Breaking the Octopus Grip of Addiction

Adapted from “Breaking the Octopus Grip of Addiction” (Dr. Douglas E. Carr, Douglas Carr Freedom Ministries, https://www.dcfreedomministry.com) for Luke 4:18 Ministries in Austin, Texas.

 

Prophetic Dream Dictionary Entry For OCTOPUS: “The diabolical spirit of Jezebel that entangles other people; operates with a strong spirit of control and manipulation. Deceptive lies that slander and destroy a person’s reputation, inflicts confusion that causes despair and depression; a spirit of murder that leads to the victim contemplating suicide.” (from Barbie Breathitt, Breath of The Spirit Ministries, https://www.dreamsdecoder.com)

Addiction is like an octopus that rests over your mind. Satan will use one or more of the eight tentacles of the Octopus of Addiction to cause addiction to grow. Depending on how long the beloved has struggled, the tentacles grow in length and strength. Satan tangles the tentacles like a ball of yarn to the point where even short tentacles make it hard to unravel the problem. People are trapped by the Spirit of Bondage and held in agreement with it even unto death and destruction.

Ways in which octopi are like an addiction:
The ability to rapidly alter their shape and squeeze through small gaps. The octopus of addiction can squeeze the tip of a tentacle through a crack in the addict’s soul and take full control of a person. Even a tiny amount of unforgiveness, self-hatred, or an area of inadequacy/rejection will allow demons to extend their suckers and capture victims.

The ability to change color. Addictive substances promise to be comforting friends but end up as horrible slaveholders. Addicts’ behavior can change instantly; at times they may be loving and kind but then suddenly turn hateful, abusive, and consumptive.

The ability to use natural gifts (complex nervous systems, excellent sight, camouflage abilities, most intelligent and behaviorally diverse of invertebrates) to hide. Many addicts are incredibly intelligent—at least until their mental faculties are debilitated by addiction—and are often gifted at manipulating people and situations to hide/maintain their bondage. Addicts hide and flee from deliverance and detox facility opportunities. Addicts fear exposure and will avoid intimacy and community. Community and relationships are required to address their problems even while they make themselves difficult to love. Addicts hide from reality by ignoring problems and choosing denial.

The ability to spread venom. Most octopi inject venom to immobilize prey by either biting the prey with their’ beak and injecting venom directly into the wound or releasing a cloud of venom into the water, which enters the gills of its’ prey. Some addicts can become addicted to their poison of choice after a single use; their destinies get put on hold while they are drawn into continuous and compulsive use. Additionally, addicts often hurt people and spew their poison (harsh words, abusive or demanding behavior, theft, etc.) on the people who care most for them. Loved ones can feel paralyzed as they watch an addict engage in harmful behavior that turns deadly.

The ability to use hard beaks to tear the flesh of their prey to devour it. Addictions tear the flesh of their victims. Alcoholics will lose their liver. Potheads will lose their ambition and executive functioning skills. Chewing tobacco users will lose their gums. Smoking drugs numbs the nerves and will cause lung and throat problems. Snorting drugs will cause sinus problems. Injecting drugs will cause injection-site and circulatory problems. Pornography and sex addictions will cause unhealthy sexual response issues and physical diseases. Gamblers will find their resources and future torn from them. All addictions cause imbalances in brain chemistry, specifically including risk/reward analysis.

The ability to use powerful suckers to grab and hold prey. Addictions suck people in and hold them in bondage with lies; these lies wrap their legs around every part of the victim, who cannot be set free unless they are set free from all the tentacles at once. The biggest lie that addicts believe is that “I could quit anytime if I wanted to quit, but I don’t want to quit.” The second biggest lie that addicts believe is that “I will always be bound by my addiction. There is no way out, and even if there was a way out, then life wouldn’t be worth living without my addiction.” These lies are suckers that hold addicts in bondage.

The ability to squirt dark ink to cloud the water and confuse enemies. The Octopus of Addiction veils the hope and glorious light of the Gospel that can set addicts free. Many addicts lose all hope for the future and any sense of destiny. Disappointment clouds dreams and goals while kindling anger, guilt, shame, regret, and self-hatred. Hope deferred makes the heart sick (Proverbs 13:12). Family and friends seem helpless and are not able to see through the dark cloud.

