Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Do Not Grieve the Holy Spirit
One Saturday during practice (10/5), we talked about grieving the Holy Spirit. I prayed that God will use those verses from the Bible to prick our hearts and enlighten us to see how very often, and unknowingly, we grieve the tender, gentle person that resides within us. (To people who do not understand who this "person" is, do not be afraid, by person I refer to the Holy Spirit that is given to each and every child of God)
Well it seems very out of norm to talk about the Holy Spirit as I personally feel that in our church and less so do we talk about this Person in the trinity, much less are aware of how we grieve Him. And neither do I dare to share on something which I only have a fraction of understanding about.
But there was one very crucial and awakening point that I did not have the chance to bring up and hence would really love to share it here, if it benefits one and all, but if you think otherwise, please disregard it.
It stemmed from my impatient frustration (eagerness?) with the process of sanctification, and like all processes, the due results and rewards are in the distant, far off place where one has to get through first to get there. Urgh. All the frustration then just begets a vicious cycle landing one in a painful conciousness of: "For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do (!)"
(Or do we even struggle enough with that...)
So, I would just like to share one thing that Martyn Lloyd – Jones said...
He mentioned that we often think of a particular sin as “a sin”, whereas we should be thinking of it as being incompatible with the Spirit within us. If we have any idea how much we grieve the Holy Spirit when we ignore his stirrings and go ahead into sinning; it is not so much a matter of doing wrong anymore, as of hurting a person. Once we begin to start thinking of it this way, “we are 75% on the way to victory over it.”
I think this makes a whole lot of sense as it never occurred to me this way... This really boils down to the practicality of being sensitive to the gentle Spirit within you.
Therefore, before you get angry and spout hurtful words, before you disobey out of of rebellion, before you let pride take over you, stop and think. Think of who is watching and grieving for you?
Start from today my dear friends, wake up every morning and preach to yourself this message: ‘And grieve not the holy Spirit of God.’ Eph 4:30
Walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. Gal 5:16
May we desire to be made holy for our Lord Jesus Christ is holy.
Well it seems very out of norm to talk about the Holy Spirit as I personally feel that in our church and less so do we talk about this Person in the trinity, much less are aware of how we grieve Him. And neither do I dare to share on something which I only have a fraction of understanding about.
But there was one very crucial and awakening point that I did not have the chance to bring up and hence would really love to share it here, if it benefits one and all, but if you think otherwise, please disregard it.
It stemmed from my impatient frustration (eagerness?) with the process of sanctification, and like all processes, the due results and rewards are in the distant, far off place where one has to get through first to get there. Urgh. All the frustration then just begets a vicious cycle landing one in a painful conciousness of: "For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do (!)"
(Or do we even struggle enough with that...)
So, I would just like to share one thing that Martyn Lloyd – Jones said...
He mentioned that we often think of a particular sin as “a sin”, whereas we should be thinking of it as being incompatible with the Spirit within us. If we have any idea how much we grieve the Holy Spirit when we ignore his stirrings and go ahead into sinning; it is not so much a matter of doing wrong anymore, as of hurting a person. Once we begin to start thinking of it this way, “we are 75% on the way to victory over it.”
I think this makes a whole lot of sense as it never occurred to me this way... This really boils down to the practicality of being sensitive to the gentle Spirit within you.
Therefore, before you get angry and spout hurtful words, before you disobey out of of rebellion, before you let pride take over you, stop and think. Think of who is watching and grieving for you?
Start from today my dear friends, wake up every morning and preach to yourself this message: ‘And grieve not the holy Spirit of God.’ Eph 4:30
Walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. Gal 5:16
May we desire to be made holy for our Lord Jesus Christ is holy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)