Do Not Grieve the Spirit

Lately I have been really in tuned to the fact that we can grieve the Holy Spirit. Grieve here means to cause injury or to distress Him. The Holy Spirit resides in us and as we live our lives we will either be living according to Gods will or living according to our will. When we sin, we actually offend (grieve) the Holy Spirit.

Eph 4:25 Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another. 26 “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 27 nor give place to the devil.28 Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

When we first get saved, we can actually feel the grief of the Holy Spirit when we sin. This can and will remain if we stay sensitive to it. When we feel conviction or distaste for the sin we have committed, we should honor it. This is God’s love. He chastises those that He loves (Hebrews 12:5-8) and one of the reasons the Holy Spirit was sent, was to convict us (John 16:8) and keep us on the straight and narrow path (Matt 7:14).  Many people confuse conviction and condemnation, which is another study all together, but I encourage you to learn the difference. Conviction is our friend, condemnation is not.

In the scripture above, we can actually know what grieves the spirit. Even though the Holy Spirit teaches us and convicts us, God still felt it necessary to put it in writing. I believe that is because we can sear our conscious (1 Tim 4:2) and become insensitive to spiritual truths. When we ignore the conviction and continue in our sin, we actually grieve the Holy Spirit. When we feel the conviction we should stop immediately!!  If we do not, we put ourselves in a very dangerous situation because this makes us vulnerable to deceiving spirits that will lead us astray (1 Tim 4:1-5). The goal is to have a soft pliable heart, ears to hear the spirit (chaos silenced) and our minds filled with the word.

The text talks about several things that we should “put away.”

1.       Bitterness

2.      Wrath

3.       Anger

4.      Clamor

5.      Evil speaking

Instead we should be:

1.       Kind

2.      Tenderhearted

3.       Forgiving one another

My personal goal is to not grieve the spirit…I believe that when we do we actually lose dominion or ground in the kingdom. I know God never leaves us or forsakes us but when we willfully sin, we lose power.

Sin separates us from God and enslaves us (Romans 6:16). Although we walk by faith and God’s grace is sufficient, this does not void the principle of “you reap what you sew” (Galatians 6:7-8).  Now understand, there are two kinds of sin, deliberate or premeditated sin and then there is the sin we commit because we are human and imperfect. I am talking about willful, premeditated sin that you have full control over. When we commit such sin, we lose ground or dominion, just like Adam in the Garden of Eden.  The bible says that sin, no longer has dominion over us and we can die to it or rule over it (Romans 6:14, Romans 6:11, Genesis 4:7).

The bible says that signs and wonders will follow those that believe (Mk 16:17). In fact, the disciples asked Jesus privately, why they couldn't cast a certain demo n out. Jesus replied that there are certain demons, that only come out by praying and fasting (Mk 9:29). This tells me that there are some things that we will not have power over, unless we do x, y, and z.  Now, do not misunderstand me. I am not saying that we are saved by our works. However, what I am saying is that in order to have a certain level of dominion or power, we need to be set apart. We need to not grieve the Holy Spirit and we need to be doing what scripture prescribes.

When I lay my hands on someone, I want them to experience healing. When I pray, I want to see signs and wonders. I do not want to have all these promises in the bible and never experience them to the fullest. We are given these promises and we are expected to be a good steward of them.  It is our responsibility and mandate.

My question to you, have you seen someone healed when you have prayed? Have you seen signs and wonders manifest? If you haven’t, is it because you are grieving the Holy Spirit?

I pray that your heart would be softened to these truths.