Grieve Not the Holy Ghost!
As I was meditating upon The LORD, He said to me, “Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to enquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron?” ( 2 Kings 1:3 KJV).
He allowed me to see that since we as a Church, cannot overcome sin and walk right without the help of the Holy Spirit, it is very important how we respond when He speaks to us.
He showed me that some folks are grieving the Holy Spirit and they don’t even know it, because, the Holy Spirit works in many different ways in the life of God’s children!
He can work through you, and through others apart from you, but it is our job as believers to know and to be able to rightfully discern when He is speaking, so that we do not grieve Him when He speaks!
Question we all need to ask ourselves are:
- Are we grieving the Holy Spirit?
- And, what does that even mean?
- And, how am I to know if I am grieving Him?
Grieve means to cause distress, insult, hurt, wound, injure, offended, harm and or to bring anguish of heart etc..
Ephesians 4:30 states, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”
In other words, the Scripture is exhorting us not to cause the Holy Spirit to feel grieved or sorrowful as a result of our decision making and choices.
We grieve Him when the Holy Spirit is not allowed to lead us, but when choosing our own way, instead of allowing Him to help us.
We can also grieve the Holy Spirit by not obeying Him, or allowing Him to direct our path!
People, I have found that whenever I do things on my own, without realizing that I cannot live a life of overcoming sin without the help and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, it becomes very important for me how I respond to the Holy Spirit when He speaks to me or through others.
First of all, I have learned that in order to be successful in my walk with Christ, I as a believer, must be willing to listen to His voice!
His voice can come through many facets in life: the apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelist and even prophesy!
Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand,” (John 10:27-28).
As I was reading and studying God’s word, He spoke to me regarding Ahaziah who fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria, and was sick: and he sent messengers, and said unto them, Go, enquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron whether I shall recover of this disease, (2 Kings 1:2 KJV).
You see, inside of him acknowledging God, he took it upon himself to first acknowledge a god that was not the true or the living God, or King of Kings or LORD of Lords!
This caused God to become grieved and offend at his actions! Sounds familiar?
When we as the people of God get sick, we go to the doctors, friends, and everybody but the Holy Ghost, which is what Ahaziah did!
But, when God got wind of what Ahaziah did, He sent His prophet, Elijah, to confront the messengers and give them God’s message for King Ahaziah.
He would never recover from his injuries and would die in his bed. Why? Because of his desire to seek God first, but placing other gods before God!
People, the world sees the healing work of God as help from the doctors, therapists and others in health care but our help comes from one resource, and that is God!
Now, does that mean that God cannot work through man and other resources? Of course not, but what it does mean that we grieve the Holy Spirit when we put these resources before God.
Then, when they don’t work, we come to God as a last and final resort! Especially, when we know God; unlike the world who do not know him in His wonder working power!
You see, Ahaziah was the son of Ahab and Jezebel, who were among the most wicked rulers Israel ever had. Ahaziah’s parents brought Baal worship into the land and turned God’s people away from Him.
Although Ahaziah reigned for only two years, he was just as evil as his parents. And, he “aroused the anger of The LORD” (1 Kings 22:53) due to his own worship of Baal, which continued to lead the people into sin and idolatry.
Just, as many of God’s people do when they walk in a spirit of religion using God as their last resort for help!
However; Whenever the messengers returned to King Ahaziah and relayed what Elijah had told them, that he was not going to recover from his sickness because of his disobedience to God, Ahaziah was angry and sent his captain and 50 soldiers to fetch Elijah.
The captain demanded that Elijah come down from the hill he was sitting on, but the prophet refused. Istead, he announced, “May fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!” (2 Kings 1:10).
Not only did Ahaziah offend and grieve God, but he also grieved the man of God by sending these soldiers and demanding that he go with them, when Ahaziah had more faith in his resources and his little god, than he did both the prophet and true and living God!
So, instead of granting Ahaziah a miracle, God performed one in away to demonstrate that he was God, and like no other he had ever seen, by using his prophet Elijah to perform it.
So, as a result, The LORD allowed all King Ahaziah’s men to be consumed by fire.
Ahaziah sent men to Elijah twice more. In the second instance, the same thing happened as in the first: Elijah called down fire to kill the soldiers. However, the third captain begged for his life, and The LORD spared the company.
Afterwards, Elijah came to the king. God’s Word had not changed. Elijah repeated God’s message of judgment directly to Ahaziah, and soon Ahaziah died.
As Ahaziah had no sons, he was succeeded by his brother Joram, who was also a sinful ruler — although not as evil as his brother and parents before him.
I believe that The LORD is saying that no more shall His people offend Him because they have failed to recognize that Christ sent the Holy Spirit to help, to lead us, and to guide us, not just out of sin, but in EVERY area of our lives, and that He is the comforter to the Body of Christ whenever they are in need of help!
And that we grieve Him when we need help and instead of consulting with him, we choose other resources and gods in our lives to consult, rather than him, Just as Ahaziah did.
Instead of him, as the king, consulting God, he lead not only himself but the people back into idolatry!
This is why we as leaders, must be careful when we tell the people to listen to us only as leaders, because God has many ways of speaking to His people and yours as a shepherd, is not the only voice!
What we need to do is to teach and to instruct the people how to hear and to discern God’s voice for themselves!
Ahaziah sent man after man and they were all consumed by the fire and the power of God through the supernatural power of God.
You would have thought that these soldiers would have learned from their blind obedience to Ahazia,h that they also would soon be consumed, but instead, they all kept coming, one after another into the judgement of God!
This I believe is a cautionary tale of the consequences of leading God’s people away from The LORD.
It’s time for the Church to awaken and to see that the hour is short and God is at hand and He is no longer tolerating the disrespect of the Trinity and His Prophets in this season!
“And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in The LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper,” 2 Chronicles 20:20.
~ Apostle Geraldine Fisher
Apostle Geraldine Fisher has a World-Wide-Social Media Net-Work Ministry. As a Missionary, God moved her into the Office of a Prophet, revealing to her the qualities of a True prophet, humility, humiliation, loving others, interceding in prayer, as she keeps her own life clean to accurately hear from God. Since hearing the audible voice of God calling her to ministry, she’s been called to intercede and pray for others in ministry as God speaks, instructs, directs and gives prophetic words for her to give to others. God promised He would bring her to sit and to learn before great men, all of which He did!
Beautiful and so profound.