Sid Roth - God Said This to Me About My Alcohol Addiction
Eighty percent of the children of alcoholics become alcoholics themselves. Alcoholism is epidemic in America, especially among the youth and 65 percent of the population in Russia is addicted to alcohol. My guest has a supernatural cure for this and other debilitating addictions. Next on this edition of it's supernatural.
Sid Roth: Hello. Sid Roth your investigative reporter here with Joanne Dehon. Joanne comes from an alcoholic background, but not just an alcoholic yourself. How far back did it go?
Joanne Dehon: Yes. Well I was raised in an alcoholic home with an alcoholic mother who would lock me up in a room so that she could out and drink.
Sid Roth: Were her parents alcoholics?
Joanne Dehon: Yes they were.
Sid Roth: Third generation.
Joanne Dehon: Yes, her parents' parents were alcoholics, yes.
Sid Roth: Wow.
Joanne Dehon: It really follows down the line. And so i, she would lock me up in a room so that she could go drinking, and then...
Sid Roth: Lock you up in like your bedroom?
Joanne Dehon: Yes, yes, yes.
Sid Roth: What did you think when she would lock you up?
Joanne Dehon: Well I had a very supernatural experience once. I was about five years old and I had a vision of a man in a white robe on my wall and I felt an incredible amount of peace, and that presence, I forgot about that. And when I was 37 years old that presence came to me again and I recognized it as the same presence that soothed me in that room when I was locked up.
Sid Roth: Now tell me about, I mean, what I understand is whatever you hate you may end up marrying. Is that what happened?
Joanne Dehon: Yes, yes, yes. I had said in my heart I am never going to be like my mother. I'm never going to drink and treat my children like she did and of course because of there was some anger there and some unforgiveness, I ended up marrying a man who couldn't really be there for me because he was an alcoholic, and so we...
Sid Roth: According to my notes, as an infant they would bourbon in his milk?
Joanne Dehon: Yes they did, yes. He was born...
Sid Roth: That's awful.
Joanne Dehon: I know.
Sid Roth: I mean, talk about being sabotaged.
Joanne Dehon: Yes, that's right. He was only two, he came in at two pounds and so back in those days the doctors prescribed an ounce of bourbon in their formula. And so he says he was the youngest baby, the youngest alcoholic in history and he got sober at age six weeks.
Sid Roth: Now there must have been points where you wanted to stop your addiction.
Joanne Dehon: Yes. We tried. We tried switching drinks. We tried drinking...
Sid Roth: You both were trying to get free.
Joanne Dehon: Yes we did. We both wanted to get set free, although there's such denial over the problem. We really didn't quite understand, but we knew something was wrong. And so we would try. We would put ice in our drinks. We would switch to beer for a while then we'd switch to wine for a while, and we tried everything that we could think of, but nothing really did it. We were climbing that ladder of success and we were dealing with people in high society.
Sid Roth: Did you try something like alcoholics anonymous?
Joanne Dehon: My husband did.
Sid Roth: Did it work for him?
Joanne Dehon: No. He could only maintain a sobriety for maybe a month at the very most. But it wasn't until we had an experience with God that we were able to stop drinking.
Sid Roth: I got to hear about it. What happened?
Joanne Dehon: Well, from my standpoint, I was trying to, I would drink with my husband because he was less obnoxious when I was drinking. And so to me, he was the alcoholic and I was fine. But then the day came when he received help. He called out to the alcohol recovery center in the town where we lived and they came and picked him up, and they took him into a detox program, and there he began to understand that he needed help from a higher power to really get set free. But me, I was at home and I was sitting there celebrating the fact that my husband was in the recovery center with wine and playing my Christian music, and thinking, oh thank you Lord, and saying thank you Lord for getting my husband off of alcohol.
Sid Roth: What about you?
Joanne Dehon: I heard a voice and this little voice inside said, 'Joanne, who's the alcoholic'? And so I had to face my own alcoholism. I was an early stage. My husband was a middle to late stage. He always said that he spilled more than I drank. But I knew that I was addicted habitually, maybe not as physiologically addicted as a lot of alcoholics are, but I was definitely a habitual alcoholic. I had to have that drink every day and it was filling that gap that I had inside of me. It was a deep loneliness and a fear, and I was stuffing a very unhappy, very dysfunctional childhood. And so I was trying to keep myself medicated over that pain so that it wouldn't come out.
Sid Roth: And you're saying the medication in your situation was alcohol.
Joanne Dehon: Yes, yes.
Sid Roth: But you know, there's lots of other medication. There's food. There's television. There's sex outside of marriage. All of those medications some would consider sin, but any of these medications it's wrong. You know it's wrong. So what happened?
