HOW GOD FREED ME FROM LUST/ AUDIO ONLY VERSION

How God Freed Me from Lust | Testimony Tuesday | Where Is Your Voice Podcast

In this episode of the 'Where Is Your Voice Podcast,' Erika shares her heartfelt testimony on how God freed her from the grip of lust. From her traumatic childhood experiences to her battles with promiscuity and self-satisfaction, Erika opens up about her struggles and how her faith led her to freedom. She discusses the turning points in her life brought about by sermons, scripture readings, and prayer, ultimately leading her to live a more holy and fulfilled life. Join Erica as she prays for anyone struggling with similar battles, offering encouragement and hope through her honest and inspiring journey. #TestimonyTuesday #FreedomFromLust #FaithJourney #OvercomingAddiction #ChristianTestimony #SpiritualHealing #WhereIsYourVoicePodcast #ErikaTestimony #BreakFreeFromLust #HealingInChrist #FaithAndHealing #BattlingLust #FindingPeace #SpiritualFreedom #JesusSaves #BeliefAndHope #PowerOfPrayer #sexaddiction #spiritoflust #lust #christianencouragment #sins 

00:00 Introduction and Personal Struggle with Lust

00:42 Early Experiences and Realizations

02:12 Adulthood and Continued Struggles

06:02 Turning Point and Seeking Help

08:15 Spiritual Awakening and Transformation

10:25 Scriptural Guidance and Final Breakthrough

18:01 Conclusion and Prayer

Transcript

How God Freed me from Lust
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[00:00:00] 


Introduction and Personal Struggle with Lust
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Can I be real with you? Lust had a grip on me for years and because of this world and the way it's set up, I didn't understand how in bondage I truly was. What I didn't realize was my battle with lust stemmed from how I viewed myself and others, and it revealed my heart condition towards God. So before I get into it, my name is Erica.

Welcome to Where Is Your Voice podcast. Today's episode for testimony Tuesday is how God freed me from lust. 


Early Experiences and Realizations
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My struggle began before I even knew what lust was as a child, I was molested when I was around seven years old by a babysitter. And also from girls around my age where I was spend the night over their [00:01:00] house.

I remember these two sisters and they was around the same age as me, maybe a little older, but they would take turns messing with me under the blanket when we were supposed to be sleeping. I used to hate to spend a night over their house then. When we would play house, you know, the game house, I would be the wife and someone else would be the husband, and we would take this game serious.

So I knew at an early age that people could stimulate me, but I also didn't understand how or what they were doing. And how I knew it was wrong, but I just went along with it. Then when I was alone, I would start to stimulate that area myself with various toys like a teddy bear, but I didn't know what I was actually doing.

I just knew it felt good and then. It would [00:02:00] get to the point to where I would be done because that area became too sensitive. This went on until I got about 14. When I lost my virginity. 


Adulthood and Continued Struggles
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And that's when I realized that what I was doing was called masturbation. And once I realized that, I started to do that every day, about three times a day for almost my whole life, I knew something was wrong with it.

But I also felt like it helps because it will stop me from sleeping with men. I wasn't just battling with self-satisfying myself. I also was promiscuous as well. I didn't have any self-control over my. Body and I would actively seek out new guys to hook up with sometimes multiple men within a day. If my appetite was not satisfied, [00:03:00] I could not go more than a couple of weeks without engaging with a man.

The all part is that I actually didn't enjoy sleeping with them. The majority of the time, I would wish, like I would think in the back of my mind, , could they just hurry up? Or I would have to be intoxicated in some form to even engage with them. But even though I didn't enjoy it, like most. People that still didn't stop me from chasing it down or letting them chase me down from the age of 14 to at least 27, I did not actually enjoy engaging sexually.

I only did it because I thought that's all I had to offer a man. And I thought that was the only way a man would wanna be around me, and I assumed the better I was in bed, then he will probably want to be with me forever. Maybe he won't [00:04:00] cheat on me, or maybe he will love me. I always viewed myself in a low light and I was insecure.

I also dressed provocatively and mainly, what I talked about was sex and even what I would post about was sex, and I will post provocative pictures and quotes on social media. My identity to myself at the time was a sex. Symbol or a sex slave. It was even times when I tried to be a stripper. I thought about doing porn as well.

I just didn't think I had anything else to offer a man but my body deep inside, I was hurting of course, and my life was chaotic to match. Once I got into my late twenties, I did start to enjoy engaging. And thought it felt amazing like everyone else, but I still could barely do it sober [00:05:00] minded. I used have some form of alcohol and drugs like weed or powder to be able to enjoy engaging unless it was someone that I was in a serious relationship with.

