Transcript: Freedom from Sexual Sin, Masturbation, Pornography and Sexual Trauma Part 2

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Just like a soldier, going to battle, Garrett himself with every armor needed for battle and for winning. So believers must guard themselves with the gospel of peace, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Join apostle Emmanuel as he teaches God's word to equip you for a victorious life on earth. This is believers equip. We have prayed. Let's get right into the word. We began a series on on Tuesday and we are going to be moving on We're gonna be moving on with... In that direction. By God's grace, we are talking about freedom from sexual sin, masturbation, pornography, and sexual trauma. And the reason why we have to include sexual trauma is because not everybody s story begins the same way.

Not everybody arrives at sexual struggle because they were curious. Not everybody gradually wandered into pornography because of bad choices. Not every person deliberately pursued sexual sin. There are many people whose battles began long before they were ever mature even to understand what was happening to them. Long before they were ever mature or even had language to name what was happening or the power to refuse what was happening. And that's one of the reasons why believers grow quietly frustrated when they listen to teachings on sexual sin because they hear explanations about temptation, about lust, about personal choices. And somewhere on the inside, they are thinking that that's not how my story began. My own story did not begin with lust. My own story did not begin with curiosity. Began even before I had a choice in the matter, even before I had an understanding of what was happening to me.

Are you with me? Yes. Mine began with exposure when I wasn't supposed to be exposed, But I was exposed nonetheless. Mine began with violation. Mine began with abuse. Mine began with molestation. So a lot of believers have stories that began with images placed before their eyes at an age when they were far too young to process what they were seeing. And it was by someone who should have probably even been protecting them. And the person that should be protecting them became the one that violated, that molested, that marked them for destruction. And when you're teaching such a person and you're speaking with respect to curiosity or with respect to choices, it makes such a person feel as though teaching is not for them because when they were exposed, they never had a choice.

Are you with me? Yes, sir. And the person feels as though the fact that I am now in this situation is not my fault. You can't blame me for that. So if because something was done to me when I was young, I'm now addicted to sexual sin. I now find myself always wanting to please men, always wanting to feel violated, always wanting to partake in all kinds and all manner of sexual pleasure. You can't fault me for that because I didn't bring myself into it. When I was 10 years old, was abused, was molested, I was raped, I was... And all kinds of stories like that that people genuinely go through. Are you with me?

Yes, And of course, I understand the distinction. The distinction matters because if we fail to recognize that distinction, we will unintentionally lay burdens on people that are not theirs to carry. Thank you precious holy spirit. Luke chapter 11 verse 46. Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees, and he told the Pharisees, you load men with burdens that are hard to bear. And you yourself don't touch the burdens with one of your fingers. I believe that there are people sitting down in church, in many churches around the world, even in Nigeria, even in this church, that are carrying shame, carrying guilt for things that were done to them. Are you with me? And not things that were done by them. Things that were done to them.

And they've spent years believing that they are dirty, that they are broken, that they are disqualified. And all of this is because of experiences that they did not initiate, that they did not choose, that they could not even have stopped even if they wanted to because they didn't know any better. Are you with me? So before we talk to such a person about freedom, we have to first address that burden that the person is carrying. Because if we'd not address the burden, it would be in vain talking about freedom. Glory to God. I think that one of the most devastating consequences of childhood sexual exposure is that it forces realities into a mind of a child, into the mind of a child before that mind is built to hold those realities. Because God designed sexuality to unfold within a certain covenant context. And at a certain stage of maturity, at a certain stage of growth within that time. So when that order becomes shattered by exposure, by abuse, by confusion, what is happening is that you are introducing a reality that God has built to be beautiful in its own time and you are putting it into a mind that is not built to hold that reality.

What happens is that it shatters the mind. It breaks the individual. Are you with me? Yes, sir. Breaks the individual. It confuses that person. The person does not... Because what is... What you are teaching them now, what you're exposing them to now is not designed to find is not designed to find realization at that age of their life. The bible says it makes everything beautiful in its own time.

So any reality that is experienced outside of the time of that reality causes destruction. It's not beautiful. That's the meaning. It's not beautiful. Are you with me? So a child can be exposed to sexual content, sexual behavior, or even sexual abuse with no emotional or spiritual or psychological framework to make sense of what is happening to him at that moment. In fact, the event itself might just happen once. It might happen. It might happen in one afternoon, might happen for thirty minutes. And that's the end of it.

But the effect of that event that has happened once in that child's life can remain for thirty years. Are you still with me? That's why Jesus spoke in Matthew 11. Matthew 18. Matthew 18 verse six. I'm speaking about whoever whoever allows one of these children. Let me see. Yes. Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, you see? It would be better for that person if a milestone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

It's Jesus that he's speaking of. Look at the weight of that statement. Jesus is the one making the statement. He says, that rather to be alive, it will be better if that person was drowned. That's heaven's judgment. That's heaven's judgment. That the fury of God in that verse is aimed at the person that did the harming. It's not aimed at the little one that was violated. Are you with me? So if you were if you were the child in this sentence, everyone's anger is not being pointed at you, as though you were the one that committed the offense.

Everyone's anger is being pointed at the offender. But guess who carries the shame and the guilt? The one who was offended. You understand what I'm saying? Sir. One who was offended carries the shame and carries the guilt. In fact, some some people don't even make it any easier, especially when dealing with sexual exposure in young people. There was a particular lady that was counseling some time ago, and she was sharing with me how that this same abuse, this same molestation by several pastors. First, was a youth pastor, then it was the son of their pastor in the same church. The youth pastor violated her, then the child of the pastor violated her.

And I think that at this point, she was just about 12 years old or so. Violated by the youth pastor, violated by the son of the pastor of the church, general overseer of the church. Violated her, and then one other minister in the church also violated her. And when eventually the truth came to be, the child was faulted and was told that there's a spirit upon her is... They they called it a seducing spirit that makes people continue to... She so... She was faulted. She she she became the... What's the word now? She became the criminal.

And the people that did the violation became the victim. So she was told that it is because of a demon that is in her that is making... Influencing people to sleep with her. Are you still with me? And so they took her through the... As a 12 year old girl, they told her she must do dry fasting to get that demon out of her. And you hear all kinds of horrible stories like that. Of course, when I was talking to the lady, it was terrible what she had become. A lot of people undermine how much, just how deeply early exposure to this thing can can can shape little struggles that a person continues to go through in life. Because somebody might even forget the details of the molestation that had happened to her or him.

They might forget the room it happened, the day it happened, even the face of the person that did the molestation. But the impressions remain the same. The effect remains the same. The images remain the same. Are you with me? The confusion, the curiosities, the questions, all of that remain. And they've been wired into a young boy or a young girl's soul before his soul is even matured enough to understand what was being wired into him or what was happening. The mind was already forming connections long before it was old enough to consent to the connection. And years later, he will find himself struggling in a battle that feels somehow strangely disconnected from anything he has ever consciously done. Are you with me?

Thank you precious holy spirit. That's why when you read your bible, you'll find that God deals with the entirety of a man when he is dealing with us. What makes us men is that we are spirit, soul and body. It's not entirely okay if you retain the idea that the real you is a spirit. Now, I understand those that teach these kind of things, what they are trying to say. They are not entirely wrong. Are you with me? They are not entirely wrong. As they are trying to emphasize the fact that you continue to live even after you die physically. That the spirit man continues to live because you go away judgment and all of that.

So in trying to communicate the importance of the spirit realm and the you that is a spirit, they try and... They then say, oh, the real you is a body almost to mean that what happens to the soul or what happens to the body does not matter. It's not true. The real you is spirit, soul, and body. That's how God created you. You are not spirit. You are spirit, soul, and body. Are you with me? And when God is dealing with us, God deals with the whole person. Not just the spirit, not just even the body, it's the whole person.

