We often think of deliverance as a violent struggle of willpower. We try to "kick the habit," grit our teeth, and hope we can resist the craving for one more day. But the flesh is a stubborn thing; the more you fight it, the more it seems to fight back.

“Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” Galatians 5:16

There is a higher way. When people are baptized in the Holy Spirit and begin to pray in tongues regularly, something miraculous often happens: the desire for the addiction simply evaporates.

Whether it was the gang members in New York or the addicts in Hong Kong, the testimony is the same. As they prayed in the Spirit, the "need" for the drug or the vice left them without the traditional "cold turkey" struggle.

This is because grace is about heart transformation, not behavior modification. When you are "walking in the Spirit," you aren't spending your energy fighting the old; you are being filled with the new. You don't have to struggle to let go of the dark when you are standing in the middle of the light.

True freedom isn't the power to resist a desire; it’s the gift of a new one.