How the Holy Spirit Exposes the Real You

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.

To convict means to bring light, to expose, to rebuke.

John 16, beginning at verse five.

"'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, verse 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.