation just to get their arm repaired.

Listen 12 stepper, Grace is unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification.

This is a virtue coming from God. A state of sanctification or justification enjoyed through divine grace, approval, favor, mercy and, pardon.

The words sanctification, justification, or regeneration all comes from the application of the blood of Jesus in and upon your life. Without this blood covenant there is no justification, regeneration or simply put. NO GRACE.

 I wrote this because many are claiming, choosing or creating their own god then picking from the Christian religious phrases, words, and concepts that have no integrity without Jesus Christ. 

This is what Jesus meant when He said in Matthew 7: 16 “Ye shall know them by their fruits: Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles”?

This is a good rule to see if you are in the midst of a false prophet or if your Christianity is not real itself.  Grapes and Figs were two of the most common foods in Israel and they could have no stock if they grew among thorns or thistles.  The fruit are the true converts, the true disciples.  If you are a Christian leader then this is a mandate or part of the Great Commission.  A true teacher leads mean away from Satan to the light of Christ.  A true disciple lives with the Holy Scriptures in the light of the ways of God. Not within the confines of his own imagination.

Does your life produce a gospel that looks like Christ’s but is distorted with the thorns and thistles (common things of the world)?  Only through the lens of Jesus Christ and His Holy Scripture would you even be able to know this and make the necessary adjustment from your deception.

Speaking Christianese is a very popular spectacle in America at this time and in the 12 Step rooms many have taken this concept to the full and dangerous extreme.  Using words like faith, grace, saved, favor, cleansed, healed, and many other concepts which without Christ would be futile and to some degree insane.

The above words come after one accepts the Blood of Jesus upon their life.  To be a Christian is not done in word but in Power.  

Grab your bibles and let’s grow in Christ.

I leave you with the beauty and grace of Holy Scripture.  I promise that if you read and digest it your life will change.  The word of God is not locked into the ancient of days, nor is it conditioned by man.  His word is both timely and timeless.

Proverbs 13:16-25 New Living Translation (For easier digestion).

16 Wise people think before they act; fools don't and even brag about it! 17 An unreliable messenger stumbles into trouble, but a reliable messenger brings healing. 18 If you ignore criticism, you will end in poverty and disgrace; if you accept criticism, you will be honored. 19 It is pleasant to see dreams come true, but fools will not turn from evil to attain them. 20 Whoever walks with the wise will become wise; whoever walks with fools will suffer harm. 21 Trouble chases sinners, while blessings chase the righteous! 22 Good people leave an inheritance to their grandchildren, but the sinner's wealth passes to the godly. 23 A poor person's farm may produce much food, but injustice sweeps it all away. 24 If you refuse to discipline your children, it proves you don't love them; if you love your children, you will be prompt to discipline them. 25 The godly eat to their hearts' content, but the belly of the wicked goes hungry.