The ability to regenerate tentacles when severed. Severed octopus tentacles can have a mind of their own and continue operating even when cut off. A severed octopus arm may try to feed a phantom mouth up to an hour after being severed from the body. The desires of the flesh operate on auto-pilot with addicts; the steps taken to feed their addictive longings happen with little thought or effort. Worse still, the tentacles of addiction can regenerate! Within 100 days after an octopus tentacle is severed, an arm tip will grow back. Similarly, addicts who are sober for months or years often encounter moments where the desire to feed their flesh comes back in full force and attempts to pull them into bondage again.

Head of the Octopus—Binding the Stronghold of Bondage
Pray, resist, believe, and declare:

• I command my human spirit to wake up and fight!
• I command my body to submit to my soul, my soul to submit to my human spirit, and my human  spirit to submit to the Holy Spirit of God.
• In Jesus’ Name, I bind the strongman Spirit of Bondage and the Spirits of Addiction, Death, and Abaddon in my life and bloodline as far as Jesus Christ extends the binding.
• I declare that the weapons of my warfare are not carnal but mighty to the pulling down of strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:4–5).
• Father God, please demolish the Stronghold of Bondage in my life and tear it down with great violence.
• Please remove every veil from my eyes, heart, mind, soul, and spirit. Please expose any lie that I’ve believed and fill me with a Spirit of Courage and Truth, so that I may receive everything You have for me.
• Please destroy any remaining logic systems, auto-pilot systems, regenerative systems, schematics, and personal/ancestral patterns of iniquity that are allowing bondage into my life. I declare the Jesus is the CEO of all systems inside of me.
• With the help of the Holy Spirit, I confess the following personal and ancestral iniquities related to bondage and/or addiction in my life: _____[insert confessions as prompted by the Holy Spirit]_____.
• I choose to forgive all those who tempted me into addiction, educated me in addictive and enabling behavior, or hurt me through addictive behavior or codependency, specifically including _____[insert first names of those you forgive as prompted by the Holy Spirit]_____.
• I declare and decree that today I choose to fight off my bondage and come against addiction. The Lord Jesus Christ will strengthen me, help me to stand and face the enemy, and protect me from the evil one (2 Thessalonians 3:3).

Head of the Octopus—Casting Out the Stronghold of Bondage

• In the Name of Jesus and by the power of His blood, I cut off from myself all influence from the Head of Bondage.
• Jesus, please demolish the Stronghold of Bondage in my life; impeach and expel Bondage from the office that spirit has held in my life; and forbid Bondage to return or regenerate.
• In the Name of Jesus, I command the root spirit of Bondage to release me and take all your roots and foundations with you. Go now, in the Name of Jesus! (Action: Expel by coughing/yawning/blowing.)
• Father God, I ask You to release a Spirit of Freedom to me and restore the power of choice in my life. I receive that freedom by faith in this moment.
• I declare that I am a new creation in Christ and am set free from Bondage. Hallelujah! I give the Father praise for the work being done in me today.
• In the Name of Jesus, I forbid the head of the Octopus of Addiction, the Strongman and Stronghold of Bondage, to re-form, regenerate, or in any way reconnect me to the tentacles of the octopus that has operated in my life.

Tentacle of Rejection

• Heavenly Father, I confess that my ancestors across many generations and I have built walls around our hearts. We have rejected Father God, His commands, and His voice. We have judged and rejected ourselves as inadequate, broken, unworthy, and unloved. We have rejected others and failed to love them as ourselves.
• I choose to forgive all those who have made me feel rejected or passed on to me an iniquitous pattern of receiving rejection or rejecting others.
• Jesus was bruised for my iniquities! By faith I apply His blood to every iniquitous pattern of rejection in my life and ask You, Father God, to forgive me for walking in rejection.
• Please cleanse me of iniquitous rejection and transform me through the Blood of Jesus.
• I cancel every legal right that the Spirit of Rejection has had to work in any area of my life and tempt me to—or hold me in—the tentacle of rejection.
• Jesus, please tear down the walls around my heart that Rejection has built in my life that cause me to fear rejection, expect rejection, perceive phantom rejection, receive actual rejection, and dwell in the feeling of rejection.

• In the Name of Jesus, I bind all demons working rejection in my life, plead the Blood of Jesus against them, and cast them out of my life. (Action: Expel by coughing/yawning/blowing.)
• Jesus, please double-cut the tentacle of rejection that has been attached to me. I forbid it to regenerate in the Name of Jesus.
• Father God, I chose to receive Your Spirit of Adoption and the acceptance that comes from knowing that I’m a chosen member of Your family. Please grant me wisdom, discernment, and understanding that I may more fully know Your great love for me.

