LET US CALL IT WHAT IT IS: FORNICATION!

Let’s talk about fornication today, sis. Yes, fornication. 

It is important that we talk about this because truthfully, this is one of those things the church has stopped frowning at. We have sugarcoated it. We have ignored it. We have hidden it under titles and roles. Maybe you even know one or two of your leaders, your choir members, or your executives who are fornicating, and nobody seems to care anymore. 

Even when pastors know, they often call it “a weakness,” “a struggle,” or “something he’s/she’s working on.” Ah, what a generation! A generation that pampers sin and still expects the power of God to fall. It’s heartbreaking.

 

Fornication in the Pulpit

I once heard of a man who was always organizing purity programs. He talked about virginity, holiness, and keeping oneself for God. But this same man was later discovered to have been having immorality with the same young girls he preached to. Ah!

And when it was brought out, the explanation was, “Oh, it’s a weakness.” They further said “You know the devil often plagues you with the very issue you are trying to deliver others from”

Really? Weakness? What are you talking about? That’s not weakness, that’s sin. That’s iniquity. That’s deception. 

God needs to use you in a ministry who are still bound yourself? You cannot be bound and still be calling it ministry. You cannot be sick and still be acting as a healer. You cannot be unclean and still be pretending to cleanse others. The same demons you claim to be fighting will turn back and pounce on you and you’d in turn disgrace the Name of the Lord! 

Remember the seven sons of Sceva? They tried to cast out demons saying, “We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.” But the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” And the man possessed by the devil leapt on them, overcame them, and they fled naked and wounded (Acts 19:13–16). Why? Because they had no authority. They were trying to fight a spiritual battle with dirty hands.

If you’ve not been delivered, you cannot deliver others. The devil knows exactly how to mock a man who is trying to fight him with unwashed hands. Jesus Himself said, “The prince of this world comes, and has nothing in Me” (John 14:30). That’s power! When the enemy has nothing in you to hold on to. No hidden sin. No secret lust. No unbroken area. The devil fears such men. But he laughs at those who stand on pulpits, whether church pulpits or social media pulpits, preaching holiness while living double lives.

No one is denying your call, but stay in the school of intimacy until your Father releases you;  free, whole, and delivered. Don’t be in a hurry to go and “do ministry.” God doesn’t just send; He empowers His sent ones. Jesus spent thirty years in preparation for three years of ministry. Paul disappeared into Arabia for years before his public appearance. Elijah lived in obscurity before confronting Ahab. God refines His vessels in secret before He reveals them in public. Don’t skip the refining fire and call it zeal. Don’t rush out unprepared and call it passion. “He that believes shall not make haste” (Isaiah 28:16). Be patient under His hand. Let Him purge you, fill you, and clothe you with power from on high.

Because until you are delivered, you are not yet a deliverer. Until your altar burns with genuine holiness, you cannot call down fire. Until you have been made whole in secret, you cannot stand boldly in public. The devil respects only the man who has died to himself and carries the seal of the Spirit. “Having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled” (2 Corinthians 10:6). Obedience first. Deliverance first. Then ministry. God empowers His sent; He never sends the unbroken. Get delivered and empowered before you go out and confront the strongman.

Also Read: Are you being defeated by sexual addictions? 

 

What Seed Remains in You?

Back to the focus of today, sis. Sorry for the important digression. 

We must face this truth. You cannot be living in fornication and expect victory in your spiritual life. There’s something fundamentally wrong with your conversion if you can keep falling and rising into the same sin without genuine repentance. Have you really met the Lord? Because if you’ve truly met Him, you would fear Him enough to flee.

 

Because if you’ve truly met Him, you would fear Him enough to flee.

 

The Bible says, “Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, for His seed remains in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God” (1 John 3:9). 

Now look at that phrase: “His seed remains in him.” Ayaa! Do you know what that means? It means when you are truly born of God, something of God; His very nature, His DNA, His life; has entered into you and taken residence there. His seed is His Spirit. His seed is His Word. His seed is His nature of righteousness. It’s not visiting you; it remains in you. It doesn’t come and go based on your mood or emotions. It stays. It abides. It anchors you in holiness.

So if His seed truly remains in you, sin becomes foreign to you. You cannot continue comfortably in sin because the divine life within you rejects corruption. It irritates it. Just like oil and water cannot mix, holiness and sin cannot cohabit in the same heart. When the seed of God is active in a person, sin loses its grip. You may stumble, yes, but you can’t stay there. Something inside will burn you until you repent. That something is the seed; the life of God in you, saying, “No, this is not who you are anymore.”

That’s why John didn’t say, “He should not sin.” He said, “He cannot sin.” Why? Because the divine nature in him forbids it. The seed of God in you wars against sin the way your body fights infection. It recognizes evil as poison and starts to push it out. The Holy Spirit convicts you, rebukes you, disciplines you, until you get clean. That’s how you know you belong to Him, sis. Not because you never fall, but because you can’t enjoy the fall!!! You can’t sleep in filth. You can’t rest in rebellion. His seed won’t let you.

