Month: March 2012

Masturbation: Is It Homosexuality?

Masturbation. It is the least discussed aspect in men’s meeting in the church and men’s conferences across the country and around the world. However, the trend is changing. More and more, we are seeing men open up to courageously discuss sexual issues like never before. We are seeing men that were trapped, with no hope in sight, find hope and freedom from Secret Sexual Sins. And we are also finding men that are in the sin of homosexuality and young boys, considering the down low lifestyle, coming to an understanding about true sexuality before they are enveloped by deep darkness.

You may or may not know that masturbation is about satisfying intimacy needs. When a man desires to be intimate, he must first find God.

The late Dr. Ed Cole once said that “Prayer is intimacy with God.”

Therefore, if you are searching for true intimacy and true fulfillment, it will only be found in God. Women serves as a companion on earth to help men but eternal fulfillment is only found in God.

Masturbation is a poor substitute for true intimacy because you are trying to achieve some semblance of intimacy on your own. This is called sin, which is defiance of God, autonomy, rebellion, and anarchy.

True fellowship and intimacy begins and ends with knowing the Father, through His Son, the Lord Jesus.

Back in December 5, 2009, we held our first Come Clean Stay Clean Conference. I was still involved in masturbation until December 3, 2009.

Of course in my recent blogs on Relapse, I did masturbate afterwards.

For 3.5 years, I stayed clean until I failed.

For further information, just read my last blogs on relapse.

The reason why I am sharing my personal story is so you can understand that I am not trying to cover myself or run from the issue. I am not trying to exalt myself either. This is not reverse humility. Neither am I making any excuses or trying to save face. I am still early in my recovery and there are some things that are coming to the surface now that I now know how to deal with.

Knowledge puffs up.

Knowledge, humbly applied in wisdom, is the goal so that only One Person is glorified.

Before I fell, I lived in the fear of falling after declaring my freedom in Christ.

It was a desperate struggle on my own power and strength. Coupled with pride and arrogance.

Now that falling is behind me, what is there left?

My testimony is now a questionable testimony. How can I teach others how to be free when I’m still struggling?

Is there any hope? Can recovery be lasting? Or will there be another moment where my urges and impulses overwhelm me to sin against the Lord and my body?

It is out of my failure that I teach you what to look for so that you wouldn’t fail.

All your hope is to be placed in Jesus, not in man.

Man will fail but the Lord and His Word will never fail.

Recognizing at the earliest stages of lusts of the flesh and the mind and how to beat back the urges and impulses is where I am in the Lord. I’m learning how to relying on the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to stay focused, and fight to subdue and have dominion over what my mind and body craves.

Secret Sexual Sins must be fully exposed under the light of the Word and completely rooted out in order for me, and every man and woman to experience lasting peace through the Lord Jesus Christ. There are or were many believers that are or were trapped like me in the maze of masturbation.

As I have stated before, it was during this Come Clean Conference that I first heard through my good friend, Pastor Roger Jamison, pastor of Sword of the Spirit Tabernacle in Brooklyn, NY, that “masturbation is the early stages of homosexuality.”

Then, in another recent men’s meeting held at New Life Christian Center in Hempstead, LI that a Reverend Loring Pasmore stated that “masturbation is homosexuality.”

Here is the reason.

It’s your hand man. It’s your penis, man. You are doing you.

Too often, we tend not to think that masturbation is homosexuality because we try not to declare what we are or were doing is just sexually acting out with an opposite sex image. While we all know that MSM (Men having Sex with Men) is the normal definition of homosexuality, when it comes to masturbation, you are acting out sexually with yourself.

Even with an opposite sex image in your mind, you are still doing you.

You’ve also heard the term “men masturbating men.” No need for details. The term speaks for itself. It is still unnatural sex. Yes, it is a sex act but it is a perverted same sex act.

The justification of a sex act that involves only you and your image, has no legs of justification to stand on.

Here’s why.

You are a man or a male, aren’t you?

Then, as a man, you are doing you.

While the book of Genesis is the book of beginnings, it is there that true sex is established as the First Mentioned Principle in Biblical Hermeneutics. Biblical Hermeneutics is the science of interpreting the Scriptures.

In Genesis 2:18, it’s the first time that the Lord said that it wasn’t good… “And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”

So for all intents and purposes, the Lord makes a woman for Adam. Don’t you just love the Lord how He knew that it was going to be a sexual problem for man and provides a sexual solution? Women is not just for sexual purposes alone but for companionship, compatibility, sharing, loving, caring, and nurturing.

But let’s discuss one of the highest reasons.

Sex!

Get married to one woman first. Then…..

A woman was made to be married and loved. She was also made for a man to “get into.”

Your penis was made for the vagina.

