James 1:14 | Can a Christian Have Sexual Dreams and Still Be Free?

This episode is raw, uncomfortable, and necessary.

Many believers are silently battling sexual dreams, old desires, lustful imaginations, or shame-filled cycles they do not know how to talk about. But the dream is not always the main issue — the real question is: how did you respond?

In this episode, Codie challenges believers to stop partnering with condemnation and start discerning what God may be revealing through temptation, dreams, and old desires resurfacing. Whether the flesh still needs crucifixion, discipline still needs strengthening, or authority in Christ is being tested, this conversation will call you higher.

Freedom is not just about identifying the attack. Freedom is learning to stand on Christ as your firm foundation and respond with surrender, resistance, and authority.

This is for every believer who is ready to stop hiding, stop feeding what they are praying against, and walk in true freedom through Jesus Christ.

Transcript

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Hey guys. All right. We are going to get uncomfortable today. Today's podcast might make you uncomfortable, but I truly believe that it will bring a lot of freedom to a lot of people in the body of Christ, a lot of believers. I can't tell you how many people I have had contact me just within the last couple of weeks on this topic for deliverance and freedom. Okay. So we're actually going to talk about um masturbation. We're going to talk about dreams about cheating on your spouse and different types of dreams that I'm seeing these believers, God is actually stirring up a lot of things, a lot of desires in the heart. A lot of them are old desires that maybe people have battled with in their past, but God is really ready to bring a final judgment to the spirits that are enticing these desires. These are old desires. I truly believe that the body of Christ, um, I believe most of them have conquered them in the natural, but there is still something spiritual in the spiritual realm that torments them in their night, in their dreams. Um, and I truly believe that God is bringing freedom to that area of the lives of his people this week, literally within the last couple weeks. Again, I can't tell you how many people have reached out to me. Um, because we do deliverance ministry, because we um function as a ministry on a more personal level, we encourage people to talk to us about the hard things. Talk to the things, talk to us about the things that you're not necessarily going to take to your pastor. Um, you'd be shocked at the amount of people that I get from uh pastors and leaders churches that come to us for ministry that they would never take to their own pastor, that they would never take to their own leadership in their church. Why? Because it's humiliating. Because some of the struggles that these people really struggle with, they're not easy to talk about. Um, they it forces them to get uncomfortable. So that's one of the main focuses of our ministry is that we are here to help um leaders and pastors in areas that, to be honest, most of them don't even know that we're helping them because we don't want the glory. We don't really care. We just want people to get set free in the body of Christ. We want them to uh feel feel like we're a safe place to talk to. Um, they can call us, uh, call us on a phone call. We can set up a Zoom, we can do in person, whatever we want. Most of the time it's a phone call, and it just is that simple, really, for freedom and deliverance. So that's a um main portion of our ministry. We do a lot of um, we do a lot of deliverance in the body of Christ for other people's congregation members. Um, and again, like I said, these pastors and leaders don't even know that we're helping them out behind the scenes because their people come to us and they get set free from things like masturbation, from things like the spirit of lust and pornography, things that they just aren't gonna talk about to their pastor. They're just not going to because it's humiliating to have a conversation like that and then be around that person and just it's almost like sometimes, you know, our our insecurities can kind of torment us and be like, oh, they know what you did, and you know, all these whispers that the devil likes to do. So I really thank the Lord for our ministry and that we're able to help um the congregation so that these people can get set free and go back to their congregations and truly worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. So, with that being said, let's get uncomfortable today. Let's talk about things that believers uh face that they don't want to talk about uh in church, they don't want to talk about it in their Bible study group, they don't want to talk about it with their discipleship leader, they don't even want to talk about it with their pastor because it can be a little humiliating when you begin to expose the internal and secret struggles that you have. And there's so many people that are like, God, who can I talk to? Um, I actually had a girl that I haven't talked to in two years reach out to me today, and she said, you know, I was asking God, who can I talk to? And I remembered that I went to one of your retreats and um I still had your phone number. And so she reached out to me, and I just think that is such a blessing