So when someone keeps sinning habitually and calls it “weakness,” what they are really saying is that there is a foreign seed ruling them, not God’s. Because God’s seed does not dwell in darkness. God’s seed makes you restless in sin. It keeps your conscience alive. It provokes your spirit. It cries, “Abba, Father,” even in the middle of conviction. The seed refuses to let you die there.

That’s why anyone who says, “I can’t help it,” “It’s just my weakness,” “God understands,” needs to check who planted them. Because if His seed is truly in you, sin will not be your playground. It will be your grief. You won’t defend it; you’ll detest it. You won’t enjoy it; you’ll escape it. That’s what the new birth does, sis, it changes your appetite. You start hating what you once loved, and loving what you once ignored. That’s proof of His seed remaining in you.

So stop pampering sin. Stop explaining away fornication, lust, lies, or rebellion. If the seed of God truly abides in you, you will rise and flee from what offends Him. Because the life of God in you will not permit you to wallow in what Jesus died to deliver you from. His seed remains in you. That means His nature remains, His holiness remains, His Word remains, His Spirit remains. And when all of that remains in a person, sin loses its power.

The Word did not call it a weakness. It called it sin. So stop petting what hurts your Father. Or are you a bastard? 

Stop calling rebellion a struggle, sis! Stop giving sin pet names.

Also Read: Disciplining Our Bodily Passions

Fornication Rebranded: The Sin We Now Call Love

There was a time when the very word “fornication” made people tremble. It carried shame. It carried the fear of God. But now? It has been rebranded and repackaged for our modern generation. We now call it “being in a relationship,” “cohabiting,” “mutual understanding,” “consensual love,” “adulting,” or “having fun.” That’s how far we’ve fallen! Ayaaaa!

The same act that once broke men’s hearts in repentance now makes us post pictures on social media with matching outfits and sweet captions. We have become bold in sin and shy in holiness. The things that once made us cry now make us laugh. But the Bible hasn’t changed, sis. 

God hasn’t updated His standards. His Word still says, “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). 

“Flee fornication. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he that commits fornication sins against his own body” (1 Corinthians 6:18).

Notice that word; flee! It doesn’t say, “Negotiate.” It doesn’t say, “Manage it.” It doesn’t say, “Pray about it while still doing it.” It says flee! Run for your life! Because, you see, sexual sin is not like every other sin. It stains the soul deeply. It ties destinies together in invisible chains. It builds guilt that kills your confidence before God. It clouds the mind, weakens your prayer life, and silences your discernment. It dries up your worship, pollutes your temple, and makes the Holy Spirit withdraw. You may still look fine outwardly, but inside, you’re dry, hollow, and far from God. That’s why this generation sings loudly but carries no fire. We dance but have no oil. We prophesy but lack presence. Because the altar has been defiled.

And sadly, the Church has become comfortable with it. We no longer cry against sin; we decorate it. Pastors avoid preaching about fornication because it offends people. Choir members sleep around and still lead songs. Leaders live in sin and still coordinate prayer meetings. We whisper about immorality but celebrate the same people publicly. We call it “a weakness,” but Heaven calls it iniquity, loud and clear.

The Bible says, “Maxzrriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge” (Hebrews 13:4). It doesn’t matter if the relationship is serious or if you pray together. It doesn’t matter if you both love going to church or intend to marry someday. As long as there is sexual intimacy outside marriage, it is fornication. Period.

 

Fornication: The Balaam Strategy

Do you remember Balaam? He couldn’t curse Israel, no matter how hard he tried. Every time he opened his mouth to curse, God turned his curse into a blessing. But Balaam finally discovered a deadly secret: if you can’t curse them, make them sin. 

He told Balak, “Send your daughters to entice them.” (Numbers 25). And that was how Israel fell!!! They began to commit fornication, and God turned His face away. The very God who once protected them turned His back at them. 

That’s the strategy the devil still uses today. He knows he can’t attack a holy vessel, so he tempts it into defilement. He knows he can’t curse your destiny, so he makes you curse yourself through sin. The moment you fall into fornication, something in the spirit realm dies. The glory leaks. The anointing weakens. The voice of God becomes faint. You become powerless, even though you still wear the robe of religion.

 

The Many Faces of Fornication

Fornication today wears many clothes. It’s not just physical sex; it’s in the chats, the video calls, the late-night talks that go too far. It’s in the pictures you send, the lustful imaginations you nurse, the dirty jokes you entertain, the romantic scenes you replay in your mind. Some are not “sleeping together” yet, but they have experimented with each other’s bodies in all the nooks and crannies possible. You think because you’ve not gone fully in, you are still pure? No, sis, you are deceiving yourself. The line has already been crossed in the spirit. 

