In high school, I was exposed to many things in my environment that devoured me. Starting in my freshman year, the crew I associated with and I gained a lot of popularity. We were top athletes at one of the top schools in the Los Angeles area, Taft High School. At Taft, we were the most popular guys around and it seemed as if the school revolved around us. The principal, the teachers, and the students all loved us. Every high school kid's dream is to be in the popular crowd. Yet as a kid, this dream can turn you away from being obedient to God. Being popular seemed to be cool, but looking back, what it did to me as a child was make me turn my back on God. Pride and sex, amongst other fleshly desires, had a big hold on me. Those two were my biggest demons.
God HATES pride. It is what caused satan to get thrown out of heaven. Pride filled my heart at this tender age. I was cocky because I was one of the star athletes and most popular guys in my area. Not realizing that my talents were God-given at that age, I put all my faith in myself and thrived for the attention I was receiving. I loved it! I couldn't get enough. I felt like I was one of the most important guys around and you couldn't tell me I wasn't. This was a demon that was hard for me to shake and ended up destructing me in the end. "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 14:11). And boy was I humbled! Although I didn't realize how destructive my pride was, God says ignorance is not an excuse.
I had a lot of pride and loved it, but I loved sex even more. With popularity, came girls, and a lot of them. Sex became an addiction at the early age of 14. I was NOT sleeping with every girl I came across, however, I was having sex with the girls I chose very often. I am not afraid to admit my past, because it is just that, my past. See I grew up in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles, also known as the "Porn Capital of the World." We were very exposed to sex and it had a strong grasp on our society. Where I grew up, as a male, it was all about how many women you slept with. The more women, the cooler you were (any guy that grew up there can vouch for this). Now this wasn't true for every single popular guy, but I would say it was for more than 95% of them. I became dependent on it. I needed it. I wanted it, all the time. And I was dang good at it I might add! Lol. Which further stroked my ego. But this addiction followed me through my college years and up until I found Christ. We're talking an addiction that lasted 9 years.
Doing anything for 9 years without stopping creates an addiction and is hard to reverse. When I went to USC, although my life appeared to be great, I was headed down the destruction path. My pride went through the roof and girls basically threw themselves at me. I would drink, party, and have sex almost every night. I was addicted to the "party life." The fast life! The "sex, drugs, and rock n' roll" so to speak. And I loved it! However, I was lost. I lost sight of my first love, Jesus Christ. I became completely indulged in the world and myself. I knew how I was living wasn't right, but I was trapped in the moment. I wanted to change, but I couldn't. I didn't know how to let my addictions go. It was eating away at me from the inside out.
Over the next few years, I continue to feed into my addictions. There was an emptiness to my life; an emptiness in my heart. I was living life detached from my Almighty Creator. I was unclean and in dire need of spiritual cleansing. I got to an all-time low point of my life. My prideful attitude came back to bite me. I crashed... Hard! Everything was stripped from me. I knew I needed to turn my life around, but I was still stuck. I continued to try to do things my way. And I continued to fail. I finally picked up the Bible again and began reading it. A little here and there. I also started attending a Bible study at my school, Clark Atlanta University, every Wednesday. I wasn't cleansed by far, but I was heading in the right direction. I would go to Bible study and then afterwards look for the party, start drinking, and/or start hanging my buddies and girls. I had one foot in the world and one foot out. I was what God calls "lukewarm."
Being lukewarm wasn't satisfying to me, but it made me realize that I couldn't continue to live my life without God and that my soul was reaching for Him. He was holding on to one of my hands, while my other hand was holding on to the world. He was calling me, but I still wasn't answering Him. How could I do that? How dare I do that to my Lord? He is kind, gentle, merciful, and forgiving to those who simply ask of it. He is everything good and perfect. The world had a grip on me, but my soul was yearning for Him. I hated this place I was in. I wanted to fully submit to Him, but the world was tugging on me with it's lusts. Tempting me.
