The Holy Spirit - Part 3 — Keith Daniel

Land up in the mental home. Well, they should go there in the end. It's what you dedicate God consecrates. All we do is dedicate ourselves to God. God takes control by the Holy Ghost. Even in our prayers, we don't work ourselves up.

The Holy Spirit's Work in Prayer and Evangelism

We don't work burning up. We don't work compassion up for the lost. It's the Holy Spirit in us that drives us to the lost, that drives us to our knees, that groans in our prayers. It doesn't mean you've got to groan to say the God's praying through you.

Some people don't have anything but a whisper, but that's the groan, the way you whisper from the heart. The Holy Spirit is the comforter. I love that. I can try and comfort you, brother, when you're broken and smashed by the church itself.

It's so out of touch with God. I can try and comfort you when you're excommunicated because you've been born again. I can try and comfort you by the hurts when your family throw you out or discard you or bury you or disdain you for coming to Christ and changing your lifestyle in their home.

I can try and comfort you when your son wants the devil and not Jesus, but my comfort's not good enough unless I comfort you with a comfort wherewith I was comforted by God, and God the Holy Spirit comforts through the Word of God.

Comfort and Healing Through God's Word

99 .999, it isn't just some feeling flowing through you of a divine wave of love to give you peace. His comfort comes through His Word, and this Word must always be open, and God will comfort as you're wounded by God's people out of touch with God, not through with God.

You will find comfort that you don't become bitter and twisted. You will find comfort that no matter what the devil brings against you, you don't come out bitter and twisted. The healing of God's Word, the healing of God's Word by the Holy Spirit, He comforts through His Word, and you're able to comfort others with a comfort wherewith you were comforted.

What from this book burned into your heart will burn from your lips, and what burns from your lips will burn to the hearts of those that hear you, and so to the degree that God the Holy Ghost comforts you through this book, to that degree you can comfort the church.

He is the comforter, and I could go on, but all these things you will find explained more eloquently and more with more depth by godly men like R. A. Torrey. Get those books. Learn about the work of the Holy Spirit.

Conviction of Sin, Righteousness, and Judgment

Tonight I'd like to bypass all those things, and I'd like to speak to you about one aspect of the Holy Spirit's work that you're not going to hear being preached very much these days in any pulpit, because it's a word that seems to offend.

The Holy Spirit, Jesus said, when He has come will convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, and D. L. Moody said, if that hasn't happened to you, He doubts that anything has ever been done in your life by the Holy Ghost.

You can't bypass this. You talk of all these things of the Holy Ghost in your life, Moody says. If this was not the first thing that happened in your life, He doubts that anything has ever happened in your life that was the Holy Spirit.

In truth, He will convince, He will convict literally the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. When did He do that in your life? Young man, old man, preacher who teaches like a blind leader of the blind.

Do you think Christ said that wasn't possible? And all that will happen is you who are blind will fall into the ditch, but all your leading will fall into the ditch with you. You'll take them to hell if you haven't been saved.

The Holy Spirit, when He has come, will convict the world of sin, and only then will you know that you're a sinner and of righteousness, that you can become righteous. He will convince you, He will convict you that you don't have to remain in sin, though you are a sinner, that you can be made righteous by God, and your life can be made righteous, that you can become a new creature in Christ where all things pass away and all things become new.

It's the Holy Spirit's work to convince the world of sin, of righteousness, of judgment. If you don't turn from the sin to become righteous, to seek God's righteousness, you'll face judgment. And this is the work of the Holy Spirit.

And I agree with Moody. How can you be saved, sir, if you didn't know you're lost? How can you cry out to God to save you from hell if you don't know you're going to hell or judgment? How can you cry to God to set you free from a life of sin if you're not convinced your sin will take you to judgment?

And if you're not convinced in your heart by the Holy Ghost that you can be made righteous? The Holy Spirit's work is to convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. But you know one of the greatest tragedies of our era and time is that we try to do the work of the Holy Spirit, and we just destroy the work of the Holy Spirit as Christians.

The Danger of Replacing the Holy Spirit's Conviction

We try to do the convicting work of God the Holy Spirit today everywhere, and we destroy His work by not trusting Him, that it's His work, not ours. But not trusting Him that He can convince the world of sin without us interfering.

I was once preaching as a young preacher some 30 years ago. A lot of fire, little wisdom, doesn't matter. So long as you're on fire, just so long as you've got a little bit of wisdom and you're on fire, that's all God needs to turn the world upside down.

No good in having a lot of wisdom and no fire. You just turn them to hell. But I went around preaching, and I soon learned about how people try to do the work of the Holy Spirit and the damage they do.

I was warned by other young preachers and evangelists in my country who knew me, and when they heard I was going to a particular town with another young evangelist, they warned me about a man there. They said, there's a very strange man there.

He's so strange, but he's really on fire. He tries to do the work of the Holy Spirit. He's so desperate to get people under conviction of sin. Well, they warned me, but I didn't know I was in for such a hard time.

When I stood in the pulpit, there was this old man, old Umi, we call him. That means uncle, a boor, a farmer, and he sat in the front row of this meeting, and there he was listening, and all the people, and I was preaching, and the moment I named a particular sin, this man said, oh, and I looked at him.

I'd named a sin, and he turned around, and he pointed. It's you. It's you. I looked at this man, and everybody who was pointing was sitting there, you know, all looking a bit upset. How do you preach on?

But I tried, and I named another sin. He said, ah, no, no. That's our opera concert, you know. No, you want to preach when someone's trying to do the Holy Spirit's work. You see, this man was desperate.

There was no truth being preached in the town, or any pulpit of the town, and when truth was come, he was in such a state that he couldn't bear the thought that people wouldn't come under conviction of sin, now that somebody was preaching about sin, and he made sure they got knowing, you're not going to bypass it if it's meant for you, but all he did was damage.

I mean, nobody could be bereached when a man tries to do the work of God like that. All you do is want to get out of the building, and the preacher wanted to get out of the pulpit. Brother, don't do the work of the Holy Spirit.

Trusting the Spirit Instead of Forcing Conviction

Can I warn all you zealous Christians? Can I warn all you zealous Christians? It's his work. Trust him. All you do is damage. Trust him, brother. The Holy Spirit's work is to convict the world of sin, of righteousness, of judgment, not yours.

A New Missionary Story Begins

We had a missionary lady in our missionary society back home in Africa, and she's quite a character. She married one of the godliest men in our land's history, a Mr. Rossi Fenta, and her name was Kuba Fenta, but she was a character.

Oh my, you didn't play the fool with this woman. She was really a character, though she was a missionary.