There are 4 levels of turning from lust. Level 4 is how Jesus fully turned from lust, fully focused on all pertinent scriptures, and fully focused on His purpose. Level 3 is how Joseph ran from lust, focused on many scriptures, and stayed on track to fulfill his purpose. Level 2 is someone at NoFap, turning from lust, thinking about one scripture, and trying to pray about purpose. Level 1 is someone turning from lust, wondering what they are missing. Considering whether they should reconsider. Being very confused and very tempted. All 4 levels are an improvement over wondering what to do. But... always focus on increasing your level, because, the more you do, the more you will find joy filling your life.
To learn the habit of turning from lust it is important to know what you are up against. Consider trying this test. Every time you have a lustful thought, track it on your phone or on a piece of paper. To bring an immediate fight, pray with every bad thought: “I am sorry Father, help me think new thoughts.” Pray it sincerely, with respect every time. What if your lust test numbers out at 847 or 1568? If you have any lustful thoughts you need new things to think about. If you have a ton, you should consider being completely obsessed with new thoughts. I have given 20-30 new things to think about in my last 15 articles. Consider copying and pasting (new thought) ideas onto one page and printing them out. Second, the Holy Spirit is watching everything we do to try to quit. Sometimes when we do a lot of “things” to quit, He helps us even more. Replace lustful thoughts with Godly thoughts. Pull out your sheet every time you have a lustful thought, and think the good thought. It will take time and work. But, it won’t take long before you start to think of some good thoughts naturally. Over time you will “Raise the level” of how you think. Then it will give you a glimpse of what it is like to really live “In the light.”
What if Jesus was magically transformed into a P addict? Furthermore, what if He decided he wanted to maximize His pleasure for one month? So the question is… would He still quit porn if He truly had that goal? To get the answer we need to understand Jesus' belief about scripture. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. For us, we sinned, we did not die, we are confused. Jesus is not confused by the scripture. He knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that with sin something always dies, or starts to die, or partially dies. Jesus would also know that the Bible says that doing God’s will brings fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. So… just as you suspected, He would quit immediately. We will struggle to believe the Scripture until we pound and pound it into us. Consider printing out and memorizing the following: “Eve did not believe that the wages of sin is death. She sinned and ate the apple and something died, something started to die and something partially died.” I believe the Bible when is says that "the wages of sin is death." Consider reading that paragraph every day until you believe it also. When we believe, we start to find a new level.
Just to clarify for those who may not know: What you put in quotation marks is not a quote from Scripture. There was no apple (we don't know what fruit she ate), and the Scripture is clear that Eve did not act alone. Adam was right there with her and he ate, too. I agree with you that a new kind of spiritual death entered the scene in this act of willful disobedience against God's good command. Other Scripture, like Romans 5:12, makes this clear. (Indeed, this passage attributes the fault clearly to Adam!) There is a great deal of Scripture twisting that goes on, trying to force the text to say certain things that it does not. To avoid this, it is important that we are clear on what the Scripture says, what our interpretation of the text is, and the different between the two. Thanks for continuing to edify us!
I put the quotes to indicate what anyone could print out. But I also made a change to clarify what was said later. I agree that it should have been worded more clearly.
