God's Spiritual GPS

God’s Spiritual GPS
John 16:5-11
June 22, 2025

I wonder how many of you are really accustomed to using the direc-tion apps that we have on our phones?

How about those moments in your life when it would be great to have something like that in our spiritual lives to be recalculating what we need to do? This is exactly what the Holy Spirit does in our lives. I think it’s important for us to be paying attention to those ar-eas in our life, where the Lord nudges us, taps us on the shoulder to make an adjustment. If we choose to ignore what He’s saying it gets harder to hear him.

This message is not about guilt. This is about guidance. It’s not about punishment. This is about the purpose God has for your life and we’re going to explore how the Holy Spirit works in our lives. Not to shame us, but to shape us.

We tell couples who come to see us for counseling that our job is to help them fall more in love with Jesus and their relationship with Him, not to focus on behavior. Our behavior naturally falls more in line biblically when this happens. Sometimes we get that out of or-der and we think this is ultimately about our behavior, the things we do, the things we don’t do, but ultimately this is about our relation-ship with Him.

John 16:5-11

I. HE CAME TO CONVICT THE WORLD

There are three things here that we see that the Holy Spirit convicts us in.

It’s not about shaming or condemning, but rather refers to the work of the Holy Spirit. This is the loving act of revealing truth to you and I. Truth that brings what’s hidden into conviction. Condemna-tion drives you away from God.

A. His guidance transforms us

1 – He’s going to convict us and let us know when we are off course, when we’re diverging from the plan that God has for us.
2 – He will inform us of what is proper and healthy in our lives.
3 – The Holy Spirit reminds us that the enemy has already lost and eternity matters.

• This is guidance not guilt.
• This is Grace where transformation can begin in our lives. Learn to pay attention to the Spirit’s promptings as God‘s given spot-light.
• That will lovingly reveal, not harm, but reveal with the goal to heal and realign us to our heavenly father‘s heart.

Jesus isn’t saying, I’m sending the Spirit to crush people with guilt. He is saying, I’m sending the Spirit to help people see clearly, to understand where they have gotten off course so I can lead them home.

Conviction isn’t condemnation.
• Conviction is clarity. It’s how God says to us – “ hey, I love you. Let me show you a better way.”
• Conviction is the inner prompting that leads to a realization and acknowledgment of misalignment between our actions or thoughts.
• In God‘s truth, it’s critically important for us to talk about this distinction.

I don’t want you to think about condemnation. Don’t confuse the two. Too many people have walked away from church and even walked away from faith altogether. Not because God spoke truth to them, but because someone weaponized shame; shame that we were never meant to carry.

Conviction and condemnation are not the same thing. One comes from the Spirit to heal. The other comes from our enemy and the motive is to harm.

• Conviction warns us, I love you and this is not the plan I have for your life.
• Let me help you realign properly.

B. His Conviction, not condemnation

Condemnation, the enemy says – oh that’s absolutely who you are and there’s no hope for recovery. You’ve just defined yourself by what you’ve done.

You have to know the difference because if you don’t, we’re going to resist the very thing that the Heavenly Father has given to us that will help us to draw closer to Him.

Romans 8:1, Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
My prayer is that settles deep into you today.
• If you have embraced Him as your Lord and Savior, you must know this; there is no condemnation.
• So conviction comes from the Spirit specifically to lead to change and it’s loving which leads to restoration, it’s hope-filled and leads to growth.
• Conviction addresses what we’ve done and says we’re going to deal with this and we’re going to make it right.

In contrast, condemnation comes from the enemy.
• It’s vague and harsh and leads to hiding and isolation and it’s hopeless and it leads to despair.
• What does condemnation shout? What you’ve done now defines who you are.
If we’re hearing a prompting that’s coming from the enemy that’s going to cause condemnation. Or the voice of God, that’s the Spirit speaking to us that can help us to make change.

The Spirit says, let’s deal with this together. The enemy says, you will always be that way. There’s no hope for recovery for you. To-day, which voice are you most prone to listen to?

We don’t become Holy by getting rid of sin. We become Holy by being with God. So let’s make sure to understand the heart of God and the work of the Spirit of conviction through the lens of scrip-ture.

John 3:17, For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

II. TRAIN YOUR LIFE’S GPS SPIRITUALLY

How can we discern and understand how the spiritual GPS works in our life?
1. I’m going to call it a nudge in your Spirit, an inner prompting that comes from the Holy Spirit. We just read John 16:8, when He comes He will convict the world. One of those moments where you just know something is not OK.

• Where the voice of God will say to forgive.
• The voice of the Spirit will say you know that wasn’t truthful.
• The voice of God will prompt you and say, why are you doing what you’re doing?

2. The second way the spirit of God can speak is through scripture.

Hebrews 4:12, For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

3. The third way that the Spirit of God will speak to us is through a friend speaking the truth.

Proverbs 27:6, Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.

A. Surround yourself with Godly environments

This is when someone loves you enough to tell you the truth. Do you have a friend like that? It’s very hard to find someone who isn’t afraid to say the hard things. It could be a lot of different ways that the Holy Spirit will use a friend to speak to us and you know it’s important that we be that kind of friend, but when we are that kind of friend it’s not to come in and browbeat someone, but it’s with loving care and concern for one another.

