Those who regularly drink alcohol in excess and take mind-altering drugs generally do so because it helps them escape, gives them a sense of joy, invigorates them, removes inhibitions and so forth. But all this is not real. It is like having a wonderful dream in which all your misfortunes are turned around only to then awake and find that nothing has changed. The temporary illusion of joy only amplifies the emptiness. Everything artificial is a cheap copy of something real. There is, however, a real source of liberation, not something that will just give you a sensation of escape, but something that will actually set you free. There is a real source of joy, something that gives us more than just a feeling, something that actually changes our situation in life. There is a real source of empowerment, not just something that makes us feel uninhibited but something that actually unlocks all the potential in us. This ‘something’ is the person of the Holy Spirit whom God wants to pour into your heart. While alcohol dulls the senses, the Holy Spirit will actually make you more sober-minded and clear headed than you ever imagined you could be. When you are full of God’s Spirit your former sober state will seem, in comparison, like that of drunkenness. True sober-mindedness requires more than the absence of mind-altering substances. True sobriety, real clarity of mind, requires the presence of the enlightening Spirit of God. As excessive alcohol deadens the senses, so the Spirit of God awakens and sharpens our spiritual senses.
Surrender yourself to God and ask him to fill you with his Spirit.
Read Ephesians 5:15-20
