On Fire: Life In The Spirit (Leading)

Romans 8:12-17

One day I had two visits to make and had arranged to make the one farthest away first and then to double back for my second visit as I headed back to the office. The closer I got to my first visit, though, the more I felt an inner prompting to change my plan in order to make the second visit first. It meant going out of my way and off schedule, but God knew that the family I would be seeing first had an immediate crisis. My arrival later that morning would have meant not being present to help them at their greatest point of need. There is no question in my mind that God had led me by the Holy Spirit to change my plans.

I don’t want to give the impression that God leads me this way on a frequent basis and there can be inherent dangers in following your feelings, impressions and inclinations, if biblical discernment isn’t applied. However, it is still true that God can and does lead His children through the inner witness of the Holy Spirit.

Maybe at some point in your own Christian walk you’ve experienced a strong impression or inner compulsion of the Lord’s leading in your life.

In the book, Where Do I Go From Here, God?, the author tells the story of a preacher who was led by the Spirit to a logging camp only to find it deserted when he arrived. So confident was he that the Holy Spirit had brought him to this place that he entered the empty dining hall and began to preach the gospel. It wasn’t until years later that a man approached him in London and reminded him of the incident. This man had been the cook at the camp and was the only man there that day. Unbeknownst to the preacher, this cook hid outside a window, listened to the entire sermon, trusted Christ as his Savior, and had gone on to serve the Lord. (Zac Poonen, Where Do I Go From Here, God?, Tyndale House, 1971, p. 46)

There was a missionary serving in South America who said he felt a strong impression to take a trip into the jungle. After a long and weary trek that night, he arrived at a hut where he found an old Indian on his deathbed. The missionary entered and was immediately asked, “Where’s the book?” The old man explained that he had cried out to God for help and had dreamed about a messenger bringing a book. He said that in the dream he was told to believe the message of the book and he would be saved. As you can imagine, when the missionary brought out his Bible and shared the saving message of Jesus, the old Indian trusted Christ. (G. Christian Weiss, The Perfect Will of God, Moody Press, 1950, p. 86)

God doesn’t always lead people in the manner described in these stories, but sometimes He does. As already stated, there are inherent dangers in following inner promptings without exercising spiritual and biblical discernment. Other things can mask themselves to seem as if they are the leading of the Holy Spirit. For instance: selfish inclinations, past experiences, difficult situations, worldly influences, sentimental bents, physical exhaustion, subconscious fears, emotional stress, Satanic deception (Acts 5:3; cf. 1 John 4:1), etc. Any of these can affect you in a way that make you think you are sensing the inner moving of God’s Spirit when in fact it’s not God’s Spirit at all.

In other words, you have to filter your inner impressions and compulsions to make sure they are from God and not another false source. Tragically, God often gets blamed for people’s bad decisions, which are simply not His fault. Just because a person says they were led to do something doesn’t necessarily mean that it was God that led them. And, of one thing you can be absolutely certain...the Holy Spirit will NEVER (!!!) lead you to do something that is contrary to God’s written Word!

Recently, I went back through the book of Acts to see some of the examples of the Holy Spirit’s involvement in leading believers in the first century. There are some fascinating accounts there of the Holy Spirit’s guidance in believers’ lives.

• Philip (one of the first deacons of the NT church) was instructed to approach the Ethiopian eunuch to present him the Gospel (Acts 8:29).
• Peter was instructed to go to the Roman centurion named Cornelius, which opened the door of the Gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 10:19-20; cf. 11:12).
• While the church leaders in Antioch were fasting and praying, the Holy Spirit led them to set apart Barnabas and Saul (Paul) for the work of missions (Acts 13:2).
• On Paul’s second missions trip he wanted to go to Bithynia to preach the Gospel, but the Holy Spirit wouldn’t permit it (Acts 16:7).
• At the close of Paul’s third missionary trip, he explained to the Ephesian elders that he was constrained by the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem (Acts 20:22-23).
• A prophet by the name of Agabus was led by the Holy Spirit to visually demonstrate to Paul what faced him at Jerusalem (Acts 21:10-11).

From these instances it certainly seems plausible that any believer can know the leading of the Holy Spirit in his or her life. And, it is a mark of spiritual maturity when a Christian can recognize/discern the Spirit’s leading.

