Jesus came and is coming today to give a wellness check for those that need Him!

We learn how to grow and change according to the times around us.

Humans quickly adapt and learn the new ways of the world.

The demons of addiction whisper: "You need alcohol, you need that marijuana and those gummies to relax, that whisky to rest, that wine to have fun," but God says:

"I am here. I am the I AM. I am a jealous God and I want to be the fun to your stress, the rest to your exhaustion, the peace to your anxiety—don't fall for the world's 'styles.'

They're potions. It's witchcraft to trick you into being a slave to that substance instead of My son with an inheritance! It's a potion to get you, daughter, to be in bondage instead of being My daughter in freedom."

Greek: φαρμακεία (pharmakeia) = Drugs, potions, poisoning, magic, sorcery, and occult practices

This is where we get our English words pharmacy and pharmaceutical from!

But don’t you think it’s interesting that witches, satanic rituals, sex traffickers and those that perform occult practices use drugs to enter demonic portals, to worship their false gods, which are demons and Satan, and to aid in their perverse orgies and practices—and we think drugs are just natural and pure.

Ancient sorcery (not just modern) also many times involved the use of substances, potions, poisons, or drugs in connection with magical and occult practices.

In the New Testament passages where pharmakeia occurs, English translations normally render it ‘sorcery’ because the contexts concern occult or magical practice.

Warning: When you partake in drugs, you are opening your temple, your body, your soul and your spirit up to drugs, which opens you up to sorcery, to witchcraft and to the demonic!

Conviction leaves because my mind isn’t present—demons are invited in, so the Holy Spirit is evicted!

Conviction leaves because my mind isn’t present—demons are invited in, so the Holy Spirit is evicted!

Alcohol and drug addiction, or any type of addiction, is about control.

The Moabites and the Ammonites became the Arab nations of today that have warred throughout history against Israel and been enemies to God’s chosen people.

Drunkenness, which is a sin according to the Word of God, creates devastating consequences.

There are never good memories we have of what we were apart of or did ourselves in a drunken state, if we have any memories at all.

Alcohol and drunkenness will lead you astray!

Facts on Addiction:
- About 46.3 million Americans had a substance use disorder in 2021. Only 6.3% received treatment that year.
- About 110,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2022.
- The major prescription-drug categories associated with misuse are opioids, CNS depressants (including benzodiazepines/sedatives), and stimulants.
- Opioids, including legal medications such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, morphine, heroin and illicit fentanyl remain a major driver of overdose deaths.
- Illicitly manufactured fentanyl and other potent synthetic opioids account for the vast majority of opioid overdose deaths in recent years.
- Cocaine and methamphetamine are both major contributors to overdose mortality, with stimulant-involved deaths becoming an increasingly important part of the overdose crisis.
- Alcohol is legally available but can produce alcohol use disorder, which is a substance use disorder. NIDA has cited approximately 29 million Americans with AUD in earlier national estimates.
- Legal pharmaceutical drugs are a significant part of the problem

A drug doesn’t have to be illegal to be addictive. Prescription medications can cause dependence, addiction, overdose, or withdrawal when they’re misused—and some can cause these problems even when taken exactly as prescribed.

Three Major Prescription Categories:
- Opioid pain medications
- CNS depressants
- Prescription stimulants

Marijuana Stats and Facts
Using the latest nationally representative U.S. data available (2024)
- 64.2 million Americans age 12+ used marijuana at least once during the past year.

- 44.3 million used marijuana in the past month.

- About 16.9 million used marijuana daily or almost daily during the past year.

- 20.6 million Americans age 12+ met the criteria for marijuana (cannabis) use disorder in the past year. That’s about 7.1% of everyone age 12+.

- About 1 in 3 Americans who used marijuana in the past year met criteria for cannabis use disorder in 2024.

Cannabis directly affects brain functions involved in memory, learning, attention, decision-making, coordination, emotions, and reaction time.

Marijuana breaks down your body, mind, and spirit!

