Re-Identifying Sin: Not a Deed, but a Deceiver

Hey Everyone,

What if sin isn’t just your behavior—but your enemy? I’m not talking about slip-ups you can willpower your way out of. I mean a living, breathing force—a spiritual being—that you can unknowingly partner with while thinking you’re doing something good. For years, I missed this. And it kept me stuck.

Like many Christians, I used to see sin as a checklist. Do right? You’re holy. Mess up? You’re sinful. That was the formula. So when I “sinned,” I prayed. I repented. I doubled down on my discipline. I did what I thought made me “good.” I remember even telling the Lord once, “Lord, put me to work. Give me a job or I will get in trouble.” At the time, I thought He answered my prayer. I thought He gave me the job of reading the entire Bible out loud for the public. I was so convinced of this (because what could be more righteous than proclaiming the Word of God), I even purchased a building to do it in.

But the fruit of that season wasn’t peace—it was pressure. It wasn’t joy—it was burnout. I wasn’t becoming more loving—I was becoming driven, hardened, and disconnected. I’ll be brutally honest with you… I was becoming more masculine. (That’s a discussion for another blog, but for this one, I straight up was becoming more and more masculine with each year that I did the reading.) So I knew something wasn’t right.

Scripture Hit Different

Because I’ve read the entire Bible many times, I’ve learned something: when God wants to teach you something, verses you’ve read a thousand times suddenly hit in a new way. During this particular season of confusion, three verses jumped off the page:

• 1 Timothy 4:1 – "The Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons."

• 2 Corinthians 2:11 – "...lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices."

• Mark 16:17 – "These signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons."

  
  

That last one hit me hard. Jesus said casting out demons was a sign of a true believer. But I wasn’t casting out demons. I wasn’t even thinking about them. I had brushed off that part of the gospel—thinking it was for the spiritual elite. But Jesus didn’t say some believers. He said believers. Period. So I started asking questions. At the time, I was expecting to learn about demons and how to cast them out as a tool for evangelism. I was surprised when my research on demons took a turn I didn’t expect.

Sin Isn’t Just an Action—It’s a Presence

You know how a child goes to one grade for a year before moving to the next level of understanding? In my experience, it seems the Lord takes about a year to teach a particular lesson thoroughly. And it takes that long because you have to wrestle out old ideas so ingrained in you that it feels almost unholy to let them go. The first step seems to be a few key verses popping out, and then the questions start. Well, during this lesson, the pattern was the same. Now that the verses above had been highlighted, I had questions. Who wouldn’t? I mean, if Jesus said you will be casting out demons if you’re a true believer, and you’re not… obviously you’d have questions. Once I had the questions, the theme popped up everywhere in the Bible. But I was a little confused. I had questions about demons, yet I started noticing all the verses about sin as I was reading aloud.

And let me tell you, sin was nothing like I thought. Here are just a few attributes I discovered:

• Has desire and tries to control you – "Sin is crouching at the door; its desire is for you, but you must rule over it." (Genesis 4:7) This is the first time in Scripture sin is described with a will of its own—actively seeking to dominate us.

• Dwells within people – "It is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me." (Romans 7:17, 20) Paul describes sin as something living inside him, influencing his actions against his will.

• Can be taken away (removed like a being) – "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29) Sin isn’t just a concept—it can be removed, like a spiritual entity being cast out.

• Holds people in bondage – "Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin." (John 8:34) Jesus compares sin to slavery—a master with power over a person.

• Has an end goal: death – "Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death." (James 1:15) Sin grows and matures, seeking a destructive end—not just an act, but a force with a purpose.

  
  

That’s when it clicked. Sin isn’t simply a mistake. It’s a predator. A spiritual force. A being. Something with desire and power.

You Will Know Them by Their Fruit

Another thing that happens when God’s teaching you a lesson while you’re reading the Bible over and over? Verses you thought you knew shift in meaning. One that shifted for me was Matthew 7:16—"You will know them by their fruits." I’d always taken that to mean you could tell good people from bad people. But what if Jesus was saying that by their actions, you can identify the sin dwelling within?

