Breaking The Spell

Today a woman in the hospital asked me to pray for her. She desires the strength to stop smoking. One part of me wanted to quote Glenda the Good Witch, "Why, you've always had the power my dear." Then I looked down at my belly and realized that having the power and using the power are different things. And the truth is that we do what we really want to do, most of the time. Changing the want is how we break the spell. I hope I'm not going out on a limb here. You do know what I mean by "the spell"? It is the whore who places the young man under her spell in Proverbs. "Don't fool around with a woman like that; don't even stroll through her neighborhood. Countless victims come under her spell; she's the death of many a poor man." [Proverbs 7:25-26, The Message] Have you felt the spell? It can come in any form. It is the feeling that some feel when facing the buffet line with an empty plate. It is the purposeful forgetfulness of all that one knows as the liquor bottle is turned bottom side up. It is the blindness of stinging words or physical violence when anger reigns in our hearts. It is the mental numbness that is felt when one clicks his way to a lurid internet site or through the menu of an ill-advised DVD. It is the lack of control of the tongue as gossip flows like destructive lava from a volcano of mistrust. It is the feeling of helplessness as one rushes into sin knowingly. I think it's a "spell" because it's something from which we wake up! Of the prodigal it is said, "When he came to his senses..." [Luke 15:17] Didn't he know his predicament the day before? Intellectually, perhaps. He could have passed a quiz on the dangers of being wasteful with an inheritance. He knew it, but he wouldn't know it. He refused to know what he knew. Until he was bankrupt and friendless. The ride was over and it was time to face the truth. The spell is nothing more than the deception. The element that breaks the spell is truth. The Deceiver, however, is diligently at work to keep us in our state of deception. I think the answer is simple, but not easy. I think that the Spirit of God has already given us the power to overcome whatever spell we personally deal with. The truth of God is given to us clearly in the Word. As Satan spun his web of deception in the presence of the Anointed, he heard the one thing that kept him from his prey: the truth. "It is written". And so perhaps this seems too simple. Breaking the spell means: *We must know the truth. *We must love the truth. *We must think on true things. *We must speak the truth - even aloud. *We must trust the deliverer of truth. *We must want to be men and women of truth. The spell is not some magician-at-a-party hat trick. The spell is not some wave of Harry Potter's magic wand. It is not even Endora turning Darrin into a toad. It is the appeal to our basic human nature that attempts to cloud the truth that we have been reborn into a powerful kingdom. Been living under the spell in your life? Well, what do you want for yourself?