I pretty much agree with the post above.
As a Christian, we can let corrupt things into our heart. It's good to be free of those things. But if those things are in there, they're still not the truth of God's spirit in us.
With inappropriate content there are a few paths I have learned from others on how to be delivered:
- Resist of your own will and flesh ... resistance by the law essentially. You can pray for grace to follow the law even, God answers that prayer. It works for some people, like my pastor.
- Resistance by renewing the mind and heart. This works best for me. Eventually, I just believe scripture strongly enough, that I stop doing it a sin, because I stop believing in the sin. I end up resisting by unbelief in sin. I'll wake up speaking sometimes, and my spirit will be saying how I am delivered from X thing the devil tries. This manner of resistance becomes effortless when you fully grasp hold of it, because your spirit will enforce it by faith.
I am still working on being delivered from inappropriate content. Basically, God showed me why I want it. I want intimacy with a woman, but then I have woman issues on the other hand. I dislike 90% of women who aren't family. Not all women, but most I have met I think they have rotten personalities. And I think this rottenness is actually rotten according to God's word, and it was born from society at large, instructing women on how to represent the devil in their lives.
In the spirit, I'm free of inappropriate content. So then when my body wants to have sex, it's really a matter that's resolved when I have a wife. Now, initially, I was far more snared up in inappropriate content, years ago. What partial deliverance I have is by God, and the work continues, and I will be free of it in deed.
What does not work for me at least is to decide, "I am going to resist at all costs." Method 1 above. In my case my flesh is so trained on it, that when I go a week or so resisting, my whole body throws a temper tantrum as if it hasn't eaten. And my pastor, for example, would have had a wife to help him in that moment where he would not have to go weeks without sex.
Before I was a Christian, I got as far as 2 weeks specifically resisting, and then a demon manifested physically and I failed at the temptation when I got that far. And frankly, as a Christian it's a sin to try that hard by fear and defeat as I was doing.
Resistance has to be born of faith, not the law which produces fear. Only use the law if you *must* because there are real consequences. If you just throw the law on yourself when you don't have to, it riles up sin in your life, makes it worse usually. And at the onset it may seem very holy and wise, but if you care about actually resisting and doing it less, then not putting the law on yourself is a key to resisting.
"Resist the law" was something I had to learn.
And certainly the law might deliver me from inappropriate content as it has delivered others, but we would need to lock me up in a straight jacket to do it, and then after my passions died down 3 months later, I could be let loose. And that's why I rely on God for deliverance.
Also, I did stop inappropriate content viewing for a while. The issue with that was I would just make up fantasies in my head that were just as much inappropriate content as what I watched, so I concluded they were the same and watch, don't watch, it's the same.
In my case, I think part of the issue is that the core desire isn't terrible. It's actually God given, I just have no ability to exercise my God-given desire, which is to love my wife. And so I get impatient.
But if you're resisting as you said, and your heart isn't right, then really it's a different issue besides inappropriate content. It's something you got to fix by God's word. Christ is with you 100%, though.
