Lust Has Left the Building ~ blog

I am writing this email today because God is doing something in me that I want to share with you. I hope that I am not boasting in anything but the Lord because He is the only one doing these things and I am somewhat utterly amazed.

I have always said that recovery happens best when it is the Holy Spirit doing a work of transformation instead of us trying our best to achieve abstinence. In recovery circles achieving abstinence under your own power is called “white knuckling it” like someone holding on to a bar in a hurricane wind with such a grip that turns their knuckles white.  In other words, they are trying to not give in to their addiction on their own.

The absolute truth about recovering from any kind of addictive behavior is that you cannot do it by yourself. We want to do it alone because we don’t want anybody to know we are addicted because of shame and it seems like sexual sin is more shameful for Christians than drugs or alcohol. So, we keep quiet, lie to ourselves, try our recovery one more time only to fall on our face again.

Imagine your life as a timeline.  At some specific date, you were born. At some later date, you were born again.  You received salvation by the grace of God through faith in Christ and went from being spiritually dead in sin to being spiritually alive in Christ. At that moment you became a New Creation and an eternal member of God’s family.  And your spiritual journey as a follower of Christ began.

At present, you and I are on a journey through the life God has for us and many of us are just trying to get by and longing for something.  I don’t know what you long for perhaps its retirement, or a new job, of a spouse or a family. So, we are working away at life and trying our best to manage this addictive behavior of sexual sin and porn.

I have been on my recovery journey for 5,039 days and on my spiritual life journey for 17,086 days (that’s a little over 47 years).  During this part of our life, the part between when we became saved and the day we die … is our spiritual journey.  We start the journey spiritually dead in sin, but we will end the journey perfected and holy in Heaven … forever … and forever is a long time.

God does not just give us the grace and faith to believe, welcome us into His family, pats us on the back and says; “Good Luck … see you in Heaven.” He places His Spirit inside every single one of His children so that we literally have the Spirit in our bodies every moment of every day.  And He has a purpose for being in us.

The Holy Spirit’s Purpose in US

is to TRANSFORM US into more Christ-like people.

This is as true for you as it is for me.  The great news is that God promises that He will finish this work of transformation.

What if I told you that I have experienced some of this transformation in my own life in a very specific way over the past 6 months?  Something has changed inside of me that I thought would never happen until I get to heaven.  Lust, who has been with me since I found my dad’s porn magazine around 1966, is gone.  At least for now I think it is gone. It feels like it has left the building.

For years my lust has been like a slow-burning ember somewhere deep in my flesh.  For decades it has been there igniting into fires at an image or even a thought of sexual sin.  For 8 years of my life, I poured gasoline on that fire with sexual images and activities.  Enjoying the light and warmth of a nice fire for a while and then putting it out so as not to get caught.

You know what I am talking about.  That little burning desire that is in your brain as you walk through your day checking out almost every woman you see and making her an object for your sexual desires.

Some have taught us to bounce our eyes so as to not lust.  Others told us to wear a rubber band on our wrist and snap it hard so we would begin behavioral modification and associate lust with pain. Which is not a bad idea until your wrists are bloody from being at the fitness center for a workout.

My wife and I went to NYC from June 16-20th to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary.  I saw large crowds of people every day.  Passed by hundreds of attractive and sensually dressed women for 4 days. And I realized that I was not feeling lust who normally would have been whispering; “Oh, look at her … check this out or notice that.”  And I would be triggered and want to imagine things like I have imagined a thousand times.

Now I am being as completely honest as I can be.  For the last 6 months, I have not been feeling or hearing from my lust.  The only thing I can imagine for a change like that is the Transformation of the Spirit in me. I do not know how long I will be like this.  I hope forever!!!

But I also know I still have a flesh, still live in a fallen world, and still must do battle with demonic forces.  Maybe I am still in the battle just getting some R&R (rest and relaxation) for the next battle over the horizon.

I believe this is what God has for all of us.  No matter how far we have fallen into sexual sin and how addicted we might have become God has already begun to change us by giving us spiritual life and will finish His work forever in heaven.

In the meantime, keep offering your body to God, keep being filled with the Spirit and keep putting on the full armor of God every single day.

BTW – He is doing something else in me that I will share tomorrow.

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