Scripture: Hebrews 12 v 15: "Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled."
Matthew 15 v 17- 20: "Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man."
From the beginning of Creation when God created everything He declared it to be very good. When Adam, who was given authority over God's creation, fell into sin, everything God created became tainted. Animals became wild and dangerous; men became killers and other evil things; plants became poisonous and the planet became polluted. The presence of God was gone.
Eventually men found that certain plants could be used to take away pain and could be antiseptic to aid the healing process. Over the centuries this has become very refined. Unfortunately the corrupt people took advantage of a lucrative element and drug trafficking of lethal and highly addictive, illegal substances became a cottage industry.
The victims of the plants Satan poisoned became addicted to various drugs and the knife gets twisted when they are sent to rehab to go cold turkey from the drugs they are enslaved to. An endless cycle of despair. Addicts have a love hate relationship with their drugs. But once the hook is in the soul it is difficult to remove.
Over the years of this ministry the Lord Jesus has shown me the root of ALL addictions lies in Bitterness. The vulnerable soul has many bitter experiences from divorce, travel accidents, physical or sexual abuse, war, neglect, rejection or loss of a parent. Bitterness and resentment gets added to rebellion in the teen years and all resistance to the entrancing recreational drug world crumbles.
The big traps are peer pressure, rap music - also trance and heavy metal rock music, easy availability of drugs, clubs, raves, and the megamonster - the need to escape from the bitter pain of past experiences. Jesus says that what you put in your mouth or up your nose is harmless - it is what is triggered in your soul that causes the problems.
You hear TV news presenters say of some celebrity who died from an overdose that he/she was fighting his/her demons! Unless you are actively engaged in spiritual warfare to bind and cast out demons you can have no idea what that fight entails! Just going to rehab is not enough for most to stay clean. James 4 v 6 - 7: "But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith,God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
Your soul consists of intellect or the mind, emotions and will. Drugs separate the harmony and balance of the soul. When the will desires to do drugs the mind loses its stop signs. The emotions do a roller coaster ride and you are on your trip. You experience the great rush of (false) peace and all your troubles seem so far away. Until the trip is over and the cold hard reality of life sends you into a spiral of depression that needs another drug hit to take you up again. Your soul is now enslaved to Satan for the duration of your addiction or until death, whichever comes first.
There is only one perfect solution to this addiction to any substance and that is to kill the root of the problem. The root is Bitterness. Every addict I have dealt with has a problem with Bitterness, Unforgiveness, Anger towards God, and Memory Recall of Hurts. Until these areas are thoroughly and completely eradicated the hook of addiction is fairly immovable.
The strongest addiction hook is Nicotine. It opens the door for alcohol and other drugs. The common elements are bitterness in the product. Nicotine is a seriously bitter substance and a quarter teaspoon of raw nicotine will kill a horse. Alcohol is another very bitter substance and pills are bitter too. Nicotine is the hardest addiction to break.
The demon in the soul is called Bitterness and IT craves bitter substances. The demon forces its human host to feed IT with bitter substances. It is an evil spirit that controls you to feed its hunger for bitter stuff and its reward is the utter destruction and ultimate death of its host. Once the human host has given in to the demon's craving, the demon can cause all the havoc it wants in the poor human.
Read Mark 5 to see how Jesus engages with the demon-possessed man and then with the demon itself which is called Legion - because they were many, in fact a Roman legion is between 6000 - 10000 men. They had a conversation. The demon did not want to leave that place. Jesus sent Legion into a herd of 2000 pigs which violently suicided over a cliff into the sea. The man was completely healed and in his right mind. The people ordered Jesus to leave. No-one wants to believe that demons are real.
(Read also "The Tree of Bitterness" on this blog. It has a diagram of the tree with the roots, trunk and fruit labelled to assist your understanding.) Drugs are dangerous. Even prescription and over the counter drugs come with an insert which contains long lists of side effects. Cigarettes cause horrible lung diseases. Alcohol damages the brain and liver and creates monsters once the craving sets in. Crystal meth eats holes in the brain, which can never recover what it has lost.
Many people come with a label called "I can handle it!". This is a lie Satan uses to great effect continuously. Another charming lie is "It won't happen to me!" The arrogant users of herbs called weed or dagga or cannabis think that they are well in control of a basically harmless herb that was created by God for their pleasure. Read Ezekiel 8 v 17 for God's answer to that: "Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose."
Jesus died to set you free! Through faith in His name your chains are broken. Forgive those who have hurt you and you will be forgiven. He will remove the addiction as if you were never bound by it. He will deliver you from the power of your enemy. Stay close to Jesus and the enemy will not return. Be obedient to His Word and it will feed your hunger and bring you true peace that lasts forever. Please never forget that Jesus loves you and that He has forgiven you - believe and receive.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, Jesus is the Prince of Peace - the highest authority of Peace in the Universe. Fill us with His true peace and flood our souls with it so we never need pills or tranquillisers or anti-depressants ever again. Help us to forgive from the heart to kill the bitter root within our souls that gives Satan the ability to enslave us through drugs. In Jesus' name and to His glory. Amen.
