Your Crowning Moments
The Bad
The devil will remind you of your glorious moments of failure. He will have you recall and replay those past acts of sin. He brings these things to light to remind you of your highlight reels of acts of sin that you have committed. 
That one sin that you wish you could forget. That one sin that if you could take back, your life may be different. That one sin, the devil will never let you forget. He will remind you when you are asleep in your dreams. He will remind you when you are awake. He will remind you when you are sitting at church with fellow believers. And he will remind you when you are practicing sin. Strangely, you will remember that sin with more details than other memories you may have. Because that sin has been replaying in your head for so long, you have observed every detail, smell, sound, word, etc. It was your glorious moment of failure. Everyone has them. The devil will use it against everyone to bring you down and keep you down. You will continually return to that sin even after being forgiven and living under grace. You may have stopped for a season, but the dog always returns to its vomit (Prov 26:11). The devil will not let up and will not relent. He is after you and wants you to commit that sin again, and again, and again. He reminds you of all the pleasures and joys you’ve experienced back then, and numbs your conscience of the guilt you felt afterwards. You don’t remember it clearly. You know you felt shame, but the enticing pleasure is much stronger in your memory than your guilt. I wonder why.
The Good
The devil wants you to recall not only your glorious sinful moments, but also your glorious moments of righteousness. As described earlier, the devil will reverse the plan and use righteousness against you. If you are not easily enticed by the common sins such as drugs, sex, and violence, then you may have other vices not visible to others. Meaning, you probably have many sins that you commit in your mind. Sins of pride and arrogance. Sins of self-worth and self-reflections. Sins that others usually will not consider sins, compared to what they are struggling with, but to you, it has become sin. 
The devil wants you to be proud of what you did and what you have accomplished. He does not want you to glorify God, but praise yourself for succeeding by your strength. He encourages you even at the expense of your doing good, so that you will credit yourself and not give God glory. If you’ve ever experienced what it feels like to overcome sin, you will immediately be rewarded with an onslaught of attacks on how successful you are and how good you are. Sure, things may look positive and reassuring for a time, but with your guard down, expect flying arrows to fly your way. The devil uses everything and anything to get you to love yourself more than anyone else. You are the ruler and master of your domain. You have the power to determine your future. You are the center of the world. Strangely, this sounds like words from our culture in today’s youth and rising generations. Everyone is self-absorbed, and patience for others has disappeared. We have lost the ability to show compassion and forgiveness for others. If they get in the way of what we are trying to do, then they are an obstacle to remove. Life has turned from outward service to inward satisfaction. In the words of Mick Jagger, “I can’t get no satisfaction…”
The message of self-validation and self-worth is a prominent discussion point for many. It is all about promoting oneself and viewing oneself as superior to others. 
Racism stems from this mindset, as well as sexism. Glorifying oneself is seen as a positive affirmation to overcome the pressures of the world. Many people turn inwards to hide and shelter from the external world. It is a conflict of interest within oneself. On the one hand, you attempt to lift yourself up to ignore the criticisms of the world, and at the same time, feel worthless for living the way you do. If this is you, you will start to believe you deserve to go to heaven, and all your good acts support that. You may not have earned it by getting in, but surely you will not be rejected because of all the righteousness you’ve lived by. Self-gloryfication, self-righteousness, and self-esteem are all sins the Pharisees practiced, and they are the ones that sent Jesus to the cross. They were stubborn, bigoted, self-righteous, self-glorifying, arrogant, educated, and proud. The devil was active in the lives of these “holy men” and used their intelligence and wisdom against them to reject the God that they supposedly believed in. These men of God did not even know the true living God when He stood before them (Matt 26:57-68).
The Absent-Minded
On the other hand, the devil wants you not to remember someone…God. Let’s be honest for a second. Do you remember the last time you sinned? The last time you intentionally sinned, knowing it was wrong, but you did it anyway? Why do we do this? 
