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INTRODUCTION
Jesus Breaks the Chains was conceived on the very first day of my teenage years. I believed the enemy’s lie that alcohol and drugs could be trusted. It was born in fiery revelation 30 years later, behind bars in a Texas prison, by the power of the Holy Spirit, after God reached into my fallen life and delivered me out of the captivity, darkness, and hell of addiction into the loving arms of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In a raging battle with alcoholism and drug addiction for more than two-thirds of my life, at age 46, I had fallen so fast and so deep into addicted darkness that up until that time, I had never experienced anything like it before. As a man who had just completed his first time in prison and was beginning a new life in my home state of Texas, I thought the days of disappearing into the very dangerous and unpredictable world of crack cocaine and methamphetamine addiction were behind me. Boy, was I wrong!
Addiction controlled my life for 25 years, leading to a roller coaster ride of instability, chaos, and destruction. My journey through addiction was a dangerous escape into the harsh, unforgiving world of addiction. It was an intense inward journey into myself and back out, which ultimately transformed me into the Man of God I am today. Looking back, I see a landscape marked by towering mountains of achievement, filled with success and praise, alongside dark valleys of collapse, characterized by loneliness and despair. I experienced phases of great success, only to be met with tragic failure, then clawed my way back to the top of a mountain and somehow found prosperity again. Once I reached these new heights, I would, like clockwork, be unable to stay there and would fall again into failure, tumbling into the emotionally hostile terrain of guilt, shame, frustration, and disappointment.
This book offers an in-depth look at how addiction entered my life and took root in my soul early on. As an unsuspecting, naive, and unprepared teen experimenting with alcohol and drugs, I believed the lie that these substances could be friends I could trust to provide harmless fun and excitement. I thought they would bring endless good times with no negative effects or consequences. Let the good times roll, and let the party never end! That was the bait, and addiction was the trap.
Growing up in Dallas, Texas, during the late 1970s and 1980s, I was the only son in a family that was well-educated, successful in business, and attended church on Sundays. I was also a highly talented athlete, which propelled me to become a well-known and successful high school and college football player, earning many honors and accolades. My addiction erupted in my life in 1991, the year I was cut from the Edmonton Eskimos Football Team in the Canadian Football League. Like a dormant volcano suddenly blowing its top, I was propelled headfirst into the crack cocaine epidemic that raged in our country’s inner cities and ghettos across the country. For a young man raised with wealth, fame, and a solid education, this experience was a stark contrast to the beautiful university campus and the wealthy suburban neighborhoods where I once lived and played. This book offers a deep look into my profound and tragic descent into the wickedness of addiction. It describes in detail the unbelievable destruction this destructive force caused in every area and relationship of my life. Addiction, with its sharp, piercing hooks, latched onto me, embedding itself deep into my flesh and soul, refusing to let go. I was hooked. I was trapped. Unknowingly, I was headed straight for hell. You will read about my journey into darkness and the shadow of death, and my final encounter with the devil himself when he asked for my soul.
While taking on a life of its own, addiction led me into a vast emotional wilderness filled with pain, misery, disgust, defeat, anguish, and disappointment. These experiences marked my soul with several illuminating spiritual awakenings and revelations that I will share throughout this book. The deeper I traveled into this maze of insanity and the longer I walked the dark, lonely road toward destruction, the more I realized I was caught in a crossfire of a battle being fought for my very soul. The overwhelming suffering caused by my level of addiction became the fuel that eventually brought me back to my God. The lie of addiction and the spiritual sickness that comes with it became the enemy’s weapon to attack me, aiming to destroy my soul and trick me into following him into the pits of hell reserved for him and the fallen angels who rebelled against God. The enemy used addiction to drive me into rebellion against my Creator. His plan was to separate me and keep me disconnected from the Light, Love, and Truth of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who instead became my saving Grace and Rescuer. Through His incredible Power and endless Love, Jesus faithfully lifted me out of the lies and deceptions that formed the dark pit of addiction, delivering me into the fullness of His Spirit of Truth.
Jesus Breaks the Chains testifies that when Jesus sets you free, you are truly free. I hold this truth: when a drug addict surrenders everything to the Lord, only then can they be transformed through the power of the Holy Spirit and the authority in the name of Jesus Christ, ultimately stepping into victory over all addictions—just as Jesus Christ has victory over all things. After I surrendered to Jesus Christ and chose life, I entered into a personal, loving relationship with Him and found rest for my tired, battle-worn soul. When I made Jesus Christ the Lord and Savior of my life, that decision declared His victory over my addiction. In Jesus Christ, I have finally discovered my integrity through my Spirit-guided life of action and obedience to God’s Word. The Lord has led me out of the cycle of defeat into the triumph of victory, something I have only experienced in Him. I am successful when I stop trying to be my own god and savior, stop following the world’s broken beliefs, and fully surrender my will to the will of my Creator, Jesus Christ.
