- How to overcome addiction to pornography.
I'm going to share with you 10 practical tips or steps
to overcome the addiction to pornography.
There's other videos that I have about the dangers of pornography
and all of the stuff but in this one we are going to deal with
mainly how to break free from this addiction.
In Jeremiah 17:5 it talks about that cursed is the man
who trusts in his own flesh.
And who makes his flesh as the source of his strength.
I'm paraphrasing.
You must understand is you can't beat flesh with flesh.
You can only beat flesh with spiritual weapons.
You can beat this demonic force that's out to get you into prison
through the power of the Holy Spirit.
And so, if you right away announce to yourself that I can't do it on my own
I can't do it by trying harder on my own,
you will find 50% of your victory has already happened.
You can't do it by trying harder, you have to try different.
Instead of striving you have got to go to the Holy Spirit
and to His strength, His Word and His weapons.
you probably 99.9%, need deliverance.
Jesus clearly stated in Matthew 5 He says:
Now, we know that Jesus is not saying literally get your eyes out
because eyes are just physical but there are things behind those eyes
that could cause these kind of problems. Eyes don't cause this sin
as much as something behind those eyes that is causing that
because we don't see none of the disciples removing own their eyes.
And I also believe it applies to something deeper than even flesh
because you can't throw away your flesh
like you can't cast your flesh out, you have got to crucify it.
I believe that one of the applications of that verse is that
if there is a constant repeated sin of falling into pornography,
you need to be delivered. You need to have somebody pray for you
to be delivered. Can you be self-delivered? Yes.
But deliverance usually happens when somebody prays for you
and casts out a spirit of lust. It happened with me
and I know a lot of people that this happened to.
It totally changed their lives.
Now, the deliverance made it unnecessary for them to be disciplined?
No, but it removed the force that was causing those sins.
and after that they experienced freedom and they would say
something happened.It's though like I got my self-will back.
I got my self-control back and before that they didn't have that.
So now let's just say that you did get delivered
or you maybe feel like, hey this is not a demonic problem
it's just other problem. Let me just give you also
on some of the practical things as well.
Emotional triggers of isolation and loneliness, stress and boredom
are a lot of times the reason and the breeding ground
for why people consume pornography.
No wonder why Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:22, he says:
You can't overcome lust if you don't replace it with
emotional state that makes lust unnecessary.
Love, joy, peace - with those, meaning community.
See, lust thrives, and pornography thrives on loneliness, isolation
stress and boredom. The moment you begin to replace that in your life
and you fill your life with the joy of the Lord
you fill your life with peace, you begin to pursue those things,
pornography will not have a hold on your life.
We see that in 2 Samuel 11:1-2 that David fell into immorality
out of boredom. He should have been in the battle
instead he found himself in the battle he wasn't anointed to win.
And he lost that battle with his eyes,
lost that battle with a naked picture of a woman.
It wasn't a picture she was actually there.
And then he fell into immorality and then he committed more sins
and then pretty much destroyed a lot of what David faced
a lot of problems started to happen after that.
The sword, the Bible says, never left David's house.
And how did it all start?
There was this emotional prerequisite-boredom.
Nobody was there, he wasn't where was supposed to be
and it triggered these sexual sinful behaviors.
I want to encourage you to begin to avoid--
I'm not saying that we'll never experience boredom
I'm not saying we'll never be alone or we'll never have stress
but if you live in a constant state of that it's almost impossible
to begin to overcome these temptations and addiction to pornography.
And we see that you know Jesus mentions that as well
about the hands and about the eyes.
Application of that could be as well to us
about different trigger points.
For some people it's their phone device,
for some people it's their computer,
for some people it's certain subscriptions,
for some people it's movies.
They trigger certain things in a person's mind
and then after that the enemy uses that to produce the urges
and then they fall into pornography.
And it's better, Jesus says it's more profitable for you
to be without your hand than to go to hell
with all of your body members. It's pretty serious.
To live a pure life, it doesn't just guarantee us to see God
here on earth and in heaven but if you consistently live in a life of sin
it's going to drag you to hell.
If you willfully practice sin, the Bible says that those
who practice sins will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
Believers struggle with sin but believers don't make practice of sin.
