Tuesday, May 24, 2011

God's Great Weapon In Our Battle To Save Souls

We are nothing and have nothing without the Holy Spirit. The only connection we have with Jesus is by the Holy Spirit. The only way that we receive from God is by the Holy Spirit. The only way we can sense God's presence, know his will, and love with his love is by the Holy Spirit. Every blessing we receive comes by the Holy Spirit. The only confirmation we have that we are the Children of God is by the Holy Spirit. The only sin that will not be forgiven is the one against the Holy Spirit. Considering how important he is to us you would think people would know more about him.

You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. (Romans 8:9)

Wow, without the Spirit we don't even belong to Jesus. I remember as a boy hearing a lot about the Spirit and even then I would get upset when people would refer to him as "it". Open our eyes Lord to the essential truth of the importance of the Councillor you have sent to us so that we would not be like orphans. Without the Spirit we cannot receive the multitude blessings from God:

And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. (Romans 5:5)

I could go on all day sharing various Scripture because I enjoy talking about the Spirit but I want to focus on John 16 for a moment. Jesus said that it was good for us that he was going away because in his going the Holy Spirit would be sent to us by the Father. He said that when the Spirit came he would bring conviction of guilt to the world about three things:

When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment. (John 16:8)

We are in the last days and in these days hearts are growing harder, people are completely rejecting even the idea of God, and sharing the Good News has become a more difficult thing. However, until the Spirit of God is removed from this earth people will always be convicted of these three things, even if they choose to reject that conviction.

In regard to sin, because men do not believe in me. (John 16:9)

People are not listening to the teachings of Jesus Christ but the Holy Spirit will not relent in convicting people of their sin. There is absolute good and absolute evil even if the world wants to fudge the lines. The current teaching in all the movies and television shows is that there is a little bit of good and evil in each of us, creating a grey area where we hope the good would balance off the evil. That is a lie from the devil himself and the Holy Spirit is here to convict people of such nonsense. There is a thing called sin that we are born to and only one can remove it from us. The Spirit has to convict before their hearts go totally hard and they lose all sight of the truth of sin and our rebellion against God. We need to share the truth of God's Word while the Spirit is still here to convict people of that truth. Without the Spirit our words and Scripture would be meaningless.

In regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer. (John 16:10)

As long as Jesus was present there was a physical demonstration of God's righteousness. With his departure there would no longer be an example so the Spirit would need to convict us of this righteousness. There is a right and wrong in the Kingdom and the Spirit is here to teach it to us. It's one thing to know that our actions are wrong, it is another to know the right actions to take. The Holy Spirit convicts us of the righteousness of God, teaching us, showing us, helping us, guiding us in that pathway. As a follower of Jesus you cannot do whatever you want, there is a code to live by and it starts by loving God with your entire being , followed up by loving others as yourself. The Spirit helps with this.

In regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. (John 16:11)

We can see with our own eyes how hard people have become to the Good News and the conviction of the Holy Spirit. They live as if they will never have to give an account for their decisions, as if they will never be held responsible for their actions. People laugh at Pastor Harold Camping who predicted the Rapture of the Church this past weekend. The man is wrong in this doctrine and he has been a source of ridicule against the Church but I wonder how many of us would have been ready if he had been right? How many people are even willing to consider that a day is quickly approaching when they will have to give an account for their decision to reject Jesus as Lord?

Time is growing short; hearts are growing harder and colder; the Spirit will not be with man for much longer; we need to take advantage of the conviction of the Spirit while we can. If it is this hard for people to believe with the Spirit how much harder will it be when the Spirit and the Church are gone? Each Follower of Jesus must live with the urgency of believing that "today is the day of salvation" and don't rely on tomorrow because tomorrow may not arrive. We used to be able to rely on tomorrow but those days are quickly slipping away. We need to live in such a way that when we stand before Jesus we can honestly say, perhaps with tears in our eyes, "I did everything I could".













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