because I'm like, wow, God, thank you that people are comfortable talking to me about real and raw things. So that's really my passion. All right, so today let's talk about what how do we deal with these things? How do we deal with these desires in our heart that we truly want to crucify, but we just don't know how. Um, we think we've crucified them, we read our Bible, we pray, we go to church, we do everything. And it's like, God, we've done everything that we know to do, but I'm still having these dreams about masturbating. I'm still having these dreams that I'm cheating on my spouse. Um, I'm still having all of these lustful and perverted dreams. And people, you know, of course, yeah, people like, oh, well, that was just a dream. It's not real. No, it's not real, and it is imagin an imagination. And the Bible does say to bring every thought and imagination into captivity and submission to the Spirit of God. So we can't just let those imaginations and those false visions and those false dreams, we can't just let them linger in our spirit, linger in our mind, linger in our heart, linger in our desires. We can't do that because then we are not actually doing what James 4, 7 says, which is submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Um, we I think we have a good, I think we're able as the body of Christ to submit to God because we go, that's not, that's not of God, that's not in the scripture. I know I'm not supposed to watch pornography, I know I'm not supposed to masturbate because that is sinning against the flesh. Um, we get that. We know that all those things are bad. So I don't really think that we have a problem submitting um to those rules and uh requirements of holiness and sanctification from God. But the thing is, is we don't understand what it looks like to resist the devil. And I think a lot of people just want to rebuke, they want to say, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus, you know, get out and all of that. And it's like, okay, yeah, but that's actually a quick fix. And yeah, it does work for a time, but it says resist. Resist means multiple times, it means it's gonna happen again, it means you've got to be able to endure longer than the demon or longer than the spirit, or even it's really um, it's really your own desires. And I believe that the demonic realm um kind of like pushes those buttons. So basically, if you could imagine like yourself and you have some buttons, and all these buttons on your shirt are like different desires that you have or have had, and the enemy just kind of walks by and he just like pushes one of your buttons and he moves on. It's not like you're possessed by the demon, it just is you're it's just like somebody just like poking fun at you. You know, they not they're not like a part of you, they're just walking around, they're in the atmosphere, they're around you, maybe they're working through somebody else, but they just come in and poke one of those desires, and that desire begins to manifest in your life. Maybe you have a crazy dream. Um, it could be it could also be the gift of discernment. A lot of times, with the gift of discernment, you're actually going to encounter the very thing that somebody else is going through, and God is saying, Hey, I'm gonna let you carry this burden. I'm gonna let you actually feel what they're going through, and you're actually gonna manifest the exact thing in your life of what they're going through, but it's to give you the compassion and the love to help that person get set free. Okay, so we could go into a lot of that with the gift of discernment. I'm not talking about the gift of discernment today, but I just want you to know there are many different areas in what God is saying when one of these desires um comes to the forefront forefront, or when it is um stirred up by God, or when it is um, or or when God allows it to to literally challenge you, because even Paul says the thorn in my flesh was a demonic spirit sent by God. So don't think that God won't allow Satan to to kind of stir you up and to challenge you and test you, just like he also did Job. Don't think that don't don't I feel like believers constantly condemn themselves and they think, oh gosh, like I'm a sinner, I failed, I have, you know, all these things, and they condemn themselves without realizing that it's a challenge or that it's a deeper level of deliverance and healing that God wants to take you through, and that God actually allowed it and sent it to open your eyes, to get you fired up, to get you to actually take your authority. Um, I know a lot of times when the devil comes at me, I'm like, dude, all you're doing is stirring my fire and you're making me want to do more deliverance. You're making me want to preach the gospel more because I know that's what he hates the most. And so when he comes at me or he affects me in my life or my family's life or anything like that. And to be honest, I really don't like to even give the devil that type of glory because my life and my household is submitted to God and we are under under the covering of the Almighty. And so I know that if the devil is has a hand at any point in any area of my life, that God actually allowed it because I stay in the word of God, because we pray as a family, because we take communion daily, like we do those things. And so I don't even really like to say like the enemy. I don't, I