It's not unusual for God's Word to be misapplied. Satan's favorite tactic against Christians is presenting God's words out of context in ways that appeal to carnal man. Satan even tried it on Jesus: At the end of forty days in the wilderness, we see the evil one quoting the wrong scripture to Jesus, merely as an enticement for personal gain. Now if the devil would actually try to deceive the Son of God with God's own Word, would he try the same thing on Jesus' followers? You bet!

The devil has forever taken God's gifts, His holy and precious things, and added a twist to them. The serpent has taken all of God's blessings, all the things that are meant to give us life - and added poisoned short cuts. The evil one finds ways of making these things more appealing, but also life robbing. Food, work, sex, wealth - all of these are meant to bring blessing to mankind, but in a fallen world, all of these have the power to suck the life out of us as we go overboard. His is a kingdom of counterfeits; the devil cannot come up with one original creation. Everything he offers is but a twisted version of what God meant for our good. Precisely because these things have power to bless us, they have potential to harm us when under the serpent's deception. And God's Word is no exception. Two people want to guide us in applying God's Word: the Holy Spirit, and Satan. The Holy Spirit wants to help us rightly apply the Word in our search for Truth, while the enemy will actually try to bring about deception by prompting us to listen to just one side of God's Word.

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