Your Daily Devotional for September 16, 2007

 

September 16,  2007

 

 

Remaining Sensitive

by Dr. Paul Chappell

 

 

"And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."

 

Ephesians 4:30-32

 

 

On the morning of December 7, 1941, two U.S. soldiers on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, were manning the radar screen. Suddenly, they saw many dots on the screen, signifying incoming airplanes. Thinking they were U.S. supply planes, they paid no attention to them. We all now know that these were actually Japanese fighter planes sent to attack Pearl Harbor. Had these soldiers remained sensitive to the radar screen and the warning it put out, they may have been able to prevent the damage inflicted by the attack.

 

Many times the Holy Spirit will convict us when we are doing wrong, but if we do not heed His warnings, we will fall into sin. As we saw yesterday, the moment we are saved, the Holy Spirit enters our lives. He guides, protects, and convicts us when we do wrong. Sometimes we can ignore His warnings and develop an attitude of indifference. Today we will see the three attitudes that we must avoid when the Holy Spirit convicts us.

 

First, we must avoid the attitude of resistance. In Acts 7:51, Paul admonishes certain Jews in the first century who were resisting the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. He says, "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye." These believers had resisted the Holy Spirit's guidance and conviction and were living ungodly lives.

 

Conviction is never a pleasant thing, yet it is necessary in each of our lives. We still sin even though we're saved, and we need the Holy Spirit to convict us and help us get back on the right path. We must not resist His conviction for He is only trying to help us.

 

Second, we must avoid the attitude of quenching the Holy Spirit. When we consistently resist the Holy Spirit, He is quenched and no longer convicts us when we sin. First Thessalonians 5:19 says, "Quench not the Spirit." If I were to yell at my wife or ignore her, her spirit would be quenched and she would probably avoid talking to me until I made things right. Even so, when we resist the Holy Spirit's warnings, He is quenched and will no longer try to help us avoid sin until we make things right with Him.

 

Last, we must avoid the attitude of grieving the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 4:30 says, "And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." The Holy Spirit is a person just as God the Father and God the Son. The Spirit acts, wills, loves, and may be grieved or hurt. We grieve the Holy Spirit when we live ungodly, worldly lives. God's will is that we would live cleaner lives because of His indwelling Spirit! We must avoid grieving the Holy Spirit by remaining sensitive to His guidance in our lives.

 

Are you sensitive to the Holy Spirit's conviction in your life? We should never get to a place where we do not feel that sense of conviction when we do wrong. We must not resist the Holy Spirit, quench, or grieve Him. We must remain sensitive to Him for He will help us avoid sin and the consequences of sins. Spend time with God now and thank Him for the Holy Spirit! Also, ask Him to help you be more sensitive to the Holy Spirit in your life today.

 

 

Daily Bible Reading

Proverbs 25-26 • 2 Corinthians 9

 

 

 

 

 

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