In my quiet time today, I was thinking about conscience, and exactly what part conscience plays in the decision making process. One thing became utterly clear; a guilty conscience can be its own punishment. Let’s look into this whole conviction thing, with the emphasis of the work of the Holy Spirit.
God gives us, and have given us in the past, opportunities to make choices. My present understanding is that the choices we make are based on the heart and mind condition at that time, and can either cause us to make choices that are good or bad. The choices we make almost always have a ripple in the water effect, affecting those outside the glass walls of our life. In order to better understand this heart and mind condition influence, we need to investigate this thing called “nature” and how it affects our will to make decision based on in its influence.
Before we were new creations in Christ, our nature was guided by the infection of sin, and even in our walk with Christ we still can feel its effects. But praise be to God, that because of His saving grace, that “nature” no longer can have a stranglehold, when we are actively and consistently walking with Christ, guided by Him through His word being revealed to our hearts. But what happens when a Christian makes wrong decisions? How does God use our conscious in our lives? Enter . . . the Holy Spirit.
Let’s look at a cool little analogy. Most of you know that I have a limited knowledge of all things football! Well, I know some things, but just enough to be dangerous! HA! But check this out. If we can utilize a football analogy to help explain the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives, it must go something along these lines . . .
The Holy Spirit is both the offensive and defensive coordinator, periodically communicating the wishes of the Head Coach (God) to selected players.
Now with that said, I must confess that most analogies involving the Holy Spirit, which ultimately involve the Trinity, breakdown because there is really nothing in our experience that is anything like the nature of God. that is why we can’t fully grasp, in our finite mindes, what He is truly like. But if we look into this analogy, the most important facet of it is the communication of the wishes of the Head Coach.
Let’s look as John 16:5-10.
John 16:5-10
5 Now because I am going to Him who sent Me, yet none of you asks Me, “Where are you going?” 6 Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. 7 But I will tell you the truth; it is for your good that I am going away. unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. 8 When He comes, He will convict the world of guilt (in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment) 9 in regard to sin, because men do not believe in Me; 10 in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see Me no longer, 11 and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
If we look in the eighth verse, we see the word “convict”. The word convict is in essence a legal term, and the Holy Spirit is sent out to gain a conviction - a verdict of guilty. In the instance of an unbeliever, the Holy Spirit accuses of sin and brings the individual to the point of inescapable guilt before God, bringing forth a sense of shame and helplessness. In His conviction, the Holy Spirit makes the sinner aware of sin without excuse, and then sets forth God’s complete standard of righteousness in such a way that the space, the moral gap, between God and sinful man must and will be enforced. This is the first step necessary in prepping a sinner for salvation - the person must be convinced that a diving “Negotiator” is absolutely necessary to bridge that gap between The Holy God and the sinful man.
This is the first in an ongoing blog series, as God is punching me in the face right now. I will be continuing shortly with more on this whole conviction/conscience topic.

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