Read: Romans 8:14

The leading in Romans 8:14 is to a righteous living that involves putting to death the evil desires of our sinful flesh (8:13). But, it also refers to the Holy Spirit’s personal witness in the believer’s spirit concerning his relationship with God (8:16). This implies that God’s leading should be experienced by every follower of Jesus Christ, though it is usually best recognized by mature/maturing believers. As commentators on this passage note, to be “led by the Spirit of God” is to manifest a spiritual maturity that enables you to recognize the Holy Spirit’s direction, as well as distinguish it from other things that might be prompting you in some way.

Dr. John A. Witmer writes, “Many Bible students see no difference between the word translated ‘sons’ in 8:14 and the word translated ‘children’ in verse 16. However, in verse 16 the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence attests the believer’s birth relationship to God (tekna, ‘children,’ is lit., ‘born ones’). But in verse 14 the Holy Spirit’s control and direction attest the believer’s privileges in God’s family as a ‘son’ (huios means a child mature enough to take on adult family privileges and responsibilities).” (John Walvoord, Roy Zuck, The Bible Knowledge Commentary, Romans 8:12-14)

Author Rene A. Lopez writes, “Only mature believers (implied by the term ‘as many as’) that are led by the Spirit can rightly be called sons of God...There are two different aspects of being sons of God in Paul. Positionally all believers are sons of God by virtue of faith in Christ (Gal 3:26). Yet, experientially only those believers who walk according to the Spirit, who are led by Him, are manifesting their identity [as] sons of God. Paul refers to the latter here.” (The Grace New Testament Commentary, Vol. 2, p. 664)

Don’t be confused, the primary thing we should be pursuing is spiritual maturity, not inner promptings of the Holy Spirit. But, we must recognize that God wants to lead us personally and poignantly at key moments in our lives and we should be ready to yield to His leading. We shouldn’t be surprised when He impresses upon us something that He wants for/from us that is outside of what we originally understood or planned. We should expect that He will give us certain inner impressions to gently move us from our purpose to His.

There are three words to remember when considering the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives:

1. Learn
It is interesting to note that the Apostle Paul parallels being filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) and being filled with the Scripture. (“Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly...” - Colossians 3:16). Jesus told His disciples that the Holy Spirit would “guide them into all truth” (John 16:13). And, He also said that God’s word is “truth” (John 17:17).

The primary way the Holy Spirit leads His children is through the scripture. He opens things to their understanding and enlightens their minds to see things they might have otherwise overlooked to guide them into His will.

As someone has accurately said, “The Bible is the only book whose Author is always present with you when you are reading it.” God the Holy Spirit is always there to teach you what you need to know and help you to understand what God is saying to you. (cf. 1 John 2:27: This verse applies to the spiritually mature, but it is true of all believers that the Holy Spirit opens God’s Word to them.)

Illustration:
I was riding with a friend of mine to a meeting and he was telling me about the struggles he was having in his church. The more I probed and the longer he talked about the situation it became increasingly more obvious how painful this whole matter had been to him and his family. When I asked him what he was planning to do next, he moved to get his Bible and opened it to a passage in the OT Prophets. As he began to read what was described in the biblical text it sounded eerily similar to the story he had been describing concerning his church. He then focused in on one specific verse and said, “When I read this (reading the verse out loud again) I knew exactly what God wanted me to do. It was if God was audibly speaking to me right there.” He said, “This is God’s Word for my situation and I will respond exactly as it says.”

2. Listen
One of our greatest problems in sensing and/or hearing God’s voice in our spirit or through His Word is that we are just too distracted.

Six times the Gospels record the phrase, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Matthew 11:15, 13:9, 43; Mark 4:9; Luke 8:8, 14:35)

Seven times the Revelation records the phrase, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22)

It’s been said that hearing is easy, it’s listening that requires a lot of skill. And, that’s what these biblical phrases mean.

Illustration:
There was a fascinating article in The New York Times on September 9, 2012, about "The Science and Art of Listening."

The article said that, "Listening is a skill that we're in danger of losing in a world of digital distraction and information overload."

The article offered scientific proof that it's really hard to listen, "when potential distractions are leaping into your ears every fifty-thousandth of a second—and pathways in your brain are just waiting to interrupt your focus to warn you of any potential dangers." (The New York Times, November 9, 2012, Seth S. Horowitz)

Illustration: Elijah’s story concerning the “still small voice.” (1 Kings 19:11-13)

It was C.S. Lewis that said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

The truth is...if we don’t quiet our lives so we can hear the “still small voice,” it’s likely we’ll not hear it until we’re in great pain.

