Jesus is the greatest authority in deliverance. In his admonition for freedom from lust and immorality, he said to “cut off the hand.” He did not encourage deliverance, but rather discipline. We must understand that we are fighting three enemies simultaneously when we face porn addiction, the Devil (invisible enemy), flesh (inward enemy) and the world (visible enemy). The spiritual enemy is overcome by repentance, renouncing, resistance and/or deliverance. The inward enemy, our flesh, is overcome by crucifixion, self-denial, or in other words discipline. Discipline comes from discipulus, the Latin word for pupil, which also provides the source of the word disciple (albeit by way of a late Latin sense-shift to “a follower of Jesus Christ in his lifetime.”) Discipline is required in order to walk in freedom from pornography, according to Jesus.

If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.

Matthew 5:29-30

WE know that Jesus does not want us to cut our body parts, since that’s not where the problem lies. It is symbolic to cut off things that cause us to sin. I call those things “trigger points”. A hand and eye is good and very useful, but it can become a trigger point for sin. Social media, friends, television, news, social gatherings and many other things alike can be good, but for someone else these good things can be used as demonic bait for sexual sin and immorality.

I truly believe if you are not willing to endure discipline equivalent to the pain of cutting your own hand off – you are not in a position to be free from porn. Well, that’s what Jesus thought. Not only do we need to remove trigger points whether it’s the media, places or people, we must also apply discipline in our life to help keep our flesh on the altar. Disciplines like prayer, fasting, scripture reading, memorizing scriptures, working out and waking up earlier are effective habits to apply to our daily lives when struggling with porn. We don’t realize how much small disciplines can lead into a more structured life. It has a domino effect, one leads to another. At first, you might not see much change when you start living with discipline, but it has a compounding effect to it as well. Discipline becomes a habit, like watching porn can become a habit. Except, discipline is a good habit which constructs amazing results. Discipline must be built in your life not only to defeat the flesh, but because you can’t be Jesus’ disciple without it.

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

Matthew 16:24

You don’t have to have discipline to believe in Jesus, in fact it will cost you nothing to believe. It costs everything to follow Jesus. We can’t follow without forsaking. You can’t be a disciple without disciple.

In conclusion, my personal advice is to remove trigger points. If it involves social media – deactivate it. If it’s a TV series, cut it out completely. If the trigger point for you is free time in the evening, for the next season of your life, fill your time with godly activities. The difference between Joseph not falling into sin with Potiphar’s wife and David committing adultery with Uriah’s wife is that, Joseph went to the house to work and David got on the balcony to relax instead of being at war with his men. Maybe your ex, whom you had sexual relations with, is the temptation for when you are weak and wanting to have sex – block that person. Get an accountability partner from your local church. Put a filter on your computer. Develop a habit of fasting for 24 hours once a week. Schedule 30 minutes to 1 hour of prayer every weekday. Read the scriptures and the whole Bible in one year. Get in a small group. Serve at your local church. This is not just about getting busy, but getting on the altar so that our flesh stays dead.

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This blog was written by Vladimir Savchuk.

Pastor Vlad is the lead pastor of Hungry Generation Church, an author of “Break Free” and “Single, Ready to Mingle” and a founder of free online school “Vlad’s School.” To download free e-books, sermon series, small group study guides go to vladimirsavchuk.com