For "the two," He says, "shall become one flesh."
17-But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.”
(1 Corinthians 6:15-17)
Eddie Smith, in his book Spiritual House Cleaning, shares the following account.
Not long ago, a lady who had suffered bondage and sickness for years asked me to bring a team to pray through her house. As I passed her desk the Lord seemed to give me an impression. “I believe this lower drawer is filled with some sort of defilement.” She opened the drawer and pulled out a box filled with love letters. With great emotion she explained these were letters from a prisoner with whom she had become pen pals years before. He had written passionately about his deep feelings for her. Later she learned that it was all a lie. He was cultivating a phony relationship with her in order to procure his release from prison. He never had any romantic intentions. I asked, “Why do you still keep these letters filled with lies?” Tearfully, she stated that sometimes on lonely nights she would pull out the box, curl up by the fire, and read through the letters to “re-feel” her faded dreams. I explained that she had allowed a strong hold of lies to be built in her mind. The letters were symbolic of the enemy’s successful campaign. Finally, she began to get angry at the deception she had embraced. As she burned the letters, freedom and healing came.[1]
A soul tie is the knitting together of two souls that can either bring tremendous blessings in a Godly relationship or tremendous destruction when made with the wrong persons.
A soul tie in the Bible can be described not only by the word knit, but also by the word cleave, which means to bring close together, follow close after, be attached to someone, or adhere to one another as with glue.
Just, as the sexual union of marriage ties two souls as one, so do acts of fornication or adultery with another person outside of the marriage. Your soul becomes mysteriously knit and tied to the other person also. They cleaved together just as in marriage. Under the influence of the power of these ties, one soon becomes controlled by forces of darkness. Like the snake it’s easy to pick up, hard to let go of.
It should be noted, that there are a number of ways to develop soul ties with an individual. It’s not always only the act of sexual involvement that open the door to soul ties. Flirting, mental and emotional fantasy can also open the venues for these ties to begin to bind. Any relationship that is founded in manipulation, control, selfish desire and ambition, even fear and envy will no doubt be tied by forces greater than the human personalities involved. There will be soul ties, and soul ties always open doors in the spirit for demonic attachments. Don’t be mistaken, these doors will open and demonic attachments will be established whether the person(s) is a Christian or not. Additionally, soul ties can be developed with places and things, such as images, pornography, certain chat rooms, and so forth.
God designed the universe to function with natural and spiritual laws that bring freedom when obeyed, but bondage and destruction when broken and violated. Just as two souls can be knit or made to cleave together in a covenant relationship, they can also be tied or knit together to form bondage and enslavement. Sexual union was ordained by God to make two marriage partners one flesh before God, but promiscuous premarital and extramarital affairs can mysteriously tie one’s soul to many partners. We seem to misunderstand the seriousness in these soul ties. It is because of lack of knowledge that we perish. Paul warns us in 1 Corinthians 6: 16, 18.
Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh." But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit. Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.
If you are in a sexual relationship right now outside of marriage it’s time to stop. Regardless of all the justifiable reasons, now is the time to sever the tie. Your life will become so entangled that you won’t even know what is going on. And, as the monkey, you will remain in the gourd.
Remember Joshua’s dilemma? Achan had violated the spiritual laws established by God. As a result, the children of Israel were living in defeat. God Spoke to Joshua and instructed him what he should do.
(Joshua 7:13-15,22)
1. They sanctified themselves.
2. They presented themselves tribe by tribe, clan by clan, and man by man before the Lord
for His inspection.
“23-Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me,
and know my thoughts: 24-And see if there be any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.”
(Psalm 139:23-24)
3. They inquired of the Lord and located the offending items.
4. There was no hesitance whatsoever on the part of Joshua to rid themselves of those things.
In verse 22, we read, “So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent.”
You might be asking, “Isn’t this an Old Testament thing? What does it have to do with me today?” Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:11-12,
11-Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. 12-Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”
Action Prayer: Scripture refers to our body as a temple and a tent (or house). Take a few moments in prayer. Get a mental picture of the house (apartment, etc) that you live in. As each physical room symbolically representing an internal room in your life and heart, ask God to begin to show you what’s going on in your house. Slowly, in prayer, begin to see yourself walking through your physical house. As you do so, God may begin to show you things about your spiritual, emotional and mental life that need some attending to. After you and Jesus are done walking through it may be appropriate for you to journal, repent, pray, go get something and throw it away or even send an email announcing the end of an unholy relationship.
Additional Reading
A Haunted Hotel
One evening in 1990, I received a call from the chief of security at one of Houston’s major hotels. The chief was a retired, muscular, twenty-year veteran Houston police officer. He told me this amazing story.
