Truth About Psychology
There are many scriptures that talk about physical and spiritual healing, but there are none that prescribe the infirm to set out on a self-focused journey of behavior modification, which comes with self-help and psychology based solutions. You have been healed not with rules, steps, behavior modifications, accountability, and fear, but with peace and the power that comes from being fully hidden in Christ and completely filled with the Holy Spirit. You were reborn as a new creation; a race of people never before seen on this Earth.
Over and over again, throughout the New Testament, you are given permission to be healed. Jesus died and with Him, your sinful nature died. You are no longer broken, weak or struggling, you have been fully restored and healed. Jesus came to Earth and was the beginning of a new creation. A new being. A race of people that would live for eternity, equipped with the same power, ability and inheritance as Jesus. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)

Verse after verse Jesus explains our new placement in the Kingdom and our new status. (John 10:25-30)
Jesus promises us the Holy Spirit to equip us for the same power and good works that he had access to and experienced here on Earth. Once you were placed in Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus says in John 14:15-27 that you will keep his commands, you know him, anyone who loves Christ will obey and you are commanded not to be troubled or afraid. We have been made one with God. How, if we are one with God, are we weak and powerless to anything?
The foundation of psychology and self-help is rooted not in scripture or the Holy Spirit but in self and your “psyche.” There cannot be a more terrible place to look for healing and solutions.
Take a look at the founders of psychotherapy: * Sigmund Freud is considered by many to be the father of psychoanalysis but he considered himself a “godless Jew” and a “hopeless pagan.” He abandoned all religion, calling it a construct of men’s imaginations. * Carl Jung, who has influenced personality testing like the Myers-Briggs, drank heavily and believed Christianity was only a myth. In a letter to Freud, he stated that he wanted to “transform Christ back into the soothsaying god of the vine … and absorb those ecstatic instinctual forces of Christianity for the one purpose of making the cult and the sacred myth what they once were — a drunken feast of joy where man regained the ethos and holiness of an animal. ” (Noll, The Jung Cult, p. 188, as quoted by Bobgan: PsychoHeresy: C.G. Jung’s Legacy to the Church)
“He delved deeply into the occult, practiced necromancy, and had daily contact with disembodied spirits, which he called archetypes. Much of what he wrote was inspired by such entities,”2 including Philemon, his own familiar spirit. (Bobgan, Online article: PsychoHeresy: C.G. Jung’s Legacy to the Church) * Abraham Maslow believed that man was basically good and that children develop better without “interference” of parents. “Maslow rejected the Lord and His Word … and even blamed Christianity, with its doctrines of the fall and sin, for preventing the natural development of humanity and for thus being a major source of evil.” (Bobgan, Online article: From Maslow’s Psychology to Mystical Experiences in the Emergent Church)
At some point a partnership was formed between the pagan insights into the psyche and Christianity. Many of these theories, teachings and resources are now readily available in the church. Even the adaptation of psychology into a form of Christian psychology is based on a foundation developed by men who had a disdain for our Creator.
The definition of psychotherapy is the treatment of a patient's mental health problems by talking with a psychiatrist, psychologist, licensed clinical social worker or other mental health provider. Psychotherapy has the client focus on changing faulty behaviors, thoughts, perceptions and emotions or feelings. (American Psychological Association)
Christian psychotherapists are deterred from dealing with doctrinal issues like sin, salvation, sanctification and glorification during counseling sessions. Psychotherapy attempts to improve the person and fix their complaints through concepts such as self-love, self-esteem, self-awareness, self-image, self-actualization, etc.
Therapy is problem and symptom focused which is in direct opposition to scripture. In counseling the majority of your energy is spent on fixing what is broken and modifying or controlling behavior and not on repentance, sanctification and what has been made available to you in through Jesus. When scripture says focus on “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy”…It literally means to think about and work on and dwell on these things. Putting your time, energy and thoughts into those things. (Also see Colossians 3)
We can’t focus intently on two things at once. If we start adjusting our lens to bring into focus one, the other will become distorted and merely a fuzzy background. We take our eyes off the gospel and off our Lord when we start looking at our perceived problems and issues. We need to consciously shift our thinking the minute we have a negative thought. Even spending time thinking about how to stop thinking negative thoughts is focusing on the negative. If you catch yourself dwelling on something negative, simply have another thought. (2 Corinthians 10:5)
Going to counseling, by design, leads to negative hopeless thinking. It conditions you to speak of and examine the negative. You are there to talk about what is wrong, broken or bad and set about a plan to fix or manage what is wrong. This does nothing to bring about sanctification, justification, glorification or healing. Therapy focuses on the flesh and the old nature. God addresses our flesh throughout the New Testament. Ephesians 6 states that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. That even means we are not at war against our own flesh.

