Breath of Life Testimony: Darlene Revis

My mentor's name is Karen Wilkinson and I have been extremely blessed to receive from this wonderful woman of God. My life has been turned upside down since God put me on the site of Setting Captives Free on the 24th of December, 2005. First, God led me here to deal with the habitual sin of gambling, and now the sin of smoking. I began to smoke around the tender young age of 10, while living in a boarding school. It was the thing to do, and I went along with what all the older kids were doing; it made me feel accepted. I continued to smoke for the next 42 years. I really never tried to quit and when I took classes (5 different times) to quit, I was only doing it to get my doctors off my back. I enjoyed smoking, and never intended to quit or, more correctly, never intended to give up "being in control of everything." In July of 2006, while attending the Setting Captives Free Conference in Ohio, I learned that smoking was a habitual sin. The next day I was in my hotel room getting ready for church, when I heard a lady on the TV talking about all the branches of a tree being attached to Jesus. As I looked toward the TV, I saw a drawing of a tree with all the branches extended, and one was red. It hit me that I had a branch in my life that was in no way attached to Jesus. That branch was smoking and, at that moment, I became very broken before God and ask forgiveness for my involvement in the habitual sin of smoking. By the grace of God, I was delivered from the habitual sin of smoking. I began immediately to amputate everything that had anything to do with smoking. I also began to appropriate Jesus into the areas that had once been occupied by smoking and I became accountable to everyone who knew that I used to smoke. These three A's (amputate, appropriate, accountability) have been instrumental in bringing my sins into the light and dealing with them honestly. The process has not always been easy, but God has been faithful. As I worked through the lessons, I learned to open my heart to God and ask him to allow his word to saturate me and change me into a godly woman that he can use for his purpose and his glory. God has graced my life in so many ways. Not only am I free from the habitual sins of gambling and smoking, but I have developed a prayer life that is meaningful and real, I have involved myself in daily Bible reading and study, and really look forward to the opportunity to enlighten my life daily from his word. My relationship with God is so much more meaningful; I had to become needy in order to learn how to rely on God for my every need, and he never fails me. He is my strength in my time of weakness, and I am grateful for his control over my life. I give God all the glory for all the changes in my heart and life, and I thank the staff of Setting Captives Free (especially my mentor and friend, Karen Wilkinson) for being available to be used as instruments of God in order to reach the "captives of Satan," such as I was. Thank You Darlene Revis