Before Jesus became a part of my life, I drank a lot. I’d down a bottle of whiskey every day as part of my normal routine. My two favorites were scotch and tequila. I put tequila in my breakfast cereal with the milk in the morning, and most days I probably ate more worms at the bottom of a tequila bottle than the earliest bird on your block.
I drank so much scotch that I could have set a city on fire with my breath and the strike of a match. In fact, a doctor told me that I’d have cirrhosis of the liver and die before I hit twenty-five if I didn’t stop drinking.
Thank God, on Labor Day weekend in 1974, the Lord came into my life and supernaturally set me free from drugs and alcohol. I’m living today because of His saving grace. But just to give you an example about how strong temptation can be, I’ll tell you what happened to me several years ago in Dallas.
Now, I’d been a preacher for many years. I was going to preach to the students at Christ for the Nations Bible School in Dallas. They had sent a student to pick me up from the airport.
So when this young man picked me up, he was excited to meet me. He said, “Oh, Brother Jesse, I’m so excited to have the opportunity and honor to pick you up. I hope I’m not talking too much.” I said, “No, no, you’re not talking too much. That’s fine.” After that he looked at me and said, “Man, you’re sure shorter in person than you are on television!” “Now you’re talking too much!” I said.
We started passing these billboards on the side of the road. Well, we passed this one huge billboard that was advertising beer. It caught my attention because it had a literal waterfall coming out of the sign. Real water gushed out of this beautiful picture, and it had a slogan about how refreshing the beer was.
Now, I hate the taste of beer. I always had. And you know, I hadn’t even thought about drinking in years, but for some reason, as I was looking at that waterfall, my mouth started to water. And my mind started to wander. I mean, I’m saved, full of the Holy Ghost and was on my way to preach a meeting. But I saw this sign, and listen, I began to salivate! I entertained the thoughts for a bit until, all of a sudden, I caught myself. I realized what I was doing. But the temptation was so strong that I just couldn’t keep it to myself.
“I rebuke you, in Jesus name!” I hollered.
The kid in the car slammed on the brakes and looked at me with eyes as big as saucers. “Oh, I’m sorry! Brother Jesse, what did I do?”
“You didn’t do anything!” He just looked at me, scared and not knowing what to think.
“I was rebuking the flesh. I used to drink a lot, and my body tried to make me remember the trash it used to do. And I saw that sign and rebuked temptation!” He just nodded. He looked straight ahead and stayed that way as he nervously started back towards campus. He never said another thing the rest of the way.
I don’t know what he told his friends about the crazy preacher who hollers at billboards, but I can tell you this-that was one mind-boggling temptation that got stopped dead in its tracks that day! There’s something about confronting temptation head-on and embarrassing yourself that makes you not actually follow through with it. It brings it right out in the open.
You see, your body is not saved. I don’t care how saved you are – your body is not. That’s why I had to take care of that problem right then when it happened. Boy or no boy, I had to bind up that devil right then. And that’s how you’ve got to treat temptation. You don’t let it get comfortable with you. You’ve got to deal with it the minute it starts getting bad. The sooner you deal with temptation, the less hold it has on you.
Don’t wait until your problem becomes the size of a full-grown tree; deal with it while it’s still a tiny shoot or small seed. When the devil first sends you a temptation, resist it right away while it’s easy to take care of. If you keep thinking about the temptation, it’ll grow up. Don’t let your temptations grow up. Pull them up at the root!
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers
Jesse Duplantis, minister of the Gospel, motivational speaker, television personality, and best-selling author, has been in full-time ministry since 1976 and is the founder of Jesse Duplantis Ministries, located in the Greater New Orleans area of south Louisiana in the United States of America. With over four decades of sharing his unique blend of humor and faith around the world, generations of believers have been inspired by his messages and countless numbers have come to know Jesus Christ as Savior through his ministry.
Known for his unflinching, status-quo-breaking messages and humorous take on experiences in the life of the believer, Jesse continues to draw large audiences of believers through social media, television, and meetings held around the world. With speaking engagements booked years in advance, Jesse Duplantis continues to keep an intense traveling schedule, flying throughout the United States and the world preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. With no booking agents pursuing meetings for him and no set fees imposed upon churches for speaking engagements, Jesse chooses his outreach meetings based on the same two criteria he always has: invitations that come in and prayer over each one. This uncommon way of scheduling in today’s world means Jesse’s many followers may find him speaking in some of the largest churches and venues in America and the world, as well as a great many small and growing congregations, too. No church is too big or small for the Holy Spirit, as he says.
Side by side with his wife Cathy Duplantis, the co-founder and chief of staff of Jesse Duplantis Ministries and the senior pastor of Covenant Church in Destrehan, Louisiana, Jesse continues to fulfill his life’s calling by daily taking up the Great Commission of Jesus Christ: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Through social media, television broadcasts, books, and other ministry products, as well as through many evangelistic meetings, the JDM website, the JDM app, and Voice of the Covenant magazine, Jesse Duplantis continues to see growth in his ministry and expand each year while maintaining his roots. Jesus is the center of his life. The salvation of lost people and the growth of believers is the purpose of his ministry. And for both he and his wife, every day is another day to “Reach People and Change Lives, One Soul at a Time.”