That’s the way it is. Man is looking for sexual connection, not conquest, with someone they could live with for the rest of his life. Someone that is compatible, suitable for his needs.

Sex was designed by the Lord God to be shared between two opposite sex married persons. Sharing sexual pleasure is part of the soul tie or bonding process between husband and wife. You cannot become one flesh with the same sex. It is incompatible. Meaning that the anus was never designed for entry or male penetration by his penis. The anus was designed for exit of human excretion.

Oral sex doesn’t count either.

You cannot be “one flesh” with yourself. That’s part of the empty feeling inside after self sex. Sex wasn’t shared with a wife. It was an isolated attempt to satisfy a selfish need.

Therefore, selflessness must overcome selfishness.

For sex to be sex, the entire process is to be shared.

“Two shall become one flesh.” One plus one equal one.

With masturbation, one plus none equal none.

When it comes to masturbation, it is about a man getting himself off the way he wants to get off sexual tension. And it’s about the fantasy, the arousal, the pretending to have one or many. It is also about escaping relational situations associated with marriage.

For the most part, it is about acting out sexually in uninhibited or lascivious imagination in full swing. He is pretending to have sex with whomever he wants. Porn and still images fill the mind with sexual seduction and the only way to let off tension is to masturbate or by having a live body. Or both.

This is the degrading form of sex where the woman is cheapened to be a sex toy. An object of lust and conquest. This is where her life is not valued except for what is achieved in the bedroom. Such degradation is demonic and depraved.

When it comes to having sex by yourself, there is no question that you are bringing yourself to orgasm.

Homosexuality also include vile acts, either with a person of the same sex or by yourself by using various means and grotesque methods to achieve orgasm. Each accomplished self sex leaves an empty feeling and it also helps drive you to attempt new ways to achieve orgasm. The escalation in the ritual process increases sometimes the adrenaline, testosterone aspect of self sex.

Heightening the process to achieve orgasm is a high within itself.

Masturbation is a ritual that very few escape, but more and more men and women desire to be free. They just haven’t reached a place where the need for it is no longer desirable.

The desire to stop is there but the will to stop fails them because the mind reminds them of the supposed pleasure that would be lost, should you, once and for all, abandon self sex, and truly trust the Lord for complete fulfillment and satisfaction.

Chronic or habitual masturbation is not a mental issue. Masturbation is not necessarily a sign of sexual addiction but it is part of the sexual addiction ritual.

Sexual addiction is defined as one that cannot stop, control, or manage the need for sex.

Therefore, masturbation is an “urges and impulses” issue that lead to experiencing the reward drug dopamine.

Masturbation is coupled at times to satisfy a need for self love, affirmation, and appreciation. Men desire to be touched. Otherwise, they wouldn’t touch themselves.

There is one issue that I will bring up and that is the condemnation issue. After a person releases sexual tension through masturbation, a person feels the euphoria of the moment, but it is short lived. Then the feeling of guilt or remorse sets in. This is a clear indication that you’ve violated the “one flesh” principle in Genesis 2:21-25.

This “empty” feeling that you experience after you have masturbated is an indication to you that you were alone, and it is not good. You sulk, feel down, and that’s a feeling you get every time. This feeling is suppressed because after you get through the remorse process of self sex, you are ready to fantasize, ritualize, and act out sexually all over again.

The looking forward to the next time overwhelms any guilt or condemnation because you can’t wait to experience that feeling. In this is the hopes for true satisfaction but when it comes to false intimacy, there can never be complete satisfaction.

WHY?

No matter how many times you masturbate, you will never escape completely the fact that you violated the “one flesh” principle.

To understand masturbation, there is a wealth of books that cover this subject in-depth.

While there is a lot of pro masturbation books, I would be very careful not to try to justify it because someone else engages in the practice.

Just go to my Sexual Addiction Recovery Page and click the links.

For further discussions on masturbation, please go to our groundbreaking series Secret Sexual Sins on www.BlogTalkRadio.com/prevailingword1

Relapse Into Porn and Self Gratification: How To Prevent It, Part Two

When it came to relapse in my life, it wasn’t the lustful eye that returned to me. I know that watching women lustfully is no different than porn. And yes, married men are more susceptible. Single men are sexually inquisitive. If you are not married, the chances of being lured into having a lustful eye increases greatly. That’s why Paul’s admonition to men and women is simple.

“It is better to marry than to burn.”

So, single males, stop waiting and stop playing the field. Go find a wife and get married.

Make a decision and get married.

Of course, find the right woman to marry, and ladies, be selective. Very selective. It’s tough finding low maintenance believers these days.

Just don’t marry to hop in bed. Marriage to one person is serious, so be very selective.

Lusting after women anywhere is called porn with clothes on or substitute porn.

