Expounder Ministries

The testimony of Steven C. Millhorn of Expounder Ministries of Dallas Texas, about how God delivered me from Alcohol and about my related vow. 

     Greetings to all Christians and those who may become saints of God in the future: “Mercy unto you, and Peace and love be multiplied”. 

     I invite you to not only read this testimony of my errors with alcohol, but also read my adjoining Abortion testimony that I wrote a number of years ago, for it closely mirrors this testimony which I wrote today February 23rd, 2020 

     I must first bring a needed disclaimer to this message, for when I describe certain things contained herein, I am not in any way endorsing, approving or recommending alcohol to any person, 

     I’m only giving my testimony (albeit, I do not hinder born again people who have a glass of wine with the evening meal, nor do I judge their spirituality, drunkenness is the enemy). 

     My drinking began in High School back in the 70’s as the Rock n roll and disco era was in full bloom. Just as my excitement to enjoy it with inebriation was also fully ripe. 

     For most people, it’s undeniable that alcohol creates a pleasure sensation to the brain and body. And as a young man whose focus was on pleasure and women, this was the perfect drug of choice. 

     I briefly experimented with weed, but really never did anything thing else. I mean “nothing else”, alcohol was my go to crutch. 

     Now in my opinion, there are two main reactions when a person get’s buzzed or drunk, they get hard and violent or they get soft and merry and morally loose. I was the kind that only sought merriment, joy and sex. 

     But knowing the wrath of God about hell fire, being raised Roman Catholic, I drank to the point of inebriation to mask the guilt of my sexual adventures and trysts. 

     So, for the most part, due to lust and alcohol, I got a woman and a girl pregnant in my senior year of high school. 

     The woman was married and 26, while I was 18, the girl was 17, while I was 17. Both of these girls had abortions, which gave me great relief at the time, but a lifetime of sorrow once I became born again at the age of 26. 

     I was a heavy drinker and I drank to get drunk. I drank at the local disco for social reasons and to pick up women. I also drank at my apartment in my loneliness with men’s magazines and still sought free sex with women. 

     As mentioned before, alcohol loosens the natural safeguards of the conscious that was naturally placed in us by God. Nevertheless, I was a all or none type person, a black and white type person; go all in or stay out type person.  But thank God for His mercy and restorative grace! 

     I got saved in 1985, and I struggled with being free from alcohol for the first 3 years of my walk. I would go many weeks and sometimes up to 3 months before falling back into that loneliness trap, and I also felt the spirits of darkness trying to pull me back in.      

     But being young and immature in the faith I thought to myself, Ok God, now that I’ve given myself to you, why haven’t you brought me my wife yet? 

     Well, I will not go into why that was so dumb, but suffice it to say that I needed growing up time: spiritually, emotionally and morally. 

     But let me also say that during those first 3 years of struggle to be free of alcohol, I did not feel the same pleasure sensation of drunkenness that I once enjoyed while I was a heathen. For there is a reason why they call alcohol “spirits”, because there’s definitely some assistance from the powers of darkness attached to drunkenness or excess. 

     So, in my continual desire and prayers to God to be free of Alcohol, (for I was in a church where the Word of God and holy living was expected), God granted me mercy in a rather dramatic way. 

     I went for many weeks to a deliverance counsellor who at the end of our time together, cast out the demon of alcohol out of my body/soul along with a few other choice devils. 

     As time went on, and as I matured and grew in the Lord, I really thought I could handle myself in all areas of my life. Then came the legalization of the lottery in the Lone Star State and I foolishly thought I could gain money by doing that and give the money to God’s work. 

     And as you could imagine, during my heathen days, I also gambled in my drunken state, but with the lottery, I thought it was different and fun. 

     But to make a long story short, I was grieved about doing the lottery thing, and VOWED to God not to do it again. More time passed and I thought I had grown and was mature in the Lord now, so I prayed to God and undid my VOW and went and bought a lottery ticket. 

     But Oh my stars, that very night, God gave me a dream in which I was forever marked and changed. 

     In the dream, I was in a darkened arena. It was like a restaurant setting of the Old Jousting knights in the middle of a dirt floor and the people were ringed about the floor eating their meal. 

     In the dream, a horse and rider came up out of the dirt floor with fire bellowing out, as if he had emerged from Hell. 

     I was in the middle of the dirt floor watching all this. 

     There were 3 lambs to the side middle of the dirt floor of this restaurant, lined up in a triangles shape. It was revealed to me in the dream that the 3 lambs represented my 3 biggest vices, alcohol, women and gambling. 

     The rider on the horse that came up out of the pit was the devil and drew his sword and was about to stab one of the lambs. 

     Right then in the dream a voice yelled out from the crowd saying NO, it’s for the glory of God. The meaning was this, I had thought that the profits from the lottery and or gambling would enable me to give more money to the things of God. 

     But as I was hearing and seeing all of this, I shouted NOOOOOOO, but the rider/devil took his sword out and just touched one of the lambs with the tip of his sword and immediately, the lamb turned belly up dead, with (cartoon like) plus signs in his eyes representing death. 

     Upon waking up from this dream, I immediately was given the interpretation. The 3 lambs were my 3 vices, and since I had un-righteously prayed and undid my vow against gambling, God showed me that if I were ever to drink, gamble or fornicate again, that this would be my end. 

     That God would allow the devil to strike me in the belly to kill me. By what method I do not know, cancer, bullet, sword? I do not know. For I also had vowed to the Lord to stop drinking at one point but failed Him. 

     So, to conclude, alcohol does indeed bring a measure of physical pleasure to the brain and body, that’s why millions of people around the world drink as much as they do. 

     But alcohol in excess also brings with it spiritual trouble, it brings with it moral compromise, it brings a degradation of an upright character, in choosing things that are ungodly. 

     And yet, I don’t want to leave this story without saying that it caused me to be sick, hung over, getting stopped by the police, wrecking a car, loosing money in gambling, running in fear and being bound by it’s addiction for over ten years. 
     So yes, it takes a desire to quit alcohol, it takes the Lord’s interaction to help you, and it’s just not worth it, for it can destroy your reputation and cause holy people to be defiled. 

     I’ve been alcohol free since February of 1988 and I’m so glad that the Lord helped me lose all desire for gambling and alcohol, for I am still under that vow for the rest of my life. 

     I will admit though that I still like women, and I being a red-blooded Texan, must not let down my guard against yielding to this last area of challenge in my life. 

     Well, I hope that many of you can draw some sort of help or encouragement to any struggle that you may have or had in your dealings with the sauce, because it has brought down many a good man. 

     Please feel free to email or communicate with me about this testimony and if you need deliverance from the Lord, I can pray for you…….but you must be willing and earnestly seeking it, and God will help you for sure.