Robert Daniels - The War Within: Gaining Victory in the Battle for Sexual Purity

THE WAR WITHIN

The War Within

Revised edition copyright 2005 by Robert Daniels

Original edition copyright 1997 by Robert Daniels

Published by Crossway Books
A ministry of Good News Publishers
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided by USA copyright law.

The names of some individuals are changed to protect their identity.

Cover design: Jon McGrath

Cover photo: Getty Images

First printing, 2005

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible:English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations indicated as NIV are taken from Holy Bible: New InternationalVersion. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. The NIV and New International Version trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society. Use of either trademark requires the permission of International Bible Society.

Scripture quotations indicated as TLB are taken from The Living Bible and are used by permission. Copyright 1971 by Tyndale House Publishers.

Scripture quotations indicated as RSV are taken from The Revised Standard Version and are used by permission. Copyright 1946 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches.

Scripture quotations indicated as KJV are taken from the King James Version.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Daniels, Robert, 1952
The war within : gaining victory in the battle for sexual purity / Robert Daniels.Rev. ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-58134-669-7 (tpb)
1. SexReligious aspectsChristianity. 2. Christian menSexual
behavior. 3. Sexual ethics. 4. Chastity. I. Title.

BT708.D36 2005
241'.66dc22

2004019402

BP 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05
15 1 4 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is dedicated to my wonderful, loving, and understanding wife. Without her love, acceptance, availability, encouragement, and forgiveness I would not have written this book. I love you with all my heart and am so grateful that God brought you into my life.

CONTENTS

Many thanks to the men who have loved me and have given their time to read and comment on the rough drafts of the first manuscript and now this second manuscript. Thanks to Dr. Rob Niewoehner and Marvin Campbell. A special thanks to Mike Wagner, who devoted many hours of time and lots of red ink giving constructive comments and suggestions. Thanks, Mike!

I would also like to thank the following men for discipling, mentoring, and loving me over the years: Chris Christian, Rusty Stephens, Campbell Kidd, Doug Koenigsberg, Ed Bogner, John Ed Robertson, Jimmie Truhlar, Don Lanier, Paul Drake, Ron Holechek, Wayne Haddock, Bill Greenaway, Gene Smith, Larry Matthews, Mike Slone, Dave Yumen, Tom Love, Dave Cook, Willie Page, Jim Wester, Marvin Campbell, and Don Wester. I know there are many others whom I have forgotten. Please forgive me. I would not be in a position of believing God for forgiveness without your encouragement and love and examples of faith.

A special thanks to Dr. Jerry White and Art Athens and to Jerry Bridges for their kind endorsements of this book and for their comments that helped strengthen the manuscript. Also, thank you to all the dear people who have prayed for me personally in my own struggles for purity and for this project.

I would also like to thank Allyn Schoenthal and Christine Williams for their invaluable help in researching the statistics in this book.

Most of all I want to acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ and His saving and empowering grace and forgiveness.

Im not proud of what my life was once like. Though a believer in Christ, I was out of fellowship with God, walking my own way, blinded by the lust of sexual sin. I was daily involved in pornography and masturbation. Even though I strayed, God didnt. Instead, He drew me back to Himself by convicting me of my waywardness through Luke 22:31-32: Simon, Simon, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. As I read these verses, I knew that God was speaking both to me and about me. I reread them: Bob, Bob, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you, Bob, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. My soul was thrilled that the Lord was personally pleading in prayer for me, as He does for all of Gods children (see Romans 8:34).

I felt loved by Jesus. I felt known by God and had a sense of being owned or being part of His family. I also felt scared, knowing that Satan wanted to attack and defeat me. I saw in this verse my marching ordersto repent and to strengthen the faith of my brothers.

I have repented and continue to repent as the Lord faithfully shows me my nakedness, my blindness, and the impoverished state of my soul. This book is an attempt to obey the second command of that verseto strengthen the faith of my brothers.

Before I started applying the principles that the Lord taught me, I felt hopelessly defeated and constantly waiting for deliver ance. But when I started obeying the commands and principles of spiritual warfare, I started experiencing freedom from the guilt and oppression of sexual sin. Psalm 40:1-3 describes the before-and-after feelings of my situation: I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD.

Certainly God desires our sexual purity. But much more than this, within the framework of Gods purpose for a husband and wife in marriage, sexual relations become pure and holy, a beautiful picture of our Lords glorious, intimate love for His own (Ephesians 5:25-32).

It is my prayer that many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD and will experience the exhilarating energy that comes from sexual purity and the joy of walking in fellowship with the risen Lord Jesus Christ.

In 1944, steaming three hundred miles off the coast of Luzon, a fleet of ships under the command of Admiral William Bull Halsey encountered an enemy just as deadly as the Japanese Imperial Navy. There were no weather satellite pictures available, no early warning sounds. But the seas started picking up; the barometric pressure started falling; winds roared, gaining speed and force. The fleet was low on fuel from previous operations in support of the war in the Philippines. As a result, the ships were sitting high in the water. Though the fleet was ordered to rendezvous with supply ships, the seas were getting so tumultuous, it was impossible to take on much needed supplies of fuel.

Ships were being buffeted by the storm, unofficially nicknamed Cobra. The waves were getting higher and higher. Winds increased to sixty, seventy, then ninety miles per hour, with gusts exceeding 120. The typhoons eye was within eighty miles of the fleet and closing fast. Waves twenty and thirty feet tall, then growing to eighty, then to a hundred feet tall, were tossing the ships around like toys. Ships started taking on water, rolling from side to side, enduring 70 to 80 degree rolls. The wind was so fierce, it blasted paint off the bulkheads. Strong gusts caused the rivets holding some of the masts to fail, and several ships lost their masts entirely. Like a prize fighters one-two punch, the sustained winds kept the ships heeled over at 30 to 40 degrees, while the waves were nearly capsizing the ships.