The Lord Jesus set me free from pornography addiction back in 2020. I had been addicted to it since I was 11 years old. This has been the main way the enemy has attacked and tempted me my whole life, this has been the only major struggle, and maybe you can relate. For most of my life, I couldn't go more than two or three days without porn...
In 2020 I repented for my old ways of life, the way I had been living, all of my sin, and I buried my old life under the water through water baptism. The day after this experience, I started to realize that the strong pull, or strong desire that I couldn't fight, was no longer there. I realized that Jesus had broken the chains of addiction in my life. I was set free from sin, just like the scripture says!
This is what I didn't know at the time...
I didn't know that once the deliverance had taken place, the fight still wasn't over yet. I thought that I would no longer have to fight against temptation or anything, I thought I'd never have to deal with it again at all, I was WAY wrong. Even though the addiction was gone, and the demons were no longer there, I still had to fight the temptation, the lust of the flesh. I then got caught up in a cycle, I would go months without falling into lustful things, and then it would hit me hard, and I would fall. Then I would repent, and tell the Lord I never want this ever again in my life, and I would be fine for a few months, and then guess what? I get hit again, the temptations start small, and over the course of a few days they get more and more intense, and then I finally would give in. Does this sound familiar?
It's important to state that all my life until I buried my old life in 2020, I did believe in God, I was born and raised in a Church-going Christian household. I had the head knowledge from going to Church all my life, I knew all the Bible stories, but the problem was that I really didn't truly KNOW Jesus. I hadn't completely repented and surrendered my whole life to Jesus. I just believed and thought that going to Church and trying to be a good person was all there was to it. Then when I repented and buried my old life, I was free from the bondage of sin. This is why the addiction was no longer there, I was no longer a slave to sin (read Romans chapter 6). We have to understand that Jesus didn't just buy us a ticket to Heaven through His sacrifice for us, He bought for us a transformed life, full of inner healing and deliverance, an intimate relationship/journey with Him!
After I was set free, I continued in these cycles, and I was going through more deliverance. I went through more deliverance for this a handful of times (If you're wondering how Christians can have demons, I have a playlist on my channel that describes how in detail, it's time that we get over the damaging lie that Christians cannot have a demon). So I went through this cycle of going through deliverance over and over for the same thing. Each time I would receive deliverance, demons would leave me, and I would do great for another few weeks, or few months, and then it would happen again.
The difference between my life before and after 2020 was this, after 2020 I had a growing relationship with Jesus, I truly knew Him, and experienced Him. Before 2020, I was a professing Christian with head knowledge, without truly knowing Him. I say all of this because this is all EXTREMELY important because you MUST TRULY KNOW HIM to overcome these things. If you haven't truly repented from your old sinful ways, and you're not taking care of your relationship with Jesus, the cycle will never break. It's just the way it is.
I'm now going to give you 13 (technically 15) tactics the Lord revealed to me during these cycles I was going through. I pray that this information is extremely helpful to you! It has been EXTREMELY helpful for me. These things can be the things that make it or break it.
Let's take a look...
First and foremost, you must be born-again. Just like the scriptures say. If you haven't truly repented and buried your old life, or have been baptized in the Holy Spirit, this should be what you do before you go any further.
Next, if you are truly sincere and want to follow Jesus in freedom, you can use my book titled "Self-Deliverance and Warfare Prayers" to go through deliverance between you and Jesus. You can find this book on Amazon or here on the site. You could also have a trusted minister or fellow brother or sister in the faith walk you through deliverance (this may be needed if you've never been through deliverance before). If you've never been through inner healing or deliverance before, I recommend it before going through the next set of tactics below. If you don't go through deliverance first, the enemy is going to make the following tactics almost impossible for you. You could also book a session with me if the Lord leads you to. here's the link to book a session with me: https://holyfiredisciples.com/bookasession Remember though, that deliverance is never a one and done thing. It doesn't eliminate every part of the issue. It usually will just get rid of the overwhelming desire that's impossible to over come. But after the deliverance, the fight really begins. It's easier in some ways, but there's still a fight, but don't be discouraged! It's also important to note that unhealed wounds and traumas from our past can have a big part in all of this as well. If Jesus hasn't healed our wounds, then they aren't healed. Unhealed wounds can also hold a legal right for the enemy to stay and operate. Unhealed wounds could be the reason that your comfort is found in sexual sin in the first place! This is why inner healing with Jesus is so important! I pray the following will bring much help and revelation!
The following tactics are for those who have completed number 1 above...
