The Most Misunderstood Word in the World and the Big Deception

This is NOT one of the most frequently asked questions in the world, because many people falsely believe they already have the correct answer to this question.

I have chosen to address this question today, because "sin" is the most misunderstood word in the world.

Getting the complete answer to this question could possibly change your life, forever! The complete truth about sin has been hidden for far too long because of the power behind knowing the truth. Many people have been deceived into believing half of the truth about sin, but today I will help you to release the power within you by revealing the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God. The complete explanation of sin is vital to your experience in this world.

As I have mentioned, many people have been deceived with a twisted version of the truth about sin. Many define it only as being disobedient to God’s commandments. Many define it simply as wicked actions. The Webster’s Dictionary defines it as, “the willful breaking of religious or moral law.” Sin is more than this! This is only half of the truth. There is a significant second half of the equation that many are missing.

In the most simplistic and complete terms, sin is choosing to listen to the voice of Satan instead of choosing to listen to the voice of God. Sin is two-fold. It is choosing to do the wrong thing AND not choosing to do the right thing. Sin is not only disobeying God’s commandments; it is also obeying Satan’s commandments. Please absorb the power in this complete truth, because I know it sounds overly simple! There is so much more to this definition of sin than what you could possibly see on the surface.

To help you to see the power behind this complete truth about sin, allow me to explain a deception originating from Satan that has confused most of the world. When you hear a voice in your mind that instructs you to take a certain action, have you ever found yourself asking, “Was that me, God or Satan?” Have you ever been confused about what you should do because you are not quite sure whose voice is trying to guide you? If this is the case, from this day forward you will never be confused again! Ever! This is the power behind knowing the truth about sin! There will never be any confusion about the thoughts that you have, ever again!

There has been a mass deception of the world. “That ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world”  has pulled a fast one on us.

 (Revelation 12: 9 NRSV)

The truth that you need to know is that YOU have absolutely NO thoughts originating from yourself. You have NO thoughts that come from you! Your thoughts either come from Satan or they come from God. That is it! So basically, when you sin, you are not doing “your own thing” like many people falsely believe. When you sin, you are simply listening to Satan and following his instructions and not following the instructions of God.

                                        Take a moment to let that sink in.

You have your memories (events that have happened to you in the past) and you have your beliefs (thoughts originating from either Satan or God that are told to you directly or indirectly through someone else verbalizing either Satan’s or God’s messages that you listened to and chose to believe is truth), but you (and all the other humans in this world) have absolutely NO thoughts of your own. When you have a thought, it is either the voice of Satan or it is the voice of God. You are not in this equation!

Well, it's time to reduce this to the much simpler and coorect question:

“Is it God or Satan?”

The Holy Bible (KJV) in James 1: 8 tells us, “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” Also, James 4: 8 tells us, “Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.”

There is absolutely no mention of triple mindedness! YOU are not in the equation when it comes to the thoughts that come into your mind. The bare truth about thoughts is that thoughts are voices that are not yours! Satan has deceptively disguised his voice to make you believe it is your very own voice you are hearing in your mind.

Satan has caused this mass confusion with the lie that we have our own thoughts, because he knows that mankind would easily be able to distinguish between his instructions and the instructions from God. He knew that is was imperative to make people believe that they were in control of their thoughts. It was absolutely essential for him to convince us to take ownership of our thoughts and not think about his influence. Think about it! How easy is it for you to silence thoughts in your mind? Can it really be done? (Don’t be deceived! Satan may be silent for a short period of time if you try to silence your thoughts, just to make you believe you are in control of your thoughts.  But, you will discover that he will not be silent for too long.  Satan knows that in the absence of his voice, you will hear God's voice much to clearly )

In Genesis chapters 2 - 3, the story is told about how Adam and Eve originally had the mind of God. In their minds, they only heard the voice of God, listened to what God had to say and acted with obedience to His instructions. One day in the Garden of Eden, the serpent decided to communicate with Eve. She chose to listen to the serpent and ate fruit from the God forbidden tree. She then gave fruit from the God forbidden tree to Adam, and he followed suit. When they performed an action directed by the voice of Satan by eating from the tree that God instructed them not to eat from, they sinned. They listened to instructions from Satan and disobeyed the instructions from God. When they sinned, they gave Satan authority to guide them. Satan’s voice then took residence in their minds. Since God will not dwell in the same space as Satan, God’s voice left their minds.

