1. Overcoming depression
2. How to have more faith
3. How to stop sinning
4. Managing stress
5. Overcoming anxiety
6. Overcoming procrastination
7. Overcoming bad habits
8. Overcoming lust
9. Overcoming Fear
10. Overcoming Adversity
11. Seeking and fulfilling God’s plan for your life
12. How to be prosperous and successful in a conservative, biblical, and godly way

Now I wouldn’t dare giving you the above grand promises if I hadn’t received some major revelations from the Lord recently, which I believed would change my own life dramatically from now on.

I want to share this blessing with you, and the blessing of these revelations are meant for every Christian, and to a certain extent, even for the non-Christians. Everyone can receive the benefits of God’s promises. It makes me think of Psalms 119:130, “The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.”

Mysteries of the kingdom of God revealed!

Jesus told the disciples that he had explained to them the mysteries of the kingdom of God (Luke 8:10). In other words, the mysteries that had been hidden since time of  Genesis were revealed in his teaching.

What mysteries?

Items 1 to 12 from the top of this post, and even more!

The kingdom of God is as close as you want it to be. From now on, stop acting or speaking like you don’t know how to live victoriously. Stop thinking that you shouldn’t be held accountable for things you don’t know.

Why do I say that?

Just days ago I was like most people. I was not above complaining about what I didn’t know, and what I didn’t have. I would say things like, “how do I stop sinning?”; “I am confused!”; “I don’t know why I am like this!”

The Kingdom of God is as close as you want it to be

Right after Jesus talked about this mysteries, he explained why the multitude didn’t understand his parables.

Luke 8:10 And He said, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that ‘ Seeing they may not see, And hearing they may not understand.

People who don’t really want to receive more from God will not receive. They see but they don’t see. They hear but they don’t understand.

In the kingdom of God, the more we have the more we will be given. It’s like capitalism.

For example, have you tried to repeat a refreshing conversation you had with a dear friend to another person?

If that person is a bad listener, or if he doesn’t have the intimate knowledge or experience your dear friend has, you would feel like your words get caught up in your throat. That person might think that he understands you,  but your message is oversimplified and desensitized into something that is far less than the conversation you had with your dear friend.

It’s similar to when God is trying to reveal His mysteries to us. The more we have, the more He will be able to tell us things. The less we have, the less He will be able to explain deeper things to us.

An insincere, passive way of listening is not going to bring us far.

But you are not like that. You obviously want to know more. So don’t worry. You are going to understand the mysteries of God. God Himself guaranteed that. Seek and you will find! (Matt 7:7)

A perfect answer to the question “how?”

Sincere and God-loving Christians often ask “How?”, which is a good question. The fact that you are interested in finding out the answers to items 1 to 12 on top of this post indicates that you like How-to articles, right?

Great, I am a How-to kind of guy. I like clear step by step formula for spiritual matter.

God said, “sin no more!” (John 8:11) And I asked”How?”

God said, “Be joyful always” (1 Thess 5:16) I asked “How?”

God said, “Be perfect, because I am perfect” (Matt 5:48) “How?”

“Have faith in me!” “How?”

“Meditate in my words day and night, and you will be prosperous and have good success!” “How?”

“How do I stop this depressive thought?” “How do I get rid of this bitterness?” “How do I stop sinning?” “How can I become more diligent?” “How can I stop being lazy?” …

God always reveal the answer, although many times I didn’t get the answers quickly. It sometimes took years. God doesn’t answer my questions in essays. The answer often requires God using my own experience and adding bit and piece of enlightenment along the way, which eventually form a 3-D testimony of my own that finally give me the answer.

It’s like putting puzzles together into a picture.

Regarding the question of “how?”.

The perfect answer to the Hows is…

You don’t know how!!!

Yup, that’s the answer. That’s right, you don’t know how. I am not kidding.

Mark 4:26-27 And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how.

If you ask God how this happen, how that happen, and how to do this or that, God might actually answer you, but usually the ultimate solution is “just be”.

The words of God change what you are. The Bible is not written to give us a list of How-to, but to give us life.

How often do you see the Bible give you a list of how-to and formulas? You can find them in a cook book, but probably not the Bible.

How does it related to the Parable Of The Mustard Seed?

The key is hidden in the seed.

You might never understand the hows, but if you plant the seeds, and wait patiently, they will give you a harvest. The seeds will change you from within, and release the power of God in everything God called you to do. Problems solved. No need for the hows anymore.

You don’t need to worry about the hows anymore. They are irrelevant.

You have everything you need already. The Bible says God has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. (2 Peter 1:3)

What is life? Productivity certainly is. Joy, peace, health, and success are also important parts of life. Life isn’t just merely surviving and putting up with sins, defeats, and pains.

And there is godliness. Godliness is perfection and holiness. It’s living above sins!

Life and godliness are the solutions to items 1 to 12!!

Before I go on about actually planting the seeds and getting a good harvest of life and godliness, let me develop my case a little bit better.

How come some Christians are more Christian than the others?

This is the question I had for years. I often heard that some spiritual giants had a major revelation and suddenly they no longer sin. (such as Watchman Nee, Hudson Taylor)

I had been seeking this elusive, mysterious revelation for years, but I didn’t really understand. I read their testimonies but I didn’t see through the surface. I heard but I didn’t understand. (Luke 8:10)

If you have the same experience, welcome to the club! Congratulation because my years of struggles may serve you well!

I often asked Christians whom I admired questions such as “How do you keep yourself from sinning?”, “How come you are so self-disciplined?” “How do you manage to achieve so much within so short a time?”

I’d even asked pastors about this, but they didn’t really answer my questions.

For the victorious Christians, often time they really don’t know how they came to be victorious. They simply are what they are.

I know it’s not about self. It’s about relying on God. I rely on God, too! But how come I fall short while some people always do better than me? And they don’t even know how it happened!

Look into the seeds!!!

The mustard seed has faith, power, and transformational properties within it

Just scatter the seeds (The word of God) on the ground (Your soul: your heart and mind), preserve them with a good heart, and you will reap a harvest. (Luke 8:15)

The mustard seeds are the word of God.

Your faith will increase simply by listening to the word. (Romans 10:17)

Every word of God contains power. (Hebrews 4:12)

The word of God can be implanted into your soul, and save your soul through its living, growing, and transforming power. (James 1:21)

The word of God will accomplish everything it says it will accomplish. (Isaiah 5:11)

How come I don’t experience the word of God that way?

If God’s word has the aforementioned properties, then why do I go to the church so often, read the Bible a lot, and hear the sermons so many times, but still get stuck with certain struggles in my life?

The main reasons can be found in the parable of the sower (Mark 4:1-20, Matthew 13:1-23, and Luke 8:1-15) You and I know that only good seed (not to be confused with the mustard seeds) who persevere, who refuse distractions, who suffer persecutions, and who listen to word of God with a “good heart” will produce a great harvest in the end.

What else? The rest of this post will focus exactly on that.

For the sincere Christians who seem to belong to the category of good seeds : they go to the church, they study the Bible, and they do this, this and that, but they still had problems with lust, depression, laziness, sickness, fears, and etc.

What’s wrong?

You have to unlock the powers within the mustard seeds!!!

God has done His parts, and the only part left is ours.

The Bible says, “His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue” (2 Peter 1:3)

God has already given us everything, absolutely everything that pertain to life and godliness. He doesn’t need to give us more. We have enough. We should.

So how do you unlock the power of God’s word? How do you get the seeds working?

Simple. So simple that it’s almost hard to understand.

#1, speak the word of God in faith and speak it often. (Joshua 1:8)

I don’t mean intellectual conversation or discussion. We can study God’s word intellectually, but that’s another subject. Here I want to let you know that even simple, verbal declaration of God’s word can trigger the power of God.

