John 16:8 (NIV) When He comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.

When the Holy Spirit keeps His convicting power aimed at a sinner, it keeps the sinner from being able to truly enjoy their sinning. He causes them to see how sinful they are being. They are enjoying doing it while feeling guilty about it at the same time.

Once the person is given adequate knowledge about God and the things of God, if they should reject it, the Holy Spirit will stop making them feel guilty anymore. That becomes a slippery slope to perversion. In other words, the person becomes a person with a depraved mind.

People with depraved minds, hate God, the people of God, and the things of God. They are not willing to let us present the gospel message to needy people.

They are going to do everything in their power to put a stop to us representing Christianity to anyone. To us, a person like that is and looks evil. However, to the world, they look benevolent and harmless. Our job is to help them see the difference between the motives of the people of God and the people of Satan.

All we can do to prepare a person for avoiding these people and living the victorious Christian life is to make sure they know all they are willing to learn about how to establish and maintain a working relationship with the Holy Spirit, Jesus, and their heavenly Father. The closer they get to God, the more they will be able to see the difference between Him and Satan’s people.

People can quote all our doctrinal statements, take all our training classes, join all our organizations, and develop all kinds of accountability relationships with us; but, if they aren’t heading into a closer and closer relationship with God, they will still fail.