The devil has some tricky tools up his sleeve and can shipwreck a person if they don’t understand the basic ways he operates. I want to cover two heavy hitters in his arsenal and help you decipher the chatter going on in your head. The first devilish device I want to elaborate on is condemnation. Condemnation has everything to do with a direct attack on your identity as a believer. Condemnation points the finger at you says, “you are bad,” it’s an identity related assault. It tries to get you to believe that what you “did” is who you “are.”

On the other hand the Holy Spirit lovingly convicts us. Conviction says what you “did” was bad. Conviction is aimed at the behavior itself whereas condemnation is aimed at your identity. If the devil can get you to define yourself by your sin, then that mental stronghold will reproduce that sinful behavior without his assistance. When we identify with sin as part of our identity we empower it to be our slave master; we ignite our desire for it by believing in its power over us.

“Sin shall not have dominion over us.” (Romans 6:14)

The Holy Spirit broods over our soul when we sin and speaks into our heart saying, “Don’t you know who you are? You are royalty, you are holy, you are pure, bought at the price of Christ’s blood! This is less than you, this is beneath you!”

Do not let the enemy convince you in some way that sin is normal, or that it’s part of your identity, because remember that your actions flow from who you believe you are. A struggle for believers is maintaining an awareness of Christ in them as being the only definition of their identity. You are not defined by your sins or mistakes but rather you’re exclusively defined by Christ alone. He is your blue print, He is your design, He is your definition!

“As He is so are you in this world.” 1 John 4:17

Now this is not to say we take no responsibility for our actions, or that we run around claiming “identity in Christ” while we live like godless rebels. We are entirely responsible for the way we live our lives, the scriptures are clear, if we deliberately continue in a lifestyle of sin we will die. Our identity in Him should never make us comfortable in compromise, but rather empowered in righteous living.

Temptations

Another struggle that we face is the urge to begin identifying with temptations as indicators of who we are. For example, I suddenly have lustful feelings towards a person, and instead of rejecting that as part of my identity I start accusing myself as a lustful man. As I accept this as part of me, I empower it to take a strong root in my heart: by faith I act out who I believe I am.

Jesus was tempted in every way just like we are, and yet without sin. (see Hebrews 4:15) Temptation is not sin, yielding to it is. You don’t need to beg for forgiveness every time you have a perverse thought, just cast it down and refuse to give in.

It’s so supremely important that we not only rebuke temptations, but to continually reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (see Romans 6:11)

Christ tells us to cut all ties with sin, both in behavior and in identification. When temptation comes, we rebuke it, and we then take the further step of rejecting it all together as part of who we are. We don’t allow temptations to become the definition of our design. The devil will throw thoughts and images at your mind that you’d never wish to think, but don’t let your guard down and give in, and don’t get discouraged and beat yourself up because you had a sinful thought, command it to leave you in the name of Jesus.

If you do give in to a thought and begin meditating on it and allowing you to draw you in, ask Christ for forgiveness, but if it’s a random thought that comes in, and you haven’t tried to entertain it and allowed it to grow, then you haven’t sinned, simply cast it down and move on.

Another vital key to overcoming temptations is realizing the enemy doesn’t speak in second or third person, he uses your own inner-voice, as if it’s you thinking the thoughts. Rather than the enemy being blatantly obvious he will speak in first person. “Man she makes me angry.” “I wish he would die.” “I really want to smoke right now.” It would be instantly recognizable if the devil came and said, “Hey you should go over there and knock that guy out, he’s really talking a lot of smack about you.” So instead he disguises himself as you, and because we readily accept our own thoughts as the golden standard of truth, we fall for his tricks over and over.

Those thoughts you think are yours may very well not be at all, you are simply “hearing” the thoughts of the enemy playing in your mind in your own voice. Now just as a disclaimer, it’s not that important to go on a witch hunt trying to determine where this or that thought is coming from, and get paranoid about demons under every bush. But it is a very empowering revelation when you realize that not every thought that comes into your mind belongs to you. This then can help you sift through your thoughts and cast down those imaginations that do not align with God’s word. Now regardless of the source of the bombarding thoughts, simply command the temptations to leave you in the name of Jesus and move on. Case closed.