Originally Posted by Sons to Glory!
I'll just tell you according to what happened to me. Before I was saved at age 18, I was really into smoking pot, drinking and partying and did a lot of experimentation with many other drugs - I got quite into the dark side of things (winding up in jail and even briefly the state mental institution). It was 1974 and I was sort of a wanabe hippie and bought into all the rhetoric - peace, love, drugs & rock & roll. When I cried out to Him in desperation one night and He saved me wondrously, I had a voice inside telling me over and over, "I is dead."
I didn't know exactly what "I is dead" meant, but I felt joyous repeating it out loud. I was in wonderful 1-on-1 communication and love with the God of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob (the Anointing spoke these names to me too). And one thing I found out rather quickly, was that the joy of pot smoking had simply been taken away --> when I tried it at one point, it didn't have the euphoric effect I had previously loved so much. In fact, it just made me depressed and paranoid. I knew that this part of me had died and just wasn't there. The real me wanted to be with those that loved Him the way I did, and I prayed He take me to be with them. He did, and that's how I was brought miraculously to the LC in Berkeley over 2000 miles away within a week's time. My new life had begun.
Now, in the time since, the flesh does try to rise up and say I'm still that old person and I should do this and that, but I know it's really a lie - there's no satisfaction in those things. Some things were very apparent that they were part of the old me that had died, like smoking pot. God was quite wise in taking pot from me in a strong and instant way, as it was certainly a gateway to other ruinous behaviors. Many other things from my old life are taking longer for me to realize the fact that yes indeed, those things were part of the old me. When I identify and act according to my new life hidden in Him, then I have life, peace, joy and clarity; when I identify and act according to my old life, I experience basically none of those good things. But that's all part of the grand experiment of life - progressively finding out what He's already done and made me to be, and what is real and profitable and pleasing to Him!
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