Is it possible to experience longstanding victory over lustful thoughts? For many, the answer to this question has been a resounding “no.” Years and sometimes even decades of constant failure have taught us to believe that the holiness described in the Bible is reserved for so-called “spiritual giants.” We often imagine ourselves experiencing victory after reciting a prayer, memorizing scripture, or attending a special church service. While these are not sinful behaviors, the Bible clearly teaches it takes more to experience long-lasting victory. The Bible does not guarantee sinless perfection, but it does shed some light on this crucial issue and can lead us in our journey to experience the holiness of God in our own lives. Besides the promises of scripture, there are countless testimonies from other believers that Jesus can and will free us from our oppressive, lustful minds if we are willing to follow His commands. In this episode of Ask the Counselor, Biblical Counselor Luke Imperato shares both spiritual and practical insights on fighting against lust and recounts some of his own powerful testimony about how God led him out of overwhelming and filthy thinking.

When caught up in the storm of revealed sexual sin, a hurting wife has tremendous difficulty facing the onslaught of emotions as they rush upon her. Oftentimes, her feelings send her into emergency mode as she attempts to save her marriage at any cost.  Kathy herself lived through this struggle as a young bride when she first married Steve Gallagher. When his sin came out, she was overcome with fear, doubt and anger. However, as time went on, the Lord taught her to put her trust in Him and His Word, which provides hope that does not disappoint. She has since counseled hundreds of wives, helping them to deal with their husband's sin in a godly and biblical way. In this video, she encourages wives to stand their ground amidst the unrelenting surge of these powerful emotions.

We often judge our spiritual lives by looking only at the outward manifestations of sin. But the attitude of our hearts can separate us from the Lord and His work in our lives just as much as any outward sin. In this message, Pastor Steve looks at the rebellion that can grow in our hearts towards God if we fail to fully surrender our inward lives to Him.

The will of God for us is holiness in thought as well as deed, which comes through a process called sanctification. This sanctification comes by the transforming power of God’s Word and the influence of His Holy spirit. However, before this process can begin, we must repent of our minds which are at enmity with God and have often portrayed a perverted view of Him. In this message, Ed Buch clearly teaches how God uses His Word to realign our minds so that we can have the mind of Christ and present our lives as a worship offering, pleasing unto Him.

The living God longs to reveal his mercy to us. But as Nate Danser challenges us in this message, if we want to discover who God really is, we will have to take a serious look at our priorities. Are we overwhelmed by the Lord's love and compelled to respond by giving him our lives? If not, now is the time to seek the Lord!

Even the spirit of this world can sense the destructive path mankind is on and that it cannot continue this way forever, that there must come an end to the horrors we see growing every day. Yet, it is deluded as to the true nature of the problem, that 6000 years ago we declared war against a Holy God. The world is trying to evade the inevitable end to this battle by seeking solutions to save itself apart from the gospel God has laid before us. But the end will come for the Children of Adam, and when it does, it will catch many by surprise. Then, we will all be brought before the judgment seat of God and the question presented to us shall be: Are we standing in The Truth?

This is the final episode of our special series, World of Lies, based on the latest book by Steve Gallagher: Walking in Truth in a World of Lies. We would encourage you to get a copy and immerse yourself in its biblically based truth. Just visit aworldoflies.com to find out more information. Purity for Life is a production of Pure Life Ministries. You can find all of our teaching materials, by visiting purelifeministries.org. You can also find out about our residential and phone-counseling programs if you or someone you care about is trapped in the deception of sexual sin.

Consider how different your life would look if Jesus were to take over your body and live His will perfectly through you. One thing is certain, sexual sin wouldn’t be anywhere in the picture. His deep love for other people would make selfishness and lust an utter impossibility. God has clearly revealed that His will is mercy, but as fallen human beings, there’s so much in us that opposes that will. That means, we really need to surrender. In this episode, we discuss what it means for us to be consecrated to God, so that He may do His will of mercy through us.

When your mind has been saturated with filthy images for years, it’s hard to imagine ever being able to have a pure thought life. But the Word of God is powerful! Last week we emphasized our need to seek the Lord, and now we want to help you live that out practically. We’re going to look at how scripture restructures a pornographic mindset, why a healthy relationship with God’s word is so important. Then we’ll give you some examples of how saturating your mind in God’s word translates into a changed life.