4. The fourth one is why I love what I do. The Spirit of God could speak to you in a message or a sermon. Have you ever had this mo-ment when whomever is speaking, likely Rich, Matthew, Jean or Andrew.

B. Our circumstances will test our soul

5. He can speak to you through circumstances and consequences. Sometimes life closes in and it feels like often times I’m paying more attention when life closes in. Sometimes God will use our cir-cumstances and consequences to cause us to be more aware.

6. Godly sorrow – that deep ache that comes upon us when we know we’ve grieved the Spirit and we feel deep sorrow for it. It’s not to shame you, it’s intention is to draw you back to God.

2 Corinthians 7:10, For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.

There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death. So this is not just sorry because you got caught, but because your feeling in your soul and you’re ready to turn and live differently.

Throughout scripture, you can see real life people just like you and I have these moments like we’re talking about, where the Spirit of God speaks in supernatural ways to deliver a message that some-thing needs to change, that something’s out of order, that something needs to get addressed. Sometimes we see people respond in a real positive way with a tender heart.

And typically, it’s in those moments that there’s some redefining of who they are and set the tone for their future.

A couple of healthy responses to conviction.
• King David – Follow the story in 2 Samuel 12, when the prophet confronts David and He owns it and says I have repented and he’s restored and becomes a different kind of man.
• Write down Psalm 51, which is a beautiful Psalm of his deep re-pentance for what he had done and a desire to move forward into the future with a different kind of perspective and with different kind of priorities.
• Another example is Peter.

Luke 22 and John 21 where he literally betrayed Jesus and it’s in that moment that Jesus looks at him and scripture tell us that he leaves weeping bitterly deep in his soul. He’s disturbed by what he did and we know the story, Jesus restores him.

Peter understood God‘s grace and forgiveness and mercy in a com-pletely different kind of way, and he spoke with authority of the way that God can change your life. Thousands of people’s lives were changed because of it.

Look at a couple of unhealthy responses.
• Acts 5, the story of Ananias and Sapphira; remember they came and gave a gift to the church and they lied about it and they were asked about it and they didn’t confess. They didn’t repent.
• And then there’s King Saul. In 1 Samuel 15, he disobeyed God and he makes excuses and blames others, and ultimately this de-fines his future, and he loses his calling as the king of the nation of Israel.

This conviction is going to happen to all of us. The question we should be asking ourselves today is how should I respond? What should I do?

My prayer for us at Calvary Chapel is this will be a safe place for you to be a real person.

Conviction is always an invitation to fully experience God‘s grace.
• How do we respond when God’s spiritual GPS that gets our atten-tion?

1. Pause – pay attention, don’t lose that thought. Don’t ignore and rush past the discomfort.

Psalm 139:23-24, Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.

C. Confession and Repentance

You can hear the depth of the soul of a man who has been crushed and doesn’t ever want to go back to that spot.

We should pause and pay attention.
• Holy Spirit, thank you for grabbing my attention.
• I want to quiet myself before you.,
• You do the work of pointing out what needs to be dressed and I’m going to pre-decide to obey you.

2. We must confess and repent. They have to go together.
• Confession is the honest spirit-led admission of what’s broken so that we can be healed.
• Repentance is the spirit-empowered decision to turn from what’s holding us back so that we can walk in freedom and live in alignment with God.

1 John 1:9, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

James 5:16, Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

In our counseling ministry, when honest conversation gets someone to the point that they want to be healed of their poor direction in life rather than feel better, God does miraculous things in their lives.

Those are the kind of friends we all need. Maybe you have a friend like that. Its been said many times, if you want that friend you be that friend. When someone talks to you, you just listen and you ask them what is God doing in your heart right now and how can I be part of the process?

A whole different way to respond and then we’re not going to post on Facebook. We’re not going to say something to somebody else. You’re going to be a good friend.

3. Do you fully embrace God‘s forgiveness? Remember what we said earlier in Romans 8:1, so now there’s just a little bit of con-demnation? No, so now there is no condemnation for those that be-long to Jesus.

So, if you have a propensity in your life to live with shame over something that was in your past, please memorize that verse, fully embrace the work of God; there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. Don’t pick up that shame again.

Only the enemy wants you to pick up that cloud in your life and carry it. Why would you allow the enemy to steal your joy and in-terfere with the abundant life that Jesus died for?

Your response to the enemy –
• There is no condemnation for me because I’m in Christ Jesus and I know what He did on the cross and I will not live defeated.
• I’m going to live in the victory that Jesus gave me and you need to say it just like that.
• No, I’m not listening to those defeating words. We live in true freedom.

Conviction is not just what we turned from but it’s what we turned toward. You have the power of God available to you. He will give life to your mortal bodies by the same spirit living within you so we don’t walk out of our conviction in our own willpower. We walk out of those places in the resurrection. That is different. This is about relationship and being connected to the power that raised Je-sus from the dead.

Romans 8:11, But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.