What Did You Adapt To?

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Hi,

How has your week been so far?

For me, I have spent most of my time house-hunting.

Yesterday, while on the journey I saw an image that got me thinking.

I saw a preacher in Lagos who uses physical Swords of the Spirit while preaching.

He has his followers arrange some wooden swords with an inscription of ‘Sword of the Spirit’ around their vehicles while he preaches. The way they treated the swords gave me the impression that they held some significance to them.

Have they forgotten that the weapons of warfare are not carnal?

I am not arguing whether this is bad or not but I am sure the very first day the follower had to bring out the swords, they must have felt weird and probably had some questions in their minds.

But over time, they got used to it.

And that’s my point today.

How we get used to things that we once saw as not okay.

You see, as humans we have ‘adaptability’ as one of our characteristics. It has its merits but sometimes it can put us in some positions we would normally want to be in.

An African proverb says that ‘if a Goat walks long enough with a Dog, it will eat feces”

Just as the Bible says evil communication corrupts good manners. (1 Cor. 15:33)

The communication is not just in speech, it includes:

  1. What you are exposed to on a daily basis
  2. What you see people around you doo
  3. What you see on TV
  4. The information that comes to you through Social Media, Radio, TV

Over time, even drops of water can cut through a rock.

Wrong things done over and over will begin to look normal.

As a child, I was born into a white-garment family. Particularly, Cherubim & Seraphim Church.

Everything we did then was normal to me, because that is what I was used to.

But what we are used to is not always right.

Being used to the Devil as a friend doesn’t turn him into an Angel.

Later on, I left and now I can’t imagine myself doing some things that were so normal to me.

My first service in a Pentecostal church (Foursquare Gospel Church) felt awkward but over time, it became normal.

This risk with adaptation is we can get adapted to:

  1. Things that are not of God
  2. A situation that God has designed for us
  3. A wrong doctrine
  4. Falsehood
  5. Wrong relationships

People in the advertising world understand this and they leverage it. Exposure to a particular subject over time breeds a feeling of trust in you for that subject. You unconsciously feel like because you have seen the brand over and over, then it is good.

And that is how something that you once cringed at becomes normal to you.

Something that you hate becomes what you love unknowingly.

So my biggest question was ‘How many abnormal things have I really got familiar with unaware?‘

I can’t really tell, I would need to take some actions to figure this out.

My solution:

  1. Ask the Holy Spirit to point this out to me
  2. And become more sensitive during my day-to-day activities to see if He points out anything.
  3. Stay humble enough to listen to His corrections via any channel. It could be while watching TV, surfing the Internet, having a chat with my wife, or something else entirely. God speaks to me through different means, sometimes even a shape on an object could be used by the Holy Spirit.
  4. I am not scared of doing the wrong things. I am more conscious of the Love of God for me and that puts me in a position where I can be corrected by my loving Father. He chastises those He loves.

Bottom line: the Devil can look like an Angel if he presents himself to you as a friend long enough. Don’t get familiar with him. Stay in God, walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. (Gal. 5:16)

P.S. – I’ll be sharing some nuggets with you next week from my book on how to make money with what you have already from the internet.

Reign in Life.

Michael Adegoke