Counseling leads hurting people, searching for answers, to believe that the Holy Spirit and wisdom of God is not enough. Christian counseling leads the hurting to believe they need the Word of God, Holy Spirit AND some good coping skills or behavior management. Luke 4:18-21 says that He came to bring freedom, not steps and better coping skills. Paul stated that we should not depend upon the wisdom of men, but on the power and wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:19-21 and 1 Corinthians 2:4-6)
Those that came to Jesus for healing went away completely healed. On the contrary, Dr. Martin Seligman, a past president of the American Psychological Association, stated, “by and large, we produce only mild to moderate relief.” (Psychotherapy Networker, Vol. 27, No.1, pg. 51) But God’s word carries the power and hope needed to transform us into the image of Christ and bear much fruit. The success of therapy is measured by how you’re feeling not on how you’re living.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 and 2 Peter 1:2-8 remind us that He is all we need. “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)
Modern counseling is destroying the church. The combining of Christianity and psychology should not be possible – they are two very distinct religions with two very distinct foundations. Combining pagan rituals with Christianity is not new.
Jeremiah 2:11:13 warns of creating broken cisterns for ourselves that cannot hold water.

“Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have departed from the faith.”( 1 Timothy 6:20-21)
Christian psychology directs the focus away from truth and guides the hurting to focus on something other than the all-powerful all-loving savior. Until recently, followers of Christ looked to the scriptures for guidance and wisdom. They looked to Jesus for healing and restoration. The Bible sheds light on relationships, thoughts, feelings, attitudes and actions. It is sufficient in covering the prescription for sin, wrong thinking and faulty attitudes. It thoroughly covers God’s plan for dealing with the old man and the new man that was created when the Holy Spirit came upon you. With the manifestation of Christian psychology, you now have the cross PLUS the behavior management and coping skills of psychology. Instead of rejecting this new religion with its new systems and language, the church has embraced it and incorporated it in their teaching and resources. Psychology has given man the ability to explain bad behaviors and faulty thinking and given it a label other than sin. It has provided a way to manage sin and therefore negating the work of the cross. To be clear, Jesus died on the cross once and for all, receiving the punishment for and burying our anger, insecurity, fear, depression, addictions, compulsions, lusts, idolatry, perversions, weaknesses, sadness, and wounds. Instead of rejoicing, we have found a way to resurrect and prop up the dead self and proceed to wrestle against it, manage it, control it, subdue it, and avoid it. Imagine how ridiculous it would look to dig up a corpse and then develop strategies for fighting, avoiding, controlling it or teaching it feelings? When we dig up and wage war against the very thing Jesus died to do away with, we negate the work on the cross.
He has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. (2 Peter 1:3-4) Would our great God give commands without providing a way to live in a manner to which we had been called until psychological developments were made centuries later? Psychology and the billion dollar Christian self-help industry will give you the insight you need to manage that dead man and leave you hopeless. Paul knew the dangers of conforming to the World systems. (1 Corinthians 1) We are new creations and our old self should be put off not managed and fixed up. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”(2 Cor. 5:17)
There is no way the foolishness born from atheists and agnostics can compare to the wisdom and power of our loving Father. Over and over we see that the Lord’s words have the power to heal, transform and create. He takes a dead man and turns it in to a new creation, a being never before seen, created in the image of Christ, with the power of Jesus, placed in Him, filled with the Holy Spirit, fully able to bear fruit and bless the Lord.
Dr. Ed Payne, professor of Family Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia, declared: “Psychologists who are Christians are not primarily at fault. Church leaders must bear the guilt of the invasion of psychology into the Church. These are the people who are ordained of God to guard the minds of their sheep. Instead, they have invited wolves into the fold.” (Prophets of PsychoHeresy) “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.”( 1 Corinthians 2:4-6)

