I Am With You

Hi, this is Roy Jones with ManTalk Radio Podcast. Our mission is to break down the walls of race and denomination. Your chosen Truth Radio Broadcast will be starting in just a few seconds.

Thank you. Hello, and thank you for tuning in to this podcast, which is a part of the Jesus Breaks the Chain series. I'm evangelist Michael Bowen, and I pray that the Lord blesses you greatly and you receive this word in love and in truth. This podcast is called I Am With You, and it is about how Jesus will go through our difficulties with us. He will never leave us nor forsake us.

I'm also going to share with you the recording of an actual detox from heroin with a woman named Grace who's in our program, our drug rehabilitation discipleship program in Liberia, West Africa. I'm going to begin with this scripture, 1 Corinthians 10 verse 13. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man, but God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. This scripture is an ultimate reminder that God will never put something in your path that you do not have the capability to overcome. He will never give you a temptation so great that you cannot recover and be delivered with the help he has made available to you.

That includes addiction, and that includes detoxing from drugs when you are trying to be delivered from that addiction. I have a ministry in Liberia, West Africa called Liberation Center Liberia, and I have two ministry partners over there, Sylvester Payne and Sam Nunu. You can visit our website to see what we're doing in this ministry. It's www.liberationcenterliberia.org. The work we do is to help men and women to be delivered from drug addiction and become fearless disciples of Jesus Christ.

We have men and women's homes, and we are working to complete a children's safe home for the babies. They're being born into drug addiction, some of them even being born addicted to drugs themselves. Get them out of that environment and get them into a safe house where they can be nurtured and loved and be healthy and have a good life rather than being at risk in the ghettos and the drug addicted areas in that country. In Monrovia, which is the capital city in Liberia, there are drug addicted men, women and young people that are referred to as Zogos, and they've taken over the Palm Grove Cemetery in the Center Street Pinhole Building ghetto at its edge.

There are hundreds of tombs in this cemetery, almost 13 acres of them. Fourteen years of death by machete and machine gun civil wars from the years 1989 to 2003 has left no shortage of bodies to bury in Liberia. Some of the older drug addicts are the former child soldiers from this conflict and victims of abuse from this bloody and brutal war who became addicted to drugs and had nowhere to go when the war was over. The warlords of those civil wars kidnapped young boys and often killed their family members in front of them before making them go off to war. They had to fight a wicked man's war and do wicked man's drugs because in order to get the frightened children to fight, the warlords gave them drugs to make them brave and they became addicted. They gave them marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and fed them a mixture of something called cane juice.

It's alcohol juice from the sugar cane and gunpowder, and it got them high and supposedly made them unafraid. But it was a common practice of the warlords to feed these children drugs so they would become fearless fighters and do horrible, unspeakable acts that they normally wouldn't do if they hadn't been on the drugs and made to become addicted to the drugs. The warlords even made the children sometimes cannibalize their victims. Once the disarmament came and the wars were over, the government took away the guns and machetes, but the addiction in those children and the trauma stayed. This brutal war, civil war, seeded drug addiction in Liberia, and now there's an entire population of people of all ages addicted to drugs and living in cemeteries and ghettos across the entire country in the most horrible conditions imaginable, and they've been forgotten by the rest of society.

There are babies being born into this environment that never have had a chance at a decent life, and the infant mortality rate is very high. In the last decade, West Africa continues to serve as an important transit hub for cocaine and heroin coming from the Latin American and Asian producing countries to European markets. This influx of drugs into this region has only exacerbated this overwhelming problem of addiction with the Zogos and disadvantaged youth in Liberia, and there are very few resources to help them. These are the hurt, broken, and addicted people of Liberia, and they need our help, and I'm just here to praise the Lord because God has given my ministry partners and I a mission to help this drug-addicted population, the poor, the homeless, the disadvantaged people of Liberia, and we're doing that through Liberation Center Liberia.

Again, you can go visit that www.LiberationCenterLiberia.org, and you can see all the programs we have and the homes that we have already established, the men and women's homes that we've already established, and the children's home that we are looking to finish in the near future. Our ministry at the guidance and direction of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we are taking Zogos and disadvantaged youth who are addicted to drugs out of the cemeteries, ghettos, and off the streets and bringing them into our program and homes where they can detox from drugs, get the medical treatment they need for any illnesses, and receive counseling, also to give them some skills and get them job vocational training, and engage them in Bible study, get them plugged into our home church in Colwell, Liberia, free revelatory ministries in Colwell, Liberia, and then be discipled and teach them how to overcome addiction by serving and following Jesus Christ the rest of the days of their lives, by becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. Because that's how the Lord did it in my life when I was addicted to drugs for 25 years and I was delivered. I became a disciple of Jesus Christ and I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ in prison. And when I got out of prison, I went into a program, a discipleship home, and learned how to become a disciple.

