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A Note from Dennis Part 2

When the Lord gave me the vision about the cave in regards to alcoholism and drug addiction in 1979 (mentioned in Section II) He emphasized that my deliverance was in doing His will. My true freedom, purpose, identity, and hope were in Him. The authority to overcome addiction came from my submission and surrender to His authority. God didn’t deliver us from alcohol and drugs, He delivered us from being banned from the Tree of Life. He delivered us from His wrath. The penalty for our sin (separation from God) was death. Through the sacrifice of Jesus, the power of the resurrection, and the Holy Spirit God allowed us to once again have the opportunity to eat of the Tree of Life. Once again we can be connected to the Vine, God Himself, and drink of the Living Waters.

God has a specific plan for our lives. Because of what God was doing in my life I felt a need for fellowship with other believers. God led some friends and I to attend a church in South Minneapolis. God used a number of people there to teach and encourage us in the faith. I noticed at that time, a sizeable number of members of Alcoholics Anonymous were now coming out of “treatment centers”. I could see that the simplicity of Alcoholics Anonymous was being overcome by the “wisdom of man”. God was mentioned but He was being “reduced” to our opinion of Him. Jesus was a name that was rarely mentioned. We were being given man’s answer for what ails us and man’s plan for our recovery. Man’s answer was anchored in his own understanding and it was conformed to the patterns of this world. The fellowship I was receiving was not meeting my needs so I quit attending Alcoholics Anonymous.

After a few months of depending on God, seeking His will, and being involved in fellowship with other believers I went home one evening and while laying down, in my room, the small still voice of God got my attention. The small still voice prompted me to attend a particular Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. I knew where the meeting was and when it started so I got dressed and went to the meeting. I got to the meeting and started walking up the sidewalk to the front door when I heard someone say, “Dennis”. I turned and saw a man I had never met before. He said, “I have been looking for you.” I asked him what he wanted and he told me that he was a supervisor on a chemical dependency unit for adolescents and that he wanted to offer me a job. My response was one of disbelief. I told him that I had never been in treatment and that I had never worked with adolescents. He told me that it did not matter. He said that he has heard me speak at meetings and that he wanted what I have in his treatment program. He told me whenever I was ready he would have a job waiting for me. He gave me his number and I told him that I would get back to him. After this initial exchange I was excited and convinced that this was God moving. What happened next opened the door to a life of faith. Now the battle really began.

As I said, I was excited about my encounter with the Living God but after a short period of time fear, shame, and doubt raised their ugly heads and tried to intimidate me to come up with “Plan B." I realized that it is one thing to talk about the power of God and faith but it is another thing to actually walk in it on the planet earth. God wants us to walk in Spirit and in Truth. Fear, shame, and doubt came and did everything they could to derail me. At first I tried to overcome my “inadequacies” with my own wisdom and understanding but it was futile. I avoided making the phone call to the supervisor at the treatment center for about a month. I was trying to overcome the questions about my lack of experience and training, the doubt that God set this up, my childhood message that I was stupid and in the way, and that I still had sin in my own life I needed to work on. I could not resolve these issues. I needed God to give me the faith to look to Him and not my own wisdom and understanding. This situation was beyond my ability to accomplish in my own strength. I finally called the supervisor and he told me that the position was still open. I was excited and scared. The day arrived for me to go to work. On my way to work that day all the fear, doubt, and shame came at me in full force. I was making excuses for not showing up, but God reminded me that I needed to be responsible and show up for work. God asked me to do this and he wanted me to trust

His provision through Christ and the Holy Spirit. God allowed this “crisis of faith” so that I would not be dependent on myself but on Him. Faith is dependent on God’s power and our weakness. God wanted me to believe, in Spirit and in Truth, that “in my weakness God’s power is made perfect”. This was not about my credentials but about my faith in His credentials. My credentials can be found in 1 Corinthians 1:25-31 states,

     "For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the
        weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. Brothers think of
        what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise
        by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of
        noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame
        the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the
        strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised
        things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are,
        so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you
        are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God – that
        is our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore as it is
        written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”

God gets all the Glory! He is our Deliverer!

Eventually I got my license as a Alcohol and Drug Counselor (L.A.D.C.) in the State of Minnesota and I have Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology at Northwestern College in Roseville, Minnesota. I only have those credentials because of God’s desire for me to have them for His purpose and by His power. I had made a law unto myself saying that Ionly need the Holy Spirit and I will not need degrees, but God taught that if he wants me to do something that is what I need to do. He is God I am not. God has opened many doors for me since and in spite of me He has touched a number of lives. Every place that God has sent me I have had opportunities to share God’s love, mercy, Grace and hope. God wants to have a relationship with us. The Bible talks about how the laborers are few. My hope is that this book will equip more laborers. I feel prompted by the Holy Spirit to write this book to Glorify the name of Jesus, to encourage others and lead others to only answer to what ails mankind. Jesus is the Way, Truth, Life and Light!

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