Growing up, I spent my summers at an all-boys Christian summer camp. Hiking, swimming, sports, archery, and horseback riding – this camp had it all. Over the years, I calculated that I spent nearly a year and a half at camp.

Even in this ideal environment, young men constantly asked me for advice on how to deal with their lustful thoughts. Imagine, we were completely removed from the presence of women for eight weeks, yet these young Christians and I still couldn’t rid our minds of lustful thoughts.

One young man was even caught masturbating in the staff lounge and was sent home. It’s easy to point out how foolish that kid was. But inside, many of us felt discouraged because the only difference between him and us was that we hid our sin better than he did.

Over the years, I had hundreds of conversations where other men asked me how to handle lustful thoughts. Even though I grew up with a strong Christian heritage in a homeschooling family, and despite having two master’s degrees and the National Herald of Christ award, I had no real answers to offer my friends. I was caught in the same battle as the men who sought my advice.

For years, I collected and read books on sexual purity, yet I wasn’t satisfied with the answers offered to Christian men. I heard better advice from my high school friend, Tom, who said, “When I feel tempted, I eat a raw potato. Nothing makes you forget naked women like eating a raw potato!”

I’m not sure if Tom ever actually ate a raw potato, but his idea (though hilarious) isn’t much different from the typical advice given to Christian men. Many Christian books attempt to help men through behavior modification methods. One of the most popular men’s purity books of the last decade asked men to “bounce” their eyes, meaning to look away from temptation before lustful thoughts take over.

While this advice might help a bit, there must be a better answer. The men I talked to about “bouncing” their eyes eventually found they could barely look a beautiful woman in the face for fear of lust. The eye-bouncing approach seems practical, but it doesn’t reach the roots of lust.

This point was driven home for me during a visit to a friend in Southern California. We were in a burger restaurant when the inevitable conversation came up. He shared with me, “Jon, I have a beautiful wife, a few beautiful kids, a wonderful job that provides well, a great home, and I couldn’t be happier. Yet, I can’t escape the lust in my eyes; I’ve talked to dozens of pastors, and no one seems to have answers. I appreciate that other men are honest enough to admit they don’t have answers, but when is someone going to figure this out?”

At that moment, a holy anger rose in my heart, and I heard myself say out loud, “How is it that Jesus told us we could raise the dead but Christians can’t even stop masturbating! (See Matthew 10:8.)

Maybe you’ve tried accountability, online filtering software, men’s purity books, participating in 12-step groups, or professional counseling, but to no avail. You might be holding this book wondering if it’s going to be another waste of time, or if perhaps you’ve finally found a book with real answers.

What hasn’t worked.

I’m going to be real with you. This book contains what you need to break free from sexual temptation. I know that’s a big, almost surreal statement, but I believe it’s true. Before I tell you what makes this book different, I’ll tell you what I’ve found in the books already on the market.

There are three major categories of books on the market concerning men’s purity: 1) books that tell the reader the extent of the lust problem in our society, 2) books that recount a personal story of how the author ruined his life by following his lust, and 3) hard-to-read books written by Christian psychologists who describe lust in clinical terms.

There is little variation in the approach to this topic. The majority of the books I’ve read essentially label lust as a disease and leave the Christian man with a weak, fleshly response to managing his disease. But this doesn’t align with God’s Word; when did Christ ever tell his disciples to manage their sin?

Can I be honest with you? Because I’m writing to men who spend a lot of time each week battling lustful thoughts, this is going to be a raw book full of truth and unashamedly honest feelings. I’m not writing from an ivory tower of perfection. I’ve had my own gut-wrenching battles with temptation, and I’ve been hurt and scarred by the war. But I’ve also come out victorious. Through my personal experience and study of the Word, I’ve discovered that we can be free. Even though surveys have shown that 82% of Christian men privately struggle with lust, it doesn’t have to be this way.

The goal of this book isn’t to put a bandage on the problem; we need to go to the roots of the infection. I want to give you hope: there is an antidote. Jesus didn’t save you from 99% of your sins just to leave you struggling with lust for the rest of your life. This issue requires digging deeper into the hearts of men to finally bring health in this area.

The myth of accountability.

One of the first things I’ll tell you is that if you need accountability, then you haven’t truly found the answer to your sin. While accountability might help you manage your sin, it doesn’t deal with the root. Jesus didn’t give us total freedom from the power of sin so we could set up accountability groups to try not to sin. Jesus didn’t have an accountability partner, nor did the apostles.

I have a high regard for the interdependence of the Body of Christ; but if we must rely on others not to sin, there is something fundamentally wrong with our theology. Clearly, the Bible teaches that we are the Body of Christ and that we are many interconnected members (see Romans 12:5). That doesn’t mean we should create accountability networks to keep each other from sinning. That isn’t taught in the Word.

This is where my approach comes in. I’m not a pastor; I’m not a counselor; I’m not a psychologist. I am a student of the Word. I believe the Bible has the answer. I also believe the Bible isn’t complicated, and that when the Bible is complicated, it’s probably being mis-taught. The Bible is about relationship with God, and He wouldn’t want that to be complicated.

I carry a saying with me: “Bad teaching leads to bad life; whereas good teaching leads to right life.” I believe the struggle for sexual purity comes from bad teaching. While most Christian men struggling with lust would be happy to simply have victory over lust, I believe the Lord has much more for us.

The evidence against us.

Right now, the world is suffering from many woes related to sexual sin. The global sex industry makes over 57 billion dollars a year. The sex slave trade kidnaps, rapes, and prostitutes our sisters around the world. Hollywood continually increases its degradation of women. Gay marriage, sex change operations, and the abortion agenda advance daily in our society.

While Christian leaders oppose these global sins, many continue to be enslaved by pornography, which shares the same evil spirits as the rest of these sins. They publicly denounce the very spirits of lust and perversion to which they are privately enslaved. How will we ever take down the sex slave industry while we are slaves to the same evil spirits behind it? The Bible’s answer is simple:

“… If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).

The world around us is sin-sick with a toxic poison of lust. The Church must first be healed of this toxicity before we can offer hope, healing, and restoration to a world trapped in sexual slavery. I interpret 2 Chronicles 7:14 as saying, when God’s people stop focusing on those around them and deal with their own hearts, then God will bring healing to those around them as well. God will heal the hearts of homosexuals, abortionists, pornographers, and others if and when, as the Church, we turn to Him, humble ourselves, and repent of our own sin.

Not only do 82% of Christian men regularly struggle with lust, but even those in the pulpit suffer greatly. As a Church leader, I can say it’s very difficult to find someone safe to share your struggle with. Church leaders carry a heavy burden of expectations on their shoulders, making it even harder to be open about failures and struggles. They fear losing their ministries and callings, so they keep their struggles secret, hoping to beat them on their own.

Unfortunately, many of their stories end tragically. Considering this statistically, many full-time pastors have been unfaithful to their spouses: “Forty percent of pastors have had extramarital affairs since entering the ministry.”

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This text is an extract from the book “THE SCHOOL OF SEER” written by Dr. Jonathan Welton.

We invite you to read the following article “Flipping the Switch”.