Jeremiah 17 from verse 10, the bible says, I the Lord searches the heart. Can you see? I, the Lord, searches the heart. I test the mind. We've not even gotten to spirit here. Yet God is saying, I search the heart. I test the mind. You see? In in in first Thessalonians chapter five verse 23, Paul was praying over the whole person. He says, now may the god of peace himself sanctify you completely.

You see? And what must be sanctified? What must be preserved blameless? Does this say only your spirit? It says no. Your whole. That means what makes a man whole is not just a spirit. Your whole spirit, soul, and body. So a man is whole to the degree to which his spirit, soul, and body is whole, is complete, is preserved blameless, you see. Do you understand what I'm saying?

Yes, sir. So God deals with the heart of a man. God deals with the minds of men. It means God deals with the soul of a man. And what does the soul of a man contain? It contains the will, the emotion, and the intellect. That means God deals with the emotion of a man. The intellect, the mind of a man. That book in Jeremiah says, I test your minds. So God is interested in your mind, in your emotion.

Are you with me? In your soul. The entire framework of a man's soul. The Bible says I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper even as your soul prospers. The Bible speaks of the engrafted word that is able to save your soul. So you see emphasis even on the soul of a man. That means if if the soul of a man is damaged, the man is damaged. Do you understand what I'm saying? Yes, sir. When a man is saved, I think one of the most important part of his body is his soul.

This is a personal opinion. And the reason is because anything can happen to the body of a man as long as his soul is complete, as long as his soul is intact, that man is not useless. A man can lose his hand. A man can lose his legs. A man can be incapacitated. But as long as the soul is complete, the man is not useless. As long as his intellect, he can think well, his brain functions, his mind functions, he can process information. It is not useless. I mean, you heard about this scientist guy. Right?

Who was an atheist. What's his name now? That that man that had a a defect? Stephen Hawkins. How many of you have seen that guy? That guy's body is useless. He cannot move any part of his body. Even his neck is bent one way. His hands useless, paralyzed from head to toe. But one of the most brilliant human beings in the world, one of the most brilliant scientists in the world came up with several theories, innovations, just like the Avante Heistines that you celebrate.

The reason why I would not envy him is because he's not... His his spirit too is useless. That's a terrible condition for your body and your spirit to... Is... That's why I would... That's that's why I said next to salvation. That means your spirit is already saved. You you you understand my choice of words now? Then the most important part of a man's body is his soul. How many of you know that young man that...

I I grew up, you know, reading his books, watching him. Very short young man, has no legs, has no hands. Goes around preaching the gospel right now, holding meetings in large auditoriums, and we... There was documentary about his life when I was growing up. You know, the man swims, he's married, has children. Yet he has no hands, has no limbs. Very short man like this. Doing exploit around the world. Man usually has no body, but his soul is intact. His spirit is intact because he's saved.

Yet he's still doing a lot. That's why I said, a man can lose bodily function for as long as his soul remains intact. Do you know what it means for your soul to remain intact? That means he's not defeated in his soul. Because he can lose a bodily function and his soul becomes defeated with it. As to mean that because I've lost the use of my hand now, I'm not a useless person. That's the soul. I want it in the soul. You understand what I'm saying? Yes, sir.

So my point is God is interested in the soul. Now if God is interested in your soul and your emotions, what that simply means is that is that God deals with everything that operates in that soul. That means God is dealing with your heart, your mind, your memories because your memory is in your soul. It's in your mind, your emotions. Even the ones that are buried in places nobody can reach. And that is good news for the wounded because it means the very places that were violated in secret are not eating from the one that heals. Because when God was... When God wants to heal, it's not only healing your body. When Jesus Christ was telling us what was his mandate in that temple when he was reading Isaiah, what he read was the spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the gospel to the poor. Look at that.

He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, not just the body of men. Do you understand that? Not just the body, but even the heart of a man. Jesus is concerned about the state of a man's heart. Jesus is concerned about the broken hearted. The one carrying pain is not obvious to their eyes. Because if a man has a broken heart, how do you know? I mean, if your eyes is blind, it's easy to know that this person's head is blind. Somebody is sick in their in their bodies. It's quite obvious to know that this person is obvious in their body.

Is that not so? When somebody is having malaria, there's temperature you feel. You say, ah, are you okay? Your body is burning. But when somebody has a broken heart... And the bible says Jesus is concerned about your broken heart. Do you understand what I'm trying to say? Yes, sir. Because this is literally one of the most important places that is affected when a man is violated, when a young boy is violated. This is where the scar remains.

There might not be any obvious scar in the body. Right? There might not be any obvious scar in the in the physical realm that you can see, but there are scars in the soul of that young boy, scars in the soul of that young girl, scars beyond even the sexual addiction that that eventually, you know, the young man gets locked into or the young lady gets locked into. There are scars beyond all of that. There are scars that affect the identity of the young lady or the young boy. Are you with me? Yes, sir. And one of the lies that the devil tells people who have been abused like this, who've been who've been through, you know, any kind of abuse or trauma or molestation, one of the lies that the devil tells them is that they are somehow responsible for what happened to them. That's the idea behind the guilt the person feels. They may never say it out loud, but deep inside of many of them, they feel stained.

They feel marked by it. They feel defined by it. And the shame fuses itself so tightly to their sense of self that they can no longer tell the difference between what was done to them and the person that they are. So the violation is not something that happened to me. It's not something that I am. Are you with me? That the difference between being wounded and being guilty. The person that is sinned against is not the one that committed the sin. That means if you were abused when you were young, if you were molested when you were young, the guilt belongs to the person that did it, not you. It may sound obvious now that I'm saying it, but the person that is living inside sexual trauma often cannot believe it.

Because the shame that they've had to live with often tells them that it's sure it's somehow your fault. Are you with me brothers and sisters? It's somehow your fault. No, it is not. In second Samuel 13, the bible speaks of a lady called Tamar in scripture. How that she was violated by a nun. And the bible is not quiet about it. The bible names her as the one that was wronged. And the bible lists sin squarely on the one that committed the sin. In fact, in second Samuel 13 verse 12, it was was it was Tamar that was speaking there.

She says, no, my brother, do not force me for no such thing should be done in Israel. Don't do this disgraceful thing. So so so the disgrace that the scripture is careful to mention here belong to the one that did it, not the one who it was done to. Do you see what I'm talking about? So the... God's word does not assign guilt to the one that was violated. So if anyone has been through that, then God's word does not assign guilt to the one that was violated. The devil is the one that does that. And that is one of the ministries of Jesus. One of the ministries of Jesus in the gospel is to the wounded, is anyone who carries around that shame.

The shame of being violated, the trauma of the... Or the experience of it. By whoever it is, close relatives, uncles, aunties, there are many parents who got house helps in their house carelessly without overseeing what was happening. And as the children began to grow there, it was a house help that introduced some of them into nonsense. You would... You wouldn't believe how many people were introduced into lesbianism by female house helps. Came into the house and started exposing a five year old girl, a eight year old girl into all kinds of nonsense you cannot imagine. Are you with me? All kinds of nonsense you cannot imagine. But when you read the Bible...

And when you read the Bible, you see Jesus moving towards broken people. And Jesus does not associate their brokenness with their identity. Jesus, whenever he is associating with anybody who is broken, always sees past their wound. He sees past their shame. He sees past their history. Even the issue that everybody have used to label them, Jesus does not label broken people by their identity, by their experience rather. When Jesus meets with people like that, what he does is to restore dignity even to people that have been reduced to their worst moment. Jesus meets such people and he restores dignity on them. And it matters because so many people in sexual bondage are not just fighting a behavior anymore. They are now fighting an identity that a wound has carved inside of them.

