Dead Man Walking...

I was awakened by these words, DEAD MAN WALKING, one morning this week.  When I focused in on the words, 'dead man walking' I saw an image of an empty person.

I knew that this was God speaking about the condition of people. 

I know that this word is for someone and at the end of the day, it is none of my business, I have to be obedient and release it the way I am led to.

Below is my flow - my release of thoughts...towards this subject...

There are too many empty people.  There has been a failing to fortify and forgive. 

Fortify ~

Life can be so demanding and leave us thinking that it is all about making this impression upon people and so we dress our lives up to represent, what we want and wish, that it could be. Our actions become centered on the next compliment and obtaining acceptance of everyone rather than loving who we are.  These behaviors make us so susceptible to heartbreak and disappointment.  No longer is it good enough to BE YOU, there is now this pseudo-requirement to suppress one's true self in order to be deemed worthy, significant and/or popular.  This takes too much work and rather than acknowledge this point, people continue to work themselves to a point where they no longer appreciate, just being themselves. You see, when we decide to be our true selves, we become intentional about guarding every aspect of our lives decreasing the susceptibility to disappointment, allowing others to walk all over us and/or treat us with ill regard.  There are some places that not only need to be fortified in our lives, but are also in need of purging the mess that we have allowed to dwell within us to help us, 'keep it all together.'  Some of the mess is, hoping for things to go our way and not God's way.  Our flesh desires things that are not good for us.  We can't listen to our flesh if we want to keep the door open for good things and our foundation secure of cracks.  This process may seem hurtful but it is helpful.  It will help us to eliminate the junk. I believe that God wants us to be strong and not soft (vulnerable).  When we are strong, we stand, we bend and do not break, we are aware of false and malicious intents of people and are sensitive to our internal alarm systems that forewarn us of danger. If we can not hear the alarm, we can not guard ourselves against impending danger and this is detrimental to those who are walking and living without conscience, care, or concern for themselves due to being numbed and empty due to exposure and prolonged exposure to pain and disappointment cause by others and sometimes themselves.  Life is real and there are measure that we must take to guard ours.  When we stay in a routine of just taking hits, eventually our confidence becomes non existent, it's just like a crack - anything can enter in and steal whatever is left, we become sensitive to everything and then, we start seeking validation from the wrong things and then, we look up and realize, we are empty, dead, lacking purpose and sensitivity to the direction of God's wind. Stay fortified. Stay built up. Get rid of hindrances and distractions NOW while you have the strength to do so. People are going to be people you need to build yourself and stop looking at others.

Forgive ~

People will knowingly and unknowingly offend, hurt, reject and/or be jealous of you.  They hurt you because of various reasons.  These people need to purge and be fortified. But the main point I want you to invest into your conscience is that, YOU are responsible to forgive.  Whether people offend you knowingly or unknowingly YOU have to be so fortified and confident in who you are, that you CHOOSE to forgive.  Because of every human's fragility, busyness, forgetfulness and desire to be on to the next thing that makes them feel good, in their own brokenness, they may forget what they did to you, they simply have no conscience (sometimes), some people are drowning in their own issues and find it difficult to inspect or reflect on their own need for healing and purging OR their actions towards you.  At the end of the day, you need to do what is going to be best for you.  We can not continue to live in the hurt places.  They are not comfortable, they are paralyzing and you should know that there is no invitation out of the hurt place unless YOU CREATE IT. I believe that PAIN HAS PURPOSE and we have to figure out what that is and take the lesson, move on and invest it in those who will take the time to hear and learn from your experiences. There are people who were mistreated by family, even parents, so horribly during childhood and no one came along to help them heal the wounds, restore them, remove the splinter of words that were embedded in their young hearts, save them, or help them understand that, people have issues and sometimes those issues cause them to do hurtful things.  These people are now grown, repeating cycles and/or dealing with mental issues, knowingly and unknowingly and they too, are NOW hurting people.  There are sad little boys in men and sad little girls in women. The resolve comes when something within goes off, like an alarm, to signify a need for change, now depending on one's level of sensitivity of this, the alarm may or may not be heard or receive a response. If you have been negatively impacted by someone's actions, and we all have, it is time for you to take the responsibility to FIRST FORGIVE, BEGIN THE HEALING PROCESS, GATHER THE LESSONS LEARNED INTO A JOURNAL, KEEP HEALING and then HELP SOMEONE ELSE HEAL. DO NOT STAY IN THE HURT PLACE.

We do not want to be dead men walking.  Especially when we have the beauty of life to live and experience. Do not withhold good from others when it is in your ability to do good. Do not watch others die (emotionally, mentally, physically) and not speak a word into their lives.  Do not allow people to succumb to the treacherous conditions of life, when you have the word to encourage them to be strong. Help them learn to fortify themselves with the Word of God and Forgive others, because it's good for YOU. Do not wait for others to request forgiveness because they may NEVER request it. 

Just forgive and keep on living. 

You will feel better about life.

~PTM