I left Atlanta and moved to New Jersey with my best friend. It was an entirely new place so I didn't have many friends. All I did was work and read the Bible everyday. I was able to focus and find myself there. I was able to find out who I was and what I needed to do; what my purpose is. I hadn't fully submitted myself to God yet, but I was starting to develop a serious relationship with Him. I started to remove sins out of my life; getting drunk, cursing, etc. My smaller ones were easy (everyone has different struggles, my big ones were pride and sex). My pride was humbled, and I am glad to say I defeated that. God broke me down to the bottom and showed me that it is Him who is responsible for the things I prided myself on and took credit for. Sex, on the other hand, was my single biggest sin and hardest to let go of.
At that time, I was in a relationship in which sex was a big part and I didn't know how to discontinue having sex. Not just because of the relationship, but because sex feels so good. I just didn't want to let it go, I wasn't ready. That is a dangerous place to be. Although I continued to grow closer to God, I was not yet "saved" because I was not willing to let go and I was still harboring this sin. I was still holding on to it. I knew that it would be a huge battle. It was the last sin that was separating me from receiving my reward of salvation and eternal life. God was pulling me, but I was still holding on. I wanted to give it up, but every time it knocked on my door, I opened it. As I read the Bible more and more, the conviction of it grew heavier and heavier. I wasn't completely happy. I couldn't be because I wasn't saved. I didn't have the joy of the Lord in my heart because it was filled with this deadly sin. Sexual immorality is the only sin that is not only committed against God, but against our own body; our temple. I knew that if I wanted to avoid eternal separation from God and eternity in hell, I had to deny my flesh.
On January 25th, 2009, I gave my life to Christ. It was the happiest day of my life. Joy filled me and overflowed! I felt like I was released from the prison I had held my own self captive to. The chains were removed. I let go of the world! I can't explain to you the feeling I felt that night, literally. I had finally denied my flesh and fully submitted to God. Since then, even though my life isn't all peachy and happy-go-lucky, I have been able to remain joyful. Even in times of sadness, hurt, pain, and stress, I still have joy in knowing that God is on my side and that He promises to never put me through anything that is too much for me to handle. And that He will deliver me from any circumstance I'm in because He's just good like that! Our problems come to pass.
I am now in the regeneration process. I am born again and I am transforming from the old me to be more like Christ. Being saved does not mean I am not going to sin ever again nor does it remove the temptation of sin. As long you submit to Christ as the Ruler and Lord of your life, you are saved by His grace. We will never be sinless like Christ, but we use Him as an example of how to live a godly life, striving to be righteous and obedient to God's Word. We will all fall short of the glory of God, but as genuine Christians we repent and strive to gain the victory over that sin. Good works, however, is not the requirement for salvation, it is the result. Righteousness results from fully submitting to Christ.
Lastly, reading through Proverbs changed my life. It changed my character and helped me to understand what righteous and godly living is all about. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 showed me that I needed to change my life, be obedient to God's Word, and put God first and back in His rightful position if I wanted to inherit eternal life. This world is just a passing ground and after this life is eternity. "For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his soul?" (Mark 8:36). The answer is NOTHING. We are here for 120 years if we're lucky, then we enter into eternity. Eternity is forever, not a thousand years, not a 100 thousand years, not even a million years, but forever... endless. The lusts of this world are not worth losing your soul for eternity. There's soooo much better waiting for us in eternity in the presence of the Lord to let satan fool us into thinking we need to enjoy the lusts of world and turn our back on our Lord. Deny your flesh and submit to your Spirit. Your void will be filled! True happiness and inner peace come from the Lord. I am A CHANGED MAN!!!
-Michael B. Pratt
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 - "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God."
GOD BLESS!
MIKEY THIS IS AMAZING!! IM SO PROUD OF U. IT TAKES SO MUCH TO GO FROM WHERE U were TO WHERE U are, BUT IT CAN BE DONE. I LOVE YOU AND IM SO PROUD!
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