3. Live
The essential key to experiencing the leading of the Holy Spirit is to live yielded to His control daily. That’s what it means to “be filled with the Spirit.” It’s dying to yourself and your desires so you can experience His presence, power and spiritual fruitfulness in your life.

Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:27) It’s the last four words that you should specifically note...and they follow me. If you’re not willing to follow Him wherever He may lead you, then it’s unlikely you’ll ever experience His inner leading or hear His voice speaking clearly through His Word.

Illustration:
Haldor Lillenas, founder of a noted music-publishing company, had made his way to the United States from Scandinavia. His first years in this country were hard, but a kind lady befriended him and taught him the English language.

More importantly, she told him the story of Christ and led him to trust the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior. Many times, she sang to him a comforting song entitled God Leads His Dear Children Along.

Years later, he began thinking about the song that had been so meaningful to him in his youth and decided to find out something about its writer, G. A. Young. He discovered that the songwriter had passed away, but that his widow was living in a nearby town.

As the story goes, Mr. Young had demonstrated a lifetime of faithful service to Jesus Christ even though life was anything but easy. After a lot of struggle and diligent effort, his family was finally able to move into their own small home, which they built themselves. While Mr. Young was away holding a meeting some nefarious characters that disliked his Gospel preaching set fire to his house, turning it into a heap of ashes. It is believed that out of this tragedy he wrote the hymn that had brought such comfort and encouragement to Haldor when he was younger.

When Haldor arrived in the little town where G.A. Young’s widow lived, he found her living in very poor conditions. She told him this story.

My husband and I were married while we were very young. God gave us a wonderful life together; he led us from day to day. We had so much of Jesus. But then God took my husband. Now God has led me here, and I’m so excited and glad about it! God has used me in this place. Isn’t it wonderful that God leads his children day by day and step by step?

Many people come to this place and they are so sad and in such great need. They need help and comfort. I have been able to cheer many of them and lead scores of them to the Lord Jesus Christ. How thankful I am that God has brought me to this place, where I can be of so much help to these people!

Haldor Lillenas was deeply moved by Mrs. Young’s words and excited that he had found more than just a story behind a gospel song. He had found a Christian woman completely surrendered to God’s will for her life and to His leading.

On Fire: Life in the Spirit (Fruitfulness)

Galatians 5:16-26

What is true spirituality?

Too many people think of spirituality primarily by the externals:

• The Puritans are commonly portrayed dressed in black with sullen looks on their faces. (Quakers, Amish dress)
• Other religious traditions include the wearing of habits, robes, vestments and clerical collars.
• For some spirituality is represented by wearing a cross or some other religious icon/symbol.
• More modern practice equates spirituality with bumper stickers (ex. “Honk if you love Jesus,” Ichthus, etc.), charitable giving/deeds, or attending as many services each week as possible.

But, are these things alone really the evidence of true spirituality?

The problem with focusing on the externals to assess true spirituality is that it leads to a performance-based Christianity that tries to force conformity to institutional norms through rules and regulations (otherwise known as legalism), which usually tends toward spiritual hypocrisy, spiritual burnout, and/or spiritual elitism. It is inevitable that true spirituality will ultimately affect every aspect of the way we live (including external matters), but before it is anything else it is first a matter of the heart.

When we consider what the Bible has to say about spirituality we learn that God sets His premium NOT PRIMARILY ON HOW WE LOOK, BUT ON WHO CONTROLS US FROM THE INSIDE SO THAT WE MAY PROJECT THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST.

Charles Ryrie accurately defines spirituality this way, “Spirituality is a mature and maturing relation to the Holy Spirit...[it] involves control by the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), and if the Spirit has come to glorify Christ (John 16:14), then a spiritual person will manifest Christ in his character and actions.” (Charles Ryrie, What Is Spirituality?, Bibliotheca Sacra, [July, 1969], pgs. 205, 208 [saved in Google Docs])

True spirituality, then, is best measured by the character of Christ that is produced in us through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives (Galatians 5:22-23). The greater the Spirit’s control, the more evident will be the “fruit of the Spirit,” which is the true mark of spirituality.

This aspect of spirituality (“fruit of the Spirit”) should not be confused with the “gifts of the Spirit.” At the moment of conversion to Christ, every believer receives at least one spiritual gift that God intends for him to use in service to his Master. "Gifts” are functions and capacities given to each believer in order to serve the Christian community, but not all believers share the same gifts. The “fruit of the Spirit,” however, is available in its entirety to every believer that is “led by the Spirit” making this the foundational mark of true spirituality.

