1 Corinthians 3:16 English Standard Version
16 Do you not know that you[a] are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?
1 Corinthians 6:19 New English Translation
19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,[a] whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
Ephesians 4:30 New English Translation
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Luke 12:10 New English Translation
10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the person who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit[a] will not be forgiven.[b]
Mark 3:29 New English Translation
29 But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, but is guilty of an eternal sin”[a]
Matthew 12:32 New English Translation
32 Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven.[a] But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven,[b] either in this age or in the age to come.
John 16:7-8 English Standard Version
7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:
The Trinity
1 John 5:7 King James Version
7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
John 10:30 English Standard Version
30 I and the Father are one.”
The Trinity, a Christian doctrine, is belief in the unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead. All being God, yet distinctly different.
Think of water. Water naturally is a liquid but it can also be solid in the form of ice or in gaseous form as in water vapor.
All are water, but in distinctively different forms.
It is recorded in history that St. Patrick used the shamrock to teach the pagan kings of Ireland about God and the trinity.
St. Patrick explained that the shamrock has one stem, yet three leaves representing the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The one stem signifying that all three members of the trinity stem from and are God.
The doctrine of the Trinity holds that we have only one God, but He presents Himself in three forms or divine persons.
One God, yet manifested in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit; three divine persons.
This is a difficult concept for many to grasp. Our only advice is to remember the absolute power of our Creator and how life is balanced on a razor’s edge, that only He could design.
Our God who brought all things into existence could easily manifest Himself in any manner desired. Or, in any form He desired.
With God, all things are possible and there is nothing He cannot do. He is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent.
As we study the Holy Spirit, let us remember that Jesus said that God is a Spirit.
John 4:24 New English Translation
24 God is spirit,[a] and the people who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
The creator of our world is a spirit. Again, believing that God has all power, we must accept that He could present Himself in any form desired. There can be no limits. But, per the words of Jesus, God is at His core a Spirit.
As Christians, God indwells in us. We become the temple and house the Holy Spirit; which is God. Under the new covenant, God rendered the Temple useless. We no longer need to go to the high priest to make atonement for us. We now have access to God at any time or any place. Jesus became our High Priest and we access God through Him.
It is truly wonderful to know that God dwells within His children.
The Fruit Of The Spirit
Galatians 5:22-23 English Standard Version
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
As God, the Holy Spirit dwells within us, we are to allow Him to direct and guide us. We are to walk “in the Spirit” and display the “fruit of the Spirit” as outlined by Paul in Galatians;
We are to love everyone, including those who might be our enemy. This is what Christ taught us. We are to have joy in our life; see the good things, think upon the good things and deal with the things that are not good.
We are to have patience. The phrase “wait upon the Lord” appears in the Bible numerous times; it is in Psalms twenty-five times and in Isaiah eleven times.
We are to display kindness, goodness and gentleness.
We are to exhibit faithfulness to God.
Finally, we are to have self-control.
We see all of the fruit of the Spirit in the life of Christ and if we are truly walking in the Spirit, being led by the Spirit, the world will see this in our lives.
Paul tells us that if we walk in the Spirit, we will exhibit the fruit of the Spirit. We will exhibit the traits of Christ. We will exhibit to the world what it means to be Godly.
We will truly be the “light of the world” that Jesus told us to be.
None of us can reach the entire world. But each of us has a circle of influence or our little part of the world that we can be an example to. The most obvious aspect of light is that it can be seen. During the day of course and at night. The flash light or the lighthouse beams the light of safety into the darkness and the dangers therein.
As the light of the world, those in our little part of the world see our actions. They see our deeds. They see our comportment. This is so much more important than our words. This is truly who we are and Jesus wants our portion of the world to see Him in us.
We as Christians are the light of the world and it is only through the Spirit that lives within us.
Grieve Not The Holy Spirit
Ephesians 4:30 New English Translation
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
In this scripture, we are told not to grieve the Holy Spirit.
First of all, how do we grieve the Holy Spirit? This is a complex issue but one that needs exploration.
