Drugs, you, and Jesus
I read the true life story of Steve in a book and was touched. Steve Getz began to use drugs when he was in eighth grade and by the time he turned sixteen, he was deep in the terrible habit, using drugs heavily and just couldn’t stop. His parents who were Christians were greatly disappointed and upset. What was happening to their son? They prayed for him everyday that satan’s hold over him would break. Steve would like to stop using drugs and make his parents happy, especially his mother but he seemed to lack the strength to do so.
On this particular day, Steve took a mixture of illegal drugs, and an hour after, left the house and went to a store to purchase some things. Suddenly, things became hazy to him. It seemed the walls of the store began to melt, and the fruits and vegetables began to move, coming toward him.
Afraid, he screamed, “Help!” Then he began to run around the store from one aisle to another until the store manager and a male customer got him and forced him to lie on the ground.
Steve continued struggling to break free from their hold and run away but they held him down. He closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, he saw big, dark demons coming toward him. He screamed again in terror. The demons looked horrible and fierce, and their fangs dripped with blood. There were also some small demons close to his face. These ones laughed at him and moved in circles around him.
Certain these demons would get him, there was no way he could escape them, Steve shouted, “Help me!”
The customer who had been holding his arms told him in a calm voice, “You’re hallucinating. You’re going to be okay.”
Shaking his head from side to side, Steve said, “No!”
“Steve,” the customer called gently in a soothing voice.
Steve forced himself to listen above the noise the demons were making. Some people were also making noise around him – the gathering crowd in the store looking at him.
“Open your eyes, Steve.” The customer told him.
As Steve opened his eyes slowly, he saw the demons retreating. He tried to concentrate on the face of the customer, and then he saw a picture. In the middle of the picture was what looked like the face of Jesus Christ, the way it was in the Bible storybook he read in the church when he was young.
Confused and stunned, he stopped struggling and stared at the face. What was happening? And how did the man know his name? Then he heard the Christlike face speak, “Would you want to be free from the demons, Steve?”
“Yes.” He answered immediately in a broken voice. He definitely needed help. He added, “Please help me.”
The Christlike face smiled and said, “Don’t take drugs anymore, Steve. With them come the demons. It’s your choice though.”
Steve suddenly realised that the demons had gone. “Please help me! I can’t do this by myself.” He confessed. Realising he was still being held down, he began to struggle again, screaming. “Help me!”
The Christlike face spoke again. “You won’t have to do it by yourself. If you want to be free, turn to Me. I will always be there to help you. Just call Me and I will be with you.”
“Lord.” Steve said in a whisper, not sure if it was really Jesus or he was still hallucinating. But one thing he knew, he needed this person.
He asked, “Is it You, Lord? Are you really the one talking with me?”
Suddenly, the face began to fade away but before it disappeared, Steve heard it say, “Yes, Steve, it is I. I will help you.” And then there was nothing more.
Feeling tired, Steve closed his eyes and stopped moving.
He heard the customer say to the store manager, “He will be okay. The worst is over.”
“Thank you.” The manager said and shook hands with the customer. He held Steve’s hands. When he turned again to talk to the customer he found he had gone and the police were arriving.
Moments later, as the police were taking Steve away, he realised that the customer was nowhere in sight. He asked the store manager, “Please tell me what the man who talked to me looked like.”
The store manager said, “Er, he had short blond hair, and a real clean shaven face.”
Steve shook his head. “No, I mean the man who helped me. He had dark hair and a beard.”
The store manager shook his head and shrugged. “No. He was blond. The drug probably made you see things differently.”
Much later, after Steve was released by the police and his mother brought him home, he told her all that happened to him in detail, with tear filled eyes. When his mother heard what the Christlike face told him, she was amazed. “That was a message from God! You have to give your life to Him now!”
Steve nodded, crying. “I know God used that to warn me. If I don’t accept God’s help now and turn my life over to Him, the demons will get me.”
He wondered how he would stop using drugs though, and he hadn’t talked to God in years. Where would he start from? What would he say? Then he remembered the simple words he told the Christlike face, and how he had been told that he had to make a choice – choose God and stop using drugs. He repeated the simple words, “Lord, I surrender to You. Please help me to stop using drugs.”
He knew God heard him, God would help him and everything would be alright. He would not use drugs again. And he did not.
Hope and help for you:
Like Steve, have you been in bondage to illegal drugs and would like to be free? Or maybe yours is alcohol, sex, anything in skirt?
It is never too late to stop and turn back. Ask Jesus to help you, and He will. With men, that may be impossible but with God, all things are possible. Jesus came and died to set us free from every bondage and power of the enemy.
And as the man told Steve (Don’t take drugs anymore, Steve. With them come the demons. It’s your choice though.), you should stop doing whatever you’re doing that is wrong, because with them come the demons.
1) For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. (1John 3:8)
2) Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)
3) The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. (John 10:10)
4) Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. (Mark 5:15)
Pray now.
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