About the Holy Spirit

You always resist the Holy Spirit . . . Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God . . . Do not quench the Spirit. 

It is the will of God that we walk in daily dependence upon the Holy Spirit. It is God's desire that we seek Him for the fullness of the Spirit's work in and through our lives. Three wrong responses that undermine the will of God are resisting, grieving, and quenching the Holy Spirit of the Lord.

Acts 7:48-60; When Stephen was on trial before the religious leaders of Israel, he preached a powerful sermon declaring the faithfulness of God toward His consistently unfaithful nation. He concluded his message with a pointed, radical, accurate evaluation. "You stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you" (Acts 7:51). Here we are given the kind of attitudes that oppose the work of the Spirit. These people were "stiff necked." They were stubborn and self-willed. They wanted their will, not the will of God. They also were "uncircumcised in heart and ears." They did not allow God to cut away the carnality of their inner being. They would not allow God to speak to them through His messengers. They were self-righteous and self-sufficient. When we conduct ourselves in this same manner, we also are "resisting the Holy Spirit."

Ephesians 4:30 - 31; When Paul was writing to the church at Ephesus, he commanded them: "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit" In the next verse he tells us what brings grief to the Spirit of God. "Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice" (Ephesians 4:31). Yes, the Holy Spirit is a person, not a mere power or influence. He can be saddened by our behaviour. When we, God's people, keep bitterness in our hearts and malicious words in our mouths, then we are "grieving the Holy Spirit of God."

1Thessionals 5:14-25; When Paul wrote to the saints at Thessalonica, he instructed them: "Do not quench the Spirit." Just as a fire can be quenched, the promptings of the Holy Spirit can be stopped. As we read the word of God, the Spirit can be stirring a spiritual fire of conviction within us. Will we respond to that heavenly influence, or will we suppress it? When the Lord is igniting a vision of service with Him, will we yield or will we extinguish it? When the Lord is calling us to intercessory prayer, will we cry out to Him or will we suppress that desire He is kindling? Will we allow the Spirit to blaze within our hearts; or will we "quench the Spirit"?

Even as we talk about the Holy Spirit it is a reminder that we are still studying about the grace of God. In considering how to live by the fullness of the Spirit, we will see how to live more fully by the grace of God.

In Zechariah 4:1-7, verse 6 Good News version says “The angel told me to give Zerubbabel this message from the LORD: "You will succeed, not by military might or by your own strength, but by my spirit.

The church is a golden candlestick, or lamp-bearer, set up to light up this dark world, and hold the light of Godly revelation. Two olive trees were seen, one on each side the candlestick, from which oil flowed into the bowl without ceasing. God will bring His purposes concerning his church, sometimes without us and sometimes with us. Here is the abundance of Divine grace, God will raise up His holy ministers and members of the church, who cannot be brought into being or prevented by any human power. The vision assures us that the good work of building the temple, the church will have a happy end.

The difficulty is represented as a great mountain and will vanish, and all the objections will be got over. Faith will remove mountains, and make them plains. Christ is our Zerubbabel; mountains of difficulty were in his way, but nothing is too hard for him. What comes from the grace of God, may, in faith, be committed to the grace of God, for he will not forsake the work of his own hands.

We have observed the connection between living by the Spirit and living by the grace of God.

"Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit." Serving the Lord is accomplished by the work of the Spirit in and through our lives, not by natural capabilities. The next verse restates this truth in terms of God's grace. "And he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of "Grace, grace to it!” Every completed task in the service of God is accomplished by His grace, not by our ingenuity or merit.

Acts 4:31 – 33; We also saw how the early church experienced this relationship between the Spirit and grace. "They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness . . . And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all" (Acts 4:31 - 33). The boldness they experienced through the Holy Spirit is described as a result of great grace at work upon them.

The new covenant is characterized by grace, in contrast to the old covenant that Moses set in place. "For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ"

 (John 1:17).

This new covenant of grace is also a covenant of the Spirit. "Our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life"

2Corinthians 3:3 you are like a letter written by Christ and delivered by us. But you are not written with pen and ink or on tablets made of stone. You are written in our hearts by the Spirit of the living God. 4 We are sure about all this. Christ makes us sure in the very presence of God. 5 We don't have the right to claim that we have done anything on our own. God gives us what it takes to do all that we do. 6 He makes us worthy to be the servants of his new agreement that comes from the Holy Spirit and not from a written Law. After all, the Law brings death, but the Spirit brings life.

7 The Law of Moses brought only the promise of death, even though it was carved on stones and given in a wonderful way. Still the Law made Moses' face shine so brightly that the people of Israel could not look at it, even though it was a fading glory.

When the Lord Jesus returns and Israel humbly bows to Him as their Messiah, this wondrous response will be the result of "the Spirit of grace" (Zec.12:10) being poured out upon them. This glorious title, identifying grace with the Holy Spirit, beautifully sums up the grand truth that living by grace and walking in the Spirit are two perspectives on the same precious reality.

Romans 8:1:- There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.