So if you practice sin, you are in danger of spending eternity without God
and therefore Jesus tells us that we need to have very strong
and very aggressive approach to removing things that trip us up
and things that trigger certain urges and desires within the flesh.
Even if that means we will have to go without a particular software
without a particular device, or without a particular app
or without particular access or it will restrict our life, my friend
it's worth it. Jesus says it's more profitable.
I always tell people, if you want to live in purity
you have got to have to choose prison.
Joseph went to prison because he chose the way of purity.
He fled lust. Guess what he fled lust to? Prison.
Now, Joseph wasn't the only one who was in prison.
Remember Samson? Samson didn't flee lust, he flirted with lust.
And he also end up in prison.
Now Joseph went to prison and afterwards he went to the palace.
Samson went to prison and afterwards he went to death.
Prison is when you put restrictions on your liberties.
Prison is when you put restrictions on what is lawful to you.
When there are scriptures that honestly do not prohibit you
from enjoying this, having this and having access to this
but you know there is a battle for your soul.
And for you to walk in purity you must choose prison
meaning you must choose maybe social media prison,
perhaps movie prison, perhaps other forms of entertainment prison.
Why? Because that's the only way you can stay pure.
Is through restricting, removing the causes and the trigger points
for pornography.
2 Timothy 2:22
Purity happens in the context of community.
Overcoming pornography happens when you bring your sin
out from the dark, out from nobody knows about it into the light.
And I'm not talking about Facebook,
I'm not talking about going on Instagram live
and telling the whole world and embarrassing yourself
because you are drawing attention through that,
you are not drawing freedom through that.
The scripture says in James 5:16
We don't confess our sins to our brothers and sisters
so that we can be forgiven. We don't practice that.
We confess our sins so that we can take it out of the darkness
into the light and so that the sin looses its power
because it grows in the dark and it dies in the light.
And then those people who we confess it to
they can hold us accountable.
They can hold us in prayer and they can check on us
to see how we are doing.
A lot of times it's also encouraging to install
software on your devices and your computers
but honestly if you are not committed in walking in purity
there are so many loopholes around those software.
And so it all depends on how desperate and how hungry you are
to walk in righteousness and be free from besetting sins.
Psalms 119:11 it says that:
There is something powerful about filling your mind
and your soul with the scriptures.
One of the best ways you can bring the scriptures inside of you
is through meditation and memorization.
Begin to memorize the scriptures.
Write the scripture down on some kind of a little piece of paper
tape to your steering wheel that everyday that you drive
you can see it and recite it to yourself.
Or put it on the bathroom mirror
or have it a reminder on your phone
why? So that you can be filled with the Word of God.
Because when you fill yourself with the Word of God,
David says, "I will not sin against you."
Something begins to happen. God's Word gives you power to overcome sin.
God's Word has a spiritual supernatural ability to empower you
to deal with flesh, with the world and with Satan.
If you are walking full of the Holy Spirit,
He will give you the grace and the strength not to yield to the urges
and to the cravings of your body
and of the external temptations that exist in this world.
To be full of the Holy Spirit, you have to speak in tongues
you have to hang out with believers.
You have to pray, read the Bible, obey God, sing, serve.
So it's not just one activity.
It's just living life in awareness of the Holy Spirit.
Asking the Holy Spirit to help you.
The scripture says that the fellowship, the communion of the Holy Spirit
be with you all.
Communion of the Holy Spirit doesn't belong
to the Pentecostals or Charismatic or Baptist or Methodist,
it belongs to every Christian who is born again.
You can talk to the Holy Spirit anytime you face a temptation.
The urges come or some kind of a thing comes on you,
you just ask the Holy Spirit, help me please right now.
I can't do it on my own I depend on You.
And you will see, He will produce the fruit in you.
The fruit of your dependence on Him will be self control.
Holy Spirit is not going to take over,
He is not going to control things for you
but He is going to give you the power to control yourself
and to control different temptations in a sense not to let them in
and steer you away from God.
Job 31:1 says:
Make a deal with your eyes not to look a second time.
Somebody said, "First look doesn't count, it's the second look
that get's you in trouble." And it's true.
