|
 Ashanti
Witherspoon is a motivational speaker, lecturer,
and seminar consultant who seeks to enrich the lives
of others.
Mr.
Witherspoon was featured in the Academy Award Nominated
documentary The Farm: Life Inside Angola Prison,
which is still being aired on A&E Television. He is also featured
in the documentary, Lifers, and in a newly-released
book,
Cain’s Redemption, which chronicles
the reformation of the Louisiana State Penitentiary.
Ashanti is active in several prison ministries in
addition to working with at-risk youths, ex-offenders
and their
families, and substance abusers.
Ashanti
has experience as a radio broadcaster, producer,
editor, and publisher.
He heads the media production
department of Miracle Place Church and is the founder
of Diamond Heart Ministries. Mr. Witherspoon is
also the owner of Yashua Productions where he is
working
on several documentaries, including: Innocent
Men – Innocent
Women, Louisiana Stories; Dancing for God, the
Susan Martin Story; and Miracle Place
Church – On
the Front Line for God and Man.
His
memberships include the Toastmasters (a public speaking
organization);
Board of Directors of the
Innocence Project of New Orleans; Chairman of
the Board of the
Louisiana Teen Summit Foundation; committee member
with the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections
C.O.R.E. (Corrections Organizing Re-Entry); membership
in C.U.R.E. (Citizens United for the Rehabilitation
of Errants); advisory board member of Gabriel
Media (New York); and board member of the Louisiana
Coalition
for Reform. He is also a Senior Justice Fellow
with the Soros Foundation of New York.
Mr.
Witherspoon is the author of several books and is
currently
writing his much-anticipated
life story.
To
learn more about the endeavors of this phenomenal
overcomer, please visit his website
at www.gawitherspoon.org.
For information regarding Yashua
Productions, visit www.yashua-productions.ws.
To
contact Mr. Witherspoon for speaking engagements
and other bookings, call 225-252-0164,
or e-mail ashanti@gawitherspoon.org. |
The
Power of Life and Death
by
G. Ashanti Witherspoon
When
we look at the world, we see a wide array of lifestyles,
personalities, and situations. Some
of them we consider to be good, while others we consider
to be negative. We see wealth as well as poverty, sickness
as well as health, happiness as well as sadness. And, we
see freedom in stark contrast to imprisonment.
One
can easily wonder why there is such a contrast in people’s
lives, and how the words of the Bible don’t seem
to fit everyone. Or do they? To answer that question, we
would
have to go back to the beginning and see what gifts God
has given us.
God
created us in His image, with all power and the ability
to control the world. When God created us, He did so
through
the power of the spoken Word. He said, “Let there
be …”,
and there was. Everything that was shaped and came into
existence was done so through the spoken word. When He
breathed life
into us as human beings, His words were, “Let
us create man in our image.”
The
image of God is a powerful position to be in. He gave us
the ability to
create in a manner like His, through
the power of the spoken word. The value of our spoken
words
is
seen throughout the Bible. “I create the fruit
of thy lips”, was spoken by God to the Prophet
Isaiah (Isaiah 57:19). It was a definite instruction
that the fruit that
we see or don’t see in our lives will come through
the words that we speak. If we speak negativity, we
will certainly see the development of negativity in
the events
surrounding our daily activities. How many times do
we hear people speaking bad fruit into their lives?
How
many times
do we witness people expressing a lack of hope, or
even defeat of the things they are trying to accomplish?
On
the other
hand, let’s look at the people who live lives
that are vibrant with freedom, a great outlook on life,
radiant
health, and a good attitude regardless of what might
seem to be going wrong. What do they do, feel, or think
that is
different from others? The answer is as simple as breathing.
They view life, as the Bible instructs us to do, by
living, speaking and believing what they wish to come
into their
lives.
The
challenges of life often cause people to forget about biblical
principles for living, as they
go about
their
daily activities without prayer, hope and faith in
the best that
life can give them. They see their days as burdens
filled with people who are the cause of their burdens.
They
see the challenges as impossible mountains to climb,
instead
of stepping stones toward God’s goal for their
lives. As a result, the words that come from their
lips speak consistently
of the existence of the problems, and they become
doomsayers of their own demise.
Death
and life are in the power of the tongue: and
they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. (Proverbs 18:21)
Those
are more profound words of wisdom. Does that mean
that what we speak and believe will eventually
take manifestation
in
our lives? Has God really given us the power to
create our worlds? The Bible teaches that we are the children
of the
Most High God with the authority to command the
angels
of heaven. We need the power that is given to us
to walk in
the authority to promote the kingdom of God, because
the adversary moves against us 24 hours a day,
7 days a week,
to hinder us from achieving our destiny.
 When
I was a young man, I lived a criminal life in the city
of
Chicago. My activities led me to
be sentenced
to 75 years (following an armed robbery and
shootout with the police) in the Louisiana State Penitentiary
at
Angola,
Louisiana.
At that time, Angola was classified as the bloodiest
prison in the nation. During my early prison
years, I was classified
as a militant, and was often found in solitary
confinement. Eventually, I realized that the
hate that I expressed
was merely a self-hatred that I was directing
outward. I gave
my life to Christ and began the gradual turn-around
toward restructuring my life. The world around
me didn’t,
but I began looking at my world differently.
As I studied the Bible, I began to realize that
I
had a new power through
the things that I believed and spoke into my
life. I developed a belief system that caused
me to speak
words of success,
victory, health, and freedom into my life and
the lives of those around me. I became involved
in
every educational and
life enrichment program that I could. I was student … teacher … leader … minister … writer,
and eventually was allowed to travel and speak,
and minister in society. It took me 27 years
to regain my physical freedom,
and I believe my mental and spiritual condition
was constantly refreshed through prayer, meditation,
and speaking the reality
of my prosperity. I was featured in the Academy
Award nominated documentary, The Farm:
Life Inside Angola Prison,
and received international support due to the
progress that I had made with my life. Finally,
in 1999,
I walked out of
the prison gates to continue my ministry in society.
I
believe that life and death are in the power
of the tongue. I will always eat the fruit
of life, prosperity,
peace,
success, love, and happiness. I refuse to speak
anything
else into
my life. If people can develop the habit of
doing the same thing, nothing that comes against them
can stop
them. It
might shake their world for a moment, but it
won’t
stop them. Nothing can stop you except you. Absolutely
nothing!
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