HE IS IN YOU TO CONVICT
THE WORLD
John 16:8-11
“And when He has come, He will convict the world of
sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe
in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of
judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”
Before we discuss this
scripture we need to define the word ‘convict’ which is translated as ‘reprove’
in the King James Version. Today in the church this word has come to carry a
negative tone to it. We associate it with the word ‘condemn’ or finding someone
guilty of wrong doing. As a result, most of us believe that the Holy Spirit is constantly
hounding us for our sins, condemning us when we do wrong and screaming at us
whenever we sin. We believe that He is the one always highlighting our various
faults and shortcomings.
This is not what the Holy
Spirit is commissioned to do and it is not even what the word ‘convict’ means.
It is a religious definition not a dictionary definition.
The Greek word translated
as ‘reprove’ is elegchō and it means to bring
to the light, to expose, to convince, to prove. It does not mean to condemn or
judge or find guilty.
The Holy Spirit never
ministers negatively, He always ministers positively. When you feel condemned
and shamed, that is never the Holy Spirit. It is either your conscience
condemning you, or the devil accusing you. But it is never the Holy Spirit. He
never condemns us
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who
are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to
the Spirit.” Romans8:1
What is the difference
between conviction and condemnation?
Conviction always
produces hope and repentance; Condemnation always produces hopelessness and
death. Conviction causes you to run to God for mercy, condemnation causes you
to run away from God.
Peter denied Jesus three
times and when presented with the truth he was convicted, repented and returned
to Jesus. Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus, when presented with the truth he was
condemned and went and hanged himself.
When you do a piece of
stupid and your response is to feel bad, filthy, unworthy, ashamed, you beat
yourself up, you feel God can no longer use you and doesn’t want you, you are
in condemnation and it is not the Holy Spirit. It is your conscience and the
devil.
On the other hand, when
you are receiving the conviction of the Holy Spirit, you will feel remorseful
and sorrowful, but it won’t be hopeless despair. You will have hope to
overcome, you will have hope that you will change, and you will know that God
has forgiven you and is with you to see this through. And you will feel better
when you receive the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
His conviction is positive
and life giving.
And He does this through
us to the world. Notice in that verse that Jesus said the Holy Spirit would
convict ‘the world’
And how does He do this?
Through us. Remember that we are His body in the earth. As we follow Him and
share the gospel and preach the Word, He convicts the world of sin,
righteousness and judgment.
This is how we all got
born again. A believer shared the gospel with us, the Holy Spirt working
through them convicted us and we repented and came to Jesus. He did not condemn
us. we did not feel hopeless and damned to destruction. We felt remorseful and
sorrowful and hopeful that God would forgive us and accept us.
The Holy Spirit working
through us convicts the world of what is wrong (i.e. sin), what is right (i.e.
righteousness), and last but not least, He convicts the world of the outcome of
doing what is wrong or right (i.e. judgment).
The Bible teaches us that
the Holy Spirit convicts us the believers of several wonderful things;
He convinces us that we
are the children of God. “For you did not
receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of
adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." The Spirit Himself bears
witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Romans 8:15-16
He convinces us that God
loves us “Now hope does not disappoint,
because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit
who was given to us.” Romans5:5
He convinces us that all
of God’s promises to us will come to pass “who
is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased
possession, to the praise of His glory.” Ephesians1:13-14 and 2Corinthians1:20-22.
HE IS IN YOU TO REVEAL
John 16:13 “…and He will tell you things to come.”
The Holy Spirit being God
is omniscient. He knows everything. He knows what is going to happen in the
future. He is the Spirit of prophecy and is willing to reveal to us future events.
And this can be revealing
to us what awaits us in eternity to what awaits us tomorrow.
Ephesians 1:18 tells us
that He will reveal to us the wonderful glorious inheritance that we have come
to and that will be consummated in eternity.
However, He also reveals
to us His invaluable foreknowledge of upcoming disasters and hindrances so that
we can always stay one step ahead of the devil. Through thoughts, dreams, words
of knowledge, prophecies etc. He will show us beforehand what is coming in the
future so that we can prepare for it or avert it in case it is negative.
He reveals what belongs to Jesus
“…for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to
you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will
take of Mine and declare it to you.” John16:14-15
1Corinthians2:9 “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor
have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those
who love Him.”
Many Christians today
love to quote this verse. We talk about how God is great and has great things
in store that no eye has seen and no ear has heard. But we all ignore the next
verse;
“But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit!”
It is certainly true that
in the Old Covenant their eyes could not see, they ears could not see and they
could not even imagine what God had prepared for those who loved Him, but now
under the New Covenant, we have the Holy Spirit who has come with a mission of
revealing to us these things that God has in store for us!
In verse 12 he reiterates
this point by saying that the Holy Spirit was given to us so that we might know
the things that have been freely given to us by God.
“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world,
but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been
freely given to us by God.”
The conclusion to this
matter is this;
“Who has known the mind of the Lord that he may
instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ” v16
The Holy Spirit activates
the mind of Christ in us. We have the mind of Christ. So we can communicate
with and have conversation with the Holy Spirit.
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