The nine qualities that are produced by the Holy Spirit in the life of a surrendered believer are sometimes divided into three categories for the sake of application: 1. Spiritual virtues (love, joy, peace). 2. Social virtues (longsuffering, kindness, goodness). 3. Personal virtues (faithfulness, gentleness, self-control).

But, it is important that we not make too much of these kinds of distinctions since the emphasis of the singular “fruit of the Spirit” is that they are a unity and all these qualities should be found in the believer who is led by the Spirit of God. Thus, these nine qualities are various aspects of the generative power of the Spirit produced in the life of all surrendered believers. They are qualities that are expressed as the natural product of the Christian’s relationship with the Spirit of God.

We must also be careful not to assume that because these qualities are called the “fruit of the Spirit” that there is no personal responsibility in cooperating with the Spirit to actively express these virtues in our daily lives. As Galatians 5:25 demonstrates...we have an ethical responsibility to participate with the Spirit of God in expressing these virtues, though they can only be fully realized as they are produced in the believer through yieldedness to the Holy Spirit.

One of the striking contrasts of this passage is found in the distinction made between the “works of the flesh” (5:19-21) and the “fruit of the Spirit” (5:22-23). The “works of the flesh” is the product of our fallen human nature allowed to express itself according to its own dictates with little or no restraint. Our basic humanity is inherently evil and sinful, as Paul taught when discussing the struggle he had with his flesh:

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. (Romans 7:18-20)

These acts of our “flesh” are essentially self-centered and primarily concerned with the gratification of our own physical and emotional desires. They are destructive to community life, while on the other hand, every aspect of the “fruit of the Spirit” enhances community life.

Consider this list of evils that comes from living according to the ways of our human nature.

1. Adultery, 2. Fornication, 3. Uncleaness (a broad term meaning moral depravity in thought, word, and deed), 4. Lewdness (lacking any moral restraint...shameless, brazen, and open displays of the aforementioned), 5. Idolatry, 6. Sorcery (Gk. “pharmakeia”), 7. Hatred, 8. Contentions (strife, discord), 9. Jealousies, 10. Outbursts of wrath, 11. Selfish ambitions, 12. Dissentions (opposing groups, cliques, gangs), 13. Heresies, 14. Envy, 15. Murders, 16. Drunkenness, 17. Revelries (unrestrained partying, drunkenness)...”and the like.”

Now, contrast the “fruit of the Spirit” with these depraved “works of the flesh.”

1. Love
It may be that love is the primary focus of this entire ethical appeal. In other words...all the other moral qualities in this list define and flow out of love. This is another possibility as to why Paul chose the singular “fruit of the Spirit” while he used the plural when speaking of the “works of the flesh.”

The New English Translation says: “Another way to punctuate this is ‘love’ followed by a colon (love: joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control). It is thus possible to read the eight characteristics following ‘love’ as defining love.”

Author, John Painter writes, “The fruit of the Spirit is love . . .What follows appears to add to love. But the list adds nothing to Paul's understanding of love. It is nothing more nor less than a characterization of love.” (John Painter, The Fruit of the Spirit is Love, Journal of Theology for Southern Africa, p.58 [saved in Google Docs])

Love is a repeated theme in this chapter: cf. 5:6; 5:13,14.

As the rays of the sun are refracted in drops of water to give the many colors of the rainbow, so the rays of God’s love are refracted in the life of a believer to display the many splendored beauty of Christ’s character.

2. Joy
The first result of love in any relationship is true joy. It is the evidence of a healthy relationship with others. Where there is conflict and bitterness, as there was in Galatia, there can be no real joy.

3. Peace
In the first century mindset, peace was more than the absence of difficulty, opposition, and pain. It involved personal wholeness that was manifested in healthy relationships.

The Jewish greeting of Shalom was about wishing someone the highest good that promotes healthy relationships.

4. Longsuffering
This word occurs in the NT in the sense of patiently enduring wrongs without responding with anger or vengeance (2 Corinthians 6:6; Ephesians 4:2; Colossians 1:11; 3:12; 2 Timothy 3:10; 4:2; Hebrews 6:12; James 5:10).

It is the opposite of “fits of rage” or a short temper.

