"I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and love and discipline. (ie, sound mind)" 2 Timothy 1:6-7) "Discipline" is sometimes rendered "sound mind." Both terms come from the Greek "sofromismos" literally meaning self-control. Self-control is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit named in Galatians 5.

It’s vital that we do not give the devil an opportunity to gain power in our lives. Once he finds a place he will begin building a stronghold to imprison you. And if you are a true Christian who has received the Holy Spirit, then you are his foremost target. He already has the world and its inhabitants. As we read in the first Scripture, It goes without question that a person who is not "sober" cannot be "alert." The devil is like a lion "seeking someone to devour." God’s protection against him is "be of sober spirit", be of a sound mind. The devil and his demons are looking for a way into your life-and will find it if you fail to be alert, sober and of a sound mind.

In our second Scripture we find that we must "prepare our minds for action and keep sober in spirit." Only then can we be "obedient children" who are "not conformed to our former lusts." And it takes sobriety to "be holy in all of our behavior." No soldier who is preparing to engage the enemy is doing anything that will cloud his mind from being sober. For example, he may party until drunk or smoke weed until he mellows out when he is on furlough, but he knows that he will need a clear and sound mind when engaging the enemy if he hopes to survive. However, the soldiers of the Lord are never on furlough because there is no place on the earth that the enemy is not there warring against us. So we must be sober and of sound mind at all times. This is why the Bible teaches against drunkenness. No one drunk or high on drugs can be sober and alert.

Our third Scripture reveals that we must sometimes "kindle afresh the gift of God." In the context here this is likely referring to a Spiritual Gift which was given to Timothy. But the second verse is obviously speaking of the Holy Spirit which all Christians receive. The Holy Spirit frees us from fear, empowers us to be disciplined, and gives us a sound mind if we allow the Spirit to work unquenched.

Even demons who have been cast out of a person come back to see if there is an opening to enter back in, -"Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came;’ and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept and put in order. Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first." (Matthew 12:43-45) Jesus reveals much here about demons. Even if cast out they will attempt to come back in. There’s something about water that causes them to be unable to rest. Perhaps it’s because the world before man was inhabited by angels and was flooded by God to punish the fallen ones who had rebelled. Genesis 1 verse 2 tells is that the earth was covered with water before man was created.

Jesus said that demons seek "waterless" or "dry" places to rest. The Greek word here literally means place "without water" so it’s not a metaphor. Interesting also is that demons need rest. When it comes back it’s looking for a vacant place. A vacant place can be a person who doesn’t have or has lost the Holy Spirit, or a vacant place can also include a vacant mind under the influence of an intoxicant. We learn that some demons are more wicked than others. And we learn that having found such a place the spirit will bring other spirits with it and that the last state of that person will be worse.

There are basic points to remember to ensure that we do not open a portal for demons.

1. Be Alert 2. Be Sober 3. Be of Sound Mind 4. Kindle the Holy Spirit

"And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit." (Ephesians 5:18) The root meaning of the Greek word rendered "dissipation" is "to descend." Paul is making a contrast between being drunk and being filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit lifts us up to a sound mind while drinking to drunkenness causes us to descend into the land of shifting shadows where demons are lurking-seeking an opportunity. Interestingly, liquor was often referred to in the past as "spirits." As a young man I remember seeing Liquor stores advertising "Spirits & Wine." Of course alcohol is not a spirit but even Aristotle observed that people under the influence of alcohol act as if they are another person, or being controlled by a spirit. However, it’s not the alcohol itself but the loss of sobriety which opens the door for spirits to enter.

People who become drunk or inebriated by drugs often say and do things that they don’t remember when not "in their right mind." Sometimes we cut someone a little slack because they misbehaved while drunk. We understand that they were not of sound mind-and in fact sometimes delusional. I can personally testify that I have witnessed a person fighting "someone", "demons" or "things" that I could not see. I had always assumed that they were delusional which is bad enough, but when you consider the other alternative it’s even worse.

