If you would have a New Year in reality, it will depend upon your relationship with the Holy Spirit. If you have not been “born of the Holy Spirit,” you will certainly not discover a truly New Year, but only a repeat of uncertainty, guilt, defeat, unsatisfied yearnings, and the further hardening of your heart until you will never be saved from your sins. But suppose you are “born again of the Holy Spirit,” and yet you continue to grieve Him, you certainly will not and cannot experience a real New Year. Why is “grieving the Holy Spirit” so serious? Well, first of all, to grieve Him is to disobey the plain command of God in Ephesians 4:30, “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption .” Please understand the gravity of “grieving the Holy Spirit.” The verb “grieve” is Lupete from the word LUPE, which denotes a pain or grief that can only be experienced between two people who deeply love each other. This word “Lupe” was used to picture a husband or wife who had discovered his or her spouse had been unfaithful. As a result of this unfaithfulness, the betrayed mate is shocked, devastated, hurt, wounded and GRIEVED because of the pain which accompanies infidelity. Thus this gives us some idea of the love relationship that exists between the “born again” individual and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is deeply in love with us. Just as you think about, dream of, and cherish the wife you love, the Holy Spirit yearns for us (James 4:5), desires to be close to us so He can reveal all of Jesus to us. But when we grieve Him by offending His holiness by our sins, we cause the Holy Spirit to be hurt, shocked and to a large degree dysfunctional in our lives. In fact, the Holy Spirit enables the believer to crucify the sinful deeds of the body (Romans 8:13) but if grieved He cannot carry on His liberating ministry leaving the believer in a distressful state.
The Holy Spirit convicted us of sin in the first place, pointed us to Jesus (John 16:7-11), gave us the new birth (John 3:5), baptized us into the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13), indwells our bodies (1 Cor. 6:19-20), seals us (Ephesians 4:30), infills and empowers us (Ephesians 5:18). So when we deliberately enter into acts of unholiness, He is so dishonored that He cannot function normally, and the believer is the great loser.
What are some specific sins which grieve the Holy Spirit? In satellite verses around our text, Ephesians 4:30, we find 10 sins which grieve Him:
- Lying – Ephesians 4:32
- Unforgiveness- verse 26
- Flirting with the devil – verse 27
- Stealing – verse 28
- Backbiting – verse 29
- Bitterness – verse 31
- Evil Speaking – verse 31
- Clamoring – verse 31
- Anger – verse 31
- Malice – verse 31.
There are still other sins which grieve the Holy Spirit. Would, you, therefore pray this prayer, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts and see if there is any wicked way in me; and lead me in the life everlasting (Psalm 139: 23-24). Please do this before you enter the New Year so you will have a Real New Year, not because of a change in the calendar, but a glorious change on the inside of you.