My son, let me give you an example. Do you remember that you once told me the Holy Spirit whitewashed the mind of my company colleagues and bosses and they couldn’t answer a simple question? After that, I had a conversation with a friend, sharing salvation, and we talked for a long time. I kept telling my friend that the Lord Jesus is the true living God, but he didn’t believe it. I discussed with him for almost two hours. He explained what I shared about the experience of how the Lord Jesus led me. It was just my personal subjective thoughts. If it is a person who does not believe that Jesus is the Son of God, or a person of other religious beliefs, their explanation, will be very different too. Later, I shared with him how the Holy Spirit helped me at work and resolved the crisis in the team under my management due to a corporate politics at work. However, in the end, I said how the Holy Spirit made me asking a simple question and everyone in the room couldn’t answer it. Because I didn’t want to be refuted by the friend again, I told my friend that the time the other people could not answer the simple question from tens of seconds to tens of minutes. I don’t know why at that moment, the idea of lying appeared in my heart, and I also agreed with that idea, thinking that by saying this, my friend would not be able to refute me. When I said the lie for ten minutes, a small voice suddenly appeared in my heart, and said to me softly: “Do you know that you are lying?” At that moment, the Holy Spirit let me know that I had sin and lie, but I didn’t want to admit it when I was with my friend at that moment. Then, when Dad returned home, the lie I committed could really be forgotten quickly in my mind. However, when Dad was reading the Bible that night, I was reading other books, but because of a bible verse that appeared in my heart, it was Proverbs 16:2:
“All the ways of a person are clean in his own sight,
But the LORD examines the motives.”
I turned to Proverbs Chapter 16 and started to read, and went to Chapter 19. When I reached Proverbs 19:5, it said:
“A false witness will not go unpunished,
and one who declares lies will not escape.”
At that time, the scene of me telling a lie to my friend flashed in my heart. Although the scene was vague, I should remember it. At that time, I didn’t remember what I was thinking, and I still didn’t want to confess my sin, but when I was reading verse 9, it said there:
“A false witness will not go unpunished,
And one who declares lies will perish.”
When I was reading, it quickly reappeared in my heart that I was lying to my friend, which made me feel very uncomfortable. Just when I wanted to get up and leave, to escape and no longer want to look at it. The moment I got up, I saw the lie in my heart again. I saw it very clearly in my heart at that moment, as if I was watching my lie there as a third person, so that I could not excuse myself. At that moment, although I was uncomfortable, I knew that the Holy Spirit was reminding me, so I prayed in my heart, admitting that I lied and gave false testimony, offended God, and asked my God to forgive me until my heart regained the peace from forgiveness. So, Dad knows truly from my experience that a false witness and a lying tongue, as stated in Proverbs 6:17 and 19, which are hated by the LORD our God. Just as Proverbs 16:2 said, everything we are doing is clean in our own sights; but only the LORD, the God who created the heavens and the earth, examines the motives. He knows the truth of everything we said, did or thought, and no one in the world can escape His judgment! But Dad is in awe and admiration from the bottom of my heart that the God who created the heavens and the earth does not regard guilt as innocence. On the contrary, He loved me like a biological child, reproaching me and showing me my sin, so that Dad could confess my sin before God. Repented, being forgiven, and continued to walk with God who loves me.
So when you read God’s words, it is normal for this to happen. No matter what God lets you see in your heart through the Holy Spirit, don’t be afraid of it. The God who created the heavens and the earth is full of love and compassion! God will interrogate everything we want to do in the sun or in the dark, even hidden things. But God does this for our good. Just as if you do something wrong, no matter how much we, as your parents, love you, you must admit your mistakes, or even punish you, so that you will know that you have done something wrong. This have to do with preventing you to make mistakes again and again and hence the evil one can enter your heart. As long as you are not afraid, come back to Him and let Him examine you. The first few times, although it is uncomfortable, you will know for yourself that God loves you and will no longer be afraid. The Holy Spirit reminded me the consequences of sin when Dad read the following Bible verses, and our God does not regard guilt as innocence. He loves us, so he disciplines us who belong to Him, and only confession and repentance can keep us walking with awareness of the presence of the Lord.
Genesis 4:7:
“If you do well, will your face not be cheerful? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
Ecclesiastes 12:14:
“For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.”
Matthew 12:36-37:
“But I tell you that for every careless word that people speak, they will give an account of it on the day of judgment.
