NOTE: This post is over 20,000 words long and is available as a book. If you’d like to get the book, go here
INTRODUCTION
While planning for YOU TOO CAN BE FREE, I had a discussion with my friend, about the contents of the book.
His response?
‘It’s about time that a book comes out to address this plague destroying the destinies of Christian youths’
Today, masturbation and pornography addiction is a rampant endemic that is ravaging the lives of men, women, boys and girls around the world, whether we want to admit it or not.
The shocking truth is that this cankerworm is found among Christian believers too!!!
Nowadays, it is not hard to find a firebrand brother or sister having daily private struggles with masturbation and pornography.
He may have an innocent look and could be a role model and mentor to others.
She looks pious outwards but feels dirty and stinking inwards.
From the seat of masturbation, he rises up for prayer meetings; from the depths of pornography, she mounts the pulpit and the supernatural manifests.
The imaginations of his thoughts are an abomination, but, somehow, he is able to speak words of comfort to those who are weak and heavy-laden.
She lives in a blend between light and darkness.
Day in, day out, he suffers in silence, looking for a way out of the double-life he’s living…
In my personal experience, the height of this double-life was when I was in my sophomore year at the University. A friend was telling me of how a young lady was caught masturbating in the toilet of the school’s hallowed chapel ground during a revival program. Yes, it was easy to criticize the lady for her actions. But deep within me, I felt very discouraged because the only difference between myself and the girl was that I hid my habit better.
I think it is obvious now that I am not writing from a position of stainless perfection.
I’ve had my own battles and I have been cut and scarred in the warfare. I grew up with a strong Christian heritage and yet, somehow I found myself caught in the same web as thousands, if not millions of Christian youths all around the world.
In case you have not yet come to terms with the scheme of things, as far as masturbation and pornography are concerned, take a look at these statistics:
- 30 million users view porn with their mobile devices
- 56% of all divorce cases had one of the partners addicted to pornography
- In the UK, porn sites are accessed more than social media and shopping sites
- 70% of people aged between 18 – 34 years visit porn sites at least once every month
- From 2001 to 2007, the revenue of internet porn industry went from $1 billion to $3 billion in the US alone
- 1 in 8 internet searches online is for erotic contents
- In a survey, 35% of the boys interviewed said that they had watched porn too many times to count
- In another survey, 70% of the Christians interviewed said they were struggling with pornography in their daily lives
- In a Christian conference, 75% of the men in attendance admitted to being involved with pornography
- 50% of all Christian men and 20% of all Christian women are addicted to pornography
- In 5 Christian campuses surveyed, 68% of the males intentionally viewed a porn site
- Over 20% of calls to a pastoral care line are for help on issues of masturbation and pornography
- In another survey for Christian clergymen, over 30% of the men admitted to watching pornography. 61% of these were married men who masturbated. 82% of these masturbated at least once a week. 13% of these felt it was a normal practice to masturbate.
- In a survey of 500 Christian men, 90% felt disconnected to God on account of pornography consumption
The statistics are alarming, but they present a vivid picture of what is obtainable in Christianity worldwide today.
Masturbation and Porn are robbing the world of Kingdom giants!!!
Perhaps you are holding this book now because you are desperately looking for a way out of the habit that has held you down for years.
You may have tried online filtering software, accountability, and sexual purity books.
Maybe you have implemented the psychological “12 Steps To Overcoming Any Addiction” or perhaps, you have gone for medical or pastoral counseling.
Yet, it seems like you are beating against the wind.
Well, I have good news for you:
The LORD God Almighty has mandated me to share the truths – revealed to me through my personal experiences and studying the Word – which would cause you too to be free from the claws of masturbation and pornography.
In this book, I would be debunking myths surrounding masturbation and pornography by revealing what these twin evils can do to you physically and spiritually. After that, I would go into deeper details on how exactly you can be free from masturbation and pornography.
It is my prayer that as we embark on this journey together, the LORD God Who delivered and set me free from the claws of masturbation and pornography would do the same in your life too.
NOTE: This post is over 20,000 words long and is available as a book. If you’d like to get the book, go here
I. WHAT MASTURBATION AND PORNOGRAPHY DO TO YOU SPIRITUALLY
God delivered me from the bondage of masturbation and pornography.
The good news is that He has mandated me to show you how you too can be free from the grips of those habits.
I have shown you what happens to you physically when you watch pornography and masturbate. Before I go on, I believe it is also my duty to open your eyes to see what also happens in the spiritual realm when you masturbate and watch porn.
It is very likely that I would have missed the spiritual implications of masturbation and pornography, were it not for a chance event that occurred while I was still held captive to the habits.
After visiting a porn site and doing my thing, I noticed that my phone started malfunctioning.
I couldn’t open certain applications on my phone and my messages were inaccessible.
It was when I took my phone to the repairer that my worst fears were confirmed.
My phone had been affected by a powerful virus!
Needless to say, I had to ‘flash’ my phone’s memory, losing all my applications in the process.
The experience left a bitter taste in my mouth, but it also opened my eyes to see another fact:
If going to a porn site could physically infect my phone with a virus, what would be the gravity of events occurring in the spiritual realm?
Actually, a lot is occurring in the spiritual realm.
In fact, the spiritual realm is the ultimate reality. Whatever happens in the physical is only a reflection of the dynamics of the spiritual realm.
2 Corinthians 4:18 says,
‘While we look not at the things that are seen but the things that are not seen; for the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal’
With that at the back of our minds, let’s examine what masturbation and pornography do to you spiritually.
You Empower Satan And Give Him Access Into Your Life
When God created man, man was created to be in God’s class of being.
Man was made in the image and likeness of God.
To make man, God breathed Himself into man.
As in, He took off His very Essence and Being and inflated man with it. Man is a bundle of God’s raw, fresh and Divine Inspiration.
Man was made to be like God.
He operated like God, with the display of the very wisdom of God.
What’s more, God gave man absolute and total dominion over everything that was on earth.
No wonder the Bible says in Psalms 82:6,
‘I have said, ye are gods; and all of you are children of the Most High’
And to show you that the above statement was not a mistake, Jesus repeated the same words again,
‘…ye are gods…’ (John 10:34)
Let’s briefly forget about the Original sin in the Garden of Eden, and let’s chew on these truths for a moment.
Man was created to be god on earth.
He was created to exercise dominion and authority here on earth.
If you look at the trend of things, despite being in a fallen state, man has somehow been able to exercise his God-given mandate to rule and dominate.
Man has been able to make wonderful innovations and inventions.
He has been able to create beautiful works of art and cure previously incurable illnesses.
Man has been able to dig deep into the heart of the earth and find mineral resources to improve the quality of his life.
Man has also been able to extend his influence beyond the earth through space exploration.
Man was created to have dominion and not to be dominated.
When you masturbate and watch pornography, you are actually allowing these things to dominate you.
When you masturbate and watch pornography, what you are saying in essence is,
‘I am tired of being a god, now I want to worship the idol of self-gratification’
When you masturbate and watch porn, you are willingly stepping out of your position of dominion to a state of idol worship.
See, by masturbating and watching pornography, you are limiting yourself and living far below what God created you to be. You are making that deplorable step-down from being an individual in the class of God, to a common idol worshipper.
It is at this stage that the devil can easily get access to you.
Romans 6:16 says,
‘Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness’
Did you see that?
When you yield your body to masturbation and pornography, you are yielding your body to be a slave of sin.
The devil is the author of sin. So, when you yield yourself as a slave to sin, you are yielding yourself to the devil.
It is a big matter we are talking about here.
By masturbating and watching pornography, you are willingly walking away from all that God has made you be. You are giving the devil free access into your life!
And when the devil gets into a person’s life, he does not come alone. He comes with his hosts of demons that could manifest in an individual’s health, career, family, destiny, peace, home and so on.
Surely, you are not bargaining for all these, are you?
You Would Fracture Your Imagination
Exposing yourself to masturbation and pornography would give you an imagination that would find it extremely difficult to see things from God’s perspective.
Your imagination is a tool that is neither good nor bad. However, it could be used for good or bad.
Let’s prove that:
Can you remember the road to your primary school?
Okay, maybe that’s too hard. Can you count the number of rooms that you have in your house?
Was that easy to do?
That’s the power of your imagination.
When I asked you to count the number of rooms in your house, you did not drop the book and then start entering each of these rooms one by one.
No, you simply imagined those rooms and started counting them.
Furthermore, did the fact that you imagined the rooms make them any less real?
Of course not!
In fact, it is because the rooms were real that you could imagine them.
Now, if you can take it, pay attention to this:
Your imagination is a door to the spiritual realm
Remember 2 Corinthians 4:18?
‘While we look not at the things that are seen but the things that are not seen; for the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal’
How do you think great inventions and works of art are born?
Through the power of the imagination!
Remember I told you that man was created in the class of God’s being, right?
So, if man can imagine, it is because God imagines!
We were products of God’s imagination and that is how we were created in His Image.
In fact, to show you how highly God esteems the power of the imagination, look at what He said in Genesis 11:6,
‘…and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do’
God categorically said that if a man can catch a glimpse of anything from the spiritual realm, and he sets out to implement it in the physical realm, such thing would not be impossible!
Such is the power of the imagination and it is always very sad to see one fracture this powerful tool through constant exposure to masturbation and pornography.
How? Good question.
You see, you think in pictures.
When I say ‘ball’, you don’t see the letters ‘b – a – l – l’. Rather, you see a ball. I could change the image that you have in your mind by simply changing my words. So, I can say ‘a big ball’ or ‘a big red ball’ and the image you see would conform appropriately to conform to the words that I’ve spoken.
Now, when you take in pornographic inputs (novels, pictures, and films), images are being impressed upon your mind. And the more you watch these things, the more your mind conforms to these inputs and the more you fracture your imagination. This continues until you get to a stage where your default imagination is a sex scene. As a result, your perception of spiritual realities become very warped.
You’d find it extremely difficult to engage in any form of productive imagination.
It would be very difficult for creative ideas to come to you.
You would not be innovative, inventive or ingenious.
Instead, you might start seeing lies –
Like demons as big and mighty beings with fangs and blood dripping from their mouths, ready to snuff the life out of you.
Or, you might start imagining yourself involved in a ghastly motor accident or in a plane crash.
You might imagine that the roof you’re staying under collapsing on you.
Or, you might find yourself manifesting various psychosomatic symptoms with the doctors unable to find anything wrong with you.
You’d find yourself walking in constant fear every time.
Really, all these hassles are not worth masturbating and watching porn over
You Could Shorten Your Lifespan
Masturbation and watching pornography could kill you because you’d have a constant expectation of evil from the devil.
After giving the devil free access into your life. He and his agents have been empowered by you to ‘touch’ your health, finances, academics, career, and so on.
Also, since you have chosen to yield yourself to be a slave of sin on the account of masturbation and pornography, you would have to do whatever that your master tells you to do.
Now, you no longer have faith in God or His immense potentials that He has embedded in you. Instead, you start having faith in the lies of your new master – the devil. And because you are in a state where you believe his lies, anything he tells you, you would believe and start seeing the manifestations too, with your fractured imagination working against you.
Sadly, there are so many who have yielded themselves to the devil in this way. By believing him, they could no longer resist the devil’s lies. As a result, they have died – their imaginations killing them!
For those who are fortunate not to get themselves killed, their case is no better, as they are not living but merely existing.
For these ones, the night cannot come fast enough during the day.
And at night? The day cannot also come fast enough.
This is how the days keep on rolling on and on for them, with them unable to make anything out of it. Because of their fear of death, their will to live is severely handicapped.
That’s not abundant life to me.
You Could Feel Rejected By God And In Debt To Him
If you’ve noticed, there has been a pattern in the occurrences that take place in the spiritual realm when you masturbate and watch pornography. First, you open the door to the devil and then you fracture your imagination. After that, you’d be in a state of constant expectation of evil. Then, add the feeling of rejection and debt to that mix.
