Most "purity" programs out there resort a lot to accountability partners, memorization of scriptures, etc.
I'm telling you, ShaunJ, your sin has already been dealt with.
You call yourself a sinner. And you base this on your experience (or behavior). You're hoping that if you can somehow change your experience (behavior) that you can call yourself something else - maybe a saint.
The Truth is, when you believe who you really are in Christ, your experience (behavior) will follow your faith and not the other way around.
You are calling yourself a sinner becuase you rely on your experience (behavior) which is based upon your belief system. And your belief system is skewed. And you then fail your desire (to be righteous) and it then only "proves" to you that what you believe about yourself is true -
BUT it goes against what the Bible says about you.
The Word of God is your ultimate TRUTH. We will deceive ourselves with our feelings and experience until we have this revelation.
You can believe a lie and
TO YOU, it will be
YOUR truth - even though it is a lie.
I should know, God delivered me from 10 years of porn addiction.
The deliverance has already been done. What needs to change is YOUR MIND!!!
Romans 6:1-14 - WHAT SHALL we say [to all this]? Are we to remain in sin in order that God's grace (favor and mercy) may multiply {and} overflow? Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer? Are you ignorant of the fact that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by the baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious [power] of the Father, so we too might [habitually] live {and} behave in newness of life. For if we have become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we shall also be [one with Him in sharing] His resurrection [by a new life lived for God]. We know that our old (unrenewed) self was nailed to the cross with Him in order that [our] body [which is the instrument] of sin might be made ineffective {and} inactive for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin. For when a man dies, he is freed (loosed, delivered) from [the power of] sin [among men]. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, because we know that Christ (the Anointed One), being once raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has power over Him. For by the death He died, He died to sin [ending His relation to it] once for all; and the life that He lives, He is living to God [in unbroken fellowship with Him]. Even so CONSIDER YOURSELVES ALSO DEAD TO SIN {and} your relation to it broken, but alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore rule as king in your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies, to make you yield to its cravings {and} be subject to its lusts {and} evil passions. Do not continue offering or yielding your bodily members [and faculties] to sin as instruments (tools) of wickedness. But offer {and} yield yourselves to God as though you have been raised from the dead to [perpetual] life, and your bodily members [and faculties] to God, presenting them as implements of righteousness. For sin shall not [any longer] exert dominion over you, since now you are not under Law [as slaves], but under grace [as subjects of God's favor and mercy].
Your old nature died in Him. It was crucified on the Cross and laid in the tomb with Him.
Your portion is to CONSIDER the old nature dead and the NEW NATURE alive unto righteousness in God.
Reckon it to be so. Reckon it to be done.
Stop looking at the sin and look to the Answer to sin - JESUS.
You may ask:
If my old nature is dead, why do I still have a longing to sin? And even though I fight the urge, I lose to it?
Notice that the scripture says your "old (unrenewed) self was nailed to the cross" with Jesus.
It is your responsibility to RENEW your mind to your New Nature in Christ.
Donkey and Rhino
A donkey is a donkey and lives by donkey life - donkey nature. He has long ears and he brays and he is stubborn because, why? He is a donkey. And he knows he's a donkey.
But one day, the Lord comes along and says, "I'm giving you the opportunity to become a rhinocerous".
Gladly, the donkey accepts. And BAM!!! God does His supernatural work and changes donkey into a rhino.
Only, there's a problem. Donkey still thinks he's donkey, even though the long ears are gone and he doesn't feel so stubborn anymore. So he continues to believe that he lives by donkey life - donkey nature.
So, even though he is RHINO now, he brays and sits on his hind quarters in stubbornness because that's what donkey's do - it is their nature to do as such.
Soon, rhino becomes depressed. "I thought God said he was going to make me into a rhino. But here I am - still just the same old donkey I've always been."
But the truth is, he has been changed inwardly and he now has rhino life living in him and through him. He is just simply unknowledgable about what he has become.
So he looks at his behavior and says, "See, just like I said, still a donkey."
Could it be that he acts like a donkey, even though he's a rhino, because he BELIEVES (or has faith) that he's a donkey?
He has the opportunity to live by rhino nature and rhino life because it was made into him when God created him into a New Creature. He is not the same old creature that he was before. So what does he do?
What do all Christians need to do in order to live by the New Nature - the Divine Nature - of Christ within us?
We "change our mind". Do you realize that that is what "repent" means in the New Testament?
We change our mind regarding and concerning what we have been made into.
Romans 12:2 - Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, {even} the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].
We are to RENEW our mind to the Truth!
What Truth?
The Truth that your old nature has ALREADY (past tense) been crucified and buried with Christ. He died unto sin and you died with Him unto sin.
He arose to Righteousness and you rose up with Him.
Colossians 3:1-3, 10 - IF THEN you have been raised with Christ [to a new life, thus sharing His resurrection from the dead], aim at {and} seek the [rich, eternal treasures] that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. And set your minds {and} keep them set on what is above (the higher things), not on the things that are on the earth. For [as far as this world is concerned] you have died, and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God. And have clothed yourselves with the new [spiritual self], which is [ever in the process of being] renewed {and} remolded into [fuller and more perfect knowledge upon] knowledge after the image (the likeness) of Him Who created it.
If you have been raised to newness of life with Him (which you have) then SET YOUR MIND on things above. Renew your mind to this very Truth. Your life is hidden with Christ in God.
It is up to you to go to your spiritual closet and take off the old man and put on the new man that you may be "clothed" with the new spiritual nature you have in Christ.
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