Day Five Of 8th Annual End Of Summer Fast & Detox: The Field

Lord, thank you. Thank you for this special time with you. God, we don’t take it for granted that you are here, In this moment. Lord, give us wisdom in all aspects of our lives. Open our eyes to see the way you see. Reveal to us the people, things and places that no longer serve us. Give us the courage to walk away from anything that has reached its expiration date. If it’s someone who we are holding back, remove us. Give us the strength and courage to let go. God, send us godly wise council. Send us people who push us to our next dimension. Bring us people in our lives who see us the way you see us. Change our environment. Lord change our habits. Remove the desires to go the places that you no longer want us to go. Remove the desires of wanting to do the things that you don’t want us to do. Help us to love what you love and hate what you hate. Thank you, God for blessing us with people who want the best for us. Thank you for sending us people who can encourage us in our time of need. Holy Spirit have your way in our lives. Help us to discern what is from God and what is not. Help us to have environments that draw us closer to you. 

In Jesus name I pray, Amen! 

Over the last couple of days, we’ve explored the root, the soil, the seed, and the fruit. Today, we are exploring the field, which is your environment. Where are you planted? Whether you believe it or not, your surroundings have more of an impact than you think. I know you’ve heard this saying, you’re product of your environment. This simply means, you’re influenced by your surroundings. The environment that you’re in, shapes your beliefs, habits, perceptions, behaviors, choices, mental health and more. Your environment is your friend groups, family, culture, place of residence, sphere of influence, job, activities, social groups, and where you are day-to-day. Your environment has an impact on you, for better and worse. It’s extremely hard to change your life without changing your environment. Now hear me clear, I’m not telling you to pack up your life and move to another city, (Unless God told you to do that.) 

It will be hard to make lasting changes, without shifting at least some parts of your environment. There’s so many scriptures that talk about the environment that you’re in. Genesis 12, is the story about Abraham and the call he receives from God. Verses 1-3 read, “The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” The first instruction was for Abraham to leave his environment. Without leaving his environment, he couldn’t receive the blessings that God had for him. The next verse says that Abraham does just that, he takes his wife and nephew and leaves. How many of you have that type of obedience? I know for me, God can tell me something and I’m quick to ask for a sign or for him to say it again. Maybe God isn’t telling you to leave your country, but he may be asking you to leave the relationship. He might not be asking you to leave your father‘s house, but he might be asking you to leave your friend group. It doesn’t tell us in scripture why God wants him to leave his family or country, but he does it. That’s the type of obedience I’m trying to get to. Where I don’t need to know why, but just listen to what God says. What is God asking of you? Where is He you asking to go? Is there anything he’s asking you to release? God challenges Abraham to change his environment. He accepts the challenge, have you? 

Does your current environment match your future, or your past? There’s some things that won’t happen until you switch environments. It’s hard to grow beyond your surroundings. 1 Corinthians 15:33 says, “Don’t be fooled by those who say such things, for “bad company corrupts good character.” You are in fact the company you keep. I’m not telling you to go drop all your friends. My pastor once said, “Everybody doesn’t need a front row seat in your life.” I have some friends/associates that I’m mindful of when I talk to them. If I’m focused and locked in on what I have going on, I can’t afford to sit and gossip. That doesn’t mean we aren’t friends anymore, that just means rather than a front seat, they get one in the balcony. 

There’s so many scriptures in Proverbs that discusses the people that you’re around. Some of my favorites are: Proverbs 13:20, “Walk with the wise and become wise; associate with fools and get in trouble.” Proverbs 27:17, “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.” And Proverbs 11:14, “Where there is no counsel, the people fall; But in the multitude of counselors there is safety.” Solomon tells us over and over how intentional we need to be about the company we keep. It’s more scriptures throughout the Bible that discuss this, but I wanted to highlight these. Are you wondering why you keep getting sucked into old habits? Do you feel like every time you make progress towards change, something pulls you back? Do you feel like no matter how much progress you make, you can’t break certain cycles? Could it be, that your environment is pulling you back? Let’s be clear, I am not saying that you are any better than anyone else. I’m simply saying that when it’s time to shift, your environment will need to be obedient and follow the direction God is taking you. Does your environment set you up for success, or failure? Does your environment make you better? Only you know the truth about your environment. Whenever I have this conversation with people, they’re quick to say that Jesus sat with sinners. However, you’re not Jesus, and you may not be anointed for that. For example, if I’m trying to stop drinking, but the only activity my friends and I do, is go out for drinks. I’m going to remove myself from that environment, until the habit is changed. Then I may go back into it. It’s very hard to change within an environment, it’s better to remove yourself, change, and maybe circle back in the future. Jesus was anointed for that, you might not be anointed to go hang with the people who are holding you back just yet. There are some instances, where people are removed from environments, and still held captive mentally by the environment. For example, the people of Israel were held captive by their environment, but had to continue to move forward.

