When Abbe and Bryn were struggling with addiction, I was spending $40,000 per month on various rehab centers doing whatever I could to get them help and keep them safe. For a period of time, it worked. However, whenever they came back to the real world, they would fall back into their destructive lifestyles because true inner healing had not been achieved.
As a father, I was willing to do anything to save their lives, but I was spiritually blind in many areas, broken emotionally, and not equipped to really fight for my family. This is why I am so passionate about M46.
As my girls were growing up, I failed to keep them safe and protected when they were younger by unknowingly allowing a child predator into our home resulting in years of sexual abuse. When they were teens, they were both raped and abused multiple times. They both suffered with depression, anxiety, mental illness and suicidal tendencies in addition to all of the bondage of addiction from pot all the way to cocaine and heroine.
Remember, we do not have authority in the areas where we have compromise in our lives. Wherever we have areas in common with the enemy, we have no authority. Jesus had nothing in common with the enemy and therefore, He moved in total authority and victory.
Victory does not require perfection but a heart of repentance, looking to Jesus and appropriating His victory in every area of our lives and family. As we develop intimacy with God, remove compromise from our lives and move in prayer over our children, we can be much more discerning and attentive to respond in faith, obedience and a new level of awareness. When we move in the spirit and not the flesh, we rely on God’s strength, guidance and protection.
As parents, we have great spiritual authority to pray over our family and the sphere where God has placed us. As I became more submitted to Jesus and removed compromise from my life, the Holy Spirit stepped in and began to heal my family. I chose to clean up my life spiritually, sexually, emotionally, and in my business. I recognized past patterns of sin and repented. I sought to live whole-heartedly for the Lord every minute of every day and still do. I’m by no means always successful, but I am trying! In the process, He deeply healed me, He healed Bryn, and He saved Abbe before she passed away.
My prayer and hope is that Bryn’s and my story and life experiences provide a platform for your family’s strengthening and victory, that God will do what He did for us in your life circumstances.
Be greatly encouraged! When Jesus redeems, He makes it better than it would have ever been otherwise! We cannot lean on our own understanding. We are to live by faith and not by sight.
If you knew the glorious plan of God who is already in your future and knows the good plans He has for your life, what would your response be? This is the power of faith and the grace of God.
“Now faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things we long for. It is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen. This testimony of faith is what previous generations were commended for.”
Hebrews 11:1-2, TPT
Prayer and Reflection
Pause, breathe deeply and ask: Jesus, is there any area of compromise in my life that is keeping me from receiving your victory?
Pause, breathe deeply and ask: Jesus, what do you want to say to me today?
Ask the Holy Spirit to give you a new vision for your children and family and begin to thank Him for what you are seeing. As you envision with Him, write it down. Thank Him in advance daily for what He will do, according to His promises. Trust in Him!
Have you read the first part of this series? Make sure to check out Dying to Live: A Fresh Perspective on Suffering for the full story.