Grieving and Quenching the Holy Spirit

There are those who say they want to see/experience a true Move of God, a Revival, if nothing else a time of Renewal. They want to see/experience a true manifest presence of God. They want to see the true Hand of God to do the miraculous. They want see lives saved and transformed. Maybe something like what has been happening and is still happening at Deeper Fellowship Church in Orlando Florida pastored by William McDowell. (Many not aware of all that God has been doing because they do not intentionally promote, market, advertise what God is doing in their church. Find out more about It’s Happening and what McDowell has learned about a move of God/revival.)

Others are not as concerned about a revival in a church, in a city, in a region, in a state, in a nation, across the world. They just would like to experience renewal or revival in their own personal life.

Rather it is a desire for renewal or revival in our own personal life, or in a much grander scale, it is a very biblical desire to want to see a move of God. It is the heart of God to transform individuals, communities, nations. But many times there is a problem, the grieving and quenching of the Holy Spirit is a hindrance to seeing a move of God. Let’s forget a move of God. It is a hindrance to a Christian, a church, to grow in Christ and to grow into maturity.

Let’s Be Real! Why would God bring His manifest presence to a people, to a congregation that is grieving and quenching His Holy Spirit? Can He ‘show up’ in a powerful way even with a disrespect to the Holy Spirit? Absolutely and He has in the past. But when He does it is to bring conviction, to bring rebuke, to bring repentance. To bring judgment if there is no repentance. All of this actually comes with revival even when there is a welcoming of the Holy Spirit. But overall, God is going to reveal His glory to where He is welcomed.

Make sure

This take a look at Grieving and Quenching the Holy Spirit, to determine what it is, what can be the result of having a lifestyle or environment of grieving and quenching the Holy Spirit, and repenting of any wrong or unclean spirit or mindset we may have in our life.

Grieving the Holy Spirit

²⁹ Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. ³⁰ Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹ Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. ³² Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
Ephesians 4:29-32 NASB

Grieving the Holy Spirit involves causing Him sorrow through sinful motives, attitudes, mindsets, actions. How we think, speak, behave can grieve the Holy Spirit. It can be what we do intentionally or unintentionally.

The Greek word for grieve is lupeo and it means to grieve, to cause sorrow, to distress. It means to cause pain, distress, or unhappiness. Let that sink in. When we grieve the Holy Spirit we are causing the Holy Spirit to experience pain, sorrow, distress, unhappiness. OUCH!

The end result of grieving the Holy Spirit is it affects a Christians personal fellowship with God. It creates distance in intimacy. It limits the work of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life. It will limit the moving of the Holy Spirit in a church service.

One of the reasons we do not see a move of God, ever experience the manifest presence of God is because there is much grieving of the Holy Spirit. If ongoing, unrepentant, willful sin is in a Christian’s life, or there is undealt with sin in the camp (in a church setting), then in reality relationship with sin is more important than relationship with Godhead.

Examples of Grieving the Holy Spirit
Here are just a few examples of grieving the Holy Spirit in regard to hindering a move of God.
A. Holding unto, cherishing any form of sin rather it is attitudes, mindsets, behavior.
B. Not being sensitive and obedient to the Holy Spirit.
C. Not repenting when convicted.
D. Refusing to have an abiding relationship with Christ.
E. Calling the actions of God being the actions of man or the demonic. This certainty will grieve and quench the Holy Spirit and can lead to blasphemy of the Holy Spirit which we will deal with at a later time.
F. When God is working and moving, manifesting His glory and denying or ignoring. Not willing to ‘jump in’ with what the Holy Spirit is doing. Being a spectator.
G. Trusting in your wisdom, your knowledge, your skill, leaving God behind the scenes.
H. Rejecting truth.
I. Making your beliefs, your traditions, your ‘formulas’ above the Spirit of God, thus rejecting the workings of the Holy Spirit.

Ultimately grieving the Holy Spirit quenches the Holy Spirit.

Quenching the Holy Spirit

¹⁵ See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people. ¹⁶ Rejoice always; ¹⁷ pray without ceasing; ¹⁸ in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. ¹⁹ Do not quench the Spirit; ²⁰ do not despise prophetic utterances. ²¹ But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; ²² abstain from every form of evil. ²³ Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 5:15-23 NASB

Quenching the Holy Spirit involves actively resisting or suppressing the work of God in a believer’s life. It can extend to suppressing the work of God in the body of Christ. If a person does not abstain from evil they grieve the Holy Spirit and they quench the Holy Spirit in their life.

The Greek word for quench is sbennumi and means to put out a fire or anything like a fire. To suppress, stifle, or render powerless. A person quenching the Holy Spirit is in reality putting out the fire of God. OUCH!

Resisting or Suppressing the Work of God
There is withing our fallen nature to resist or suppress God at times. But our goal is to have the nature of Christ. Quenching of the Holy Spirit is the deliberate, ongoing resistance to spiritual promptings. rejecting prophetic guidance, refusing to allow or exercise the spiritual gifts, or going as far as calling the actions of God of man or the devil. This can lead to blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

Quenching of the Holy Spirit is like extinguishing spiritual fire in a Christian’s life or within a body or in a church setting. Do not expect a move of God in your life or in your church if you ae continuously quenching the Holy Spirit by your mindsets, words, actions. God will hold you accountable.

Examples of Quenching the Holy Spirit
A. Walking in willful sin and ignoring the conviction of the Holy Spirit. It can lead to a person having a hardened heart.
B. Taking a stance against spiritual gifts, interesting in 1 Thessalonians 5:19 it directly mentions the prophetic. It must have been a problem in Thessalonica.
C. Not walking in the fruit of the Spirit.
D. Not living a lifestyle of holiness.
E. Questioning the work of God. going as far as calling it of man or of the devil. If the Holy Spirit is moving, the manifest power and presence of the Holy Spirit is being manifested and a person rejects it, or labels it as evil they are grieving the Holy Spirit, quenching the Holy Spirit, and getting closer to the flame of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

Quenching of the Holy Spirit grieves the Holy Spirit; In reality, most of the time if there is one there is the other. Let that sink in. It is like a double whammy. It is extremely unwise, foolish, dangerous to be a person that is grieving and quenching the Holy Spirit.

Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit

In our next article I will talk about the Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. For now, I will say that Jesus in defined the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit was calling the workings of God, the move of God being of the devil. Grieving and Quenching can lead to a person going as far as hardening their heart and be in danger of entering a realm where there is no forgiveness.

²² Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and He healed him, so that the mute man spoke and saw. 

²⁴ But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.”

³¹ “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. ³² Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.
Matthew 12:22. 24. 31-32

It is clear in this passage that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is calling the works of God being of the devil. Thus, if God is working and moving through the Holy Spirit and a person is calling it of the devil, when it is God, is a very dangerous thing to do. Notice that a person can use the name of Jesus as a curse word, a person can mock or attack a person that is being used by God and it is not blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, but calling the works of God is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

Move of God/Revival

If we want to see a move of God, revival, renewal, we need to make sure we are not grieving or quenching the Holy spirit. We need to be open to however God’s Spirit chooses to work.

Grieving and Quenching the Holy Spirit Podcast

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