As a Christian, you may be wondering why you should submit yourself to a “man-made” recovery program. Why not, instead, spend your time praying for an instantaneous deliverance brought about by an outpouring of Gods power? After all, the Bible speaks of the POWER of the Holy Spirit that works within you, the Bible says that God did not give you a spirit of fear but of POWER, the Bible says that the same POWER that raised Jesus from the dead resides inside you…so why the need for a PROCESS?
Well, this is a very fair question with a very simple answer. The truth is, nearly every addict that comes to our ministry has been praying intensely and often for God to deliver them from their addiction. This is a good thing to do and therefore it is something we encourage. God DOES pour out His power to bring healing to addicts. His power to heal addictions, however, does not strike once like a lightning bolt; it flows continually like a river. It is a power that can only be experienced through simple, authentic Christian fellowship. It requires the conduits of transparency, confession, debriefing, and relearning – all of which can only be experienced through community. So it’s not a question of power vs. process; it’s an embracing of God’s power through process.
God often heals cancer and other physical ailments instantaneously because doing so does not compromise the overall health of our physical body. In the case of addiction, however, an instantaneous healing would compromise our overall emotional and mental health. Such an experience would teach us that our deepest emotional conflicts (that are at the core of our addictive condition) can be healed in isolation and this is not possible. This would be a lesson that is counter-productive to God’s design for us, as He has created us for intimacy – with Himself, with His Son Jesus and with each other. We were wounded in relationship; therefore God has chosen to bring healing through relationship. Of course He could bring instant relief of the craving, but years of experience and biblical evidence indicates that He has chosen to bring wholeness through our active participation in a transparent Christian community. If in this transparent environment we address core issues that have hindered our spiritual maturity we will remove the tendency to switch addictions altogether.
— Taken from the L.I.F.E. Recovery Model; read the rest of the LRM here. ©2013 L.I.F.E. Recovery International