Joe was imprisoned by impure thoughts. Freedom from these thoughts came when he confessed to God that he couldn't escape them by himself and when he stopped listening to certain music and browsing certain websites. God has overcome Joe's fear of people and he now hosts a radio chat show.
Thankful for a Christian upbringing
My name is Joe and I am 28 years old. I was blessed to have come to know the Lord Jesus at the age of five. It was through the teaching of my parents that I came to know Christ and began to grow in my faith. I was blessed to be a part of a Christian school where their motto was 'training in righteousness'. I was baptized in May 1997 in the Jordan River during a college trip to Israel. Based on the presence and conviction of the Holy Spirit living inside of me and based on Ephesians 2:8-9 and other related passages in the bible, I have full assurance of my salvation in Christ.
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Set free from sexual impurity
Despite having known the Lord, I struggled with habitual sin for many years. Praise the Lord that I was once in the shackles to sexual impurity, but I am now set free by the precious blood of Christ. I have never been married and at 28 years of age feel so blessed to be set free from sexual impurity before I marry.
Confessing I couldn't do it on my own
Through my own efforts, I tried ending the habitual aspect of this sin for three years. But then on 2 August, 2000, after crying out to God on my knees for deliverance and confessing that I couldn't do it on my own, God set me free from my slavery to sexual impurity. The struggles lingered; however, with many battles … some of them were intense all the way through 2006. I would win many by the grace of God, but I would also lose some battles.
Stopping the enemy having an open door into my life
God personally convicted me that I needed to throw away a certain type of music I was listening to. The Holy Spirit also showed me that I had to stop browsing certain websites that only gave the enemy an 'open door' into my life. Although the sites were not blatantly bad, they still appealed to my sinful nature. Since I have eliminated ('radically amputated') these two things, I have had incredible victory in my thought life, and the Lord is enabling me to take captive each thought to make it obedient to Christ.
"We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5).
Set free by His grace!
God is enabling me to cancel out every impure thought via the cross of Christ. Now He is enabling me to be victorious over the enemy on a regular daily basis! Praise the Lord! In addition, there were other forms of demonic oppression in my life, but the Lord has healed, delivered, and set me free of that as well and I am now walking in freedom by His grace. God has taken the place of all of the worldly treasures I once admired. In other words, I don't have to have this 'stuff' … the 'stuff' that my old self used to cry out for. I no longer need this stuff in my life! All I need is the Lord.
Doing what I thought I never could
I also want to mention that I used to be extremely shy. I feared people. But I am now on the radio doing what I never imagined I could do ... hosting a talk show! Initially I didn't want to do this but God overcome the barriers. It is a Christian program where the Lord is using me to speak out against evil and bring the truth to light. It is my goal now to reach out to those who struggle with addictions, demonic oppression, and ones who have been abused in some way. I hope the radio ministry will eventually become national and international someday. The Lord has allowed my radio show as it is now to be broadcasted live locally in DE and weekly on the Internet. Praise the Lord! - I couldn't have made it this far without Him!
