By: Hanny Lynn
Stearns
Fish N Loaves Ministries, Inc.
“Multiplying God’s Word Around the
Globe”
September 22, 2016
It Is God Who Cleanses
Ezekiel 37:23
They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols, nor with
their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will
deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will
cleanse them. Then they shall be My people, and I will be their God.
It was a year ago and more that the Lord was showing me this verse. It
is very convicting to say the least! If you have been sinning, try saying this
out loud over yourself three times and see what it does to your spirit. And by
conviction, we can look at the root word which is to “convince.” God was
working at convincing me to stop the idolatry. Well, I knew that God considered
my food addiction to be idolatry in full measure. It was something that I had
turned to for comfort. Back in the days of my “gross” overeating, I would
literally eat until I felt like vomiting. I would go to bed at night with terrible
heartburn and wake up throwing up in my sleep and choking. It was terribly frightening
at the time. I know I was full of fear back then.
This verse tells us that God will cleanse us. I did not understand how.
I know it is my job to put down the fork and pick up the word in faith. But how
could He cleanse me? Let me share another verse that the Lord showed me over
and over and over again during the past few years…
Zechariah 4:6-7
“This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel:
‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’
Says the Lord of hosts.
7 ‘Who are you, O great mountain?
Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain!
And he shall bring forth the capstone
With shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”’”
We cannot begin to understand how the Lord does what He does. Here we
are, sinning up a storm, and He detests our sin. Yet, in all of it He comes
along and promises to cleanse us. To the human mind, at least mine anyway, it
would not seem to make any sense. Oh but God. He is the God of the impossible.
He is a God of many wonderful mysteries and all His ways and intentions are
good and right. Say amen to that saints!
So how does He take a sinnin’ girl like me and turn me into an obedient,
“OK Lord, I am ready and willing to do Your will” kind of girl? By the power of
His Holy Spirit – that’s how. He can’t do this for just anyone mind you. A person
needs to be born again. We must have His Spirit living inside of us in order
for Him to do the necessary “surgery” on our hearts. He wants to get the desire
to sin completely out of us. And as rebellious as we have been, this is a tall
order. But it’s not too tall for the Lord.
When I look back at myself just one year ago (this was what the Lord was
showing me on Oct. 9, 2015, it is nothing short of awesome to me what God has
done in my life. I will give you an example. When I first came to Florida it
didn’t take me long at all to hear from the Lord about how He wanted me to eat.
The first thing that had to go was sweets. He kept calling these tasty treats
idols! And He wanted them gone. I came around pretty quickly with His help and
stopped eating sweets altogether. Praise God. But then the next step was to
stop overeating altogether and adapt a very clean and healthy diet along with
regular exercise.
Because I was opening my Bible every day and seeing what the Lord was
saying to me on a daily basis, I was getting a strong message to stop my
idolatry. Because His Spirit is inside of me, I would feel really bad about
sinning and disappointing Him. Over time I did better and better. In what seemed
like no time at all now, I got to the place where I wouldn’t touch sweets if my
life had depended on it. I felt like it would be deadly for me spiritually, and
that was certainly true. I didn’t like to let God down.
Many times I had caved in to the lusts of my flesh only to open my Bible
and see these words jumping off the page at me. The Lord kept at me. Day in and
day out. I would open my Bible and there it would be. Every time I would mess
up and eat wrong, He was right there with this strong word – “Get rid of your
idols!” How could I say I love God while committing adultery with food? It is
not possible. I would do well with one thing and then He would show me
something else. Then it got to be where it was not sugar that was the issue. If
I even ate too much of my allowed food, He was calling me on it – idolatry. Get
rid of your idols. It pierced my heart and soul. I cried many tears over all
this.
Yet my rebellion persisted. I would do well for the most part but I wasn’t
there yet. I needed more work. I stayed in the word and over time more and more
improvement came. Recently I have been delivered of more soul wounds. I have
been cleansed as I have pressed in to the Lord more and more. I am seeing
victory now such as I have never seen. Now I look at my regular eating the same
way I look at the sugar. If it is not on the food plan – don’t touch it! It
would be like sticking my hands in a fire. I am not interested. Now I consider
meal time nothing more than a “gas stop” like pulling into a gas station to
fill up my car. That’s all it really is.
Besides, I really do want to love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind
and strength. I know I have yet to do that 100%. We sing a lot about such
things in church, but who among us can claim that they really have loved the
Lord with ALL their heart, ALL their soul, ALL their mind and ALL their strength?
If you are out there I would like to meet you! LOL!
Here I sit today to give God praise because He really is cleansing me
from all unrighteousness. It is His Spirit living in us that makes us cry out
loud, “Oh Lord, cleanse me! Heal me! Help me do Your will!” Only God in us
could cause us to will and act according to His good pleasure. When I sit down
to write about this subject, with God’s help, I suppose that I could talk with
you for hours. Why? Because I have been through so much with it. It would be no
different than talking to a drug addict who had been as far down as they could
go before seeing death close their eyes in despair and being brought up and out
by the Lord.
Because of the mercy of God, through working His word in my life every
single day - now more than ever, I am laying down the idols and climbing into
the sweet arms of Jesus – my Comforter, Savior and Best Friend forever!
Friends, addiction is a cheap way to try to find comfort; a false sense
of euphoria that will never last. Ask me how I know. I have done enough street
drugs to kill a person and been so drunk that I had alcohol poisoning. You can
ask me any question you can think of about addiction and I may have already
been there. But for the grace of God in this verse, I would be long since dead!
Friends, know that we have a merciful, loving and healing God. He can turn your
crying into laughter and cause you to dance and shout for joy. But you have to
take the first steps to Him. The best way to do that is cry out to Him and
start standing on His word in faith. Say it out loud over your life. Think
about it. Listen to it. The word is sharp and powerful. It can do what no human,
no drug or any other thing could possibly do.
Remember, the word works when we work it. Get your tools out friends –
it’s time to go to work!
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