Question – Grieved the Holy Spirit

Question:

I sometimes worry that I have grieved away the Holy Spirit. How can I know that I have not done this?

Answer:

There are others who have this same concern. I would say first, remember that “God is love,” and He has your best interest at heart. He also is more anxious for you to be saved than you are. God sent His only begotten Son down here to earth to save you. Jesus suffered untold miseries to save you, so keep your eyes on the Lord.

Jesus said, “But the Comforter, [which is] the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” “The Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin.” John 14:26; 16:7, 8. Read John 14 and 15; you will receive a real blessing, and you may understand more about what the Holy Spirit does.

We will never be able on this earth to exactly understand the Holy Spirit. We can only know what He does and that He is one of the members of the Godhead. “The nature of the Holy Spirit is a mystery. Men cannot explain it, because the Lord has not revealed it to them. . . .

“To the repentant sinner, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, the Holy Spirit reveals the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. . . .

“The Spirit is given as a regenerating agency, to make effectual the salvation wrought by the death of our Redeemer. The Spirit is constantly seeking to draw the attention of men to the great offering that was made on the cross of Calvary, to unfold to the world the love of God, and to open to the convicted soul the precious things of the Scriptures.” The Acts of the Apostles, 52.

As for grieving the Holy Spirit, that is not a sudden thing; it happens over a period of time as a person repeatedly refuses to do God’s will. One example of this would be Pharaoh. The Lord pleaded with him to let the children of Israel go, but he kept refusing until he had completely disconnected himself from God. (See Exodus 7−12.)

What usually happens is that a person learns that something is right to do, such as keeping the Sabbath, but he says, “I am not going to do that.” He hears about it again and again, but he continues to refuse to obey what he knows is right. Finally the Holy Spirit gives up on that person. Then his conscience no longer bothers him about going to church on Sunday. He has no more dread of sin, because the Holy Spirit is the one that convicts us of sin.

If you are still trying to do God’s will and you are convicted when you sin that it is wrong, you have not sinned against the Holy Spirit. He is still pleading with you. He wants you to be in heaven, and if you want to go there, too, and are willing to follow His guidance, you will reach your goal and have eternal life.

If you worry that you have grieved the Holy Spirit away, you have not, or you would not worry about it; you could not care less.