Because of our original parents, Adam and Eve, we are all naturally born sinners. We are born with minds guided by Satan, because we are born from the seeds of Adam and Eve; and according to Genesis 1: 12, a seed can produce only after its own kind. Satan’s voice is the voice that guides us from birth.

Unfortunately, Satan’s mission is to lead us to our destruction. As Jesus says in John 10: 10 (KJV), “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” Having a mind ruled by Satan is why infants and toddlers don’t have the knowledge that it is dangerous to drink poisonous cleaning chemicals or that they could be severely burned if they put their tiny hands on a hot stove. Because of the guidance from Satan, they are drawn to dangerous things since Satan’s mission is to ultimately destroy them.

God gives you the divine right to make your own choices in life as stated in Deuteronomy 30: 19 – 20 (NRSV): “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying Him, and holding fast to Him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the LORD swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”

You can choose to have Satan’s voice guiding you, or you can choose to have the voice of God as your guide. In John 10: 10: Jesus said He came to give you life and Satan is here to destroy your life. A life of blessings following God or a life of curses following Satan . . . You must make your own choice.

If you want God’s voice to come to you as your guide, you must call out to God to save you from Satan’s control. Romans 10: 13 (KJV) tells us: “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved.” “Whosoever” means absolutely anybody! It does not matter what you have done or who you are. All you have to do is to ask God to forgive you for all the actions you have taken by following Satan’s voice, and you need to let God know that you want to follow His guidance now. Because God loves us so much, He couldn’t just sit back and watch Satan leading His creation to their death by leading them with incorrect information. God said in Hosea 4: 6 (NRSV): “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” Satan was not giving you correct knowledge because he cannot give you knowledge. Satan can only deliver untruths and deceptions which will eventually lead to your destruction.

God’s immeasurable love for His creation led Him to devise a plan that would save His people from the lies of Satan that were leading them down the pathway to their destruction. God devised a plan which used His only begotten Son’s blood to wash away that pathway of sin that God’s people were traveling. Essentially, just like a tsunami, Jesus’ blood powerfully washed away that dirt pathway that was leading to death and created another pathway to eternal life.

***Please don’t take God’s salvation plan to rescue you from the hands of Satan lightly! It was a gift of Pure Love! The price paid to give you this “escape from death road” was extremely high. God sacrificed His only begotten Son for you, so you would never have to take another step guided by Satan on the road leading to your death, if you choose not to do so.***

God’s rescue mission was to wash away that dirt road of destruction and then to move His voice back into your body to make His guidance available to you once again. (Jesus suffered greatly, just so you could be reconciled with the Father. Jesus’ shed blood made it possible for God’s voice to be restored to you: (Colossians 1:20).

After Jesus’ blood washed away the dirt road to destruction, in order for God’s Spirit to be able to move back into your body to guide you, it is mandatory that your body be properly prepared. Basically, your house needs to be cleaned for your coming guest. Unfortunately your sins, or the actions you took following Satan’s voice, have deadly consequences attached to them that must come to pass. For example, if you followed Satan’s voice to eat junk food that will kill you, the consequence of this sinful action means that you would surely die (as evidenced by Adam and Eve.) According to Romans 6: 23 (KJV): “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our LORD;” therefore to save us from the consequences of our sins, which is death, Jesus took upon His body on the cross all of our consequences or curses. Jesus’ body suffered all of the consequences for all the sinful acts committed just for us! (Jesus took our beating and served our death sentence for us!)

