Fly with the dragon. I'm going to read to you a story. This is unlike any other video that
I released before. And those of you who are battling with sin, or maybe you're battling
with an addiction to pornography especially. I want you to buckle up and I want you to listen
to this story. I believe the Holy Spirit is going to minister powerfully to you for you
to experience forgiveness, and God's love, and to find a way out from the addiction that you are in.
Now I came across this story while reading "Pure Desire" book by Ted Roberts. Which I
would encourage any person who's battling with purity, to read this book. It will really give
you a good insight into a battle that a lot of men and women deal with in the area of purity.
Now it deals with the dragon and a little boy, a prince. The story goes like this. There was once
a great and noble King whose land was terrorized by a crafty dragon. Like a massive bird of prey,
the beast delighted in destroying the villages with his fiery breath. Helpless victims ran from
their burning homes, only to be snatched into the dragon's jaws. Those devoured instantly were
deemed more fortunate than those carried back to the dragon's lair to be devoured at his pleasure.
The King led his sons and knights in many battles against the serpent. Riding along in the forest,
one of the King's sons heard his name purred low and soft. In the shadows of the trees,
curled among the boulders, lay the dragon. The creature's eyes fastened on the prince,
and the mouth stretched into a friendly smile. "Don't be alarmed," said the dragon, as the gray
smoke rose from his nostrils. "I am not what your father thinks." "Who are you then?" asked the
prince, drawing his sword as he pulled in the reins to keep his fearful horse from bolting.
"I am pleasure," said the dragon. "Ride on my back and you will experience more than
you have ever imagined. Come now. I have no harmful intentions. I seek a friend, someone
to share flights with me. Have you ever dreamed of flying? Never longed to soar in the clouds?"
Visions of soaring high above the hills drew the prince, and hesitantly he left his horse.
The dragon unfurled one of the great wings to serve as a ramp for his ridged back. Between
the spiny projections, the prince found a secure seat on the back of the dragon. Then the creature
snapped his powerful wings twice and launched them into the sky. The prince apprehension
melted into awe and exhilaration. From then on, he met with the dragon often, but secretly,
for how can he tell his father, his brothers, or the soldiers, that he had befriended the enemy?
The prince felt separate from them all. Their concerns were no longer his concerns. Even when
he wasn't with the dragon, he spent less time with those he loved and more time alone. Over time this
skin on the prince's legs became calloused from gripping the rigid back of the dragon.
His hands grew tough and hardened, and he began wearing gloves to hide the malady.
After many nights of riding, he discovered scales growing on the back of his hands as well. With
dread he realized his fate if he were to continue to ride with the dragon. So he made a decision,
no more flights with the dragon. But after a night, he again sought the dragon, having been
tortured with the desire. So it transpired many times over. And no matter what his determination
was, the prince eventually found himself pulled back, as if by the cords of the invisible web.
Silently, patiently, the dragon always waited. One cold moonless night, their excursion with
the dragon became a foray against a sleeping village. Torching the roofs with a fiery blast
from his nostrils, the dragon roared with delight as he terrified victims fled from the burning
homes. Swooping in, the dragon belched again and flames engulfed a cluster of screaming villagers.
The prince closed his eyes tightly in an attempt to shut out the carnage.
In the pre-dawn hours, when the prince crept back from his dragon's back,
the road outside his father's castle usually remained empty,
but not tonight. Terrified villagers and refugees streamed into the protective walls of the castle.
The prince attempted to slip through the crowds to close himself in his chambers,
but some of the survivors, scarred, pointed toward him. "He was there," one woman cried out,
"I saw him on the back of the dragon." Others nodded their heads in angry agreement. Horrified,
the prince saw that his father, the King, was in the courtyard holding a bleeding child
in his arms. The King's face mirrored the agony of his people as his eyes found the prince's eyes.
The son fled, hoping to escape into the night, but the guards apprehended him as if he were a
common thief. They brought him to the great hall where his father sat solemnly on the throne.
The people on every side railed against the prince. "Banished him!" He heard
one of his own brothers angrily cry out. "Burn him alive!" Other voices shouted.
As the King rose from his throne, blood stains from the wounded shone darkly on his royal robes.
The crowd fell silent in expectation of the King's decree. The prince, who could not bear to look
in his father's face, stared at the floor. "Take off your gloves and your tunic," King commanded.
The prince obeyed slowly, dreading to have his metamorphosis uncovered before the whole Kingdom.
Was his shame not already enough? He had hoped for a quick death without further humiliation.