“Two weeks ago there was a Haitian voodoo conference held at our hotel. The group was comprised of a hundred or so men and women all dressed in white. They rented several rooms at the hotel and used our main ballroom to conduct their ceremonies. They stationed their own ‘security guards’ outside the ballroom. These tall, muscular men wouldn’t allow anyone, including my officers and me, into the proceedings.
One of my officers happened into the ballroom through the dining room service doors one night. He said the room was dark except for candle light. In the midst of the room sat a man chained in a chair. The ‘worshippers’ were in a trance and a bloody ceremony was taking place. He said he was so afraid, he slammed the door, ran downstairs, jumped into his car, and went home.
Since that time,” the security chief went on to say, “ the hotel has had unusual problems. We have been experiencing an abnormal number of thefts from the rooms. We’ve had fist fights among the employees, unexplainable car accidents in front of the hotel, and workers calling in sick in record numbers. The hotel organization is in shambles. Furthermore, all of the employees are afraid to enter the fifth floor ballroom where the voodoo ceremonies took place. I am terrified of it.”
He continued, “Tonight, I drove home from work around the 610 Loop and out Highway 290. I was so frightened that I might have a wreck, I drove on the shoulder of the road at 15 miles per hour. When I arrived at my house, I decided I needed some exercise to relieve my stress. I began jogging my usual neighborhood route. Every time a car would come up behind me, I would grimace and tense. In my imagination I could almost feel a bullet sear its way through my body. I just knew I was going to be shot. My wife said you might be able to help me.”
I asked, “How long does it take to get to the hotel?” “Thirty minutes,” he replied. I said, “Great, I’ll meet you there in thirty minutes.” He was shocked. He never dreamed that we’d deal with it so quickly.
An intercessor friend agreed to accompany me. Upon arrival at the hotel we met the nervous security chief in the lobby, and took the elevator to the fifth floor where the ballroom was located. The chief began to shy away from the elevator doors as they opened. My intercessor friend and I walked over to the entrance of the ballroom. Standing at a distance, the security chief threw us the keys. We opened the door and walked into the dark room. The light switches were 100 feet away on the back wall. With the nervous security chief waiting the in the hall, we walked the length of the long, dark room. The atmosphere in the room was oppressive. It was as if the room was filled with angry hornets swirling around us. The air was “electric” as waves of “spiritual energy” pushed past us and swept over us. The enemy was desperately trying to frighten us away. We began praying quietly, yet confidently. We repented to God for what had happened in that room just days before and asked Him to remove the defilement. Authoritatively, we told the spirits to leave. It was as if the tide of spiritual darkness rolled out. The evil spirits departed, and the room soon felt clean and pure. The security chief expressing gratitude and relief, felt safe enough to enter.
A week later, the chief called to thank us and to report that the thefts, the fights, the accidents, and the sicknesses were gone. He said, “Inexplicably, the morning after you prayed through the ballroom, a Bible study was formed in the employee lounge. It continues to this day.”
Increasing numbers of Christians today are taking a second look at the spiritual environment in their homes. They want their home, as well as their lives, to reflect the presence of Christ. However, too often it doesn’t.
There are two things that contribute to the atmosphere in a home. One is the behavior of the family members. The other is the predominate spiritual presence. Bad attitudes and bad behavior will definitely have an adverse affect on the atmosphere of our homes.
“Sinichi Suzuki, world-renowned music educator, wrote about the importance of early environment on children, drawing from nature:
‘The first month of a nightingale’s life determines its fate. I had always thought that a nightingale’s incomparable song was instinctive and inherited. But it is not so.
Nightingales to be used as pets are taken as fledglings from nests of wild birds in the spring. As soon as they lose their fear and accept food, a “master bird” is borrowed that daily sings its lovely song, and the infant bird listens for a period of about a month. In this way the little wild bird is trained by the master bird.
If it has a good teacher, the infant bird will learn from experience to produce as beautiful tones as its teacher. But if an infant bird is brought to such a teacher after being raised by wild nightingales, there is always failure, as long experience has shown.’
The illustration of the nightingales reminds me that many children’s problems could be solved if they just had parents who were “good singers” – parents who take responsibility for the mood or emotional tone of the home – parents who understand that their children are absorbing the emotional atmosphere and learning to respond to life as their moms and dads did.”
WE must take the responsibility for our sin and its effect upon our spouses and our children. We shouldn’t blame the devil for what WE choose to do. Bad attitudes, as well as bad actions attract the demonic. The continual presence of the enemy in our homes will pollute the atmosphere, as well.[2]
[1] Eddie Smith, Spiritual House cleaning, Houston: Spirit Truth, 1997, 26.
[2] Eddie Smith, Spiritual House cleaning, Houston: Spirit Truth, 1997, 5-9.
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