Is it a Spiritual Problem?

Is pornography and sexual addictions a spiritual problem? In blog entry from August 16th, 'Hell of a Drug - First Action, Confronting the Issue' I posed the question of whether it was a spiritual problem. In my experience, both mentoring and in my own recovery journey; the question has been wrestled with by those in the midst of a sexual related addiction battles in some form of the following:
- "...if I struggle, then I must not know God"- "...if God was real he would heal me"- "...I must not be spending enough time in prayer"- "...I just need to read my Bible more, maybe I have given enough time to Jesus"- "...I need to fast better."- "...God does not love me"- "...maybe I am called to a life of sin"- "...I am being punished from something in my life by God"
....and on and on and on....and side note, Christian men seem to be the most unforgiving and relentless when if comes to believing lies about themselves and God. We will explore this later...
It seems that many addictions begin in the midst of crisis. It's true, addition is often created from a "pain". For me at a young age when pornography entered the picture it was the pain of fear, loneness and acceptance that a few porn magazines were able to numb. Everyone experiences crisis at some point in life and for must there are multiple crisis' throughout life. Crisis comes in different forms and at different levels of intensity from one person to another depending all all sorts of factors. For example, when I was a child a crisis was not getting the toy I wanted or losing at a game and now crisis comes in the form of job loss, sickness or relational issues. All of these are a crisis that deserve a healthy response. We go to great lengths to avoid pain. Anesthesia of modern day is pornography, sex, drugs, alcohol, technology and even entertainment. All which are readily available. I remember the first pastor that I meet with an internet pornography addiction. It was somewhat overwhelming. Me at the time a early 30's in the dawn of my recovery battle and a seasoned pastor of a Baptist church in his mid 40's in a heavy addiction that was just exposed by church leadership. This is were I first learned about pain being the root of addiction. Balancing the emotions and weight of the situation, respecting his lives work while walking through a highly secretive and sensitive area of his life. His marriage was suffering and relationship with children was strained. His ministry was suffering. Stressors about finances and pressure to keep a certain appearance was crushing him. There was a lot of pain. Internet pornography was the anesthesia for the pain. To numb the feelings and fears he would "injected" himself by access porn sites at his office or on his mobile device. This was not something new, he had medicate with porn for years and years. Starting when he was young after pain entered the picture as a young child, around 11 years old. The crisis as a child had created an addiction to porn that was now not exactly about porn but about how he was handling relationship issues. When issues arose in relationships and he felt exposed, judged or minimized his mind, body felt the need for a chemical spike of dopamine. The feeling of euphoria if only for a moment. Some get this by substance drugs, smoking, alcohol, physical harming themselves, and others access pornography and have sexual encounters (unwanted in most cases but seemingly needed to move on).
I believe the tension between expecting freedom over sin and the reality of addiction and sin is a struggle throughout life. Especially for those of us who have taken up the cause and are walking in victory from sexual strongholds. The tension is real for me - the line of victory and the reality that I am a recovering addict is real. Just how hard is this tension for those who are in a active full blown addiction? Monumental. I don't act like I know every addict but I can tell you for those who have seen some victory a prayer life is essential for strength throughout the recovery process. Victories and Freedom are fought for not given, granted or earned. They are fought for, they are sacrificed for, they are died for. The hard truth is that something must die for that freedom, that victory from pornography or any other sexual stronghold. Men and women each day make a decision to be apart of fighting for freedom. This is the Gospel, this is the Christian faith. Jesus Christ died for all sins of man. Why? So that we struggling through addiction would have a choice to be recused from our past our fallen world and be given a clean slate (1 Thessalonians 2). 
At the root of pornography addiction and sexual strongholds, the addiction is spiritual in nature. Addiction is nothing more then the process of substituting a dependency upon God for a dependency upon something else. Back to the pastor who struggle with internet pornography addiction. How did we start a road to recovery? How do I tell a man who knows the Bible, the words and interpretations of the Bible and history or the Bible. Who prayers daily, begging God for help. We started by drinking water and standing outside. Let me explain. We started with looking into triggers. What triggers him to have that sudden urge to want to look at porn. We study the physical triggers, sexual triggers, emotional triggers and environmental triggers. The compulsion was there - a 20+ year addiction is not just wiped away, it is fought against. A new solider in the battle of addiction doesn't usually have the advance weapons, in the case of a pastor or seasoned Christian they usually have the weapons but don't know how to use them. We started small. When you feel frustrated, sad, lonely or depressed; go outside on the porch and drink a glass of water while journaling thoughts, prayers and feelings at the moment. He came up with that response and it was affective. This is were the mentoring relationship started.
There’s no greater disservice to people than Christian men and women who refuses to participate in confessional vulnerability. If a Christian is unable to model confession, the people around will likewise feel an inability to live an honest life. The Christian who suffers in silence works from a depleted spiritual well. How can he or she carry the waters of grace to people when he  or she cannot pull from that well? If you are a Christian you have a unique opportunity to model healing and freedom for people around you in crisis. You have the amazing power to be the hands and feet of Jesus! (1 Corinthians 12:27)
Photo by Gift Habeshaw on Unsplash