It is evident why that should be the next in the sequence of events.
I guess I’m now sounding like a song on repeat: Remember Romans 6:16?
‘Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness’
If you yield yourself to the sin, the devil becomes your master.
If the devil becomes your master, you believe his lies.
One of the lies that the devil would constantly tell you is that God hates you…and that He would soon expose your little secret.
Personally, I had this experience when I was held captive.
I would go for Christian meetings where the prophetic was in full force. All the time, I was always expecting someone to come and meet me with a ‘word from the Lord’ concerning porn. As you must have guessed, such words never came forth. Instead, I always missed out in having a personal encounter that could have liberated me. Since I was having this expectation of someone coming to officially tell me that God had rejected me, the devil brought a man operating with an evil demon of divination across my path. Naturally, I was duped because my defenses were down!
My point is that when you masturbate and watch pornography, you have a warped view of Who God is.
You buy into the devil’s lies that God is bent on embarrassing you whenever He has the chance to do so.
Masturbation and pornography would distort your mind to a constant state of being indebted to God.
You’d find yourself running away from God, instead of running to Him because you feel like you are owing Him something.
Jesus said,
‘…they that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick…for I am not come to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance’ (Matthew 9:12 – 13)
It defies logic why a person who masturbates and watches pornography would want to run away from the One Who can and will set Him free.
The reason?
Masturbation and pornography would make you feel rejected and unworthy to approach the presence of the Father, even when you are in a dire need of help.
You Could Become Stupid…Really Stupid!
When you masturbate and watch pornography, you don’t become just plain stupid. You become really stupid!
Why?
Well, for one, sin has mastered your body and you are ever obedient to the lies of the devil.
Then, since your imagination has been fractured, you would have a warped view of the realities of the spiritual realm.
Romans 1:21 – 22 says,
‘Because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imagination, and their foolish hearts became darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools’
Note the trend: Once your imagination becomes vain (fractured), your heart becomes darkened.
When you masturbate and watch pornography, your heart becomes darkened and confused; you become really stupid because you are unable to tap from the millions of potentials you have within you as an individual.
I keep on emphasizing on the fact that man was created in God’s class of being. Despite the fact that Man lived physically on the earth, what gave him life was the raw, fresh and Divine Inspiration of God from God’s very Essence.
But when you watch porn and masturbate, you are cut off from all these.
You are totally unable to draw out inventions, innovation, and creativity from the realm of the spirit. Instead, you live from your emotions and your physical body. All your decisions become solely based on what you can feel, taste, smell, hear and see.
You’d find it extremely difficult to be proactive.
You’d find yourself going through life, simply reacting to whatever the environment throws at you.
Let’s look at Ephesians 4:25,
‘This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart’
Did you see that?
Masturbation and pornography cut you off the life of God.
Your understanding is in the dark and your heart is blind.
As a result of your heart becoming dark, ignorance becomes the order of the day for you.
You become stupid!
Furthermore, if you base your life only on what you can feel, taste, smell, hear and see, the Bible says you are carnally minded.
See what the Word says about carnal-mindedness,
‘For to be carnal minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be’ (Romans 8:6 – 7)
Masturbation and Pornography make you sensual.
When you are sensual, you are solely dependent on your five senses and what makes sense to your logic.
When you are sensual, you are carnal.
When you are carnal, you have death working in your body.
You know why?
You have been alienated from the life of God. You make yourself a total stranger to His life.
And as if that’s not all, masturbation and pornography make you see God your enemy.
Note that Romans 8:6-7 did not say that God is in enmity with the carnal mind.
The verse said that the carnal mind is enmity with God!
‘For to be carnal minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be’
As we have established earlier, when you give the devil access into your life, he becomes your master. You buy into his lies and you end up looking really stupid.
Why would anybody want to be an enemy to God?
Well, it takes a stupid person to do that.
Furthermore, masturbation and pornography would make you start rationalizing your addictions, despite the fact that you feel guilty about it.
You’d find yourself saying extremely dumb things like,
‘Well, at least I’m not like other people who commit adultery. I don’t even steal or lie too much’
Masturbation and pornography would make you so stupid that you start justifying your actions by comparing yourself with other people.
Don’t you get it?
The actions of other people were never going to be the standard of what right or wrong is. Within you, deep down there in the core of your being, you know what the truth is.
It is stupidity to try and justify your actions in the light of what other people do.
Your Heart Becomes Hardened To God’s Voice
Hebrews 3:11 says,
‘But exhort one another daily, while it is called today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin’
Masturbation and pornography deceive you and you end up becoming really stupid.
After that, your heart becomes hardened to God’s voice.
Let’s take a moment to examine what ‘hardness’ means.
When your heart is hardened to a thing, it means that you are insensitive to that thing.
For example, let’s assume that you are trying to receive a phone call and the television is turned on. The truth is that you would most likely hear what the person on the phone is saying, rather than what is showing on the television. The reason is because you are more sensitive to what the person on the phone is saying than what is being shown on the television. Your heart was temporarily hardened to the television so that you would be able to focus on the phone call.
The same thing occurs when you are reading a book you are interested in. Regardless of the sound of traffic, or the movement of people in the room, you are still able to read from the book because you have hardened your heart to the distractions.
Masturbation and pornography make you insensitive to God!
Each time you masturbate and watch porn, God is actually calling you back.
But because you are yielded to the devil, your heart is hardened to God and more sensitive to the devil. Because your imagination is fractured, your understanding is darkened and you are cut off from the life of God transmitted unto you.
The sad thing about having a hardened heart is that even if God audibly spoke to you – you won’t hear His Voice because you’ve sensually explained it away!
You become sensitive to whatever you give your attention and become hardened to whatever you neglect.
Many people are giving more attention to masturbation and pornography on a daily basis.
The result of that choice is that their hearts becomes hardened to God’s love, wisdom, intuition, knowledge, plans, purposes, understanding, and faith.
That is not God’s will for you…
*
We have been able to establish the fact that masturbation and pornography can affect you both physically and spiritually.
Believe me, it was not an exactly pleasant experience for me to open your eyes to all that these twin vices do to you both spiritually and physically.
However, it needed to be done, so that you’d be able to better understand the depths of what God has delivered you from and appreciate it.
Without further ado, let us move on the way out.
NOTE: This post is over 20,000 words long and is available as a book. If you’d like to get the book, go here
II. THE FIRST STEP
By now, you must be itching to find out the very first thing that would set you on your path to victory. How do I know?
I passed through this same stage when I was looking for every way possible to be free from these same habits.
I read books.
I went online.
I went everywhere…well, almost everywhere.
Believe me, I was desperate.
When I finally got to my wits’ end, the first step was revealed to me.
The first step which set me on the path to total deliverance from masturbation and pornography is this:
You need to receive a revelation of the gravity of God’s love for you!
That’s very simple. But if you’d grasp the revelation, it would play an important part in liberating you from masturbation and pornography.
It’s simple.
It’s profound.
We have already established that the people who are meant to run to God, ideally should be the ones who are in a dire need of His saving grace.
Understanding the depths of the Father’s love for you would put you in the best position to do just that.
Listen to His heart towards you now,
‘…rise up, My love, My fair one, and come away…Arise, My love, My fair one, and come away. O My dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely’ (Songs of Solomon 2:10, 13-14)
That is the voice of God whispering lovingly to your heart.
As it is, He is trying to woo you out of the vice-grips of the destructive habits of masturbation and pornography!
The Almighty God – the Creator of the Universe – is interested in you.
Listen to Him in your heart, calling and tugging, whispering and nearly pleading.
‘…rise up, My love…come away…Arise, My love…come away…’
He loves you so much and He wants you to wake up to what He created you to be.
He’s seeing you hide in the clefts of masturbation; He’s looking at you concealed under the stairs of pornography.
Of course, God is not looking to knock you out with a deadly blow!
He wants to deliver you.
The Father is willing to bring you out of the darkness within the hard, uncomfortable rocks. He wants to shine His healing lights on the stairs where you are struggling.
He is aching to see you back in the way He ordained you to be.
But the thing is that, if you keep buying into the lies of the devil by seeing God as One watching out for your shortcomings, faults and flaws, you would never have the confidence to approach Him for deliverance in your time of need!
That is not God’s fault.
It is my belief that generations of exposure to dead, routine religion has totally blinded us to the truth that God delights in us and desires to have a Father-to-child relationship with us.
Listen up, if you can just grasp this point now, you are already taking that first step on the path of deliverance from masturbation and pornography.
The Message From Lazarus’ Sisters
I’ll illustrate from a popular story what a revelation of God’s love can do for you.
Let’s examine John 11:3,
‘…Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick’
Did you see that? As simple and innocent-looking as that statement may look, it contains the heart of my message.
Note that the message to Jesus was not,
‘…Lord, behold, if you had loved him, he would not have been sick’
You know why?
Lazarus’ sisters were fully assured in the deepest core of their beings that Jesus loved them.
Do you get the gist?
They had a revelation of the love that Jesus had for them and they were secure in that love. Of course, they were not battling with some bad habit, but they were in need – just the same way you are in need of deliverance from masturbation and pornography. However, because they were already secure in the love that Jesus had for them, they were in the perfect position to receive from Him.
Note again that Mary and Martha did not tell Jesus,
‘…Lord, behold, the one who loves You is sick’
They did not even attempt to try and impress Jesus about Lazarus firebrand attitude to the cause of God’s kingdom.
Sounds blunt, eh?
But the truth has to be told.
I think everyone can pick a lesson from this.
We live in an age where the focus is on what we can ‘do’ for the Lord. We want to be able to impress people with our zeal and zest for the things of the kingdom. We want to be in a position where we put in a good religious performance and can pat ourselves on the back because everyone can see our passion for God. We want to be in a position where we can say,
‘God, you know I’ve done so many things for the advancement of your kingdom. I think I’ve earned the right to be delivered…’
Okay, maybe we don’t use those exact words, but our actions reek with the same emotions.
Look, I’m not against displaying fervor and passion when you are in the gathering of believers. God forbid!
However, I think some people merely just want to put in a good performance so as to earn a point with God.
Mary and Martha’s message to Jesus didn’t have that.
They were totally focused on the love they knew that Jesus had for them.
That Love had nothing to do with the presence or absence of Lazarus’ requited love.
That Love did not have anything to do with whether they had put in a good performance in the past or not.
That Love had nothing to do with Lazarus’, Mary’s or Martha’s input to Christ’s ministry.
That Love had nothing to do with whether or not Mary and Martha felt that God loved them!
That Love was totally God-initiated and God-inspired.
It is no wonder that Romans 5:8 says,
‘But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us’
What manner of human love can ever trump that? Frankly, you shouldn’t even think of trumping it.
Just follow Mary and Martha’s example and secure yourself in God’s love for you.
Whether you feel like it or not, grasp this revelation: God loves you!
Rest in God’s Love for you.
Don’t attempt to earn or deserve it because you cannot.
Until you are able to receive a revelation of God’s love for you, you would continue to struggle with masturbation and pornography.
Until you receive a revelation of God’s love for you, you’d only end up prolonging your encounter with true and lasting deliverance.
Matthew 11:28 says,
‘Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest’
Rest and enjoy the love that the Father has for you and you’d see yourself on the right path to effortlessly walking in victory over masturbation and pornography.
She Understood Love
I would end this chapter by sharing this true life story:
I had an encounter with a 17-year-old girl. At that young age, she had already had sex countless times and had gone through numerous heartbreaks. She also had a verbally abusive father who had only recently separated from her mother. This girl’s life was spiraling out of control. When I got talking with her, she started opening up to me. Probably, she was expecting me to minister condemnation to her. Instead, I told her what I’ve been sharing with you in this chapter – that God loved her. You can imagine the shock on her face. This girl then started listing all the reasons why God could not love her – her past sins, her moral failures, her shortcomings, her waywardness and the works. All the while, I kept on telling her that God loved her. When she had exhausted all the reasons she felt it was impossible for God to love her, I told her to repeat these simple, but powerful words: ‘God loves me’
That was the breaking point for this girl.