Link Between Marijuana and Psychosis

Alex Berenson is a New York Times Columnist and author of a number of books. His wife Jacqueline is a Forensic Psychiatrist and researcher at Columbia University. An essential part of her job is dealing with and treating patients who have committed homicides or other acts of violence-the criminally mentally ill. In conversation one day she told her husband that "in practically every case that I see people were using Cannabis at the time they committed these terrible crimes." Being a Liberal Columnist, Mr Berenson responded by saying that it sounded like nonsense to him. His wife then challenged him to research the data for himself. To his surprise he found that there was a proven and clear link between Cannabis and mental illness. And he also discovered a proven link between Psychosis (mental illness) and violence. Multiple studies showed that people who smoked marijuana, especially in their youth were at a high risk of developing Schizophrenia which is absolute torture for those who suffer with it. These people live in a state of paranoia. This made such an impression on Mr Berenson that he wrote a book that just now hit the shelves entitled, "Tell Your Children the Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness and Violence."

Another consideration is that many parents used Marijuana 20 or more years ago when they were young and do not believe its use is dangerous. The mind altering ingredient in Cannabis is THC. 20 years ago the percentage of THC in Marijuana was about 4% - today it can be as potent as 30%. Medical Marijuana has a low or no THC level to ensure that those who need it will not be mentally impaired.

The most obvious way that Cannabis fuels violence in psychotic people is through its tendency to cause paranoia. Paranoia definition: "Paranoia involves intense anxious or fearful feelings and thoughts often related to persecution, threat, or conspiracy which often leads to anxiety attacks. Paranoia occurs in many mental disorders, but is most often present in psychotic disorders. Paranoia can become delusions, when irrational thoughts and beliefs become so fixed that nothing (including contrary evidence) can convince a person that what they think or feel is not true."

Symptoms of paranoia and delusional disorders include intense and irrational mistrust or suspicion, which can bring on a sense of fear, anger, and betrayal. Some identifiable beliefs and behaviors of individuals with symptoms of paranoia include mistrust, hypervigilance, difficulty with forgiveness, defensive attitude in response to imagined criticism, preoccupation with hidden motives, fear of being deceived or taken advantage of, inability to relax, or are argumentative.

"Even Marijuana advocates acknowledge that the drug can cause paranoia; the risk is so obvious that users joke about it, and dispensaries advertise certain strains as less likely to do so. But for people with psychotic disorders, paranoia can fuel extreme violence. A Medical Journal in Australia found that most murders committed during a psychotic episode were people under the influence of Marijuana. 2 of 3 said they committed the homicide because of the delusion that the victim posed danger to them." (Wall Street Journal)

When sobriety is lost a person has opened a portal to being under the influence of someone or some thing. As a musician, in the past I played bars and clubs though I hated to. I’ve been around many drunks of which the vast majority were speaking and acting with unsound minds. Most were intoxicated with alcohol, others with illegal drugs. Some were given to violence, others became emotional basket cases. Seems as though they wanted to either fight or cry on your shoulder. Once, I encountered a man who believed that I was someone else who he hated and chased me with a knife. Lucky for me he was too inebriated to catch me. Often in the morning they could not remember what they had done and occasionally I would get an apology. But the next weekend, to put it in Yogi Berra’s terminology, it would be "deja vu all over again"

Sobriety lost due to drugs

In our prison ministry I met a man who was incarcerated for murder. He told me about his former life as a member of a street gang. He said that he used many drugs but that one became his favorite -Marijuana laced with an hallucinogen. He told me that he always woke up hours later completely naked with no remembrance. Once he awoke covered in blood that was not his own. Obviously, under the influence of this drug this man’s mind was not in control. We might suggest the drug was in control, but was it really? Under the influence this man drove, went places, talked with people, got into altercations, and did other things which he had no remembrance of when he became sober. Obviously there was a level of control over his body. And obviously still, it wasn’t his consciousness in control. We often winked at what drunks said and did saying "well, they’re just drunk-it’s the alcohol."

