jiggaz:
Most people have been led to believe that self-doubt, self-condemnation, feelings of unworthiness, and conviction for individual sins are the work of the Holy Spirit. But it’s just not true!

Those of you who are familiar with this ministry know that I spend a great deal of time teaching on the unconditional love and grace of God. That is what changed my life. But I can tell by the questions and comments I get that many people still don’t get it.

Because of that, years ago I asked the Lord to give me a way of expressing His grace that people can’t miss. That is when He gave me one of the most important revelations I have ever had about the positive ministry of the Holy Spirit. Not everyone likes this, but they understand what I’m saying.

The devil’s favorite tool, religion, has done a great job of convincing the body of Christ that the Holy Spirit is the source of negative feelings. He has believers convinced it’s the Holy Spirit showing them they are unworthy and have to “clean up their acts” if they ever want to receive from the Lord.

The truth is, it’s your heart or, more specifically, your conscience that is condemning you, not God. That is not the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is never the source of any of your guilt or condemnation. He is not the One that makes you feel bad when you sin.

Your conscience is the part of you that condemns you. And if you are feeling unworthy it’s almost impossible to receive from God.

First John 3:19-21 says,

“And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.”

This verse makes it very clear: Your heart can condemn you even though God is not. What a radical truth, which comes as a complete shock to most Christians. We’ve just assumed that it is always the Holy Spirit who is condemning us.

Then John said in verse 21,

“Beloved if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.”

If you can reach the point where your conscience is not condemning you, judging you, and causing you to feel unworthy to receive, then you will have confidence toward God, which has great recompense of reward (Heb. 10:35).

Most Christians never reach that place. Most know that God can answer their prayer; they just don’t have the confidence that He will, because they feel unworthy. They aren’t willing to stand in faith, because feelings of guilt and unworthiness, which they believe are coming from the Holy Spirit, shipwreck their faith.

“Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck” (1 Tim. 1:19).

Our conscience is not something we can or should ignore; it can be trained for our benefit, but it is not the Holy Spirit. The best way to deal with the conscience is to, as much as possible, not give it any occasion against us. It can’t condemn you if you aren’t giving it a reason. However, no one lives a perfect life and ultimately you’ve got to purge your conscience from dead works.

Hebrews 9:14 says,

“How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

In Hebrews 10:22, the Bible says,

“Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.”

And in Hebrews 4:16, we read,

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

The ministry of Holy Spirit is just the opposite of what many Christians think. In John 14:16 read how Jesus describes the Holy Spirit:

“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.”

Notice that Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the “Comforter,” not the afflicter. It also says that He will send “another” Comforter. “Another” means one of the same caliber, the same kind. Jesus was and still is a comforter; He didn’t condemn people during His earthly ministry.

John 3:17-19 reads,

“For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deed were evil.”

John 14:26 says,

“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name…”

In John 15:26, Jesus said,

“But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father…”

And in John 16:7, Jesus continues to say about the Holy Spirit,

“Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.”

There can be no doubt that the ministry of the Holy Spirit is not one of condemnation; it’s one of comfort. Jesus said that it was expedient for you that He go away and the Comforter comes. The word “expedient” means “to your advantage.” Jesus is saying that it’s better to have the Holy Spirit ministering to you than it is to have Him present in His physical body. What a statement!

I know someone is thinking, What about John 16:8:

“And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”

Well, first of all, there is a huge difference between conviction and condemnation, but let’s set that aside for now. Look at the next verse. Jesus knew people would impute things to the Holy Spirit that He wasn’t doing. So, Jesus explained very clearly just which sin the Holy Spirit would convict us of. It is the singular sin of not believing on Jesus.

John 16:9 says,

“Of sin, because they believe not on me.”

The Holy Spirit doesn’t convict us of lying, stealing, adultery, murder, etc; He convicts us that we aren’t trusting in Jesus. That’s the root of every sin.