As soon as she uttered these words, the girl broke down into tears. Her confused heart could not fathom how God could still love her in spite of her imperfections. She got to the point that she knew she could do nothing to earn the love that the Father had for her. As a result, she was able to lay hold of the deliverance which God had provided for her in Christ.
Luke 7:47 says,
‘Wherefore I say unto thee, her sins which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little’
The one that understands the gravity of God’s love for him or her, in spite of the gravity of sins, would be in a better position to receive forgiveness and deliverance from destructive habits and secret sins.
You too can be free when you receive a revelation of God’s love for you.
If you want that revelation now, just whisper this softly, in faith, from the depth of your heart,
Father, give me a revelation of your love for me
NOTE: This post is over 20,000 words long and is available as a book. If you’d like to get the book, go here
III. RESPOND
We have established that God loves you with a deep love that transcends human understanding. He loves you in the season, out of season, when you do well, when you are not on your best behavior, when you feel it, when you don’t feel it.
Friend, it is God’s will for you to have liberty from the yokes and bondage of masturbation and pornography that is tying you down.
It pains God to see the mess you’ve made of things.
In His original Plan and purpose and design for your life, He created you to be much more than what you are allowing yourself to be on account of masturbation and pornography.
God created you to dominate and not to be dominated.
Masturbation and pornography are not meant to dominate you.
It’s not part of God’s intention for those urges, drives, and desires that drag you back to the cookie jar to be springing out from you.
He made you to be more than that.
But alas, you find yourself in this depreciated state. You want to stop masturbating, but you cannot. You want to strike out porn from your schedule, but you won’t.
Instead, you find yourself saying,
‘I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing’ (Romans 7:15, 19 New International Version)
Friend, I have good news for you.
God loves you. And because of the gravity of His love for you, He sent Jesus to come and save you!
John 3:16 says,
‘For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life’
God did not just love the world.
He so loved the world.
He is so in love with you. That is why He gave His only begotten son for your sake!
Jesus came to save you!
Yes, He came to save you from masturbation and pornography.
Perhaps, you’ve heard people say that around you before, but you had never given it a thought. Consider it this way:
God saw you in your lowly estate, living far below your full potentials that He embedded within you. He saw you in your struggles with your bad habits and evil cravings. God saw you in your struggles with your bad obsessions and corrupt, dirty and evil desires. He saw all these before you were born. He saw all the bad choices you would make and all their unpalatable consequences.
So, what did God do?
The Almighty Word of God took on the form of weak human flesh (John 1:14).
He came to the earth by a supernatural virgin birth.
The Word of God – Jesus, lived a fully righteous life as a full human being.
He lived above sin and its consequences. He was the Perfect Man.
Then, the most awe-inspiring moment in history happened: Jesus offered His Life for you and me.
He shed His blood on the cross of Calvary.
He took ALL our sins – past, present and yes, even future sins!
He had to be able to cater for future sins because we were not yet born as at the time He hung on the cross. We were still in the future at the time. And since we have the fallen human nature in us, we were most definitely going to sin!
So, Jesus Christ took care of the sin issue, once and for all, at that One Moment on the Cross. He endured all our punishments for our sins and totally delivered us from the power of sins, bad habits, and their evil consequences.
Then something else of epic proportions occurred.
We were given the righteousness of Jesus Christ, while He bore our sins. The greatest exchange in history occurred at that moment on the Cross.
“God made him (Christ) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21 New International Version)
Note two things:
First, the Bible never said that ‘God has made Him (Christ) to carry our sin’.
No, Jesus became sin!
The Bible also did not say, ‘God made us to carry righteousness’.
No! We became the righteousness of God!
Of the many things that were imputed into us, we were also given the ability to walk victoriously over evil habits like pornography addiction and masturbation.
All you have to do is just “confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead” (Rom 10:9) and the exact life that Christ lived while on earth in a victory over sin and bad habits can be yours!
You too can be free from the dominion of evil habits and corrupt thoughts.
You too can be free from the prison of masturbation and pornography addiction.
You were created for more than that. Just align yourself and key into what Jesus Christ has done for you…and you shall be free indeed (John 8:36).
Before we move on, if you are ready to respond to the love of God for you by accepting Christ as your Savior, say this prayer out aloud:
Sweet Jesus, I thank You for Your saving grace upon my life. I appreciate You for delivering me totally from my sins, evil habits, and desires by the virtue of Your precious blood that was shed for me on the Cross of Calvary. Today, I accept and acknowledge Your finished redemptive work of atonement for my sins; Today, I believe You have saved me to the uttermost; Today, I confess You as my Savior and my All.
Thank you Jesus; I am now saved!!!
CONGRATULATIONS, you are now on the path of freedom.
Acknowledging Your Lord
Permit me to use an analogy you might be very familiar with:
Indian movies are quite fond of depicting their female protagonists in very unfavorable positions where the odds are heavily against them. The hero of the movie steps into the picture and somehow manages to rescue the lady from her captors. The lady almost always falls in love with the hero, despite him not asking for any return in favors.
I believe that in more ways, than you can imagine, this is the kind of situation that exists between Christ and every person that accepts, believes and confesses all that Christ did to save him or her.
‘For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life’ (Romans 5:7-10)
Those are weighty words there.
We had been dirty, stinking creatures helplessly sinking in the quagmire of sin and death.
We were so far off God’s gloriously righteous standards.
Envy and Lust reigned in and reined in our minds.
We were not able to churn out anything good in ourselves.
As it stood, we were not useful to anyone. Hey! We were even useless to even ourselves.
Yet, Jesus saw us in our deplorable states as chief sinners and still chose to sacrifice His life for us.
For our sakes, Christ carried our sins and gave us His righteousness.
For our sakes, He carried our deaths and gave us His Life – a full and abundant Life.
He did it all for us of His own Freewill.
He did it all for us not asking for anything from us in return.
The least we can do, if we fully grasp the extent of what Christ did for us, is to give our lives unconditionally to Him. I’m sure you now understand how my analogy of the Indian girl and the Hero fits neatly into the grand scheme of things.
Remember Luke 7:47?
‘Wherefore I say unto thee, her sins which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little’
The one who lowly esteems what God had to do to cater for the sin issue, would also give a poor response to God’s love.
The one who highly esteems what God had to do to cater for the sin issue, would also give a good response to God’s love.
In all seriousness, the very least we can do is to surrender the entirety of our lives and choose to live for Christ.
‘I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service’ (Romans 12:1)
It is fallen human nature to be self-centered and selfish.
You see, masturbation and pornography addiction are simply ways that the individual practicing it shows God that he only cares about the instant gratification that would be derived from these acts. The acts show an individual that he/she just wants to live for his/her Self without any consideration for any other person – including the very God that gave him/her life. That is the height of selfishness!
When you come to terms with what Jesus Christ saved you from, you would instantly accept and acknowledge Him not only as your Savior but also as your Lord too.
This is where the plot twists for many seemingly vibrant Christian males and females who have been caught in the web of masturbation and pornography. They accept Jesus as their Savior, but they haven’t started acknowledging Him as their Lord too.
The amazing thing about recognizing Jesus Christ, not only your Savior but also, as your Lord, you would begin to notice that you always want to do all that would please Him. Not because you want to earn points with God. Rather, because you’ve started acknowledging Jesus Christ as your Lord too.
Psalms 37:4 says,
‘Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart’
Many people interpret this verse as saying, that when you delight yourself in God, He would start answering all your selfish and lust-motivated desires.
What the verse is actually saying is that the more you delight yourself in the Lord, acknowledging Jesus Christ as your Lord over your life, the more He Himself would put Godly desires into your heart.
The more you recognize Jesus as your Lord, the more Godly desires spring up in your heart. The more Godly desires spring up in your heart, the less space is available for the urge to masturbate or watch pornography. Those desires just disappear.
When you start acknowledging Jesus Christ as your Lord, you’d start finding out all you want to do with your life is to please Him.
You’d find that you have no need to please yourself anymore.
1 Corinthians 6:20 says,
‘For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s’
When you acknowledge Christ as your Lord, you would want to glorify Him with the actions of your body and your spirit. We would discuss this in greater details in a later chapter.
Your mind would not want to spew out evil desires and thoughts anymore; No! You’d simply want to do everything that is pleasing to your Lord.
You wouldn’t want to masturbate or watch porn anymore.
Why? You have a new Lord over your life who you want to please in your body!
You might be wondering about where you’d get the strength to continue offering your life to your Lord Jesus Christ, day-in-day-out. You might even be wondering if you wouldn’t die of boredom by allowing Jesus rule over your life in everything you do…
Well, that would be discussed in the next chapter – the Ministry of the Holy-Spirit.
However, for now, if you are currently reading this and you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, but you are not yet sure that you have started acknowledging Him as your Lord too, you can say this confession out aloud:
Sweet Jesus, I just want to tell You that I love You from the bottom of my heart. From this moment on, I surrender by entire being – spirit, soul, and body, to You for Your use alone. Dear Jesus, You are not only my Savior; Now, I acknowledge You as my Lord. Take me, Lord; Use me, Lord; Lead me, Lord; Teach me, Lord; Guide and direct me, Lord!
Into Your loving Hands, I commit my spirit, soul, and body for Your use.
NOTE: This post is over 20,000 words long and is available as a book. If you’d like to get the book, go here
IV. THE MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
For those of you who have been wondering where you’d get the strength to continue offering your life to your Lord Jesus Christ on a daily basis, I’ve got good news for you.
You see, the very moment you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, something powerful happened,
Colossians 1:13 says,
‘It is God who has delivered us out of the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the Kingdom of His dearly-loved Son’ (Weymouth’s Translation)
That’s right! You were delivered from the power of darkness.
Note the tense is in the past!
It’s not that you will be delivered.
You have been delivered from the forces of evil urges and desires.
You have been delivered from the sphere of influence of masturbation and pornography.
You have been totally delivered.
You have been set free from their authority, jurisdiction, power, right and strength over you. They no longer have a legal right over you.
See, if all Christ did for you on the cross was just to wash away your sins, it wouldn’t have done you any good. Why?
Because you would still have an old nature that could still be influenced by the power of darkness.
But thank God!
In addition to forgiving you of all iniquities, delivering you out of the sphere of influence of the power of darkness, you were also transferred, translated, carried and exchanged into the realm and rule of Jesus Christ’s royalty!
Believe it or not, feel like it or not, you are now in God’s Kingdom!
How can I be so sure of this? You may ask.
Well 2 Corinthians 5:17 says,
‘Therefore, if any man be in Christ, He is a new creature, old things are passed away, behold all things become new’
The moment you accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, you became a new creation. Old things, old actions, old habits, old urges have passed away and all things have become new!
Wow, I’m so excited that I’m already jumping into the contents of the next chapter!
Let’s get back on track.
You are a new creation now and what’s more, you have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of you now, as we speak. Wow!
Who Is The Holy Spirit?
Moments before Jesus’ crucifixion and subsequent resurrection, Jesus told His disciples these words,
‘I will not leave you comfortless…’ (John 14:18)
These powerful words of Jesus Christ hold a very profound truth.
Yes, you’ve made the decision to accept Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. However, it is quite obvious to your rational mind that Jesus is not physically present on the earth now.
Yet, Jesus Words to you are, ‘I will not leave you comfortless…’
By saying these words, He is assuring you that He honors His Words above even His Name (Psalms 138:2). For this reason, He would not leave you alone against the old urges and evil desires whenever they rear up their ugly heads!
Christ is telling you that He would never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:8).
And to show you that He means whatever He says, Jesus said,
‘And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever…
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you’ (John 14:16; 16:13-14)
That is the Ministry of the Holy Spirit.
That is Jesus fulfilling His Promise not to leave you comfortless.
That is Jesus, through His Holy Spirit within you teaching and guiding you into all truth. One of those truths is that you’ve been delivered from the realm of darkness.
