SIX Things You Can't Do When You Regain Your Freedom from Incarceration

The ultimate goal of all incarcerated people is to re-enter their pre-prison lives as healthy and productive members of society. However, there are challenges. Prison administration and your chaplain will likely discuss many of these with you, but today’s post shares a few thoughts on things that you must avoid to live your best life on the outside. In a nutshell, here they are:

1. Stop Ignoring the Risk of Recidivism

Recidivism refers to the rate at which people are re-arrested after release and can vary between 23.1% and 31.8%. However, this rate is slightly higher among males, at 25.2%. Understanding your risk may make you more inclined to pay attention to your actions and behaviors post-incarceration!

2. Stop Frequenting the Same Places You Did Before Your Arrest

While we all, of course, want to visit our friends and family, you must understand your triggers, especially if your incarceration revolves around drug or alcohol use. The American Addiction Center asserts that relapses may be circumvented by avoiding these triggers. One of your triggers maybe someone with whom you have an unhealthy relationship. Or possibly a location, such as a mall, neighborhood, or liquor store.

3. Stop Working a Career that Stresses You Out

Many people find it is easier to stay on the proverbial straight and narrow when they’re not stressed out or burnt out from their jobs. Upon your release, you may find that it’s most effective to look for a new career or to start your own business. Look at your skills. If you have experience mowing lawns, for example, consider starting a business doing that. If you're great with numbers, words, or a specific subject, consider working online as a VA, tutor, copywriter, or website designer; each is a low-investment option.

4. Stop Ignoring Your Education

While there does appear to be a correlation between completing high school and going to prison (the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond explains that around 80% of people in prison are high school dropouts or GED recipients). Your current education level is something you can change if you want.

If you are not quite ready to be around others, consider going to school online while you work or acclimate to life on the outside. Look for a school that is affordable so that you can do something you want without overspending.

5. Stop Treating Your Health Like an Afterthought

When you leave prison, you might be acclimated to peanut butter and Ramen, but you have an entire grocery store full of fresh fruits and vegetables, now. Eat well, exercise, and get enough sleep every night. Also, keep your home environment as positive as possible. These simple steps can reduce stress, which may keep you on the best behavior of the new you!

6. Stop Avoiding Hard Conversations

Chances are, if you’ve been incarcerated, there is at least one person that you’ve harmed or done wrong. Make amends with these people, even if it means putting your pride aside and apologizing for your behaviors. If you don’t know how to express yourself, start by taking responsibility and admitting you were wrong. It will also help to determine how the other person felt about your behavior and offer a sincere apology. It’s amazing how much forgiveness and redemption can truly do for the heart and soul.

As you get ready to re-enter the civilian world, there are many things that you have to let go of. From saying goodbye to a job you hate to kicking your pride under the rug and saying you’re sorry, today’s tips can put you in a better mental state to avoid relapse and stay free the way you were meant to be.

The Sammy Joseph Ministries and I are here to spread compassion, help you heal, and thus help generate a thriving community. Please, kindly let us know if you have any questions! You may also order the book authored by Dr. Joseph titled YOU ARE NOT A MISMATCH at the disclosed link beneath.

- Article was written by Dorothy WATSON.

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'Six Things You Can't Do When You Regain Your Freedom from Incarceration' was written by Dorothy Watson for our blog page. We hope it has blessed you. While others' works will feature on ours from time to time, guest writers'/bloggers' messages may not necessarily entirely reflect those of our ministries. (The picture is Pexels').

Our book reading suggestion that highlights your self-esteem and mental well-being is 'You're Not a Mismatch'. Visit our PULSE Publishing House store at the secure link: https://www.harvestways.org/product-page/not-a-mismatch to order this life-changing book. You will also find Dr. Sammy Joseph's teachings at https://www.Youtube.com/c/HarvestWays Please subscribe with a click on the notification bell.

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THE GOD WHO REMEMBERS

"And the LORD smelled a sweet savour, and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more everything living, as I have done.

