I need help. I've constantly been falling into pornography and mastubation. For many years now. I have even fasted and it will seem like its OK but before i know it an back into it again. Please brethren tell me what to do.am really tired of hurting God
The devil has two goals, to keep you from your relationship with the Lord and to keep you from your relationship with believers. How often do you prayer, 5 minutes a day, 5 hours a day? Are you often with other believers?
Lust, sensuality, sexual immorality is self-focused, it is taking, not giving. We need to be imitators of the Lord who gave his life for others.
Romans 8:3
For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh.
Ewane,
You are not hurting God. You are rejecting Him. I know that is not what is in your mind as you engage these thoughts and actions. But, it is true. What also is true is that He right now extends grace to you to come to Him, surrender to Him your whole self and whole life, and live in freedom from this. It requires that you die to yourself and live to Him daily, moment to moment.
There is no method or ABC to victory here. There is a battle that you will never stop. It is fought one minute at a time.
Your sin, Ewane, is not a special sin. It is a heavy burden but not to God. He is well able to deliver you. Yet, I want to make this clear ---- God may very well NOT deliver you quickly. He may, instead, use this to slowly stand you up in Him.
You will seek God continually if you want to walk in the Spirit. He will change your heart. He will, in time and in the face of perhaps many failures by you, draw you toward Him as you keep pressing into Him anyway. This is not about merely delivering you from this particularly vexing sin, but it is His way to teach you how to walk in Him.
There is a time in this process where you will blessedly forget, mostly, the lustful things which now occupy your heart and mind. You will probably never be so fully free from the fleeting but returning flashes of lust that you could never encounter them. You will never be so fully free that you never need to flee those lusts. But you can be so changed, over time, in the Holy Ghost that He can make those thoughts melt like ropes in Samson's wrists.
You have to take step one. You have to start wobbly, you have to start shakily walking in new life.
I would say more about the victory side of this, but time is not available. I have some practical suggestions that are not answers and are not themselves the victory. But, I am aware of some low cost tools that you may access, IN FELLOWSHIP with others, and can help you live free in Christ.
2Co_13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
Do you mind an examination?
Have you been converted?
Regeneration - or conversion is a defining moment in one's life. It is radical!! Not a ceremony or ritual. One is going from spiritual death to spiritual life.
Matt. 18:3 - "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
Jn. 3:3,7 - "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
I Pt. 1:3 - "...begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,"
Acts 26:18 - "To open their eyes, and to turn them (convert) from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God," Titus 3:5 - "...saved us by the washing of regeneration...”
"Getting saved" is not any of the following:
1) reciting a creed
2) getting baptized
3) joining a religious organization
4) promising to do better
5) keep the Church's rules
6) going to catechism
7) going to new members classes
8) walking the aisle
9) raising your hand
None of these things produce regeneration and if you are not regenerated (converted) you are not saved according to the Word of God.
This is probably a good place to start. What do you think?
Brother dolfan please what are these practical suggestions .i will very much appreciate
Thanks and God bless you.
First, where are you, generally.
Am in Cameroon
i understand what you mean bro Julius. in 2006 i Had sincerely repented in the alter of prayer asking God to forgive me of all my sins, my life was transformed for a couple of mouths, the spirit of God was with me and I knew it.God had already began to manifest himself through me before I felt back into this awfull habit. sine then i have been rising and falling into the same habit
Brother, you seem to be sincere and to
very much desire to be free from this
bondage, but you never will get there
through your own strength and self effort.
Only after many failures will you see how
wretched this sin nature is and cry out to
the Lord for deliverance. Only Jesus can
deliver you from this body of death. The
flesh has to be crucified on the basis of
Romans 6:6 . The death of Christ was also
our death to sin. We must be identified
with Christ in His death and resurrection.
The flesh must be crucified and demons
must be cast out.
there many times i've vowed never to get back into it. but not too long when the temptations surface i fall into the same things i have preached against to my friends and colleaques
Ewane, go to my profile and shoot me an email.
Ewane, the Lord is probably asking you to make some dramatic changes in your life pertaining to your weakness for pornography and beyond that, the root. He wants to touch something deeper in your life. Pornography is just a manifestation of a sympton. Let the Lord lay the axe to the root. What is the Lord telling you and are you prepared to do it? You need to follow Him one command at a time. You can ask a lot of men what to do, but the Lord is speaking TO YOU and YOU MUST follow His instructions.
Philip,
Jesus said that if your right eye or right hand causes you to sin pluck it out and cut it off.