To grieve is to cause great distress, pain, sadness or sorrow which leads me to believe that any sin on the part of a Christian would grieve God.
God does not condone, excuse or tolerate sin in any form. He cannot. Therefore, when we act unbecoming of a child of God, it will grieve Him.
As a parent, I’m sure you can recall many times when your children caused you grief, through their words or actions. If not, consider yourself fortunate and in a very small select group. That is just the way kids normally are. Likewise, God our Father in heaven is grieved when we don’t represent what we claim to represent.
We also grieve the Spirit if we use the Spirit to try and excuse our sin.
Some may say that the Spirit of God led them to divorce their spouse in an unbiblical divorce. Or, the Spirit led them to make financial decisions or other decisions that turned out to be bad for them.
The Spirit of God is the Spirit of holiness.
God does not rationalize, justify or excuse sin.
Furthermore, God does not lead you into paths that will hurt or harm you. When we say that He has, we have simply rationalized and justified an action that we wanted to take.
To grieve the Holy Spirit is to make God sad. I’m sure we make God sad when we do something that is in opposition to what God wants us to do.
Bringing it down to daily life, think of gossip, anger, corrupt speech and every other thing both small and large that are un-Christian and will cause sadness to God.
As an example, visualize yourself standing in a group and someone starts telling an off color, obscene joke. What do you do? If you listen and laugh, or otherwise participate, you grieve the Spirit.
The Holy Spirt and God are the same God. Just in different, separate forms.
God does not condone, rationalize, justify or excuse sin; and sin in the life of a Christian can only cause Him sadness and grief.
Blasphemy Against The Holy Spirit
Mark 3:29 New English Translation
29 But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, but is guilty of an eternal sin”[a]
This scripture and others warn us that blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
In other words, the unpardonable sin.
This generally causes the antenna to rise. It makes people sit up and take notice. It also causes confusion with some.
What is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit and the sin for which there is no forgiveness?
In Mark 3:20-30 and Matthew 12:22-32, we are told about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
Jesus had cast out a demon and the Pharisees not realizing that the Son of God stood before their very eyes, attributed the power of Jesus to Satan.
In essence they were claiming that Jesus was demon possessed and not of the Spirit and Spirit filled. They rejected the prophecies and attributed the Spirit’s work of casting out a demon (remember God, Jesus and Spirit are one being in different forms) to Satan.
How do we apply this to ourselves? As Christians, if we saw Jesus heal a man or cast out a demon, we would surely not deny that the power is from God.
However, there are more ways to deny the power and workings of the Holy Spirit than the example in Mark and Matthew.
If we choose to live our life ignoring the “drawing of the Holy Spirit” we are in fact blaspheming the Spirit.
If a person refuses to accept Christ as Savior in their life or if a Christian willfully walks away from God, they are blaspheming the Spirit, not accepting that the Son of God stands before them. In essence saying, Jesus means nothing to them.
Jesus is the only way; the only door; the only pathway to being reconciled with God. Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice. He was mocked, spit upon, demeaned and nailed to a cross so that we could be reconciled to God.
To refuse to believe this is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and if we die having continued to refuse the Spirit’s promptings by rejecting these truths, we cannot be forgiven.
This is the unpardonable sin.
The only sin that cannot be forgiven is the continued sin of rejecting Jesus and the Spirit’s promptings and leading.
In effect, what one does by blaspheming the Spirit is to spit upon and mock Christ anew.
This rejection of Christ and the drawing of the Spirit is the only sin that will keep us from being reconciled with God and life eternal in heaven.
So Christian, quit worrying about some sin that may be unpardonable.
The only unpardonable sin would be rejecting and walking away from Jesus. Making his sacrifice to you of no more value than the blood of lambs and goats. Spitting on Him and crucifying Him anew. This is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, who has drawn you to Christ in the first place.
You are the temple and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, lives within you.
Live and walk in the Spirit without fear.
Strive not to grieve the Spirit with any actions that are not Christ-like.
Walk in the Spirit and exhibit the fruit of the Spirit in you daily life.
And remember that you cannot blaspheme the Spirit unless you reject Christ.
RVH