How Do We Treat the Holy Spirit Within Us?

"… your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you…" (1 Cor 6:19) Excerpts from "The Personal Spiritual life" by Dr Peter Masters

The indwelling of the infinite, eternal Holy Spirit is such an amazing blessing and privilege that the mind never wholly grasps it. A daily succession of joys, sorrows and temptations produces various reactions in us, often without stirring our awareness that God is in residence, and that He will be pleased or grieved by what we think, say or do.

The body of every true believer is the property of God, and if it is defiled, by worldliness, or by other sinful tastes and desires, the indwelling Spirit is said to be grieved. Writes Paul, "…grieve not the holy Spirit of God…" (Eph 4:30),or according to the more striking word order of the Greek, "Grieve not the Spirit, the Holy One of God."

How can we so easily lose touch with this awesome, immense fact of spiritual life — that God takes a place in every redeemed heart, declaring, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Heb 13:5)? The Holy Spirit indwells every Christian from the moment of conversion, so that the inspired Word may say, "…if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Rom 8.9).

Three terms stand out in the New Testament to describe ill-treatment of the Holy Spirit. He may be resisted, orquenched, or grieved, each word describing a level of offence inflicted on our Divine Resident. How easily we forget that He is there, and lose our gratitude to Him, our consideration for Him, and our dependence upon Him!...

It is madness and self-injury to resist the Spirit, so what induces us to do so? Surely it is because we lose touch with the realisation that the Most High God has lodged within, and that it is His promptings and urgings that we resist whenever some duty of the Bible is laid on our heart….

The second term for offending the Spirit appears in 1 Thessalonians 5:19:"Quench not the Spirit." The Holy Spirit’s work is pictured here as a flame of holy conviction or of zeal generated in the heart.…

The flame produced by the Spirit is love and zeal for the Lord, for the Truth, and for lost souls. It includes conviction of sin when it leads to godly sorrow, indignation against our wrong-doing, coupled with carefulness, vehement desire and zeal to reform. (All these terms are found in 2 Corinthians 7:11.)The flame of the Spirit may urge us to witness, or to go with compassion to the aid of another person. Do we quenchthe fervour of godly aims kindled in our hearts by the Spirit? Do we quench and suppress the promptings of conscience? Is the maintaining of spiritual zeal sometimes inconvenient, because it is contrary to our mood, or too costly for us? Do we therefore turn away from praise, prayer, thankfulness, dedication and good works?

How can we do this as Christians? Simply by forgetting that it is the ever-present, mighty Spirit of God who is the author of all godly sensations. We do not merely have a divine visitation, which would be wonderful, but something vastly greater — a Divine Resident who ignites the dying embers of spiritual activity, restoring them to full vigour. But we lose sight of the doctrine and the reality of His presence and smother His reviving, energising work within.

The third term describing our insulting treatment of the Holy Spirit appears in Ephesians 4.30, "And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." This exhortation shows us something of the invisible heart of the Spirit. Surely one of the "deep things of God" (1 Cor 2:10) is the revelation that He is grieved, which literally means caused distress and sorrow, by the disrespect and waywardness of believers. Our infinite, all-powerful Divine Resident may be offended, injured and wounded in heart by the indifference of those He is taking to Heaven. The Spirit is grieved when His work in us and for us is ignored. The fact that the invincible, indestructible Spirit may be pained is largely beyond our understanding, but revelation tells us it is so. The Holy Spirit’s love for us — like Christ’s love — is so great, that He feels for people who are tiny specks of dust before Him. (To be continued …)

God bless all readers.

Yours faithfully in the Saviour’s Service,

Dr SH Tow, Sr Pastor