Conviction vs. Condemnation

When we ask Jesus to come into our lives, He sends us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has been described as the "Comforter" or "Helper". 

My Youth Pastor taught the message on Sunday. He had some very good points about righteousness and the Holy Spirit. 

He said that the Holy Spirit is not in us to convict us. The Scripture he used was when Jesus is talking to His disciples telling them about leaving.

It is John 16: 7-11, here is what it says, 
"7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. 8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:

9 Of sin, because they believe not on me; 10 Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; 11 Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged." KJV

So, what Jesus said is that the Holy Spirit will come to reprove aka convict the world of sin, and that sin is because they do not believe in Him. 

Righteousness is nothing more than right standing with God. This, Josh said, is a gift we receive, not something that we achieve.

The judgement that comes in from satan, our accuser, and is what we sometimes confuse as conviction. 

I disagree a little with his thoughts. I think the Holy Spirit is supposed to convict us if we sin. Convict means to convince us in order to persuade action. So, by convicting us of sin, the Holy Spirit persuades us to confess and turn from it.

What happens is, satan condemns us and we think THAT's the Holy Spirit, when it's NOT!

Here is an example: Let's say I tell a lie. The Holy Spirit might speak to my heart and say, "Jill that was a lie and is wrong." 

Our accuser would whisper in my hear, "You are such a horrible person. You call yourself a Christian? You just told a lie."

See the difference?

Part of Proverbs 23: 7 talks about as a man thinks within himself, that's what he is. 

Josh said we need to think about our righteousness. It was given to us through Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. It's nothing we can do for ourselves.

If we have Jesus in our lives, when God looks at us, that's what He sees. Living out of the thoughts that we are righteous will help us live that way, instead of living out of the thoughts of how horrible and bad we are. With Jesus, we aren't "bad" anymore.