🧠 What cannabis does to the brain:

The main intoxicating chemical, THC, attaches to cannabinoid receptors in the brain. These receptors are involved in memory, learning, movement, judgment, reward, and emotions.

Short term, THC can cause:

• Short-term memory problems
• Difficulty concentrating and learning
• Slower reaction time
• Poorer coordination and balance
• Impaired judgment and decision-making
• Altered perception of time
• Anxiety, paranoia, or panic in some people


With frequent use, particularly when cannabis use begins during adolescence, research has found associations with problems in memory, learning, attention, and executive functions.

❤️ What cannabis does to the body:
Heart and circulation:
• THC can temporarily increase heart rate.
• It can affect blood pressure and cardiovascular function.

Lungs:
• Smoking cannabis exposes the lungs to smoke and irritating chemicals.
• Frequent smoking can cause coughing and respiratory problems.

Nausea and vomiting:
• Heavy, long-term cannabis use can cause cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS) in some people. This can involve repeated episodes of severe nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain.

Coordination and driving:
Cannabis can slow reactions, impair coordination and decision-making, and distort perception. Combining cannabis with alcohol can produce even greater impairment.

🧠 Mental health:
Heavy use and high-THC products are associated with increased risk of certain mental-health problems, particularly psychotic symptoms and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders in vulnerable individuals.

With repeated use, the brain can adapt to THC. A person may develop tolerance, meaning they need more to achieve the same effect.

When a frequent user suddenly stops, withdrawal can include:
• Strong cravings
• Irritability or anger
• Anxiety
• Depression/low mood
• Restlessness
• Difficulty sleeping
• Decreased appetite
• Strange or vivid dreams
• Headaches

This is one reason cannabis can become difficult to stop even though it generally doesn’t produce the same type of fatal respiratory overdose associated with opioids.

The risks tend to be greater when someone:
- starts young
- uses frequently
- uses high-THC products
- uses large amounts
- combines cannabis with other drugs/alcohol

Smoking cannabis isn’t the only issue. Edibles and concentrates can deliver very high doses of THC and produce prolonged or unexpectedly intense effects.

The key idea is that cannabis can change the brain’s reward and learning systems with repeated use, which helps explain why some people develop cannabis use disorder.

THC activates the brain’s cannabinoid system

THC, the main intoxicating chemical in cannabis, binds to CB1 cannabinoid receptors in the brain. These receptors normally respond to chemicals your own body produces.

THC can indirectly influence dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved in motivation, learning, and reward. It isn’t accurate to think of cannabis as simply “dumping dopamine” into the brain like some stimulants; rather, THC changes signaling in circuits that regulate dopamine and reward. (nida.nih.gov⁠)

The brain learns: “This is rewarding”

When cannabis repeatedly produces pleasure, relaxation, relief from anxiety, or another desirable effect, the brain can learn to associate cannabis with those experiences.

This is called reinforcement.

Over time, things associated with cannabis—such as a particular person, place, time of day, or situation—can become triggers for craving.

The brain adapts

With repeated exposure to THC, the brain can adapt to its presence.

One consequence can be tolerance: the person needs more cannabis, or stronger cannabis, to experience effects they previously got from a smaller amount.

Research has found that chronic cannabis exposure can reduce the availability/sensitivity of CB1 receptors, and these changes can partially reverse after sustained abstinence. (nida.nih.gov⁠)

Then comes the “I need it to feel normal” problem

This is where dependence can develop.

Someone who uses cannabis heavily may discover:
“When I smoke, I feel normal. When I don’t, I feel irritable, anxious, restless, or can’t sleep.”

The brain has adapted to regular THC exposure, and stopping can produce withdrawal symptoms. (nida.nih.gov⁠)

Today we are doing a wellness check!

