Step 12 of the LDS Addiction Recovery Program: A Powerful Promise

506 Days Clean and Sober

Welcome to, Faith As a Living Fire. 

My name is John, and I am an addict. 

More importantly, I am a husband, a father, a son, a brother and an uncle. 

I am also a Mormon (LDS).

I've grappled with an addiction to lust for more than 30 years. My drugs of choice are pornography, masturbation, co-dependency and overeating. My sobriety date is January 28, 2012. I've been living a life of active recovery and sobriety from pornography and masturbation for almost 15 months. I am still trying to surrender my addiction to co-dependency and overeating to the care of God, my Father, and His son, Jesus Christ, although it is challenging. I know I am but a baby in recovery and mine will be a lifelong journey.

I love recovery! Going to meetings, working the steps, surrendering, serving and reaching out to other addicts has saved my life and my sanity. Any success I've been blessed with in my recovery I attribute completely to God's care, my Savior's enabling grace and my family's willing support.

By no means do I or will I ever work a perfect program of recovery because I am human. I have learned that my disease of addiction is progressive and can be fatal if not treated aggressively. I know that on a daily basis I make mistakes, exercise poor judgement, stumble, falter, and often come up short of my own or others expectations.  However I also know that the enabling power of Christ's atonement is real, and I am doing things I have never ever been able to do before because of my reliance upon Him. 

I decided to start this blog is because of a single powerful promise found in Step 12 of the LDS Addition Recovery Program Manual which simply states:

“The principles taught in this guide will lead you to the temple; they will increase your desire to serve there. In the temple, you will find spiritual power to continue in your recovery."

The quote I posted under the title of my blog comes from an address given in April 1987 in the Manti Temple by President Vaughn J. Featherstone of the Presidency of the Quorum of the Seventy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. President Featherstone promised if members of the Church would spend half a day in the Temple each month the following blessings would result:

1. A man would become mighty, and a woman powerful.
2. It would serve as great "insurance protection" for your marriage.
3. The blessings of the eternal God will be called down upon you, and great spiritual growth will be yours.
4. Unseen angels will watch over your loved ones when Satanic forces tempt them.
5. Your families will draw close to the Lord and there will be no empty chairs in the Celestial Kingdom.
6. Your children will go on missions.
7. Your children will get married in the temple.
8. The veil will be thin, you will have spiritual growth, and many spiritual experiences will distill upon you.
9. You will be prepared for exaltation-with a celestial body, a celestial mind and a celestial personality.
10. You will become receptive to divine guidance and receive spiritual perception to help you grapple with your problems and cares.
11. You will see clearly how to make critical decisions that weigh heavily on your mind.

In the same address, President Featherstone also advised members of the Church:

"The season of the world before us will be like no other in the history of mankind. Satan will unleash every evil scheme, every vile perversion ever known to man in any generation. Just as this dispensation of the fullness of times brought the restoration of all that is good and holy, so also did it bring the fullness of evil. As parents, spouses, children, and members of Christ’s church, we must find safety. Unfortunately, many will struggle mightily before recognizing this bitter truth: there is no safety in this world—wealth cannot provide it, enforcement agencies cannot ensure it, even membership in the Church will not guarantee it. 

As the evil night darkens on this generation, we must come to the temple for light and safety. Only in the house of the Lord will we find quiet, sacred havens where the storm cannot penetrate. There unseen sentinels watch over us. So it was that the Prophet Joseph pled with God during the dedicatory prayer of the Kirtland Temple: “And we ask thee, Holy Father, that thy servants may go forth from this house [temple] armed with thy power and that thy name may be upon them . . . and thine angels have charge over them.” (D&C 109:22.) The Lord has promised: “I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.” (D&C 84:88.) Surely angelic attendants guard the temples of the Most High God. It is my conviction that as it was in the days of Elisha, so it will be for us: “Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.” (2 Kings 6:16.)