Dangerous Steps
A.A. is not biblically based. Wilson, the founder of A.A. was unsaved and called on spirits for “guidance” as he began writing the steps and traditions. Specifically, in Wilson’s letter to Father Ed Dowling, he tells of and encounter with the spirit of a 15th century monk named Boniface that influenced his writing the ‘Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. These 12 steps were dictated to him from this spirit. Bill Wilson was a member of the Oxford Group and believed that the principles of the Oxford Group were the key to overcoming alcoholism.

According to the official A.A. history book 'PASS IT ON',
"One of Bill's persistent fascinations and involvements was with psychic phenomena." It talks about his "belief in clairvoyance and other extrasensory manifestations" and his obsession with his own psychic ability. (Page 275.) "This was not a mere pastime. It was a passion directly related to AA which went on for many years." (Page 280.)

Likewise, Susan Cheever reported,
“Like Bill, Bob believed in paranormal possibility [sic.] and the two men spent time "spooking," invoking the spirits of the dead." One account published in PASS IT ON, tells of a pre-breakfast conversation that Bill Wilson had with a trio of ghosts — whom he claimed were three distinct long-dead Nantucket citizens — during a trip to Nantucket in 1944. (Pages 276-278.)

In 'PASS IT ON', Bill Wilson described the "spook sessions" this way:
"The Ouija board got moving in earnest. What followed was the fairly usual experience — it was a strange mélange of Aristotle, St. Francis, diverse archangels with odd names, deceased friends — some in purgatory and others doing nicely, thank you! There were malign and mischievous ones of all descriptions, telling of vices quite beyond my ken, even as former alcoholics. Then, the seemingly virtuous entities would elbow them out with messages of comfort, information, advice — and sometimes just sheer nonsense."

“Bill would lie on the couch in the living room, semi-withdrawn, but not in a trance, and "receive" messages, sometimes a word at a time, sometimes a letter at a time. Anne B., neighbor and "spook" circle regular, would write the material on a pad.” Lois describes one of the more dramatic of these sessions: “Bill would lie down on the couch. He would 'get' these things. He kept doing it every week or so. Each time, certain people would 'come in.' Sometimes, it would be new ones, and they'd carry on some story. There would be long sentences; word-by-word would come through. This time, instead of word by word, it was letter by letter. Anne put them down letter by letter." ('PASS IT ON': The story of Bill Wilson and how the A.A. message reached the world, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. staff, 1984, pages 278-279)

“Throughout A.A., we find a large amount of psychic phenomena, nearly all of it spontaneous. Alcoholic after alcoholic tells me of such experiences and asks if these denote lunacy — or do they have real meaning? These psychic experiences have run nearly the full gamut of everything we see in the books. In addition to my original mystical experience, I've had a lot of such phenomenalism myself.” ('PASS IT ON'; The story of Bill Wilson and how the A.A. message reached the world, 'anonymous' (A.A.W.S. staff), page 374)

“Many of the early A.A. members were very disturbed by Bill Wilson's occult activities, and they tried to get him to stop it. One, Sumner Campbell, wrote to a man whom they all respected, C. S. Lewis at Cambridge University in England, describing Bill Wilson's spook sessions and asking his opinion. Lewis wrote back with total disapproval, saying, ‘This is necromancy. Have nothing to do with it.’ Bill Wilson ignored the criticism and continued conducting his séances and communicating with the dead people each evening anyway.” (Susan Cheever, My Name Is Bill: Bill Wilson — His Life and the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous, page 207.)