But even then, I preferred to not be sober. I didn't know it at the time, but I understand now why. I couldn't be sober. Sometimes I would even post ads like on Craigslist or various sites to meet men to sleep with, and my day would start early trying to find someone like a mission that must be completed because I would say that I was tired of self-satisfying, which I did regardless if I hooked up with someone or not.

That was a daily routine. I woke up. And the first thing I did was touch myself and before I went to bed, the last thing I did was touch [00:06:00] myself the whole time. 


Turning Point and Seeking Help
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I knew Jesus, but I was not going to church, barely reading the Bible and truthfully, a lot of , a lot of Christians made me feel one or two things.

That my sin was okay because everyone was doing it or that God hates me and I need to get right with God. Neither of those two helped me whatsoever, so I decided that I would just stay away from God because one thing I always knew what sex is, a no-no, when you are not married. So I was like. God is not trying to deal with me, and that's okay because I don't know how to escape this.

And I just thought to myself, I will live my life like this until I get married. Then I will stop and go to God for forgiveness. I had a plan and I did get married, but the marriage failed [00:07:00] and we have been separated since 2014. Since we never got a divorce, I am now committing two sins adultery and sex without being marriage.

I was like, no way. God is on my side. And I was mentally in bondage so bad at the time. I was just doing my own thing. The further I pushed away from God, the worse my mental state became, and in that it started to take a toll on my body as a well. My back would go out of me, like my back would just literally go out to where I couldn't walk.

I started to get a cyst, a reoccurring cyst on my back, over my butt, and then bam, the last thing I developed fibroids. When I got fibroids, I had gained so much weight. I didn't even like to look at myself naked, so I said, there is [00:08:00] no way a man is going to wanna be with me even like this. So I tried to lose weight, but it wouldn't work.

Then I was always on my cycle, even if I wanted to sleep with someone, I couldn't. 


Spiritual Awakening and Transformation
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So during that time, I started going back to church and I would listen to Joyce Meyer, Steven Fur, different people on YouTube. But I ran into a video. That was preaching a sermon about how important it is to keep sex in the marriage.

And they described it like a fire in a fireplace. And you must keep that fire in a fireplace and if it's not in a fireplace, it will spark out of control. And that like really resonated with me 'cause that's how it felt like. Everything was just out of control and the preacher was Sarah Jakes Robert's husband, and I think his name is Terre, but he had a series of [00:09:00] the dangers of sex outside of marriage.

So I started to watch that and at the end of one of the sermons he prayed for everyone of be delivered from lust. And I got down on my hands and knees and prayed hard to be delivered from lust. I remember getting back up thinking. I feel the same, and I didn't actually believe all the way it will work, but I thought I'm open to trying because I started to realize that me having fibroids and gaining weight was probably because God truly was trying to save me from myself.

And when I prayed that prayer, it was about. 2019 and every year after that went by, the amount of people that I slept with decreased drastically. Naturally, I started to view sex differently, and I started to dress differently, and I removed provocative pictures offline. Jesus, the Holy Spirit was fixing the [00:10:00] root of my issues and leading me towards the truth, and the truth is what set me free.

And now I still have not gave up self-satisfying myself nor sex altogether, meaning I still thought I can do it from time to time until two different occasions in a small group set me free. 


Scriptural Guidance and Final Breakthrough
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And the first time is when they were reading First Thessalonians chapter five, verse one through 11, and it reads.

Now brothers and sisters about times and dates, we do not need to write to you for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying peace and safety, destruction will come on them. Suddenly as labor pains as a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.[00:11:00] 

But you brothers and sisters are not in the darkness, so that this day should not surprise you like a thief in the night. You are the children of the light and the children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. Then let us not be like others who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober for those who sleep.

Sleep at night, and those who get drunk. Get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober. Putting on faith and love as a breastplate and the hope of salvation as a helmet for God did not appoint us to suffer. Wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.

Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up just as in fact you are doing. I read this many times in my life, but I assumed that [00:12:00] this was something that had already happened. And when they read this, I asked my small group sisters like, has this happened yet? Or is this going to happen?

