Working The Word (Walking Away From Addiction Into The Sweet Arms of Jesus) It's All About Our Focus

By: Hanny Lynn Stearns

Fish N Loaves Ministries, Inc.

“Multiplying God’s Word Around The Globe”

September 5, 2016

It’s All About Our Focus

Romans 8: 5-18

⁵ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. ⁷ Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. ⁸ So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

⁹ But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. ¹⁰ And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.¹¹ But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

¹² Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. ¹³ For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴ For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. ¹⁵ For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” ¹⁶ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

¹⁸ For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

I encourage you to read through this passage slowly, out loud before you go any further. Think about the desires of your own flesh and anything that you may have been allowing in your flesh lately that is not God’s will for you. If you have had a food addiction, think about your relationship with food as you read. Then come back to finish this devotional.

Whenever we focus on and live according to our flesh, we will experience death. No, you will not drop dead the minute you eat a Twinkie, necessarily! Go ahead and laugh – it does you’re your heart good like medicine! (Remember, anyone who has been addicted to anything can fill in the blanks here – it all certainly applies). As always I will apply this to food. A few years ago I was single and working. I was eating on my food plan most of the time and keeping a habit of regular exercise. I was single focused on the things of the Lord. I wanted Him to be able to fulfill His calling for my life. I had my challenges I assure you because I still had a lot of growing and learning to do. We will always need to continue that process in this life.

Overall I had great success with maintaining my weight and my health. Then, by the awesome grace of God, I was moved to attend a new church, moved away from my job, and then the Lord topped it all off with bringing a man of God into my life who would soon become my husband. That was almost 4 years ago at the time of this writing. I can’t begin to tell you of all the excitement I was experiencing. It was like walking on clouds every day. Then the Lord added a stray puppy to the mix and I suddenly had a whole new life. It was beyond wonderful; but it was a lot to adjust to “all of a sudden.”

When all of those blessings were dropped down on me from our ever so gracious heavenly Father, I noticed that I began to battle with food again in ways I hadn’t for the past several years. It started to become a mountain in my life again. Over time, amidst all the excitement, I began to put on weight. It was terribly uncomfortable and I was not happy to show myself to others looking out of control – like I was.

One day at work, a coworker, a man we highly love and respect in the Lord, was used by God to speak to me in the lunch room. What he said was this, “Hanny, you have lost your focus. What you focus on is where your strength will be.” That hit me between the eyes. He assured me that one day I would be able to help others because the thing that had become my greatest weakness in life would be (because of the Spirit of God) my greatest strength to be used of the Lord to help others.

Lately, I have a “knowing” in my spirit that I have reached a new level of strength (in the Lord) with my eating. It is more under control than it has ever been and I am at peace with it – glory to God. And why is that happening? Because of my focus. When I focused on the food, it became bigger than life to me. It looked like a “Goliath” in my life, but I didn’t have the faith of David to take him down. I just kept looking at how big the giant (food) was. As a result, I kept stumbling all over the place. One day good, the next two not so good – like that. I was constantly being reminded by the Lord to put down my idols. I was always repenting and asking for forgiveness but I kept returning to my “vomit.” That means I kept going back to my old ways.

With all the changes that were happening in my life, I needed to draw closer to the Lord – not food. But I kept focusing on the desires of my flesh. When we went out to eat, I looked at the menu to see what my flesh wanted rather than asking Holy Spirit what He thought I should eat. And rather than “erring on the side of caution”, or “going the extra mile” like we discussed the other day in a devotional, I was living according to the desires of my flesh.

So how did that cause death in my life? Sin always brings death. I was sinning by doing something that God had asked me not to do. I was afraid to let go of the food and take His hand and trust Him as much as I would like to have thought I did. Fear is sin. By sinning, I was creating death in my relationship with the Lord.  I was not pleasing Him with my choices. He still loved me – always will. But He was not only displeased by my choices, but miracles were not happening like they should be because of my sin. He could not bless my disobedience or rebellion – which is of the devil.

I had to get refocused. I had to hone in on the word of God. I had to be willing to let the Lord straighten me out with His word and His Spirit. I had to submit to His authority in my life. I had never realized how hard it was for me to be submissive until these past couple of years. But anyone who wants to really be used by God has to be submissive to His will. If they are not, though He loves them, He will have to leave them on the sidelines while others who are more cooperative will be selected to do His work. He has important things that need to be done in the earth before this whole thing wraps up in the not too distant future. I want to be used.

Friends, with all my heart I want to encourage you to “work the word” by getting those scriptures out of the Bible that will minister best to your heart and your circumstances. Use them. Say them out loud. Confess them over yourself every day. Remember, Jesus is the High Priest of our confession. When we speak good things out of our mouths, we give Him something to work with. But when we speak negativity out of our mouths, we are giving place to the devil, and he will be the one helping us to bring the negative results to pass in our lives. The word works when we work it. Let’s not leave our tools in the shed to get rusty.