I started attending New Creation Church and received Christ as my Lord and Savior when I was 23 years old. Since then, the Lord has poured countless blessings into my life and completely exceeded my expectations.
However, there was an addiction I couldn’t seem to get rid of. At the age of 16, I started smoking and became bound by the habit. The addiction got so bad I often started and ended my day with a cigarette. When I was stressed and burdened, my first response was to smoke.
Even when I was resting, I would want to smoke. I tried to quit many times, but I could not make it past 2 days. Every time I tried and failed, I would condemn myself and feel guilty. Some of my well-meaning friends and family members would also add to my sense of condemnation by saying things like, “You’re not giving glory to God when you smoke.”
Last year, I decided to try to stop smoking again. However, during the middle of the week, I gave in to temptation and ended up smoking even more than before. This time, though, I practiced what Pastor Prince always taught: speak and declare that I am the righteousness of God in Christ, even in the midst of my addiction.
So I spoke and believed that I am the righteousness of God in Christ even when I smoked. Whenever I did that, I felt like a hypocrite, but I just kept declaring and resting in the truth that I was righteous in Christ despite my actions. At the end of that week, I smoked my last pack of cigarettes and asked the Lord to not let the craving return.
It has been a year, and I no longer have a craving to smoke cigarettes! For 7 years, I had been believing and hoping for deliverance in this area. In less than 7 days of declaring the truth of my righteousness in Christ, deliverance came—without any withdrawal symptoms!
Thank You, Lord Jesus. I am finally free of my smoking addiction after 14 years!
Denise from Singapore