Lust: A Discussion Within—BODY (heart?), MIND & SPIRIT

Peter,
God bless you for asking! And you may be speaking for others as well. God bless you all! We can overcome, always!

“No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” (1 Cor. 10:13)

I’ve been single all of my life without having the gift of singleness. So I can relate. It hasn’t been easy for me to get to where I’m at now. To me, it’s mostly a matter of understanding the factors involved. I’m at a place now where it’s actually not very difficult for me to be totally free all the time, but I also know that if I let myself fall even just a little bit, I could be easily swept back into lusting.
For me, now, my greatest challenge is to forgive everyone, everywhere, 100% of the time from the bottom of my heart. For I get hated on a lot, especially by ‘Christians,’ because I’m standing up for what is right. But people aren’t the enemy. We must love everyone, even those who want to kill us. And deciding to love even our enemies makes it also easier to walk completely lust free.
For those who are trying to be holy, to be real Christians, these can be lonely times. I don’t know of one church in all of America that is figuring it out enough to where they are significantly overcoming, to where we can go there and rest in God and with each other. Sin is so rampant. So what do we do in the meantime? How can we always overcome when it seems that hardly anyone is—even pastors? And instead of repenting, and calling the church into repentance, they seem to instead be moving the mark to where sin isn’t so bad. “I’m okay; you’re okay,” regardless of what Jesus and the New Testament writers wrote.
To me, the number one issue is getting our salvation doctrine figured out. The idea that we can willfully lust, hate others, lie, etc. and still go to heaven is not in the Word of God. It’s actually reverse-Christian. So I think it’s important to get this crucial issue settled. My Who-Goes-To-Heaven Scriptures article should settle this for many, as well as the related posts (“Who Goes to Heaven” category posts in reverse chronological order). It’s so clear, but the deception in America is so great that I don’t know one church in my entire state that teaches the truth about who goes to heaven. If we just get this one issue settled….
I had a dream over 15 years ago that helped get me back on track. Jesus said He would send the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. I was in an extra-frustrating situation during which I allowed myself to lust at night while watching TV. After about 1.5 weeks of this (and for the record, not lusting after any other women other than these on TV), I heard in this dream that I was in danger of going to hell of lusting. And then I heard Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount words summarized something like this: ”Anyone who lusts in his heart is committing adultery. And it’s better to pluck out your eye than lose your whole body in hell.”
My instantaneous response was: “Jesus, you’re serious (that He fully meant what He so clearly said)!” That ended my binge. But for me, I needed to learn more in order to consistently overcome.
The Holy Spirit helped me again, giving me a vision. I saw a lust demon just above my body, unable to get inside. But when I lusted just a little bit, it gleefully rejoiced and literally jumped right into me, saying something like, “a hah!” And that’s when lust becomes an addiction (and this is true with homosexuality too. I’ve never had sex with anyone in my entire life, period. But I bring this up because I it’s important for homosexuals to know they can be totally free too. It works the same way), because demons drive the desire. Once they’re in, it’s impossible to totally relax in God, having peace in this area until we completely repent, determining to go cold turkey—not giving the demons a place, a right to torment us with these sins.

“Submit to God; resist the Devil, and he’ll flee.” (James)

Once lust-demon free, we can still be tempted, but it’s no longer an addiction until we give into the temptation. And there we go all over again until we totally repent—to be free. And we can always live free.
For me, to get free and stay totally free requires understanding some additional factors. How does this all work in real life?
For example, willfully lusting, even if it’s just looking at women the way they’re partially declothed or just tightly clothed on standard TV, can easily open the doorway in just be a matter of a second or two. Some discard the TV all together, which may be best for them. Some get rid of their computers or put filters on. The filters won’t filter out all of the temptations though, and not using a computer is to severely limit what at least I can do during this crucial time.
I tried accountability to a Christian brother or two. That didn’t work for me. What works for me is taking this battle for my soul totally seriously, that sinning in this way isn’t even an option. I’m determined to bounce my eyes away from body parts they flash in front of my face. And there are many programs I won’t even watch because I know this is going to happen too much.
TV can be rough, because we can be watching a totally decent show and then the commercial comes on with the scantily clad temptations intentionally trying to suck us in. And if we’re not careful, woe!!! Editors can show a country scene, and then suddenly fill the entire screen with a body part. We have to flee as did Joseph from Potiphar’s wife. Run! Don’t look even part of a second more, and defile our mind. Just because demons have influenced women to dress certain ways doesn’t give us the right to look.
This is war! All out!! And we need to treat it this way:

“From the days of John the Baptizer until now, the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” (Mt. 11:12)