And that's what we're teaching these people. The most difficult part of our deliverance process from drugs for the people that come into our program is the detox from drugs. The main drug of choice in Liberia is heroin that is ingested into the body by heating it on a foil and breathing the smoke into the lungs. This is very harmful to the drug user.

The drugs in West Africa are very dirty drugs because they're often cut with harmful substances so the drug dealers and traffickers can make more money, all at the expense of the person who has become addicted to their drugs. Not only does it harm their lungs and cause them to get open sores and ulcers on their body, it also gives them a horrible and almost unshakable dependence on the drug. The detox from that heroin that is smoked is so severe and violent.

I've witnessed it for myself. My drug of choice was cocaine. I did some heroin at times and I had some severe detoxes, but I'm here to tell you, heroin is the most severe detox out of any drug I've ever witnessed. I want to go over some things that's going to talk about what heroin does to the body and as a drug, how it affects the person who begins to take it. This following is an online article entitled, Get Smart About Drugs. It can be found at www.getsmartaboutdrugs.gov forward slash drugs forward slash heroin.

And I'll just begin. Long term effects of heroin appear after repeated use for some period of time. Chronic use may lead to collapse veins, infection of the heart lining and valves, abscesses swollen tissue with pus, constipation and gastrointestinal cramping and liver or kidney disease. Pulmonary complications including various types of pneumonia may result from the poor health of the person using heroin as well as from the drug's effects on breathing. In addition to the effects of the drug itself, street heroin may have additives, which we talked about there, the things that those drug dealers cut it with. The street heroin may have additives that do not really dissolve and clog the blood vessels that lead to the lungs, liver, kidneys or brains.

This can cause infection or even death of small patches of cells and vital organs. With regular heroin use, tolerance develops. This means a person must use more heroin to achieve the same intensity or effect. As higher doses are used over time, physical dependence and addiction develop. With physical dependence, the body has adapted to the presence of the drug and withdrawal symptoms may occur if use is reduced or stopped. Withdrawal, which in people who use heroin regularly may occur as early as a few hours after the last administration produces drug craving, restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea and vomiting, cold flashes with goosebumps, kicking movements and other symptoms.

Major withdrawal symptoms peak between 24 and 48 hours after the last dose and subside after about a week. Heroin use is associated with a number of serious health conditions, including fatal overdose, spontaneous abortion and infectious diseases like hepatitis and HIV. So that's a little bit about heroin. And it is so devastating to a person who gets trapped in an addiction to opiates and to heroin.

And this is what they're dealing with in Liberia. Thousands of young people, men and women are addicted to this drug, smoking this drug in drug houses and drug huts, in old abandoned buildings off of foils. And I've been there.

I've been into these buildings. I go into these smoke houses and share the love of Jesus Christ with these people on drugs because I understand what they're going through because I used to sit in abandoned buildings and drug houses when I was addicted to crack cocaine in the ghettos of the inner cities here in the United States. So I understand what they're going through. I understand this addiction. I understand how it grips you and takes control of you. Now I'm going to play for you two sound clips from one of our women who was detoxing for heroin in our Women's Drug Rehabilitation Discipleship Home in Colwell, Liberia.

I would like to warn you that it's very heart wrenching. Our women's home director, Evangela Sylvester Payne, his wife and house mother, Julia Payne, and one of our former drug addict staff member, Inba Sasse, are with this woman who is detoxing off of heroin and they're helping her through this very difficult process. The things I just read about, the symptoms of withdrawal that I just read about, the diarrhea and the body cramping and the stomach cramping, the insomnia, bone pain, cold flashes, things of that nature.

And you're going to hear a woman go through this. We have found that if the women in our program can make it all the way through this initial detox period, which lasts up to two weeks, then they are more likely to remain in the program for the duration and find complete deliverance and freedom from drug addiction. It is during this most crucial part of the program that we see the most women giving up on the process and returning to the ghettos and to smoking the drugs. It is because of the severe physical, mental and emotional distress detoxing from heroin causes that causes them to run. It's very difficult for them to endure the pain for so long and it could cause the women to give up because they feel they cannot make it through. They feel all alone and everything is screaming, their body is screaming that they would be okay if they could just get some more of the drug and into such a mental battle within the mind that tells them they want to run, they want to go back, they want the pain to stop and their mind is telling them the only way the pain is going to stop is if you put more drugs, if you go smoke more heroin.

And so that's the battle they go, the battlefield of the mind. I was a drug addict for 25 years and I also had some very hard detoxes from drugs. I tell the men and women in the program that it's very easy and painless to start smoking the first drugs. In the beginning it seems like harmless fun and excitement that brings lots of pleasure. This is the trap, this is the hook that is set into the person that is experimenting with drugs. The drugs are the bait and when the trap closes shut on the drug addict then it is impossible to get out of that trap by yourself and it is very painful indeed. In the beginning of using drugs the drug addict only experiences the pleasure and not the pain. Once trapped and addicted then comes the pain that drugs always bring. And when you try and get out and stop using drugs that is when the pain is most severe. It is like tearing yourself apart from the drug and from the addiction.