God said, “Let there be light!” and there was light. The physical world didn’t ask “how?”. It simply obeyed. There was nothing too intellectual or too complicated about it.

Jesus rebuked the sea and the wind, and they listened to him. (Matt 8:26)

The principle of faith is that if you confess with your mouth and agree in your heart the things you want, they shall be given you. (Romans 10:10; Mark 11:22-24)

Jesus taught us this,

Mark 11:22-24 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever SAYS to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he SAYS. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

Matthew 17:20-21 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.

You can speak God’s word. You can pray God’s word. One thing is necessary here, faith. If you say it and believe it in your heart, God’s word will manifest.

Don’t pray in a way as if God’s promise isn’t there. For example, don’t pray for victory over sin, or strength over sin, because the Bible say that you and I already connected with Jesus Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection, and therefore we also shared His victory over sins. (Romans 6; Galatians 5:24)

Miraculously, whenever I speak Christ’s victory with all my heart, temptations and the power of sins would collapse and victory would manifest. It isn’t about my willpower. The victory has already been won so don’t attempt to win it again.

If you believe that God’s promise isn’t what it says it is, and pray or speak in a way as if His promise is powerless, then the reality will come out that way.

If you say, “I really don’t know…” or “I am just confused…”, then you will indeed become “don’t know” and confused. You put faith in the words of doubt, so your faith in the negative and your negative words work against you.

Word of faith works in both negative and positive. The negative side of faith is doubt. Doubt means negative faith. It’s one kind of faith. It works.

“I am tired” So you get tired. “I think I am sick” So you get sick. “I don’t know why things get so bad lately” So things get bad and you don’t know why.

In the past many years, I often talked about my sins, my bad habits, and my confusions. I had tried many formula, listen to many godly men and their teachings, but the perfect formula still eluded me. So I kept talking about my sins, my bad habits, and my confusions, and they remained with me faithfully for as long as I talked about them and put my faith in those words.

Countless Christians speak in words of defeats, of their bad experiences, and of their feelings, than they speak in the word of God in faith. No wonder their situations never change. (Me included)

It doesn’t matter how godly you are, how sincere you are, or how much you love God, if you apply this spiritual principle of spoken faith, this principle will work.

You can apply this spiritual principle in ignorant, but this principle doesn’t filter the results base on what you really want. Like electricity, it can hurt you or serve you.

When you speak the word of God often, you hear it often. When you hear it often, your faith increases often. Faith comes by hearing. (Romans 10:17)

I learned to stop trying to find faith from within. I learned that I was only given faith that was the size of a mustard seed. I need to speak it and exercise it to release the faith of God within it.

#2, Deal with the tongue

People often want to know how to have better self-control, productivity, and all that. They also wonder why they don’t have the full life that Jesus promised. (John 10:10)

Some Christians even struggled with bondage such as suicidal thoughts, depressions, angers, bitterness, and all sort of things.

Christians who are willing to obey everything God ask of them might still live a powerless and unfulfilled life, and most often the source of problems trace back to their tongues.

James 3:2-6 For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.

Psalm 34:12-16 Who is the man who desires life, And loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, And your lips from speaking deceit.

Proverbs 15:4 A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, But perverseness in it breaks the spirit.

Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.

The Bible says that evil words of the tongue came from hell!(James 3:2-6) Hell is the home of demons, and there they torture the damned souls whom they had successfully deceived till the end of their earthly life.

For example, people who had self-hatred, suicidal thoughts, and depression were actually victim of demons. They planted these thoughts and deceptions in their victims’ minds.

The purposes of the demons are to steal, kill, and destroy. (John 10:10) The Devil can only achieve that by planting evil thoughts and deceptions in people’s minds. The demons will move on to the next victim after they have done their planting, and they will come back to check their work from time to time. (Job 1:7; 1 Peter 5:8)

If these victims died in sins, or died without Christ, the demons that tortured them on earth will continue their torments in hell.

The tongue is a battle field of the Holy Spirit, the flesh, and the demons. ( Gal 5:17) The demons want to use our tongues to curse, to defile our whole body, and set things on fire!!

Sounds crazy? One time Jesus rebuked Peter with these words, “Get thee behind me Satan!” (Matt 16:23) Peter was just trying to talk Jesus out of the Crucifixion, but Jesus identified the true author of this plead as Satan himself.

The heaven and hell know that if they can control your tongues, they control your whole body.(James 3:2) Which side do you prefer to yield your control over?

When Christians speak evil of any kind, even if they think it’s just harmless venting or teasing, they are actually giving power to the enemy. Words of self-pity, doubts, complains, condemnation, and idle words make the Devil powerful.

The Devil has no power over us unless we give it to him. The Devil cannot order the mountains to move, but we can. The Devil knows it. Therefore, he works very hard to get us to say things that he wants us to say.

Through self-inspection and revelation from God, I learned that I had a pattern of self-fulfilling prophesies. I used to talk about my fears a lot. I was taught to tell things as it is. I was taught to vent it out. For every 1-2 years, some of my worst fear would come to pass, exactly the way I didn’t want it to happen!!

For example, I predicted that since I was so bad in self-discipline (A result of self-fulfilling prophesy in its own right), I would probably suffer lack of achievements. And I predicted that if my dream girl came along, I would be so inadequate and unproductive that I won’t deserve her.

Since immigrated into Canada, I had always worried about my broken English and the fact that I was too lazy to improve it, and when I did meet a dream girl (Second one, see below), she did loath at my accent!

The snobbish attitude that girl had toward me was part of my self-fulfilling prophesy as well. Prior to meeting her in reality, and after I met her, I had been talking about my inadequacy, broken English, and lack of social grace for so many times. I also kept saying and thinking that if I met a dream girl she would probably see through my inadequacies.

A couple of dream girls did come along(Respectively, each for 2.5 years, with 1 year of break in between, so my torments lasted for 5+years), and it did happen the way I predicted. “Better guys” beat me to it, except that the guys weren’t even Christians. They weren’t really superior than I was, but I prophesied my own defeats and contributed to it by the words of my mouth.

It didn’t help when I had been complaining about the snobbish attitude the second dream girl had occasionally expressed toward me, what was I thinking? You can’t get something you really want by complaining about it!!

Side note: Don’t complain about people. Don’t gossip. The more you condemn, the nastier those people would become. Your verbal curses can make people worst than they already are.

Side note#2: I know a lot of failures can be attributed to others, but talking about their incompetence, problems, and attitudes will not make things work. It will actually deliver your worst predictions- “Oh! because so and so … [have done something or failed to do something], it’s going to be … [thousands words description of how bad consequences are going to be]…”

You have faith on the negatives, and you speak it often, so it shall be done for you.

[Back to topic.]

And I did suffer financially and academically because my lack of discipline. I had talked about my lack of self-discipline so many times for so many years, but I had rarely talked about the fruits of the Spirit, which include self-control.

For the 3 years that followed, I cut back on negative words and thinking by listening to God and believing in His perspective on things, rather than in my own perspective– my perspective always lean on the worst angle.

The cut back helped a lot. My depression stopped.

Recently, when I finally had a better understanding of the principle of speaking faith and used it to serve me, bad habits and laziness lose their grips on me!! It’s magical.

Control your tongue, and speak the word of God, and you will get the power of God’s word to work for you. God’s word always deliver when you speak it in faith.

An article I find helpful:

Idle words leak life

#3, Have Faith

Have you ever asked God to increase your faith? When the disciples did this this was Jesus ’s reply.

Luke 17:5-6 And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” So the Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

John 14:12-14 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do,

Everybody has faith. If someone believe in doubts, rather than in truth, that person is putting his faith in doubts.

