It is clear from Eph. 4:26-32 that Paul is exhorting the Body (the Lord's people), to behave appropriately so as not to ‘grieve the Holy Spirit’ v.30. It should be clear to every Christian that if they behave in a manner which is stated in these verses, they will not be at peace, because the Holy Spirit will convict them.
1Cor. 2:10-13 clearly shows that as Christians we are given the Spirit to reveal the things of God. V 14 tells us that the natural man cannot understand the things of God as they can only be spiritually discerned. Therefore we should value the gift of the Holy Spirit and work at the Word to understand the precious things that are written within.
We are also told in 2Cor. 1:22 that we are sealed in Heavenly places, and that Christ owns us, therefore we cannot be lost; and He confirms that He has put His Spirit in our hearts. In 2Cor. 3:17-18 we are told that we should experience ‘freedom’ because where the Spirit of the Lord is there is ‘freedom’, and if we are willing we are being changed by the Spirit into the image of the Lord.
In life, as we seek to walk pleasingly to our Lord, the Enemy constantly seeks to bring us into one form of bondage or another, attempting to take away the 'freedom' that we have been given by the Spirit of Christ Jesus!
Rules and regulations that often well-meaning Christians try to bring upon us, can take away this 'freedom' to seek to know the Word in Truth, as these people try to impose their views on to us.
There is no doubt that many Christians are in a state of bondage, when it comes to looking at the Truth of the Word. There are various reasons for this, some because they have been taught from childhood certain things, and therefore they feel they have to be right. Or they do not want to rock the boat in a group, and be ostracised, if they feel uncertain about various points.
However, it is vital that we know the Truth of the purposes of the Almighty in each Dispensation/Administration, to stay ‘free’ in Christ. Church Groups which seek to enforce wrong teachings, which are not in the Dispensation people are living in, such as applying the Acts period situation, epitomised in Acts 2 to the present day; are ‘grieving the Holy Spirit’, damaging peoples understanding of Scripture, and the ‘freedom’ which the Spirit gives us is gone, or diminished (see: Age times: Rev. Chp. 1:3a).
Many people today state that we are living in the same time of the Holy Spirit’s power as in the Acts period, even though it is clearly fact, that the Acts period miracles and judgements do not take place today. However, it is constantly held by some that they do and much hurt to the individuals involved often takes place. It is our contention that this is a big factor in ‘grieving the Holy Spirit’. Often the writers have noticed that these people do not feel at peace, and often become angry when one says that the Acts period was a time when the Holy Spirit was showing by the numerous miracles etc., that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, and that had the Jews accepted Him He would have returned and set up His Kingdom ‘then’. As has transpired this time is now in abeyance, awaiting the timing to be fulfilled.
It is interesting to dwell on the fact that we too can grieve over someone who behaves inappropriately towards us when we love them. It is clear therefore that the grieving of the Holy Spirit is due to the fact that the Almighty loves us.
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