After training my eyes to quickly look away, I was able to bridle that part according to Job 31:1. The mind quickly disengaged. In other words, any attempts to file that image for lustful purposes didn’t stand a chance according to 2 Corinthians 10:4-5.

The women walking the streets or pictures on the Newsstands on magazine covers is just covering what is behind the clothing. The imaginations of man goes beyond that and that’s where the sin is.

So there was nothing like that in me at the time of my relapse.

To cut to the chase, it was the habitual mechanics of masturbation.

This is the 1 Corinthians 9:27, Romans 6:14-15 part where relapse had the greatest opportunity against all my best efforts.

When you have been locked in battle against fulfilling fleshly desires, the flesh develops a routine called ritual. When you stop a habit forming ritual, the body goes into a fit.

So for the 3 years and six months that a sin filled sexual habit ceased, the urges and impulses went into a temper tantrum. I thought that I recognized it enough to subdue and have dominion but little by little, the urges and impulses increased in strength.

Mind you, I was praying every day. Reading the Word every day. Sharing with my wife and accountability group regularly. Even discussing where my urges and impulses were and what I was doing to employ 1 Corinthians 10:13.

The mind and body protested loud and clear. It reasoned that I stopped something that was almost as important as breathing air. The body will cry like a baby and demand why you stopped such an seemingly enjoyable past time.

That’s what was going on in my flesh. I thought that my spirit man was getting stronger. In fact, the Spirit of God said to me that I was waxing stronger.

But was I?

The Holy Spirit didn’t lie. I didn’t take heed according to 1 Corinthians 10:12.

When I declared my initial deliverance, I fought to maintain what was achieved. At the same time, there was a question in the back of my mind.

Will I fall?

It is important that you never dwell on this question because it’s a ploy of the mind and flesh to get you to resume bad habits. Remember, the devil only bring opportunities of temptation at your weakest moments to take advantage of every opportunity to pull you back into the same habits.

Another area of vulnerability was that I was out ministering too soon about this area of sexual immorality. Again, I accumulated a vast knowledge about sex and I wanted to tell the world what I’ve found out. For what purpose? To launch something that would promote who I was.

Obviously, you begin to think that no one else on the planet knows this stuff so you trump yourself as an expert. As I looked on the Internet, there are vast resources available to help people in the area of sexual addiction. They’ve been out there for years.

The oldest book that I have on my bookshelf about sexual addiction and sexual struggles of people in power is a book called “The Perils of Power.”

Pride and arrogance.

So, the best (worst) thing to do is to get discouraged. Discouragement set in and that’s the combination that the enemy was waiting on.

Relapse became an easy thing because I went back to attempting to heal the wounds of discouragement on my own terms.

So when I tried to tell the world, I end up getting more frustrated, and discouraged because I thought that by telling the world, opportunities to minister would open up for me to help free the Body of this scourge and would compel the church to clean it’s act up.

I like what Jesus said to the man of the tombs in Mark 5:19.

“Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.”

When you come out of sexual immorality, I thought that by telling others, I would be placing the spot light on my life in hopes that I would stay free (false notion on my part).

At all times, we are to look to the Savior for freedom and not what we are to do of ourselves (holding conferences, meetings, and ministering) to manufacture our freedom.

Sometimes when you have paid attention to your sexual needs, and you get delivered, you need something else to do to replace a way to satisfy needs of attention. Because when you are the focus of attention, it makes you feel good that you are helping others, when you are only trying to use it to pat yourself on the back.

It’s just another form of pride and arrogance.

So to prevent relapse the following Scriptures need to be employed.

I rededicated myself to employ these Scriptures. Never mind ministry. God has millions of others in this area. We do not need to know where they are and who they are, but they are there on assignment in hidden and exposed places with a powerful word of deliverance from sexual immorality.

God is not looking to sensationalize sexual deliverance. This is how movements become monuments. This is how targeted ministry becomes invaded with needless attachments of distraction that impede the move of the Holy Spirit.

In God’s way and time, He is doing exactly what He needs done outside of our eye sight.

The mechanics of masturbation works under the law of sin and death. Sin is pleasurable. The Lord Jesus speaks of “the pleasures of life” in Luke 8:14. Sin is pleasurable but never satisfying.

It is there where the law of sin and death has full power.

The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is connected to Romans 6:12-14.

“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

Where Paul says, “…do not let sin reign in your mortal body…” to stay free from the law of sin and death, you must not let sin reign.

Romans 12:1 says,

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”

Then 1 Corinthians 9:27 says,

“But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”

James 4:7-10 says,

“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double- minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”

The success begins with submission to God.

This is where we miss it the most because the attention and emphasis is placed on what we must do against the devil. This is the wrong place to start. The devil doesn’t mind if you start there because it is a place out of the order of God.

