He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed. Proverbs 13:20
I knew that one of the reasons I would not become an Overcomer (one who qualifies for the first resurrection as I was taught in God’s Lighthouse – Believers Bible school) was “EVIL COMPANY”. But for the longest time, I thought I could handle my old friends who were people that didn’t fear God. I thought it was impossible for them to influence me. Each time I read in the Bible or heard Pastor emphasize over and over again, “Evil company corrupts good manners”, I thought it was for others, not for me, such things didn’t apply to me. Most times I would scoff and say, “How can this person influence me?” I would say, “I’m strong enough, I can handle them; in fact, I will be the one to influence them so they’ll give their lives to Christ”. I was so foolish after all I had been taught in Believers Bible School.
Time passed and I realized that truly, it was impossible to pull them to my side. But even at that, I didn’t cut off communication with them. I kept them. I wasn’t willing to let them go yet. So anytime Pastor talked about bad company, it would just stay for some minutes in my head, then develop wings and fly away. Sometimes people gave me prophetic words concerning it. I can remember a prophetic word from my shepherd (a leader in church who is responsible for me), she said that she saw me fall from a storey building it seemed I was standing on. But I read the word and successfully ignored it. There were warnings, rebukes, exhortations and so on, and I even had words for myself (I think once or twice).
God’s Mercy In My Foolishness
One Sunday, I was seriously warned about a relationship I was still keeping – so there was a guy I had a relationship with before now, we broke up but I still used to communicate with him despite all the warnings I got from my shepherd. I told him I was now a born again Christian and full of the Holy Spirit, thinking that by doing this he’ll avoid me or stop saying certain things around me but it didn’t happen. Actually prior to this, I had deleted his number from my phone about five times but somehow I kept saving the number again. So we continued talking, and not about godly things. The funny thing is that he had a way of luring me to do things. At some point, I thought he had demons; he was just too nice so I came to the conclusion that he had a demon of deception. While still thinking all of this, I didn’t stop talking with him.
In church, we are advised not to make going for night classes a habit. But meeting him in night class was just the perfect idea. We had agreed that we were going to meet during night class, on a Monday. Now the Sunday before that Monday, I was in church. While Pastor was saying the closing prayer, I had a vision where I saw him and Jesus standing behind me, then Jesus said “Why should you do that!” or something to that effect (can’t really remember). I could barely walk after that experience; I was shaking. I had to be prayed for by a few people and after that, a sister helped me to the hostel. This experience didn’t do much to my mind, I repented temporarily because I was scared and because I wanted that fearful feeling to be lifted.
I still went for the night class the next day, but didn’t get around to talking to him. I saw him but he didn’t see me so he left the class I was in after a few minutes. I thought he would come back but he didn’t. I went to look for him but still didn’t find him. Thankfully, I couldn’t call him because I didn’t carry my phone. I just knew God was showing me mercy.
Part 2
Lessons
After a lot of talking from my shepherd, cousin, sister, and a few other people, I finally decided to cut off my relationship with some of them and still keep some. I picked and chose the ones I wanted to cut off and the ones I wanted to keep. By this time, I was convinced that the ones I was still friends with could never have any influence on me. But truly, the Bible was, is, and still will be right, I was just foolish and disobedient. So after a while, God didn’t harp on that matter so I would learn one or two lessons. I did. Let me share one of the lessons:
Lust Of The Eyes
He who disdains instruction despises his own soul, but he who heeds rebuke gets understanding. Proverbs 15:32
You know that when you still feed your eyes with things that don’t edify you, it has a way of affecting your mind and your thoughts. So I was still feeding my eyes with things that didn’t edify, things like my friends’ ‘Whatsapp status’. I would look at them and it affected the way I acted in general. Now I didn’t even know that this had a serious effect on me until I deleted some of their numbers from my phone and muted most of their WhatsApp status. Before this, I kept talking with people I shouldn’t have talked to, I started going out a lot, visiting people I shouldn’t visit (Thank God I wasn’t raped), being in places I shouldn’t be in, getting into relationships I shouldn’t, my music life changed, dressing etc, because I had to blend in.
All this happened to this child of God that was born again and filled with the Holy Spirit. Before coming to God’s Lighthouse, I thought that people that were baptized with the Holy Spirit couldn’t sin. All this happened because I had people to fall back to. By now, I couldn’t just stop myself, I couldn’t stop going out. My Whatsapp status had to be updated everyday and very funny but at this time, I had blocked my church family from viewing my status because I knew they would try to correct me. People noticed I had changed, so I started getting invitations for different things including parties and clubs. I couldn’t go to the clubs because it fell on Sundays and I don’t go out on Sundays. But during that season of my life I went for just a party. It was a pool party and we were only two girls and many guys.
One big lesson I can’t forget is “What you feed your eyes with will either kill you or keep you alive”.
The change I noticed in my life as I obeyed all that I had been hearing and cut off wrong relationships is just beautiful, because now there’s nothing evil to feed my eyes on. There’s no constant battle in my mind, I don’t have to lock my phone because there nothing to hide, I am free like never before. I also really appreciate the role of my shepherd in my life. She helped me big time! I thank God for the ability to obey, after much hesitation and struggle, the ability to kick out evil company. I thought for the longest time that my life would make no meaning and would be boring without my old friends. I thought I could still make new friends in God’s Lighthouse and still keep the old bad ones. I WAS WRONG! The Bible was, and is right. Pastor was right. My shepherd was right and everyone else who spoke to me concerning this. I thank God that He gave me the ability to open up and I got a lot of help. Right now I’m friends with a number of people in church!
Truly it’s the Lord’s doing and I am grateful.
Praise God!
Sis I.D
© God’s Lighthouse 2020.