If we believe in our feelings, circumstances, and ourselves, more than we believe in the words of God, then we are putting our faith on these things rather than on God.

Jesus didn’t grant his disciples the request for more faith, but he told them how they can exercise the faith they already had by speaking it.

Faith is like a mustard seed. It’s alive. It can grow.

It grows by hearing the word of God. Faith comes by hearing. (Romans 10:17)

The more we speak our faith, the more powerful our faith become as we listen to our voice of faith.

As we experience the power of God, victories will begin to manifest, and the more we experience victories, the more our faith would be strengthen. It’s a positive circle.

We can duplicate what Jesus did, and even more, if we exercise our faith properly.

# 4, Persevere

Luke 8:11-15 ¹¹“This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. ¹²Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. ¹³Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. ¹⁴The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. ¹⁵But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

Perseverance is perhaps the most important key to get the word of God to work in your life. People who just try and see what happen will not last.

The Bible says life’s distraction and time of testing will come. It will look confusing. There will be unpleasant feeling.

After we plant the word of God into our souls and into our circumstances, things probably aren’t going to look very different immediately. It might actually seem worst than before.

The longer you have been a Christian, the more boring things will look like in the short-run. The honeymoon with God has long passed, but if you persevere, God will deliver His promises.

God doesn’t want whiners who whine at the first hint of hardship. God want us to speak the word of faith regardless of our circumstances.

Hebrews 11 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

2 Corinthians 4:13 And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,”we also believe and therefore speak,

When situations look bad, and when you feel negative from within, keep speaking the word of God.

You might feel sick, but if you know in your heart that God has promised you healing, then keep speaking your healing out loud. If you are unemployed, but know in your heart that God is giving you a good job, or income of any kind, keep speaking abundance.

When I feel like procrastinating or being lazy, I speak out what I am going to do and why I am able to accomplish the tasks. Although I still feel lazy, my body and mind would find new energy that push me onward, and go ahead to do the tasks that I used to procrastinate under similar situations.

Romans 4:17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.”He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.

The proper way to do it is to calls those things that are not as though they were. You don’t call things that are as though they are. You call thing that are not as though they were.

Man of faith call things that are not as though they were, until they are!!

Man of Doubts call things that are as though they are, until they are.

# 5 , Walk with the Holy Spirit

To be filled with God’s word is to be filled with the Spirit. You can’t have one without the other. Only the Holy Spirit can help you control the tongue.

Go to How to Live A Spirit Filled Life for deeper discussion on the Spirit.

Without the Holy Spirit, we are only as good as non-Christians who practice positive thinking and affirmation. This is why there has been a lot of buzz with The Law Of Attraction and all sort of new age techniques that have to do with verbal affirmation.

You see, many non-Christians can also create abundance and influence others by speaking positively about their situations. They have observed that there was this phenomenon, but they didn’t know why. It was like the discovery of the law of gravity.

The Bible says,

Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

1 Corinthians 13:2 and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

It is possible to have the faith of God without obedience!! It is also possible to have perfect faith without the love of God.

The principle of spoken faith can work for you in this life, but without obedience to the Holy Spirit and the love of God, one will lose his heavenly reward, and it might even be possible to lose his salvation.

Therefore, even a non-Christian can be blessed in this life by the principle of spoken faith. No wonder there are so many successful non-Christians out there who rely on their own strength and their idols.

We as Children of God have much more powerful allies– God’s word and His Spirit– and if we work with them to our full capacity, we will indeed overcome this world and be on top of things. (Deu 28:13)

God does not show favoritism, whoever obeys His law of spoken faith will receive its benefits, but whoever violates this principle will suffer loss. In terms of this principle, it is not how much you love God or how sincere you are that counts, it’s whether you work with this principle that determines whether this principle serves you or hurts you.

Other resources that I find useful

The Power Of the Tongue

Charles Capps Ministry of Faith

Coming Next: Testimonies Of Faith

The best way to learn a spiritual lesson is combining both scriptural teaching and practical experiences. In the next post I am going to show you the testimonies of faith in actions– How people recover from terminal illness, handicaps, sins, demonic influences, and financial hardship.

Go from Parable Of The Mustard Seed to the Next Post

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What is spiritual cleansing? To every Christian a spiritual cleansing should be as normal as taking a shower. It’s not mystical. It’s not for the super godly only.

Spiritual cleansing is a combined result of the following non-exclusive list:

• Reading God’s words according to the leading of the Holy Spirit
• Taking time to digest the words one verse at a time, or quickly skim through a whole chapter (whatever work better for you at the time, as long as you can handle it and understand why you do it the way you do. Be patient and wait for the Lord to speak to you through the words)
• Mixing your faith with the words such that you believe it will change you, and that the promises of God will gradually actualize in your life, even though you may not feel anything at the time, or that the scripture is saying the opposite of what you are actually experiencing
• When you see something in the words that convict you, take the time to confess them to God fully and ask Him to heal you completely
• Asking God to heal your memory of sins and past wounds
• Binding Satan and his dark force that are working against you in the spiritual cleansing process with the authority you have in Christ

To give you an example of spiritual cleansing, today I went through one of the chapters in an Online Christian course, Freedom Journey (I will show you the link at the bottom, just listen to me first ). It is a course that help Christian who is struggling with porn and masturbation. I find that the whole course is also useful for all kind of spiritual problems, not just sexual addictions.

For example, if you have a stubbornly prolonged struggle in any area such as finance, relationship, health, unpleasant memory, fear, or other stubborn problems, you can use some serious spiritual cleansing to deal with it. A spiritual cleansing will open door to a long delayed freedom.

I recommend that you go through the Freedom Journey Courses. Since you are reading this article, I would say you probably need a spiritual cleansing!

In life, spiritual wounds and bondage are both common and complex, they are like wounds with infection; you can’t expect the wounds to recover before you disinfect them properly and bandage it up. In fact, if you just let it stays the way it is, it will get worst.

It takes time

Every time I go through similar spiritual exercises such as the ones in the Freedom Journey courses, I would find the process exhausting. Sometime, after an hour or two of spiritual cleansing I would fall into a heavy nap for hours.

And you shouldn’t expect it to be a quick fix, so don’t try to rush through it. It takes time to listen to God and internalize His messages.

Through active listening and interactive conversation with God (Although sample prayers can help, there is no secret password or spell that will guarantee God’s answer, so just be real and sincere), healing and cleansing will take place.

It is a time consuming process, be prepared to set aside a large chunk of time on your schedule for each session. It is also not a one time fix, although it’s possible to experience complete freedom the first time. You should be ready to invest time on multiple sessions to get complete recovery.

Expect negative emotion, stress, and Chaos

The cleansing process will reveal, and even stir up, hurtful memory, memory of sins, anger, bitterness, and/or a plethora of other negative emotions. You may also have a hard time understanding and receiving God’s words or pray due to physical, psychological discomfort, or heavy distraction. When one of these symptoms occur, take heart and don’t be afraid. Ask God to protect you and reassure you with His Holy Spirit and His words.

Walk in your own pace

Don’t try to rush things through, even the parts that stir up negative emotions in you. For example, it’s painful to confront a hurtful memory and forgive those who were involved. But if that piece of memory became a stronghold where Satan could use it to attack you and tempt you, you should let God speak to you and heal you until you reach a closure – when the memory will no longer generate bitter or angry feeling.

Some steps will take more time to go through than the other. For example, let say you want to go through Bible verses about healing and try to memorize them so you can quote them and pray through them 24/7, you may find it difficult to focus and keep up with the exercise. Don’t rush. Do it one verse at a time. It’s better than trying to do them all within a short period, because that way you will probably drop the ball.

Warning. Don’t back down or walk away too early!

