Sex is a spiritual union

God, who is Spirit, makes covenants with His people, as a sign of His everlasting devotion to us. Anyone who is spiritually bound to a covenant will be drawn back to it to perform its obligations – just as how God is bound to be faithful to His covenants with us. The Lord created marriage to be a sacred covenant too, with sex sealing a man and a woman together in spirit with one another. It is a mirror of how our spirits become one with the Holy Spirit when we repent and are reconciled to God. Sex, therefore, is not just physical. It has spiritual significance.

(简体中文 > 性是一种属灵的结合 | 繁體中文 > 性是一種屬靈的結合)

John 4:24 NKJV God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Psalm 89:34 NKJV My covenant I will not break, Nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips.

Sex consummates a marriage covenant

Sex is what consummates a marriage covenant. Even today, a marriage can be annulled in the court of law if no sex occurred between a man and a woman. The Bible shows us that through sex, a man and a woman become one in spirit. God created sex to release powerful neuro-chemicals such as oxytocin (the ‘love hormone) and vasopressin, which foster trust, affection, and attachment, while creating a pleasurable reward loop with dopamine that deepens emotional connection, intimacy, and commitment. Sex is meant to bind husband and wife as one in love and unity.

Mark 10:8-9 NKJV  and the two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

The strongest covenants are those made in blood. This is why God made it such that a virgin would shed blood in her first intercourse with her husband.  For this reason, a person’s first sexual partner leaves a strong imprint because it represented a covenant in spiritual terms. 

It is also why people have such strong memories of sexual acts because they yoked themselves in spirit to a covenantal act, whether by actively participating in the sex act itself or passively participating through watching pornography. Both stir us deeply physically, emotionally, and mentally. They affect our entire inner person.

Sexual brokenness

Hence, he who sleeps with a prostitute becomes one in spirit with her — as well as all her previous clients — and dishonours his own body. Sex outside of the marriage bed, as God intended, is by nature, very spiritually defiling. It is in rebellion against God’s design and will. We take what is meant to be within the confines of marriage and mis-use it for ourselves.

1 Corinthians 6:15-20 NKJV  Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Hebrews 13:4 NKJV   Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.

God made sex sacred and binding so a man and woman would be bound to one another, not only for their own sakes but also for the sakes of their children. Any broken marriage has devastating generational repercussions that one cannot anticipate or control. 

This is one reason why divorce is so devastating when it happens. It represents the ripping of a spiritual bond. God calls divorce an act of violence and He hates it because it is the opposite to His will for all covenantal relationships. When a man who dishonours the wife of his covenant, God will no longer regard the man’s offering (Malachi 2:13-15) and his prayers will also be hindered (1 Peter 3:7).

Malachi 2:16 NKJV  “For the LORD God of Israel says That He hates divorce, For it covers one’s garment with violence,” Says the LORD of hosts. “Therefore take heed to your spirit, That you do not deal treacherously.”

Malachi 2:13-15  And this is the second thing you do: You cover the altar of the Lord with tears, With weeping and crying; So He does not regard the offering anymore, Nor receive it with goodwill from your hands. Yet you say, “For what reason?” Because the Lord has been witness Between you and the wife of your youth, With whom you have dealt treacherously; Yet she is your companion And your wife by covenant. But did He not make them one, Having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, And let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.  

1 Peter 3:7 NKJV  Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.

God’s Word even shows us that the Holy Spirit is present in every sexual union (see Malachi 2:13-15). Interestingly, Scientists observed in 2016 that light is emitted when life begins in a fertilised human egg. When a sperm fertilises an egg, the egg releases a large burst of zinc ions, creating a brilliant, microscopic “firework” or “stardust” of light. It signifies the egg’s activation and the beginning of cell division, marking the true start of embryonic development. God, who is Light, brings life at conception with a burst of light!

Sexual immorality is idolatry

The root word for sexual immorality in the Bible is the Greek word, porneuó, which has the same meaning as idol worship. It refers to a person who prostitutes one’s body to the lust of another; gives oneself to unlawful sexual intercourse, to commit fornication; and is given to idolatry, to worship idols. In God’s eyes, sexual immorality and idolatry are the same thing. Why?

Colossians 3:5-6 NKJV  Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.  Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience,

Most of the world has been led to believe that “our bodies belong to us and we can do whatever we want with it” — when this is not the case, spiritually. Jesus purchased every human body with His blood at calvary and we are to glorify God in both our body and spirit. For this reason, the Bible lists fornication, uncleanness, and passion as idolatry, because we serve our own fleshly lusts over Jesus. 

1 Corinthians 6:20 NKJV   For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Sexual immorality invites unclean spirits 

Sex outside the marriage bed is defiling and all forms of spiritual uncleanness attracts unclean spirits. This is one major reason the kingdom of darkness run by Satan seeks to pervert God’s design for sex so that they have free and open reign to corrupt, defile and ruin people made in God’s image. No one who is actively engaging in sexual immorality will inherit the Kingdom of God, which is a kingdom of power and righteousness. Sexual immorality keeps humanity weak and unable to fight off spiritual forces of darkness — until we repent and turn back to God.

Ephesians 5:3 NKJV  But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints;

1 Corinthians 6:9 NKJV  Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 

1 Corinthians 4:20 NKJV  For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.

Testimony

This is a testimony of someone who came forward for inner healing and deliverance prayer. 

“I was molested by an adult man when I was five and I remember feeling very dirty afterward. I could not tell anyone because the man told me it was my fault and made me feel so bad and ashamed of myself. I kept this secret to myself for over 40 years, even after I got married. When I went for inner healing and deliverance prayer, I did not expect this topic to come up but the Holy Spirit prompted the prayer minister to ask me to ask the Holy Spirit why was blocking me from experiencing the fullness of God’s joy. When I finally confessed, forgave the man, cut ungodly soul ties, and commanded any spirit that afflicted me since to leave me in Jesus’ name, I suddenly felt so much joy and so ‘clean’ inside after that. I never thought that one single act could be so spiritually defiling.”

May this sharing be a blessing to you as you seek to love the Lord with all your heart and commit your body to Jesus.