Morning, November 21
Go To Evening Reading
“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 Jesus—how 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.”