Well over a year ago, when I first started making a commitment to purity and took a summer course at my church, I was given a book we were to read a few chapters and watch a video on called And the Bride Wore White by Dannah Gresh. And sadly, I did not pick up the book and read it cover to cover until almost a year later and the end of my freshman year, almost two weeks after I was anointed in the Holy Spirit.
But I do not regret the procrastination. I think that if I had read it in the summer before my freshman year I would have never gained from it the way I did when I read it. I wouldn't be who I am today in the October of my sophomore year. I wouldn't have done the things I did that God wanted me to do. I wouldn't have grown fully, for when I read it my eyes were opened even more through the Spirit. Would I even be on Wattpad anymore? Would I be able to write this like I am for you guys? I thank God for where He has put me today, and I pray that God will help me and use my words to bring you where He wants you to be, like He has for me.
Have you ever watched a movie where people in a war have a 'secret weapon'? Usually it's a weapon or a robot or a bomb or even a person. And they have complete faith in their weapon because of the element of surprise- you know, as long as the enemy doesn't find out.
Have you ever sang the song "I'm In The Lord's Army"? Well it's true! When we accept Jesus into our hearts and lives we become soldiers in His army, battling against the enemy.
But who is the enemy?
Satan.
The evil snake of hell. The father of lies. The beginning of all sickness, pain, and anything else bad in the world.
He is the Lord's enemy as well as ours. And as our enemy, he wants desperately to bring us down. And he has certain tactics or 'secret weapons' to destroy us. And the only reason they work is because we let him.
For example, if you don't have high esteem about your image, he may bring someone into your life that makes you feel beautiful, then that person will try to pressure you into sin.
In my own experiance, the devil knows I love and care majorly for my friends and family. So I started seeing my loved ones attacked by the devil- to get to me. Satan told me it was all my fault, that I should have rescued them, that I should have done something more for them, when really I did everything I could. But I had to stop crying, and run to Jesus, (hint, hint, wink, wink) and hand it all over to Him, trusting that His Will will be done- His good and perfect will.
Satan really is a genius. He has all these plans and tactics. And he has patience. Amazing patience. He has so many 'secret weapons'. And he has two major ones to keep you from pursuing a lifestyle of purity.
Lies. Two Lies.
Are you ready to know satan's 'secret weapon'?
Satan sadly has the upper hand. So break it.
Satan's Two Lies About Sex: (From Bride by Dannah Gresh)
1) "God is holding something from you!"
"You will not die," the serpent said to the woman. "God knows that when you eat [the fruit] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing all Good and Evil." Genesis 3:4,5
Remember the girl I told you about in the last chapter? She was beautiful, popular, and had the hottest guy in the school. So many girls were jealous of her. She had what they all wanted. But was she happy? Not at all. In fact, she was so messed up inside, so lost and hurt. Even if she was having an intimate relationship with the "hottest" boy in school.
Hopefully you all know the story the scripture above if from. In the Garden of Eden, satan, as a snake, told Eve, the first woman, that God was withholding the sweet, powerful fruit from her when god said very clearly not to eat it. When really the fruit may have been sweet, but the aftertaste, not so much. (If you get what I mean) When Eve bit the fruit, she unleashed sin through out the world, and life on earth has been horrible ever sense.
Satan loves to do the same thing to us. He'll tell us that God's just trying to stop you from having fun. He also likes excuses, like the 'raging teenage hormones' and 'use a condom'. These do not excuse anything. Satan's going to fill our heads with his lies and excuses for all of our lies. What do we do?
Stand FIRM!!!!!!!!
Ephesians 5:3 says: "There must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or any kind of impurity." And Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:12 "But not everything is good for us. So refuse to let anything have power over you. Don't be immoral in matters of sex. That is a sin against your own body in a way that no other sin is." (Italics added by Dannah Gresh)
Say no. No debating. Just no! If God says, "No!" then you can too!!!!
