9/4/19

Grieving the Holy Spirit and the devil's work


Great resource from www.bsfinternational.org, Leader’s Folio
Grieving or Quenching the Holy Spirit
Your desire should be to live to please God. When you please God, you are filled with joy as He is glorified in your life. But you can grieve or quench the Spirit of God by refusing to allow Him to control you in a specific situation. To love sin more than God is profoundly sad. It is sad that you would grieve the One who has loved you so much. When this occurs, it is obvious the Holy Spirit no longer fills or controls you. Therefore, you must confess the known sin and surrender again to Him. When you consciously pursue a sinful path, such as pornography or holding a grudge, you are not led by the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit convicts you of a specific sin, then by His power confess it, put it off, renew your thinking and put on Christ’s righteousness, which He has given you the moment you first believed. This may take place many times in a day as you learn to live by the Spirit, refusing any lower standard.
Rags to Riches, how the Holy Spirit changes us everyday
The Devil
The evil one tempts you to doubt God’s Word and His goodness (Genesis 3:1, 4). He makes disobedience look attractive or advantageous (“You can be like God.”). His goal is to defeat you through condemnation, lies and half-truths. He appears as a ravenous, roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8). He may attack through suggestions or circumstances (1 Thessalonians 2:18; Ephesians 6:16; James 4:7). He also masquerades as an angel of light who sounds reasonable but twists Scripture (Matthew 4:1-10; 2 Corinthians 11:14-15).

Temptation is not sin; yielding to the temptation is sin.
When you succumb to the temptation posed by the evil one, he becomes your accuser. (“You can’t really be a Christian and do that!”) Satan wants you to focus on your guilt and sin; he uses condemnation to discourage, defeat, paralyze and leave you hopeless. The good news is he is a
defeated enemy because of Christ’s death and resurrection. Never forget that you stand before God blameless because you are clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
Christian Code of Conduct for the Church Militant

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