Tentacle of Iniquity
• Heavenly Father, I confess that my ancestors and I have given in to addiction. Specifically, my family and I have struggled with the following addictions: _____[State which addictions operate as a pattern in your life]_____.
• I plead the Blood of Jesus against every generational and iniquitous pattern of addiction in my life. I ask you, Father God, to grant my bloodline (and those over whom I have spiritual authority) full release from the grip of Addiction.
• Today I renounce addiction in my life and allowing myself to be a slave to anything other than righteousness (Romans 6:18).
• I ask you, Father God, to uproot every Stronghold of Addiction that has been planted in my life and consume it with Holy Spirit fire. I ask you to wash those areas with Living Waters and carry away all traces of addiction.
• I now receive the prayers for healing and freedom from addiction that others have prayed for myself and members of my bloodline. I commit to praying for healing and freedom in the lives of other addicts and their bloodlines.
• Jesus, please double-cut the tentacle of iniquity that has been attached to me. I forbid it to regenerate in the Name of Jesus.
• Father God, I chose to receive blessings and restoration in every area of my life and bloodline that You have for me.

Tentacle of Rebellion
• In Gethsemane, Jesus wrestled against His own will and desire to self-protect. Thank you, Jesus, for resisting rebellion to the point of shedding Your own blood through Your sweat and overcoming the enemy when You declared, “Nevertheless, not My will but Yours be done.” Thank you for not giving up the fight and falling asleep with your friends.

• I now apply the blood that Jesus sweat in the Garden of Gethsemane to break the curse of a selfish and self-protective will in my own life that seeks comfort outside the will of God.
• Father God, please break the curse of narcissism and narcissistic tendencies in my life and grant me the gifts of humility and self-forgetfulness.
• I declare that the opposite of rebellion is full abandonment to God’s will. Lord, I unconditionally surrender my will for my life. I freely choose to stop fighting a war of rebellion against you. In the areas of my life where I have been unwilling, I now declare that I am willing.
• Please help me mature spiritually and move me from a season of dependence upon anything other than You into a season of interdependence with You.
• Please help me first to hear Your voice, then to know Your will, then to do your will. Please breathe new life into me and use the wreckage that I’ve created in my life for Your glory.
• I declare that I am redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb out of the hand out of the enemy. Father God, take my life and let it be fully consecrated to You.
• In the Name of Jesus, I command every demon that was empowered by rebellious thoughts, words, or deeds to be bound and gagged in cords of Holy Spirit fire.
• In the Name of Jesus, I cast out those rebellious spirits and command them to go to the feet of Jesus. Go now, and never return. (Action: Expel by coughing/yawning/blowing.)
• Jesus, please double-cut the tentacle of rebellion that has been attached to me. I forbid it to regenerate in the Name of Jesus.
• Father God, I chose to receive the blessing of absolute abandonment to God’s will. I invite God’s protection over my life and trust by faith that all things will work for my good because I am loved by the Father.

Tentacle of Python
• I declare that addictions are tools of the Devourer (Malachi 3:8-12). Addictions have stolen and destroyed my finances, health, relationships, destiny, Godly assignments, courage, and willpower.
• I confess that my ancestors and I have withheld our tithes and robbed God of His portion of the firstfruits of our lives. I acknowledge that my failure to honor God first has given the enemy the legal right to take more than 10% through addiction, health problems, accidents, bad investments, and other problems. I realize that God is just in handing me over to the Devourer because of my disobedience.

• Today I repent of not tithing and commit to bringing the full tithe into the storehouse of God. I ask you, Father God, to forgive me and break the curse that my ancestors and I have brought upon my bloodline by not tithing.
• I now invite the Lord Himself to rebuke the Devourer in my life as I learn to tithe with a joyful heart. Lord, teach me the spiritual power that is tied to tithing and flows from aligning my will with Your will and recommitting myself to you regularly. May I learn to honor Father God first in all areas of my life.
• Father God, please break the grip of the tentacle of python that has squeezed the life out of me and my finances.
• I bind the Strongman of Python with unbreakable cords of Holy Spirit fire and plead the Blood of Jesus against that stronghold.
• In the Name of Jesus, I rebuke every demon that has taken advantage of my disobedience concerning God’s word about tithing in Malachi 3:8-12. I command you to let go of me and come out. (Action: Expel by coughing/yawning/blowing.)
• Jesus, please double-cut the tentacle of python that has been attached to me. I forbid it to regenerate in the Name of Jesus.
• Father God, I now declare that I am ready to receive all the blessings and provision of Heaven that you have stored up for my bloodline until such time as we return to alignment with Your will.