Joanne Dehon: You know it is. Well you know, inside yourself you know that there's something wrong that you shouldn't be drinking that way. But then it's like you see all the other people drinking and you get involved with their lives and for you then it seems like it's all right because denial is the leading symptom of alcoholism. The family denies that there's a problem. Society denies that there's a problem. They make fun of drunks and then you have churches that deny that they have a problem in their churches with alcohol.
Sid Roth: Is there a problem in churches with alcohol?
Joanne Dehon: Yes there is. Ten percent of all the people that go to church are having a problem with alcohol.
Sid Roth: So God said, what about you, you're the problem.
Joanne Dehon: Yes. He said you're the problem and so I had to, I read a book by David Wilkerson called 'sipping saints' and I realized that I was a sipping saint. And that day that I read that I was so deeply convicted I said, 'all right, Lord, I'm going to not have that drink and I'm going to trust you to keep me from that awful lust for it, that desire for it. I'm going to trust you,' because that's what addiction is. Addiction is having an idol. It's having a substitute for God because only God can really give us what we need and fill our emptiness, and fill that pain, take away the pain. And so he was faithful to his word. I, we arrived at our destination where we were going. We were going there for a weekend. Every weekend for maybe 15 years I'd always have some drinking. I always drank so that I could enjoy the weekend more and this time I didn't do it. I didn't have that drink and I enjoyed myself, and the next day we drove.
Sid Roth: Wait a second. I mean, you're an alcoholic. You were a full blow alcoholic and you, one day you were able to.
Joanne Dehon: It was supernatural. It was.
Sid Roth: It wasn't a willpower thing?
Joanne Dehon: No, it wasn't a willpower thing.
Sid Roth: I'll tell you what, hold that thought. Don't you dare go away because you say you don't have an addiction? Well what do you use? What is your drug of choice to medicate your pain that you're not even willing to admit that you have? We'll be right back after this. Don't go away.
Sid Roth: Hello. I'm Sid Roth your investigative reporter here with Joanne Dehon. Joanne and her husband both alcoholics. I mean, her husband was raised with bourbon, this is not a joke, bourbon in his milk. He called himself the youngest alcoholic in history. So both were alcoholics. They tried programs like alcoholics anonymous. Her husband tried it, did not work. They went to God on God's terms and both of them, both of them instantly set free. So when did you realize you were free? I mean, the first day went by, but that doesn't mean you're free.
Joanne Dehon: I that doesn't mean, well I had a supernatural experience on the road to aspen, Colorado.
Sid Roth: What were you doing?
Joanne Dehon: We were going over to have coffee. Usually we drank there, but this time we were going over to have coffee with our daughter. She was about oh I think 12 at that time. And so, on the way going over there it had just snowed and it was a beautifully white sunny day. And I heard the voice of God speak to me, and he said, 'Joanne, because you've given this to me, because you are free now I'm going to use you all throughout the world to minister and help other people that are addicted'.
Sid Roth: What did you think about that powerful word?
Joanne Dehon: I was overwhelmed with it. And the interesting thing was right on the road where that happened is a little town by the name of basalt and we were invited back about oh maybe ten years later to do a seminar there to help alcoholics and to set up support groups there in that little church right on the road exactly where God spoke to me. And so God just began to use us around the world. My husband, of course, had a supernatural encounter with God. He was set free.
Sid Roth: But here's the thing. The reasons why you had these addictions, so you're supernaturally set free.
Joanne Dehon: Yes.
Sid Roth: But according to my notes you still had a lot of problems even though you were free of that specific addiction.
Joanne Dehon: Yes, that's exactly right.
Sid Roth: Now what causes the addiction in the first place?
Joanne Dehon: Well there are many causes for alcoholism, Sid. One of them is generational curses. It comes down the line, our fathers, our forefathers.
Sid Roth: Well that's what happened to you.
Joanne Dehon: Yes, very much so. But also, there's unforgiveness to deal with. When you are unforgiving towards your alcoholic parent then you need to deal with that or you will be just like them. There are many scriptures that talk about that and so we have to be, we help people forgive their parents, forgive them for a very nasty childhood. And then there are other things, repeated drinking bouts, hedonism. If you keep on drinking you can become very addicted. But just because you are free, supernaturally free, you have to deal with the root issues. You have to deal with the reasons why you medicated over your pain or else you will just swap addictions for something else or you will swap addictions.
Sid Roth: In your case, why did you use, why was your drug of choice alcohol?
Joanne Dehon: Alcohol, because it was an over-the-counter medication. I could get it very easily.
Sid Roth: No, what I meant was what was behind it?
Joanne Dehon: Right. And the thing that was behind it was probably fear, a terribly dysfunctional childhood. When I drank a little bit I felt freer. I felt not so self-conscious and it just gave me that pleasure that I didn't have. It calmed me down. I lied to myself and said that it relieved the stress. It helped me.
