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with a true solution. You’ve told me you want to do what God wants you to do and you know the Ten Commandments say, “Thou shalt not kill.” 2 So if you really want to do what God wants you to do, you have to say, “God, I know I have felt hopeless, but I will choose to eliminate the option of suicide, no matter what.”
    But Ananias and Sapphira were killed because they lied to God, and I’ve
been a sinner.
    Death can be a consequence God chooses in that He is the author of life and death. I don’t think you really want to play God. I don’t think your intent is, “I’m going to take the role that God alone should have.” Right now you’re in such pain that you’re saying, “I hate the pain. I just want to end the pain.”
    I just want it over.
    I think it’s the addiction you need to get over. You just don’t have the plan in place to get the true solution for your addiction. Addictive behavior means: Instead of
you
being in control, the behavior has control of you. But there are thousands and thousands of people who do eventually gain control.
    I went through two treatment centers, and the addiction comes back and just
nails me to the wall.
    I know it’s hard, but there is hope. I’ve done a little math here—you said you had been an alcoholic for thirty-six years?
    Thirty-six years, yes.
    And you’re forty-nine. So you were an alcoholic when you were thirteen years old.
    Yes.
    The Bible says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). Because every authentic Christian literally has Christ in him or her, Christ is the power source for change. I’m not talking about behavior modification. Anybody can modify behavior for a period of months or even years, but Christ changes people permanently . . . from the inside out.
    I believe that.
    Is it possible you want to access the supernatural power of God but you don’t have Christ on the inside causing the change? When you have
Christ
in you
, you have the power of God available to overcome whatever temptation, addiction, or struggle. I’m wondering if it’s possible that you don’t truly have Christ
in you
. So many people have made an assumption that they have Christ when they really don’t. Part of it is because they know so much intellectually that it’s a camouflage keeping them from seeing that they don’t have the real life of Christ.
    I see what you’re saying. Just because I know the Bible and I know what God
wants me to do, I think it’s going to happen automatically. But that’s not true.
    The Bible says I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength. It’s through His power, so you need Him on the inside. The whole issue is for us to lay down our will and say, “Lord, I want your life inside of me.”
    It’s like the song, “Take My Life and Let It Be.”
    As 2 Corinthians 13:5 says, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?”Tyler, I think it is valuable enough for you to pray that prayer and say, “Lord, I want You in my life, not for me to have head knowledge. I need You in my heart. I need to give You absolute control. I’m out of control and have been for years. I learned some behavior modification, but I’m not transformed.”
    I’ve been informed but not transformed.
    Yes, yes. I’m so proud of you, Tyler, because many people are too prideful to even admit they have a need. Why don’t we tell God what you’ve just told me, that you know you need to be transformed and you need Him to transform you?
    [Tyler asked Christ to take control of his life.]
    An hour ago I was desperate, but I feel a whole lot better.
    Okay. Now the beauty is found in Ecclesiastes 9:4, which says, “Anyone who is among the living has hope.” You have all the hope you need, because it is God’s hope.
    What a priceless privilege it was to assure Tyler that