RESISTING THE HOLY SPIRIT

Acts 7:51

Morning Meditation 12/17/14

"Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye."

There are those who say the Holy Spirit cannot be resisted. James says in this great sermon which he sealed with his own blood, that the Jews did resist the Holy Spirit, and said, "as your fathers did, so do ye."

The word "resist" translates "antipipto" and means, "to be adverse, oppose, strive against." So James clearly teaches that the Holy Spirit can be resisted.

First, Jesus promised the Holy Spirit as a Comforter (Companion) to the disciples after He was gone. John 14:15-18, "If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." The words, "I will come to you," means when the Holy Spirit comes He will be Jesus coming to them in the person of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is sent in His Name. Jesus tells us this in John 14:26, "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."

The Holy Spirit's task in the world is clearly stated by Jesus in John 16:7-8, "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:"

The Church has been given the commission to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. The Holy Spirit has been given to work with the Church in this world wide project. The last verse in the Great Commission in Matthew 28 is: ". . . and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."

It is my understanding from this that the Church resists the Holy Spirit when they refuse to be involved in world missions. Churches are seeking the power of the Holy Spirit to build buildings, and to have revival, when WE should be praying for laborers to go to the fields, and money to sustain these missionaries as they go.

To resist something or someone is to have them pushing on you to do something. Is the Holy Spirit pushing us to do what Jesus commissioned us to do? If He is are we resisting His push? Is the Holy Spirit dealing with us in our minds by laying it on our hearts to get involved in world mission and are we resisting by saying we cannot afford it. When the Holy Spirit deals with us, and we refuse on the grounds that we can't for some reason or other, it is resisting the Holy Spirit. When God calls, there is no valid excuse. It can only be classified as resisting the Holy Ghost.

Genesis 6:3, "And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years." The word "strive" here means, "to judge, contend, plead." The people in Noah's day resisted the pleading of the Holy Spirit. God said there is a limit to my pleading with you. "My Spirit shall not always strive with man."

What kind of a person will resist the Spirit? Luke names the kind of people who resist the Holy Spirit:

1. People who are stiffnecked. They would not bow in humble submission.

2. People who are uncircumcised in heart and ears. They had not been born again and consequencely could not hear Spiritual truths.

3. People who follow their father's bad example. The bad example of the fathers will affect adversely the way the children believe and practice.

May the Lord bless these words to our hearts, and give us grace never to resist the Holy Spirit.

In Christ

Bro. White