 The Holy Spirit can be grieved. Ephesians 4.30 says, and do not bring sorrow to God's Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, He has identified you as His own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption. The Holy Spirit is a person. That doesn't mean He's a human, but it means He is personal. He has a mind, He has a will, He has emotions. If the Holy Spirit loves you enough to be grieved by your disobedience, and that means that the Holy Spirit loves you enough to be pleased by your obedience, He has feelings. The things that we do or don't do can affect the way He feels. We can grieve the Holy Spirit of God. We can break His heart by what we do or don't do. This is my greatest fear. And I pray that if we fear anything, we fear grieving the Holy Spirit. Don't be afraid of the opinions of man. People will come against you when you speak the truth. People will attack you when you disrupt things by speaking what the Bible says, or when you disrupt things by speaking what the Holy Spirit says. When you follow the way of the Spirit, you're gonna be a disruptor. You're gonna say things that upset the religious. You're gonna say things that upset the establishment. You're gonna say things that upset the culture. You won't always be accepted, and that's okay. When we embrace the way of Christ, we embrace that cross, and often that means persecution for standing in the truth, for walking in His power, for simply loving God, for declaring the gospel. We will be persecuted. Don't fear man. Don't be afraid of man's opinions. They can't do anything to you ultimately. Ultimately, you're in God's hands. And don't be afraid of demonic powers. Yes, you should be vigilant, but don't be paranoid. Yes, we should be aware of the attacks of the enemy. Yes, we should be aware of his deceptions. Yes, we are engaged in a spiritual battle, and we ought not to be ignorant of that spiritual battle. I'm not saying to be apathetic toward the power of darkness. I'm not saying to be apathetic toward the devil and demons. The Bible warns us that the enemy prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. But there's a big difference between vigilance and paranoia. So yes, be aware of spiritual war, but don't be afraid of demons. Greater is he who is in you than he that is in the world. Greater is he who is in you than he who is operating in the systems of the world. The Holy Spirit is more powerful than any spirit that might exist. There is no spirit more powerful than the Holy Spirit. So no, don't be afraid of man's opinions. Don't be afraid of the words that they'll speak. Don't be afraid of their faces, the faces that they'll make at you for standing for truth or what they'll think about you or how they'll slander you or how they'll come against you. The culture will come against you. The religious system will come against you. Your family will come against you. Friends will come against you. Whenever you speak truth and walk with the Holy Spirit, but don't be afraid of what man can do and say. And don't be afraid of demons. Be aware, but don't be afraid. Be afraid of one thing. Grieving the precious Holy Spirit, not for fear of punishment, although there are consequences to sin. Of course we understand sin has a very destructive power and even believers who persist in sin will eat of the fruit of destruction. But don't fear anything, but grieving the Holy Spirit. Don't fear anything, but grieving the Holy Spirit. Not motivated by punishment, but motivated by love. That's the life of the believer. To walk in a way knowing that what you do affects how he feels. Be motivated unto holiness by love. Perhaps you felt the sting of his pain and his heartbreak in an act of disobedience. I know in my life there were times that I thought something, said something, or did something or didn't do something that deeply grieved the precious Holy Spirit. And I could sense the atmosphere shift around me from the beauty of that presence, that glory resting on my life, that joy, that peace, that union, that perfect fellowship to this agitated atmosphere, this broken heart that I could sense, this heaviness, this weightiness. The psalmist wrote, your hand weighed heavily upon me. That grieving of the Holy Spirit, I don't wanna grieve him. I only fear grieving the precious Holy Spirit. I don't wanna break his heart. There are several things that we do that grieve him. I'll name five. Number one, sins of commission. These are the things that we do that we know we should not do. These are the things that we do that violate the word of God, that violate the nature of God, that violate the instructions that we were given by the Holy Spirit. When we do those things that we know we shouldn't do, we break his heart. Number two, we grieve the Holy Spirit when we don't do what he's telling us to do. He that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it is sin. That's what the Bible says. So when the Holy Spirit speaks to you to do something and you know it's him and you have to be careful with this sometimes because some have the tendency to take their every thought as an instruction from the Holy Spirit. So they begin to live with what I call religious OCD and that's not mocking that syndrome or that sickness but I'm saying that that's a reality. It's a reality that many believers suffer under because they're constantly obsessing compulsively over various things that they think the Holy Spirit is telling them to do. Stand there for five minutes and don't move. Stand up out of your bed right now and stand in the middle of the floor, don't move. Wear that red shirt, not the blue shirt. Go walk over to that gas station and just look for someone who looks like this. Sometimes that is the Holy Spirit, many times it is not. Don't suffer under legalism and mistake it for the voice of the Holy Spirit when it's your own thoughts and emotions. But the things we don't do, yes, can grieve him. They can break his heart. When he says help that ministry and we refuse. When he says witness to that person and we refuse. When he says do this ministry and we refuse. When he says go and do this kind act and we refuse. When he calls us to prayer, read the word and we refuse. These are sins of omission. Number three, what grieves the Holy Spirit is when we ignore the reality of his abiding presence. The Holy Spirit is constantly there but rarely acknowledged. Don't go throughout your life with such a busy pace that you can't acknowledge the