There is a man who’s been in the jail since late last year, who has undergone a profound shift. When I first met him, he was angry and without GOD.
“My crime is from years ago. How can I be here! I have a baby on the way!” the inmate complained.
This continued into early this year, up to the point to where in the middle of winter he told me that he had a court appointment that was very critical to his situation, and which could determine if he’s in jail for a few months or a few years.
“Brother, you have to pray! You have to pray and believe! You believe GOD, not men” (see Psalm 118:8), I told him.
We talked all about prayer, answered prayer, and I told him about this verse:
Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
Mark 11:24
He said he would pray. We had a great talk about how when in prayer we have to be with GOD.
When I saw this inmate a week later, he told me that his prayer was answered. The inmate was in a state of amazement. He said that GOD did it. But then, quite surprisingly, I came back and saw him after yet another week where he seemed back to normal: back to his old grumpy non-believing ways.
“Brother! But what about the miracle that you saw? What about all the hope and peace you had?” I said to him, in response to him seeming to retract back to his old pre-believing ways.
“Oh yeah, GOD might’ve done something there, but He’s not here, I am still stuck here, I’m sick of being here in jail, I’ve got stuff to do.“
It may surprise you to hear this, but we don’t usually see this sort of reaction in our jail, and rather, when inmates get signs like this inmate did from GOD (which is very common), they stay with Jesus (at least for a while), and have a time of awe and gratefulness to know that GOD is there with them, helping them.
So, I was surprised by this reaction from the inmate, since he was quite shocked by the prayer miracle from a week earlier. I was surprised that it took such a short amount of time for the inmate to literally forget about what he saw GOD do, and how the astonishment that GOD brought the inmate had already been covered up (presumably by the inmate’s anger).
So, this went on for months, where the inmate was always angry, saying he was going to “lose it,” because he was so angry that he was in jail, and that it wasn’t fair. He told me that there was a lot of sin that he wanted to do.
“Brother, that will not do any good, and will only bring you into destruction and make everything so much worse! “I said to him. “Your only answer is Jesus!“ I continued.
So, a month ago, this inmate’s case turned quite negative, to where it appeared that he may get significantly more time than even first imagined. But instead of the inmate increasing in anger, complaining, and so forth — rather than that, the inmate went through a beautiful and profound change! Instead of losing control by falling into more anger and other negativities due to the big downturn in his situation, the inmate was visibly transformed by GOD/Jesus! When I was with him right after all this bad news, the inmate seemed to gain some sort of acceptance for what was going on.
“GOD is in control,” the inmate said, totally at peace, with a brand new demeanor, even more assured and restful than he was during that short time mention above when the inmate witnessed multiple prayer miracles early in the year. This was two weeks ago.
Then last week I saw him, to where this all seemed to have increased. I was surprised how when I walked up to his cell to see him sitting at his table in his cell contentedly and peacefully studying in his Bible. He was taking notes on something he was studying in the New Testament. I walked up and said:
“Are you reading the Bible brother?“
And with a totally different manner, he looked at me with a warm smile, and said:
“Oh yeah!” he responded.
And then he said he was thinking about how it’s so difficult to be a man of GOD out in the world.
I sat there and stared at him for a second, thinking in my mind:
“Wow! Jesus really did something here!”
He told me that he had some changes in his court situation, and where now he was looking at the maximum amount of time than he previously had imagined. In other words, it was the worst possible scenario for him with his case.
“I’m looking at a lot of time,” he said to me, with complete contentment and satisfaction.
Then he said:
“But it’s all good.”
I sat there in astonishment. It was as if the inmate was not totally aware of how GOD had just transformed him, and instead, the inmate was just resting in new joy.
As I was standing there in front of him, I was in awe over how the LORD had carried-out a dramatic turn in the inmate, of the sort that we often see with the inmates, where at the point of total devastation, the inmates are seen to experience pure and total spiritual renewal: a total cleaning out of the old self, where Jesus brings in the new!! Being away from the evil world, and being flooded with Bibles and Bible study, surrounded by other inmates praying, and hearing about the rampant miracles going on the jail, the inmates are turned! Turned to Jesus Christ, the one GOD, of all things! Sometimes they turn so sharp that it’s like they forget their old lives. This is a very marked aspect of my personal conversion from over a decade ago, where I went from being dangerously suicidal, even making the decision to move forward with it, but where GOD spoke to me, and I was saved, right in that moment of making the decision to end it all. Right at that very moment, GOD was there to rescue me!
And when that happened, I literally forgot many aspects of my previous life, and simply moved forward, where it wasn’t until years later that I remembered some of that sin (suicidalism) and darkness that was going on which led to my conversion. The same thing seems to have happened to this inmate over the past two or three weeks, where he seemed to have no recollection of how a few short weeks earlier he told me that he would become quite violent and suicidal if you got bad news from his court situation. Instead he received far worse news, and was turned to the Light of GOD! This inmate never really talked about Jesus at all — he didn’t seem to want to – the inmate said he didn’t really believe, and that, despite seeing miracles earlier in the year, he thought GOD could be so cruel to put him in the situation that he was in inside jail.
“If there was a GOD, He would help me, but He’s abandoned me,” the inmate said weeks earlier.
He went from that, just a few weeks later, to telling me last week that he didn’t care about his old corrupted life in the world, and he was peace being in jail, and with whatever GOD wanted for his life. The inmate said that he wanted GOD’s plan for his life, no matter what the cost.