don't really like to give him much glory at all because to be honest, it's usually God using him as a tool for refinement. So we have to take that perspective, okay? So let's look at James 1, 14 and 15. It says, but each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Okay, that says that he is tempted by his own desires. It doesn't say he's tempted by the devil, it doesn't say he's tempted by someone else's desires. It literally says that if you are tempted, it is obviously some button, some trigger within sight of you. It might be an old desire, but maybe God is resurrecting it to test you or to even show you how much you've grown in Christ. He will do that to encourage you and to build you up. Something old will come back to you and you'll respond a different way. And you'll be like, man, I just conquered that thing. Like that thing didn't even have a chance. I just smashed that thing right when it came. Like, wow, I didn't know I was that strong. Like, wow, Lord, you really have done a work inside of me because I responded differently. Like I responded stronger. And so it was just really, it's just really cool when God does that because we need to understand that sometimes He stirs up or resurrects those old desires just to test us, to show us and build us up. But if we have this mindset of condemnation and I'm a failure and and all of this, and we give the devil so much glory, then we don't see the fact that wow, God was just trying to build us up and show us how much we've grown. But remember, He can't tempt you with anything that is not your own desire. Okay. So for like me, I've never done cocaine, I've never done any kind of hard drugs like that. That just wasn't part of my lifestyle. I never desired anything like that. Um, you know, I barely even, I think I maybe smoked a cigarette like once or twice my entire life. That's just not something that was a stronghold in my life. And so the enemy can't really tempt me with that because it was never a desire. It was never something that I met a need in or I worshipped um in the flesh. So I want you to understand that if you're getting hit by something um in your dreams or um in your life, it's because there is a piece of it inside of you at one point in your life, okay? But you needed to discern what God is actually saying about that thing. So verse 15, then when desires have, then when desire has conceived, okay, so he's showing you you're tempted by a desire, then when you actually receive it and take it in as your own, almost like a child, right, in the womb, it gives birth to sin. So when you actually receive it and you conceive it and you hold on to it and you take it as your own, it can give birth to sin. And sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. Many believers become obsessed with identifying the attack while missing the greater question. And guys, I want you to get this, and I want you to make this a staple in your walk with Jesus. Ask yourself this question with every situation that you come up against, everything that you're challenged with, um, even if it's um a confrontation with somebody else, if it's with other people, if it's something that is happening in your personal life, if it is a dream, anything that you do in your walk with Jesus, I want you to always make this question a foundation for self-evaluation. And that question is this how did I respond? Because your response reveals where you are spiritually in your dream. How did you respond in your dream? How did you respond when you woke up from that dream? What did you do in the natural but also it we need to we need to ask ourselves, how did I respond in my dream and how did I respond in the natural? Okay, those are two different realms because the spiritual realm in your dream that is showing you a deeper depth of what needs to be crucified, in what areas you need more discipline, in what areas you need more um just help. Okay. The attack is is often less important than the response. So don't focus so much on the attack, and oh, the enemy did this and the enemy did that, and and focus more on the response of yourself. This is self-evaluation, okay? This is how you go through personal deliverance, personal healing, 90% guys. You can do yourself with God at the feet of Jesus. You just have to know how to get to the feet of Jesus. I have an entire book written on how to get to the feet of Jesus. It's called The Healing Journey. That entire book has step-by-step, it's a day, it's a 21-day uh devotional. It literally teaches you how to get to the feet of Jesus and what to do when you get there. Okay. So 90 to 95 percent, I would say, of your healing and deliverance, you can do on your own. If you will just ask yourself this one question, how did I respond? The attack is often less important than the response. The temptation is often less important than the response. The dream is often less important than the response. Why? Because your response reveals what still needs discipleship, surrender, crucifixion, and growth. All right, we're gonna go through three different responses, and you can self-evaluate and find out where you are at in the crucifixion of your flesh, where you're at in the crucifixion of your old desires, and what level you're at and your maturity and spirituality in Christ, okay? The first response, and a lot of this is based off of dreams, okay. Guys, you can know you can