hortation of Scripture is, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, where by ye are sealed unto the day of your redemption" (Ephesians 4:30). Everything we do should be con ditioned by that word of admoni tion. As we have seen in previous studies every Christian is indwelt by the Holy Spirit the moment he receives Christ as Saviour. This does not mean he is controlled or filled by the Spirit. Indwelling and in filling are not synonomous terms. The Greek word for "grieve" means to cause sorrow, sadness, pain or woe. Have you ever done this to the Spirit? Notice that He is properly referred to as "Holy" Spirit. This means that anything un holy really grieves Him. The ques tion is not big sins, little sins, few sins or many sins. Regardless of what they are we are not to grieve Him. When we grab control of our lives we are grieving Him. He can no longer work through us, pro ducing love, joy, peace and the other important fruit. He desires to bring conviction. Whenever this happens we must confess the sin and make it right with the Lord (I John 1:9). While I am not a prude I hate to go into a dirty house. You would not want to have to kick out gar bage. Who could feel comfortable Keep in mind there is a difference between grieving the Holy Spirit and quenching Him. We grieve the Holy Spirit by the things we do; by sins of commission. We quench the Holy Spirit by the things we do not do; by sins of omission. In Ephesians 4:23-24 we are told that we must be renewed in the Spirit of our minds so that we can "put in such circumstances? QUENCHING THE SPIRIT
on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." We are to put away ly ing, so that we may speak every man truth with his neighbor. Have you ever grieved the Holy Spirit by lying? There are so many little ways that this sin can be committed. We should be sensitive to this point seeking always to walk uprightly before God. The Lord says to "put away lying." That means to have done with it and not to allow it to have any place in our lives. People are sometimes not even honest with themselves. Lying will cause the Holy Spirit to cease His work through us. When we sin we cut off the current from God and break fellowship with Him. Then we are told never to let "the sun go down upon your wrath." One of the greatest pieces of ad vice I could ever give couples is, "Never go to bed mad." You must be able to communicate and deal with these differences in love when they occur. Talk out the difficulties. The next verse urges us not to give "place to the devil." I have heard people excuse themselves by saying, "I just cannot help it." Oh yes you can! The Bible says, "Re sist the devil and he will flee from you." You try it and you will find it works. In Jesus' name, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, re sist the devil. Command him to get out! He will run! The next exhortation is (vrs. 28), "Let him that stole, steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth." Think of the things people take home from the office. To be sure they are just little things but it is still stealing.
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