Although you can take your time and walk in your own pace, and that trying to rush it will only be counter-productive, don’t go too easy on yourself. The spiritual cleansing process is easy to get distracted and it’s easy to forget to go after it if you put it aside for a while.

There’s always urgency and busy trivia in life that fight for your attention. The Bible says:

“And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them”—Matthew 13:7.
“He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful—Matthew 13:22.

Yes, I understand how it feels to set aside a big chunk of time to do this soul searching, healing, and cleansing thing while putting up with challenges in life. But you need to have faith. You need to believe that this is worth it, and that you will bear so much fruits if you persist till the end.

If you don’t really believe it, you will procrastinate; and you will be easily distracted by other things and soon you will give up before seeing results.

Be Relentless!!!!!

In the Old Testament time, Israel had a great prophet, Elisha. He was getting old and became terminally ill. At the time the Israel was being oppressed by the Arameans “severely” (2 King 13:4)

The king of Israel visited the sick bed of Elisha, and cried before the prophet like a baby (2 King 13:14), for there seemed to be no hope left for Israel if even the great prophet Elisha passed away.

The old prophet instructed the king:

¹⁵ Elisha said, “Get a bow and some arrows,” and he did so. ¹⁶ “Take the bow in your hands,” he said to the king of Israel. When he had taken it, Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands.

¹⁷ “Open the east window,” he said, and he opened it. “Shoot!” Elisha said, and he shot. “The LORD’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram!” Elisha declared. “You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek.”

¹⁸ Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.” He struck it three times and stopped. ¹⁹ The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.”

²⁰ Elisha died and was buried.

Like the king of Israel, victories are ours if we follow through God’s instruction.

I actually learned of the Freedom Journey Course in 2006, but I didn’t go very far with it because I was intimidated by the negative thoughts and feelings that had occurred during the process. I figured I would do better if I just shifted my focus away from the battles and not to think about my problem with sins at all.

This time that I am trying to work through it again, I sense that I am able to experience a new level of freedom that I haven’t been able to attain in the last 3 years. Although the negativity are still there, this time thank God I am much more courageous and decide to see what happen if I stick it out.

When Do You Expect to See Results

God’ words is true no matter what our circumstances show us. At first, your experience might seem unchanged, or even frustrating. Don’t get whiny. Continue to speak God’s words and trust in His promises!

This is an excellent quote I copied from the author of the Freedom Journey, Paul Cook, in Chapter 1:

We exercise our faith when we believe in God’s word and confess it with our mouth (Romans 10:10).  It could be as simple as saying to ourselves each day when we get out of bed, “I believe that in Christ I can be and will be free of my struggle.”  Often our natural circumstances may not appear to be lining up with God’s word.  The challenge is to not allow our circumstances (or past failures) to steal our hope.  Faith believes in what is yet unseen (Hebrews 11:1-3).  It releases God’s power in us to perform the impossible and bring the unseen into reality!

Most of the time, my walk with God is one that is about the spirit, rather than the senses. I have never seen, heard, or touched God. I haven’t sensed any warmy fuzzies feeling in my walk with God for a long time, and it rarely happens.

Somehow it is above the physical or psychological senses, but the Spirit has gently strengthen me and encouraged me through the years. I have become more and more like a fire ball for God inside.

Similarly, it is how things typically go during a spiritual cleansing process, or any other spiritual disciplines. You don’t have to feel disappointed if you can’t sense a change or anything special at the time.

A change is usually realized after a while. It is when you have distanced yourself from the cleansing experience that you will be able to have a clear view of what happened.

Although I am not a fan for special feelings during a spiritual encounter with God, I do believe we encounter God much more frequently than we can realize and He is speaking to us most of the time.

But I Have Daily Quiet Time With God!

Do our daily quiet times bring spiritual cleansing as well? Certainly!

I have seldom skipped my daily quiet time with God and my Bible in the past 3 years. Those were sweet hours with God. And God has spoken to me often everyday. All I have to do to listen is to listen.

But why do I need to set aside large chunks of time for other spiritual disciplines such as going through the Freedom Journey Course, working through other Christian devotional or books, taking time for retreats, doing fast, and participating in fellowship with other Christians?

Suppose we compare God to an endless stream of river, and we are containers. The river always flow, but we as the containers need maintenance, cleaning, or major repairs from time to time in order to maintain our capacities to draw water from the river.

It’s difficult to spend time alone with God all the time. The first hour might be sweet, but the remaining day can become long and tiring if you continue to do it alone.

In the past 3 years I have been home a lot, at the beginning I was very much eager to study the Bible, memorize it all, and meditate on it day and night. But soon worldliness and heavy distraction crept in. Doing quiet time with God for about an hour per day has become my limit, averagely speaking. (Anyone can be totally excited for a while. I myself had done a 40 days fast together with a friend before. You can pray for 7 hours a day for a few days, but soon that will wane)

You need other Christians’ help. For example, read their devotional online, watch TV church, join a support group or Bible study group, or even read a Christian bestseller book. (Of course you should be a regular member of a godly Church too. )

Finally, Rejoice!

You should always end the spiritual cleansing sessions with joy and thanksgiving. I will tell you why:

The Israel and Judah in the Old Testament time had sinned too much and the Lord punished them by delivering them to their enemies. The Israel and Judah were conquered and enslaved by invaders respectively.

When the Jews came under the rule of the Persian Empire, a Jew named Nehemiah was an attendant before the Persian Emperor. The king showed him favor and allowed him to rebuilt the Jerusalem. Long story short, the city was rebuilt and they had some sort of a ceremony accompanied by having the ministers to read the law of Moses to the people in the city.

The Jews, upon hearing the law, wept. For they now knew why their nation was destroyed – their ancestors had sinned and ran away from the Lord.

The spiritual leaders there comforted the people, and admonished them to stop grieving:

This day is holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.¹⁰Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our LORD: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Nehemiah 8: 9-10

Joy from the Lord is our strength. Without joy it is very easy to fall into sin and all sort of addictions again.

Grieve is normal during genuine confession and confrontation of sins before the Lord. But the Bible say, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10)

Godly sorrow will quickly turn into joy and celebration (See the Bible story of the Prodigal Son in luke 15), but beware that you don’t get stuck with regrets. Satan will try to use excessive guilt, sorrow, and regrets to keep you under his yoke.

And finally, this is the link to the Freedom Journey Course that I recommend to you, click here. You can also visit the entire site at www.porn-free.org

Go to Christian Purity for more relevant articles

Go to Spiritual Discipline for more articles about spiritual discipline for Christian

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True romance is like a wine, the best favor takes time to come out. It requires consistent prayers, and a lot of effort.

In Part 3, we discussed how hope, faith, and love related to purity. This time I am going deeper: How do these pillar concepts of Christianity relate to intimacy and romance?

In fact, the Bible says a lot about love between a man and a woman. Some passages are even metaphorically graphical, such as passages from the book of Song of Songs.

It is God who created romance and physical intimacy. He Himself has said a lot about it through His inspired words, so of course He has the best way to fulfill such needs.

Remember in Part 3 I said that hope can give us strong endurance? Knowing that God will fulfill our needs and give us a happy ending can help us endure temptations much better.

⁴ Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37

If we find delight from the Lord, it will become much easier to wait, to wait for God to give us what we desire. It is not the other way around. Immature people like to satisfy themselves first, before they will satisfy the requirements or conditions for the rewards.

It’s frustrating to deal with such people. They always scream for what they want, but never accept their responsibilities. They keep fighting for their rights, but never take up their obligations first.

We can do things our way, but…

Imagine if we entertained these God-given desires in our own ways, wouldn’t it be chaotic?

If we shared our most precious gift with more than one person, in random timing, would you still call that gift precious?

