The New Fragrance

Addressing the mistakes of your past after you have given your life to Christ and got filled with the Holy Spirit is a process

For some of the mistakes all you will have to do is stop visiting some places that you used to visit but now know is unworthy of royalty

For others, it is breaking unprofitable ties like friendships and other intimate but unbefitting relationships

This can be quite emotional

Some may have to cut ties with their fetish parents or limit contact

I remember a sister whose father used to send special concoctions every month for her protection

She was an only child and her father loved her so much

Then she became a believer and had to tell her father she didn’t want the concoctions anymore

The father believed so much that she would die without them and raised a lot of hell

I told her to allow her father send the whatever but to throw them away once she gets them

She did this for three years without allowing her father know she wasn’t using them

Then her father came to visit her in the city one day and he saw how changed she was

He stopped sending the concoctions after that!

Christ had become so evident in her that her father knew she didn’t need the concoctions anymore

Of course, her father was still unhappy, the key responsibility he was presiding over had been taken from him and he felt she would have no need to be grateful and loyal again

She proved him wrong over the years

Some mistakes are costly to address, so we just manage them as best as we can

A man or woman married to an unbeliever before meeting Christ will have a lot of work to do

Apostle Paul said the character of the Christian spouse may go a long way in convincing the non-Christian spouse to come to Christ

He knew this was not automatic

A donkey is not a zebra

Some partners see the Christian character as weak and off putting!

I remember a woman who used to live in my neighborhood when I was still a teenager

This woman was the neighborhood trouble maker

She had a daughter and two sons

Every time she picked a fight in the neighborhood, she would be calling her children, “So and so, will you be watching as this person is insulting your mother?”

Her children would respond by rushing to her rescue and this would sometimes lead to two or three families having a brawl on the street

Then her daughter became a born again Christian at the Christian Fellowship in Ikolaba High school

She brought the gospel home to her brothers

They all changed

The mother didn’t pay attention to this until she picked a fight and her children didn’t respond to her usual plea

Unlike before when they would join her to beat whoever she was fighting, they were just saying “Mummy, it is enough, let us go home”

She felt betrayed, ranted and ranted about it for a few months and then told their father to come and pick them

Until we moved out of that area she lived alone and didn’t pick any fight with anyone ever again

There are some mistakes we made that we cannot unmake

They died with our old life

You must see yourself anew and live your new life of grace with dignity

If a believer who has come to know the Lord goes back to his or her past life for some of the sinful pleasures such a life offers, he or she does himself or herself a great harm

The angels of the Lord will not be with such in unrighteousness

Even though he or she is saved, there will be several advantages that he or she will be unable to access freely due to decisions being made in the flesh which will be contrary to the plan of God for him or her

-GSW-