If You’re Experiencing This, Holy Spirit is Exposing You
If you’re seeing these signs, the Holy Spirit is exposing you. I want to show you how the Holy Spirit shines his light in various areas of our lives to reveal the real us. The Holy Spirit is exposing the real you. The first sign that the Holy Spirit is exposing you, number one, is that you’re experiencing grief over sin.
This means he’s exposing your sin to cleanse you. Now, we’re going to read John chapter 16. Before we do, let me give you a quick definition. To convict means to bring light, to expose, to rebuke. John 16, beginning at verse 5. But now I am going away to the one who sent me. And not one of you is asking where I am going.
Instead, you grieve because of what I’ve told you. But in fact, it is best for you that I go away because if I don’t, the advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin and of God’s righteousness and of the coming judgment. The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me.
Righteousness is available because I go to the father and you will see me no more. Judgment will come because the ruler of this world has already been judged. Now notice here that Jesus says the world’s sin is that it doesn’t believe. So there the Holy Spirit is convicting the world of its sin, its sin in rejecting Christ.
But the principle here is that the Holy Spirit will point out wrongdoing. Yes, the Holy Spirit is gentle and kind and patient, but he’s also going to call you on your sin. So the Holy Spirit does call the believer on their sin. In Ephesians 4:30, we read, “And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live.
Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.” Many believers feel like fakes when they sin. When they make a mistake, they don’t want to go to church because they’re afraid of how others might look at them. when they make a mistake, they don’t want to pray and read the word because they feel shame in approaching God.
And in that wrongdoing, they ask these kinds of questions. Am I even really saved? Do I belong to God? Is what I’ve been experiencing in him even real? Or am I just a hypocrite, a liar? Why do I keep going back and forth? Why do I keep going back to old habits? And what begins to happen is you begin to identify with your sin. Now, I have some good news for you.
When you sin, you indeed are a fake. You’re a fake sinner. You are not a wolf in sheep’s clothing. You are sheep in wolves clothing. When you act in sin, you are acting outside of your nature. You’re acting according to who you aren’t anymore. So, while you might look at your struggle with sin as a sign that you don’t belong to God, let me ask you this question.
Who is it in you that is struggling against sin? You see, the very fact that you are struggling is proof that the Holy Spirit is within you, convicting you, bringing that sorrow, that brokenness over wrongdoing. You see, if the Holy Spirit didn’t reside in you, you wouldn’t be struggling with sin. You would just be sinning. You would give in.
You would go all the way over to the darkness. But because the Holy Spirit dwells in you, there’s this battle, this conflict, that sorrow that you feel, that brokenness that you feel is proof that the Holy Spirit dwells in you. And while it’s not an excuse to continue in sin, the fact that you sense that sorrow is proof that the Holy Spirit dwells in you.
You belong to him. You are his child. Even when you make a mistake, and he’s there convicting you. 1 Corinthians 6:es 9-11 says this. Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin or who worship idols or who commit adultery or are male prostitutes or practice homosexuality or are thieves or greedy people or drunkards or are abusive or cheat people.
