Access Control IV

“ So I tell you, live the way the Spirit leads you. Then you will not do the evil things your sinful self wants. The sinful self wants what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit wants what is against the sinful self” Gal.5:16-17 [ERV]

God is bringing us into a new season and so it is key that you and I shut the door to satan in our lives and shut the door to bad habits. You insist on drinking alcohol but it is destroying your liver. And the Bible says your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and what does God say He will do to anyone who destroys His temple? You are fornicating but the Bible says will a man take fire in his bosom and not be burnt? You think nothing is happening to you but the reality is you are being destroyed slowly [1 Cor.6:18]. You are hooked on pornography and you think you are not hurting anybody, by the time rewards come it will be a different story. You need to shut the door today. Shut the door at that filthy habit that is slowly taking you out.

The third thing you need to shut the door to is negative influences. When we were growing up we were consistently told show me your friends and I will tell you who you are. We made excuses by saying other people did not understand. But the reality is if you are with a group of people, it is either you change them or they change you. If you are not changing them actively, whether you know it or not they are changing you. Eventually you will manifest and you will be disappointed in yourself but it did not start then, it was a process. Negative influences span across a wide variety of things from negative media to associations but we must depend on the Holy Spirit to flag negative influences in our lives in order to be successful at shutting the door. When I got saved, I went to town with my newfound love Jesus. I said to all my friends that would listen, Jesus is The Way, The Truth, and The Life. One of them gave me a three-month ultimatum to come back to the boys and they laughed me to scorn. Their influence was so strong that even if a saint were to hang around them too long he will be changed. I knew that I did not have the spiritual clout, power, resources, energy, or wisdom to change them so I ran for my life. I ran for a season. Some of you need to run for your lives. Years later I saw the most vocal of all my friends, a core muslim, in church born again and worshipping God passionately. I thought about it, what if I had backslidden because of them? What if I had denied Jesus because of their influence and then they get saved, satan will not let me sleep – drowning me in condemnation. Anything you deny Jesus for will deny you for Jesus eventually! This is both a statement of fact and a prophecy, so please take note of it.

Prayer:  Holy Spirit, teach me the things I must do daily to shut the door to bad habits and negative influences in my life, in Jesus Name.