The Open Door Process of Recovery
The process of recovery is exactly that: a process. It is a process that takes you from the point of being addicted to drugs and/or alcohol to the point of being drug-free, no longer being dependent on such substances, and no longer having the compulsion to use them.
The first part of recovery is a series of actions that you undertake. These actions are very simple, yet powerful in the sense that they lead to a Relationship with Christ as well as profound changes within you. The actions are tasks such as working a Christian 12-step program - celebrate recovery format, engaging in prayer and meditation on a daily basis, participating in fellowship with other people in recovery, e.g., via Recovery Groups, and attending church and a Bible Study on a regular basis.
The second part of recovery consists of the profound changes that occur in you as a result of these simple actions that you undertake. These actions result in a marked change in the way you think, the way you feel, and the way you act. The changes constitute a transformation of both your mind and your personality.
The third part of recovery is the result that you obtain from the actions that you undertook and the changes they produced in you. Some of these results are being drug-free, having a relationship with God thru Christ, being free, no longer living in fear, having a positive relationship with your family, being a productive part of your community, etc.
Within this document are four sections that further explain the Open Door process of recovery, how it works and the results that you will obtain:
How It Works
The Christian 12 Steps of Recovery
The Results That You Will Obtain
The Permanent Keys of Recovery
How It Works
The following is a description of how this process of recovery that we are describing will work for you as it has already worked for numerous others.
This path of recovery that is being presented to you uses a Christian12-step celebrate recovery formatted process. It creates an opportunity for a relationship with God thru Christ and a transformation of one’s mind, personality and attitude. And it is always successful in freeing people from addiction when followed as presented.
While we state that this process is always successful, it requires that you thoroughly follow the path and “completely” give yourself to the program "total surrender". The process of recovery that we are outlining is simple, but it's not easy. And it is demanding because it requires a total commitment. We call it "Surrendering all".
You from men and women who have changed due to their comittment and surrender to God and this process God uses to bring about your sobriety.
As people who use to be addicted to drugs and alcohol, we can tell you our stories, what we used to be like, how we recovered, and what we are like now. If you like what you see, you can have the same thing. But only if you are willing to go to any length to get it, i.e., you have to be completely committed to working the program. You also must be ready and willing to take certain steps, i.e., these outlined in the Christian 12 steps of a celebrate recovery formatted program.
It is normal to look at these steps and hesitate. To say to ourselves, “These look too hard; maybe I can find an easier way; maybe I can quit my addiction on my own; maybe I can just cut down my drug use”. If any of these were true you would have already quit. The problem is that you can’t quit on your own. You need the process of recovery being outlined here.
You will never face an enemy more “cunning, baffling and powerful” than alcohol and drugs. You are no match for it yourself, as we have repeatedly found. However, a Spiritual Awakening and a relationship with God will allow God to do for you what you cannot do for yourself, i.e., quit drugs and alcohol. And again, half-measures don’t work; a full commitment does. And yes, you are at a turning point: Continue on the road with drugs and alcohol and end up dead or in jail, or turn to God and this process of recovery and “recover” your life.
While this process may look overwhelming, it’s not as long as you take it one step at a time and realize that the objective is progress, not perfection. Nobody is perfect; and nothing worth-while is accomplished overnight. The word “process” means an on-going series of events over a period of time. And that’s what recovery is, a day by day unfolding of growth and progress.
These are the three cornerstones of our recovery process: That we had this problem of addiction; that by ourselves or through other people we could not solve the problem, and that only through God could our addictions be removed.
The Christian 12 Steps of Recovery
The following 12 steps are one portion of the actions that you need to take in Recovery to produce the changes in you that will lead to your no longer being drug dependent.
1. Admitted we were powerless over drugs and alcohol and that our lives had become unmanageable.
(Honesty - Admission that there is a problem)
2. Came to believe that only through God could our lives be restored to sanity.
(Hope - Divine Revelation – Being Saved, Born Again, Redemption)
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God.
(Faith - Trust in God, End of self-will, beginning of God’s Will)
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
(Confession, Sober assessment of ourselves)
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
(Integrity - repentance, asking forgiveness)
6. Were entirely ready for God to remove all these defects of character.
(Open to the grace of God, obtaining forgiveness)
7. Humbly asked him to remove our shortcomings.
(The old man is dead, we are new men, we abide in Christ and He in us)
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all. (Willingness - Atonement)
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
(Amends – restitution, reparations, paying our debts)
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
(Accountability - continuing sober assessment, Spiritual growth)
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will and the power to carry it out.
(Spiritual growth – Maintaining and growing our faith)
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to take this message to others still suffering, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
(Spreading the Word – Attending church & Bible study, Service Work)
The Results That You Will Obtain
Remember, “Never have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path.” The following are the results that you WILL obtain from following the actions that have been outlined.
“If we are painstaking about this stage of our development, we will be amazed before we are halfway through.”
1. The compulsion, the irresistible urge to use drugs or alcohol will be lifted.
2. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness(joy).
3. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.
4. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace.
5. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.
6. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.
7. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.
8. Self-seeking will slip away.
9. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change.
10. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us.
11. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which use to baffle us.
12. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
The Permanent Keys of Recovery
Remember, again, “Never have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path.” However, recovery is an on-going and life-long process. All the previous actions not only must be faithfully performed, they must be faithfully continued on an on-going basis in order to keep the gift of sobriety and the results that have been given to you.
The following are the core principles, the permanent keys of recovery. If you earnestly and faithfully do each and every one of the following activities, I, we, and the Grace of God will guarantee that you will continue to stay clean and sober for as long as you do so.
Engage in Prayer, Bible Reading and Meditation on a Daily Basis
Join a Church and a Bible Study and Attend each Weekly
Join a Christian 12-step Program and Attend Three Times a Week
Work the Christian 12-steps with a Sponsor
Have an Accountability Partner and Talk with Him Regularly
