According to Chris Cruz, who is an Associate Pastor and the Young Adults Pastor, God met him in his living room and changed everything about him. Because of this powerful encounter, he was freed from being addicted to pornography.
His Story
It was an instant thing. An encounter that changed his life in a moment. Pastor Chris said that he believes in the process of growth and the journey of transformation, but what happened to him was different.
“Let me tell you about the encounter with God that changed everything about who I am. And that’s not an exaggeration. It was one of those moments where overnight, something happened in me that I don’t know could happen any other way,” he said.
It was 2005, and he was in his living room. He was also invited to his family’s living room, where a small group of his parents’ friends were gathering. People there said they had a prophetic word for Chris. He couldn’t think of a time in his life when he had been prophesied over.
Addicted To Pornography
“I understood prophetic ministry somehow but I didn’t have this moment where someone was prophesying over me,” he said.
Because he was hooked on pornography and trying to figure out his life, he wasn’t looking for God, following what many people who don’t know God do. There were ten people in the room, and they started prophesying over Pastor Chris.
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“When they began to prophesy over me, I could feel this force coming at me. And they ministered to me. At one point, as they were ministering to me, this force, which at the time I would have called force but we all know the person of the Holy Spirit. It rushed to me as the scriptures talked about the Holy Spirit coming upon them or seizing them and putting them on like a glove. Something happened and the Holy Spirit hit me,” he recalled.
Powerful Encounter Freed Him From Being Addicted To Pornography
Pastor Chris also experienced the fire of God, and he started speaking in tongues. At that moment, he felt complete like never before.
“I started to feel this completing love and my insecurities, the things that I would second guess about myself, or be aware of, started to like to drift away,” he said.
Pastor Chris recalled that he experienced a love so pure in that moment. Following that encounter, he overcame his addiction to pornography.
“It was purely the union with God that changed everything,” he said. “I went from being locked away in my room looking at pornography to locked away in my room praying in my closet. And I was finally what I was saying… living. Because I was truly born again. I was having the experience of living as a new creation in God because I am enjoying God Himself and has given this to me. So that’s what changed my life with God and I’ve never looked back.”
Reference: Bethel
Header image: Chris Cruz [Bethel]. YouTube, 25 October 2022, https://youtu.be/n_ygophLa20?list=PLUaRlPOu98p3txNLr4XxEwmHdb3qjOmIE