learn a lot about yourself if you'll just pay attention to your dreams. You don't have to have anybody teach you, you don't have to have anybody give you a prophetic word, you don't have to have the prophet come and tell you all about your name and address and where you live and all and all about who you are. Okay, you already know those things. I heard somebody say the other day, they were like, the prophet that comes and gives you your name and address and all these things, like they didn't tell you nothing you didn't know. All that you already knew. That ain't big news to you. Okay, so don't fall into all that. You can literally allow the Holy Spirit to show you all about your spiritual state and where you are in the kingdom of God and what God says about you, what He what He needs you to correct, what He needs you to crucify, areas you need to surrender. Guys, He will tell you everything. You don't have to have the Holy Spirit says, I will teach you all things. He will teach you, he will tell you, he will sanctify you. If you're if you're available, be available and pay attention. Open your eyes. You don't have to get humiliated, you don't have to do all that stuff that that we see all these leaders and stuff get in getting publicly exposed and humiliated. Guys, you don't have to go through that if you'll just learn to sit at the feet of Jesus and self-evaluate and pay attention to your dreams. Pay attention to those things. Yes, you might need somebody who can interpret dreams. You can reach out to our ministry. We do the best that we can, but we're not the Holy Spirit, and we're not your intimate relationship with Jesus, okay? So you're gonna have to learn. We can help guide you and direct you, but we cannot be your Holy Spirit. So I can't tell you, you know, word for word, exactly what God is saying to you in your dream interpretation, because I want you to have a personal relationship with Jesus yourself, okay? I want you to seek and find. I don't want you to seek me. I want you to seek the Holy Spirit and seek Jesus. I want you to actually learn how to actually go through sanctification with the Holy Spirit, just you and Him. So your first response, if you have these dreams or these desires, or even these kind of, they feel kind of like tugs or drawings, or or you're being pulled in like a certain direction that you really know is not right. Um, like say you have a problem going to the bar and and you're just sitting at home and and all of a sudden, you know, you see a commercial or something about somebody drinking, and you're like, you know what, I kind of want to go to the bar tonight. And so I'm gonna get ready and go. That's a drawing, that's a pull, that's a that's this voice in your head going, Hey, I want to go do that. Hey, let's go to the bar and drink, and and maybe so and so will be there. I haven't seen them in a long time. And man, I would like to go hang out with that group of friends, you know. If you feel that and you know. Know that those those situations in those areas are not godly. Like that's a drawing of a desire that you need to crucify. Okay. So the first response, the desire comes and you fulfill it. You actually go to the bar, you actually go to that friend's house. You actually text that um old um partner that you used to have one night stands with, like you actually um text that old girlfriend, or you, you know, whatever it is, wherever you fall into sin, you're being drawn back to that area by your desire and you actually fulfill it. Okay, that's one response. So the temptation arises, um, the dream or the thought or the imagination happens, and the desire begins to manifest, then you willingly meet that desire in the natural, okay. Let's talk about masturbation because that's really what drew me to this teaching this week. Um, through a lot of people needing help with that. Um, so say you have the temptation, the temptation arises, the dream happens, the desire manifests, okay, and you willingly meet that desire in the natural. So say you have a dream about masturbating, and you actually get up the next day, and you're drawn to make that happen in the natural, and you actually fulfill that, okay. This reveals that the flesh is still ruling in that area. That means that that's the spirit that the demon that is behind that desire was actually planting seeds and thoughts and imaginations into your mind during your sleep. Um, could be because of something you watched, could be because of some music that you heard that was talking about sexual things or you know, women's with big butts, or I'm just trying to think of things that would draw you to allow those seeds to be implanted in your dream state. Um, those are are put in your dream state because you opened an eye gate or an ear gate in the natural before that. Okay, so maybe you listen to some music that was like, you know, we like big butts and we cannot lie. I know that's a funny song, and everybody thinks, oh, that's you know, a funny um old school song. But actually, all it does is make you think about butts and how big butts and you like big butts. That's that's all that is putting into your mind. And I rebuke any uh dreams just for me talking about that in Jesus' name. But the thing is, is you have to pay attention. What are the words of the song saying? What is it drawing you to? Is it drawing you to think about, you know, women in