For example, your brain chemistry will begin to respond, and there’ll be memory tracts put inside you. Sexual sin can build neuron pathways that become quite addictive - you build tracts in your mind. So, in a whole number of ways, sexual sin brings something into you. You need to be aware of this when you’re ministering to people.
It’s not just a sin outside to say “I’m sorry” for; it’s a change within them that’s taking place; and it will have ongoing effects on the person. You can’t walk away from it, because you’re carrying the impact of your sin inside you. So sexual sin is quite unique in its impact - something comes into us.
There’s a verse in Romans 1:27, it says “Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another; men with men, committing what is shameful; and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.” Notice something ‘inside’ the person changes. So, what He’s saying in both of these verses is simply that: sexual sin has an impact on you that no other sin has. Something changes inside you. The more you follow the path of sexual sin, the deeper the impact and changes on you.
Let’s have a look at some of the damage sexual sin causes. Many people won’t acknowledge it, but the more you become sensitive to your spirit, and what is happening in your life, the more you become aware of the presence and impact of sexual sin. Firstly, there is spiritual damage. The first thing is, it affects your relationship with God. You grieve the Holy Spirit.
In Ephesians 4:30, it talks about grieving the Holy Spirit; to cause Him pain and sorrow. Because God is a covenant God, if you are involved in sexual sin, then you grieve the Spirit of God, and it affects your relationship. Ephesians 4 and 5 are both connected, and it lists the things that grieve the Holy Spirit. So sexual sin grieves and dishonours what God has called us to be.
If we continue in the sin, we become desensitised in our conscience. One of the things that seem to happen, when you’re involved in sexual sin, is that there’s a guilt, and a shame, that comes around your life. Guilt – I’ve done something wrong. Shame – something’s wrong with me. For all the emphasis the world makes on sexual sin being okay, if anyone in a significant role is caught in sexual sin, they immediately experience shame and dishonour.
So the first spiritual impact is that our relationship with God is affected or wounded. God wants us to be confident and bold towards Him. You’ll find that when people are wrestling with sexual sin, they feel condemned, and unworthy to enter into the presence of God. We’ll come back to that later, in how to step back up again after you’ve sinned.
However, I’ve noticed in the area of sexual sin: 1) the devil will push on you to do it; and 2) he’ll follow it up with an accusation of shame. So God has made provision for cleansing, we just need to know how to apply it.
Second thing, demonic defilement can occur. In other words, demonic spirits can transfer from one person to another, if the two have had sexual relationships. This is why: if two people have sexual intercourse, what does God say about it? The two become one. If two people have become one, then if I have demons in me, and I become joined to a person, then we’re one, so the demon has a right to go there too. Just as sexual disease can be transmitted, demonic spirits have a legal right to come into that person.
Now you understand how, in the Old Testament, one of the things that caused men of God to go off track was sexual sin; because it enabled demonic spirits to come into the person, and bring them into captivity.
For example, in Numbers 25, Balaam had tried to curse Israel; and God said: “No, they’re blessed”. He said: “What can I do? I know what to do: send in the women who’d been worshipping idols; get them to sleep with the men - and then it’s all over”. That’s exactly what they did. They sent women, who were worshipping idols, to come and sleep with the men and compromise their life.
You think about what happened to Samson. Judges 16 – It says: “there were people lying in wait for him to fall into sexual sin”; and then they took away his strength, then they brought him into bondage and captivity. In other words, sexual sin was the doorway for him to become spiritually captive. You think about King David - sexual sin led to other things like deception and murder.
So, when people are involved in sexual sin, in the Old Testament, there was a law that said: they had to be put to death; or in other words: a spirit of death can legally enter them.
So, you find demonic defilement can easily occur when people have been involved sexually. I had one girl, as I shared with you, who was struggling with occult oppression; and the doorway the spirit used was: she was involved sexually with someone involved in the occult.
Another aspect of spiritual damage is that ungodly soul ties are connected. They give demons the right to enter in. A soul tie is a bonding. So when two people become one, they’re bonded together. If they’re married, it’s a lawful tie; if they’re unmarried, it’s an ungodly tie - ungodly soul ties. So this bonding enables demonic spirits to enter the person’s life. You will find, when you start to break ungodly soul ties of sexual partners, that many times, the demons will manifest immediately.