Say no:
Satan: "You don't have to go all the way. Just a little bit more. It won't hurt. It'll be fun!"
NO!!!!
Satan: "He's spacial, ain't he? Don't you think he deserves more?"
NO!!!!!!
Satan: "He's a good boy. He'll stop you if you're going too far."
NOOOO!!!!!!!!
Just. Say. No.
Remember: "Innocent touching" will, yes will! Not may, will, gradually turn to into more and more and the more it happens, the more tempted you will become to break, and you probably will. I'm telling you the brutal truth. It may hurt, but it will set you free if you just listen.
Does this mean sex is bad?
No! Never!
Genesis 1:27-31 and 2:25 tells of how God made Adam in Eve in the Garden of Eden: Male and female, and they stood before Him naked. Yet he still says "it is very good!" (Gen. 1:31)
In Genesis 1:28 God made sex so Adam and Eve could "Be fruitful and increase in number." And Proverbs 5:18,19 says: "May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. A loving doe, a graceful dear- may her breast satisfy you always, may you ever be captivated by her love." Yes, that means God created sex for two things: 1) children 2) fun! Sadly, the world has taken that fun and turned it into sin. Don't let the media and people around you tell you what sex is. If you wanna know what God meant sex to really be (AFTER marriage included!) read Song of Solomon: A book in the Bible that is 100% sex! read it! I DARE YOU! ha ha :D
In 1996, a sexual study was made public my the University of Chicago:
"People who reported being most physically pleased (by sex) and emotionally satisfied were married couples."
"Lowest rates of satisfaction were among men and women who were neither married nor living with someone- they very group thought to be having the hottest sex."
"Physical and emotional satisfaction started to decline when people had more than one sexual partner."
(From Dannah Gresh's Bride)
So you know what that means? That means God is not holding something from you because God is not only saving from heartbreak- but you will be more happy with your sex life when you are securely married and have kept your virginity for that amazing night!
Deuteronomy 6:24 says: "The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees... so that we might always PROSPER!" Why are rules made anyways? To keep you safe and happy! So please, ask Jesus to help you, and just say No! No touching. No debating. Just NO!!!!
2) "Haha! Now you have sinned, and God has no use for you!"
"Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked...then [they] heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden... and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord called to [them], 'where are you?' [Adam] answered, 'I head you in the garden, and I was afraid...so I hid.'" Genesis 3:7-10 Author's paraphrase.
After Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they became afriad and hid from the Lord. Our friend, Dannah Gresh, talks about in her book Bride that she did the same thing. When she gave into to her "Christian" boyfriend and had sex with him, she began to hide from God. She quit teaching Sunday School and her summer missionary job, even when God was near her saying, "Where are you?"
Maybe you are in the same boat. Maybe you've gone too far, or maybe you havn't been living as pure as you know God want you to. Maybe you feel like you're beyond forgiveness and could never gain God's forgiveness or God's purity or even His love. But here is the truth:
Satan lies: "Haha! Now you have sinned, and God has no use for you! You've committed too large of a sin, and God never wants you in His presence again!"
GOD says: "Come back to me! I love you no matter what!"
But remember, there is no escaping the consequences. Just like Adam and Eve (and the rest of us) and the snake had to be punished, after we sin, no matter the sin, we must be punished. And punishment can hurt.
King David had sinned sexually too. He had sex with a woman married to another man (Bathshuba), then after she got pregnant, killed her husband to hide it. Then God sent Nathan to him to reveal to him that he's made God upset. And what did David do?
He confessed. If you read Psalm 51you can read the exact words he said to God in ashamed of his own sin. First, he confesses that the sin is all his fault, not Bersheba or anyone else's. King David confesses with our argument that he is to blame for his own sin. Then he begs God to forgive him and cleans him of the sin, because he hates it. He never wants to live in such a sinful and disgusting life.
