I work with guys who, as a result of some bad decisions, have ended up in jail. One is in for the first time because he didn’t control his drinking. Another is in for making and selling meth. Some are in for a short time while others await longer sentences.
I get to work with the ones who have turned to God. One who was in for drinking commented that he couldn’t believe how far off track he had gotten. He was a new person. Soon after getting out though, he is back to uncontrolled drinking.
The one who was in for selling meth, was in at least once before for 2 months. He said while he was in he was on fire for God. Within 4 hours of his release he was making meth again. So here he was, in again, telling his story.
I realize as they tell their stories, that they are not unique. We all struggle to keep from going astray; they just have more trouble with it than some of us who have gained in the fight. They have dug some deep holes for themselves and it will take resolve like never before to break the cycle that grips them.
God is doing His best to help them break it. Psalm 78 says, “Whenever God slew them, they would seek him; they eagerly turned to him again. They remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer. But then they would flatter him with their mouths.” I can relate to that.
Is there not that same cycle with all of us to one extent or the other? We forget God; He slays us; we turn back to Him; He helps us. Then we start the cycle over by forgetting Him again.
I’ve been reading Paul’s letters lately. I’m amazed at the going astray he dealt with. His entire ministry was about sharing the gospel, people coming to God with sincere devotion, then falling away after he moved on. His letters addressed the issues.
I like the way he puts in 2 Corinthians 11:3. It reflects not only the potential for the Corinthian people to go astray, but Paul’s concern for it. “But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”
It troubles me when I see the guys sincere and pure devotion to God, knowing they will soon be thrown to the wolves and be deceived by the serpent’s cunning. Most of them don’t have the roots to stand strong. I have struggled enough in my own life to know the cycle very well. I tell the guys this one thing that has helped me.
Jesus was getting ready to leave His disciples. He was getting ready to pass the baton off to them. The gospel would be on their shoulders. He knew they would need what He was getting ready to give them. Even He depended on it.
At the beginning of John 16, Jesus makes this statement. “All this I have told you so that you will not go astray.” The ‘all this’ was the importance of ‘staying connected’ that He spent most of John 15 telling them about. When I look back on my walk with God, I see times I was connected and times that I was not. When I was, I was on fire for God. When I wasn’t, I went astray. This will be true if you’re in jail or out, if behind the pulpit or in the pew; there is no easy road. Staying connected is the only way I’ve found to break the cycle of going astray.
Hunger and Thirst 
It is unfortunate that those who have found God are thrown back into the world. Being behind bars with food and shelter may actually have been a hidden opportunity to break the cycle to find God, but when released they are now back to making decisions for survival, so they turn back to the only way they know how. To be born again of Christ, they need to mourn their old life… to put it in the ground and bury it as if it were dead. They try and tackle their trials with their own skill sets, rather than surrendering to the trials with their faith in God. Our survive at all costs mentality has cost us the greatest thing we can imagine. Our very souls.
Great blog. You are doing the Lord’s work by counseling these lost, but very worthy and beautiful souls.
I, too, have been around a lot of people with drug problems who have gone through the same up and down cycles. It is a tough ministry. So, God bless you for taking it up.
Mike, you have shared a precious truth with them . . .the staying connected. I wish we could do it for them, but it doesn’t work that way. Praying for them and with them, and for you and with you, as you go to them with encouragement and hope.
When I was new in Christ, I too slipped back into drug and alcohol use. It took a little while to be rid of it for good. God bless you for being one way they can stay connected right now.
A few mornings ago I was getting ready to write out my prayer for the guys. Knowing how many were not making it, I was tempted to put it all on God – that it was up to Him to do what we could not. No sooner had I thought it, I thought of this. It’s really not ‘just’ God. Sure it takes God doing the part that only He can do, but it also takes us doing the part that we do and them doing the part that only they can do. Such deep holes. So far I have not found a quote I agree with more that addresses this and often mention it; “God does not give us an overcoming life. He gives life to those who overcome.”
That’s the same hole we are all trying to climb out of; the one where sin keeps nipping at our heels to pull us back. With them, it’s not just the nipping at the heels; they are still engulfed by hell’s tentacles. We have already gone through through hell fighting them and they are just beginning. All we can do is tell them what has helped us and pray that it will be helpful to them.