presence of the Holy Spirit. Don't live your life in such a way that you're not aware of his nearness. The Holy Spirit is not far from any one of us. He abides in us, around us. He is that atmosphere that goes with us. Like Moses said, I'm not gonna go anywhere without your presence because your presence is what makes me distinct. He makes you distinct. But some of us move through our lives at such a fast pace that we fail to even stop and recognize his nearness. Don't ignore his nearness. Don't ignore the nearness of the precious Holy Spirit. Continue to acknowledge him. Don't go the whole day without talking to him. Don't go the whole day without relying on him. Involve him, be aware of him, don't ignore him. Number four, what grieves the Holy Spirit is division in his body. Now, let me make this very clear. There are times that we need to divide. Jesus said, I came not to bring peace, but a sword, either you're with me or against me. Jesus made it clear that he is the way, the truth and the life, that no man comes to the Father but by him. So there is a time for division. If someone is blatantly teaching heresy, something that contradicts one of the fundamentals of the faith, okay, you gotta call that out. And if someone continues to do that, you have to separate from that. If a believer continues to live in sexual sin and doesn't attempt repentance, doesn't care, just blatantly living that lifestyle, the scripture says, have nothing to do with that person. Well, that's what the Bible says. That's not my word, that's God's word. So there is a time for division. But I think that believers often divide because of their ego, because of their own sensitivity, because of pride, because of fear, and they try to blame the Holy Spirit for them being in the flesh. They'll say things like, well, I just feel the Holy Spirit's grieved with you or something doesn't sit right about you in my spirit. When really what they're saying is, I don't like you. You know, it's funny that when people get into arguments, they often try to spiritualize their actions of the flesh. I can't tell you how many times I've seen believers argue and saying to one another, well, you have a bad spirit. So it's not that they just disagreed. It's not that they both got mad at each other because they disagreed, it's you have a bad spirit. Well, that's not maturity. In fact, our unity can only come in proportion to our maturity. And I'm not saying we embrace heresy. I'm not saying we embrace false teachers. I'm saying that true brothers and sisters in Christ will upset us sometimes. True brothers and sisters in Christ will disagree with us sometimes. True brothers and sisters in Christ will offend us sometimes. And when we allow that division to cause bitterness, to cause us to separate for reasons that are not biblical, now we're grieving the Holy Spirit. Why? Because the Holy Spirit in me loves the Holy Spirit in you. The Holy Spirit in me is kindred to the Holy Spirit in you. He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. You're one with the Holy Spirit, I'm one with the Holy Spirit and therefore through the Holy Spirit, we are one. We're one body. And so when we bicker and when we fight and when we carry bitterness, think about those people in your life who you're bitter against and you can't even remember why you're mad at them. Think about those times you cut people off because they didn't agree with you on something that wasn't even a fundamental of the faith. That's your ego. That's immaturity. And these are the things that we do that grieve the Holy Spirit. Division is one of them. So we grieve the Holy Spirit through sins of commission. We grieve the Holy Spirit through sins of omission. We grieve the Holy Spirit when we ignore his presence. We grieve the Holy Spirit when we allow division and we grieve the Holy Spirit with our lack of faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. When we lack faith and we live in fear, we grieve the Holy Spirit. Why? Because we're saying to the Holy Spirit, I don't really trust you. You in my mind don't really have a good track record. Or we're saying, I am relying more on my ability than on yours. That's a lack of faith and it grieves the Holy Spirit. I wanna pray with you right now. I want you right now to make the commitment to be aware of the things that grieve the precious Holy Spirit. And I want you to ask for the Holy Spirit's help in causing you to walk in a way that pleases him. Father, I pray for that one receiving this now. And first of all, Lord, we thank you that your mercies are new every morning and every moment. We ask you to forgive us for the ways that we've grieved you, precious Holy Spirit. Come on, just tell him. Tell him, I'm sorry, Holy Spirit. Tell him that. Say this, say, help me to please you and not grieve you. Now, precious Holy Spirit, be their reminder and let them live in an awareness of the nearness of your presence. Thank you, Lord, that you abide. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray, I want you to say it because you believe it, say amen. I know it's tempting to click on to something else. There's lots of content that we offer on various different topics, but just for a moment, hear me out. I wanna ask you, my brother, my sister, I need your help with something. Look, we in the body of Christ need each other. The Lord obviously is the one who's increasing his ministry. The Lord is the one who brings in the resources that we need to accomplish the work of the gospel. The gospel is free, but the means to deliver the gospel, that can cost, especially when you wanna deliver the gospel message on a mass scale like we're doing, that takes resources. And we understand that the Lord is the one who does it, but he does it through his children like you, who have generous hearts. I'm asking you to not let the screen disconnect us. I'm asking you to not say, well, someone else will give or someone else would. I'm asking you to listen and ask the Holy Spirit what you should give. I'm asking you to give a one-time or a single gift, I should say, a single gift to the ministry right now, or give a monthly gift by becoming a monthly ministry supporter. You can give a single gift by going to davidhernanisministries.com slash donate. You can become a monthly ministry supporter by going to davidhernanisministries.com slash partner. Give today, help the ministry, keep going and growing strong, and remember until next time, nothing is impossible with God.