I got introduced to pornography (“porn”) when I was about 14 years old and immediately I became addicted to it. I wanted to watch pornographic videos every day and constantly needed new content.
An older friend of mine became my supplier and every month he would get me pornographic videos to watch. Around that season in my life, I overheard friends talk about masturbation and I turned to masturbation to satisfy the intense burning lustful desire I had any time I watched porn. This continued for many years in my life. For more than a decade I was addicted to both porn and masturbation and used any opportunity I had to get new tapes, and DVDs or download porn from “x” rated websites. Friends introduced me to all kinds of foul categories of porn. Over time, masturbation and porn became an escape route and a relief for me after a hectic day in school. This continued after I started working.
You would have thought this bad behaviour would cease after I began dating but it only got worse. At a point in my life, I could boast of owning over 400 gigabytes of porn videos on various external hard drives. My interest in porn went beyond watching it; I was always looking out for the latest categories of porn, and with the advent of social media, I began to follow porn stars online. I read more about porn and became very obsessed with particular videos and going online was a place that always triggered masturbation. This masturbation addiction grew worse and for many years I could masturbate an average of 18 days out of 30 days in a month. I never sought help. I tried a few times to quit but it did not work. There were days I could not wait to get home from work to masturbate.
This dark secret affected my mindset and I was full of lust because anytime I looked at the opposite sex, my imagination went wild and would imagine myself in bed with them, etc. This was horrible! When Snapchat was introduced to the world, it moved my appetite to a new level. I followed many women who would show nudity now and then. I knew this addiction was getting worse but it began to feel normal. All the nudity online made me masturbate even more.
In the year 2017, I began to take God and church more seriously and it was at this point I realized I was dealing with a strong spirit of lust. I wanted to be delivered from it. I prayed a lot into it but it was not an easy fight, but the truth is, God was in control. I began to read Bible scriptures more and I learnt how God gave power to men to overcome all kinds of obstacles; for example, David killed a giant like Goliath (1 Samuel 17). I also read how God warned Cain before he killed Abel that sin was lying at his door but he should rule over it.
Genesis 4:6-7 So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is [d]for you, but you should rule over it.”. )
Reading the Bible became very interesting and I kept reading it more and more. I joined a Bible-believing Church as well, with a Pastor (Apostle Joseph Kwadwo Yeboah) whose preaching convicted me of the sin I was committing. I pray God puts you in an Assembly that preaches inspired words that have transformative power. My interests began to change; I wanted more sermons from the Pastor instead of more porn tapes. When you give your life to Christ, you give yourself wholly to Him as the Bible says in Romans 12, “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”. I realized gradually that I was not masturbating as often as I used to. I still remember the last day I masturbated. It felt so wrong and the porn video I was watching felt so disgusting. After that day I knew I was done with porn. Jesus took away the foul appetite and replaced it with an appetite for the things of His kingdom.
Giving your life to Jesus is a very powerful decision to make as a human being. Jesus walked on the earth as a human and therefore He knows our weaknesses. The Bible says in Hebrews 4:15, “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”. Once you give your life to Christ, He takes control of your life. He begins to direct your steps. Every step from when I gave my life to Him, He personally directed me.
At this point, I had to deal with the physical things that triggered the appetite to masturbate. Once you deal with the spiritual you have to make sure you leave no room for physical things to lead you back into sin. The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5:22 KJV, “Abstain from all appearance of evil”. You have to flee from the physical things that lead you to sin. I decided to delete all the porn I had on my laptop. It was as if I had lost property when I deleted it but I did it anyway. I quickly left Snapchat because I was following so many women who posted a lot of nudity and porn material. On other social media networks like Instagram, I began to unfollow all the porn stars I used to follow and all the celebrities who posted mostly half-naked pictures etc. On my web browsers, I installed plugins that automatically block x-rated websites.
Social media is a place where people post all kinds of things but you must decide what you want to view. Till today when someone posts any inappropriate content I unfollow or block them from my social media page.
One of the most conscious things I have done is to guard my thought gates (my mind). I never entertain lustful thoughts. One of the things you should not entertain is lustful thoughts. Immediately they come to mind, you rebuke it in the name of Jesus. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 10:5, “casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ”. Always fill your thoughts with godly things. You can listen to gospel music, watch sermons online and just flood yourself with Christian content. The devil every now and then will put some thoughts into your mind but rebuke them when they come. Once you win the battle of the mind by the power of Jesus, the devil will soon not suggest things to you like “Who told you to stop masturbating; who are you impressing with quitting it; you can never quit masturbating”, etc, Rebuke the devil and meditate on (think about) good things as the Bible tells us in Philippians 4:8.
“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”.
To God be the glory, it has been about 5 years since I last watched porn or masturbated and I still keep myself in check to date. I still pray for God to give me the grace never to go back to that life of addiction. A lot of us forget that the devil is always looking for an opportunity to tempt you so constantly pray for the grace not to fall or go back. I do not know what addiction you are dealing with. Maybe it is sex, porn, smoking, alcohol etc and you feel you cannot quit, I am proof that God can set you free and I know the Jesus that delivered me is here on this blog post to deliver you.
Say this prayer
Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for your word and for giving men the power to rule over sin. The devil has afflicted me with this addiction (mention the addiction) and I ask for deliverance by the power of the blood of Jesus. Thank you Jesus for setting me free and for breaking the shackles of the chains of this addiction. For your word says that who the Son of Man sets free is free indeed. I pray in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen.
You are free in Jesus’ name. Feel free to reach out to me via email at raindolf@ refugeofgracegh.org
About the author:
Raindolf Owusu is a software developer and branch Pastor of the Word Faith Chapel, Refuge of Grace Assembly.