Now I will play the audio from a woman. Her name is Grace and she is in our program, our women's drug rehabilitation discipleship program. And she is currently going through this painful experience of heroin detox. Our staff in Liberia is with her and helping her make it through.

And so is Jesus. Father in the name of Jesus we bless you Lord. We thank you for grace, we thank you for mercy, we pray for your healing power. We pray Lord that you look upon us for power with your grace.

You look upon us for your healing here. Lord we have put ourselves into this but we have realized Lord that it is not right. We realize that it is not good. We realize that it not only killed us but it killed our future.

It killed everything concerning us. That is why we make the decision Lord to stop using drugs. We pray every power that is attached to the appetite of drugs we destroy in the name of Jesus. We come against every pain in the name of Jesus. We pray Lord that God you give her the strength, you give grace the strength. For her name is Grace O God. Let your grace grant her this healing power. Let your grace kill the pain O God.

Give her the strength that she will pursue the mental strength that Lord she is able to go through this. That Lord if you cannot do this you have the testimony to glorify you. That Lord I went through this and I'm not going back. I would never go back to sustenance.

I would never go back to drugs. In the name of Jesus Christ we thank you Lord. That Lord should be able to get a new life. A new life knowing you as her Lord and personal savior.

Bringing all her children to love and fear you. Lord you are able. We thank you Jesus. Be that glorified in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.

Yeah. In the name of Jesus Christ we thank you Lord. In the name of Jesus Christ we thank you Lord. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. In the name of Jesus Christ we thank you Lord.

In the name of Jesus Christ we thank you Lord. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. In the name of Jesus Christ we thank you Lord.

In the name of Jesus Christ we thank you Lord. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Bless you.

I don't think I would do that. Thank you. Wow. Now if that doesn't touch your heart, I don't know what will. You can hear the pain she is going through. You can hear the prayers that are being said. The encouragement from our staff and the tender and care that our staff is giving this woman. And that's Jesus working through our staff members there to help this woman come through, and Jesus resting over her, and giving her the strength to persevere, to make it through. What a difficult time for this young woman who is fighting courageously through the pain. I'm just telling you, Jesus is her perfect strength in her weakness.

He is with her. He did not leave her or forsake her as he promises us in his word. I just wanna thank you, Jesus. You are an awesome God, and you are with me in my distress, and you are with grace in hers.

This is impossible to do without you. Detoxing and drug addiction and being delivered from drug addiction is impossible without you. I've tried everything in my power, humanly possible, the things of this world to be delivered from drugs, and I never could do it.

I always fell back to using drugs, but when I surrendered my life to you, you delivered me from addiction once and for all, because I know with you all things are possible. The scripture 2 Corinthians 12, 7-10, it says, unless I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me, and he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, most gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches and needs and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

In this scripture, Paul speaks about the thorn in the flesh. I often wonder sometimes when I read the scripture, if drug addiction in the beginning for me was a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to hit me repeatedly over and over, lest I be exalted and become an idol unto myself, I often wonder. I say this because in my own deliverance from addiction, I thank God every day that he let me go through the experience of being addicted to drugs, because it made me the man of God I am today. I believe that drug addiction was the only thing that could ever truly set me free from being a lover myself, a lover of money, and a lover of the things of this world. Drug addiction in my life also has allowed for me to help so many people, and so many drug addicts, and people that have been in prison, and those that are being delivered from drugs and going through detox, like Grace. And it's just, it's so profound to me that I am happy that I had drug addiction in my life. I'm gonna read to you a part of a poem that I wrote when I was in prison, and when I was being delivered from addiction by God. He blessed me with the gift of poetry, and I'm gonna read the last 28 lines of a poem that I wrote, it's called My Life. And the last 28 kinda talks about the way I view drug addiction in my life.

It goes like this. My life has always been a confusing puzzle, trying to fit a square peg into a round hole like a man swimming through muddy river, trying to find a quitching for his thirsty soul. Like a fish out of water, to this world I always tried to be another king.

Like an angry dog chasing cars, this world's promises I thought joy they would bring. Now I know I am different, chosen by God out of this world before time began, made sick by belief in this world's systems, healed by the precious blood of the lamb. Today I stand humbled at the bottom, rejuvenated spirit, delivered soul, and recaptured sober mind. I rest easy in Christ Jesus, in him real success I did find. True riches are found in the spirit, on the wings of his mighty grace I now fly, high above all this world's mountains, no longer tricked into having to climb.

