When We See No Reason to Change

Last Friday, I was sitting at the bus stop waiting for my bus to go to work and I have noticed that many of the older people who live in my building, congregate at the bus stop to smoke. I think many of them have done it for so long that they don’t even realize that there is a sign that clearly forbids smoking.

Another thing that is so annoying is that few will even ask if the smoke bothers anyone else. So even though I may have been sitting there minding my business and waiting for my bus, I usually end up having to move because someone always starts smoking with no consideration for anyone else.

So, last Friday, someone started smoking and I got up and another man asked me if my bus was coming and I let it be known that I was moving away because of the cigarette smoke. As I stood and waited on the bus, I heard the smoker tell everyone at the bus stop that everyone was trying to get him to stop smoking. But he was adamant that he was not going to stop. He had been smoking since he was 10 years old and he said it was his only vice. I would put his age at between 75-80 years of age, so in his mind there was absolutely no reason for him to stop smoking now.

As I listened to him it was eye-opening. The warnings about cancer and emphysema and all the bad things that could happen to him meant nothing. After smoking for 60 plus years, there was no reason to change. He probably did not care if he died.

The man only walked with a cane and although I know nothing about his health issues he sounded like he did not believe that smoking was a problem. It was enlightening.

But isn’t that like most of us. If we don’t see a problem with our sin we won’t change. We often don’t change unless we see a reason to. And sadly, it often ends up being something negative that forces us to change.

I don’t want to be like that man. As a Christian we should desire to grow in grace and let go of our sins and anything that hinders us from serving and hearing God. It shouldn’t take consequence to sin to make us change. It should simply be the Word of God that motivates us to change.

There are areas in my life that God has been speaking to me about for years. I am starting to put more prayer on those areas because I WANT to change. I am smart enough to know that there will be consequences if I don’t.

The man at the bus stop may not know it, but he may have already shortened his life. Or he may end up spending his last days suffering for years of smoking. I don’t know. But what I do know is that I don’t want to be forced to change. I want to change because it pleases God. No more excuses. It’s time to change.

By the way, the smoker got up from the bus stop and apologized to me. He said he didn’t know that the smoke bothered me. I told him it was okay. I guess it never occurred to him that he was affecting those around him.

Colossians 3:5-14 Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁵ So put to death and deprive of power the evil longings of your earthly body [with its sensual, self-centered instincts] immorality, impurity, sinful passion, evil desire, and greed, which is [a kind of] idolatry [because it replaces your devotion to God]. ⁶ Because of these [sinful] things the [divine] wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience [those who fail to listen and who routinely and obstinately disregard God’s precepts], ⁷ and in these [sinful things] you also once walked, when you were habitually living in them [without the knowledge of Christ]. ⁸ But now rid yourselves [completely] of all these things: anger, rage, malice, slander, and obscene (abusive, filthy, vulgar) language from your mouth. ⁹ Do not lie to one another, for you have stripped off the old self with its evil practices, ¹⁰ and have put on the new [spiritual] self who is being continually renewed in true knowledge in the image of Him who created the new self— ¹¹ a renewal in which there is no [distinction between] Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, [nor between nations whether] ^[b]barbarian or ^[c]Scythian, [nor in status whether] slave or free, but Christ is all, and in all [so believers are equal in Christ, without distinction].
¹² So, as God’s own chosen people, who are holy [set apart, sanctified for His purpose] and well-beloved [by God Himself], put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience [which has the power to endure whatever injustice or unpleasantness comes, with good temper]; ¹³ bearing graciously with one another, and willingly forgiving each other if one has a cause for complaint against another; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so should you forgive. ¹⁴ Beyond all these things put on and wrap yourselves in [unselfish] love, which is the perfect bond of unity [for everything is bound together in agreement when each one seeks the best for others].

Transformation

It’s amazing that we are already 13 days into the new year! How is your new year so far?  I have to admit, that it’s been a battle for me. Even before the year was out, I realized that I needed to make some changes and this time they had to be lasting changes. God was dealing with me about complete transformation.

Often when we have struggle with the same “issues” (sin, habits, hobbies, etc.) that are not pleasing to God or that are detrimental to our spiritual growth, we think that we cannot change for good. But we have to believe that it’s possible to make permanent changes.

If you are someone with an addiction, whether you are addicted to food, drugs, pornography etc, there has to come a point where you first, want a permanent change, second, believe you can change and third, make a change.

I am glad I am a Christian because the world will say therapy is the way and even though I do believe that has it’s place, I still believe in deliverance. Deliverance in the sense of the power of God coming down and setting us free from that which binds us.

I have a few things that I am zeroing in on in prayer and I see the difference. But we have to focus prayer and spend time with God in order to get the desired result. You can’t just breathe out a short prayer for deliverance. You have to put in the effort asking God to set you free.

We don’t see or hear too much about deliverance today. What we see a lot of (in the Body of Christ) is people succumbing to sin, getting caught and ending up in a scandal. But before that happens, trust me God tried to get that persons attention.

Recently, it was revealed that Pastor Zachariah Timms, died from a drug over dose from both heroin and cocaine. He had always been candid about his use of drugs in his earlier years and he had a testimony of deliverance, but it seems that he went back to what God had delivered him from.