While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease" | Gen. 8:22-23

Just last week, I noticed the new spring blooms of flowers off-sprouting from our trees in the garden. It was such a delightsome view. New shoots. New scents of the flowers. And then, I noticed what was inconspicuous: The trees had grown taller and had wanted to spread their happy palms!

I will write this blog today, in plain, simple language that everyone can understand. Possibly with no scriptural references other than the one quoted above, if possible. Because many of you are beginning to doubt if God still remembers you - and the promises He made to you many years ago! I am hereby issuing an eviction order to your doubts in the name of the Lord: The true and living God Whom we serve has a strong, impeccable memory. He never eternally forgets His promises and covenants. Men and women may forget what they said, signed, or vowed. But not God.

I think what gets under our skin is how would He do it? Now, if you do not seem to see the 'how', this could be a result of the blindness the daily pressure of living brings with it! And that, by every means, is fine! I said 'fine' because our God is not limited like we are!

Humans are limited in sight, thoughts, insight, foresight, and hindsight. We are made redundant from work, for example, and we suddenly are gripped by fear of how to pay our bills! But the hands that flung the stars into space in their elliptical orbits - with not a single star or planet ever colliding with the other say: "I've got you!"

Listen: God's got you in more ways than you ever could think. He won't let you fall. Never!

Having said that however, He may be re-directing your course(s). Oh yes; ever since time immemorial, God re-directs the courses and/or the pathways of His children. But they must be willing to tread that pathway. Or else, as the Bible says, if they are rebellious and hard to direct/steer - that is stiff-necked - they will dwell in a dry land | Psalms 68:6.

That above aside, the Lord may allow the delay to come upon the ways of life of the saint. Sometimes, to develop their muscles of faith. Or at other times, just because the saints in question are not yet able to comprehend the magnitude of the call/promise. And until they are ready, the manifestation of glory tarries! In other words, God waits upon people's readiness, sometimes.

Other times, manifestation tarries because God is preparing them to prepare the oncoming generation to inherit the promise as was in the cases of David providing all the materials for the building of the Temple, and Moses, preparing Joshua! Do you know why? Because God's covenants often come with the assurance to be transgenerational!

Finally, God in His wisdom permits the devil to sweat the big stuff so that in the end, He can turn each of his caprices into foolishness, and take all the glory. You read of the story of Jesus Christ's resurrection of Lazarus who had been dead and buried, past time, back to life again. And the same power of resurrection by the Spirit of God raised Jesus back to life again on the third day, literally after He too had been crucified, dead, and buried. If God did remember His Son, Jesus Christ, He sure will remember you and I. It's as simple as that! | Compare with Romans 8:11.

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'The GOD Who Remembers' was written by Sammy Joseph. (The picture is copyrighted to PULSE Publishing House, UK).

Our book reading suggestion for the month of April is '50 Invaluable Life Lessons.' Visit our PULSE Publishing House store at the secure link: https://www.harvestways.org/product-page/50-invaluable-life-lessons-i-ve-learned-in-50-years to order this life-changing book. It assures you that you would possess more wisdom — and particularly, understanding if you would dare put into practise, the wisdom disclosed on its pages.

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GOD Is Bursting Asunder Your Prison Doors

One thing is certain, whether you agree with me or not, it does not matter: GOD is setting the captives free in this month of February!

"I kinda like to render it in my freestyle way: Father-God is bursting wide open the prison doors that had kept his children captive for so long!"

"Are you not just trying to raise the people's hopes, high; don't you think that's exactly what you're trying to do, Sammy?"

Well, to answer your question, King Solomon was quoted as saying that "There's more hope in a living dog than a dead lion!" | Ecclesiastes 9:4. One word strikingly makes the huge difference between the picturesque quotation: HOPE!

Such as air is to the lungs, and so is 'hope' to the meaningfulness of the arduous Christian calling and walk! "Hope," the Bible says, "maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost Who has been given us" | Romans 5:5.