¹⁵ Drink water from your own cistern,
running water from your own well.¹⁶ Should your springs overflow in the streets,
your streams of water in the public squares?

¹⁷ Let them be yours alone,
never to be shared with strangers.

¹⁸ May your fountain be blessed,
and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.

¹⁹ A loving doe, a graceful deer—
may her breasts satisfy you always,
may you ever be captivated by her love.

²⁰ Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress?
Why embrace the bosom of another man’s wife?  Proverbs 5:15-20

God created marriage. It is the only way, and the best way, to fulfill sexual needs, legitimately and morally.

Sex and intimacy before marriage, or outside of marriage will only bring you sorrows and curses in the long run. Pleasures and excitement from sin are but a moment! Um… make that a few moments if you like!

Marriage is an effective measure against sexual temptations!

One of the chief functions of marriage is protection. It protects both man and woman from sexual temptations:

²But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband…

⁹But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion. 1 Corinthians 7:2, 9

Does that mean marriage will fix your problems totally, even with lust?

No, marriage is a lifelong classroom. If your spouse was the nicest person on Earth before marriage, he or she could turn into your meanest coach who revealed and rebuked your character flaws, until you were willing to change or repent.

If a Christian believe he or she can use marriage to replace his or her problems, such as family conflicts or lust, he or she will be disappointed.

God loves us too much to give us an easy way out.

I personally know many people who think they can finally get spoiled when they get married. Some of them who did get married actually signed up for the harshest training camp that will last for the rest of his or her life.

Many dating couples broke up before they could make it to marriage, because they never admitted their wrongs when conflicts arose. They just kept pointing fingers at each other, hoping the other person would say sorry first. And if they don’t get their ways, things can escalate. I have seen someone badmouthing her ex on the Internet, guy who acted hysterically and carried a knife around in mediation meeting, and wife who would call every friend of her husband and leader of his church and make a scene every time they had a fight. Nasty!

Till the end, very few people repented, but then they get into new relationship to heal the previous wounds! And the cycle repeats!

Happily ever after belongs to the humble and meek, not the narcissist and stubborn.

Marriage can be sweet, if you invest yourselves into it, before and after marry

We will sow what we reap in marriage. Even for single Christians, if they want to marry someday, it is crucial to start investing in their future spouses now by praying for that special person regularly. Yes, even before they meet that person.

When you start doing that, you will notice a few major changes.

Change 1: Sanctification

I started praying for my future wife when I was 10. It was a starry night… I think… I don’t exactly remember the stars but it was at night for sure, and I did look up at the sky the first time I prayed for my future wife.

Since then, my view toward relationship had started to change over the years. I had changed from wishing to have many girl friends and sexes before settle down to have one girl friend only; and later, from one girl friend only to no premarital sex; and from there, to no physical touch before marriage; and eventually down to no dating at all!

Now I believe in Christian courtship! Meaning, no random try out, but to carefully observe and discern a girl’s characters before making any attempt to discuss possibility of a relationship with the girl’s parents/guardian… then talk to the girl!

Change 2: Romantic

Over the years, I have become more and more romantic. As a single person, I can’t prove that to you, but I can sense it. I started making songs for my future wife a few years back. I have been writing journals, hoping someday a special person will read it. I have been learning about how to be a man and a leader, so I can lead my future family when the time comes. I have been taking good care of my body, exercising frequently, and even learned some beauty cares!

I have fantasied about massaging my wife after I get married. One time I was receiving a massage from a massagist, when I told him I wanted to learn massage and why, he rebuked me strongly! (I was in mainland China. Chinese men still have this pride thing)

Change 3: Dating-Resistant

Many friends I know who are close to my age have been in a relationship more than once.

If you believe that God has someone special reserved just for you, you will have peace and security. You will not date around for fear of aging alone.

⁹However, as it is written:
“No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love (or wait for) him” 1 Corinthians 2:9

If you believe in this promise, anything less than God’s best will fade.

God’s plan is beautiful. Once you see it with your inner eyes, everything else, including and especially lust, will reveal their ugly selves comparing to the beautiful picture that you see.

You will not be able to date someone you know you are not going to spend the rest of your life with. You can’t, because that will make you worry what happens if God’s best suddenly shows up tomorrow! Or shows up but withdraw immediately after he or she sees that you already have someone!

I wonder how many guys and gals have repelled God’s best because they have been going out with someone! Heh heh! (You think I am mean? No, I’ve seen too many of that I don’t want to be heartbroken anymore!)

Deep in your heart, you know what you want. You know when a person isn’t the husband/wife that you like to have. And similarly, you will be very confident when you finally meet someone you can grow old with. Anything in between is NO! And God’s best will only appear in your life once, assuming that you have obeyed God’s plan A!

What if you miss out God’s best? Well… God always has a plan B, because He know that you and I are weak. But let us focus on plan A while it is still intact!

Beware of dating, especially with non-Christian, for you can adopt destructive habits through dating.

It’s a lifelong practice

Again, we sow what we reap. What you do before you marry will have consequences that last through your marriage. And for those who have married, it’s important to know that your spouse will change if you change first. Lasting romance only come from hard work and spiritual disciplines.

At the end of the day, it’s inner beauty that counts. Outward beauty will fade (Proverbs 31:30). However, every spiritual blessing that come from hard work and obedience will eventually become outward beauty! For example, many godly men in the Bible were handsome, and had beautiful wife or children. It was a bonus blessing from God.

But if you hurt relationships and family by sinning, how can you expect wounded souls to become beautiful outwardly? Guilt, abuse, or immorality can turn attractive persons ugly.

Ultimately, it’s God’s love that can strengthen marriage and repel lust. With God’s love, marriage can become an effective defense against lust. And hope of marrying God’s best will strengthen us against temptations even if we’re single. (Unless you have the gift of celibacy. In that case, you are waiting for the marriage between Christ and the Church)

Coming Next

I am going to talk about God’s word and how it can cleanse our soul and shield us from all temptations.

Go to Part 5, Spiritual Cleansing

Go to Christian Purity

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The concepts behind familiar words such as faith, hope, and love have a lot to do with it.

We are to be careful so we don’t say these words so carelessly that we forget their real meaning, or by hearing them too much we became too numb to conduct any meaningful contemplation on these words.

The more we are filled with faith, hope, and love, the more we will find it easy to set ourselves apart for God.

A brief overviews of faith, hope, and love

Do you know that your level of faith is proportional to your level of accomplishments in life? If you try to do something without putting real faith into it, you will never reach your full potential. Similarly, you will never experience true freedom from sin if you don’t really believe that freedom is yours to have.

Your behavior and attitude will stand in your way if you mentally agree with something, but not really believe it with your whole heart. And you if you don’t even agree with it, you will never take the first step.

Hope. It can give you endurance that is comparable to steel. When politicians fail the people, they often talk about the future so the people will endure poverty and chaos of the present.

It’s like the network marketing industry. Most people in a NM company don’t make money, but rather, lose money to yet another conference, yet another training course, and yet another “business expense”, but the stars on top will keep pointing them at the beautiful future so the representatives will stay with the company.

Hope works!

The examples I used might sound negative, but without hope, we can do nothing.

²⁴But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? Romans 8:24

Everything that takes more than the present to accomplish requires hope. A college student spend years and big money on school because he has a hope: to graduate and find a job with his degree.

Developers spend years to build a skyscraper because they hope to make money. Oil companies take risk and time to detect an oil mine, negotiate with the local government, and invest in major equipments in hope of making profit many years later.

Suppose you are a single Christian. What can keep you from satisfying your sexual need with premarital sex or casual dating? It’s hope. If you have a hope of marrying the best person ever, you will feel worth it to preserve your purity for that special someone. You will find strength to endure until the time come.