Submission to God is placing yourself under the Lordship of Jesus and His Word. There is tremendous success where believers fully submit to God. This is what the devil never counts on. Your will submitted to the will of God. Your emotions submitted to the will of God. Your attitude submitted to the will of God. Your urges and impulses submitted to the will of God.

You can’t masturbate if your mind is stayed on God. You can’t masturbate when you put your hands on the Bible before you put your hands on yourself. You can’t masturbate if you get out of bed and fall on your face before God in prayer.

Submission is not just a thought. It is an action.

What you do determines the next course of action. If you disengage the mind, you will disengage the hands. If you disengage the hands, and move from the place where it is a part of your habit forming ritual, you are adjusting the game plan to win against the devil, your mind, and your urges and impulses in your flesh.

There is no rush in submission except to move in haste not to sin.

Psalm 119:9-11 says,

“How shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to You Word. With my whole heart have I sought You; Oh, let me not wander from your commandments! Your Word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.”

When you have something that’s dirty on your hands, you want to wash your hands quickly. When you need to stay clean or to clean things off from yourself, take the water of the Word and start washing.

Notice the adjustment. You adjust to stay clean or to get cleaned up.

Humility is the only way to stay clean.

Humility comes when we willingly admit our deep dark secrets to the Lord and to others that we are accountable to.

The proper order of accountability is the Lord, our spouse, and close, trusted friends that understand what you are going through.

Tough, confrontational, non condemning love must be administered.

To prevent relapse, you must employ every strategy to stay strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. You must escape every temptation. No matter what happens, this is a fight to the death. If you are in Christ you are already dead to the world.

Should you enter into relapse, you must note the process by which you entered relapse.

Why did it occur?

What did you see or thought that led to relapse?

How do you recover and keep yourself from falling the next time temptation comes?

Did you tell the Lord, your wife, and your those you are accountable to?

To prevent relapse, you must know your urges and impulses. You must enter into seasons of prayer and fasting. You must abide more in the presence of the Lord in prayer and the Word of God. You must starve all other outside influences that tend to have teasers prepared to get your mind off of prevention.

As in sports, good players and fighters make adjustments to win. If you fail to make adjustments to prevent relapse, you will develop a predictable pattern and routine that the enemy will exploit.

Prepare for chastisement. As the Bible tells us, chastisement is not pleasant.

Hebrews 12:11 says,

“Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

The Lord will use godly people in the chastisement process.

The Lord loves you enough to tell you the truth about yourself and He understands what we are going through, and He is always there to help us in time of need.

Hebrews 4:15-16 says,

“For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Romans 8:26 says,

“Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses.”

It is not easy. It is difficult because you have established a track record of staying clean and then you have fallen away.

One of the things you must do to recover is that you must not let guilt and resentment rule. And just because you experienced relapse, it is not over. Despondency will enter. Disappointment will enter. Discouragement will enter but they cannot remain.

God sees where you are and He is there to help you. Not kick you to the curb.

There are many reasons that relapse takes place but what we will do is identify the reasons and build a proper stronghold to prevent further relapse before we become too comfortable in sin.

He whom the Son sets free is free indeed. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

Relapse Into Porn and Self Gratification: How To Prevent It, Part 1

I want to take the time to share my own story of victory and relapse because many of you will be able to identify with it. If you have read or heard my story on BlogTalkRadio about porn and self gratification, commonly called masturbation, you are aware that relapse could happen at any time.

Stephen Arterburn’s book, “Every Man’s Battle” accurately portrays on fact.

This is a battle.

This is a deadly fight for your purity unlike any other. If you are to stand in the victor’s circle, it must be done one moment at a time. Do not wait till the end of the day to tally the score because your flesh and mind is too weak to withstand. The armor of God is spiritual and must be donned until it’s time to go home to be with the Lord.

Briefly, in 2008, the Lord gave my wife and I a tremendous financial victory. The only problem was, I was still involved in porn and masturbation. When we left Brooklyn, the Lord blessed us with a home. My wife and daughter went to New York to spend time with my mother in law and I saw it as another “opportunity” to do my thing.

Dr. Patrick Carnes, a noted authority on sexual addiction points to the sexual addiction cycle that is common among all sex addicts.

1. Thoughts or Fantasies.

2. Rituals.

3. Acting Out.

4. Remorse.

This cycle depicts precisely what I was experiencing every single day and on more than one occasion, a few times a day.

Prior to understanding this cycle, I realized afterwards that I was going through a series of emotions that drove me to run to sexual addiction. These emotions were, what I, by the Holy Spirit termed as “trigger mechanisms” or things that would happen to me that would affect my emotions to start the ball rolling to fulfill a need.

