Jesus laid out some things about the Holy Spirit's ministry as He prepared Himself to go to the cross. It was to be a two-fold ministry, with one part of the ministry being the revealing Jesus to the world as the Messiah and the second part was teaching the Church about the new covenant. The Holy Spirit would reveal Jesus to the unsaved as the Sacrifice and payment for our sin and He would continuously reveal Jesus in His present day ministry to the Church.
It seems that it's easier to reveal Jesus as Savior than as Lord. Jesus is not Lord in the believer's life when he holds back anger, unforgiveness, bitterness, prejudice and all things of the old man. If I remain bitter over something that occurred in my past, then the Holy Spirit's job is to reveal what needs to done to change it and how to change it.
There has been confusion in the Church for many years concerning the way God brings about surrender of these "hidden" things in our lives. Some believe that God uses these things to correct us, while others can't even discern the difference between God's work and satan's work.
Listen closely to what Jesus says in John 16:7-15 (Amplified) because it will make a difference in how you receive and in what you receive from the Father. Thus, Verse 7 starts, "However, I am telling you nothing but the truth when I say it is profitable (good, expedient, advantageous) for you that I go away. Because if I do not go away, the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Stand-by) will not come to you ( into close fellowship with you). And when He comes, He will convict and convince the world and bring demonstration to it about sin and about (righteousness of heart and right standing with God) and about judgment.About sin, because they do not believe in Me (trust in, rely on, adhere to Me) About righteousness (uprightness of heart and right standing with God), because I go to My Father, and you will see Me no more." Verses 11-13 say, About judgment because the ruler, (evil genius, prince) of the world (satan) is judged and condemned and his sentence is already passed upon him. I still have many things to say to you, but you are not able to bear them or take them upon you or to grasp them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth (the truth giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the truth (the whole, full truth) for He will not speak His Own message (on His Own authority) but He will tell whatever He hears (from the Father, He will give the message that has been given Him) and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come (that will happen in the future)." Verses 14- 15 end, "He will honor and glorify Me, because He will take of (receive, draw upon) that which is Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you. Everything that the Father has is Mine, that is what I meant when I said that He (the Spirit), will take the things that are Mine, and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you."
The above verses perfectly sum up the two-fold ministry of the Holy Spirit. He will bring demonstration to the world about its sin, which is that they do not believe in Jesus. And, to the Church, He will teach righteousness or right standing with God and He will also teach them about judgment, which is that satan ,"the evil genius and ruler of darkness" has already been judged and sentenced.
If you an unsaved sinner, then the Holy Spirit will convict your heart about your sin in order to bring you to salvation. He will also reveal the penalty for their sin or their being in connection with satan. He will reveal what happens when the sinner remains in their sin, which is that the judgment of satan is the judgment for not receiving salvation and the payment for their sin. He will reveal Jesus and His righteousness to the Church. And, He will reveal that we are saved through the sacrifice of Jesus and have come into right standing with God because of Jesus. He will reveal how everything the Father has is Jesus'. The Holy Spirit will take all the things we've inherited through Jesus and reveal them to us.
This is the two-fold ministry of the Holy Spirit and without Him one can never know the conviction of his sin. We certainly cannot understand our being made righteous or in right standing with God without the revelation from the Spirit of Truth.
The second part of the Holy Spirit's ministry is more difficult to explain or understand than the first. It seems like most of us knew we were sinners, but we didn't know how to get out of it. But, we still have a difficult time believing that we were made righteous in Jesus before God. We struggle with condemnation and guilt over who we were before being saved and fail to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal who we are in Christ now. We seemingly place more faith in our past rather than in what our Lamb has done in our presence.
If the Truth giving Spirit doesn't reveal to us who we've become in Jesus, then we still simply see ourselves as old "sinners who were saved by grace." Only the Holy Spirit can convince us of our righteousness in Christ. Everything the Father has belongs to Jesus, according to Romans 8:16-17 (Amplified) which says, "The Spirit Himself thus testifies together with our own spirit (assuring us) that we are children of God. And if we are (His) children, then we are (His) heirs also; heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ (sharing His inheritance with Him) only we must share His suffering if we are to share His glory."
Many Christians get hung up with the latter part of this verse and misinterpret what "His sufferings" really are. The Holy Spirit wasn't speaking about Jesus' sufferings on Calvary's cross, this was for our sake. The suffering that Jesus endured was for His being righteous in the midst of the self-righteous people surrounding Him. He was misunderstood even by His Own family for doing what seemed like only God could do. This kind of suffering comes through the persecution from the world and the misunderstanding from even some in the Church.
Only the Holy Spirit can convince and convict the Church in righteousness. Mere men only see it as being prideful to say that we're righteous through Christ. The second part of the Holy Spirit's ministry is one that He, and only He alone, can fulfill in our Christian walk. We walk in religion instead of relationship with Christ without the Holy Spirit's direction in our prayer life and our lives. I've been told that, "You can't simply take a promise of God and proclaim it, in order to make it work." My reply is, "That's exactly what we did when we heard about the promise we would be saved if we simply believe in our heart and confess with our mouth that Jesus is the Son of God and ask His forgiveness, then we would be saved."
Is this not simply obtaining the promise by faith and confession? Why would the same principle not work with all the other promises of God?
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