It’s time to apply everything we've learned so far in our Victory series. But to do that, we must go to the source of sin in our lives and deal with it there. God’s Word is clear, if we've been living in sexual sin, we don’t just need a change in our behaviors, we need a transformation at the deepest level. We need a change in our hearts, of our wills and of our desires.

We’ve covered a lot of ground in this series. And in this episode, we want to end by helping you see that ultimately, it’s living in the flow of God’s love that will put the ax to the root of sin and selfishness in your life. Pride and selfishness cannot flourish in a heart that is overflowing with a desire to meet the needs of others.

We’ll also take a step back, and look at our series as a whole, to remind us of the depth and complexity of the self-life.

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In this segment, we share a talk that Pastor Steve Gallagher gave to our Residential Program students. He encourages us that if our heart attitude is simply to listen and obey God’s voice in our daily life, God will transform our lives. (From Podcast Episode #348 - The Church Addicted: When We Stopped Caring About Obedience)

I had something on my heart before Jeff even started sharing a little earlier, and it has to do with obedience. Pastor Jeff and the others up here, we can create an atmosphere because of our love for the Lord, which you can enter. But if you ever want it to become your own, and if want to get beyond just an emotional experience, your level of obedience needs to deepen. You no longer have the luxury to do the smorgasbord Christianity thing, to pick and choose when you're going to obey. Something has got to change.

I’d like to make a soft appeal to your heart. I was thinking back to earlier in life when I was a Christian and struggling, and how I would hear a sermon, I would read a book, which were sometimes good words. But then I’d just kind of blow it off, and go home and I’d forget about it. I never let things penetrate. So, I never changed. I remember in 1985, I don't know why things started changing, but I started obeying. That's really what it boiled down to. I just started obeying. I was just talking to a board member, and I was telling him about something that happened back in 1985. The Lord started dealing with me on some things, and I started finally doing what He was saying. And things started changing. Imagine that! Things actually started changing. My faith started growing, and my sight of God started growing, and I started wanting to do the right thing.

But you have got to get out of this shallow Christianity. You have got to get to where you start really obeying the Lord from the heart. That's how you prepare your heart. You have the attitude, “Lord, whatever you want me to do I am going to do it.” You have to come to God with that attitude. If you don't come to God with that attitude, what you are is a rebel. But there are no rebels in heaven. We just sang a nice little song. We all want to be there, amen? We all want to be there, but we've got to obey the Lord. I don't know what convoluted doctrine you've come up with over the years that has allowed for this life that you've led. I was in the same thing. Trust me, if you don't know what it means to obey God from the heart, you will not be there. You just won't.

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I was thinking of Matthew 7:22, where Jesus said, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name and didn't we speak in tongues and then we cast out devils?” In other words, this kind of Christian will not mind doing things. They'll tithe, they'll go to church and they'll get involved and do some things. But you know what the bottom line is? They are always in control, and they decide when and how they will obey. And Jesus said, it’s those who obey my father's will, who will be in heaven (Matthew 7:21). So, you've got to learn what that means for your life. You've got to come to grips with this thing. What is God asking of you?

I bet right now He's dealing with many of you about some particular issue or another. Maybe you're resisting Him, or you have been. Don't be like that. You're just wasting your time. You won't get anything. I don't want to make this a big speech tonight. I'm just imploring you to go deeper. Go deeper with the Lord. I'm telling you, things will change in your life like they did for Steve Gallagher 26 years ago. Would I have guessed that a year later, I'd be sharing my testimony on the 700 Club? No, no way. Who knows what God will do with your life? Who can imagine? Who would have thought that in three years I'd be on the Oprah Winfrey Show sharing my testimony? Why? Because this pervert in California just started doing what he was told to do, finally.

There is nothing special about Steve Gallagher. Trust me. I'm not some great guy or something. I was a jerk. I was a rebel. I was stubborn, I was all those things. But something happened and I started obeying the Lord, and everything turned on a dime, really. So, start obeying Him from the heart. Amen.

It’s time to apply everything we've learned so far in our Victory series. But to do that, we must go to the source of sin in our lives and deal with it there. God’s Word is clear, if we've been living in sexual sin, we don’t just need a change in our behaviors, we need a transformation at the deepest level. We need a change in our hearts, of our wills and of our desires.