5. Kindness
This could be called “benevolence in action” and is used as an attribute of God (cf. Rom 2:4; 11:22; Titus 3:4), as well as a virtue to be expressed by God’s people (2 Corinthians 6:6; Colossians 3:12).

As God was benevolent/kind to us through His Son, we are to be benevolent/kind towards others because of His Son.

6. Goodness
This represents both an uprightness of soul, as well as actions that reach out to others to do good even when it’s not deserved.

These two attributes together (kindness and goodness) could be defined together as a sweet disposition while doing and being good to others.

7. Faithfulness
Because this text is a list of virtues and this noun is one of eight others, the context determines the best meaning to be “faithfulness.” It is the idea of keeping commitments in relationships...something the Galatians struggled to demonstrate toward Paul (4:13–16).

8. Gentleness (meekness)
Aristotle...defined this word as the mean between the extremes of “excessive anger” and the “inability to be angry.”

In the apocryphal writings of the LXX it is used of “modesty,” “consideration,” or “gentleness” toward others. Because “meekness” is used here as the opposite of the arrogant and self-assertive spirit that is part of the “works of the flesh,” then probably the best understanding of this word is “gentleness” or “consideration.”

Meekness is really an expression of humility as you consider the needs and hurts of others before your own personal goals and ambitions.

9. Self-control
This is a virtue that prevents all of the evil excesses of the flesh. In relationships this quality keeps a person from using others to gratify his own selfish appetites. This includes the strength to say no to yourself, as well as to the desires of your sinful nature.

”...Against such there is no law.” Is it any wonder there would be no “law” against these virtues or necessary to regulate them? With the “works of the flesh,” laws are absolutely necessary to curtail the gratuitous lusts that harm others, yourself, and society.

When you look at these two opposite and disparate lists, you begin to see the rhetorical effect Paul is trying to achieve.  

You have the singular “fruit” as opposed to the plural “works.” You have the virtues of the Spirit over against the vices of the flesh. You have a list that is heterogeneous while the other is homogeneous. One list has three groups of three virtues each while the other list is a disjointed display of depravity. One list is harmonious in tone while the other is filled with discordant sounds.

And the primary difference in the two kinds of life...one is lived under the control of the Holy Spirit while the other is lived according to that part of our human nature that refuses to submit to God (Galatians 3:3; 4:29; 5:16-19, 24; Romans 8:4-6, 9, 13).

Here’s the bottom line: the only way to be truly spiritual is to allow the spirit of God to control your life in an ever increasing way.

Three important things to remember about being spiritual:
1. Fruit is produced, not manufactured.

• Galatians 5:22, 23 is not a series of commands or exhortations. It is a list of promises!
• We can’t be spiritually fruitful in our energy alone (though we must cooperate with the Spirit - cf. 2 Peter 1:3-11).
• As you yield to the Holy Spirit you become increasingly more like the Holy Spirit.

2. Fruit takes time to mature.

• It’s a mistake to expect "instant change" in our spiritual lives.
• “Instant change” happens sometimes, but not always.
• It is also a mistake to think that God is finished with you after a certain amount of time.

3. Fruit-bearing takes patient cultivation.

• We must cultivate a desire to become spiritually mature.
• We must cultivate a life of yieldedness to the Holy Spirit.
• We must cultivate a commitment to the Word, prayer, church and spiritual examination.

On Fire: Life in the Spirit (Sin)

Ephesians 4:25-32

August 14, 2001:
A surge of electricity to western New York and Canada touched off a series of power failures and enforced blackouts...that left parts of at least eight states in the Northeast and the Midwest without electricity. The widespread failures provoked the evacuation of office buildings, stranded thousands of commuters and flooded some hospitals with patients suffering in the stifling heat.

In an instant that one utility official called "a blink-of-the-eye..." shortly after 4 p.m., the grid that distributes electricity to the eastern United States became overloaded. As circuit breakers tripped at generating stations from New York to Michigan and into Canada, millions of people were instantly caught up in the largest blackout in American history...

...Officials said that the cause of the blackout was under investigation but that terrorism did not appear to have played a role.

...The office of the Canadian prime minister...initially said the power problems were caused by lightning in New York State but later retracted that. Canadian officials later expressed uncertainty about the exact cause but continued to insist the problem began on the United States side of the border.

