Walls play an important role in the Bible. We see where they are built, people are safe. We see where walls have holes or where walls have been brought down, disaster follows for the people on the other side. But not all walls – just like many of our personal battles – are not fought in a physical environment but within our minds and within our hearts.

The men who we serve inside the prisons – in addition to those we have served who have since been released – have learned about the importance of building internal walls to protect themselves from the Enemy at the Gate – Satan – who seeks to lead them back into the thoughts, beliefs, and actions that led them to being incarcerated in the first place. We have seen this time and again when the men we serve who were once free re-offended and landed back in prison. Why?

They didn’t have the necessary walls.

Proverbs 25:28 tells us: “Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control. He whose spirit is without restraint Is like a city that is broken down and without walls.”

Self-control. Restraint.

Two things the men we serve desperately need but when they are released back into the world they encounter a world that pushes them to be led by the flesh and not the Holy Spirit.

Men fall away when they are released because they didn’t grow spiritually. They had a real experience in prison and truly accepted Christ but they did not gain an understanding of how to grow spiritually upon their release nor how to be fruitful, obedient, and faithful through the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, they were freed through Christ but they were not freed from their sin.

These men have been concealing and holding in their sin which have made them vulnerable to the world’s influence and the three things the world runs on – Lust of the eye, Lust of the flesh, and Pride of life. Decisions in life are made by the world’s standards, not God’s.

For the men who fall prey to the world’s lustful and prideful inclinations upon release, it is like getting trapped in a web of destruction. They end up back in trouble – perhaps due to drugs, alcohol, anger/pride issues – and the behavior gets the blame. It isn’t a drug issue or an alcohol issue or an anger issue for these men who fall away – it’s a sin issue.

Furthermore, the world tells us to keep a scorecard, particularly in comparing ourselves to others and how well we measure up (pride of life).

One of the key aspects to spiritual growth is to govern our lives, to evaluate where we are in our faith journey against the standards God has for us and not by the world’s. We need to compare ourselves to the Biblical standards Jesus set for love, joy, peace, and serving and determine in what areas we are lacking. Once we’ve determined that area (or areas), we can spend our time there to strengthen that spiritual muscle and, in the process, renew our mind. 

All that sounds great in theory but do we actually have a guide to what that looks like and acts like in our modern world where we’re told “if it feels good, do it” or “you be you”? Yes, we do. The model of what a spirit-led life is Jesus but in a way that might surprise you.

When Jesus spent 40 days in the desert. He knew what was to come and He knew what Satan was going to attempt during those days. And what did Jesus do to prepare Himself? In essence, He starved Himself for 40 days before one of the biggest battles He faced in human form. 

As Tony explains to the men when speaking about Jesus’ battle, “Who prepares for a fight by starving themselves?” It defies logic, but when we understand what Jesus taught, His fasting for 40 days makes perfect sense.

Jesus said to the woman at the well: “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.” Additionally, Jesus said: “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth in me shall never thirst.”

Jesus needed us to learn that there are so many battles we face that will not be physical but spiritual in nature and the only way to fight is by wearing the armor of God that includes self-control, discipline, leaning into the Word, and being led by the Spirit to be protected from a world that lives by the flesh. Jesus lived in evidence of a spirit-controlled life.

Oh, and how did Satan try to overcome Jesus? 

Not physically but by the three things that have always run a fallen world – Lust of the eye (look at the kingdoms I will give you), Lust of the flesh (turn the rock into bread and eat), Lust of pride (if you are the Son of God, He will save You). 

Jesus faced the same influences, the same temptations, the same pressures of conforming to the world as we do today. Jesus shows us very clearly why a strong spiritual foundation and knowledge of the Word is a vital piece of our growth.

Correspondingly, God said in Genesis 2:18 that it is not good for man to be alone. Though this is where God creates a helper for Adam in the form of the woman, Eve, this verse also applies to our walk with Him. 

We need spiritual mentors, guides, and encouragers (the concept of iron sharpening iron) to build us up, to help in our growth, and to teach us how to wear the armor of God and how to strengthen us spiritually against a daily onslaught of how the world wants us to act rather than how the Holy Spirit does. Satan loves to separate God’s sheep from the flock because those sheep are more vulnerable to his attacks. 

By having a strong support system in place like what we have provided for the men we mentor while they are incarcerated – this includes a growing number of trained volunteers who are connected to the global disciple-making movement we are a part of – the men who are released have a better chance to protect themselves from those negative influences around them telling them to give up the Jesus stuff and pick up their old behaviors. 

God-powered restraint is absolutely critical to keep our spiritual walls strong and standing. What we have found to be helpful for the men we are walking beside is to remember the key things in living their lives:

1. Dealing with convictions (not the literal ones that landed them behind bars but the sin natures they need to be freed from, not just hide from others);
2. Sharpening iron with iron (finding those more mature followers of Christ who are the support system needed to grow spiritually and be spirit led following their release) and;
3. Sharing the gospel with those who don’t know Christ (the more we exercise our spiritual muscles encourages them to lean into the Word which can be the difference between staying on the straight and narrow or ending up back in prison.)

The Enemy is ever at our gate, as he is for the men we serve.  We know from Scripture and from the stories of the men we serve that if these men don’t have a gate, let alone a wall – a spiritual defense – in the first place, disaster is not far behind.