bathing suits? Is it drawing to think you about, you know, big buff musculine men without their shirts on? Like those are those are seeds being planted by the world that allow access for these dreams to come into your mind, and then they actually resurrect desires within your heart that maybe you had thought you had conquered in a previous season, but now here they come again. And so um they they begin to manifest in your dreams, and you actually begin to do them in your dreams, but the thing is, is what happens when you wake up? Do you take authority or do you actually meet that desire in the natural? Do you make that phone call to that old person that you dreamed about that you haven't talked to in a while that you actually want to reconnect with? Like, do you actually meet the desire? It doesn't even have to be like, okay, you went to their house and you, you know, you had relations with them or you know, you masturbated or whatever. It it starts with, did you text that person and say, Hey, haven't heard from you in a while? What you doing? Well, you know that that desire is leading you to do that, so don't even give it. It literally says, give no foothold to the devil. So you can't even, you can't even send that text message. You can't even allow that dream and that thought in your mind because it's going to start actually manifesting itself in the natural. And it says up here in uh James 1:14, then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. Okay, so you didn't immediately wake up and get rid of it and speak the word of God and say, absolutely not. We do not do that. Uh flesh, you will submit to the spirit of God. I bring every thought and imagination into captivity and submission to the spirit of God. My flesh uh worships Jesus, it does not worship the perverted uh perversion of this world, and I don't sin against my flesh, therefore I am not doing those things. This is a the temple of God, and I am holy, and I don't partner with that. And so when you s when you wake up and you start taking authority and you command your flesh to come into submission to the Spirit of God, and you will bow in the name of Jesus, and you, you know, you begin to take authority. If you don't do that and you meet that desire in the natural, this reveals that your flesh is still ruling. Your spirit is no longer ruling. Guys, your heart can't even rule, okay? Because the Bible says that the heart is the most deceitful of all. So you can't even trust your heart and what you feel. You can't trust your feelings, you can't trust your heart, you can't even trust your mind until it is completely crucified in Christ. But you, your spirit is not being led. Your flesh is leading you when you actually partake in this. Paul said in Galatians 5 24, those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Have you crucified your passions and desires? If this is your response and you meet that desire or passion in the natural, your focus, your focus is off. Okay? Your focus is off. Your focus has got to be on crucifying the flesh. So how do we actually crucify the flesh? We read our Bible daily, we fast. Guys, I will tell you the number one way to know if your flesh is in charge is to fast from food. And I will tell you, yes, you can be like, oh, well, I fasted Diet Cokes one time, or I fasted chocolate one time, or I fasted social media one time, or I fasted, um, I don't know, sugar or bread or carbs or whatever. I fasted these things before. No, guys, that's not a real fast, okay? There's only three biblical fasts, and if you don't know what they are, they're the Daniel fast, they're the Esther fast, which is no food and no water. The Daniel fast is just simply uh vegetable and grain and water, and then you have the Jesus fast, which is water only, guys. If you haven't done one of those fasts, I would challenge you to take a day, take 24 hours and only drink water for 24 hours. You will find out a lot about who you are. You will find out a lot about your flesh and how much it controls you when you fast with water only. Start with 24 hours. I the first time I ever fasted water only, I did three days. And I was literally in the fetal position, crying on my couch, suffering and in pain. And I was like, wow, my body, my body, yes, wanted food. But after I learned, uh, after I fought and taught my flesh how to sustain itself from food and commanded that area of my flesh to be crucified, I would then uh fast for for three days just randomly as God called me to. And I actually wouldn't be hungry, but my flesh would cause my entire body to be in pain. Um, and of course, I didn't take Advil or anything because, well, I was fasting and they said water only. So I'm very literal when it comes to those things. I'm like, flesh, you're not getting Advil, you're only getting water. And so I was literally in pain for the last two days um in bed because I refused to let my flesh win. And uh there did come a point where my mom, she was like, Cody, you've got to stop fasting. You look, you look like death. Like you're you're really almost like abusing your flesh at this point. So um I did go through a season of that, and guys, I will tell you, if you want to know if your flesh is in control, give it only water. Start 24 hours, then maybe go, you know, 48 hours, 72 hours. You know, do do water only. I promise you, you will see um if your flesh is in control. Um, another way