Freed from Alcoholism – No Need for Alcoholics Anonymous!
For a lot of people, sobriety and Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) are sort of like peas and carrots – they’re pretty much expected to go together. I don’t know how many people realize just how disempowering and harmful AA actually is. Chris Lasala, a pastor who I respect and who has been very helpful to me in my early Christian walk, made a video exposing the downsides of AA. He himself had been to AA when he was into drugs before he was saved, and the gist of his experience appeared to be that AA is a place people go to find someone to sleep with before they relapse into addiction. He made an expose video on AA, and you can view it here.
While AA often mentions God, I want to go over testimonies of people who actually went to the God of the Bible for help with alcohol addiction. I don’t think you will find any testimonies like these from AA members!
Quick note: one of my university professors once pointed out the irony of people differentiating between alcohol and other drugs when they use the common phrase “drugs and alcohol.” She had a valid point: alcohol is no more and no less a drug than cocaine or methamphetamine or what have you. That said, while I have previously made an article covering testimonies of deliverance from all types of drug addiction, it seemed like a good idea to make a separate section for alcoholism testimonies, since many people are interested in this specific issue. Read on and be inspired!
Jay Holman tried to fill the void inside with alcohol, but only God could fill it
Though he grew up in a Christian family, Jay wanted to have the kind of fun kids from the “wrong crowd” were having. He got involved with them and made his foray into drug use with marijuana. He skipped school with his girlfriend. When he was banned from seeing her, they left their homes to be on their own together.
In order to afford drugs and support themselves, they began committing crime, like burglaries. Consequently, Jay was arrested and went to juvenile detention for the better part of a year. That is where he learned that prison life did not suit him.
Determined to make it in life without crime, he became a successful contractor (presumably in construction?). Though he spent three decades excelling at his work, happiness eluded him. Wanting to find satisfaction, Jay would reason to himself, “ Ah, I need a bigger house. I need a little more land. I need a prettier wife. I need some more money.” However, when he achieved those things, the resulting happiness was fleeting.
In order to escape the emptiness inside, he took alcohol and prescription drugs together to reach a state of “oblivion.” When he started taking out his bad feelings by being emotionally cruel to his wife, he turned to God, asking Him to “help [him] figure out what’s wrong with [him] and then help [him] do something about it.”
Jay’s wife departed, and he turned to the bottle to feel better. Then, God answered his prayer by speaking this to his heart: “Do you think drinking could be your problem?”
Immediately, Jay reasoned he would fix the situation by drinking only beer, but God warned him that he would fail and that he needed to quit alcohol completely. So, the next morning, Jay poured out all his alcohol. However, his pain remained.
Craving some comforting, Jay was inspired to to listen to a Christian program (CBN). On that program, a woman invited her audience to “give [their lives] back to God.” Jay “asked God to come in [his] life, and He did.” From then onward, Jay was done with his alcoholism. He attended a Christian recovery program, went to church, fellowshipped with other Christians, and was eventually able to heal. He testified, “[God] let me find out what was wrong with me as I was a godless alcoholic. And He gave me the solution.”
Former atheist Trisha Fenimore found freedom from alcohol through God – not therapy, Alcoholics Anonymous, or self help books
As a young girl, Trisha was academically advanced. Confident in her own intelligence, she likened intelligence with morality and ended up concluding at just 10-11 years old that “she had no need for God.” Embracing atheism, she refused to mention God during the pledge of allegiance. Also at this time, hate came into her heart.
During college, Trisha’s “angry, militant, [atheistic], argumentative” side took full rein, and she was filled with hatred for Christianity and for people in general. Her newfound addiction, alcohol, helped her express these sentiments, though it eventually became a snare.
Then, for unspecified reasons, Trisha quit going to college. Finding a low-paying job, she relied all the more on alcohol and blamed others for her unhappy situation. Then, while still in her early twenties, she recognized that her alcoholism was a problem. She attempted multiple times to quit, embarking on a cycle of dumping her current supply of alcohol and then buying more again.
Perhaps about a year later, Trisha analyzed her life and how it had gone since she had rejected God and started alcohol. Then, she prayed, “God, I don’t know what you are, and I don’t know if you are. But if you are, I am willing to have been wrong about you my entire life. If you just please help me.”
After that prayer, Trisha was able to stay sober for a half a month. Then, while working in a restaurant, Trisha “spilled vodka all over herself.” Drenched in the substance she craved, she heard God talk to her, “Even when evil surrounds you, I am with you.” Trisha testified, “I knew without a shadow of a doubt that there was a God, and that was the day that my atheism died.”
Trisha spent a couple of years reading Scripture and religious materials on her own but seemed to make little progress. After a painful breakup, she sought God again for help, for direction in her life while on a walk outside. The answer came almost immediately: she came across a Bible study group stepping out of church. Desperate and tempted to drink, Trisha approached them for help. She was invited to come for Bible study. Over the following months, the Bible study group “showed her the love of Jesus,” and she finally “fully surrendered her life to Jesus.” Trisha has been off alcohol for 14 years at the time of her testimony.
Brian Bryce was freed from alcoholism the very morning he accepted Christ
As a child, Brian felt rejected by people at church, which led him to conclude that God rejected him as well. The feelings of rejection were compounded when his father abandoned the family.
Though his stepfather was good to him, Brian had internalized the notion that he “had to be perfect to be loved” in order to not lose him too. He felt inadequate at the new upper-scale church they attended, and at school he was bullied. The bullying created anger in him that increased as he grew older. He responded to the bullies with violence. At one point, he even “beat a man’s head in with a can of corn.”
Then, Brian found a place where he finally felt like he fit in – a gang. There, Brian found an outlet for his darker feelings, while surrounded by fellow gang members who were damaged like him. He started using drugs such as cocaine and marijuana. Starting at age fourteen, he did multiple stints in jail.
Brian’s criminal life petered away when he became a busy restaurant cook, working up to 90 hours a week. However, he drank heavily and hid bottles of liquor throughout the workplace. After work, he drank even more at a club. As a self-proclaimed “highly functional alcoholic,” he drank at least two quarts of vodka daily.
His addiction started to impact his health. In addition to multiple, unspecified health problems, he developed internal bleeding and vomited blood daily. However, the turning point for him came after he and his parents vacationed together, and he realized he was suffering from major memory loss and could not remember things he had done in the past. That day, Brian grokked his mortality.
Brian said his first prayer in many years, asking for Christ to “come into [his] life.” At the time of his testimony, he said, “[In] that moment, Christ entered my life. I could feel His mighty hand reach through and squeeze the – the evil, the hatred out of my heart. When I finally recognized Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I felt His presence in my life. It was like being hit with this awesome power that I can’t describe.” From then on, he was free of alcohol addiction. Brian has since forgiven the father who had abandoned him and is serving as a pastor.
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