'Grieve Not the Holy Spirit'
By Charles H. Spurgeon
'Grieve not the Holy Spirit.'Ephesians 4:30
All that the believer has must come from Christ, but it comes solely through the channel of
the Spirit of grace. Moreover, as all blessings thus flow to you through the Holy Spirit, so also no
good thing can come out of you in holy thought, devout worship, or gracious act, apart from the
sanctifying operation of the same Spirit. Even if the good seed be sown in you, yet it lies
dormant except He worketh in you to will and to do of His own good pleasure.
Do you desire to speak for Jesushow can you unless the Holy Ghost touch your tongue?
Do you desire to pray? Alas! what dull work it is unless the Spirit maketh intercession for you!
Do you desire to subdue sin? Would you be holy? Would you imitate your Master? Do you
desire to rise to superlative heights of spirituality? Are you wanting to be made like the angels of
God, full of zeal and ardour for the Master's cause?
You cannot without the Spirit'Without me ye can do nothing.' O branch of the vine, thou
canst have no fruit without the sap! O child of God, thou hast no life within thee apart from the
life which God gives thee through His Spirit! Then let us not grieve Him or provoke Him to
anger by our sin. Let us not quench Him in one of His faintest motions in our soul; let us foster
every suggestion, and be ready to obey every prompting.
If the Holy Spirit be indeed so mighty, let us attempt nothing without Him; let us begin no
project, and carry on no enterprise, and conclude no transaction, without imploring His blessing.
Let us do Him the due homage of feeling our entire weakness apart from Him, and then
depending alone upon Him, having this for our prayer, 'Open Thou my heart and my whole
being to Thine incoming, and uphold me with Thy free Spirit when I shall have received that
Spirit in my inward parts.'
Yours in Christ,
Paul N. F.