we crucify our flesh is through prayer. I would encourage you. Um natural prayer prayer with your English language or whatever language you speak, um, and also pray in tongues, okay? Also sing in tongues. Learn to sing in tongues. That is a different level of faith and glory when you learn to actually slow down your tongues. A lot of people can rah-rah, rah-rah, rah, you know, and they can they can do all the tongues really, really fast, but it when you actually slow down and you begin to sing your tongues to God, it's very powerful. Um, and I promise you, a lot of your flesh will be crucified through you just praying in the spirit for 10, 15 minutes. Try to get up to an hour praying in the spirit nonstop or singing in the spirit. Guys, you sing in your car um for hours when you're traveling back and forth to work. Like, why can't you sing in the spirit? So try that. Uh it's very powerful. I promise you, you will um see your flesh bow. You will see your heart, the desires and those passions begin to bow when you just pray in the spirit. Paul says, Um, I thank God that I pray in the spirit more than all of you. So that means he was constantly praying in the spirit, okay? You don't have to wait for the service at church for the Holy Spirit to fall upon you, and that's the only time you ever pray in the spirit. Guys, no, don't do that. Um, yeah, it's great. It's great when the when the power falls on you and you do that. But guys, practice it on a daily basis. It says the fervent prayer of a righteous person availeth much. That means consistent prayer all the time, day and night. Don't just do it when the Holy Spirit falls on you once every three months at your church service. Okay, pray in tongues more, sing in tongues more. Repentance is another way to crucify your flesh, accountability, confession of sin. Guys, when you have these dreams, when you have this stuff, call somebody, tell somebody, and say, Hey, I had this dream. Please pray with me that this desire be completely crucified, or that whatever it is God is trying to say, or whatever area I need to close a door to the to the spiritual realm. If I'm being, you know, have if the demons have access to me in any form or fashion with something that I've partnered with or something that I've done that I didn't know of. Um, the Lord's prayer says, forgive us of our sins that we know about and the sins that we don't know about, okay? Guys, you sin every day. There's not one person on this earth that doesn't sin on a daily basis. Daily, daily basis, okay. Jesus was the only one who never sinned. Everybody else, you sin every day, whether you know it or not. So we need to be in daily repentance. You need to be saying the Lord's Prayer on a daily basis before you lay your head down every night. Our Father who are in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, on earth. That's you, your earth. Put your hand on your body and say, Your will be done on this earth. You are made from the dust of the earth when he made man and woman from the dirt. Okay, you are earth on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us of our sins and our trespasses as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. If you'll say that prayer every day, he will deliver you from evil because you're asking him. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory. Okay, you need to be praying that on a daily basis. That is the prayer Jesus Himself told the disciples to pray. So why is the body of Christ not praying it on a daily basis? We pray all these other prayers, but it's like, why don't we pray the one that Jesus gave us? We say all this nonsense and we're praying all this stuff outside of the will of God, to be honest. Um, more prayers that sound holy and beautiful. I'm like, I mean, I have people that come around me and they start praying stuff for other people, and I'm like, that ain't even in the will of God for that person. Like, I know it sounds holy and all, but that person's going through a whole nother situation, and you're not even praying in alignment with the will of God. So it's like, guys, we've got to get better at this stuff. Renewing the mind, replacing sinful habits with religious habits. The goal is not behavior modification, the goal is transformation through Christ. Guys, the goal is transformation. You should be seeing yourself transforming in your dreams. You should be seeing yourself responding differently in your dreams. If you want to know how old you are in the spiritual realm, ask God to give you a dream. Whatever age you are in that dream is your literal spiritual age. You might have a dream. Maybe you're 70 years old. You have a dream that you're 10 years old. That means maybe you're only 10 years old in the spiritual realm. Okay, you need to grow up. You need to quit eating, quit only drinking milk and eat some meat. It's time to grow up in the body of Christ. Response two: you don't practice the sin, but you entertain the manifestation. Okay, so the dream comes, you wake up, you do not want the sin, you have been walking with Jesus, yet you still allow the desire to linger. You don't obey the word of God and take every thought captive to the Spirit of God. Okay, it says pulling down every stronghold, you have to take authority. You meditate on it instead, you entertain it, you feed it, you allow the imagination to continue what the dream started. Have