THE
SUBSTANCE OF
CONVICTION
“Then
was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. “And
when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. “And
when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these
stones be made bread. “But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not
live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
“Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle
of the temple, “And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself
down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and
in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot
against a stone.
“Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not
tempt the Lord thy God. “Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high
mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
“And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down
and worship me.
“Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou
shalt worship the Lord
thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. “Then the devil leaveth him, and,
behold, angels
came and ministered unto him” (Matthew 4:1-11).
Notice,
Jesus always answered the devil with “It is written….It is written….It is
written.”
Three
times Jesus said this, speaking of the perfection of the Word of God. It other
words, Jesus was
telling Satan, “You can’t touch this, devil!”
“It
is written….”
“It
is written….”
“It
is written….”
Satan
had to flee.
Still,
Satan does try to take away from the Word, add to the Word, and alter the Word
(Revelation22:18-19;
Deuteronomy 4:2; 11:16-20). He tries to take from the Word so that we won’t be complete,
so we won’t be mature. Satan tries to add to the Word so that we will live in a
kind of “liberty”
that is not the liberty we have in Christ (Galatians 5:1; Romans 8:21). Also,
the devil tries to alter the Word of God so that we think that we don’t have to
submit to it.
In
Genesis 3, Eve failed three times when confronted by Satan. But Jesus Christ
answered, “It is written” three times when tempted by Satan. The truth
experienced in the third dimension of
the human spirit gives us complete and full victory.
“Delight
thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give
thee the desires of thine heart. “Commit thy way unto the LORD;
trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. “And he shall bring forth thy
righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. “Rest in the LORD,
and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in
his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass” (Psalm
37:4-7). When we began our ministry, the desire of our heart was to have a
building, fill it up, and send missionaries into all the world. Our desire was
to have oneness, unity, and peace. Our desire was to go forward with
supernatural grace andsupernatural
power in a supernatural expectation.
Oh,
the things God is going to do for those who let Him by committing their way
unto theLord.
Trust in Him, and He will bring
these things to pass. Pick up some promises from Godtoday
and believe, and He will give you the desires of your heart.
When
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit take over, we have fullness. We see
that
nothing
is impossible with God (Luke 1:37). The very things that seem impossible for us
are possible with God (Matthew 19:26).
Bible
Evidence of Conviction
“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”
(John 16:8-11). If
a Christian is not living in the third dimension, he will have no conviction.
He may be living
with God the Father and redemption through Jesus Christ, but without the
Illuminator— the
Holy Spirit—fully operating, he will have no conviction. God’s viewpoint cannot
be interpreted
through the Holy Spirit in his life.
God
may do something supernatural right in front of him, but he will not be moved
by it. Many decent churches preach the Gospel but do not go soul winning. They
have no outreach program and they are grieving the Holy Spirit. There is no
conviction prompting them to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. The
first thing the Holy Spirit does is to convict. When a Christian makes a
decision to withdraw from attending a Spirit-filled church, he is not
convicted. He can hear any kind of message, but he rationalizes, regulates, and
eliminates its effect in his life. No conviction. The Spirit convicts as He did
in the Word of God. Joseph’s brothers were convicted when they met Joseph again
years after selling him into slavery (see Genesis 45:4-5)
They
came under great conviction when he revealed himself to them. Isaiah was
convicted when he saw the Lord high and lifted up, in Isaiah 6. Three seraphim were
singing, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of
hosts.” All Isaiah could see was the seraphim’s wings. Smoke came in and the
temple began to shake.
“Woe is me, for I am undone; because I am a man
of unclean lips,” Isaiah said (see Isaiah 6:5). As
far as we know, this was the first time in his ministry that the prophet was
convicted. Then the
seraphim took a live coal from off the altar and touched Isaiah’s lips, saying,
“Thine iniquity is
taken away, and thy sin purged” (Isaiah 6:7).
The
Trinity asked, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” “Here am I; send
me,” responded the prophet. Conviction is such a precious and sacred thing. We
are so limited in our knowledge of absolutes. When we start with absolute love,
absolute grace, absolute power, absolute holiness, and absolute promises, we
will find absolute answers.
God’s
Moves Bring Changes
God
moves in the third dimension and the result is conviction. Jonah ran when he
was told to preach in Nineveh Israel
Jesus
appeared to Peter and the disciples many times after His resurrection. Peter
didn’t want to see Jesus. He was so filled with guilt, so filled with shame and
remorse. But the Holy Spirit, breathed out by Jesus upon the disciples, began to
convict Peter’s conscience. God wooed Peter through love and through
forgiveness by conviction. In the seventh chapter of Romans, we can see Paul
the apostle under tremendous conviction and in deep trouble with his soul. But
he came right out of it by receiving the revelation of Romans 8, starting with
verse one, “There is therefore
now no condemnation….”
As
long as a minister and ministry have conviction, they have something very, very
precious. One of the most difficult things to watch when you are praying for
someone is when the Word isn’t received as a two-edged sword, bringing
conviction the way it should. This is important because, sooner or later, every
one of God’s people has to come to a decision. We are constantly in a place
where we have to come to a decision. Conviction leads to right decisions.
Without right decisions, we have no conviction. Whenever I read something or
hear something that I know is for me, I immediately write it down. I allow the
conviction to lead me into a conversion. No matter how small a thing it is, I agree
with the Spirit and say, “That is for me.”
I
believe with all my heart that God wants His people to come to right decisions
through choosing life (Deuteronomy 30:15), so we can be blessed. We have a
tremendous future in front of us. We have such possibilities. We don’t know when
Christ is coming. We know not when we are to meet Him. So, we need to be a
people who allow the Word of God to bring in faith and let faith
execute conviction and let conviction bring in a conversion to make right
decisions.