With the Holy Spirit, you cannot be confused.
With the Holy Spirit, you cannot be at a loss.
With the Holy Spirit, you would be able to find the strength and will to live above the shackles of masturbation and pornography.
But how can I have the Holy Spirit?
Good question.
Once you’ve made up your mind to accept Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, you already have the Holy Spirit residing in you, making your heart His abode.
1 Corinthians 3:16 says,
‘Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?’
Remember, Jesus Christ is your Lord. He owns you and you belong to Him.
And now, He has sent the Comforter to dwell inside you. Christ has ensured that you would always have a choice not to turn your back on Him and all He’s done for you.
Look at the statement again,
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?
It beats the imagination how the Almighty God that created the whole heaven and the earth could choose to dwell inside you like a house!
That is the Ministry of the Holy Spirit!
He makes your body to be a house for God!
Okay, let’s picture this:
If the president of your country decided to spend a week in your house, the bedroom you’d host him would be littered with dirty plates and dirty clothes, right?
Wrong!
You’d most likely ensure that the bedroom, the house, the compound and even the neighbors’ compounds are all in order.
If you’d go that far for an earthly president – a human like you – don’t you think you would handle what goes on in your body with more care and respect, especially if you walk with the consciousness that the King of kings is residing in you now, via His Holy Spirit!
Little wonder Romans 8:9,11 say this,
‘But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His…But if the Spirit of Him that raised Christ from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwell in you’
That’s so profound.
God’s Own Spirit dwells in you the moment you accept and acknowledge the Lordship of Christ in your life. You can no more feel programmed to fulfill the desires that your body would have normally given into. You have the Spirit of God in you and that’s one more proof you need to indicate that you belong to Jesus.
Furthermore, the Holy Spirit dwells in you and He would quicken your mortal body. That word ‘quicken’ as used in the passage means to ‘make alive, revitalize, and give life to’. In essence, God’s Holy Spirit within you would make your body alive to fulfill God’s Ideals and Perfect Will for your life. It implies that the Holy Spirit would make you realize that your body – God’s Temple – was made for far more important things than masturbation and pornography. You were living in dead works before, just merely existing. Now, He would make you really alive, fulfilling your inherent potential.
God has sealed you for Himself. He has marked you as His Own. And to provide the evidence of that act, He placed His Holy Spirit in your heart (2 Corinthians 1:22).
This is no child’s play!
This is no wishful thinking!!
This is reality!!!
In case you don’t know the gravity and worth of the One Who dwells in you, let’s take a look at Ephesians 1:17-22,
‘That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give unto you…revelation in the knowledge of Him…that ye may know…what is the exceeding greatness of His Power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in heavenly places…and put all things under His feet…’
Let’s, for a moment, assume that the power of God’s Holy Spirit could be quantified into units.
If it took God 1 unit of unquantifiable power to speak the world into existence, then it took one million units of unquantifiable power to raise Christ from the dead and put all things under His feet!
Listen to this: That’s the same power of the Holy Spirit that you have within you now!
So, you’re not alone, left out to hang and dry.
No! You are now much more than a conqueror!
You can now walk with your head held high.
You can now walk without a single iota of doubt or fear of slipping back into your habit.
You know why?
You have the Holy Spirit resident in you!
He Teaches You How To Love
One of the ways that Jesus told us we could keep Him happy was to keep His commandments.
Funny enough, that’s really the only way we can effortlessly keep His commandments,
‘If you [really] love Me, you will keep (obey) My commands’ (John 14:15 Amplified Bible)
A heartfelt love for God is always the best motivation for keeping His commandments. Many people in Christendom are keeping God’s commands because they are motivated by fear. They do not want to go to hell, so they keep on striving to keep God’s commands with all their efforts.
They do not enjoy it, and frankly speaking, God doesn’t enjoy it too.
However, since these people see God as a ticking bomb ready to explode, they do all they can to ‘appease’ the wrath of God so that they can at least get to heaven when they die.
What a boring way to live!
Believe me, if you take that approach in your attempt to stop masturbating and watching porn, you’d grow increasingly frustrated with the whole exercise and you would eventually slip back into your old habit, or at the very best, replace it with another habit.
I say it again: Love, not fear, is the best motivation for keeping God’s commands.
And that is where the Holy Spirit comes in.
‘And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us’ (Romans 5:5)
The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts stirs up Love for our Savior and Lord within us. And in turn, the Love for our Savior and Lord would prompt us into keeping His Commandments. It’s so simple and straightforward.
Look at the verse again:
It did not say that ‘the love of God WAS shed abroad in our hearts’ or ‘the love of God WILL BE shed abroad in our hearts’.
No! The verse said: the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts.
That’s present continuous tense.
The Holy Spirit keeps on pouring a love for Jesus and His commands into your heart every day, every hour, every minute and every second.
The love He produces within you cannot be exhausted.
It cannot finish.
It is there every moment.
‘If you [really] love Me, you will keep (obey) My Commands’.
Look at another one:
‘If you love Me, you would keep My Words’ (John 14:23)
Pay attention to the wordings of this verse.
Note that the verse does not say ‘you must keep My Words’.
Neither does it say ‘you shall or you have to keep My Words’.
It says ‘you would keep My Words’.
It’s simple.
It is cause and effect.
It’s a simple natural order similar to the gentle and graceful flow of a river along its course.
It’s as simple as knowing that when you throw a ball up, it would come down.
No struggles. No tug-of-war. Just simple cause and effect.
If you love Him, you will keep His Commands.
If you love Him, you will want to make Him happy.
If you love Him, you will neither masturbate nor watch pornography.
And all this is possible via the Ministry of the Holy Spirit in your heart.
In Partnership With The Indwelling Holy Spirit
“There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.” (Philippians 1:6 The Message Bible)
You can get started in this by partnering with the Holy Spirit already indwelling you.
Saying this confession out aloud:
Thank you Holy Spirit for Your sweet Communion and manifold Presence in my life at all times. I won’t trade your Communion or Presence for anything in this world. Now, I receive the grace and strength to yield to your promptings and delicate nudges at all times, so that I’d be able to show my love for my Savior and Lord – Christ Jesus, my Redeemer King.
Sweet Holy Spirit, I give You the right of way in my life now!
In Jesus’ Name.
If you’ve made that confession, it is possible that some syllables from a language you do not recognize starts rising up from your heart to your mouth (1 Corinthians 14:14). As you speak them out loud by faith (Acts 2:4), you are releasing the power of God from within you and building yourself in the spirit (Jude 20). You can do this whenever and wherever you like.
It doesn’t matter whether you felt a thing or not. If you believed in your heart that you received, then you surely did. God’s Word is the real reality. Believe it!
NOTE: This post is over 20,000 words long and is available as a book. If you’d like to get the book, go here
V. THE MAN IN THE MIRROR
Have you seen a mirror before?
Silly question, right?
We have all looked into a mirror at one point or the other. In fact, many of us enjoy looking at the image of ourselves so much that we stop by any form of reflective glass in a bid to take a look at ourselves.
Consider 2 Corinthians 3:18,
‘But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord’
That verse has depth, let’s look at it phrase by phrase.
The first part says,
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord
Who does the verse say is doing the beholding?
We are the ones doing the beholding, right?
We, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are the ones looking into the glass (or mirror, according to the Amplified Bible).
I don’t want to lose you just yet. Let’s bring this home, shall we?
You know, it is easy for us to realize that we see our reflections when we stand in front of a mirror, right?
You don’t see your parents’ reflection, neither do you see your siblings’ reflection. You see your own reflection!
The same is true concerning the spiritual mirror.
When we look into the mirror, we see the image of ourselves in the mirror!
So, putting two and two together, we can conclude this truth:
We are the Glory of God!
Yes, as a believer, you are the glory of God!
I see someone thinking: Really? After all my ordeals with masturbation and pornography, I sure do not feel like the glory of God. I can’t even see any glory in my life
Listen to this: It is a certain truth and a spiritual reality that you are the glory of God. In fact, as it stands now, you are exactly like Jesus!
Wow! Now, a lot of eyes are rolling.
Perhaps you are thinking: Me? Like, Jesus? Seriously?
I don’t have time for arguments.
1 John 4:17 says,
‘Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment: because, as He is, so are we in this world’
That is very profound.
The Bible did not say, ‘as He was while on this earth, so are we in this world’
You know, it would surely have been awesome and quite fulfilling for many of us to find out that we can live the same way that Jesus lived while He was on earth. After all, He raised the dead, healed the sick, made the maimed whole, preached the gospel far and wide…
But that isn’t what 1 John 4:17 is saying.
Look again,
‘…as He is, so are we in this world’
That is in the present continuous tense!
It means that as Jesus Christ is right now, that is the same way that we – as believers – are in this world.
So, the question now is this: How is Jesus Christ right now?
For one, Colossians 1:15 says that Jesus is the Image of the Invisible God. So, by inference, we also are the image of the invisible God!
Why?
‘…as He is, so are we in this world’
This truth has the potential to revolutionize your life.
And I’m not even started!
You know, when Philip asked Jesus to show Him the Father, do you remember Jesus’ answer?
‘…he that hath seen me, hath seen the Father’ (John 14:9)
Jesus was saying in essence that if one looked at His words, His actions, His deeds, He clearly mirrored the Father.
Little wonder 2 Corinthians 3:5 tells us that we ‘are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ’
This simply means that if any unbeliever has any doubts about how Jesus is, such a person should just look at me!
Why?
‘…as He is, so are we in this world’
See, the truth is that as a born-again believer with the Holy Spirit resident within you, you are like-for-like, ounce-for-ounce, pound-for-pound exactly like Jesus Christ.
You have the mind of Christ (1Corinthians 2:16, Philippians 2:5)
You have His Spirit (Galatians 4:6, 1 Corinthians 6:17)
You have His Nature (2 Peter 1:4)
You are joint-heirs with Him, having the same access to the Father that Christ has (Romans 8:17, 29)
You have His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21)
All these are your real reality!!!
And it brings us back to the question: If all these are true, why do I feel dominated and defeated by masturbation and pornography?
The Background Story
I really don’t want to over-flog the issue, but it is paramount that I mention it again, as it would play a crucial role in understanding who we really are.
We’ve long since established that man was created in the image of God.
The raw, fresh and Divine inspiration of God was what actually gave man life.
God drew of His very essence and inflated man with it (Genesis 2:7).
So, man became alive and was given dominion and authority to rule over the earth. In fact, it was because man was manifesting God’s kind of wisdom, that was why he could name the animals exactly what God had in mind (Genesis 2:19).
However, man chose to sin and was subsequently cut off from the life of God. Prior to the fall, man had been living via his spirit man – which was actually God’s inflated inspiration that He placed in man.
When man fell, his spirit was cut off and totally separated from God’s life. Man’s spirit no longer had the ability to control his actions to reflect God’s nature. In short, man’s spirit man was dead!
Man’s spirit was still there, but it was as good as it was no longer there because it could no longer function the way God had designed it to function.
At this point, man started producing children that were in his own likeness, instead of the likeness of God (Genesis 5:3). Since man no longer had the life of God in him, his offspring could not have the life of God in their spirits too. They also were spiritually dead by default!
As a result of all these, mankind became sensual, carnal – living solely through his five senses. He was totally unable to contact the depths of the spiritual realm.
Man’s spirit was dead, and he could only catch glimpses of the spiritual realm via trial and error as he yielded himself to God. This explains how inventions, works of art and some form of creativity could be exhibited by man in the fallen state. By trial and error, man could draw out of the spiritual realm and reproduce imperfect versions in the physical realm.
What Jesus came to do on earth was to restore mankind to the life of God (Ephesians 2:1-6). So, if you are a believer in Christ, your spirit man has been quickened, regenerated and renewed (Titus 3:5). Your spirit man has already been restored back to the state Adam’s spirit was before the fall! Your spirit man is already like Jesus (Ephesians 4:24).
Isn’t that awesome?
