Conviction vs Condemnation.
I am going to be applying tough love by addressing areas of sin in your life because I want to see you healed and set free. I’m going to touch the very fabric of your lives and will be addressing issues where you are most sensitive and vulnerable. I trust that as you read and learn about your disease, the conviction of the Holy Spirit will come. If you feel conviction, that’s good! That’s the Holy Spirit, don’t ignore it! It is God knocking on the door of your heart and talking to you and that is exciting because it means He is about to do a work in your life. When you feel convicted, do you know that you are so close to victory because you are about to defeat your disease or prevent a disease developing that was heading your way?
If you don’t feel conviction, you are in trouble because that means that the
Holy Spirit has withdrawn from you. In his prayer of repentance in Psalm 51,
King David said “Take not Your Holy Spirit from me!” Why did David say that?
Because he had seen what had happened to his predecessor King Saul. Saul
hardened his heart to the conviction of the Holy Spirit and refused to repent. As a result the Holy Spirit withdrew from him. When the spirit of God departed from King Saul, a spirit of insanity came and King Saul went mad.
The Holy Spirit brings conviction because God loves you and wants to see you set free from sin so you can enjoy the abundant life, which includes divine health, that Jesus paid such a high price to give you.
Hebrews 12 v 5-6 and 10-11: ”5My son, do not think lightly or scorn to submit to the correction and discipline of the Lord, nor loose courage and give up and faint when you are reproved or corrected by Him; 6 For the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone whom He loves, and He punishes, even scourges, every son whom He accepts and cherishes… 10 For [our earthly fathers] disciplined us for only a short period of time and chastised us as seemed proper and good to them; but He disciplines us for our good, that we may become sharers in His holiness. 11 For the time being no
discipline brings joy, but seems grievous and painful; but afterwards it yields a peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it [a harvest of fruit which consists in righteousness – in conformity to God’s will in purpose, thought, and action, resulting in right living and right standing with God].”
When the Word is taught, the Holy Spirit brings conviction which is letting you know that an area of your life and thinking needs to be changed. However, the devil then likes to come in and use that conviction which was meant for your good and he beats you over the head with it as condemnation.
The Bible says that the devil is the accuser of the brethren.
Revelations 12 v 10: “The accuser of our brethren, he who keeps bringing before our God charges against them day and night, has been cast out!”
As you read through this book there may be sin in your life that is going to be brought to your attention but please do not respond to that by feeling judged and condemned. Condemnation comes from the devil.
It is important to understand the difference between conviction and condemnation. God brings the conviction of the Holy Spirit and that conviction goes something like this, “Daughter or son, I want to show you something in your life.” And when you look at it you go, “Oh! I see it! I understand it, help me!”
But condemnation comes like this, “Look at what you are doing! You sinner! You Scum! I thought you were a Christian! You better fix that!” Condemnation brings with it feelings of worthlessness and failure and makes us want to give up. Condemnation drives us away from God because it makes us feel unworthy.
If you feel conviction, God is knocking on the door of your heart and
talking to you. That is exciting because it means He is about to do a work in your life.
Conviction reaffirms our value in God and brings to the place of wanting to get right with God. Conviction makes us want to be closer to Him.
One thing you must understand about the Bible is that it sets the standard of what we should grow into, but don’t be condemned by the standard. I want to help you understand that nothing is black or white – everything is grey.
I am grey and you are grey. White represents perfection as far as God is concerned.
Black represents everything that is negative or evil as far as the devil is concerned. People get caught in this black or white where they feel so bad about themselves because they are not all white and they become condemned with their black.
When you were saved you were a dark shade of grey – you had a little
white in you, but a lot of black. When it comes to black paint, the more
white you add to it, the more grey it becomes and that is what sanctification
is all about. White which represents God’s nature and character is being added as the darkness in your life is removed by a work of the Holy Spirit, as long as you co operate with Him. If you find some black in your life or you are a dark shade of grey at the moment, don’t be hard on yourself and feel guilty. That is
the devil accusing you to yourself – he is reminding you that he is there and then blaming you for it.
It’s ok to see your sin list but then you roll it back up and give it back to God and say, “OK, when You’re ready Father, I’m ready to work with You to get this out of my life.” But the enemy will say, “Today you better deal with every single thing and boy you better do it or else!” That is not God. That’s the enemy trying
to drive you where the Holy Spirit is not leading you. The voice of the Holy Spirit is gentle because He is a gentleman. He leads us and He guides us but the devil drives us. So if you feel driven today to get rid of whatever sin it is, that is not God. However, if you have this tugging, excitement and hope then know
that God is working with you. That is the hope that spurs in your heart the faith that is going to kick that sin out of your life.
Most Diseases are a Result of Sin and Separation on One of Three Levels
Isaiah 59 v 2: “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.”
We see from Isaiah 59 v 2 that sin separates us from God. Most of the time disease can be traced back to sin and thus separation on one of the following three levels:
1. Separation from God.
2. Separation from yourself.
3. Separation from others.
These are the three main roots or sin issues that cause most of disease known to mankind and which manifest through the human body in various ways. The foundation of the Kingdom of God is relationship.
Therefore the foundation of satan’s attack is to destroy your relationship with God, yourself and others. These are the three areas where satan destroys our peace. When you are not at peace, you are not at ease
– you are in a state of dis-ease which eventually leads to disease.