Make a decision not to allow your eyes to stare,
not to allow your eyes to wander,
not to allow your eyes to look again
to get a clearer picture of somebody's body parts
or of somebody's body.
Train your eyes to bounce.
Train your eyes to turn.
Teach your eyes, train your eyes.
They are like untrained children, you can train them
especially if you are a guy you are more visual than a girl
and so, you must train your eyes to bounce.
And that's possible. Job did that and we can do as well.
And if you don't control your eyes, you will lose your eyes
maybe not physically, but you will lose the control over your eyes
and then they will control you.
And it will be like it says in epistle of Peter that eyes are full of adultery.
Your eyes, even demons can live in your eyes.
We've prayed for deliverance of people who had demons in their eyes
'cause demons took possession of their eyes
they no longer control them. You don't want that to happen to you.
So take authority over your eyes. Control what you see.
Monitor, discipline and train your eyes to bounce
instead of wander and look again and stare.
If you fall back into that sin, get up.
In Proverbs 24:16 it says:
Just because you fell into that sin, it does not mean God is not at work.
You feel guilty but the enemy wants you to feel condemned
and stay in that shame and guilt.
And then there is this lie that if I stay longer in guilt and shame
then what's going to happen is that I'm going to learn my lesson
finally and then I'm going to prove to God how sorry I am.
God doesn't need to know how sorry you are,
God wants to see faith that you trust in Him for salvation.
God wants to see true repentance.
And repentance is not wallowing up in guilt,
repentance is turning to God not turning to your sin.
Not staying in your sin, it's turning to God that's what repentance is.
It's not feeling bad for yourself.
Judas felt bad for betraying Jesus, that wasn't repentance.
And then went and killed himself, that's not what repentance is.
Repentance is when you turn to the Lord.
So when you fell into sin, run to God.
Run to God. Talk to God. The Bible says, "Come let's reason together.
"If your sins are like scarlet, I'll make you as white as wool.
I'll make you as white as snow."
You know Adam, he started hiding from God when he committed sin.
And surprisingly, God came to the same place He used to meet with Adam
before this sin happened.
And God's question was not Adam why did you do it?
God's question was, where are you Adam?
Meaning God is waiting for you.
Get up, run to God, confess your sin.
God is faithful and true He will forgive you of your sin
and give you the strength to go and sin no more.
I heard this from somebody else but I would like to share with you.
This is really good. In the moment of temptation
you know the palms are sweating and your heart is pacing
and you know you are about to do what you did before
fall into the same pit, into the same hole, into the same miry clay.
Brace method means first, breathe deeply.
Take few deep breaths. It sends oxygen to this part of your brain
that gives you little bit more strength to make the right decision.
R - Remember the truth.
Remember the verses you memorized at that moment.
Bring them up quickly to your mind.
"Flee youthful lusts but pursue righteousness,
peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."
"Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you."
Recite those verses like Jesus did in the wilderness.
He hit it back at the devil. Remember those verses.
Ask God for help at that moment. Just honestly say, God help.
Those five seconds, that's all you might be able to master
and at times that's all you'll need
'cause God will hear you at that moment.
Call your accountability partner
meaning text somebody say, hey I'm being tempted.
The very act of you acknowledging you need help at that moment
the Bible says that God will not let you be tempted
above your ability to overcome the temptation
and He will give you way of escape.
You know what the way of escape is?
It's when you breathe, remember the scripture
call for help and text somebody, call somebody.
Leave that room, turn off that computer, turn off the phone.
Whatever that situation is, escape it. Just get away from it.
God calls us to flee lust not to fight it.
He calls us to run from it not to beat it.
I think that lust is the only thing we can't overcome
in the sense by fighting it. We can only overcome by fleeing it.
Joseph fled, that is how he overcame. Samson didn't flee.
Paul tells Timothy, flee. He doesn't say fight.
We are supposed to fight the devil not lust.
We run from lust.
We run from those compromising situations.
I pray God will give you victory in this area.
I pray that you will learn to walk in victory
and learn to possess your vessel in honor and certification
in Jesus' name.
If this video was a blessing to you,
if things that you learned were a blessing to you,
check out my other video where I go into detail and prayer
about how to overcome pornography in a person's life.
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God bless you and until next time.