As I submit myself and my will to the Lord of my life, He guides me into His understanding and His wisdom about the person He created me to be. In this, He reveals to me His purpose for my life. As He shares His truth with me, as long as I remain submitted to His will, I am open to becoming that person—a new creation, a disciple, and a witness of Jesus Christ. As God completes His good work in me and begins the process of transforming me into the image of His Son, I can understand God’s purpose for my life. Once I discover my purpose, I can start living it out, cooperating with God in His plan. Then my life begins to make sense, the inner struggle ends, and I find peace.
2 CORINTHIANS 5:17 (NKJV)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
In Jesus Christ, all old things have passed away, including my addiction and the wreckage of my past. Now, all things are new, and I can rest in the assurance that Jesus can do better for me than I can ever do for myself alone. I get out of my own way and let God have His way in me. As I do this, God creates in me a new life, guided by His gentle, loving, yet firm hand, as He leads me into all truth. My hope is for full healing in all my current relationships, which are truly precious to me, and for understanding, forgiveness, and restoration in the relationships that were broken in my past. I am humble, contrite, remorseful, and apologetic for all the hurt and pain I caused others during my addiction and for the damage it did to the people I loved most. I seize every opportunity that God provides to make amends to those people. My new way of life and walk in the Spirit will serve as a witness and testimony to everyone about the truth in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and that through Him, all things are possible, including victory over addiction. The most important thing in my life, rising from the ashes of a cold, addicted death, is my relationship with Jesus Christ and my life’s mission to share His Love, Hope, and Strength with others so they too can escape the land of the lost, the land of the living dead, and join me in the Triumph of Jesus Christ over addiction.
Please enjoy the story of my life and God’s poetry given to me in fiery revelation from behind the bars of a cold, lonely, and depressing prison in Austin, Texas, USA. During my incarceration, I finally surrendered to Jesus Christ, listened to God’s voice, and followed His life-giving instructions, which led me happily to freedom. In Jesus Christ, I have broken free from the heavy yoke and stifling bondage of self. I claim victory in Jesus Christ over the addiction that nearly destroyed my soul. I have escaped a world gone insane and been delivered from my stubborn, rebellious, and sinful fleshly nature, which, until now, held me captive and imprisoned in darkness for most of my life. I have now settled into the rest and peace of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The Prince of Peace led me into freedom, in the most unlikely place on this planet to find liberty. I found sweet freedom as a five-time convicted felon, locked in a sad and lonely prison behind razor wire fences, steel doors, and rough concrete walls. It was in this prison that I was finally able to break through the biggest lie of my life—the enemy’s weapon of addiction in a war being waged for the destiny of my soul between the forces of good and evil. Because of my surrender to Jesus Christ, I have been delivered back to my God, out of a horrible, drug-addicted pit, by His saving grace and mercy, incomprehensible, unfailing love, and the incredible power and truth that can only be found in a relationship with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
I hope that you, who are reading this book, will invite Jesus Christ into your heart through the story of my life, the poetry of my soul, and the scripture written in this book. I pray that the Holy Spirit reveals to you in your spirit the fiery truth about addiction and who Jesus Christ is as our Lord and Savior, the only begotten Son of our Father, Almighty God! Whether you are struggling with addiction or simply an interested reader, this book is my deepest expression to you—honestly sharing my lifelong battle with addiction and my final deliverance from it into the truth. Today, I stand with absolute authority, firmly and boldly over addiction, with my foot pressing squarely on its neck, and I proclaim fearlessly the victorious battle cry of Victory given to me by the Power of the Blood and the authority in the Name of Jesus Christ.
