Sin is a killer. Not only is that what scripture tells, it’s also lived out in experience. The wages of sin is death. Not physical death, but spiritual death. When someone dies they don’t check that person for signs of death, instead, they check them for signs of life, and if the signs of life are absent then they declare that person dead. Death robs us of life, and sin robs us of the vibrant life Jesus came to give us to enjoy. The Holy Spirit lives in us to continually make real in us the very life of Christ. Sin grieves the Holy Spirit. When someone grieves they are suppressed and withdrawn. This is what happens to the Holy Spirit when we walk in sin; He is suppressed and withdraws His activity that quickens life in me. Rom. 8:11 says, “….He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.” The Holy spirit inflames our hearts with the presence of God, but when we start walking in compromise the flame cease to rage. His work is quenched, and though our hearts are awake, there is a sleep that falls on our passion. The Holy Spirit has come to inflame our souls with the love of Christ, and to make Jesus’s presence and ability real to us. We all know what it’s like for that work to be quenched in us. Thank God for forgiveness, but I don’t know about you, but I’m reaching for a life where I live without so many interruptions: where I’m not grieving the Spirit so often, and quenching the fire so much. May we all come to a place where the pleasures of the river of His delights are so exhilarating and so satisfying that walking in holiness becomes the strongest temptation of all.