YOU CAN'T BUT GOD CAN - Understand that you're not going to do this out of your own abilities. Your own striving will just result in continued failure. We have to understand that only Jesus can do this for us. It's His strength, and through His grace that we can overcome. So if you've been trying to do this by your own will power, then it's no wonder you keep falling. I encourage you to read a book that helped me tremendously with this titled "By Grace Alone" by Derek Prince. If this has been a revelation to you, please release this striving to the Lord through a prayer like this. "Dear Father God, I have been striving to overcome this (lust & pornography) out of my own abilities, and I now understand that this is impossible. I now surrender this burden to You Jesus, because I understand that only by Your Holy Spirit, grace, and strength can I overcome. I place this burden at your feet and I LET IT GO. I will no longer focus on it and strive, instead I will trust and rest in the fact that You now have it covered and it's under Your control, not mine." I'm not saying there won't be some will power involved because there will be, but you have to trust in Him that He is helping you, and rest in the fact that He has it under control. You have laid it at His feet and surrendered it to Him.
CHANGE YOUR FOCUS - Now that you've surrendered your striving like we talked about in the previous point, you now have to change your focus. I'll explain why. If you continue to focus on struggling with lust, you will continue to struggle with lust. If you focus on something, you magnify that thing. You now have to rest in the fact that you trust God. Any time it comes into your mind, say "Lord I trust You that You have this covered, and i will overcome by Your Holy Spirit, by Your grace Lord." Then I suggest going into the secret place, or prayer, or read the Word of God, or listen to a teaching. This will keep you from picking back up this burden and striving again out of your own abilities.
KEEP BUSY - Stay busy, wether it's with work, time with God, family, like-minded friends, etc. You have to stay away from boredom. Have you ever heard the saying "an idle mind is the devil's playground?" This is an accurate statement. The mind is the battlefield, and if you are being idle, the enemy will have a better chance to provoke or temp you. You may encounter unnecessary battles just because you are bored. This can be dangerous. Staying productive is a very good tip. The best thing you can do to stay productive is to pray, get in the secret place, or read the Word of God etc...
SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE - Never neglect the spiritual disciplines. Make them first priority. This is what is required of us in our relationship with Jesus anyway. The spiritual disciplines are things like the following: a daily prayer life, daily reading the Bible, spending time in the presence of God in the secret place, pray in your prayer language, etc. This is just doing our part in our relationship with God. There is a constant battle going on between the spirit and the flesh. The more you live in the spirit, and fill yourself in the spirit with these disciplines, the more you spirit will win the battle and your flesh will decrease. On the contrary, if you are living and focusing more on things of the flesh, or the natural, your flesh will increase and you will lose the battle to your flesh. So literally the best thing you can do is to do these thing daily, force them if you have to, there have been times i've had to force myself, but it's worth it! Neglecting this will bring failure!
TAKE THOUGHTS CAPTIVE - 2 Corinthians 10:5 Paul says that "we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." We have to make sure that we don't entertain fantasies or lustful thoughts that show up in our minds. Instead when that happens, we take them captive. A good habit to get into when a thought like that comes to mind is to proclaim out loud that you don't agree with that, it's not you anymore because you are a new creation in Christ. The old you is dead and buried. I will then rebuke the enemy and command whatever spirit that put that in my mind has to go to the pit. You can also do this after a sexual dream. As soon as you wake up from it, come out of agreement with it and rebuke the enemy, command that spirit that planted that dream to go to the pit and forbid them from ever coming into your dream life again. Taking thoughts captive is extremely important but it shouldn't be something we find ourselves having to do all day long. It shouldn't steal our focus like this. If this is happening for you continuously, I would seek more deliverance.
ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER & LIKE-MINDED FELLOWSHIP - Having an accountability partner is extremely important as well. Especially staying honest with them. An accountability partner does no good if we don't stay honest with them. Text them or call them when you're feeling a struggle, and pray. Iron sharpens iron. This goes along with like-minded fellowship. You need like-minded people to encourage you and pray with you. If you don't have a local fellowship, pray that you find one. An in-person or online fellowship works, both would be even better. HFD Ministries is working on building an online community for fellowship, we have a group on the site called the HFD Community Group. Feel free to login to the site and join it!
FEAR OF THE LORD - Learn the fear of the Lord! This is another detrimental thing! The fear of the Lord will help keep us from sin. I'm not talking about scary fear, I'm talking about Holy Fear and Reverence! The Awe of God! We must learn this, this is what's missing in the world today! The best book i've ever read on the fear of the Lord is a book by John Bevere titled "The Awe of God." It's a devotional style book and I think everyone should read it! One of my top favorite books. Trust me when I say that this book will help you to have a healthy fear of the Lord. This book will absolutely help you in all of this 100%. When we have a healthy fear of the Lord, an awe and reverence of Him, it truly does keep us from sinning. We all need a healthy fear of the Lord!
