We've Crucified the Holy Spirit

"Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do ye." (Acts 7:51)

It is time for us to repent, for our transgressions against the blessed Third Person have been many and much aggravated. We have bitterly mistreated Him in the house of His friends. We have crucified Him in His own temple as they crucified the Eternal Son on the hill above Jerusalem. And the nails we used were not of iron, but of the finer and more precious stuff of which human life is made. Out of our hearts we took the refined metals of will and feeling and thought, and from them we fashioned the nails of suspicion and rebellion, and neglect. By unworthy thoughts about Him and unfriendly attitudes toward Him we grieved and quenched the Holy Spirit without end.

The truest and most acceptable repentance is to reverse the acts and attitudes of which we repent.

We can best repent our neglect by neglecting Him no more. Let us begin to think of Him as One to be worshiped and obeyed. Let us throw open every door and invite Him in. Let us surrender to Him every room in the temple of our hearts and insist that He enter and occupy as Lord and Master within His own dwelling.

Lord, forgive me for grieving the Holy Spirit with my unworthy thoughts about Him. I throw open the doors and invite Him in. Amen

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He Can Be Grieved

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

Because He is loving and kind and friendly, the Holy Spirit may be grieved. He can be grieved because He is loving, and there must be love present before there can be grief.

Suppose you had a seventeen year old son who began to go bad. He rejected your counsel and wanted to take things into his on hands. Suppose that he joined up with a young stranger from another part of the city and they got into trouble.

You were called down to the police station. Your boy - and another boy whom you had never seen - sat there in handcuffs.

You know how you would feel about it. You would be sorry for the other boy - but you don't love him because you don't know him. With your own son, your grief would penetrate to your heart like a sword. Only love can grieve. If those two boys were sent off to prison, you might pity the boy you didn't know, but you would grieve over the boy you knew and loved. A mother can grieve because she loves. If you don't love,you can't grieve.

When the Scripture says, "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God" (Ephesians 4:30), it is telling us that He loves us so much that when we insult Him, He is grieved; when we ignore Him, He is grieved; when we resist Him, He is grieved; and when we doubt Him, He is grieved.

Lord, forgive me, for I have grieved Your Holy Spirit. Bathe me in His love, I pray. Amen

~A. W. Tozer~