Sid Roth: We like to justify, don't we?
Joanne Dehon: Yes, yes we do. We do indeed. But people drink for many different reasons. You know, it's socially an accepted drug and so parents say to their children, don't do drugs. But in their home they have a closet full of liquor and they're drinking. But of course, denial, like I said, denial is a symptom of alcoholism. You deny that you're drinking so much.
Sid Roth: If there was thing that set you free, obviously it was God.
Joanne Dehon: Yes.
Sid Roth: In a sentence.
Joanne Dehon: Yes.
Sid Roth: What was it that really set you free? What did God do?
Joanne Dehon: He showed me that he was passionately in love with me. He loved me.
Sid Roth: Didn't you know this intellectually though?
Joanne Dehon: Oh yes. Yes, I read the Bible and the Bible said that.
Sid Roth: So yeah, what's the big deal?
Joanne Dehon: Well in my heart, I had to believe, I had to receive it as a revelation from God. And one day I was sitting there reading my Bible. I was reaching a chapter out of, it was Ephesians where it talks about how God has adopted us as his very, very own. And suddenly the most awesome presence began to move over me, and I knew in that moment that it could not be, that God was not like my natural father. My natural father was harsh and demanding, and critical, and he left us for a period of time. And yet this presence was the father. It was the presence of the Father God.
Sid Roth: When you say, help me out, when you say 'the presence of God came over me'.
Joanne Dehon: Yes.
Sid Roth: Use the best words you can to describe. What do you mean? Was it a feeling?
Joanne Dehon: I felt safe for the first time in my 39 years or maybe I was 40 years old, for the first time I felt safe. I felt like God had me. Somehow I was safe and all those things that happened in the past were being washed away by this incredible love. It was a peace, a peace that I had never ever had before, and I knew that I was okay and that I would always be loved, and that if anything happened, and God forbid it did happen to my precious husband, because he went home to be with the Lord. But I was left, but I was able to go through that because I knew how passionately God loved me. And he was my father, so he re-parented me. From that point on God re-parented me. He gave me a childhood that I never had, full of peace and joy. And I'm enjoying...
Sid Roth: You were robbed of being a child.
Joanne Dehon: Yes. Yes, absolutely. I was taking care of my alcoholic mother. I was trying to escape the abuse of an alcoholic grandfather.
Sid Roth: Is there hope for those that are watching us right now that are alcoholics or married to alcoholics?
Joanne Dehon: Oh yes.
Sid Roth: Could they be instantly set free?
Joanne Dehon: Yes.
Sid Roth: Okay. All right, listen, you heard that. Whether your medication of choice is alcohol, pornography, new age, even television addiction, whatever your medication of choice is, if you understood God is passionately in love with you, you're going to in this next segment. Don't go away. We'll be right back.
Sid Roth: Hello. Sid Roth your investigative reporter with Joanne Dehon. Now Joanne, you were in one of my favorite cities, odessa, Ukraine.
Joanne Dehon: Yes.
Sid Roth: And you met a prostitute. Tell me about that.
Joanne Dehon: Yes. Well I was doing seminars in odessa. I go there very often and we do seminars.
Sid Roth: Oh you like it, too.
Joanne Dehon: I do. It's a crazy city, but I do because the needs are so great and the people are so hungry for more in life than they have. And so I met a woman in our seminar. She came in there dressed just like a prostitute, vacant eyes and really very needy. And God spoke to me and showed me that she had been raped, and in fact, she was, and through an interpreter she said that she had been raped by three men, and that she had gotten home somehow to her father and her father blamed her for the rape. And so she decided that she would just act out of what she was called, and so she did. But God touched her in such a beautiful way and she, I prayed for her, and the Lord, God came in and he spoke to her heart, and showed her that it was not her fault. And the next day she came in and she was a totally new woman. Everything had changed. Her dress had changed. Her manner had changed. Her eyes had changed and she had realized that she was loved and she was forgiven, and she was accepted.
Sid Roth: A prostitute on the streets?
Joanne Dehon: Oh yes.
Sid Roth: Will you talk to someone that is in as deep a sin as that prostitute just for a moment now and tell them about God's acceptance.
Joanne Dehon: Yes. You know, God loves you and he cares about you, and he cares about where you've been. And so many times the wounding that you've sustained happens before you're too young to really know what to do about it, and he's there. God is there to forgive you. He's there to revitalize you, to give you brand new life. Nothing is too difficult. That's what he told me, Sid. He told me nothing is too difficult. I used to think I was the most difficult person because I was in adultery. I was trying everything the world said to try, I would try. And God said, 'you're not too hard for me'. And I know if I'm not too hard, you're not too hard for him.