...Phillip G. Harris, who is in charge of the consortium that oversees power distribution from New Jersey to the District of Columbia...said that his system had recorded a "massive outflow" of power to northern New York or Canada shortly after 4 p.m. He said that the surge overloaded power lines that took themselves out of service.

...New York State officials later said the event may have begun with a power surge at the Perry nuclear power plant near Cleveland. (from two NY Times articles saved in Evernote)

This story reminds me of what happens when Christians sin. What may appear as a minor infraction to some has cascading effects on the rest of the spiritual power grid of their lives. Failures begin to manifest themselves in one area after another leaving vast regions of their lives in relative darkness.

Consider some of the effects when you wilfully sin against God and refuse to repent.

1. There is a loss of fellowship.

As clouds hide the sun for days, sin comes between the soul and the Savior. Every year I struggle with the winter blues due to the overcast skies, bitter cold temperatures, and early darkness. Just to see the sunshine for a few brief moments on a winter day does much to cheer my mood. When we have sinned against God and have failed to confess to Him our failures, our lives begin to feel the coldness of His distance like a gray and bitter winter day.

Every husband knows what it’s like to be in a relationship with your wife, but to be out of fellowship with her. Thankfully, we can never lose our relationship with God when we sin, but we do lose our fellowship with Him.

After King David had committed adultery with Bathsheba he tried to hide his sin. For nearly a year he lived with the guilt of all he had done and he chronicled what his experience was like in Psalm 32:3-4.

For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer... (Psalm 32:4)

Hymn Chorus:

Nothing between my soul and the Savior,

So that His blessed face may be seen;

Nothing preventing the least of His favor,

Keep the way clear! Let nothing between.

Our prayer every day ought to be: Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24)

2. There is a loss of joy.

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. (Psalm 51:12)

Your heart feels empty and the desire for spiritual things begins to wane. Your Christianity begins to feel like a drudgery instead of a delight. You can find a thousand things to do instead of gathering with the people of God to celebrate Him and learn His ways on Sundays. There’s a disappearing sense of boldness for telling others about your faith. The Bible seems like a closed book when you read it and your prayers feel hollow. Your personal relationships become increasingly characterized by conflict as your own personality becomes more dour. When you sin against God you lose the joy of being His child and following His will.

3. There is a loss of comfort.

The longer you remain in unconfessed sin the more difficult your life becomes and the less you sense His peace or comfort. Your life becomes increasingly characterized by unexplained turmoil (though turmoil can also be part of a trial to mature you...not always caused by wilful sin) that reflects God’s discipline (“chastisement”) to bring you to repentance.

Thayer’s Lexicon defines chastisement in this way:a. to chastise or castigate with words, to correct: of those who are moulding the character of others by reproof and admonition, 2 Tim. 2:25.

b. in biblical...use employed of God, to chasten by the infliction of evils and calamities: 1 Co. 11:32; 2 Co. 6:9; Heb. 12:6; Rev. 3:19, (Prov. 19:18; 29:17).

c. to chastise with blows, to scourge: of a father punishing a son, Heb. 12:7, [10]; of a judge ordering one to be scourged, Lk. 23:16, 22, [(Deut. 22:18)].

For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.”  If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? (Hebrews 12:6-7)

Then I will punish their transgression with the rod, And their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless My lovingkindness I will not utterly take from him, Nor allow My faithfulness to fail. (Psalm 89:32-33)

4. There is a loss of reward.

Out of fellowship means out of service – out of service means that one is failing to lay up treasures in heaven. You are building with “wood, hay, and stubble” (1 Corinthians 3:12-15) that will not endure the test of the judgment day.

5. There is a loss of power.

The fullness of God’s power that makes us “fruitful” is only available to those who yield themselves to the Holy Spirit. Consequently, failing to yield means diminished power and even spiritual “blackouts.”

...As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. (John 15:4)

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

How do we grieve the Holy Spirit? By...

A. Ignoring His presence.

Acting as if He isn’t there and living as if He doesn’t matter. At conversion we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit to enable us to follow the Lord and serve Him. As a parent would be grieved if his child took for granted a precious gift that was given him, so the Father is grieved when we ignore the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

As a wife is grieved when her husband fails to acknowledge her in their home, so the Holy Spirit is grieved whenever the believer fails to acknowledge His indwelling presence.

We grieve Him by...

B. Neglecting His power.

We are not only promised the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we are promised the power of the Holy Spirit, as well. That power is realized as we yield ourselves to Him on a daily basis...moment by moment. Most of us don’t take this seriously enough and try to operate our lives in the energy of the flesh...further complicating our spiritual problems.

