Guilt And Conviction

There's a thin line separating guilt from conviction. And many times opportunists and manipulators take advantage of it. Or bigots out to preserve their self-serving beliefs. [Picture by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay].

Generally, guilt is when you feel you have violated something, like a norm or standard. Conviction is when you're sure of it, not just a feeling or hunch or impression or suspicion. Well, the two words are used widely and have various meanings depending on the usage, but we limit ourselves in this article to how we react after we think we have violated something.

Man-Invented Wrongs

Guilt is often imagined and triggered when we are made to believe we have violated a rule, but is actually an artificial one. They just made it up. Specifically, it's people giving us a guilty conscience, not necessarily because we did wrong, but because they felt what they cherish was violated. So they make you guilty of it to preserve their rule in you. But really, the rule is garbage.

Here's an apt definition from Google dictionary: "make (someone) feel guilty, especially in order to induce them to do something." 

Conviction, on the other hand, is knowing you violated a real rule, in fact a law. Particularly, God's law. It dawns on you and you realize it. It's not something forced subjectively by someone who just wants to impose his standards on you. Here's a definition from Google dictionary: "a formal (and I add, objective) declaration that someone is guilty of a criminal offense, made by the verdict of a jury or the decision of a judge in a court of law."

Sometimes they can also work together. Conviction leads to guilt and vice versa. Though often, even the firmest convictions can be purely subjective, and it's sad if it's merely emotionalism. Then wrong guilt leads to convictions gone haywire. This is why the safest is to be convinced or convicted only by God, if you have developed sensitivity to his leading--which again can be abused if we mistake man's rules and standards as God's.

Often, that's what manipulative people do--and what church does--make you guilty of breaking their "Sabbath law." It's bible-based (so it seems right) but they have exploited it with their own designs. And that's to control. They make it sound as if your guilt in defying their standards is God's voice--the Holy Spirit's conviction. But it's just their voice.

God's and Man's Voice

You have to differentiate between God's and man's voice. I see lots of folks feel guilty about breaking man's rules. I'm not referring to rules in establishments or those made by government or the like which are designed to keep peace and order. But rules made by men to manipulate you and make you subscribe to their beliefs--mostly rules by the religious. They create false guilt and people "repent" from it.

I used to be a victim, but one day God engaged me in a "real talk." One of the passages he used was the old and young prophets in 1 Kings 13. The old prophet tricked the young prophet by challenging the latter's conviction with a sense of guilt. His conviction was God's Word which said he shouldn't stop anywhere in Samaria or go back the way he came from. But the old prophet told him something else. Here's what the Old prophet said.

He said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him.

See that guilt effect? You'd appear too arrogant if you trashed a word like that from a veteran prophet who heard straight from the angel of God. Who did you think you were? This was probably the guilt conscience the young prophet felt. So he gave in, thinking it was God's voice and that he was being convicted by God. Well, it made him abandon the truth and killed him later.

Fabricated guilt is meant to control. Remember that. The best antidote is to deepen in God's Word and genuinely hear his voice. Nothing more, nothing less. Then you can expose religious people who try to inject false guilt in people. Manipulation like that is the demon of witchcraft, not the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

The Pharisees tried it on Jesus. "Why don't you and your disciples follow the traditions of the elders?" They made it sound like the rules of the elders were God's rules. Satan tried it as well. 

Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone."

See that tricky rule? The devil shows how it's biblical and then you, as a believer, should comply. That manufactured guilt can wreck your conscience if you don't submit. And if you do submit, it gives you a false sense of being "forgiven." You feel good about your conscience being "freed." But Jesus knew better. And we must know better because there are a lot of religious holier-than-thou manipulators especially in church who wants to control you.

Unteachable Spirit

And these users accuse you of having an unteachable spirit if you don't comply. They'd say you're too proud and conceited, you need to humble down to the "conviction of the Holy Spirit." Yup, they sound so spiritual and righteous like that and believe they're being used by God. But it's nothing but props. 

Be teachable, but you should know from whom you accept teachings, advice, or rebukes. Not everyone can do this. Don't allow just anybody to have this authority on your life. Or else people would gladly devour you. Most people are just aching to control another and "guide them to the right path." People like this are sure to be lost. The blind leading the blind until they both fall into the pit.

God Uses Guilt

But don't get this wrong. God also uses guilt to bring a person back from error and to a firm conviction coming from the Holy Spirit. God uses someone to correct you and the Word that someone releases from God makes you guilty and convicted. God used Samuel to make Saul guilty of his disobedience about what he should do to the Amalekites. 

But Samuel replied:

“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obeying the Lord?
To obey is better than sacrifice,
and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination,
and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
he has rejected you as king.”

24 Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned. I violated the Lord’s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the men and so I gave in to them. 25 Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord.”

Well, Saul wasn't really that serious when he said this because in the end he continued with his sin so God punished him.  

Beware of Misguided Prophets

Anyway, the thing is, God uses someone he trusts to make you guilty of a real sin and give you a chance to repent. But stay away from misguided prophets. They're not really false prophets--the old prophet mentioned above was a real prophet of God--but some are misguided due to their religious pride and self importance.

So, how do you pinpoint a misguided rebuker? It's simple. 

1. They try hard to appear spiritual. But you know in your spirit that their spirituality is not natural. It is pretended or a showoff. For instance, most of them post nothing but spiritual stuff on Facebook. They sometimes hide behind this disguise to create an aura of righteousness. They also try to say nothing but spiritual things. Their "spiritualization" of everything is not natural and glorifies them more than it does God.

2. They look and sound so nice. They talk unnaturally, faking kindness and politeness and using a modulated voice to mask their true way of talking. They talk like declaimers and poets, especially behind the pulpit. It's ridiculous how they sound differently when doing religious things, like sharing the Gospel or praying in public, than when they're in a casual conversation. They have dual personality. 

3. They love to check and rebuke people who they think have erred from the way. In short, they're holier than thou. They're also fond of giving unsolicited advice and interfering into private lives and conversation.

4. They can't laugh anymore because of their grandiose image of themselves, nor smile naturally because they're used to faking almost everything. I note, too that they sometimes lose their sense of humor. They think that funny and light stuffs are sin or unspiritual. So they judge funny people as worldly and those who are always serious, formal and never laugh out loud as "truly Godly."

As a rule, I stay away from people who look and sound too nice or sound and look too spiritual. Or those too talkative yet looking pleasant, trying to make you feel good (to keep you off guard) and then slyly building themselves up at the same time. There's something unnatural about them that alerts me. Nice is not among the fruit of the Spirit. But Satan sounded nice to Eve when he persuaded her to eat the fruit.