5 Things that Grieve the Spirit of God

1 — Disobey the Holy Spirit

When we put on the armour of God and take up our shield, we are extinguishing the fiery darts of the enemy.

In the same way, because the Spirit of God dwells within us, when we ignore His leading or disobey Him, or when we put down our shield of faith, we are extinguishing the Holy Spirit’s fire in us. We quench the Spirit by ignoring Him.

When we pick and choose what we want to obey in the Word of God, we quench the Spirit which grieves Him.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 2 Timothy 3:16.

We don’t get to choose what we will obey and what we will ignore. Complete obedience is doing the will of the Father, therefore, there is no compromise

2 — Deny the Holy Spirit

Do not shun the work of the Holy Spirit within our lives. Jesus sent Holy Spirit to be our Comforter, our Healer, our Teacher, our everything. Holy Spirit is the power in our lives and we need Him.

He knows what we need and can and will supply that. When we think we do not need Him, that we have other avenues for the solution, then we are rejecting the work of the Spirit which is quenching Him and that’s when we grieve the Spirit of God.

John wrote in his epistle, 1 John 2:20, 27 that we have an unction from the Holy One and ye know all things; but the anointing ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you; but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

Another way we deny the Spirit is when we shut down the moving of the Holy Spirit in our fellowship gatherings.

When the Spirit is ready to move in our midst, our self-made agenda causes us to be insensitive to His leading and we miss out on what He wants to do among us.

He may have wanted to give a message through the gifts of the Spirit but instead, we used a water hose to quench the Spirit.
He may have wanted us to praise and worship in the Spirit but instead, we rushed on to the next item on the agenda and thus we quench the Spirit.
There are a number of ways He wants to express Himself but instead, we put out His fire when we don’t allow Him to move in our midst.

So, by denying the power and move of Holy Spirit, we quench the Spirit resulting in our actions grieving Him.

3 — Do Not Apply the Word of Truth in Your Life

James wrote to the saints that we should be doers of the word and not hearers only (James 1:22.) This means that we apply what we learn from the Word of God so that we are fulfilling what it teaches.

We should be seeking diligently how we ought to live in holiness and righteousness.

Both Paul and John teach how we should walk in the light as He is in the light. This means we are to be doers of the Word. It is when we stop applying the truth to our lives that we quench the Spirit and thereby we grieve the Holy Spirit of God.

4 — Do Not Desire God’s Will

God has a plan for your life and mine. His will is that we follow the truths in His Word and live them out. I read this verse today, Psalm 31:1 In Thee, O Lord, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness.

We need to trust in Him and when we think we can do life on our own, we are denying His will for us and we grieve the Holy Spirit of God.

When we focus only on ourselves, we grieve the Holy Spirit of God.

When we have an attitude of “me, me, me” or when we have an attitude of not caring about others or when we develop apathy towards the things of God, we both quench and grieve the Holy Spirit.

God wants us to think of others. We are members of the body of Christ and when we ignore our Christian family, we are not living out His will for us

5 — Do Not Rely on Holy Spirit

God gave us His Spirit to enable us, to be our strength, to give us power in the name of Jesus.

When we rely on our own strength to work out the solutions we need, we are not relying on the Spirit of God. Holy Spirit is our source of power but when we ignore His power, we quench Him and grieve the Holy Spirit of God.

Jesus said in Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

We cannot share the gospel or witness our testimony to others without His power, without the Holy Spirit. We cannot do this in our strength.

There isn’t anything we can do for the Lord in our own strength. We need to rely on the Spirit of God. The Spirit enables us to do all things things through Him. Whhimourselves, we quench Him and we grieve the Holy Spirit.