God arranged a brilliant rescue plan which keeps us from having to suffer the curse of death from following Satan’s voice when we make the decision to stop following instructions from Satan and to start following instructions from the voice of God. The wages for our sins were paid to the body of Jesus! Jesus died for us! Jesus died for you! From Isaiah 53: 5 (KJV) “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” Jesus took the ultimate punishment for our sins. Jesus gave up His life for us!

After Jesus died for us, God raised Him from the dead. Jesus conquered death! Jesus conquered Satan. The only power Satan had over us was to lead us to our death. Just like helpless sheep, Satan was leading us to our slaughter. Jesus took that power away from him. We no longer have to surely die! Because of God’s brilliant salvation plan, if we choose, we can have our “everlasting life” restored just like the original being that God created. Because Jesus conquered death, we can choose to have eternal life again. (Thank you, Father! Thank you, Jesus!)

To be rescued from the pathway leading to your destruction, first you must believe God will rescue you from the claws of Satan and confess with your mouth that you believe in God’s rescue plan, which includes the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Romans 10: 9 - 10 (NRSV) tells us, “Because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is LORD and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.”

You must accept the gift of God’s only begotten son as your personal Savior. (You don’t have to know exactly how the plan will work for you; you just have to have trust in God that He will save you. You must have faith in God! Ask God to forgive your sins and save you from the “death road” because you don’t choose to follow it any longer. Let God know that you are now choosing to make Jesus your LORD, or the authority figure you want to strive to be like. Let God know that you want His voice to return to you as your guide; just like He guided Jesus. Jesus’ blood then washes away your past sins as if they never occurred. You have been justified. God now sees you JUST as if your sins never occurred because Jesus’ blood washed your sins away. Jesus paid the price for your sins. He suffered the consequences of your sins for you. You are now free from your past! John 8: 36 (KJV) lets us know, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

All of this activity goes on in the spiritual realm which you cannot see with your physical eyes; that is why it is essential for you to BELIEVE! You must have faith in God’s salvation plan because without faith, you cannot please God. Hebrews 11: 6 (KJV) tells us, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.”

God needs for you to have full faith that when you are saved that you are no longer a slave to Satan, because there will be no physical signs on your body which shows this change in you. When you get saved, God and Satan both know that the death road you had been travelling has been completely washed away because they operate in the spiritual realm. You have to KNOW just like they know!

After you have been set free from the bondage of Satan in the spiritual realm, your physical body must be cleansed of the stench of him through water baptism. Your old or “decaying” physical body must die and you must be resurrected as a spiritual being . . . You must die and be born again. In seconds, because of the power of God, your decaying physical body goes down under water and dies. When you come up, you have been resurrected as a spiritual being or born again.

After water baptism of your physical vehicle, it now has a new sweet fragrance prepared for the arrival of God’s Spirit. God then moves His voice back into your vehicle with the baptism of The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the voice of God. You are now a new creation! You are no longer the sinner you were from your natural birth . . . You have been made righteous because you now have the voice of God with you that will lead you down the “right” road. As stated in Romans 4: 6 - 8 (KJV): “Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works. Saying, ‘Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the LORD will not impute sin.’” Once we are reconciled with God because of His grace and not because of any good works we performed, we are moved from living under the curse to living under the blessings of God.

In Titus 3: 5 (NRSV) we are told, “He saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to His mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” From 2 Corinthians 5: 17 - 18 (KJV): “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.” So,no matter what your past looked like, it is now gone! It has been deleted in the spiritual realm. You are a now a new creature. God knows it. Satan knows it. You need to know it, too!

Prepare yourself for this answer.

You are a new creature because God did not originally design man in this manner. Man was originally created only with one voice, which was the voice of God, as a guide. As a new creature, you now have two voices trying to guide you. You have Satan’s voice still in your mind stored in many of your memories and stored in the Satan inspired beliefs that you still hold, and you have the voice of God residing in the heart of your body. Yes, God’s voice, through The Holy Spirit, took residence in the heart of your body; not the body part that the world calls “heart” that pumps your blood throughout your body, but the solar plexus area or gut area which is your body’s core or center. The Holy Spirit did not take residence in your mind since God will not reside in the same space as Satan.

