As men we are taught and conditioned by society, by this world’s system to be slaves without knowing it. We are taught to be slaves to lust, and to accept that we will always be slaves, that there is something inherent in us that renders us helpless from leaving those prisons, and to even be proud of them; as they are associated with “true manhood”. One would assume it to be obvious that this train of thought is pure folly, but sadly it is not obvious for many.

We are taught that if placed under the right circumstances a man’s attempts to overcome the temptation of lust will always fail, that we are like animals unable to control our desires. This is where the conditioning begins, it is the first lie, and if accepted it will tuck you neatly away in your prison forever. You are not your desires, you are a spirit that has a soul that lives in a body. The desires of the soul and body only control you if you let them. I am not referring to fallen man here, I am talking to my brothers in Christ who have been redeemed, whose spirits are new creations and no longer bound.

Freedom is awesome, and we have been made free in Christ, but some of us walk right back into our fetters and chains to sin. Yes you can be so free that you can see the most attractive woman in the world, with clothes that leave nothing to the imagination, and instead of lusting after her, you can view her as a daughter of God that needs to know her worth and gain her true identity in Christ. Her looks and her body do not have to inspire lust, you do not have to desire her in your heart, in any way shape or form.

If you have never experienced this freedom, then you have no idea how powerful it is. Are you aware of how many great men have fallen, how many leaders had their testimony and legacy destroyed because they succumbed to the temptation of lust? How easy is it for your enemy to destroy a leader and bring down those who have their eyes on him instead of Christ? It’s as simple as putting a woman in his path, that can cause him to stumble through adultery, fornication or any inappropriate relationship.

How do we gain this freedom? As men who are in Christ you have already been set free, but you need to know how to continually walk in that freedom. First your heart must desire to love and please your God. Without this desire you will not have the strength and motivation to overcome. As light, you must have no fellowship with darkness, you must be aware of what desires you feed your soul. We are constantly bombarded with sexual images, but we can choose to turn off the flow. Be mindful of the movies, television you watch and even music that you listen to. Songs and sound can create powerful images that feed the desires of the fallen man also.

We must renew our minds by reading and listening to the word. Lustful thoughts and imaginations cannot be tolerated, they must be taken captive and fought with the word. A great scripture to do this: “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.”(Philippians 4:8 NKJV) However the most important and effective way of walking in freedom from lust is to present yourself before The Father and ask Him to deliver you from it, to give you the grace to overcome, until you are walking in complete freedom. You cannot ask amiss, you must believe that He is willing and able to set you free and help you to walk in that freedom. We must come to Him in humility, knowing that we can to nothing of ourselves, but can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

He did this for me years ago, so I know He can do this for anyone. Freedom is so beautiful.

R.S.S