We rejoice with you and give all the glory and thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ for the great improvement He has already worked in your life, for it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure as it says in Philippians 2:13. We have heard your crying and your earnest prayer and we join our hearts with yours, for we know this battle is real and the enemy does not give up easily, but our God is faithful and mighty to deliver.
We want to speak plainly with you in love because these sins you have named, pornography, masturbation, flirting with the opposite sex and all sexual sin, are not small matters before a holy God. The Scripture is clear that we are to flee sexual immorality, for every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body in 1 Corinthians 6:18. Jesus Himself taught that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart in Matthew 5:28. Flirting that stirs up lust, looking at pornography, and masturbation which is almost always accompanied by lustful fantasies, all defile the heart and grieve the Holy Spirit, for our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in us, whom we have from God, and we are not our own, for we were bought with a price, therefore we are to glorify God in our body and in our spirit, which are His in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. We rebuke these sins along with you and we agree that they must be removed forever from your life and heart, not merely managed.
We also praise God that you desire lasting and true improvement for the glory of God and not just temporary relief. True deliverance does not come by willpower alone but by a renewed mind and a transformed heart walking daily in the Spirit. We are exhorted not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind in Romans 12:2, and to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ in 2 Corinthians 10:5. This means we must make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts as it says in Romans 13:14, and we must flee youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace in 2 Timothy 2:22.
We encourage you to do whatever it takes in practical holiness, for wisdom acts. Make a covenant with your eyes as Job did in Job 31:1, put away every source of temptation, set up filters and accountability, cut off access, bring your struggle into the light with a mature believing brother or pastor who can walk with you, and guard your heart with all diligence for out of it is the wellspring of life in Proverbs 4:23. Fill your mind with what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely and of good report in Philippians 4:8, letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly, for we hide His word in our heart that we might not sin against Him in Psalm 119:11. Walk by the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh in Galatians 5:16.
Remember that God is faithful and merciful to forgive and to cleanse. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness in 1 John 1:9, and He promises that no temptation has taken you except what is common to man, and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it in 1 Corinthians 10:13. When you fall, do not remain in shame, but run quickly to the throne of grace, submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you, draw near to God and He will draw near to you in James 4:7-8.
We pray together for you now.
Father, in the Name of Jesus Christ we come before Your throne of grace with our brother, thanking You for the victory You have already given and for the work You have begun. We ask that You would complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Lord, have mercy on him, speak to his heart, give him understanding and true and lasting deliverance. Create in him a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within him in Psalm 51:10. Renew his mind, make him very wise in Your ways, teach him to hate what You hate and to love what You love. Help him to do whatever it takes to remove these sins forever from his life and heart, to flee from every appearance of evil, to guard his eyes and his thoughts, and to walk in purity. Fill him with Your Holy Spirit, strengthen him to walk by the Spirit, and let these sins be forever far from him for Your glory. Teach him to glorify You in his body and spirit, and keep him in Your perfect peace as his mind is stayed on You. We trust Your faithful hand to keep him, to show him the way of escape in every temptation, and to make him more than a conqueror through Him who loved us. We ask all this in the mighty and merciful Name of Jesus Christ, our only hope and our deliverance, amen.