Sound Mind loss due to Occult and Sin

Many years ago when I was a young Pastor, a man and woman began attending our services. One day the woman told me that occasionally three spirits would appear at the foot of her bed -she wanted to know if they were angels or demons. They owned a small ranch and invited the congregation to come out for a cookout. While I was outside by the grill with her husband she suddenly ran out the front door holding her throat in a panic. I immediately discerned that demons were stirred up by us being there and had physically attacked the woman. Her husband and I took her into a room and I demanded that the demon depart. She began to shake and stammer in a foreign language and then the spirit suddenly burst out. I actually saw it as it flew out and went through the corner of the ceiling behind us. It appeared as a formless shadow.

For months there were no signs or evidence of demonic activity and she eventually asked to be baptized. It was at her baptism that a second demon manifested. As this demon manifested itself she became terrified of water to the point that it was impossible to baptize her. I was able to cast this one out as well, but she was never actually baptized. The third demon was the most formidable and far too wise and cunning for me at the time. Dealing with it was like trying to get a firm hold on a wet bar of soap. It eventually drew her away from us.

I later discovered that this woman had long been dabbling in so-called New Age Spiritualism and had a book on automatic writing. Automatic writing is when a person clears their mind to allow themselves to channel a spirit which will begin to use the person’s hand to write messages. This woman was constant trouble for me and the congregation as well, and though I loved her, I felt that she would not let me help her. She was given to lying, thief and deception -she was never of sound mind in Christ. And at some point she began protecting the third demon who had gained control.

About two years after she was gone, my family and I spent a day at beautiful Long Pool Park. As we were driving home I heard the Holy Spirit say "teach her." I immediately argued with the Lord saying, "Teach her?! I’ve tried and she has never received it! And how since I haven’t seen her in two years?! Am I supposed to just show up at her house?!" The next morning I came downstairs at about 9 am to see her sitting in my living room. She said, "You’re probably wondering why I am here. I was working in my garden this morning and I heard an audible voice say ‘Go to Pastor Larry and he will teach you.’" She said that it scared her so much that she dropped everything to come. Seems that she had been visiting Hebrew Roots Churches in Missouri and Arkansas with the intention of starting her own group. After counseling her on this matter she laid down the plan, left my home and I’ve never seen her again. I believe the Lord directed her to me for the sake of a young Christian man whom she and her husband were "discipling" -someone they could control, to be the "Pastor" of the new Messianic Church they were planning to start.

Devil and his Demons look for an Opening

I don’t believe that it’s just the alcohol, the drugs or other sinful vices that cause people to lose control and do things that they would never normally do. Consider that it may be demonic spirits who have found a portal through these vices who are actually at work. In the opening Scriptures we saw that what the devil is looking for is a person who is not mentally sober or sound minded. Demons will exploit a mind that is not sober. Consider that one of the appeals of drunkenness or of mind altering drugs is to escape reality. It is giving way to deception. It is boldly making the statement they you chose the lie over the truth. In doing this they reject their Creator and choose to serve the lusts of the flesh to their own doom, -"For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator." (Romans 1:25) Saying that in doing so they "served the creature" obviously refers to a created being-either themselves, or Satan who is also a created being. In actuality, serving self is serving the Devil. One reason intoxication is wrong is because it causes the loss of sobriety which results in the loss of a sound mind, which opens the mind to demonic influence and sometimes control.

If practiced the deeds of the flesh will open a portal for demons. These sins may not cause you to lose your sobriety, but they will poison you and that will cause your mind to be unsound. Wickedness on the mind quenches the Holy Spirit from which a sound mind comes. The Bible says that a saint is a Temple of God and that if he allows his Temple to be destroyed - God will destroy him. Any of these vices has the power to corrupt you as a Temple of God. We must not allow sin to find a home in our lives.