They are fighting a verdict that they've believed about themselves. And the verdict was given by someone who does not even have the right to write the verdict about you. And Jesus turns around that... Those verdicts. You see this when that woman was brought to Jesus. The woman who was caught in the very heart of adultery. Interesting people did not bring the man that she was caught with. Brought only the woman to show you that there was an hidden interest. There was a stigma. There was something deeper about that story just more than the fact that the woman was caught.

It might be something about the woman, it might be something about her past, it might be something they know about her already. But case whatever the case may be, it is obvious that their intentions are not pure. Because if you want adultery to be dealt with, then bring both parties. Do you understand what I'm saying? Yes, sir. So what... Their their intention here is not to deal with adultery. It's to shame a woman. It's to name her. Look at that shame.

Look at that embarrassment. Be caught in the very act of adultery. So let's not correct her privately. Let's bring her to the very open. Let's name our sin out loud so that everybody can know this is an adulterer. Are you with me? Thank you precious holy spirit. Thank you, precious holy spirit. When Jesus spoke to that lady, Jesus never called her adulterer. Jesus said whoever has not committed any sin amongst you, the first stone.

And when Jesus stood up, nobody was there. Jesus said, where are those that accuse you? Where are those that condemn you? And the woman could not find any of them. And Jesus said, neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. I don't wanna go ahead of myself because I am I'm tempted to just stay here right now. Let me not go ahead of myself. This teaching is built in such a way that by the time we reach the climax, everybody who follows through that wants deliverance should be delivered. So let's follow it.

Let's let's let's not go... Let's not jump ahead. Are you with me? Yes, sir. Another consequence of of sexual exposure is that it warp... It it warps the very way a person understands intimacy. When sexuality is introduced through abuse, through manipulation, through exploitation or pornography, to a young boy or to a young girl very early, the earliest lessons that that soul ever learns about intimacy, about closeness becomes corrupt. The mind of that boy, the mind of that girl starts to pair things together that boy never joined together. And instead of learning intimacy through through through through scripture, through covenant, through the safety of scripture, that soul learns it through confusion, through fear, through secrecy, through exploitation, and those initial lessons that the person is exposed to runs deep into the core of his being. And years later, you find happening is that struggles begin to surface, especially troubles that seem almost impossible to explain.

And the reason is because the person is operating on the definition of intimacy that was broken before he ever get caught to even choose one for himself, before he ever got to learn scripture or understand scripture for himself. That's why some people return again and again to sexual behaviors that they don't even enjoy. And what bewilders people like that is that is that if I don't enjoy this thing, why am I going back to it? And a lot of people, because of that, have even believed that something is irreparably wrong with me. Because now they're no longer chasing pleasure. They are repeating a pattern that has been laid down long ago. They are reaching for comfort, reaching for reaching for intimacy without themselves even knowing it. They are reaching for not just pleasure again. They are reaching for for a sense of control, for a sense of escape even, for validation, for relief. They are reaching to come out of a loneliness.

So it's no longer just about pleasure. It is that something has been disrupted inside the person. But it feels as though pleasure has become the way to get or to repair or to come out of what was disrupted inside of him. So a person can feel lonely and feel as though the way to come out of it is masturbation or through pornography. A person can feel stressed. A person can feel discouraged and begin to masturbate, not because he's aroused, not because he wants to. Do you understand what I'm saying? The pro... The the problem in that regard is no longer just masturbation. The problem is not even lost anymore.

Because even when there is no lustful feeling, the guy can still masturbate. The girl can still masturbate. There is no lustful... There is no arousal. There is nothing. He just brings out his phone by himself and begins to engineer something. Not as though something was engineered that brought him there. He by himself, ah, by herself, wants to engineer the thing because the thing has been tied to identity. It's now... I'm inside the situation now.

The only way I can come out is this. You understand what I'm trying to say? Yes, So the act of masturbation, pornography, sex itself has now been fused to a deeper emotional wound. And the person is using that as a mechanism that can never heal the very injury that drives him into it. Because now he thinks that this is how I heal, this is how I survive, this is how I escape your wrath. That is only digging the wound deeper. It's like you are drinking salt water to quench a test. And the more you drink, the more testier you are growing because now it is obvious that the guy has a problem. He might not even know that he has a problem. She might not even know she has a problem.

All she knows is that I can't stop doing this thing. So keep inside, there is an identity crisis, low self esteem, maybe even the feeling of validation, maybe even the feeling of a wrong self image, maybe even guilt, maybe even shame. There is some kind of disruption in the soul. She feels the way to to... Let... Let's let's take loneliness, for example. She feels how to come out of this is let me pleasure myself when I'm pleasured or I feel... Now you are using what cannot solve the problem to solve the problem. And in doing so, what you're doing is making the problem worse for yourself. That's the broken system that God talked about in Jeremiah.

Jeremiah two and verse 13. The Bible speaks about they they built for themselves cisterns that cannot hold water. Hewn for themselves cisterns that cannot hold water. Broken cisterns. Broken cisterns that cannot hold water. Are you with me? Yes, sir. So the wound is sending him into a cistern that cannot hold water. Sending him away or sending her away from the foundation that could actually satisfy her. That's why freedom from masturbation and from sexual sin and from sexual trauma can't just be behavioral management.

It's deeper than that. A person can come out of the behavior entirely and still be carrying the wound that fuels that behavior. Did you hear what you said? Yes. You can help the person through behavioral management to come out of the behavior, but the wound that fails the behavior is still there. In fact, he can delete every heart on his phone. He can block every door and still be bleeding inwardly from the shame, from the confusion, from the fear, from the brokenness underneath because those wounds cannot be taken away because you blocked an application. So real freedom from sexual sin, from trauma, from pornography, from masturbation, real and genuine freedom has to reach both the behavior and the wound. Both the symptom on the surface and the injury beneath. Because addressing only the behavior is bandaging a wound that is infected underneath.

It will break open again. When I was young, I had an accident where I was playing football and I had struck my hand against a branch of flowers that were in the compound of the school. So upon striking my hand against... I fell down, struck my hand against that that that flower. My hand broke. So we had to rush myself to the hospital. I couldn't move the hand. Right? And they found out that, oh, there was a there was a fracture there and all of that. So they had to put a cast on it.

And the cast remained for some weeks. Can't remember how long, but it was a long time. It was a long time. And the doctors that put the cast on it were not careful to check because the hand was bleeding. It was bleeding before they put the cast on it. So there were there were two problems. There was a problem of the hand bleeding, and there was a problem of fracture. And so they assumed that the hand was bleeding just because it scratched or it caught or there was a... So what they did was they put a bandage or something like that, cauterized the wound, cleaned it, put bandage on it, put all of that on it, then over the bandage casted the hand. So went back many weeks after.

It was it was more than a month. Cast remained for, say, two or three months or thereabout. Went back many months after that, like, about three months. Upon getting back there, they opened the cast. There was some kind of mobility in the hand, but the problem now was that a part of the hand kept on swelling. It it swelled so bad that it was almost... The swell the swallow was almost as big as a punch. It would swell so bad and would go to the hospital on Friday. I remember then, they would cut it, take out the paws, clean it. Then the next Friday, it would have swollen again.

That bad. I would go there again. They would cut it. They would clean it. And then they they tested the pulse to know what is causing the problem. All kinds of things, but nothing was happening. So that that pattern continued and continued. So eventually, happened was, cut a long story short, a doctor decided, you know what, let's just stitch the hand. When we stitch it together, at least it will not... Somebody said, no, it's not wise to stitch it if it's not healing by itself.

