 continuing from the previous lesson about opening doors to the devil. Door number six is inner vows. Inner vow is usually made early in life, made with the deep emotion, often in response to an experience or desire that we make to ourselves. Jennifer Sum from Practical Christianity says the following. Inner vows are a form of self-determination and idolatry because we place our desires before God's desires for us. Listen to this. They are also often in response to condemnation or judgment of a person or a group of people. Inner vows form walls around our hearts. They cause us, they cause our hearts to become hostages to our past even if our circumstances have drastically changed. The scripture says Matthew 12 verse 37 for by your words you will be justified and by your words you shall be condemned. In Proverbs chapter 20 verse 25 it says it is a snare for a man to devote rushly something as holy and afterward to reconsider his vows. Your words, your inner vows are typically become a snare. They become a trap and you become condemned by your own words. Words like I will never, I will always made with deep emotion as a response to some injustice or some hurt that you are seeing in your family or in your loved ones. I will never trust anyone. I will never let anyone control me. Words like I must be successful. I'll never be like my father. I must, I will make sure that people like me, I will always like perfect. What they do is these words are prison and people many times have repetition of the very things that you are against in someone like your dad or your mom in saying I will never drink. I will never be an alcoholic. I will never be like them and even speaking to them I hate you and I never want to be like you. Those inner vows, they become your own chains. You become condemned by them later on. They can open access to demonic influence and the enemy can gain control over that particular behavior by causing you to repeat it and do it exactly what you said you'll never do. Number seven, spoken curses or spoken words can open the door to a demonic torment in your life. God pronounced a curse on the serpent and on the ground. In the bible we see that God also pronounced a curse on those who were cursed Abraham. Joshua pronounced a curse on Jericho. David pronounced a curse on Mount Gilboa. Prophet Elijah pronounced a curse on his servant and he got leprosy and Jesus pronounced a curse on a fake tree and it dried up. Those who are in authority have the power to pronounce blessings and curses of those they oversee. For example, sometimes maybe you grew up in a household where your mom or your dad will call you you're stupid, you're slow, you'll never amount to anything, you're not good at school, you're not good at this, you're not good at that. Those words usually we rebel against those words. We vow to ourselves we will prove those people otherwise but then we find ourselves doing exactly the same thing that they said that we are. That tells me that there is a power that exists over those words. Power of life and death is in the mouth of the tongue and that's why it's important that we release blessings on people instead of curses through our words but maybe as you're listening to this you're recalling words spoken over you that meant a lot. Perhaps you're a young lady and you had a relationship with a man who said you'll never get married. Watch, you'll never get married. Those are curses and maybe you're noticing relationships keep failing and failing. It's time to take that demon out of your life and break the power of those words over your life. Sometimes witch doctors can cast spells on people as well. For example, a person can go to someone who casts spells and pay them out of jealousy and they would, you know, give them some kind of an object or a little doll in the needle and the person within that ceremony would take a needle and poke a part of the doll. I've heard testimonies of people who at that week the part of their body, the person who was poking in this demonic session was the part of their body started to function not properly. They would have to go to the doctor. In some cases they would even appetite a leg. They were like, I don't know what happened, out of nowhere. I got infected there. Now realizing is there might be a spell that was cast by a person. You may say, well, I don't know. How do I know if somebody does that? You don't. That's why you got to walk under the shadow of the Almighty. The Bible says that the curse without a cause is like a bird in the air. It won't land. It'll fly there, but it won't land. People who cast curses on you and you walk with Christ, my friend, God will protect you. Balaam tried to curse Israel. God's like, that's not going to happen. But when you are not walking with the Lord, when you are provoking people to anger, when you are causing hurt and shame, and they speak those words against you, they will have effect. And a lot of times they'll become an open door for demons to take your life into bondage. Number eight is a unique one. It's stealing. I really believe the stealings open the door to demons. And then demons begin to come into your life and rob your finances. In Zechariah chapter five verse four it says the following, I will send out a curse, says the Lord of hosts. It will enter the house of a thief and the house of the one who swears falsely by my name. It shall remain in the midst of his house and consume it with its timber and stones. Did you hear that? God said a person who is a thief will have their timber and their stones consumed by a curse. So that tells me stealing can open a door to a curse. Stealing can open a door to a demonic presence and a demonic influence in your finances. Stealing is a sin because it breaks God's commandments. It's also an open door for curses upon our household. It was theft that led Judas to demonic possession and eventually to his destruction. Robbery, burglary, identity theft, stealing from the office, taking intellectual property, illegally downloading content and shoplifting are acts of sowing which will result in reaping many curses and open doors to the devil. Now I don't want to scare you and spook you but if the Holy Spirit brings something to your mind where you're crossing the line or where you've taken what was not yours or maybe some people like to sell things that are broken but tell people that they're not broken so they can make an extra buck. You know that prophet is not worth getting a curse on your life. Live honest before God not because you're afraid to go to hell but because you're afraid to live in one. When you steal you will bring hell into your life. Let's not forget when Jesus died he was crucified between two thieves. When you steal you will be crucified. It will come on you because you're shedding blood, financial blood. I've seen people get really really messed up because of this and some people think oh it's not a big deal I'm just gonna ask God I'm sorry that's not how this works. God will forgive you but it doesn't mean that he will bless you because blessing is connected to living generous and living life in integrity and honesty and so examine your heart. Where are you lying? Where are you cheating? Where are you crossing? It's not worth getting a demon on your tail. Live holy. Live with integrity. Not only that will keep your relationship with God close it will keep the demons