How Do Feel about Conviction?
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
John 16:13
The Holy Spirit guides us to all truth, and God’s truth can be convicting to us. In the Bible conviction is mentioned in terms of sin, but conviction in this paper will refer to anything that helps us to be closer to God and to be more Christ-like. If we are motivated to spiritually grow, we will listen for conviction.
What is our attitude when the Spirit convicts us? Are willing to change and follow the Spirit, or are we comfortable in our relationship with the Lord and resist any change. There are Christians who resist change, and will only serve the Lord where people support what their itching ears want to hear. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear (2 Timothy 4:3). These are Christians who live the Christians life according to their own terms, with little knowledge of the Christian life that pleases God.
He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). Jesus spoke these words to the prideful Pharisees. If we are not grounded in the Word, prayer, and fellowship, we are more susceptible to living according to Satan’s lies. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). If we reject the Holy Spirit’s conviction, it’s probably because we are comfortable having justified our life with the Lord.
When we accept the Holy Spirit’s conviction we are closer to the Lord and our life is more fulfilling. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free (John 8:32). Accepting the Spirit’s conviction is accepting God’s truth, and if we obey the truth Christ sets us free. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1). We are either free in Christ or a slave to the world, and Satan wants us to be a slave to the world. One way Satan does this is by stopping our spiritual growth through our rejecting the Holy Spirit’s conviction.
It’s possible that we have justified our life as pleasing to God to the point that we don’t hear the Spirit’s conviction. If they hear or read something that is convicting, they will block out the conviction. Rejecting the Spirit’s conviction is a spiritually dangerous place to be, because this is a prideful behavior. God opposes the proud but shows grace to the humble (James 4:6). I think all of us prefer God’s grace, rather than have God oppose us.
Today be aware of the Spirit’s conviction, knowing it’s through conviction that we spiritually grow, and the Christian life is spiritual growth. Develop an attitude that motivates spiritual growth, because it brings us closer to the Lord, makes us more Christ-like, makes life more fulfilling, and makes us free in Christ. The more we grow spiritually the more we walk in the Spirit giving us more faith, love, joy, and peace.
Prayer: Lord, motivate me to grow spiritually, so I can walk more in the Spirit when ministering to lost souls. Lord let the Spirit convict me in any area of my life that needs to be more Christ-like. In Jesus name, Amen