So, while unbelievers look at the state of man before the fall and start having wishful thinking about how bad things have gone since the original sin; you as a believer, can look back at the state of man before the fall and start to thank God for the state that Jesus Christ has restored you to!
Glory to God!!!
But what seems to be the problem?
Why is it that despite the fact that we have been restored back to the life of God in our spirits, we still seem to live the kind of ordinary, sin-plagued lives we lived before we became believers?
The answer is not too far-fetched.
You Are Not Looking In The Mirror
The reason you still live the same kind of ordinary life you lived before you got saved is because you have an identity problem!
You see, after spending so long living from the soul (i.e., your five senses, your will, your emotions, and intellect) before we came to know Christ, we had already been so used to having the soul in the driver’s seat of our lives. As a result, even when we now have quickened spirits reconnected to the life and nature of God, we still do not know how to live from the wealth in our spirits.
Take note that the problem has changed from being separated from God to being ignorant of the wealth within us.
And there is only one reason why you are ignorant of who you are in the spirit: You are not looking into the mirror.
Remember the original text?
‘But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord’
The glass/the mirror is very important if you want to see the glory of God.
What is the mirror? You may ask.
Let’s check out James 1:23-25,
‘For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightaway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh unto the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man is blessed in his deed’
Many of us look into a physical mirror for so long in the morning. And any little chance we have to pass by any reflective glass, we step by it to assess our looks, our dressing, our accessories, and all. Now if any chance comes and we are asked to describe how we look, it is not difficult for us to do so, despite the fact that we are not seeing ourselves at the moment?
Why?
Simple. We have gazed at so many reflections of ourselves all day long and we know how we look.
The same thing applies in the spiritual realm.
The spiritual mirror is the Word of God!
The text we just read tells us that if a man hears the word and does not do it, such person is like an individual who has gazed at himself in a mirror and then forgotten what he looked like.
The thing is that many people have heard or read about these things that I’m sharing with you now. But they do not see the manifestation of it in their lives because they refuse to believe in the mirror of the Word that they have just heard. These people have gazed at the Mirror of the Word only briefly and have forgotten the kind of person that they are.
For instance, do you know that since you are born of God, you cannot sin? (1 John 3:9)
Try telling that to a carnally minded believer.
But it is a basic truth of the Word!
We are born of God and we do not have the ability to sin. The verse did not say, ‘you will not sin’. No! It says, ‘you CANNOT sin’. You don’t have the ability to sin. It is no longer in your nature to do so.
That is so profound.
Now, when you tell a believer such truth, he is gazing at the Mirror of the Word at that moment, and he is excited at the truth that he cannot sin.
But just give the typical believer a day or two, and you’d find him battling with the same sins he or she should be triumphing over.
You know why?
Such believer has forgotten the manner of man that he was!
This is because he has refused to check himself in the Mirror of the Word to see who he really is in the God’s sight.
You have to look into the mirror of the Word of God and have the faith that the description you find is accurate.
When you look at a physical mirror, do you disagree with the image you see reflected because you don’t feel that’s the way you should look?
Of course not! You have absolute faith that the mirror is showing you the accurate description of who you are in the physical. The same applies in the spirit!
You have to have the absolute faith that the mirror of the Word is the accurate description of who you are in the spiritual realm.
See, the truth is that if you sin, God is not angry with you!
He has already provided the blood of Jesus to cater for the sin.
However, God is not also thrilled with your choice to sin because it is a total downgrade from who He has created you to be in the spirit.
It is very liberating to see that when you sin, God is not mad at you. Rather, when you sin, you are living below your nature and become an ordinary dusty being that the devil can have access to – after all, he was condemned to eat dust.
You see, the more you gaze at the mirror of the Word, the more you see yourself in the light of who you have been created to be.
When you gaze into the mirror of the word continually, you find out that you were actually designed to walk over sin, sicknesses, temptations, precarious circumstances, masturbation, pornography, and yes – the devil!
Once you constantly gaze upon the mirror of the Word, you’d realize that the way you think starts to change.
Romans 12:2 says,
‘…be transformed by the renewing of your mind’
When you change the way you think in the light of who you are in Christ, you would find your actions and deeds the following suit to conform to your spiritual reality.
Let’s look at 2 Corinthians 3:18 again,
‘But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord’
Note the phrase, ‘…are changed into the same image from glory to glory…’
See, you really do not have a pornography or masturbation addiction problem. The real problem is an identity and consciousness problem!
The more you gaze at the mirror of the Word of God, the more the way you think changes.
The more the way you think changes to conform to the realities of your spirit man as described by the Word of God, the more you manifest the glory of God – which is who you are in the Spirit.
The more you manifest the glory of God physically, the more victory you would experience over sin, sickness, poverty, masturbation, pornography and whatever the devil throws at your path.
You can say this word of prayer:
Sweet Holy Spirit, I ask you to draw my heart more to my spiritual mirror – which is the Word of God. Open the eyes of my understanding and cause me to walk fully in the light of who you have created me to be
NOTE: This post is over 20,000 words long and is available as a book. If you’d like to get the book, go here
VI. WORDS ONWARDS
One of the most awe-inspiring portions of the Bible to me can be found in Genesis 1:2-3,
‘And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light’
Here, we see the Spirit of God moving upon the face of the deep. There was formlessness, void and darkness and no matter what the Spirit of God wanted to do to remedy the situation, He couldn’t do it. You know why?
Verse 3 gives us the answer:
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light (Emphasis mine)
Powerful words there!
The Almighty God Who created the Heavens and the Earth had to speak.
God wanted a change in the scenery.
He desired the change so much, but He did not just fold His Arms and think,
‘Hey, I’m God and anything I wish for must come into manifestation’
No!
The fact remains that nothing happened until the moment that God spoke.
‘And God said…’
Now, if the Almighty God could not do anything, until the moment He spoke out His desire, you think the same would not apply to us?
We are created in the image and likeness of the Father. We have His Nature within us and whatever applies to God is applicable to us.
Over the previous chapters, we have been able to establish many truths.
God loves you and the very moment you make Jesus your Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit indwells you.
We have also established that in your spirit man, you are exactly like Jesus Christ and the more you look at the mirror of the word of God, the more you manifest the glory of God and walk in victory.
Yet, in spite of all these truths, some people may still find it challenging to walk in full victory over masturbation and pornography.
The reason is not far-fetched: You are not speaking the Word of God concerning your situation.
You know, it is one thing to study the scriptures, and have the knowledge of who you are in Christ. It is another thing to actively speak these words out.
You have to learn how to cooperate with the Spirit of God within you by the words you speak.
You can’t expect to see many victories when you say things like,
‘Oh, I’m just a common masturbator’ or
‘I’m just too addicted to porn’
If you are an unbeliever, that’s fine; but if you are born again and have the Spirit of God within you, speaking such things could limit the victories you’d experience over masturbation and pornography.
As ordinary as that may seem, you’d start experiencing greater victories as soon as you start making use of this key.
Why do you think I add confessions at the end of each chapter? For fun? To take up space?
Of course not!
I have been able to see in my personal life that there is a lot of power embedded in the words that we speak.
Your words cause the spiritual realities within you to be manifest in the physical realm.
Consider this:
‘The voice of the LORD is upon many waters…the voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty. The voice of the LORD breaketh the cedars of Lebanon…the voice of the LORD divideth the flames of fire. The voice of the LORD shaketh the wilderness…The voice of the LORD maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests…’ (Psalms 29:3, 4 – 5, 7 – 9)
From there, you can see how powerful and active the voice of the LORD is.
Can I let you in on a powerful secret?
Since we are created in God’s image, the voice of the children of God speaking the Words of God has the same effect as though God Himself was speaking!
That’s profound!
Look at this one:
‘For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith’ (Mark 11:23)
To notice the gravity of giving your voice to the Word of God over your situation, pay attention to the number of times that Jesus implied speaking the Word. Jesus said, “say” or “saith” four times in one verse! He did this because He wanted to stress the importance of the spoken word.
When you are faced with mountains of masturbation and pornography in your life, who do you think would remove the mountains? The Spirit of God! And He is dwelling right inside you right now. But the only way you give Him the right of way to physically manifest His Work is when you give your voice to the Word of God regarding your situation!
The thing is that you don’t have to run helter-skelter to find the exact word that would give the Spirit of God the allowance to work with you.
Deuteronomy 30:14 says,
‘But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart…’
The Scripture was written by the Divine Inspiration of the Spirit of God. However, the Holy Spirit is very economical and does not waste words. So, if a particular statement is repeated in various portions of the Bible, take extra great notice of it…because Romans 10:8 also says,
‘But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart…’
God had to speak the world into existence by the Word of His Mouth. Without the Word, the Spirit of God could not do anything, despite His express and unmistakable Presence on the face of the waters (Genesis 1:2).
In the same vein, despite the wealth of spiritual realities within you as we speak now – the indwelling Holy Spirit in your regenerated spirit – you may not sense His Power in your battle against masturbation and pornography because you are not speaking the Word.
Your words carry power!
Give voice to the word of God and see your challenges responding to you as they would to God.
‘We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken: we also believe, and therefore we speak’ (2 Corinthians 4:13)
Your choice to speak the Word of God is a clear indication of the fact that you have a true belief in the spiritual realities within you.
When you speak out the Word, rather than merely thinking about it, you stir up faith within you. The Bible clearly states that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). This doesn’t only apply to preaching to the lost, but also in your struggle against masturbation and pornography.
The way the food you eat must pass through your mouth before the nutrients they carry can reflect in your body is the same way the words you speak out with your mouth have the ability to birth manifestations in your world.
Psalms 45:1 says,
‘My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer’
Your tongue is the pen you use in writing the manifestations you want to see!
In addition, when you speak the word out, the devil also hears you and carries away his wares of tares from you. Note that Jesus did not counter the three temptations by thinking on the Word. Nope, He spoke the Word out aloud (Matthew 4; Luke 4)!
Let me show you how you can manifest victory over masturbation and pornography by the words of your mouth,
For example, 2 Corinthians 2:14 says,
‘Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place’
You can release victory over masturbation and porn by personalizing the verse this way,
Now thanks be to God who always leads me in triumph over masturbation and pornography because I am in Christ. And because I am in Christ, He makes me manifest the sweet smell of His Knowledge in every place I find myself – whether in secret or in open
Did you get that?
Okay, let’s try it with another verse,
Philippians 4:13 says,
‘I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me’
To personalize the verse, you can say it this way,
I can do all things and break free from the bondage of masturbation and pornography through Christ who infuses His strength in me
Search for more verses and personalize them, reading and confessing the Word loudly with your eyes, mouth, and heart…then, you’d fully appreciate the power of words.
With the full knowledge, you now have, say this confession out loud and clear,
Father, I thank you for opening the eyes of my understanding to the power of words. Now, I know that sheer muscle and willpower would not make anything happen in my battle with masturbation and pornography. Now I believe and speak your Words that are both Spirit and life-giving. Thank you, Father because you always hear me.
NOTE: This post is over 20,000 words long and is available as a book. If you’d like to get the book, go here
VII. THE POWER OF YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS
Imagine yourself walking through the street in broad daylight. Everything is kind of uneventful until the moment you see a hefty man holding a large, cold, black steel gun standing ahead of you. He’s looking very mean, and just then, he casts a menacing glance at you. Then he starts walking in your direction.
What would your reaction be?
Many people would instantly wet their pants.
Some would start yelling out for help, while others would attempt to run away.
Few may consider bracing themselves up for a session of mortal combat.
Okay, now let’s twist the plot a bit:
What if just across the street from where you and the gun-slinging bad guy stood, there were at least a dozen cameras and many more watchful eyes? What if a guy wearing a face-cap turned backward suddenly bellowed something like: ACTION?
How would you now feel with all these knowledge at the back of your mind?
Relieved?
Happy it’s just a film?
At peace, knowing fully well that there would be no real gunshots and bloodshed?