Residuals of Satan’s voice still reside in your mind and God’s voice, through The Holy Spirit, resides in the heart of your body. Once you receive the Holy Spirit, you are no longer just a creation of God. You are born again as a child of God. From Romans 8: 14 (NRSV): “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” Jesus tells us in John 10: 27 – 28 (KJV): “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish.“ And from Romans 8: 9 (NRSV): “But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him”

After receiving the voice of God, you now have two voices competing for your attention: You have the voice of God and the voice of Satan. Satan’s voice which is in your mind (close to your ears) is the loudest because you are accustomed to listening to him. Satan’s voice is the voice of your flesh! God’s voice deep in the heart of your body, your core, is deeper within you so His voice is that still small voice you hear. God’s voice is the voice of your spirit.

To hear God clearly, The Holy Bible tells you in Romans 12: 2 to renew your mind. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God---what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (NRSV)

It is time to cleanse the stored memories and beliefs that are Satan inspired. We are told in Romans 8: 5: (NRSV): “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” It is time to reset your mind. It is time to set your mind to be like the mind of Jesus.

How you should renew your mind is to first make the decision to not look back at your sinful past. Since Satan’s voice is still in your memories, he will try to use your memory of your past sins to try to condemn you. Don’t allow Satan to successfully use this trick against you. Commit to memory the following scriptures: 

• Isaiah 43: 18 – 19 (NRSV): “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing,”
• 2 Corinthians 5: 17 (NRSV): “So, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!”

Let it go! Stop looking back! Jesus said it Himself in Luke 9: 62 (NRSV): “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.”

Satan can only succeed at getting your attention off of what God is instructing you to do if he can keep you focused on your past when you were following him. Essentially, when you choose to do something new, focus your attention on what you are doing. Don’t keep looking back at what you have already done.

You will also have Satan inspired memories where Satan used others to do sinful things to you. You must also move on from these memories by the act of forgiving. When you sincerely forgive others, Satan’s voice attempting to remind you of the awful incidents will not affect you. You must leave all Satan-filled memories in your past and don’t look back. You must forgive yourself and all those who were involved in the Satan inspired experiences of your life.

Jesus said it best in Luke 23: 34 (KJV): “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” You should learn from Psalm 82: 5 (NRSV): “They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk around in darkness.”

Please understand that many people are unaware that Satan is using them! I explain this is my HUB: Are You Satan's Helper.

Ephesians 6: 12 (KJV) makes us aware that, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

Forgive and pray for those who have hurt you because they were following instructions from Satan. Ask God to have mercy on them and to show them that there is another road they can travel, and then let it go! It’s time to move on.

Renewing your mind also involves replacing the false beliefs that are stored in your mind with the truth. Satan has told you some things that you chose to believe like all the beliefs you have that include “I can’t.” The truth according to Philippians 4: 13 (KJV): “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

Satan planted false beliefs in your mind as an attempt to keep you from doing the will of God and being everything God created you to be. Satan does not want you to discover just how powerful you are. When you renew your mind to the truth of God’s Word, you will discover who you really are, what you are capable of accomplishing now that you are being guided down the right road and what your life should be like. Without the correct information, you will continue to believe the false things that Satan has told you or had someone else tell you. It is time to replace the false beliefs stored in your mind with the truth.

The truth can only be found in God’s word. It is time to study God’s Word, the Holy Bible, to discover what is really true and what is not. You do this by meditating day and night on God’s word as instructed by God in Joshua 1: 8.

Jesus had a mind filled with the word of God. Jesus knew the scriptures in the Holy Bible! Jesus knew the truth! When Satan tried to get Jesus to listen to his voice, Jesus easily recognized his lies because they didn’t align with what was written in the Holy Bible. We are told to get the mind of Jesus Christ which is a mind dominated by the words of God.

Jesus’ beliefs were all from the word of God, therefore Jesus was single-minded. Jesus never sinned because He never acted on the lies or deceptive instructions from Satan, but chose instead to act according to the words of God.

