Ryan Swanson: Hello and welcome back to the Satisfied Podcast here on the Thee Generation Network. This is Ryan Swanson, and I’m glad you joined us once again. We’ve been moving through a series, as you know, on stories of victory, testimonies of victory, and we have had three, I think, ladies’ testimonies. So my wife’s been joining me here in the studio. 

But this time we’re actually going to switch and do another testimony from a young man. We actually have a couple more testimonies from young ladies or at least one right now and another one that I think is on the way that we could do, but we just thought we’d switch it up a little bit and alternate and bring a guy’s testimony in so our guys don’t feel left out like this is Faith Talks or something.

Alright, well, we’ve been thrilled by the way for the ladies’ testimonies, and while I’m on that topic, we’d love to keep getting more of those. Those have been really encouraging and I think have helped our young ladies start to open up about this issue. So keep those coming, young ladies. We’d love to share your testimony as well.

The testimony today that I’ll be reading to you is from a young man that is at the beginning of his purity journey, as he admits at the end of the testimony. I’m not sure that we’ve shared one quite this fresh in that he’s only about a month into his purity journey, but it’s still a very powerful story. So personally, I still think there’s things I can learn from someone like this, as God shows them particular verses and truths that I may have missed or things that I can implement in my own journey. So I’m excited about this and I hope the Lord will point something out to you as well.

He begins by saying, “I had my first viewing of pornography when I was about six years old. I struggled with viewing issues for about eight years, and then found myself in multiple physical relationships that I had absolutely no business being in. Although I was getting approval in those relationships, I still was not happy. I always justified it one way or another, but God wanted to give me victory over this lifelong problem.”

He says, “Recently I was talking to a friend, and he told me he had victory because he decided that he would never look at pornography again. I was struck by this, thinking, ‘Isn’t that flesh dependence?’ No. He had made the choice to never look at it again and only accomplished it with the power of God. In my own life, I made that decision that I will never willingly look at pornography again, but realizing I will only be able to hold true to that with the power of God.”

“A verse that has been very impactful to me is Psalm 107 verse 9, ‘For he satisfieth the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.’ This verse has been huge in my purity journey. Every time I am tempted to look at something or think about something, I think back to that verse and ask myself, ‘Am I going to look at this thing, which will feel good for a second, or will I look to Jesus to satisfy me and fill my soul, and not just fill it, but fill it with goodness.’ Jesus wants to fill the souls that have longed for other things for so long. He wants to give us satisfaction. Jesus is better than anything the world has to offer.”

“I finally understood the need for accountability and started a cord group with some friends. It has been very helpful in my journey, having that daily accountability. I am definitely in the beginning of my purity journey. I have seen victory for a month and am so excited to continue to look to Jesus for satisfaction and victory.”

So again, someone who is fresh in that journey, but aren’t you excited with him for a month of seeing absolute victory in this area?

And we need to recognize that that 30 days is as much a miracle as is 30 years for someone else. It becomes dangerous if you cannot point to and see that God is doing a work of victory in your heart because oftentimes what will happen is you’ll stumble, you’ll have a compromise, you’ll have a relapse maybe after that 30 days. And then the devil will want to tell you that nothing really happened, that God was not at work. And you know better than that. You know otherwise. You’ve seen it. You’ve seen the fact that he did a miracle.

We need to be able to recognize that in our own lives and in others as well and encourage them to that fact. You’re not back to square one as soon as you have a failure in some way. No, no, no. God has already done and is doing a work in your heart. And then at that point, the job becomes to get back up. And that’s why, “Woe to him that is alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up.” As this young man said, he’s been in a Cord group so that he’s prepared and ready for the attacks of the devil, to ensure that he’s always gonna be moving forward here.

So that’s definitely one great point that we can learn from and take from this testimony. But there’s something else that I just wanna touch on. I wanna do it justice in a later podcast, so I don’t wanna get too much into it now. But do you notice, do you remember the thing from his friend, as he referenced his friend’s testimony to him. And he said there was something that his friend found helpful, that was a pivot point for him, that then this young man applied to his own journey. And it was that simple choice. His friend told him, “I just chose not to look at pornography anymore.”

The question that came up in my mind as I read that and probably in yours is, well, is that not flesh dependence? I mean, come on, how many times have we tried that before and we’ve decided I’m not going to do this anymore, I’m not going to? And you tell yourself over and over, “I’m never going to do this again.” And you always find yourself back at that point. God has given you that tool of a decision, of free will, to be able to decide, to turn from the temptation and to the Savior. And he says it so well here. He made the choice to never look at it again, but only accomplished that with the power of God.

Now again, I don’t want to get too far into this because this needs to be a designated podcast. And I’m actually thinking and working through a series that we’ll pick up after these testimonies if we ever get through them. I hope they never stop coming. I love this. We may have to just intermingle them along with some other series and teaching. But we’re going to do a series on the different battle fronts of the devil. I mean the different types of attacks that he’s getting us with. So that as soon as we’ve shored up one area, and we’re very confident in our victory because we have strengthened our defense from that direction, but then the devil pivots and gets us from another side.

So we are going to work through those angles of attack from the devil. And part of that discussion will be on this matter of taking responsibility for our actions, the choice that we have. But I’ve been so burdened about this matter of the choice that I almost didn’t even wait for that series to bring this up. And then lo and behold, this testimony comes in that is just clearly an example of it. Look friends, we have a powerful, powerful gift from God, and that is the ability to choose.

It’s not choosing to depend on ourselves. It’s choosing to depend on Christ, but we have to choose to make that happen. He’s not going to make us do anything. He’s not going to make us take the way of escape. He’s not going to make us walk in the Spirit. He’s not going to make us obey in the moment and turn from the temptation. He’s not going to make us do any of those things. We have to choose.

So I think what I’d like us to take from this story is some of you may be unwilling to take responsibility for the choices that you are making. And maybe you’re turning to internet filters and accountability and scripture reading and all these things to try to hold back the attacks of the devil, but when it comes down to it, you have to make the choice in the moment. I don’t care how prepared you are, you have to make the choice to do right. And if you choose to do wrong, you can’t point fingers anywhere else than on yourself.

I have found it one of the most amazing things is when in the moment of temptation, I can just literally put a smile on my face, and I mean even in a heated temptation. Put a smile on my face and just say, “I don’t have to do that anymore.” That’s awesome. Isn’t that hilarious the devil thought he could get me in that way again? Uh-uh. Ain’t going to happen. I’m not doing that anymore. I am choosing to turn from the temptation to my Savior. It’s a choice.

Hey, like I said, we’re going to dive deeper into this, but I just feel like we need to get this in our minds now because it’s not something that we have emphasized very much and I feel like it’s been missing. And we need to put out there that we have a personal responsibility to decide to do what’s right. Now this is something I’m going to be doing more study on in preparation for this podcast. So if you have thoughts on it, please feel free to email me, ryan@thecord.app. 

And also please keep these testimonies coming. We would love to share wherever you’re at in your journey, what God is teaching you through it. So men or ladies, email those in, ryan@thecord.app. Thanks for joining us today and we look forward to speaking to you next time as we continue to learn how to be less gratified and more satisfied with Jesus Christ.