Well, whatever your answer is, permit me to tell you what happened between the two scenarios I painted.
In the first one, you were not aware that the entire exercise was only a scene for a movie. This is simply because you were not conscious of the cameras and movie director on the other side of the street. In the second scenario, you were already aware that you’re standing on the location of a scene from a film.
You know what happened? You just exercised the Power of your Consciousness.
Many times in the battle against masturbation and pornography, it almost always seems as if the temptation to masturbate or watch porn is always stronger after one has stopped the habit for a while. This happens because the individual struggling with the habit is exercising his/her consciousness in the wrong way.
You see, despite your desire not to masturbate or watch pornography, the very fact that you are thinking about these habits would make you vulnerable to falling back into them. When you get to the state where all you can think of is how you would NOT masturbate or watch porn, the overall effect could be counter-productive.
The reason?
In your bid to make sure you don’t masturbate or watch pornography, all you think about is the habit you are trying to overcome! Eventually, your mind soon buckles under the weight of the pictures you are giving it and then you find yourself back to square one.
Take a look at Proverbs 23:7,
‘For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…’
You are what you think about.
You manifest what you continually think about.
You are the product of your most consistent thoughts!
So, if all you think about is masturbation, pornography and how to overcome them, in essence, you are still a masturbator and porn addict.
You have refused to accept what Jesus Christ did for you by virtue of His Death and Resurrection.
You have refused to live in the realities of the spiritual realm.
You have refused to acknowledge that the power of God is resident in you.
Instead, you choose to be continually conscious of masturbation and pornography and how to overcome them.
Proverbs 26:20 says,
‘Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out…’
See, you have been given all you need to walk in victory over masturbation and pornography. But the fact remains that you are still feeding the wood of thoughts about masturbation and pornography into the dying embers of your old habits and urges. The effect is naturally predictable: the flames would rise up again.
Little wonder Jesus ‘said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life…’ (Luke 12:22)
Jesus knew the importance of whatever we feed into the streams of our consciousness by constantly thinking about them. He was saying that we should not bring ourselves to the point where all we are concerned about is our worries and struggles and battles.
Check out what Jesus later said in that same text,
‘But rather seek ye the kingdom of God…’ (Luke 12:31)
In other words, Jesus tells us to walk in the full consciousness of our place in God’s kingdom – not just when we get to heaven, but right here on earth.
Jesus is telling us to walk in the consciousness of the truth that we are victors in Him. He is telling us to walk in the consciousness that we are children of God. Jesus is telling us to walk in the consciousness that we are joint-heirs with Christ and members of the kingdom of God.
This is a powerful truth that could change your life forever.
Don’t waste your days (and nights) plotting on the strategies you would use in overcoming masturbation and pornography. Instead, shift your focus to what Christ has done for you.
Colossians 3:2 says,
‘Set your affection on things above…’
You are an ambassador for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20) and you have been given all things to enjoy (1 Corinthians 3:21; 1 Timothy 6:17). You are from above and you are above all (John 3:31). Therefore, you are given the right to exercise God’s Power here on earth. You are entitled to all perks and privileges as a child of God.
These are the things that you should be conscious of.
Philippians 4:8 says,
“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true…honest…just…pure…lovely…of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things”
You know the truth? God has given you victory.
You know what’s honest? You have every right to utilize all that God has deposited in you. For heaven’s sake, He placed His Spirit in you!
You know what’s just? You don’t have to hang on to what Christ has shed His precious Blood for!
You know what’s pure, lovely and of a good report? You are a victor and you shouldn’t think of yourself anything less than that by refusing to walk in the consciousness of all Christ has done for you. He is your sufficiency (2 Corinthians 3:3) and strength (Philippians 4:13).
Paul’s Example – What Are You Conscious Of?
Paul had this to say under the influence of the Holy Spirit,
‘And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men’ (Acts 24:16)
When Paul made this statement, he was making his defense to a Gentile governor after his religious countrymen had wanted him dead. Paul could have decided at this point to let his consciousness linger on the evil that his fellow Jews had in store for him. He could have blamed God for all the things that had befallen him ever since he made the decision to follow Christ. Instead, Paul chose to exercise his conscience to be free of offense towards God and his fellow men.
By the way, the word translated as conscience in this verse means moral consciousness in the original Greek text.
So, in spite of all that he faced, Paul refused to let his consciousness linger on any lows of his life and ministry. He refused to harbor any thoughts of hurt in his mind. Instead, Paul brought to his consciousness the truth that he was a member of God’s Kingdom and an ambassador for Christ. In place of bleak prospects, Paul saw an opportunity to share his testimony and minister the gospel of Christ.
You Too Can Do The Same
A reason why you may still be contending with masturbation and pornography, as well as, other forms of sin is because you are conscious of these things.
Sin-consciousness is never a good thing because it would make you continually languish in the bondage of sin. Sin-consciousness causes sin to have dominion over you (Romans 6:14)
Look at this:
‘This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh’ (Galatians 5:16)
Note that the scripture did not say, ‘Do not fulfill the lust of the flesh, so that you may be able to walk in the Spirit’.
No! Paul said, ‘Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh’.
This is another example of cause and effect.
It’s just like saying, ‘Buy one and get one free’.
As a result of buying one item, you are automatically getting the other one for free. Your aim is not to get one free so that you’d be able to buy one!
Yet, that’s the approach many of us take with our consciousness.
See, it is as a result of your walking in the Spirit that you would naturally not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Instead, in Christendom today, you find a lot of people trying not to fulfill the lust of the flesh so that they’ll be able to walk in the Spirit.
Not only is it impossible, but is very frustrating. Believe me.
You cannot trump God’s order of things and still expect to see the same results.
You cannot work out your salvation without consciously acknowledging His Work within you (Philippians 2:12-13).
You cannot go farther than the rest without consciously recognizing the grace of God bestowed upon you (1 Corinthians 15:10).
You cannot be strong in the Lord without being conscious of the Power of His Might resident in you (Ephesians 6:10).
In the same vein, you cannot overcome sin by being consumed with the thoughts of how not to sin!
As unconventional as that may sound, it is the truth: If you want to walk in victory over sin, don’t think sin!
Instead, continually be conscious of the Holy Spirit and your regenerated spirit man.
By being Spirit-conscious, you automatically overcome the sin issue.
The same principle occurs in your struggles with masturbation and pornography. Stop thinking about these habits and how to overcome them.
Instead, focus on the victory that Christ has wrought for you by His precious blood.
Think of this and you become victory-conscious, totally free from the stranglehold of masturbation and pornography.
‘How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water’ (Hebrews 9:14; 10:22)
This is great news!
This is the truth!
Your conscience (moral consciousness) has been purged and made clean. That’s what happened when you became a believer of Christ and His Redemptive Work. It simply does not pay to remain the old “you” when the new “you” is seated with Christ in Heavenly places far above principalities, powers, old habits and odd urges.
You are royalty! Now, walk in the full, conscious awareness that truth.
You can make this confession out loud and clear,
Heavenly Father, I worship and adore you with the full awareness that you are here and you are listening to me right now. O LORD, let Your Kingdom come with full force into my life and cause me to always walk in the full consciousness and confidence that you would never leave me nor forsake me in all my endeavors.
Thank You, LORD because you always hear me in the Name of Your Precious Son, Jesus Christ
NOTE: This post is over 20,000 words long and is available as a book. If you’d like to get the book, go here
VIII. REINING EMOTIONS THAT ONCE REIGNED
Do you remember the story involving Jesus and Lazarus’ sisters that I shared with you in Chapter 3 of this book?
Well, it seems that we would have to revisit the story again to pick a point.
John 11:6 says,
‘…He abode two days still in the same place where He was’
I had to seriously resist the urge to name this chapter: The Power of a Comma. You’d see why shortly.
As earlier discussed, the story in John 11 started with Lazarus’ sisters knowing that Jesus loved Lazarus and beckoning Him to come over to heal their brother. I believe we’ve gotten the lesson there.
John 11:5 reveals a key point that we need to get before we move on,
‘Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister and Lazarus’
When I was studying this story in the original Greek text, I found out that the love that Jesus Christ had for Martha, Mary and Lazarus was much deeper than what Lazarus’ sisters attributed to Christ.
While Mary and Martha attributed a brotherly kind of love to Jesus in John 11:2, the love that Jesus had for them was, in reality, a deeper agape love that transcends human understanding!
Hence, ‘He abode two days still in the same place where He was’
Hang in there, you’d be astonished by my point.
When you consider the fact that the original Greek manuscript in which the New Testament was first written had no commas, look at what one comma would do to that verse.
Many would read that verse as: He abode two days still in the same place where He was.
Not bad. But with the comma, consider this: He abode two days still, in the same place where He was.
Friends, this verse is saying more than the fact that Jesus continued to abide in the same place He was for two days. Jesus wasn’t staying in the same place, on the same spot, sitting still – lotus-style – for two whole days.
No, what that verse is saying is that Jesus stayed in the same calm state of mind for two days!
Now, that’s profound.
You see, while He was on earth, Jesus was 100% Divine and at the same time 100% human.
He was in every sense like us.
He slept (Matthew 8:24).
He cried (John 11:35).
He was tired (John 4:6).
He was hungry (Mark 11:12).
He was thirsty (John 19:28).
He was human!
As a result of the fact mentioned in John 11:5, ‘Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister and Lazarus’, I believe that Jesus had felt very strong emotions for Lazarus, Mary, and Martha and must have been very eager to go down to Bethany and get Lazarus healed.
However, if Jesus had done that, it would have merely been an impulsive emotional response, rather than by the leading of the Holy Spirit in Him.
Does this mean that our emotions are evil?
No, they are not.
In fact, like your imagination, your emotion is a tool that can be used to God’s glory when used appropriately.
Jesus Himself was often moved with compassion before He ministered healing, provision, and deliverance (Matthew 9:36, Mark 5:19, Luke 7:13 are just a few of numerous examples).
However, when your emotions become the driving force of your life, rather than the indwelling Holy Spirit in you, there is a high risk of you totally missing out in what God has in store for you.
You would find yourself susceptible to masturbation and pornography.
Jesus had to stay two days in the same place so that He would be led solely by the Holy Spirit within Him.
Furthermore, it is important to note that the fact that Jesus stayed still (calm) in the same place did not mean that He disconnected Himself from what was going on around Him. It does not mean that Jesus became a monk or hermit for two days.
Rather, it simply implies that Jesus did not allow His emotions to be the driving force for His movement. Instead, He chose to be Spirit-led and Spirit-conscious, even as He was interacting with His disciples and friends for two days.
How This Applies To You
As I mentioned in a previous chapter, Man was created by God to be a sexual being. And if we would be brutally honest with ourselves, there are times you would experience certain hormonal fluxes that could catalyze sexual emotions that may make you tend toward masturbation and pornography.
For example, it is normal for a male to have an erection in the morning.
Now, when these hormonal spikes or sexual emotions rise, you shouldn’t start feeling bad or dirty. These feelings are perfectly normal, in fact, they are part of the things that make you human. They would not be there if God didn’t design them to be there.
However, in the light of all the spiritual realities we have shared thus far, these emotions should never dominate you.
God has empowered you to be in charge of your emotions.
Your emotions should not dictate to you how you should make use of your body.
Rather, you should be the one dictating to your body and emotions how you want them to respond to things.
Psalm 119:109 says,
‘My soul is continually in my hand…’
The way your soul – which is the seat of your will, emotions, and intellect – acts is totally in your power!
You have to bring your emotions under your control.
Before you gave your life to Christ, your emotions reigned over your entire conduct.
Now you are a new creation.
The old has passed away and now you can rein your emotions by the power that is within you.
The Role Of Fasting
A powerful way that would make it much easier for you to rein your emotions is fasting.
You see, the body is nothing more than a container for the real you.
That’s why if your mind is in a state of turmoil, you may sweat profusely in an air-conditioned room.
That’s why if you are busy enough, you may forget that you have not eaten the whole day.
