Working The Word (Walking Away From Addiction Into The Sweet Arms of Jesus) Swinging Against The Air

By: Hanny Lynn Stearns

Fish N Loaves Ministries, Inc.

“Multiplying God’s Word Around the Globe”

September 23, 2016

Swinging Against the Air

Revelation 12:11

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

This was such a powerful morning I hardly know where to begin but for the grace of God – there go I! My husband and I began to talk about the things we have struggled with in the past. Some kind of breakfast conversation, huh? LOL! He has had his things like all of us. What he felt the Lord told him is that certain things in our lives can block our blessings. For example, if a person is full or worry and fear, then they have shut the door on believing God. The lady next door to us is always ordering things from either the TV or online. There is usually packages stacked outside her door. They may sit there for a bit, but eventually she opens the door and takes them inside.

What the Lord was showing us is that our fears and worries keep the door to blessings closed. He has so many waiting for us. They are piling up just outside our door. But only faith can open the door to receive them in. This was a wonderful discussion to start off our morning. It lead into this conversation. Next we talked more specifically about the things we have struggled with. My biggest issue (among many) was battling the food. But like we saw this morning, it came to us, “What was I fighting against anyway?” In reality I had stepped into the center of the ring swinging hard against nothing more than air.

The Lord showed me this morning that we think we are fighting the food, (or whatever a person has been battling with) when in reality we were the only ones in the ring. Not even the devil gets in the ring with us. He just tempts us to step into the ring. Once we get in, it is not him we are fighting. We are simply flailing our arms through air. We are in essence battling against our selves. That just seems absurd to me now.

I thought about all that time I struggled and cried. I was living by the flesh. I was letting my flesh tell me what it wanted and many times I allowed the voice of my flesh to scream louder and louder to drown out the still, small voice of the Lord calling me to come and sit beside Him and learn from Him. I cried hard and repented over and over again. Back and forth. In the ring and back out of the ring, then back in again, swinging to the point of exhaustion! What was I so afraid of? Did I think I would starve to death? Was I afraid to die? And what if I did? I would be with Jesus!  That can only be a good thing for the believer!

I recently learned that once we get past the fear of death, we will learn to overcome every other fear. It is at the root of all fears. Fear of suffocating, drowning, etc.; all of that is the fear of death. But when we become unafraid to die, which is just slipping out of this tent we live in and going up to heaven, we are truly free. Lately I have been able to follow the food plan the Lord wants me on like never before. I am no longer afraid. Sometimes I may be hungry. That’s OK. I can be content in any situation. I want to obey my Lord and serve Him only.

After my husband and I had all this wonderful conversation I had a bunch of emotions coming out about another matter that I didn’t realize was bothering me. I cried hard as I explained my thoughts on a particular subject we are dealing with as a couple. The flood of emotions came like a tidal wave. I was rather surprised by it, but I thanked the Lord for helping us to talk it through. We both felt so much better.

Then, after all that, I took our precious puppy to the vet to drop him off to have a surgical procedure today and get his little teeth cleaned. He was shaking and wanted to be held and comforted. He knew something was up. We prayed and committed all of this to the Lord and I felt confident that all would be well. However, the minute I walked out of the room without him I burst into tears. I cried hard as I went to my car. Then the Lord started speaking to my heart about emotions and crying. This is very important for anyone who has ever had addiction issues.

Basically, what He was telling me is this. “Hanny, people have to let these things out when they come. There is a difference between living by our feelings and letting things out from our souls that need to come out. People often get this confused. As a result, they do not want to cry. Many do not want to face what is trying to come up in their spirit and soul. They push it down and try to go on. That is why we have so many addicted people in the world. They are suppressing their feelings/emotions and trying to go on. But it is going to come out in some form or another. That’s why they turn to things like food, alcohol and drugs, etc. to try to self-medicate what’s eating them inside.”

He also showed me that letting this stuff come out when it needs to is the best thing we can do. Now if a person continues to cry, be sad or allow depression to come in, this is a different matter. That is what we must resist. But letting the things that are eating us to come up and out will be a healing for our souls.

So many times the Lord was calling me to just come and sit with Him. Whenever I did, I would usually start crying immediately. I didn’t understand it at first. Later He showed me that I had things that were inside that were hurting me and I needed to let them out. I have said it before, even though it is a bit yucky to think about. It is like vomiting. It brings up the bad things – like a stomach bug that gets in us. We keep throwing up until that thing is out of our system and then we feel so much better. It is no different with spiritual things.

People get deeply wounded in their lives in all kinds of ways. It can start right after we are born and intensify as we go along. Especially those of us who were not raised in ideal loving homes. When there is abuse, neglect, abandonment, these things hurt us deep in our soul and sprit. Only Jesus can heal it. A friend of mine told me that she doesn’t want to “feel” her feelings, so she eats food to try to comfort herself. However, when she is done with all that binging, she only feels worse. I know what that is like – been there and done that!

Yesterday’s addiction devotion talked about how the Lord cleanses us. It is not by our own strength that it happens. It is by His Spirit. We don’t know how He does this, but we can sure be grateful that He does. The only requirement on our part is to do what He says. When He says, “Don’t eat this way” then we need to do our part. When He says, “Come sit with Me” then we need to do that. If we will step out on the word of God in faith and do exactly what He is telling us to do all day every day, then we will begin to see miracles in our lives on a daily basis such as we have never imagined. How do I know this? It is happening to me! Hallelujah!

The enemy of our souls wants us to think we are fighting him. But what we are really swinging so hard at isn’t the devil at all. It is dead air. If we stop and picture a person stepping into a prize fighter’s ring and saw him swinging at the air with no opponent in there with him, we would think he was nuts! It’s no different with us friends. Battling against something that doesn’t exist makes as much sense as that fighter going into the ring with thousands watching, only to see him swinging at the air with no one in there to strike.

Recently I have realized more than ever how much God’s word works. It has worked for me in the past, but now that I speak it out loud over my life every day, I can see it coming to pass like never before. I believe that is why the Lord gave me the Title to this devotional – “Working The Word.” Faith (to really believe in something) comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17) Because God’s word is sharp and truly powerful, if we will speak it out loud (hearing) and say it in faith, God’s word will work in our lives.

We will see the mountains become as level ground. We will see the “fig trees” in our lives die at the root. We will come to know the song that the Lord brought to me the first thing this morning before I ever even knew these conversations were going to take place – “You’re all I want, You’re all I’ve ever needed, You’re all I want – help me know You are near.”

When we really do discover that Jesus is all we ever needed, we will stop stepping into the ring to waste our time and energy on swinging at the dead air and start spending more time in His sweet arms; He longs to hold us and comfort us. But we must let Him. Let’s start really working the word my friends and let’s start getting on the winning side of life where the next song He gave me this morning rings so true – “We have overcome – hallelujah.”