In the month of January just gone by, the Holy Spirit quickened me to teach on REMNANTS. God's remnants. (If you haven't seen or watched any in the series, please, click upon the playlist at this link: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwMpFxOEvygOPikdKJTg28R_b3hZNqKve&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE

While I will deliberately avoid repetition here because it destroys the object of this blog, yet, I think it is vital to mention briefly what God does with His remnants. For example, because of their neglect of Him, God had allowed His people to be pulverized and carted away into captivity. But all of the time, He had also warned that their captors would be captivated by more superior powers. Kind of a dog-eat-dog world, isn't it? Because God's love NEVER intended to allow His children to be held in bondage of any type. So, He had His time-piece set at the back of His Father-heart to always RESTORE His captives. A day will come when they would have had enough in captivity; in the strange land, and would call upon Him. Then, He would emancipate them, hold captivity captive, and release His goodies to His remnants! | Ephesians 4:8.

Are you a remnant of God?

If you, you have need to be strongly hopeful: God is coming to get you out of that funk or gallows, or the pigpen ... by the instrument of His emancipator!

Moses, for instance, was an emancipator of the riotous, idolatrous, adulterous Abraham's descendants! They soon became freed from the Pharaoh's iron grips! Their bonds were broken. They emerged free! The prison doors of Pharaoh's gulags were emptied by the superlative demonstration of the power of God.

Joseph was another classical emancipated emancipator. Sometimes, that is just God's style of releasing the captives: He sends someone akin to them ahead of them to be crushed and brutalized (Psalms 105:16-22) before empowering such to now "comfort others by the selfsame comfort wherewith they were comforted of God | See Psalms 105:16-22 & 2 Corinthians 1:4. From prison, the matured Joseph rose meteorically to the palace! Our Father-God always sends emancipators to His captivated remnants, locked up behind bars. Whatever kind of bar it is: Literal prison cells, for example, like He had done for Paul and Silas in Acts 16. Or financial indebtedness and/or credit card jailhouse. Or possibly marriage and children's or child-raising jailhouses' troubles! Some may even be adulting their lives with drug abuse and such. God always will call for Heavenly help to reach His locked-up remnants! He did the same for Apostle Peter whom Herod had imprisoned after, merely counting down to the night he would have him beheaded as he had done James. He had begun a "harassment campaign" of God's ecclesia. That's what the Bible called it in Acts 12:1. But God Almighty had another plan for His faithful servant: He would send one of His angels from Heaven to invade the jail cell, burst the prison doors asunder, smite the sleeping Apostle under the fifth rib, issuing him a command to "Arise quickly!" | Acts 12:7.

In a similar token, earlier this past January, as I waited upon the Lord in a thirty-one-day-fast, praying, the Holy Spirit through a bosom friend confirmed to me to form a consortium of partners for the purpose of creating an online mentorship program. It will be called the 'Sammy Joseph Mentorship Program' It will be opened to anyone who wants to critically appraise their lives and livelihoods.

The SJMP provides personal mentoring opportunities for selected individuals who are COMMITTED to personal development training in character, finances, relationships, and leadership. Our consortium consists of proven experts in their respective fields. They will help you make noticeable differences in your life. These online classes are commencing soon, and you will need to reserve your interest by scanning the QR Code above - or clicking on the link: https://sammyjoseph.podia.com/ and pre-registering. Like Peter's angel had instructed him: "Arise quickly ... Gird yourself and tie your sandals ... Put on your garment and follow me!"

When you too had followed God's instructions, you would have noticed your chains had fallen off. Just like they had off Apostle Peter. Hurry up! Pre-register N-O-W!

TODAY!

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'GOD Is Bursting Asunder Your Prison Doors' was written by Sammy Joseph. It is an obedient reflection of his on Heaven's instruction to lead a consortium of expert emancipators in the areas that will produce excellence in life, wealth, health, and wholeness in the lives of participants.

To pre-register for - or learn more about - the SJMP, click here or scan our QR code today: https://sammyjoseph.podia.com/

Share it freely with your loved ones!

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