That means something is not making it heal. Blah blah blah blah blah. So whilst they were arguing like that, and there were several doctors arguing, I had that privilege because my father then was working as the director of hospital management board in Oyo State. So doctor, he pays their salaries so they can kind of respect. Employers them too. So they kind of respected him. So anytime I go there, it's it's a free. Oh. So there were doctors there, professors, all of them arguing. What do we do?

No. Let's check the hand very well because we've done we've done x rays. We didn't find anything wrong with it. Let's check the hand very well before we now stitch it. If we don't now find anything, let's stitch. So let's touch the hand very well. Right? Brought out, like, surgical things, cut it, started... I was awake all through the process. And they started cutting, doing all kind of things.

That's how one of them said, I'm touching touching something. I'm touching something. I'm touching something. Then he brought out a branch of a tree as as as as tall as this, lengthy as this, from within the hand, aligned perfectly on the bone. So much so, it was... Made it difficult for them to discover an X-ray. And that became the reason why all means to clean, even though they were doing the right thing, the wound refused to heal because there was something inside it that was facilitating the pain. That's precisely what somebody does when they are trying to get rid of the behavior. Whereas, there is something on the inside of the soul. A branch is there.

A branch. A branch is hiding somewhere there. So no matter how much you make resolutions and tell yourself, I'm not gonna do this again, the the fact remains that if there is no healing of the soul, you see, it will break out once again. You understand what I'm saying? It will break out once again. In fact, some people can... Some people go through this cycle so much that they say, oh, you know, apostle, I was I was I was okay for, like, three months. Oh, and I I was okay for, like, six months. Oh, the one day. You you see that break out once again.

But Jesus heals the heart of the broken. Jesus liberates the oppressed. He's the liberator of the oppressed. The word oppressed is for the one who was crushed by another. When he was speaking to set at liberty those who are oppressed, those who are those who are oppressed there means it describes that you've been crushed by something else or by someone else. Are you me? Yes, sir. It describes the one that something was done to. In fact, in Isaiah 61, where he was quoting 61 from verse one to verse three, is even is even more tender. He says the anointed one came to comfort all who mourn.

To give them beauty for hashes. All who mourn. All who mourn. To give them beauty for hashes. The oil of joy for mourning. The garment of sprays for a spirit of heaviness. Beauty for ashes. That means it doesn't just remove the ashes of what was done to you. It replaces them for beauty. It exchanges them for beauty.

It does not just forgive. It restores beauty for ashes. It doesn't just cleanse. It heals as well. He doesn't just lift the guilt. He rebukes what was torn as well. That's what psalm chapter one four seven and verse three says. The bible says, it heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds because it's not enough that he heals them. He has to bind up the wound. As to work of a physician.

He doesn't just stand at a distance from the wound. He bends down. He binds it up. That's how much care Jesus has for you who is oppressed because it's oppression. And I must say one more thing here. Especially for the person that is carrying both the wound and the guilt because it is possible to carry both because some of you have. And how does a man carry both the wound and the guilt? You were sinned against. That created the wound. Then in your pain, you then went on to sin against yourself.

How? You were reaching for a broken system. And now you can no longer tell which is which. Is it shame because of what was done to me, or is it guilt because of what I'm doing to myself? But Jesus meets both. And there is healing for both. Freedom for both. Brings healing for the wound. He's the healer of the brokenhearted. To those who have been wronged, it brings forgiveness, helps your heart to forgive.

That's what the blood of Jesus does. But I don't even wanna go there yet, but understand that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sins. First John chapter one verse seven. Give me that scripture. We walk in the light. As this in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son cleanses us from all sin. How many? All. All. It doesn't make you sort out...

Sort it out by yourself. It cleave it all from all of them. It takes it all... It takes away the old weight. No matter how tangled everything has become, it can take it away. He can take away the guilt. He can take away the shame. He can take away the wound. Are you with me? He can take away the wrong, provides forgiveness.

All of that was settled in his blood. Glory to God. So that's why nobody must lose hope as we are teaching this thing to say, oh, my own began long long before I even understood what was happening to me. Mine started long, long, long before. No. Because some people grow discouraged thinking that the battle is too deeply rooted. They had exposure too early. Of course, you don't understand. When I was six, I met a young lady some time ago who was violated by age five, started having sex by age 10, and had abortion 6x when she met me and she met me at age 16. You can imagine that.

You can imagine that. But Christ is not intimidated by how deep your wound is. Now there is a way you go to the hospital and they see what is wrong with you and they say, there's no cure, but not with Christ. Not with Christ. You come to Christ with the deepest of wounds, if it was... Even if you were molested when you were born. Christ says I'm the one that heals all. There's no one that is too deep. It's so deep I cannot heal it. It's so deep I cannot...

There's there's nothing like that. Doesn't matter how how how tangled up your own case is. Doesn't matter how messed up your own case is. Jesus said I'm the one. I heal everything. Are you with me? Yes, sir. Because the power that works in salvation is resurrection power. The very power that emptied the grave. So tell me what your problem is that that power cannot solve it.

If it emptied the grave, if it brought if it brought a man that was dead. And the Bible calls that power, the exceeding greatness of His power toward those who believe. The bible says he walked that power in Christ when he raised him from the dead. And the bible says that power now dwells on your inside. That power now works in you. That power is now available to heal you. That power, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. A power that conquered the grief. That power is not exhausted by your history. That power is not exhausted by your past.

That power is not exhausted by whatever it is you might have been through. Are you with me? And this is why scripture, scripture, scripture actually dares the believer to reach for that power. Are you with me? Yes, sir. Scripture also calls the believer something new. It says the very man be in Christ he's a new creation. A new creation altogether. Second Corinthians chapter five verse 17. If anyone be in Christ, he's a new creation.

All things have passed away. All things have become new. So a man is not too broken for God because God specializes in making all things new. So there is no way a man can be broken that is too broken. But when it comes to Jesus, Jesus say, ah, you are too bad for me. They got a speciality in making all things new. Now watch this. When a man... Doesn't matter what was done to you. When all these things was done to you, understand this.

The person that these things was done to is the old man. Especially for those who are in sexual... Who were traumatized growing up or who had to go through any kind of sexual threats, trauma exposure. I consider any kind of early exposure to sexuality and abuse. Any kind. That means does not have to be ripped. It might just be someone introducing a novel to you when you were too young to understand what the content of the novel is. It's an abuse. Doesn't have to be molestation. As long as there is an early exposure to sexuality, it is an abuse.

Do you understand what I'm saying? Yes, It's an abuse. Some people were abused at home by their parents, by their siblings and cousins, came to school as young children who have been abused to come and abuse other people. It's still abuse because you will see a boy of 10 years old talking to a girl of eight years old. Let's do mommy and daddy. What do we do as mommy and daddy? And then they start meandering with their own private part and doing all kind of things. It is abuse. It is still abuse. Both of them have are being abused.

I remember when I was younger. Those many many many years ago was in... I think it was what? Primary school? Yeah. Primary school. And there was a young boy. I was probably in primary something then. I was... It was a young boy who came from a public school.

I remember his name. I will not mention his name. Who came from a public school to the private school that I was. And because he was coming from a public school, he was this rugged, tall looking small boy. But you would look at him and think that he must be the incarnate of of Songo or something. He was such a young devil. Small boy. And he will gather us together during break time and be telling us of his mighty exploits in the public school that he... That it was him. In very graphical, very detailed mannerism, both the boys and the girls will sit down, and they will be painting horrible pictures that a primary school student should not know.

What he did to the seniors in his school as a primary school... You you understand what I'm saying? There was one such time that we gather like that somewhere and he was talking and my and my mother came and saw all of us and she beat all our lives. Glory to God. Now don't matter what was done to you, what you did, in fact, the Bible says if any man be in Christ. The moment a man realizes I am in Christ, he is a new creature. I explained it to a group of people that I was talking to this way. Imagine that imagine that you've been imagine that you... Imagine... Just imagine with me that you cannot smell.