We will only know the liberating power of the Holy Spirit as we come under the Lordship of His indwelling presence.

Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. (2 Corinthians 3:17)

We grieve Him by...

C. Polluting His temple (unconfessed sin).

Hymn writer, W.M. Bunting wrote:

Holy Spirit! pity me,

Pierced with grief for grieving Thee;

Present, though I mourn apart,

Listen to a wailing heart.

Worldly cares at worship time,

Groveling aims in work sublime,

Pride, when God is passing by,

Sloth, when souls in darkness die;

Chilled devotions, changed desires,

Quenched corruptions earlier fires--

Sins like these my heart deceive,

Thee, who only know’st them grieve!

We grieve Him by...

D. Shunning HIs Word.

Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. (1 Thessalonians 5:19-22)

“In its primary NT sense, to prophesy meant to speak the word of God. The inspired utterances of the prophets are preserved for us in the Bible. In a secondary sense, to prophesy means to declare the mind of God as it has been revealed in the Bible.” (Believers Bible Commentary)

“The Holy Spirit’s working can be opposed by believers. It is this that Paul warned against...There may have been a tendency in the early church, and perhaps in the Thessalonian church in particular, to underrate the value of prophetic utterances. The gift of prophecy was the ability to receive and communicate direct revelations from God before the New Testament was completed (1 Cor. 13:8)....By way of application, Christians should not disparage any revelation that has come to the church and has been recognized as authoritative and preserved by the Holy Spirit in Scripture. The temptation to put the ideas of men on an equal footing with the Word of God is still present.” (The Bible Knowledge Commentary)

“Do not look down upon Bible study as something that is beneath you. Do not be indifferent to the Word of God. We have a lot of folks who are in Christian service, but they are ignorant of the Bible and they look down on Bible study...We had a Bible study downtown in Los Angeles, averaging fifteen hundred people every Thursday night over a period of twenty-one years—what a thrill that was! What a privilege that was! But sometimes folks would make a remark like, ‘You need to get out and do something, not just go to sit and listen to the Bible.’ The interesting thing is that those people who came to sit and listen to the Bible did go out and do something. There are several hundred of those people who are out on the mission field; there are several hundred who are witnessing for God; and there are several hundred in the ministry. I notice that the boys who do not study the Word of God run down like an eight-day clock. Their ministries don’t last too long...” (J. Vernon McGhee)

We grieve Him by...

E. Harming His church.

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

This command does not necessarily speak of a direct attack on the Spirit, but to the subtle things found in the preceding and following verses (specifically dealing with our speech) that tends to damage relationships within the body and thus mar the work of the Spirit in God’s church. God’s Spirit is grieved over any sin that divides and destroys the unity of the body.

The OT background of this verse is found in Isaiah 63:7-14. Isaiah rehearses God’s love and deliverance of His people and explains why there were times that He disciplined them.

“The links between the two biblical passages are so significant as to suggest a typological correspondence between the two events in the history of God’s covenant people. In Isaiah 63, which looks back to the exodus, Yahweh is presented as the Saviour of Israel, who redeemed his people from Egypt, brought them into a covenant relationship with himself, led them by his own personal presence (i.e., his Holy Spirit) through the wilderness, and gave them rest. For its part, Israel the covenant people had rebelled against its Lord ‘and grieved his Holy Spirit’ (v. 10). In Ephesians Paul addresses the new covenant community, ‘the one new man’ (2:15) comprising Jews and Gentiles who have been redeemed (1:7) and reconciled to God through the cross of Christ (2:14–18). They have become a holy temple in the Lord, the place where God himself dwells by his Spirit (2:21, 22). Using the language of Isaiah 63:10, Paul issues a warning to this new community not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God, ‘as Israel had done’ in the wilderness (cf. 1 Cor. 10:1–11), the more so since they have been sealed by that same Holy Spirit until the day of redemption (4:30). The change from the indicative (‘they [Israel] grieved his Holy Spirit’) to the imperative (‘do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God’) is deliberate and makes eminent sense in this exhortatory context.” (Peter T. O’Brien)

Closing:
If you want to know the fullness of God’s spirit in your life, you have to deal with your sins. You cannot walk in the Spirit and willfully walk in sin. Sin grieves and quenches the Spirit of God in your life! But, forgiveness and restoration are only a confession away (1 John 1:9).