Godly Men Struggle Too

This manual is not about behavioral modification. Behavioral modification means to diminish one’s behavior or extinguish one in favor of another over time. An example here would be: read more scripture, scripture memory, attend church more often, more prayer, attend more mid-week meetings, etc. Now I’m not against any of these and there are scriptures and verses in the manual. The above would look something like this, if you do all these you will be a better Christian, feel better about yourself, appear more spiritual to others to gain respect and approval from your peers and be more acceptable to God. This is Old Testament and you are trying to fix the flesh and that is not possible. In addition, you would be wearing a mask still covering up your past wounds fearing exposure. Even if you were to somehow overcome your addiction, your past wounds remain, and will manifest in other ways, and be just as destructive. Your behaviors are the direct result of you trying to fix and gain what you lost in younger places in your heart. This manual is about your journey toward deeper healing, restoring your heart, restoring the broken places of lost years and young places in your heart. Restoring you to who God intended you to be in his design for you as his knight, restoring you to your family and friends, and most importantly to son-ship. God is restoring you to himself. This manual is about getting at the source of your wound’s healing, the rupture with the healing of an engaging and intimate Father God.

You will come to understand that the God you thought you believed in never really existed. A God of judgment, a distant God, a God who uses guilt and shame to keep you in line, and a God who demands works and perfection for approval. That is not my father God or Abba. The God I have come to understand is a God who is intimately acquainted with me . . . See Psalms 139, a God who gives me dignity, self-worth, and my sense of masculinity. I have come to love me because he does.

The exercises in your manual are intentional and weighty. Don’t be afraid to go deep as this program is designed just for this. God commanded Adam to conquer and that commandment has never changed. God did not design that you spend your years in hopelessness adrift on a life raft in the emotional outback. So this is what you do. I give you permission to rise up a warrior and take the needed risk into the mystery of your healing. Without risk there is no life and you were designed to take risks. You may fear exposure and feel a sense of vulnerability you want to protect. The boy in you begs to protect him and quit throwing him out to accomplish what he can never do. He begs you to be the man you were designed to be and come through for him and in doing so you will come through with your wives, girlfriends, children, and your peers, and gain a new respect for yourself as you gain the needed tools for change.

One other thing, my brothers, you will be opposed by your adversary. Your adversary will fight to keep you in bondage as a trophy of his evil doing. He will whisper, “This is too hard, protect your pride, give up quit. I have a better way. I will fulfill your wildest sexual needs.” I have included a section at the end of the manual on warfare.

You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. So go ahead and take that first step. You will find that Jesus has already done that and he is waiting for you with arms wide open. Jesus said, “Follow me, I have your baggage.” Jesus does not want you to clean up, just show up.