We will talk more about marriage and intimate relationship in the next installment.

And finally, love

Love has many facets. One of that is repulsiveness to lust. If you have god’s love in you, it will repel lust. If love and lust share the same room, they will fight until only one remains.

Let’s take a full look at the biblical love:

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7

Where there are impatience, unkindness, envy, boastfulness, pride… or any other antithesis of love, there are cracks for lust to creep in.

To excel in one thing requires excellence in everything. Virtues support each other. Purity requires other virtues to stay strong.

If you have read previous installments of this series, you should note that I mentioned a fateful night when I fell into lust, and experienced self-arousal for the first time at 24 years of age.

What happened before that night that lead to my downfall?

In the year that lead to THE night of downfall…

…I had kept record of wrongs of fellow Christians. I had involved in gossips that contaminated my spiritual well being. I was burned out in school because of self-imposed expectation and regrets. I had made many complains. I had been negative toward life. I had been careless with worldly things such as cable TV. I had harbored angers. I had intense fears.

Collectively, these were probably what set up the fall for me.

A Christian should always be joyful. I had lost my joy. My love was not pure and strong.

When a Christian loses his love and joy, addictions and sin will set in. Why? because the joy of the Lord is our strength (Neh 8:10), and that love unites all virtues (Col 3:14).

Without joy, you have a void. It’s hard to not find something to fill a void. The longer that void exist, the more likely you will find indulgences to fill it.

Without love, all other virtues will start to disintegrate, and every defenses against temptations will crumble.

Coming Next

I will further delve into the concepts of faith, hope, and love, and explain how we can apply them while we are yearning for intimate relationship. A healthy Christian relationship and sweet fellowship with brothers and sisters will complete our defenses against lust. Coming next: Romance, marriage, desire, and intimacy.

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And these super servants had no records of sexual immoralities in their lifetime. This is noteworthy, because we know that even sweethearts of God like king David and his son King Solomon had serious issues with sexual temptations.

One of the super servants was Joseph. When he was little God revealed to him in a dream that his family will bow down before him (Genesis 37:5-11). He told his brothers that and it instigated their jealousy.

One time, Joseph and the brothers were in the field while they were gazing sheep, and his brothers plotted to have Joseph killed while no one see. But one of the brothers were merciful and suggested to sell Joseph off to travel merchants. They did and the merchants brought Joseph to Egypt.

They sold Joseph to the captain of Pharaoh’s guard. While Joseph was serving the captain, God was with Joseph and everything he did prospered. Soon Joseph became the chief servant in his master’s household and was put in charge of everything.

God blessed every single item of that household, so the master was happy to just chill out and leave everything to Joseph.

Soon Joseph grew into a young adult. He was well-built and handsome, uh oh…

One of the most famous cases of sexual harassment in history took place in that setting! Let see how Joseph exactly overcame that:

Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, ⁷ and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!”⁸ But he refused. “With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. ⁹ No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” ¹⁰ And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.

¹¹ One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. ¹² She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house. Genesis 39: 6-12

Servanthood kept Joseph from sexual temptation.

If one is a loyal servant, duties occupy his or her mind all the time. There is always a sense of urgency that keep this servant going.

King David sinned because he was too good at delegation. He forgot his duty and took nap in his palace while his servants fought his battles for him. When he woke up he took a walk on the top of the palace, and with the good view there he saw a beauty woman who was taking a bath.

The palace was the highest building then, and its top was the only place where you can see the whole city.

It was like the Internet. The Internet gave us more power than the king, who might see a woman in bath if he was lucky… or unlucky, but for us, a few clicks and we can summon anything.

It posed a temptation to the king, and he fell for it, big time!

He summoned the woman into the palace and had sex with her. After he learned that she was pregnant he derived a scheme to cheat her husband into thinking that the baby was his, but it failed because her husband was a loyal warrior, who refused to sleep with his wife until the battles were over.

He was the exact opposite of King David.

King David was at his wits’ end, so he plotted to have the warrior killed in battles, and the warrior died because of it.

King David forgot that he didn’t own the nation. Although he was the king, he had no authority over that woman’s body. The people of Israel belong to God. The army of Israel is the army of God.

If David had been diligent and fought with his army on the battle fields, he would have bypassed the temptations. He would have remembered he was merely a servant himself, and his duties would have occupied his mind so that he had no time to entertain lust.

A servant understands that he or her doesn’t own anything, because of this a true servant is always humble and sober, so that he or she can serve the master well.

My story…

I am 27 and I am still a virgin. In my Christian circle, this is not uncommon.

During my University years, it might have been easy to sleep with someone. I am not sure. I had never tried. The thoughts of that never entered my mind.

Looking back, I think I saw hints of indecencies. When I was the vice president of the student union, I heard things. For example, one time there was a drunk party in the bar that we owned, the students had been drinking all night, and toward the end they engaged in random sex with one another right there and then.

As a vice president, I had some priviledges, such as going to bar nights for free. I could have gone to the bar twice every week and exposed myself to easy temptations.

In student union, there were many opportunities to meet attractive girls. But I never formed any real plan to meet someone. It wasn’t difficult to bypass any possible temptation. ( However, at the time I had a problem with porn, which I mentioned in Part 1. It might be due to curiosity. )

One time, we had a hypnotist as a guest performer for our bar —our bar was the largest student-owned bar in North America, and we had not one, but two bars! — I was too innocent to understand what the “XXX rated” sign on the poster meant, and it was free for the executives, so I went to the show.

I regreted being there. This was the first time I saw people get manipulated like that. I think the hypnotized students could have licked his toes if the hypnotist demanded it. Out of a room of 400+ audiences, 20 students were hypnotized.

He ordered them to do all kind of indecent acts, and they did. One of them was ordered to show his butt upon signal. He had given him 5+ signals throughout the night…

He also manipulated their emotions, for example, he gave each of them an “invisible poppy” and they all thought the poppy on their hand was real. He took one of the poppy and kicked it like a soccer. He made the sound effect too.

The girl who had the poppy taken from her wept. The butt guy, in the hypnotized state, made a dash for the hypnotist in anger, but quickly backed off upon the hypnotist’s order.

How did I bypass the temptations?

Through the years, it was the desire to serve God that empowered me to focus on the godly things, and therefore automatically ignored many temptations. In some critical, tempting moments, I didn’t even know how I managed to move on, but I just did.

Servanthood and The Butterfly Effect

As a Christian, I have had a perpetual sense of urgency. I saw hidden connections that connect everything I did and every decision I made to eternity.

For example, if I skipped a devotion for one day, I would forever miss the spiritual guidance for that day, and thus postponed God’s plan by at least one day, and the beneficiaries that my services would have touched had I received that piece of spiritual guidance would miss the blessings my service would bring, forever, and in turn, the beneficiaries will not be able to multiply that blessing from my services to others, and the supposed beneficiaries of my supposed beneficiaries would miss the blessing too, forever and so on.

By elaborate calculation, someone who would have became a spiritual giant directly or indirectly because of my words might remain unchanged because of I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to do as a servant of God.

This is called the Butterfly Effect, to learn more about the Butterfly Effect click here.

Suppose God’s ideal plan is to use you to bring 1000,000 people to Christ in your lifetime, if you dozed off for a while, you might have forever reduced that number to 999,999 souls.

One soul will go to hell because you slacked off!

And suppose that the number doesn’t follow a uniform pattern, but is an exponential growth, meaning: the older you get, the more people God will save through you! If you postponed God’s plan in your life by a year, but still live the same number of days in your lifetime, you would have reduced the number of saved souls from 1000,000 to maybe 8xx,xxx souls!

That’s 10,000+ souls you leave to hell if you chose to slack off from your duty!

