Pornography is a problem in America.
Every second 28,258 users are watching pornography on the Internet.
Forty million Americans regularly visit porn sites.
Thirty-five percent of all Internet downloads are related to pornography.
Every 39 minutes a new pornography video is being created in the United States.
About 200,000 Americans are “porn addicts.”
Many of those addicts are Christians. Some are in ministry.
Christian author and speaker John Bevere used to be in that group. In the video below, he shares his struggle with pornography that began when he was 11 years old.
He described himself as a “frat boy” before coming to know Christ, with many of the habits you would expect in an unbeliever. He drank too much and he watched pornography.
After receiving Christ his taste for alcohol left immediately. But pornography did not.
Then he got married to a woman who he described as “the most beautiful woman he’d ever known.” He thought this would end his struggles. His porn addiction got worse.
A few years later Bevere entered the ministry. And his preoccupation with pornography came with him.
One day, while on staff at a prominent church, he confessed his addiction to the late pastor Lester Summrall, who had a deliverance ministry. Bevere worried that he would lose his wife and his ministry because of porn.
Summrall let him have it, “like any good father.” He prayed over Bevere and laid hands on him. “You know what happened?” Bevere asked the audience, “Nothing.”
Nine months later Bevere went on a fast and the urge to view pornography left him.
For the next year or two a question kept nagging away at Bevere, “why wasn’t he freed when Summrall prayed for him?” Why did it take another nine months for him to get victory over his addiction?
Bevere said he’s always had a vibrant prayer life. He prayed to cast out demons and to win multitudes to Christ. He prayed big prayers. But the Lord told him his prayers were off target.
He said Jesus told him, “You can cast out devils, heal the sick and win multitudes and still go to Hell. Judas did those things and he’s in Hell.”
“I started quaking when he said that to me,” Bevere admitted.
That day, Bevere’s prayers changed. Instead of praying to win nations, he prayed to know Jesus intimately.
It was then that he realized that when he confessed to Sumrall he was scared he’d be judged. He thought pornography would cost him his marriage and his ministry. In short, he was worried about himself.
Nine months later, when he was freed from pornography, he was no longer worried about how the consequences could hurt him, he was broken knowing that his sin had hurt God. “Earthly sorrow says what’s going to happen to me, what are people going to think? Godly sorrow focuses on him and says, ‘God I’ve broken your heart.’”
Are you worried that you might be addicted to pornography and breaking God’s heart in your actions? There’s a way to find out. The Center for Internet and Technology Addiction has an online test you can take to find out.
It might help you start the process of asking God to help you in your fight.
Godly Sorrow vs. Worldly Sorrow | Killing Kryptonite
If you want to be free from sin, it's not enough to be sorry. You have to be sorry for the right reasons. "For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death." —2 Corinthians 7:10 NLT(Grab a copy of #KillingKryptonite at amzn.to/2z1kAHl)
Posted by John Bevere on Thursday, November 2, 2017