We all must embark on our own personal journey through the trials and tribulations of this fallen, dark, and deceptive world. Along the way, we are challenged to break free from the grip of sin and death and step into the Light of eternal life with our Creator. My journey led me through some of the most dangerous, spiritually wicked wildernesses and wastelands of the living dead, winding through dark valleys of alcohol, crack cocaine, and methamphetamine addiction, ending in a devastating pit of defeat, despair, and an encounter with the devil. Your journey may be similar or different, but it is unique to you and your own. Wherever your path takes you, I wish you Godspeed, and I hope the story of my life, as shared in this book, will inspire and encourage you to never give up. It took me over 20 years to finally conquer my flesh, the devil, addiction, and my bondage to sin. No matter how many times you fall, you must get back up, keep fighting, and cry out to Jesus for help. Remember, victory over your life, addiction, and sin only comes when you surrender completely to the loving care of Jesus Christ. Surrendering my life to Jesus removed the endless, unsuccessful, and often defeated battle from my own hands—hands too weak to withstand the test of time—and placed the fight in the powerful, unending strength, authority, and dominion of Jesus Christ, who has victory over all things. Our victory has already been won, and Jesus waits for us to enforce it by accepting Him. I finally exhausted my strength and stepped into Christ’s power, embracing and applying His victory to my life. This only happened when I surrendered every part of myself—what was good, bad, and ugly—to Him. In my deepest brokenness and destruction, I was able to surrender fully, and immediately, I entered into the peace of His victory, finding much-needed rest for my tormented, weary, downtrodden, and battle-worn soul. As I made a complete white-flag surrender to Jesus, I entered into His truth, righteousness, and the fullness of His unconditional love. Not by my own limited strength or understanding—ill-equipped to handle such overwhelming chaos—only through the power, wisdom, and grace of the Most High God, the Creator of all things, was I able to finally overcome my addiction.
1 JOHN 5:4-5 (NKJV)
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Read this book, and if you relate to any part of it, then you, too, can triumph over any addiction or difficulty that keeps you in bondage and prevents you from being your best and living a life of freedom and prosperity. My victory, found only in Jesus Christ, comes from the Lord, who gave me the mission and calling of my life: to proclaim to all who will listen the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to expose the lie of addiction so others can be set free as I have been.
The Lord has rescued me from drug addiction and imprisonment. He has called me to the mission field, leading me back into the Texas prison system and also overseas, into drug-infested communities and prisons in Liberia, West Africa. There, I help the brokenhearted, drug-addicted, despised, and rejected prisoners of sin, guilt, and shame. In Monrovia, Liberia’s capital, drug-addicted men, women, and young people have taken over Palm Grove Cemetery and the nearby Center Street Ghetto. This cemetery spans nearly 13 acres and is home to over 1,500 tombs. Fourteen years of civil war, fought with machetes, left many bodies buried. Some older drug addicts are former child soldiers and abuse victims from this brutal war who turned to drugs and had nowhere else to go afterward. Warlords kidnapped young boys and often murdered their family members in front of them before forcing them into battle. To make the frightened children fight, the warlords supplied them with drugs to make them brave, which led to addiction. They handed out marijuana, crack cocaine, black tar heroin, and a mixture called Cane Juice—alcohol, cane juice, and gunpowder—that intoxicated them and was said to make them fearless. Warlords even forced children to cannibalize victims and drink the blood of sacrificed children. Once disarmament occurred, the government confiscated guns and machetes, but the addiction and trauma persisted. The devastating civil wars planted the seed of drug addiction in Liberia.
Today, entire generations of all ages are addicted to drugs and living in graveyards and ghettos across the country under terrible conditions. Babies are being born into this environment and are never given a chance at a decent life. The infant mortality rate is high. This suffering group is called Zogos. They have been forgotten and persecuted by society, even unto death. Very few resources are available to help the Zogos. These hurt, broken, lost, and addicted people need our help. Praise the Lord! God has given me this ministry, a burden, and a big mission to serve the drug-addicted, poor, homeless, and disadvantaged people of Liberia! We are here to show them that Jesus has not forgotten them, and neither have we. I have established a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization in the United States called Sons and Daughters of Thunder Ministries, along with a Liberian NGO called Liberation Center Liberia, to support this calling in my life. What Jesus did in me, He will do in those I am sent to serve as a witness of His endless grace, mercy, and love!
ZECHARIAH 4:6 (NKJV)
‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.
The same Spirit that hovered over the face of the waters at creation and the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is the same Spirit that dwells in me and anoints me for this mission and calling to help God transform the lives of the drug-addicted and habitually incarcerated. It is this same Spirit that everyone who surrenders their life to Jesus Christ receives when they are born again and becomes the righteousness of God, overcoming their addictions and sins to become new creations in Jesus Christ, just as I have. I am a living example of what is possible with God. My life testifies to His goodness!
“May God bless you when reading this book and give you a new revelation and understanding of your Victory over all things that can only be found in Jesus Christ.” ~ Michael Bowen