Prayer Delivers Powerful Blow to Addiction

“I knew for sure that I was going to die a drug addict. And I had no desire to continue living.”

For Jordan Wilson the long slide to hopelessness was one that no one saw coming. He’d grown up in a Christian home with loving parents. His dad Roger remembers how proud he was of his son and his faith.

“He wasn't an undercover Christian, you know?,” says Roger. “Everybody knew where he stood.”

Jordan says, “I would go home tired from the day, but I had to get my time with Jesus.” Jordan was well-liked at school and church, and that drew the attention of girls. At sixteen, he began dating a 19-year-old. “Instead of going to church, I would stay at my girlfriend's house,” says Jordan.

By seventeen, worldly pleasures had replaced his love for God altogether. Marijuana, pain pills and alcohol quickly consumed him. Jordan says, “I loved the party lifestyle in the beginning. I lived with friends. We threw parties. I thought that I was Superman. I thought that I was invincible.”

His father, Roger, noticed a difference in his son and did the only thing he knew to do. “I've prayed for that boy almost every day of his life,” says Roger.

Still, Jordan was spending a hundred dollars a day on pills. His addiction demanded it or suffer withdrawals. Jordan says, “I had to get 20 pills a day. That's what was going to keep me from being sick. So it didn't matter if I could afford it or not. I was going to get high no matter what that looked like.”

Jordan also became addicted to meth. When he was fired from his factory job, Jordan (with the help of a friend) began manufacturing and selling the drug, spice.

“There didn't really seem to be an option for me at the time. I needed money,” Jordan says. “I needed drugs. So, it didn't matter what kind of trouble I may be in, I was going to do what I had to do.”

That is until an informant tipped off the police about Jordan’s dealing. Jordan says, “When I was busted and the police picked me up and threw me on the ground, I was so obliterated from the drugs that I really couldn't grasp just how hot the water was that I was in.”

Roger says, “I was at work when I got a call that he had been arrested. I just remember standing in the hospital and just feeling absolutely helpless.”

Over the next three years, Jordan was in jail 10-times and kicked out of rehab six times. Both he and his father thought the cycle would never end.

Roger says, “I was just afraid that I was going to get a call some night – overdosed, killed. Though he was in rehab, he had failed. So I thought, is he going to be another statistic?”

Jordan says, “I knew for sure that I was going to die a drug addict. I started shooting up. I shot up crystal meth. I was addicted to pills again. And I had no desire to continue living.”

“So I know what can happen. I know what God says He can do. And I was in that spot praying for a miracle,” says Roger.

Jordan again tried to stop using and began the detox process. Then on Easter Sunday 2016, Roger had a request for his son.

Jordan says, “My dad said, ‘Jordan, this Sunday is Easter. Will you come to church with me?’ I said, ‘No, Dad, I'm sick, I'm detoxing from drugs. I can't go.’"

“And because it was my birthday,” says Roger, “you know, kind of laid birthday card on him.”

“I was 27 years old and I didn't have a birthday gift for my dad,” says Jordan. “I thought, this is the least I can do. And so I agreed to go to church with my dad for his birthday on Easter Sunday.”

During the service Jordan felt a spark of hope that he hadn’t felt for years. Jordan recalls, “The pastor said, ‘If there's anyone who wants to give their heart to Christ, or maybe you did a long time ago and you want to reconnect with Christ, today's your day.’"

“Jordan jumped up. I mean, just shot down the aisle, down the stairs to the altar,” says Roger.

Jordan says, “As I was at that altar, I felt like God was sweeping me off my feet. I realized that this is Resurrection Sunday. Jesus Christ has risen.”

“Tears began to flow,” says Roger. “It was absolutely, other than the day I watched him be born, the greatest day watching him give his heart back to God.”

Jordan says, “I’ve never been the same since. I never drank another drop. I never used another drug since that day!  So now I'm closer with the Lord than I've ever been, more so than when I was a teenager. But I walk with Him and talk with Him every single day. If I don't get that one-on-one time with Jesus every day, I'm just not right.”

Jordan says it was God with him that allowed him to finally overcome the addiction that had stolen so much from his life. “This relationship with Christ has taught me to love people. He has enabled me to care about people,” says Jordan. “And I realized that my life is bigger than me. I'm not the lead role in my story. He is. And realizing– gives me a life truly worth living.”

Today Jordan is married with two children and is the author of a new book, “Jesus > Drugs, The Only War Won by Surrender.” He is also is the development director of a rehab facility he was once kicked out of.

“God's plan was much different,” says Jordan. “God's plan was, ‘No, you're going to fall in love with me. You're going to work in ministry. And you're going to come back here as an executive staff member.’ If you surrender to Christ, He'll fight for you. He'll do what you can't do. As someone who tried it without Jesus, there is a big difference. You may be able to get sober without Christ, but you'll never be free without Christ. And Christ is what sets people free."