 On this edition of Spirit Church, I'm going to be addressing a gift from God that is most often misunderstood and most often despised by even the believer. This gift gives us great benefits and helps us to walk in holiness, helps us to connect with God in greater depths. But we all too often, because of our misunderstanding, despise the gift, reject the gift, or try to avoid this gift. I'm going to be talking about that today. First, as usual, Steven Moctezuma is here with me. He's going to lead you in some worship. And then we're going to get right into this lesson. Here's Steven Moctezuma. 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 chapter 16 verses 7 to 10 says this, The conviction of the Holy Spirit is of 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 which causes us to feel guilty. But I want to focus firstly 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. And when you receive the conviction of the Holy Spirit, it helps you to 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, it's a gift. It's helpful, and it's 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 because you've often led yourself down a path because of your decisions of disobedience. The longer you ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit, the harder he becomes to hear. 2 Corinthians chapter 7 verse 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, know that I love to watch documentaries, and I was specifically watching this medical documentary about this little girl who had this disease, and this disease in her body caused her to feel absolutely no pain. Now, in my ignorance while watching this documentary, I said to myself, well, that would be great if I could never feel any pain. That would be a wonderful life if when I received an injury, I did not feel the pain that my body causes me to feel. But as I continued to watch this documentary, I soon found that what this girl was living in as a result of this disease was a nightmare, especially for her parents. Her mother noted that when she would go play, that her daughter would go play on the playground, if she fell or hit her head or was injured in some way, that she had no way of knowing whether or not her daughter had received serious injury. There could be internal bleeding. There could be head trauma. There could be all sorts of broken bones and pulled tendons and muscles. She had no idea if her daughter was ever injured in a grave way. And 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 want it to live with no consequence in the conscience. Someone said that the conscience is to the mind what pain is to the body. And 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. Repentance is a privilege for which Christ gave his life to give you. That 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 mind about behavior that leads 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 or 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 said that we read in John 16 that the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, but he also convicts us of righteousness. He compares us to the standard of Christ and we obtain that standard through repentance and through faith in Christ because of what he finished on the cross. But in order to receive that free gift, we must first repent. And in order to repent, we must first be drawn and we are drawn by the conviction of the Holy Spirit. In our daily lives, as we go about our routines, the Holy Spirit speaks to us. Whether you say something or don't say something because James says that he that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Whether you do something that you're not supposed to do or you think something that you're not supposed to think, whatever the case may be, sins of omission, things you don't do, sins of commission, things you do, both of those can be helped, both of those ills can be addressed because of the conviction of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, when we make a mistake, when we sin, when we disobey God, he speaks to us and he continually speaks to us until we get that issue right. Maybe there's a secret sin in your life and the Holy Spirit's telling you, you need to confess this sin, you need to confess this sin. First John chapter 1 verse 9 says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. But in James chapter 5, I believe verse 16, it tells us that we are to confess our sins one to another that we may be healed. We confess our sins to God for forgiveness, but we confess our sins to one another for inner healing. Maybe the Holy Spirit is telling you to confess your sin to God. Maybe the Holy Spirit is telling you to confess your sin to your brother or your sister that you receive accountability, healing and help. But we ignore this gift. We think this is bad, especially in the preaching today, especially in the Americanized version of the Gospel. Conviction is looked down upon. Conviction is seen as a negative thing. And sure, conviction may at times make you feel negative, but ultimately, even negative feelings can result in positive things. I'll give you an example, another medical documentary that I was watching. I was watching this documentary with this obese woman who was suffering with her obesity and she was struggling to overcome her own weight. So she goes to the doctor and she asks the doctor for help and she says, I need help overcoming my obesity. And the doctor says, okay, I'm going to give you a strict diet. I'm going to help set you up with a nutritionist. I'm going to keep you on an exercise regimen and I'm also going to do a surgery on you. So he performs the surgery for her and then in order for her to start losing weight, he gives her the nutrition. He gives her the diet. He gives her the exercise regimen. But she starts to fall off that regimen and he notices it. So she's going to her appointments and every time the doctor would confront her, she would