Hit them with CONVICTION Lord!

And when He [The Holy Spirit] is come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and you see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. John 16:8-11

Convicted means convinced. Conviction of sin is a profound realization of one’s true sinful condition and guilt before God. Then after men are convicted of sin they are convicted or convinced of Christ’s gift of righteousness by faith and also of His judgment. These three things in this order are what the Holy Spirit convicts and convinces men of. Then these three become their personal conviction.

What unites all false revivals, what they all have in common is there is no conviction of sin and hence no real, genuine repentance. There is no real repentance in the leaders and therefore there is no true Holy Spirit to convict of sin.

But every TRUE revival in history has been marked by strong conviction of sin and genuine confession and repentance.

There can only be true rejoicing where there is genuine repentance from sin.

In the last days what is missing from Christendom is the conviction of sin. Multitudes are naked and feel no shame. Adam and Eve were ashamed to be naked. They were convicted of their sin. Yet even in his guilt and shame Adam came out of hiding from God and responded to God when He called, and this was the fruit of conviction of sin. But multitudes are not responding to the call of God, they don’t think they are naked (Rev. 3:17).

Of course we are speaking of spiritual nakedness, but the spiritual condition always manifests in the outward person in some way so that even professing Christians now wear revealing clothing which expose their nakedness, and they feel no shame about it. We see Christian women wearing skin-tight jeans which cling to their backside so that they might as well be wearing nothing. It’s right in your face. We see Christian men committing all kinds of hypocrisies.

This is due to the absence of the true Holy Spirit. They have become acclimatized to a counterfeit spirit, but as soon as the REAL Holy Spirit comes then they realize they are naked and are ashamed and cry out to God to cover their shame.

Any revival where there is NO powerful conviction of sin is a counterfeit revival or a counterfeit church. At the very least it’s an Ichabod Church, where the glory has departed.

Hit them with conviction LORD! Without the TRUE conviction of SIN by the Holy Spirit there will only be false conversions, but when the true Gospel is preached by men of truth and compassion then the true Holy Spirit convicts of sin, righteousness and judgment.