This is war for our souls, war for our effectiveness, war for whether we will stay in God or not, whether we will be useful for humanity or not, whether we can love people without addictions or not—resting.
“We can all be there.
Let’s go.
It takes sincerity.”
If we could see the demons, it would be far easier to see the need to do whatever it takes to keep them from affecting us. But we can’t. But if we are ever compelled to lust, when it becomes hard to not lust—we can be sure that we are lust demon driven. And those who tempt us are probably lust demon driven to.
We can start by making sure we’re free; then maybe others will get free; and then maybe freedom will happen for many!
The joy of the Lord is our strength. He wants us to be free to respectively appreciate everyone—to forgive and be free—and not take advantage of those who are demon driven to reveal things they should only reveal to their husband.
God wants us to respect everyone no matter what. And we can do it!
One thing I’m trying to do is to focus on what is lovely and right to focus on (Philippians 4). I deal with a lot of yuck in my blogs—for this world is currently extremely yukky. And to get out of the yuck many still need to see how yukky it really is. This is love—and at times it can actually be quite fun—to help people see how detestable this matrix we’re in is, so we can soar above and be ONE! But I don’t want to dwell in yuck all the time, and the revival may not come for years.
Photography is something I’ve loved all of my life, and I believe the Lord has led me to try to now do it as a profession. So I’ve spent thousands of hours studying how to do it, so I can share with others photos of what’s best in the world—images that can hopefully make their hearts leap with joy and hope that God is awesome—that there really still is beauty in this world! I think it’s good to find something that takes us to greater heights and out of the doldrums, if we can.
Ideally, we should (and I believe we will) have churches in which every member is learning how to overcome so they are functionally able to help one another in their particular giftings. It’s much harder to be strong on our own, but when we are together in Christ we won’t be as easily picked off. Then I think it will actually be easy to overcome.
But until then, we have to put into effect every safeguard we individually need in order to stay clean all the time.
I encourage others to add what they know, or ask questions about what they’d like to know. And if I don’t have the answer, maybe someone else would.
And Peter, if this doesn’t make sense enough, please continue the dialogue until it does.
God bless you all! May we be freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!
Jeff : )

Teekay,
Please again read my post #2, above. You can overcome. There is always a way out. It’s up to you. If you are born-again, you have the power, the grace to overcome temptation. “No weapon that is formed against you will prosper.” But only if we fight to win.
We can’t dabble with lust. Just a little bit, making the conscious decision to look at what we shouldn’t for even a second gives the lust demons a right to enter. And then it’s an addiction to which many think they can’t break free.
And you’re not alone at all. Even most pastors are probably not clean in this area (and by that alone, disqualified to lead). Ultimately, it would be great to hang out with God’s people under the Holy Spirit’s anointing. But I don’t know of one place this is currently happening in America right now. But it should. Com’ on pastors, either be clean or quit. This is serious, and it is a salvation issue, and leadership will get a stricter judgment…. Hopefully, real places of worship will spring up soon.
Anyway, Teekay, you have to shut the door to evil. Cold turkey. No lust, period. Natta. Zilch.
Do other things. Focus on what is right and pure and what God has called you to do. Live free, above the fray, where fruit remains. Don’t be like the others. There are no excuses that will stand up in heaven when you see Jesus face to face. We need to be holy now, all the time. You can do it, and we should all be doing it, together. Free, holding hands in peace, resting, full of love—not on the take—giving into the devil—looking at things we shouldn’t be looking at—dallying in sin, thinking it’s okay. The devil will say it is, even through preachers—the days are so evil—and the people so deceived. But we can rise above!!! Can you fell it? Freedom?
Cold turkey. And if you do blow it again, consider the serious place of danger you are in. Confess your sin, resist the devil and he will flee. But remember, we can’t play around with this stuff. This is an all-out battle for our soul!
One of these days, I need to transcribe a message in which a pastor actually died, and was told in heaven that if everyone died right then only 2.5% of the people in the world would go to heaven. Only 2.5%, y’all!!!
Lust is one of the main sins that is compromising the American church so it can’t be salt and light among nations. And then they trust in our military might to take out nations they think want to do us harm; though, we’re heaping more and more guilt upon ourselves, for the answer isn’t to kill others (unless it truly is self-defense). The answer is repentance, getting right with God in all things, having our hearts clean, so we can have revival, together, now, and see Jesus’ smile when we enter heaven, hearing: “well done thou good and faithful servant.”
“Then the world will know.” (Jesus in John 17)
We can do it, but it’s all out war, and the demons will keep us into bondage if we don’t walk totally free, touching not the unclean thing—which for guys often involves what we look at—keeping the eyes pure.
Regarding your issue #2, that’s happened to me a couple of times many years ago, and it’s pretty scary. I think I prayed in tongues at the thing (probably a higher ranking than your average demon. The one I most clearly remember seemed man-sized) and it went away immediately.
If you don’t already pray in tongues, I’d be glad to post why I believe the Bible teaches that all believers should walk in and exercise this awesomely important gift for overcoming. My opinion is that tongues is mainly a gift to help us deal with the demonic forces that He’d rather have us not see, but still be able to overcome. Let me know if you’d like me to write and post this.
The holier you are the less right evil spirits have to mess with us. Forgiving everyone, everywhere, from our whole heart, all the time is a huge key to overcoming. The more we forgive the easier it is to rest and relax. Phew! The battle is indeed fierce, but there is a place in the wilderness where we can all be free. The joy of the Lord is our strength! We’re all learning, but we should never let us get in the danger areas where we can lose our salvation. My article on this is very important, and I think irrefutable: Who-Goes-To-Heaven Scriptures — We Must Obey. Most churches are teaching the greatest deception, saying we can willfully sin these sins and still go to heaven.
Your last point: the main thing is to be right with God and all people no matter what. If you’ve hurt people, repent. Get right with them. See my Asbury post: Asbury Revival, 1970: “Dr. Kinlaw, I am a liar. Now what do I do?”.
Please, get clean, and the joy will come back, guaranteed. Partysville no more.
We can all be free!
God bless you, Teekay! Let’s all overcome together! And if you have any further questions or comments, let me know. This is a big deal. Thanks so much for asking!!!
Also, remember that the days are evil, so it’s harder than ever to be set apart. Don’t worry about what others think as you go the way of holiness. You may not be able to hang out with the same people, but they’ll be watching, seeing that you have something they don’t. And it’s a joy!
James 1:27:

“Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

The first part of this passage is to put on righteousness: to do positive things for those in need, as our heart leads us. The second is to put off unrighteousness: set no unclean thing before our eyes, for example.
Put off and put on, and be freeeee!!!!
We can do it!!! Jesus is the way!
Jeff : )