Proclamations & Warfare Prayers - Adding proclamations and warfare prayers into your prayer life is extremely helpful, it has helped me tremendously! These are just verbal declarations from the Word of God spoken out loud. I'd like to suggest some books that have amazing declarations and warfare prayers: "Prayers and Proclamations" by Derek Prince. "Prayers That Rout Demons" by John Eckhardt. And my first book "Self-Deliverance and Warfare Prayers" has 20 declarations in the last chapter that i've always used. This can add "self-deliverance" into your prayer life, or your secret place time. I believe that this is a very important thing to have as a part of your prayer life. Self-deliverance is just deliverance that takes place in your alone time with God (although we may need a fellow brother or sister in the faith to help us with it, especially if someone has never been through deliverance before).
DO NOT PLAY WITH FIRE - You cannot let yourself think that taking one quick look at something will be fine. The more you play with fire it will burn you. Once you start playing with the fire, the fire will grow until it burns you, until you fall into the sin again. You need to unfollow every woman on social media who posts revealing photos. You need to delete every app that you know will tempt you. If scrolling social media will get you in trouble, then don't scroll it anymore. Cut off any and everything that will tempt you. Just like I said in a previous point, if you sow into the flesh, you will reap the flesh, this is a perfect example of that. If you have to delete tiktok, then do it, if you have to delete all entertainment sources then do it. This is too important for your freedom. The Holy Spirit can only help you so much if you keep going through Reels on facebook and Instagram and looking at beautiful women who are in bikinis... You have to cut out all of these things. If you have to put your phone in another room when you go to bed, then do that. Set the rules for yourself and don't stray from them! Secular music can even have a part in lust or sexual temptation. I recommend not listening to secular music at all. Don't let yourself think that just one time it'll be okay, or just one look will be fine. It will burn you, trust me.
NO GUILT & NO SHAME & NO CONDEMNATION - If you happen to lose a battle and fall, you will feel bad, you will feel gross, and you may feel guilt. This is normal, the Holy Spirit will bring this conviction that you feel deep inside. You will feel like a failure. I'm sure you know what i'm talking about. This conviction is normal right after the slip up, but you cannot let yourself continue to feel guilty and shameful. After the conviction of the Holy Spirit, the enemy will have a hay day with you. He will lie all kinds of lies to your mind about how you failed and this or that. Do not listen to these things. The best thing you can do after a slip up is to get up, dust off, say "Lord I'm sorry, help me do better, thank You for Fathering me, thank you for Your Holy Spirit and grace which helps me to do better and overcome." Then move on like it never happened, do not let the enemy fill you with guilt and shame. Tell the enemy you don't agree with their lies and to get out in Jesus Name.
STRAIGHT INTO THE FATHER'S ARMS - Just like our last point, if you slip up, the best thing you can do is get into the arms of our Father God! Go into the secret place, don't run and hide from Him! The worst thing you could do is run and hide! Get straight to the secret place and in His presence, after all, He welcomes you with open arms! Get into His presence and talk to Him, and do some self-deliverance, cast away to the pit anything that you may have just involved yourself with from the enemy. Come out of agreement with the enemy and cast them to the pit in Jesus Name. Ask the Lord to continue to help you and Father you in this area. Father God doesn't want to punish you, it's not about that at all. This is a journey with the Lord, a journey through inner healing and deliverance with Jesus. The process of sanctification. He's teaching us and leading us, and we have to learn from our mistakes.
LEARN FROM THE MISTAKE - Don't let yourself think that it's okay to fall, it never is, just don't condemn yourself, and don't let the enemy condemn you either. Like I said earlier, guilt, shame, and condemnation are not for us as children of God. But if you slip and fall, why did you fall? What fire did you play with? You will see a pattern. You will notice that because you played with that little flame, it became a big flame! Learn from it! Eliminate that thing from your life. Did you compromise with something, or in some area? Don't compromise with that again! Easier said than done, but remember, all things are possible with God! His strength and not ours!
SEEK JESUS ALL THE MORE - When the enemy brings temptation, or if you fall, seek Jesus all the more! The enemy hates this! Rebuke the enemy, go into self-deliverance and seek Jesus even harder than before. Show the enemy that you aren't playing around either! The enemy pays attention to how you react to things, and if they see how you reacted to this, they'll be more reluctant to try that again!
Remember that you have to sincerely want to be free, you have to really want it! Do you really want it, no matter the cost? With Jesus, all things are possible, and He can help you end this cycle! Stay encouraged, and stay hopeful! I pray this article has been a blessing for you! If it has, share it with your friends, and share it on social media! Leave me a comment in the comment section on this article and let me know how God used this to speak to you! All Glory to God! I am no expert, and I don't claim to know anything, I only know what God allows me to know. It's all because of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May He be glorified!
Much love and blessings,
~Mason Ledbetter
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