Sid: My guest Desiree Ayers co-pastor with her husband of “In His Presence Church” in Woodland Hills, California had a problem, it was a weight problem. It was she was fat and she figured the way to solve it was to starve herself, or to purge herself, or to take all different types of pills. And I imagine Desiree a lot of women die that way.
Desiree: Yes they do and I’ll tell you one of the as you were mentioning all the things that I was just so thankful to is the biggest freedom was I was no longer thinking about myself. It was always well I’m going weigh for this event, I’m going to lose 10 pounds before I go here; well I’m not going to go to that event if I can’t fit into this dress or this outfit. But that I was no longer consumed with myself that I became consumed with the Lord. Jesus is such a perfect peace that when you’re more consumed with Him then yourself your life is so much more peaceful and full of joy.
Sid: Well, do you find today after 23 years of not having a problem being told how to eat, what to eat and just having the God hunger just take care of your needs as opposed to what food used to take care of. Do you find that today if you go out to a nice restaurant with your husband you can have a rich dessert, or do you just pass on it?
Desiree: Ah, you know if I’m out at a restaurant with my husband I’m probably going to pass on dessert, but if I’m a party where they’re having a birthday cake you know I don’t have a problem with that. And actually if I am going to eat something that I consider to be beyond a definite moderation list and I think that’s a good way to look at it. Because you want to look at more consuming your life with the right foods, the healthy foods. But once in a while you can be at a birthday party or you know a special event something’s happening and my sons coming home and he wants some baked cookies; I do not have a problem at all with eating certain foods in moderation. And I think that’s important especially for somebody that loves me is a sneak eater; I never would have eaten anything like that in front of somebody.
Sid: And I have to tell you my tuffy is moderation.
Desiree: Yes.
Sid: I mean it’s easy for me to cut it out completely but the difficulty is the moderation.
Desiree: Well, it’s called self-control the fruit of the Spirit. (Laughing) So we all have areas that we’re growing with and some people it might be easier to say “I’m never going to have that.” But I think for sneak eaters and people that really have bad eating disorders they won’t eat anything in front of people and then they’ll go home and rather than have a piece of cake they’ll eat the whole cake, and that’s just what is so unhealthy. And so I think it’s better if you’re going to eat anything sweet, and this is part of my healing process I will make sure I ate it in front of somebody because I was a binge eater which meant that I couldn’t eat one Mrs. Field’s Cookie I had to eat six. But you know in front of a group of people you’re not going to do that so that was part of healing process, I would eat a sweet I made sure I did it in front of somebody so I had accountability because I would never eat a whole cake in front of somebody. Now of course I don’t have binging problems and I’ll eat a sweet once in a while at a special occasion here and there.
Sid: Desiree, you have been free really of what a prison you were in but you have been free now for 23 years. You’ve been teaching this to other people not just with food but addictions of all kinds. But and the book is so new that you can’t have a lot of testimonies it’s brand new it’s called “God Hunger” breaking addictions of anorexia, bulimia, compulsive eating and I believe it’s for any addiction. Tell me some people that you’ve been teaching because you’ve been teaching this for years that have been set free.
Desiree: Yes and I will say that because I’ve released the book in my church and I’ve released it about a month ago here that I am getting all kinds of you know it’s still new they’re only a month old but you know even my staff members are all kind of trimming down they’re so excited and they’re doing to confessions every day. And they’re getting together and exercising. My girls in the church I’ve been getting praise reports and emails and I got a couple woman conferences where I’ve been getting some tremendous emails. But throughout the years that I’ve taught it there have been so many wonderful testimonies. I had one gal in my support group who was, oh gosh she probably had to be close to 300 pounds, and through a 6 month process; well it’s now a few years later but she’s lost all her weight she has a normal body weight. And that’s what’s so exciting is to see somebody you know that her husband was in the group also, and he just loved her unconditionally, but to see somebody that just did not have a good image about themselves. And what I see is they get the victory at the weight they’re at and they start to feel better about themselves even being heavy because they’re getting a revelation of how God sees them and their starting to see themselves thin on the inside and then it starts to manifest on the outside. So praise reports like that have been absolutely thrilling, but it’s also been very thrilling for me to see I had one gentleman that was hooked on cocaine that came through and to see him get not only is he completely free he’s been on the mission field for four to five years now. He went full blown into missions, he served at a local church faithfully for 3 to 4 years and then got to go full time into the missions field. So that’s been so fulfilling is to see people get set free and then do something with it really live the life that God called them to live not being bound. You know he was hooked to cocaine he was never being to be out on the mission field serving Jesus.
Sid: I would like you to speak to someone right now Desiree this woman has been listening to us all week and she says “Boy do I relate, I’ve been up and down, and up and down. I’m finally” and she’s a strong Christian but I just give up I can’t I just can’t do it I just don’t have the will power. What would you say to her?
Desiree: Well, my words are “Don’t give up” and that’s really key you do not give up, you do not quit and the key here if you don’t quit you’ll win. You see it’s the giving up and the enemy wants us to give up. You have to say no, you have to get to the place where I was at I don’t care how many times you know Mel said to me “I don’t care how many times I slipped, I don’t care how many times I fallen, and the word of God says I’m healed then I’m going to rise up and I’m going to be healed and I’m going to get the victory. And it’s not in my own strength it’s the Lord’s strength and when you get God involved in it and His strength oh look out! You know and that’s the key here I really want to tell you it’s the key, He promises He won’t leave you, He won’t forsake you. He’s not going to leave you in the situation, the reason that you’ve been listening to it all week long is the Holy Spirit drawing you and saying “You know I have hope.” If God healed Desiree Ayers, God can heal you and He will. I’m just going to stand in agreement and be praying for you that you get the victory. And I sure would love to hear from you when I know that you’ll be getting the victory and I know God is going to do great things, but I would just love to get to hear the praise reports back from you.
Sid: And of course it’s not just for women it’s for anyone, you know a big problem with a lot of people especially that are addicted is low self-esteem. If someone has this low self-esteem how will your principals help them?
Desiree: Well, I think probably the key there is my Chapter 2 in my book which is “Who told you are fat?” You know who told you all these different things? You know we’ve had different things happen to us through childhood through peoples saying things to us but “What is God say about you, who does God say you are?” You know it’s finding that out and letting God minister to you and pulling out your strength and who you really are and walking your God call here on life. You’re going to have the most fulfilled life; it’s going to be exciting, it’s going to be fun, and this weight can be an issue of the past. And what will happen is God not only will heal you, not only will He set you free He’s going to use you to heal others. And this is an amazing principal that you got to catch here; God likes to come in on the areas where we’re weak and make them strong. The songs that we sing from the scriptures about where you say “Let the weak say I am strong,” that’s how He’s glorified. So I think we see our weaknesses and we beat ourselves up because the enemy wants us to rather than to say “You know what I maybe weak in this area but the fact that I’m weak I want to bring God in it He’s going turn the weakness into a strength. That’s one of God favorite things to do is to take your area of weakness and then He gives you the word of God He gives you the scriptures and the scripture turns that area into a strength; it baffles the world; it baffles people that God can do that.
Sid: Desiree out of curiosity have you prayed over all of these books as the people that read them?
Desiree: Yes.
Sid: Tell me what you’ve prayed for these people.
Desiree: You know it’s just my heart that they would experience the freedom; my prayer the whole way has been that there be an anointing on the book because if I’m just saying it it’s not going to help. And so the anointing that I’ve been able to minister when I’ve been out talking with people laying hands I have prayed that that anointing would be transferred into the words on this page. So there’s been hours of tears, of prayer…
Sid: Desiree thank you but we’re out of time.