Why do we intentionally sin when we see the price it costs for Christ? We sin every day, and sometimes we do so purposely. In that moment of sin, do you think about God? Did the thought of God cross your mind? That seems like a ridiculous question, but think about it: have you ever been in the middle of a sinful act and the thought of God entered your mind? What did He say? What did He do? What did you do? What could you do? Can you continue in that sin, or did you stop immediately? We all sin multiple times a day because we are professionals. We have been sinning since birth, and we have trained ourselves to become expert sinners. We are all masters of sin. When we sin, God is far from our minds, but He is not far from our hearts. God does not leave us when we sin; He remains and forgives you. He wants you to repent and live the life you are missing out on. He wants to bless you, but your sins are in the way. It would be wrong of God to give someone riches if the person is struggling with gambling. God will not add to your sins, but try to take you away from them. God is at work in you. You just need to recognize He is there next to you, even right now as you read this. He is waiting for you to turn to Him. Yet, even so, our desire to sin overtakes us, and we push God aside so that we can enjoy our pleasures. God is not deceived; He is patient.
You are doing everything in your power to remove God from your mind every time you sin. Sin can only happen when God is absent from your mind. 
When you are distracted by things in this world, you are not thinking about God, and when you are not thinking about God, your guard is down. You do not have the whole armor of God in place. There is a weak spot in your armor that needs to be fixed. The devil wants you to forget God, even for a moment, so that you can sin. The more you sin, the less God is on your mind. When God is not on your mind, you will sin more. It is cyclical and a tactic the Devil uses. When you are exposed to a new sin, let’s say premarital sex or substance abuse, it is never a one-time act. Sin desires to have you and get you to commit to it habitually. There is nothing wrong with sex and drugs in themselves, as God created them for use within their means, but improper use and abuse are what cause these blessings to become a curse.
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
If we constantly have God on our minds, then we will be less likely to sin. Sin starts in the mind and finds its fulfilment in our bodies. We must master it and not let it control us (Gen 4:6-7). We must turn to God in prayer, maintain constant communication with Him, and recognize His presence, even though we don’t see or feel Him. God is there with you, even if he is not in your mind. He is right by your side, even in the midst of your sinful act. He is not there judging you, but protecting you from the hand of the devil. 
The devil constantly asks God for permission to take you and do with you what he pleases, but God relents out of his love for you in Christ (Job 1:2). If you are in Christ, then you are under His protective wings.
As I asked earlier, have you ever had a moment where you knowingly sinned, let’s say, to get out of an invitation you didn’t want to go to, so you made up a lie? This may be a white lie, but a man had to be crucified on a cross for that white lie. Get it? Every sin is evil in the eyes of God. Every sin deserves death, even the smallest white lie. But getting back to the point, in the sinful act you committed, did you hear God speak to you? I bet you did, but you thought it was just your conscience. Consider that maybe God intervened in your life to tell you to repent. Maybe God was whispering to you in a gentle, loving voice to think twice about sinning and choose life. Did you ignore that voice, brushing it off as your conscience, and that you will deal with it later? You probably did if you are human. God speaks to us in silent ways, and His voice is always that of loving encouragement, with a hint of discipline on the side. It is His kindness that leads us to repentance and not His judgment or anger (Rom 2:4). You can be assured it was God speaking to you, because the devil will not tell you to repent, nor will your sinful mind cause you to suddenly turn away from the sinful pleasure. Only God’s Spirit will intervene even when we are in sin, and He will not judge us, but warn us and encourage us to repent and change our ways. God’s voice will always lead to the glory of Christ (John 17:1).
The Ugly One
The devil will make you the priority and have you question God’s judgment and faithfulness. You are number one according to the devil. He wants you to succeed and win. He wants you to get what you deserve. You worked hard and sacrificed a great deal for others. 
You deserve what’s coming to you. Strangely, doesn’t all this sound positive and encouraging? Many of us conclude that God is speaking to us when we hear positive words. We try to distinguish the voices in our heads into two categories: positive and negative. If it is positive, meaning it feels right and good for me, then it must be from God. If it is negative, then that must be from the devil. Our discernment of spirits is lacking if this is our approach. We must remember that God will not give you new, fresh revelation beyond what was already written in His Word (Rev 22:18-19). All revelations of God were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. There is no new command or order from God apart from what was already said. Any and every question you may have for God was already answered in His Word. You just haven’t found it yet, and God has not opened your eyes to see it. It is in His timing He speaks, and not that of your wishes and efforts. God is truly independent and under no obligation to anyone.
