STOP SMOKING!
Lynda Allison Doty’s Personal Testimony
When I received the Holy Ghost, God delivered me instantly from all desire to drink. Alcohol was no longer a part of my life or my thoughts. Instantly gone. But cigarettes were a different story. I was miserable! I so longed to quit smoking—did everything I could. Putting myself outside the house, all kinds of so-called penance. Nothing worked.
One day I asked the Lord, “Lord, why did you deliver me from alcohol but not tobacco? I don’t understand this, Lord. You know I don’t want to smoke.”
The Lord did not give me a direct answer at that time. He instructed me to get a notebook, pen, and my Bible and sit down. Open the Bible anywhere, and begin to read. Read until I found a scripture that captivated me. Pricked my spirit. Interested me. And then write that scripture out in my notebook. Keep reading and keep writing. Write them all down in my little composition notebook.
Pretty soon, I was getting writer’s cramp. I asked Him, “Will it be okay just to write out the references and not the whole verse?” No. He wanted me to write out the whole thing. And so I continued doing so until that notebook was about three-fourths full. I felt it was now okay to set it aside. I thought the job was done.
But the Lord wasn’t through with me. He informed me that He was not going to ask me not to smoke. I thought, Wow! I get to smoke? Without the guilt, with His approval?
He then instructed me, whenever I wanted to smoke, I could. But first, I had to pick up this notebook and read all the scriptures I’d written in it. As soon as I finished reading them, I could smoke. The first day I raced through those scriptures so I could smoke. A LOT of reading! He wanted me to continue another day. So the second day, I began to slow down a little in my reading. It seemed I was reading slower and slower, beginning to digest some of what I read.
On the third day, I took my time reading through my verses. And later on that third day, all desire to smoke left me! No desire at all! And that has been close to 40 years now. Still no desire at all.
If you want to quit, this will work for you also. Flood yourself with the Word of God. Let it permeate every single cell of your brain and your body. The Word of God is not a magic wand, but it will work in your life if you let it. Soak it up. Digest it. Chew it up and swallow it. Give the cigarettes to the Lord and fill your mind with His Word. If He did it for me, He will do it for you. How do I know?
The Lord let me know after my deliverance that the reason He did not take away the desire to smoke as He did for alcohol, was so I could give this testimony of what the Lord can do through His Word. His Word is powerful! Sharp! Hear what the writer to the Hebrews said:
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. –Hebrews 4:12
