Delivered from smoking week 36, 2012

Praise the Lord. It was sometime last year, I do not remember exactly when, but this patient came to our medical centre for treatment. I came across him and as I interacted with him it appeared his problems were not exactly organic but tended to be psychological. In the course of my discussions with him he admitted he was in a bondage to tobacco. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate Rom 7:15(ESV). He had started smoking and now could not stop, consuming so many sticks in a day. This fact made him sad and he wondered if there was any power which could make him stop. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out Rom 7:18(ESV). All previous attempts had been met with failure. It was so bad he could not go to toilet without smoking. But I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Rom 7:23, 24(ESV). I ministered the gospel to him and assured him Jesus could set him free. We prayed and he invited Jesus into his heart. After a while he was discharged and he left the medical centre. I did not see him again for a while but prayed for him.
Two weeks later he came back to the medical centre looking for me. No, he was not ill again, he was well: healthier than he had been in a very long time. He had continued in the faith. In fact he had started fellowshipping with other believers. And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers Act 2:42(ESV). He was attending the Evangelical Fellowship of the Anglican Communion which meets at the Chapel of Redemption Enugu campus.
What about the addiction to smoking cigarettes? He reported the addiction to tobacco had been broken. He testified that after the prayer he does not know exactly what happened to him; the very smell of tobacco would make him feel like vomiting. Hallelujah!
Jesus said to them, "I am telling you the truth: everyone who sins is a slave of sin. A slave does not belong to a family permanently, but a son belongs there forever. If the Son sets you free, then you will be really free Jn 8:34-36(GNB).
Helen is a nurse at UNEC medical centre.