Tentacle of Fragmentation
(Background: People who were fragmented through trauma become “broken hearted” when a piece of their soul breaks off from their core. Being “double-minded” can result from this soul-level fragmentation. Double-minded addicts often have fragmented alters who hold on to addictions even when their core personality chooses to overcome addiction.)

• Father God, Luke 4:18 tells me that Jesus came to bind up the wounds of my broken heart. I declare that Jesus wants to restore me to wholeness and release me from traumatized fragments of my heart that hold me in addiction.
• Today I choose to forgive everyone who brought broken-heartedness into my life, specifically including _____[insert first name of persons that Holy Spirit is prompting you to forgive]_____.
• Jesus, now that I have forgiven those who hurt me the most, I ask You to remove every foothold of the devil in my life that resulted from my lack of forgiveness.

• Jesus, Your own heart was broken and fragmented when You took our sins upon Yourself while hanging on the cross. Your heart broke when You
experienced Father God forsaking You, the Lamb of God, who was sacrificed for my sin and the sin of the world.
• You bled when a solider pierced Your side with a spear. Blood and water flowed out of the area around Your broken heart. I now apply the blood that Jesus shed to my broken and fragmented heart. I receive healing in my soul and full restoration of relationship between Father God and my human spirit as a result of that application of the Blood of the Lamb.
• I confess that my broken heart has held me in addictive behaviors. I declare that the healing of my heart that I now receive empowers me to rise above addiction to live in victory as an overcomer. May the Lord be glorified and His kingdom advanced through my testimony.
• In the Name of Jesus, I rebuke the tormentor of all fragments of my soul across all dimensions and realms. I command you to leave me now and never return. (Action: Expel by coughing/yawning/blowing.)
• Jesus, please double-cut the tentacle of fragmentation that has been attached to me. I forbid it to regenerate in the Name of Jesus.
• Father, I thank you for healing my heart. I declare that no part of me will choose to lose the battles against temptation because You will always provide a way out from the temptations that are common to man (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Tentacle of Trauma

• Lord Jesus, I have been through some events that really hurt when they happened. I have carried those hurts to this very day.
• Today, I choose Your path of healing. I choose to forgive those who brought the greatest traumas into my life, specifically including _____[insert first names of people to forgive as prompted by the Holy Spirit]_____.
• I forgive those people for what they did. I forgive them for what they did not do. I forgive them for not meeting my expectations, needs, and wants.
• I also forgive them for how they made me feel. I forgive them for how their action, inaction, and words changed the course of my life.
• I choose to forgive myself for everything for which You have forgiven me.
• I also choose to forgive You, Father God, if I’ve blamed You for allowing people or events to affect my life negatively. I thank You, Father God, for all the times You have protected me even when I was not aware of Your protection.

• Jesus, I now gather all my trauma and hand it over to You. The burden of carrying these pains are too heavy. I trust You to remove everything from me that I release to You. Please help me not to pick up these pains again.
• In the Name of Jesus, I command all stored trauma and attachments to trauma to release from my body and soul. I cast all demonic spirits attached to those traumas out of me now and forbid you to return. (Action: Expel by coughing/yawning/blowing.)
• I apply the Blood of Jesus to the areas formerly inhabited by trauma. I receive the Holy Spirit’s healing touch on all mental, emotional, relational, physical, and spiritual wounds and scars where trauma has marked me.
• Jesus, please double-cut the tentacle of trauma that has been attached to me. I forbid it to regenerate in the Name of Jesus.
• Father God, I choose to yield the areas of my life that require more time to heal to You. I trust You to release healing and wholeness to me within Your perfect timing. Thank you for the healing and deliverance you ordained for me today.

 

Tentacle of Imprinting

(Background: Some of the most successful recovery programs remove recovering addicts from their neighborhoods, friends, and families because of the poor examples they set. Addicts often need to choose new friends to imprint them. Additionally, addicts often lack any sense of community and fail to realize that stepping into community is often the path to freedom.)

• Father, I confess that I have allowed others to influence me to addictive behavior.
• In addition to the people that I have previously forgiven, I specifically forgive the following people who have influenced me to engage in addictive behaviors: _____[insert first names of people as prompted by the Holy Spirit]_____.
• I confess that I have been deceived and misled. I’ve allowed wrong friendships to influence me towards addiction.
• I confess that I wanted to “fit in” with individuals and groups rather than live according to Your ways. Father, please forgive me for placing anyone above You in my life.
• I now renounce harmful imprinting and wrong relationships that have held me in destructive behaviors. I choose to step away from people who influence me to addictive behavior.

