Length: 8 minutes

We’re told that the bad feeling you get inside after you do something wrong is just the conviction of the Holy Spirit trying to steer you right. But that feeling doesn’t come from the Holy Spirit at all. It comes from your conscience! The church has mixed up the Holy Spirit with their conscience for a very long time.

The Bible speaks about the conviction of the Holy Spirit, but there are some glaring problems with how the church has interpreted this. Let’s read one of, if not the most, common scripture used for the conviction of the Holy Spirit:

John 16:8-9 (NKJV) And when He [the Spirit] has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment; of sin, because they do not believe in Me…

OK, so clearly the conviction of the Holy Spirit is a real thing, but there are several problems with our interpretation of this.

1) This verse is clearly speaking about what the Holy Spirit will convict THE WORLD of. This passage is not talking about the Holy Spirit’s dealings with a believer, but rather with the world. This conviction of sin only happens from the Holy Spirit to the world, in order to get them saved.

2) Even the sin that the Holy Spirit is convicting the world of is not their wrong actions or individual wrong thoughts. We have this idea that when someone commits adultery, steals, murders, etc., that these are the sins the Holy Spirit is convicting the world of. Not so. It clearly states that the only sin the Holy Spirit is trying to expose to the world is their disbelief in Jesus.

It would do no good for the Holy Spirit to spend all His time exposing and revealing the individual sinful actions or thoughts of the world, seeing as they can’t fix them by themselves anyway! So, the Holy Spirit goes after the root. The sin that the Holy Spirit convicts the world of is that they don’t believe in Jesus! His goal is to expose this wrong, so that they will rectify it, turn their hearts to Jesus and be saved!

So, not only is the conviction of the Holy Spirit referring to what He does with the world, but even the sin that the Holy Spirit is convicting the world of, isn’t the sin that we usually think of! God only wants people to believe on Jesus and the world is therefore contrary to God because of their disbelief. So that’s the only wrong that the Holy Spirit is trying to expose in the eyes of unbelievers.

And you’ll notice that the first part of that passage is referring to the Holy Spirit’s ministry to the world, but it does go on to tell us what the Holy Spirit’s ministry is to believers. And it’s not to convict us of sin. His ministry is to lead us into all truth. And part of that truth is how there is no longer any condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! 

John 16:13 (NKJV) However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you [believers] into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

People typically believe that the conviction of the Holy Spirit, spoken of in this chapter, is referring to how the Holy Spirit convicts believers of their sinful actions. But the Holy Spirit isn’t even convicting the world of their sinful actions. Only their unbelief in Jesus. How much less is the Holy Spirit convicting you of your sinful actions or thoughts, who have believed on Jesus and received that once-for-all purification from sin? For the believer, the Holy Spirit just wants to show you the truth of who you are in Christ! 

It’s Just Your Unrenewed Conscience

What a terrible thing it is, for a believer who is pure and spotless, who has zero condemnation from God, to carry hurt, grief, and guilt with them all their lives because they are told that it’s the Holy Spirit convicting them. They are told that His conviction is good for them because it will stop them from sinning next time. All the while it’s not the Holy Spirit at all. The Holy Spirit is trying to show them what Jesus did, to relieve them from the very hurt that they blame on Him. 

But what if a believer does feel condemned inside? Where is that coming from if it’s not the conviction of the Holy Spirit? Well, as we said in our last part, that’s simply your own heart (your mind) condemning you. It’s the part of your mind that we would call the conscience, which discerns between good and evil. 

1 John 3:20 (NKJV) For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.

This verse is saying that the only reason your heart condemns you is because it does not know all things, while God does. Your heart is ignorant of what Jesus has done, and that’s why it condemns you! Therefore your heart needs to be renewed in knowledge. Your conscience needs to be trained! An ignorant heart will condemn you, but an informed, renewed heart will not. And that’s why we are renewing our minds to what Jesus has done.

David’s Heart Beat Him Up

Before David was king, while Saul was still reigning, he was on the run, because Saul was trying to kill him. And when Saul went into a particular cave, not knowing that David and his men were hiding in there, David discreetly cut off a piece of Saul’s robe to prove to Saul later that Saul was at David’s mercy, and yet David did not kill him.

But after David cut off a piece of Saul’s robe, the Bible says that his heart smote him (or struck him, beat him up for it).

1 Samuel 24:5 (KJV) And it came to pass afterward, that David’s heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul’s skirt.

Was this the Holy Spirit convicting David? Was it God exposing his wrongs so that David would feel bad for what he did? That’s not what scripture says. This was David’s own heart condemning him. David’s heart felt that what he did was wrong, and so it started beating him up emotionally over it, even though Jesus was coming to be beat up for David. And because David’s heart was not considering what Jesus was about to do, it beat David up for it.

Your average Christian would believe this is just a healthy conscience or the conviction of the Holy Spirit, but God calls it a heart that doesn’t know all things — an ignorant heart — an evil conscience.

And after all this beating up that David’s heart was doing, David realized later that what he did wasn’t even wrong! You can see that here:

1 Samuel 24:11 (NKJV) Moreover, my father, see! Yes, see the corner of your robe in my hand! …there is neither evil nor rebellion in my hand, and I have not sinned against you.

David didn’t even do anything wrong, but even if your heart THINKS that what you did was wrong, because the way that you have trained it, it will continue to condemn you! This shows how ignorant your conscience can be. David’s heart condemned him for something that wasn’t even wrong! But because David’s heart THOUGHT it was wrong, and because it wasn’t considering the condemnation that Jesus was to take, it went to beating David up over it.

There are Jewish people that would feel condemned if they ate pork, even though there’s nothing wrong with eating pork! There are people who would feel condemned over working on a Sunday, even though Saturdays or Sundays are not the Sabbath (Jesus finished work is). 

You can see that your heart only knows to the extent that you train it. If you tell your heart that something is wrong, and you don’t tell it that Jesus was condemned already, then your heart will take that information and condemn you every time you do it! But what if we, not only had a better idea what was right and wrong, but rather trained our conscience that, regardless of what we do, Jesus has already taken the condemnation for it! If you train your conscience like that, then your conscience will see that justice has been appeased, condemnation has been fulfilled, and it doesn’t need to strike you anymore because Jesus has already been struck plenty for your sin.

You see, it’s not about violating your conscience, or discounting it. It’s about training your conscience, and appeasing it, with the finished work of Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:2). We’re not trying to go against the sense of justice that our conscience demands. We are training our conscience that this justice for sin has already been fulfilled!

David’s heart also struck him again when he took a census and numbered the people of Israel (2 Samuel 24:10), but anytime your heart strikes you or condemns you, don’t mistake that feeling for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is only trying to relieve your conscience of this grief, by showing you the grief that was already fulfilled, in full, through the sacrifice of Jesus. 

There’s no need to beat yourself up over it anymore. Jesus already was.

If this blessed you. share this with someone else. More people need to understand this awesome truth.