If I was lonely, I would uses images in my mind that I would file. It didn’t matter what the image was or where it came from, I would file them for use later.

If I was angry, mad or upset, I would act out sexually to change my mood. Dr. Archibald Hart, author of “The Sexual Man” said that if you want to change the mood you are in, sex is the game changer.

When I felt rejected, I would run to touch myself to make myself feel good.

When I needed to be loved on my terms without the relational pain associated with being loved, self sex would be the first choice. With having sex with the opposite sex, you want that orgasm to be just right without any relational interference. Sex is meant to be shared to please your spouse as your spouse pleases you.

Now do not get me wrong.

Self sex is sin because sin is always at the root of all sexual immorality. There is no escaping this. Just because you use porn and self gratification as “medicinal properties” it doesn’t mean that you just need sex therapy or sexual counseling like a 12 step program to “fix it.”

On the other hand, if things went well or I felt good, I would “reward” myself for a job well done by acting out sexually with myself.

You must understand that your emotions will fool you every time and coax you to get satisfaction from other places and persons without God. That’s anarchy. Making the rules as you go that excludes the rule of God and His Word.

Back to the story. I went into another room where I set up Directv and paid for my porn. As I was masturbating, the Lord spoke to me and said….“Is this what you do to Me after all the good I’ve done for you?”

This was November, 2008. My time of porn ended on that day but the masturbation continued until December, 2009. I purposely etched that date in my soul because I would never return to self gratification again.

Or so I thought.

I took a 60 day course on the recommendation of my accountability friend, Pastor Roger Jamison. The site is called Setting Captives Free and the course was called “The Way To Purity” by Mike Cleveland.

This course challenged me unlike any other. You had an accountability person assigned and at the end of each lesson, two questions were asked among many.

1. Did you watch porn?

2. Did you masturbate?

To avoid hearing about it, I refrained from both. After each lesson, I proudly answered “No.” And I didn’t relapse during that time.

Lying is against the Word of God so I didn’t want to be judged for porn, masturbation, and lying.

As a side note, you do not need porn to masturbate.

All you need is the files of the un-renewed combative soul. Thousands of images are captured until you dethrone each image. You can create images too. Perverted images for pretend sex. But to be free, each image must be captured, dethroned, and burned by the Word of God, and drowned, and dissolved in the blood of Jesus.

Afterwards, I felt I had this thing licked but I knew in the back of my mind that relapse was a possibility. I tried to ignore it but the eventuality kept presenting itself to me. Little did I know that my flesh and mind was planning a sexual immorality comeback.

You see, there are some things that it’s the devil. More often than not, it’s you.

So, in my strength, I attempted to be very bold about it by establishing a date and making myself stick to the fact that this date would be the date that I would never do it again.

A couple of years passed. The porn was never a relapse problem because I did an extensive study as to why I did what I did.

I took courses from Light University on Healthy Sexuality. I receive numerous insight from many of the professors. I also took courses on Sexual Addiction. One noted teacher, Dr. Mark Laaser, who studied under Dr. Patrick Carnes really asked a point question.

It was the toughest question that I had ever faced.

“Could you do without sex and masturbation?”

If you can’t you are probably addicted. I also learned that just because you watch porn or masturbate, you may or may not be addicted because addiction is the inability to stop or manage sex.

With all this knowledge, I was “puffed up” (see 1 Corinthians 8:1).

If you acknowledge that you are puffed up, at least you could probably do something to deflate it because all puffiness comes from pride and arrogance. Paul had to be deflated and the way that God did it was with the trials and persecution called “The Thorn In The Flesh.” 

When you get an abundance of revelation, you actually feel special, unique, and privileged. Paul evidently may not have listened. He wasn’t supposed to be martyred. He was told by the Holy Spirit not to go to Jerusalem (see Acts 21:4).

Then the relapse. The mind and flesh of man can be very creative to satisfy itself. I will not discuss the various ways to accomplish sexual tension release because I do not want to fill your minds with ways to accomplish self gratification.

I will declare that when your reasoning remains defiant and filled with self accumulated knowledge, it is very easy to reason how you call relapse and not really call it relapse.

Your mind could easily say, “You didn’t really masturbate. You just let off some tension. Don’t call it relapse because it won’t look good in front of the thousands of people you told that you would never do it again.”

There came a point where the masquerade and disguise had to come off.

Hypocrisy is a foolish game that only God is forced to expose. Every form of hypocrisy is a form of pride that satan lost his place over. He thought he could be like God and came up way too short. Just because you think you can kick a field goal, shoot a basketball, or swing a baseball bat, it doesn’t mean that you are in the big leagues.

In pride, I once said, “You are looking at the first black CNO (Chief of Naval Operations).” Mind you, I never was an officer. I was enlisted, E4. I was recommended for OCS by my last CO, but I was not to exceed 4 years enlisted.