start to cry. She would get upset. She would say, it's so mean. I'm so offended that you would tell me I need to exercise. I'm so offended that you would tell me that I need to get back to my diet. And she became upset with the doctor who was trying to help her. And I'll never forget what she said when she finally gave up going to the doctor, went home and slipped into her own routine. The camera crew followed her in. They interviewed her and they asked her, well, what are you going to do now? She says, I'm just going to do things, maybe not as strict as he wants me to do them, but I'm going to do things still. I still want to eat certain things. I still want to go certain places. I still want to rest on certain days. And they asked her, but isn't he helping you? And the camera crew tried to, I guess, encourage her to go back to what she was supposed to be doing. And she said, well, I don't want to go back there because it wasn't a positive atmosphere. Positive atmosphere. Now, where have I heard that before? People who leave churches. Well, I don't want to go back there because the preacher says things that make me feel bad about myself. You know, when you sin, you should feel bad about yourself. When we sin against God, we should feel bad. Godly, sorrow works repentance. The people who preach against that, I believe they themselves have hidden sin in their life, have things that they don't want to confront. The truth is that when we sin, there is a natural reaction, and that reaction causes us to feel bad about what we've done, and that is the way it's supposed to be. That's why God gave us a conscience. So these preachers will say, well, don't make the people feel bad about themselves. Now, our goal isn't to make people feel bad about themselves. Our goal is to preach the truth. Our goal is to live in the truth. And this is what the conviction of the Holy Spirit does. He helps us live in that truth. And he helps you live in that truth by telling you when you're wrong. By telling you when you need to go back and repent of something. By telling you when you need to go and apologize to someone you've offended. When you need to go and apologize to someone who you've held unforgiveness against. We need the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Now, I understand that those of us who are mindful of the Spirit, we can also experience the other extreme of things. There are some who are too casual about sin in their life, and then there are others who condemn themselves over the most ridiculous things. I'm telling you, I probably get a message every day. And I'm thankful for my office who helps me sort through all of the correspondence. But sometimes I will go in and I'll try to address as many of the messages as I possibly can if I have some free time. And I can't believe some of the stuff I read. They'll ask me questions like, Brother David, is it a sin to go bowling? Brother David, is it a sin if I want to buy a nice car? Brother David, is it a sin if I want to wear nice clothes? Brother David, is it a sin if I got angry with someone for hurting me? And they just go on and they list all of these things. And they're so paranoid. And maybe that's you. You're so paranoid about offending God or going to hell. That's because we don't understand the finished work of the cross. But some people are so specific and they're so neurotic and they're so anxious and fearful about this that they pick out these specific issues. And they wonder if they're being condemned for them. Can I tell you something? That's not the spirit, that's the flesh. The Holy Spirit will convict you of sin that is clearly addressed in the Bible. The Holy Spirit will tell you to do something good and if you don't do it, He'll convict you of it. But we have to learn to distinguish between the voice inside of us, which is the flesh, the voice of the Holy Spirit, and additionally, as I mentioned at the top of the program, the accusation of the enemy. There is a difference between conviction and condemnation. Now conviction is the Holy Spirit telling you that you've done wrong and that you need to get it right. Condemnation is telling you that you've done something wrong and that you can never get it right. Conviction tells you you've made a mistake. Condemnation tells you you are a mistake. Conviction says I've failed. Condemnation says I'm a failure. Conviction says I must separate myself from my sin and turn toward God. Condemnation makes you feel so miserable in your sin because it makes you identify with that sin. It connects the identity. Now I know this lesson is a little different than the way I usually teach, but I need to bring this to you because I felt in my heart that this message is for somebody watching. I know we like to talk about the supernatural and the power of God and healing and prayer and the presence, but this here, it's more of a teaching than a sermon and I need to get it to you because if somebody watching me right now, there's also somebody watching me, you push away the voice of the Holy Spirit. I'll warn you again. You ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit long enough. Eventually you won't be able to hear Him. Now I just said that and to someone who's living in sin, they say, you know what, I do need to get right, but to someone who's really paranoid like what I'm talking about, they go, oh my goodness, that's me. I can't hear God anymore. But the truth is if you feel that fear of not hearing God, if you actually care about hearing God, then you haven't lost the voice of God. So we have to learn to balance conviction with condemnation. Conviction is of the Holy Spirit. Condemnation is of the flesh and of the demonic realm. So I'll put it this way. Conviction is the Holy Spirit. Guilt is the flesh. Accusation is demonic. I'll tell you what I mean by those two. Guilt is a natural emotional response to wrongdoing. Now guilt, even though it is of the