Post by Cindy on Jun 27, 2018 10:23:45 GMT -5
Many people today wonder if they're "really" saved, and if so, why their life doesn't look like it. They wonder why they don't have the peace, love, faith, "the abundant life" etc. that they hear they should have. For now, I'm going to assume that you are saved, and that the problem is that you've grieved the Holy Spirit. Paul warns us not to do that: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30) In order to determine how we can grieve the Holy Spirit, we must first know what His job is. I'll give you a list of the scriptures for this at the end so you can look them up yourself. First, we're told that the Holy Spirit is "the Spirit of Truth" and "the Spirit of Christ". We know too that Jesus said that He was the Truth, and also that He is the Word and that His Word is Truth. (John 14:6, John 1:1-4) Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will convict people of their sins, and their need for a Savior. This is how the Holy Spirit leads us to salvation. He will guide us into "all truth". Once we are saved, the Holy Spirit causes us to have a strong desire to know God better and to know His Word, so we'll know how to please Him. He pours God's love into our hearts which causes us to love God and to want to know Him better and to want to please Him. Jesus says the Holy Spirit will take from what is His and make it known to us. He does this through His Word - the Bible. To be quite blunt, God has given us the privilege and responsibility of having His Word. He commands us, (yes, He really does actually command us) to know His Word. The Holy Spirit constantly nudges us to study His Word every day as He tells us to. It is through His Word that our minds are renewed and our new nature that was given to us at salvation is made stronger and grows mature, so that we can fight our old nature, refrain from sin, and bring glory to God. It is through His Word that God changes us from the inside out and our life is changed. It's through His Word that we have that peace, love, faith, and the abundant life He promised us, so that we can overcome the trials He tells us that we will have in this lifetime.
Knowing this, it's fairly easy to see at least one way we can grieve the Holy Spirit. We do that by ignoring His leading to study our Bibles every day. The unsaved also grieve the Holy Spirit by refusing God's gift of salvation. The thing is that when we ignore the Holy Spirit in anything, it causes our hearts to be hardened. With those who aren't saved, their hearts are hardened more and more each time they refuse God's offer of salvation, until finally, they will have crossed the line of no return and their hearts will be so hard that they will not be able to be saved even if they should change their minds! The NT gives us an example of that: “See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.” (Hebrews 12:16–17) Sadly, we can't know just where that line is or how far we have until it's crossed. This can also happen to us even after we're saved, although not affecting our salvation. For us, it affects our relationship with the Lord and our lives now. So let's say for example that the Holy Spirit was leading you to study your Bible, but you were busy that day and ignored Him. You haven't yet grieved the Holy Spirit, at least not in a big way, but because you ignored Him that day, when He leads you to study it the next day, His leading won't be as strong or "loud" as it was the first day. Each day that you ignore His leading to read your bible, He will get harder and harder for you to hear, until eventually, you won't feel His leading at all. That's when you have crossed the line and will have totally grieved the Holy Spirit. Thankfully, for us, that's not the end. Because we're saved, we can confess our sin and the Lord will forgive us immediately and restore us to our previous position. Our relationship with Him and the Holy Spirit will be repaired and we will be given another chance to obey Him.
Ok, so now we know that one of the most important things that God commands us to do is to read and study His Word every day. (I just remembered that there are many who seem to think that we don't need to read or study the Old Testament, but that is a lie from Satan! God wants us to know ALL of His Word, not just part of it. The first Christians only had the OT to study and everything they needed was found right there. It's there for us as well, and God gave it to us for a reason. When we don't read our Bible daily, we lose all the benefits God has for us in this life, although we do not lose our salvation. There is a second part to this though. We are not just to read it, we're to obey it. Or as James says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (James 1:22) You see, the more attention we pay to God's Word, reading it, studying it, (no you don't need a lot of theology books to do that - you just need your Bible and the Holy Spirit), reflecting on it, talking to the Lord about it, the more God changes us inside so that we become more and more like Jesus. We begin to love others, both saved and unsaved, the way He loves us; we begin to have peace about everything because our faith and trust in God grows stronger the more we're in His Word. We're no longer anxious about things. We become content with our life and happy. In fact we're filled with joy by the Holy Spirit because of the growth of our faith through being in His Word. We see our prayers answered, and we see miracles happen, and we see others saved. Like the disciples and Paul, our life is changed by the Word of God, because we are changed by it.