Beware uncontrolled anger

Many years ago a man and woman began attending our services though they lived two hours away. The woman was as sweet a person as you could ever hope to meet. The husband was a sincere but highly emotional man who was prone to outbursts of anger. As a young Pastor I discerned that sometimes there was a spiritual entity that was with the woman. One day they asked to counsel with Treon and I and told us a very sad story. For years a demon terrorized their home. He would roar like a lion, throw furniture and even physically assault them and their two sons. The lying spirit claimed to be a native American who died nearby. It also claimed that it had taken part in the massacre of a neighboring tribe. Getting bolder the demon would get the woman out of bed and back to the time of the massacre to force her to watch. Finally, the demon choked her to point that she almost passed out and died, and that is why they decided in desperation to tell me. The demon also appeared to her and told her that it had caused the death of her oldest son. He had recently died in a car accident. The spirit told her that it appeared on the windshield as the boy was driving on a rural road which caused him to lose control and hit a tree.

She was not possessed, but oppressed, so I prayed over her and anointed her forehead with oil, saying, "May this anointing strike fear in any demon who sees it." The couple asked if Treon and I would come to their home and spend a night in their bed to see if anything would happen. We did, and as I had expected the demon failed to manifest itself. While on their property the Lord revealed to me that there had never been Indians living there, and that there had never been a massacre-it was all a lie from a lying spirit. Months went by without any sign of demonic activity, and the woman literally blossomed. Things were great until I left to preach outdoor crusades in Africa. I was gone for five weeks and when I returned I discovered that the demon had returned. This time it came with other demons including one that took mental control of the woman. Soon she subtly poisoned her husband against us and we never saw them again. It was years later that the Lord revealed to me that the portal was opened by the man’s uncontrolled outbursts of anger. That is how the demons gained entrance into the family. I still do not know how they gained access to the woman. Michigan Professor Richard Nisbett, the world’s greatest authority on intelligence, plainly said that he’d rather have his son being high in self-control than intelligence. He said, "Self-control is key to a well-functioning life, because our brain makes us easily susceptible to all sorts of influences."

Let us never forget that Satan was the first rebel, and that those who follow him become his children, -"You are of your father the devil and you want to do the desires of your father." (John 8:44) "By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious; anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God." (1 John 3:10) Since the Bible says that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft or sorcery, we should take seriously the dangers of lending ourselves to the practices of a counter-culture. A counter-culture is a subculture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, often in opposition to mainstream cultural mores.

Consider the evil of rebellion. It is the very act of rising up against your loving Heavenly Father and crossing over the battle lines to join the enemy who hates your soul. Satan is the destroyer who wants to kill, steal and destroy. You may say, "I am bought by the Blood of Jesus-filled with the Holy Spirit-the Devil cannot destroy me!" Perhaps not, but he wasn’t allowed to kill or destroy Job either-however he stole Job’s family, flocks and herds, servants, wealth and health. I am certain we have all been stolen from because we have opened a portal for the Devil and his demons. To be clear, the devil did not gain access to Job through his sin, but through his righteousness. God allowed Satan to test Job.

My teen years were in the late 1960's and early 1970's, so I was young when the hippie counter-culture was in full bloom. As a hippie and Rock and Roll musician I was active in America’s counter-culture scene. I wore my hair very long, wore the hippie clothing, smoked weed, and spoke the counter-culture language. In my day long hair was an outward declaration of non-compliance and rebellion. Since the Viet Nam War was raging long hair had become a symbol for anti-war or even anti-military. American soldiers were often berated when they came home-being spat on and called derogatory names such as "baby killers." The country was very divided and polarized.

As a hippie with long hair it was not safe for me to be alone in a rural area-hippies sometimes were victims of violence. In protesting the war we stood behind the facade of social morality, while in our actual practices most of us only wanted to party, get high and engage in "free love." We wanted to be different, to look different, to speak different and think of ourselves as being cool and on the edge. To be this way defiantly fed our pride and vanity. But this resistance to conform was rebellion. And to be in rebellion to our culture for purely selfish reasons is not God’s will, but is demonic, -"Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil." (Romans 13:1-3) Notice also, -"For rebellion is as the sin of divination (witchcraft), and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. You have rejected the Word of the Lord." (1 Samuel 15:23)