God Talk
He chose to answer all of life’s questions in a Book. The problem is, not many people are reading it. God can, if He so wishes, direct a person and inspire them to do this or that. He can motivate and lead someone to an act of His will. However, God does not speak to us in ways we want Him to, in a conversational format between two parties. You will never have a moment when you are talking to God that feels like talking to a friend or family member. 
God does not dwell outside of you, but is inside your heart, changing and sanctifying your life. God will speak to you, but not in conversational words or as if you are talking with someone. If you feel like you are talking to God in such ways, then check against the words being spoken to you with what is written in Scripture. If they contradict, then the Bible is your source to follow. If the voice glorifies Christ, then it may be from God. If the voices pull you farther away from God, then you know that is not from God. What God wants to say, He already said. We must be diligent in searching the Scriptures for the truth, and not listen to voices in our heads. The surest way to know and hear God speak is to listen with your eyes. Read the Bible and see what the Lord has been saying. Trust in the proven Word of God as He spoke them to our ancestors, for all these words contain principles and instructions for life. The Bible is our source for hearing, seeing, and knowing God, not through music, not in movies, not in imagination, and not in dreams. There is no new revelation, but only that of Jesus Christ already revealed in Scripture (Heb 1:1-2; Rev 22:18-19).
The Arrogant
We use words of encouragement and affirmation to encourage one another. But when your enemy, the devil, lifts you high, he does this only to drop you in the end. He will puff you up and make you feel like you are someone special, only to see you fall fast and hard. Your identity and uniqueness will seem to surpass all others; the devil will inspire you to do good works, so that you will overshoot the purpose of that good work, and like a boomerang, bring the focus back to you to receive praise and honor. 
“No one looks as good as you, talks like you, is as kind as you, as smart as you, and a pleasure to be around.” These are the things the devil whispers in your ear. “People love you for who you are and what you have accomplished. You are an example for others to follow. You have reached your goal and have become who you wanted to be. You are ready for anything.” Again, the devil will puff up your pride and try to maintain your rights and dignity with pride. “Don’t let anyone bring you down. You deserve what’s coming to you. You’ve worked hard and have earned it. You are the ruler of your destiny.” People with pride in their hearts have words like these floating around in their heads. They need to continually reassure themselves to actually believe their lies. Pride becomes a cover-up for weakness.
Dissociative Amnesia
Before coming to Christ, you were a slave to sin and under the control of the devil. All those who are not in Christ are still living as slaves, doing what their master Satan tells them. This is why some nonviolent people commit heinous crimes. In an interview, they claim they didn’t know what they were doing and felt out of control. This is indeed true in some criminal court cases and reflects recognized dissociative states or dissociative amnesia. Individuals act without conscious awareness or control over their actions. In recent studies, psychological research revealed the following facts:
Dissociative Amnesia & Loss of Control
- In forensic psychiatry, research shows that 20–30% of violent offenders report amnesia for their crimes, with many stating they felt no control during the act (“Dissociation: Defining the Concept in Criminal Forensic Psychiatry | Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law,” n.d.).
- True cases of dissociative amnesia—often linked to traumatic stress or psychiatric conditions—are characterized by partial recall and a sense of being out of control, not full awareness of their actions (Bourget et al. 2017).
Clinical Descriptions & Interviews
- Individuals with dissociative identity disorder (DID) often describe “watching” their own actions without feeling responsible in the moment—feeling as if another part of their mind (an alter) was acting (digfir-published.macmillanusa.com).
- Some cases include interviewees expressing confusion about their behavior, describing it as if their mind “shut off” or as if they were functioning on autopilot (Černis et al. 2020).