flesh, is not necessarily wrong unto itself. Guilt is healthy to fill. We should feel guilty for things that we do wrong. But prolonged guilt is not of God. I'll give you an example, because remember in 1 John 1 verse 9 the scripture says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. He's faithful in that he's consistent and he's just in that he's justified because of what Christ did. This example is that I took my car to a mechanic one time because I saw a light go off on the dashboard. My light goes off on the dashboard and I'm the type of person that when I see my light go off on the dashboard, I don't wait, I don't wait a couple of weeks, I don't wait a couple of months, I don't say well I'll get to it later. As soon as my light goes off, I'll make an appointment that week and I take it in because I like to take care of my things. So I take my car to the mechanic and I go in, he does all these repairs and I go back a few days later and I go and get my car and as I'm pulling out of his shop, I realize that my dashboard light is still on and I thought I just paid all this money to have this guy fix my car and as soon as I drive it off the lot there's the check engine light. It's still on. So I pulled back in and I was a little upset. I stood in the spirit though and I said my friend look my dashboard light is still on it there's check engine still on it there's everything okay can you run the codes and he tells me oh I'm sorry all I did was forget to reset the light. I said what do you mean you forgot to reset the light? Doesn't it just go off when there's a mistake? He goes well it goes off when there's a problem with the engine but it stays on until I shut it off. I said okay that's interesting and then I thought that's the difference between guilt and conviction, condemnation and conviction. You see, spiritually when we do something wrong the light goes off. We pull in we get it right we say God forgive me fix me cleanse me heal me God cleanses us he heals us and then we go on our way forgiven but then some of us we still have that light on and what does that keep you doing? It keeps you focused on the problem instead of the road ahead and some of us are so focused on past sin and again I said this before people say well God forgive my past sin I said there's no other kind all sins are in the past of course God will forgive your past sin and people have trouble getting through that they'll go and they'll drive their car with this light on and they just feel worried and they feel fearful and this is what I imagine the conversation to be like with God Lord Jesus forgive me of my sin okay son you're forgiven Jesus I'm sorry for my sin yes son I forgave you Jesus please forgive me take this from me I don't even see the sin you're talking about because when I forgive you the scripture says I make you white as snow when I forgive you think about this the scripture says that when God forgives us he separates our sin from his mind as far as the east is from the west that's eternity the scripture says that he will remember our sins no more the scripture also says that he does not even deal with us according to our iniquity so some of us we have this dashboard light on spiritually speaking and we feel guilt for sin that already has been taken care of now you should feel guilty if you're still compromising if you're still hiding your sin if you're still participating in that actively and not working to fix it but the moment you say Lord forgive me and you turn from it in your heart you're forgiven it's as if you've never done it that's how simple that is some people they want to ask God to forgive them and then they wait a week or two before they let the guilt wear off but can I tell you something when you repent of your sin whether it was a sin you committed ten years ago or a sin you committed one second ago you're still just as forgiven but it's hard to reconcile these things isn't it we know the truth in our mind but we haven't really accepted that truth and allowed it to set us free we know in the spirit we're forgiven but in the flesh in the emotions we still fill the guilt why? your emotions will always follow your thoughts the scripture says as a man thinks so is he so if you're dwelling on the sin if you're dwelling on thoughts like I'm not forgiven or God doesn't love me anymore or God can't hear me or God won't hear my prayer or God won't even look at me or God has rejected me you keep doing that to yourself you're gonna fill it and that's how you deal with guilt you get rid of it through thinking on what the word actually says and then there's the accusation of the enemy which is not really of the flesh but it's of the demonic realm have you ever been going about your day casually, possibly, happily when all of a sudden a memory of something embarrassing or shameful that you've done will flash into your mind now inside when you get these embarrassing flashes of memory or these shameful flashes of memory from your past inside you just recoil in horror and you may be with people they have no idea you feel embarrassed just standing there with them and this thought just comes to your mind or something you did and you just wanna like literally shake it off that is the accusation of the enemy where did it come from why did it come it was a thought that the enemy threw at you from your past and what do we do normally instead of rejecting it we embrace it and we embrace the emotion of it we embrace the feeling of it we dwell on it we beat ourselves up for it that's not what God wants us to do so here we have again the two extremes some are too casual and some are too condemned we need to find that balance of conviction the conviction of the Holy Spirit is a gift allow him to guide your life allow him to speak to you act when he says to act but don't beat yourself up over things that he's not telling you to do and don't let your anxiety and your fear be mistaken