We live in a world that is awash with erotic images, so therefore it is up you, me and anyone else that wants to live a holy life as a follower of Jesus to turn our heads when something is before us. It's up to you not to get onto certain sites on the internet. If it is too much of a temptation, throw your computer in the bin. It is far better to loose your computer, than loose your soul in Hell.
If your spiritual eyes were opened at the time you are committing such sin you may be shocked. For in the room with you looking on are numerous Angels and a great cloud of witnesses.
My advice to you is repent, for God is waiting to forgive you. Then get rid of anything in your house that may make you stumble. Then get your eyes on Jesus and follow hard after Him.
May God bless you.
Steve
there many times i've vowed never to get back into it. but not too long when the temptations surface i fall into the same things i have preached against to my friends and colleaques
By no vow we can avoid sin. We can be overcommers only when we know how much our sin hurts God. We will be overcomers only when we come to the point where we say clearly that Lord I cannot do it myself, you should work inside me, there is nothing in me that can prevent me from sinning. Lord waits till we come to that point. We cannot come to that point by preaching or telling it to our self. We will come to the point only by repeated failures. Hit the ground zero. Ask God to anoint you so that you will never feel that you are alone. One thing common among many men of God is they always had the feel of constant presence of God in their life.
Pornography is a sin that no Christian can commit in the presence of another person. It is a sin that he can do only when he is alone. So try to avoid as much as possible to be alone. Try to find fellowship whenever you may be at the risk of being alone. Still if you happen to be alone, think this, a poison taken whether in public or alone will kill a person, same way Sin will also separate us from God whether we do it alone or in public.
Some technical advices that you can follow if you really want to get rid of a habit.:-
1. If you still cannot come out of it. Get rid of an internet connection.
2. If that is not possible due to professional reasons then Get a connection that is very slow that you can only read textual content and no multimedia can be downloaded.
3. There is a software that you can install in your computer that will send an email to your specified contact about suspicious sites that you visit. This way you will have some accountability on your internet usage. You can put an elder brother's email address. Trust me you will soon be out of it!
Hi Ewane,
Your struggle is not uncommon among Christians, and I certainly can identify with both your struggle and your desire to please our Lord Jesus.
I found freedom as I developed a better understanding of who He is and who I am in Him. Ask God to open your eyes to see the truth in Scripture (particularly the Book of Romans), and teach you to renew your mind accordingly with the truth.
Other resources which you might find helpful:
1. "Classic Christianity: Life's Too Short to Miss the Real Thing" (Bob George)
2. "Lifetime Guarantee" (Bill Gillham)
3. Dustin Horstmann's testimony of God setting him free from lust - Part 1: http://bit.ly/1rLt9sP; Part 2: http://bit.ly/1CztLbs
I have also briefly shared my testimony in this thread here: https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=53630&forum=34&start=30&viewmode=flat&order=0
My best advice to you is not to focus on the sin/struggle, but to focus on Jesus and start learning the truth from Him.
Also be assured that God still loves you in the midst of your struggle. Even if you fall into sin, His love for you does not change. May you learn to rest in His love :)
Particularly Romans chapter 8 which explains "Life in the Spirit".
Michael Pearls 'Sin no more' series was instrumental in my life.
His 'Romans' Series is supposed to also have been instrumental in many understanding the Gospel and being delivered from habitual sins.
He has recently done a series on the 'Science of Addiction and the Brain' that I have not listened to. Those teachings can be found at the No Greater Joy Website.
edit add : yuehan's advise seems to be very good also.
Brother, God is a great God of deliverance, and He will help you if you call to Him with your whole heart. You must, however, have only one goal in mind: to glorify God. His glory must be your supreme desire in every area of your life. There is one reason why this has not been a victory yet for you, and that is because you have desired pleasure more than the glory of God. I too have fought with this and God has granted me victory by His grace through me surrendering myself for His glory and pursuing it exclusively. Usually, I do not do this because of SI rules, but I believe the moderators would be okay with me sharing this link as they look into the contents of it. www.settingcaptivesfree.com is an excellent help with overcoming these sins. They have a 60 day program called "The Way of Purity" and they will go over Scripture each day with you and assign a mentor to be an accountability partner who has also gone through the course and obtained victory. I can testify myself that it will be invaluable to you. Many, many people have been delivered from sexual sin through the godly counsel of this site. Please consider taking this course.
Thanks very much brother Ryan
This discussion is locked.