Urgency and Godly Fear will Push You Through

Because of the urgency and godly fears I mentioned above, I was in constant motion during my university years. There were schoolwork, fellowship, ministries, and spiritual disciplines. Although I had regularly slacked off and sinned, I always went back to God and repented quickly, with sincere pains.

The burning desires to obey God’s plan had almost pushed me over the edge! To have a fire within you isn’t an easy thing.

But because of that fire, when God called me to run for the vice president position in the student union, I didn’t procrastinate, though the perceived challenges were huge! That fire pushed me through the fears of public speaking and debates, and I simply went out and spoke to classes, using my broken English at the time, and faced all odds.

I graduated from the University without falling into sexual temptations.

The Prostitutes and Me

I came back to Hong Kong from Canada in Nov 08, and a few months later I found that in my town there was a street where prostitutes congregated during midnight. I never spotted a single prostitute in Hong Kong during my 18 years of growing up there, ever. So it was my first experience.

I always thought of it as a miracle -must be some kind of divine protective shield from prostitutes. My younger brother, on the other hand, would point out one or two prostitutes every time while we were in our family car, but by the time I tried to look at where my brother pointed out at, it was usually too late already because our car just made a turn while my brother was doing that.

I was like, “Heh? where? where? How do you know she is a prostitude?”

The first time I spotted one on that street, it wasn’t midnight yet. It was around 5pm I think. There were at least three of them. All in minimal clothing. I admitted that I was always curious about a girl’s face. This time I saw a pair of long legs, so I was curious how she looked, and looked up. Then, one of them looked at me and winked.

That wink was too obvious to miss. She almost squeezed her eyes out! She winked with both eyes, twice! As if it wasn’t enough, she tilted her head up. The whole facial expression wasn’t pretty. I walked away quickly.

My family went to the Vietnam for vacation. I was alone for a few days.

What happened in that late afternoon disrupted my peace. And for the rest of the evening adrenaline had been flowing through my body- the forbidden fruit thrilled me.

I had to take a very long walk to release the sexual energy and the manly aggressiveness out of my body.

My rational mind was condemning the prostitutes, “Are they not shameful! Don’t they know their years are passing quickly? … Doing such things with random men are dirty!…” There were more going on in my head, but I don’t remember.

Very soon, I realized I was making a dangerous mistake. I knew that if I kept on this way, the temptations would only go stronger, by the minutes!

Righteous indignation will not deliver you from temptation!

Perhaps the same condemnations have ran through the minds of these girls before, but were not enough to keep them away from the pit.

As I was realizing this, I quickly turned my thinking into Joseph’s- I thought about God’s calling, my visions, and God’s perfect plan for my life. I felt better after shifting my mind. The adrenaline that was still flowing within seemed to turn mild.

The horror didn’t end there.

Many days later, in an afternoon, I rode a bicycle through the intersection of that street, and while I turned my head to check for incoming cars before I crossed the street, that same face emerged from the crowd, and ambushed me with a “Want to do it?”. All of this happened in less that 0.5 second!

In shock, I quickly shook my head and rode off.

In the following months, I was able to focus on this blog more. This platform allowed me to meditate on God’s word day and night. The thrill and urgency this project gave me have totally shielded me from the dark influences from that street.

Now I still walk pass that street occasionally, sometime when I remembered the prostitutes there I would walk around it, but even when I “found myself there”- because I was mesmerized in thoughts while I walked- I never looked at the girls, and bypassed them quickly.

Spiritual insights and writing ideas filled my mind, which made it easy for me to bypass temptations. I was often on the rush to write the next post, another next post, and another.

What give you thrill?

God’s calling will give you maximum thrills. You will never need to find excitement from worldly things.

“God is looking for people to use, and if you can get usable, he will wear you out, … The most dangerous prayer you can pray is this: ‘Use me.’” (Rick Warren)

Temptations, especially sexual temptation, indicate excessive energy and boredom. A healthy person needs challenges and thrills in order to stay healthy.

Fortunately, God will custom design a set of challenges for you until He uses up your last ounce of energy, if you let Him, and the adventures will seem too much for you to handle- it requires leaps of faith, and if you obey Him and persist, at the end of the day, you will find that you can the challenges after all.

Pray that God will use you and reveal His unique calling for you, now!

Coming Next

Next I am going to talk about hopes, romance, and marriage. They will form a solid defense against sexual temptations, if you know how to install them into your life. Yes, they work for single as well!

Go to Part 1 of How to overcome sexual temptation

Go to Christian Purity

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It might be embarrassing to ask them for tips. And they probably do not have a clear 2 lines answers for you.

How to overcome temptation is a world of knowledge. There’s no simple, one dimensional answer.

In the Bible, numerous bible verses contains some shred of tips on how to live a holy life. But there’s no condensed formula.

The best way to make one thing right is to make everything right.

Our five senses, daily routines, belief, thinking, friends, focus, and lifestyle, almost everything contributes to the outcome in our battles with sexual temptations.

Good news! There are principles that determines the outcome of our battles with temptations. Once we have a firm grasp with these principles, and change our lifestyle according to them, it will be much easier to live a holier life.

Let’s get into everything the Bible says about temptations and see what the principles are:

Escape, not fight

God promised that a Christian will always find a way to escape from temptations. But He never promised that we can confront a temptation and beat it with willpower.

Even if we pray for strength, we will never change this escape-not-fight reality. It’s not a head-on fight, but it’s how well you practice the art of escape.

Ya, the fact isn’t exciting. I know. It took me many years to accept that too.

Let’s look at the following passages from 1 Corinthians 10:13

¹³No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

Therefore, the first thing is to admit that we are all weak. We will commit any sin if the situation is right. But God will not allow us to be in a situation where things are too much for us to bear.

That also means we have no excuse when we sin. It’s a fair game, because God never allowed challenges that were too much for us. If we felt like we had tried our best, but still got defeated, it was because we missed the escape routes that God had prepared for us.

Let’s identify some escape routes that are hidden in the bible verses we are so familiar with! Talk about hidden under your noise!

Visual Sensation

The Bible gives us stern warning about desires of the eyes:

⁹ Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth;
Walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes;
But know that for all these God will bring you into judgment. Ecclesiastes 11:9

The Bible admits that we have desires, and that our eyes love attractive things, and we can fulfill them moderately or excessively. How we choose to fulfill the desires of our heart and our eyes will determine whether God is happy with us or not.

I believe desires work in quota, so if we fulfill the desires in wholesome ways, we will minimize the risk of falling into indulgences for fulfillment.

Take a walk in the nature. Watch the beautiful sunset or sunrise. Develop a visual hobby such as photography or drawing.

The root of pornography is a combination of human’s aesthetic need, and of course many other needs such as need for intimacy, thrills, and pleasures. These are legitimate needs, but if you are not living according to the Holy Spirit, it’s easy to twist these needs into lust.

But if you fulfill all the needs with God-allowed, or God driven activities, you will have a much easier time dealing with sexual temptations.

Replacement is better than deprivation.

If you deprive yourself of a sinful indulgence but not replace it with the godly or healthy alternatives, chances are you will fall into even worst indulgences. (Luke 11:24-26)

Food For Lust

Pornography, dirty jokes or conversation, rock music, clubbing, casual dating, and sensual reading material are food for lust. The scripture tells us not to “make provisions for the flesh”(Romans 13:14). Provision means “supplies such as food, drink, or equipments.” Don’t feed lust to make it strong!

Anyone who feeds his or her lust will never have freedom!

In my university years, I used to take regular walks in the park, and pray as I walk. The nature was my source of comforts. It gives me quietness and relaxation.

There were times when I would make music for the Lord during my “prayer walk”. My Christian friends liked my music.

