The Spirit of Lust: Overcoming the Flesh

By Braiden Rosario

To my Chosen family, the Royal Priesthood and Holy Nation: Greetings! Thank you guys for tuning into another blog post of ours. Today we are going to be discussing the Spirit of Lust. 

For those that struggle with lust, I want to remind you that you are not alone, not forsaken and not condemned. Remember, you are more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus. Let's dive into it.

I want to define the Spirit of Lust for us. The Spirit of lust is an ancient spirit that manipulates and distorts our perception of the original design of Love that the Lord established. The dictionary definition of lust is “an intense or unrestrained sexual craving, or an overwhelming desire or craving." Lust begins in our mind and flows through our actions. As it is written, “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Mathew 5:28). From our thoughts, It manifests in the form of sexual addiction through porn, masturbation, homosexuality, beastialty, and more. But know this, lust isn’t just a sexual idea. It also includes the idolization of any other thing outside of the Lord. For example, gluttony, addiction to social media or addiction to drugs and alcohol can also be defined as lust. For now, we’re going to focus on the sexual aspect of the Spirit of Lust. 

“For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.” 1 John 2:16 NIV

For me, it all started back in 2008 as a sixth grader. The Spirit of Lust  crept into my life through a green iPod nano. My classmate had found it in the grass on the school campus, and as he opened the iPod, his first reaction was “Ew! Porn!”. Did I know what that word meant at that moment? No. But curiosity fueled by deception took me down a deep dark path that led to almost a decade of struggle. 

Internet search after internet search left me feeling high but empty, and I found myself in an addictive cycle of insanity, shame and self destruction. By the grace of God, my parents found out about this problem shortly after my discovery, and did their best to help me. But the grip of the spirit of Lust was strong and so the cycle continued. Slowly but surely, lust was corroding my self worth and my faith to believe that Jesus was greater than my sin. 

I wrestled with the Lord. I questioned His omnipotence. I questioned His power to break the chains that were binding me. I feared that I was condemned to Hell, because Satan kept reminding me that the sexually immoral would not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9-10). My discernment of the Lord’s voice was distorted, and that only separated me from who I needed even more. I lived in Shame and Depression because of my dual identity: A liar, an addict, and a fraud to my church family as I still ministered as a worship leader while dealing with all of it. It wasn’t until I came to a place of COMPLETE SURRENDER that I started to see breakthrough and victory over the Spirit of Lust. With a final cry of desperation, the Lord met me where I was. 

Fast forward to today, I am set free and walking in freedom from the Spirit of Lust! Hallelujah! And I believe the Lord takes what is meant for evil and uses it for good, because I’m going to give you practical steps to overcome the spirit of Lust. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy! In Jesus Name!  

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Romans 8:37 NIV 

1). Confess your sins to the Father, ask for forgiveness, repent and turn away. 

The Lord does not despise a broken and contrite heart. Do not run from the Lord when you sin against him. Run to him instead, and allow for his love to minister to you. He loves you and is for you. No sin can separate you from the love of your Abba. His kindness  will lead you to repentance (Psalm 51:17; Romans 8:38; Romans 2:4). 

2). Seek accountability and mentorship within the body of Christ 

James 5:16 reminds us to confess our sins to one another and to pray for one another so that we may be healed. I sought out mentorship from one of the leaders in our church. Through accountability in the church I was able to be uplifted and encouraged. I found healing, and most importantly got prayer from the deliverance of the spirit of Lust in my life. 

3). Get rid of your triggers and replace it with God things

I studied my patterns and habits. When did lust creep in? Why did it creep in? How did it creep in? Being aware of the triggers taught me to be vigilant, knowing that the enemy is a lion waiting to devour. For me, I stopped bringing my phone into the bathroom. Instead, I read and wrote love songs to the Lord. I  stopped being alone for too long. Instead, I became more intentional with the people around me. I limited my  social media intake, and I remain off of most social media platforms.  I do my best not to use my phone for recreational purposes after 10. And most importantly, I  have accountability, openness and honesty with my wife. This is my favorite one: I workout and like to sweat! The bible tells us in 1 Peter 4:1-2 that because Christ "suffered in the flesh" we ought to "arm [ourselves] with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.” This means that working out, in a way, is a form of causing your carnal body to suffer. We discipline our flesh by working out. What a bar. Comes in complete alignment with taking care of our temples too! Highly recommended! 

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4).  Fill yourself with the Word of God 

As you read the Word, you’ll begin to transform by the renewal of your mind (Romans 12:2) and you’ll start to realize that your desires will change as you starve your flesh and feed the Spirit of Christ within you. Eventually, your mind will be set on things above (Colossians 3:2-3) because of the crucifying of your flesh daily. When you meditate on the Word it becomes a part of you. When it becomes a part of you, you then use it as a weapon. The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit that destroys every principality. This enables you to take every thought captive, tear every high thing down and cause it to be obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:4-5). Soon you’ll realize that the Spirit of Lust will lose its grip on you because it realizes that you’ve discovered the TRUTH: that you reign Victorious because of Jesus. Hallelujah! 

5). Walk out your Victory and Authority in Jesus Christ 

Lastly, know your identity in Christ Jesus. Armor yourself up in the armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18). Sometimes as you walk, you may stumble and fall. You might fail here and there. That’s okay. We are all born from Adam, meaning we have a sin nature tied to our carnality. Proverbs 24:16 reminds us that a righteous man gets up even after falling. Romans 7:15-20 normalizes the struggle for us. Even Paul, one of the great Heroes of the faith, struggled just the same (2 Corin. 12). Remember that we live a lifestyle of repentance, because we sin everyday. The Lord knows when we will fail before we even do. The beauty in it all is that our faith in him alone and what he’s done for us on the cross is what will deliver us from it all. That is the victory and authority we ought to walk in, family! 

Regarding authority, I’ll end with this, because this was the most pivotal revelation to me: there were times I failed and it felt like the Spirit of Lust had its grip on me all over again. I had gone through all of the steps listed above, yet I still was living in a sin cycle. It was tasking to have to keep asking for prayer to receive deliverance from the spirit of Lust. What shifted for me was learning how to go through self deliverance. I learned how to pray a specific prayer that caused manifestations to occur. And when I knew what kind of authority I had in Christ to bind the spirit of Lust myself, it was game over for the enemy! I want to highly encourage all of us reading this to learn how we win the battle through self deliverance. But  we’ll save that for another time! 

Heavenly Father, I pray that you would do it. Reveal to us the power and authority we have in you! Thank you for your love that will never fail. You love us so much that you will continue to pursue us until we see victory over the spirit of Lust! Thank you for your Word that gives us the answers we need!. For your truth that sets us free. Thank you for your people, that help us to overcome! We have a future and a hope in you. To the Spirit of Lust: we bind you in the name of Jesus! We loose its grip over every person reading this. Your time is up! Get out in Jesus Name! We realest FREEDOM in Jesus Name! 

I pray this helps you, that it blesses you, and that you can leave reading this post knowing that you will overcome the spirit of Lust in Jesus name!