There are other ways to grieve the Holy Spirit. Mainly we do so when we don't obey God's Word, which is why not studying Your Bible grieves Him. So it also grieves Him when we lie, are angry and unforgiving, etc. But since we can't possibly know what He wants of us unless we read the Bible, the first most basic thing that grieves Him is when we don't. So if you think you're saved, but haven't seen any change in your life, see if you've grieved the Holy Spirit by refusing His leading to study your Bible daily. If so, confess your sin and repent (meaning you turn away from your sin and commit to study it daily from now on). The Lord will forgive you and will bless you as you study His Word. Try it and see!
John 14:16–17
John 14:26
John 16:7–11
John 16:13–15
2 Corinthians 1:22
Acts 5:32
1 Peter 1:11
Romans 5:5
John 8:31–32
Acts 17:11
Deuteronomy 17:18–20
Joshua 1:8
Luke 11:3
Matthew 4:4
Proverbs 19:27
Proverbs 8:34
Knowing this, it's fairly easy to see at least one way we can grieve the Holy Spirit. We do that by ignoring His leading to study our Bibles every day. The unsaved also grieve the Holy Spirit by refusing God's gift of salvation. The thing is that when we ignore the Holy Spirit in anything, it causes our hearts to be hardened. With those who aren't saved, their hearts are hardened more and more each time they refuse God's offer of salvation, until finally, they will have crossed the line of no return and their hearts will be so hard that they will not be able to be saved even if they should change their minds! The NT gives us an example of that: “See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.” (Hebrews 12:16–17) Sadly, we can't know just where that line is or how far we have until it's crossed. This can also happen to us even after we're saved, although not affecting our salvation. For us, it affects our relationship with the Lord and our lives now. So let's say for example that the Holy Spirit was leading you to study your Bible, but you were busy that day and ignored Him. You haven't yet grieved the Holy Spirit, at least not in a big way, but because you ignored Him that day, when He leads you to study it the next day, His leading won't be as strong or "loud" as it was the first day. Each day that you ignore His leading to read your bible, He will get harder and harder for you to hear, until eventually, you won't feel His leading at all. That's when you have crossed the line and will have totally grieved the Holy Spirit. Thankfully, for us, that's not the end. Because we're saved, we can confess our sin and the Lord will forgive us immediately and restore us to our previous position. Our relationship with Him and the Holy Spirit will be repaired and we will be given another chance to obey Him.
Ok, so now we know that one of the most important things that God commands us to do is to read and study His Word every day. (I just remembered that there are many who seem to think that we don't need to read or study the Old Testament, but that is a lie from Satan! God wants us to know ALL of His Word, not just part of it. The first Christians only had the OT to study and everything they needed was found right there. It's there for us as well, and God gave it to us for a reason. When we don't read our Bible daily, we lose all the benefits God has for us in this life, although we do not lose our salvation. There is a second part to this though. We are not just to read it, we're to obey it. Or as James says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (James 1:22) You see, the more attention we pay to God's Word, reading it, studying it, (no you don't need a lot of theology books to do that - you just need your Bible and the Holy Spirit), reflecting on it, talking to the Lord about it, the more God changes us inside so that we become more and more like Jesus. We begin to love others, both saved and unsaved, the way He loves us; we begin to have peace about everything because our faith and trust in God grows stronger the more we're in His Word. We're no longer anxious about things. We become content with our life and happy. In fact we're filled with joy by the Holy Spirit because of the growth of our faith through being in His Word. We see our prayers answered, and we see miracles happen, and we see others saved. Like the disciples and Paul, our life is changed by the Word of God, because we are changed by it.
There are other ways to grieve the Holy Spirit. Mainly we do so when we don't obey God's Word, which is why not studying Your Bible grieves Him. So it also grieves Him when we lie, are angry and unforgiving, etc. But since we can't possibly know what He wants of us unless we read the Bible, the first most basic thing that grieves Him is when we don't. So if you think you're saved, but haven't seen any change in your life, see if you've grieved the Holy Spirit by refusing His leading to study your Bible daily. If so, confess your sin and repent (meaning you turn away from your sin and commit to study it daily from now on). The Lord will forgive you and will bless you as you study His Word. Try it and see!
John 14:16–17
John 14:26
John 16:7–11
John 16:13–15
2 Corinthians 1:22
Acts 5:32
1 Peter 1:11
Romans 5:5
John 8:31–32
Acts 17:11
Deuteronomy 17:18–20
Joshua 1:8
Luke 11:3
Matthew 4:4
Proverbs 19:27
Proverbs 8:34
!!
