Grieving the Spirit

“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ” Ephesians 4:30

In our most recent class about the Holy Spirit, we discussed ways that we can mistreat or grieve the Spirit.

• Disobedience–In Galatians, Paul says, “live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”  If we deliberately live in ways contrary to God’s law, we are hurting the Spirit.
• Blaspheming — this is not only cursing, but using the name of God in an unreverent or trivial way — such as using the phrase, OMG.  This is disrespecting the Spirit.
• Lying to the Holy Spirit — remember Ananias and Sapphira in the book of Acts?  They tried to pretend they were giving more than they really were.  Peter chastised them, saying, “How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord?” Acts 5:9.  A promise to God should not be taken lightly.
• Hardening our hearts — God is love, and if we when His Spirit is in us, we will be loving;  however, we can resist that Spirit by being angry, resentful, or unforgiving
• Quenching the Spirit–the Spirit gives us gifts to be used for the benefit of the church and other people;  when we refuse to use those gifts, we are denying the Spirit
• Spurning the sanctifying Spirit — the Spirit wants to make us holy.  When we refuse to participate in our own sanctification by neglecting worship, prayer and Bible study, we are turning away from the Spirit.

Why do we do these things? (and we all do some of the time).  There may be many reasons — fear, ignorance, worldly influence are at play for sure.  Mostly though, there’s one big answer — SIN.  God loves us; He wants us to be Holy.  He placed His Spirit within us to help us.  Don’t waste that gift.