for the voice of the Holy Spirit for God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind well I'm gonna pray with you now let's pray and believe the spirit of condemnation is gonna be broken over your life and that you would experience the positive gift of the conviction of the Holy Spirit that he would guide you on a daily basis to walk in righteousness and holiness let's pray I want you to stretch your hand toward mine because listen there's somebody watching me right now when I started talking about guilt and condemnation you, everything in your heart said that's me and I want to be free with all my heart I wanna be free from that and you've been battling this for years and it's a pattern it has to, it's tied in with your anxiety you beat yourself up every single day for sins that you've committed in the past that you've asked God for in fact, you're afraid to begin enjoying your life because you're afraid that when the moment comes that you actually begin to enjoy your life that the sins gonna catch up to you can I tell you something he separates our sin from his memory as far as the East is from the West that's what the Bible says who are you to not forgive yourself when God has declared you clean so with that in mind let's break this off of you today in Jesus' name Father in Jesus' name I pray for that one watching who's either battling Lord with being too casual or filling too condemned Lord I pray that you would give them the healthy balance of conviction we thank you Lord for the gift we thank you Lord that you have given us the ability to hear your voice we thank you Holy Spirit that you are involved in our lives enough to guide us on a daily basis I rebuke right now in Jesus' name every spirit of condemnation and guilt be broken off of that one watching right now be made whole in Jesus' name I command that torment on your mind to stop in Jesus' name no longer will your mind be tormented in the name of Jesus I want you to say we say in the name of Jesus I declare I am free from guilt and condemnation in Jesus' name now begin to pray in the Holy Ghost if you pray in the Holy Ghost Lord I loose that one right now we break the power of the enemy right now in Jesus' name Lord I thank you that they can sense your love and peace overflowing them right now we give you the glory we give you the honor there's someone watching me you've been contemplating suicide you've been thinking about for three months now and you've not told anybody what you're dealing with but that's been in your mind for three months now be made whole in Jesus' name the word of the Lord to you is don't put your hope in people people will disappoint you always or frail put your hope in God put your hope in his word put your hope in his unchanging nature there's somebody watching me you have an issue with your throat and I don't know what it is but there's a sharp pain and you've had that for a while and I think about six months or so but Lord I pray in Jesus' name that healing power would flow right now I thank you Lord there's somebody watching me back injury has just been healed in Jesus' name I give you the glory Lord we thank you pray in the Holy Ghost come on God's doing something in Jesus' name I give you glory there's a blood disorder being healed in Jesus' name there's a heart condition the heart murmur in Jesus' name we speak the healing power of God arthritis is being broken off of you right now in Jesus' name Lord I come against cancer I come against yes I heard there's someone that's watching me you just received word that you have a sexually transmitted disease you just received the word from the doctor not too long ago I pray in Jesus' name be healed of your shame and be healed of your sickness he's going to heal both in Jesus' name we pray and those who agreed and received said amen keep watching all the way through because you never know when the word of knowledge is going to keep flowing but I want to transition now to welcome the new members of Spirit Church there you are up on the screen and we want to welcome you a lot of members joining this week we got a few extra on the slide a little more than average and as you can see they're from all over the world different nations different states different cities I love looking at the names you can see all the different ethnicities of the names represented and we love you we are praying for you thank you for joining Spirit Church if you'd like information on how you can join the Spirit Church family go ahead and click on the link that's just about to appear over my head I'm going to read your comments now but before I do if you're a member of Spirit Church we're going to ask you to do one of two things remember one of two things so do either or for us if you're a member of Spirit Church if you're a member of Spirit Church and Spirit Church is your church it's your go-to church you consider this your accountability where you worship where you hear the word then what I want you to do is sign up to our automatic giving plan to give your ties and offering automatically once a month that's going to help us plan and if we can plan better it's more efficiency which means we can do a lot more with money that we know is coming as opposed to money that comes and we have to plan for right when it arrives or if you attend another church but you're a member of Spirit Church and Spirit Church is not your main church then become a $30 a month world changer ministry partner that's going to help us to do one of those two things if Spirit Church is your only church sign up automatic ties and offerings if Spirit Church is a supplemental ministry you're a member but you receive your primary ministry from another church then go ahead and sign up for $30 a month do that today and I have a special announcement I want you to stick around until after the comments to hear okay these comments are on the video surrendering to the Holy Spirit Jeanie Sam