For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Hebrews 12:5-6, 10-13, 25:
and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons,
“MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE
LORD,
NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE PUNISHED BY HIM;
FOR WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES,
AND HE PUNISHES EVERY SON WHOM HE ACCEPTS.”
…
For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He (our God) disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.
For the moment, all discipline seems not to be pleasant, but painful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble,
make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is impaired may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.
…
See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns us from heaven.
My son, in your life, even if you don’t have any great success and achievement, compared to the fact that you can’t hear the tiny call of the Holy Spirit in your heart, any success or achievement is nothing. Because you hear the call of the Holy Spirit and respond positively to His voice or teachings are related to your salvation, as stated in John 3:5, the Lord Jesus said:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
It is also whether you can see or unaware the presence of your God with you in your life, but think that you have the golden ticket to the kingdom of heaven or you are actually become part of the children of God yourself! My son, I repeat, you must remember that day and night, our Heavenly Father has given us the Holy Spirit to every child of God. He is not only giving the Holy Spirit to the pastors, preachers, missionaries or elders of His churches, because we, as the children of God, always need the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit to be saved from a selfish and self-righteous state of mind. The Lord Jesus who loves us will use the Holy Spirit to teach each child of God in different ways in his life. He speaks, or emerges in our heart from the things that happened in our past, to guide our life, return to Him and take refuge in Him. It’s just whether we are willing to listen in our heart and respond positively to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, or leave it out, as if we have never heard or seen it. The Holy Spirit once put the following thoughts in my heart: “You need to know how I communicate with you, just as you know how your wife and sons talking to you, the meanings expressed in their words and the thoughts in their hearts. If you just tell other people, how much you love your wife and son, how they love you, but when you are alone with your wife or son, you are not even know how do they express their thoughts and how they talk to you. Then, you don’t know how to love them, you just use them to show yourself in front of others and in your agenda to raise your social status.” So, when I repented and confessed two years ago, I started to pay attention to how God through the Holy Spirit communicated with me. This is the Holy Spirit’s personal response to my ashamed prayer when I am willing to listen to him attentively, as stated in Psalm 138:6:
“For the LORD is exalted,
Yet He looks after the lowly,
But He knows the haughty from afar.”
So, son, you must remember to learn to humble yourself throughout your life, to return to the throne of God, to learn to listen to the various methods of the Holy Spirit speaking in your heart, to be sensitive to the tiny voice, and to learn to distinguish the source of many inner voices. Distinguish which voice is really come from the Holy Spirit. There was a couple of missionary and they shared with me this, “We, humans, must learn to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. The best way is to kneel down on the ground, so that our hearts can be humbled. In many years of our life serving God, we find that kneeling down before God, reading the Bible and praying is the most effective way to make us sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit.” This happened more than 20 years ago, but, my son, I honestly tell you that, before I repented two years ago, I never could persevere kneel down in front of God to read the Bible and pray for more than a few days. Even when I knelt down, I always felt like I was reluctant to kneel down. And there were many things in my mind shown up that attracted me unable to concentrate on reading the Bible and praying. In the worst case, I tried to kneel for more than 30 minutes, but I was unable to concentrate on reading the Bible for more than ten seconds. I was constantly attracted by other things that surfaced in my heart. Even though I was still reading on my lip. My mind had already flown to the clouds thousands of miles away thinking about other things that attracting me. A friend once asked me a question. “Since it is so difficult, why do you still keep trying to read the Bible and pray?” Dad thought for the reason why at that time. Then, Dad said from the bottom of my heart, “Because God used to speak to me through the Holy Spirit. Although no one else at that time said to me that the Holy Spirit would speak to us, the Bible recorded the Creator of heaven and earth often talked with people. After the first time the Holy Spirit spoke to me, I knew that the Holy Spirit really living within me, so I wanted to hear what He will say to me again. I don’t know why. After more than 20 years, I still don’t want to give up.” I thank God that He promised in the Bible that those who seek will find Him; those who knock will the door be open for them. It is also recorded in Romans 10:20-21:
And Isaiah is very bold and says,
” I WAS FOUND BY THOSE WHO DID NOT SEEK ME,
I REVEALED MYSELF TO THOSE WHO DID NOT ASK FOR ME.”
But as for Israel, He says, “I HAVE SPREAD OUT MY HANDS ALL DAY LONG TO A DISOBEDIENT AND OBSTINATE PEPOLE.”
Therefore, the person like me, who is disobedient and obstinate to God, whenever I am willing to lower my head and humble down, He let me meet with Him and show Him to me.
Christian Faith Discussion 