MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
March 26, 2025
A Solemn Warning Against Grieving Away the Holy Spirit
“And grieve not the Holy Spirit whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” Eph. 4:30, K.J.V.
While continuing to examine each of the “fruits” of the Spirit, we should never lose sight of the Person of the Holy Spirit himself in the specific nature of His mission and work on earth, even as we can temporarily lose focus on Jesus’ incarnated human nature perfected through sufferings (Heb. 5:8,9), while getting absorbed with His miraculous works or fixated on the yet-unseen “glories”
of the “place” He has been “preparing” since His ascension two thousand years ago!
Hereunder is a powerful illustration cited by Leroy E. Froom in his book, The Coming Comforter, p. 195. (Emphasis mine):
“A boy once had a DOVE so tame he would perch in his shoulder and take food from his hand. One day the lad held out a tempting morsel. As the bird came of eat, he closed his hand over the food. The bird turned away disappointed. Again he opened his hand. The second time the bird came, more timidly. And once more the hand was closed. With drooping wings the dove went a short distance away. Yet again the hand was extended. The bird hesitated, then came slowly forward. When he was about to take the food the hand closes for the third time. Then the dove spread his wings and FLEW AWAY, and the lad never saw him again. Such is the fate of those who at last DRIVE AWAY the Holy Spirit, the ‘heavenly dove.’
God’s last-day messenger bearing “the Spirit of prophecy which is the testimony of Jesus” (Rev. 12:17; 19:10), succinctly enunciated this awful truth:
“After God has shown individuals their sins and given them GRACE [through the Holy Spirit] to overcome, and His Spirit has been LONG STRIVING with them, He will NOT work a miracle to prevent the sure result of RESISTING that Spirit and PERSISTING in a wrong course. There is a BOUNDARY to His grace and mercy; and when this boundary is passed, the AID [divine help and power] of His Spirit, so wickedly refused and INSULTED, is WITHDRAWN, and the soul is given over to the WORST Of TYRANTS—THE POWER OF A PERVERTED WILL. If we are closely connected with sacred things, and yet do not realize their importance, the HEART will become so hard that the most earnest appeals will NOT move it into contrition [conviction to repentance].” Ellen G. White, Bible Echo, June, 1888.
To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.