Technically, people don’t go to hell for their individual sins; Jesus has already forgiven all of them (1 John 2:2). People go the hell for the single sin of not making Jesus their personal Savior, the complete and only payment for their sin.

Even after receiving salvation, it’s not our actions (sins) that are the problem but the heart attitude of not trusting Jesus. That is the root of all sin. The reason people do dope and alcohol is because they are turning to something other than Jesus to dull the hurt inside.

When we lie, it’s because we don’t trust Jesus and feel we have to manipulate others. That’s what all sin comes down to: not trusting Jesus. That’s what the Holy Spirit convicts us about.

Most Christians have not truly understood this positive ministry of the Holy Spirit. We have made Him the source of our feelings of guilt, condemnation, and unworthiness. Because of that, we haven’t really let Him do His job, and we are missing the benefits and power of a relationship with Him.

The Holy Spirit should be your best friend. He was sent here to encourage you and constantly assure you of God’s love. He is the most important and most powerful person in your life. If you haven’t been thinking correctly about the Holy Spirit, it’s time to change your thinking.

You will never be able to relate to God correctly until you understand this positive ministry of the Holy Spirit. My new and expanded series, The Positive Ministry of the Holy Spirit, will help you make this change in your thinking. The Holy Spirit is the great Comforter, but His positive ministry goes far beyond that. If you want power in your life, you’ll have to know and understand what I teach in this series.

http://www.awmi.net/reading/teaching-articles/positive_ministry/

jiggaz:
The book of Romans is Paul’s masterpiece on the study of grace, but the book of Galatians is his strongest teaching on the subject. Paul takes off the gloves and gets brutal in his teaching about the grace of God. I believe that a study on the grace of God from the book of Galatians combined with the teaching from Romans could be a one-two punch that knocks out condemnation in your life. Praise the Lord!

Paul wasted no time making his point in his letter to the Galatian Christians. In chapter 1, verse 6, Paul said, “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel.” Paul used the terms “Gospel” and “grace” interchangeably. The heart of the Gospel is grace. Any deviation from that is a perversion of the Gospel.

The Galatian Christians hadn’t renounced Jesus as being their Messiah, but legalistic Jews had convinced them that they couldn’t be right with God by believing in only what Jesus had done. They were being told they also had to keep the Old Testament Law in order for God to accept them. The same lie is being propagated today, except now it’s said we have to be holy. We have to be holy, or the Lord won’t accept us or answer our prayers, etc. That’s not the Gospel.

In Paul’s day, the issue was circumcision. Today, the same legalistic message is being preached using things like prayer, Bible study, church attendance, and other actions of holiness as necessary actions for God to love and accept us. Faith in what Christ did for us is enough. It is not what Jesus did for us plus our actions of holiness. Jesus plus anything equals nothing. Jesus plus nothing equals everything.

No one argues that we shouldn’t pray, study the Word, go to church, etc., but any time it’s proclaimed that God is angry with us if we fail to do these things, it’s not the true Gospel. That type of teaching puts the burden of salvation on us and opens us to the condemnation of the devil. This is what Paul called a perversion of the Gospel in Galatians 1:7. Then in verse 8, Paul made one of the strongest statements he ever made,

“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”

The Galatians must’ve been shocked! How could Paul say such a thing? He must not have meant what it looks like he meant. Therefore, just in case anyone missed it the first time, Paul repeats his radical statement:

“As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed” (verse 9).

In our politically correct world today, you don’t hear many absolute statements like these. How could anyone be so sure of themselves? Paul goes on to explain in the rest of the first chapter that he didn’t get his revelation of the Gospel from any man but directly from God. That’s why he was so adamant. There was no room for compromise in the Gospel.

In chapter 3, Paul calls the Galatians foolish for leaving the grace of Christ and going back to relating to God based on their performance. He also said they had been bewitched (Gal. 3:1). He reminds them how they had originally put faith in Christ alone and received all that God had for them through faith. Why had they gone back into legalism? That’s a good question.