Some even want to keep their “virgin title,” so they do everything else but penetration. You’re not pure; you’re pretending. You’ve defiled yourself already. Jesus said, “Whoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). Purity is not just in what your body does; it’s in what your heart entertains.

 

Purity is not just in what your body does; it’s in what your heart entertains.

 

Stop calling it weakness. When you keep doing something you can stop but refuse to, that’s not weakness, it is rebellion! 

If you’re still fornicating, you can’t pray right. You can’t carry power. You can sing, but the heavens will be silent. You can preach, but there’ll be no oil. Fornication drains your strength, breaks your focus, and silences your discernment. It kills your intimacy with God. Look at Joseph; he fled from Potiphar’s wife and God elevated him. Look at Samson; he played with Delilah and lost his hair, his eyes, and his strength. One ran and sat on a throne; the other lingered and died in shame. That’s what sexual sin does. It doesn’t just make you dirty; it makes you small.

That’s what sexual sin does. It doesn’t just make you dirty; it makes you small.

 

Repentance: The Only Way Out of Fornication

But even in all this, there is still mercy. If you’ve fallen, don’t stay down. Cry out to God. Confess it. Repent genuinely. Stop hiding it. Stop defending it. The Bible says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). 

The blood of Jesus still cleanses. He can still make you new. He can restore your purity. He can rebuild your altar. But He will never forgive what you keep renaming. You can never be free from what you keep excusing. When you call it fornication, and cry for deliverance in such a ‘I will never let you go’, Heaven calls it forgiven. When you call it fun or romance, Heaven calls it rebellion.

So, dear sister, come out of it. If you are living together with someone who is not your spouse, come out. If you are doing “everything but the main thing,” repent. If you are entertaining sin in secret, confess and turn away. Don’t wait until your conscience dies. No one backslides overnight. It starts with small allowances, small compromises, and small redefinitions. Don’t let sin harden your heart. Don’t let guilt bury your fire. Come home. The arms of mercy are still open. The same Jesus who said to the woman caught in adultery, “Go and sin no more,” is still saying it to you today.

 

What is this Repentance exactly?

And what does this repentance mean? One man of God that has blessed my life deeply defined it as a 100% U-turn! That is repentance! Not 30%, not 50%, not “I’m trying.” It’s a full turnaround. You were going one way; down the road of sin, compromise, deceit, and lust; and you suddenly stop, turn around, and begin to run in the opposite direction. That’s repentance! It’s not crying in church and still returning to the same bed. It’s not deleting his number today and saving it again tomorrow. It’s not saying, “God understands,” while planning the next visit. No. Real repentance is when your heart breaks because you’ve wounded your Father, and you decide that you’d rather die than go back.

Repentance means change. “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:7). 

Did you see that? Forsake your way. Leave it. Drop it. Cut it off. Don’t manage it. Don’t negotiate with it. Kill it before it kills you. The Bible says, “Godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation, not to be repented of” (2 Corinthians 7:10). Real repentance changes your appetite. You no longer desire the vomit you left behind.

When you repent, you don’t only stop sinning; you start hating sin. You start feeling disgusted at what used to excite you. The same thing that once thrilled you now grieves you. That’s the proof that the Spirit of God has touched your heart. The prodigal son didn’t just cry in the pigsty; he stood up and said, “I will arise and go to my father” (Luke 15:18). That’s repentance. He didn’t just regret; he returned. And when he returned, the Father ran to him.

So, sister, arise. Make that U-turn now. God doesn’t bless those who hide their sins; He blesses those who confess and forsake them. “He that covers his sins shall not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy” (Proverbs 28:13). That’s the Word. The mercy is not in the covering; it’s in the confessing and forsaking.

Repentance is the gate back into the presence of God. It is the bridge that carries you from guilt to grace. It is not weakness to admit your wrong; it is wisdom. Heaven rejoices over one sinner that repents more than over ninety-nine who never fell. So if you have fallen, rise. Let the same Jesus who lifted that woman lift you too. Let Him wash you. Let Him renew you. Let Him fill you again with the Holy Ghost.

Because the sign that you have truly repented is not just that you cried; it’s that you changed. It’s that you can now say with boldness, “The things I used to do, I do them no more! The places I used to go, I go there no more! The messages I used to send, I send them no more! The people I used to sleep with, I sleep with them no more! The secret sins I used to defend, I defend them no more!” That’s repentance. That’s deliverance. That’s revival.

When you truly repent, the devil loses his claim. Sin loses its power. The chains break. The shame lifts. The fire returns. And God begins to use you again, not as a wounded pretender, but as a healed vessel.

 

Repentance is not saying, “I’m sorry.” It is saying, “I’m done.”

 

Let me leave you with this: Fornication is not weakness; it is war against God’s design. Purity is not outdated; it is Heaven’s language. And holiness is not an option; it is the proof of love.