Sid Roth: What happened with these aids patients?
Joanne Dehon: Oh it was wonderful. We went into an aids treatment hospital in odessa and it was the largest one there, and there was a room full of young people. They were only 16, 17 years old and they were dying of aids. They had contracted hepatitis from needles and they had aids. And so I was trying to share with them how much God loves them and the fact that he could heal them because he did it for me. But they weren't buying it. They said, 'communism has taught us that God is dead and there's nothing that we can do. We just have to accept this'. And I said, 'no, you don't'. And we had tried everything. My translator had spoken how God had healed him and delivered him from drugs and alcohol, and they still weren't buying anything. They were angry with us and I was praying, I was saying, 'Lord, why did we come here if we're not going to be a help to these people? You've got to help these people'. And he said, 'tell them about Elijah'. And he said, 'tell them,' because I had just been on mt. Carmel. So I told them the story about Elijah and how he came and defeated the prophets of Baal, the wrong prophets and how God showed himself to be the true God. And so I said, without realizing what I was doing, I said, 'God is going to come into this room and God is going to show who he is, and he's going to help you, if you'll just be quiet for a moment and let's wait on God'. And then we closed our eyes, and I thought, Lord, if you don't come I'm in big trouble. But he came and God came in the back door, and as his presence began to come up and come to the front of the room, the people began to weep because he showed them who he was in their hearts. And these young people began to say, 'what can I do to know him'? And so we prayed for them to know him. And then the woman that the most antagonistic towards me grabbed my hand and she ran me back to the ward in this hospital, and there on a cot on the floor was this young boy about 17 years old in a coma, dying from aids. And we got down on our knees and ganati, the translator, spoke to him and said, you know, he prayed for him, and this boy came out of a coma...
Sid Roth: Instantly?
Joanne Dehon: Instantly. Instantly. And there I was thinking, here's this one woman, she's only known God for five minutes and she's a missionary, and her heart was to go to this boy. Her heart wasn't for herself, it was for others, and that's the way we should be, living a life for other people.
Sid Roth: Well there's some people watching us that are addicted and they can't do it, and would you pray for them right now.
Joanne Dehon: Yes. Yes. For those of you out there that think it's hopeless, it is not hopeless. That alcohol you're drinking, that sexual promiscuity that you're in, whatever it is that you're doing, it's not going to fill that well of loneliness that you have. It's not going to ease your pain for long. Oh it helps for a short time, but eventually it will not do the job. Only God can do the job for you, so open up your heart. And Lord God, we ask you right now to show yourself to be real to the people out there. Show yourself to be the God that you say you are in the Bible, that you will deliver. You will set free, you will love because you came and you sacrificed yourself for us. Show them dear Lord who you really are. Give them hope. You're the God who plants all hope. Plant it in their hearts, Lord.
Sid Roth: In the name of Jesus, I bind every spirit of addiction. I command it off of you right now, right now, every spirit off in Jesus' name. Be whole. Be free. And now that you are free, Joanne, what have you found as far as helping someone else God will set them free.
Joanne Dehon: Yes. He tells us there's a chapter in Isaiah 58. It tells us that if we will give ourselves to the hungry, if we will give away ourselves, feed the, clothe the naked, God will be a light to us. He will speak a word behind us saying, 'this is the way, walk in it'. He will speedily bring forth our healing. So my healing came because I was willing to go out and give it away and minister to people that were in problems and addictions, and hurting people. And if we will give ourselves away that way our own healing will speedily spring forth. That's what he's done for me.
Sid Roth: Because most people are so self-centered that as you give God's love away, but some of you are so bankrupt you needs God's love. And I can tell you this, you might have been to a church or a synagogue your whole life, but have you experienced intimacy with God? Do you know him yourself? I mean, not know about him. Please listen to my words. I'm not talking about knowing about him, I'm saying, do you know him? Do you have intimacy with him? Do you hear his voice? If not, I tell you he is passionately in love with you, passionately in love with you. But your sins are getting in the way of you receiving this love. So tell him you're sorry for your sins. God has already convicted you of these sins and believe that the blood of Jesus washes them away and you're clean. And now that you're clean open yourself up to his love. Let the lover of your soul that has not rejected you, that is the perfect father, that wants to give you a shalom, a peace inside of you like you've never experienced before. Invite Jesus to be your master and Lord. Ask him to live inside of you. There is hope for you. There is hope. There is a future for you, a good future. I plant that in you right. I expose the lie. The lie is there is no hope. The truth is your hope lives inside of you now. His name is Jesus who is passionately in love with you. This is your moment, but you have to make the move. God has made his first move. Now it's up to you to receive. There's a part you play. Your part is Jesus, I receive all. Talk to him right now. He's a father that knows and understands, and loves.