ICS Daily Devotions
Don’t Grieve The Holy Spirit
1 Corinthians 3:16 (NKJV) Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
The Holy Spirit dwells in every believer, just as Jesus has promised. This would not be possible if we hadn’t first been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. The presence of the Holy Spirit is a seal of our salvation and identification that we belong to God. However, we need to be aware that only a child of God who has been trained in and taught the Word can be led by the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 4:29-31(NKJV) Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.
The Holy Spirit has feelings and is extremely sensitive. He communicates with us either gently or authoritatively, depending on the situation. We need to train ourselves to listen to His voice by learning to yield to Him in daily matters. He is a holy God and is easily grieved when we disregard His prompting to depart from unholiness. Yet if we truly appreciate what Christ has done for us on the cross, we will desire to live consecrated and sanctified lives which are pleasing to the Holy Spirit.
When we love our neighbours as ourselves, we are yielding to the Holy Spirit. When we start to do that, we will tune in to His leading and will receive His wisdom. The Holy Spirit has a voice and He speaks through our conscience, which is extremely sensitive because it has been cleansed by the blood of Jesus. However, repeated sinning will sear our conscience, and He is grieved when we ignore His prompting and allow the flesh to dominate. Such instances include giving ourselves over to anger, bitterness, evil-speaking and wrath, rather than yielding to Him by walking in love, grace, mercy, forgiveness and self-control.
He can speak in an authoritative voice when He wants us to stop surrendering to the flesh or to temptation. On the contrary, when we choose to speak words of edification, control our anger and our words, we will experience His peace and learn to tune in to His leading. With practice, we will hear His voice more loudly and clearly. When we yield to the Holy Spirit, we are not only training and developing our spirit so that it can respond accurately to God, but we will also become more conscious of our spirit being as a whole.
Sermon Series: How to be led by the Holy Spirit in your daily life?