However, instead of being contend about where I was spiritually, I felt guilty because some Christians criticized me for not working hard enough in school, but spent the time making music and taking random walks. The criticisms sunk in.

I started to force myself to sit more, because I thought that would make me focus more on my study and not being so lazy.

I deprived myself of a spiritual discipline that I enjoy, but forced myself to sit and work, and that created a major void that invited the horror…

I never really used computers before I was 24 years old, except for gaming, schoolwork, and checking emails. I never had vivid, graphical, and lustful fantasy before 24 years old.

At 24 I fell into an lustful habit that began on a strange night, and after that I started to browse pornographic sites. Later I bought my first laptop. When I started to use the Internet more the problem of lust escalated.

The more I sat, the more I fell into Internet porn.

I had never seen so much graphical details prior to 24 years old. How I wished I had kept it that way before getting married! What a shame!

Those are memories I wish I could unlearn. Unlearn it I will, but it takes time.

Now I know better! Making music for the Lord, and spending large chunk of time for personal devotions may not feel like productive, but are critically important in my walk with God.

Had I been confident about the spiritual disciplines and not get swayed by others…

Holy Spirit had forewarned me!

But I can’t really blame others. It was me. Holy Spirit had already warned me of lust 6 months before I first fell into lust: That fateful night at 24!

Be careful how you live, and be diligent in keeping your lifestyle pure! For me, sticking with the computer for too long is oftentime unproductive, and create boredom and fatigue that invite temptations.

Trying too hard and working too long can create unintended consequences! A healthy adult need to walk 10,000 steps per day in order to stay healthy.

Don’t use the Internet unless you use it for work. If you have to use it for wholesome sites, use RSS reader to consolidate all the contents of your favorite sites so you can read all the necessary materials without leaving a safe place (i.e. your RSS reader).

Now I no longer visit porn sites. I haven’t done that for more than 6 months now. Even while I still had that problem, I did it sporadically.

Interestingly, it was when I resumed my walks in the nature when the problem with porn started to diminished.

It was by God’s grace that this problem shrunk. It could have been worst. Much worst.

My problem with porn had lasted for two years.

So how did God cleanse me? What exactly did God do to set me free and keep me free? The answer is, everything I have mentioned in this article thus far and what I am going to share for the rest of this series! So let us keep going!

Our Tongues

Our tongues control our whole persons. It can make a person unclean:

¹⁷“Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? ¹⁸But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ ¹⁹For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. ²⁰These are what make a man ‘unclean’; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him ‘unclean.’ ” Matthew 15:16-20

Christians are to avoid all “hints of sexual immorality”, which include: “obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking” (Ephesians 5:3-4)

Workplace and high school are perhaps the most vicious place when it comes to immoral talks.

I don’t know how, but I adopted an escape mechanism, when someone or a group of people do obscene jesting, my mind would automatically zone out, and by the time I “wake up”, all I see are the evil smiles on people’s face.

When you really want to avoid temptations, and God see your sincerity, He will use divine mean to keep you from harm’s way. And when that happen you might not realize how many temptations have passed you by.

The key is humility. Admit that you’re not sinning at the moment because of God’s divine intervention. If the situation is right, anyone can commit any sin.

Give thanks when you’re not sinning!

Curses, Music, and the Media…

The world is full of messages. Messages that come from TV, newspapers, commercials, novel, the Internet, music, and many other media contain messages have huge influences on us.

If someone tells you to do something, or put subtle suggestions in your mind, but you don’t have other messages (such as God’s word) within you that nullify it, you will be manipulated, like what happens in hypnotism.

You may not feel the power of evil influences the world can have on you because it happens all the time that you probably feel numb to it already. You maybe used to evil and violence you encounter daily from cable TV or computer games, and think they have no influence on your behaviors.

But whatever goes into our mind changes us. The more we spend time with someone or something, the more we are influenced by it.

We can’t expect ourselves to live a clean life if we go to church only one day per week but expose ourselves to evil for the rest of the days.

Remember I told you in a paragraph above that the Holy Spirit had warned me of lust 6 months before I fell into it?

Long before I had a problem with lust I already had read some good books on how to overcome temptations, such as Praying God’s Word Day by Day (Beth Moore), The Eagle Story (Institute In Basic Life Principles), The Bondage Breaker(Neil. T Anderson), and The Normal Christian Life (Watchman Nee).

Foresights and good books were not enough to keep me from harms. During that 6 months(2005 Fall) I watched some cable TV shows, which had violence and sexual contents. I guess that was one factor that brought me down.

But that was not all that brought me down. One time I went to a Christian bookstore and read a book that talked about Christian purity, and it contained detailed description of a sinful addiction that I was ignorant of before. I wished I hadn’t learned those details from the book.

Months later, in a strange night when I was away from home to attend a conference, alone in a motel room, I did what that book “taught” me and adopted that lustful habit since. Prior to that I had never experienced self-arousal ever.

How ironic, I learned a sinful habit not from secular movies or books, but from a Christian book!

The lesson is: The is no end all be all solutions in any book. Purity is a constant path. As long as we live in this world, we have to pursue holiness continuously. Keep praying. Keep asking God’s guidance. Be vigilant!

We live in a world full of curses…

This is not the Lord Of The Rings or Dungeon & Dragon. I am talking about the real world we are living in. Even our family can pass on curses to us:

⁷Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.  Exodus 34:7

Harsh words that our family members have said to us, deceptions or compromises that our parents, great parents, or great grand parents made or chose to accept, and consequences of their decisions, have long term impacts on us.

The weakness of parents will likely pass on to the children.

Some people swore they will never be like their parents, but they ended up being exactly the same or the opposite.

My great grand father had two wives at the same time (It was legal and common at the time). The first one was my great grand mother. The second wife left with another man at some point. But my great grand mother was still very bitter because of this polygamous situation, and this caused her to berate my great grand father every single day for the rest of his life. This ended until my great grand father died of cancer.

But the hateful words have a lasting impact on my mother, who had heard the bitter words everyday while growing up. That bitterness and its long term effects still persist in my family today.

The bitter words of my great grant mother were verbal curses! Every words that come out of our mouths will have eternal consequences. (Proverbs 18:21)

Fortunately, the Lord has given us powerful solutions that can override all curses: the Bible, His numerous promises, prayers, blessings, salvation, fellowship of the church, and many more.

We have to actively use what God has given us, or we will be overpowered by curses that are so overwhelming in this world.

Spiritual weapons are rarely automatic. We have to put them on everyday and wield them to fight.

If you are struggling with certain areas such as lust, but can never conquer it despite years of spiritual disciplines, the root cause of your failures could be hidden curses that you are not aware of.

To cure the problem of lust, you need to get into the roots of the problem. Has you father kept a hidden stash of porn somewhere in the house? Has anyone hurt you deeply with verbal curses? Are you in a dating relationship that involved ungodly activities?

Confess every sin in your life, and reflect on where that sin came from. Was it from your dad? mom? peers? TV?

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.

²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:23-24

Trace every sin to its root, and replace it with spiritual discipline. For example, if someone curses you, you should return him or her with blessings (1 Peter 3:9) and overcome evil with good. If you harbor bitterness and grudge, the curses will have influences on you.

Enough said

I have said enough about the our senses and how they related to lust. Next I am going to talk about how to avoid lust easily by serving God!

If you fight with lust, it will always be more relentless and more powerful than you are. But if you replace your focus with God given responsibilities, wonderful things will happen. You don’t need to consciously resist lust if your focus isn’t there.

In the upcoming installments, I am also going to share about hopes and how they give us power to persist in staying pure.

Go to Part 2 of How to Overcome Sexual Temptation: Christian Servanthood

Return from How to Overcome Sexual Temptation to Christian Purity

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