writes I am so blessed by this message the message has encouraged me and I felt the Holy Spirit touch me while praying thank you Shawna Hill writes love this I really love listening to your videos while I'm at work working away at my desk keep up the awesome work God bless you and your ministry Gazelle Shaw writes David you truly are a blessing to me and so is the work that you are doing to bring hungry souls to God it's amazing I feel the anointing of the Holy Spirit through all of your videos God bless well Gazelle we get those comments a lot that's one of the things that distinguishes this ministry is the presence of the Holy Spirit I don't really see myself as a dynamic teacher I'm not this amazing speaker like you might see on you know other television programs but one thing I can say is that I totally rely upon the presence of the Holy Spirit and it is that presence of the Holy Spirit he's all that's charismatic about me he's all that's magnetic about me nothing aside from the Holy Spirit would draw people to watch it so we thank you for recognizing the presence of the Holy Spirit on this ministry Alvira Geosis writes well this is what happens every time I watch a spirit church sermon I watch the experience in God's presence sermon as well and I felt an overwhelming sensation a cold breeze entered and immediately I knew it was the Holy Spirit my hunger for a deeper intimacy with God grows each time I watch a sermon on the Holy Spirit thank you brother David Beauty Unraveled writes I have been watching your teachings for the last month they have truly blessed my life just in the last month I am definitely going to join I believe she's talking about spirit church thank you for what you do Harrieth Timbuka writes I feel the presence of God whenever I watch your videos your teachings are transforming me day by day be blessed David I also love to worship with Stephen be blessed also well again if you're wondering why people comment about Stephen it's because he has a worship playlist he's got a dynamic worship ministry be sure to check out Stephen Maktuzuma's worship playlist the final comment Marilyn Balmesita writes thank you Lord Jesus I always feel the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit when I watch your preaching Pastor David God bless you more and God bless you Marilyn I want to give you this special announcement to everybody now we are going to begin weekly meetings in Southern California now we're going to first acquire a facility we're not going to buy the facility maybe if God gives us a miracle but I'm practical too that's eventually we'll own the facility but we right now just want to get into a facility what we have here is a nice TV set we have some offices in the back we have a director's room and what not a little bit of space for some studio audience but it's nothing like what we need to take this to the next level now I want to begin doing weekly meetings Sunday night meetings so that means that Spirit Church is not just going to only be online anymore it will still be a church online but we're also going to add weekly meetings now this is not a typical church in that it's going to have children's church ministry youth ministry Bible studies it's called a para church in other words it's weekly meetings you come in we do worship Steve will be with us on Sunday nights you can come see us in person Steve will do the worship Sunday nights I'll preach a message we'll pray for you and then we dismiss so we don't see each other until the next week but that right there is what we call supplemental discipleship in other words you can go to your church on Sunday morning and then Sunday nights come on down to Spirit Church but we want to open up this center it's going to be like a miracle center we're going to have I want to have a 24-7 prayer room people come at any time and they can receive prayer for healing and we want an 800 line to be open 24-7 we want to really do this right and with excellence but I need your help many of you have signed up to become monthly partners we need monthly supporters now more than ever if you're going to do a one-time gift great do a one-time gift but what we need now are 1,000 new $30 a month supporters as soon as we get 1,000 new $30 a month supporters we can open the center and that will be two months probably of construction and what not two months max we'll have it up and running so this is going to be somewhere I'm looking in Downey, California and again I'm not starting a church I'm still going to evangelize so don't think oh well he's done evangelizing on TV or miracle service no remember the primary purpose of this ministry is evangelistic I'm an evangelist we're still doing miracle services we're still doing television we're still doing media but in addition to everything that we're doing we're going to add this weekly but I need your help sign up today right now don't even hesitate say you know what David I'm going to stand with you I'm going to give $30 a month some of you can do 50 some of you can do 100 some of you can do a one-time gift of $1,000 but whatever you do do it today and help us get this thing going well that's it for this edition of Spirit Church until next time remember nothing absolutely nothing is impossible actually I'm sorry I was just going to close there's somebody watching me I told you sometimes the word of knowledge is out of nowhere before I close I heard depression and there's somebody watching me battling with depression Lord in Jesus name I pray your perfect love would cast out that torment help that one watching Lord in Jesus name be made whole in Jesus name well now that is it for this edition of Spirit Church until next time remember nothing is impossible with God in addition to David's teachings and ministry videos you can also join me on my worship playlist where I release a brand new video every week thank you guys so much for watching EncounterTV God bless