you ever had a dream and it's like you like the dream so much that you're like, I want to go back to sleep to finish the dream? Okay, guys, don't do that. Don't do that when you have these um perverted dreams, when you have these dreams of masturbation or stuff. Don't try to go back to sleep so you can finish it in your dream because you're like, oh, I want to meet that desire, but in my dream, so that I can, you know, not be held accountable for it. No, you're still held accountable because that is your desire and your passion inside that needs to be crucified. This often reveals that deeper flesh discipline is still needed, not because you are evil, not because God is angry, but because discipleship is still taking place. Areas that often need discipline is your eye gates and your ear gates, guys, with your eyes. You've got to avoid sexual sexually charged entertainment. Even just somebody making out, guys, that is soft porn. You you gotta get away from that. You gotta get away from oh well, it was just a movie and they just had boobs in it. No, that is soft porn. Get away from that stuff, avoid um social media content, guys, that is provocative. I mean, I get on Pinterest and I'm just looking up like butt exercises or something crazy. And or, you know, and these all these women with these their butts out on Pinterest, and I'm like, good gracious, like you might as well just be standing there naked. I mean, I I can see everything. You it's just terrible. You can't look at that stuff. All these um all these beauty products, and it's like they they're putting on this, you know, suit that's supposed to make them look real skinny, and they're standing there and they're bra and their pennies, and I'm like, really? On like the internet and it's Pinterest? I mean, I get it, they don't think it's anything, but to be honest, guys, that doesn't help you. That doesn't help you crucify your desire and your passion that's old, and you don't you don't do it anymore, but like God wants to get rid of that thing completely. Um, again, avoid soft soft pornography. I just talked about that. Guard what you allow your eyes to linger on. Job 31, 1, it says, I have made a covenant with my eyes. In other words, guys, you've made a promise to your eyes to protect them and to not allow the nonsense and the uncleanness of this world to come through them. Like, do you know how precious your eyes are to God? You can actually see Jesus, guys. You can see Jesus. The reason why people don't see Jesus is because they're looking at so many other filthy things and they're like, Well, I've never seen Jesus, I've never gone to heaven, and all these people that go to heaven and you know have all this stuff, and it's like, you know, these people crying out for these encounters, but but yet they're over here watching Netflix and watching, you know, this this terrible, terrible shows, and they wonder why God hasn't encountered them. Well, he can't, because you got all that other trash in the way. Your ear gates. Um, avoid sexually focused music, avoid content that glorifies lust, avoid conversations that feed impurity. Guys, I don't care if if your your guy friends are just telling you some joke, if it's got any kind of nudity, any kind of um perversion or unclean uh talk or cussing or anything like guard yourself from that because that is affecting you. It is causing your desires and your passions to be fed and not crucified. All right. Your environment, again, don't go to the bar. Again, don't hang out with that friend group, avoid unnecessary temptation, use wisdom and your boundaries and protect your thought life. People may think, oh, well, you know, I can, I'm strong, I can be around it, and it's fine. Okay, yeah, well, it might not affect you in the natural, but then you got to deal with these demonic, perverted dreams. And it's like your passion and your desires inside that were old are being resurrected and fed by just hearing and seeing these things, even though you're not partnering with them, but still, it's still contaminating yourself. Stop doing that, get away from all of that stuff. So, what if somebody calls you holy? Oh, you're just too holy for that now. Yeah, you know what? I am. Maybe you should get more holy, maybe you should come up on my level. You know, it's not that we're trying to be prideful, but no, I am too good for that because I carry the presence of Jesus and I carry the Holy Spirit inside of me and I honor him. It's not that I'm more holy than you, it's that I honor him and I fear him more than you do. So maybe you should get holier. Your mind, take your thoughts captives, replace fantasy with truth, fill your mind with scripture. Many believers, guys, want deliverance. People want deliverance so bad, they call me and I'm like, dude, you need discipline. You don't need deliverance, you need discipline. Now, don't get me wrong, there's usually demons involved, it's usually a mixture. But the thing is, is you can crucify your flesh and you can cast out demons through the crucifixion of your flesh if you will just take on that challenge and do it. But many believers, we want deliverance, and literally they're they're still continuing to feed the very thing they are asking God to remove. You can't you can't ask God to get rid of a demon or a desire or a passion when you're turning around and feeding it and growing it and strengthening it. He's