And they said it's going to happen. And in that moment, my eyes. And my ears opened and I went from maybe Jesus is real, to knowing Jesus is real. So I thought I need to start getting ready because he can be here at any moment. But I did think that I could hook up from time to time. But I wasn't sleeping with anyone at the time, but I didn't make a firm choice to stop yet until the next small group when they read this First Thessalonians chapter four, I.

Verse one through seven. As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you [00:13:00] how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now, we ask you and we urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more for you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. It is God's will that you should be sanctified, that you should avoid sexual immorality, that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not impassionate lust.

Like the pagans who do not know God, and in this matter, no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or a sister. The Lord will punish all those who commit such. Sins, as we told you and warned you before, for God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, anyone who rejects his instructions does not reject a human being but God, the very God [00:14:00] who gives you His Holy Spirit.

Okay, so after reading and studying this, I made the firm choice to stop hooking up because I said, it's one thing to cause myself to sin, but it's a whole nother thing to cause someone else to sin. And I realized that this sin will cause me to not even be raised up to heaven when Jesus returns, because now I am affecting my precious.

Holy Spirit, which is inside of me. Then I ask myself this question, what have I gained in my life with sex? I gained heartaches, addictions, insecurities, depression, anxiety, not loving myself. Regrets not wanting to live anymore. , I couldn't name one good thing I gained from sex other than my two kids, [00:15:00] and I don't desire to have more kids, and I had to ask myself this because me saying no to sex.

Was me mourning something I may never feel again. So I needed to know what I'm mourning is not even worth mourning because. , Especially in comparison to what I'm gaining and that's eternity with Jesus. And I told myself, if I never have sex for the rest of my life, it's fine. And I will carry that cross and let that flesh die because it truly did nothing for me, but keep me as a slave to the most disgusting things and thoughts anyway.

Now I. Was still self satisfying from time to time, at least once a month, which was a massive improvement because I told myself, well, that can't be bad. [00:16:00] I was just. I would just think about good things while I do it, but I knew it was bad because of the conviction I would feel when I was done.

Also, I was like, Jesus, can I just keep this because I gave up everything else and I can't get married. So what is a girl to do? Jesus. But then. I've read these two verses, and this is what freed me from masturbation. The first one is First Corinthians, chapter six, verse 13. Food for the Stomach. And the stomach for food, God will destroy them both.

The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. So this verse helps me because. It's showing me that the body is not my body. It's for the Lord. So therefore, it is made for good [00:17:00] works. And then the next verse that helped me is First Corinthians chapter six, verse 12.

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things. Are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything. This verse helped me with that and also any other addiction because it's stating even if it is okay to do it, how is it helpful to me or am I just doing it because I am dominated by it, meaning I'm a slave to it, so therefore can't stop doing it.

And I don't wanna be a slave to anything other than Jesus. So those two verses freed me from masturbation, and now I can walk more in a holy lifestyle that Jesus wants and helps others who are struggling with the same thing. Because if Jesus freed me from lust. Please know he can. Surely [00:18:00] free you as well.


Conclusion and Prayer
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I have no doubt about that in my mind because lust was my master and I was a slave. But Jesus saw fit to grab me and freed me from that lifestyle I created and all it took was believing in him and prayer. And I am gonna pray for you as well. If you are struggling or if you know someone who is, please share this video with them so they can be encouraged as well.

You know, we tell ourselves that Jesus leaves us. In our mess. But no, he is right there stretching his hand out while we have our little pinky out for help. Jesus is stretching his whole hand. His whole arm is stretched out trying to pull you out of that mess. , Because he knows the war, we battle every day and he [00:19:00] wants to fight it for us, but we have to submit under his words first.

Okay, so I'm gonna go ahead and pray. Lord, we come to you in the name of Jesus, God. And first off, Lord, I just want to thank you for pulling me out of that situation, that spirit of lust. Lord, we know how rampant it is right now, God, and how hard it is for those to see their way out of it, God, but I want them to know.

They can rely on you. They can put all of that at your feet, God, and you will pull them out of it, God, and also that they know God, that their body is made for good works. Their body is made for purity. Their body is made for the Kingdom God, and it is caring something so valuable the precious. Holy Spirit Lord, who was always guiding them to the truth, Lord [00:20:00] and the right way.

And we know God, that being in bondage under lust, Lord, comes with so many other things, Lord, and that you want us to have a life more abundantly, God. So we are asking for deliverance. Lord, free those from this. Spirit of lust in any other addiction that they are battling with, and reassure them that they can come to you and you will fight for them, because freedom is what you truly want for them.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So thank you so much for tuning in. If this helps you, let me know.