By Sidharth Mohandas

I heard a friend relate about his struggle with smoking, and his testimony brought to light something that is a common hurdle to deliverance.

My friend was sitting in his room playing his piano… he had accepted the Lord just some months back… but he was still struggling with the smoking habit. He tried quitting a number of times but he was failing miserably. He had no idea what kept him from being delivered. As he was playing his piano… his brother came into his room and said… “Hey bozo, I heard you’re now one of those Jesus freaks!”. Putting on a religious air, he just ignored his “sinner” brother and continued playing the piano. His brother looked around and asked him, “So , you have a cigarette?”. My friend looked straight into his eyes and said, “No, I’m a Christian, I don’t smoke!”. But as soon as his brother left, my friend took out a cigarette and started smoking. The Lord started dealing with him. He said, “What you need deliverance from is not smoking, but lying.”

There are principles for deliverance, you reap what you sow. You can’t expect deliverance if you sow the seed of bondage. Scripture tells us “You shall know the truth and the truth shall deliver you” [John 8:32]. If truth sets you free, lies will bind you. Many people don’t even realize that they lie. In fact majority of Christians lie to themselves! They think, “I’ve failed so many times, I’m not going to do any good”, “Probably I’m an outcast and God doesn’t want me”, “I can’t give up drugs, I’ll die if I do”, “I’m going to fail again…”, “Probably all of this is hum bug. All of this written in here is just make-believe”, “God wants to punish me with sickness”, “God hates me enjoying life”, “God wants me to be stiff and religious for me to be accepted by Him”… and the list goes on.

Analyze what you speak to yourself, what you think… Are you speaking lies to yourself? Or you maybe like my friend, a compulsive liar, you lie about everything and anything… you’re scared if you tell others the truth, they’re going to look down upon you and you lie, lie, and lie! If this is you, let me tell you, you’re not on the ground of deliverance. The ground of deliverance is TRUTH.

Remember, “as a man thinks in his heart so is he”… It’s time to do some cleaning up and fill in with truth. Again, truth delivers, lies bind.