PRAYING WITH POWER

[Gordon 7]

The Bible says, "Ask and it shall be given unto you."

In the Bible stories, people ask and get results, but I rarely did. So I asked the question. What are they doing differently than me? The answer was, "A lot of things."

David in Psalms 100 says to pray by entering into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. This adds power to our prayers because we tend to focus on our problems, not on Jesus. Thanksgiving and praise in prayer teach us to focus on the good things we have. I think if I would do this for even 10 minutes per day habitually, my prayers would gain in strength.

Praise and thanksgiving are always great weapons against P. They help us be content.

2. Worship. My dad taught me to pray: Father, You are a great and mighty God. You are the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I worship you today.

When David worshiped Bathsheba, his son was born dead and his kids tried to kill him for decades. When David worshipped God he was empowered to win some of the greatest victories in the history of the world. Today I am committing to try to worship like David did, because when he worshipped, God's power increased. Google has lots of great ideas on how to worship.

3. Next, we should go to war with sin. The Bible says: 1 Peter 3:12 - "For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer."
Yesterday satan kept popping sinful thoughts into my head. But I went to war back on him with prayer. 2nd Corinthians 10:5 urges us to take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

We often forget that every sin leads to destruction. It is a great thing to be determined to stop sinning. When we go to war with "All sin," the Bibles promises us an increase in power in our prayers.

4. Praying about and trying to fulfill our purpose.

When David was doing what God wanted him to do his prayers were powerful. When he was sitting around looking at the wrong things, (well, we know how that ended). I wrote a lot about purpose in my post, "Why God wants us to quit."

5. Pray the right prayer. We all have x number of things that trigger us to go back to P. Write out your triggers. Write out prayers that will help your go to war with each trigger. Research how to overcome each trigger. Then pray a bunch about what you learned from your research.
For example, your life frustrates you (like it does all of us). Pray, "Father, take away this spirit of lust and help me to be content." I have prayed this prayer hundreds of times. In hindsight, I probably should have prayed it a lot more. In the future that is what I will try to do.

6. Lastly, repent. We have opened Pandora's box with our sin. Yes, we say we are sorry for our lust but what is repentance that brings power?

Powerful repentance is making a plan and getting to work. How much time should we spend daily researching quitting P information or programs?

Whatever amount of time you spend now, "double it" if you keep falling. At some point you will have to skill and the power to quit.

Does God want someone who cries loudly in repentance. Or someone who copies and pastes 100 quitting porn articles into a Google doc or Word doc and studies them as if their life depends on it?

Lastly, this really works. 10 years ago I was an angry man. I went to war with my anger using these methods and today I have more control over it.

Obey, plan and review often. This is how you start to increase power in prayer.


I have read the "stop the addictions" free online program many times. Their site is https://stoptheaddictions.com/home-page/sex-porn-freedom/

 

[Gordon 7]

Years ago I was a fan of singer Whitney Houston. It was public knowledge that she struggled mightily with drugs. One day I saw an interview. She was asked what she liked to do. She said to pray. Pray all day. Shortly thereafter drugs took her.

At that time I had no idea what else she should have been doing to change. But after writing my article about how Jesus fought temptation, I now have better ideas. She should have studied, memorized and prayed over the top 50 verses regarding her addiction (intoxication). Then, just like Jesus did, she should have added the tool of fighting temptation with the Word.

To answer my own question of which is more important? Both are more important. Prayer without working to be obedient rarely works. And when we pray without knowledge (knowledge comes by reading the word) we rarely get results.

The point is that she was a bit like me. I pray a lot but I don't focus on what the Bible says about how I act.

Last night I actually did it. I took out my sheet of Bible verses about lust and fought temptation with the Word. It really helped a lot.

The point is not to pray less. Pray more. But the point is to add a new great weapon to your prayers when fighting temptation. Add the Word just like Jesus did.

I always recommend “WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT ADDICTION.” The book takes about 1000 New Testament verses that pertain to addiction and teaches on them. It fits in with this message and is a helpful book. Link https://www.amazon.com/WHAT-BIBLE-S...le+says+about+addiction&qid=1639081749&sr=8-1

I am planning a thread for the top 50 verses for overcoming lust. Below is a very rough start. If you have a verse for quitting P that should be added, please check if it is on the list, and if not, please add it.

1. 1 John 2:16 -
"For all that is in the world - the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life - is not from the Father but is from the world."

2. Psalm 119:37 -
"Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word."

3. 1 Corinthians 10:13 -
"No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it."

4. Ephesians 3:20 -
"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us."

6. Philippians 4:8 -
"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

7. Proverbs 6:25 -
"Do not desire her beauty in your heart, Nor let her capture you with her eyelids."

8. 1 Corinthians 6:18 -
"Flee sexual immorality."

9. Galatians 5:16 -
"I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh."

10. Romans 12:1–2 -
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is his good, pleasing and perfect will."

11. Romans 13:12–14 -
Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh."


1. Job 31:1 “I have made an agreement with my eyes. Then how can I look with lust?”

2. Proverbs 4:23 Guard your heart more than anything else, because the source of your life flows from it.

3. 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4 God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin. Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor–not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and his ways.

4. Colossians 3:5 Therefore, put to death what belongs to your worldly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.

5. James 1:14-15 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.

6. 1 John 2:16-17 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

7. Matthew 5:28 But I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

8. Ephesians 5:3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.


Galatians 5:1
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

1. 
   
2. Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,​
4. 2 Corinthians 3:17,18
   Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.​

3. Matthew 5:29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

4. Ephesians 5:11-12
Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.

 

[Gordon 7]

PRAYERS FOR TRIGGERS

Are we missing out on things if we don't sin? The correct answer is we are not, but it is complicated.

There is only a finite amount of joy we can have. A fixed maximum amount. A finite amount of fun, excitement, and pleasure (FEP). When we do everything God's way, we are close to the max amount on all 3 almost all the time. But when we only do a few things God's way, we experience a below-average amount of fun, excitement, and pleasure (FEP) from normal activities.

So we fight to do things God's way and our FEP steadily increases. But if we fall we get short-term fun then disaster. With satan's way, our FEP for the month and year are always lower. With God's way, our month and year are always higher. Plus once we start overcoming, our today is always higher and better as well.

If you want your FEP level high all the time, live like Mikey in the 30 days 1 falls and 2 make it story. If you want a maximum pleasure month, start aggressively doing things God's way.

PRAYER

Prayer should be the most joyful time of our day. Once you learn how to do it, and make it a habit, it should be something you want to do and look forward to doing. So take a block of time out of your day and just talk honestly to God. Just start with the Lord's pray and then move on.

If you are lonely pray, “Father, take away this spirit of lust, this loneliness, and prepare me to help others.” If you are bored, pray, “Father, take away this spirit of lust, and show me what you want me to do.” If you are sad, pray, “Father, take away this spirit of lust, this sadness, and fill me with Your joy.” If you are covetous of other women, pray, “Father, take away this spirit of covetousness and help me to be content.” If you are depressed, pray, “Father, take away this spirit of lust, this depression, and fill me with Your fire.

Key point: If you are willing to do something for God someday; your prayers will increase in power.

Write your own 2-way prayer. A 2-way prayer is saying what God wants and saying what you want. If you want your depression gone that is one half. And God really wants your lust gone, that is the other half.

I have probably prayed, “Father, take away my spirit of lust, and help me to care about souls,” ten thousand times. Every time I prayed it I was totally sincere. For a long time, I was just another train wreck person trying to quit porn. But over time I started to change. And now that prayer is really being answered for me. And for the first time in my life this verse is true: Psalms 16 :In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.