From rags to riches now has no meaning, so too does the story of my life. In Christ Jesus I found eternity, in eternity there is no end in sight. Jesus is my holy mountain, in him far above, this fallen world I now see. The journey of mine through the fires of addiction, the only way this man could ever truly be set free.

And that just talks about it. I was set free, free from everything, and this addiction that was, the trap of addiction and drugs that was set to destroy me, God took that and turned it into good. Hallelujah, thank you Lord.

This is my new reality. I am a man on fire for God, who was delivered from a wicked crack cocaine addiction. And now I'm helping others to be delivered to, by the power of the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ.

I've been right where this young woman Grace, found herself in her detox. And I'm here to tell you right now, that Jesus was with me, through all of my 25 years of drug addiction, just as he was with this woman Grace, detoxing in her utter distress. I'm gonna read some scriptures about this, that speak all through the Bible, about God never leaving us or forsaken us, always being with us. Isaiah 43, one, two, it says, "'Fear not for I have redeemed you. "'I have called you by your name, you are mine. "'When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. "'And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. "'When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, "'nor shall the flame scorch you. "'When I walk through the fires of addiction, "'he was with me.'"

Hallelujah. When the flood of shame and guilt came over me, he was with me, it did not overflow me, it did not wipe me out, he was with me. Hebrews 13, five through six says, "'For he himself has said, "'I will never leave you nor forsake you. "'So we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, "'I will not fear, what can man do to me?'"

What can man's addiction do to me? Nothing, hallelujah. Deuteronomy 31, eight, "'It is the Lord who goes before you, he will be with you, "'he will not leave you or forsake you. "'Do not fear or be dismayed, there is no fear in love.'" Hallelujah, and God is love, he's always with you. And his greatest expression of love is when he sent his only begotten son, that whosoever should believe in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Joshua 1, nine says, "'Have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous? "'Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed, "'for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.'" Wherever I went, he was with me. Wherever grace went, he was with her.

In those drug rooms and drug huts, amongst the smoke, amongst the unclean spirits that tormented her, in her darkest hour, he was with her everywhere. Isaiah 41, 10 through 14 says, "'Fear not, for I am with you. "'Be not dismayed, for I am your God.

"'I will strengthen you, I will help you. "'I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. "'Behold, all who are incensed against you "'shall be put to shame and confounded. "'Those who strive against you shall be as nothing "'and shall perish. "'You shall seek those who contend with you, "'but you shall not find them.

"'Those who war against you shall be as nothing at all. "'For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand. "'It is I who say to you, fear not. "'I am the one who helps you.' "'Oh, how sweet it is, God our helper in Jesus Christ. "'He goes to war for us, he fights our battles. "'Oh God, thank you so much.'" The word of God repeats this message over and over again, all throughout the Bible, so that we know the faithfulness and steadfastness of the commitment God has to his children.

Both his lost children, who have not come to the truth and know their salvation in Jesus Christ, and to the ones who are saved, who have already been reborn into the spirit and made Jesus Christ the Lord and Savior. No matter what you're going through, always know that God is always with you in Jesus Christ. When the storms of life come, know that Jesus will walk with you through them and he will be your strength when you are weak. When you think you can't go another step further, God will carry you the rest of the way. This is what he did throughout my 25 years of drug addiction, wicked crack cocaine addiction, and addiction to methamphetamine.

And really, I've done heroin, I've done pills, anything I could get my hands on, I became addicted to. And this is what he is doing in Liberia, West Africa, for the woman named Grace going through her detox. No situation is too tough for Jesus to help see you through. Philippians 4.13, these are scriptures of encouragement. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

All things, including going through detox and being delivered from addiction and dealing with all the shame and hurt and sorrow and loneliness it brings, moving through that. I can do all things, I can overcome all things. 1 John 4, verse four, you are of God, little children, and have overcome them because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. The Holy Spirit in you, the Spirit of Christ in you is greater than it is he who is in the world.

And the he who is in the world they're referring to is the devil who is at war with you. And his weapon of addiction, of drugs and addiction that he uses against you to destroy you, God is gonna take that and turn it into the good to make you a fearless disciple of his like he did me. Romans 8, 37 through 39, yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other created things shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nothing will ever be able to separate you from God, from Jesus Christ. He is always with you, he will never leave you or forsake you because you're more than a conqueror through him, hallelujah. I love you all and I pray that you too can find the freedom that I've found in Jesus Christ. Jesus breaks the chains, he's always with us and will never leave us or forsake us. This is the greatest life I've ever lived, living my life and Jesus Christ is his disciple. God bless you all, in Jesus name I pray, amen. Thank you for listening, for more information on Michael Bowen's ministry, Sons and Daughters of Thunder, visit sonsanddaughtersoftunder.org and remember there is no addiction in Jesus Christ, Jesus breaks the chains. This is the Truth Network.