When Is Conviction Encouragement?

(John 16:8 NKJV)
And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.

When does conviction become encouragement? The word convict brings to mind being charged with a crime and found guilty. When we use it in a spiritual sense we refer to it as being charged with sin. Conviction can be encouraging though. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit with the mission of convicting us. Think about it as being diagnosed with a disease. You feel poorly, maybe have a temperature, your joints ache. You know something is wrong just by the way you feel. You visit the doc and find out that you have a virus of some sort, get some meds, and end up feeling better. If left undiagnosed and untreated you could end up with a more serious health problem. Spiritual conviction works the same way in regards to our soul. The Holy Spirit diagnosis’s our condition and offers treatment. Sin is the disease, forgiveness is the cure, and Jesus is the Doctor.

There are people who live their lives in bitterness and anger every day. They never seem to have any joy in their life. Their outlooks are negative, they are pessimistic and cynical. If they would simply ask God what’s wrong He would have His Holy Spirit diagnose them. Other folk are generally spiritually healthy but when the Holy Spirit diagnosis’s them they either feel guilty or angry. They accept the diagnosis and feel guilt or they reject it and get angry because He pointed out the problem to them!

Conviction is encouragement from God to get healed spiritually. Allow the convicting power of the Holy Spirit to have free reign in your life; every minute of every day. Listen to Him when He points out something that if not taken care of will lead to more serious spiritual problems. Take the medicine of repentance and accept treatment from the Great Physician in the form of forgiveness. You will feel much better.