Text: John 8:31-36
Memory text:
“Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.”
‭‭John‬ ‭8‬:‭34‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Do you know that gambling is not just a game? There is a spirit of gambling. This is a demonic system of mammon, greed, deception, and enslavement designed to shift people from trusting God to trusting luck or fortune and money. It steals wealth; sows hopelessness; destroys lives, destinies, and families.
In ancient times, people worshiped idols of fortune or luck, that is, the Greek goddess Tyche, Roman goddess Fortuna, and Gad, the Babylonian god of fortune. God brought judgment on them because they trusted so much on fortune or luck instead of Him.
Modern gambling carries the same spiritual deception. People who put faith in “fortune or luck” instead of God are worshiping the spirit behind fortune or luck, called “Lady Luck”.
“What will I, the LORD, do if any of you reject me and my holy mountain? What will happen to you for offering food and wine to the gods you call “Good Luck” and “Fate”?” (Isa 65:11 CEV). The AMP puts it like this: “…Who set a table for Gad [the Babylonian god of fortune], And who fill a jug of mixed wine for Meni [the god of fate]”. Gad is the Babylonian god of fortune or luck, and Meni is the god of fate. Gambling is the demon spirit of fortune and luck of our days. It’s not surprising because satan’s ambition from the beginning is to oppose everything that is called God or is worshiped. He tried it with Jesus but failed (2 Thes 2:4; Matt 4:9-10).
Gambling is the spirit of addiction and enslavement. He holds his victims captive against their will and enslaves them to do his bidding.
Gambling starts with an individual’s personal choice until one is hooked and eventually moves from choice to bondage, becoming a slave to gambling. “For you are a slave to whatever controls you.” ( 2 Pet 2:19 NLT). Gambling is a cruel slave master. It controls the will of its victims until it finally ruins them.
Gambling also has a psychological pull. Gambling stimulates the brain with the“reward chemical” called dopamine. Every time they narrowly missed winning, dopamine makes people feel they are “close to winning,” keeping them hooked. Friends, because the addictive nature of gambling is spiritual and psychological, its victims need spiritual attention and counseling to be totally free. Victims must be born again, then seek deliverance and submit to discipleship. Jesus still saves and sets free today! Hallelujah!

Prayer points
1. Father, my heart is drawn in compassion to the addicts of gambling. Please convict them, save them, and deliver them in Your mercy, in Jesus’ name.
2. Standing on the authority of God’s Word, I rebuke and bind the spirit of gambling, “Lady Luck”, in our church, among our youths, students and our adults; I break its bondage and cast it out now, in Jesus’ name.

Today’s declarations
1. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me and He has anointed me to open the eyes of those who are blinded by gambling and to set them free from the prison of the spirit of “Lady Luck”.
2. The spirit of deception has no power over my life; my eyes are open to the truth of God’s Word; I am delivered from every addiction and bondage; I walk in the freedom of Christ.