Scripture is clear on these practices:
Deuteronomy 18:10-13, Leviticus 19:31, Leviticus 20:6, Exodus 22:18, and Leviticus 20:27 speak clearly to God’s view on the fruit of these practices.
According to the Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book (the A.A. “bible”):
“We found that God does not make too hard terms with those who seek Him. To us, the Realm of the Spirit is broad, roomy, all-inclusive; never exclusive or forbidding to those who earnestly seek. It is open, we believe, to all men. When, therefore, we speak to you of God, we mean your own conception of God.” (Alcoholics Anonymous pg. 46-47)

Once again, Bill Wilson suggests taking the broad path and walk with the spirit of the universe.
“Once we have taken this step, withholding nothing, we are delighted. We can look the world in the eye. We can be alone at perfect peace and ease. Our fears fall from us. We begin to feel the nearness of our Creator. We may have had certain spiritual beliefs, but now we begin to have a spiritual experience. The feeling that the drink problem has disappeared will often come strongly. We feel we are on the Broad Highway, walking hand in hand with the Spirit of the Universe.” (The Big Book, 3rd edition, William G. Wilson, chapter 6, Into Action, page 75)
But the Lord says. “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is BROAD that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.” (Matthew 7:13)
Wilson was not interested in God; in fact he says the idea repulsed him but here he explains how he resolved his disdain for God.
“Despite the living example of my friend there remained in me the vestiges of my old prejudice. The word God still aroused a certain antipathy. When the thought was expressed that there might be a God personal to me this feeling was intensified. I didn't like the idea. ... My friend suggested what then seemed a novel idea. He said, "Why don't you choose your own conception of God?" That statement hit me hard. It melted the icy intellectual mountain in whose shadow I had lived and shivered many years. I stood in the sunlight at last. It was only a matter of being willing to believe in a Power greater than myself. Nothing more was required of me to make my beginning. I saw that growth could start from that point. Upon a foundation of complete willingness I might build what I saw in my friend. Would I have it? Of course I would! Thus was I convinced that God is concerned with us humans when we want Him enough. At long last I saw, I felt, I believed. Scales of pride and prejudice fell from my eyes. A new world came into view.“ (Big Book, 3rd Edition, William G. Wilson, Chapter 1, "Bill's Story", Page 12.)
The following steps, as outlined in Alcoholics Anonymous, are steeped in language 
in direct opposition to the Word of God.
Step 1 of the 12 Steps claims that we are powerless. Yet on the contrary if you have been bought with a price you have been given the power of the Holy Spirit over the kingdom of darkness, sin, and death. Therefor you are very powerful.
Step 2 states that you are insane and that you should demand that your god make you sane. So the god that you chose when you were “insane” you should now call on to make you “sane.” If you have been made whole by the saving works of Christ, then you have no business claiming insanity. “Step 3: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.” (12Steps.org)
It says that we turn our will over to the god of our choosing and that it will take care of everything. They will plainly tell you that your god can be anything or anyone.
A.A. founder Bill Wilson also wrote: 


"I must quickly assure you that A.A.'s tread innumerable paths in their quest for faith. ... You can, if you wish, make A.A. itself your 'higher power.' Here's a very large group who have solved their alcohol problem. In this respect they are certainly a power greater than you, who have not even come close to a solution. Surely you can have faith in them. Even this minimum of faith will be enough." (Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, William G. Wilson, page 27.) 


Here Bill Wilson speaks of summoning the Spirit of God by demanding that he show himself:
“The terrifying darkness had become complete. In agony of spirit, I again thought of the cancer of alcoholism, which had now consumed me in mind and spirit, and soon the body. But what of the Great Physician? For a moment, I suppose, the last trace of my obstinacy was crushed out as the abyss yawned. I remember saying to myself, ‘I'll do anything, anything at all. If there be a Great Physician, I'll call on him.’ Then, with neither faith nor hope I cried out, "If there be a God, let him show himself." The effect was instant, electric. Suddenly my room blazed with an indescribably white light. I was seized with an ecstasy beyond description. I have no words for this. Every joy I had known was pale by comparison. The light, the ecstasy. I was conscious of nothing else for a time.”(Bill W.: My First 40 Years, William G. Wilson, pages 145-146.)