Today, I want you to look at your environment. Look at the people closest to you and write down if they are wise, or not? No one is perfect, not even the people in your circle. Looking at each person in your sphere of influence is going to require more than just looking at the physical. Don’t just look at what they have and what they do, look deeper into their hearts. Are they good human beings? Do they care about others? Do you feel more fulfilled, or drained when talking to them? When you look at their life, is it a life that you would want to live? What is the fruit that they’re producing? Isaiah 37:31 says, "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit". What is the fruit of the people that is closest to you? If they are not producing any fruit, it may be time to take a step back. If they’re producing a fruit that you don’t want to produce, or you’re trying to break, it may be time to take a step back. Write down the top 10 people you speak to throughout the week. Whether that’s face-to-face, over the phone, or social media. Once you write that down, write down what are their fruits. What are the things about them that you like? One thing that always stands out is when I ask someone why they’re friends with someone, and they say because we’ve been friends for years…..like what else!? Time shouldn't be the only reason you're friends with someone. Some people, friends included, might have only served one season in your life, and you’re trying to drag them along for a lifetime. That’s not everyone’s role in your life. Once you list off the people and their fruit, I want you to look at your social media, and the people that you follow. Do they inspire you, or make you feel worse about yourself. If they inspire you great, but if they don’t, unfollowed them. We’re going to a new dimension in this next season and can’t afford to allow our environments to hold us back. Make sure you pray and ask God to give you wisdom daily, because wisdom will help you see the role of each person in your life. Without wisdom, it’s hard to decipher whether people are meant to be in your life, or if you’re holding onto them past their expiration date. If you want to go deeper, look into the conversations that you’re having. Are you gossiping about what the next person is doing, or are you having conversations that are watering your fruit? There are many things that are in our environments that are out of our control, but there are some things that we have the power to fix with just a couple tweaks.

For those of you who are detoxing, I want you to check your environments as well. I read a quote one time that said, “Show me your friends and I can tell you your future.” The reality is, we are our environments. We are the people that we associate with, the places that we go, the things that we consume, and our day-to-day lives. Have you ever caught yourself doing or saying something and thinking, where did I get this from? It happens a lot to me, especially with my mother. I find myself picking up on things that she says, and her mannerisms. It also happens for my friends. If I’ve been hanging around my friends a lot, I pick up on their lingo, and unconsciously their habits. Ryan Holiday once said, “It is in fact, a combination of these two things: Who we know and what we do that influences more than any other factor, who we will become. Because what you do puts you around people, and the people you’re around affects what you do.” Once again, this does not mean that you are better than anyone else, it’s just different. If you hang around five millionaires, you’ll ultimately become the sixth. If you hang around five criminals, you’ll become the sixth. It’s simple logistics.

The people that you hang around, should make you better. Now better is subjective. The people that you hang around, can make me you better in different aspects. I could hang around someone who is just nice, which makes me nicer to people. It’s deeper than just the physical. You pick up on the smallest things from the people that you hang with. Here’s an example, I have a friend, who is a really super forgiving and caring. I find myself being more like her when it comes to people who wrong me. I used to just cut them off and not think twice, where now I actually have compassion and don’t take everything personal. My friend and I have never sat down and talked about this, it just happened naturally. People love saying that they’re not the people that they hang around, and just can “vibe” with anybody, but that’s not true. Successful people are successful because they edit their circles a lot. I don’t want this to sound transactional, but the people around you should be making your life somewhat better in at least one aspect. Life is short, why waste time on people who are making you worse?

It’s time to check your surroundings. We spend so much time on our phones, what are you giving your time to. Clean up your contact lists, erase old photos, delete people off your social media who don’t serve a good purpose, and delete apps that drain your energy. Unfollow anyone who doesn’t motivate you or make you feel good. If you’re following someone, and their content is making you feel negatively about yourself, it’s ok to unfollow. Next, I want you to look at the people you talk to most. Are they speaking life into you, or are they just gossiping about the next person? Successful people understand that editing your circle is crucial. The people around you have more power than you think. Make sure you’re not giving your energy to people who don’t deserve it. People around you should bring out the best in you and if they aren’t, why are they in your life? Moving on to the places you hang out, if you are in spaces that don’t serve you, stop going. Maybe God is calling you to relocate, start to take steps in that direction. What music are you listening to daily, is it making you feel worse or encouraging you? Maybe you can’t watch the shows you’ve been watching, because it brings out the jealousy in you. Take some time to go thru every aspect of your life and clean up shop. Now, I’m not saying that you need to have some dramatic breakup with the people that you’ve been talking to, this could be done gracefully, and honestly without even saying anything. I’m not telling you to ghost your cousins and best friends, I’m simply saying, you can step back and deal with them accordingly. I know when I was doing this at first it felt selfish, but that’s not the case. Switching some things in your environment, can ultimately shape your reality and your way of life. It’s your life, why allow “blind loyalty” or time wasters to take over. It may feel weird at first, but you will have more time to spend with yourself and to add new people in. If I’m spending all my time hanging with someone who is draining my energy, how will I have time for the person who encourages me and pushes me to my next level? It’s time to edit our spheres of influence, your future self is waiting on it.

Less than two days left, you’ve got this!