Fruit doesn’t just appear; it grows from a seed—planted, watered, and cultivated over time. And every seed has a source. The fruit, then, isn’t proof of the person as much as evidence of the presence—what they’re walking with, what’s growing in them. Another verse that shifted: Luke 6:45, "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." What’s inside a person will eventually come out. Our actions are the outflow of whatever spirit or belief we’ve agreed with—whether it’s from God or not.

Spirits Hiding in Plain Sight

At this point, I knew sin had attributes like a living being, and we could identify it by its fruit. But I’ll be honest—I was still thinking in evangelistic terms for other people. I knew the verse about getting the beam out of your own eye before removing the splinter from others, but I’d assumed that since I’d repented and become a Christian, my beam was gone. So I was thinking of people like alcoholics or drug addicts—folks where the fruit is obvious, and to help them, we’d need to kick out the spirit within.

Around this time, I heard a sermon on YouTube from Derek Prince where he described sin as a "Spirit without a Body." I’d never heard that before, but he proved it thoroughly—using stories like Jesus casting a demon out of a man into pigs, showing how desperately spirits want a body. He even pointed out they’re intelligent and can speak (the demons asked Jesus if He was there "before the time").

Verses came out of the woodwork as I kept reading, and I was shocked to learn how many “things” in the Bible are listed as spirits. A few examples:

• The Spirit of Heaviness (Isaiah 61:3) – Causes deep oppression, despair, and emotional numbness.

• The Spirit of Fear (2 Timothy 1:7) – Paralyzes faith with anxiety and irrational fears.

• The Spirit of Jealousy (Numbers 5:14) – Fuels paranoia, resentment, and bitterness.

• The Spirit of Bondage (Romans 8:15) – Keeps people enslaved in fear and destructive cycles.

• The Spirit of Infirmity (Luke 13:11) – Brings physical affliction and sickness.

  
  

The Spirit of Heaviness was the most eye-opening—not because I suffer from depression, but because I know others who do. I’d thought it was just an emotion! Realizing it could be a spirit overwhelming its host opened a new world of thinking. If depression could be a spirit, anything could be. And if anything could be a spirit, I needed to start questioning if I had any spirits inside me?

Why This Changes Everything

That realization flipped a switch. If sin isn’t a mistake I make but a spiritual force I’ve partnered with, then fighting it isn’t about willpower—it’s about awareness and authority. I stopped trying to “be good” and started asking, “What am I walking with?”

Here’s why this matters:

• It’s Not About You—It’s About the Enemy. Paul says we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12). I used to beat myself up for failing, thinking I was the problem. Now I see an enemy exploiting my blind spots.

• Willpower Won’t Cut It—Spiritual Weapons Will. Jesus cast out demons (Mark 1:39), and He said believers would too (Mark 16:17). I’d been muscling through sin with discipline—like punching fog. Deliverance isn’t optional; it’s core to freedom.

• Symptoms Lie—Truth Exposes. Sin hides behind good intentions—like my Bible-reading marathon. I thought I was holy, but the fruit told a different story. Jesus called Satan the father of lies (John 8:44). Exposing the lie breaks the agreement.

• Freedom Isn’t Behavior—It’s Eviction. You can’t be set free from an action, but you can evict a master. For years, I read the Bible aloud daily, thinking it was holy—until I saw the fruit: I was getting harder, more judgmental, more masculine. Then Ephesians 5:26 hit me: husbands wash their wives with the Word, not me. I’d believed a lie—that God just wanted the job done, even if it wasn’t mine. Like Eve in Eden, I was partnering with a Spirit of Commission, doing what wasn’t meant for me. When I stopped, rejected that seducing spirit, and started listening to the Word instead, I didn’t just change—I was liberated. I even felt my feminine energy return.

For years, I thought repentance was saying “sorry” and trying harder. Now I see it’s breaking a contract—kicking out the intruder and locking the door with truth. The moment I did that, I felt lighter than I ever had.

So What About You?

What if something “holy” in your life is masking a spirit that’s not from God? Maybe it’s a discipline that’s become bondage. Maybe it’s a habit you justify because it looks righteous. Look at the fruit. If it’s not peace, joy, or love, you might be walking with an uninvited guest.

Sin isn’t a scorecard—it’s a predator. But here’s the good news: Jesus already won. He gave us the authority to cast it out. So let’s stop managing it and start expelling it. Freedom’s waiting.

I hope you have a great day!

Jacqueline Marie