Paul then shows them the real purpose of the Law. It wasn’t to help us live a holier life; it was to point out our sin to us and bring condemnation so we would never come into the deception that we could relate to God based on our own performance. Amazingly, the average Christian has totally missed this fact and, instead, embraces the Law as a good thing. The Law would be good if we could keep it, but Paul reveals that a failure to do the tiniest detail of the Law makes us guilty of all of it. Instead of receiving the blessing for obedience, one small failure brings the curse instead. The only way out of the curse is through faith in Christ alone. Christ bore our curse (Gal. 3:13).

Paul begins to summarize in chapter 5. He starts by saying, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” The yoke of bondage he is speaking of is the Law. He’s saying don’t go back to trying to please God by adhering to rules and regulations. The thing that pleases God is faith (Heb. 11:6).

Paul says in verse 2, “Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.” What a radical statement! That’s saying that if our trust is in something that we do to make us accepted with God, then what Christ has done for us will profit us nothing. This is exactly what is happening in the lives of many people. They know about Christ and believe that He purchased their forgiveness of sins, but they think they have to obtain that forgiveness through some merit of their own. That voids what Christ has done for them. They get what they deserve instead of what Christ did for them. What a shame! They have fallen from grace back into trusting in themselves.

Does all this grace mean we can just live in sin? It means that God loves us the same even if we live in sin, but Paul made it clear in Galatians 5:13 that holy living is still the right way to live: “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.” Grace doesn’t cause people to live in sin; it frees them from the paralyzing effects of guilt and condemnation so that they can live holier accidentally now than they ever did on purpose before.
What happens if a Christian does take God’s grace for granted and lives in sin? Paul addressed that in verse 15:

“But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.”

He is saying that there are still consequences to sin, but those consequences don’t come from God. Living in sin opens the door to the devil, and he will eat your lunch and pop the bag. We don’t want that.

As much as possible, we live holy, but we never do so in order to earn anything from God. That all comes by grace. When we do sin, we don’t come under condemnation about it and let the devil separate us from the love of God. We simply repent, which means we turn around and head in the right direction again, all the while enjoying the unbroken love of God.

I have a six-part album that teaches verse by verse through the book of Galatians. It’s a powerful teaching. There are so many more Gospel nuggets in the book of Galatians than what I’ve been able to expound here. There is also a 69-page booklet in the slip cover of this album that has 470 footnotes that I’ve written as well as hundreds of references and the actual King James Version text of Galatians. It’s a powerful resource tool for getting the revelation of God’s grace.

I encourage you to get this Galatians album and book, and if you haven’t yet ordered the Romans materials, please do so today. I believe these are some of the most important resources we have ever offered. They could literally change your life.

http://www.awmi.net/reading/teaching-articles/galatians/

Charisplus:
Amen! Thank You Lord for the gift of righteousness. Hallelujah!!!

jiggaz:
Hallelujah... Excellent post... Charisplus longest time...

promisechuks:

It does not give one licence to sin but licence to live a more HOLY, GUILTLESS, RIGHTEOUS LIFE.
The problem with many believers is that they are too focus in HUMANITY rather than DIVINITY.
No one is perfect, righteous or holy in HUMANITY(even in your holiest form of humanity) that's why the bible says; that our righteousness is like filthy rags before God.
But by DIVINITY we are holy as the lord, HOLY NATION, ROYAL PRIESTHOOD, CHOSEN ONES and incorruptible. As jesus is, so we are.
To get informed the more, read my below comments.

jiggaz:
Nice wirte up Charisplus.... you can click on my name to see all the topics on my profile.... Click on my Christian topics and you will love them... All of them teaches on Eternal Security, Who we are in CHRIST, God's Abundance of Grace & The Gift of Righteousness through CHRIST and How The Death, Burial & Resurrection of CHRIST made our life easy here on earth though there will be challenges. But because we have focused on CHRIST, we have overcome them already!!! Happy reading....