The Work of the Holy Spirit

By Greg Laurie, Op-ed contributor Tuesday, June 16, 2009

"And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin. . . . " - John 16:8

When we know people who are not believers, we obviously want them to come to faith in Christ.

Yet, as they live their lives and break the laws of God left and right, we see that they seem to have no sense of guilt, no remorse, and no concept that they are engaged in wrongdoing. So we try to assist the Holy Spirit in an attempt to bring them to a sense of conviction.

Mothers are especially effective in this area. Even if you haven't done anything wrong, one look from Mom will have you confessing something. It is a unique ability that mothers have.

Jesus, in speaking of the Holy Spirit, said, " 'And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin . . . because they do not believe in Me' " (John 16:8–9).

Another way to translate the phrase, "to convict" is "to convince." The Holy Spirit is not coming to merely convince us of certain sins, but also to get to the root of our problems: sin itself.

The worst sin we can commit is the sin of not believing in Jesus Christ. This is what we will be ultimately judged for. When we stand before God, it will not be a sin issue as much as it will be a Son issue.

So we must be careful in our zeal to reach people for Christ that we don't actually deter them. If we get in the way of the work of the Holy Spirit, we can actually drive unbelievers away. If someone can be pressured into the kingdom of God, they can be pressured out.

We must let the Holy Spirit do His work in His way.

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