A Devotion from Charles Spurgeon

“Grieve not the Holy Spirit.” —Ephesians 4:30

All that the believer has must come from Christ, but it comes solely through the channel of the

Spirit of grace. Moreover, as all blessings thus flow to you through the Holy Spirit, so also no

good thing can come out of you in holy thought, devout worship, or gracious act, apart from the

sanctifying operation of the same Spirit. Even if the good seed be sown in you, yet it lies

dormant except he worketh in you to will and to do of his own good pleasure. Do you desire to

speak for Jesus—how can you unless the Holy Ghost touch your tongue? Do you desire to pray?

Alas! what dull work it is unless the Spirit maketh intercession for you! Do you desire to subdue

sin? Would you be holy? Would you imitate your Master? Do you desire to rise to superlative

heights of spirituality? Are you wanting to be made like the angels of God, full of zeal and

ardour for the Master’s cause? You cannot without the Spirit—“Without me ye can do

nothing.” O branch of the vine, thou canst have no fruit without the sap! O child of God, thou

hast no life within thee apart from the life which God gives thee through his Spirit! Then let us

not grieve him or provoke him to anger by our sin. Let us not quench him in one of his faintest

motions in our soul; let us foster every suggestion, and be ready to obey every prompting. If the

Holy Spirit be indeed so mighty, let us attempt nothing without him; let us begin no project, and

carry on no enterprise, and conclude no transaction, without imploring his blessing. Let us do

him the due homage of feeling our entire weakness apart from him, and then depending alone

upon him, having this for our prayer, “Open thou my heart and my whole being to thine

incoming, and uphold me with thy free Spirit when I shall have received that Spirit in my inward

parts.”