Your nose cannot smell. There are people that have that problem. Right? They can't smell with their nose. And there's a pungent smell in your room where you stay, but because you cannot smell, you leave. You just you just... Maybe maybe the pungent smell was caused because you used rat poison, and it had killed several rats hiding in different places. And you don't even know. So you just come every day and you sleep as usual. You wake up as usual.

Not... But if you if you can... Can you imagine what I'm saying? Seven rats dying and then they've been there for a long time. Can you imagine that that very dangerous smell? But because you cannot smell, you'll see nothing wrong in it. Do you understand what I'm saying? Now imagine that one day miracle happens to you and suddenly you can smell. Do you know that what I've described right now is precisely what happens to a man when he's born again? That's the reason why what you were once comfortable with before at the point where you are born again, you become uncomfortable with because your senses have come alive.

Now you can smell. Do you understand what I'm saying? The people you people you would normally go out to out with and you would laugh because you could not smell. You couldn't smell. All of you were dead. Do you understand what I'm trying to say? The moment you are born again, the bible says if... John three verse three, even... I say to you, unless a man is born again, he cannot... The word sees, the word perceive, it means your perceptions come alive.

Suddenly, when a man is born again, he's saying that's the something new. It's a new creature. It's a creature that has never existed before. Let me bring it to another illustration. Imagine with me. How many of you don't like walking in cemeteries? Right? You pass by a cemetery and your body begins to... Your skin begins to crawl. Begin to cringe.

Right? But if you were dead, would you mind? You realize that someone who is dead doesn't care. Someone who is dead has no awareness whatsoever. Is that right? Yes, sir. So when the bible says that we were... We who were dead in trespass, who were dead in sin, it simply means that you have no awareness of how terrible a situation was. Now watch this. But when a man comes alive, you come alive and immediately you start becoming irritated even by where you've always stayed because you are alive now.

So now that you are alive, you are not expected to still be comfortable with what is... What dead people are comfortable with. Are you with me? Yes, sir. So when the bible calls a man who is now born again a new creature, it's saying that everything that the one that was dead did is passed away because the one that is new is not an upgrade of the one that was dead. The one that is new is a completely new being Yes, sir. With a completely fresh start that there is nothing the one that was dead as over the one that is new, as against the one that is new. Are you with me? This is the reality of things in the realm of the spirit. However, however, however, the devil doesn't want a man to know or to believe this.

And so even though old things have been passed away when a man comes to Jesus, what the devil does is that it begins to bring the memory of those old things that have been passed away legally into the mind to oppress the mind of the one that is new, to make him feel as though he is still defined by those things or he is still identified by those things. And what happens is that is that it makes him difficult for the one that is new to now accept the love of Jesus because he still thinks that he is the same stained person. He still thinks he is the same he is the same shame, you know, shameful person. Are you with me? One of the reasons why... And so what happens is that because you believe that lie, the wound remains in your soul. It remains in your soul even though your spirit man is saved, even though your spirit man is a new creature, even though your spirit man has believed this, even though your spirit man knows this, the soul is still wounded. The soul is still wounded. It's still heavily wounded. And because your soul is still wounded, you reach out to broken systems to try to heal the wound of the soul.

You try to get validation from sex. Validation from sex, from the opposite sex, from people touching your body, from people doing all kinds of things. And even the guy wants to touch other people's bodies because it makes... You see, a guy that takes pleasure in womanizing, his soul is wounded. That's the truth. His sense of manliness is damaged. It's a problem. He feels as though he's a man by the amount of women he can conquer. That's that's a damage. He's suffering.

It's suffering inside. And it's it's looking for women to help soothe his suffering. Do you understand what I'm saying? There are people that feel that there are people that feel alive when presence of the opposite sex. It's when they are with a man or when they are with a woman, that's when they feel joyful. If that person is suffering, there's a deep in... There's a deep wound on the inside of that of of of of of of person. And that deep wound will continue to cause problem for you. Because even if it does... Even...

Look look at how it happens. Even when the young man tells himself, ah, this thing that I've done is wrong. I pressed this person's breast. I should not have pressed this person's breast. It's wrong. I will not do this again. The wound is still there. That means the guy has made a resolution that he will not do this again, but he's still wounded. And because he's still wounded, he still feel as though the medication for his wound is still a broken system. And so somewhere inside, he's still longing for what will wound him even more.

So the more he does that, the more he's wounded. The more he does that... You understand what trying to say? Yes, sir. So what some people do is then bring themselves into pornography. Begin to watch pornography. And one of the reasons why pornography is so difficult to overcome is because most people misunderstand what they are fighting. They think they are fighting with images or they think they are fighting with the the website or just an application. They think the problem is just curiosity or just a habit or something. And so they are waging war against the wrong level entirely.

They focus all their fury on the phone, but they are ignoring what the phone is doing to them. Are you with me? They are attacking the behavior, which is not wrong, but they are ignoring the formation that is happening on their inside, beneath the behavior. Because you see, pornography is not just showing you something, it is shaping you into something. It's not just something you are looking at. It is looking right back at you and turning you into something else. It's one of the reasons why scriptures take such a serious interest in what captures a person's attention. With all through the bible, you see God dealing with matters of the eyes, matters of the heart, matters of the imagination, matters of the affection, the inner life of a man. Because he understands a principle that many people don't know. That whatever continually captures your attention eventually shapes your desires, eventually shapes shapes your life.

That's what Paul reveals in Corinthians chapter three verse eight verse 18. Paul says Paul says, but we hold with unveiled face. What are we doing? Beholding us in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as by the spirit of the Lord. Are you seeing that? Yes, sir. It is the law of beholding. It is true. That law is true in both words. It's true in both directions.

That means you gaze at the glory of the lord, and you are conformed to the image. You gaze repeatedly at corruption, and you are conformed to corruption. You become what you behold. It's the law of beholding. The the phone that you are looking at is not passive. It is reaching into you as well. It is remaking you into his own image as well. You understand what I'm saying? So that's why pornography is not just not... Is is not...

It's no longer just a sexual issue in game. It's now an issue of formation because it's forming something on your inside. It's teaching you something. It's discipling something within you. It's training something within you. Every single time a person returns to it, something is being reinforced. Something is being strengthened. Something is being dipping. Something is being formed. Are you with me?

Yes, sir. So the question is what kind of dis... What kind of discipling is that thing producing for you? And when you read Romans six verse 16, the Bible says that repeated submission to anything forms a mastery over you. Don't you know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slave whom you obey? Give me an NLT. Don't you realize realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. That means in the same way a man can be a slave to sin, a man can be a slave to righteousness. A slave to sin would mean that you can no longer do but obey sin.

A slave to righteousness would mean you can no longer do but Not that you are a slave in the word slave itself because we are not slave, we are sons. Yes, sir. Do you understand what I'm trying to say? Yes, sir. So that is what is happening. Every act of yielding, you are disciplining your soul to be a slave. So you're not just watching something. You are actually being apprenticed. You're being taught. You are learning.

Because what you obey is quietly becoming your lord. And if pornography is your lord, then polygamy has something to teach you. Are you with me? Yes, sir. And one of the first things that pornography does is to train your soul away from covenant thinking. What did I say? Do you know do you know what that means? I hope you know. Right from Genesis onward, God consistently sets sexuality inside commitment, inside responsibility, inside faithfulness, sacrifice, union. That's where sexuality is meant to find expression.

