(J. C. Ryle, "The Holy Spirit")
"When He comes, He will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment." (John 16:8)
Where the Holy Spirit is, there will always be deep conviction of sin--and true repentance for it.
It is His special office to convince of sin.
He shows the exceeding holiness of God.
He teaches the exceeding corruption and infirmity of our nature.
He strips us of our blind self-righteousness.
He opens our eyes to our awful guilt, folly and danger.
He fills the heart with sorrow, contrition, and abhorrence for sin--as the abominable thing which God hates.
He who knows nothing of all this, and saunters carelessly through life, thoughtless about sin, and indifferent and unconcerned about his soul, is a dead man before God! He has not the Holy Spirit.
The presence of the Holy Spirit in a man's heart can only be known by the fruits and effects He produces. Mysterious and invisible to mortal eye as His operations are, they always lead to certain visible and tangible results.
The presence of the Holy Spirit in a man's heart can only be known by the fruits and effects He produces. Mysterious and invisible to mortal eye as His operations are, they always lead to certain visible and tangible results.
Just as you know there is life in a tree by its sap, buds, leaves and fruits--just so you may know the Spirit to be in a man's heart by the influence He exercises over his thoughts, affections, opinions, habits, and life. I lay this down broadly and unhesitatingly.
I see it clearly marked out in our Lord Jesus Christ's words, "Every tree is known by his own fruit." (Luke 6:44)
3 comments:
Sorry about the run on paragraphs -
Blogger has been been acting funky lately.......the post did not look like this when I clicked publish.
How interesting your post today is on this topic. As growing Christians we all struggle with various issues from time to time.
I have been feeling very upset lately about my inability to make time to read the bible every day. It seems like such a small thing to set aside just 15 minutes to read and pray to start the day but I can come up with numerous excuses why I can't do it. I continually ask forgiveness for not making God enough of a priority to wake up and read his word.
That's really what it boils down to. How much do I love him? Enough to make time for him? Or do I run through my day saying "in a little bit God, I need 10 more minutes of sleep God, after I cook dinner God, maybe tomorrow God?"
I have been feeling like such a miserable sinner because I can't do this one thing (there are several things I feel miserable about but I'll stay on topic).
I think that perhaps I feel so bad because I am greiving the Holy Spirit by not being in the word of God everyday. The number one priority of our life is to grow closer to God and we can't do this if we don't study our bible.
Perhaps we feel miserable when we have the Holy Spirit living in us and we don't do what God is asking us to do. Every night I pray and ask God to forgive me becuase I did or did not do things and I feel wretched. Perhaps that is the Holy Spirit helping me to be aware of my sins.
I could be way off but I am continually learning new things about God as I grow as a Christian.
Wayne Dawg what are your thoughts?
Nutcracker -
You said "I think that perhaps I feel so bad because I am greiving the Holy Spirit by not being in the word of God everyday."
First of all let me say that I am sorry for not getting back to you on this. I need to figure out on blogger how to respond to people who post on older posts of mine.....
Nutcracker, I would say that you are quite perceptive to know that you are greiving the Holy Spirit.
This is the work of the Holy Spirit itself. The Holy Spirit has many roles and functions toward a believer.
For you to know that you are grieving Him is a testimony in itself that He is working on you in this area of your concern (not reading enough of God's Word).
This also shows that God has not caused your heart to be hard regarding the 'hearing' of the Holy Spirit.
Reading God's Word daily is THE most important thing we should be doing as believers. We can 'do' all the things that we feel God is calling us to do (Witnessing, helping our neighbors, visiting those in prison, etc.) but if we are not spending enough or no time in His Word then we are setting ourselves up as an easy target for Satan.
Someone once said that the Bible will keep us from sin and sin will keep us from the Bible.
Leonard Ravenhill once said that "someday someone will pick up the Bible, read it and then believe it. Then the rest of us will be embarressed."
Ravenhill also said, "We have adopted the convenient theory that the Bible is a book to be explained, whereas first and foremost it is a book to be believed (and after that to be obeyed).
When we are immersed in God's Word we find out that there is a world of difference between knowing the Word of God and knowing the God of the Word.
Nutcracker, it comes down to this: how much do you desire to really know Him?
You said - "Every night I pray and ask God to forgive me becuase I did or did not do things and I feel wretched. Perhaps that is the Holy Spirit helping me to be aware of my sins."
Yes; the Holy Spirit is working on you. You do well to repent and ask for His forgiveness...but remember, repenting is also a turning away from what you know is sin and going the other way.
The Holy Spirit is convicting you in this area and you need to heed His warnings. The last thing you want is for your heart to grow hard in this area and quench His voice.
Pray for God to get you up earliar or keep you awake later or provide you some time at work so you can read and personally study His Word.
Start with the Proverbs. Make it your daily habit to read a chapter of Proverbs a day. Like pastor said today, there are 31 chapters of Proverbs...one for every day of the month. From there take some time to read in another area that you have not read in a long time. Make some notes on what you read...memorize a verse ...you can do this!
You are a very intelligent person with a heart for God. He longs for you to be in His Word daily.
Get an accountability partner (someone of your own gender) to hold you accountable in this area.
You said "I could be way off but I am continually learning new things about God as I grow as a Christian."
Amen! And you will until you go home to be with Him.
Keep up the good work in the Lord!
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