19 November 2024
Our God is powerful; you cannot imagine how powerful.
Some of you have experienced that power in various ways. It is quite likely that you can testify of His power in your own life in one way or another. We keep track of the signatures of other powers. Know how they operate and why they do what they do. Their game is to lock you into your own fleshly nature, and will offer any inducement it takes. Breaking this bondage is a major work of the Holy Spirit. Our Lord has a signature, too.
I could have become an addict of porn. My flesh developed an appetite for it, but over the years, the Holy Spirit went to war against that. The biggest trick is understanding the dynamics. You are led to believe intellectually that looking at porn is dirty, which is true, but misses the point. It's intentionally sold as forbidden; that's the draw. You get wrapped up in the internal mechanism and can't step outside yourself to see it from the right angle. Your heart can be entangled in the flesh, but it can also rise above it. When you step outside the fleshly nature, you get free from the massive load of false guilt. You can walk away.
My flesh has been disciplined. Today, I am deeply annoyed by images that show too much flesh. When I stumble across so much as a glimpse above the knee level, I have an instinct to block that image. It's not about rules and sturdy self-discipline; I simply don't want to see that much. Indeed, I typically use a non-graphical web browser, something that shows only text. Yes, there are sites that won't work that way, and I have to evaluate whether it's worth it for me to use a regular browser. What I'm after is useful information, and much of what is popular is not useful at all.
If you want more details on why this matters, check out the book study on Hebrew Thought Compared to Greek (HTCG). Those HTCG posts on Radix Fidem Blog, especially in the second chapter of the book, talk about the radical difference between the western orientation in favor of visual stimuli versus a Hebrew verbal orientation.
I have already pointed out the strong link between intel work and the Devil. A basic tenet of espionage is that, in order to destroy the social fabric of a targeted group, one of the strongest tools is pornography. Especially vulnerable are kids between 10-13 years. We could get easily get lost in talking about why that is, but it's a fact that shows up in intel training manuals. It's one of the cheapest ways of weakening a community just about anywhere in the West: drop off porn magazines in an area frequented by kids in that age group. As adults, those kids will be wide open to exploitation. And well before they grow up, those kids become a weapon against their own families.
That's what happened to me. Porn was reliably powerful in seizing my soul and trapping me, along with all the other kids I knew in my area. Somewhere along the path of my moral development, the Lord called out to me and brought me out of bondage. Now I can't stand to see those images; they make me cringe.
No, I won't go near public swimming facilities. I instinctively look away from females displaying too much flesh anywhere I go. I'm not the kind of guy who delights in making rules for other people; I keep the burden on myself. I would never expect the lost souls of this world to understand, much less care in the least about defilement and holiness. Yes, this limits my social contacts, but I'll pay that price.
And this has nothing to do with me and my talents; it is the power of my God to transform my inner being. He alone can conquer my fleshly nature. You want to see the power of God in your life? Start praying about moral defilement that traps you in your fleshly nature.
This document is public domain except for the poem in the comment; spread the message.