DEALING WITH MASTURBATION AS A BELIEVER

Masturbation is one of the commonest habits besetting believers as they try to curb their urges to indulge in fornication.

Masturbation seemingly gives temporarily, ephemeral and deceptive feeling of happiness, in the end only leads to destruction both physically and spiritually.

Once beset with this sin or habit as the case may be, people have often found out that it is very difficult to pull out of it and drop aside its accompanying ‘evil’. ‘Accompanying evil’ in the sense that masturbation never comes alone. It tends to cause the individual to be drawn in on several negative habits as well; such as, pornography, perverse thoughts and imaginations, reading demonic and evil literatures, to mention but a few.

In order to fully deal with the demon of masturbation, we have to take certain actions/steps;

1.       Acknowledgement of masturbation as a sin and destructive habit. The first step is admittance. Admittance of masturbation as self-destroying habit and a habit that can only bring about negative consequences in the end. You must acknowledge that you need help and you need to stop the habit as a matter of urgency.

2.       Repent and ask God for mercy.

3.       Ask the Holy Spirit for help in overcoming this habit. You need to go on your knees and prayerfully ask the Lord to help you overcome this habit. Acknowledge to him, that on your own you are not capable but you can only prevail by His Grace. Tell Him that in accordance to His word, he should make His strength perfect in this weakness of yours.

4.       Memorize scriptures and meditate on them. One of the major ammo that the enemy uses to keep us in bondage to this habit is our thoughts and imagination. The trick he uses is to always plant negative and perverse imagery (probably from what we’ve viewed, heard or read) in our minds to trigger the urge. Once you sense such, you need to be alert and start quoting – either internally or loudly – the scriptural verses you have committed to memory; and the thought will flee instantly. You need to concentrate while doing this.

5.       Limit and control information. You need to ensure that you are careful of what you see, hear, or read. Carefully select the type of TV programmes you watch, the type of books you read, the type of individuals you interact and converse with, the type of discussions you indulge in. At this moment it takes very little to trigger the urge. What you internalize determines what your mind and subconscious dwells upon. While in this state, your mind is quite adept and ever willing to interprete and misconstrue any information - with the slightest hint of perverseness – to connote sexual perverseness. So you need to be very careful, and learn to curb your thoughts from deviating by applying step 3 above.

6.       Indulge in a (marathon) spiritual exercise you hold sacred. Fasting is usually an exercise that we hold sacred and in which we assume a sanctified state. We tend to not only abstain from food but other vices which we believe that God detests. So once we have acknowledged that God detests masturbation in step 1, we should then on proceed to keying into one of the numerous fasting programmes (be it RCCG’s 40 days fasting programme, MFM’s 70 days fasting programme, Winners chapel 21 days fasting programme and the likes). If none is close by then you can start one in conjunction and agreement with some brethren or friends, or even by yourself. It is not compulsory you fast through the whole programme, or even break at the specified time. The most important thing here is holding the entire duration of the fasting programme as a sacred period and a period of sanctity. Once you are able to successfully go through this period without indulging, then you have made a major breakthrough.

7.       Dealing with the demon behind it. Behind every negative vice/habit, and behind every sin, there is a demon, either pushing us deeper or enforcing it in our lives. We need to prayerfully deal with the demons (could be during the fasting) aggressively. Destroy the yoke and embargo of masturbation on your life and ask that the Lord Jesus replace it with his own, for he says make yoke is easy and my burden is light.

8.       Offer thanks to God. As believers we need to offer thanks to God at every time, in every condition and wherever we find ourselves. This is no exception! Give him the praise for helping you and leading you on the way to overcome this challenge. Thank him for even giving you awareness to see what the habit is and for providing a way of escape from it.