Have you ever considered the eerie link between naming alcohol a “spirit” and the potent brew’s ability to unleash spiritual chaos in one’s life?
If you haven’t, Rick Burgess, BlazeTV host of “Strange Encounters” — a biblical podcast on the supernatural — suggests contemplating this chilling tie because it’s true: Alcohol abuse is indeed a gateway to the demonic.
In this episode, Rick addresses a letter sent by one of his podcast listeners who was vulnerable enough to share his struggles with alcoholism and the harrowing spiritual battles that ensued as a result.
Although the anonymous writer grew up abstaining from alcohol due to his Southern Baptist roots and a family history of alcoholism, he fell into alcohol’s trap later in life.
“I became depressed, and I began to lean on alcohol to help me,” Rick reads from the letter.
While his drinking began slowly — “a glass of wine here or there” — it eventually evolved into “an almost around-the-clock habit.”
“As the habit grew, I noticed strange changes in my surroundings. I began to hear things. I began to see things and finally communicate with things that no one other than myself could see. The first thing that got my attention was I remember walking by a mirror and catching a glimpse of myself. Except it wasn’t me. It was an unrecognizable monster-like creature,” he writes.
While he describes his reflection as “terrifying,” it wasn’t enough for him to stop drinking. In fact, things got worse. One day, in a drunken stupor, he decided to drive all the way to the beach house in Florida that his family rented for vacations.
“All the way down, I began to notice something in the car with me. The only way I know to describe it was sort of a cloud. … At no time ever during our previous stays in that home was I ever afraid. This time was different. I saw a cloud everywhere I went in the home. I felt as though there was someone or something horrible in the house with me,” Rick reads from the letter.
Thoroughly terrified, the man called his family and told them about his predicament. They agreed to get him help. He drove home the following day, but the sinister cloud followed him back. The day before he was to leave for treatment, the cloud “began to move around the room” and even “grew bigger.” “I got the sense that it was angry with me,” he writes, noting that his family witnessed him speaking with the entity “in a language that was unknown to anyone in the room.”
The following day, the cloud followed him to the treatment center, where he was “left alone in a cinder-block room to detox.”
“Nothing around me was familiar other than the cloud. I didn’t know what to do other than cry and begin to pray. I have no idea how long I cried out. When I finally was able to compose myself, I heard as clear as a bell, ‘Are you ready to listen to me now?”’ the letter reads.
He knew in the moment that the voice came from God. He was rescued in his lowest moment and is now sharing his story to warn others to “never go near this poison.”
“Wow,” says Rick after reading the letter.
“Doing anything that alters your mind — this is something the demonic forces are so hoping that we will do,” he warns.
That’s why Paul instructs us in Ephesians 5:18 to “not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery” but “instead, be filled with the Spirit.” Peter conveys a similar message about sobriety and spiritual alertness in 1 Peter 5:8, which says, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
Rick, acknowledging his history with alcohol and binge drinking, confesses, “I can honestly say that most of the wicked things that I did or participated in could be tied directly to allowing my mind to be altered in some way.”
Allowing oneself to be cognitively compromised with alcohol or drugs is “an invitation: ‘Come on in, I can easily be manipulated,”’ he cautions.
To hear more of Rick’s commentary, watch the episode above.
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