Hi Pal,
It’s always a joy to share God’s Word with you. I trust you had a restful weekend.
Today, we continue in the series we started last week on the subject of How to Be Led by The Holy Spirit. Last week, we focused on the Person, Diety, Identity and partly on the Purpose of the Holy Spirit. We made clear, the fact that The Holy Spirit is the Third Person in the Trinity. He is equal with God in Essence, Capacity and Virtues but different in Assignment, Expression and Dispensation. Do well to read up on the previous post if you haven’t. It will help in the build up.
The Holy Spirit is such an exciting Person to talk about, because He has such a unique way of turning the believer on. I get excited when I speak or write about The Holy Spirit because He is the Spirit of Joy… Glory to God forever!
We paused last week on the Purpose of The Holy Spirit as clearly explained in John 16. So let’s pick up from there;
John 16:7-15 KJV
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. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
You know while meditating on these verses of Scripture, I saw in a completely new light some really amazing realities in this passage. Can’t wait to share them with you…
For a long time, I had heard Teachers of The Word give their own “revelations” about what The Bible meant when it says The Holy Spirit will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment, which are interesting perspectives to note and explore. I explained the basic understanding about these in the last installment, which was that The Holy Spirit will reprove the world of sin, chief of which is unbelief, reprove the world of righteousness because He is a just God and has righteous standards and then reprove the world of judgement, that there is an imminent judgement which begins with the devil.
Now, this is all so juicy when we begin to really unpack these truths. Remember these verses in John 16 gives the most comprehensive detail about the Assignment and Purpose of the Holy Spirit among the passages referenced in the Gospels? So we find here key insights about the Purpose of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus was in context, telling His disciples that it was expedient for Him to leave, so that He could send them the Comforter who couldn’t come until He left. Then He begins to enumerate the key assignment and advantages of having The Holy Spirit available by saying, when He comes, He would reprove the world of Sin… particularly the Sin of Unbelief! Let’s pause here for a moment…
If you’re like me, you’re asking, how is this supposed to be our business as believers? We are not the world, neither are we of the world, why is Jesus then explaining the advantage of the Holy Spirit to us with respect to the world?????
Well, perhaps because The Holy Spirit has no other way to reprove the world of Sin except through us… Hmmn! How He reproves the world of the Sin of Unbelief is through the Believers who choose to walk by Faith and disarm the hold of Sin in their lives. They become God’s witness against the pervading effect of Sin in the world.
Hold that thought for a moment, it would become useful in a few paragraphs;
Now understand this, many people want to cultivate a vibrant relationship with The Holy Spirit, primarily because they want to be able to hear Him speak to them in audible terms and show them what will happen in the future and literally make them into some sort of Joganut Christians with Superpowers… well, that may be one of the reasons to desire to cultivate a relationship with The Holy Spirit, but that cannot be your sole aim because it is not the sole aim of The Holy Spirit’s residence in your life. Once your priority doesn’t align with His, something will be significantly missing in the experience. His primary goal in your life is not to tell you who to marry, where to stay, what job to take and those “I need to hear The Holy Spirit on this matter” kind of situations. He would get around those type of functions ultimately but those aren’t His primary goal;
His primary goal is found in Romans 8, let’s go there…
Romans 8:12-14
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
I know we are all familiar with Verse 14… That’s our “go to” scripture when we need God to speak to us on a matter. “Father Lord, is Ebube the Boo you have ordained for me the Bae? For as many as are led Father… lead me Lord, lead me Lord????” Yes that scripture can serve as a provisional premise for your request over such matters, but that is far from being the context in which it was used.
The context in which that verse of Scripture is used is that of the consecration and sanctification of our bodies unto The Lord and mortifying our bodies from the deeds of the flesh… because AS MANY AS ARE LED BY THE SPIRIT (into holiness and godliness), they are the Sons of God. As many as have considered themselves truly dead to sin and have become debtors to the Spirit of Grace that raised Jesus from the dead, they are the ones The Holy Spirit can lead and indeed they are the ones that truly identify with the Son of God, and hence can be called such. Anyone who only gravitates towards The Christ and His Spirit because of what he can get isn’t a true son. Such practices are akin to seeking a dibia or an ifa priest for answers to your questions, solutions to your problems and thereafter, disappear… apparently because you only needed him for an answer and cared nothing about him.
Listen folks, if The Holy Spirit doesn’t have control of your body, He has no use for your ears! If He cannot make you live a life that pleases God, what exactly would be His motive for leading you? You must be committed to living a life that pleases God in all things by surrendering the control over your body to Him for absolute mortification, once He has completely limited the influence of your flesh in your life, hearing God concerning any situation will become a byproduct and not the focus of that mortification. Guys, this is revolutional!
Dont seek to hear hear and hear, seek rather to follow by flowing with the dictates of the Spirit in putting your body under… Praise God!
Now, remember that thought I asked you to keep handy? About how the Holy Spirit reproves the world of sin through us?
This verse ties it all up together pretty nicely…
Ephesians 5:11 (Amplified)
Do not participate in the worthless and unproductive deeds of darkness, but instead expose them [by exemplifying personal integrity, moral courage, and godly character];
KJV
And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
Do you now see this amazing connection?
The Holy Spirit reproves the world of Sin, by entering into the Believer and causing real actual God glorifying transformation to begin to occur via the vehicle of holiness, which He then uses to reprove the world of Sin. This means that, The Holy Spirit is limited in His goal of reproving the world of Sin without the yielded Believer! ????????????
Notice I didn’t say, the perfect believer, but the yielded one. God isn’t seeking your perfection, but He really desires your yielded ness, once you give Him that… leave the perfection to Him!
Perhaps the reason why a lot of people struggle to hear God is because their lives are really not yielded in holiness.
This is very radical friends! Chew on this, let it sink and we will go a step further next week.
Let me know if this blessed your heart!
Have a remarkable week ahead.