The Tribune

By JEFFARAH GIBSON

Tribune Features Writer

jgibson@tribunemedia.net

LIKE many devout Christians, American relationship expert and bestselling author Ty Adams was “single, saved and also having sex”.

She was going to church, reading her Bible, praying and quoting scripture, but living actively in sexual immorality.

Though her behaviour – which she says was the result of being sexually molested at the age of seven – did not change the fact that she was a saved Christian, she still wanted to make a change for the better.

The activities she engaged in years ago were pleasurable for a short time, just long enough until she was alone with herself and felt the conviction that God had a better way for her; all she needed to do was believe in Him to set her free.
Ms Adams’ testimony was one she shared with Tribune Religion during her visit to the Bahamas last week. She was the guest speaker at the Singles Summit 2014 presented by Bahamas Faith Ministries International.

Although some believers pretend it does not happen, Ms Adams said there are many Christians who love the Lord, live for Christ, but still struggle with sexual sins. Just like she was delivered from the her past, she encourages people every day to lean on God for his help in getting free from anything that may have them in bondage.

“The Bible says ‘whom the son sets free is free indeed’, and I did not realise that freedom until I walked from the day I accepted Christ into my life. I was so blind to that. I was so stuck in my past and I was chained to that. I love the story told in the Book of John about a man who was impotent for about 40 years and when God healed him, Jesus found him in the church and he said to him, ‘Don’t you see that you are healed’. A lot of us do not see that we are delivered because we still have the symptoms of our past. But I say this all the time, just because you sneeze that does not mean that you have a cold. Just because you have temptation or you have the desires that you have does not mean that your are not being delivered,” she said.

Ms Adams stressed that change does not take place overnight, and even after submitting herself to God she was tempted to go back to what was normal for her in her past life. When the urge to engage in those same activities returned she cried out to God for help.

“Temptation comes to everyone of us. In fact, temptation comes to drive out of us what is not God. So if you are struggling – struggling is the proof that you have not yet been conquered. So keep swinging, keep fighting, because there is a fight that comes inside of a struggle and you say, ‘You know what Devil, you are trying to take me out’, and when you realise why it was so important for God to salvage our lives and that he already pre-planned for our lives then you would know that it is worth it to keep standing,” she said.

“When you eventually get to that place of freedom and you look at that thing and say, ‘Devil you know what, you do not have a hold on me no more’. John 14:30 says. ‘Satan is going to come this time and when he comes this time Satan will find no place for me’. And that is the place I want people to get to, where Satan comes back and none of his goods are there. None of that loneliness, none of that spirit of masturbation or pornography.”

Ms Adams’,popular self-help book “Saved, Single and Having Sex” was inspired by her testimony.
She said not only was she delivered and set free from her sexual sins, but she was also set free from a constant need to validated by a man.

“There was point in my life where I had to be in a relationship. If I was not in a relationship or with someone, I did not feel whole, I did not feel right and did not feel loved. As a woman if I did not have a man to validate who was I did not feel right. I had the most peace that I have ever had in my life when I made the decision to allow God to make me whole, separate from a man. And that was a hard place. I had to get to the place where if God never sent me a husband I would be OK with him alone. And that is a tragic place when a single person cannot say God is enough,” she said.

During the Singles Summit, Ms Adams also held a signing of her latest book, “The Dating Bible”.