And God does clean him. God gives him a second chance, and a million chances after that. But David still had to be punished. Both him and Bathsheba. I bet they both couldn't sleep at night. Bathsheba was probably devastated over the loss of her husband, seeing it was also her fault as well. And later, her child died at birth, they probably morned over the fact they would have never experienced this loss if they never sinned together.
God does the same thing with us too. When we go to God and with all honesty admit we have sinned and are sorry, we can ask for forgiveness and through Jesus we can be forgiven- even with the largest of sexual sins. He can scrub away the guilt and the sadness and everything in between.
Satan likes to tell us differently. He likes to make you believe that your sin has ruined you and your life and will be on you forever. But the real truth is that God will take your sin from you and make it run as far from you as possible. You won't believe the feeling of watch God remove that sin and chase that beast away from you. The peace of cleansing is worth the trail of punishment that is needed to clean you.
But this beast may not be necessarily sexual in nature. Maybe you are like the millions of girls consumed by the idea of having a boyfriend when you should be growing in God and enjoying singleness. Or maybe your choice of words is not showing that you are a Christian. Or maybe your mind and eyes have wondered to where they should not be at all both in life and on the screen. Or maybe it's your ears with your music. Or maybe you're not giving God 110%. What ever your sin is, remember that you are not useless at all.
In one of my favorite author's stories, The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis, there is a ghost with a small red lizard on his shoulder. The lizard whispered into the ghost's ear, teased and torture the ghost constantly. An angel came to the ghost and offered to remove and destroy the lizard for him. But the ghost didn't have the heart to kill the mean lizard.
The ghost began to try to tame the lizard instead. Maybe slowly convince it to go away. But the angel told him a slow and gradual approach wouldn't work, because the lizard was a great liar. The ghost had a choice: Either let the angel remove the lizard or slowly be killed by it.
Finally, the ghost told the angel he had permission to remove the lizard. With one great grab, the angel removed the lizard and threw it to the ground, killing it. Then, suddenly, the ghost transformed into a man and the lizard transformed into an amazing gold and silver stallion. The man then leaped onto his new steed are rode off into the sunset.
Maybe you have a little red lizard lying to you on your shoulder: "You know you can't break up with him. Don't be stupid." "C'mon, it's not like your having sex with him, what could a little more do? He's spacial right?" "It's just a movie. Once you step out of the theater you'll be the same as you were before." "You have to do your makeup, no time for devotionals!" "Don't you dare go back to God again. He's ashamed of you. You've done the worst. Don't be a hypocrite."
DON'T listen to the lies. Come back to Jesus, he is welcoming you back with open arms. If you have sinned sexually, read John 8:1-11. Jesus told the Adulteress to "go and sin no more." If you look at my profile picture, that is the picture of the adulteress after being saved from Jesus. See how Jesus is reaching for her? He's reaching for you too! Reach out and grab His hand and He'll bring you to salvation. He's the angel trying to remove your little lizard. Let Him, give Him permission.
Yes, there will be consequences. But God is eager to bring you back to a loving relationship with Him. Run to Him.
Your lizard might be anything stunting your Spiritual growth. I, myself, just let Jesus rid me of my recent lizard, an old friend of mine who's horrible treatment and attitude towards me was stunting my growth. But finally I put my foot down, and took that great dive down the cliff and let God take over. She and I are no longer friends, but now I am back on the road to where God wants me to be, and maybe someday my friend will repair her state and we can become friends again. Maybe she'll even come to the Lord. That's what I pray for. (Could you guys pray for her too?)
What's your lizard? Sex? Lust? "Petting"? Boy craziness? Language? Overeating? Anger? Your appearance-obsession? A friend? What you watch at the movies, on TV, or online? What you read? Where and who you hang with? Stop right now and look at that lizard on your shoulder. Look to God and say "I'm sorry. Please help me. I give you permission. What do I do?" And He will tell you what to do.
Pick up your journal and write about it. Please. Let God transform you. You'll love it.