“Follow the dictates of a Higher Power and you will presently live in a new and wonderful world, no matter what your present circumstances!”(The Big Book, 3rd Edition, William G. Wilson, page 100)
Step 7 states that you should demand that your god take away all your "defects of character" and "moral shortcomings" and then determines that you should just wait for God to fix you.
Because they don’t address addiction as a sin there is no requirement to repent. You are only told to turn your will over to the god of your choosing and then continue to “work the steps.”
Step 11 instructs you to pray to your higher power so that it will make us understand it better, tell us what to do next and then give us the power to carry out our marching orders.
In this step you can no longer trust your own thoughts or heart. You are to focus on revelations and instructions from your Higher Power.
Even after step 11, over and over, they reiterate that you cannot trust yourself when it comes to identifying your faults or discerning God’s will. You must run all of the Spiritual Guidance you receive from your higher power past your sponsor or A.A. group elders for their approval, because: “Going it alone in spiritual matters is dangerous....Surely then, a novice ought not lay himself open to the chance of making foolish, perhaps tragic, blunders in this fashion. While the comment or advice of others may be by no means infallible, it is likely to be far more specific than any direct guidance we may receive while we are still so inexperienced in establishing contact with a Power greater than ourselves.”(Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, William G. Wilson, pages 59-60.)
In Step 12 your higher power should give you a “spiritual awakening” as the final reward for completing the previous 11 steps to freedom, wisdom and deeper spiritual experience. The Big Book boldly claims,“God ought to be able to do anything." (The Big Book, 3rd Edition, Wilson G. Wilson, Chapter 11, A Vision For You, page 158)
The Bible clearly speaks to making demands of God in Matthew 12:38 and Matthew 16:1 among others. God never caters to our demands in exchange for our performance. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
So within the A.A. meeting, in tandem with other idol worshippers who are calling on their individual powers, demons and spirits, we are to call on our own higher power to move on our command and serve our demands.
The remaining steps involve making lists of all of your faults, wrongs, sins, defects of character, and moral shortcomings, and making more lists of all of the people you have harmed, and making amends, and wallowing in guilt, confessing your sins, and admitting that you are powerless and insane, but there are no steps that call you to step into your glory in Christ; To “put on” your new identity in Christ or to clothe your self in righteousness or even “think on these things.”
There is no speak of grace and restoration but of your continual need to get up every day and do more work on your self and for others. Grace is a gift from God, and that it cannot be bought with good works, but Bill Wilson says that you must work the program and do all of the 12 Steps in order to experience favor. That is heresy.

