The Holy Spirit

“And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30)

When we believe on Jesus, Who He is and Who He said He was, immediately, we are born again of God. The Lord immediately snatches us out of the kingdom of sin and darkness and places us in His kingdom of peace, love, joy and life. Immediately, we are covered by the blood of the Lamb and cleansed from all of our sins. Immediately we receive the righteousness of Jesus. And immediately the Holy Spirit comes to indwell. “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” (Romans 8:9) This is proof that we belong to Christ. This is what makes the Christian different. It’s nothing visible but is something tangible that others can perceive spiritually. They might even ask what is different about us. What an opportunity to tell them about Jesus. The Holy Spirit was promised to those who belong to Jesus. Unbelievers cannot receive the Holy Spirit. “And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” (John 14:16-17) This is the seal, the stamp that we belong to Christ. The third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit comes and dwells in us. He is God, the Holy Spirit.

The Word says the Holy Spirit is the guarantee or down payment of what we will inherit when the Lord receives what He has purchased with His death and resurrection and His shed blood. “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory.” (Ephesians 1:13-14) For us it’s a tiny taste of the supernatural life in Jesus that we will live in eternity.

The Holy Spirit’s work in us is sanctification. That means that when the flesh rises up and sin is revealed in our flesh, be it anger, selfishness, envy or whatever, the Holy Spirit can help us have victory over that sin. We recognize it as a sin in the flesh. Repent or turn away from it. And confess it to the Lord and ask the Holy Spirit for His supernatural help to leave it. And the Holy Spirit brings us each time closer to the image of Jesus. “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2Corinthians 3:18) Jesus said the Holy Spirit would, “...when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come. He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall shew it unto you.” (John 16:13-14) The Godhead which is three persons in one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are One. We don’t understand that or know what that really means because it doesn’t exist here on earth except that through the Holy Spirit, all who have accepted Jesus are one in Him. With the Holy Spirit indwelling, the Father and Jesus are with us. This is a marvelous thing that may be hard to understand. When the Holy Spirit reveals something to us, tells us to do something or not to do something, the Father and Jesus are all in agreement.

Our verse of study commands us not to grieve the Holy Spirit. When we sin, we grieve the Holy Spirit. When we disobey, we grieve the Holy Spirit. When we ignore Him, we grieve the Holy Spirit. He is closer than any person on earth. Yet many ignore His presence. This grieves Him. I cannot imagine how grieved the Holy Spirit is when we do the things we shouldn’t, when we say the things, we shouldn’t, when we think and agree with the thoughts the devil puts in our mind and when we go to places, we shouldn’t go.

Isaiah writes about the Israelites and how when they grieved the Spirit of God, He turned against them. “But they rebelled, and vexed His holy Spirit: therefore He was turned to be their enemy, and He fought against them.” (Isaiah 63:10) We are commanded not to quench the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit wants us to move, do or say something, we can quench His efforts for the will of God to be done or His purposes to be fulfilled. “Quench not the Spirit.” (1Thesalonians 5:19) With the Holy Spirit indwelling, when we continue in sin and rebellion disregarding the Holy Spirit and even speaking against His work in us or His work in others which we may not understand, we can commit the unpardonable sin. “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:26-29) Jesus said, “Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.” (Matthew 12:31-32) Because of our weaknesses and failings, we may think we may have grieved the Holy Spirit to the point of having committed the unpardonable sin.  But it’s knowing that doing something is sin and not caring and going ahead and sinning with a total disregard for the Holy Spirit in us and saying we don’t care for the Holy Spirit and that we don’t care about what He is trying to do in our life. It’s a fearful thing.

This mini lesson on the Holy Spirit is enough to understand Who He is and what He is doing in our lives. He is a person with whom we need to speak with. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen. The second epistle to the Corinthians was written from Philippi, a city of Macedonia, by Titus and Lucas.” (2Corintians 13:14) Communing with the Holy Spirit and recognizing His presence is key to walking with God because He is in continual communion with the Father and with Jesus.