not gonna do that. You've got to starve the flesh and feed the spirit. The last response immediate submission and resistance. So the dream comes, the temptation comes, the desire comes, but your response this time is immediate surrender and resistance. You submit to God immediately. You resist the temptation immediately, and you refuse agreement immediately. You stand in the authority of Jesus Christ. James 4, 7 says, submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. It doesn't say he might flee or he probably will flee. No, this is a promise from God that if you submit yourselves to me, that's what God says, and you resist the devil, he will flee from you. He has to. Notice the order submission, resistance. Many people try to resist without first submitting. And then authority flows from surrender. This response reveals that Christ is becoming your firm foundation. All of you know that song, Christ is my firm foundation, the rock on which I stand. When you respond the right way, you will know this response reveals Christ is your firm foundation. Not your emotions, not your desires, not your impulses, not your flesh, but Christ. Many believers assume that if an old temptation surfaces, they have failed. That's not necessary. That's not necessarily true. Okay. Sometimes God allows an old battle to surface so He can reveal how much you have grown. I've talked about that. A temptation that once controlled you may now reveal your maturity. God will allow some temptations to come back to show you how much you've grown. Okay. What once mastered you now bows to Christ within you. God is not always exposing weakness. Sometimes He's revealing the victory that you are currently walking in. Okay. Again, pay attention to how you respond in your dreams and then how you respond in the natural. Okay. Don't always focus so much on the attack. Focus on the response. That is what God needs you to be looking at and self-evaluating. Either you're going to say, okay, I need to crucify my flesh more. I need to ask God what areas can I remove anything that's coming through my eyes or my ears, or something I'm I'm connected with, or maybe somebody I'm connected with. All right, so I need to evaluate that. Or you'll turn around and you'll go, Wow, I've grown. Like God, you have done a mighty work in me. And you'll give him the glory because it's not what you've done, but it's what he's done inside of you. And it's the transformation that you've been through. And you can see it, and he and that will build you up. After every battle, there is one question. What are you standing on? If you stand on feelings, guys, you will fail. If you stand on desires, you will fail. If you stand on experiences, you will fail. But when Christ becomes your firm foundation, every temptation becomes another opportunity to declare Jesus has broken the curse. The goal is not merely freedom from temptation. The goal is becoming so anchored in Christ that your response consistently reflects his lordship. The attack will come, the temptation will come, the dream will come. But Christ remains the firm foundation upon which you stand. So, Father, right now in the name of Jesus, for every person at the sound of my voice that is battling with these um these old desires or desires that you desire to crucify, Lord, I remove every demonic entity that would have any authority over uh birthing these desires right now in the name of Jesus. I call every demon to death, completely cremated in the name of Jesus. They will no longer drive and uh lead and guide your people into these desires that are not for them. They are old, they are done away with, these people are your are your children, and they are made new in the name of Jesus. And I just call every desire, every ungodly desire to death right now in the name of Jesus. But Father, I ask that through the process of submitting, resisting, and watching the devil flee, that your people will begin to build themselves up and that you will you will begin to build them up as they see that they have been built up by you, Lord, that they will see their victory, that they will see their strength, that they won't focus so much on the attack and the old things that have passed away, but they will begin to focus on how you have strengthened them, how they have grown, how they have matured, and how they have learned to respond with authority and taking authority over those old desires that would try to resurrect. And we just command those old desires back to the grave in the name of Jesus, and they will not resurrect. We lock those doors now, we deadbolt them and we stamp them in the blood of Jesus, that no weapon formed against your people will prosper, and that they are conquerors, and that they are righteous, and that they are called to great things, Lord, and that they will begin to dance on the grave that they once lived in, that they will begin to set other people free, that they will begin to um take authority over these uh desires and these demons of lust and unclean spirits that cause um masturbation and perversion and adultery in the marriages, and that they would not uh cheat on their spouses, that there would be unity in their life and everything that they touch. We love you and we thank you, Jesus, for the completion of deliverance and healing and alignment to the word of God in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.