I read Eph 3 this morning. I prayed the prayer for us all that Paul prayed for them; ‘that God would strengthen us with power through his Spirit in our inner being’.
Glad to know you made it through the grip hell had on you. Praying for even more distance.
That certainly is a great quote about overcoming. And Eph 3 . . .what a perfect prayer for this time too! I can certainly see God’s leading you in all of this, and He is there with them too. Praying for them to one day be sharing with someone else in the place they are now, knowing how it felt and what it took for them to stay submitted and connected to Jesus.
Unfortunately Mike, recidivism is 75% in prisons and jails. Three out of four of those you teach in jail will be back. The enemy keeps them in their place of comfort. They go back to what they know and can deal with. They go back to the same bad friends and family members who led them astray before. I tell those I teach that the first thing they have to do is to separate themselves from bad influences. Proverbs tells it all: “Don’t be deceived, bad company corrupts good character.” I can only pray that God will reach their hearts and let the truth sink in. Some things I have to leave to God’s power.
Marianne, you and Mike truly are doing the Lord’s work by giving fellowship to the least among us. The statistic you gave is very sobering.
What if we look at that from a different perspective? The recidivism rate for those born again to turning back to sin is 100%. This fact is even MORE sobering. We all need to daily ask for forgiveness and turn back to Christ. Given that, I believe the challenge for those who are incarcerated is to discover the purpose of what God wants them to do with their life. That way when they get out no longer are they fighting the world, but fighting sin. They have a sense of purpose and they do for others what you did for them.
I realise this is better said than done. Please do not misunderstand, I am not diminishing the uphill battle in which you work. Just giving a new spin that whether we are behind bars or free to walk out, we are all equally slaves to sin, so we do not fair much better than them.
You guys are in my prayers. With the love of Christ…
Hi Hopeful Watcher, I always appreciate your comments and perspective. Something to think about. However, what I believe is that Christ came to set the captives free. Once he has set you free, you are free indeed. In that respect, if you are truly saved, you are no longer a slave to sin. We will always battle the flesh but believers have the power of Christ living in them. And for that. we are victors and are no longer slaves.
The problem is getting that message to those who are incarcerated. They truly want to believer. Mike and I can only plant the seed of truth and pray that the Holy Spirit will cause it to grow. It is a mission field and one that needs much prayer!
Marianne, thank you so much. Your experience with changing hearts and minds has helped me with a problem I have been having. I have been trying to reach friends and family with the gospel and prophetic truths. In so doing I have become weary and depressed when they ignore or disaprove of my efforts. You remind me that our job is to plant seeds and leave the germination of those seeds to the Lord, for we are powerless in that regard. Thanks again… You have lifted my spirit and eased my conscious.
Even more than just planting the seed, we may have to travail (agonize in prayer and spiritual warfare) until Christ is fully formed in these people. (Galatians 4:19).
There is responsibility on both sides.
It has been awhile since I’ve checked my site. There was a comment I wanted to make on Marianne’s site, but it looks like here might be the place to make it.
First, the guys loved the line you said you tell your girls; that God is not as interested in setting them free from jail as He is setting them free from what got them there.
I’ve debated on whether or not I would say anymore than that, but in light of the comments yall have recently made, it seems some additional thoughts are in order.
First, I have really wrestled with the guys getting close to God and then falling away. For about the past month, that is all I’ve talked about with them. I tell them, as a builder, if something is not working I have to find what will. And that if all we’re doing in our 2 hrs with them on Tuesday night is not working, then we have to find what will.
We tell them to keep reading their Bibles and hang with new people. But, as Marianne said, most of them don’t have new people to hang with. I’ve asked them to tell their stories of what happened to their resolve. It has been good to hear just from a perspective of trying to learn what will actually help them.
One thing that has really been cool, is I have asked them to write me. We have a PO Box, so I give them that address. I promise to write them back if they will write. Several have written. It has been eye opening.
One thing I have offered, since we tell them to hang with people who are moving in the same direction that they are, is to offer them an opportunity to do that when they get out. I’ve offered to extend the study time we have with them in jail to when they get out. They seem interested. We’ll see.