Everyone pretty much understands that sinning is not a good thing to do. Please understand the entire truth that when you sin, you are listening to Satan instead of God. When you sin, you are in partnership with Satan by letting him guide you.  Sinning is empowering Satan to work in your life. Sin let’s Satan into your life . . . {S}atan {IN} . . . You open the door to Satan and authorize him to operate in your life. Righteous living is when you choose to listen to God’s voice. Listening to God’s voice empowers God to operate in your life.

We are told in Proverbs 4: 20 – 27: “My child, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you. Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Keep straight the path of your feet, and all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or the left; turn your foot away from evil.”

In essence, you are being instructed to stay focused on the path that God is leading you and to continue moving forward. Don’t look back at your past and don’t take detours away from the path of God.

As previously stated, Satan knows you have chosen to follow the voice of God instead of his voice. He knows that you have been saved from his power over you. He is very angry and will come after you with all he has. The beauty about it all is that he has nothing! He no longer has any power of you! You have the victory through Jesus Christ. You now have the power with you that conquers the world! The Holy Spirit lives with you as your guide. This is the power you gain when you learn the truth about sin and choose to sin no more.

The only thing Satan has over you now is your lack of knowledge of the truth. He knows when you get born again, you are a newly born baby who has not completely renewed your mind. He can only use your memories and your false beliefs against you. Don’t let him succeed! He can be easily defeated by memorizing the following scriptures:

Galatians 5: 22 -23

• King James Version: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance . . .”
• New Revised Standard Version: “By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control . . .”

These scriptures are mandatory because until your mind is completely renewed with the Word of God and dominated by God’s words, you will continue to hear the voice of Satan trying to guide you.

How you can easily answer the question, “Is it God or is it Satan” is by reviewing your list of the kinds of instructions The Holy Spirit is capable of giving to you. If the instructions given to you do not fall into the category of being instructions of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness or self control, it is not from The Holy Spirit!

As an example, when you have an assignment from God that you are working to complete, Satan’s voice will creep in to try to remind you of your past when you tried something and failed. He will try to put the fear of failure into your thoughts. 2 Timothy 1: 7 (KJV) clearly lets us know “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” But if you have not yet learned this truth, you can review the list of exactly what The Holy Spirit does implant in you. Fear of failure is not on the list!

Another example is when Satan will try to get you to believe that you will not succeed at something God is instructing you to do. He will have others come to you to point out that nothing seems to be succeeding in your life. He will have people say things to you to make you feel incompetent. Satan’s voice will try to convince you to give up by making you believe what you are do is not working.

The truth according to God’s word from Luke 1: 37 (NRSV) and 1 Corinthians 15: 58 (NRSV) is “For nothing will be impossible with God” and “Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the LORD, because you know that in the LORD your labor is not in vain.” Also, from Galatians 6: 9 (NRSV) we are told to never give up: “So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.” Psalm 1: 1 – 3 (NRSV) lets us know: “Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on His law they meditate day and night. They are like tress planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.”

If you are not aware of these truths of God’s word, look at the list of the fruit of the Spirit. According to the list, a fruit of the Spirit is long suffering or patience. The Holy Spirit will remind you not to believe in the things you currently see. The Holy Spirit will tell you to keep pushing on and to not give up. The Holy Spirit will remind you to keep your trust in God, no matter what the others around you are saying.

Can you now comprehend how empowering it is to know the truth about sin? When you learn how important it is not to follow any instructions from Satan, you will have the power to take dominion over this entire earth as God initially intended for you to do. This information gives you power!

Jesus did everything He did by only following the voice of God. Jesus tells us that we can do what he did and much more when we follow the voice of God. He states in John 14: 12 (KJV), “Verily, verily, I say unto you. He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do . . . “

It is time to get empowered! It’s time to renew your mind so that you can clearly hear the instructions from God leading you to your victory. Once your mind has been renewed to God’s truth, you will be able to easily distinguish God’s instructions from Satan’s instructions! There is power inside of you that is waiting to be unleashed!