very far. Number nine is pornography. Opens the door to the devil. Pornography is like Delilah. It gives you momentary pleasure but its only allegiance is to do Satan's bidding. Pornography like Philistines were behind Delilah's actions to bring Samson down in like manner. Satan uses this tactical pornography to accomplish his mission in defeating you. The Bible says in Psalm 101 verse 3 said I will set nothing wicked before my eyes. I really believe behind an addiction to pornography is demonic. Presence and demonic chain and most people need deliverance. I'm not saying you need to manifest. I'm not saying that you know you need to go through deliverance that you've seen on YouTube but deliverance is very necessary. We're gonna have a special lesson that will deal just with deliverance from pornography but for right now I would like you to just touch on this. When Samson was bound before he was bound he was entertained by Delilah. Delilah was this little good-looking girl that he really liked. Little did he knew is that behind Delilah's couches there were Philistines who were paying Delilah to seduce Samson. See pornography is sponsored by devil himself because the devil is after your vision and after your strength because Delilah removed his strength and then the Philistines removed his eyes and guess what happened to Samson. He started to go in circles grinding and that's exactly what pornography is after. It first presents images that you fall in love with but behind those images that are demons hiding behind that screen and what they do is they first take your strength. How do you know that? Because right after you're in pornography you don't feel excited, you feel empty, guilty and depleted and then he will go further. He wants to take your eyes, your vision. Why? So your life goes in circles so you go back from pornography to pornography, from pornography to pornography and you lose the grace because now you're grinding in your life. God wants to deliver you from the spirit of pornography. He wants you to be a deliverer to your generation, not to be someone who is bound by porn. Number 10, open door to demons is drugs. Drugs are directly tied to sorcery in the Bible and most pagan cultures use drugs in their religious rituals. In the case of paganism, drugs are used to heighten spiritual awareness. In Revelation 9.21 it says the following, and they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts. It's interesting because the word here in 9.21 sorceries is another word for drugs. Now the word for sorceries are, and you have it in your notes so you can read it, which is the source of our word pharmacy. The word, this word primarily meant dealing in poison and drug use and was applied to divination and spellcasting because sorcerers often use drugs along with their incanations and to incur conjure occultic power. I have a quote there in your notes that you can see where Bob Larsen shares how different religious use different religious use different drugs to connect with demonic spirits. Drugs is a gateway to demonic realm. It will damage you and so for those of you who are doing it just to get high, you're gonna get more than high. You're gonna also get low and the devil can get control of you and one of the things that he will do here and those of you who are like, no, it's not demonic. Well, it's interesting because it gets you high and also gets you broke. Who's doing that? Spirit of stealing, killing and destruction. How many people lose their life because of drugs? Demons are behind that. Drugs are not just, they're not just on their own. There's somebody that's sponsoring, supporting and using that craziness to cause you to be in bondage, impoverished and end your life before God intended it for you to end. So if you're addicted to drugs, God wants to forgive you. He wants to deliver you and he wants to set you on the path of righteousness and the path of freedom. Eleven, open door is yoga and eastern meditations. Now if I haven't been controversial or stirred up some feathers, let's do it right now. I know a lot of people practice yoga. I know a lot of preachers practice yoga and they post it on their Instagram. Yoga is demonic. If you sign up for a little yoga class, you're signing up for a demon class. Mark Driscoll said that. A pastor who used to be in Seattle now lives in Phoenix. He said that. I'm just going to read you a few quotes from some people. Practicing yoga is satanic. It leads to evil just like reading Harry Potter. Yoga derives from Hinduism, a hidden religion that says there is no, that says there is reclamation. Hope John 2nd in 1989 also warned against the dangers of yoga as seduction of spiritual seekers. Father Gabriele Amorth, one of the top exorcists in the Catholic Church. Bob Larson said yoga in Sanskrit in the ancient language of Hinduism means union with God. So the word yoga means union with God, small g. Its purpose is to bend the body into many forms to master the mind and soul of the practitioner. Quite literally, yoga's goal is to tune the body to the universal mind and thereby achieve God consciousness and attain oneness with the universe. At least that's what they've been doing for 1000 years in India. No matter what some ignorant Christians in America may call their brand of holy yoga. There's nothing holy about that. And that quote is by Bob Larson. I'm not an expert in Eastern religions, but from what we've studied and what we've seen, even in our ministry. If it's in doubt, throw it out. There's a lot of exercises that you can do that does not involve yoga. Now one of the reasons why we don't practice Eastern meditations and yoga is for this reason. Eastern meditation empties the mind. Christian meditation fills the mind. Eastern meditation is about detachment. Christian meditation is about attachment to Jesus. Eastern meditation is passive. You're just there. Christian meditation is aggressive. You capture your thoughts. You think on these things. Eastern meditation is about don't think about nothing, just kind of relax. Christian meditation is think on these things. Think on these things. Eastern meditation is demonic. Christian meditation is the Holy Spirit filled and Holy Spirit led. If you are practicing that kind of a thing in your life, maybe you're living in that ignorance. I want to encourage you stay away from the dark as far as possible. Stay away from this kingdom as far as possible. Go closer to Jesus. Don't justify practices of Eastern religions and and other religions that are using it to get closer to their demon God. You have Holy Spirit. Get closer to Him. And the last open door is generational curses. Generational curses work like generational blessings. We are not responsible for what is passed on to us, but we are responsible for what we allow to get through us. In Proverbs chapter 3 verse 33 it says the curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked. It doesn't say the curse of the Lord is on the wicked, on his house. That means a lot of times people can get demons. They're born with them. Why? Because it's passed on through their genes and through their blood. Now it does not mean you have to carry the consequences of your parents sins, but it does mean that you might have battles that didn't start with you. And through Jesus you can overcome those battles and start a new line for your family and for future generations.