How to Know You Are Addicted to a Substance:
- You think about getting high all the time, it speaks to you as a voice.
- If someone tries to tell you to stop, you get angry like they’re trying to get in your way of peace or a let down.
- You have broken relationships with friends and family members/co-workers because you see them as the “bad guys” that don’t understand you, don’t appreciate you, are trying to stop you from what you want to do, you see them as the controlling ones.
- You methodically plan out scenarios to get to your high or alcohol that usually includes lying to loved ones, deceiving others, manipulating, stealing, but you are driven to do whatever it takes to get that substance. In that driven state, you have lost caring about the loved ones you may hurt by it. In fact, many times you don’t even care anymore if hurts them, conviction feels far from you.
- You have not only lied to others, but listened to lies yourself and adopted them as the truth. It sounds like, “you deserve this, no one works as hard as you so they don’t understand, it’s not that bad as they’re trying to make it out to be, they’re just religious and judgmental”. You always spin it on someone else to take the attention off of yourself. Blame is your game.You lie to others.
- You cause strife or offenses in other relationships to control them those directly around you to make distance from good people in your life who will tell you the truth to fight for you.
- The stronger the demon of addiction becomes, the greater lengths you will go to to cover for yourself and tear down others.You will go to great lengths to cover for yourself and tear others down
- This is part of the torment you’ve been under, you do what you really do not want to do, but the control of the demonic addiction drives you to cut off good relationships, stop going pursuing God and the call of God on your life, stop dating your wife, stop spiritually leading your kids. The zeal you have had for God and life prior is no longer there.
- You hear voices and have demonic experiences and bad dreams. Even your family will experience these things because you have opened the door up to the demonic not only in your life, but also in your home.
- You experience withdrawals when trying to stop. (Extreme emotional ups and downs, pain, sickness, irritability, anger, nervousness/anxiety, depressed mood, restlessness, sleep problems, decreased appetite, unusual dreams, headaches, and cravings.)

Here’s the Truth:
- Demons are speaking to you - it’s not your thoughts
- Loved ones are fighting for you, not against you
- The substance is controlling you, not the spouse, family member or friend
- Others aren’t religious or judgmental towards you, they’re right—you’re bound
- You don’t deserve freedom to sin; you deserve freedom from sin
- If you’ll let go of control and give God back control, He will deliver you

Practical Advice for Those That Are Addicted:
- Don’t push away your loved ones!
- Isolation is exactly where the enemy wants you! In isolation is where demons control you best. They’ll make you feel safest by yourself and in secret where you can get your high from that substance without anyone judging you. Run from that voice of isolation and to your loved ones!
- Expose the lies you’re hearing to your loved ones.
- Don’t carry shame. Don’t cover up for the demons attacking you, expose them. Get people around you to pray with you, be a support system to you when you feel triggered, or temptation or whatever stress that comes to usually get you to run to that substance.
- Wage war spiritually! Wage war against the demons of addiction. This takes a waking up out of the potion it's had over you. When you wake up out of that, wage war in the spirit realm!
- Never miss your daily encounter with God. Get in the Word of God every day, turn on worship in your home, in your truck/car, in your office, and at night when you sleep. Set an atmosphere where God’s presence dwells so the enemy knows he’s not welcome.

Practical Advice for Those That Are Addicted:
- Wage war practically.
- Get rid of anything and everything that is unpleasing to the Lord.
- Get rid of the pills, the gummies, the alcohol, the porn, the explicit movies, and whomever you’re following on social media that has led you astray into the lifestyle of addiction.
- Tell people around you, “I’m done with _____.” If they were someone you got high with before, let them know ‘don’t ask me or we are done.’
- You will immediately need separation and space from people that you once sinned with, but if they don’t respect your new life change, it needs to be completely over until God releases you back if He does.
- If it's someone you got drunk with before, tell them no more alcohol for me and don’t ask, or we’re done.
- If it was a doctor giving you opioids or pharmaceutical drugs like candy, erase their number from your phone and get a naturopath doctor that will give you vitamins and nutrients to build back up your vessel.

