Set free from addiction and healed from the pain and trauma of a living hell!

Last Saturday was the Fixed conference which I organise for Proclaim Trust. Fixed is a conference for addicts, ex-addicts, recovering addicts and those with a heart for addicts. Unless you’ve been, I can tell you you’ve never experienced anything like it! Hundreds of people gather from all of the UK and this year a large group from Sweden. Hundreds of people who have been affected by addiction in their life.

Most of the people who were there are now set free from those chains. They bring those who are in the chains of addiction to show them they can too be set free! The day is jam packed full of stories of people who were once bound by addiction and are now free. We have musical performances, worship, spoken word poetry, seminars, interviews and exhibition stands from organisations active in this field. This year we saw over 100 people make responses to the gospel. Either a first time commitment or a prayer or re-commitment to get back on track with God.

The stories these people could tell you would shock you, hurt you and break your heart. They aren’t for the fainthearted. These guys have seen hell, they’ve lived it.

Drug addiction, alcohol addiction, mental health issues, homelessness, crime, suicide, broken relationships, losing children, prostitution, self harm and the list goes on. Most of those with us Saturday tried to save themselves, to heal themselves and to break their addictions but to no avail. They will all testify that it wasn’t until they knew Jesus that they were truly set free!

Being in that room on Saturday, hearing stories of transformation that people are now clean, healed, restored, forgiven, set free. That they now love themselves and know their worth. That their relationships with their kids and families are restored. That they are now working as prison chaplains or support workers in the very prisons they were locked up in. They are, leading churches, running their own rehabs and charities or trustees of charities. They are accountants when once they were fraudsters is all mind blowing. But all tangible evidence of a real and working God. They didn’t do this themselves. God did and everyone of them will testify to that! All you have to do is see the way they worship and praise God. It’s like a full on rave but with no drugs, no drink and the only high is the one from the most high God.

If you knew what they had been through, you would understand why they praise God the way the do! They’ve been set free from addiction and healed from the pain and trauma of a living hell!

Believing in God doesn’t limit you, it gives you access to His limitless spirit to do more than you can imagine. Following Jesus doesn’t bind you, it sets you free! And it definitely doesn’t mean passively sitting back until the day He returns but it means playing your part and going for it full pelt until that day! Some of these guys journeys of freedom started by reading a bible verse, check that out, because the bible has the power to do that, that’s why the enemy doesn’t want you to read it.

Those at Fixed will tell you that they were once slaves to addiction and now they are set free and forgiven by what Jesus did on the cross and in His resurrection. Don’t ever think that Christians are these weak sheep because the bravest thing they ever did was surrendering their messed up lives to the only one who could truly restore it. Jesus. And they now stand transformed filled with His strength.

It’s an honour and a privilege to play my part in the Fixed conference. I’m grateful God allows me to do that.

If you know someone who could benefit from coming to Fixed, you can learn more about the Fixed conference and see the line up for next year here Fixed-25