Hot Coal In The Soul!

The Mountain Audio

Our Verse: Acts 20:22 “And now I am bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem.”
Conviction is a strange word. It can mean on lot of different things. We are going to focus on what the Bible says about conviction. It has two different functions. But before we get to that, let's define the word.
Conviction is a strong sensation in heart and mind of what to do or not do.
In the negative sense, conviction is correction from God, a nudge great or small, to stop a certain behavior or thought pattern. We might say, “I am convicted, I can't go in that place.” or “Every time I say or think that, I'm convicted.” God is guiding us into the right path. This is what we call conscience, a part of our human makeup from God.
In the positive sense, conviction means God directing our mind to what He wants us to do.This is what we see in the verse above. God wanted Paul to go to Jerusalem. Inside his mind, in his thoughts, God spoke to him, “Go to Jerusalem”. Paul told his friends and they were not happy. They knew it meant trouble and maybe death. Nevertheless, Paul followed his conviction and went.There were terrible troubles awaiting for him in Jerusalem, but with God's help, he survived!
So how does this work for us?
We make decisions every day, about where we live, who we hang out with and what we do. God chooses to be a part of those decisions. He designed us with a conscience, the place inside us where we are “convicted.” It's God's installed guidance systems for humans, part of your human software. Sometimes you just know, “that's not right, I can't do that.” One friend of The Mountain calls this the "moral wall”. It's something he mentally bumps up against when making a decision.
Summary:
There's a mechanism inside each one of us that helps us decide what's right and wrong.That's our conscience. Conviction is God's action on our conscience to do what's right. It sometimes feels like a hot coal in our soul, and we are wise to obey. Do what's right when God convicts your conscience, and you will feel great. And again, You will make the world a better place.