Besides the competition for command and flag ranks makes even the smartest officers retire.

Self gratification is the ability to sexually satisfy yourself. That’s the only rule to masturbation.

Do it yourself!

There is no sense in deflecting responsibility and try to avoid what took place. True deliverance is about being honest with yourself before the Lord. Saving face is a mute point and quoting Scripture to show that I have recovered is sometimes a self effort to keep your armor shining when there is obvious soil on it.

It was a combination of not getting into the presence of the Lord, reading the Word at the time of temptation, and telling my accountability partner about my real struggles.

Did I ever relapsed into porn?

No! Never!

What lead to my relapse into self gratification?

Pride and arrogance, disappointments, and frustrations. Not necessarily sexual frustrations because my wife was never the issue or problem. When it came to pride and arrogance, it was about the fact that I thought that I had all this “knowledge.” I thought I would be able to tell brothers how to kick this thing to the curb and ended up on the curb, licking up my own vomit like a dog myself.

I made this thing about me and not about God’s loving grace.

Through this relapse, I learned that it is all the grace of God and all obedience without fluff, fanfare, puffiness, head knowledge, aptitude, arrogance, and stupidity. On the other hand, humility became a more pronounced attitude because you begin to see others struggle and desire to extend grace to them instead of being hard nosed and repulsive.

You cannot show the world how to be delivered from the position of looking down on the many brothers that never come out of dark places. We can never deal with sexual immorality from a judgmental position. Meaning that when you think you have it all together, you now feel competent and qualified to help others while you, yourself still need help.

When you read about other men and women trapped in their false intimacy world and you look at them with disdain, you are probably just as sick as them. Sin sick. That’s why you have to have compassion as Jesus. Without compassion, you will only rise in pride to condemn others just to make yourself feel superior.

Like that Pharisee that broadcast about his self righteous living. The publican wouldn’t ever look to heaven but cried out for mercy and declared that he was a sinner. Now what we have done is that sometimes, we parade our sinner status around and that is another form of pride and arrogance.

Such was the case with me. I took pride in that and that’s not what we are to do.

God is not pleased when we proudly display our dirt.

With living wells of love, we must look at them. With confrontational love and compassion, we extend grace. We look to help and not to hurt. We pity, like God, every groan.

I told my wife about my relapse and she looked at me like I always thought she would. With tender love and forgiveness. She knew my struggles a long time ago and she continues to pray for me every day. Of course, we are still healing because any wife that has experienced the assault of sexual immorality in the home prays that it would never darken our doorstep again.

It’s a clear threat to the stability of the marital relationship in the house.

Each day though she does her best to keep me centered on our relationship. The hurt that I caused her is slowly dissipating but she knows that I have to keep fighting. For the sake of our love for each other, it is my job to come clean and stay clean.

How long ago was the relapse?

July, August, and the first week of September of 2011. More recently, February 2012. No matter how you do it, when you make love with yourself, it is called masturbation. No trivial reasoning. Sin is sin.

What must I do from here on out?

Recognize that this is all about God, His compassion, His love, His grace, obedience to His Word without pride or arrogance. Never let the moment of being on top of the world deceive you into thinking that you finally got this thing licked.

Paul said, “Be careful lest you be tempted…”

Realize that grace works in such a way that a time of testing comes and you must not pass the test for passing the test’s sake. You look to the Lord and He supplies everything that you need to stand true to Him. You learn to hide in Him, in the secret of His tabernacle, in the pavilion of His presence. You learn to take His yoke and learn of Him, for His yoke is easy, and His burden in light.

You never pen things on FB or anywhere, for that matter, to show how you did it.

The destruction comes where pride is and the fall is certain to happen where haughtiness is.

I hope that this has been helpful to you. Please pass this to those that are in this thing called MOAB, the Mother Of All Battles.

Is it possible to win? Is it possible to stay free? Is it possible to defeat porn and masturbation?

The answer is, “With God, all things are possible.”

Help! I’m Sexually Attracted To My Pastor

Too often, we only hear the pastor’s side of the scandal.

Some pastor’s have lust burning in their hearts. Some pastors engage in porn and self gratification. Some pastors look for sexual connections with parishioners. Some pastors are smitten when a bomb shell comes their way. Some pastors are ready to walk away from their wives in search for connections else where.

There is no question that certain women are smitten by smooth talking, good looking male preachers. Even if they are married. Sometimes, it doesn’t even matter.

Very few hear the woman’s side of the scandal.