Sounds of convulsion ripped through the crowd as the sight of prince's thick scaled skin and
the ridge growing along his spine. The King came toward his son, and the prince steeled himself,
fully expecting a backhanded blow even though he had never been struck by his own father.
Instead his father embraced him and wept as he held him tightly. In shocked disbelief, the prince
buried his face against his father's shoulder. "Do you wish to be freed from the dragon, my son?"
The prince answered in despair, "I wished it so many times, but there is no hope for me."
"Not alone," said the king. "You cannot win against the serpent alone."
"Father," sobbed the prince, "I am no longer your son. I am half beast." But his father replied, "My
blood runs in your veins. My nobility has always been stamped deep within your soul." With his face
still hidden tearfully in his father's embrace, the prince heard the king instruct the crowd.
"The dragon Is crafty. He's sneaky. Some fall victim to his wiles, while some to his violence.
There will be mercy for all who wish to be freed. Who else among you has ridden with the dragon?"
The prince lifted his head to see someone emerge from the crowd. And to his amazement,
he recognized an older brother, who has been very loud throughout the kingdom for
his onslaught against the dragon in battle and for his many good deeds. Others came weeping,
others hanging their heads in shame. The King embraced them all, and he said, "This is our most
powerful weapon against the dragon. The truth. No more hidden flights. Alone we cannot resist him."
The end of story. When I've read this, first time I connected with the struggle that I remember
having with pornography, and how I felt those very same emotions as I was battling with that.
You know, taking those sneaky hidden flights with the dragon.
You know, being promised pleasure but only experiencing guilt, and something else growing
inside of me that felt, I felt ashamed of and I felt guilty. And on top of that I
felt something else lived inside of me that was foreign to me, foreign to who I wanted to be.
And you know feeling isolated from the family, finding this new life in secrecy on a computer
or in front of a magazine, you know brought even more shame and guilt. Feeling like if I
would get discovered, I would get completely kicked out, removed and I deserve to die.
I remember when I came out and I told my pastor. I was just a teenager. I was terrified.
I've experienced freedom, because the Bible says when we confess our sins to one another,
God will begin to bring healing. I experienced freedom from shame. I experienced freedom
from guilt. I haven't experienced freedom from pornography yet but I already knew that I was on
my way to experience deliverance. I want to speak to those today who live under the heavy blanket
of guilt and shame. And maybe these scales are beginning to grow and you find yourself isolated,
and you punish yourself, and you think that you don't deserve God's forgiveness.
That somehow on your own, if you can make just that strong determination to fight harder,
you can finally be free. But the Bible says is that Jesus came to set us free.
You can't fight against this dragon alone. You can't overcome in your own strength.
Your flesh is so much more powerful that God didn't find a solution to fix the flesh. God's
only remedy for the flesh was death. As a Christian, our flesh was already buried with
Jesus. It died with Jesus. That's why Paul says in Galatians 2:20, "It's no longer I
but Christ. I've been crucified with Christ." So we don't start with cutting things off, we don't
start with disconnecting. We don't start with that. We start first and foremost coming to God
and repenting. Coming to God and say, "God I'm so sorry," and experiencing His love and forgiveness.
And then identifying with Jesus Christ, and then coming and being open with people who can help us
to walk in that freedom. Maybe it's your spouse, maybe it's your mentor, maybe it's your pastor,
maybe it's your small group leader. Maybe it's another brother or a sister in Christ.
I would discourage you for making videos on Facebook, Instagram,
or YouTube, trying to find sympathy from people by coming out to the world with your hidden sin.
Because the goal of that is to find sympathy, but not forgiveness and restoration. Your goal
is restoration. Not to get people to say, "Oh, you know I sympathize with you." Sympathy is not the
goal. The goal is to find compassion in God and to find deliverance from this, and you don't do that
by going out publicly in front of the whole world. You have to go privately to people who can help
you to walk in that. There's hope for you. Make a decision today to run to God. Make a decision
today to confess your sin to somebody, and make a decision today, with the help of the Holy Spirit
no more flights with the dragon. Together we can resist him. Together we can overcome because in
Christ we are more than conquerors. Whom the Son sets free, is free indeed. You shall know
the truth and the truth will set you free. Your word I have hidden in my heart that I
will not sin against You, David said. I would also, and I'm not paid for this or the author
didn't ask me. I've actually never met the author of the book "Pure Desire." I would encourage you
to get a book "Pure Desire" or "Break Free" book. Something that could help you also to
find practical tools to walk in freedom, because Christ
wants you to be free. Thank you for watching this video, I know this was different. Let me
know in the comments below your thoughts, or maybe your testimony of maybe you took flights
with the dragon and how God has given you the freedom and victory in this area. God bless you.