Dear Readers, when I wrote this column several years ago, I was reminded how the word of God has transformed my life and is a good reminder to His faithfulness.
Grass should not “crunch” when you walk across it!
Yet our lawn crackled with every step as I made the familiar trek toward the water hose. My hubby and I were trying to keep our landscape alive during drought conditions so every other day we scurried out at dawn, he grabbed the water hose in the back while I tackled the front yard.
One day as I was finishing up giving the plants a drink, I turned my attention to the dead patches in the yard and began applying a light shower. I moved my arm back and forth in a sweeping motion watching as the spray of water cascaded over the lawn, when the Lord began speaking to my heart.
“Brenda, this is how My word works when you apply it to your life.”
He began to show me that every one of us has brown patches in our lives, those areas that are lacking the “abundant life” that the Lord promises we can have here in this life. (John 10:10.) Whether it is in the area of health, or finances, tormenting fears, relationships, loving others, forgiveness, hearing the voice of God (in our spirits), knowing the love of God and the list goes on.
Many years ago when I first started really seeking the Lord with all of my heart, I was carrying around a 20 year drug addiction and 32 year cigarette addiction. I had come to a place in my Christian walk when I acted upon these verses in James 4:6-8 “… But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resist the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore submit to God, resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”
For the sake of space, I can’t go into to all the details, but as I have mentioned before, I came to a place in my Christian life when I made a heart decision to become a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, I began to try to quit the addictions in my own strength while at the same time pleading with God to take them from me. One particular moment during this struggle I distinctly heard the Lord tell me, “My child, you have already been delivered, you just don’t know it. Go to my word.”
I began the process of submitting to God (yielding my time and thought life to His word, and very importantly the correct teachings of His word that agreed with His Holy Spirit in me), and I stopped trying to quit doing drugs.
Instead, I humbled myself (my own will power) and submitted my life fully to the power of His word. The 20 year drug addiction left with only one verse. I felt the demonic spirit leave my body and I have never thought about that drug again. Except as a testimony to Him. Praise Jesus!
Now, the cigarette addiction had much deeper roots in my heart for some reason. This “brown patch” in my life needed watering.
I applied the rest of James 4:7 when I began resisting (actively fighting against) the Devil (strongholds in my heart/mind) by using my tongue/word of God to watch the enemy flee (run away in terror).
Instead of speaking out how much bondage I was in to smoking, I began to “declare those things that are not, as tho they are …” (Romans 4:17)
By declaring what God say’s about me, who I really am now in my born again spirit, as opposed to what I thought, felt like, was see happening day after day for so many years.
I began watering this brown patch in my life … “I am a child of God, I am a non-smoker. I speak death to the root of nicotine in my body in Jesus name. Nicotine you will no longer bear fruit in my body! I am delivered from smoking, I walk in freedom from cigarettes …”
Over a period of about 2 months I spoke/declared God’s word over myself, and this verse in Proverbs 23, “… how a man thinks in his heart so is he,” started happening to me. Instead of seeing myself as a smoker, by declaring God’s word (watering my soul) I changed the picture I had in my heart to reflect what God says about me. “My child, you have already been delivered, YOU just don’t know it.”
January 11, 2009, I felt that root of addiction leave my heart as if I had never smoked. After 32 years of smoking on average 1.5 packs a day, that demonic spirit left my body and the Lord instantly healed my lungs, He took the hacking cough away and my raspy voice was restored . Praise Jesus!!!
You know, these are just two testimonies of the miraculous power of God’s word and His good will toward each one of us to live “in the fullness of God.”
But if you are not humbling yourself – putting aside your own beliefs/attitudes/mindsets/other peoples opinions/diagnosis of your brown patches then God’s word won’t work for you.
You have to be deliberate about seeking and allowing His word to dominate your life. (Not in a religious sense) but just making a decision to let “God’s word be true and every man a liar.”
At the same time, you need to let that God given righteous anger inside you to rise up against the Devil and kick him out of your life. Actively resist his lies, suggestions and areas where he has been stealing, killing and destroying your life, or the lives of others around you.
Brothers and Sisters, we need to stop agreeing with Satan with our words- talking about how brown the areas of our life are- pitying those dry areas where there has been lack.
Instead, we need to believe and speak life over those situations or persons.
“God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind.” (2 Tim. 1:6-7)
Contact Brenda Groves at: bkgroves1996@yahoo.com
