Can We Grieve the Holy Spirit Beyond Recovery?

Image by Alexis Fotos

Last week I wrote about how concerned Jesus is about false prophets in the last days, because folks, they are among us. There seems to be an increase on social media lately about doubting God’s Word, “What’s It Really Saying?” Isn’t this the very thing Satan said to Eve?

“Did God really say…?”

So what about our doubts, what about our thoughts when we don’t understand, what have I been taught to believe? A long-time childhood friend once said to me, “We need to unlearn things we have been taught.” I am not saying this is wrong, but are there boundaries, some caution needed, and where do we find our assurances and our security? And, in today’s world, “How do I know what is True?” Let me get to the point; “How do I define my FAITH?”; because this starts to answer the question “Can we grieve the Holy Spirit beyond recovery.”

Just yesterday, sitting and talking with a dear friend, he asked me to help him understand a verse he read that has been troubling him for months.  He asked, “Why did Jesus say, ‘When the Son of Man cometh, shall He really find faith on the earth?’” (Luke 18:8 NKJV) So I started by giving him the context of this verse in ‘The Parable of the Persistent Widow.’

In short, a Judge that did not fear God (no faith) nor value man, avenged a widow from her adversary not because he cared, but because this women nagged him to death (my version). Then Jesus equates God (kind-of) doing the same for His very elect when they cry out day and night to Him, yet they are crying out with no real faith, no fear of God, thus the phrase;          

 “… though He bears long with them?” (Luke 18:1-8)

This speaks of God’s patience and longsuffering towards those he loves and is waiting to redeem. In other words, many of us cry out to God when we are hurting or in trouble, but soon after relief comes into our lives, we turn from God and do our own thing, living our lives according to what seems “right in our own eyes.” This is the way God’s very elect lived their lives. Read the book of Judges, you’ll find the cycle repeated over and again; Redemption and Worship, then Comfort, then Rebellion, to Persecution, to Repentance, then back to Redemption and Worship.

By the way, I hear many saying we are moving into a great revival, but please don’t miss this truth. Repentance must come first. I know what you’re thinking, and I hate to have to say it, but persecution needs to move us to repentance. Yeah, you can’t break the cycle. Anyone getting tired yet, like the judge with the widow?  She wore the judge out. Will we wear God out too, or will the Son of Man find real faith on the earth?

Let me ask this again, “Will we grieve the Holy Spirit beyond finding Real Faith?” Because it is only this Real Faith, given by and through the Holy Spirit, that redeems and saves us.

Next: Who is the Holy Spirit verses God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son? What is Real Faith?