The Church Steps
12 steps is in an integral part of most all recovery methods, including AA and the rebranded for church counterpart, Celebrate Recovery and Chip Dodd’s “Spiritual Root System” (Center for Professional Excellence/Sage Hill/Voice of the Heart)
Celebrate Recovery was created by Pastor Rick Warren and is based on the 12 steps in AA. The Celebrate Recovery Program uses the traditional 12 Steps and they are accompanied by 12 Biblical comparisons for each step.(soberliving.com)
In A.A. you are instructed to use the Big Book for devotions. You can keep your Bible but you are instructed to keep your “Big Book next to your Good Book” but The Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, is your new Bible. In fact even reading from the Bible at A.A. meetings is typically off limits. You must only read from literature approved or written by A.A. and Jesus Christ is rarely mentioned and not even essential to “recovery” or healing. The adaptation for C.R. includes Bible verses taken out of context to make the steps “Christian.”
In both A.A. and C.R. Groups meet regularly and people air all their dirty laundry to each other. This practice is based on Buchman’s cult, The Oxford Group, and their gross misuse of the verse "Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." (James 5:16) This verse speaks of sick people praying for one another to have healing. Not continually confessing everything to friends or strangers forever.
“Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.” (Psalm 34:13)
The 12 Steps are the foundation of Chip Dodd’s recovery program and the self-help book Voice of the Heart. It is the foundational piece to most, if not all, recovery programs but today my concern is with Chip Dodd’s program at CPE/Sage Hill and the partnership with Downline Ministries, and local churches. Those that have been determined by Chip Dodd, to have a mental defect or addiction are told their only salvation will be to attend A.A. meetings, work the steps and develop a “spiritual root system.” At CPE they are required to attend multiple A.A. or S.A. meetings a day at various locations around the city and do daily “devotionals” from The Big Book every morning. Sage Hill/CPE is labeled a spiritual program yet when asked if you need a Bible to participate you are told that it’s not necessary. The meetings however are mandatory and the men are threatened with expulsion from the program and often told they will not “survive long” if they fail to continue in meetings after leaving the program. You are told that the only way to “survive” or “thrive” after leaving CPE is to attend a predetermined number of A.A. meetings for the “rest of your life.” The men I saw were required to attend the meetings while in the program and one meeting a day for the rest of their life or they would “end up dead” or “back in treatment.”
They also attend additional meetings in the CPE offices where they are required to delve into their wounds and get in touch with their inner feelings. They are repeatedly beat down with swearing and words of condemnation and then their identities are rebuilt in A.A. and the “root system.”
For church leaders to say that A.A. was founded on Christian principles or that the steps can lead you to a saving relationship with Christ is faulty theology. The steps instruct you not in your need for redemption or to confess, repent and submit your life to Christ but to confess to each other, continually professing weakness and powerlessness, and asking for the forgiveness of others while submitting your life to your “higher power.” At best these church leaders are ignorant of the truth and haven’t done the research. At worst they are propagating heresy and leading their flock astray. What business do Christ followers have yoking ourselves with darkness?
“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14)
2 Corinthians 5:17, Romans 6:6, 2 Pet 1:3 talk of our power in Christ and the freedom God provides. His healing is immediate, permanent, and sufficient. He has given us everything we require for life and godliness. That is why the gospel of Jesus Christ is truly, Good News! His yoke is easy and the burden is light!
Voice of the Heart, Sage Hill and many other recovery/self-help programs teach that the program saves people and it’s not dependent on God. Much like a cult, they create their own language and system built on some new revelation by their leader. Why aren’t pastors and leaders renouncing these programs? Why do they promote them?
The church is becoming a concentration camp where the guards are feeding the people so little they are literally starving before our eyes. People that are starving go into survival mode. A lack of the knowledge of God and who He is, how big He is, how good He is, how all-sufficient He is causes Christ followers to have no hope other than dying or being rescued by the return of Christ. We have the victory now! If our people are not properly equipped, they will continue to lose heart.

Cult or Cure?
Look at the behaviors characteristic of cults. To keep you under their control, they will threaten harm or rejection and instill fear if you leave the group or do not make it the priority in your life. If you disagree with any of the guidelines or steps you are in denial or a danger to the individual or group. There is a conversion experience when you surrender to your higher power. You must surrender to the belief that if you continue these rituals than the miracle of sobriety will occur. You must repeatedly affirm your powerlessness in order to solidify your dependence on the group for your “survival”. You are programmed to believe that “the steps work if you work them” and you cannot trust yourself. You must defer to your sponsor who oftentimes will become more important than your own family.
Voice of the Heart/Sage Hill continually warn that if you do not get in touch with your feelings, discover your “root system” or if you leave their program then the negative behaviors will come back with a force and destroy you. They belabor that the only safe place is “within the walls of a group” because you are not safe on your own. Often the participants of their program live in fear and are therefore crippled, which then reaffirms you powerlessness. Your recovery and life depends on the group not on God and the work of Jesus Christ.
“Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program.” (12Steps.org)
“In conclusion, I can only say that whatever growth or understanding has come to me, I have no wish to graduate. Very rarely do I miss the meetings of my neighborhood A.A. group, and my average has never been less than two meetings a week.... our one desire is to stay in A.A.” (A.A. Big Book, 3rd Edition, Jim Burwell, The Vicious Cycle, pages 249-250)
“We are not cured of alcoholism. What we have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition. Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God's will into all of our daily activities.” (The Big Book, 3rd edition, William G. Wilson, page 85)
Christianity declares you are responsible for your actions. Voice of the Heart/Sage Hill/12 Steps would have you believe that you are not in control of your feelings or behaviors but completely powerless.
Much like a cult, Voice of the Heart/Sage Hill/AA teach that the people that do not support the 12 step teaching are said to be in “denial and dangerous.”
“Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity.” (12Steps.org)