Warning:
Some of you are the spouses or friends that aren’t the addicts and have no problem with one glass of wine, 1 beer, or 1 sleeping pill twice a year, but you have it in your home for your teens to see—for your spouse who does struggle to see—and it’s a countdown of how long it’s going to be before they fall into drinking with you or popping pills with you.

If you don’t have a problem with addiction, pray about removing addictive substances from your life altogether because of the effect it has on others!

If God’s plan is for you to be a man of God and lead in your house spiritually, the enemy is going to come for the fathers and men in this house to get you addicted and worshipping other things so that others see that instead of you worshipping and praying to God.

The enemy wants to steal your child’s gaze off a righteous Father to make you unrighteous not just to come for you, but to take out generations in your family!

Substance addiction can also be a generational curse, something that has been a stronghold in your family.

It is only broken by the blood of Jesus!

Practical Advice for Those Walking Through Freedom With Loved Ones That Are Addicted:
- This is a hard place to be, because it hurts more to see ones you love in bondage than even yourself. And when you know freedom, you want your loved ones to know that freedom… but you can't want it more for them than they do. They have to want it more than you do. They have to fight for it. Mistakes can be made, but do they get back up and want to fight the addiction or blame you? They must fight with you, not against you.
- Your prayer life is the most powerful thing you can do for them. You must stop believing the lies of the enemy that you "just pray" for them. Prayer is talking to God, who's the One that holds all authority and power to break the chains of the bondage they're in! This is the most important thing you can do for them—pray for them daily; pray for encounters and dreams and holy visitations; pray for the fear of the Lord to come to them; pray for deliverance and healing; pray for forgiveness in their hearts towards those they're offended with or whatever you believe is the root cause for the addiction. Don't stop praying for them!
- The demons of addiction work hard to protect them from you. If you're a demon of addiction, do you want strong Christian parents, siblings, friends, pastors around your slave to addiction? NO way, so that demon works overtime to offend you with them, to stop believing for their freedom, to cut them off, to say horrible things to them, but all of this feeds the demons of addiction. This is exactly what they want, because after they remove all the healthy and spiritually strong people out of their life, they isolate them with shame, making them feel "free" of judgment without you in their life. Don't fall in the trap of offense!
- Do not enable them. Love them without enabling their sin or addiction. Do not pretend you're okay with it; don't pretend it's not happening; do not allow any of their substances in your home or around you and your children. Do not downplay the sin and addiction. Lovingly tell them it's wrong and destroying their life, and that you will not tolerate the rebellion, sin, or addiction, but you will never stop loving them and praying for them. This allows right and wrong to be established to them when the lies of the enemy are always filling their minds. The truth sets people free!
- Boundaries are necessary. My family members that have struggled with addiction are not coming into my home or near my children high, drunk or buzzed. None of my family drinks alcohol around my children, and that's how it will always be. We will not allow what the world calls common to be common in our home. My children aren't going into environments where people are struggling with addiction—they've opened their home up to the demonic, and I'm not opening my children up to that. Too many of you allow your children in unhealthy environments trying to show compassion to others. Your children are not a tool to use to show others compassion with! Do other things to show them compassion and support, but not with your children. When you feel manipulated emotionally, financially, physically, or even spiritually, you need to lean into that and draw a strong line. And if it's not respected, you have to create space and let them know you are intentionally doing that—you're not pulling away your love or faith for them, but you are your time, money and emotional space. As long as you enable them or fail to create boundaries, their addiction will continue.
- Demonic voices will also try to manipulate you. It sounds like:
- "If you create space and they overdose, it will be your fault."
- "If you create boundaries and stand strong, then they'll leave and find someone else."
- "If you tell them you're not tolerating these behaviors anymore, you won't see them anymore."
- Manipulation is witchcraft. Do not give in to witchcraft. The demons of addiction want you enabling the addiction so it can keep that person in their prison until it takes their life.
- Keep fighting for them. Keep loving them! Keep forgiving them. Keep praying for them and believing for their breakthrough!

He calls you son and daughter, and not only has freedom for you, but an inheritance!