Sorry for the lengthy comment, but couldn’t figure out how to say it with any fewer words.
Hi Mike, I know exactly what you are saying. I also let the girls write to me. One young woman just broke my heart. She is 20 yrs old but looks like 13. She has a son who was taken from her. She does drugs and is a prostitute. I believe that her mother got her started in it at a very young age. This broken girl wrote me a poem to explain her life. One sentence in her poem said, “On the street, I am known as fresh meat.” Fresh meat! Do you think that that girl knows what it is like to be truly loved and protected? I want to help her and all those like her but it i so dificult. One day I just hugged her like a daughter. I looked her straight in the eyes and I asked her, ” Please tell my why you don’t feel like you are worth anything better? Why do you think you must sell yourself short?” She cried. I tell all the girls that the reason they are in jail is because they sold themself short. They believed the lie of the enemy who said that they can’t get any better.
Mike, I believe that when we teach in the jails, we need to bring out the truth of how much each of them is worth to Christ! Everytime I leave the jail, I pray that God will let the truth reach their heart and that they will come to an understanding of how much they are loved.
Occasionally, when I pray for my guys, I will add you and your girls to the mix. Awhile back at the conclusion of my praying, I had the thought to pray that it was all in God’s hands. But there was a check and it ended up this way. I prayed that God would do all that only He could do; that I would do all that only I could do; and that they would do all that only they could do. Some pretty deep holes have been dug. I believe it will take all involved doing all possible to make the difference.
I, too, have been involved with ex-cons with drug habits. One of them was a best friend who lived with us more than a few times over the last sixteen years. When he lived with Honey and me, he was a praying, Bible reading lover of God. Yet, whenever he left, he always drifted back to drugs.
One time, I had a dream about him. In the dream, he was in a prison cell, sitting on a cot and looking at a prison wall. His face was downcast because he had no hope. Yet, if he would have turned 180 degrees around, he would have seen the door to the cell was wide open. He could walk out at anytime.
No doubt he has all the tools he needs through the Holy Spirit to live a victorious life in Christ, but right now, he’s not able to do it.
Here’s my thoughts: I agree with John Lake’s theory on healing and deliverance. He believed that all people had to do in Jesus’ time was come to Him and ask for help and then He healed them or set them free from demons. The needy people’s faith was exhibited only in the willingness to come to Him and little else.
As Jesus’ ambassadors, I believe we need the same anointing Christ had to set people free, whether it’s for healing people or casting out spirits of slavery (Romans 8:15) on ex-convicts or people in prison now. So I’m praying for that anointing to fall on His ambassadors to prisoners and ex-convicts.
Nothing would make me happier than to hear my old friend’s voice on the phone, telling me, “The Lord had finally set me free.”
“He believed that all people had to do in Jesus’ time was come to Him and ask for help and then He healed them or set them free from demons.”
I have wrestled with that extensively. I can’t say for sure that I have it all figured out. God only knows how much I have tried to do the same, believed that we should do the same; but for now, like I said in my last comment to Marianne, I believe it takes God doing all that only He can do, us doing all that only we can do (to help) and the person with the problem doing all that only they can do. But in the end, after we have all done all, I do believe the most important part is God doing what only He can do . . . does that make sense or does it make you scratch your head and crave a bowl of Grape Nuts?
Mike,
You make sense and I agree with you. We all have to do what we can do, but sometimes like Paul said, “…Satan hindered us.” (1 Thess. 2:18)
I know a man who was praying on average three hours per day, studied the word almost two hours per day and fasted two days a week. Yet, that man had a demon who was hindering him and did not even recognize it. The demonic problem was intertwined in his personality from his birth. If you would have told him that he had a problem, he would have laughed and said, “Are you kidding? I’m free in Christ!”
A woman who spent five to six hours per day in prayer somehow saw the demon which was hindering him and began praying for him. At his deliverance, the demon threw him across the room. The demon was that strong and that determined not to lose its hold on the man.
Now was the man possessed? No. Jesus won’t share His temple in a person with a demon, but that’s within the spirit of a man. But the man’s soul and flesh are not as holy and can have problems.
That man was me.
