Free at Last

Rick had confessed his sins a thousand times, and that didn’t abate his lust for sex. For three months he was an inpatient at a sexual treatment center, which only led to another affair. What could one more conference do? I’ll let him explain:

I knew while driving to the meeting that something was going to happen. My heart felt like it was going to explode. There was a war raging within me. The pimp in my mind, who had controlled my life for years, didn’t want me to go. But I was determined to experience the freedom that Neil talked about.

I expected Neil to slap me on the side of the head and shout out an exorcistic prayer. Then I would surely fall to the floor and flop around uncontrollable until the effects of his prayer set me free. It didn’t happen that way. Neil listened quietly as I shared my story, then he said in a calm voice. “Rick you can be free, would you like to resolve these conflicts?”

As Neil led me through the Steps to Freedom in Christ, I could hear the pimp’s insistent lies in my mind. The inner battle was intense, but I was ready for the shackles to be broken. So I repented of my sin, renounced all the lies I had believed, renounced every sexual use of my body as an instrument of unrighteousness, and forgave all those who had offended me. As I did, peace began to roll in and drown out 37 years worth of lies. I sensed a holy silence in my mind. The pimp was gone and, praise God, I was free!

Rick’s freedom was tested right away. The next day at the conference he was bombarded by immoral thoughts. But this time he knew those were not his thoughts. He took them captive to the obedience of Christ and chose to believe the truth that he was a child of God, who is alive and free in Christ. That night he was tempted to pursue another destructive relationship. He called upon the Lord, and the “holy silence” returned. He stopped watching raunchy television programs and movies that fed his lustful habits. His new found freedom resulted in a desire to study has Bible and pray, which before was a tiresome religious duty. Freedom is a beginning, not an end.

Dr. Neil

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