How do I overcome pornography?
I am asked this question more than any other question from both
guys and girls. I struggled with this myself, so I pray that God will use
this to help you find freedom and hope.
A year before immigrating to the United States, when I was around
twelve years of age, I was first exposed to pornography. I never
thought about it again until one day while I was housesitting for the
neighbors after having arrived in America, I was exposed to it again,
but this time I became attracted to it and then enslaved by it. This
bondage continued for a few years through my adolescence. We are
exhorted to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily
ensnares us” (Hebrews 12:1). Pornography is one of those sins that so
easily ensnares. Jesus said, “whoever commits sin is a slave of sin”
(John 8:34).
I realized that making promises to myself like “I will never do this
again” only resulted in doing it even more. I learned that sin grows in
the dark, so I went and confessed my struggles to my pastor. I had to
“embarrass” that sin so that I could be free. James 5:16 says, “confess
your sins to each other…so that you may be healed”. However, even
after the confession, I fell again and again. I would feel an
overwhelming sense of guilt and hopelessness, so I would repent to
God and beg Him for mercy. In my desperation for deliverance, I
started to fast and pray more often, knowing that God is my only
hope.
In the process of seeking God’s help for my freedom, I started to
recognize that porn is not only an issue of the flesh, but demons were
directly causing this attraction. When Delilah was seducing Samson
to reveal his secret, she was incentivized and supported by Samson’s
enemies, who in fact were in the same house waiting for his downfall.
Demons are behind porn just the way the Philistines were behind
Delilah to neutralize Samson’s strength, rendering him blind and
ruining his calling. I understood that I needed more than discipline to
be free. I was in need of deliverance and freedom.
My path to deliverance was different than that of some people I know.
I did not have someone pray for me for deliverance. I did not manifest
demons. I did not scream, yell, or roll on the floor. Ever since my
deliverance, I have seen men and women alike receive their freedom
from this affliction with manifestations. But, mine was different.
During a seven-day fast, I renounced all hidden things of shame, I
closed open doors, broke any generational curses, waged spiritual
warfare against the forces of darkness, and cast myself on the mercy
of God. It was not my sincere pleas or fasting that made all the
difference, but it was the grace of God mixed together with my
desperation and the understanding that my problem was spiritual.
The Bible says that Jesus came to “proclaim liberty to the captives”
(Isaiah 61:1) and “set at liberty those who are oppressed” (Luke
4:18). Some get free by proclamation, others by being “set at liberty”.
I did not go looking for open doors just for the sake of finding
demons; I was desperate for God while urgently seeking His face. He led me to an understanding that there was indeed an open door in my
soul, and it must be closed by repentance and renouncing. I felt that I
had been “set at liberty” by Jesus. Yes, I believed that I was freed, but the battle wasn’t over. My deliverance freed me from bondage to the flesh, but that threw me into a battle. I was removed from Egypt only
to be placed on a tough journey to the Promised Land. I had to move
from my deliverance to walking in dominion.
Jesus is the greatest authority on deliverance. In His teaching about
getting free from lust and immorality, He said to “cut of the hand.”
(Matthew 5:29-30). Jesus did deliverance but He said that the remedy for lust is strict discipline. Since lust is not just a matter of
demons but also of the flesh and the world, we must fight the issue of
porn on all three fronts. Discipline and much self-control are required
in order to walk in freedom from pornography, according to Jesus.
Of course, we know that Jesus does not want us to cut off our body
parts since that’s not where the problem lies. It is a symbolic illustration to cut off things that cause us to sin. I call those things
“trigger points.” A hand and eye are necessary and very useful, but
they can become a trigger point for sin. Social media, friends,television, news, social gatherings, and many other things alike can be
good, but for someone else, these good things can be used as demonic
bait for sexual sin and immorality. We need to remember that
pornography is created by the devil who is the “father of lies” and he presents immoral fantasies and illusions through wicked pictures.
These are his deceptive lies roaming around in your mind, in your
world of imaginations. He wants you to imagine the glamor of sin but
does not show you the ugly consequences of sinning, which include
addiction and bondage to his lies.
I truly believe if you are not willing to endure harsh self-discipline
equivalent to the pain of cutting your own hand off, then you are not
all that willing to be free from lust and porn. That’s what Jesus hought, anyways. Not only do we need to remove trigger points,
whether they may be the media, places, or people, we must also apply
discipline in our lives to keep our flesh “on the altar”. There are
disciplines like prayer, fasting, scripture reading, memorizing
scriptures, working out, and waking up earlier which are effective
habits to apply in our daily lives while struggling with porn. We don’t
realize how much these small disciplines can lead to a more
structured spiritual life. It has a domino effect, one leads to another.
At first, you might not see much change when you start practicing
discipline, but it has a compounding effect as well. Discipline
becomes a habit, like watching porn can become a habit. Except,
discipline is a good habit which constructs valuable results. Discipline
must be built up in your life not only to defeat the flesh but because
you cannot be Jesus’ disciple without it (Matthew 16:24).
You don’t have to have discipline to believe in Jesus; in fact, it will
cost you nothing to believe. But, it costs you everything to closely
follow Jesus. We can’t follow Him without forsaking. You can’t be a
disciple without discipline.
Remove the trigger points you have identified. If it involves social
media, deactivate it. If it’s a TV series, cut it out completely. If the
trigger point for you is too much free time in the evening, then fill
your time with godly activities for this next season of your life. The
difference between Joseph not falling into sin with Potiphar’s wife
and David committing adultery with Uriah’s wife was that Joseph
went to her house to work but David went to the balcony to relax,
instead of being at war with his men. Maybe your ex, with whom you
had sexual relations, is a strong temptation when you are weak and
desire to have sex; block that person out of your thoughts. Get an accountability partner from your local church. Put a filter on your
computer. Develop a habit of fasting for 24 hours once a week.
Schedule 30 minutes to 1 hour of prayer every weekday. Meditate on
the scriptures daily and read through the Bible from cover to cover in one year. Get in a small group. Serve at your local church. This is not
just about getting busy, but getting on the altar so that our flesh stays dead.”
from the book I ve started to read on deliverance, by Vlad Savchuk.
Many men are enslaved by this sin, it breaks marriages and it stops spiritual growth.
The PDF is free to download here, or you can get a printed copy of Amazon
Pastor Vlad leads the HungryGen movement and pastors a multi-cultural church with a vision to see salvation, healing and deliverance.
www.vladimirsavchuk.com
