Holy Spirit’s Role in the Courts of Heaven: 3 Things He Does in the Court
When He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged (John 16:8-11 NKJV).
There are big advantages to having the Holy Spirit released on earth versus having the physical Jesus.
Jesus was limited in both time and space as to the people He could personally reach and touch, so it’s a welcome option to have a personality like the Holy Spirit. Unlike the Rabbi Jesus, He can indwell millions of people at the same time while working tirelessly to manifest the character of Jesus in all of them. Do that
Such is the power and beauty of having the Holy Spirit. The presence of the Holy Spirit on earth globalized the presence of Jesus Christ in all the believing saints all around the world. So essentially having the Holy Spirit on earth is like having Jesus in His humanity on steroids worldwide.
In John 16:8-11, Rabbi Jesus goes on to define what can only be described as the judicial work of the Holy Spirit. Under the banner of the judicial work that the Holy Spirit is the assigned to, we find the following three essential aspects:
1. Convict the world of sin.
The number-one assignment of the Holy Spirit is to convict the world of sin. We must not forget that under a biblical mandate, sin is defined as the transgression of the law. Consequentially, it is the Holy Spirit who convicts us of our lawbreaking in relation to the principles and statutes of the Kingdom of God. Since sin is a transgression of the law, the Holy Spirit is the first witness against the transgressive nature of sin. It’s no wonder He is the superior officer of the Courts of Heaven, here on earth.
It’s important to distinguish the judicial work of the Holy Spirit from the judicial work of satan. The Holy Spirit, like Jesus, never plays the role of the “accuser of the brethren.” So when Rabbi Jesus says the Holy Spirit will convict the word of sin, He is not implying that the Holy Spirit is going to accuse us of being sinful men and women. To convict of sin in the Jesus sense literally means to show us the true nature of sin and the condition of our hearts before God, while pointing the way to salvation. On the other hand, when the devil accuses us, the ultimate goal is to bring us under a spirit of condemnation as well as arrest our spiritual development.
2. Convict the saints of their imputed righteousness in Christ Jesus.
The second aspect of the Holy Spirit’s judicial work on earth is to convince the saints of our condition of imputed righteousness by faith in Christ Jesus. Many times, believers fail to secure a righteous verdict that they need from the Courts of Heaven because they approach the Courts of Heaven with a spirit of inferiority complex and with a sense of unworthiness.
The reason many Christians are not fully convinced of their position of righteousness in Christ Jesus before God is because they don’t understand that in His substitutionary death on the cross, the Lord truly justified us before God and gave us the gift of His imputed righteousness. We are truly the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus! It takes the Holy Spirit to convict us of our righteousness. So, we can stand before God’s righteous throne and boldly proclaim what is rightfully ours according to the inheritance God has given us in Christ Jesus.
3. To enforce the judgment of sin and the devil.
The final and one of the most important judicial works of the Holy Spirit is to also enforce the judgment of sin and the devil, in both the natural and heavenly realms. The Holy Spirit is responsible for making sure God’s children know that satan and sin, which gives him the legal grounds to operate in our lives, have both been severely judged in the body of Jesus Christ on the cross. This is the powerful testimony the Holy Spirit gives us each time we step into the Courts of Heaven to claim what is legally ours through the finished work of Jesus on the cross. Every time we cast demons out of people, we are essentially enforcing the judgment of sin and the devil and his minions through the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit: Our Perfect Guide in the Courts of Heaven
However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you (John 16:13-14).
Based on John 16:13-14, Rabbi Jesus finally informs us who the Holy Spirit is and why we desperately need Him. First, Rabbi Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. Let me ask you a million-dollar question, “If your life depended on it and you are in a court of law where you were being falsely accused, wouldn’t you do everything humanly possible to secure a legal aid who is also the Spirit of truth?” I bet you would. This means that wherever the truth is, your legal aid will find it. Therefore, it’s impossible for satan to lie to us when we’re totally yielded to the Holy Spirit. Within the depths of God’s holy Word, the Holy Spirit will expose the enemy’s cesspool of lies.