I remember watching him on Christian TV one day and thinking  that he was on drugs and telling one of my brothers and him discerning the same thing. We will never know all of the details, but this story leads me to my next point, which is that deliverance must be maintained. And your changes might need to be radical. How extreme are you willing to go to maintain your deliverance? Once you go through your deliverance, you have to have safeguards in place to stay delivered. This means a lifestyle change.

I hope you are getting my point. This year is NOT business as usual. God is calling His people to change because if we don’t some of those issues have the ability to take us out of this world prematurely.

Let’s break it down. Gluttony can kill you by bringing on diabetes and high blood pressure. Smoking can bring about lung cancer. Pornography use can lead you into illicit and dangerous situations and we all know what drugs can do!

Examine yourself TODAY. Ask God to help you to be free from any and everything that can cause you to stumble. And don’t wait. Today is your day of salvation (deliverance).

And when you fall, get back up again and envision the day when that bondage you are in will be a thing of the past!

Hebrews 12:1

Living Bible (TLB)

12 Since we have such a huge crowd of men of faith watching us from the grandstands, let us strip off anything that slows us down or holds us back, and especially those sins that wrap themselves so tightly around our feet and trip us up; and let us run with patience the particular race that God has set before us.

Trying Something Different

Albert Einstein said: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Isn’t odd that we keep doing something that is not working for us? I’m talking about the methods we use. I am telling you I am going to breakout and do something COMPLETELY different soon. The only thing that is holding me back is lack of provision.

For some of us it’s really hard. It’s a struggle. I’m praying that God will make a way. I am trying, I really am.

Psalm 70:1

New Life Version (NLV)

Prayer for Help

70 O God, hurry to take me out of trouble. O Lord, hurry to help me!

An Unexpected Shift?

I get home from church early on Sunday’s because I attend the 9am service at my church, but today was a very odd day. When I arrived at church I began to observe how a lot of the women were dressed and got so grieved for some reason. It’s not like I haven’t noticed it before.

I understand that you cannot legislate how people dress, but some of these women have been in the church for a while and you would think they should know better, but I guess it’s all about teaching. But there is a strong seductive spirit in the church and I suspect that there is something that is about to happen that is going to open up the floodgates even more.

I then I noticed something else, which I won’t detail, but I suspect my divorced Pastor may be moving toward remarrying. I can’t explain it, but while I’ve been so happy with my church, today, I felt grieved through the entire service.

I honestly felt like I should stop going and not look back. It’s so strange. And then there was a minister’s wife who contacted me on this site a few weeks ago and honestly I felt it was significant. Almost like I should connect with them, but he doesn’t have a physical building as far as I know. I’m not sure, but I am shocked by what I sense. But it feels like it could be a prophetic shift. This is blowing my mind, but I need to be exactly where God wants me to be and not under anything that is not of him.

Sometimes God will shift us suddenly. It’s almost like I felt the connection to this ministry break. I’ll talk to a few of my “go to” people and see what they sense. But in my mind, I am gone.

John 2:5

New International Version (NIV)

⁵ His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Let the Process Have Its Way

SMALL STRAWS IN A SOFT WIND by MARSHA BURNS:

You will find yourself in situations that require extraordinary patience.  Take a deep breath and let the process have its way and do its work.  Otherwise, you will find yourself out of the flow of My Spirit and in the throes of frustration and stress.  However, a change in mindset will help you maintain peace in all things, says the Lord.

 James 1:4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

All of us have wanted to have a change in our circumstance immediately, but what we must realize is that God is working things out through the circumstance.

My oldest brother had a massive stroke in 2010. He survived thank God, but he is not the same as you can imagine. I want him back the way he was and believe he will be healed, but it’s a process. God is working on him in the state he is in.

Now, God let me know this was going to happen with my vision. He even showed me the other party involved. Now if God has allowed it (he could have prevented it totally), then there is a purpose and it is a process and for God to stop the process now, would prevent His work from being done.

God told me very clearly that the purpose of this relationship that I am looking at is NOT marriage, so there is another purpose and that thing must continue until that purpose is accomplished. No, it may not feel good, but it will work for the good of all parties involved.

I asked the Lord if I could stop watching, but God told me I must see the demise of this thing. If I don’t I will not be able to move into my next season. Oh yes, there is a MIRACLE YET TO COME!  GOD SAID IT, NOT ME!!!

Name Change

Cover of Prophetic Ministry

In the past few days, I’ve felt strongly impressed to change the name of this blog. As I was considering it, I knew that I needed to change the blog to something that had to do with the prophetic. For whatever reason I believe God is showing me that I need to do this.

I know as someone who is of the prophetic order of ministry, I gravitate toward other prophetic ministries. We are a strange sort. lol Often controversial, misunderstood and sometimes not well accepted, even within the church. In some circles there is still a stigma to be referred to as a prophet. But it’s gotten a lot better.

So with this name change, SAB Inspirations and More will not disappear. I am starting a new blog with short inspirations, but it will also be more of a lifestyles blog. I have talked about changing my blog but as I thought about it, I felt that I still needed to share like I do on this blog. The other blog is going to have less of that, but I really want to venture into earning income, so the other blog will be for that also.

I love WordPress and all the interesting people who I have met here. And if the Lord says the same I plan to continue to blog for many years to come. So I formally announce the new name of the blog : A Prophetic Walk.