Today’s Treasure: Galatians 5:25-26, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”
Romans 8:14 says, “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.” This scripture reveals to us how active the Holy Spirit is in our personal lives. He will lead us, if we allow him to.
The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness – it is there to intercede on our behalf when we are at a loss of words.
We know that the Holy Spirit leads us and helps us. Did you also know that we can affect the Holy Spirit?
(1) We can quench the Holy Spirit: to quench the Holy Spirit is to “put out the Spirit’s fire.” When we quench the spirit, we are saying ‘no’ to God. When we resist the authority of God and say ‘no’ to His leadership, we are quenching the spirit.
(2) We can grieve the Holy Spirit: to grieve the Holy Spirit is to afflict with sorrow, to offend, to cause grief. In essence, to grieve the Holy Spirit is to break His heart. This means the Holy Spirit can feel pain. Sin in the life of the believer causes the Holy Spirit to grieve. Behaviors that cause the Holy Spirit to grieve are bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, and malice. Ephesians 4:31 tells us to ‘get rid’ of these behaviors.
When I respond to life’s challenges out of my pain, I am responding in bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, and malice. This response grieves the Holy Spirit; it causes him pain.
Today, something happened that I was so unexpected and quite weird. A co-worker made some untrue statements about me to my Supervisor and caused a ridiculous email chain in which I had to clear my name. My initial response was anger; I was so angry I cried. I imagined how I would get her back (I guess nobody told her not to mess with quiet people - SMILE) I could not believe that someone who doesn’t say two words to me on a daily basis would have the nerve to do what she did. I needed the Holy Spirit to intercede for me in prayer because I was too weak to even form the words to pray. And right now I can say that the Holy Spirit is leading me and helping me so that when I go to work Monday morning, I will not have to say a word – God will fight my battle if I just keep still (and silent).
Lord, help us to get rid of those behaviors that grieve the Holy Spirit; help us to get rid of sin in our lives so that we can be led by the Holy Spirit.
Ladies, it is my desire to see each of us live a life led completely by the Holy Spirit. I don’t want to see my sister overtaken by sin – I don’t want any of us to cause the Holy Spirit any pain. I don’t want any of us to quench the spirit – I don’t want any of us to say ‘no’ to God. Let us always be led by Spirit; even when it hurts and we don’t understand why things are happening the way they are – we must always allow the Holy Spirit to lead us. When we are led by the Holy Spirit, we will never go wrong.
No comments:
Post a Comment