We are all familiar with the
idea of biblical, "legal" doorways into the spiritual realm—such as
worship, prayer, and fasting, which draw us closer to God in a holy and orderly
way. But there is a flip side to that coin. Drug use acts as an
"illegal" or artificial doorway to the spiritual realm. Whether you look at it through the Bible or
through the lens of the mind, substances strip away our natural guards and open
us up to things we aren't meant to experience unprepared.
The Biblical View
Altering
the mind with substances is a bypass, shortcut, or opening to spiritual
deception:
- The Greek Root Pharmakeia: Biblical passages (such as Revelation 21:8) use the Greek word pharmakeia (traditionally translated as "sorcery" or "witchcraft"), which shares a root with pharmacy and drugs.
- Loss of Control and the Mandate for Holiness: The Bible teaches that you must control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable (1 Thessalonians 4:4). Taking drugs is an act of rebellion against that mandate. In Scripture (such as 1 Samuel 15:23), rebellion is compared to the sin of witchcraft—meaning that trying to bypass God's boundaries through artificial means opens them up to the realm of darkness.
- Teachings on Sobriety: Teachings such as Ephesians 5:18 (warning against drunkenness) emphasize that a person should be filled with and guided by the Spirit rather than controlled or manipulated by an external substance. From this perspective, inviting a state of hallucination or intoxication is surrendering self-control to forces outside of God.
- Loss of Inhibition: Drugs lower one’s inhibitions and get you to lower your guard. This is another way of saying you lose self-control.
- Natural Filters Disengaged: God has given each of us a natural "veil" or filtering system designed to keep our consciousness firmly rooted in physical reality, in order to protect us from being overwhelmed by the massive amount of data existing around us. The natural “filters” we normally have in place that keep us from seeing and hearing things in the spirit realm are removed or disengaged, allowing us to experience things we never would have if we were sober. (For more on these filters, see Designed to Stay Grounded: A Look at Our God-Given Filters).
- Impaired Discernment: The Bible teaches that sobriety and a clear mind are required to exercise spiritual discernment. When a chemical substance alters perception, a person's natural mental and spiritual defenses drop, leaving them vulnerable to negative influences or confusion.
- Opening Oneself Up to Demons: Teachings such as Ephesians 6:11-17 reveal that there is a dark spiritual realm that we must be on guard against, wear God’s armor to protect us from, and fight against. Using drugs removes that armor and creates an open door for demons to come into one’s life.
The Tactical Realities: Binding the Strongman and Leaving the
House Empty
Scripture
gives us a vivid picture of how this spiritual compromise actually happens
behind the scenes:
- Binding and Disarming the Strongman: In Matthew 12:29, Jesus speaks of a burglar who must first bind the "strongman" (the person guarding his home, which represents the body, soul, and spirit) before he can plunder his house. When someone uses drugs, they essentially do the burglar's work for him. It isn't just the offensive weapon—the sword of the Spirit or the Word of God—that gets dropped or taken away; the defensive armor of Ephesians 6 (the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith) is cast aside. Intoxication neutralizes the guard, enabling the enemy to tie his hands and stripping off his protection. This is how the devil gets people bound.
- The Parable of the Empty House: In Matthew 12:43–45, Jesus describes an impure spirit returning to a house that is "swept clean and put in order"—meaning it is empty, unguarded, and unoccupied. The spirit then brings in even more wicked spirits to take up residence. Sobriety and a clear mind mean you are actively occupying, guarding, and governing your own thoughts and spirit. When a substance takes over, you check out and abandon your post. Leaving the house vacant, unlocked, and undefended invites whatever passing spiritual force wants to walk right in and take over.
The Scientific and Psychological View
From a
scientific and neurological standpoint, these experiences are often explained
through brain chemistry rather than unseen dimensions:
- Neural Alterations: Psychedelics and other drugs interact with neurotransmitters (like serotonin receptors) in the brain, changing how different parts of the brain communicate with each other, allowing for much more unguided, random cross-talk between different parts of the brain.
- Subjective Epiphanies and "Self-Loss": This disruption can produce profound feelings of awe, losing your sense of "self" (where the boundary between who you are and the world around you completely vanishes), visual or auditory hallucinations, and a deep sense of connection.
Putting it All Together
Even these other views from science confirm the truth of Scripture, pointing to the same warning: mind-altering
substances strip away your natural protection. Through a proper, contextual understanding of the whole Bible, we understand that using drugs is rebelling against God's command to control your own body, losing your spiritual
armor, binding the strongman, leaving the house empty, which others acknowledge as tearing down your defense shield and disrupting your brain's normal filters, all of force open a door to the spiritual realm, leaving you wide open and vulnerable to things you can't
control.
Attribution notice: Scripture taken from the Holy Bible NIV, copyright Zondervan 2026, used by permission. This article was written by the author with assistance from artificial intelligence.
Do You Want to Know Him?If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus. Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?
“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15). He preached that we must repent and believe.
Please see my explanation of this in my post called "
Do You Want to Know Jesus?"
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Len Lacroix is the founder of
Doulos Missions International. He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission.
www.dmiworld.org.
