David Diga Hernandez - The Conviction of the Holy Spirit

In this edition of Spirit Church, I’m going to address a gift from God that is most often misunderstood and frequently despised, even by believers. This gift offers great benefits and helps us walk in holiness and connect with God at greater depths, yet we too often, due to our misunderstandings, despise the gift, reject it, or try to avoid it. I’m going to discuss that today. First, as usual, Steven Montazuma is here with me; he will lead you in worship, and then we’ll dive right into this lesson.

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So, what is this gift that God has given to us that we often reject, misunderstand, and despise? I’m talking today about the conviction of the Holy Spirit. John 16:7-10 says this: «But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, The Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin and of God’s righteousness and of the coming judgment. The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me. Righteousness is available because I go to the Father and you will see me no more.» The conviction of the Holy Spirit is from God. When we talk about the conviction of the Holy Spirit, we are talking about the Holy Spirit causing us to acknowledge that we have made a mistake or that we have sinned. The conviction of the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit telling us that we have guilt on our hands. Now, we have to understand, and I’m going to get into this later, that there is also the accusation of the enemy that causes us to feel guilty, but I want to focus first on this idea of the conviction of the Holy Spirit. We need the conviction of the Holy Spirit; we need to pray for the conviction of the Holy Spirit. I hope you get convicted by the Holy Spirit on a regular basis. The conviction of the Holy Spirit is a sign, not that God is rejecting you, but that you are living a spiritually healthy life. When you receive the conviction of the Holy Spirit, it’s because God loves you. The Scripture says that God only chastises those whom He loves. When you receive the conviction of the Holy Spirit, it helps you identify specific problems in your life, get rid of them, and draw closer to God in repentance. So, the conviction of the Holy Spirit is something we want to experience, but like I said, it’s misunderstood. Why? Because we confuse it with something else, and I’m going to get to that, like I said, later. But this conviction that God gives to us is a gift; it’s helpful and healthy. If you are not convicted by the Holy Spirit for your wrongdoing, it means that your spiritual hearing needs help; it means that your spiritual hearing needs to be healed. When you don’t hear the conviction of the Holy Spirit, it’s often because you’ve led yourself down a path of disobedience. The longer you ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit, the harder He becomes to hear. 2 Corinthians 7:10 says this: «For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation; there’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.» I love the way the King James Version puts it: «Godly sorrow worketh repentance.» I was watching a documentary, and if you watch Spirit Church or Encounter TV or have heard me preach, you know that I love to watch documentaries. I was specifically watching this medical documentary about a little girl who had a disease that caused her to feel absolutely no pain. Now, in my ignorance, while watching this documentary, I said to myself that it would be great if I could never feel pain; that would be a wonderful life if, when I received an injury, I did not feel the pain my body causes me to feel. But as I continued to watch this documentary, I soon found that what this girl was living with as a result of this disease was a nightmare, especially for her parents. Her mother noted that when her daughter would play on the playground, if she fell, hit her head, or was injured in some way, she had no way of knowing whether her daughter had received a serious injury. There could be internal bleeding, a head trauma, broken bones, or pulled tendons and muscles; she had no idea if her daughter was ever injured in a grave way. So, the Holy Spirit’s conviction is like this: we often imagine that it would be great if we could just live the way we wanted to live without consequence in our conscience. Someone said that the conscience is to the mind what pain is to the body. We have the conviction of the Holy Spirit as a gift from God. The conviction of the Holy Spirit is not a punishment; it’s a gift. Repentance is a privilege for which Christ gave His life. The repentance that we are offered is not an obligation; it’s an opportunity. When we repent, we are turning from self-destruction. When we repent, we are changing our minds about behaviors that lead to darkness and debasement. When we repent as a result of conviction, we are able to turn away from worldliness, turn away from the flesh, and turn toward our Heavenly Father. This is a powerful gift that the Holy Spirit has given to us. We need the conviction of the Holy Spirit in our lives. There are some preachers who don’t like to preach convicting messages. They say, «Well, I just want to encourage; I don’t want to offend anyone.» The truth is, I would rather offend someone into Heaven than comfort them into Hell. Conviction is a part of the preaching of the Gospel; conviction is what draws sinners to Christ; conviction is what draws us to holiness. You notice the Scripture we read in John chapter 16 says that the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, but He…