From that experience, I know people can have demonic strongholds which will hinder them from doing what’s right even though they want to with all their heart.
It’s my prayer that the anointing which Jesus had falls on His ambassadors to remove every demonic hindrance in a person’s life. Then, each former prisoner will have a clean slate to start out with…he will then have to do his part to stay free.
In my reply earlier to Debbie, I said something to the effect that for a lot of us we have gained ground against our enemy. He may still be nipping at our heels to pull us back, but with them it is like they are still bound by hell’s tentacles. There is such a grip; and there is still the thought that we all have to do all that we can do, but I agree with you that we need desperately to see God do what only He can do.
I like your use of the word ‘ambassadors’. I just recently read the verse that lables us as such. 2 Cor 5:20 “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” I have the sense that we really are just vessels through which God makes His appeal. It is a heavy thought.
You have sparked a much needed conversation here! I am learning as I keep reading the comments. I did not have an addiction problem to the extent these men and women have that you and Marriane minister to. . .but here is what I prayed that helped me. I asked God to help me want to want to give up the drugs and alcohol. Because honestly, I didn’t want to. I wanted to think that He understood that I needed those things and it was okay, since I loved Him. I know that is a pretty simple prayer, but it worked for me, so thought I’d share it.
“I asked God to help me want to want to give up the drugs and alcohol. Because honestly, I didn’t want to. I wanted to think that He understood that I needed those things and it was okay, since I loved Him. I know that is a pretty simple prayer, but it worked for me, so thought I’d share it.”
Somewhere between there – not really wanting to – and feeling hopelessly trapped in a cycle that we want to break but can’t is where we all live. You have put the ‘not really wanting to’, perfectly. When I first read it, I thought you mistakenly wrote ‘want to’ twice by mistake. But once I realized you meant it the way you said it, it made perfect sense.
I could and would like to write more but I’m short on time. I go to jail tonight. I believe, like Marianne, I’ll be talking about this a little. I think it is good when we open up. At a bit of a risk, it ends up being helpful to others. Thanks.
Debbie, I think that what you just said is exactly thr problem with a lot of the inmates who are addicted. They don’t want to quit! They have been blinded so much that they don’t really undestand that they are being destroyed.
I go the jail tonight. I am going to tell the girls what you said about the prayer you lifted up. I think it that will help them see. Thanks Debbie.
So glad He helps us take big and little risks, for the sake of others. 🙂
I read a verse earlier this week – Philippians 2:13. It says, “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good pleasure.” It was fresh on my mind to talk about tonight, as was your comment. We had been talking all around both. When I finally read them, I sensed the Lord getting some good use out of them. That is really it. The Lord doesn’t just do it for us, He stirs our will for us to want to do it. It helps when we ask Him to.
Hi Mike,
Truly your last statement says it all .. “Staying connected is the only way I’ve found to break the cycle of going astray.” … When we first start walking the narrow path in seeking the face of God we are consumed with lies – those lies created in and by the flesh-nature. Those lies or flesh nature battle against the spirit’s voice calling us to Him, as the flesh and spirit are in opposition.
However if we persist as you say, stay connected, then in time the lies are extinquished by the truth. The human soul is complex, it is lie upon lie going back to childhood. But as we continue to abide the light, truth taught by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit invades all those dark corners – and where there is His light, darkness can no longer dwell.
The key is to stay connected, to a point where our spirit dominates and not our flesh.
Rachel
I had a thought I was going to add to all this this morning. Seeing your comment, I’ll add it here. I think it fits. The thought: My resolve is no match for God stirring my will. Even when I am doing all to stay connected and knowing it has effected my nature, I still find there are little slips here and there. I tell my guys that we have to be on our guard at all times; it is like the old nature is just busting to get out and all it needs is a crack. My resolve does little to keep it in. The Lord changing me – changing my will – does far more. The slips now are slight in comparison to what they used to be. I recognize them sooner. By staying connected I keep them in check.
Since the comments by some here have been open and honest, I have wanted to add my two cents to that as well. Knowing that I wanted to, I’ve been waiting on what seemed to be the right time and thing to say. I think after this I can let it rest.
I appreciate your comment. It is good to hear from you again.