Which directly contradicts:
“Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:3-5)

“Helping others is the foundation stone of your recovery. A kindly act once in a while isn't enough. You have to act the Good Samaritan every day, if need be....Your wife may sometimes say she is neglected.” (The Big Book, 3rd Edition, William G. Wilson, Chapter 7, Working With Others, page 97)
Yet 1 Peter 3:7 speaks of faithful marriage and spiritual wellbeing being tied together.
Voice of the Heart/Sage Hill/AA believe it is not safe for you to hear directly from your god, but always seek the wisdom of your sponsor/leader to discern what you should do.
“... what comes to us alone may be garbled by our own rationalization and wishful thinking. The benefit of talking to another person is that we can get his direct comment and counsel on our situation, and there can be no doubt in our minds what that advice is. Going it alone in spiritual matters is dangerous. How many times have we heard well-intentioned people claim the guidance of God when it was all too plain that they were sorely mistaken? Lacking both practice and humility, they had deluded themselves and were able to justify the most arrant nonsense on the ground that this was what God had told them. ... Surely then, a novice ought not lay himself open to the chance of making foolish, perhaps tragic, blunders in this fashion. While the comment or advice of others may be by no means infallible, it is likely to be far more specific than any direct guidance we may receive while we are still so inexperienced in establishing contact with a Power greater than ourselves.”(Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, William G. Wilson, pages 59-60)

Like other cults, they have developed their own language and acronyms. The following list is used in 12 Step and Voice of the Heart meetings and is by no means exhaustive. Spiritual Root System.Heart, story, close-in, mystery.Are you absent in your own skin? It's your story, are you living it? Feel feelings. Recover your heart.Understand the heart.Uncover and confront.Can you face the “here and now”?Surrender to the process.Leading from your heart is hard.Keep coming back, it works if you work it. | No matter where I go, there I am. | Resentment is a poison I drink to kill the other person. | Pain is in the resistance. | Do I want to be happy or be right? | I only have to change one thing - EVERYTHING! | You are 3 people:Who you think you are.Who other people think you are.Who you really are. | Sit down, shut up and listen. | First Things First | If I don't change, my sobriety date will! | What step are you on? | We've got a chair here with your name on it. | It's always easier to take someone else's inventory. | I'm really grateful to be here. | I thank my Higher Power for my sobriety. | Get a sponsor. | Easy Does It | One Day at A Time | If you fly with crows, you'll get shot at | I got sick and tired of being sick and tired. | It's easy to talk the talk, but you have to walk the walk. | Get an attitude of gratitude. | Gratitude is an attitude. | You have to give it away in order to keep it. | Fake it till you make it. | It's a selfish program. | Let Go and Let God | SLIP: Sobriety Losing Its Priority | KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid | FEAR: False Expectations Appearing Real | FEAR: Face Everything And Recover | EGO: Easing God Out | HIT: Hang in there | GOD: Good, Orderly Direction | HALT: Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired |
A cult-like warning follows all of the steps and commandments:
“Unless each A.A. member follows to the best of his ability our suggested Twelve Steps to recovery, he almost certainly signs his own death warrant. His drunkenness and dissolution are not penalties inflicted by people in authority; they result from his personal disobedience to spiritual principles.” (Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, William G. Wilson, page 174)
Posted on the Sage Hill/Chip Dodd/Voice of the Heart/Center for Professional Excellence website is an explanation of the proprietary “root system” that is at the core of everything they teach:

“Spiritual Root System is a guide to living fully. With the truths of Christianity at its foundation, the Spiritual Root System™ (SRS) is a philosophy that calls us toward an ancient way of living that moves us from the confines of predictable patterns, rituals, and routines to the freedom of living fully how we were created. Developed by Chip Dodd, the SRS offers a way for us to see how we’re made so we can do what we're made to do. This construct allows our life experiences to go beyond intellect, willpower, and perfectionism into the mysterious places of spirituality—where true healing, recovery, and life takes place.”
I urge you to do your own research. Listen to the teaching, and read through the material in light of God’s word. Seek Him in prayer in all things.