It was designed to operate within the relationship where two people give themselves to one another wholly in a marriage. Are you with me? So what pornography does is that it strips away every one of those realities. It it seeks the rewards of intimacy whilst rejecting the responsibilities of intimacy. So a man is... A man believes I can have pleasure without commitment. I can have satisfaction without sacrifice because commitment, sacrifice, and covenant are the things that makes for marriage. So a man believes I can have access without covenant. So you want the harvest of marriage without ever planting the field. That's what pornography does.

Pornography trains a person's mind, disciples a mind, a man's mind to think that there is nothing in a woman's body. There is nothing in a man's body other than is is sex is just a sport. It's just something two people do. Do you understand what I'm saying? And when you watch western movies, that idea is further sold into your soul. Because in western movies, they sell it as though this thing means nothing at all. I mean, you can meet someone today in a coffee shop and you just say, hi. How are you? And then the fan is blowing the girl's hair backwards and her hair is blowing. And then she's turning like this in slow motion.

And the guy too is turning. And then as they start walking, they bump into each other, and then the girl's load fall on the floor, and the guy reaches out the door and is slow. And the girl too is turning. And then as they are trying to climb up again, both of them hit themselves again. Oh, sorry. Hey. Sorry. And then he's now walking away. The gate is now walking away. They're not coming back at the same time.

And when they turn back, they now meet that night again. Oh, I saw you at the coffee shop. Hey. I saw you. And then they start conversing. And then bam. They knocked themselves against the door. And you feel as though in one day, that thing is discipling your soul. Do you understand what I'm saying? Discipling your soul, training your soul, training your mentality.

I saw I saw an argument on social media where a wife came out to come and say, I gave my husband an instruction that she must not bathe our daughter. A baby just gave birth, and the wife said, I gave my I gave my husband an instruction, and she must that she must not bathe my my my my daughter, and then she's she's feeling angry at that instruction. Now why would I speak? Why would I talk to him like that? Blah blah blah blah blah, and all social media goes a wire. That's how you know a wire that I've been watching pornography. Amen. That's how you know your wife would have been discipled in one way. That's trauma speaking. Trauma.

That's the disciple of his soul speaking. His soul has been discipled. Now the marriage is about to break. Come to the shepherd. Let's go and cry for help. What should we do? Glory to God. So when you have a male son, who beats the male son? The husband to come and say, you must not beat our son. Madness everywhere.

Let's be mad. A baby boy, not even a... This is not a baby because the soul has been discipled. Soul has been trained, and you begin to utter something that you don't know where it's even coming from because the disciple has happened so deeply. You think it's a part of you already, and you think it is even right. Think it is even right. Now your your soul desires to be held. Say, I just want somebody to hold me. Why? Glory to god.

Glory to god. See, it it can look like a moral issue here. It can look like a matter of right or wrong behavior, but it's deeper than morality. Because the... Pornography is teaching the soul an entire way of relating to life itself. It's training a person to crave benefits without responsibility, to seek rewards without commitment, to consume rather than to love. And over time, this trained mentality begins leaking far beyond sexuality. At the same heart, longs to seek intimacy without covenant, now begins to look for success without discipline. They used to look for influence without responsibility. That that thing now trains his heart to want harvest without having plant any field.

He wants leadership, but doesn't want followership. He doesn't want sacrifice. He only ever wants results because he has been trained, discipled in a deep way. And because this does not have to do with sexuality, he does not know that he came from there. Because what what pornography taught his taught his soul is that you can get something they are not committed to. Do you understand what I'm saying? It's the reason why some people have no sense of commitment whatsoever. Because you've watched you've watched pornography, and in those videos, you saw one guy with three separate women, and you think your soul wasn't being discipled. You think it was only pillaged that you were getting. Why do you think that you have such a high rate of divorce in this age?

More than you see in the olden days when there's no media. You need to go and... When when I teach on family, I'm gonna come with some statistics that will shock you. You can't imagine how many homes are breaking. It's not even enough to study how many homes are breaking. That will... That is that is too far fetched. We need to study how many homes are breaking within two years of marriage. Think Godly or the first, you'll find astounding statistics. Because there are expectations, unrealistic expectations created by a disciple soul that was in Christ.

You understand what I'm saying? Yes, sir. Now you have several people into Yahoo, four one nine, all kinds of things. Ladies who have mentalities that are devoid of understanding, especially scriptural understanding, guys who have the same thing, who share an opinion. Because almost everybody watches pornography for a living, and then they are surprised. Well, the fight is the way it is. So it's no longer sexual. Now a pattern has been carved into the soul of the young man, a consumer's posture towards everything that he sees. And Paul warned about that posture. I'll be John rather.

In first John two verse 16. For all that is in the world, it says the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world. That is a worldly operating system being installed in a child of God. That's why pornography is the very opposite of what God designed sexuality to be. When you check love in the bible, love in the bible is self giving. Pornography is self consuming. With the context of scripture, love is how can I give myself to this person? That's how the bible explains love between a husband and a wife. Is that not so? Pornography is how can I use this person to satisfy myself?

When you read when you read bible, biblical love between a man and a woman moves more towards sacrifice. Pornography moves more towards consumption. First Corinthians 13 verse five, the bible says love does not seek its own. Pornography seeks nothing but its own. The two are not on the same spectrum. They run-in the very opposite directions. So the more a person lives in pornography, the more thoroughly he's been trained in a version of sexuality that revolves entirely and only around self. That means he's been trained out of the very capacity to love that God has placed on his inside. He's been trained out of process. Patience is stripped out of his soul because he had exposed himself to the harvest of what he has not committed anything to.

So what he has taught his soul is that it is possible to get harvest when you've committed nothing. And it begins to affect him even financially. Affect her even financially. And most people don't know what they doing to themselves. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. You think it's just pleasure you're getting from it? He's offering to you an entirely alternate world. A world where there is no rejection of any sort. Sort.

No vulnerability of any sort. No need for patience. No need for growth. No need for commitment. The world where everything bends around self gratification. Nothing is ever asked of you. Thank you, precious holy spirit. That's why a man who give himself to pornography should understand that you are damaging more than your sexual The woman who does the same thing should know this. Thank you Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.

Whatever hope a man feels that he's getting from pornography is a lie. It's a lie. It is counterfeit intimacy. And every counterfeit makes the same set of promises and breaks every single one of them. That's what makes it a counterfeit. A man that is watching pornography or a lady that is watching pornography will think that he's getting connection. But what you're really doing to yourself is that isolation. Pornography will promise you satisfaction, but will produce a deeper hunger in you for what it says you'll be satisfied for. Are you with me? Yes, sir.

Promises freedom, but what it gives you is bondage. That's the exact exact deception that the scripture points to in Proverbs chapter nine. Where that seductress was speaking about stolen water being sweet, bread eaten in secret is pleasant, and the verdict follows immediately. It actually does not know that there is death there. Stolen water is sweet for a moment. Especially when it is taken in secret. The secret even even adds to the thrill of the experience because in secrecy, you feel that you are smart. You feel you are smart. But the one drinking does not see the corpse in the room. That's the thing about counterfeit.

It tastes good, but it always kills. Always. There's another dangerous problem with pornography that many people don't know, and it is that pornography competes directly with God for your imagination. Say it with me. One of the reasons why God is so jealous over the inner life is that the imagination is not a neutral ground. The imagination of a man is a secret ground. A lot of you don't pay too much attention to imagination. But the imagination of a man is one of the places where desires are formed, where affections are strengthened. In fact, it is also the place where worship too can be born. It means long long before a man physically bows before an idol, He has already given his attention, his affection, his mental space to that idol.

