In the #16 edition of XXXchurch Voices we catch up with Chad Johnson. We have known Chad since his days back at Tooth and Nail. Chad runs the Non Profit record label Come&Live. Check out their site for a tone of great music and ministry.
Temptations on the road:
Temptations are everywhere and they’re definitely on the road. For me, the temptation on the road is way less when I’m traveling with people because anytime there’s accountability so I’m staying in a room with someone else then its purely a temptation to look lustfully upon an attractive woman somewhere, which is still horrible, wrong, sinful, to be confessed and rejected, Jesus help me with all that. It’s not really a temptation to look at pornography for me. That’s pretty much what we’ve done with C&L. When we travel, I very rarely travel alone. When I’m alone, in a hotel past ten o’clock, nothing good happens. I’m way too much of an addict to do that. I think “I’ll be strong” but very rarely does that work out. I’m a recovering porn addict of 27 years now.
God has really given me this heart for healing, everything from physical healing to spiritual and emotional healing, soul healing, all of it but I think in some ways that journey has a lot to do with my own healing and the process of what does it mean to consistently go after Jesus in the place of “I just looked at something I shouldn’t have and now I need to come clean with my wife, with my accountability partners”. I’ve had the X3watch software for the longest time. All of our computers at home have it, phones, everything. With the internet, pornography is in every person’s closet and all they have to do is choose to open it. There’s no locks, no challenges to get in. If you want to get in, you click buttons and you’re there. There’s no other analogy I can think of than being in a home where pornography is stored in your father’s closet and you’re a little boy and you know to go there. I think that’s where the craziness is. For me, on the road, I just have to travel with someone else and even then, practicing stuff like when we pray for people.
Come & Live doesn’t have a whole lot of females working with us yet, it’s a lot of dudes coming from the band world so when we do pray for girls, one of the things we want to implement is for the sake of everyone is to be above reproach and figure out little ways to go the extra mile.
Personal accountability:
I’ve been married 16 years, praise God. The rule for me is that if I look at porn that I have to confess it to my wife before we’re intimate. Which means a whole new level of accountability. I will also confess it to a couple of close friends. I have seen awesome progress in the last few years just in that my desire and tendency to look at porn has become less and less. It hasn’t gone 100%. I love Craig’s story of “The last day I looked at porn was 15 years ago” and I’m just like “He’s my hero, that’s amazing. God, I want that day where it’s done and I never wrestle with it again”. Practically, I keep X3 on everything. On my phone, I don’t even have a browser, it’s not even an option. Do I get a flip phone or do I just eliminate a browser completely? If you want something bad enough, you’ll figure it out but at this point if I wanted porn, I’d have to go to an adult bookstore or somewhere where I could buy a physical DVD or magazine. The Holy Spirit speaks so loudly to me that by the time temptation comes and I have to think about it then its like “Okay, that would be a really dumb idea”. Confess it, repent, and move on. Practically, I just ask the Lord for help and I try to stay in a place where I’m confessing to the Lord. “Father, I just looked lustfully on that woman or I just feel temptation. Jesus, I know that you understand this and you’re willing to help me. Come help me”.
I think its 1 Corinthians 10:13 says “No temptation has seized you with that which is common to man”. God is faithful and will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bare and he will provide a way of escape. So a lot of the time you’re just looking for an escape route like telling a friend “Hey man, we’re at a conference and there’s a really beautiful girl there and you go to your friend and tell him there’s a really attractive girl and I just want to keep my eyes on you, you’re the hottest guy I know (laughs)”. Just coming up with little ways to derail temptation and what keeps those things in place is secrecy. The longer I try to keep this thing a secret, the longer the devil has a hold on my heart. As soon as I confess it and forsake it, I can breathe again. *Include whole intro