When is the Holy Spirit Being Sinned against?
The Bible speaks about six sins one can commit against the Holy Spirit. Some of them can only be committed by nonbelievers, while others could be committed by believers.
1) Lying to the Spirit.
"These people draw near to me with their mouth...but their hearts are far from me" (Isaiah 29:13).
Lying to the Holy Spirit means to pretend to be something you are not—to go through the motions of the Christian life without really meaning it in your heart of hearts.
2) A believer can grieve the Holy Spirit.
"And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice" (Ephesians 4:30, 31).
Grieving the Holy Spirit means to make sad or sorrowful. When we allow bitterness (an unforgiving spirit) to poison our lives or we slander others, we are grieving the Holy Spirit.
3) A believer can quench the Holy Spirit.
"Do not quench the Spirit" (1 Thessalonians 5: 19).
Quenching suggests extinguishing a fire. Unbelief can certainly hinder the working and moving of God's Holy Spirit (see Mark 6:4-5). This sin is also committed when the Holy Spirit leads you to do a certain thing (share your faith, pray more, take a step of faith) and you refuse to do it.
4) A nonbeliever can resist the Holy Spirit.
"You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit!" (Acts 7:51).
These words were spoken by the early Christian martyr Stephen, as he spoke to the unbelieving Sanhedrin shortly before his death. The Holy Spirit seeks to speak to the heart of the unbeliever and lead him to God. This speaks of those who are convinced of the truth of the gospel, yet who refuse to yield their hearts to God.
5) A nonbeliever can insult the Holy Spirit.
"How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace" (Hebrews 10:29).
It is the office of the Holy Spirit to present the saving work of Jesus Christ to the unsaved. A person insults the love of God by saying that he does not really need God's gift of salvation, or by insisting that Christ's death on the cross was unnecessary or unable to save him. To resist the Spirit's appeal is to insult God and to cut off all hope of salvation.
6) A nonbeliever can blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
"And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come" (Matthew 12:31-32).
This is the most serious offense against the Holy Spirit, for there is no forgiveness for the person who commits it. In the context of Matthew 12, Jesus said that they blasphemed the Holy Spirit because they attributed his works to the devil. The work of the Spirit is to convict us of sin and bring us to Jesus Christ. To blaspheme Him is similar to insulting, in that we resist His work altogether. This should not be the concern of any Christian, for this is not a sin he can or will commit.
The Holy Spirit's plan (purpose) for your life is to lead you in the will of God.
"Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace" (Romans 8:5-6).
In Ephesians 5:18 we are commanded; “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;” “filled” is from a greek word that literally means “controlled by” and it’s in the aorist tense which means something that happens constantly as opposed to a onetime event. The passage is literally saying “be being constantly controlled by the Spirit! We will speak more of being filled with the Spirit in part 3.
Instead of lying to, grieving, quenching, or insulting and resisting the Holy Spirit, we should allow Him to freely work in our lives.
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