Additionally, Rabbi Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth. The expression “all truth” means that there are some truths about God’s Kingdom and our adversary that we don’t yet know but will be revealed as we continue to grow spiritually. Christ left it up to the Holy Spirit to reveal to us higher realms of truth that unlock the Kingdom of God, the deeper and deeper we dive into God. Furthermore, Rabbi Jesus let us know that the Holy Spirit speaks on “His own authority,” which means that the Holy Spirit never contradicts Jesus. Not only that, but the Holy Spirit can also give us prophetic insights related to futuristic events.
Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the Courts of Heaven
Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear. So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more” (John 8:2-11 NKJV).
In this passage of Scripture we see an amazing phenomenon. We see Rabbi Jesus and the Holy Spirit working together to rescue a woman who was caught in adultery. I’ve already mentioned that there are several times in Scripture when the Courts of Heaven have actually descended on earth in order to render a righteous verdict judgment against or on behalf of someone. In John 8:2-11, the Pharisees brought a woman supposedly “caught in adultery, in the very act.” Amazingly, even though by their own admission they stated that they had caught the woman in the very act of adultery, they never produced the man who was involved in the act with her. Obviously they allowed the man to escape to safety while they dragged the woman to Rabbi Jesus so they could test Jesus’ commitment to the Law of Moses.
It’s interesting to note that the Pharisees who brought the woman caught in adultery were playing the role of the accuser of the brethren. Since the engines of justice don’t move unless there has been an accusation or a charge leveled at someone, it’s safe to say court was in session as soon as Rabbi Jesus sat to preside over their charges leveled against the woman.
It’s also interesting to note that in the story Rabbi Jesus is not standing but sitting. Why is this significant? It is significant because within the judicial realm, court is never in session until the presiding judge is seated. In this particular story, Rabbi Jesus is the righteous Judge. He was presiding as Judge over the case of the woman caught in adultery.
Since her accusers quoted the Law of Moses, the entire story is judicial in nature. There is absolutely no way to fully appreciate this story without looking at it through the lenses of the Courts of Heaven. Rabbi Jesus was not part of the Levitical priestly order since He was from the tribe of Judah, so there was no way He could judge this woman as a traditional Jewish rabbi. Since Rabbi Jesus was fully connected to the operations of the Courts of Heaven while He was here on earth, He decided to hold this trial within the framework of the Courts of Heaven. He took the case into the Courts of Heaven, where the woman was more likely to find grace and help in time of need.
Please remember that Rabbi Jesus did not come into the world to be the accuser, that’s satan’s job. Rabbi Jesus came into the world to be our Kinsman Redeemer. He died and paid the penalty of sin for every one of us, including people caught in adultery, like the woman accused. After Jesus finished writ- ing on the ground what I believe was a righteous verdict in the woman’s favor, the Pharisees were ready to stone the woman to death as soon as Rabbi Jesus confirmed the section of the Law of Moses that they had quoted. The Law of Moses had already prescribed a death sentence over those caught in adultery.
Instead of condemning her to death by stoning, Rabbi Jesus simply asked her accusers a question, “He who is without sin let him throw a stone at her first.” This was nothing short of judicial genius. The Bible says one after the other, being convicted of their sin in the presence of the Lord, they dropped the stones one after the other. Beginning from the oldest to the youngest, they scattered! When all were gone, the Lord Jesus asked the terrified woman, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” At which she answered, “No one, Lord” To which Rabbi Jesus replied, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” It’s quite obvious that the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit were working together in this particular passage to rescue the woman caught in adultery from a horrible death. In this story, Rabbi Jesus took the role of a righteous Judge over the trial of the woman caught in adultery.
However, it’s quite clear the Holy Spirit was the One working behind the scenes to convict the woman’s accusers of their own unconfessed sin. One by one they walked away totally convicted of their sin and lawbreaking by the Holy Spirit. This passage of Scripture actually sets the tone for how Rabbi Jesus and the Holy Spirit operate together in the Courts of Heaven. We need to know how to work with both Members of the eternal Godhead when we are presenting cases in the Courts of Heaven.