 

• I also renounce self-isolating behaviors, avoidance behaviors, and falsely believing that I do not need to live in community. Father God said that it is not good for man to be alone, and I commit to being open to the relationships that Father God brings into my life.
• I acknowledge that healing and freedom are often found by living in community through godly imprinting. I trust you, Father God, to connect me to those who will help me find and keep my freedom from addictive behaviors. Please highlight healthy friendships to me and bring me better friends than I deserve. I thank you for your unmerited favor in my life.
• Jesus, please double-cut the tentacle of imprinting that has been attached to me. I forbid it to regenerate in the Name of Jesus.
• Father God, I choose to yield all my relationships to You. Please free me from my addictions to such a degree that You can use me to free other people from their addictions.

 

Tentacle of Demonic Bondage to Addiction

• Father God, I am ready to do whatever I need to do in order to overcome the Strongman of Addiction.
• I acknowledge that through the Blood of Jesus I have been forgiven more debts than I could ever repay. I have chosen this day to forgive all those people who have hurt me, lest my debts be called to account before the Lord (consider Matthew 18:21-25.
• I also choose to forgive myself for the way I have failed Father God, my family, my friends, and myself through my addictive behaviors and attitudes. I forgive myself for the time that I have lost.
• Now, in the mighty Name of Jesus Christ and through the power of His shed blood, I bind all Spirits of Addiction operating in my life.
• In the name of Jesus, I command every demon assigned to hold me in addiction to release me and leave me right now! I command every demon assigned to bring me physical or spiritual death to release me and leave me right now! (Action: Expel by coughing/yawning/blowing.)
• Jesus, please double-cut the tentacle of demonic bondage to addiction that has been attached to me. I forbid it to regenerate in the Name of Jesus.
• Father God, you are a good Father, and Jesus promised that You will give the Holy Spirit to those who believe in the Son that You have sent. I now declare that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior and ask You to fill me with the Holy Spirit. May Holy Spirit fire wash, cleanse, and heal my physical body and all parts of my soul.

 

• Holy Spirit, I ask You to fill every area where demons worked addiction in my life. Please help me transition from shame to favor and from condemnation to conviction of the Holy Spirit. Please help me keep my body, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit, clean and help me never pollute it again. Amen.

Casting Out the Strongman of Addiction

• Strongman of Addiction, I bind you, plead the Blood of Jesus against you to break your power, and demolish your stronghold in the name of Jesus.
• In the Name of Jesus, I command you, Strongman of Addiction, to release me and leave me now. I forbid you to return to me or any member of my family. (Action: Expel by coughing/yawning/blowing.)
• I cover the tracks of what we have done today with the Blood of Jesus.
• I forbid any counter-attack or backtracking in the name of Jesus.
• Because I what Jesus has done today, I declare that (1) Bondage, you no longer hold me, (2) Addiction, you are no longer my master, and (3) Death, you cannot touch me with your sting.
• I give thanks to Father God that the Octopus of Addiction is slayed forever in my life. Today I put on the full armor of God and commit to standing my ground against substitute addictions that may pursue me for the purpose of delivering me to sin and death.

 

Final Prayers

• In the past I have failed to acknowledge Jesus as my Lord—even if previously I have known Him as Savior—by allowing addictions to control me.
• Jesus said that if anyone wants to follow Him, then they must deny themselves daily, take up their cross, and follow Him. Today I surrender to Jesus and choose to turn completely from addiction.
• I choose to deny the desires of my flesh, take up the cross of sobriety that I trust will get lighter each day that I carry it (as Father God makes me stronger), and follow my Lord Jesus Christ in all things.
• Father God, please destroy every work of Satan in my life. Please break every curse operating in my life.
• Please restore to me all the blessings that have been held back from me and my bloodline when I walked in iniquity. Please release into the spirit realm the prayers that have been prayed for me and my bloodline.

• Please burden my heart with a desire to pray for other addicts and their families. Help them find the freedom, forgiveness, healing, and deliverance that I’ve found today.
• I am grateful and full of praise for Jesus Christ—my King, Savior, Healer, and Deliverer—who won a great victory in my life today. I will enforce the victory that Jesus won by living as an overcomer and proclaiming the goodness of Father God.