So worship begins in the imagination long before it even shows on the knees. That's why pornography functions like idolatry. Idolatry. It becomes a rival source of comfort, a rival source of pleasure, a rival source of excitement, a rival source of escape. And I'm saying rival because everything that I've just mentioned is meant to come from God. That means it rivals God. The Bible says that in his hands are pleasures forevermore. That means there is pleasure a man gets from the presence of God. Pornography rivals that. There's freedom and escape that a man gets from the presence of God.

Pornography rivals that. There is intimacy that a man gets from the presence of God. Pornography rivals that. Are you with me? So a man that sticks to watching pornography has made himself... Has made for himself an idol. So when you run to pornography for relief, you see, it's not on that even to pleasure anymore. It's now for relief. It's now for comfort. It's now for emotional regulation, you see, for satisfaction.

It begins occupying a place in your heart that belongs to God alone. It becomes a functional idol. Speaks about idolatry in the heart. Not stones, not things that people worship, but idolatry of the heart. That's what God said in Ezekiel 14 verse three. Go there. Ezekiel 14. Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts. You see? And put before them that which causes them to stumble into iniquity.

You see what God is saying now? So where are the idols set up? In hearts. The idol was not the statue. It's not the statue. In fact, when you go to the New Testament, Colossians chapter three verse five. Read it for me. Do you see that covetousness is idolatry? Do you see that? Covetousness.

Covetousness. That somebody has something and your soul begins to covet what the person has. Oh, call it idolatry because you are creating for yourself an idol in your heart. That means the the thing is happening in the heart. That means your imagination has built something inside your heart that makes that thing replace God and replace everything God has given to you. That means, covetousness is the inability to see how far and how much God has been good to you because you can only see somebody on his own. That means that the place of God in your heart has been occupied by another person's belongings, properties, liftings. So what God is doing in your own life, you can no longer see. Say a man feels perpetually ungrateful. The Bible says that thing is idolatry.

Fornication, idolatry. You see that? Sir. Idolatry. Idolatry. Idolatry. So in case you think that idolatry vanished from the world when people stopped carving stones and worshiping stones, many believers are idolatrous. Idol worshippers. Because an idol was never defined by being made of wood or by being made of stone. An idol is anything that begins to compete with God for affection, you see, for trust, for dependence.

That means if you depend on this for sustenance, that thing is an idol. So there's a there's a sense in which even a woman can be an idol. A man can be an idol. A boyfriend can be an idol. A girlfriend can be an idol because it has become a source of sustenance. A source of sustenance apart from God. That's what makes pornography so dangerous because it does just tempt the body, it captures the imagination. It slowly bends affection towards itself. It makes itself sit where God belongs. Are you with me?

Yes, sir. One thing many people don't like to hear, but it is true because scripture says it. At the lottery, in the bible, it's never just a thing of breaking a rule. God doesn't describe idolatry as illegal infraction. God describe it as adultery. God described it as adultery. A beloved spouse turned into another. That's what you see in Jeremiah when he was grieving over a people who had played the halot. The whole book of Osea is talking about God marrying an unfaithful wife to show his people what their idolatry felt like to his heart. That means God considers himself married to us.

Idolatry therefore is a legal infraction, a dissolution of the marriage that God has to us. You are telling God basically that something else will take your place or something else has taken your place, and I can do nothing about it. Are you with me? That's why when you read James chapter four verse four, when I was talking about all this enmity, lust, all the thing, it ended adulterous and adulterous. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? And whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. So and adulterousness is not talking about the physical sense of it even though it is talking about that, but it's talking about the relationship we have with God and how that we are disaffowing that relationship by making other things idols, by being friends with the world. That's the context. Do you understand what I'm saying? Yes, sir.

Thank you, precious holy spirit. Thank you, Lord. It adultery against the God that loves you. Idolatry is adultery against the God that loves you. Attorney the affection that belongs to God to pornography. That's the reason why anyone that is suffering or watching pornography, that's the reason why their prayer life is always corroded. That's why. Because it takes the place of God. How you know that this is true is the direct implication it has on your fellowship with God. If it meant nothing, then your relationship with God should not be affected.

Do you see that? It is because it it it sits down where God should sit. It takes the place of God. It takes the place of God. No one can serve two masters, the bible says. So that person now begins to feel as though time spent in the presence of God is less appealing, is a struggle. That's what you begin to find. The moment the man starts giving himself to pornography, time spent in God's presence starts to feel like something he's struggling to observe. To sit down with a teaching is something he's struggling to observe. His spiritual perception becomes dead.

Prayer is looking like a drag up an hill. Scripture begins to feel dry. Like this begins to feel dry. Atmosphere like this begins to feel dry. And the man then concludes that, you know, God has grown distant. God is wrong with his faith. God is angry with him. And God has not... God has not changed overnight. God is still constant.

He has said I will never be angry with you again. The problem is that your appetite is now somewhere else. That's the problem. You have taken your appetite somewhere else. You have formed an idol that you are now worship... When a person lives on junk for a long time, what happens to him is that over time his palate becomes reconstructed. And his taste gland starts becoming bland to normal food. Are you with me? Normal food now becomes unpleasant to his taste gland because the appetite has been schooled differently. That's the same thing that happens in the realm of the spirit.

Pornography continually feeds the flesh whilst starving the spirit. And because you are feeding the flesh, you are training your glands in the flesh to become stronger and stronger and stronger. Your life starts to revolve more towards the flesh. Are you with me? When that happens, the things of the spirit starts to look unpleasant to you. That's why the bible says, ill souls to the flesh. Will of the flesh reap corruption. So if you feed the flesh daily and the flesh continues to grow loud and strong, then what happens to your life? The same way if you starve your spirit man daily, your spirit man becomes weak and powerless, becomes faint, becomes quiet. Onto the things that once brought life to your spirit man now begins to feel lifeless.

The things that once excited you begins to feel lifeless, joyless. A time comes when we are singing songs in the presence of God. No one will worship you for me. You will be dancing and singing and jumping. All of a sudden you are wondering why are they shouting. It's obvious something died. Something has died inside of you. Your spirit man has become faint faint and weakly. Limping like this, limping. Whereas the flesh has grown wings, the flesh is swearing.

Swearing. Swaring. Swaring. At that point, you don't care about accountability. You don't care about whether or not I should help myself or help my life or help my destiny because the flesh is the is the one that is ruling now. The spirit man the spirit man has taken a backseat. He's a passenger. Oh, oh, betide is a man when the holy spirit becomes a passenger in his life. He's sitting at the backseat saying, drive. Where do you where do you want us to go today?

The holy spirit is a passenger at the back. Where do you want us to go? And the the girl is going to go and meet a guy. The holy ghost is becoming weak and weak and weak and weak and strifling and strifling and cannot do much with or through his life. Cannot do much with or through his life because if you sow to the flesh, you will, of the flesh, reap corruption. And a man cannot sow to the flesh while he's at the same time sowing to the spirit. See the problem now. So you don't know that you're doing damage to your soul and doing damage to your relationship with God in your own hands. So the exclamation now becomes or the conclusion now becomes God is angry with me. God does not change.

It's the same yesterdays will be done forever. And He said it by Himself that I will no longer be angry with you. That means God's anger is not the problem. That case was solved on the cross. When Jesus died, all this hunger was executed on the cross. Every punishment against sin was unloaded on the cross. You see, the problem now is not that God is angry with you. The problem is that your soul are so drifted that God now looks far away. So you're trying to trace God back to where he is like a man on a journey through a desert where there is no water. Are you with me?

So I want you to understand what is really at stake, and then we stop here. That it's not an issue of lost pornography. It's an issue of worship. It's an issue of affection. It's an issue of discipleship. It's bigger than lust. You are training your heart to seek life where life cannot be found. You are teaching your soul to look for comfort, to look for intimacy, to look for satisfaction in a place that is not designed and that can never give intimacy, can never give comfort. Are you with me? Now this is where it becomes hopeful because the fact that the appetite was strained means that the appetite can be retrained.

