David Diga Hernandez - How the Holy Spirit feels when Christians Treat Him like This

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 is human, but it means He is personal. He has a mind, He has a will, and He has emotions. If the Holy Spirit loves you enough to be grieved by your disobedience, then that means He 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 going to be a disrupter. You’re going to say things that upset the religious; you’re going to say things that upset the establishment; you’re going to 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 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 warfare, but don’t be afraid of demons. Greater is He who is in you than he who 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 expressions 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 or 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 that sin has a very destructive power, and even believers who persist in sin will reap 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’ve felt the sting of His pain and 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. 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 want to grieve Him. I only fear grieving the precious Holy Spirit. I don’t want to 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 things that violate the word of God, the nature of God, and 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 knows to do good and does 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, you must be careful. Sometimes people have the tendency to take their every thought as an instruction from the Holy Spirit. They begin to live with what I call religious OCD. I’m not mocking that syndrome or that sickness, but it’s a reality—it’s the reality that many believers face.