Before the Savior comes the world will darken. The time will come when even the elect will begin to lose hope if they do not come often to the temples. I believe that the Saints will come to the temples not only to do vicarious work but also to find a God-given haven of peace. True and faithful Latter-day Saints the world over will long to bring their children to the temple for service and for safety.

The Lord has promised that He will “suddenly come to [His] temple.” (D&C 36:8.) “The day or the hour no man knoweth; but it surely shall come.” (D&C 39:21.) We need to prepare for that day.

There are great unseen hosts in the temple. Joseph told the brethren, “And I beheld the temple was filled with angels.” (History of the Church, 2:428.) I believe deceased prophets of all dispensations visit the temples. Those who attend the temple will feel their strength and companionship. We will not be alone in the house of the Lord.

Faithful, endowed members of the Church who keep all their covenants and properly wear their sacred coverings will be safe as if protected behind temple walls. The covenants and ordinances are filled with faith as a living fire. In a day of desolating sickness, scorched earth, barren wastes, sickening plagues, disease, destruction, and death (see Joel 2:2–6; also D&C 29 and 133), we as a people will rest in the shade of trees. We will drink from the cooling fountains. We will abide in places of refuge from the storm. We will mount up as on eagles’ wings; we will be lifted out of a wicked, insane, and evil world. We will be as fair as the sun and clear as the moon."
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It is my conviction that there is no greater promise provided in any 12 step program in the world than the promise that if I, as an addict, will learn and apply the principles taught in the in the LDS Addiction Recovery Program, "I will be led to the temple."

For me, to be enabled by God's grace to become worthy to claim the blessings of power and protection in the holy temple is priceless beyond measure and is worth any sacrifice God may require of me.

In addition to the LDS ARP meetings, I also am a member of SA. In one of the first SA recovery meetings I attended as a newcomer, I heard an old timer say, "In order to recover from this disease I must be willing to do whatever it takes, everything it takes, for as long as it takes to stay clean and sober."

Just for today, I am willing to accept my old friend's suggestion. I have a deeply intense desire for the temple blessings mentioned in Elder Featherstone's address to become a realization in my life.  I want the covenants and ordinances to fill my soul with faith as a living fire.

For the next 24 hours, I surrender myself to God and His son, Jesus Christ.  I will surrender my addictions to seek and do His will for me in my life. I surrender my recovery so that he can build me up and use my as an instruments in His hands to fulfill His will in my life. I will do "whatever it takes, everything it takes, for as long as it takes," just for today.

My experience, strength, and hope has taught me that recovery from lust is real. It is within the reach of every addict who truly desires it. For me, the critical keys of working my program have been daily surrender to my Higher Power in morning prayer, meetings, meetings, meetings as often as possible, individually working the 12 steps of LDS ARP & SA recovery daily, and service through reaching out to other addicts who still suffer from addiction daily.

In the convoluted world of my addict mind, my recovery program has become my anchor of hope and my armor of light. It is now a daily tangible reality for me.

I know that here IS a loving Higher Power that enables me to do what I know I cannot do alone. It is through enabling power of God, my Father, and His son, Jesus Christ, my Redeemer and the powerful blessings and promises of light available to me as I worthily and frequently God's Holy Temple.

I invite you to follow my progress as I continue on my journey.

In the future, I know I will experience incredible days full of joy and progress. I know I will also experience sorrowful, disheartening days full of doubt and fear. In the meantime, I am working to stay present only today and remember that God has promised that:

"He hath made everything beautiful in his time..." (Ecclesiastes 3:11.)  Exercising gratitude for His care and guidance, I will surrender my fear and trust in His promise.

The work it takes to surrender my will to God’s is extremely humbling and sometimes very difficult. Nevertheless, I know from personal experience that it is incredibly empowering, enlightening and amazingly beautiful. It is WORTH every sacrifice He requires of me so that one day I can be filled with faith as a living fire!

I will go forward in faith!  God is in charge!