To Smoke or Not To Smoke
by Cindy Hyde

I was 16 I began smokin cause it was cool. Both my parents smoked so I didn't think much of it one way or the other. When they found out I smoked they just said, "I'm not buying them for you." Which was fine with me. I was working and bought my own anyway.

When I was in the world it never bothered me or even seriously entered my mind to stop. Occasionally I'd think how bad they were for me but...

At the age of 26 I met Jesus and He became very real to me. I began to clean my life up and draw near to Him. But the world pulled me back down into those mirey pits and the cleaning up that He was doing stopped. But the wooing didn't.

In January of 92 I suffered a spinal injury while saving a woman's life while I was   Paramedic. The Lord had me flat on my back and I knew it was Him that put me there. I began to commune with Him like I'd never done before. I began to understand what it was to love Him and to allow Him to love me. Remember the verse from the devotional? "for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation"

Our belief results in righteousness and God works that righteousness in us. The closer we draw to Him the more righteous we become. The more of Him that gets in us the more we want to shed the works and lusts of the flesh that hold us in bondage.

I knew smoking was wrong. I knew it was killing me slowly. Murder is stillm urder whether ist's a slow suicide or a quick one. We are still killing ourselves with them. This is a medical fact. Not a Biblical principle either. But I would not heed the conviction and eventually my heart became calloused and I didn't notice the conviction any longer and thought I could get by with this vice of mine. I did for a while. I told myself that God allowed me to smoke, that it wouldn't send me to hell it would just make me smell like I'd been there and every other excuse that you guys have come up with.

I met Michael who was a man who had no vices, I repeat, NO VICES. He was one of the most perfect men I'd ever met. We started dating and the conviction began to strengthen from being around Mr. Holy. :) Haha.

I had dedicated my life to the Lord for His service in 93. Funny how being around someone who is really tuned in and living their lives for God will bring great conviction on us and I know it makes me want to accuse them of being Holier than Thou because of it when the truth it it's just the Holy Ghost showing us things about ourselves because the other person never has to say a word about anything. If someone ever accuses you of being Holier than Thou, tell then thank you, that's the greatest compliment anyone could ever pay me because I see that you are seeing the Jesus in me. :)

So after being married to Mike for just a few months the Lord asked me if I would give them up for Him. Just like you and I talk to one another. Now if it was not so bad to smoke why would He ask me to stop? Well.... it took me almost a year after saying, "Yes Lord I will." I smoked more cigarettes that
year than I had ever smoked in my life. I was miserable and did not enjoy them but loved what I was doing. How sick. But I was addicted. Those cigarettes were a prison for me. They had me in bondage and I was their S L A V E. They ruled my life.

When the Lord began showing me these things I began to get mad. I began to learn about the authority of the believer, how to cast out devils and how to slam doors in the devils face. I began to learn that I didn't have to be a slave to anything.

I was driving down the road one day, and I knew that it was time. I said, "Lord if you'll help me I'll never smoke another one of these things." I didn't stop there. I had begged God for almost a year to just take them away from me. Oh no! Wasn't going to happen. I had to do something. I had to step
out on faith. I had to believe that if He asked me to do something He would empower me to do it. I used my authority and said, "Spirit of nicotine, I resist you and bind you and cast you out in the Name of Jesus. Spirit of addiction I resist, bind and cast you out in the Name of Jesus." And I thumped that cigarette out the window and have NEVER touched another one.

Hallelujah!!!

God will enable you to conquer the flesh. The key? To desire God more than you do that cigarette. Even though I was totally dedicated to God. Those cigarettes were still more of a god to me than God was. We all have 'foreign gods' that we serve. And we all need to get to the point where God means
more to us than anything else in this world.

I still have a stomach god to conquer. And he's a bigger god than the cigarettes were. My mother said, "Well if you can quit smoking you can do anything." That's partly true. But the issue arises again. Which god is more important to me when I'm craving chocolate milkshakes or bags of chips or cakes or sausage or anything else that is not what my body needs. Which god do I serve when I stuff myself at the all you can eat buffet? Who's my god then?

Which one do I put first in my life.

Lord forgive me and strengthen me in this are. I want to sacrifice myself to You, I REFUSE to bow down to that stomach god again. I resist, bind, rebuke, and cast out the spirit of gluttony, the spirit of addiction, the spirit of cravings, the spirit of insecurity, the spirit of rejection that would make me seek solace in food. I loose the spirit of healthy eating, the spirit of health to my bones and muscles and I loose the voice of the Holy Spirit to tell me what my body needs to eat and not what my flesh desires to eat.

Father teach us all how to walk in holiness before You. Teach us all and cause us all to be sanctified and purified before You and cause us to be able to be healthy and whole. Heal our diseases and our bodies of infirmities that we've put there because of our disobedience in these areas of smoking and eating wrong. Strengthen us and teach us how to walk in our homes with a blameless heart. In Jesus Name We pray.

You are loved!
John 3:16
Cindy
www.theremnant.org