From a scientific point of view, dissociative amnesia can be explained by biological changes in the brain process from extreme trauma or stress (American Psychiatric Association, 2022). From a theological standpoint, that would be a sin problem. Their sinful desires were left unchecked, and left alone. They could do no otherwise than to follow their sinful master’s command. They entertain sin and have a positive outlook on it. They feel they are in control, yet living as slaves for their master. They disassociate themselves to cope with and even possibly tolerate the violence and evil intent of that act. The disconnect is what allowed their sinful desire to take control and do the sinful act they swore they would never do.
God Is Everywhere
God is in the mind of all people, even in the mind of a hardened atheist. Yes, even those who deny God’s existence have God in their minds. It is inescapable. We were designed that way (Romans 1:19–21). We were created in His image, and His image cannot be removed or altered. What they do with that knowledge is what matters. But all people have God in their minds. This is why, in a time of crisis, to whom does the person in desperate need cry out? None other than God. It is always God. Even in a world full of deniers and rebels, God’s thoughts cannot be escaped (Psalms 139). The criminal commits his crime by dissociating himself from the act of the crime and from the presence of God.
The same thing occurs when we sin. We disassociate ourselves from God in our minds so that we can commit that sin. It is partly intentional and partly accidental. Intentional in the sense that we knew what we were doing. No one forced us or pointed a gun at our heads. We intentionally removed God from our minds so that we can enjoy the pleasures of sin without guilt. Akin to that, it is accidental in the sense that our minds are bent on committing sin as often as possible. Sometimes we are not even thinking when we sin, and we just replicate what we are familiar with, because that is where we find pleasure and escape. 
We like to live in the familiar because the unknown is frightening. The familiar is easy. The familiar is comfortable. The familiar is known and habitual. For example, have you ever driven home not realizing how you got home? You just followed the same route you always take. Street signs, buildings, trees, etc., are all in the same places, and we find comfort in knowing where we are and where we are going. It becomes so familiar to you that you robotically follow along without much thought. There were moments I’ve wondered if I’ve even obeyed the laws by stopping at stop signs. All I could say in that absent-minded state was, “Thank you, Lord, for bringing me home.” In the same way, you sometimes sin accidentally because it becomes a routine, a habit, an addiction. You are so used to doing whatever you do that you have become numb to it. Guilt has no room anymore. You have become callous of heart. The way to break that routine and habit is to change things up a little by little every day. It is the change of direction, even in the smallest turn, that gets the momentum of repentance going in your mind. Just as you habitually customize how you like to sin, so too you must habitually make little changes every day. This is how you can take your life back from the evil one.
You Are What You Eat
The simple act of overcoming sin is to have God in your mind actively. Don’t push Him away, but invite Him to stay. Speak with Him in prayer and saturate your mind with godly things. The more you feed your mind with the things of God, the more your spirit will strengthen and grow. Until now, you have been pumping in wickedness and evil into your life. You have been feeding your spirit with evil thoughts and resources. The music you listen to, the books you read, the movies you watch, and the games you play are all food for your mind and soul. You eat with your eyes and ears, and it goes straight to your mind and soul. The concern is, is it healthy for you, or is it warping your thoughts towards sin? Is your mind full of things that lead to sin, or are you feeding your mind with God’s Word? Seek His counsel and advice. Turn to Him when you are down. He is there listening to you and waiting for you to turn your head towards Him. Reach out to Him because He is reaching out to you, right now. “Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon Him while he is near” (Isa 55:6). The enemy wants you to remember the evil deeds of your past. Don’t let the enemy rule your mind by entertaining his propositions. Think on godly thoughts so that your mind will be renewed in Christ (Rom 12:2).
The mind is a wonderful thing. We can use our minds to serve others and glorify God, or we can use our minds to push God away and conceive of sin. Don’t let the devil control your mind. Take the control back and give it to God. Surrender your life and thoughts over to the only One who can help and save. The devil will try to cause you to fall by reminding you of your past sins and past accomplishments. In either way, he wants you to go headfirst into the pool of sin or self-righteousness. It is our responsibility to refrain from sin and run from it if necessary. We have the responsibility to turn to God in repentance, and fence what we intake into our minds. The devil wants control over your mind. Don’t give it to him. Resist him and he will flee (James 4:7).
