The Mystery Of Habits

Text: 2 Peter 2:19, 1 Corinthians 6:12.

There are destructive habits. Good habits will benefit your life, beloveth, and they are helpers of your destiny; but bad habits will impact your life negatively, and they are sinkers of destiny. It takes only 21 days to form a habit; you just need to repeat something 21 times before you form a habit. But the beauty of it is that you can break it between one or three days because that habit is a constant companion; it is your greatest helper or your greatest burden.

It can push you onward or drag you down, although it is completely at your command but if you do not manage it, you will just become a slave to it. The servant called habit can also be a master called habit. All those who are great are great because of their habits.

The truth is this: if you take that habit and train it and be firm with it, it leaves you alone, but if you allow it to do whatever it wants to do, it will destroy you.

If today, as you are listening to me, you commit to begin each day ahead with quiet time, you will go far. A very good spiritual habit is quiet time.

That is, immediately you open your eyes in the morning and say “Thank you, Jesus, for another day; glory be to the name of the Lord”, The next thing is praise and worship, then Bible reading for the day. Read both the Old and New Testaments. Meditate on what you have read. Take a memory verse for the day and put it in your head. If it is coming out, bang it back into that head. If it is still trying to escape, write the memory verse on a piece of paper and read it when you are going to work. Then pray and commit the day into the hands of God. All this I have said can last between 10 and 15 minutes.

It is more profitable to your life, your destiny, and heaven to do this regularly every day until it becomes a habit than to do it once a week; you are just stealing from your destiny. That “Almighty formula” does not work with the things in the spirit. And there is no point.

You say, “I want to do vigil tonight, so no quiet time.” So Monday, you do a 2-minute prayer. On Tuesday, 2 minutes of prayer; on Wednesday, none at all. On Thursday, 5 minutes of prayers. Then on Friday, you hold a vigil. It is unprofitable to heaven.

Heaven will prefer you do ten minutes of aggressive praying every day on your feet while your eyes are opened and you are wide alert, rather than trying to do a vigil while you are falling asleep. Most of those who say they do vigil every night are doing half sleep and half prayer. You want to do vigil, and you put your chest on the pillow, and you are kneeling by the bed. Well, for most of those people, the next thing they hear is an alarm in the morning.

You see, your future is in those daily routines. Then, when you start doing it and your quiet time becomes a habit, if by any chance you happen to miss it, it is like something has gone wrong with you. You will know that something has happened to you that day. Then you are forming habits that will improve your destiny. But if you are a deceptive prayer warrior and you have already slept, and they ask you if you are still praying but you have slept, that is a habit of deception. That will not get you anywhere at all.

So each of us here today needs to consider our habits and ask ourselves, “Can I recommend my habit to somebody I really care about?” I say it again: your entire future lies in your daily routine, which is your habits, both positive and negative. You have the ability to decide right now what your habits will begin to be. Sinful thoughts can form a negative habit if you do not take control of them. Anger can become a habit. Materialism can become a habit. When you see anything at all, you want it. It is a bad habit.

Arrogance is a habit that we should get rid of quickly. Criticism is also a bad habit. Some people can never do something, but they can criticise, badmouth it, and run it down with their mouths. Disrespect is a very bad habit. Envy is a very bad habit. Sarcasm is a very bad habit. They ask “Which church are you going to?” and you reply “MFM”, They say, “Ehn ehn, what is such a beautiful girl like you looking for in that place? You should not be in that place.

You should go to this place and that place.”

For some, it is fear, stubbornness, greed, gluttony, jealousy, unforgiveness, worry, and lust are all bad habits. There are some too; the habits have now become compulsive for them. They just cannot control it. They respond to it. Sometimes you sit down and feel sorry for them.

A sister invited me to her house in London in 1989. She said, “G.O., I want you to pray for me because I want to marry; no man is untreated in me.” I said “Okay, let us pray”. We finished praying, and we were about to pray when I could not find her again.

She had gone into the room to bring a vacuum cleaner to clean where my wife and I sat down. She asked us, “I hope you did not use my toilet? I want my toilet spotlessly clean”. So that is compulsive cleaning, which has become a habit.

For some, compulsive collecting, they collect old newspapers, old stamps, old books, old bags, everything. For some, it is compulsive arguing.

The argument has no basis, and they keep arguing.

For some, it is compulsive shopping. Until the money becomes zero, they do not stop.

That is why you see people with wicked cheap non-medicated glasses on their noses playing coupon. The little money they have again that they should use to balance their debt and quicken their eyes, they use to stare at coupons and keep playing.

For some, it is compulsive time-wasting. But the truth is this: all bad habits must be replaced by good ones.

No wonder God told Moses “When you enter the promised land, destroy all those people worshipping idols so that you do not copy their habits”. Bad habits deserve no mercy.

You Need:

1. To surrender your life to Jesus if you want to deal with destructive habits.
2. Do not show these habits any mercy.
3. Call on God to help you if you are weak.
4. Stay away from anywhere where you can be tempted. Do not deceive yourself.
5. Admit that there is a problem.
6. Ask for power to combat those habits.
7. Begin to replace those bad habits with good ones. One good way is to memorise the Word of God. The Bible says “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword”. It says, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners.”

It is time for most of us to sit down, take inventory of our lives, and decide that we want to change.

– Bible reading is a very good habit.

– Worship is a very good habit.

– Prayer is a very good habit.

– Tithing is a very good habit.

PRAYER POINTS.

1. Every fetish water poured on the ground to subdue my life, backfire! In the name of Jesus.
2. Messengers of affliction, hear the word of the Lord, carry your message back to your senders, right now! In the name of Jesus.

(Talk to the Lord yourself. Ask the Lord to forgive you for allowing those habits to control your life and destiny.)

1. Habits, assigned to destroy my life, die! In the name of Jesus.
2. Spiritual laziness in my life, die! In the name of Jesus.
3. Power of God, arise; swallow every enchanter assigned against my destiny! In the name of Jesus.
4. Crystal balls of the enemy, explode in their faces! In the name of Jesus.
5. Any power calling for my head before any shrine, die in the shrine! In the name of Jesus.
6. Any power dispatched from the coven to frustrate me, what are you waiting for? Die! In the name of Jesus.
7. My Father, my Father, my Father, appear in my situation by fire! In the name of Jesus.
8. Witchcraft embargo, troubling my destiny, die! In the name of Jesus.
9. Embargo from my place of birth; you are a liar; break! In the name of Jesus.
10. Every coffin arrow, go back to your senders! In the name of Jesus.
11. Every dead good thing in my life, come alive! In the name of Jesus.
12. Power of resurrection, incubate my destiny! In the name of Jesus.