Let... Before I go there, let me also say this. Part of the competition that pornography competes with respect to imagination with God isn't just the worship part of it, it is also the communion part of it, the communication part of it. Because see, when your mind or your imagination becomes bastardized with lustful thoughts, hey, you have not seen bastardization. When you when you... When a man's mind becomes bastardized. He wants to pray like this and just say, What comes to his mind is a woman opening her leg like this. He lifts his hand in worship and he will see and he will see another one's breast. He said, no. No.

No. Not this one. Then he sees another one again. A lady wants to start worshiping God, and the devil will start bringing all the pictures. In fact, the devil does not even need to bring anything because you have put them so much in your soul that one will just jump out home as though you are playing ping pong. One will just jump out like you are juggling things. And you say, you go away. Another one will come again. Remember the one that you watched last week, that one will come. And the girl's mind will go for like one minute.

How did the how did the drama start? Young lady was coming. Another guy was problem same is that that same imagination imagination is is where where God God speaks. That that's the problem. Give me this book. It's like this. This is your imagination. Yeah? This is your imagination. This is inside you.

And God wants to speak to you. So God tells you, shows you pictures about your life and destiny, and even communicates to you through that imagination. Are you with me? The problem is that it's easy when the imagination is like this for God to speak something or put something there, and then you can easily discern or tell that this is God. But the problem now is when the imagination is like this. When the flesh has drawn all kind of rubbish on that canvas. Now the imagination of that guy is like this. It's not sin again. Whilst all of that is happening, now you're just walking, walking, walking. God is trying to say, oh, I see destiny.

Destiny is somewhere there. Destiny. Have you had all those dreams where Sorry. It's funny. You can't imagine how many people are suffering from I cannot hear God because they can hear several other things. Things you put in your mind by yourself. Because you see thoughts flow from mentality. Thoughts always have a source. What did I say? And there are three sources.

The first is god. The second is devil. The third is you. And by you, I mean mentality. In other words, there is the you path, which is the mindset and the ideology that you have, your predominant way of thinking. Your thought can come from there. Listen to me. Your thoughts is not your mindset, but your mindset can originate your thoughts. Are you with me? That means there is a larger frame of reference.

It's like a book. Right? Your mindset is like a book, imagining like a book, and your thought is a sentence from the book. Are you with me? That means if you want your thoughts to be godly, then what should fill the book? It means if the word of God fills the book, what kind of thoughts will fill your head? Because the sentences from the book is what will be coming to your mind. But when what fills the book is pornography, and you've loaded your mind erotic novels, erotic books, book, this one, that one, is is Boku. The book is a dictionary of nonsense. Now the guy cannot think well again.

There's nobody has not imagined naked. Nobody has not imagined naked. Because the imagination comes from mentality. A huge book of naked people are there. Are you with me? If that is your mentality, it means it can be rewired. You can replace what is there with something else. You can. You can. Because you were the one that put that there.

You can put something else there. Are you with me? Yes. You can do what? Yes. That's that's where the hope comes. That's where the hope comes because if my appetite was strange this way, can retrain it. So the cure is not just removing... No. No.

It's replacing it with something else. David said, taste and see that the Lord is good. A man does not leave the lesser pleasure by a sheer force of refusal. He leaves it when he has tasted a better one. The deepest weapon that the counterfeit intimacy... Or let me say, the deep... The deepest weapon against counterfeit intimacy is real intimacy with God. That means an appetite for God that is fed until it grows stronger than the appetite that once enslaved you. Do you understand what I'm saying? Let me stop here.

You can literally train that thing back. That's why when you study Colossians, it says set your affection on things above. Three verse two. One, two, three. Go. Not on what? NLT. Is it NLT? Let me say NLT. One, two, three.

Go. You can rewrite what is in your mentality. You can train your affection. It didn't just say stop thinking. It didn't say don't think about the things of the earth. It has to be replaced. That's the issue people have. You are trying trying to get rid of something, but not replacing it with something else. You understand what I'm saying? Because there's been a disciple that has happened.

So he says, listen to me. Set your affection. Set your mind. Think about things of heaven. It's a conscious intentional decision. You decide. This is what my thought... That means that if you catch your thought drifting towards the high terms of that book, what do you do? Re... Don't just say how.

Replace it with something else instantly. Begin to think. Set your affection on things of heaven. Begin to set your mind of things of... On things of heaven. Begin to declare what God's word says about your life. What God's word says about your destiny. What God's word says about who you are. Oh, I'm a righteous man. I'm a righteous man in Christ Jesus.

Something tells you, oh, you dirty somebody. Say, I'm not dirty. I can't be dirty. Christ died for me. It is the old man that is dirty. You are intentionally setting your affection on things above. That's what you're doing. You're setting your mind. You are thinking. You are thinking about the things of heaven.

The bible says, whatsoever things are true, Philippians. Whatsoever things are true, Philippians four verse eight, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are noble, you see, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there is any virtue in them, if there is anything praiseworthy in them, what should you do? Meditate on these things. So it tells you what you should meditate on. It says if it is true. The question is, this... Is it true? It's not true. So don't meditate on it. Give me give me KJV.

KJV says think on these things. You see, think on these things. So the question is, is it true? If it's not trash, it shouldn't be in my mind. So if I find it in my mind, I don't just get it out. I put something that is true there. Do you understand what I'm saying? I put something that is honest there. Oh, this thing is a lie. This thing is a lie.

It it can be something you saw in a movie. It can be something you watched yourselves before. Put something else there. You find yourself just sitting down saying, Kai, nobody loves me. Put something else there. Yes, sir. Because nobody loves you now. We now need you to pick up a phone. Start watching nonsense. Start seeing, hey.

Look at their kissing. Ho ho. I wish somebody kiss me? These things are never... Nobody loves me. Do you understand what I'm saying? No. Wipe away nonsense by replacing nonsense with truth. There is effort involved. Yes.

Yes. Jesus is not... Will do that one for you. It says that the word of God is able to save your souls. The one you cannot do for yourself, Jesus has done it for you. He has made you a new man. He has forgiven you. He has wiped away every handwriting of ordinances. He has wiped away every stigma that your experience can bring to you. He has wiped away every language that called you a shameful person, called you a guilty person, called you a wrong name based on what was done to you, said you were a prostitute, said you were a diss, said you were a vile because you've done this before, you've done that before.

Jesus packed everything and says, that is no longer you. You can't do that one by yourself, oh. He did it for you. He says, there is something you must do in partnership with what I have done, not to amplify what I've done. What I've done is perfect, but you have to partner with it. Rise up on your feet. We continue the further the part three on on Tuesday. We're gonna take it in in in levels so that we can arrive at the climax. There is a climax we're getting to. There's somewhere we're getting to.

But the lead round trip should have already begun even from the part one of this series. But there are many levels to this. When we arrive at the climax and the aim is that there is no one who who finds himself struggling at any point in time in his life who can already turn back to this series. Get it. Listen to it. And it begins to reconstruct something within you. You see, give this to people. It will help them. This is a gift that will bless people. You have no idea whose life you will help by this.

Share these messages with people. Thank you for listening to this message. We trust you have been blessed. You can get more life transforming messages from apostle Emmanuel Boluatife on our Telegram page at DCN media channel. You can also stream the messages on Spotify, Ocho Mac, and Apple podcast. Connect with us via our social media platforms on Instagram at DCN underscore nations, on Facebook at disciples christian network, on X at dcm central and on TikTok at disciples christian network. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel at disciples television. If you have a testimony from this message, you can mail us at disciplecngmail dot com. God bless you.