Very Powerful

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, ....................