That’s why an individual would start manifesting the appropriate symptoms, once the doctor tells him/her that he/she has such sickness – even if such person had felt perfectly okay before the report came through.
The funny thing is that the symptoms would instantly vanish in the individual if the doctor informs him/her that there had been a mix-up and the report was another person’s own!
My point is that your body simply responds to whatever your soul or your spirit sends to it.
We have already established the numerous spiritual realities embedded in your spirit man. However, due to the fact that many of us have become so used to living from our emotions – which is in the soul realm – our bodies have been somewhat programmed to be more receptive to our souls, rather than our spirits.
This is the point where fasting is important.
You see, your fasting does not move God.
Shocking? But it is true.
The Bible tells us that God is a Spirit (John 4:24) and as a result, He does not eat! You cannot hold Him to ransom because you’ve decided not to eat for a few days!
Can I shock you some more?
The devil and his demons are spirits too, and they do not eat too!
Seriously speaking, your fasting does not intimidate the devil one bit.
The only person that is affected by your decision to fast is you!
When you fast, you ‘hack’ into your body’s program of responding to your emotions by default.
You are able to live from your spirit man with more ease.
You are able to draw out of the riches and wealth of the spiritual realities embedded in your spirit man.
You become more sensitive to the dynamics of the spirit and you are able to manifest more wisdom, love, and self-control in the physical realm.
Look at what David said in Psalms 35:13,
‘…I humbled my soul with fasting…’
It’s not only your body that becomes subject to your spirit when you fast; your soul is not left out too.
When you fast, everything about you becomes subject to your spirit man – including your emotions!
The Role Of Praying In The Spirit
In Chapter 5, we talked about the Ministry of the Holy Spirit. At the end of that chapter, we talked about how we can partner with the Holy Spirit.
You see, praying in the Spirit is one effective way of reining your emotions under the control of your spirit man.
Jude 20 says,
‘But ye beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost’
1 Corinthians 14:4 also says,
‘He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself…’
Both texts relate speaking in tongues with a personal building/edification process that takes place in the realm of the spirit.
A word picture I like to use to explain this phenomenon is this:
Imagine two healthy men of the same age. One of them has ripped muscles bulging in every part of his body while the other is just ordinary-looking.
The question is this: Does the man with the big biceps and 6-pack abs have an extra body part that is lacking in the other man?
The answer is no!
The truth’s that both men have the same body parts but while one has decided to discipline himself and build his muscles towards their full potential, the other didn’t do anything about his.
Do you know that the same scenario plays itself out in the realm of the spirit!
As believers, God has given us all that it takes to live in victory in this life (2 Peter 1:3). He has put all these together in our spirit man.
However, many believers do not pay any attention to the development of their spirit man. Like the ordinary man in the analogy I just shared, their spirit man is a bundle of godly potentials – nothing more. In such people, their bodies are totally under the influence of their souls and emotions. They are sensual, and as we have explained earlier in this book, the Bible calls them carnal.
When you pray in the spirit, the spiritual analogue is as if you’re are taking your spirit man to the gym and pumping your muscles.
The truth is that the more you work out in the spirit, the more power you see manifested by your spirit man. And when your spirit man becomes activated in this capacity, your soul, your emotions and your body would naturally become subject to it!
*
Friend, you too can be free from going back to masturbation and pornography if you would follow Jesus’ example:
Be still, rein your emotions and let God by His Spirit within you move through you!
You can say this confession,
Dear Holy Spirit, I thank You for the revelation You have given unto me. I receive the grace to draw out the strength You have infused into my being. Starting from now, I use your Strength to keep my body and emotions in total subjection to Your will and purposes.
Thank You Holy Spirit, because it is done.
NOTE: This post is over 20,000 words long and is available as a book. If you’d like to get the book, go here
IX. OVERCOMING THE TEMPTATION
In the light of all the truths that have been shared in this book thus far, it would be very misleading to tell you that the fact that you are a new creation in Christ means that you would never, ever be faced with the temptation to sin. Temptations would continue to rise because we still live in this corrupt world, and people are still yielding themselves to the devil on a daily basis.
Temptations are normal experiences that every believer would face at one point in time or the other. As you know, it is not a sin to be tempted, but it is a sin to fall into temptations. However, there is no need to be afraid of them for the following reasons:
First of all, God is faithful not to allow us to be tempted above the level of grace we are conscious of at the moment.
‘There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it’ (1 Corinthians 10:13)
The fact that you may be facing a temptation simply means that you have what it takes to overcome it. It also means that there is always a way of escape from that temptation. If you did not have what it took to overcome a particular temptation, God would not have allowed you to face it in the first place.
Furthermore, we can be sure to overcome temptations because Jesus Christ knows what it is like to face temptations. Remember, He was 100% Divine and 100% Human.
Hebrews 4:15,
‘For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin’
Jesus Christ is our High Priest and He is sympathetic with our challenges with temptations. He was tempted in every way like us, yet did not sin. And because He did not sin, Jesus Christ is a willing partner with us on overcoming the temptations.
Note that God is not the tempter. He is not trying to test your resolve to see whether you’d fall back into masturbation or pornography.
James 1:13 says,
‘Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempt any man’
God is the good God. He is the Giver of good and perfect gifts (James 1:17). He is the author of all that is good (Psalm 85:12) and no evil can be found in Him.
The culprit of all temptations is the devil!
However, the good news is that we can always win the devil in the overcoming temptations he throws at our paths to make us fall back into the habit.
Temptations 101
Many people attribute more power than is due to the devil. The funny thing is that the devil is actually not powerful at all.
Jesus said,
‘All power has been given unto me in heaven and on earth…’ (Matthew 28:18)
Jesus never said, ‘Most power has been given unto me…’
Neither did He say, ‘Much of the power has been given unto me…’
Rather, He said,
‘All power has been given unto me in heaven and on earth…’
Quick question: If all power has been given to the Jesus Christ, where is the remaining?
That’s right, there is no remaining power anywhere else.
Satan has no power anywhere. What is actually empowering the devil is our ignorance of his tricks.
Look, the devil is not wise. Neither does he have a bag of limitless tricks that he can use to deceive us.
The Word has revealed to us the summary of every temptation that we would ever face as believers.
1 John 2:16 says,
‘For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but of the world’
Did you see the three things?
Lust of the flesh.
Lust of the eyes.
Pride of life.
The truth is that every form of temptation you’d ever face in this life would either step up from lust or pride!
What’s pride? Thinking of yourself more highly than you should.
What’s lust? Having a strong desire or craving to satisfy yourself.
The root of both pride and lust is SELF!
This is very profound.
If the devil is able to shift your focus and attention to your selfish desires and cravings, he has won half of the battle.
Adam’s Garden And Jesus’ Wilderness
Let’s check out how the devil was able to get Eve to succumb to his temptation and consequently sin,
‘And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat’ (Genesis 3:6)
Look at the striking similarities between 1 John 2:16 and Genesis 3:6
| 1 John 2:16 | Genesis 3:6 |
| Lust of the Flesh | Good for Food |
| Lust of the Eyes | Pleasant to the Eyes |
| Pride of Life | Desired to make One Wise |
The First Adam fell because the devil was able to cause him to place all the emphasis on his Self.
To show you that the devil is not wise at all, let’s see Luke’s account of the temptation of Jesus Christ,
‘And the devil said unto Him, if thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. And Jesus answered him saying, it is written, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word of God. And the devil, taking Him up into a high mountain shewed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto Him, all this power will I give thee, and the glory of them, ad to whomever I will I give it. If thou, therefore, wilt worship me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the LORD thy God and Him only shall thy serve. And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto Him, if thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down hence: For it is written, He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. And Jesus answering said to him, it is said, Thou shalt not tempt the LORD thy God’ (Luke 4:3 – 12)
Again, we find the same trend in the way the devil tempts.
| 1 John 2:16 | Luke 4:3 – 12 |
| Lust of the Flesh | Command this stone that it be made bread (Luke 4:3) |
| Lust of the Eyes | Shewed Him all the kingdoms of the world (Luke 4:5) |
| Pride of Life | Cast thyself down hence (Luke 4:8) |
I think it is very apparent that the devil is always going to attempt to get you down through the area of lust and pride.
He’s going to want you to indulge in self-gratification.
It is non-negotiable.
He did it with the first Adam, he did it with the Last Adam, and he would try to make you fall into sin using the same tactics.
Another Wrapper, Same Contents
Now, if you notice the two scenarios painted earlier, you’d find out that the two temptations were very alike in their most basic form. Of course, satan did not tempt Adam and Eve to turn stones into bread; neither did he tempt Jesus to eat of the forbidden fruit. What the devil simply did was to repackage the basic form of his temptations to fit into the unique circumstances of his ‘temptees’.
Another way the devil repackages his temptations is by making use of the first-person pronoun to plant thoughts in your head. For instance, the devil would not come to you and say,
‘You want to masturbate’ or ‘You want to watch pornography now’.
Rather, the devil would use the first-person pronoun to sow thoughts like these in your mind:
‘I need to masturbate’ or ‘I have to watch pornography as soon as possible’
Notice that this tactic is true to his style – pride, lust and a shift of your focus and attention to how you can satisfy your Self!
Having an understanding of these things is very key in understanding how to overcome temptations.
The Mechanism Of Temptations
‘But Peter said, Ananias, why hath satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto man, but unto God’ (Acts 5:3 – 4)
Here, Peter asks Ananias two questions:
The first was pertaining to why Ananias allowed the devil to fill his heart to lie. On the other hand, the second was why Ananias conceived the idea in his heart.
These questions look innocent, but both contain the mechanism through which temptations lead to sin.
In Biology, we are taught that a man fills his wife with the seed of copulation before the wife can conceive and get pregnant. We understand that it is not every time that a man has sex with his wife that she would conceive and get pregnant. However, the chances of a woman getting pregnant increases with the frequency of sex.
The same thing happens when the devil attempts to tempt you.
The devil would try to fill your mind – either with doubts about the Word of God, self-oriented thoughts or a combination of the two.
He did it with Adam; he did it with Jesus, and he would try to do the same with you.
In Eve’s case, the devil tried to get her to doubt God’s word concerning her welfare.
‘…hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden…ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods…’ (Genesis 3:1, 4 – 5)
Note how the devil first tried to twist God’s words concerning Eve’s welfare.
How could God have placed Man in the garden and then told them not to eat of every tree in the Garden?
To Eve’s credit, she was able to withstand the first wave of the devil’s attacks on her mind.
Sadly, she couldn’t do anything about the devil’s rebuttal.
Once the devil was able to fill Eve’s mind with the suggestion that God could be hiding something great from her, only then could she shift her focus and attention away from all that God had made her to all that she selfishly thought she could be.
That was the point where the devil was able to get Eve’s mind filled with constant thoughts about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
In Jesus’ case, the devil came barely 40 days after the heavens opened and the Spirit of God descended like a dove and a voice from heaven audibly said,
‘…This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’ (Matthew 3:17).
Do you know the first thing the devil said to Jesus?
‘…if thou be the Son of God…’ (Matthew 4:3, Luke 4:3)
Can you see the same trend there?
The devil tried to fill Jesus’ mind with doubts about His Sonship, despite an audible voice from heaven declaring Jesus as the Son of God!
At the same time, the devil tried to take advantage of the fact that Jesus was on a 40-day fast and would have been very hungry.
In your own case, the devil could come up to you, warping and distorting God’s Words and standards, perhaps concerning sexual purity.
He could try to fill your mind with first-person thoughts like,
Why am I so hard on myself, am I not free from the law and under grace? Or
The Bible says, Take a little wine for the stomach’s sake…let me masturbate and/or watch porn this once and I will ask for forgiveness later – after all, God is merciful and plenteous in mercy
My spirit man is safe…I can do anything I want with my body
Listen up, the devil knows that he only has a short while and he is doing everything in his power to get the minds of men and women filled with his seed of corruption – regardless of the method.
