1 Thessalonians 4:3 It is
God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual
immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control your own body[a] in a
way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the pagans, who
do not know God; 6 and that in this matter no one should wrong or take
advantage of a brother or sister.[b] The Lord will punish all those who commit
such sins, as we told you and warned you before. 7 For God did not call us to
be impure, but to live a holy life. 8 Therefore, anyone who rejects this
instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you
his Holy Spirit. This is a passage that I had memorized like 5
or 6 years ago and as you can tell it packs a punch. Now let’s go back to last Wednesday and a
conversation that I had with one of my dear friends that I do life with. Most of you know that one of my struggles is
lust namely porn. I had mentioned that I
look forward to the day when I do not have to have a filter on my computer
anymore. I also said I would still have
the filter on my computer to protect me from unwanted surprises. Let’s just say
we will agree to disagree on that. What
that means is I think I should he thinks I shouldn’t. So now it is Thursday
morning and during my quite time I feel like I heard that the filters are your
computers are what is preventing you’re from getting the freedom that you
seek. That witnessed to my spirit. So that night my wife logged me in to the
computer to block Facebook. I heard turn
off the filter so I did. I did not tell
my wife. The next day I sent a text
message to three of my brothers and they all agreed that I heard correctly and
one said “you may have something there.”
Radical
obedience always precedes the miraculous! This time I
decided to obey and then seek wise counsel.
I heard correctly. You see I have
four computers and Xbox and a smart phone.
Three have the filter one does not and neither does the Xbox or
phone. I will not look at anything on the
unprotected electronics only the ones with the filter. It is like a game to see if I can get around
it. Now fast forward to Tuesday morning
and during my quiet time I felt like I needed to look up the Thessalonians
scripture in the mirror version and this is what it said. The Mirror 4:3 the
resolve of God declares you innocent; this announcement frees you from
fornication. (The resolve of God is declared in his accomplished redemption of
the life of our design in Christ. Fornication
is a form of idolatry, which is to be engaged with a distorted image of
yourself. It is to be obsessed with something that you
feel you must have in order to complete you. Just like Eve was
attracted to eat the fruit of the “I-am-not-tree”.) 4:4 every one of you
should take ownership of your bodies with utmost care. The vessel takes its
1 value from the treasure it holds. (The word 1 timay means a valuing by which the price is fixed. See
2 Corinthians 4:7) 4:5 lusting after things with an all-consuming longing is
typical of people who do not know how complete they already are in God.
I am free for the
first time since August of 2001 I have computers that have no filters on
them. I don’t need them anymore. I received a revelation from the Lord that I
am complete in Him and the lie reveled to me was I needed porn, lust to feel
good about myself to feel complete.
Wednesday night I told my wife.
Today there is no desire at all to go down that path of destruction
while I sit in front of a computer with no filter. Now I rely on Holy Spirit to keep me free
and not something that is man-made!
Thank you Jesus! And they
overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; and
they loved not their lives unto the death. The first part doesn’t
work unless you die to yourself.
I wrote this
Wednesday night and then Thursday morning I received this from the Lord.
Isaiah 61:20 I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God for he has clothed me with garments of salvtion and arrayed me in a rob of rightousness, ....................