1. Fact. Women look for connection.

2. Fact. Women are attracted to men in power and influence.

3. Fact. Women will sacrifice their bodies to achieve fulfillment, value, and self worth.

4. Fact. Women want what married women enjoy- to be loved, appreciated, and cared for by men.

5. Fact. Women use their beauty as a powerful tool of influence over men.

If these facts are to be refuted as non sense, then why does adultery take place in the church among pastors and Christian women?

Attraction is dangerous under the wrong conditions, however, too many are willing to risk it all for a one time sexual encounter with a pastor, married or not. This kind of behavior is unacceptable but it still happens because of a lack of inner discipline.

Sexual attraction is extremely dangerous for anyone that is tempted and cannot control their urges and impulses. Let alone, their eyes and their hidden feelings towards someone in a position of power and influence.

Unbridled lust and evil passions must be subdued, especially in the church.

We see that attraction to your married pastor is dead wrong. He is off limits. And even if he wasn’t married, he is still off limits. If that single pastor is called to be an eunuch, which is very rare, he is off limits (see Matthew 19:11-12).

While it is very difficult to harness your feelings when you are single, it is important for you to remember that if you are saved, your relationship with the Lord must be first and foremost. Your feelings must be subdued with prayer, fasting, and with acting or putting into practice the Word of God. Whatever emotional feelings of affections that you may have towards your pastor, they must be cast down according to 2 Corinthians 10:4-5.

Unfortunately, this is easier said than done because pastors do not make it easy. Especially if there is some kind of connection (daily and close personal interaction) that is one step away from disaster.

The repercussions and stigmatization placed upon a woman bent on crossing the line of being a home and church wrecker is not worth the effort.

Blame is to be imposed on the pastor that fails to exercise discipline or if the pastor is a “people person” with great personality and charisma.

One of the things that I’ve learned over the years is that as a man of God is preaching, the atmosphere is spiritually and emotionally charged. Sadly, it’s more emotionally charged.

Here’s the reason.

We are spirit and soul beings that live in a container. The spirit and soul are both eternal. However, the soul is more analytical, rational, and emotional. The born again spirit loves to worship and praise God. The Spirit of God leads our spirit man into the presence of the Lord and something lasting happens.

The lasting thing that happened is that we have encountered the Lord and something changed within us that brought us closer to the Lord, and deepened our relationship with Him.

And we get a bonus.

Our spirit man is already changed by the new birth except the spirit man receives glimpses of revelation and insight into understand more about God because He is Spirit.

The soul gains revelation and something in the soul changes in terms of how we respond to God. A renewing of the mind takes place that demands that we no longer think a certain way that goes against the Word of God.

The body is disciplined so as not to violate the Word of God once revelation is received. Therefore, revelation, once acted upon in true obedience, brings us into a deeper relationship with God.

The bonus is that the soul gains an understanding and becomes exuberant or extremely joyous. So as the soul experiences some measure of satisfaction and joy, because joy is an emotion, our bodies, as they are presented to the Lord gets in on the exuberance.

What then happens is that if we are not careful, if we let our emotions (male and female) go unchecked, this is where thoughts and human will power are the most vulnerable. That’s why the Word of God is used as a check because when the soul is opened up, if there is no guidance from the Scriptures or obedience to the Scriptures during the time a person is open to the Word of God, there is a tremendous opportunity for a person to be taken advantaged of.

Jesus and Paul gives very powerful insights as to how we are to control our urges and impulses.

In Matthew 26:41, Jesus said, “Watch and pray lest you fall into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak.”

In 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, Paul said, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but might through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”

Paul also said in Romans 12:2 and Ephesians 4:23 to be “transformed by the renewing of your minds” and “be renewed in the spirit of your mind…”

So both the pastor and the women must engage in prayer, constantly engage in a purging of the mind by casting down reasonings that attempt to exalt itself against the knowledge of God, and to constantly renew the mind and the spirit of your minds with the Word of God.

Married and single (eunuch) pastors would do well to employ an array of safeguards to avoid traps set up by the enemy. It’s not a matter of if, it is a matter of when. Just as there are predatory pastors, there are predatory women.

There’s two classes.

1. The Jezebel Woman. Her only goal is to achieve spiritual power and control by sacrificing her body. As long as the man (Ahab) is in power, she rules. Even after having one sexual encounter, for a Jezebel, she is only concerned about one thing, how much power she could wield. Even after the anointing has left off of the pastor, she will find a way to make it seem as if he is still anointed.

2. The Immoral Woman. They are either adulterers or fornicators. Their only goal is connection. They too, will also sacrifice their bodies to achieve connection, sexual satisfaction (orgasm/dopamine), love, acceptance, and worth.

The immoral women will serve as a direct or indirect attack from the devil. Indirect in the sense that they are looking only to fulfill their own needs. Direct attacks are ones that receive direct orders from the devil to go after a specific target. Some of you may not believe it but look at what happened to Peter after he got revelation from the Father in Matthew chapter 16. Also when Judas was about to betray the Lord, satan entered into him in Luke 22:3 and John 13:27.

