Way of Purity Testimony: Howard

My sinful life of sex and drugs cost me much. I lost everything (profession, wife, house, family) and in 1998 I was in a suicide unit in Atlanta, Georgia. I went to a treatment center in Florida for help, but I wasn't done with my habitually sinful life.

In 2000, after my third treatment center, a good friend asked me if I wanted to go with him to church. I was raised Jewish and I remember my parents telling me never to believe in Jesus, so to go with him to church was difficult for me - but I was literally dying inside and out. At church all I could do was cry, and for the first time I had some relief. It was now decision time, with feelings of betraying my heritage - should I keep going to church or should I stay where I was.

Three months later, I was saved and six months later I was baptized. I stopped drugs and met a beautiful woman who is now my wife. But the lust was still there, and I could not get rid of it. I wanted to stop and I knew without a doubt that I was blocking the Spirit from doing any work in me.

I came to the Setting Captives Free course by the recommendation of another friend. I tried to do it by just using the workbook but I could not. I tried it again and this time I heeded all the suggestions and took the course with a mentor online. I still face temptation, mostly with my eyes, but I am free.

I'm free and my relationship with God and living for His glory is so beautiful. The Spirit has poured out His sweet power and grace, and today I can call sexual sin the lie that it is, and focus on Christ. Before I was scared to tell my wife anything, today we pray for each other and read a daily devotion together. I am free! I am free and God gets all the glory. I did not do it. There is just no way I did this by myself. I am free!