The devil is on a rampage and he is sowing his wild oats into the minds of those whose guards are down because they are ignorant of his devices.
He’s going to get through to some through that innocent-looking comedy movie with numerous allusions to sexual acts.
For some others, he would trip them off with that sensual advert on television, showing just a little nudity to start the ball rolling.
He could use random and innocent gists about the ‘sexcapades’ of your unbelieving colleagues and classmates to get at you.
Whichever way, the devil would continue to do all in his limited power to fill your mind with these thoughts.
The devil’s strategy in trying to get you to succumb to his temptations and fall into sin is ridiculously simple:
Filling precedes conception!
This is why if you continually put yourself in a vulnerable position where the devil can bombard your mind with this kind of thoughts, you would actually increase the chances of an evil conception occurring in your mind that would let you fall into sin!
James 1:15 says,
‘Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death’
So many people are very careless with the way they allow the devil to fill them up with ease. They claim to be in control of the situation and it is until they are neck deep in the situation that they start looking for a way of escape.
That is not wisdom at all!
Which way do you think a woman can best avoid a pregnancy: By abstaining from sex or by having an abortion?
Friends, wisdom is profitable to direct in these matters.
How To Overcome Temptations
Believe me, sincerely, the way to overcome temptations is very, very straightforward too:
Filling precedes conception!!!
Are you surprised? Don’t be.
If you have been paying attention to this book thus far, you’d find that we have already discussed many ways we can prevent the devil from filling us with his seed of corruption.
You need to continue to fill your heart and mind with the engrafted word of God which is able to save your soul.
You need to continue to remind yourself of who you are by looking in the mirror of the Word.
You need to speak out the confession of your identity in Christ continually.
You need to continually shift your consciousness to the spiritual realities of your born again spirit.
The truth is this: You can only be tempted with what you think about.
And glory to God, you can only think about one thing at a time!
So, if you continually fill your mind with the word of God, it would be totally impossible for the devil to suggest evil thoughts to you because your heart and mind is already filled up with God’s Words.
Little wonder 1 John 3:9 says,
‘Whoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for His seed remaineth in him: and He cannot sin, because he is born of God’
Note the same mechanism at work here again: Filling precedes conception!
The more you fill yourself with God’s seed, the more spiritual conceptions are occurring in the core of your being. The more you realize that your spirit man is born of God’s seed (the Word of God), the more you walk in the consciousness that you cannot masturbate, watch porn or fall into temptation.
You simply cannot – you don’t have the ability to fall into the temptation.
That’s God’s plan for every believer!
You can say this confession,
I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, I cannot sin
I am born of God, I cannot sin
I have the mind of Christ, I cannot sin
God’s love is shed abroad in my heart, I cannot sin
The Holy Spirit is resident in His Temple – which is my body, I cannot sin
I am a partaker of God’s Divine Nature, I cannot sin
Glory to God!!!
NOTE: This post is over 20,000 words long and is available as a book. If you’d like to get the book, go here
X. OVERCOMING GUILT
One of the strongest battles encountered by those overcoming the control of masturbation and pornography is the battle of guilt. As it is a great obstacle to those who are coming out of the habit, I deemed it fit to dedicate a whole chapter to it.
You see, when you chose to break the habit and accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, you were translated from the kingdom of the devil to the kingdom of God’s Son.
But the devil would not want to give up on you without a fight. The Bible tells us that much:
‘You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature, we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else’ (Ephesians 2:2-3 New Living Translation)
Satan, who is the god of this evil world, has made him blind, unable to see the glorious light of the Gospel that is shining upon him or to understand the amazing message we preach about the glory of Christ, who is God. (2 Corinthians 4:4 The Living Bible)
Now, the interesting thing about the battle, as was mentioned in the previous chapter, is that it is fought in the battleground of the mind.
You see, the Ministry of the Holy Spirit entails Him suggesting the thoughts of God into our minds. If you are expecting the Holy Spirit to visibly descend on your shoulder like a dove and physically whisper words into your ears, then you have to do a reality check.
The Holy Spirit is not going to do that. Why? He is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). The Holy Spirit would always deal with your own spirit. He would always suggest thoughts to you that your spirit deep down inside you would know it is the right thing to do. This is why Romans 12:2 says,
‘And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God’
When your mind is renewed, you are able to easily follow the thoughts that the Holy Spirit places in your spirit and consequently do the will of God.
How do you renew your mind?
As we’ve discussed many times in this book, your mind is renewed by looking at yourself in the Mirror of God’s Word.
Now, there’s a catch: The devil primarily operates by suggesting thoughts into your mind – as we have established in the previous chapter.
1 Tim 4:1-2 says,
‘But the Spirit speaks expressly, that in latter times some shall apostatize from the faith, giving their mind to deceiving spirits and teachings of demons speaking lies in hypocrisy, cauterized as to their own conscience’ (Darby’s Translation)
The devil operates when his deceiving spirits and demons sow lies into the minds of his targets. Again, if you are expecting the devil to appear before you with horns on his head and a pitchfork in his right hand, you have to do a reality check now. As we have established earlier, the devil, his deceiving spirits, and his demons are all evil spirits that you can’t see with your physical eyes. And they operate by speaking lies into your mind.
So, a little problem seems to arise:
If the Holy Spirit mostly operates by sowing seeds of thoughts into our minds and the devil operates using a similar approach, how can we tell the thoughts apart?
The challenge is always going to be a dilemma for many believers. It’s normal; after all, they had previously spent a large chunk of their lives in the kingdom of darkness, totally used to being led by the lies of the devil and his minions.
But thank God, we now have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16) and we are not ignorant about Satan’s scheming (2 Corinthians 2:11).
The True Roots Of All Guilt
Jesus Himself had already given us the way to tell the wiles of the devil apart from the promptings of the Holy Spirit:
‘Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them’ (Matt 7:20)
You would know the source of the thoughts by the contents of the thoughts.
Would the Holy Spirit arouse you with sensual thoughts?
Would He prompt you to masturbate?
Would the Holy Spirit nudge you to watch pornography?
Of course, the answer to all these is an emphatic ‘No’!
That was easy, right? Okay, let’s go one better:
Would the Holy Spirit make you feel guilty about the last time you masturbated or watched pornography, when in reality, all had been catered for in the blood?
Would He shoot condemning thoughts about how bad you were in the past before you were saved?
Would He tell you that nemesis would catch up with you one day?
To answer all these questions, you have to know what exactly is happening on your behalf at this point in time.
Romans 8:33 gives us that picture. I like the way the Amplified Bible translated that verse,
‘Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect [when it is] God Who justifies [that is, Who puts us in right relation to Himself? Who shall come forward and accuse or impeach those whom God has chosen? Will God, Who acquits us?]’
Did you see that?
It is God that is justifying you. He is the one Who made the first move in putting you in right standing with Him. He is the one Who rendered you innocent and just before His eyes.
Now, check the next verse,
‘Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us’ (Romans 8:33)
This truth is so profound.
It tells us that if anyone has the right to condemn us, it is Christ Jesus. Remember, He is not only our Savior but also our Lord too. He owns us now. But again, in an unexpected plot twist, instead of Jesus to condemn us, in His love for us, He is making intercessions for us before God. Right now!
That’s the gospel truth!
Furthermore, Romans 8:26 says,
‘Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered’
That’s right! The Holy Spirit is also making intercessions for us whenever we are hopelessly unable to ever pray for ourselves.
So, if God isn’t condemning us with guilt; Jesus Christ isn’t condemning us with guilt, and the Holy Spirit isn’t condemning us with guilt.
That leaves us with only one option – the devil.
James explains better to us,
‘Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning’ (James 1:13, 17)
We are now in the kingdom of God. He loves us so much and He would never, ever attempt to tempt us with evil! That’s simply not His character. Instead, God blesses us with good and perfect gifts.
The sooner you get this truth, the sooner you can be free from the weights of guilt and condemnation. Look, the devil no longer has any power over you. You are no longer under the dominion of the devil. No! You are now operating in another realm. You are now operating in the kingdom of God.
The Bible says the devil is ‘as a roaring lion’ (1 Peter 5:8). He is not a real lion. He’s merely pretending to be a lion. He knows that the Holy Spirit is doing a great job in your heart so that you are no longer enticed by your old lusts and evil desires. The devil can see that your consciousness has been in the light of your identity in Christ and masturbation and pornography no longer arouse you.
So, what does the devil do?
He attempts to attack you from another extreme: guilt.
Friend, guilt isn’t from God. God loves you and values you too much to shoot condemnation into your heart and mind.
Remember how we learned from the last chapter that the devil would tempt you by shifting the focus to your Self!
But now, since he realizes that you are growing in the light of your victory, the devil would try to come against you through guilt.
The devil is not wise and he doesn’t have any fresh tactics to make you fall, so, he repackages the temptation again to make you doubt what God has done for you.
So, instead of him speaking thoughts like, ’I feel like watching pornography’ or ‘I have to masturbate’ into your mind, the devil would replace those thoughts with, ‘I feel so bad that I used to masturbate in the past’ or ‘I wish I had never known what porn was’
It is very obvious that in both sets of thoughts, the focus has been shifted back to the self.
If only you understand the depths of God’s love for you. He values you too much to be shooting condemnation into your heart and mind.
Romans 8:1 says so succinctly,
‘There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit’
You too can be free to walk away from the constant thoughts of condemnation and guilt.
You too can be free to walk away in the conquering power of God’s love for you.
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear (1 John 4:18)
You too can be free from guilt and self-condemnation from this moment onwards.
Just say this confession:
Thank You Lord for saving and delivering me to the uttermost; I appreciate you for always making intercessions for me. Now, I walk away from the shackles and chains of guilt that have tied me down to the past, limited my enjoyment of all You have for me in the present and have prevented me from walking into the future you have in store for me. I quench every fiery dart of condemnation shot at me by the precious Blood of Jesus. I believe I am free, I confess I am free, I know I am free. Thank You Lord!
NOTE: This post is over 20,000 words long and is available as a book. If you’d like to get the book, go here
CONCLUDING WORDS
You’ve read this remarkable book. What are your reactions?
No doubt, much of the things discussed here are new to you.
Part of it may have confused you because it took a totally different turn from what you might have been exposed to in your search for freedom from masturbation and pornography.
But right there in your heart, the Holy Spirit is bearing witness with you that the words I’ve written here are true.
I trust that your eyes have been opened to the physical and spiritual implications of exposure to masturbation and pornography.
I believe you also would embrace the mandate of God and see to it that others are delivered from the deadly claws of masturbation and pornography.
But above all, I trust that you are now fully kitted with what it takes to walk in victory over masturbation and pornography. The bonus is that these truths would give you victory in all aspects of your life.
You’ve been equipped with a revelation of God’s love for you.
You’ve also had an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ, acknowledging Him as your Savior and Lord.
You have been reminded of the Ministry of the Holy Spirit in your life.
You’ve been taught how you should identify yourself through the glass of God’s word.
You’ve been exposed to the power of your words and you’ve been made aware of the power of being conscious of the right things.
You’ve been taught how to keep your emotions in check and you’ve been empowered to overcome temptations and guilt.
In addition, it is important I tell you that all that has been discussed in this book is not intended to be taken as a step-wise approach to freedom from masturbation and pornography.
In fact, it is my deep belief that any individual that has a revelation of the first step as discussed in this book, i.e., a revelation of God’s love, would by default also walk in all the other points mentioned.
The underlying theme of this book is in actual sense, placing much emphasis on a more vibrant relationship with God.
The truth remains that a person in a genuine relationship with God would not be entangled with sinful acts.
Furthermore, the only way a person can have a vibrant relationship with God is when such person has a revelation of God’s love for him/her and he/she responds to it.
No sinful habit can stand the heat of a vibrant relationship with God – and it is my earnest prayer that after you have read this book, your relationship with the Father would be stronger, fuller, richer and deeper than you’ve ever known Him to be.
I am fully convinced that He who has begun this good work in your life would also perform it.
I would love to hear your testimonies.