I cannot easily classify the next issue because this is the more common occurrence in the church.

Emotional Unstable Women.

The predatory pastor is always on the lookout to take advantage of these kinds of women. Unsuspecting emotionally charged women cannot be fully blamed because by nature, they are willing, and their emotions could flip from feeling pain to receiving and falling into sexual temptation.

And pastors knows this. When pastors play the “script” of a caring pastor, predator pastors turn on the charm and before you know it, they are in bed. The emotionally charged woman is swept off her feet and before you know it, they have sinned.

Then there are the rapist pastors that use strong-arm tactics to demand sex and spiritually warn them not to mention it to anyone. Predatory pastors use every tool, including spiritual words similar to the Bible to justify their Secret Sexual Sins.

Before, during, and after service, most people already come with an agenda to accomplish. If they are already filled in their minds about being attracted to a married pastor, then there is nothing that could be done except to pray that the pastor has safeguards in place to prevent sexual immorality.

We also know that women outnumber men in church attendance, so the attraction meter is off the scale.

For single women, it is very challenging.

In a large venue (mega church) it is not as dangerous but it is still potentially dangerous because under the right set of circumstances and happenstance, emotional atmospheres has a way of igniting “sparks” under the “right” conditions.

Again, a pastor’s most vulnerable point is when the service is over. Emotionally drained, mentally and spiritually depleted, he could be caught off guard and that’s how the enemy sets a sex trap. When you are upon the mountain top, the descent from His presence is very treacherous if the proper safeguards are not in place.

When there is an expenditure of the human spirit, there must be replenishment, protection, and wisdom deposited back into the vessel.

Even during service, where women sit and what they wear is part of the process of sexual attraction. Pastors that fail to exercise spiritual discipline in their secret lives are prone to these kinds of attacks from the enemy (satan).

What is done after service is the tale of the tape for many pastors. Where they go, who they see, what they do at home, what they watch on the street and on the TV? All these factors determines how well a pastor replenishes, protects, and apply his or her heart unto wisdom to steer clear of sexual temptation.

As a woman, it is important for you to understand that you need to exercise caution. There is very little that you can do if a pastor is lust minded but you must also be aware that what you do, say, and wear are signals to any man. You cannot get into the mind of a man and make him change his thoughts. It’s not your fault. However, you can have an understanding about how men think.

Femininity is power and women will use it to their advantage.

Seduction is power and women will use it to their advantage.

The church must not be the place where these powers attempt to distract the pastor. On the other hand, sinful pastors are already sinfully minded and he will yield to sexual temptation any way.

So what happens in church under the “right” sinful conditions set by attraction and seduction?

First, a man of God is anointed by the Lord. When he is ministering under a strong anointing, the Holy Spirit can make any unattractive vessel very attractive. He could be a five hundred pound individual, yet, the anointing makes him look good.

It is known that after an immoral encounter, whatever esteem you had for that pastor is gone. However, because a connection took place, and because you want to keep the relationship going, you will suppress the guilt and shame.

Second, after yielding to sexual temptation, you will be saying, “What in the world have I done?”

At the same time, what feelings, good, or whatever were experienced, sometimes it has a way of suppressing the Holy Spirit’s conviction of sin within you. This is where you do not want to be because no sin is justified in the eyes of the Lord and that’s how delusional thinking becomes a stronghold in the mind of a woman that desires to do everything possible to stay with that man based on an unjustified, sinful soul tie.

Listen closely to what Proverbs 30:20 says,

“This is the way of an adulterous woman: She eats and wipes her mouth, and says, “I have done no wickedness.”

Sex to her is like eating and enjoying the meal, guiltless.

RECOMMENDATIONS

That’s why it is important for a woman that is having these attractions to consider getting counseling. Not from that pastor whom she may be attracted to. And not with his wife. Consider approaching a trusted elderly church mother. Someone with God’s Word and wisdom that can help you understand some things about yourself.

Consider leaving that church and finding another church. Put some distance to regain the real reason why you go to church. Enter into times of prayer, fasting, and meditating on the Word to keep your mind from entertaining thoughts about that pastor you may be attracted to.

Engage in activities that intentionally distract you from thoughts of sexual immorality. Find a group of sanctified women that is involved in Christ centered activities.

From the women’s prospective, it is important for the church to raise up godly women that bring honor and praise to the Lord.

Church, it’s time to be holy even as He is holy.

To hear more about sexual immorality, MOAB in the Church, please listen to our groundbreaking series on Secret Sexual Sins at www.blogtalkradio.com/prevailingword1