Hosanna Restoration Church

Come Holy Spirit, we need you. Yes, we the church need you. The world needs you too, but we need you most. Yes, we need the power of the Holy Spirit to do the things that God has called us to do. But first we need the Holy Spirit to convict us.

We need to be convicted enough to admit our own unbelief so that we will truly believe in all that Jesus said and who He was, is, and always will be. It is a sin not to believe, and yet the church is full of unbelief. We like to look outside and say, “God get those unbelievers.” We don’t even realize that our unbelief hurts Him far more. Our unbelief slows down the process of Him reaching those that we want Him to reach.

The bible says that there is no transgression if there is no law. The fact is, that right now the world is making its own laws and each person is beginning to believe that they are a law unto themselves. People like to believe that there is no right or wrong unless you think it is right or wrong. Well, when the Holy Spirit comes and reveals Jesus, suddenly a person realizes that there is right and wrong, because Jesus is so right.

Years ago when my wife and I walked into a Bible study, we had no problem recognizing that we did things that were wrong, but no worse than others. We really had no serious convictions about eternity. But suddenly, the Holy Spirit came and I knew I was in trouble. I knew that I did not really believe in Jesus, and I knew that judgment was what I would get. The righteousness part was not yet even a consideration. I knew I needed to do something about the sin, so I could get out of the judgment.

Though I did not realize it, the process began just as soon as I acknowledged the problem. Somewhere in the next few weeks I wrote a song that asked the Lord to forgive me and lead me for the rest of my life. Still, I did not get the righteousness part. I mean I believed that Christ rose from the dead and that He was righteous. Perhaps it was not until this very day that I came to a more complete understanding(Of course there still much I do not comprehend).

Jesus went to be with our Father and He is preparing a place for the righteous. Before Christ, they only hoped that this could be true. Now we know it is, because He is the first fruits and we are made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. If we are not fully aware of this, we can not experience all the fullness that God offers us. Yes we must be free from our sins, and yes we must be aware of judgment. However, if we have no hope for entering into that righteousness that we have been convicted of, we will not enter into the rest that God has promised.

Not only must we confess our sins and be cleansed. Not only must we separate ourselves from the judgment of the ruler of this world. We must also enter into His righteousness. For so long, people have thought it noble to continue to declare themselves sinners. We may still sin, but we better not practice it. We need rather to confess that we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and that we are being changed from glory to glory to glory. I want to live where Jesus lives!